The Weighting Game

Lifting weights can make your day job look exciting. My goodness. Talk about sensory deprivation. But lifting weights, making those muscles burn, twice a week for an hour can do a lot to ward off minor arthritis and the other aches and pains that some people think are inevitable as you age.

The best part of weights is how they benefit other sports you love. Your golf game will improve. You'll be able to do fight or flight drills (intervals) on the bicycle. You'll look good to your mate.

It's no surprise that only about 10 percent of people 50 and older lift weights regularly. They are the lucky ones who refuse to quit before the miracle. The other ones are often seen standing in line at the physical therapist's office. What is physical therapy, after all, other than guided weight lifting with an expert coach?

I choose to lift weights, feel better all the time and avoid those medical bills. The two hours a week is a small price to pay for big results.

Ooooooo, Chocolate!

I try to start each day with a good breakfast. As Dr. Henry Lodge advised, eat shredded wheat, blueberries, banana and skim milk and you're one-third of the way to a healthy day. Yesterday I made it to 99/100 of the way to a healthy day. Then I broke into the chocolates. Someone had left small boxes of chocolates on the table at work. I took a couple home, thinking I might regift them to my wife. As they were not dark chocolate, and lots of calories, I told myself that would not make a good gift to someone who is trying to be healthy. So I ate them myself. Two boxes worth.

Some day I might make an entire healthy day, 100 out of 100. But don't bet on it.

Feeling Ducky

Some days you feel like a duck. Some days you don't. But even on those days when you don't feel so ducky, you can still go through the motions of a workout. Sure, if you have a major case of the flu, or food poisoning, or are recovering from an operation, maybe you have a strong case for skipping exercise. You are also skipping a rush of endorphins and the most natural way to beat back minor depression.

The bigger point is, keep at it. Don't quit before the miracle. Show some resilience. Younger Next Year is not for the weak of character. It will make you stronger, sharper. But you have to do the work.

Life is a Crap Shoot

The biggest thing I gained from Dr. Andrew Weil's book "Spontaneous Happiness" is learning meditation skills that will get me back from emotional turmoil to my emotional set point the quickest. It's all part of my Even-Steven Philosophy. If something bad happens, I believe something equally good will happen, balancing everything out. For example, in 2005 I was diagnosed with the chronic ailment neurogenic bladder. Having to catherize four times a day helped me to better understand the challenges my first wife Tina faced dealing with diabetes since the age of 2. Today, after an operation, I catherize twice a day. It's not fun. But life is more manageable, and it doesn't stop me from taking big kedging trips like the bicycle ascent of 10,945-foot Beartooth Pass on the Wyoming-Montana border northeast of Yellowstone National Park.

Having neurogenic bladder also made me more open to take on the challenges of the "Younger Next Year" program when my mom, who normally gives me religious gifts, gave me the evolutionary and revolutionary book as a 52nd birthday present in 2009. I wanted to do everything I could to stay as healthy as possible. I wanted to offset some of the inevitable challenges of neurogenic bladder and to be strong, sharp and clear.

When I lost Tina to complications of diabetes in 2007, when she was 48 and I was 50, I was devastated. Never had I gone through anything so painful as that grief. Yet deep down I knew that if I eventually got myself back to my emotional set point something good would happen. That something turned out to be meeting Teri in the fall of 2008. I had always had some dedication to physical fitness, but I had never pursued nutrition and built those skills. Teri changed that focus for me, and for that I will always be grateful. She also gave me reason to laugh and feel joy again, and another reason to work out regularly and take good care of my body.

Teri and I were married on 9-10-11. Having both lost parents at early ages to forms of cancer, we know that life is a crap shoot. There are no guarantees. But with each other's help and encouragement, through good nutrition and regular exercise, through regular contact with other people, we can grow stronger. I like to think of the Younger Next Year program as giving me the best chance at a life of both quality and quantity. And it makes me mentally stronger so I can get back to my emotional set point quicker when the inevitable turmoils of life stir the waters.

