This has been a wild month.  Most of the month was just so-so for me.  I haven’t been exercising like I should and my diet has been good but not great.  The first 3/4 of the month was slow but steady.  The last quarter of the month really cranked up the stress at work and you can see my weight responded.

Weight Loss Graph

I’m worried about that last bit of weight loss.  Obviously it’s stress related, and I really just feel weak now. I’m guessing that wasn’t exactly healthy.  Maybe I can make it stick.

Last month ended at 269.2 lbs.  This month ended at 265.8 which is only a loss of 3.4 lbs.  It’s not what I wanted and I can only blame myself.  This month I can do better, so I’m going to shoot for losing 4 lbs.  Wish me luck.  I have a vacation coming up, and I’m not sure how that is going to affect the weight loss.

Photo courtesy of Ed Yourdon

The scariest thing for me so far while running has been car traffic.  Part of my route around the house is on a narrow two-lane with no shoulder.  More often than not, people will move over into the other lane to give me some space or will slow down as they drive by.  Some nice people will even stop and wait if traffic is coming from the other direction.

Yesterday I had 2 cars whiz by me in this narrow area.  This bothers me in a major way.  I mean, I’m out here trying to be healthy.  I sure can’t do that if I get jacked by a car.  We all have to share the road.  Everyone has to be considerate of those around us.  So, if you happen to see a runner out on the road please slow down and take caution.

I spent the morning of this Labor Day holiday laboring through a 5K run.  This is the 2nd 5K I’ve run in my life, but it’s the first in recent years.  I managed to jog the whole thing which thrills me immensely.  I was shooting for a time under 32:00, but that didn’t happen.  I managed to complete it in 33:06 which is a respectable time when you look at my runs over the past 2 weeks.

The hardest thing about running in a race instead alone is the other people.  When other people are involved, it made me want to run faster to keep up.  It was also hard at the beginning because I was having to move around to pass people.  When I’m by myself it’s really easy to zone out and ignore everything around me.  

I’m happy that I managed to make a short term goal and make it happen.  It’s always a boost to the ol’ ego when you can set out to do something and then actually do it.  Now I have a baseline time that I can try to beat on the next race.

Have you packed on a few pounds since you started playing World of Warcraft? Are you never able to get to the flag in Warsong Gulch because you you need to stop and catch your breath halfway up the entrance tunnel? If so, then listen up!

A great way to increase your daily fitness is to push that old, squeaky office chair out of the way and replace it with an Exercise Ball during your game time.   Using an exercise ball will improve your balance and tone your core muscles just by sitting down and playing WoW.   Using an exercise ball for brief periods of time is also known to help improve posture and body alignment.  To get that extra calorie burn, bounce on the ball or do hip circles while you play.  But the fun doesn’t stop there!  An exercise ball opens up a whole new world of quick and easy exercises to do while playing, such as Squats, Lunges, and Bridges.  If you play Warcraft while on the road, a popular portable alternative to an exercise ball is a Fit Disc.

Caution: You’ll want to make sure you slowly transition into the use of an exercise ball and only use it for a few hours at a time.  It is not recommended to permanently replace your office chair with an exercise ball.  And as always, consult your personal doctor before attempting any exercise presented here.  This has been your World of Warcraft Workout tip of the week.  Have fun and stay active!

Also, I would like to thank Scott and Randy and the crew over at the Instance for including the audio version of the World of Warcraft Tip #1 in ther latest episode.  I’ll keep the segment regular as long as they keep playing it!

Last week I told you that I was hitting the training hard for the Franklin Classic 5K on Labor Day.  Keeping to my word, I managed to run a total of 10 miles this week.

Monday I decided to try a new route I had never run around work.  It was a 3.2 mile route that took me around the mall.  I started with 5 minutes of walking and set off to jog the entire thing.  I didn’t quite manage to jog the rest of the way that day.  It was 92 degrees out with 73% humidity and once I got on the pavement I just got too hot.  I ran about 2 miles before I had to walk.  I ended up finishing in around 40 minutes.

Wednesday was my normal 3 mile route from home.  Since I sucked it up so bad in the heat on Monday, I was determined to jog the entire run following my 5-minute warm up walk.  The sun was setting, but ut was still damn hot: 90 degrees with 60% humidity.  I managed to complete the entire route jogging and finished 3.1 miles in 35:45.

Today I wanted to extend what I did on Wednesday just to prove to myself that a) it wasn’t a fluke and b) I could actually jog 3.1 miles non-stop after my warm-up walk.  I woke up early to get out before things heated up and it was a comfortable 76 degrees with 63% humidity. Starting with my 5-minute walk again, I finished the route jogging for a total of 3.8 miles.  It took me 44:34 to finish up this morning.

I’m feeling very satisfied with my progress this week.  I was able to overcome the mental barrier of jogging the entire 5K.  My body is feeling good now that I’m down about 20 lbs compared to when I tried to get into running a few years ago.  I can’t even begin to tell you how much easier it is to run at this lower weight.  Hopefully that will keep me injury free.

Have you packed on a few pounds since you started playing World of Warcraft?  Are you constantly breaking polymorphs because you were hungry, and you thought the sheep was for you to eat?  If so, then listen up!

Start using quest turn ins as a trigger for doing ab workouts.  For every quest you complete, make it a priority to to 10 sit-ups as soon as the yellow question mark disappears.  Don’t accept another quest until you are finished.  I average around 7-10 quest turn-ins on a good night of playing.  This means that I have done 70-100 sit-ups in one night!  This only takes a few minutes away from your game play, and will put you on the path to having killer abs.  Note: If you can’t finish the sit-ups, switch to another abdominal workout such as planks or bicycle kicks.  When you do these, try to hold out for at least a minute, but don’t stop if you can keep going.

As always, consult your personal doctor before attempting any exercise presented here.  This has been your World of Warcraft Workout tip of the week.  Have fun and stay active!