Week 7, Day 5

[What's this whole Week/Day thing about? Please see my original posting Starting an Exercise Program (again)].

For the body:
I was crunched for time today what with working all day, rushing off to get a much needed perm from the Headlines talented stylist, Pat Mac Dougall, and then off to grocery shop and get ready for my week vacation at Chautauqua. I elected to count the 30 minutes at Bob's Big M pushing a shopping cart as the 30 minutes of aerobic exercise needed for today. I postponed today's strength and flexibility training.

For the mind:
I read several more chapters of The Diana Chronicles and listened to more of Audible.com's audiobook, Tin Roof Blowdown by James Lee Burke.

For the spirit:
Nothing like multi-tasking! While waiting for the 1st perm solution to set, I used the twenty minutes for metta meditation.

Week 7, Day 4

[What's this whole Week/Day thing about? Please see my original posting Starting an Exercise Program (again)].

For the body:
A day of rest!!!!

For the mind:
I began to explore Facebook in more depth. I invited several more individuals to join and now have a total of 9 friends. Wooo Hooo! I also continued to listen to my Audible.com book, Tin Roof Blowdown.

For the spirit:
A half hour of metta (loving kindness or friendship) meditation, where one begins by wishing for the following for oneself:

May I live in safety.
May I be happy.
May I be healthy.
May I live with ease.

After doing that for awhile, one then wishes the above for a benefactor, then for a friend, then for a neutral person (one for whom you have neither positive nor negative feelings) and then for someone disliked. Eventually, one wishes the above for all creatures (self included).

It was a nice change from attempting to watch my breath.

Week 7, Day 3

What's this whole Week/Day thing about? Please see my original posting Starting an Exercise Program (again).

For the body:
Thirty minutes on the treadmill, walking at 2.1 miles per hour while watching the PBS show, Origins.

For the mind:
As I noted above, I watched the acclaimed PBS show, Origins, Episode Two: How Life Began. I found it fascinating to learn that we might owe our very existence to a byproduct of bacteria

"...It's amazing to contemplate, but without cyanobacteria, there would be no oxygen and Earth would still be smothered in noxious gases. Plants, animals and humans would have never evolved..."

(From Origins: How Life Began.)

For the mind:I only managed ten minutes or so of mindfulness meditation. Partly because of our pets and partly because of an allergy headache.

Week 7, Day 2

What this Week/Day thing all about? Please see my initial posting Starting an Exercise Program (again).

For the body:
Two sets of 10 repetitions of strength exercises using a 2.5 pound weight. Two sets of 25 repetitions of situps; two sets of 15 repetitions of back exercises; and two sets of 25 repetitions of leg extensions.

For the mind:
I started listening to another books from Audible.com, Tin Roof Blowdown by James Lee Burke. He's the first fiction writer I know of to write about New Orleans and the surrounding area post Katrina and he's doing it with a gut wrenching honesty.

For the spirit:
Twenty minutes of mindfulness meditation with my cat, Zak.

Week 6, Days 6 & 7

For the body:
Thirty minutes on the treadmill watching an episode of Battlestar Galactica on my iPod on Friday. Saturday was another day of rest. Next week the intensity of exercise increases to two sets of strength exercises and additional days of aerobic and flexibility exercise.

For the mind:
Listening to some podcasts from Fora.tv about web 2.0 as well as reading several more chapters of The Diana Chronicles.

For the spirit:
Twenty minutes of Meditation on Hindrances last night and 20 minutes of mindfulness meditation with the cat on my meditation cushion.

Week 6, Day 5

For the body:
I did both the strength and flexibility exercises tonight and tried to convince myself that grocery shopping equated aerobic exercise. (I know that it didn't as I didn't break a sweat.)

For the mind:
I finished listening to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows yesterday and can breathe a sigh of relief that I got through it before inadvertently learning the ending. It was a "ripping good" listen. Highly recommended. I also read several chapters of The Diana Chronicles.

For the spirit:
Made the mistake of attempting to meditate while lying in bed. (P.S. That's a quick and easy method for falling asleep.)

Week 6, Day 4

For the body:
A day of rest from aerobic, strength or flexibility exercises. I also went to bed early.

For the mind:

I picked up a reserved book at the Lyons Public Library, The Diana Chronicles by Tina Brown and dipped into it briefly. I'm also on the seventeenth and final CD of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

For the spirit:
I went out to the gazebo with my basset, Zeke, and meditated for almost 20 minutes. He is incredibly hyperactive for a seven year old dog and simply cannot sit still for long, particularly when chipmunks saunter by.

Week 6, Day 3

For the body:
Thirty minutes walking on the treadmill at 2.1 miles per hour for a total distance of 1.05 miles.

For the mind:
While walking the treadmill noted above, I watched the first episode of Origins on WXXI, my local PBS station. I had no idea how far geology, volcanism and the earth sciences had progressed since my 9th grade science class back in 1965. Terms such as "magma ocean" and "iron catastrophe" and concepts such as the bulk of the earth's oceans being created by the impact of huge, frozen snowballs known as comets helped the 30 minutes on the treadmill go quickly.

For the spirit:
Twenty minutes spent sitting on my upstairs meditation cushion listening to my cat meow up at me.