Never made it to the gym on Monday

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Life continues to get in my way of making it the gym. I wasn’t able to get there on Monday as planned, the topic of Monday’s blogflection at Pierini Fitness. My 83-year young Dad was in an automobile accident on Saturday and I’m spending the evenings at his home trying to lend him a helping hand. He has a very bruised and sore sternum from crashing it into the steering wheel of his car.

This couldn’t have happened at a more difficult time for me with my busy work schedule but stuff happens. I’m grateful for my wife who is helping him while I’m at work in the daytime.

At my Dad’s home after work on Monday, at about the time I would have been at the gym, I went into his garage where he has a squat rack and an Olympic bar and plates and completed four sets of barbell Olympic-style back squats and concluded with a single set of front squats.

It wasn’t much but it was something which is better than nothing since I never made it to the gym on Monday.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

A mixed message about our economy

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Last Friday evening after another long day of work, my wife and I took a "passeggiata" in our neighborhood. A passeggiata is the Italian “art”, social ritual and tradition of taking a walk – actually a gentle stroll – in the evening. We learned of this daily pastime and joined the crowds during our many trips to Italy.

We live in an eclectic and gentrified neighborhood referred to as “midtown” that is two blocks from Sutter’s Fort - a pivotal point in California and Sacramento history – and one mile from the State Capitol. It’s a pedestrian-friendly neighborhood with many eating and drinking establishments, hair style salons, boutique retail stores, tattoo parlors and the latest trend in business establishments of medicinal marijuana dispensaries (that’ll be the topic of a blogflection on a different day). Young and middle-age people of all socio-economic circles like to come and hang out or loiter in midtown on the weekends because there’s more action to be had than in the sleepy suburbs where many of them reside.

People watching is an integral part of my passeggiata and I couldn’t help but notice how festive everyone seemed to be as we walked past restaurants with outdoor seating. I’ve been there and done that and know the power of a TGIF-mindset with an alcoholic drink in hand. Some had their other hand occupied with a cigarette smoke in progress. Money was definitely being spent and a good time appeared to being had by all.

Taking it all in perspective made me wonder if these people represented but a small privileged slice of my community who had all their bills and taxes paid, health insurance policy cards in their wallets, and “rainy day slush fund accounts” fully funded. Or perhaps this crowd was a representative cross-section of my community that is struggling economically but out, nonetheless, for an evening of drowning their sorrowful plight with some Friday evening food and spirits.

What I saw that evening gave me a mixed message about our economy.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

Another 20 minutes to spare in my day

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Last week I was only able to get to my gym once for a workout on Monday afternoon. Leaving the office later than expected and wanting to be good on my promise to be home by a certain time, my workout was a whopping 20 minutes long. It was a variation of one that I’ve done many times consisting of six sets of barbell front squats in combination with a different set of pullups or chinups from my 6-grip pullup/chinup medley.

Well today is Monday and it’s one week later so that means it’s time for another gym visit. As busy as I am there’s certainly another 20 minutes to spare in my day.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

To the nearby neighborhood park

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Today is Sunday and, as usual, Pierini Fitness is closed so the chief executive blogger can rest his body, mind and spirit. Visit tomorrow for another creative blogflection about a topic not yet determined but guaranteed to be original.

Basking in some moderate and pleasant springtime sunshine and breathing fresh outdoor air sure sound good so one of my few orders of the day will be to take a relaxing stroll down the tree-lined streets of my neighborhood to the nearby neighborhood park.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

Tug of war challenge

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At this moment, the demands for my time are so overwhelming that I wish there were 48 hours in a day and that, if there were, I could get by on four hours of sleep in that 48 hour day.

Trying to keep everyone happy seems to be my exclusive tall task right now. It isn’t easy and sometimes I fall short but continue trying in my eternally-optimistic mindset.

Right it seems like I’m a rope that two dogs are pulling on in a tug of war challenge.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

Get clipped as I sleep

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This is the time of year when many things get put on hold due to the long hours I’m working right now. I’ve written about how my fitness training is suffering but I’m okay with that because I have lots of fitness stored in reserve that will last me until things return to normal.

But I do need a haircut and other than thinking about it, I don’t expect to get one until after April 15th. While I’ve never been a “pretty boy”, despite my busyness I always find time for a daily hot shower and shampoo but sit on the sidelines of the grooming landscape with slightly unkempt hair and a moustache. I just don’t have the time right now to sit in the chair for a clip and chit-chat with my barber about the problems of the world.

That is unless I can convince my barber to make a nighttime house call for me to get clipped as I sleep.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

I still can't do one pushup

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My shoulder has been on the mend longer than I’d like and longer than any time in my fitness training past. I really don’t think it’s anything serious and it will eventually totally heal on its time and not mine.

