"Manic Monday!" (Without The Bangles)

My apologies for not posting anything for the past two weeks.  It has a been a crazy and busy month with a lot of things going on, and while I've been slacking with the blog posts, I promise I haven't done the same in other areas of my life!

The "Manic Monday" workout/exercise segment kicks off tomorrow (10/29) during the 6 A.M. hour on "Good Morning Arklamiss" on KNOE 8 in northeast Louisiana.  For my "non-Arklamiss" friends, I will make sure the segments are also available on YouTube.  I'm hoping to get more creative with the segments in the future and incorporate/demonstrate things that people can do if they're too busy to go to the gym,  or don't even have a gym membership but want to exercise at home.  I'm starting with the basics and trying to keep it easier for beginners.  Later on, I'll add in more advanced options for anyone who may be following along and needs to move on to that "extra challenge."

I"ve also been sticking to six days a week at the gym.  I'm getting a little aggravated with a lack of results.  A friend assures me that stuff is happening, but perhaps it is things I can't directly see.  I'm trying to get bigger, but I feel like I'm staying the same size.  I'm also paranoid that the weight gainer I'm taking will make me gain too much fat weight rather than the kind of mass I am trying to put on.

I ordered "Body Beast" from Beachbody, so I will be watching the DVD's at home and adding that into my workout routine at the gym as well.

Anyway, if you are in northeast Louisiana, be sure to tune in to "Manic Monday" tomorrow morning around 6:15ish!  Many, MANY thanks to my favorite hangout spot and part-time workplace the Monroe Athletic Club for letting April Dovorany and me use the facilities for taping!

Have a good week -- and remember to do something good for yourself!

Don't forget to like the Kurt 3.0 page on Facebook!  

  

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall (Am I Making Any Weight Gains at All?)

Anyone who stares at themselves in the mirror daily as much as I have, especially in the past month, isn't going to see much of a change.  If you're constantly gawking at or critiquing yourself day in and day out, you will have the same image stuck in your head.  In order to find out if all the working out is working, you have to arrange a meeting or a "bump in" with someone you haven't seen in a month or two.  Then you parade or walk slowly past them, hoping they will say, "Oh my gosh, you look great!  Have you been working out?"

I tried this about a week ago with someone who hadn't seen me in several weeks.  The only thing I got from the person in question was that I look "more defined."  I was fishing for "bigger," but "defined" isn't necessarily an insult either.

So in order to gain size, I've been eating a ton of protein (something I've already been doing a long time before a month ago, but I'm way more conscientious about it now), eating it from the right sources (lean meats, fish, raw almonds, some lowfat milk, protein powder) and doing my best to stay away from bad places.  My occasional Friday night "cheat" after work at the Taco Bell drive-thru has been done away with.  I've cut back on the cardio some, and I've added a weight gainer into my list of supplements.  I'm drinking a serving size of Weider Mega Mass 2000 with some 1% milk once a day, hoping that will help.  I am also doing extra abs, running a little harder (but fewer times a week) and carefully watching my diet out of paranoia that the weight gainer will make me pack on fat instead of muscle! 

Oh, and yes, I've also been working out with the weights like a muthamutha, too.  I really need to gain the right kind of weight. 

If anyone has any suggestions about weight gainer powder that is better than Mega Mass 2000, please feel free to let me know.  The "MM 2K" got mostly good reviews online out of my research on that and a few others, so I went with the Mega Mass.

Don't forget to "like" the Kurt 3.0 page on Facebook!  Have a great week, and do something good for yourself!! :)

Is Technology Making Us Fat?

I love how far technology has come along.  I am always on my iPhone texting away, constantly checking Facebook or Twitter, and I even played Angry Birds and Words with Friends until I got sick of both and had to finally stop.  My mom and brother often talk about how technology is/can be bad, and I argue with them and say "No, it is not!"

This morning I woke up and since "CBS News Sunday Morning" was three-quarters over, I turned it to the History Channel.  A show called "'80's Tech" was on, and havng grown up in the '80s, I was immediately glued to the TV.  They talked about the evolution of the PC, and also video games, along with showing old clips of arcades and Pac Man and Donkey Kong and the like.

I remembered Ataris and video arcades being popular at the same time when I was elementary school-age.  I never really thought about which one was there before the other.  According to the program, home video game consoles like the Atari became popular for people who didn't feel like going out to the arcades all the time.  So apparently there were arcades and then there was the Atari.  People a bit older than me who remember Pong (which came from Atari, Inc. in the 1970s) might dispute that though.

Then I started thinking about lethargy, and the fact that many people now stay inside all day, glued to their computers or their video games or their cell phones and never really do much else.  I wondered if maybe there was a connection between the growth of video game technology and accessibility and obesity rates, especially childhood obesity rates.

I searched around online (yes, I am biting the hand that's feeding this post) to see if there was a clear-cut timeline showing when the obesity epidemic began in the U.S.  The closest thing I could find was one article saying maybe the late 1980s/early 1990s was when it all started to take off.  Just when more video games and better, enhanced imaging and way better gaming consoles started flooding the market. 

There is also that matter of the internet taking off like wildfire in the mid-1990s.  I can still hear that dial-up "log on" sound in my head sometimes, even though most people younger than 20 probably remember dial-up the same way I vaguely recall 8-track tapes.

The American Academy of Pediatrics suggests that parents not let their children's total entertainment media time exceed two hours every day, but do most parents take this advice?

I also have to wonder whether our adult habits of staying on Facebook and our cell phones all hours of the day and night contribute to the problem.  Can you credibly tell your kid to turn off the TV and go play outside, if you're pausing in the middle of your text message to look up and do it?  That reminds me, does it burn more calories to write a letter or send a text to someone?  You don't have to move as much, and you won't have to get up and go walk around the house looking for paper and writing utensils.   

That being said, I LOVE technology.  I can't remember a life before texting and social networking.  I'm that person who will carry a text conversation for two hours instead of just simply calling someone.  I still haven't used facetime yet on my iPhone 4S (No, I don't have the 5 yet!).  Who wants to be the first to have facetime?  And what would I do without having google there everytime I have a question?

I'm not going to say technology is evil and the scourge of the Earth.  Maybe it's like food, and we need to better control our portions.

I will try to have a gym post later in the week -- and get back to posting about my workouts more.  I posted my latest workout pics from today on the Kurt 3.0  Facebook page. Be sure to "like" my page if you have not! :)

Have a great week, and do something good for yourself!!