Miscellaneous

I like to get up in the morning after a lot of sleep, ideally about 9 hours--I think the United States is one of the most sleep-deprived nations in the history of the world! Sleep is very rejuvenating. I don't like alarm clocks and it is rare that I use one. Upon arising I do my "morning routine." The morning routine is as follows:

Start pot of hot water for morning coffee (instant--I know...yuch!) and for a one-quart mug of half-green, half-black tea. Go get paper and feed the dog and fish, while the water is heating.
Check e-mail (from students, health newsgroups, etc.) and start reading paper, while drinking the coffee and letting the two teabags steep. Later, I might add ice to any remaining tea to add variety as I finish it off, usually in early afternoon.
After finishing reading the paper, I work the crossword puzzle, do the cryptoquote (and sometimes celebrity cypher), do the Word Scrabble (or the less-preferred Word Scrimmage), try to figure out both the bridge and chess columns, and--for fun--read the horiscope and see who has birthdays.

    The preceding activities usually eat up the first hour or so of every morning! I like to think that the preceding activities are useful for "waking up my head."
    At least once a week, I like to take a good hike in the mountains behind my house; I've discovered that putting a backpack on with weights of around 30 pounds can turn hiking into something akin to actual exercise...yet, it retains that "enjoying nature" quality. And, Buddy likes it...though when it's hot he is dragging pretty bad after eight or ten miles.
    A couple of times a week, I use an elliptical trainer for a half hour or so, while watching CNN.
    At age 19 I made a promise to myself to never get to where I could not do 20 non-cheating push-ups. At least once a week I do that or more (usually 30, unless doing "superslows," in which case 10-15 is just fine!).
    I cook dinners most nights of the week, sometimes having friends over. Lots of colored vegetables, a high quality protein (filet mignon, shrimp, chicken breast, etc.) and red, or occasionally white, wine is the typical meal. It is rare for me to have any starchy carbs these days, as I'm pretty sure they (potatos, grains, bread) are bad for us...or at least less good than other vegetables that they "crowd out."