Day Ninety-five: Exercising mind and body

Even though I am somewhat couch "potatoing" as I watch TV and write this entry, today has not been spent on the couch. I have also not had a need to nap, even after getting up before 5:00 AM. All it takes to do that is go to bed earlier and exercise. Excessive sleeping is a measure of how out of shape I've allowed myself to get.

Since using the NordicTrack Skier is supposed to go aerobic at twelve minutes, I set my timer for 13 minutes. Four minutes into it, I decided to stop at five minutes. I had a sweatshirt on and was sweating but what stopped me was that I didn't have endurance. The exercise, even as short as it was, did wake me up for my 8:00 AM Webinar and kept me energized for the entire day. I don't intend to use the NordicTrack every day but do plan on doing it tomorrow and the day after, well, every day until I need a break from it. Five minutes is not going to generate a need for a break. I will try it without the sweatshirt tomorrow.

Unfortunately, I also ate more. At least I stopped eating by 5:00 PM, with my last meal a Caspian Pink heirloom tomato sandwich.

I have shopped online and believe I have chosen an exercise mat and a step up block that will allow me to do my crunches a little more comfortably and sit for meditation, respectively, of which I still have not done the latter today but will before I go to bed, probably while sitting on the couch much as I am right now. I'm planning on doing it to start out morning and night for five minutes at a time as the book suggests. The exercise mat should also double as a yoga mat, should I decide to go that way.

I still don't know what meditation will bring me but just some of it supposed benefits are worth earnestly learning to meditate. I see it more as the first step on a different path of self-discovery. I will certainly pursue other activities, including this and other writing. I will even take the self assessment tests offered by the outplacement service. I'm also thinking about rejoining Toast Masters. (My last stint was over 20 years ago in Houston, Texas.) Improving my speaking capabilities will directly improve my Marilyn Westbrook Garment Fund fundraising and may have other positive contributions to my personal wealth.

While there may be some real money limits in my Life after Layoff, the sky is limit for everything else. Every morning I rise, I have a profound sense that it is the first day of the rest of my life.