A digital commonplace for a Regular Guy called Charlie Pharis
I’ve “unwound” to tonight’s selection before, but some things are just worth repeating!
The John Coltrane solo on “Flamenco Sketches”…man! That – among other things – is what makes Kind of Blue arguably the greatest jazz recording of all time! And that’s what makes it tonight’s unwind at the end of a pretty good day!
Last week, I signed up to have my body fat percentage tested. Now as both of you loyal readers will recall, 2006 was a banner year for my personal physical fitness. I went from 274 pounds on January 2, 2006 to a svelte 190 by Thanksgiving, and I’ve maintained that level through all the holiday eating festivities!
Between the time I signed up for the body fat test and actually taking the test today, I had my annual physical exam as well. Let me brag just a bit more.
Remember my comedian doctor told me that in addition to needing to “jettison some excess tonnage,” my liver enzymes were also high? This year, the new guy (from Canada, eh?) kind of scratched his head and said…
This is a typo, right? You really haven’t lost over 80 pounds since this time last year, have you?
“No typo,” I replied.
He went on to say this…
Your liver enzyme levels were rather high last year, and they seem to have come way down. It was 94 last January, and we like to see it no higher than 43 in guys your age. Your level this year is 26!
So anyway, today was the day of the body fat test. Kind of a weird experience where you have to completely submerge in this big ol’ tub, assume a pushup position, and blow out all your air as fast and as hard as you can. More than once.
I was a little worried about what the number would show, since I’ve never had this tested before. The optimum health range for guys my age is 18.1% to 15.1%. Mine was 17.6! I’ll take it!
I think I just found my next challenge though – getting it down to 15%. According to my tester’s information, that means I need to drop around 6.3 more pounds of fat. That would put me at 183.7! I can do that! I think I will do that!
I was waiting to get my hair cut this afternoon and I picked up the January 2007 issue of Real Simple. I know, I know…but, hey, I like the magazine, and I figure you can learn something from just about anywhere if you pay attention.
So they had this little factoid section about what happens in 15 minutes. I came across these interesting 15-minute happenings…
The issue also included several sections which asked…
What would you do if you had 15 minutes of time?
The answers ranged from kissing your spouse, to playing with your kids, to reading and writing.
I’m amazed at how much we can get done in a very short time, if we only apply ourselves to the tasks at hand. That’s a great argument for being fully engaged, for being where you are, wherever you are.
You and I have 96 15-minutes stretches of time every single day. I want to make mine count for something significant.
Well, 2006 is swiftly losing its identity into 2007.
Christmas is over…finally. And this week is kind of a crash week, filled with those things that you’ve just gotta get done since you have some time.
One of those things for me is catching up on some reading, writing, reflecting, and thinking about some ways I want to grow as a person, a husband, a dad, a friend, a son, a mentor, a communicator, and a leader during the coming year.
Part of my plan this week involves reading – a lot. Here’s a representative list of some of the books in the bag, by the bed, in the…uh, reading room, etc.
What are you reading this week? What are you planning to read in the next two weeks? In the next month?
Remember…
Leaders are readers.
And this…
Reading makes a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.
-Francis Bacon
I haven’t posted anything about my ongoing fitness saga lately. (Heck, I haven’t posted much of anything at all, he says snidely.)
Anyway, today was a cardio day (3 days strength, 3 days cardio, Sundays off). I had intended to take a trip back in time to where this whole fitness thing started, and do my cardio on the elliptical machine at the YMCA. I packed the headphones and my Pines of Rome CD for a little added motivation.
I got to the Y, staked out a machine as far away from the others as I could. (See, I have this weird habit of getting carried away when the “Pines of the Appian Way” section kicks in, and it’s not uncommon for me to actually “air-conduct” or something. But I digress…).
Well, the machine I staked out was unstable and wobbly, and felt like it was going to fall apart at any minute. (Now, mind you, I’m 69% of the man I used to be, but that’s still not a secure feeling!) On top of that, the TV/audio console kept flopping up and down. And to top it all off, the audio-out jack wouldn’t hold my headphone plug. So, I scrapped that idea after only five minutes.
I’ve been running for my cardio for a while, and so I decided to give the indoor track a spin, just to get my workout in. I hopped off the elliptical, and started running. It started out to be one of the easiest paces I’ve had, and I just had that feeling that it was almost effortless.
17 laps later (one mile on the indoor track) I glanced at my trusty Timex Ironman, and it read…
9.07.74
Now, I know that’s slower than Christmas in the real running world — after all, I’m the guy they used a calendar to time in the 50-yard dash as a kid — but for a 46-year-old old coot, who couldn’t even go for eight minutes straight on the elliptical just 11 months ago, it’s a personal record!
Oh, the best part about that 9-minute mile? You can do a significant amount of business with God while you’re on that pace. And in the 13-minute mile walk just after it. And in the 12-minute mile run-walk interval workout at the end.
Here’s hoping you have a “personal best” Thursday today!
I found this great quote from Mark Twain in the Design Within Reach email newsletter…
You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.
Just some thoughts on my mind today…
UPDATE: Wednesday, 12.13.2006, 3:33 p.m….Uh-oh, now the TV news is in on it! We’ll never hear the end of it now!
OK, so I’m a little bit late to this party, but did you hear the one about the church with the bad rap video promoting their Christmas Eve service?
Seems the local paper has picked up on it along with the usual detractors.
It’s not the “blasphemous dingbats in the Santa suits” that concern me.
It’s the unforgivable “whiteness” and lack of rhythm and coordination!
This great quote about coaching appeared yesterday, courtesy of Troy Worman…
What I need is someone who will make me do what I can.
– Ralph Waldo Emerson
