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Archives from 2002-2006

Several years ago I went to a personal training gym where I worked out with an assortment of young, fit dudebros. It was a period of my life that started with an intensely embarrassing fat-measuring session and never really improved in terms of personal dignity. I did get in better shape, but it was at the expense of a lot of awkwardness and a truly shocking amount of money.

Since then, I tried a number of fitness endeavors, some that worked out awesomely (marathon medal GET!) and some that didn’t (No stank you, Crossfit). Eventually I entered a more . . . ah, sedentary phase, starting about the time I began working from home and culminating this summer in a back injury that I’m certain was triggered on account of my entire body preeeeeeeeeetty much looking like this:

Feeling self-conscious and unattractive is one thing, but I do draw the line at being unable to bend over without the aid of a weight belt, two hydrocodone tablets, and an agonized horror-movie scream.

My relationship with exercise and clean eating feels like one of those endlessly looping Vine videos: oh look, she’s getting in shape and feeling great about herself! Oh no, she’s hunched over a plate of cookies like those feral girls from Mama! What can I say any more, really. As far as wagons go, there are worse ones to repeatedly tumble from.

Anyway, I’ve been mostly on track since July, slowly getting stronger (core strength is related to lower back pain, you say? WELL I’LL BE GODDAMNED) and dropping a few pounds. (Emphasis on few. Cherish your metabolism while you have one, kids.) I began with exercising to DVDs at home and eventually worked up enough nerve to join one of those tire-flipping, wall-climbing, rain-or-shine boot camps. The woman who teaches the class is a personal trainer, and I recently bought some sessions with her. She’s friendly, funny, enormously inspiring without being the least bit intimidating, and her one-on-one workouts cost a fraction of what I paid in Seattle.

Getting back into the groove of challenging my body has been incredibly beneficial over the last few months. I have, as of today, 99 days of sobriety under my belt, and I feel healthier and happier in about a million different ways.

Sometimes it truly feels like the right things happen at the right time. I mean, I guess you could look at your entire life that way, couldn’t you?

A while ago — wow, like over a YEAR ago — I wrote about how JB was working on getting a custom AR-15 lower receiver to market. He hit a big stumbling block when his crowdfunding campaign was rejected, but he persevered. It’s been a long time coming, but as of today Hellbreaker is officially available for purchase through Spike’s Tactical, a well-known gun manufacturer and dealer.

It’s a HUGE milestone for him, and I’m so incredibly proud of all his hard work and dedication.

PS: I know many of you are wholly uninterested in guns. I’m posting this not to market the product to you, but to share something that’s been a big part of our family for a couple years now.

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