Playing the Numbers Game

Some people trying to lose weight weigh in every hour. They weigh in every time they eat a doughnut or a double bacon cheeseburger and a supersized order of fries, or a giant tub of popcorn. They get on a diet rollercoaster where they actually gain weight.

I got off the diet rollercoaster and onto a lifestyle program that works — Younger Next Year. Each week I like to weigh in. I do it first thing in the morning, before I take on water weight, without clothes, so that I can make an accurate comparison from week to week. I am no longer trying to lose weight. Maybe I never was. I just want to see where the Younger Next Year program will take me if I exercise hard six days a week and quit eating crap.

This morning I weighed 177.6 pounds. At my peak weight in life, in 2004, long before I discovered the Younger Next Year program, I weighed 240 pounds. That's a lot of weight to pack on a 5-foot-11 frame, but not uncommon in America, which is in the midst of an epidemic of obesity. I was at about 200 pounds when I discovered Younger Next Year in the summer of 2009.

Chris Crowley and Dr. Henry Lodge advise not to go on a diet but to just follow the program as closely as you can and the weight will take care of itself. They're absolutely right. Diets don't work. Lifestyles do. As the authors say in the "Younger Next Year" book, losing a pound or two will take time, but it will happen. I can live comfortably at 180 pounds. Anything below that is gravy on the cake — err, make that olive oil and vinegar on the spinach.

Preparing for Anything

It's 90 degrees. It's 20 degrees. The wind is blowing 40 mph. It's raining, cats, dogs and small frogs. It's like a sauna out there. It's like a freezer.

No matter what the conditions, what punches are thrown, it's good to work out in nature. If you wear the right clothes, you will be reasonably comfortable. And you will be training for whatever conditions you might find yourself in when you take your next kedging trip. That's the big reward for all this daily exertion, for riding bicycle intervals uphill against a 30 mph wind, as I did today.

Of course, you should hope for the best conditions when you take the trip that has captured your imagination, like bicycling up Beartooth Pass in Montana or riding around the rim of Crater Lake in Oregon. But ideal conditions are not guaranteed. And if you find yourself facing some elemental challenges on the kedging trip, if you have been diligent in your workouts, and not chickened out when the going gets tough, you can tell yourself you have faced this, and a lot worse, before, and lived to tell the tale.

'Spontaneous Happiness'

I am currently reading Dr. Andrew Weil's book "Spontaneous Happiness." I'm hoping it will help me get the emotional side of my life into balance, since that contributes so much to physical progress. It's not always easy. Sometimes, as the "Younger Next Year" authors say, you don't like all the members of your pack but you still need a pack. That's especially true for those of us still plugging away at jobs where not all our co-workers are uniformly pleasant.

We can't control what kind of cortisol, negativity, perfectionism or dogma co-workers bring to the job. We can only control our reaction to that.

I am learning various meditation techniques that should help me interrupt the whirling of the brain when co-workers act in untoward ways. One meditation technique is to do a deep breathing exercise involving the numbers 4-4-8. The other is to repeat the mantra Beartooth Pass, in honor of the 10,945-foot pass on the Montana-Wyoming border I bicycled up last summer.

Becoming better able to handle "attacks" is a long-term challenge. I can't change other people. I can only change my reaction to them and how long it takes for me to return from negativity to an optimistic emotional set point, my calm center.

Just a Regular Joe

I thought I was something special. After two years of working out 45 minutes a day, six days a week, I bumped the program up. Now I was working out an hour a day, six days a week. I told friends I had got my Associate of Arts degree in Younger Next Year and was now pursuing my Bachelor's Degree in Gray Seals. That's my own invention. Modeled after the Navy Seals, the Gray Seals involves people 50 and older willing to push their bodies to the max in pursuit of a quality life.

Then one evening I was watching a fundraising program on National Public TV starring Dr. Henry Lodge and the Younger Next Year program. There Dr. Lodge revealed that the most efficient way to get the most out of this program, and not go crazy, is to work out one hour a day, six days a week.

