Introduce yourself to this fine fella at every opportunity and you'll never be lacking in Vitamin D (or happiness). Alice and Chris are getting on the China Study bandwagon, forsaking meat and dairy for a month--and they haven't even read the book yet. Anybody else who's interested in this endeavor, leave a comment. Of course, Camille is already way ahead of us (and she's trekking in Nepal; yes, I am jealous). I don't know if I'd have believed in this, but I'm quite convinced now, and I'll tell you why: I've been to various doctors, including allergists, over the years, and have taken pills, used sprays and submitted to weekly shots, all to limited success. Yet, after just a few days of my plant-based diet, I'm breathing freely and I'm not leaving a trail of Kleenex behind everywhere I go. So why did no doctor ever advise me to cut out dairy?
This morning Ernie and I gave in to the spleeny gene and worked out in the basement. We used the power station, and it was a nice variation. We did dips, pull-ups, leg lifts and squats. Then, in the afternoon, I went for a snow-shoe with the weighted vest. Stupid, really, as snow-shoeing is tough enough on its own. Now I'm going to eat some spinach and jump some rope.
If Popeye had jumped rope his muscle would have been more evenly dispersed, rather than getting all bunched up in his biceps. But hey, whatever, he was still ahead of his time.

This morning I awoke with the idea that I would fly in the face of the Sunday ideal, so instead of having a nice lay-about, I geared up and went straight out to the sugar shack. I did a nice interval workout where I did 20 reps of the 5# heavy rope between each set of push-ups, pull-ups and sit-ups (3 sets of each). Then I did a complete dumbell workout (bench press, row, shoulder press, hammer curl, atomic with kettlebell) sans the heavy rope.
Remember how I wrote about thinking of total weight when you do a strength workout? That is, benching 100 lbs. 10x would equal 1000 lbs. Well, I was thinking that the other day when I did 1000 reps with the 5 lb. heavy rope, it was really as if I had swung a 5000 lb. cable over my head one time. Pretty manly, huh?

Down, down, down...
While I realize there is probably nothing more yawn-inducing than my exercise diary, now that I've started keeping track I'm interested in keeping it up-to-date for my own purposes. So, as an addendum to this morning's post, let me record that I did 30 minutes on the elliptical with the weighted vest. I planned to do more, but bonked out, probably having left more of myself out on the trail than I realized. Part of the reason I did anything extra at all was so that I could feed my alter ego down in my pitch black basement. I notice when I'm down there working out I listen to music I would never even think of listening to just sitting around in the living room. Tonight that song with the refrain "ain't no thing but a chicken wing" came up on the playlist--put a smile on face.
Anyways... if you want to check out a blog that's actually interesting and that lifts the spirits, check out Camille, getting down to the level in Nepal. http://moltenwood.blogspot.com/

This morning I pretty much hit the trail at the break of dawn, and enjoyed every moment of my lustrous solitude. Didn't cross paths with a single snowmobile. It was still and quiet, and though there was a slight bite in the air when I started out, I had to strip off a few garments on my return. (Don't worry Pop: there was absolutely no nudity). X-country skiing is a great low-impact total body workout--but that's just gravy, because it's hard to tell you're exercising while in the throes of pure joy.

This is the natural spring toward the back end of our property--an abundant water supply that never freezes. I'll have to dip a pail in it someday and sample the water--just to say I'm living off the land.

Today's workout was a husband/wife affair, though you can do it with the partner of your choosing. We used a timer set to 30 second intervals, one person doing floor exercises while the other jumped, then switching at the beep. I also did pull-ups in between sets. When all was said and done, we did a solid 24 minutes of jumping rope, over 200 push-ups, at least as many sit-ups, etc.

Pull-ups

1. Jump rope/squats -- 8 sets

Pull-ups

2. Jump rope/push-ups -- 8 sets

Pull-ups

3. Jump rope/Atomic sit-ups -- 8 sets

Pull-ups

4. Jump rope/Stagger push-ups -- 8 sets

Pull-ups

5. Jump rope/Jack-knife sit-ups with twist -- 8 sets

Pull-ups

6. Jump-rope/Plank push-ups -- 8 sets

Pull-ups

I don't know if that looks hard or not. By the end I was having trouble jumping rope because my shoulders were so sore. Remember, with each set you're doing 8 sets of the rope jumping and 8 sets of the exercise. It adds up.

This...

... becomes this. I can't get enough of my smoothies. Delicious, nutritious, cold and refreshing. Rev up those blenders, people: you won't be sorry. I'm in the midst of reading The China Study, which is a fascinating treatise on the benefits of whole, plant-based foods. This book is great for health nuts and conspiracy theorists alike (suits me to a T). I told Cara today that I'd like for every person I love to read it--but I don't want to be pushy!



