Climbing Walls & Stir Crazy

I'm going crazy dealing with my overactive sence of bordom during the "Arctic Blast" storm on 08'. We weren't supposed to be here for this. We had our hopes on going to Houston for Christmas to spend with the Moon's, but mother nature had other plans. Portland International Airport and Greyhound Train Station looked like scenes from the holiday classic Planes, Trains & Automobiles. The only round trip we had was a 12 hour truck ride to PDX and back after our flight was cancelled and rescheduled to Saturday, December 27th. Good Times.

99% of my clients have cancelled these last two weeks and that means that I'm stuck doing administrative paperwork and or dishes and laundry. Both are an equal penance for most most any confessions and I'm sure that's what my purgatory will consist of .

We're really unprepared to spend Christmas here too. We delibrately ran out of the staples like, food, soy milk, booze, etc. And we weren't going shopping for the hoodrats until we were in Houston. Today Shelly and I made a mad dash through the dirty, wet slush and ruts all over town to stock up. Tar-jey had almost everything, but I really was in the mood for some Bailey's, so...

We did all celebrate Mass together at St. Anthony's though. That was beautiful. There was a nice little childrens play of the nativity and Father Peter was great as always. The Eucharist was much greater though.

To be completely honest with all of you, I have lost any and all desire to move a muscle during our winter blanketing blast. You would think that a trainer, especially one who owns his own studio would be pretty motivated to stay fit and burn off the fudge, pecan brittle, cookies, & m&m calories I have packed in my "carbo-loading" period (loading up for the long marathon of folding clothes and emptying the dishwasher). Luckily, I have a great big, genetic chest & shoulder complex, which stretches out my shirt away from my spare tire. This way, I can easily pack on 10 pounds before anyone notices.

I am at least trying to moderate how much sugar I intake per day. When I begin to slightly feel my body slipping into a diabetic coma, I stop the binge. No purging though, just passing out on the couch with a good DVD (Tropic Thunder is gut busting funny, btw).

Time for some more pecan brittle. Thank you Mary Lou!

BigChuckaliciousG

Holy Snow Day Ironman!

There's a foot of snow outside and it hasn't let up for about 12 hours.  This is nuts and I'm boarder line pissed because it's such a reminder of how much I hated growing up in the cold of Alaska.  

In the winter of 87' our front door of the trailer was broken off the hinges after either being kicked down by someone, or simply rotting off of the hinges.  It had to be strategically placed each time you closed it, in order for it to stay closed.  On one of those Alaska winter mornings where the sky was grey and wind nearly blew all of the trailers off their blocks, I foolishly rushed out of the door in an attempt to get to school on time.  In my haste, I didn't hang the door properly.  As the last one out of the trailer, I was the one responsible for making sure the place was locked up tight as could be.  That day however, I came home to a blown down door and a foot of snow wind-swept half way across our living room floor.  Luckily I was always the first one home so I had a couple of hours to clean the mess up.  

Now days all I have to worry about is when the HOA is going to take care of cleaning up this mess outside.  I know, I have it made easy with my 80 sq. ft. landscaped front yard, but now I can appreciate it more than most.  

On a lighter note, we had our first CrossFit Fundamentals Movement Course this morning at the studio.  We had a turn out of 12 souls who braved the icy roads at 8am to learn all about functional movements executed at high intensity.  The 4 hours went by way too quickly though, but everyone had a great time, I hope.  

Peace, Love, Gratitude & Blessings

Chuck G.  

4th Snow Day in a row

I have really liked staying at home with the kids this week, as their schools have all been 

shut down from "Arctic Blast". I think that was a Power Aid drink I used to like.  Frosty blue container, or, no wait,  that's the name of the bubble gum I like. On second thought, that's  "Polar Ice".  Shelly and I schooled the little hoodrats at "Scene It", an interactive DVD game with move scenes.  Shelly in turn smoked me though. 

I have skipped workouts because I am afraid of the cold, but I have managed to eat very well.  As a result, I have only gained 10 of my alloted 15 holiday pounds.  Their 10 sexy, Cindarella pounds too: it all turns to muscle at midnight.  I'm just kidding.  I haven't gained any weight, but I have lost some muscle, and it's the weatherman's fault.  Clearly not mine. 

The best way I know of to take off weight is cardio in the morning on an empty stomach.  This works wonders and is worth it's calories in gold.  A couple glasses of H2O, some Amino Vital and hit the road jack.  I'll be doing some tri's next year though, so I'll make a splash instead of hitting the concrete.  

Anyway, I'm off to get my ass handed to me for 90 minutes.  Gotta box with a killer.  

Chuckalicious

Black Friday & Will & Grace

Our Friday wasn't so black as much as it was a pale grey, perhaps, stuccoish.
I wasn't allowed by my general manager to purchase a Wii, but I was permitted
to get Dryers ice cream out of the red and into AC/DC greatest song ever.

I'm starting to get into songs from the 80's now like and I love it when those bands make new vinal. I pretty much hated them growing up as a kid, all except Billy Idol. Billy rocks, even by today's standards.

We're not big black Friday people. We like Black Saturday: The Saturday before Christmas when you get great deals from stores like, WinCo, Ross, Dollar Store, Joanns Fabrics, Subway and 7-11. You'd be amazed at the deals these stores have for consumers.

Will & Grace is on 'We'. Gotta go.

Some parents drive me craz-ey

This evening I was at my 5 year olds wrestling practice

and I noticed this other child, maybe 11 years old, dressed in three layers of long sleeve clothing, football pants and knee pads running on a treadmill.  When he was done, I asked him what he was doing and he replied,  "I need to lose some weight".   This poor kid was pretty heavy, and I just couldn't help but wonder where this kids parents were.  I told the little sport that he shouldn't run with so many clothes on because it just wasn't healthy. 

I was so fired up and I couldn't wait to see who the parents were.  Imagine my surprise when his dad turned out to be one the assistant coaches of the wrestling team.  Probably a 300 lb guy himself, it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that KFC was a major food group for their family.  

Now, do I talk to the coach and tell him how he's setting a horrible example for his son, and what he could do instead?  Could I bring a down comforter and some duct tape so I wrap him like a Christmas present and make him run laps around the gym?

You tell me.