Tao of the Machine

I’ve always been a Walkman user. I was forever being told by the MPs not to run on the streets of post with my Walkman. Up until last winter, I used a Sony Walkman which played tapes! I’m not generally an “early adopter”, preferring to wait until technology has gotten better (and cheaper).

If you’ll recall, earlier this month the MP3 hub bought me for my birthday last year died. Luckily, it was under warranty, and I now have a Samsung MP3 player. It took me a couple of weeks to get around to it, but a couple of weeks ago we finally set up the playlist on the computer and loaded it onto the little bugger. Can I say I love it? I do!

4:45 came awful early this morning. It took a while, but I was out the door at 5:15, Bugger strapped to my arm. We started out with a little “Omnibus” by Laut Sprecher, to get the blood going. Go listen to that song on Amazon or something and try to keep your feet still. That got me through the first stretch of running. I was walking up the first hill, thinking maybe I’d skip the second running stretch, when Bugger responded by playing the theme from Rocky. Why do high school bands love that song so much? Anyway, it did its magic, and I was running along, feeling like a champ. Then something off the South Park soundtrack to give me a laugh. Not sure what came next. Darude? For the last running stretch, I got to enjoy “Tao of the Machine” off the Blade 2 soundtrack. I ran up the final hill like I’d stolen something, and then cooled down to Kylie Minogue. Tao of the machine indeed. That little thing knows how to get me moving in the morning. 30 minutes of pure pleasure.

I finished reading “Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle” by Tom Venuto last week. It’s an e-book, available on his site. I have to say it was very excellent. There wasn’t a whole lot that was brand new to me, but he did explain some of the “whys”. And he assembled and organized a lot of info, much of which I had only gleaned by churning through a lot of articles on bodybuilding.com. I’ve long said if you want to learn how to lose fat while maintaining your muscle, go talk to a body builder. Even if you don’t want to look like that, those folks know how to do it. He also spent a lot of time on the mental aspects of weight loss, the power of visualization etc.

I took time this weekend to review my menu, checking the nutrient balance in each of my meals. As I suspected, I’d drifted off course a bit. So I took the time to re-balance my meals. I ate like crap this past weekend, and I feel so much better after one day of clean eating. I swear, when will I learn? For exercise, I decided to get outside for a walk since the weather was so terrific. I walked an hour yesterday. I’ll hit the gym for weights this afternoon (its supposed to be hot). I am in an all day class tomorrow and Friday, so I won’t be able to get to the gym either day. And Friday we’re leaving for my son’s tae kwon do tourney up in Richmond.

This morning I drove the least trafficked route from home to work. I’ll have to re-check the final odometer reading, but it came in right around 13.5 miles. I may experiment with riding the route on the weekend with the hub in a couple of weeks, to see if I’m comfortable enough to ride my bike to work some this summer. In the meantime, the boy has agreed to ride with me a couple of evenings a week. I hate that we are going out of town and I’m still in the middle of getting back on track. Gosh darn those pesky family commitments! Hee hee hee.

Have a great day.