Working Hard to Get My Thrills

Yesterday I ran with a friend. He's in way better shape than me, so the prospect of running with him was intimidating. Truth is, his body appears to be in better shape, but cardiovascularly speaking, I turned out to be ahead of him by a long shot. We only ran 1.8 miles, and that was the farthest he could manage. We took a couple breaks along the way, and afterwards I compared our pulses after about 5 minutes of cooldown. I was still up at 125 BPM, but he was 140. That's significant, and it's an indicator of my overall health. I'm not the fittest guy ever, but it sure doesn't hurt to win once in a while.

Meanwhile my weight recently has stayed about the same, or risen slightly. I haven't been eating healthily per se, and more importantly, I'm not consistent.

The problem is, that's exactly what this blog was supposed to help me with, but I'm not consistent with that either. Consistency is the most consistent problem in my life, I guess you could say.

What I need is to make healthy eating a consistent choice, and a regular part of my life. Exercise is, at least, pretty regular these days. I run, I bike, I work on our house/garden. All of these things help me burn calories and stay healthy mentally, so I'm doing okay I guess. But what I'm lacking right now is a consistent use of salads as a meal, or fresh vegetables eaten raw for whatever reason, etc. etc. etc.

In other news, Wifey and I have decided to get a puppy this summer. We've narrowed down our breeds list to these three:

• Spanish Water Dog
• Tibetan Terrier
• Polish Lowland Sheepdog

We came upon all of these because of their hypoallergenic nature. I'm allergic to dog hair to a lesser degree, so just to be sure I'll be comfortable, we went that route. Plus, from our research, they all seem to have qualities that suit us very well in lifestyle. Active, good temperament, good with children, independent (so okay on their own for a little while).

I'm really looking forward to having a dog. I've never had one, but always wanted one. As a kid I begged my mom for a puppy after seeing both Shiloh and Old Yeller (I read the books first, don't worry). She has a fear of dogs, so that was never going to work. As a kid I had a goldfish (named Freddy of course), and then gerbils (Sammy and Snoopi), but nothing like the companionship of a dog.

My wife comes from a house that has always had lots of animals. They have a fish tank, and at some point they've had parrots or birds of one kind or another. The real kicker here is that my mother-in-law is a dog breeder. She used to breed German Shepherds, but in more recent years she has begun to breed Canaan dogs. Canaan dogs are a breed native to Israel. To this day they roam the desert, sometimes captured by Bedouins for working dogs. The point is, Wifey's family has always had lots of animals around. It was a no brainer for us to get a dog at some point. We wouldn't get a puppy except I've never had that experience, and I wanted to have a puppy, at least once.

Various members of my family aren't quite thrilled about the idea of us getting a dog, but they're not really living my life, are they? Obviously my Mom took it personally. "You really don't want me to come over, do you." <sarcasm>Spot on, Mom. We are getting a dog as a way to get you to stop coming over. Because it's not like most of the time that we spend together is at your place. No way.</sarcasm>

Anyway, there it is. This is going to be an intense summer of hard work, long traveling hours, and puppy training.

And I'm going to try to write here more often, because it keeps me honest.