JAA9972

My last entry was nine months ago. Two key things have happened since then that have contributed to a much improved back condition. One, we purchased a Naturapedoic natual latex matress with a layer of memory foam (see http://www.naturaworld.com/Products/Natura%20Pedic/Sensation.html) for more information. This bed has provided an absolutely remarkable sleep, reduced tossing and turning and supported my back very well. In fact, the improvement in my back was so great after purchasing this matress, I am pretty certain much of the previous back trouble I had was due to sleeping on a low quality matress…a Sealy matress in this case.

Second, I started taking my wife’s Body Pump classes. It still makes me laugh to think I am not only taking these classes, but actually enjoying them. With that said, the results have been clear. My back strength and my core strength have improved, and I generally feel better. See the following for more information on Body Pump: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_pump

As the saying goes, “Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will eat forever.” Well, the saying should be amended. Even if you know how to fish, but only catch one fish, you’ll still only eat for a day.

So, Luan and I finally headed out to Lake Buchanan, north or Austin, and got some fishing in, but it wasn’t the most successful trip. Austin is in a 1 1/2 year drought, so the lake is down almost 20 feet. This means the water is warmer at the lower depths and the fish are less active.

All in all, we caught two striped bass, otherwise known as stippers, but had to throw one back because it was too small. The one were did keep can be seen in the picture with this entry. It was about a 5 lb. fish, which we filleted, fried and got a couple of meals out of it.

While the actual fishing trip wasn’t very successful in terms of what we hauled in, Luan and I did have a good day. We’ll wait a couple of months for the fall when the lake cools down, and then head out again.

After having this very important item on my 43things.com list for months and doing nothing about it, I finally have something to report.

I scheduled a fishing trip for me and Luan on Lake Buchanan, one of the Highland Lakes just North of Austin for September 2nd. This trip will be with a fishing guide who has been working the Highland Lakes for years. You can find out more about him here: http://www.striperquest.com/.

My plan is to do at least one fishing trip with a solid guide, so both of us can get a good review and crash couse on fishing fundamentals, and then start making some trips with just the two of us. I will have more to report back after the 2nd, along with pictures.

Although I am married to a Brazilian, have one teenage son who is fluent in Portuguese and a three year old who is well on his way, to say my grasp of the Portuguese language has been slow would be an understatement. I could blame it on an impatient wife or living in an English speaking country, but in the end, its on me to get things moving. And I have a start.

I just purchased the Rosetta Stone Portuguese Levels I and II Homeschool Edition (http://www.rosettastone.com/en/homeschool/languages/portuguese/level-1-2). I purchased on eBay for $50 off retailm and should be getting it in the mail this Friday. I have some experience with the Rosetta Stone products, and have been very impressed. So, I’m itching to get started. I got the homeschool edition because I thought it would be fun to learn with my three year old.

I have come a long way in building a regular habit of stretching and it’s getting stronger. While it helps to have a Yoga instructor for a wife, we’ve been married for seven years and I’m just now taking seriously the importance of regular streching. So, when I comes down to it, it’s been me changing the way I think about why stretching is so valuable to my health that has made the difference.

Of course hindsight is 20/20, but I wish I had built a regular stretching practice years ago. It’s unfortunate is took a chronically sore back in my early 30’s to set me on the path, but it is what it is at this point.

As for my back, it is feeling much better. I am able to play basketball on a regular basis without my back tightening for days at a time. While I’ve done just a minimal amount of core muscle strength training, really the only thing I have done different is stretch on a regular basis.

I’ve heard that a regular stretching practice can add years to your life, and I can’t see how this isn’t true just by seeing my increased mobility and activity since I’ve started taking better care of my back through stretching.

Although it’s not like I’m keeping a daily blog, or even a weekly blog all the time, I’ve got this practice underway. Although my intention was to keep a blog so family and friends can keep up to date with what’s happening in my world, I’ve been pleasantly surprised how much I enjoy it just for the sake of writing some here and there.

All are free to check my blog out at http://360.yahoo.com/jaa9972

All done.

I got this done. Adios State “Laughing to the Bank” Farm, and hello GEICO. I made the switch just before my State Farm policy was up. If I have re-uped with State Farm our 6 month premium would have been $1,530.02 for one 2000 Isuzu Trooper and one 1994 Altima sedan with pretty conservative coverage. Instead, my GEICO premium with more coverage is $538.20. That’s a $991.82 in our pocket, or a 65% savings!

Gimma a break. That’s a ridiculous amount saved. Either State Farm was flat out gouging us, which given my step-brother was my agent I hope not to be the case, or GEICO just really does rock that much, or some combination of both. The latter is probably the best explanation for the massive savings.

Either way, I got want I wanted, and I don’t plan on ever leaving GEICO. It’s a Berkshire Hathaway company, so that counts for something.

While it has some ups and downs, such as the player ocassionally crashing and tags not saving correctly, last.fm is pretty damned cool. I’ve been impressed with how much music I’ve been able to find in such a short time that fits my interest. It will take some playing around with to figure out the ropes for some, but I recommend it. I’ll be sticking with it.

I set up my last.fm profile today and download the small client for playing the radio from my desktop top. Looks promising so far, but I’ll use it a week or so before deciding if I want to stay with it.

