BFL Day 8

BFL Day 5

I had a discussion the other day with a friend about machines vs free weights. He's into lifting iron and thinks that machines are useless. In fact, he comes pretty darn close to calling me a wuss for using weight machines at the gym.

He makes a few good points. There is the fact that machines provide stability and balance, thus making it unnecessary for your own muscles to grow and adapt for that purpose. But...that's kind of what I need right now. I need the frame around me to force proper form because I don't think that I can handle much free weight without dropping it or ripping out a tendon.

Maybe I am a wuss. I gaze toward the back of the gym at all the free weights and think "maybe next week I'll try some stuff over there".

Maybe I'll wait until there are other people in the gym.

Just in case.

BFL Day 4

One of the things I hate about starting a serious schedule of weightlifting, especially if I've only been doing it half-assed or not at all for several months, is the soreness. My arms, shoulders, and chest are killing me this morning. My legs seem to be okay, which I guess is not surprising since I use them quite a bit every day and there was no shock to them.

I have another upper body tomorrow. I hope the soreness eases up by then or, at least, I'm able to work through the pain. This is a point where a lot of people quit. It's where I have quit in the past.

BFL Day 3

One part of the Body for Life plan is the concept of eating six small meals during the day rather than gorging yourself three times a day. It's a pretty good idea and goes a long way in keeping you from feeling hungry between meals, thus helping to avoid the temptation to snack.

The problem is....there is not much, short of luggage, to stow all the meals when I go to the office. I work about 10 or more hours a day, which means I have to pack for around three to four meals. Even though the portions are small it's still a lot of food to lug around. My dinky little lunch pail just doesn't cut it, so I'm going to have to do a bit of shopping for something that will work.

I'm actually considering getting a small fridge for my office.

BFL Day 2

Monday Cat Blogging

Mother's Day

I've always thought I have the coolest Mother. Oh...she did the standard mothering stuff like kissing boo-boos, checking behind ears to make sure there was no fungus growing, ensuring that I would not go off to school dressed like a color blind rodeo clown, feeding me real food, and generally doing her best to make sure I didn't grow up to be a sociopath. That's all well and good, but the coolest thing about my Mother was that she always let me question...everything. My Mother values learning in all of its forms and nothing was taboo to my curiosity. One habit she passed on to me is a love of reading. Books were made my friends at an early age and, through books, I've explored entire universes. Because of her, I've forged my own life, my own beliefs, and my own sense of self. I did it through years of relentless questioning, reading, and thinking. I'm still evolving in that task.

My Father taught me how to be a man. My Mother taught me how to be a human.

Love you Mom!

Plans

Plan, planning, planned....strange word. To plan or not to plan, that is the question. Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the setbacks and frustrations of daily living, or to take arms against a sea of temptation, and by planning, end them.

Planning is important. The old saying "failure to plan is a plan for failure" may be hackneyed, but my experience has proven its validity. Now...I don't mean planning as in plotting out exactly what you are going to do each and every day. More like, planning for what happens when things don't go exactly as you expect...which is pretty much each and every day. It is a recipe for failure if one sort of hopes that the exercise will get done somehow before the day is over and that, maybe, the diet will be on target despite the lunch from the vending machine.

There are all types of plans. Boyd, as he says in the clip above, is going to use P90X as his plan. I looked into it and the folks who sell the plan were nice enough to tell me that, due to my present fitness level, it might kill me...though I guess I would get my money back in that case. So I'm going to use Body for Life as my plan.

I really need one. I need the structure. It's difficult, this losing weight stuff.

Free Slop

Have you heard the latest? KFC, with the blessings of Oprah, is giving out coupons for a free meal. Well...kind of a meal....two pieces of chicken and a biscuit. Oh, but the chicken is grilled, which I guess is suppose to mean it's healthy as compared to that greasy old fried stuff.

