A sample workout

After having a hip issue, bad cold and the winter-to-spring blahs for a week I returned to exercising regularly a couple of days ago (I only skipped 4 days or so while feeling shitty) and I think doing so actually helped clear up lingering crud.

Stranger still, I've begun, with little effort, to eat healthy food because I want to. I don't like "healthy food" in general. I like bad food. Food that gets you real fucking fat, real fast. That's how I made it up to near 300 pounds in the first place. But the other day I realized I was enjoying a salad with some Mediterranean dressing and sund-dried tomatoes and tuna. I actually love my habitual breakfast, which is Greek yogurt followed up with Irish oatmeal and sometimes some fruit. I've begun avoiding even more starchy and sugary food than I had before.

It's like I'm some healthier pod-person version of me (I even cleaned house... thoroughly. Creepy.).

Anyway, I realized today that I've kind of liked doing fitness-related blog posts--after not liking blogging for myself (as opposed to doing it as a job) for quite some time. So here's an easy one--the workout I did today.

Strength-wise I've begun targeting different parts of the body on different days. Today was mainly chest, arms and back:

• Weighted dips x 8--done wearing a backpack containing 30 lbs of weight plates.
• Kettlebell swings x 12--with my 53 lb (24 kg) kettlebell.
• Weighted push-ups x 10--with the same 30 lb backpack.
• Swings again x 12.
• Kettlebell rows x 8, with the 53 lb bell.
• Repeat same number of swings.
• Dumbbell curls--35 lbs, 12/10/8/6/6

I did the circuit above three times, then followed it up with:

• Regular (unweighted) dips, 12/10/8 (I use The Rack to do dips. It looks like an old person's walker on steroids and is perfect for that exercise).
• Unweighted push-ups, 2 x 15. 

After all that, I ran a middle-pace mile, walked a mile, ran a slower-paced mile, ended with a final mile at a leisurely pace. So I ran two miles and walked two.

Tomorrow I work on shoulders, core and legs.

I don't recommend anyone copy my workouts because I do and don't know what I'm doing. I basically see what it feels like my body needs and go from there. I'll also work around problems as needed. My legs always need work, strength-wise, but at the same time, some problems I've had since birth require me to approach all weighted leg work with even more caution and care than I do anything targeting the back, where I've had some strain off and on through the years. 

If there's anything I think someone could take from my workouts, if I list more, it's that variety is the spice, as the cliche goes. The main problem I've always had with exercise is the fact I'm both easily bored and have some sort of stupid superman complex, prone to pushing myself that step too damned far, especially where strength is concerned.

As I recently discovered that the paternal line in my family carries a higher percentage of Neanderthal DNA than 98% of the human population, I'm gonna blame my inner caveman and leave it at that.