Cruiser’s Current Thoughts

Checked online to see if there were some tips on the speed bag and this is what I found out:

Hit the bag, let it hit the back of the board, hit the front board, hit the back and then hit the bag again. So keep the count in your head. 1 2 3 HIT 1 2 3 HIT 1 2 3…and so on…

IT WAS AWESOME!!!!

Bad news: I had some things to take care of and I didnt think I’d make the gym after work or get a decent workout before the gym closed. SO I went during lunch. Figured I’d keep it to an hour…(I cannot JUST DO an hour! AUGH!!!) But I did it. 1 hour workout, shoulders, traps, delts, speed bag. Thats all I did.

I did 6 sets of behind the neck shoulder presses. Then 5 sets of BB power jump shrugs. Then 4 sets with 1 drop set of DB lateral raises. Then the speed bag…just for 10 minutes. I was really sad cause I wanted to lift more, and hit the speed bag more! DAMNIT!

I got 2 more workouts this week and I know one of those for sure is gonna be cut short again due to a busy schedule. Wow, this really SUCKS! But I guess this is what happens. There are times when the workouts have to come out short! And it BLOWS! This, again, is the only thing I dont like about my gym not being 24 hours. Oh well, I got it done, and I hope my shoulders are sore tomorrow.

Boxer: Im not one. But I sure do like doing their training. The jump rope, the punching bag, and now my new favorite… the SPEEDBAG! If I we’re to get in a fight, I wouldn’t box, I’d spar like a street fighter, (and cheat) cause Im fighting to win. …and not get my ass kicked.

Nakedness: Guys, if YOU do this: Walk out of the shower naked and walk around the locker room like its nothing…

STOP!

HAVE SOME DECENCY TO COVER UP! I REALLY dont want to see this, and get really uncomfortable when its around! G-R-O-S-S!

Example: I after my speedbag today Im hurrying to the locker room to get my stuff and get out of there…when some dude (gross…) walks out DRIES off ass he SSSLLLLOOOOOOWWWWLLLLLYYYYYYYY walks down the narrow hall to the lockers and I just just SO FORTUNATE (sarcasim…) to get stuck behind him the few seconds till he got the F-CK OUTTA MY DAMN WAY! COVER THE F-CK UP! There is NO reason you need to be walking back to your locker NAKED! AAAUUGGHHHH!

So many times..each time just as gross as the last. If you do this STOP! Or…

COVER UP!

Wow. I never thought I could ever pull off the coordination it takes to rock away at the speed bag. If he’s reading, a special thanks to leekrw. If it wasn’t for you mentioning the speedbag, I probably would have completely stayed away from it. I really sucked when I tried it for the first time early this week. Slow, kept missing, getting frustrated! But, just like all things, all it took was some practice, detication, and patience! Today, I was ROCKIN away at the bag and REALLY amazed at how much I’ve come along! Talk about throwing in a different form of cardio.

Question: Wonder how many calories are burned doing 30 minutes on the speed bag? maybe 100? 150? Oh well, I’ll do this when my legs are not up to a cardio session, OR I just worked out legs that day.

Left Arm: FINALLY! Its nearly identical to my right. Actually, in a way it kinda looks better than my right…haha. Im happy. I have had this problem as long as I can remember. Now, its not so bad. Tricep is smaller on the left arm and the bicep on my right arm is smaller. So they kinda even out in size, now I just have to get them to match all around! YAY!

Good Things: Are COMING! I love it. I dont care who gives me sh*t, makes fun of my eating habits, *tries* to discourage me about my size. The progress pictures show that Im coming along. My strength shows, my health shows, and my size (slowly but surely!) shows that Im improving. Living better, and loving it.

Personal Trainer: ….not so much. All I’ll say is, just cause someone goes to the gym does not mean they know what they’re talking about, doing the exercises right, or should anyone take advice from them. I saw this today and got really annoyed. I still wont say anything, cause like I’ve said many times, Im still a beginner myself. Enough said on that. (I can go on forever on this subject)

Tortas: My favorite food next to pizza. DELICIOUS! Its a french bread, with carne asada (grilled steak) guacamole, sour cream, lettus, tomato, onions. I gained 5 lbs last june cause I ate these several times in 2 weeks! (and I drank a lot) But anyway, taste good, not so good for health. I made the healthy version yesterday, and BAM! Turned out AWESOME! Loved it. Whole wheat, less bread, no grease. DELICOUS! Got many compliments on it and I impressed myself! YAY. Now I just gotta learn how to make a healthy pizza and I’ll be thrilled!

