Monday, June 16, 2008

Sporty Dennis

When it comes to feeling healthy, I think I have turned my life around.

I've become more sporty; I go for a run every other day and do sit-ups, push-ups and power training the days I'm not running.

I eat more healthy stuff; still not up to 4 pieces of fruit every day but at least I have a balanced diet; I eat cheese on bread, lean ham, grapes or apple as a snack, pasta, fish, almost no potatoes anymore, etc. One thing, 'though; I'm hooked on ice cream. It's taking on a form of addiction; not just any plain flavor of ice cream, but the Ben & Jerry's ones. They have unstoppable combinations ; Strawberry cheese cake (strawberry ice cream with chunks of graham cracker crust mixed through it); Cake batter (Yellow cake batter ice cream with swirls of chocolate vanilla fudge); Pistachio with caramel cookie chunks; and so on.

It's just too good to pass when you're roaming the grocery store. Boy, am I going to miss my B&J ice cream when I get back to Belgium !

We went to the batting cages yesterday. That's where you swing a bat at balls being warped from a machine. You can pick either softballs (the bigger ones) or baseballs (the tiny weeny ones) and you can also pick the speed the machine will throw them at you; soft pitch - 40 MPH or 50 MPH.

There were a few people practicing in the cages, wearing no helmets or protective gear whatsoever, and all I could see were warning signs that said : Bat at your own risk - wear protective gear - we will not scrape you of the floor..

OK, I made that last one up.

So we went in without protective gear - hey, we didn't want to come off as pussies - and hit our first (soft)ball. Aki of course had some practice already and swung the bat vigorously, hitting almost every ball.

My first try was a - well maybe not a complete - disaster. But I was improving with every round. By the third round of hitting softballs at 40 MPH, I wanted to try swinging for baseballs at 40 MPH. What a difference ! There was a I think 12 year old kid standing two cages next to us, whacking baseballs as if it were flies, and I barely hit three out of 10 or something. I guess it does take some practice.

The last round of soft balls at 50 MPH were rather painful for the wrists. The first 3 swings felt more like I was just barely stopping the balls with my bat, rather than hitting them in to the field (aka cage). But by the 4th ball, I felt unbeatable. I kicked some softball ass.

Feeling all pumped up, we went to a giant sports store to look for sport outfits and stuff. In the end, Aki almost bought two folding chairs she can use at festivals, and I bought a Nike T-shirt that says "Cornell Lacrosse" even though I don't play Lacrosse. I guess we're not that big of sports fans after all. :)

Since we were out shopping near the mall, I picked up the last items I wanted before moving back to B; two pair of really cool pajama pants, some underwear (2 for 10 bucks), and some t-shirts. Old Navy had a bunch of shirts on sale and since it was Sunday a lot of the normal sizes (which are Small and Medium) were already gone. Some times I was lucky to find one small or medium sized shirt tucked away (or hiding from greedy human fingers) behind a stack of very lonely ugly shirts. I grabbed whatever I could and headed for the fitting rooms with about 6 or 7 shirts. One of them I bought. 3.99. What a sale. The rest of them was too small, too big, made me look like a wrinkled garbage bag or a bag of potatoes.

I better keep up that work out schedule..

6 comments:

Lore said...

Goed bezig! Legt vinger op borstkas en doet *ssssss*!
smokin'!

Tozansha said...

you were doing really good in those cages for a first time! You got the right technique, the power to hit the ball and now you can join the local softball team in Belgium as soon as you get back!

Keep up the good work!!

bittersweet said...

Woow! R.E.S.P.E.C.T !
Je doet het al beter dan ik!

Enne, die B&J is hier wél te vinden hoor ;)

Anonymous said...

kiekeboe!!
wooo, echt goe bezig man! kent ge da liedje van Kanye West - workout plan moet ge echt is naar luisteren! past bij u! :p

ik ben trouwens ook vandaag beginnen lopen...fioew, moeilijk, zwaar, kdoe het eigenlijk nie graag! ma ik ga ervoor!

go Dennis, go Dennis, goooooo Denniiiiis!!

;)
Wendy

bittersweet said...

Tis echt besmettelijk dat Start-to-run. Ik vind dat we dat moeten boycotten :)

Kirsten said...

how fun for you guys! way to go getting all in shape and stuff!

I LOVE finding those awesome deals at Old Navey. I have a dress/tunic that I bought there for $.99 and I love it.