So goes my thunder. Now I will have to do (get the privilege to do) two more years of Younger Next Year and get my Bachelor's Degree before moving on to Gray Seals master's program, whatever that entails. The good part is I still have a year and a half before I have to figure that out.

Going to Plan B

It's great when you can don the Younger Next Year leather jacket, strap on the aviator glasses and go on automatic pilot. You shouldn't have to make a fresh decision to exercise or not eat junk each day.

Some days, though, go smoother than others. Much smoother. On other days to finish your exercise program you need to go to Plan B, Plan C, maybe even Plan Z.

Monday was just such a day. Usually I ride bike for an hour as soon after work as I can. This day, however, the new DVR recorder for my TV showed up on my doorstep, thanks to the friendly folks at UPS, and I felt obligated to hook it up before I exercised. I wanted to be able to watch TV as I rode the indoor bicycle.

Well, long story short, hooking up the DVR was relatively easy, with help from a friendly voice on the other end of the phone, a troubleshooter who happened to quick draw from Texas, but by the time the TV was up and running it was almost two hours after my usual bicycling time.

The point is, be thankful if you have developed the skills of being adaptable, because to make this program work, month in and month out, there will be days when major adaptation is the order of the day.

Sailing the Sensory Deprivation Sea

If a guy was looking to sell a lot of books, he'd promise you could lose 30 pounds in three weeks and keep it off forever working out only 10 minutes a day. "Younger Next Year" is not that program. Dr. Harry (Henry S. Lodge, MD) and Chris Crowley would probably like to make billions on the next blockbuster diet book, but their mission seems to be more important than money. And one part of that mission, as Dr. Harry points out in the fundraising video for national public TV, is encouraging people to work out six days a week, an hour a day. That's not easy. Most of us would probably rather sleep on a bed of nails. We'd rather take the five-minute cold shower to raise our metabolism.

Dr. Harry says an hour a day, six days a week is the exercise sweet spot. It's where you get the most gains without going totally nuts.

For some people, day after day of aerobics and weights can be monotonous. For me, a Scandinavian-American at peace with sensory deprivation, it never gets boring. I just ride the exercise bicycle watching "Dr. Oz" or a travel show on TV or listening to a book on tape. Or in better weather I ride outdoors and enjoy the scenery. It's more exciting than watching haircuts, usually.

Breaking the Fast

Breakfast may well be the most important meal of the day, even more important than the Midnight Snack. Breakfast is a chance to make good choices and get one-third of the way to a healthy day. During the work week, I like to start the day with shredded wheat, a banana, frozen blueberries, cinnamon and soy milk. The cinnamon helps with not only flavoring but also to slow the release of free sugar into the system for more even-Steven energy distribution.

According to nutritionist Joy Bauer, it's important to eat breakfast within 90 minutes of rising. People who wait longer, or skip breakfast altogether in hopes of losing weight, aren't doing themselves a favor. Instead, they are undermining their efforts at losing or maintaining weight. The body at that point is getting fast signals and stores calories that come in primarily as fat.

It's important each morning that we don't wait too long to break the fast.

Celebrate Good Times C'mon!

It's the end of the work week, and we want to go out on the town and celebrate a week well done. It's a reward for keeping our noses to the grindstone and figuring out solutions to pressing problems. It's also a reward for being disciplined during the week with nutrition and exercise, for enjoying super stews and super salads and not eating out of a box. It's a reward for grinding out hour after hour of aerobic exercise and weightlifting, which some days is more fun than other days.

Out on the town, we might eat and drink a few more calories than normal. We might indulge ourselves with four-legged meat, potatoes, bread and dessert. So be it. An occasional indulgence will keep us from everyday bingeing on the white foods and foods packed with sugar, salt and fat. We will celebrate — and not feel guilty in the least — knowing that overall we remain on the path toward vitality and well-being.

