Addiction...

So as most of you know, I have an extremely addictive personality.  Whenever I get into something, I REALLY get into it.  My common rotation is as follows, in no particular hierarchy/preference:

- Brazilian Jiu Jitsu
- Kickboxing/Muay Thai
- Weight Lifting/Working out/Fitness
- Running
- Comic Books (Preferably DC, but currently in Marvel for some reason)

Depending on my mood or whatever else is going in my life, I'm required to rotate it all given my level of free-time.  Currently, I'm into comic books and running/cross-training because I've had extremely "early" mornings (like...waking up as early as 2:30am "early"...some call it "night"), so I'm beat tired after work to go to the gym in order to either teach or train.  While I love the gym, I have to budget my time because it's just as much of a social activity for me as it is my physical/mental escape for the day.  This can easily eat up several hours, which I honestly just don't have.  Plus, I'm running in a Tough Mudder on November 2nd, so I'm racking up some road work in order to get my running efficiency up a little more.

I also have to budget my time in order to spend time with my beautiful wife...who also works (and works out) quite a bit.  Thankfully we are "blessed" (aka, we've positioned ourselves in life to be able to afford luxuries) to own basically a full-gym in the garage, complete with power-cage, olympic weights, and various other fun "toys" to maintain our physical fitness/wellness.  We also live in a fairly nice neighborhood where we feel safe enough (nice neighbors, low traffic, and plenty of street lights) to run regularly at night.  It's a great opportunity to get out in the neighborhood and "snoop" a little too (no, I'm not going to go all George Zimmerman on anybody.)  When when given a choice between spending time AND exercising with my wife or rolling around with sweaty men, I choose the former.

Comic books are always the fall-back and I always have those strewn about the house...I still have several in the bathroom and several on my bedstand.  I have my backpack (aka, nerd bug-out bag) loaded up with several comics for weekend days where Stacy and I don't have anything planned, other than going somewhere we can read or we visit her family or something and I get bored.  Comic books are honestly my religion and my mythology.  Most lessons in life I've learned and my strong sense of morality probably come from reading comic books since I was 10 years old.  It's probably why I have extreme body image issues and why I train in things like martial arts.  Obviously, as an adult, I've learned to transcend those silly reasons that originally got me hitting the gym and learning to fight and whatnot, but I can't help but think I have that little fat kid inside me somewhere who wants to be a superhero.

Anyways, I get really addicted to things...I'm just very lucky to have chosen the (what I think, at least) the "right" (non-self destructive) stuff.  I'm also very lucky to have a family (especially my wonderful wifey) who supports me and lets me get away with spending countless hours (not to mention dollars) training, working out, running, and buying crap to continue my addictions.

- Strength and health