Your Face: Ewww. haha, just kidding. I dont know what else to talk about so I threw in a random thought in there.

Beetlejuice.

For those that dont know me well, Im all about a healthy lifestyle, health, fitness, nutrition, and SANITY! So heres to a healthy lifestyle, these’ll get ya giggling…

The Murder Trial:

A defendant was on trial for murder. There was very strong evidence indicating guilt, but no corpse had been found. In the defense’s closing statement the lawyer, knowing that his client would probably be convicted, decided to try a trick.

“Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I have a surprise for you all,” the lawyer said as he looked at his watch. “Within one minute, the person presumed dead in this case will walk into this courtroom!”

He looked toward the courtroom door. The jurors, somewhat stunned, all looked, eagerly. A minute passed. Nothing happened.

Finally, the lawyer said, “Actually, I made up the previous statement. But you all looked on with anticipation. I therefore put it to you that there is reasonable doubt in this case as to whether anyone was killed and insist that you return a verdict of not guilty.”

With that, the jury retired to deliberate. But after only a few minutes, they came back and pronounced a verdict of guilty.

“But how?” the lawyer asked. “You must have had some doubt. I saw all of you stare at the door.”

“Oh, yes,” the jury foreman replied. “We all looked - but your client didn’t!”

Mom’s Driving:

One day, two guys were driving to a local grocery store to get some food. On the way to the store they ran into an intersection with a stoplight. The light showed red.

The man driving went right through the red light. The passenger looked at the driver and screamed, “What the heck are you doing? You’re going to get us killed!”

Then the driver responded, “Don’t worry, my mother allways drives like this.”

So later on, the two guys came to another stoplight and that too was red. The driver sped right through the light. Again the passenger looked at the driver and said, “I thought I told you, you’re gonna get us killed! Would you please stop this nonsense!”

The driver looked at the passenger and responded, “I get it! But like I told already, you my mother drives like this all the time!”

Again, the two guys ran into another light. This time in was green. The driver slammed on his brakes and stopped the car completely. “What the hell are you doing?” The passenger screamed. “This is the third time you almost got us killed. Why did you stop at a green light?”

The driver replied, “That’s my mom’s car coming over there!”

House Sitting:

A man left his cat with his brother while he went on vacation for a week. When he came back, the man called his brother to see when he could pick the cat up. The brother hesitated, then said, “I’m so sorry, but while you were away, the cat died.”

The man was very upset and yelled, “You know, you could have broken the news to me better than that. When I called today, you could have said he was on the roof and wouldn’t come down. Then when I called the next day, you could have said that he had fallen off and the vet was working on patching him up. Then when I called the third day, you could have said he had passed away.”

The brother thought about it and apologized.

“So how’s Mom?” asked the man.

“She’s on the roof and won’t come down.”

The Parking Ticket:

I went to the store the other day. I was only in there for about five minutes, and when I came out there was a motorcycle cop writing a parking ticket. So I went up to him and said, ‘Come on buddy, how about giving a guy a break?’

He ignored me and continued writing the ticket. So I called him a stupid idiot. He glared at me and started writing another ticket for having bald tires!

Then I really got angry at him. He finished the second ticket and put it on the car with the first. Then he started writing a third ticket!

This went on for about 20 minutes. The more I abused him, the more tickets he wrote. I didn’t care. My car was parked around the corner.

The Bus Driver:

One morning, a woman and her baby were taking a bus. As she entered the bus the driver says “Wow, that is one ugly baby.”

The woman was deeply hurt. She continued to get on to the bus and found a seat next to an elderly man. The man asked her, “What’s wrong? You look mad.”

She replied, “I am. That bus driver just insulted me."

"You shouldn’t take that from him," the man replied. "He’s a public worker and should give you respect. If I was you I would take his badge number and report him."

"You’re right sir, I think I will report him."

The elderly man says, "You go on up there and get his badge number. I’ll hold your monkey for you."

