Ellington

For the past few months I've been loving the time spent either on the elliptical at the gym or on the bicycle that I've recently dusted off, adjusted a bit and started riding around the neighborhood. After an hour or so of cardio mixed with hard work for my leg muscles, I'm ready to enjoy a long, quiet evening and a good nights sleep. There's only one problem -- I generally only get that exercise one (sometimes two) nights per week!

Here's the deal -- up at 7:45 a.m. to get to work by about 8:30 a.m. Coffee, shower, dressed... occasionally a bowl of cereal. Mostly not. Once at the office, more coffee, maybe a pastry (if I catch anyone headed to Cups) and more coffee. By late lunch, I'm starving, although the food is often decent stuff -- salad at Basil's, fried-green LT (no "B" for me) at Walker's, or the special at High Noon Cafe.

Back in the office? Coffee until I feel guilty about it, then I'll finally switch to water late in the day. Head to the bank drive-through by 6 p.m., then it's generally back to the office until at least 8 a.m. Then, three nights a week we're out on the town, either at Pi(e) or Underground 119 or Hal and Mal's or Nick's or the Museum of Art or... you get the picture. The other two nights are generally Monday night (home after enough pages are done; quick dinner, try to get to bed) and Friday night -- often dinner out with friends or dinner in with a movie. Saturday -- back in the office most days (unless there's a festival or artwalk with a table to set up or sit behind) dinner out or a movie or a show or another Jacktown event of some kind.

Sundays? A day of rest -- and exercise!

So, what does the Road to Wellness hold for me? Four more days of exercise. I can't hit every weeknight, but I've got to build the discipline to either get up and on the street in the morning for a walk (which means up by 7:15 a.m. -- not easy for a devout nightowl) and/or more nights after work in the gym, even if it means getting done an hour earlier with work each evening.

The work will be there in the morning, right?