Bright Lights, Big City

[Times Square Photo: Francisco Diez]

It's funny, Times Square has to be one of my least favorite New York 'hoods, but I love the way this photo captures the sense of being in certain parts of New York City.

The energy! The ambition! The excitement! The cheerfully wasteful excess as bazillions of kilowatts are unleashed solely to promote mindless consumerism!

Though I'm sorry, if you are a certain age, this location may have tripped a few rusty switches in the memory banks. Massive apologies if I have subjected you to Eva Gabor and Eddie Albert debating country versus city living in one of the most annoying tv theme songs earworms ever. Or is it just me who can't see "Times Square" without hearing:

 "The Chores!"

 "The Stores!"

 "Fresh Air!"

 "Times Square!" ?

(Which then leads to the worst couplet of all:

 "You are my wife..."

   "Goodbye, city life!" 

...but we'll save that rant for another time).

Eva Gabor: Not Exactly a Feminist Icon

Anyway, so what does New York City have to do with health and fitness?

Crabby Gets Schooled

As regular readers may recall, I am now in the process of studying for the ACE Health Coach Certification which I will take in about week's time.  According to the Trans-Theoretical Model of Change (which they are very big on at ACE), I seem to be moving from Stage II: Slothful Procrastination, to Stage III, Freak Out and Realize it's Time to Get Your Ass in Gear.

So, rather than attempt to scrounge up breaking news about an important health and fitness topic, I decided it might be a good time to put the "Cranky" back into Cranky Fitness! So how 'bout I slop together a quick post bitching about test-related matters? Gosh, doesn't that sound fun!

Yeah, ok, may it doesn't.  But here we go anyway. Perhaps you guys have something to complain about too and we can all grumble and commiserate for a bit.

Because while I may be a firm believer in taking control of your mindset and adopting helpful thoughts and all... well sometimes you gotta get the tantrums out of the way first.

10-20-30 (Or 30-20-10) Interval Training

Three out of three formidable German women suggest you do 10-20-30's

So, what starts off slowly, then gets more uncomfortable, then downright painful, then proceeds to repeat itself over and over and over 'til you want to puke?

Why yes, it's a Cranky Fitness blog post!

But this also describes the exercise I love to hate, high intensity interval training, or HIIT. And there's a newish variation, getting all kinds of rave reviews of late, called the "10-20-30."

Curious about the why's, how's, when's, whether's, and whatevers? Let's check out this puppy out.

Time Travel For Fun and Profit

Sorry, this is not about "time travel" in the technologically sexy sense, telling you how to dial up a year and be physically transported there right this minute.

Nah, this is the more boring kind: psychological time travel.  This just allows you to use your imagination to communicate with your future self, potentially allowing you to optimize, or at least not totally screw up, your coming years.

However, there are, even now, some virtual "time machines" out there that actually facilitate this process, if you care to go all Marty McFly and try to tinker with the fourth dimension.

Wait, this movie came out nearly 30 years ago?
Clearly someone must have messed with the space/time continuum.