The full length mirror..

I had a full length mirror in my garage.  I decided it is time to get my body in shape.  Lots of little things to get rid of the layer of fat that covers my upper body.

I have moved my mirror into my workout room.  I now understand why Gyms  often have morrors lining the walls.  It is motivating to see what I want to change.

I'm 6'3" and 207 pounds as of 1/1/20.  Not terribly overweight just not nearly as fit at I would like.  As a regular cyclist my lower body is in pretty good shape but my upper body is not.

I want to build muscle, and lose flab.  The weight is not as important as getting rid of the flab. 190 without flab or 205 without flab, either are acceptable.    I have watched some Youtube videos of jump ropers that have changed their bodies and I have also seen some videos of people who have done the 50 or 100 burpees, or pushups per day challenges that have made pretty good progress.

Twenty years ago I bought a Bowflex.  Their ad said give us 3 workouts a week for 20 minutes and we will change your body in 6 weeks.  It worked for me way back then.  However I kept hurting my shoulders and kept having to lay off the machine.  Once you lay off it is hard to start again.  Needless to say the Bowflex became a dust collector.

Jumping Rope

My Jump Rope Measure

My jump rope challenge. I am 6”3” but it seems I raise my hands while jumping so I need a longer than normal rope. I have bought 4 different ropes to cure my problem. Most ropes are 9 foot long and can be shortened. I found a 10 foot rope---it was really only 9’6” and it works just ok. So I bought one of those jointed plastic ones with the rope in the middle that they make for group jumping (two people holding the rope for the jumper) that is significantly longer than I can use. I have shortened it 3 times now it is right at 10 foot long.  That seems to be the right length for now.

At first I left the inner rope long after taking out the plastic links.  It got all windy because the rope spins inside while you are jumping.  I cut it off and it works better.

When I was in grade school we were graded on our jump rope numbers. I got to be pretty good. However It is not like riding a bicycle, I have lost my skills over time.
Time to rebuild my jump rope skill.

Why I am jumping rope.
I have not downhill skied much for many years.  When I was growing up there were two seasons in life.  Ski Season and waiting for ski season.  I have done a lot of cycling through the years as it is one of my main hobbies.

I have downhill skied a few times lately and realized that while I am a strong cyclist those muscles do not transfer into skiing muscles.  I am now working on jumping exercises---especially jumping rope and double jumps to improve my skiing.

My Love/hate for Burpees

I have challenged myself to improve the quality and number of Burpees I can do.  It is one of the most basic exercises.  Basically it is falling down and then standing back up with a little jump thrown in. 

My Burpee Challenge
I am going to try to average 50 burpees per day for thirty days.  But I have 60 days to do them.  I started with 25 in the bank from December 31, 2019.  I did zero on 1/1/20.  I guess my goal is to have done 1500 of them by the end of February.  I also want to improve my burpee.  They are really sloppy at this point.

Acquiring New Habits

On my morning bike ride I listened to this Youtube video.   Tiny changes with Big Results.



There were some great points made that stuck with me.  His first example was how he changed his life habit of not flossing.  He brushes his teeth twice a day but never gets around to flossing even though he wants to floss.   The simple solution was to pull the floss out of the drawer and put them in a glass by his toothbrush.  He now flosses every day.

Organizing your life to do the right thing.  Moving things off my desk that keep me from writing or working.

Transitions.
There are many transitions that we go through every day.  At each transistion we can go onto a positive job or a time waster.  If you can make just a couple of better transisitons every day you will improve your life.

I started storing bottled water in the fridge right next to my 12 pack of Coke.  I now take one of my refilled waterbottles half the time instead of taking a soda.

I started storing my workout log under my mouse.

My Evolving thoughts

I have several interests and I am going to post about them. 
Personal credit scoring/repair,
Business Credit,
Building soil from dirt,
Minimalizing my life to accomplish more,
Getting organized,
Fitness,
Writing,
Thinking. 

I am going to store my thoughts here for now.

Rick