Moving the Blog

This blog means a lot to me, so it's with much sadness that I'm moving locations. Blogger no longer publishes an app for iPhone and uploading pictures has proven to be a huge pain in the ass. I'm taking my talents to WordPress, and you can find me at:

https://kogabrand.home.blog/

Hope to have some content up soon. Thanks for the memories, Blogger.

3 out of 3!

Went for a short bike ride on the 2nd and a short run today, the 3rd. Accra is too insane to do much exercising outdoors and I would never ride a bike around the Central Business District but we found some quiet streets on the University of Ghana campus and had a fun time touring the grounds yesterday. Today, my calves were stiff and some blisters are forming so I just did one of the loops outside of Cliff's compound for a whopping 1.5 miles. Still counts!





We're at the Accra Airport now, enroute to the island nation of Sao Tome and Principe. Looking forward to running along the beach tomorrow AM!

New Year Fitness

This blog has seen a lot of changes since its inception in 2005(!). The first few years were focused on poker, then travel, then a year of tracking a push-up bet. That was probably the lamest year of the bunch, but I'm willing to bet that 2019 can be even lamer!

I've decided to keep the focus on fitness, but include mental and spiritual in addition to physical this time. I would like to read 12 books, one per month, and write short reports on each one. I'd like to meditate or do yoga a few times a week. I'd like to do something physical every single day of the year. There's so many ways to get the heart going, and I think the best athletes are the ones who find a way to run occasionally, bike occasionally, lift weights occasionally, and always keep their bodies moving.

In December, I decided to start lifting weights again and eating healthy and expected huge results by the New Year. Unfortunately, eating right and working out at 38 years old doesn't yield the same easy results that it did at 30. I definitely got stronger and lost some of my gut, but it was more of an incremental change than what I was hoping for. Molly and I are heading to Hawaii at the end of February and I'd like to have a sweet beach bod by then so I'm going to have to spend the next two months eating well decently and working out every day and I'm thinking I should see some results.

So that's what this blog is going to be for the next year (at least). I want to keep myself accountable and link whatever I record on Strava every day in addition to any reading, meditating, yoga, and weight lifting that I do. Here's hoping that I keep it up and can make it somewhat interesting along the way!

I started the year with a short 3-mile run in Accra, Ghana with my bro and sis-in-law. For some reason, we decided to go at 3 PM so it was hot as blazes. It felt good to get some miles in and I'd really like to hit 500 for the year. 497 to go!