Daily Ramblings – Workout Routine – Week of July 13, 2020.

Tags

Body circuits, Constistency, Discipline, Exercise Bands, Home Workouts, Improvise, Overcome

Happy Monday, peeps!

This week’s routine will again be at home, because of the gym closures in our area. It appears we in the U.S. jumped the gun a little too quickly and are not facing some pretty big numbers of people getting the nasty bug running around. So now, many states are re-instituting lock downs in areas that are most affected.

This is the beauty of planning ahead. I developed a pretty decent workout routine with exercise bans and I am glad I 1) purchased them when I did and 2) use them on my workout days. It’s cool how a little bit of improvisation can eliminate the annoyance of not having a gym to go to right now.

On with the show!

Monday – Saturday – Full body circuits (3)

Full body circuit: Squats, Bridges, Ab crunches, Incline Chest Press, Triceps extensions, Bicep curls, Bent-over rows, Shoulder presses, and Calf presses. I try to do a set of 10 for each body part with no rest for the entire circuit, then rest and kick into the next circuit after about 2 minutes of hydration and resting.

I hope each of you are working out ways to continue your exercise routines, despite outside, uncontrollable circumstances.

See you at the finish line!

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Distractions

Tags

Annoyances, Discipline, Distractions, Drama, Focus, Monday, motivation, News, Procrastination

Distractions. They cause us to fall off track. They’re so easy to get wound up in. Drama with family or friends. The bad news we are bombarded with every day. The Corona Virus. The list goes on and on.

I’m not against staying abreast of what’s happening in the world, but do caution you of getting too mired in it. Have you been to your social media feed yet? If it’s anything like mine, it’s nuts. Mind you, I reduced my list drastically and informed those that remained that I do not want to hear about anything political on my feed, regardless of political orientation. I want my social media feed on Facebook to be free of that stuff. I like baby pictures, pictures of my friends on trips, jokes, poetry, good music or videos on YouTube. That sort of thing. If I want bad news I can watch CNN, MSNBC, FOX News, ABC, CBS, or NBC. I don’t have to look hard.

Yes, there will be some things you cannot avoid being distracted by. Someone in your family gets hurt or sick, your car breaks down, or heaven forbid you get sick. There is a difference between annoying distractions and real ones.

For me, a real distraction is pain. When I was having back issues, I was in so much pain I couldn’t think. That was something I couldn’t do anything about. What I’m talking about in this post is the annoying, rabbit hole crap that helps you make excuses for not tackling the list of to-dos sitting right in front of you.

Stay focused on your goals. Even if it is only one little step each day to get you closer. Those little steps add up.

Have a great Monday, folks!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Spread Your Wings Sunday – Day Off

Tags

Chill out, Day Off, Do Nothing Day, Relax, self-care, Spread Your Wings, Sunday

Challenge: Take a day off. I mean it. You work hard. You are stressed out. Take a day off to do whatever you want to. Ignore your to-do list, ignore what you feel you have to do, and just do nothing. I do this every Sunday and it is so refreshing.

In the comments, tell me what you did. Did you go on an adventure? Did you relax with a good book and a beverage? Did you get a massage? What did you do on your “do nothing day”?

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Saturday – Focus on the Positive

Tags

family, Friends, Good, Good weather, Grateful, pets, Positivity, Thankful

It is so easy to think about bad things. I think this is because our brains are wired to seek out danger. It’s a survival mechanism.

That being said, stressing out about things we do not control can really throw us into a tizzy. So, why not flip the coin and concentrate on the good things in life? Some of the things we take for granted are those same things we notice when they go away or stop working. Things like good health, a steady Internet connection, a computer that works, and a car that gets us from one place to another.

Think about the finite reality we call life? So little time, yet so much, if we use it wisely. Reading, writing, learning, loving, experiencing. Get everything you can out of life. Exploring new places, doing things you’ve never done, and loving like there is no tomorrow.

In Michigan, we have been experiencing a heat wave. In the last few hours we have finally gotten some rain. I can hear the pitter patter on the roof. It should cool things down a bit, and give the grass, flowers, and plants in my Mother’s garden some much-needed watering.

One of my daily practices is to be thankful for even the smallest things. It makes me feel great, and it gets my day started the right way. I express my thanks for God, my family, my friends, and many other things. If you haven’t tried this practice, start simply by writing down three things that bring you joy each day. If you want to really go for it, do this in the morning when you arise and right before you go to bed. It’s terrific!

