I’ve never had a flat stomach with definition—a six-pack—but I’m close to it now and I’m amazed at how well getting close to it motivates me to eat healthily and exercise. It’s not the first time I’ve felt motivation to get fit. Earlier times led to long-term changes nothing like what diet books seem to recommend. While I didn’t grow up fat, I was chubby enough that my step-brother made[…] Keep reading →

Longtime readers will remember that before burpees I got a rowing machine — see my posts “Best solo workout I know” and “First time sprints” — and enjoyed it, putting in about half a million meters in the first year of using it. I finally it back out of storage and started using it after renovations. I enjoy using it as much as ever. Actually, I’m enjoying it more for[…] Keep reading →

[This post is part of a series on Cold Showers. If you don’t see a Table of Contents to the left, click here to view that series, where you’ll get more value than reading just this post.] This morning I ran about a half-marathon. I say “about” because I run for the fun of it and how it makes me feel after (and this year to train for the marathon[…] Keep reading →

Why do people not get this? If something takes hard work, only hard work will attain it. And hard work is hard. Sure, some work is easy, but some things take hard work. I talk about how much I enjoy doing burpees. More precisely, I like doing them in principle, I like the effects they have on my physical condition and motivation skills, and I like just having finished a[…] Keep reading →

Want to see a subject I cover in more depth? Read one of my series. Sometimes I write a series of posts to develop an idea further than a single post allows. Here is a list of all of them. I wish I could convey how valuable the material in them is. People who succeeded despite adversity: the series Creativity: The Series Motivating Rejections: The Series Overcoming Objections and Blocks:[…] Keep reading →

Someone who posted about my burpee discipline posted about someone else who does them too, a guy in England with a blog subtitled “The ramblings of a somewhat burpee-obsessed social misfit.” Among other things he did ladder-year of burpees, meaning one burpee on day one, two on day two, up to 365 on day 365—pushing 70,000 burpees in a year! How could I not love his blog? If you like[…] Keep reading →

I see nothing wrong with someone being fat, despite popular conception. Take Mario Batali, for example. He knows a lot about food and I presume about nutrition and something about health. As best I can tell, he loves eating and consciously and deliberately lives a lifestyle that makes him fat. I don’t know him, but I presume he’s happy with his choices. If so, I respect him. Fat people with[…] Keep reading →