Yesterday was difficult to quantify

Last night I went to happy hour and then to a Greek place for supper, so I really don't know how many calories in tater tots or chicken kabob platter I ate. I barely ate the rest of the day, though, knowing I'd be out in the evening, so my best guess is that I ate maybe 1000 calories in beer, fried food, and Greek food, and didn't go more than 200-300 calories over on the day. It's not exactly a healthy way to eat, though.

Exercise was equally complicated. I did a walk/jog to get to downtown (about 1 1/4 miles), which left me sweaty but wasn't exactly aggressive exercise. I also spent a lot of time chasing Cecilia on her bike, and running alongside her. And I hooked a borrowed tandem up to my old bike to try it out and rode maybe a half mile with Alexander in tow -- it was pretty alarming for both of us, especially at the beginning. I'm glad I didn't test it on Cecilia first, who was at the time very nervous about riding a bicycle of any kind, and this would have scared her off them permanently. The trailer almost certainly outweighed my old bike, yet it had no steering or braking control; Alexander learned pretty quickly that he couldn't do much balancing of his own, because we'd end up fighting each other and wobbling all over the place. I think it might work better on Daniel's heavier bike, but it's still a pretty scary experience. So I broke a sweat over that, but not because it was physically strenuous. All in all, I got in a fair amount of cardio, but it wasn't really sustained, and it's hard to measure.

I did finally do some abs and arms. For abs I did crunches, oblique crunches, swimming (Pilates-style), side bends with weights, and modified planks -- 12 of everything (to each side on the sideways things) in each of three sets, except only three planks (one per set), and on the third plank I finally succeeded in holding it the full minute. For arms I did boring weight stuff (though I've always liked weight workouts for arms) -- bicep curls, triceps kickbacks, shoulder presses, and front raises. Again, a dozen of each in each set, for three sets. Today there is some soreness but nothing I won't recover from in another day. I spent about 40 minutes all told, but I wasn't trying to be efficient; I was having to look a lot of things up, and I got sidetracked a lot by things the kids were up to.

While looking around at fitness sites yesterday I came across Body for Wife -- I couldn't decide if this guy is a stupid, conceited jerk or actually quite bright and just very frank. Probably a little of both. Certainly fitness-obsessed, but that's his career. I don't know what it is about fitness gurus that make me immediately think they're all brawn and no brain. He has the academic credentials, but his photo is just kind of gross. Anyway, he was very blunt about what it takes for someone to REALLY get into shape and stay there -- he exercises about an hour and a half a day, cardio and weight training included, with some days more than others. I think my final assessment is that he is a bit conceited and possibly a bit of a jerk but that it's calculated and he doesn't have to be; he's not stupid, and he's pretty entertaining to read.