This morning I pumped out a complete hour on the elliptical with the weighted vest. I did my mountain-climbing simulation where every couple of minutes (after every song I was listening to on Pandora, programmed to Outkast, because like they used to say on American Bandstand, "It has a good beat") I raised the resistance until I topped out at 10. Then I reversed the process and climbed down the mountain.
Really what I am trying to do is get myself in shape for hiking, but there's no real way to do that since I'm not going to exercise for 10-11 hours in a row. What I'm hoping though, is that at some level the weighted vest will make carrying a pack seem easy. First off, the vest is 40 lbs., whereas a loaded pack is about 25 lbs.; also, 70% of the weight of the pack rests on your hips, while the vest is supported by your shoulders. Since it's my shoulders that usually get achy during hikes, I'm hoping that a bit of extra strength will make things better in that department.
Anyway, since today was a snow day, I had the time to go a little longer on the elliptical. Then, in the afternoon, I cleared the driveway of snow and immediately afterward went for a snow-shoe. To be honest, my legs felt like lead. I didn't feel like I was in good shape at all, but depleted and hungry. I stood there, breathing heavy, appreciating the winter beauty, and thinking: hey, this is just like hiking.

Let me break it down for you. This morning, standing in the bathroom with a devil-may-care towel draped around my waist, I said, "I think Birch Wisdom is ready for frontal nudity."
My wife said, "NO FRONTAL NUDITY!"
So no more blaming me for pictures of trees.



Crazy not to snow-shoe today. Tomorrow I'll be making tracks.

A.M.: Woodshed workout--push, pull, crunch--in the 0 degree.

P.M.: 1000 reps with 5lb. heavy rope (completed in 45 minutes).

Then a nice cool-down with a Wovel of the fluff.

Locked up here in the frozen tundra and I haven't brought back the American Tao. My original goal was to do one for every entry in the Tao Te Ching, so I have about 60 to go. At this rate I'll have to live as long as Jack Lalanne--strong in body, strong in spirit.

Today's workout:
A.M.: 10-minute medicine ball sequence (just a little something to get the blood pumping)

P.M.: 100 pull-ups
2oo push-ups
300 crunches

30 minutes on elliptical with weighted vest

Last night I was going to write a post about how when I was a kid I used to watch Jack LaLanne on television and how I wondered back then (almost 40 years ago) how long he would live. Morbid for a youngster, I suppose, but I was convinced back then that he would live a long life due to his fitness regimen. So every once in a while I would look him up, and I never tired of his great quotes, such as: "the only thing healthy about a donut is the hole."
I never ended up writing the post, however, as I became half-comatose watching football. Then, this morning, when I open my laptop to check out the NY Times, the first thing I read is that he died. Strange? Spooky? Psychic? Or mere coincidence? After all, he had to die sometime. Odd, anyway.
R.I.P. Jack.
It just blows my mind to think that he never veered off course. He stuck with the healthy eating and hard-core exercise from the age of 15 until his final tally of 96. That's 81 years for those of you who struggle with math. And here I am, all full of myself for doing OK for two months. Well, I guess I'm just like everybody else: a human yo-yo.

Today's workout:
--3 sets of pull-ups, push-ups, sit-ups and squats, all while wearing the 40 lb weighted vest.
--Alternate jump rope 30 seconds/push-ups 30 seconds--8 sets
--Alternate jump rope 30 seconds/atomic sit-ups 30 seconds--8 sets
--Alternate jump rope 30 seconds/hammer curls (25 lb. dumbells)--8 sets
--Jump rope 30 minutes

This exercise is called Big Circles, probably self-explanatory. I like the medicine ball because it's strength-building but also gives you a nice stretch. We jumped rope in the a.m., then went for a x-country ski in the afternoon. My kind of day! And made all the better since I do believe Cara has caught the fitness bug.
Nothing in my experience causes more niggling injuries than running, so I'm sticking with my story regarding the lower impact of jumping rope. Not that I should admit to any of this, since I would like to take up running again in the spring. Cruising along on a dirt road with the music going--you can't beat it.
Keep jumping Alice. Maybe this summer we can have a family jump-a-thon up at the lake.

