Thursday, February 13, 2014

Physical Update

After turning 29, I set a goal to be in the best shape of my life at the age of 30.  About 4 months from that point, I wanted to post an update.

I was able to complete the P90X workout program for the first time from start to finish. I had started the program a few times before, but always got distracted or off track, so I had never completed it. I was especially happy that I stayed with the program through Thanksgiving and Christmas.  I wasn't perfect, I believe there were 2 or 3 days I missed. And I had to start one week over when I got sick, but I kept going and completed the program.

I felt great and was actually considering a second round. But my wife talked me into trying out Insanity. I thought I was in pretty good shape so I jumped right into it.  WOW. It kicked my butt immediately. P90X was a slow, methodical workout everyday with a mixture of all different types of working out. Insanity is extreme cardio practically everyday. I learned very quickly my cardio shape wasn't as good as I thought.

So now I am in my 4th week of Insanity. It is only a 9 week program. I'm excited that working out / exercising seems to finally be a regular part of my life without just a huge mental challenge everyday.  I plan to complete Insanity and then I'm not sure what will be next. I may repeat one of the program, try a new one, or just use different workouts to stay in shape.

With a new baby coming I don't know exactly how that will change everything, but I'm sure it will make it harder to devote as much time to exercise as I have. So I will have to adjust with that.

We'll see what happens.

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

All In a Name

Well we are just over 2 months from the official due date of our little girl.  The main questions I get asked are How is my wife doing and What are we going to name her.

First, my wife is doing great. She has really impressed me with how well she has handled pregnancy. She has a full time job and really hasn't slowed down much. Of course, she is more tired in general and it is hard to get comfortable at night to sleep. But she still does all the cooking in the house and everything else she has always done. She says I am spoiled by such a great pregnancy for her and I would agree.

Second, we have no idea what we are going to name her. We have a couple of ideas that we like. We had a couple ideas that we did like that are no longer being considered. But really, we don't know what we are going to name her. Naturally, I am an indecisive person and with this particular decision, I am struggling. There are names I hear and I immediately don't like them. Most of the time there is no explanation, they just don't sound right to me. Those are easy to give my opinion on. But if I don't have the immediate dislike, it is very hard to tell if the name is something I really like, or just something I could live with.

We are at the point where we need to get serious. We have 2 names now and if we don't dig into it more, those will be the names.  There are a ton of websites to research baby names. But there is no real way to actually choose the name. It all comes down to what you like. We have 2 simple rules that go hand in hand. Number one - we don't want to name her after ourselves. No juniors or variations of our own name. My wife is named after her mom and dad and isn't crazy about the idea. And I have never liked that idea either. Rule number two - no gender neutral names (as much as possible). It seems like almost any name can be gender neutral these days, but we are talking about the ones commonly accepted that way. Both myself and my wife have gender neutral names unless you see the spelling. It's not that we hates our names, we just don't want the same for our child.

So that leaves us with 4 official names ruled out, our own first and middle names. Other than that, we have a lot of thinking to do.