Labor Day = Judgment Day

Labor Day, as defined by the folks in Washington, is a day of rest from work.  You're supposed to kick back, briefly reflect on the progress of labor in this country, and maybe down a hot dog and a beer or two.  This day, however, falls on a Monday, which means that it's time for me to have a Judgment Day (cue the lightning bolts and thunder).  Eventually I'll come up with a better name, but Monday is going to be the day of the week where I track my progress.  Why Monday?  Why pick one of the busiest days of the week to measure all of this stuff?  Why not pick out a weekend day to put one of these entries together?  I've chosen Monday because it forces me to be honest about  my weekends.  Often I feel that I work on myself all week, only to take five giant steps back every weekend, when I go out and make poor health choices.  This weekend was relatively uneventful, so I'm confident going into my weigh-in that everything is still on track.

Body

Weight on 8/26/13:  220 pounds

Weight on 9/2/13:  217 pounds   (-3)

I was mildly surprised by this result, as I only managed to get to the gym once this week and did not follow the rules entirely with my diet.  I ate after 9:00pm a few times, and I downed a couple boxes of macaroni and cheese through the week for lunch.  One thing that pushed me, I think, was the fact that I still have no air conditioning in my bedroom, which feels like death from about 5:00pm to 11:00pm during the summer months.  It's that time of day when it's cooling down outside, but it isn't in a brick building, which seems to retain all the sun's heat from earlier in the day.  I also substituted more eggs into my diet, trying to eat them once or twice a week for breakfast.  Frank's Hot Sauce really helps to get those down, as I can't eat them with shredded cheddar anymore.  I also worked more water into my diet, downing roughly half a gallon during my work shifts at night (let's face it, I need something to drink while sweating my butt off in the room).

What can I do better this week?  I've got to hit the gym more this coming week, starting tomorrow.  As today is Labor Day (and, as of this morning, a laundry day), the gym's out; however, tomorrow morning should be different.  I'm gonna work in jump rope and all the other cardio that I promised late last week, and find lunch alternatives to rice and macaroni and cheese.

Mind / Spirit

I'm combining these two this week, as I didn't really do much in the realm of spirit.  I went to church on Saturday and said a rosary on Thursday... a good start, but it can obviously be improved.  However, I'm also putting mind and spirit together because I finished a book this week that I want to write an entry on, either Wednesday or Thursday.  Our Lady of Kibeho, by Immaculée Ilibagiza, was an outstanding book, and it gave me a new kind of rosary I can recite over weeks to come to enrich my faith.  I plan to finish a book over the next two weeks as well by my history professor and advisor from undergrad, Dr. Tony Novosel, and will post a review on that days after I finish it.

Aside from reading, however, I've also worked in some time to take a college-level online course, titled "Foundations of Business Strategy."  The site can be found on the website Coursera, which can be found here.  The class is taught by Dr. Michael Lenox from the University of Virginia.  It's my first time ever taking an online course, so I decided to go with something easy.  This course was advertised as something that anyone was welcome to take.  Over time, if anything particularly interesting comes from it, I'll post it here.  

I have nothing else particularly inspiring to say today, other than that I'm happy with my results, and I think I've gotten off to a good start transitioning into a new school year.  I've got some work to do in the mind and spirit categories, but that will come with another week's worth of experiences.  Until then, wait till next Monday to hear more about my progress!