They’re done, and I’m still alive. Fortunately, while death and taxes might be forever related, it’s not a choice between the two. I am still alive and kickin’ and happy to be done with our 2005 taxes. Further, I’m happy to announce this is my first completion on 43things.com, but for all the complaining about filing taxes, there are a lot harder goals out there to accomplish. Off to my next one!

p.s.> Life and taxes are much easily when you use Quicken throughout the year and file with TurboTax.com.

I’ve been meaning forever to switch from State Farm to GEICO. If you’ve read anything about Buffet, than you can appreciate why a Buffet owned business is worth doing business with.

I think I first filed my taxes…our taxes now that I have a family…online with Turbo Tax way back in 1998, so I’m going on my 7th year now. It’s really not that bad. Just one of those things!

I created my 43Things.com account a couple weeks ago. It’s pretty cool to see what other people want to accomplish, but it is particularly useful the write down the goal, set reminders and journal my progress. You know they say goals you write down always stand a better chance of getting done.

Of all the goals I’ve added so far, the one about stretching and the other one about strengthening my core have come along the farthest so far. That is probably because they are about getting rid of pain, the pain in my lower back that is. Funny how we quickly most of us try to avoid pain!

At any rate, in the two weeks I’ve set these goals, I have already seen some real progress. In particular, the stretching has really helped. Although, I still have a long way to go before I can claim to have strengthened my core abdominal muscles. Nonetheless, I am headed in the right direction and my back…whole body for that matter…are feeling better.

The picture above might give a distorted picture of my flexibility. There are certain poses where I have a head start and this is one of them. Fortunately, it is one my chiropractor asked me to do to stretch my gluts. The other muscle groups he asked me to focus on to help my back include my psoas and thighs. So far, I have been pretty good about stretching these muscle groups daily, and once a week I’ve had my wife, who is a yoga instructor, work with me on some related yoga poses.

This goal is closely related to the one I have about strengthening my core muscles to improve my back pain. I think two of the key reasons I’ve had the lower back pain I’ve had is a lack of strength in the stomach and poor flexibility of key muscles.

Dr. Burnet, my chiropractor, asked me to focus stretching my gluts, thighs, and in particular, my psoas (see above picture). During my first visit to see him 1 ½ weeks ago, he told me my hamstrings were actually pretty flexible, but my psoas was very tight. This explained why some of the more traditional hamstring stretches are a problem for me, but why I was still able to crouch very low to the ground with my feet flat on the floor…like a monkey as my wife likes to say. This was a surprise to me, because I always thought my hamstrings were the problem. He actually asked me to avoid stretching my hamstring, because it could further irritate my lower back.

I’ve made a decent go of it for this first week after setting this goal. I started trying to stretch daily in earnest last Saturday, and I was successful 5 out of the 7 days in actually stretching. I didn’t stretch Wednesday or Thursday, and felt some tightness after playing basketball this morning. Fortunately, the pain cleared up pretty quickly, and I did stretch a bit before and certainly after playing hoops.

Things are coming along pretty well. Before I was in a position to actually start strengthening my abdominal muscles, I needed to get the pain in my back squared away. I’ve been to see my chiropractor, Dr. Ron Burnet, about four times since setting this goal, and each time the adjustments have gotten easier and easier and I’ve felt progressively better. I have also played hoops several times since starting to see Dr. Burnet, and my back pain following basketball has varied from none to minor. Further, when I have had pain it has subsided relatively fast.

In my appointment today with Dr. Burnet, he assigned a simple exercise to start strengthening my lower abdominals that looks similar to the above picture of the guy lying on his back with his feet in the chair. The only difference is I also take 10 repetitions of pulling my stomach in as close to my spine as possible and then lifting my head, neck and arms off the floor for a count of 10. The length of the count will progress weekly. There is no way I would have been able to do this a 1 ½ weeks ago when I set this goal. This might sound too easy, but I have a long history of over doing it when it comes to strength exercises where I in turn pull a muscle, so this time, I’m following doctor’s orders.

Having a Brazilian wife, I often end up in situations where we’re dancing to samba rhythms together, or rather she’s dancing and I’m just shaking whatever it is I can shake at the moment. So, I want to learn what is maybe the most basic, and probably the oldest samba step that is done by both men and women, called the Samba no pé…or foot samba in English.

You can find out plenty of detail about Samba no pé, other Samba steps and Samba dance in general here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samba_%28dance%29

p.s.> Those who’ve seen the movie Hitch can appreciate the above picture.

Yesterday, I went to a new chiropractor. A fella named Ron Burnett who runs a practice called Inner Sun Chiropratic here in Austin. My back was killing me after a couple days straight of playing basketball. By the end of the session I was feeling much better.

He told me my hamstrings aren’t nearly as tight as I thought they were, but because by lower back is so tight, it effects how much my hamstrings can stretch in certain positions. Further, he said my soaz muscles were particularly tight, and correctly guessed some various pains I have on occasion in my hips because of this.

This fist session was used as a baseline for him to get a take on my body, and I will be going back this Friday for a follow-up and he will also begin working with me on some very specific exercises to strengthen my lower abs.

While I am still very young at 33, it is time I really start listening to my body, and taken better care of my back is a great first step.

I’ve started a blog. Check out http://360.yahoo.com/jaa9972 to find it. Now I just need to make regularly entries.