The Cove Comet

I'll never be mistaken for the Cove Comet, Jim Puckett, the guy who set all sorts of Oregon sprinting marks back in the 1950s. But when I get on the bike some days I feel fast. Of course, when I was in my 20s, I could average 18 mph on a bicycle, and today my best is about 15.5. So it goes. My goal of getting back to being as fast as I was as a 20-something may be unrealistic. But I have achieved my college weight, about 180 pounds, and that is a badge of honor for a 54 year old.

Some days, when my biorhythms are in synch, I feel as if I am flying down the road on the bicycle. I may never catch the Cove Comet. That's OK. Just to feel the wind in my hair — and in my "sails" — is enough.

Water Boy

Yesterday, I drank enough coffee to float a horseshoe — with the horse still attached. I need to drink more water. The "Chemistry of Calm" book recommends I drink two large glasses just as soon as I get up in the morning, so I started that routine today. Of course, it takes a month to build a habit. Check back in a month to see how I'm doing.

I also try to drink a quart of water with each hour of exercise. The exercise isn't done until the water is finished. I usually add a drop or two of lemon in the water to make it more palatable.

We're lucky to have great water in Cove. It's the nectar of the Wallowa Mountains, and consuming it is good for the soul.

The Lifestyle Diet

Don't diet, that's the headline. As the Younger Next Year authors make perfectly clear, 95 percent of diets fail. That's why whatever you choose to do, with exercise and nutrition, make it repeatable, day in and day out, week in and week out, month in and month out, year in and year out. It's got to be fun, to a degree. When you see results, and can maintain the program with lots of energy, feeling great, Younger Next Year becomes a joy.

The Great Almond Experiment

The "Dr. Oz" show, tapes of which I often watch while bicycling indoors in winter, had a guest, Tim Ferriss, author of the New York Times bestseller "4-Hour Body," who does experiments on himself. One experiment was to discover what would promote better sleep for those who tend to toss and turn. Ferriss recommended taking two tablespoons of almond butter before bedtime to stabilize blood sugar overnight and help a person feel better upon waking. Not having almond butter, I tried two tablespoons of almonds. The experiment will take several nights, of course, but on the first night I still woke up early and did my share of wrestling with the covers.

I love the idea, however, of a person conducting safe experiments on themselves and hope to read the book someday. But I think I will forego his recommended way of supercharging the metabolism — taking a five- to 30-minute cold shower each morning. I think I'll stick with exercise and green tea.

Waddle While You Work

My wife, the Wonder Woman, is an excellent baker, just like her mother before her, and on Valentine's Day Wonder goes wild in the kitchen. Over the weekend she made almond paste that was then added to her own special cinnamon rolls. Yum! And that's not all. She also made the world's loveliest loaf of bread and two kinds of cookies, plus gave me a small box of chocolates and a bunch of cinnamon gummy bears. I love gummy bears. Wonder spoils me rotten.

Now, after a day of rest, I am once again taking up my Gray Seals Younger Next Year campaign of an hour a day, six days a week of exercise. I may waddle a bit when I crawl onto the indoor bicycle this evening, but I will labor on until I burn up all these extra and well enjoyed calories.

The point is, no matter how disciplined we are, none of us will be perfect. Some days we'll eat healthy foods all day and exercise with precision and energy. Other days we'll fall short of the glory. No problem. The main thing is that we waddle over and get back on the bike.

No Offseason

Back in the Pleistocene epoch, when I went to school, we'd train for a sport during the season and then go back to being sofa slugs. We'd have a few weeks of sweaty daily doubles in football, for example, and then launch into the games. After the season, we'd go back to watching "Gilligan's Island" and eating Twinkies and Ding-Dongs.

In the Younger Next Year program, however, there is no offseason. You need to send springtime signals to your body, to grow and not decay, each day. Day after day, week after week, year after year you build incrementally on your fitness foundation.

Because of this discipline, I feel at age 54 I am in the best shape of my life. I am stabilized at 178 pounds, down from a high of 240. I feel great and have lots of energy. That's amazing considering I am now going through manopause and all the typical bodily challenges that occur in the AARP years.

I'm Just a Lightweight

OK, so I lift weights twice a week. You'd think by now, in my third year doing this Younger Next Year program, that I'd be able to lift a Volkswagen bug off a button-nose child in distress.

