Monday, May 9, 2011

Summer Bod

After five years of excessive drinking and having every pizza place in town on speed dial, my body has officially taken a beating. I've put on the freshman fifteen twice over. I have never been a very skinny person, but I never considered myself out of shape until now. This weekend, I was playing sand volleyball at my sister's graduation party and was winded after only one game. As a result, I've decided to dedicate this summer to getting back into shape.

My plan consists of the following:
Mondays- Strength Training (AM) Cardio (PM)
Tuesdays- Circuit (jumprope, lunges, pushups, situps, wall sits, planks)Cardio (PM)
Wednesdays- Strength Training (AM) light cardio (PM)
Thursdays- Rest, (golf, walk, or bike ride)
Fridays- Strength Training (AM) Cardio (PM)
Saturdays- Cardio
Sundays- Rest

Aside from the fitness training, I also plan to limit my daily caloric intake to 1750 calories or less. I went to the grocery store yesterday and loaded up on chicken, pork, eggs, fruits, veggies, and nuts. Optimistically, if I can stick to this plan, I should be able to drop anywhere from 30-40 pounds this summer, which would get me back to my weight in high school.

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Free Time

Online Poker, as I once knew it, is no more. The Department of Justice has seized the domain names of the top three poker sites, effectively putting me out of work. Reading some of my old blog entries made me realize how much I will truly miss it. Poker has given me an avenue to satisfy my competitive streak in a way that I haven't experienced since playing high school basketball. In addition, poker has afforded me an exciting, carefree lifestyle, free of the constant burden of money troubles. It has been a truly memorable aspect of my life and is something I will never forget.

Now that online poker is out of the picture, I've been doing a lot of soul searching in an attempt to figure out what life holds in store for me next. I will probably try to grind a meager living at casinos for the summer. After that, I will begin my final year of school as a student teacher in 3rd grade. Finally, I will enter the real world. I had always considered the possibility that I could play poker semi-professionally for the rest of my life. That is seemingly unrealistic right now. Besides, I'm not sure that the poker lifestyle is something in which I would truly like to embark upon. It is, at times, stressful and unreliable.

I have many exciting plans this summer. First of all, I plan to play a lot of basketball and golf, two things that I neglected last summer. Travelling will also take up much of my time. I have trips planned for Vegas, a roadtrip to the upper northwest US, and our annual family trip to a lake in Wisconsin. Aside from these, I have put reading on my summer "to do" list. This winter, I read the entire Harry Potter series. This rekindled a love for reading that I haven't felt since 3rd grade. Reading is a beautifully magically experience; one that I have under-appreciated through the years.

And lastly, since I will have so much free time, I guess I will try to update my blog a bit more. So for you three people who actually read this, enjoy!