American Sitting Ovation

Can we sit our way through life?

I have been a very active person for most of my life. And although I like fatty foods, it really hasn’t been too big of a problem for me. Also being in my mid twenties helps.  Due to a recent accident and subsequent knee surgery I haven’t been able to be nearly as active. Add to that the stress of graduating, starting a new job behind a desk, and eating out while traveling for 2 weeks. And you get one overweight me.

I recently started an online weight loss program that tracks your weight, gives you tips, etc.  And one of the tips that it gave was to walk more. It listed simple ways to start like at the grocery store, to and from buildings etc. It also asked that I totaled these with my exercise time, and only suggested that I work out for 20 minutes 3 times a week to start out. … I’m sorry did I miss something here. Has america gotten so lazy that we can’t get in an hour of walking during the week between shopping, and walking across parking lots. The fact that it was suggested to do this as a goal makes me realize that not everyone must do this. I thought it was just part of life.

I have a hard time counting life as part of my exercise. That’s just life, it’s what it takes to work every day.  America (hopefully it’s just the U.S) is becoming too use to sitting down. We think our natural existence is based on sitting oriented activities. When we had to hunt and gather for our survival they didn’t have personal trainers to help you get in shape during your 3 hours of spare time during the week. As I sit here in my new cubicle typing this I wonder how many times I am going to actually have to use muscles besides my fingers, brain, and right arm (since it is the one closest to the drawer where, heaven forbid, I may have to reach in and pull out a rudimentary writting utensil). If I don’t drink too much water then I may only have to get up 3 times during the day. Is it really that large of a percentage that sits at work all day, walks out to there car at 5, sits in trafic on the way home, gets home and sits on the couch and watches T.V. because they are so tired from there job?

I would hate to see what would happen if we were all stranded on an island and people found out there were no chairs.

railroad graffiti

My wife and I just got back from a small town outside of Vancouver WA. The drive from Boise followed a set of train tracks, and the opportunity to see a slue of trains with artwork from all over the US.

I personally Think that trains cars are the new exhibit.

They travel from town to town, just like any good art exhibit. The difference to me is that they are free to everyone who is willing to open there eyes and see it. And that the artists very drastically, whereas with an art exhibit, often times the art is all created by the same artist.

I think a train car competition should be held, where in a series of large towns old cars are made available to artists to adorn with there work. The wining cars will be attached to a train that will move on to the next big city.

The train should start on a coast (it doesn’t matter which) and work its way towards the other. Once arriving at the other coast it would then make a long trip back to where it started, stopping occasionally for people to admire it in largely populated areas, or ever remote areas.

Dreams

Dreams are what make us make goals, and fight for them whether it looks like we are going to achieve them or not. without dreams we are nothing.

But we cannot let one dream cause us to loose sight of the reality we have reached because of our previous dreams.

To forgo our responsibilities and our achievements today in search of a dream we are reaching for is like throwing yesterdays dreams in the garbage.

But dreams take sacrifice, and if you are willing to risk everything you have for what you want, then hopefully your dreams will become reality.

finishing the race

In the last couple weeks I’ve had a lot of ultimatums, where either you make it or you don’t. It’s cut and dry, there is no ” nice try” if you get a 69% instead of a 70%. It feels like I’m running a race and I’m coming to the end of the race, but I’m still 1/2 mile away from the finish line in a marathon, but it doesn’t matter, the race will end weather I reach the finish line or not. This week I made it to zumiez 100K, a trip earned it you sell $100K between january 1st and december 31st. I understand the point of having cut of points, otherwise your always waiting on the person who is almost there. But whenever I have run a race in the past it is about who can get there first, who runs the hardest, who keeps there head up and doesn’t give up. You have the opportunity to run as hard as you can until you get there, not until time runs out, and if it looks like time is going to run out and you aren’t going to make it then why not stop running because it doesn’t matter, your going to have to re-run the race next year and hope that we don’t change the course too much. Why does it have to be a race about who is the furthest along 10 minutes into a 5K race? there are a whole 5K to run your hardest, and in my opinion the best runner isn’t always the person who gets there first. Granted that is always my goal, otherwise I wouldn’t run. anyways, this is just a rant, ignore it if it is too high of a word count for you. feel free to comment back.