Not so. Unless, that is, I had a tremendous sudden release of adrenaline sparked by some crisis.

The main thing I learned at my 9-10-11 wedding to the woman I call Wonder is a lot of the menfolk in my family, and those in my wife's family, are way, way stronger than me. That's true even though I am a recovering junior college shot putter. Yes, I once tossed around a 16-pound iron ball, just for fun and giggles.

The men helping out at the wedding could lift really heavy objects like arbors that made my knees buckle and my eyes bulge. They made lifting heavy objects look effortless.

Maybe I need to lift heavier weights in my twice-a-week, hour-a-day weightlifting sessions. I need my muscles to burn more. I need to get the most return for my investment in time.

Still, I'm happy with the results I'm getting with light weights. It does wonders in the battle against minor arthritis that sneaks up on a guy in the AARP years. And it makes me not be embarrassed if I get caught without a shirt on. I am not Charles Atlas. Or Mike Tyson. And I don't really want to be. What I want to be is an endurance athlete. I want to have good muscle tone and quality of life. And if I don't win the family Volkswagen bug-hurling contest, so it goes.

I Have a Pistachio Problem

Some people have problems with booze. Cigarettes. Hoarding junk. Collecting pets. I have a pistachio problem. There, I admitted it. That's the first step toward getting help.

Every night this week, just before bedtime, I've hauled a stash of pistachios and a book to bed and read for an hour, way past my bedtime. Of course, the book is Bill Bryson's "The Thunderbolt Kid" about the author's upbringing in Iowa. I have a Bryson problem too. I love his writing. I love the way his mind works.

Sure, nuts are good fat. Nuts also have lots of calories. Moderation is the key. One recommendation is getting a nut spoon and never eating more at one sitting than can be contained in the spoon. Another good rule might be, "Never eat in bed." Boy, do I hate rules.

Catch the Endorphin Wave

Exercise is the best cheer-up medicine, and all it costs is time and effort. I especially like doing stomach crunches at work. I try to do 500 a day Monday through Thursday on my lunch hour. The crunches add up over time. They help my golf game, on the rare instances when I get to play, strengthening the core. The crunches also release endorphins, those feel-good chemicals that flood the body in the hour or two after exercise.

The exercise helps me deal in a positive way with the stresses of work. The calmer I can be, the better the quality of my life.

The S Rule

"Food Rules" by Michael Pollan offers some great advice about nutrition in small bites. One bite that I particularly like and want to adopt is the S rule: "Eat no seconds, snacks or sweets except in days that begin with the letter S." Of course, last night I grabbed a book, Bill Bryson's "Thunderbolt Kid," and a couple handfuls of pistachios and had a most enjoyable snack just before bedtime.

I am definitely a work in progress.

The S rule will be easier to follow while I am in the work world, which at the current rate of income should be about age 80. I just bring a cooler to work with snacks for 9 a.m., noon and 3 p.m., and very occasionally go out to lunch with friends. At home the refrigerator beckons at all hours. In retirement I will have to find clubs to join, volunteer activities to do and recreational pursuits to follow to get out of the house and away from the refrigerator.

With discipline, the S rule should help me maintain my weight at a healthy level, and for that even the Thunderbolt Kid might approve.

Hot Stove League

The secret to losing or maintaining weight is out of the bag. Exercise hard six days a week. That's all there is to it. Do that and you can boost your resting metabolism by 50 percent. You'll be burning more calories than the sedentary guy even if you're just sitting on the couch talking on the phone. You'll be burning more calories while you sleep.

Of course, most Americans will instead jump in with both feet to the diet pool, hoping, wishing, praying the latest fad diet will help them lose 20 pounds in a week. Seems easier than exercise. After all, who wants to sweat and burn? Some 95 percent of these people will gain back the 20 pounds and more. They'll continue on the diet roller coaster, frustrated, wondering why nothing seems to work, mystified.