We ended up going skiing shortly after the elliptical madness, so maybe it's OK that I ate about a dozen (no exaggeration, sadly) oatmeal raisin cookies. Well, if the beautiful wife didn't work so hard to make her husband happy I wouldn't be in the predicament, but what's a man to do? How did I know that when I said, "I'm in the mood for an oatmeal raisin cookie," that she'd actually go into the kitchen and commence to baking?
But didn't we have some fun out on the Sunrise Trail. Perfect blue skies, no wind and fresh powder. Plus, all in all, I probably burned the calories in about 7 of those cookies. And therein lies the exercise dilemma. We overcompensate. The brain tells the stomach: hey, eat what you want, we're burning it up. But it's like money: you spend much quicker than you save.
Nevertheless, it's fun to fight the good fight. And Alice, you can jump rope for an hour. You just have to work your way up to it--if you're so inclined. I was getting there, but perhaps too quickly. I've got a bit of shin pain now, which is why I'm not jumping for a few days. I've got the scissor, the boxer, the double under and a few other moves down pat, but struggle with the cross-over (I can do it, but not consistently), so it's hard to take a break when I'm making headway. Plus I just got my punk rope DVD and jump rope, which does seem to turn much better than average (and still only $6.99).
A strange new hobby for a middle-aged man, I guess, but whatever floats your boat, right?

Snow day in Machias. Notice the Starbucks at the end of the street? Oh, no, that's Machias in an alternate universe. But if you make a right at the corner you can get coffee, pizza, gas and pickled eggs at the Quick Stop.
Quick. Stop.
Here's your hat, what's your hurry?

So yesterday I did the woodshed workout in the morning, sort of the same old thing. But I will point out that I think compound exercises work best. For example, squats, curls and presses can be done as distinct sets. Or you can hold a couple of dumbells at your side, squat, stand, curl and press. Not only do you work most of the major muscles, but you give your heart something to think about. Everything else I did was in the bodyweight category, but with a twist (literally). I did plank push-ups where you come up on one arm and raise your other arm to the sky. I forget what you call the sit-up variation, but basically you jack-knife and then turn in the upright position, placing your hand next to your body. I think Alice is right: I need video.

Speaking of Alice. Hey Alice, I have an idea for a fitness challenge. Burn 1000 calories a day for 5 days. As I mentioned to Alice in an e-mail, you can burn 1000 calories in an hour of jumping rope (walking burns 250 calories an hour). Usually I don't trust machines, and I definitely have a hard time believing the calorie counter on my elliptical. But for some reason I think it's fairly accurate when I'm wearing my weighted vest. Normally I believe its count is too high, but obviously it doesn't know I'm wearing the vest, so now I'm tricking it into not overstating my output. Crazy, I know; but in my world I burned 1000 calories this morning.

Tomorrow I'll probably do the same watching the Green Bay-Chicago game (I'll need my full concentration to talk the Jets to victory, so no exercise during that game), and, who knows, maybe I'll even get in some x-country skiing on this nice new fluffy snow.

I know they don't say it anymore: but you go girl!

How do you challenge a person who subsists on a liquid diet, runs at 4:00AM and then does hot yoga at night? Oh, and did I mention she runs with a brain surgeon? If only I was a grandmother in Miami Beach: I'd have so much to brag about. Out here in Dufferville, I just make it up as I go along, so the challenge is just making something happen. Yesterday and today I worked out in both the morning and afternoon, and I might do the same tomorrow, so I guess that could be a challenge: 3 days of two-a-days.
I did a half hour on the elliptical with the 40 pound vest this morning, then the medicine ball routine and jump rope this afternoon. One new twist for me was that I jumped as fast as I could in intervals, using my handy-dandy timer. If you go to You Tube you can watch world-record speed jumping--pretty impressive. Also check out clips from the U.S. Jump Rope Championships. (Oh to be young!)
This morning one of the kids I take to the gym set up an "obstacle course," which consisted of animal crawls, running, jumping rope, push-ups, pull-ups, burpees, etc. She even drew up a diagram with stations. It was impressive and made me really happy about my job. After all, if it wasn't for my new obsession these kids would just be sitting in the bleachers gossiping and cracking jokes.

This is my "home gym." As you can see, I continue to kick it old school. Jessie, who rightfully gave me the devil for being a lazy blogger, told me she'd like it if I posted my workouts as it would help her to keep her own program fresh. And, since I seem to be writing nothing anyway and wouldn't mind having a fitness diary, I'm going to bore the rest of you with tales of my exertions.
The medicine ball is a new addition to my repertoire. Tonight I did a variety of exercises that I will detail at another time. They include the "wood chop" and the "Russian twist." I did nine different moves in all, three sets of each with two minutes of rope jumping in between each exercise. I then used the timer to do eight 30 second reps of the burpee move that Jessie taught me in Bridgton. Picture a burpee with a mountain climber stutter step thrown in and you'll have the basic idea.
In the morning I did the woodshed workout with Ernie (pull-ups, push-ups, sit-ups), doing the push-ups in super sets with dumb-bell presses for good measure. Gloomy days like today go down much better when you get the endorphins pumpin'!
Somehow I haven't missed a day of exercise since before Thanksgiving. Of course, now that I've bragged on it the streak will end tomorrow. And so what if it does--nothing like getting a new streak started...

