The Habitat Workout Plan

May 28
Amarante, Portugal
Reading: Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
Songs on repeat: Whistle While You Work from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

The Habitat Exercise Plan

Weight Training
Bucket swinging: Using buckets filled with 7-10 pounds of cement, pass to partner in assembly line fashion. Use biceps, forearms, shoulders and trapezius muscles. Repeat for 3 hours.

Beam filling: Use same buckets to pour cement into rebarb lined beams. Using gluts, biceps, and shoulders, lift bucket overhead and pour until bucket is empty. Repeat for 3 hours.

Passing the bucket: Using stairs and scaffolding, pass cement-filled buckets back and forth down assembly line. Use legs, not back, to lift bucket. Use shoulders to keep bucket steady when passing upwards. Repeat for 3 hours.

Rest: Pass empty buckets back down stairs. Do as needed.

Cement making: Fill buckets with assorted rocks, sand and mix using shovel or hands, as convenient. Focus on gluts, inner thighs and shoulders.

Cardio
Carrying buckets (either cement or rock filled will work) run up and down 15 steps repeatedly.

Balance and Flexibility
Focusing on proper form, balance filled buckets and walk carefully across scaffolding or wooden beams. Use core to balance.

Break at lunch

Repeat entire routine for another 4 hours. For added difficulty, use cement-crusted gloves and pants for resistance.

* * * * *

I came up with a new book idea. "The Philanthropy Workout". Highlighting volunteer jobs that include manual labor, it would be a book that shows you best techniques to use, which volunteer jobs work what body parts, how to pick the volunteer job that fits into your workout schedule and where to find them. I´m kinda excited. If I can structure it right, I think it´ll work. (Need to figure out how to copyright or pitch asap before someone takes the idea, since I´m putting it out there on the interwebs. Attn stealers: this idea is copyrighted me.)

Keeping in theme with the fitness title, I realized today that I have taken a lot of pictures of meals and bottles of wine. This is for a few reasons. 1) Food and wine make me very happy. 2) Sampling new things are a huge part of my "out of my comfort zone" mission. Hence, pictures of meals and wine bottles to remind me of what I´ve tried the last 6 days.

I´ve lost track of the number of wines we´ve tried. There is a local type called green wine. It´s not actually green and there are red or white varieties. It feels thinner than the wine I´m used to, but the locals really enjoy it.

I´m a big fan of the local chocolate. We´ve had chocolate mousse after almost every meal. Not just typical chocolate mousse. This is rich, decadent, velvety, enticing, mouth-melting, real cocoa mousse. I can´t get enough. The kind we had tonite tasted like brownie batter that had just been whipped and sculpted into the dish. I would feel guilty after polishing off my 3rd or 4th mousse in as many nights, but with the workout plan from above, my guilt suddenly disappears.

Tomorrow is our last day of the build and I´m really sad to go. Besides splitting from the team, there are some incredible locals that I will be sad to leave. I already know I´m returning to Portugal soon and will have the best tour guides on hand. Amarante is such a cute, fun town. It´s quiet but you can feel how close knit the people are. They have so much pride and care about their town. It´s inspiring to see. I can see myself visiting here often.

Boa noite!