Getting to the gym even though theres a blizzard going on and the roads are shitty, slippery, and cant see too well while driving. If that ain’t SOME sort of detication, then I dont know what is!

Detication: Well, my gym WAS closed. DAMNIT! I wanted to punch that bag pretty hard today. Nope. They TOO were closed due to the snow…So. What to do what to do….I have to face my annoyence, and go to the base. That one HAS to be open of all places. So, instead of a 2 minute drive to my gym, I have a 20 minute drive to base during the storm. Yay….

But okay, at least I DO have that option. So I was thankful for that option. Wasn’t too bad, not a lot of people there, due to the snow. Plus I had an AWESOME workout. Unilateral back training, and rocked the forearms and did one dropset of cable curls just to finish off the biceps. Then I did sprint intervals to get some cardio in and THAT wore me out.

Overtraining: I can’t help it. I just want to keep lifting and lifting. Im hoping that these 2 hours that Im spending in the gym is not hurting me. An hour and a half of weight lifting and 30 minutes of cardio. Im keeping my sets low….I think? Lets see, 5 back workouts, 3 sets for 4 of the exercises, and 5 sets for the first exercise. So 17 sets for my back. Too much? Then I did 6 sets for my forearms, and 1 set for my biceps. Sooooo, 24 sets total today. Is that too much? And I STILL wanted to lift, but I know this is gonna do me some damage more than good. We’ll see.

Muscle Cars: I love muscle cars. I love american muscle. My dream car is a 1969 Chevy Camaro. What does this have to do with fitness? Simple. Straight aways. I HATE running in circles, just like I hate driving in circles. If Im going to race, its gonna be to see who is faster in a straight away. I own a harley, GREAT for straight aways, not so much when I turn. I run FAN-FU*KIN-TASTIC on a straight away, but throw in a curve and I get thrown off. Why did I even bring this up? Cause of my sprints today. I like doing straight sprint intervals, and I was not doing so good on the turns today.Oh well, I got it done, and I can’t wait for the weather to clear up so I can do straight aways OUTSIDE.

Okay, making brown rice, and I have FINALLY got the damn flavor down! Oh YEAH! Only 100 tries but I got the damn thing down…haha.

Freak off the leash!

So theres a sort of blizzard going on right now. So bad they sent us home from work today at 1130.

For some strange reason (even with the roads as shitty as they were) I decided to go to the animal shelter to see about adopting a cat I saw not too long ago. Weird, I know. But I dont get out on time to check the shelter out during the week! Anyway, they were closed due to the storm…who would have though? HAHA

The whole city is shutting down for the most part and I just HOPE the gym isn’t closed! I’ll be going there in about an hour. Definitely need to rock the weights since I ate bad tuesday after my workout, then yesterday (after eating bad nearly all morning…) I just made it a cheat day with cake, pizza, and ice cream. Best part? IT WAS DELICIOUS!

But now its back to seriousness. Back workout today, tomorrow is legs. Its ON!

Okay, no bitching, no laughing, no bragging. I need to step back a second and look at square one again.

Protein.

Now, at one point I was making a HUGE effort to intake 170+ grams of protein for my 150lb body. Then I hear that 1.5 grams per KILO of body weight is enough. So I dropped down to just getting maybe 100grams of protein. THEN my sister moved in and all the meats I would normally make for myself, I was sharing with her. So THAT cut down my protein intake.

Everything was going smooth and I was losing weight.  ….but something seemed weird and I realized I was losing muscle. DAMNIT! Then I just read today that 15% of energy one uses to lift weights comes from protein. DAMN! So I look back and realize clean eating has been going SWELL….but protein intake is crashing down. I need to up it a bit. Or a bunch.

What are the best natural sources of protein out there? I dont want to take more than 1 protein shake (41 grams of protein, give or take) a day. But what about the rest of the day? Almonds? Milk? Oatmeal? Tuna? Im thinking 120grams of protein is what I need to be intaking. Im at 140lbs right now, so I need to find out how much I need, and NAIL it.

***Plus, I’ve been doing horrible with my diet. White rice, and 2 small pieces of cake, yesterday and today. DAMNIT! I need to get out of here and move on to better thing!

I HATE THE COLD!

Sorry, I bitched. haha!