Well, that’s all I have for now. I wish all of you a great Saturday!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Funny Friday – Little Johnny and His Teacher

Tags

Funny Friday, Giggle, Grin, Joke, Laugh, Smile, Snicker, Weekend

A teacher is teaching a class, and she sees that Johnny isn’t paying attention, so she asks him, “If there are three ducks sitting on a fence, and you shoot one, how many are left?”

Johnny says, “None.”

The teacher asks, “Why?”

Johnny says, “Because the shot scared them all off.”

The teacher says, “No, two, but I like how you’re thinking.”

Johnny asks the teacher, “If you see three women walking out of an ice cream parlor, one is licking her ice cream, one is sucking her ice cream, and one is biting her ice cream, which one is married?”

The teacher says, “The one sucking her ice cream.”

Johnny says, “No, the one with the wedding ring, but I like how you’re thinking!”

The Laugh Factory

Have a great Friday, folks!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Thankful Thursdays – Grateful for Authors

Tags

Authors, Books, Entertain, Experience, Fiction, Non-Fiction, Storytelling, Teach, Writing

This week I’m grateful for the many authors that have entertained me or taught me something.

So many authors I’ve read and so many have contributed to my way of thinking. It would be impossible to list all of them here, but I have learned a great deal from the authors I have read. Covey, Sowell, Tolstoy, Tolkien, Allen, Shapiro, Seneca, Aristotle, Einstein, Feynman, Hawking, and the list goes on and on.

I’ve probably read more Non-fiction than fiction, but fiction writers like K.M. Allan, Tolkien, Burroughs, Poe, Doyle, have also taught me a great deal. Fiction teaches, too. You just have to read a talented author and peer into their words to learn something about them. Good fiction is drawn from life experiences. So when I read an author from an unfamiliar part of the world or time period, you learn about what they experienced in their lives and what they are teaching.

So, today I am grateful for the many authors who have contributed to the world.

Have a great Thursday!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Wisdom Wednesday – 5 Quotes

Tags

Founding Fathers, Quotes, Thomas Jeffeerson, wisdom, Wisdom Wednesday

I do not take a single newspaper, nor read one a month, and I feel myself infinitely the happier for it.

Thomas Jefferson

For a people who are free, and who mean to remain so, a well-organized and armed militia is their best security.

Thomas Jefferson

I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend.

Thomas Jefferson

Determine never to be idle. No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time who never loses any. It is wonderful how much may be done if we are always doing.

Thomas Jefferson

To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.

Thomas Jefferson

Have a great Wednesday!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Ted Talk Tuesday – Margaret Hamilton: Software Engineer

Tags

Exploration, Intellect, Margaret Hamilton, Moon Landing, Outer Space, Software Engineer, Ted Talk, TedEd

I hope you enjoy today’s little snippet featuring Margaret Hamilton, the first Software Engineer at NASA. Enjoy!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Overcoming Obstacles with Contingency Plans

Tags

Accomplishment, Achievement, Dedication, Discipline, Drive, Monday, motivation

Whenever you embark on a new goal or strive to achieve something you’ve set up for yourself, you will run into obstacles. Obstacles, like my gym closing in the middle of last week, after COVID came raging back and caused a lot of open places to close again.

How do you overcome them? Well, sometimes you have to put a contingency plan in place. A contingency plan is something you put in place in case something you planned to accomplish is disrupted. My contingency plan is using exercise bands and a supine bicycle or stair stepping to replace my gym workout.

There are many examples I could give for obstacles and overcoming them. Let’s say you are working on a book and your laptop or desktop crashes. If you save your work in the cloud, you have nothing to worry about. Always plan for the worst and develop a contingency plan to handle the unexpected.

So there you go. My way of overcoming obstacles. Always plan for the worst and have a go-to plan waiting to be initiated if that worst thing happens.

Have a great Monday, folks!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Workout Routine – Week of July 6, 2020.

Tags

Circuit Training, Exercise, Exercise Bands, Full-Body, healthy living, Home Workout, workout

Here we are in the first full week of July. It was a bummer to find out my gym was closing again, but that’s life. So this week, we’ll be doing home workouts again, until this virus is more under control and my gym reopens.

This week:

Monday – Friday: Full body circuit with exercise bands (3 iterations)

Exercise Circuit: Squats, Bridges, Standing Calf presses, Ab crunches, Pushups, Shoulder Press, Bicep Curls, Triceps extensions.

Have a great week, folks!

See you at the finish line!

Dave