Frustrated Geek - An ocomik.net 2.0 site

A small sidebar in this months Runner's World caught my attention this morning.

It talked about the elicited responses from the drop-in runners to Dean Karnazes Endurance 50 sag-wagon* question of "Can we get you anything?"

The one that caught my attention was "Number 3 with supersize fries and a Coke."

This obscure reference, besides being a social commentary for how much fast food has become ingrained in our culture, caused me to flashback.

I thought to myself, hey I used to have a number. As a matter of fact I had two, one for each of my favorite burger joints. That was almost a year ago.

Today when I drive by one of these restaurants, catch a whiff of their food in the air and think wouldn't that taste good, I quickly realize that dealing with post-meal side effects, both short-term and long-term, is not worth the price of admission.

To tell the truth, I still find it hard to believe that I used to eat fast food between five and ten times a week. That seems like such a longtime ago. Sixty pounds and 300 plus running miles to be exact.

*A sag-wagon is the vehicle that follows along during an endurance event. It got it's name because it was used to pick-up athletes who were sagging behind, decided to give up and take the vehicle to the finish.

Posted by ocomik at 09:56 AM | Permalink

In my initial post, a couple days back, I mentioned how I was making lifestyle changes in order to create a more balanced life for myself. One of my main areas of emphasis was to start a physical fitness program and regain some semblance of shape.

Afterall, I had reached a record weight of 210 lbs and at 5' 7.5", I wasn't cutting the most impressive figure. I also found that performing the normal activities of daily living was becoming a chore and my energy levels were depleted.

In January, the 1st to be exact, I began my fitness regime incorporating daily yoga sessions and performing some form of cardio exercise at least three times a week. I'm now up to working out at least six times a week, which includes yoga daily, weights three times a week, some cycling and road running, which is my newest interest.

Well I'm happy to say that I've been successful in reaching my goal weight, actually I'm a wee bit below it, and my fitness level is getting close to rivaling the levels I had in my twenties.

Although, I'm happy with my progress, I'm still concerned about falling off the wagon. This isn't the first time I've had success with a fitness routine to then eventually fall back into the same bad habits.

What I can say about this time is that my approach is different. I'm changing my overall lifestyle and not just focusing on one specific goal, which I feel can be problematic because once you reach the final goal it's easy to feel that the journey is over.

After I finished my ride early this morning, I went ahead and snapped a quick photo to commemorate the occasion.

Posted by ocomik at 08:31 PM | Permalink

Over the last year there's been quite alot that I wanted to write about but because of the effort involved to resuscitate my own web logs, I've balked at the chance. Afterall, I was free of the technology shackles that had binded me and was concerned about being sucked back into the vortex of ones and zeros.

Well it's been close to one year since I put down the laptop and started focusing on things that would provide me with a greater chance of being who I wanted to become versus who I was. In my opinion, it wasn't a pretty picture. I was self-absorbed, consumed in the world Cyber, which was taking me away from my family and from fulfilling my general everyday obligations.

Now one may read into this and think "man, he must have went to a really dark and desperate place" and that would not be an accurate depiction. But what I did find is that I was consumed with working with/using technology and that it was causing me to neglect the more important aspects of life, i.e. family, health, financial well-being, etc...

So for me to step back into this arena is not easy. I'm not the man I was twelve months ago and my heart prefers to dwell in places that are more in-tune with the physical/tangible aspects of life. And one of the big things that occurs when you step from behind the LCD screen is that experiences happen. Experiences that I've wanted to write about and share; however, I've not had the medium in which to do it.

So it is with some reservation that I return to my blog. I hope that I can be disciplined and use it constructively to share my own experiences. In the past, I shunned away about writing anything personal in favor of just writing about technology or technology issues. But I've also come to realize that technology is not a pancea and is fraught with its own problems.

If you've come to enjoy my writing in the past about technology you may find that there is considerably less content of that nature here. Instead, I'm hoping to just create a general writing space to allow me to express my thoughts, which could cover the gamet from my yoga practice, gardening, family life, cycling, vacations or the fox (as in carnivorous mammal) I saw the other day while downtown, and to share my experiences.

~Namaste~

Posted by ocomik at 11:49 AM | Permalink