Requiem for a Black Swan (aka Stigmata)

[Stigmata]

"

Stig,

You like Scorpios huh? I'm a Scorpio and Lil is too - stubborn, loyal, sexual and a PIN. Who wouldn't want to hand around us?"

- Oh, man. I had to come out of my hole for this one, Karen. I could go all Freudian on your a$$ over this slip LOL. Think you meant "hang." Methinks there's a naughty, naughty fantasy buried deep down in there somewhere.

"Anyway, I'm noticed your comments on your diet and exercise plan and I am thinking of starting the old "physical improvements" thread back up. I feel the need to "clean house" on my diet and straighten out my exercise routine again too. I have fallen off the wagon. I can be very disciplined up to a point and then the hedonist in me gets me in trouble. Luckily, I am naturally slim but I need to add some lean muscle mass. I have gone a little soft."

- Yes. My sitting at a computer all day has turned me back into a girly-man. But when I get into my routine, I never exercise for more than 45 min. And I do it as bursts, with rests in between.

Best way to gain lean mass is heavy free weights with low reps (3 or 4). So ssay I do 3 sets of 8 reps. I should barely get the last rep out on the 3rd set. I don't do machines, cept maybe a leg curl/ext. on my bench.

And I isolate muscle groups while giving them plenty of rest. Mon. shoulders/biceps/chest; Tues. legs/hips/stomach; Weds. triceps and back etc. All not usually lasting more than 30-40 min. and I'm done. Take weekend off to rebuild.

Fs usually don't like mass so stretching helps or less weight and higher reps for tone. Still, most people don't realize the best way to lose weight isn't diet and aerobic exercise; it's via building muscle. Muscle is a real fuel/fat energy storage eater.

At rest fat burns around 1 calorie per hour. At rest, muscle burns around 50 calories per hour.

Some say I don't get aerobic/cardio from it. Not true. My heart is pounding and I am panting away with heavy low rep weights.

I don't believe in endurance/running/marathon arobics. Why? Burst energy. When we're 70-80 years old this is what is required to kick start the heart when we first wake up. Lot of heart attacks occur in morning this way. Problem is people like marathoners, high endurance types etc. have turned their bodies into an overly efficient machine. As a result, their organs actually shrink...heart, lungs...etc. b/c they work at optimum efficiency and therefore don't need to be larger. (and don't get me started on joint damage/skeletal stress)

Free weights/burst energy building is opposite. Better at old age. Don't need smaller/less burst capability organs at old age; need all the organ horsepower you can get.

Ugh. Sound like Tony Little. Blech.

Lillie...

I don't know many women who can make me blush. You just did. Gold star for you. Yowza.

Finally, Corri...

Whoa. This is something I am going to have to think about. Is it possible to obsess over being obsessive? LOL. The Endless Loop. Reminds me of when I was a little kid and I took my mom's hand held mirror, held it over my shoulder and looked into it at the bathroom wall mirror....trying to count the curving endless loop iterations of my reflections ad infinitum until I couldn't see them anymore. Ok, ok, I know, sounds obsessive. Wasn't. Just an incredibly bored little kid.

Something BF said. Thinking too many steps in advance. It hit me when I read that. I think this is an issue why I am here. So much in own head all the time and future outcomes I let the present go by unnoticed. Wasn't having fun with x, laughing, living for the moment. Her new social contacts do that and she's having fun.

I think she even said before, "sometimes I wonder what's going on in that head of yours."

At least I don't have to turn light switches on and off, straighten coffee mugs, etc. etc. LOL. Just too many cycles per second in the thought arena. Gotta just let it keep cycling in the background and come out and enjoy the present and external. Sigh.

No, I will not go to any more logic/abstract etc. computer games. I already know what will happen. Chick flicks. Think I am one of few Ms who enjoyed watching chick flicks and teenie movies with x. Ah, such a setup. I couldn't give her the "Pretty Woman" experience.

I might get into this college lecture series I have on "Argumentation" to pass the time. LOL. Got it for Christmas from S and BIL. But, hey, I'm an equal opp reader. I can just as easily read a book on Dirty Santa Jokes.

Argh. I am hating the countdown to Christmas. I feel like an 'Clausaphobic' little kid being dragged in screaming horror to go sit on Mall Santa's lap.

And I'm tempted to post on NOP's thread on relationship killers. Most my own. Won't. Will take too long. Maybe post holidays.

-Stigmata-

PS -- 48.