Except, the (ahem) meal is loaded to the brim with such nutritious ingredients as MSG, trans fats, and gobs of salt. Not to mention that the factory chickens that KFC cooks up by the millions are about the grossest animals on the planet. It may be finger-lickin good but crap like this is best left in the bucket. I honestly think that if most people took the time to read the ingredients they wouldn't eat it if somebody put a gun to their head. Why do you suppose that KFC calls this ad campaign "Unthink"?

No thanks, Colonel. I'll stick to home grilled free range chicken.

and you can keep the biscuit too

Yum!

Something that I noticed not often included in my diet is fruit. That's a bit surprising since I really love fruit...it just seems that I never bother to buy it or include it into my meals. I usually think of fruit in my yogurt or protein shake. I may get some bananas or apples, but they generally go bad before I eat them all. I like fruit salad but avoid buying cans of the stuff since it's usually pretty high in sugar, mushy, and generally not all that tasty.

Now...I could make it myself with a selection of fresh fruits.

Duh. I never even thought of that...not until a friend of mine, who happens to be a vegetarian, turned me on to a fruit salad that he makes for his lunches all the time. Really simple. Cut up whatever fruits you like. Sprinkle with a bit of sugar (my friend probably uses a lot more but I use just enough to keep the apples from turning brown), mix it up, chill it, and eat. I whipped up about a gallon for a cost of around five bucks.

Good stuff. I don't know how many calories a serving has and I don't really care. I know it is far, far less than just about anything else I may eat during the day. The sugar and the fructose satisfy my sweet tooth and turn off the "I'm hungry button" in my brain. I'm pretty sure there are no fats. Also, the fiber gives me a nice full feeling for just a tiny helping. Then, of course, there is all the good nutrients.

I'm incorporating this into my meal plan every day.

Goodbye Doritos.

Monday Cat Blogging

Life Lessons

There was a time in my life when I was an absolute mess. I was going nowhere and doing nothing...and I was angry. Oh boy, I was mad at the world because, of course, it was the world's fault that nothing was happening in my life. I never considered looking at myself and seeing what I was doing. I was great on blaming everything and everyone but short on accepting any responsibility at all for my behavior. I don't like to remember the type of person I was back then. I was a first-rate asshole.

I had an epiphany one day when my father finally laid it all out for me. It was harsh. It was blunt. It was given to me out of love and it stabbed right into my soul. The following clip gives the gist of what that talk was about. The words are not quite the same but the meaning is very much there. Watching and listening to Rocky make this speech to his son brings back my own father's talk to me.

It was something that changed my life....and not a moment too soon.

The Boyd and Jay Show

As I mentioned earlier, my friend Boyd and I have teamed up to challenge each other. We do this because we seem to share a common trait that is really pretty common among a lot of people we both know.....we don't stick to doing what we know will work. Losing weight and getting fit is a terribly lonely goal. It's our body and, ultimately, any success or failure is entirely up to us. It's also a goal that takes a tremendous amount of effort and time, so it's very easy to lose focus and shelf your desire for other needs that crop up every day.

A lot of people get around this by getting a personal trainer. I really can't afford one... a good one...one that will ride me like a drill instructor on meth. Some people join groups at gyms such as Terry with Crossfit or Sean who not only works for a gym, but seems to live in it as well. That would be great but there are no options for that where I live. Often times, I am literally the only person at my gym through my entire workout.

So Boyd and I have come up with something. We are going to support, encourage, and hold each other accountable. We're making videos....lots of them. Each of us will be making one every other day. We hope to make them entertaining and inspirational to others, especially as the format evolves over time; but the major purpose of the videos is to remind us that we are not doing what we are doing alone.

And you don't have to do it alone either. The internet makes the world a very small place. Comment or email. Share our experience.

Making Time

There's the old problem that I've often had and I bet that many others have complained about as well. Trying to fit in an exercise routine among all the other things that need to be done during the day.

"I don't have time to go to the gym. I've got things to do and places to be. I sure wish I had a little spare time...then...oh boy, look out...I would really get fit then. If I only had the time."

