WGOM Fitness

On doing things, not great but better than not at all

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So, in the interest of living life I've decided to do things. My last fitness? post centered around the new class of drugs and the results I've seen. I was kinda shocked with the response from the community. Many thanks to all of y'all for gentleness and grace which brings me around to the second edition of On Doing Good, Not Great.

A good friend lives in Vegas and last spring we went out for 5 days to get lost in the desert, gamble, see some art, and catch up with old friends. We had a great time doing some of the more tourist stuff you can do in a tourist city. At one point I asked my man how he found living in Vegas.  He just chuckled and said, "I love it, there is always something happening in town that I'm not going to go to". I hadn't summed up living in Nawlins* quite like that but it hit home. We got back form Vegas and we decided to do some more things that were out of our comfort range.

I decided that I don't want to work for the current set of clowns I work for and signed up for the first of 4 semesters of Chemistry. Whoa Nelly. I'm taking names and calculating moles but it's not without great effort. Thermodynamics isn't really my friend but we're on speaking terms. (in truth, math is my main hurdle - I can hack the algebra but any calculus results in much swearing) I'm currently sitting on a 99% for lecture and a 96.75% for lab (GD post lab questions due at midnight when lab ends at 10 pm .... I'm a tired old man....GOML) I'm pleasantly surprised with. my ability to learn new things again - funny sometime I stopped applying myself and .... welp .... here I am.

I went to 2 concerts in 2 weeks - nutty for me now, but I once went to at least a show a month. In my youth I went every weekend to see a punk band lay waste to my future hearing. (BTW, Kurt Vile is in pretty great form right now....)

Today I went way outside my comfort zone and joined an Aikido Dojo and got my ass handed to me. I'm not sure how long I'll practice but the initial course is 6 weeks. I'm going to see it out even though I'm pretty sore (in a great way, minus the hard roll I took on my left knee). Dr. Chop asked me to describe my first experience with Aikido and I think full contact yoga sums it up nicely.

For a long stretch, not helped by the pandemic but definitely there before covid, I felt like life was happening at me. Taking the drug has reduced my mass by nearly 21%. No joking, that's EEEFFFFFFing bananas (though, to be fair to me, I still don't see it...). I would never have thought of practicing a martial art before the jab.

I have no idea where any of this goes. Maybe I get through the chemistry and I lack the will or desire to go further. Maybe I won't be able to walk tomorrow because I'm old and frail. But I do know that I've reconnected to doing things and that feels pretty great.

Anywho, I hope y'all are finding joy in these uncertain times.

 

*no one says this

4 thoughts on “On doing things, not great but better than not at all”

  1. Our youngest is a senior in high school. He pretty much drives himself wherever he needs to go. I haven't had this much free time in over twenty-three years.

    I made a list of new hobbies to try. I used five categories:
    Social
    Spiritual
    Charitable
    Physical
    Mental

    In the physical one, I'm thinking of joining a weight training gym. I'll run a bit on my own but feel like I'm at the age where I need to fight loss of muscle. I'm not a big fan of lifting because I like to move but it will be good for me.

  2. Also am surprised/pleased at the results of semaglutide, de-carbing, and running 4 miles every morning. Down 80lbs from last May, still room to go. But also seems like a new life-lease. Using the Algon'ithm above:
    Social: Am active with Leadership Greater H'istan, community projects, learning a lot about my mise-en-scéne.
    Spiritual: Needs work.
    Charitable: 2 weeks ago, I started making gallon zic-loc bags of hard-goods for the local Food Library on our street (5 so far). Contents (roll of T.P., bar of soap, toothbrush/paste, shampoo, razor, Q-tips, lotion, chocolate, hard-candy, can of Tuna, band-aids, socks, washcloth, tea, food-for-thought quote, flyer on upcoming Park St. free-stuff handout). They always disappear within a couple hours after I place them.
    Physical: Running all the streets of Hartford. As of yesterday, I'm at 51% complete.
    Mental: Duolingo Spanish every day. Am reading Economist, The New Yorker, BBC.
    Environment: Prairie restoration project in Scandia. Composting/gardening here. Investigating turning a tract of land into a park/green-space (brown-field area between Forest/Hawthorn/Laurel/Hwy 84).

  3. I like the idea of creating a hobby category list.

    The aikido checks off the social (engagement with strangers is social, right?) , physical (I hurt all over. No amount of conditioning on a machine or weight lifting can prepare you to be thrown and to throw people to the ground on repeat for an hour and a half), and a wee bit spiritual (lots of perspective sharing and introspective thinking as someone manipulates and locks your joints until you tap out).

    Today a man older than my dad threw me around like I was a rag doll. Humbling to see that force and strength can be met with calm and relaxation and redirected to the ground. Now if only I can apply that concept to zoom meetings…..

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