Hello, everyone!  The Madness will now continue.  No, really, I am returning to regular blogs.  You see, today I am starting my training to become………a Superhero!

 

No, I am not kidding.  I do believe I said the Madness will now continue.  I have an interesting goal in life, and that is to become a superhero.  No, I don’t have any super powers and do not expect to gain any anytime soon.  However, I have been inspired by a few things to take up a cape and head to the streets in an effort to make the world a better place.

 

This will not take place tomorrow.  Or next week.  Or even in the next few months.  I have a bit of training to do first.  You see, I am physically unfit.  Overweight, even.  Nobody wants to see a fat man in tights, even if he is trying to be a do-gooder superhero type.  So Aspect #1 of Superhero Training is physical fitness.  As a start to this, today I resumed my daily walk.  I have done it sporadically since the beginning of June but not regularly since before that.  I was up to a two-mile walk five days a week in the months preceding June.  Then my daughter had the audacity to get married and somehow that screwed everything up!

 

Okay, that’s not fair.  I love my daughter and her marriage was an amazingly beautiful ceremony.  She has married a fine young military man and they have a bright, Golden, wonderful future together.  The wedding and the family reunion the week after (both in Indianapolis) took me away from my daily walk and when I returned I simply failed to continue it.  So now I have restarted it and with passion.  I set a quicker pace this morning than when I was doing it regularly before.

 

So why call it superhero training?  It’s a cover story, like a secret identity for a guy in tights whois physically fit and doing good deeds.  I may or may not someday be a Real Life Superhero (they do exist), but in the meantime it’s a way to motivate myself.  There are several Aspects to it, all of which are Superhero-themed:
1. Physical Fitness.  This one is obvious, and I have already discussed it.  I will add some plans:  First, I will continue to increase the pace of my morning walk until it is more of a jog.  I will eventually be doing it on my treadmill as that is more of a workout and not weather-dependent.  I’ll add more exercise, starting with using my exercise machine (bench presses, etc.) and eventually floor stuff (crunches, push-ups, etc.).  My goal is to be in superhero shape or something close to it in a year.

 

2.  Better Diet.  This goes hand-in-hand with #1.  I have resisted this for a long time on the excuse that I can get into shape with just exercise.  This may be true, but it will be quicker and better with a few diet changes.  Less junk, more healthy stuff.  I have what will be my last big bag of M&Ms at work.  I am eating fruit or vegetables with dinner every night.  Stuff like that.

 

3.  Improved Hygiene.  Sticking with the physical health theme, I am going to brush my teeth regularly.  Wash my hands more often.  Things we are all supposed to do but often get lazy about.

 

4.  Disciplined Time Management.  Now this is an interesting category.  I could probably call it “Miscellaneous” but I wanted something more to the point.  Things like doing this blog, working more on writing software or books.  Doing things with my time which are less wasteful than what I have been doing.  This doesn’t mean cutting out the fun stuff, just making sure I do more of what I should be doing so stuff gets done.

 

So expect more from me in the future.  I will blog daily again, Monday through Friday with occasional weekend posts.  I have a notion in my head to do a video blog once a week on Saturdays to recap my week.  We’ll see if that happens, but it is a thought.  See you tomorrow.