The Chronicles of “B”

I read a lot of blogs on here everyday and other than the sex talk one reocurring theme seems to be how shocked people are at the high cost of being healthy. 

"The good food cost so much more, supplements are expensive as are vitamins."  

I realize that vitamins and supplements can be expensive but eating healthy shouldn’t be that big of a deal.  I mean how expensive is produce compared to snack foods like pizza rolls and chips for crying out loud.  And if you shop around like at farmers markets you can find some fantastic deals in season.  I love eating a huge salad with tons of fresh veggies. 

And how expensive are eggs????  You can buy them all day long for around .88 cents a doz to like 1.29.  That’s nothing!!! 

How much is a flippin can of tuna?????  Fifty cents a can at most any supermarket! 

Now if your real picky you might want boneless, skinless chicken breast which is kind of expensive.  We buy a whole chicken instead for about a dollar less than the price of the breast…..bake it in the oven…..I pull the skin off the breast myself and my family chows down on the rest of the chicken.  Make some rice with it….another cheap but healthy choice…..steam some broccoli and you have a cheap healthy meal for your entire family for about 5 bucks.  Nothing expensive about that.  Hell that’s cheaper than Hamburger Helper.  LOL!! 

Now if you feel you have to have everything organic or top of the line than there is no doubt you’re gonna rack up some huge grocery bills but with a little planning you can eat healthy for about the same price as the junk.  

And consider the cost of being unhealthy.  Doctor visits, medicine for chronic illness like high blood pressure, diabeties, ED….viagra ain’t cheap baby!!!  Hospital stays….insurance premiums…..the list goes on and on!!!!!  Here’s a good example.  

Anyone who reads my blogs knows I’ve been dealing with doctors over a supposed torn miniscus.  Well the bills have started rolling in and I am shocked at how much they are charging my insurance and how much I still have to pay that my insurance didn’t pick up.  One bill for 3 little xrays done at the hospital totaled $2,195.19!!!!!  Three x-rays!!!!  Unbelieveable!!!   I shudder to think what the bill for the MRI is going to be.

So next time you think the cost of being healthy is to much stop and consider the alternative……oh and BTW have you seen the cost of burial and funerals?????    

I just got done watching Roger Federer win his fith consecutive Wimbledon final and let me tell you it was pretty damn glorious. 

Nadal pushed Federer the entire match but Federer managed to stay in by winning tiebreaks in the first and third set.  In the 4th set Nadal completely overwhelmed Federer and broke him twice sending the match to a fifth and deciding set.

  Federer had never been pushed to a fifth set in any of his previous 4 Wimbledon wins and he immediatly got down 2 break points in his first service game.  Somehow he fought through and survived that game but in his next service game he again got down 2 breaks. 

Now at this point most of us mortals would be having doubts and really starting to feel the pressure…..hell most of the best players in the world would have been doubting themselves at this point.   Instead of crumbling though Federer went on a tear and won like 11 of the next 12 points and breaking Nadals serve for the first time since game 1 of the opening set. 

With Nadal serving just to stay in the match Roger stepped it up even another notch and broke Nadal again to win his 5th Championship!!  Incredible!!!

Now I know this site is about bodybuilding and not tennis but I feel it is also about stepping up and pushing oneself to do things we never thought possible. 

Most of us will never know the incredible rush of beating all odds and reaching the ultimate in athletic achievment like Federer did today, but we can know the rush of overcomming years of inactivities and bad habits to forge a new body….a healthier body….and maybe even compete at some level. 

Maybe not as glorious as winning the ultimate championship of your chosen sport 5 straight times but pretty damn glorious none the less to a 50 year old former fat guy like myself who feels I still have a few things to prove. 

Things to prove not only to myself but to others as well.

It’s Saturday and I’m 12 years old again.  Actualy I’ve been 12 for quit some time now.  Getting up early and going straight outside…..walking or riding my bike if I want to go somewhere….hanging out at the ballfield playing ball with my friends or down at the old swimming hole all afternoon.  The only difference now from when I was biologically 12 is now my gang of friends is pretty much just my wife but that’s ok cause she is prettier and we have other fun games that we can play together. (wink) 

Being healthy is truly a kick in the ass and I’m enjoying every second of it.  I had forgot how much fun it is to just play and hang out.  We get so wrapped up in adult stuff that we just let it drag us down to the point that we just don’t know how to relax anymore.

I haven’t looked at the clock for several days now other than to see when I eat next.  Usually I look at it all the time and think, "God I’d better hurry up I’m running out of time," or I have to be someplace.  I’m just chillin’ now!! 

