I have two pieces of strength training equipment I've been using off and on for some time now. I bought the Bowflex Selectech 552 Dumbbells 6 years ago. Great set of dumbbells. You can select the weight from 5 lbs. up to 52.5 lbs. This has made for some great workouts. The other piece of equipment was bought last year to mix things up. Called the Total Trainer, it's a knock off of the Total Gym that Chuck Norris has been peddling for the last ten years. Also a great piece of equipment. You can use your own weight for resistance/strength training.
Both great pieces of equipment, but I'm getting bored with certain workouts. The big challenge I gave myself with the dumbbells was the bench press. Using the max weight of 52.5 lbs in each hand, I could perform up to 50 reps. Incredible burn. Took me a while to get up to that max rep set, and with particular attention to safety and good form. Feel like I've plateaued here, and that increasing the reps would be almost counterproductive.
On the Total Trainer, I'm enjoying the pullup bar stuff, but otherwise don't like the bench pressing exercises on the machine. Now I keep the dumbbells at work, and the Total Trainer at home.
Recently I tried doing some pushups with my girlfriends four year old on my back. I could only do five. Pathetic! Granted that's an extra 45 lbs on me, and I'm way overweight for my 5'10 stocky frame at 275 lbs. (actually, I might be down to 270 now, still...). So with my renewed interest in getting back into what I call "kung fu shape", I'm trying a few new strength training programs, based on using my own weight.
I found a website, http://hundredpushups.com/ that has a handful of programs for increasing your strength with your own body weight. The pushup component has a challenge of being able to complete 100 consecutive good pushups with training in six or more weeks. Starting that, along with the dips and squat component today. I'm also going to alternate using the dumbbells and total trainer for back and bicep exercises like pullups, rows and curls.
I figure these will give me some new goals I can attain, along with trying to slim down and increase my flexibility. Of course, being a former chef, the most difficult part of my training will be eating healthier meals along with portion control.
... in other news
The motorcycle is put away :(
Christmas tree goes up this week :)
Monday, November 28, 2011
Monday, November 7, 2011
Warmth
Winter is coming , or it's already here, depending on various views. With that comes the bitter New England cold. Planning for keeping warm in the winter is a new thing for me. I've only been a homeowner two years now. Before that I was lucky to always have an apartment with heat and hot water included. Rarely did I have any issues with a cold apartment. Overall I was pretty lucky with my landlords.
The first winter with an oil furnace was an eye opener. I couldn't believe how quickly the tank could get used up. And the price for heating oil was phenomenal when all added up. Now, my house is only 1080 square feet, so when I bought the place I figured it really wouldn't be all that expensive to heat. Still amazed at how often I had to fill the tank in the winter. When I bought the place, the oil furnace was brand new, and used forced hot water to old 1950's styled baseboard in the rooms. No heat in the basement itself.
Recently our town was given a federal grant/office to improve overall home heating efficiency. The Better Buildings program provides 1% loans on projects to increase/improve the insulation, efficiency, and heating sources of homes. Also a part of this is PSNH, the utility company providing up to half the costs for estimated projects up to $4000 on their end.
To get started, I met with Cimbria, the person running the office of the program, which gave me a questionnaire to figure out how much fuel/electricity I was using. Calculations put in, and my home was deemed on the high end of being inefficient.
The next step was to pay $100 to have an efficiency expert come in and find all the "leaks" in my house. This was part of the PSNH step. The expert, Melissa, came in and applied this big door fan to my kitchen door. This door would signal in spots where there could be leaks with noticing the air passing through.
I received my assessment in the mail, and a couple weeks later an assessment from a contracting company that's approved by the program sent me their assessment with what each aspect would cost, with particulars to how much PSNH would cover. I got some free stuff coming to me. As my cost was about $3400, and PSN would cover the remainder at about $3700. Not bad at all.
My good friends Leane and Tracy Rexford had recently had these same contractors in due similar type of work through the Better Buildings program. The results for them were good, as they're already noticing a significant difference in how well their home is staying heated while using less fuel. However, the contracting crews were quite messy when they were done, and actually caused some damage to some of their first floor ceilings. Last I heard, the contracting company is either going to reimburse my friends of simply fix their mistakes.
