A 121 Degree Walk To Remember

Negative Motivation and Extreme Exercise 

Phoenix broke extreme heat records for two days in a row now, the car thermometer read 121 but the official high was registered at 116 degrees.   At around 4:00 pm today I decided that it would be a good idea to take a 44 minute outdoor walk around the neighborhood.  In case you are wondering I am okay, other than the fact that I realised that it is time to get a different pair of sneakers. 

So what motivated me to participate in this extreme cardio session?   Some people have told me that it is because I am weird and that might have something to do with it however, the real reason is because of a fellow i ran into at work today. 

I was following this fellow on the sidewalk towards the front door of my office and I was kind of in a hurry because I was running late coming back from lunch.    This gentleman was walking r e a l l l l l l y slow,  probably in his mid to late 50's, was using a cane to walk and did not appear to be healthy by any stretch of the imagination.   Normally I would get annoyed if I was being slowed down by such a fellow but today I had a different reaction.    A voice started playing in my head which said, "Jaxon, if you don't start exercising regularly and eating better this could be your future."

   

This short mental movie was enough to make me walk for almost an hour in the scorching Arizona sun.   Now it's up to me to decide weather or not I want to use this image to motivate me to move away from a destination that I do not want to arrive to. 

Moral of the story is if you need some extra motivation to work towards your exercise and fitness goals maybe you just need to observe an unhealthy individual and realise that your sound nutritional choices and diligent exercise will help you travel down a more desirable spot.    

Until we read again, 

Jaxon

How Jeremy Lin and Lebron James May Be Making You Fat

A Day In The Nutritional Life Of An Average American?

Happy 7-11!!!!   July is such an awesome time.    Americans start the month by celebrating their independence and for many July is  the last full summer month before kids head back to school so there are lots of vacations time planned.  The World Cup helped enhance the month of July this year along with some guy named Lebron James who just may steal the spotlight during Sunday's World Cup Final as it is rumored that he will be in attendance. 

What's  fascinating about Lebron James is how everyone seems to have a strong feeling about him one way or the other.    There are a lot of Lebron haters out there but then at the same time there are a lot of Lebron lovers who in some cases are also bandwagon fans (see p.s.).     Okay, so in the event that you were really busy today or just not concerned about sports, NBA phenom Lebron James decided to go back to the Cleveland Cavaliers after a four year two championship hiatus in Miami wearing number six for the Heat.    The following story is a fictional account of how a typical American and possible emotional eater may have allowed today's circumstances to determine their nutritional choices.  Enjoy. 

Jumpin' Jack is a huge Jeremy Lin fan, Lakers Fan and Lebron James fan.  He also likes Tim Tebow and still makes it a point to Tebow every time something unexpectedly fantastic happens to him.    Today's news about James going back to Cleveland and  Lin getting traded to the Lakers made Jack super excited and he felt a need to celebrate.     One of his Facebook pals posted something about how 7-11 was giving away free Slurpee's today in  honor of July 11th.     Jack just had Chick-fil-A a few hours prior but he rationalized all of the exciting news as a good excuse to follow-up that meal with a free Slurpee, plus he didn't have breakfast because he never eats breakfast as he just doesn't get hungry until later in the day.    Funny side story is that Jack dressed up like a cow in order to get his Chick-fil-A for free, good thing he just happened to have last years Halloween costume in his car, darn fast food restaurants and the hoops they make one jump through just to get a free meal.    The gall of some places!!!

Jack's next caloric intake after the Slurpee was some movie popcorn saturated in so much butter than it was double  bagged  that he shared with his loving girlfriend Marvelous Martha who really wanted to see Dawn Of The Planets Of the Apes.     After the movie Martha and Jack had some appetizers and a couple drinks at the local sports bar where Jack pretty much ignored Martha paying more attention to the sports wrap and their analysis of Lebron James, Jeremy Lin and this weekends World Cup Finals.     After they left the bar they happened to come across a Krispy Kreme doughnut shoppe and helped them celebrate their 77th Birthday by sharing a dozen doughnuts that they only had to pay 77 cents for. 

Now, I am not one to talk yet but I am at a level of conscious incompetence when it comes to healthy eating and realize that I, like Jumpin' Jack,  make imperfect nutritional choices by not having a plan, emotional eating and using the cost of food versus the nutritional value of food, etc.     Eventually, these habits will be replaced with empowering upward spiral habits but for the time being I am going to fill out the following form to see if I can be a Cleveland Cavaliers fan this upcoming NBA season. 

