Colin's Journal

2007-03-21

New Year's Resolution

My new year's resolution was going great, until a few weeks ago... I had what I thought was a brilliant plan to get into shape; Every time I went to the bathroom at work, I had to do 25 pushups. Any time I was able to complete that set without collapsing, I had to bump the requirement up by 5. Exceptions were made if I was staying late or had already been in the last half hour, and I got a day pass if I was sick.

I know it sounds a bit crazy (or at least that's what I've been told), but let me explain why it's not a terrible plan:

  1. I drink a lot of water at work, so my trips to the bathroom are many, and evenly spaced.
  2. If I link my exercise regimen to an "if/then", then I don't have to do it on a schedule, which would be difficult with my random unplanned life
  3. If I'm really really busy or in the middle of something, I don't take a bathroom break. By definition, when I go to the bathroom, I have a few minutes to spare.
  4. Contrary to what everybody has said, our bathrooms are large and regularly cleaned. The floor was not filthy; I used a section that was to the side, away from any foot paths. And I was washing my hands afterwards anyway, so what's the harm?


It was working great, and I managed to make it up to 80 at a time! I found some weasel room in the rules; I didn't always have to go down to the same level. But my first set of the day was always all the way down ("honest"), so it wasn't too bad.

But now we've switched to a new office building. There's still only one toilet in the bathroom, but now it's in a stall, so you can't lock the outer door. Which means I have no privacy, and I'm too self-conscious to let people watch me exercise. And I was so close! I was only going to go up to 100 honest, and then maintain that and switch to a new exercise. I need to find a new location.

I tried outside, underneath a fire escape (shady spot shielded from the weather), but wasps moved in on the second day I was using it, and I'm too nice to evict them. I tried an abandoned office across the hall from our own, but our CEO moved into it shortly after and put a lock on the door (not that he's even here more than a few hours a week). I tried our server closet, but they installed a new card-based security system, and our COO locked the permissions down tight.

I'm running out of ideas! If the second-floor landing in an under-used stairwell doesn't work out, I may have to give up altogether. :-(

2 Comments:

  • Can you (or a maintenance person) spray the wasps? That might be your best bet. The way you explain it, it seems almost non-crazy!

    Everytime I go to the bathroom, I have to name 25 US presidents, and I can't ever give the same 25 that I've given before. If I pee 5 times per day, I figure it will take me about 333347423 years to exhaust them all. That's assuming we never have more US presidents than we've had so far... hmm, that's a complicated calculation.

    By Blogger Derek, at 2:04 PM  

  • I hope the floors are clean, else your in for some nasty bacteria!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 7:38 AM  

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