The same contractors are coming this month on the 21st. I've exchanged a few emails with the owner of the company, and I've been informed the stuff for my house will take two days, three at most. I'm looking forward to this getting done, especially since recently filling the oil tank and using the heat daily again.
With all that insulating/tightening of the house going on, I'm also using the Better Buildings loan to add on an alternative heating source, a wood pellet stove. As I mentioned before, there's no actual heat source in my basement. So I decided on the right spot for a wood pellet stove to go. That's set to be installed on December 14th. The one I've picked out is a Harmon P43, which can heat up to 1500 square feet. With installation that will cost about $3200. A friend of my father's came by to give me some advice and tell me what it'd be like once I got the stove started. which gave me some ideas and only strengthened by resolve to get one in soon.
Now I'm excited. So by mid December I should have a much more efficient home with a better radiant heat source. And when all is said and done will be paid for with a 1% loan of about $6700. This will be like a small car loan, which I can handle a lot better than the ridiculous amounts I was paying for just heating with oil in a badly insulated home. Looking forward to using a lot less oil. Especially with these companies that jack up their prices and show record profits.
The first winter with an oil furnace was an eye opener. I couldn't believe how quickly the tank could get used up. And the price for heating oil was phenomenal when all added up. Now, my house is only 1080 square feet, so when I bought the place I figured it really wouldn't be all that expensive to heat. Still amazed at how often I had to fill the tank in the winter. When I bought the place, the oil furnace was brand new, and used forced hot water to old 1950's styled baseboard in the rooms. No heat in the basement itself.
Recently our town was given a federal grant/office to improve overall home heating efficiency. The Better Buildings program provides 1% loans on projects to increase/improve the insulation, efficiency, and heating sources of homes. Also a part of this is PSNH, the utility company providing up to half the costs for estimated projects up to $4000 on their end.
To get started, I met with Cimbria, the person running the office of the program, which gave me a questionnaire to figure out how much fuel/electricity I was using. Calculations put in, and my home was deemed on the high end of being inefficient.
The next step was to pay $100 to have an efficiency expert come in and find all the "leaks" in my house. This was part of the PSNH step. The expert, Melissa, came in and applied this big door fan to my kitchen door. This door would signal in spots where there could be leaks with noticing the air passing through.
I received my assessment in the mail, and a couple weeks later an assessment from a contracting company that's approved by the program sent me their assessment with what each aspect would cost, with particulars to how much PSNH would cover. I got some free stuff coming to me. As my cost was about $3400, and PSN would cover the remainder at about $3700. Not bad at all.
My good friends Leane and Tracy Rexford had recently had these same contractors in due similar type of work through the Better Buildings program. The results for them were good, as they're already noticing a significant difference in how well their home is staying heated while using less fuel. However, the contracting crews were quite messy when they were done, and actually caused some damage to some of their first floor ceilings. Last I heard, the contracting company is either going to reimburse my friends of simply fix their mistakes.
The same contractors are coming this month on the 21st. I've exchanged a few emails with the owner of the company, and I've been informed the stuff for my house will take two days, three at most. I'm looking forward to this getting done, especially since recently filling the oil tank and using the heat daily again.
With all that insulating/tightening of the house going on, I'm also using the Better Buildings loan to add on an alternative heating source, a wood pellet stove. As I mentioned before, there's no actual heat source in my basement. So I decided on the right spot for a wood pellet stove to go. That's set to be installed on December 14th. The one I've picked out is a Harmon P43, which can heat up to 1500 square feet. With installation that will cost about $3200. A friend of my father's came by to give me some advice and tell me what it'd be like once I got the stove started. which gave me some ideas and only strengthened by resolve to get one in soon.
Now I'm excited. So by mid December I should have a much more efficient home with a better radiant heat source. And when all is said and done will be paid for with a 1% loan of about $6700. This will be like a small car loan, which I can handle a lot better than the ridiculous amounts I was paying for just heating with oil in a badly insulated home. Looking forward to using a lot less oil. Especially with these companies that jack up their prices and show record profits.
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Daily meditation
Over the past couple months I've tried a couple new things. First, I gave up diet soda. Now some people don't get this. "No calories, right?" Yes, actually, no calories, but I was starting to feel like all that fake sugar and and additional amounts of sodium could be better replaced with water.
I didn't go completely cold turkey. I might have a regular soda once every two weeks. I've been amazed at how well I've been able to hold back, since I used to have nearly two liters of diet cola a day. About six weeks into dropping the fake sugar kick I tried a diet cola again. It was ok... just ok. This time I noticed how fake the sugar tasted. So that habit is officially kicked.
The other new thing has been daily meditation. I've made it a habit to take about fifteen minutes to sit, close my eyes, concentrate on my breathing and clear my head. Sometimes it's indian style on the floor, sometimes sitting in a chair.
There are variations I use as far as the mindset. Sometimes it's to concentrate on my breathing. Other times I'll focus on an imaginary glowing blue ball of energy in my hands that I can shrink or expand at my whim. And then there's concentrating on my center, the imaginary spot about two inches below the naval that in various martial arts is known as the human center.
Also, once a week I'll do some self Reiki as part of my meditation. For those not familiar with Reiki, it's sort of a spiritual way of "palm healing", with you're palms situated over areas on your body. Some people go overboard with it with the whole "healing hands" thing like it's gonna magically cure cancer or something. It won't. Not by itself really, but studies have shown some higher percentages for curing disease if people are happier and/or less stressed, which meditation and/or Reiki can help with.
As a medical professional, if you're sick, get yourself checked out by an actual medical doctor. Just sayin'...
Anyway, this has been good for me. I've kicked one habit and restarted another I'd only rarely done in the past. I've found myself to be just a little bit more calm, and more centered in my life.
Strangely enough, I've been handing out more beatings to the BOB (my body opponent bag). I'm starting to wonder if I'd be better off filling it with sand instead of water, as I'm finding it easier to slowly push away the bag with my kicks and hand strikes. I use these slow strikes to start as a sort of warm up before I move onto faster hitting. I find it helps with the focus of where and how I strike a particular target on the bag.
Hope everyone out there is enjoying the autumn season, even with the recent snow. Peace, love and all that jive...
I didn't go completely cold turkey. I might have a regular soda once every two weeks. I've been amazed at how well I've been able to hold back, since I used to have nearly two liters of diet cola a day. About six weeks into dropping the fake sugar kick I tried a diet cola again. It was ok... just ok. This time I noticed how fake the sugar tasted. So that habit is officially kicked.
The other new thing has been daily meditation. I've made it a habit to take about fifteen minutes to sit, close my eyes, concentrate on my breathing and clear my head. Sometimes it's indian style on the floor, sometimes sitting in a chair.
There are variations I use as far as the mindset. Sometimes it's to concentrate on my breathing. Other times I'll focus on an imaginary glowing blue ball of energy in my hands that I can shrink or expand at my whim. And then there's concentrating on my center, the imaginary spot about two inches below the naval that in various martial arts is known as the human center.
Also, once a week I'll do some self Reiki as part of my meditation. For those not familiar with Reiki, it's sort of a spiritual way of "palm healing", with you're palms situated over areas on your body. Some people go overboard with it with the whole "healing hands" thing like it's gonna magically cure cancer or something. It won't. Not by itself really, but studies have shown some higher percentages for curing disease if people are happier and/or less stressed, which meditation and/or Reiki can help with.
As a medical professional, if you're sick, get yourself checked out by an actual medical doctor. Just sayin'...
Anyway, this has been good for me. I've kicked one habit and restarted another I'd only rarely done in the past. I've found myself to be just a little bit more calm, and more centered in my life.
Strangely enough, I've been handing out more beatings to the BOB (my body opponent bag). I'm starting to wonder if I'd be better off filling it with sand instead of water, as I'm finding it easier to slowly push away the bag with my kicks and hand strikes. I use these slow strikes to start as a sort of warm up before I move onto faster hitting. I find it helps with the focus of where and how I strike a particular target on the bag.
Hope everyone out there is enjoying the autumn season, even with the recent snow. Peace, love and all that jive...
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