New Mistake

219lbs. Sliding on down again. Slowly but surely. I have a feeling that it could be lower but I made a mistake by eating later than usual and allowing myself way too much ranch dressing for my hot wings. Sad, sad me.

So we have incorporated some exercise this week. I figured yesterday we probably shouldn't torture the boy with maxes, he was pretty sore. Instead of hitting the weights, we concentrated on core exercises using the Swiss ball. For those of you who don't know, a Swiss ball is a ginormous unpoppable balloon that you use to perform exercises. I liked the "4-Hour Body" recommendation of the myotactic crunch, I had performed these well before the book and they work. You feel it work. Now the book recommends a Bosu ball which is a Swiss ball cut in half. It says you can use a Swiss ball but really likes the Bosu ball because it gets you closer to the ground. I feel the opposite way, I believe the Swiss ball forces you to balance more and allow a certain degree of recruitment in the core abdominals that give you that little extra something. Why do I believe the Bosu ball is recommended more? It's because it falls in closer to the book mantra of doing the least to get the maximum results. I can see that. Also being 12 inches off the ground can put you close to being injured which is not very productive at all.

Now I wish Christy wasn't so under the weather because the boy and I put on a show. I even yelled back to the bedroom to get her attention - to no avail. I shouted the red neck harbinger of things about to go bad: "Hey honey come and look at this!" To be fair to my boy, he has as much balance as a drunken sailor dragged into a trapeze act, so expecting him to get this at first is just mean and ridiculous. But it sure is fun to watch!

It does take some skill to get the balancing part down. Even though my balance and core is a bit more advanced at this type of exercise, I had a problem here and there too having been away for it for almost 3 years. It just takes a bit of practice and getting used to along the way. I think what excited my boy was that it was something you just don't get straight away, there was a challenge involved. After showing him how to stretch his back after the exercise, He asked if he could take one of the Swiss balls to his room to do more (yes, we have two). The really cool thing about ab exercises? They are "all you can eat" affairs. Unless you do something really ridiculous, ab exercises are ones that can be done everyday, as much as you like. They are tightening exercises and the burn and ache you feel is the pelvic girdle tightening up not swelling. The more you do, the more powerful your core becomes which means you can do more, it's a positive feedback loop.

I have to say I like the balancing part because your muscles do not form a memory where it can recruit other muscles to help you cheat the movement. It's fantastic in that sense. Try it, you'll like it. After Christy went to bed, I went and did some more. You can feel it while you are doing it and I can even feel it still even now.

For today's game of spot the bad science - sounds good but is it merely correlation without looking at the requisite outside data like social strata? My personal opinion after watching a wealthy "vegan" mom throw her kids into a diet of nothing but junk, like Reese's peanut butter cups, that it is probably true. I do know her kids had some of the worst behavioral issues I have ever seen in a child. But that is merely anecdotal and not scientific:

Junk Food Diet Linked to Lower IQ


"So Father Mason clutching his crucifix
Baptized the baby in whiskey and licorice
What a lovely way, drowning sins in tooth decay"