This keeps me from doing most pressing or overhead exercises, including pushups. There was a time when I did lots of pushups, primarily on my knuckles for an added challenge and range of motion. Believe it or not, I yearn to do a pushup and have periodically tried only to find my shoulder muscle to brain communication system immediately aborts my effort.

Yesterday morning at the crack of dawn at my office, before submerging myself in another marathon work session, I dropped to the floor to try again. Once again, I was frustrated that I still can't do one pushup.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

What we had for breakfast

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It’s as frequent a daily occurrence as my morning shave and that is a moment of middle-age man memory fog or, as one of my clients calls it, a case of CRS (can’t remember stuff). It goes with the turf at this stage of my life and I find comfort knowing I’m not alone. There’s also extra comfort to be had when witnessing younger people go blank in the mental memory department although the reasons for their fog are probably different than mine.

I’m aware of the difference between short-term and long-term memory loss, the former being what periodically “afflicts” me while the latter is a symptom of dementia or Alzheimer’s Disease. The short-term stuff can be further stratified into a couple other non-scientific categories.

There’s “selective forgetfulness” that my wife reminds me I have when it comes to things I’ve promised to do or not do again. She reminds me that I don’t have a memory problem because I always seem to remember to find time to exercise and relax. This is true.

There is also aloofness, absent-mindedness or carelessness that seems to be different. Take my wife, for example, who is constantly “losing” her cell phone or car keys. I don’t believe it’s a memory problem when she “loses” her keys. The truth of the matter is that she has seldom ever lost anything and neither do we; rather, we momentarily forget where we’ve placed our lost items.

Why do I take joy when witnessing another middle-age comrade in a thick moment of memory loss? Maybe it’s the internal laughter that kicks off endorphins in my mind, much like a runner who experiences a “runner’s high”. Or maybe it’s because I get momentary relief from my own memory-lapse misery, finding delight in someone else’s plight.

Yet in the same breath, I always rise to the occasion and help my memory loss-stricken comrade by guiding him or her out of that deep fog they are experiencing, much like a father coaching his son or daughter take their first ride on that training wheels-free shiny red bicycle. My “you can do it” comforting facial expression provides emotional food for the soul for my forgetful comrades when looking in their eyes, as I remain ever so patient like when listening to someone who stutters with their speech.

Eventually, that person, as do I, comes out of the dark bottom of this forgetfulness abyss and is able to complete the thought that, moments earlier, had vanished in bright daylight. As they or I bask in our glory that we were able to pull it off once again, I always conclude the bonding experience that we just had with a comment that always brings a laugh – that all is well if we can remember what we had for breakfast.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

Should there be any difference?

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The other day I stumbled across the topic of “survival dieting” on an internet fitness forum. The person who started the topic was thinking about a popular belief he had read that the United States is headed for continued economic and possibly political meltdown. In his pondering, the thought of how much food would be necessary to survive for one week, keeping nutrition as high as possible, cost as low as possible, and not being in a starvation mode.

He went on to pose the question that if you had a $20 bill, or even a $10 bill, what would you bring home from the grocery store? Good discussion followed in response to his question and aroused my curiosity. On Sunday, I posed this question to my wife who, interestingly, has been trying to get my attention for some time to have a similar mindset. Maybe I’m a bit too optimistic for my own good, but I don’t buy this “doom or gloom” picture. Nonetheless, it made for a good Sunday afternoon discussion.

The opposite of my “if more is good then most must be better” mindset kicked in during this discussion when I asked my wife if she thought we could survive on $5 per person for a week – or $10 for the both of us. My question was in the context of food consumption and not food purchase because eating for less would require purchasing some food in larger quantities and this would require a greater initial cash investment.

Not being the primary shopper for family groceries, my knowledge of food prices is rusty, but I started thinking about the cost of the food I would select and doing some mental math. My wife’s thoughts were that $5 per person a week would be difficult but $10 per person was achievable.

Then she dropped a bomb on me with “Why don’t we try it?”

“Gasp!” uttered the man who prides himself with his intermittent fasting lifestyle of eating less, while thinking about what to snack on next during this lazy Sunday afternoon.

Maybe one day soon I’ll be up to the challenge of giving survival dieting a test, but until then it’s made me think about the way I eat day in and day out and the way I would eat with survival dieting.

Should there be any difference?

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

Load my brain

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Yesterday, I was enjoying my first Sunday of Spring 2010 and all was well until Congress decided to go to work and take a vote.

I'll have more to say in about one week because before shooting my mouth, I'm going to load my brain.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum