Author Archives: Hector Perla

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About Hector Perla

Author | Attorney | Advocate for the Accused & Incarcerated. Turning the pain of being falsely accused into a blessing for others.

A Simple Process for Building an Early Morning Workout Routine: Start of My 3rd Week (Day 16)

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4:45am start today. Earlier than usual. But not as early as I had planned. I set my alarm for 4:15am. But for the first time since I started my routine, I consciously hit the snooze button. 2x. So not happy with myself for that. Still I know why and I know how to overcome that. I went to sleep too late. Tonight I will go to sleep on time and tomorrow no excuses I’ll be up at 4am.

The good thing is that at 4:45am I ran through my routine. Cold water with vinegar. Boil water in the electric kettle. Pour coffee (decaf) in the filter. Drink my water. Go to the restroom. Wash my face. Get dressed. And grab my stuff to head out the door. I didn’t even pour the hot water over the coffee. I just left it there and took off.

Got to the gym by 5:02am. My earliest start so far! Today was supposed to be a lifting day. It kinda was. I ran through shoulder rehab. Then ran through about 40 minutes of sets for my chest, shoulders, lats, and legs. With sets of sit ups and side bends in between to rest.

Finished off with cardio. 20 minutes on the elliptical machine. It was still pretty dark outside as I looked out the window (the elliptical machine and treadmills face out the window). Then a mile on the treadmill. Easy pace about 4.5mph to about 5mph. Got a light sweat. Definitely not drenched like yesterday. Took me about 12 minutes to finish the mile. And done. Not too worried that it was a light workout, because I’m planning to workout again at lunch.

Decided to jog back home. Not really decided. Just started jogging and kept doing it. That got me sweating a little bit more. Sit ups. Shave. Shower. Get dressed.

Now it’s time to drink my coffee and finish writing my daily blog post. 🙂

Have a great day.

A Simple Process for Building an Early Morning Workout Routine: Start of My 3rd Week (Day 15)

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I’m ready! Up at 5:12am. Alarm was set to go off at 5:15am. Woke up straight from a dream. I love waking up like that because I find that my mind feels refreshed when something in the dream makes me wake up. Must be something about the sleep cycle. If anyone knows please share it with me in the comments.

Run through my early morning wake up routine. Although in honesty, I find myself running through this routine even on my rest days (Sat & Sun). Today first thing I did was dismiss the alarm so it wouldn’t go off unnecessarily. Get up. Walk to the kitchen. Pour a glass of cold water. Put a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar in it. Make sure the electric kettle has water in it. Turn it on. Drink my water. Go to the restroom.

Wash my face with cold water. Dry it. On days when I’m really tired I repeat this process once or twice more. Until my eyes feel at least semi-“normal.” Today, no need to repeat. I went to sleep early and slept well.

Walk back to the kitchen. Pull out a coffee filter. Put coffee in the filter (always decaf), two teaspoons. Only on rare days when I’m really exhausted to I substitute a teaspoon of regular for one of the decaf. I think the decaf does the trick by itself most days because it has a placebo effect. Next, I pour the hot water over the coffee. Enough to make one cup. I like it strong and bitter. Something about that taste helps me wake up. But I don’t drink it right away. It’s too hot.

Photo by lilartsy on Pexels.com

Instead I go put on my gym clothes. Most days I do a few sets of sit ups. This has been the hardest and least consistent part of my routine, doing these sit ups. It’s easy to skip and think I’ll just do them in the gym and when I get back. And it’s true. I do them in the gym and when I get back. But that’s not the point. It’s part of the routine and I’m supposed to do them. In any case, there you go… that’s been my biggest stumbling block in the routine.

Then I drink my coffee. It’s cooled down just enough. Usually I only drink half the cup and then I’m out the door. I usually drink the other half when I get back. I just boil some more water and pour that in to reheat it. That’s what I did today.

Out the door at about 5:25am. Got to the gym about 5:40am. About ten minutes later than I had hoped. But still way better than I was doing before I started this routine! Sometimes I used to stroll into the gym around 7am when my target was 6am.

Did my band work for rehab on the hips. Rehab strengthening for the shoulders. A set of squats, one of deadlifts. Preacher curls. Decline bench press. Leg kicks. And now I’m warmed up.

Today is a cardio day. I decide to start on the treadmill. Nice and slow. 4.5 mph pace. My arms and shoulders are tight from the lifting. Try to shake them out and relax into the run. My goal is to run 2 miles today. A nice and easy “foundation” or “recovery” run. I like to steadily increase my pace as I get deeper into the run. I end up running at about a 5 mph pace. Takes me about 25 minutes to run my 2 miles.

Then a half hour on the elliptical machine at level 10. Again not huffing and puffing. But decent pace that gets me sweating profusely. My the time I get off the machine, I’m drenched. I take off the wet tank top and put on my clean T-shirt to weigh myself, 205. Basically the same that I weighed last week. I didn’t lose any weight last week.

I’m going to try something this week. I’m going to reverse what I have been doing the last week. I’m going to go heavier on the cardio and lighter on the weights. By that I mean MWF will be cardio days and TTH will be lift days this week. Let’s see what happens with my weight. I’ll keep you posted on what I find.

Have a great day! See you tomorrow.

Second Week of My New Morning Workout Routine: Day 14 Sunday

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This morning was a little weird. I ended up waking up at 4am and I couldn’t go back to sleep until about 6:30am. I didn’t get up and start my routine at that time because I hadn’t gone to sleep until midnight. I know 4 hours of sleep is not enough. I could feel it.

Listened to a couple of chapters of an audiobook that I just started. Usually that helps me relax and get back to sleep. But this book did the opposite. It’s really good. It had me riveted and I kept wanting to hear more. I wanted to find out what was going to happen next.

[Side note: The book is called Redeeming Justice: From Defendant to Defender, My Fight For Equity On Both Sides Of A Broken System. It’s by Jarrett Adams. It’s his autobiographical account of being falsely accused of rape, being charged as an adult at age 17, having completely ineffective assistance of counsel, getting wrongfully convicted, going to prison for 10 years, getting in touch with the Wisconsin Innocence Project, getting exonerated, and coming out of prison. But that’s just where the story starts! He decides to go back to school. First junior college. Then to get his BA. Then he applies, gets into law school, and graduates. His goal? To fight for other wrongfully convicted people and to get them out of prison. Today he is an attorney. The book opens with the story of his current clients, convicted of killing a police officer, and his fight to get them justice so they can get back home to their loved ones. Very powerful and inspiring story! Here’s a link to his webpage: https://jarrettadamslaw.com/redeeming-justice ]

After two hours, I realized that listening to this book was not going to let me fall asleep. Decided to put on some meditation music. Listened for a little while and I was asleep in no time. Woke up around 830am.

Ran through my routine. Water. Electric kettle. Coffee. Restroom. Washed my face. Put on workout clothes, minus shoes and socks today. Drank my coffee. Instead of going for a run, hitting the gym, or even going on a walk, I’ve decided to do a yoga routine. I haven’t been doing yoga since I started my early morning routine.

But when I was running 5 to 10+ miles per day before COVID, I had a whole yoga workout routine that I would go through after each run. It was amazing. I got it from a physical therapist who helped me rehab some pain with my IT band and plantar fascia. Got rid of all my issues pretty quickly. Yoga for runners, that’s what she called it. She said it was one of the best things I could do to prevent getting injured as I ran faster, farther, and longer.

Well since I’ve gotten back into the habit of running and lifting on a daily basis and blogging about it, a few yoga bloggers have liked my posts, so that reminded me that I need to start incorporating yoga back into my training schedule. So shout out to the yoga bloggers who’ve been supportive.

Then I was talking with my good friend from the East Coast, who’s also a runner, and he mentioned that he’s been doing a really good routine. I asked him to send it to me and he did. After going through it, I’ll let you know if I recommend it. So that’s what I’m about to do!!

Photo by Prasanth Inturi on Pexels.com

Also, if anyone has any other suggestions of good yoga-for-runners routines, please feel free to pass them along. Thanks! Have a great day!

Second Week of My New Morning Workout Routine: Day 13 Saturday

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Had a great evening last night and an amazing morning earlier today. Last night got to socialize with a friend who I hadn’t seen since before COVID. She’s in town for a conference. She joined me at a local bar where I had gone with a few friends from work for happy hour.

After that, we went to dinner at a Brazilian churrascaria. If you’ve never had Brazilian churrasco, make it a point to try it ASAP! It’s all-you-can-eat meat cooked on spits over an open fire.

This place had 15 different cuts of meat available, plus chicken, linguica, and also lobster. On top of that, there was an endless buffet of side dishes. Shrimp, Caprese salad, potato salad, macaroni salad, fruits, and veggies. So many great choices.

The place we went to was really nice. Upscale, but chill. They had live music playing the whole time. The pianist was extremely talented and had an expansive repertoire that he performed.

After dinner, we walked to get some ice cream for dessert. We talked the whole night. It was great catching up. Great night.

This morning I slept in until 8am. The plan for today is to meet my brother and his family at 10:30am to take my nephew and niece to the Spider-Man exhibit at the ComicCon Museum

Ran through my routine, except instead of going to the gym, I went to my office. I had to pick up some stuff that I had left in my office and needed for today. I then went to the gym. Started working out.

But about 15 minutes into my routine my brother called me. They had just gotten into town. So I walked back to my place. Changed and walked to the museum. It was only about a 30-minute walk. But it was uphill. And even though it was only 10am, it was already about 80 degrees. I got there right as they were about to go in, so it was perfect timing.

What a great exhibit! Starting with the first issue of the Amazing Spider-Man to the newest iterations and mediums, the exhibit covered it all. They also had all the alternate universe iterations. Here are a few examples of the great art work…

First ever Spider-Man Comic!

I highly recommend the exhibit to everyone! We had a great time.

After the museum, I walked back home (another 30-minute walk) and they went to their hotel. I took a nap for about an hour. Then got up. Cleaned my place up a little. Took a shower. Shaved. Got some work done for a few hours.

Met up with them again for dinner. Enjoyed another really great evening. Probably ate more than I should have yesterday and today. Definitely more than I’ve eaten in the last two weeks. But I guess that’s why during the week, I stay disciplined, so I can enjoy these times without worrying about it.

It just means that I need to be focused, disciplined, and get some great workouts in this week.

Second Week of My New Morning Workout Routine: Day 12

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Up at 4:59am. Alarm goes off and I’m up. Not too sleepy. Had a good night of sleep and went to sleep early.

Ran through my morning routine. Poured cold water in a glass added a teaspoon of vinegar. Turned on the electric kettle. Put decaf coffee into a filter. Drank the water. Went to the restroom, washed my face. Back to the kitchen. Poured the hot water over the coffee.

Put on my workout clothes. Drank my coffee. Out the door around 5:20. Got to the gym just a little after 5:30. Not bad. Definitely better this week. Most days I was at the gym by 5:30am.

Today is a weight lifting day. Chest, lats, shoulders. But I start by doing my sit ups. I left the mat down because no one else is in the gym. I love Friday workouts. Usually no one else is in the gym this early. I have the whole gym to myself. That means I can do some circuit training, quickly cycling through different sets of different exercises: chest, shoulders, lats. I sneak in some bicep curls just because.

Hector of Troy

When I need a rest, I do side bends and more sit ups. Sets of 10 at a time. I ended up doing about 6 or 7 sets today. I like that routine. I ended up doing way more of them by splitting them up like that, rather than trying to do them all at once. I think I’m going to keep doing that between sets.

After about an hour it was time for some cardio. So I did the elliptical at level 10 for 20 minutes. Not too hard and not to easy. Moderate. Got a nice light sweat going. Not drenched like yesterday.

Okay, time to head out. But first checked my weight. Not bad, 205. Not where I wanted it to be. But still moving in the right direction. Plus, I noticed recently that my clothes are starting to fit differently so I know I’m making progress.

Second week done and I got momentum. Feeling good.

Second Week of My New Morning Workout Routine: Day 11

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Another tough workout. Actually the workout itself wasn’t the hard part. The hard part was waking up at 4:45am. Even though I went to sleep early (around 9:30pm), I woke up at about 1am and couldn’t go back to sleep until after 2pm. It’s been really hot.

When my alarm went off I automatically and instinctively shut it off because I was in such a deep sleep. A little while later I started dreaming and woke up directly from my dream. It was already 5:10am so I ran through my routine. Still tired and groggy. Water. Coffee. Wash my face. Put on gym clothes. No sit ups because I was running late. grabbed my stuff and headed out the door.

Got to the gym at 5:40am. Today was a cardio day. But I started by doing my sit ups. Then rehab work on my shoulder and hip. Then a half hour of treadmill. The first 20 minutes I started off at about 4.5mph pace and gradually increased until I was pushing about 5.3 mph. I was trying to get more than 1.65 miles in 20 minutes to beat my best so far. But I moved my phone and accidentally hit the “cool down” button. For a second I was upset because I was going to beat it, but I didn’t. And I had no way of proving that I would have.

Then I thought to myself… this just gives me the opportunity to chase something else. I can run 1 mile in under 10 minutes, haven’t been able to do that yet since I started training again. And that’s something I used to do on a regular basis before I stopped training a few years back.

So I visualized that I was in a race and had fallen (pressing the button) and now I had to get back up and chase down the person that passed me. In this case that “person” was going to run the next mile in 10 minutes. So to beat this “person” I had to run at a clip that would allow me to finish a mile in under 10 minutes.

I started off at a pace that was about 10-20 seconds slower than what I needed. So I kept ramping up the speed! The most challenging thing was that I wanted to do this all while keeping my breathing under control and not exhaling through my mouth. Worked for a while as I cut the distance. I got it down to being only about 5 seconds off the pace to win. Pushed it harder. Got it to a point where I was 10 seconds ahead! But after that I was breathing hard and had to exhale through my mouth. I was able to relax and keep that pace up for the last four minutes.

I ended up finishing 1 mile in 9 minutes and 47 seconds!

I did it. Proud of myself. It was hard but I pushed through. Then 15 minutes on the elliptical. Weighed myself, 205lbs. Looks like I’m not dropping the weight as fast this week. It’s all good. I just got to keep moving in the right direction. Keep my routine going and keep building my habits.

Walked back home. Drank water. Had green eggs and no ham. Green eggs are just sauteed spinach in scrambled eggs. Decaf. Shave. Shower. Get dressed. Write. Out the door. See ya!

Second Week of My New Morning Workout Routine: Day 10

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Workout done! That was hard slogging. I guess that means I should celebrate it more! Because it means that even though it was tough and I was (still am) feeling pretty exhausted, I handled business.

Woke up at 4:45am. That was rough. Almost went back to sleep. But I keep telling myself the same thing… run through your routine and if after that you want to go back to bed, you can. So, I got up. Drank a cold glass of water (with a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar). Put water in the electric kettle and turned it on. Put coffee in the filter. Restroom, washed my face. Came back and poured hot water over coffee. Put on workout clothes. Did two sets of sit ups. Drank coffee (always decaf).

Today, I still wanted to go back to sleep. So I laid down and did a 3 minute meditation / breathing exercise to get some energy. After that I was out the door. Got to the gym by 5:30am. It was still dark outside.

Still dark outside. About to start my workout.

Did cardio first. 15 minutes on elliptical. 10 minutes on bike. 15 minutes on treadmill. Then weights. Upper body. Then sit ups. I’m out. That was a good workout. Tough.

Walk back home. It’s about 7am.

Time to get ready for work. I’m still pretty exhausted. Might have to break down and drink regular coffee today. But it was worth it. Feeling proud that I got it done despite how tough it was.

Have a great day!

Second Week of My New Morning Workout Routine: Day 9

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4:59am. That’s what time I woke up. I had set my alarm at 5am. But it didn’t even have the chance to go off. I was up. A little tired and that evil little voice was telling me to lay back down. Go back to sleep. Just close your eyes for a few seconds. I was about to give in, when another little voice said “just run through your routine and if after that you still want to go back to bed you can.”

So I turned on the light. Walked to the kitchen. Poured a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar into a glass of cold water. Put on the electric kettle. Drank the water. It’s supposed to be good for you. [Side note: I don’t know, but I do remember that when I was wrestling, had to cut weight, and wasn’t eating – drinking a teaspoon of vinegar would stop the hunger pains. Must help suppress appetite or something.] Poured coffee in the filter.

Went to the restroom. Washed my face with cold water. Only problem is that the water at my place is never icy cold. At least it doesn’t feel that cold. Went back to the kitchen. Poured the boiling water over the coffee. Put on my workout clothes.

It was 5:13. I still wanted to get back in bed. But I thought to myself, “If I want to be in the gym by 5:30am I can’t lay down right now. If I do, I won’t make it.” Instead, I decided to do sit ups while my coffee cooled. 3 sets, done. Drank my coffee and I’m out the door. Made it to the gym exactly at 5:30am. Yes!!!

Today is a cardio day. But first I have to do my rehab work. Resistance band training for my hips and shoulders. Also, snuck in a few sets of decline bench press and preacher curls. A set of lunges and 3 sets of calf raises.

Treadmill running for lower impact.

Then 20 minutes on the elliptical machine at level 10. And finished off with a 20 minute treadmill run. Tempo run today. Started off at 5 mph for the first few minutes. Then gradually increasing throughout the run. Finished off at about 6.3 mph for the last 3 minutes. It was slightly tough the whole way through. Meaning I was uncomfortable the whole time. But just constantly reminding myself to relax and settle into the run. Never huffing and puffing. Never breathing through my mouth. Breathing always under control and relaxed. To me that’s been the key to improving my running.

Weighed myself. Not bad. 205 lbs. I’m hoping to get under 200 lbs by the end of the week. That means that the next few days I’ll have to ramp up the intensity of my sessions. Not too much, just a little. I’ve been losing a little less than a pound a day. Probably closer to a pound every 2 days. Still it’s been pretty good progress.

Walked back home. Did 3 more sets of sit ups. A few push ups. Made my lunch ( arugula salad with cashews, cranberries, feta cheese, hard boiled egg, and tuna salad. Balsamic vinegar and a little bit of olive oil). Wrote this up and now its time to get ready for work.

Shave. Shower. Get dressed. Walk to work. Fight for our clients. You know the drill.

Second Week of My New Morning Workout Routine: Day 8

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That was tough!

There were a couple of points in that workout that I just wanted to quit. That weak little voice was starting to get the edge and in the past I probably would’ve cut my workout short. But then all of a sudden I remembered that all I had to do to have a successful workout is finish it.

It doesn’t matter if it sucks. It doesn’t matter if it feels great. It doesn’t matter if I do less weight or less reps. As long as I finish my routine, it’s a win because all I’m doing is building the habit. And the only way to build the habit is by repetition. Doing it over and over and over again.

Once I remembered that, the workout actually got easier. It took the pressure off of having to feel good, or being a “great” workout based on how I feel. What I feel is irrelevant. The important part is to get the work in. Get the job done.

Mission accomplished. It was a lift day with a little bit of cardio. I worked chest, shoulders, lats, arms, and legs. Calf raises, squats, and lunges. Then finished off with cardio. Ten minutes of elliptical at level 10. Then treadmill. I ran 1 mile in 11:29. That’s my fastest in a long time. So ended strong!

Starting A New Morning Workout Routine: Day 7 Sunday

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Okay, so my first full week is done!

Today was nice. I actually slept in until 8am. No alarm. Woke up totally refreshed. Ran through part of my routine. Water. Boil hot water. Coffee in filter. Wash my face. Meditate for 10 minutes. Use the restroom. Drink coffee. Sit ups. Shower. Shave. Worked on a project that I have pending. Then I got a text from a friend. Telling me if I wanted to go to a pool party? I said I had a few errands to run but yeah, I’m down.

So I walk to my car. I parked it kinda far away. Ran to Trader Joe’s. Get my supplies for the week. Lots of arugula (love it!), baby spinach and baby kale. Smoked salmon. Lean, grass fed beef. Tortellini with spinach and cheese. Peaches, plums, nectarines, and blueberries. I still have lots of salmon and chicken breasts, so no need for more of that. Oh yeah, I always get dark chocolate. Love dark chocolate. Dark chocolate with almonds, mmmm, mmmm, mmmm… delicious!. Can’t forget to grab a bottle of wine for the host of our pool party! And lastly, I got some humus and baby carrots to snack on. That’s it. That should get me through the week, probably more.

Drove back to the house and walked back with the groceries. I always park far away so that I get extra steps walking back with grocery bags. It’s like a little extra workout for free.

Back at the house, got ready to go. It’s about 12 noon. She’s coming by to get me at 1:15pm. That gives me time to put on swim trunks, jersey, and pack my clothes and towel. Put on sunscreen. Oh wait. I haven’t eaten anything all day. Ok, ate a peach, half an apple, and a handful of blueberries. Drank a big glass of water so I don’t get dehydrated.

Meditate for ten minutes. Then did 25 push ups and 3 sets of sit ups. Drank a little bit of coffee.

Friend texting me that she’s here. OK, I grab my stuff quick and I’m out the door.

We drive over to our boy’s house. His place is in a downtown high rise with a pool on the roof. Beautiful view…

Had a great time! Talking and vibing with my PD fam. Listened to a great playlist, a mix of old and new music. Ate some chicken and ribs. Jumped in the hot tub and pool. Then sat back, relaxed and chilled. Got a nice tan.

All of us work our tails off for our clients, but it’s important to take time for self-care. I’m glad I came out because tomorrow it’s back to the grind. Feeling rejuvenated and ready to fight for justice for our clients!

And now the hardest part of my routine… time to go to sleep early (it’s 9:45pm), so I can be up at 5am ready to get a great workout in tomorrow, and every single day this week. Starting the week off right!