Okay, 3 days, 3 annoyances! Lets start on Sunday, shall we? Cools! Lets look into…..The PAST~~~~~~~~~~

HAHA, okay. Sunday it was just someone doing stupid form. Not bad form, just plain STUPID! I glanced over and he had 130 on the SM and doing squats. (A rather large dude, but nothing agaisnt that) Now I give him MAD props for being in the gym, CONSISTENTLY at that. But today he was …..wow. 3 inches down, then 3 inches up. Most of the move was sort of a ‘good morning’ than a squat. BAD on the lower back, and retarded form over all. It sometimes hurts for me to not say something, but I dont because Im STILL a beginner and even I dont have perfect form, so how am I going to correct someone. But then he did something that made me walk away cause it was just STUPID! He loaded the bar to 220lbs and used the same form. AUGH! WOW. I guess that weight belt he was wearing was giving him some hope to ’squat’ that much. Anyway, I left and kept doing my own thing. I hope this guy doesn’t f- up his back….

Monday! The only thing that annoyed the hell out of me today was the fact that some people are retardedly rude! (is that a word?) Okay, the Machine Fly is about 3-4 feet away from this stretching board. This becomes 2-3 feet when you use the machine and arms are extended. WELL, when Im doing flys, some guy found it necessary to squeeze between the machine and the board. REALLY!? YOU CAN’T WALK AROUND? Damn, I guess its SOOOOOo crowded that this was the ONLY option! I started him down, rolled my eyes, let out an annoyed huff, shook my head. This f–k face was not about to make me stop my set, so I kept going. Didnt see him in the gym after that set though. I think he left…GOOD!

To-day…….This is another gripe against the military. Well, mainly the PT portion. A waste of time. It does not benefit me, it does nothing for me. In some cases, it works against me! I rocked my abs on sunday, and workout my chest sunday and monday. What did they want to do today? ‘Next exercise is gonna be: The PUSH UP!’ ‘Next exercise is gonna be: Crunches!’ ‘Next exercise is gonna be: Leg raises!’ and so on…. The pushups didnt bother me so much, but I did NOT want to work them out cause today was going to be Shoulders day. Want my shoulders at their BEST. Nope…not after doing some weightless shoulder presses. Then, after 15-20 minutes, they said to do cardio for 30 minutes. I wanted to leave cause I was going to go to my gym anyway to do a 2 hour workout. Something that will BENEFIT me. Well, I couldnt leave. Had to stay the 30 minutes. I could have just walked, but Im not going to do nothing for 30 minutes, just not in my nature. So I jump roped. Not hard, cause I dont like doing cardio before weight lifting, I REALLY dont like cardio before weight lifting. But i did it. Got annoyed as hell. This is going to continue to upset me every time. Every tuesday and thursday. I know everyone is just doing what their being told. Mandatory to go to PT! …can’t wait to get out of the military.

And today, I used all that anger and frustration, annoyence into todays workout. I dont know if it was good. Felt good, but then again, them having us do PT (and they dont take into consideration when it comes to overtraining…OF COURSE NOT…) is probably going to cause me to overtrain in time. Anyone got any suggestions?

With suggestions, no, I can’t skip out, they wont let me. No, I can’t do nothing during these sessions, I’ll get pulled aside and get ‘briefed’ (thats either a firm talk, or getting ripped). No, I can’t workout earlier, not enough time to get the whole workout in.

This muscletech competition doesn’t take into cinsideration this kind of dilema.

The Joke:

Reported in the Massachusetts Bar Association Lawyers Journal, the following are questions actually asked of witnesses by attorneys during trials and, in certain cases, the responses given by insightful witnesses:

1. "Now doctor, isn’t it true that when a person dies in his sleep, he doesn’t know about it until the next morning?"

2. "The youngest son, the twenty-year old, how old is he?"

3. "Were you present when your picture was taken?"

4. "Were you alone or by yourself?"

5. "Was it you or your younger brother who was killed in the war?"

6. "Did he kill you?"

7. "How far apart were the vehicles at the time of the collision?"

8. "You were there until the time you left, is that true?"

9. "How many times have you committed suicide?"

10. Q: "So the date of conception (of the baby) was August 8th?"  A: "Yes."  Q: "And what were you doing at that time?"

11. Q: "She had three children, right?"

A: "Yes."  Q: "How many were boys?"