Until we read again, 

Jaxon

p.s.  

     

The Dirty $30

Sweat is pouring off of my hands and onto the keyboard as I write this.   I just completed my make shift body weight exercise at 30 reps per exercise and I feel great.    Looking forward to a possible gym workout over the next couple days. 

Speaking of the gym, I received an e-mail earlier today stating that my employer was able to negotiate a wonderful corporate rate at the local fitness centere for $29.99 a person for the entire family.     At first I thought that this was a screaming bargain because if you had a family of eight including yourself you would pretty much be paying $3.75 a month per person for a gym membership.     After reading it a couple times and talking about it with some of my colleagues I learned that the same membership for eight people would cost $239.92 per month because the super-duper spectacular corporate rate of $29.99 was the per person rate. 

Needless to say I will not be requesting a membership at this gymnasium, at least not at the $29.99 rate only because I would be able to negotiate a lower rate as a walk-in client. 

This causes me to think of something.     How prevalent is money as an obstruction between people and their current health goals, if at all?    Also, how much is too much to pay for a gym membership?   Finally, is the amount you pay for membership to a fitness centere and food in direct proportion to one's potential results?   (i.e.   The more you spend the more fit you get or at least are motivated to get.)

Until we read again, 

Jaxon

Portion Control & Falling Off The Wagon

Haven't blogged for a while, feel completed to share some thought provoking thoughts before retiring for the evening.

One is that I learned eliminating certain foods\caloric vehicles from your body does have an almost immediate impact and the second thing that I stumbled upon today is that portion control can have a similar effect if not better when eating the proper foods.

Here is an excellent quote that I saw the other day while skimming the web:

"Losing weight is like driving.   If you miss your turn all you have to do is make a u-turn to get back on track" 

Here is another phenomenal quotation that I came across that is actually pretty poignant in my current situation:

"Even The Greatest of Greatests Fall.   Get Back Up.   Dust Yourself & Keep Movin' " 

Have the best day of your life.

Until we read again,

Jaxon

p.s.

p.p.s.    In case you are not aware the fellow on the ground in the above photograph is the great Muhammad Ali.

Texting In The Boys Room

EXTREME TEXTING

With the popularity of texting one would think that the word 'texting' would actually be recognized by spell check.    You ever wonder what some folks would do if they did not have their smart phones as a reprieve while, waiting for anything, walking anywhere or driving for some although it is highly recommended that you don't text and drive?    There is even a video that went viral a few years ago of a woman falling into a water fountain in a shopping mall because she was too busy playing on her telephone to realize where she was going.

The following observation of Extreme Texting For Men may cause a few WTF's or TMI's but you will definitely have something to think about.    I used to be under the impression that a bio break was a type of mini-vacation built into our day to allow us to just relax and de-stress if needs be.    Recently a new phenomenon has been observed that I would like to discuss here.    The observed male Extreme Texting behvaiour that has been sweeping the nation is texing at the urinal.   The one handed urinal text is the preferred method but the two handed urinating text is also employed in extreme circumstances.  The biggest question here is what could be so important that one feels compelled to text during this time of your day?

Moral of the story.   Do what you want, live and let live while realising how extreme text messaging may or may not be controlling your health.

Until we read again,

Jaxon

Why We Eat Horribly

How Dollars and Cents Are Causing Us To Consume What Doesn't Make Sense

I was standing in line behind a woman who was purchasing a salad about the size of a small cereal bowl at the cafeteria earlier today.    When she got up to the cash register she placed her Styrofoam container of salad on a scale and was charged a whopping $4.88 for her small salad comprised of mostly spinach, croutons and some egg whites.    The fellow in front of her paid a little over $6 for what looked like to be a bagful of tater tots (any Napoleon Dynamite fans) and a king-kong 3/4 pound bacon blue cheese burger.    

I can easily see where a person who is price sensitive or of the bang for the buck mindset would make a poor nutritional choice at this point.     What are you thoughts?    Do you ever make economically based food choices?    Would you make better choices if better food was less costly than their least healthy alternatives?     Comment Below. 

Until we read again, 

Jaxon