Rob's pick your path adventure

Did you like those pick your path books as a kid. They are the books that, at the bottom of each page you had a choice of options about what would happen next. You could read the same book several times and not end up with the same story. You always kind of knew the "right" choice, but it was always fun to pick the path that ended the story really badly.

That's kind of what happened in our house yesterday.

Exercise is generally regarded as a good thing. We have been working out a little more and are getting ready to fully launch into the P90X program. If you haven't heard of it, take a peek here. Its an extreme home workout program. I'm not sure if we are going to end up looking like body builders or aerobics instructors, but it would be a good thing to loose a couple of pounds.

We still have another vacation or two before the summer is over, so we wanted to start the program once we could go straight through the full 90 days without missing any workouts.

Here's your first choice: Did Rob (1) take it easy before starting the workout, gaining as much flab as possible so his results would be most impressive; (2) dive right into the workouts and burn out too quickly; or (3) start slowly and try to learn the program before getting serious.

To keep this short, let's say you picked (3). We just got a set of resistance bands, like these, and I put them to the test. Ripcords generally names its bands based on the color, yellow has the least resistance and blue is very heavy. We made sure we were going to be challenged so we go the whole set, including the "Black Sniper". It is the heaviest band they make.

Time for choice number 2: Did Rob (1) select a lighter band to concentrate on learning the moves; (2) select a moderate band due to his large physique; or (3) go all out for the Black Sniper?

Again, you choose 3. Now guess what happens when you combine the Black Sniper with a wall bracket really made for drapes and a motivated Rob? Yep, you guessed it, a trip to the plastic surgeon. You can see the pictures here, but they are pretty graphic so be careful.

So when I pulled on the band the bracket on the wall came loose and hit me right on the nose. I was very fortunate to not get hit in the eye, but I have a nice shiner now. I stopped the bleeding and Steph and I got the kids up and headed to the emergency room. It was pretty early so Steph took the kids back home. I'll tell you, its never good to have the doctor call in other doctors to show them what you did to yourself.

The ER doc said that because I had done such a good job on the depth and shape of the cut, I would need a plastic surgeon to patch it up. I always thought that if I had plastic surgery I would have liposuction and not need to work out anymore. Well, I got half of what I expected. The plastic surgeon sewed me up and said that I can't work out for the next three weeks. So much for starting P90X in 10 days.

I hope you can all laugh at my pain a little bit. It looks really bad, but I'm really just fine. I ice my face a lot and the stitches should come out on Friday. I think Steph was wanting me to look tougher when we started this workout program, somehow I don't think this is what she had in mind.