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As I committed for the week I did go for the early a.m. exercise yesterday but I didn't plan enough time to get through my entire dumbbell routing. I did get 1/2 of it in, while good, I didn't got that great feeling at the end of the whole routine where I feel like I worked out and accomplished something. Just a matter of timing, I'll get the mornings figured out. After work the schedules were friendly and I was able to go back and do the full dumbbell routine after which I did feel thoroughly thrashed when done.
As promised here is yesterday's log looked like this....
- 5a - Exercise: 1/2 Dumbbell Routine, and 4 sets of Crunches
- 615a - Greek Yogurt, Banana, Grapes, Tomato Juice
- 845a - Milk, Pear
- 1p - Caesar Salad, Apple.
- 5p - Celery with Almond Butter, Cherries
- 5a - Exercise: Full Dumbbell Routine, and 5 sets of Crunches & Push Ups each
- 730p - Lasagna (1/2 portion), Garden Salad with Salsa
Oh how I wish video games were real. Imagine if we could approach real life recklessly and excessively without regard to good sense. Many people do in fact approach life as if it were a video game. Some eat as if there is nothing to worry about from their bad food choices. Some ignore exercise as if there is nothing to worry about in living large & sedentary. Some smoke, drink, take drugs, text while they drive without wearing a seat belt while under the influence, and some I'm sure do even worse. If only real life were a video game...
In video games you approach your characters life recklessly and excessively because you get multiple lives. If you get eliminated, killed, crash, whatever; so what - you've got multiple lives & you go on playing. What - you just drove your race car over the cliff into a pit of molten lava, no problem... Huh, you threw that grenade only 3 feet away and caught a face full of shrapnel, no problem... It's Ok, here is a new, fresh and fully healthy life, play on! If only...
In real life no such luck. You get one life. When you have used it up, you are done. Sure there are exceptions in the stories of those extremely lucky few who have faced death and lived to tell about it, e.g. beating cancer having been diagnosed level-4 & terminal... or the lone survivor of a violently explosive & fiery plane crash. But these lucky few usually endure great pains from their experience before getting to go forward with their new perspectives on life. You get one life.
In video games you try and achieve something along the lines of a new high score or reach higher levels of game play. Wait a minute, in real life you do too; right? Most of us do strive to greater levels than we enjoy now, e.g. make more money, get promotions, get pregnant, get healthy, get after whatever it is we desire to be, to do, to have. In video games after a hours and hours of time playing and you realize you hosed it all up, you get to do what? Yep, you get to reset and start over. Erase in an instant all the bad we've accumulated and start fresh from the beginning. If only...
In real life we can choose at any moment to change course for something better, but; we do not get to erase all the bad we've accumulated and start fresh from the beginning. It would be nice if you could instantly erase the 120+ excessive pounds you accumulated and start fresh living healthy from your ideal weight. But in real life you first have to lose the 120 pounds if you want to realize the health benefits of weighing 120 pounds less. You erase with great effort.
In video games you are surrounded by ample & freely available help. Online game forums, the more experienced players you play with, all sorts of resources to give you the edge you need to achieve game success. And if you want to get there really fast, like NOW - ah ha, you can use cheat codes. Just smack those buttons in the right sequence and shazam!... you have slayed that battleship sized acid breathing dragon with the disposition of a over-taunted Pittsburgh Steeler fan. If only...
In real life there is also plenty of help available to you, right? Web sites dedicated to living healthy and getting there if you haven't been doing so; and much of it free. Doctors, Nutritionists and Personal Trainers are just a click, phone call, office visit (and a co-pay) away. Books, books, books... more books than there are beads of grease in your arteries. And we have cheat codes too, don't we? Sure we do, watch that infomercial at 2 a.m. this Saturday that'll allow you to eat double decker pizza & cream puffs while losing 10 pounds in 10 days... but wait theres more! Order now and we'll double... Huh? Yeah, I agree - Horse$#!&... there are allot of cheat codes promising our quick victory to get healthy. Some healthy approaches are faster than others, but none are quick - cheat codes don't work in real life. There are NO quick fixes; none!
Video games - play them!... Real life - play it!... Enjoy both, but don't approach your life as a video game for if you do you will surely live a shorter and / or less fulfilling life; my opinion.
What is, or was, your favorite video game? Or, if you don't play video games, what is your favorite game period?
Tetris my favorite video game. Truth, I get little entertainment joy from video games as an adult and have seldom played them in the past two decades. Diplomacy is my favorite board game. Basically, if it is not a strategy game which forces me to think, I am bored. Although I used to play a mean game of Candyland when my kids were pre-schoolers.
Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!
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Patrick, what a great post!!! I have a one coming up Thursday all about this having only one life thing!
ReplyDeleteI loved your analogies!!!