Well, I do have the time.

Really, one hour a day, that's all. That's even including the drive time back and forth to the gym. One hour. The length of one brain rotting TV show. I could probably do without an episode of American Idiot and not have it effect my life in the slightest. I don't think that I can say that about exercising.

So I'm back to a daily gym trek. I'm going sloooooooow. In the past, my enthusiasm led me to overextend my capacity and I've dropped off due to extreme soreness. That and I've had an overweight friend almost die from a heart attack pushing too hard at a gym recently. As much as I hate to admit it, I need to take into account that I'm not in my twenties anymore and that some of my body parts are a bit worn.

Slow and steady is the ticket. Steady is the key.

Monday Cat Blogging

Kiss that $25 Goodbye

Remember this? I posted it last year when several people on YouTube were getting together to have a bit of challenge. It seemed like a great idea at the time; support each other, have fun, and toss in twenty-five bucks just to make it interesting. Nothing like friendly competition to help with the old motivation.

But then everything started to get.......how shall I say this.....complicated.

The rules were vague and seemed to shift day to day. Money from everybody was sent to one of the participants to "hold" and that never seemed quite right to me. This participant also threw out deadlines for photos and progress which, though not effecting him since he was unemployed at the time, was a bit of a chore for the rest of us with busy schedules. Then the original finishing date was canceled and a new one delivered; by this same individual, with a demand for an additional $25 to stay in the game.

I think that was when most of us decided that enough was enough and drifted off. I believe the challenge ended last month though I haven't heard anything about it, and I really don't care. Whoever wound up with the money, plane fare, or whatever it was decided the prize would be...I hope they enjoy it with my blessings.

Why am I blathering about this? Because, despite the dysfunction of the $25 challenge and it's egotistical leader, I still see the value in them. Challenges let you focus your goals and compare your best with others. I'm still in the $100 challenge originated by Brian which has clear cut rules and goals, plus lets you hold on to your own entry fee. The money is not all that important since I would feel good about any of the people in that challenge winning.

Starting tomorrow, I'll be doing a one on one challenge with my friend Boyd. No money. No prizes. Not even any bragging rights or humiliation to the loser. Just a couple of guys spurring each other on in trying to do what we have both wanted to do for a long time....get physically fit.

And we plan to have a hell of a lot of fun doing it.

Stay tuned.

Please Don't Arrest Me

I'm rather busy this week in case anybody is wondering why I'm not doing much in the way of blogging. I'm doing training the next few days with area law enforcement. At the police station. Surrounded all day by big men carrying guns.

There was a time in my misspent youth where that would have been pretty much unthinkable...but if I had thought about it.....would have caused severe anxiety and panic.

One benefit of a clean conscience, I suppose. Plus my age seems to avail me a certain level of respect and deference.

Or perhaps they feel that if they really want to take me down, it wouldn't be too much effort.

Easter Cat Blogging

Identity Theft

I Love This Show....I Hate This Show

The Biggest Loser. In case you've never heard of it, the show gathers about a dozen very overweight people and they compete against each other to see who can lose the most pounds. Like all "reality shows" the primary entertainment is with the interpersonal interactions with the contestants.

I'm really hooked on this show. Being that I'm into losing weight and attaining fitness, it's interesting to see how other people are able to achieve their goals. I also find it inspiring because these people are seriously obese....but they pour their hearts into making a transformation of themselves. They work out. Hard! I mean, hours every day of intense exercise with a trainer riding their backs every step of the way.

That's why I hate this show as well.

Who has the option of secluding one's self from the world for a few months to train like that? Not me. As much as I want to lose weight and get fit, it's not the only thing I have going on every day. I have to go to work. I have to maintain a relationship. I have to take care of my household.

I guess I'm just grousing. I get inspired by the contestants putting in real work and achieving real results. Yet, like any reality show, there is very little reality involved.

Still....a good show. If you've never seen it, I recommend you watch an episode. You will get hooked.