I spent the entire afternoon yesterday at the lake swimming and lying in the sun and I’m getting ready to do the exact same thing today.  I take my little snacks with me and just enjoyed being outside.  Remember how good it feels to get out of the water and let the warmth of the sun drip dry you?  Or just lying there listening to the sounds of the birds or the wind or the other 12 year olds splashing around.

Remember the smell of the baseball field????  The outfield grass after being just mowed….even the smell of the dust on the infield and how the wind would sometimes blow a cloud of it into your face at the worst possible time. 

Getting my health back has given all this back to me.  Of course I still have to face reality on occasion but I’m dealing with it and not letting it interfere with my playtime anymore.  I don’t want to be 50 anymore….I’m flippin Peter Pan and I’m staying in Neverland just as long as I can.  Bodybuilding can truly be the fountain of youth if we just let it.  Don’t treat it like a chore but look at it as an opportunity to relive your childhood….to bring back your youth and vigor.  The mind is a powerful tool and if we believe we’re getting younger and try to actually remember how it felt you might be suprised at how your body responds.

Quick Rocky Update

This morning while I was working the bag a group of four of the neighbor ladies gathered at the mailboxes which is pretty much right in front of my open garage door.  They stood there chatting the whole time I was working out…..this is getting embarassing!  LOL!!  

Well it’s official…..my neighbors all think I’m weird!! 

I have a very nice weight machine in my garage, along with free weights and a heavy bag so this is where I do all my workouts.  I always leave the doors up so I can get some sunshine and fresh air while I bust my ass.  I really love working out like that as compared to being enclosed in a gym.  It’s as close to working out in the great outdoors that you can get without actually setting up in my yard.

  It has never really occured to me before that I might be putting on a show for the entire neighborhood but come to find out this morning…..I have!!

I always do my cardio in the morning because that is prime fat burning time.  I usually go down to the local park, run some sprints, do  some hopping exercises for the fast twitch muscles and then run/jog home.  Lately though I have been warming up in the yard, pounding the bag for 6 or 7 three minute rounds with a minutes rest between rounds, then I line up in the yard and run several 40 yard sprints, skip some rope and then cool down and stretch.  Now I’ve been aware of the fact that people have driven past and seen me working out but I’ve never really given it much thought.  Well this morning as I was cooling down and stretching my neighbor across the street, a little lady of 80 something named Loretta, was checking her mail and noticed me in the yard.  We exchanged waves like we always do but this morning she came over and started talking to me. 

She apologized for bothering me and said she hoped I didn’t think she was a busy body or anything but she was wondering just what it was I was doing out here everyday.  Seems I’m the talk of the neighborhood and everyone was wondering if I was a boxer and if I was training for a fight.  I explained to her that I used to be a boxer in my early twenties but now I was just an old fat guy trying his best to get back in shape.  

It also seems as though I’m the hot neighbor for all the other little old ladies of the hood!! YIKES!!

  I guess I can live with that but I wonder what the younger neighbors think……There’s that crazy bastard out in his yard again running sprints and doing bunny hops like some kind of big dufus!! 

I don’t know which is worse……having all the young kids and hotties in the hood think I’m a dork or being eye candy for all the lonely old women!!  Maybe I should start closing the doors!!  LOL!!  

Man life is good!!!  I feel myself getting stronger everyday and I’m doing things that a lot of 50 year olds couldn’t.  I’m turning back the clock and I’ve improved my life 10 fold.  I’m out playing like a kid again….going swimming in the middle of the day….going out and throwing the baseball around….playing a ton of tennis.  I’ve hardly watched any TV anymore and I don’t miss it a lick.  One of the main reasons I think I’ve been able to put a spring back in my step and lead in my pencil is I have a plan.  I’ve researched, studied, talked to those in the know and I set goals and actually wrote down a plan as to how I was going to reach those goals.  I’ve kept an exercise journal not only listing weight sets and reps but I write down how it felt.  In other words did it hurt like hell to do that 12th rep at 175 or was it fairly easy….could I add more weight without messing up my form….that sort of thing.  I also keep track of what areas and what angles each exercise hits.  I keep a food journal so I can track what I eat and when I eat it.  I’ve taken to wearing a stop watch and when that last bite of food hits my belly I start the watch ticking toward my next feeding time.  I don’t really track calories and fat content, protein content and all that too much because I’ve been watching my diet for years and I pretty much know by now how many calories, fat and protein grams are in the foods I eat.  I basically keep the journal so I can remind myself to eat clean and I can track my screw ups.  I take lots of pics from many different angles so I can see what areas need the most work  I know pretty much day to day what my activities are going to be and I have my entire week planned ahead so I know what times I’m gonna be eating, what I’m eating, when I work out, ect, ect….  I see soooooo many people who just go at stuff helter skelter and then wonder why they are making any gains.  

