Rafe Brox

I’m a geek who’s into fitness, or a fit guy who geeks out a lot (both about computers and fitness stuff). I have my own fitness blog, which is admittedly a bit more \\\"hardcore\\\" than what you\\\'ll find here, but there\\\'s nothing stopping anyone from playing a rousing game of \\\"Try to keep up with the guy in the skirt.\\\" \n\n(IT\\\'S A KILT, DAMMIT.)

It’s all in your head

Health News No Responses »

Nov 122010

Homer Simpson (c) Fox Media

Well, maybe not entirely, but some recent research does bring up an interesting point: if we think what we’re doing is good exercise, does it actually become good exercise?

It’s certainly true that our attitude towards exercise itself informs our enthusiasm and performance – if you dread getting on the treadmill, it’s going to feel like it sucks, or if you’re fired up about a game of ultimate frisbee, you’re primed to go all-out. But what these researchers did was more subtle – they simply told people that what they already do on the job was considered to be a healthy level of exercise. There wasn’t any additional work or exercise being done, just that mental seed being planted.

It worked.

Back on the horse

Fitness Programs, Personal 1 Response »

Sep 232010

Look at your blog, now back to me...

We spend a lot of time talking about how to begin an exercise or healthy eating plan around here. A slightly cynical take on this phenomena is: The most popular day to start isn’t “Monday,” it’s “tomorrow.”

But what about the folks who have already gotten into good habits, but hit speed bumps in the course of living that knocks them off their stride and out of their routine? We’ve had our share here, as well – and not just the expected interruptions of convention season (I broke my hand in the process of putting together a backyard gym, talk about annoying irony). To be sure, Mike seems to have had a great time at GenCon, and all three of us enjoyed Dragon*Con, even if, between the three of us, we worked something like a hundred and forty hours in addition to being fans and guests over the long weekend. In the wake of stuff like this, or a business trip, or a nasty cold, or anything else that gets in the way, it might be hard to get back in the groove.

So, how do you get your mojo back?

Shrinkgeek vs Dragon*Con 2010

Site Meta No Responses »

Aug 302010

Dragon*Con is here! It’s that time of year again. No, not just time for students to go back to school, or the musings about Halloween costumes becoming more serious.

It’s time for Dragon*Con, where your illustrious hosts will be herding geeks, participating in MMORPG discussion panels, and generally having a grand old time. While we’re not going to be giving any fitness-specific talks, it’s probably safe to say that we’ll be keeping an eye out for healthy eating destinations, at least some of the time. And, since some of us (okay, maybe it’s just me) have a penchant for being up first thing in the morning whether we want to or not, it’s likely that we’ll taking the hotel fitness center and hot tub for a spin.

Plus, of course, there are all the fabulous celebrities, vendors, and friends we don’t get to see nearly as often as we’d like. The Supplement-IT folks have told me that they’ll be around somewhere, too; I’m planning on swinging by to say howdy.

And, yes, there will be a fair number of calories burned because of us – Krystalle and Rafe will be spinning six hours’ worth of very danceable tunes at the MMO Gathering of Heroes party on Saturday night.

CEO-flavored insanity: An interview with Onezumi

Interviews, Uncategorized 2 Responses »

Aug 192010

Oni's Gun Show

There’s a new convention on the calendar, put on by the irrepressible and alarmingly driven Onezumi Hartstein. Not only is she the driving force behind a new art and webcomic convention, she also draws a couple of webcomics of her own, as well as provides advice and guidance to aspiring web artists. Shoehorned around all this are a day job and a dedication to fitness that make us say, “Damn, woman.”

After a fair bit of wrangling, strategic tentacle deployment, and the dangled carrot of a future arm-wrestling match, we managed to duct-tape her to a folding chair long enough to drag some answers out of her to see exactly how she fits this much energy into one human body.

Attack of the Triffids

Dieting On A Budget, Food, Money-saving No Responses »

Aug 112010

Make your own "choppin' broccoli" joke here.

Sinfest (c) Tatsuya Ishida

It’s practically a given – if you buy a pre-packaged “healthy” meal, it’s all but guaranteed to have broccoli in it. This penchant for bundling the ubiquitous green stuff is so pronounced that some metalhead friends of ShrinkGeek have likened an unwanted opening act that performs at numerous shows headlined by more desirable bands, “The broccoli of metal.”

What, however, is behind this? Why does broccoli wear the mantle of “default healthy food” in the same way that bacon and cheeseburgers are shorthand for “crap that is bad for you”?