A quick rant

I don't know how it is where you live but here in Minnesota 80% of the people can't seem to follow the most basic rules of driving. There are two things that always cause me to take a deep breath and repeat my peaceful mantra so I don't have a heart attack or seriously hurt somebody. But even as I type this, I feel my blood pressure rising. The two things are: merging and left hand turns. In a way their kinda related because people seem to do the exact opposite of what their supposed to do in each circumstance. More times than not when someone is on an entrance or exit ramp, they ride the ass of the car in front of them instead of keeping at least a car lengths distance to let themselves and other cars easily merge in and out of traffic. On the opposite end, I sit and watch in amazement at left turn lights. When the arrow turns green everyone seems to count to 10 when the person in front of them starts moving, only when they reach 10 do they start to move themselves. Often times I see an insane gap before I start screaming "GO!" Sometimes I scream other things. If people would pay attention, 4 or 5 more cars could make the turn but that rarely happens. I swear they're laughing at me as the light turns red and they've caused me to sit through another light cycle. So, if you're one of those people, I'm asking you to please think and use your common sense. Sadly, most people don't even realize that they are morons because they are morons. If you are not one of these people, thanks for reading my rant and watch for yourselves how people merge and turn. Soon you too will be in need of a mantra if you don't have one already.

Change

This week I made a lifestyle change. I'm not going to say I'm on a health kick because that implies something temporary, I'm going for long term. After I was laid off from my job, my physical activities seemed to have gotten laid off along with it. When I was working I was on my feet a lot, getting in a nice aerobic workout in the printing biz. A nice benefit to moving large silk-screen frames around is that you burn calories.
Modern technology is great, it has improved and streamlined almost every aspect of life, including job hunting. The last time I applied for a job, I got in my car and went to the company and asked the receptionist for an application. It was a slow process, if the different companies I was applying to were scattered throughout the city, it could take the better part of the day just to fill out 3 or 4 applications. Now, with my resume uploaded in my computer, I can apply to 4 companies in 5 minutes; all from the comfort of my couch. That's where the problem lies. Looking back it was a pain in the butt to drive all around town but at least it got me moving. I had to move in order to get out of my house, into my car, to the place I was applying. Maybe it wasn't that much, but it was something. Today, going from my bed to the coffeemaker and then to the couch isn't exactly physically demanding stuff. It started to show.
I started down a slippery slope. With less money coming in, I started to visit all the wrong places way too often. When times get tough a $1 chicken sandwich from McDonald's or a 99 cent double stack from Wendy's seems like a good idea; until you're finished eating it. The equation is pretty simple: high calorie,high fat foods+ sedentary living=weight gain. It's not that I ate fast food all the time, I didn't. In order for me to gain weight I didn't have to eat fast food exclusively, wrong choices in the grocery store can do the job just as effectively. Well, I'm done with it.
Earlier this week I logged on to craigslist and found a Healthrider fitness machine for $25, a hell of a deal. A steal actually. I bought it from a kind of internet middleman store; a place that holds all the inventory for people who want to sell their stuff but apparently don't know how ebay or craigslist work. The guy from the store even carried it out and loaded it in my car. Standing in the parking lot, I gave him $25 cash and asked about tax, he said no and we went our separate ways. Leaving the parking lot, I felt like I was getting away with something. It was about 80 miles round trip to get it back to my house but it was a great day for a drive and it's not like I had anything else on my schedule for the afternoon.
I've only used it for a short time; I'm still pretty sore and I can feel it working muscles I haven't used in a while but it's a good kind of sore. And I've doubled the number of reps from the first time I used it. It's low impact, almost no impact which is nice. With no stress to my joints, I think I'm able to use it for longer periods of time than I would a treadmill or jogging. Eventually I'll add free weights into my routine.
My fridge is stocked with healthier foods and I'm gonna do my best to keep the bad stuff to a minimum. I won't deny myself anything, I know that doesn't work. If I want something I'll have it. Everything in moderation. As long as I stay on track I will be burning more calories than I'm taking in.
I took some "before" pictures and I'll post them after I feel I've made some progress. No sense posting anything until I have some kind of "after" picture to post next to it.
To be continued...............

This makes me laugh.