Don’t be afraid to try new things but when you find something that works put it into your plan……but you can’t know if it’s working if you don’t keep track of where you’re at.  Believe me…..if you fail to plan……you can plan to fail.  Count on it.   

Have you ever heard the phrase, "Don’t hate what you don’t understand?"  Well when it comes to female bodybuilding it seems a lot of people don’t like it and just doesn’t understand it.

I never watch daytime TV but today my wife was going through the channels and came upon the Dr. Keith Ablow Show.  Well it seems ole Dr. Keith was doing a show on female bodybuilders and so my wife thought I might be interested and indeed I was.  I thought maybe they were going to talk about the dedication and what it was that drives them to compete but noooooooo!  Just the opposite, they actually tried to make it seem as though there was something wrong with them like there had to be some sort of deep emotional problems that drove them to bulid such huge physiques.  The first question he asked of them was, "Do you build such powerful bodies because you feel so powerless inside?"  DUH WHAT????

Man I get soooo tired of hearing that kind of garbage where female BB’s are concerned.  They also couldn’t understand how they could give up their femaninity (hope I spelled that right) in their quest for muscle.  They just couldn’t grasp the reality that they were not giving up looking femanine…..hey news flash!!!! Girls can have muscles and still look like girls.  What really pissed me off is the girls they chose to represent all Female bodybuilders.  There were 5 girls and one of them was Nicole Bass who if you’re not familiar with the name is the biggest woman in BB.  She’s 6′3" and 230lbs.  Not your typical female bodybuilder by any stretch of the imagination.  Two of the other girls, their names escape me, were very masculine looking even in their facial features and I’m sure the producers of the show planned it just that way to say, "SEE!!!  They look like men!"  The 4th woman was totally gorgeous but they had her mother on there who was bawling that her little girl used to be soooo pretty and could have been a model but was now a muscular freak.  She even said she would rather have her daughter pose nude in Playboy than have her compete as a bodybuilder because Playboy would at least portray her as a woman.  ARE YOU SH&$*ING ME????

  I’m telling you anybody who couldn’t see how gorgeous this woman was, muscles and all, is a total idiot.  OH…..and of course everyone was sure they just had to be on roids!!

These kind of attitudes piss me off so bad because I just don’t understand how anyone cannot see the beauty of these gorgeous women.  Not to mention the fact that they choose to live a healthy lifestyle instead being overweight or stick thin.  Why are people so threatend by women with muscles?????  How could they look at some of the ripped gals on here and say they don’t look femanine????  Maybe someone has more insight than I because I just don’t get it.  Give me a gal with muscles any day over some stick thin girlie girl.

Why must they hate what they don’t understand??? 

I finally found a good classic rock station in this God forsaken part of Ohio that I am now forced to live in.  I destroyed my back and shoulders tonight and it felt so much better getting shredded to Black Dog by the greatest band in the land or a little AC/DC!!!  I don’t feel so stupid grunting to hard rock either.  Life is Good!!

You hear it everyday….I hate my scale….what’s up with this stupid scale?????  Why am I not losing weight???

Actually I’ve said it myself many times.  Most of us know though that the scale isn’t really a reliable indicator of ones overall progress.    It’s all about inches and how you look in your skin.  Losing body fat and gaining muscle might not show up as much of a change in lbs but could be the difference in going from a size 40 waist to a size 34.

Recently I was feeling a little down because even though I was gaining some nice mass in my arms and chest I was still seeing that nasty layer of fat on my midsection and on the side of my chest under my arms…..left overs of my man boobs…YUCK!!  Even though I was making nice gains and was even receiving compliments those trouble spots were making me feel bad about myself.

Today though I’ve realized that I’ve made even more gains than I had previously thought.  In addition to the muscular gains and the lose of inches I’ve gained one other very important benefit…….I’ve increased my fitness level dramaticaly!!!  I’m stronger, more flexible and have better endurance than I’ve had in over 2 years.

I fly out of bed in the morning now instead of rolling out slowly….shuffling off to the bathroom still half asleep and not really waking till about midmorning.  My libido has greatly increased and my wife and I are doing things we haven’t done since our 20’s…..sorry, no details!  LOL!!  I can run a mile or more without breaking a sweat and after playing tennis or basketball for a couple of hours not only can I still walk the next day…..I’m ready to hit it again.  I actually have a spring in my step again and I’m loving it.

 So the next time you’re feeling bad about your progress forget about that stupid scale and check your fitness level.  You might be surprised at just how much progress you’ve actually made….I know I am!