I’m at the Minneapolis airport right now and there’s this business man doing yoga in front of a big, sunny window – and there’s lots of people staring at him, including me. But he doesn’t even care, and I like that about him. He’s like a zen master with no worries – Hakuna Matata style. I’m pretty sure he owns a Duluth Pack bag, too (my brother works for Duluth Pack).

In the past, I’ve talked about traveling and how it makes staying on track with exercise and diet more difficult. I’ve come to realize that planning ahead is a crucial component to making good decisions. Like where to workout when you get to your destination, where to get healthy foods, protein, etc. Airports are littered with fast food restaurants, chocolate stores, and man it all looks so good. I feel like a fat kid in a candy shop when I get to the airport.

I grew up eating fast food, candy, and all that junk, so I don’t know that I’ll ever be able to walk past a sign for a Double Bacon Cheeseburger without drooling a little. But P90X has given me a sense of discipline that I don’t think I’ve ever had before, and I’m grateful for that.

Whenever I travel some place by plane (you know, for more than 2-3 days), I have to buy a new printer so I can process orders for my health products. I now own about 5 printers. I know it sounds crazy, but a new, decent printer only costs $40 (including ink), and it just isn’t worth packing a printer with me every time I travel. However, I have a hard time throwing away a printer I’ve only used for a week, so I always seem to find a way to bring it home with me – thus the 5 printers. So, does anyone need a slightly used printer?

Actually that’s why I went to Chicago last week – I’m researching fulfillment companies that will process my orders for me, and then I won’t have this problem anymore.

Last night, I ran a very hard mile on the treadmill. I finished in about 6:30 and still felt like I had juice left in me. Before Day 90, I hope to break the 6 minute mark which I think is a good, realistic goal. After running, I also completed the Ab Ripper X exercises.

One of my first objectives when I get to California – besides buying a printer – will be to find a GNC and load up on protein bars for the week. Those are like gold when it comes to passing up junk food.

It’s been a great weekend and things will probably get crazier as this upcoming week unravels. I’m flying to California tomorrow night and then I’ll spend the next 10 days or so traveling throughout a good portion of the state. I have a feeling I’ll be spending a lot of money on gas over the next several weeks, too! Oh well …

The Twins home opener was a lot of fun. The Twins won 2-1, the weather was great, I ate some good food, and I had great company. I look forward to going to many more games this year. I definitely cheated a little on the P90X diet this weekend, but by now that should come as no big surprise. But give me a break, I don’t think they serve egg white sandwiches at Target Field!

I missed my soccer game on Friday night; I had a late dinner at Pepito’s and before I knew it, it was already 10:30PM. I’ll miss my next game, too, so it might be awhile before I play soccer again.

My brother and his wife Rachel visited me in the cities on Saturday night, so it was fun spending time with them, too. We took a trip to Treasure Island for a few hours. It was fun playing poker, but this time things didn’t go so well – at least for me. It was a good time, though.

Before I leave tomorrow night, I hope to run a mile or two, perform the AbRipperX exercises, and complete the chest/back exercises, as well as the bicep exercises. It’s a little ambitious, but it might be hard to do all that I need to do once I get to California, so I hope to get the week started on the right foot with some more P90X.

I’ll continue to post updates from California, so keep checking back!

Today was a good day of P90X. I did a quick 20 minutes on the stair master followed by 15 minutes of Ab Ripper X. Then, later in the evening, I performed the bicep exercises. I’m now curling 30 lbs 10-12x, and I bet I’d be able to do 3 sets of 6-8 reps using 35 lbs dumb bells if I tried, but I’ll need to get some 35 lbs dumb bells first! It’s always nice to see improvement, though.

You know it’s Spring when baseball season starts up again. I got 2 tickets to the Twins vs. Oakland home opener tomorrow afternoon at Target Field, so it’ll be fun to experience opening day on an afternoon date! It’s supposed to be a really nice day, too. Look for me on tv – I’ll be the guy wearing the Joe Nathan jersey!

I have another soccer game tomorrow night, although this game is at 9:10PM, so it doesn’t totally ruin my night. And then I have my first football game this Sunday at 2PM in Minneapolis. I’m excited to play flag football – in fact, I’m probably more excited to play football than I am to play soccer tomorrow night. Maybe because I’m playing football at a normal time of the day. Anyways, it should be fun. Then I leave for California on Monday late in the afternoon… anyways, lots going on! Almost too much.

Finally, I saw this quote recently and I liked what it had to say so I thought it was worth posting here:
“You must understand the whole of life, not just one little part of it. That is why you must read, that is why you must look at the skies, that is why you must sing and dance, and write poems, and suffer, and understand, for all that is life.” – J.Krishnamurti (Indian Philosopher (1895-1986)

More in a day or two …

I’m back home now – finally! It was a day that started early and ended late, but I made it. All in all it was a really good trip. It was pretty short, but I accomplished what I had hoped to accomplish in the relatively short amount of time that I was in the Chicago area. It’s nice to have companies competing for my business – they’re literally wining and dining me. I had a free lunch at some Chinese restaurant with the owner of one company, and I spent 2.5 hours getting the rundown and a tour of a 70,000+ square foot facility with the owner of another company.

Unfortunately, there are still some things that haven’t been decided upon, so I’ll probably make another trip down to Chicago in another couple of weeks. Then maybe I’ll give that rundown motel a try! You probably think I’m kidding, too. Haha we’ll see. Time to start living dangerously.

On my way home from Chicago, I decided to make a quick detour to a small town outside of Madison. It added a good hour to my trip, but there was something I needed to take care of… something that was long overdue, really. Anyways, that’s another story, but it went well. At least I think so.

I’m extremely tired from my long day of travel, so I’m only going to do the Ab Ripper X exercises before I go to bed tonight, and then I’ll get a solid day of P90X and cardio exercise in tomorrow.

When I was a kid, I used to think the coolest job on the planet would be a traveling businessman. You know, flying all over the country, staying in nice hotels, eating out all the time. What could be better than that? Let me tell you – just about everything. Hotels are depressing – even the nice ones. Next time I travel somewhere by myself, I’m staying in a rundown motel on the side of some deserted highway with “motel” lights that flicker on and off. Why? So I have something to write home about – like cockroaches running across the floor, or crackheads making love in the room next door. You know … a little real life HBO.

I must admit, though, that one perk about staying in nice hotels is that they tend to give you free stuff – like the hotel I’m staying in tonight was giving away free chocolate chip cookies when I checked in (of course P90X ruined that for me). They looked really good, too.

One downside to P90X is that it doesn’t appear to have made me a better golfer. I lost $48 playing golf today. No, not $4.80 – I lost 48 United States Dollars. And no – I wasn’t playing against Tiger Woods, but that would at least make sense.

Anyways, I just completed 60 minutes of plyometrics in the hotel fitness center. It was nice to do something that was familiar, and I was proud of myself for completing the exercise when it would have been really easy just to lay in bed and watch tv. The fitness center was really small, too, but fortunately no one was in there, otherwise I don’t think I would have had room to complete the exercises. And I don’t think I would have been allowed to do plyometrics in the hotel lobby.

Tomorrow I leave this town. Should be a good day, though.