Having just finished possibly my most recherche "tutorial" ever -- the four part post of my paper THE COMPLETION OF KANT'S MORAL THEORY IN THE TENETS OF THE RECHTSLEHRE -- I thought I would try a sharp change of pace by talking about what is happening to me personally right now.
I am on a diet. I got back from Paris on September 21st and discovered to my dismay that I was a scant pound from the dreaded 190. On a frame barely 5' 9" tall like mine, that is a lot of flab. So I summarily stopped drinking all wine [about half a bottle of red a day], stopped eating my daily lemon poppy seed muffin at the Carolina Cafe while doing the NY TIMES crossword puzzle, stopped eating all cheese, and the little Weight Watchers icecream pop I have after dinner every night, stopped going out to dinner several times a week [since I do the cooking, that is always a real night out for me], and upped my exercise regimen to a daily four mile one hour walk.
My body always responds to my dieting efforts by losing several pounds instantly in a desperate effort to convince me that the whole idea is a mistake. After fourteen days, I have lost nine and half pounds. I tell myself that I will keep this up until we return to Paris in early December, which means another eight weeks. If I can average a pound and a half a week, which is reasonable, I think, I can bring my weight down to the high one sixties.
Then, maybe I will run for President!
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Ouch for Chris Christie! Although I did think he did a good job of handling his treatment by the televisual late-night laugh machine. One would think that his politics is a better target?
By the way, I had an idea for the next writing gig. How about writing up the rabbit whomping story? Make it prolong enough to make a children's book on social theory? Find an illustrator, and see if there's a publisher?
What an interesting idea! Let me think about it.
Like the children's book idea, and Bob for president even better!!
You might try weight-training, which is more effective for burning calories than walking, or even heavy cardio.
I do not know what exactly High Akira had in mind by "weight training". However, I do believe that there are drawbacks to muscle machines--sorry, 'fitness machines"-- as discussed in the following link:
http://www.axissyllabus.com/page49.php
On a personal note/amateur sociological: I once overheard an amazing conversation between some USA professional dancers and their Slovak counterparts. My Slovak dancer friends study Pilates, among other things, and they teach and perform the exercises without the aid of expensive machines. The USA dancers were amazed, and suggested that second hand machines must be available. That reminds me of the story I heard after the Berlin wall fell, about Russian mathematicians coming to the USA to work, and outperforming the local talent in sheer computational abilities.....
Sigh. Folks, folks. You are talking to a seventy-seven year old man! I am inordinately proud of being able to do a four mile power walk every morning, even though every jogger in Chapel Hill passes me as though I were standing still. My handsome gay forty-one year old son is the one who does weight training, and he is in spectacular shape. Now if I could just have a glass of wine.
"Weight training" need not be confused with damaging the body and/or joints by overdoing things. If you can powerwalk slowly instead of run/jog, you can lift lighter weights and have great benefits instead of pumping huge iron.
I try to walk 4 miles in an hour - I'm only 25 - but Christ it's boring!!!
Hi High Akra, if you were to follow my link-- you neednt, of course-- you would see that the suggestion about fitness machines-- and I dont now think thats what you had in mind-- is not that they are damaging, as you suggest, but that they are mainly valuable for therapy, and train up the wrong things. I am oversimplifying, but I think the complaint is valid. They dont actually help you prepare to perform any real world movements, or help balance and coordination. Or so I seem to recall was the complaint in the link I offered. I suppose I dont really know if that helps RPW, but I think it would rather count in favor of continuing power walking. Myself I would certainly need to sleep if I did a four mile walk at whatever pace--so I am impressed---though I cannot imagine a pleasant place for a walk where I am currently stranded...
That's why he should be pumping the free weights. ;)
However, at his age, and relative newb-ness with regard weight training, machines would be a good idea anyway, protecting atrophied stabilizer muscles while still allowing muscle growth that spurs greater calorie burn on the whole than light cardio. He's not training for the cage, or for any particular competition, so some light machines could be real help. (Call it "therapy" if you wish; getting enough resistance exercise after a relatively sedentary modern lifetime *is* therapy!)
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