The world can't end in 2012. Otherwise I'll have cut this wood for nothing. My plan is to have my basement stocked for next winter before the bugs have returned. That way I can spend the summer basking in the sun. Good ecology suggests that you don't cut in the warmer months anyway, as it's disruptive to the forest's creatures. Today I moved some wood by stacking it on a snow scoop and pulling it over the snow. Makes me realize that instead of a wagon I should have bought an ice-fishing sled and did all my hauling in the winter. The other advantage of cutting in the winter is that the snow is a safeguard against burying the chainsaw chain in the dirt--a blade ruining act that I've unfortunately performed more than once. Live and learn, my friends, live and learn.

Little did I know when I mentioned the Colby bookstore the other day that Jessie was applying to work there, but she called today to say that she starts tomorrow. Small coincidence, but it's still kismet. No employee discount, though, so we'll still have to sink our fortune into textbooks.

But Matt, assuming you're still frugal (I fell off that wagon a long time ago), I'll be happy to give you Lone Survivor when I see you in the summer. You do plan to visit Maine, right?

The sun had not yet risen when I was out at the woodshed this morning, and the moon reappeared before I came into the house this afternoon. I scratch and claw for every moment of daylight I can muster, and it sure makes a difference. It's like drinking happy juice, or maybe it's just contentment water--though it could just be a bit of I-didn't-stick-my-head-in-the-oven brew. Though, really, I can't complain, because I love bearing witness to night turning to day and day turning to night. Makes sense because I'm a season person--no constant blasted warm days for me. I'm not moving to Costa Rica!!!!
Furthermore, I've started felling trees again, thinning around the sap producers. Yes, from the cold and dreary days of winter springs the sweet goodness of maple syrup. Run, sap, run...

Hey, that's me! Do I look proud? Or do I look like a guy who's thinking, "My daughter goes to Colby, and all I got was this stinkin' sweatshirt?" I kid, I kid--and I could not be prouder. Jessie gave me the sweatshirt for X-Mas after I telegraphed my desire for it on our last visit. We always stop by the bookstore, where I stock up on clearance paperbacks. They have a lot of good stuff, and they're practically giving it away. Colby also has one of the most impressive college museums you could imagine, so check it out some time when you just happen to be cruising through Waterville.

Too bad we didn't bring the camera when we went on the walk from which we just returned. You could have seen a picture of me in my real crackpot attire: my 40 lb. weighted vest that makes me look like I'm on some sort of military operation. Fitting, I guess, since I'm reading Lone Survivor at the moment, a book about Navy Seals stationed in Afghanistan. The 4-mile slog through the snow with the weighted vest that just about got the best of me would be nothing to those guys. They run for miles with twice as much weight on their backs, then do enough push ups, etc. to make a grown man cry.

The author points out that during training it's the guys who are the most chiseled from the gym who drop out first. Sometimes, strange as it sounds, big muscles are just a drag on speed and endurance. Lance Armstrong once said in an interview that he didn't build a rock wall on his property when he was still riding because he was afraid he'd put on muscle he "couldn't afford to carry."

Lean and mean is the order of the day, I guess; but I'm going to finish out the weekend by laying on the couch watching football.

When the kids were home from college we had a running joke about being fruitarians. I regaled our guests with the story of Dick Gregory helping a man to lose hundreds of pounds by being secluded on an island with nothing to eat but fruit. Did this really happen? Did I make it up? Or did I read about it in a tabloid on line at the supermarket? Who knows... but if you have a good story to tell, don't let a silly little thing like the truth get in your way.
Today, no lie, I'm about a bowl of cereal away from being a fruitarian-for-a-day. I've had bananas, blueberries, peaches, strawberries, pineapple, mango, cranberries and raisins. Then I spent an hour jumping rope, so I guess you know what that makes me: fruit salad.
First I'm silly, then I'm stupid, but fruit and laughter go a long way in beating the winter blues.

I just hung up the phone with Max, signing off by telling him how I wished he was here, since I was in the process of making my world-famous french toast--which, as loyal readers will remember, he can consume in epic quantities; but, alas, in this fractured world families are scattered hither, thither and yon. Well, here's to thinking of you, big bro! (I don't say Big Brother due to the spooky connotations.)

Sort of sad to see all the young people shove back off to college. But, then again, I was sort of glad to see all the young people shove off back to college. Life is like that, right? The old yin and the yang.

Some people (Jessie, Jessie, Jessie) are so sweet that they'll set their alarm just so they can cuddle with you on their last day home. Oh my oh my, I'm such a lucky guy!!!