Stretch Armstrong Eats Breakfast, Dumps Stimulants

Starting one more climb up the weight-loss ladder

Dug out my Yoga Zone exercise tapes for the first time in a year and did the flexibility thing this morning before work. "Introduction to Yoga," which is a an hour-long program that's hard enough that you have no illusions about what you're undertaking, but simple enough that a complete beginner won't be frustrated if they're a novice.

The experience was both bolstering and humbling, as usual. Bolstering because I inherited great flexibility from my parents, and it's nice to still be able to perform all the exercises after all this time without having to cheat too much. Humbling because after all I am pretty darn chunky and thus have to modify a few of the positions because I've got too much meat in the way.

But still, I got the exercises done, showered, got to work, and grabbed a bag of "Chex Mix" for breakfast, which is another departure from the usual. I don't like to eat breakfast, despite every nutritionist in the world telling me that it's necessary to get the metabolism jump-started each day. Thankfully Chex Mix isn't heavy enough to trigger that lovely "I'm heavy and I'm sitting in your stomach" feeling pretty much everything else does before noon.

I'm also kicking my caffeine habit, starting today. I realized that I was in the habit of taking in between 60 and 80 ounces of Diet Coke/Diet Pepsi daily (a lunchtime 42-ouncer from McDonalds along with a few 20-oz bottles from the vending machine), and as such was probably whipsawing my energy level and general sanity something awful.

So I'm looking forward to dull muscle aches tomorrow or Thursday, combined with caffeine-withdrawal headaches for the coming half week. But at least my metabolism will be running higher and I'll perspire more freely. :-p

TANSTAAFL. Eat and move like a pig and you'll look like a pig. Eat and move like a cat and you'll look like a cat. Somewhere in here is a cat trying to get out.

Mmmm. Chex Mix.

-Rich