But not entirly in a bad way.

Whenever you are told that you are not pulling your weight, its always a hard thing to swallow.

Whether that its in your personal or professional life, espesially when you thought you were doing an alright job.

But settling for just alright should not be what I am happy with, because it never was the case in the past.

Sometimes it does take a kick in the butt to jumpstart your creative juices to make you process at the best of your ability and exceed expectations.

Never the less, there is still a great big "Fuck You!" is needed to be said...but in keeping with my aforementioned diatribe, I am going to keep this one to myself and just think it instead.

The Longest Hump Day of The Year

The Wednesday separating Christmas and New Year's seems to be the worst hump day of all the year long.

Especially when both of the aforementioned holidays falls on the weekend.

Christmas Eve and half of Jesus' B-day was spent at the family's house of my roommie. Fun times was had by all of course, but I was anxious to return to the sanctity of having to apartment to myself for a few days while he finished visiting with his family for a few more days.

A day after Christmas, I prepared brunch for a few of my own family members who made the trek in to the inner-city to come and visit, which does not happen very often. In fact, my closest family members; that being my three younger brothers and my mother, were not able to attend so I spent the afternoon placating my cousins over services of eggs, potatoes, sausage/egg biscuit's and a plethora of other brunch items.

This coming weekend plans to be a bit more adventurous, only one day being saved to let my hair down and party like it was 1999...oh I mean 2011.

The best part of the weekend will be the Monday following New Years when I have taken off from work to recuperate from the Holiday season as a whole.

Again, today seems to be the longest hump day of the year!

John Legend - Everybody Knows (Cover)

Too cute...in more ways than one!

Just What Your Workout is Missing?

I have spent the better half of the past decade attempting to get back into shape…and so far I have done an OK job but I am not nearly at the point in which I want to be. My laisez-fair attitude about getting back into shape and my hopes of losing a few pounds and tightening your love handles have done just that; gone by the waist side.

But I am trying not let the winter cold keep me bundled up inside. Every time I hit the gym, I try and think back to how excited I am when I first begin a workout routine or the first time you walked into the fitness center; membership in hand, with the determination to get back into shape. I try and use this nostalgia as motivation.

For men, gym visits typically comprise of lifting the most weight that we possible can while women tend to focus more on calorie-fighting workout with cardio. The two groups definitely have the correct idea; fostering an active lifestyle from sedentary one in order to stave off such things like heart disease and obesity. Both strength training and cardiovascular training are essential to creating a well rounded workout routine, but there is a third component which many forget. And that is the importance of stretching. By incorporating this component, you will revitalize your workout and begin to see the results which you wanted to see in the beginning of the year.

An easy and effective way to incorporate stretching into your weekly workout routine is take up the ancient practice of yoga. In recent years, yoga has increased in popularity and though many see it as a fad, this ancient practice of stretching, breathing and mediation has been around for centuries. One misconception pertaining to yoga is that is only for women. Though yoga incorporates emphasis on the core and does not include large bursts of energy and motion which is typical of a most men's workouts, its benefits greatly outweigh its mild persona. By adding the following basic yoga moves before or after your workout, your muscles will be more susceptible for healing, in turn creating faster muscle growth.

Standing Thigh Stretch

Standing, place feet directly under your shoulders, squaring your stance. Take a deep breath and as you exhale, slowly reach for your toes, keeping your legs as straight as possible.Lunge Your right leg should be in front of you with your left leg to the back of you. Place your right hand just next to your right foot, palms facing down, shifting the weight of your body so that you feel the stretch in your left hip. Hold for 5 to 8 breaths and then repeat for the other side of your body.

Plank

Taking a deep breath, move your left leg to meet your right (at this point, your right leg should be behind you). At the same time, both your hands should be supporting your weight in a push up position. Hold this position for 5 to 8 deep breaths.

Upward Dog

Slowly lower your upper body to about one inch off the ground or mat. Keeping your lower body as close to the ground as possible, straighten your arms, lifting your upper body to a 90 degree angle (or as close to it as possible). Take 5 to 8 deep breaths looking skyward. Repeat number of breaths rotating your gaze over your right shoulder, than over you left shoulder.

Repeat the previous stretches in reverse order until return to the beginning standing position.Of course this is not the end all and be all of yoga. There are varied positions, poses and techniques which will greatly enhance your performance and stamina. But for beginners like me, by incorporating these few stretching exercise, you will be buying a yoga mat in no time.