Something will work. It's called motion. Exercise hard, six days a week — an hour a day of aerobics four times a week and an hour a day of weights two days a week. Dance. Jog. Bike. Swim. Walk. Do whatever activities are most fun for you. Before long you too will be losing or maintaining weight as the newest member of the Hot Stove League.

Only Splurge on Days that Start with the Letter S

Ah, the weekend. I've been good all week, living the disciplined life. I've done my four days of aerobics and two days of weights, one hour each day. I've followed the rules of two: eat twice as often, eat half as much and chew twice as long. I've followed the Indian proverb: "Drink your food, eat your drink." I've tried to get enough sleep and come up short.

Now it's the weekend. Time to let my hair down. Time to relax. Time to snack if I really, really want to. I like the saying "Only splurge on days that start with the letter S."

I never say never to anything. I try not to eat fast foods or stuff with trans fat or saturated fat. I try to eat 10 helpings of fruits and vegetables a day. I try to not deny myself things so the cravings get out of hand.

As Oscar Wilde said, "Moderation in everything — including moderation."

Maybe on the weekend I'll even sleep seven to nine hours. Hmmm.

Obsession with Weight

Too many people in America are obsessed with weight. In the Younger Next Year program, however, the weight will take of itself if, as authors Chris Crowley and Dr. Harry Lodge say, you exercise hard six days a week and stop eating crap. Crowley mentions losing 40 pounds on the program, a terrific accomplishment, and keeping it off year after year. As the authors say, it is not a diet. It is a lifestyle.

Since my top weight of 240 pounds, I've lost more than 60 pounds. That's one-quarter of my body. Not all of this occurred while I was on the Younger Next Year program, starting in earnest in August of 2009. I probably weighed about 210 pounds at that point. I weigh 178 now.

But the weight has melted off without me stepping on a scale more than once a week, or even thinking about it much. The secret? Making exercise six days a week, an hour a day a habit. And getting out of the grocery store with almost all good stuff — the complex carbohydrates, proteins and good fats.

Sure, I still indulge myself occasionally with ice cream and pizza. Sometimes I still have chips. But not often. And I know enough to feel just a little guilty with these pleasures.

Now my big challenge is not having beer at home. Dr. Lodge advises never to have a sugar pop again as long as we live. Beer is different. One a day for women and two a day for men might actually help people live longer. Any more than that can be a problem. As the authors say in "Younger Next Year," a lot more than that can be a big problem. The calories quickly accumulate. Weight builds.

I like to think of it this way. Each beer is equal to eating one more Twinkie. I even have a laminated card in my wallet that tells the toll of binge drinking. It's a long list: dehydration, fatty acids on and cirrhosis of the liver, increased weight, impaired cognitive function, diabetes, increased cancer risk, high blood pressure, stroke, moodiness, sleeplessness, motor skill decline, interpersonal problems and last, but certainly not least, shrunken brain.

Worst of all, binge drinking — that is, having three or more beers at one time more than once a month — can take six years off a person's life. Those years would be a shame to lose since the Younger Next Year program can give you quality years, if you're lucky, well into your 80s and possibly your 90s.

However long you live, you will continue to have nutrition challenges. That's a given. One difficult thing, as the endlessly virtuous Dr. Lodge advises, is to try to avoid snacking and having seconds. But in those times when we open the refrigerator or pantry, the snacking becomes less destructive.

The secret is to exercise six days a week and not eat or drink crap. Easy, almost peezy.

Blue Toes

I love riding bicycle outdoors. Even if Vitamin D from sunlight is in short supply from November through March in the northern hemisphere, even if it is foggy and 32 degrees as it was Friday, even if the only other bicyclists on the streets are ones who have recently received DUIs, I love riding outdoors.

I dress in my regular bicycle gear and then add a pair of sweats and a sweatshirt, wool cap and winter gloves. Then I jump on my bike. Before long, I get up to speed and generate plenty of heat.

