• On Life and Love

    Mama’s Got New Shoes

    Running shoes, that is. I’ve been plagued with shin splints during my runs for the last couple of months. There weren’t many runs, sure, but I also haven’t had shin splints at all since I bought my current shoes. It was an immensely good feeling to be able to run consistently pain-free for over 200 miles. But now I’m splinty. I’d been wanting to try minimalist running shoes (0mm – 4mm heel-to-toe drop) for the last few years–even when I bought my current conventional 12mm running shoes. I came up with all sorts of reasons why I shouldn’t (I’m overweight, I might break myself, etc.), and then let the running…

  • On Life and Love

    Weekly Linkage

    A fun chunk of links for the last couple of weeks. I’m not all caught up in my reading, but I’m catching up, too, despite some new video interests I’ll be writing about soon. Damn you, internet videos. Big Diabetes Study Ended Because Exercise And Diet Didn’t Do Squat | Alas, a Blog – "Note that, perhaps out of necessity, the study defined “significant long-term weight loss” quite modestly, since on average this intensive lifestyle intervention produced a little less than a 5 percent reduction in body mass (i.e., a 160-pound “overweight” woman in the program weighed, on average, 152 pounds after four years of participation). In other words, what…

  • On Life and Love

    A Month of 5/3/1

    Back in December, I ran across and fell in love with the idea of Jim Wendler’s 5/3/1 program. After my weights arrived, I wasted no time crafting up a plan spreadsheet and getting rolling. Again, wow. As a refresher, the program focuses on four main lifts–military press, deadlift, bench press, and squat–one per day. Add assistance exercises around those to complete the workout. Core Lifts I’ve had to make some interesting adaptations over the month. I have no bench and no squat rack, so those are the two exercises I’ve had to be the most careful with. I hunted for a way to avoid learning how to do a power…

  • On Life and Love

    Wednesday Weekly Winkage

    Not, of course, limited to Wednesdays. Today just happens to be one. …Barely. I shall open with a video of Nayna, my belly dance instructor, from a couple of months ago: I’m somewhere off to the left, wishing I’d brought my own camera. This was after class, so I don’t feel bad about watching my instructor dance instead of dancing myself. Posie Gets Cozy: Well, Things Fell Apart – Sadness.”For six days, as we waited for the results of the DNA test, we loved her with our whole hearts…” 10 things the iPhone Siri will help you get instead of an abortion | The Raw Story – “Ask in New…

  • On Life and Love

    5/3/1: First Two Workouts

    I’ve done my first two workouts (bench and leg press) of the 5/3/1 program, and wow. Just… wow. I included lat pulldowns and rows as the assisting exercises in the bench workout. Mmm, balance. Wonderfully, my shoulder gave me no guff at all, even in the ensuing soreness. (And oh, the delicious soreness.) I think this might be a serious way for me to finish rehabilitating my shoulder. I’ve been stalling for weeks with all the light-weight, high-rep rehab exercises, and the pain levels were staying the same. I iced heavily after the bench workout, and suffered no bone spur-specific pain in the following days.