DIY Workout-A Project For Health and Home

 

Oh Yeah! We are ready to WORK IT!

  Our Do-It-Yourself exercise plan continues! Jeff has created an incredible workout routine for the whole family! Listen, if you like Hot Yoga, Step Aerobics and Dead Lifting, "Fuchs-ercise" is just the plan for you! It's a combo-workout that gets all your muscles moving and has the added bonus of creating a newly remodeled work environment. With any luck, this dynamic new fitness program will last through the rainy season, although I sincerely doubt it, as our rainy season in the Great Northwest lasts about 9 months and I know how eager Jeff is to get his home office/studio ready to go.

Hot new workout gear for Jeff? I found your Christmas gift, honey!!!

  Last week we worked on the shop side of the basement, cleaning, painting, organizing and redoing the lighting. Fun times. Lots of bending and stretching during Phase One. Warming up those muscles for the serious workout ahead. This week's focus has been on moving all of the stored items from the basement to the attic crawl space. Jeff's dad did an amazing job of repurposing the wood from the shop's old cabinets into a floor for the attic, because he is just that cool. All prepped and ready to be filled, the attic was calling to us "Get ready to lift, carry and drag thousands of pounds of stuff up a few flights of stairs and stuff me to the rafters!" Time to get back to work!

And some new workout gear for me...

  Once again, Jeff did not ask for my help (maybe due to the completely inadequate painting job I performed earlier this week?), but I offered my services anyway. When will I learn? I just can't help myself! He is so cute when I tell him that I will join him in the momentous task of setting up his new business venture. I'm such a sucker when it comes to that man! And I volunteered Katie to lend a hand for a portion of the day, too. I have to give her credit-Katie agreed to help (without being paid) and worked hard with very little grumbling. She's a champ, that kid of mine!
  Jeff had started bringing boxes and crates and tubs up from the basement to the living room on the main floor and then up the second flight of stairs to prepare for loading the attic. He's gonna have Buns Of Steel from all that stepping! I helped with some of the carrying, but most of my contribution took place inside the attic. 

Move over, Richard! Jeff's bringing on a new fitness craze!

  The attic is long, narrow and has a slanted roof. It's a tight squeeze for a normal sized person, but I was actually able to stand up at the very top of the slanted ceiling. So, being the most vertically challenged in the family (Katie has a good 2 inches on me now), I got to pack the stuff from the door to the back of the crawlspace. I only hit my head about two dozen times and can no longer remember what year it is or my middle name (I want to say "Minerva", but I'm pretty sure that's wrong). Or how to parallel park. But I think I was never really skilled at that to begin with. We'll never know now. 

  The best part of being the "pack-rat" was getting each item over the ceiling of the stairwell-a slanted, raised bit of torture a couple of feet inside the doorway of the attic that made the large, heavy or awkward shaped items an even bigger challenge. Gotta add more lifting, right? Less weight, more reps? Yeah, sure. I smashed my spine into the ceiling several times maneuvering something big and heavy over that raised pile of torment.
  The temperature in my little hobbit-hole was significantly higher than the rest of the house, kind of like what I imagine the surface of the sun to feel like. But with heavier air and particles of dust and insulation floating around. A couple of hours worth of working out in this environment HAD to help me drop a couple of pounds, don't you think? Except that with all of the heavy lifting, I think I may have "bulked up" a little, adding lean muscle mass which would add MORE weight. Only time (and the Axis of Evil) will tell.

     How I look in my head when I'm sweaty

How I REALLY look when I'm sweaty

 Between the three of us, we got every item moved from the basement to the attic and stowed safely away. ADDED BONUS-I am now fairly certain I can take the TETRIS championship with my eyes closed. Gotta find me a tournament! I am a Master Stacker! But by the end of the workday we were all supremely sore from our heads to our toes. It was quite a workout! Next phase-clean and paint the other half of the basement and knock out a wall! Oh YEAH! I am READY for that! I am WAY better at DESTRUCTION than CONSTRUCTION. At least, I hope so. Hand over that ball-peen hammer and we'll find out soon enough!

We all need a little encouragement from time to time.

  The down-side to all of this DIY home makeover business is that we haven't been so great with the diet end of things. We haven't been planning our meals on these work days. And we've had some helpers-you have to feed the help! And pizza is cheap, easy and minimal clean-up when you're already exhausted and you have to feed a small crowd. And yesterday, after the insane amount of stair climbing and moving boxes, we were starving and too tired to cook or clean up, so we ordered Chinese food. Jeff and I really like the Crabmeat-Cream Cheese-Wontons. And he and Katie ordered the Sweet and Sour Chicken, which is deep fried and served with rice. I go for the Cashew Chicken, which is a healthier choice because it isn't deep-fried. But I did have some rice (Hello, carbohydrates!) So we haven't been successfully low-carb. It's such a challenge to make all of the components of this healthy living business work properly at the same time. I need an app for that.
  At any rate, here's hoping that our "Fuchs-ercise" program will balance out the eating mis-steps and we can make a better effort this week with our food plan.