Not much time for a full report this month, so just a quickie before turning in. Bottom line is that while the sheer tonnage of snow dumped on Boston has been a pain in the ass, shoveling snow is really good aerobic exercise. And, I must say, a Roku streaming stick + Amazon Prime has made it easy to stay on the treadmill. I’ve been able to maintain my weight, despite some fun excursions and exploitation of loopholes in the rules. Also, the therabands have worked like a charm – my rotator cuff has settled down, and it no longer feels like I’m being stabbed with a paring knife.
On the negative side of the ledger, I discovered my wife’s chocolate-covered pretzels. And while I have a rule against “chocolate,” this was really for chocolate bars. Sadly, the pretzels must go.
Lastly, the “40 sit-ups per day” was meant to be a place to start, not a finish line. So for March, I’m going to be bumping those up to 60.
That’s it. Until next time!
Dan Dreams of Coding 
Rotator cuff–if you are willing and able, would you please speak more to your experiences and strategies for coping with this? Thank you.
Hi Kevin,
I’ve had problems, off and on, with my shoulders for years. Not big problems, thankfully, but at one point I had to go in for physical therapy. I was told to do exercises with therabands – the idea being that strengthening the muscles around the rotator cuff would hold my shoulders in their sockets, which would encourage better posture, and thus better motion. I did it for a while, and it helped – but then I stopped. More recently, I hurt my rotator cuff again when doing push-ups last year, and it didn’t get better. Then, in the fall, it started getting worse. So, I picked up some therabands at a sporting goods store, and committed to doing three sets of exercises every time I did a “work out”.
The exercises themselves are pretty straightforward, but have to be done carefully. The particular exercise I do is similar to what’s shown in this YouTube video from about 1:30 to 1:45. Actually, I should probably do more of these :)
The good thing is that it’s a pretty gentle exercise, but you can ramp it up over time as much as you want. You can give yourself less slack, or use thicker therabands… Anyway, I hope this helps. Best of luck!
Daniel