July 3: Not All Exercise Is Fruitless

The title of this post is a terrible play on words, and for that I refuse to apologize.

Last week I mentioned that Laura and I tried unsuccessfully to go raspberry picking. Today, however, a rainy morning and 90+ degree temps during the day meant the farm didn't get picked out so early and I was able to go by myself.

I headed out around 11 this morning thinking I'd pick for an hour or so. 2 1/2 hours later I was loading my car after picking ~8 pounds of berries in the hot sun. It's not my typical exercise, but multiple hours stooping over to pick berries was easily the most grueling workout I've had in several weeks. I'm going to be ridiculously sore tomorrow.

With that said, I have five cookie sheets worth of berries in the freezer and I got my workout for today. It's a good day.

June 23: Eating Fresh

Today, as I do every summer Saturday, I woke up and my first stop was the farmers' market. Here's what I brought home this week:

From left to right that's asparagus, blueberries, zucchini, goat cheese, sourdough bread, red potatoes, tomatoes, salad greens and peaches. 

By itself this haul is not a monumental accomplishment. Having these things in the house, though, will hopefully help me cook homemade healthy meals over the next few days. Meatless Monday is only a couple of days away.

I'm having a real issue today with exercise. I've loaded up on excuses: First I didn't get up early enough to go before the farmers' market, then I was too full, then it was time for lunch, then it was raining, then I had a party to go to and now the Brewer game is on. I've had a bunch of sugar today and the most strenuous things I've done were picking strawberries and playing an hour of Root Beer Tapper. I'm hoping I'll feel like going for a run after the Brewer game.

Did I exercise today? Not yet. Yes, I waited until after 10 pm but did get a 1.1 mile run in.

June 21: Taking Advantage Of Opportunities

Today is kind of an unusual day schedule-wise, but the opposite of the way yesterday was. Yesterday I had to pare down my responsibilities in order to find time to prioritize getting a run in. Today I had lots of time.

The Brewers are off today, the Timber Rattlers are out of town and, as such, I had a rare in-season day without baseball to watch or cover. I finished most of today's immediate responsibilities before 1 and after a run, my calendar was open.

I took advantage of the chance to run some errands this afternoon, then came home and used the evening to get some work done in advance to hopefully lighten up my schedule a bit over the coming week. As of this writing I've produced six posts tonight that will run on Brew Crew Ball over the coming days, and I hope to finish one more once I'm done here and start work on tomorrow's daily responsibilities so I'll have time to go exercise with Laura in the morning before she has to go to work.

"Working ahead" was supposed to be today's only goal, but as it turns out I also got some extra exercise in. It's a beautiful night in Appleton tonight so I took a break from writing to take the dog for a long walk in addition to my run.

I have no idea how much of this is physical and how much of it is mental, but today I noticed I'm feeling better. My energy level is up, my soreness level is low, I'm more cheerful and the more mundane parts of my day didn't bother me as much today. I could just be having a good day, I guess.

Did I exercise today? Yes, I ran 2.08 miles early this afternoon and, as mentioned above, I also went for a 2.28 mile walk tonight.