Travis Eneix

In the quest for growing up to be a responsible, frugal adult person, every little bit counts.  Lately I have been trying to minimize my electrical bill at home by watching out for leaving lights on in unoccupied rooms, and such.  Imagine my horror when I cam across this news piece that tells the tale of how your power can be seeped away under your unsuspecting nose!   Some ‘vampires’ prefer energy over blood.

Picture any appliance that displays a clock while otherwise idle, such as a microwave oven, coffee maker or DVD player. They constantly consume little bits of energy.

Fiends!

I just came across a great little website centered around encouraging grassroots fitness through body weight exercises.  I am a big fan of bodyweight exercises myself, and gave up the gym a few years back in favor of them.  I have yet to regret the decision.  Between my own exercises, and those I use at my dojo, the weight lifting was redundant.  Check out the routine listed here, and check out SimpleFit.org when you get the chance.

I came across this package in the meat & cheese section of my local Luckys while shopping for my Mom. It took me a few moments to realize why it had stopped me in my tracks. In case it hasn’t hit you yet, check the crackers and think about male anatomy. The kind you don’t normally see when a guy is wearing pants. That display has now been in the meet & cheese section for five weeks. Someone at Hormel was getting a bit punchy, working too many long hours. The smile on the pumpkin is the best, and I would grin like that too if I was packing a roll of crackers that was “great for a party of 8!”

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Leo, over at ZenHabits has made another damn fine post well worth the time it takes to read. Do yourself a favor, check it out.

31 Ways to Motivate Yourself to Exercise

My personal favorite points are:

1- How you feel after a workout. I always feel great after a good workout. It’s a high. And I let that motivate me the next time: “You know how good you’re going to feel, Leo!”

4 - Having fun. Exercise should be fun. If it isn’t, try a different kind of activity that you enjoy. As long as you’re moving, it’s good for you.

9 - Success stories. I find the success stories of others incredibly inspirational. If a fitness website has success stories, I’ll almost always read them.

14 - Adrenaline rush. I get a rush when I exercise. Ride that rush to complete the workout.

15 - Stress relief. Wound up after a long day at the office? Get out and work off that stress. It makes a world of difference.

and, 26 - Reaching a goal. Set a goal for weight, or your waist measurement, or a number of days to work out, or a number of miles to run this week. Setting and tracking a goal helps motivate you to complete that goal. Make it easily achievable.

I think the last one is key. When I was at my Gym learning Olympic Power Lifting I was focused, intent, motivated and successful at every workout. Even the ones where I started out tired or unsettled garnered great results. When my coach, Jim Schmitz had a falling out with the gyms co-owner and was forced to move his operation to a locale I could not reach within my schedule constraints, my time at the gym became next to useless. I had built in a number of goals around that style of lifting, and when they were no longer achievable my routine fell apart. Goals are essential in all areas of life, but in maintaining an exercise routine they become exceptionally
critical.

Set goals, kick butt, take names!

Scary stuff.   Our government, which is less and less ours, has made a significant move restrict our ability to travel within in our own borders.

The Transportation Security Administration and the Department of Homeland Security are quietly pushing for a set of crazy new rules. All travellers in the U.S. will be required to get government-issued credentials and official clearance before every flight, both within the United States as well as internationally.

“In addition, the proposed rules would leave the airlines free to keep all the information obtained from travelers under government coercion, even after they’ve passed it on to the government. Your personal data would continue to be considered, at least in America, solely their property. Not yours…”

Link