I try to do intervals once a week, usually Friday afternoons, and that adds to the warmth. My mode of operation is to ride as fast as I can primarily concentrating on my right leg from one telephone pole to the next, then my left leg one telephone pole to the next, then coast one telephone pole to the next. Repeat. To get the full hour in, I ride up the modest hill at the east end of the course three times. It's a challenge, especially when a south wind is blowing in my face.

I love my Milton-Freewater course. Only problem is, when I get home and get off the bike, I notice my toes are cold. I go through a painful few minutes while they thaw. Next time, if I remember, I will wear two pairs of socks to avoid the blue toes.

Give It a Month

Home is where the heart is, not where the beer is. I'm now on Day 6 of an experiment to not bring beer home. As a former copy editor at Hazelden Educational Materials, the publishing arm of a major national drug and alcohol abuse recovery center, I know a thing or two about treatment. I also know a thing or two about relapse and addiction. It seems there is a reason why the typical treatment program lasts 28 days. It's all about building new good habits. It's about putting yourself in positive environments and figuring out new patterns where temptation is minimized.

The experiment is an extension of lifestyle changes I've already made that start with exceptional discipline at the grocery store. My goal? To have only good stuff in the refrigerator and pantry. No matter what I grab for, it will be good for me. I will not eat junk or drink junk, because I will not have brought any junk home from the store.

This isn't a diatribe against alcohol. For many people, alcohol in moderation can actually extend life. It may be OK for men to have two drinks a day and women to have one. Any more than that, however, can be a liability. A lot more can be a major problem.

It's not just the empty calories. If sugar pop is bad, sugar beer must be equally damaging. In quantity, beer can be especially damaging to health. Bingeing once a month or more can take six years off your life.

The bigger issue is, I really want to see what this Gray Seal program will do for me. And if I add 500 extra calories a day of beer, before long I will see incremental declines rather than gains. All the work — the hour a day six days a week of exercise — will be in vain.

I will give the beer-free home experiment a month. If successful, it could give me six extra years to enjoy life. A month for six years. Seems like a fair trade.

Sweat and Burn

Last evening's one-hour ride on the indoor bike ended up with me soaked in sweat. Of course, riding 15 feet away from a roaring fire in the wood stove helped. The ride helped stoke the fire of my metabolism, too.

The indoor bike is extremely durable. At this point, I have 1,450 miles on it, or the equivalent of halfway across the United States. I ride the indoor bike when light or poor weather conditions prevent outdoor rides. It takes away one more excuse to skip exercising.

I welcome the sweat. The physical portion of the Younger Next Year program encourages us to sweat when we do aerobics and to burn when we lift weights. Certainly, we want to avoid injuries or overwork. But we do want to make the most efficient gains, and monitoring the sweating and burning is a good way to do just that.

Owl Alarm Clock

This morning at 4:30 a pair of great horned owls began hooting back and forth to each other in the ponderosa pines not far from my bedroom window. I love listening to the owls. I also love my sleep. Most of us need seven to nine hours of sleep a night to repair our bodies and rejuvenate ourselves for the challenges in the day ahead. Getting less than six hours of sleep a night can be particularly devastating to health. And getting more than nine hours of sleep a night on a routine basis may be a sign of depression setting in.

Most nights, I manage six to seven hours of sleep. Not bad. Could be better. We need to be passionate about getting our z's. It's important to overall health. Give a hoot.

Junior Year

For two years I attended the Younger Next Year Junior College. I did 45 minutes a day of aerobics four times a week and 45 minutes a day of weight lifting two days a week. The whole program kicked off with the RAGBRAI bicycle ride across Iowa with 20,000 of my newest, closest most personal friends — and good buddy Bill Rautenstrauch.

I celebrated graduating from YNY Junior College by climbing Beartooth Pass in northwest Wyoming twice — first from the east side and then from the west side.

Then I moved on to the Gray Seals University. Now I do one hour a day of aerobics four times a week and one hour a day of weight lifting two days a week. This summer I plan to celebrate finishing my junior year by riding around Crater Lake with Bill.

I have not yet decided what my graduation ceremony from Gray Seals University will involve, but hopefully it will be a challenge that captures the imagination.