Let’s Take a Look at June

Hello all. Well, it’s been one month since I started the whole ‘no gym’ thing. Here’s a recap:

I averaged 2 mornings a week at the park. Again, an excursion to Clover Park includes lots of stretching, about 3 miles of walking, and a number of fitness stations that I use to work my abs and my upper body.

I went to the driving range once and played two rounds of golf on 9-hole courses, which amounts to one complete round of golf.  That amounts to $35 in monthly golf money.

I roller bladed three times, went on two leisurely strolls around the dog park at the Santa Monica airport, and did Disneyland on my birthday (which most experts agree amounts to about 12-15 miles of walking in one day).

So.

Wanna watch?

Hello loyal readers!

I’m getting delusions of grandeur.  Please take this poll and help determine my future.

Thanks!

Meet Clover Park (my new gym)

Welcome to my new gym.  It’s called Clover Park, a public park in Santa Monica, CA.

You’ll find this little gem on Ocean Park Blvd. between 25th and 28th Street, about 2 miles in from the water’s edge.  This family-friendly park has garnered 4 1/2 out of 5 stars on Yelp.com (from 6 reviews…), which is good enough for me.   Clover Park boasts 3 baseball/softball fields, 2 soccer fields, a basketball court, 2 tennis courts, a  sand volleyball court, picnic areas with charcoal grills, and lots of jungle-gym/playground fun for kids.   There are even well-placed benches along the southern edge where you can relax and watch private planes fly in and out of the little Santa Monica Airport.

All of those things are great and I encourage LA residents to carve out a little time for this very accessible and well-maintained city park.  The reason I love it is because it has become my new gym.  No lines for the treadmill, no stinky guy in a Spandex unitard, no monthly membership fees or bad music piped in through ceiling speakers.

Clover Park has a tree-lined fitness course with 12 fitness stations along the walking path.  One circuit around the park is .77 miles and the fitness stations allow you to get a pretty diverse work-out if you can make yourself do them all.

I live .8 miles from the park.  About 3 days a week, I get up at 5:30am and walk briskly to the park.  I have a few favorite stretches and exercises that I incorporate into my walk around the park.  I’ll start detailing those activities in future posts.  After about 30 minutes in the park, I walk briskly home.  So I end up getting about 2 1/2 miles of walking in on my ‘gym days’ and a good range of upper and lower body and core-strengthening exercises.

According to this article on About.com, I’m well on my way to a healthy, active lifestyle.  In addition to about 45 minutes of brisk walking, stretching and exercising 3 days a week, I walk to work and back most days.  That’s an extra 2 miles of walking a day!  Granted, that’s usually a pretty chill walk for me.   (No use trying to break land-speed records when the boss doesn’t use a time clock!)  According to the article, the walk doesn’t count if it isn’t brisk.  So I’ll make it a point to hustle to work and back home again so I can include it in my weekly exercise regimen.

Fuel for change

Part of aspiring toward a more active and balanced lifestyle is a proper diet.  If I’m going to keep up with a full time job, classes at night and designing a website, I’m going to need some decent fuel.  I used to live on Jack in the Box, cigarettes and pizza.  I look back and wonder how I tolerated myself.  Night sweats, stanky clothes, sleeping for 12-14 hours a day on the weekends.  Craziness.

I eat pretty well now, especially compared to my bachelor days.    But if I’m serious about getting into any kind of shape, I need to step it up a notch.  I’m switching to healthy proteins such as free range organic egg whites, black beans and real peanut butter.   I’m trying to reduce my processed sugar intake (curse you, Starbucks baked goods case…) and get my complex carbs early in the day.  I’m weening myself off of caffeine and adding a few more cups of water to each day.

But damn, I like pizza.

Growing up in MN, I was raised in an environment that viewed ‘healthy living’ with a weird sort of disdain and mistrust.  If you wanted healthy, you’d use reduced fat Kraft American singles on your half pound burger.  Anything more than that, and you were looked at sideways everywhere you went.  My years in Chicago were even worse.  I actually started to believe that anyone eating anything other than what came off a greasy spoon grill or from across the Burger King counter was an elitist snob, a tofu and been sprout mo’fo who shopped at Abercrombie and Fitch or J. Crew, summered in Martha’s Vineyard and had no business telling me how to live.

I think I was a late bloomer and my rebellious years were delayed as a result.  I really wanted to be a surly grunge-rocker in Seattle in my early 20′s but instead found myself selling springs and doing community theatre in Chicago.

So as I continue to try to live a better life and find more balance with the physical planet I live on, I have to battle against the old biases.  When I line up at Mrs. Winston’s salad bar, check out at Whole Foods, Rollerblade by the water, or do push-ups in the park, I need to forcibly remind myself sometimes:  I’m on the right path.

But I still love pizza…

So after my wife and I roller bladed by the water this evening, I had me some.  Some what?  Some doughy, cheesy, veggie and garlic-laden, food of the frickin’ gods pizza.

Yeah, no one said being me was easy.

Mornings in the park

So 3 or 4 days, a week, I get up at 5:30am and walk to Clover Park on Ocean Park Blvd in Santa Monica.  It’s about 1 mile to the park and about .5 miles around the park.  There and back with a lap is 2.5 miles, but I try to do 2 laps.  There are fitness stations around the park, so I can do some resistance training and plenty of stretches.  In upcoming posts, I’ll start to record some of the excercises I do in the hopes of making it more ‘routine.’

I can say this – I never got up that early in the morning and consistently worked out when I went to the gym.  I really enjoy the neighborhood early in the morning, before all the cars and people start to clutter things up…

One day of golf and I feel better already

Sunday started with a bucket of balls at the driving range at Scholl Canyon golf course, followed by 9 holes of golf at a par 3 in Los Feliz. All things told, I was steadily active for about 4 hours. I did lots of stretching and got a good, long walk.

Since I had to drive to Scholl Canyon and Loz Feliz from Santa Monica, I got huevos rancheros for brunch. Free range eggs, organic black beans, tortillas and guacamole. No meat and just water to drink. On the drive home, I cracked the windows instead of using the A/C and took a short, warm shower at home instead of a long, hot shower (which I really, really wanted!)

I’m going to be picking up a terra pass to offset the carbon footprint of driving places like Temescal Canyon and Los Feliz. I’m also going to start looking for calorie calculators so I can guesstimate how many calories a day of golf can burn.

Exciting, huh?

Off to a great start…

Oh hi.  Well, I’m off to play golf.  That means driving across town from Santa Monica to Griffith Park.  Also, I know that golf courses aren’t the most eco-friendly of ideas.  So while I expect to stretch really well and get a good walk in, I’m not off to a great carbon neutral start…

Dave (golf buddy) and I are going to get lunch afterward.  I can try to do a few things to restore some balance:  I’ll suggest a place that has organic food and will eat a vegetarian meal. and when I get home, I’m going to research (and buy) a terra pass.  What, exactly are they?  Balm for the guilty soul?  Or do they actually do some good?  Guess I’ll find out.

See ya!

Hello world!

Yup.  I’m a blogger.  Check in and follow my adventures as I use parks, city streets, local hills, bike paths, golf courses and other outdoors places to slowly get myself into shape and learn more about this beautiful planet.

This blog will be a chance to share some of my workouts for those that may be interested. Please note – I’m not a fitness buff or certified trainer.  I ran a marathon 15 years ago and tried yoga once.  It made me cry.  I’m just a normal guy who is trying to live a healthy and active life.  I’m also a normal guy who cares a lot about what’s happening with our planet.  I just want to share my thoughts and experiences.  Hopefully, other no-gymer’s out there will contribute their own outdoor adventures, too!