My Wheel of Pain

Trying Crossfit Training.  Dropped 2 pounds in 4 days…working.

All I can say is I tried both and my weight progress chart looks like a spaz’s ekg readout.

I stopped tracking calories (still eat well) and have stayed away from the scale. While continuing to train.  Guess what?  If you’re doing the right things scales and counting isn’t necessary unless your competing.

Less stress now…happier.  Eat right, Train, add good supplements.  It’s easy math.

Back after 2 week hiatus.  2 weeks off is too long.  It does strange things to the mind.  I am finding out that success and consistency are necessary elements for long term results.

Cleaning up my diet and eating right.  Here’s a hard lesson…if your in the gym, you have to have carbs…i tried going low carb and training hard to get cut. I just got weaker.

Well,  I don’t look like Leonidas from 300 as planned, but my love handles are gone.  I’m more toned.  My energy and health are up and I eat a hell of a lot better than I used to.  Sometimes second place…aint so bad. I call it a win.

Peace,

IUte

I must be on a list somewhere that states my body isn’t made for being "cut."  I’ve tried diet, heavy lifting, light lifting, puke my guts out cardio…multiple combos, supplements, etc…nada.  I did get a flat gut which is nice but those cuts are hiding out somewhere.  Being 37, and quite satisfied with life in general, I have decided that being strong, healthy and fit is a good target while adhering to the No A$$hole Rule.  Perhaps the cuts will come later in Valhalla…
IUte

SO, I recovered from my "meal" at McD’s since last post and got back on track after feeling like a barber shop floor in the summertime and a severe self-chastising session.

Today I was doing a set of dead lifts when an acquaintance of mine who is a former Mr. Utah came up and gave me a couple of tips…which I gladly took.  At parting, he said "you’re looking a lot bigger and fitter than when I saw you last. Keep at it"

Enough said.  That comment coming from a pro is enough to keep me at the gym until I puke. It’s great to get the compliments from well meaning, like-minders, especially when you start like I did (pasty white bridge troll).

Pick somebody on the space who is not already a greek statue seeking accolades because of mommy/daddy self-esteem issues and make their day…it goes a long way

IUte

The kids wore me down  after soccer practice and in a weak moment and I ate at McDonald’s.  After 3 months of no fast food I thought I was going to die after choking down the 1/25 pounder with cheese.  I started to sweat like a cow, my BP went up and I started to  feel bad-funky…basically I felt like a ten dollar hooker on nickel night inside of 30 minutes…not a good feeling.
Amazing what bad food does once you’re off it. Good lesson, stooooopid choice.  No more, nada, never. Learned my lesson!  Confession is done. So is anything like that ever entering my gullet again.

It seems like I experience a strange form of muscle-head  Zen enlightenment  every time I go to the gym these days…

While training yesterday, I looked around for a minute and took stock of the demographics of the gym I attend and this is what I noticed from estimation:

85% of the gym was packed with twenty-somethings.  Ten percent were thirty/forty /fifty-somethings.  5 percent gym staff and trainers.

So what, right?  Of all those present,  I checked to see who was actually busting their butts in an intense workout. There were maybe 2-5%  doing this.  The others did light workouts, jawed with friends and left.

My point is this.  Not many people actually push in the gym.  The next question is “why?”

From personal experience, I know that I didn’t push due to fear.  Until the inner conversations are aligned with the actual workout program you’re in, you’re not really training. If you’re not pushing, sweating, heaving and struggling to complete your workout, you are simply going through the motions. Someone made the comment to me that THAT is the point where you cross from gym member to true bodybuilder. If that’s true, I know I am on the right path. Are you?

Before I left, wasted from my workout, I noticed far off in one corner, a 70 year old man, better fit than most everyone in the gym, including me, slowly and methodically cranking out a heavy set of leg presses.  1 person in that category.  That’s where I want to be at 70, not puttering around a golf course in a skin suit talking about the medications I’m on.  Props to those who push, especially that guy.

Yesterday while training with my friend/trainer, we were approached about midway through the routine by an moderately overweight guy approximately my same age (late 30’s). He asked us what we were doing because he could tell I was getting a good workout (sweat pouring, near failure on reps, labored breathing, trainer kicking my a$$, etc.).  We gave him some basic tips, and then he went back, cranked out a couple more easy sets in comfort, got a drink from the fountain and went to the locker room.  The difference between "real" workouts and mild social exertions of delusion is this:
I decided in my mind BEFORE working out that I would push myself as hard and as smart as I could during the session no matter what - with a plan.  Inevitably (it always happens), during the course of my session my weaker mind starts to whisper "that’s enough" or "slow down" or "you don’t want to over do it" or "you’re too old for this" so on and so forth - cruel, weak, little crap head that he is, he’s there.  That’s exactly when I have a choice and the decision is easy because I have decided in advance what I would do in that moment and shout back internally to that weaker mind "shut up douche bag, we’re moving forward."

During a break, I looked around the gym to see just how many people were actually pushing themselves to the point of fatigue, collapse sweat, etc…few to none.
The lesson for me was simple.  Work your mind first and the body will follow. If you don’t, it will always be the other way around and you’ll wonder why you’re not advancing.

I have a nice training metaphor, although this will show you my vintage.  There is a movie called "The Right Stuff."  In it, Chuck Yeager is trying to break the sound barrier in a rocket fuel airplane. Right before they break the sound barrier, everything gets weird and they nearly blackout, they called this point "seeing the demon"…here’s the point.

In my workouts of late, my trainer has been pushing me to the point of nearly passing out. Some may say this is extreme, I disagree.  It’s good for older knobs like myself.  I can no longer kid myself and I know where my wall is…if I push to the point of "seeing the demon."  Today I did more than see it, but actually kissed the SOB right on the lips and layed on the gym floor trying to recover after only 20 minutes.  After a bottle of Powerade, I was able to slug out the door…with a smile on my face because I know that I honestly pushed myself to my own wall.

Kiss the Devil and you’ll learn things about yourself.  If you haven’t worked out to the point of nearly puking or passing out…you’re missing some serious fun.

Check out Inspectionstare on BB - He’s my trainer.