Me, I might be the only person that has never played a video game!!! Not my thing! I am really not a game person in general. As a kid, played lots of them as it was the thing way back when! I loved Operation & Clue!
My all-time favorite video game is Tricky, a snowboarding game. You can either do tricks on the snowboard, or race down the mountain for speed. I don't like games that involve hurting or killing people. Just a personal preference.
ReplyDeleteI liked Tetris when I was younger. But mostly...I like a real, hands-on pinball machine. I like the 3-dimensionality of it. Similar to the reasons why I like to play pool/billiards, I suppose. You see the angles, plan ahead for where the ball is going to stop, executing it is radically different than visualizing it...
Clue - loved clue as a kid too. Col. Mustard, with the wrench, in the study... he is so busted!
ReplyDeletePinball - yes, loved pinball... the machine Elton John was on, I killed it. The KISS machine, I rocked it. Then I realized girls werent impressed by my crazy flipper skills and that was that.
Great post Patrick! Hmmm...I'm not a video game person at all. My brother is and he got me hooked on some "dark" something or other 10 years ago that I played for like 3 weeks straight. I was almost on the news as one of those people who die of dehydration because they don't stop playing. After that stint, I gave them up. I'm partial to trivia games... met my husband playing a rousing game of Millennial Trivial Pursuit.
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid I'm not a video game gal either (must have some relation to not having kids in the house any more!). I did get briefly hooked on a very early version of PacMan and BreakOut . . . . But I get your point. I do read a lot and compare my life and options to theirs. Those people in the middle ages sure didn't worry much about their food intake or exercise, that's for sure.
ReplyDeleteGreat analogy. Next time I start trying to ignore the consequences of poor eating, I'm going to remind myself that life is not a video game.q
ReplyDeleteI used to love the original super mario brothers on nintendo. I could finish the entire thing, without taking any shortcuts, on one life. If I died, I'd start over.
growing up we did not have video games. My wife bought be my first ever system, a ps2, when were in college for this reason. I used it to watch a lot of DVD's. I loved playing tetris on my calculator in math class and now have it on my phone.
ReplyDeleteI'm still more a fan of playing board games with a group of close friends. I collect monopoly and have never been beat! Loved clue as a kid and still love to play a game most people have never heard of- crack the case.
I like the schedule. Keep pursuing. Anyone have vetrex? it was a screen and video game system all wrapped into one... I loved that game!
ReplyDeleteinteresting post -- I really enjoyed Halo 1,2,3 on XBOX 360 when I had one...and now I enjoy Super Mario Wii --- big difference between the two :)
ReplyDeleteBoard games, I am a Monopoly fan and Scattegories guy.
Keep with the food logs.
I love gaming with table top and board games, but I am not good at using all the buttons on those video game paddles (do they still refer to them as "paddles"?)
ReplyDeleteI envy you your ability to rise at 5 AM for exercise. I enjoy morning exercise best, but I've been running at night due to schedule conflicts. If I could get up before 6 AM, I could exercise in the morning. Hmmm, I may need to think about that...
I confess I used to play Grand Theft Auto, Vice City...reminds me of the 80's. But my new hobby over the past year or so, has become exercise. Much happier now.
ReplyDeleteMust be strange, to be forever thought of by your children as "Candyland Master" ... you know you'll have to bust some Candyland moves when the grandchildren come along. Your kids will expect that. Aren't you glad you didn't play a mean game of "Operation" when they were pre-schoolers? That game gets harder, the older our vision and once-steady hands become. Fun post ...
ReplyDeleteThey did not have video games when I was growing up. I remember playing space invaders when I was in my teens. I now love video games on my wii and play them all the time. I like the ones that use my wii fit board so that I get some exercise. This is a great post by the way.
ReplyDeleteI love those silly yahoo games these days, farm frenzy, chocolatier (hmmm is there a food theme there? lol). Oh plants vs zombies is a good one too. I love my itouch too and their goofy little apps. I always loved tetris.
ReplyDeleteAs a kid my house was where everyone hung out and we played games like monopoly, risk, life, slap and one of our favorites spoons. My mom finally banned us from playing spoons because we kept breaking the chairs up with jumping over the table at each other trying to wrestle the spoons from each other lol.
I use to play a lot of viva pinata too. I do definitely spend more of my free time at the gym now or doing stuff outside. One of the games we still enjoy playing as a family is farkle (a dice game).
Boy am I off base of the real topic here or what. Yea, life definitely isn't a video game. Good post Patrick.
Even tho you only got in a half a morning workout,,, looks like it was a great day!
ReplyDeleteTetris is my favorite, too!
ReplyDeleteAh, a wide variety of game favorites from this crowd. Here's to us all living long & fulfilling lives!
ReplyDelete