A: "None."  Q: "Were there any girls?"

12. Q: "You say the stairs went down to the basement?" A: "Yes."

Q: "And these stairs, did they go up also?"

13. Q: "Mr. Slatery, you went on a rather elaborate honeymoon, didn’t you?  A: "I went to Europe, sir."

Q: "And you took your new wife?"

14. Q: "How was your first marriage terminated?"  A: "By death."

Q: "And by whose death was it terminated?"

15. Q: "Can you describe the individual?"  A: "He was about medium height and had a beard."

Q: "Was this a male or female?"

16. Q: "Is your appearance here this morning pursuant to a deposition notice which I sent to your attorney?"

A: "No, this is how I dress when I go to work."

17. Q: "Doctor, how many autopsies have you performed on dead people?"

A: "All my autopsies are performed on dead people."

18. Q: "All your responses must be oral, OK? What school did you go to?"

A: "Oral."

19. Q: "Do you recall the time that you examined the body?" A: "The autopsy started around 8:30 p.m."

Q: "And Mr. Dennington was dead at the time?"  A: "No, he was sitting on the table wondering why I was doing an autopsy."

20. Q: "You were not shot in the fracas?"  A: "No, I was shot midway between the fracas and the naval."

21. Q: "Are you qualified to give a urine sample?"  A: "I have been since early childhood."

22. Q: "Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a pulse?"  A: "No."

Q: "Did you check for blood pressure?"  A: "No."

Q: "Did you check for breathing?"  A: "No."

Q: "So, then it is possible that the patient was alive when you began the autopsy?"  A: "No."

Q: "How can you be so sure, doctor?"  A: "Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar."

Q: "But could the patient have still been alive nevertheless?" A: "It is possible that he could have been alive and practicing law somewhere".

Someone asked me about it not too long ago. Why do I do it, and how do I put up with it. Why do I even bother with fitness and nutrition.

Well, the ’sad’ part is, it is my life now. Its priority. It consumes my thoughts for nearly the whole day, day after day. What I eat, when I eat, what Im working out. How Im working out. When to take my vitamins, when to get to the gym. I accidentally became a health freak, very inadvertently. To look at ALL the labels and make sure calories are low, fat is low, sodium is low, sugar is low. Also keep protein high, fiber high, and whole grains, and all natural foods or as best that I can find. To know that what Im doing has made me an outsider and my real life social life has DRASTICALLY gone down and is nearly none existent. I had to give up something. The social life was a HUGE sacrifice since I went from the party guy who was always down for the cause, to the health nut that is no fun anymore…I’ve been told a LOT of my old ‘friends’ have been talking some MAD sh-t behind my back. Nice to know what they truly feel, huh? I do miss the old days, and its been a struggle to stay on this course to this new style of living.

But I love it. I love seeing the changes, knowing that what Im putting into my body is great for me. Knowing that I can out run others without trying really hard because I take care of myself (see previous blog). Knowing that in time, and it will TAKE time, I will be looking in the mirror and see a body I never thought could be mine. AND IT WILL HAPPEN. I have to keep on course, and am thankful that I have the knowledge and will power to keep with it.

In the real world, I am alone in this quest. I dont have anyone I can talk nutrition to, no one to come out and spot me, no one that truly understands why I do this. My sister is slowing getting into my eating habits, but thats mainly cause its the only kind of foods I have in my house. Shes out of luck. HAHA.

So! This is a thank you to all the fitness friends on this site, for support, motivation, INSPIRATION, and my favorite, the laughs! This is the only place I can relate to people with, and why Im on here day after day. BB.com IS my social life. Kinda sad, but what can ya do?

I love this site, I love my new life, I love the changes, and I love pizza and tortas!

But I’ve keep those 2 foods limited now…

JUST GO, DAMNIT!

Didn’t, but definitely felt the eyes water, the throat cleared, and I swear a tear almost flowed out and down my cheek. I took about 30 seconds of hard breathing to calm down. I have NEVER felt like this EVER before.

What nearly made me cry? Seated calf raises. 130lbs, and after 10 reps, (was going for 12) I felt a pain that just nearly made me lose it. The crazy part: I LOVED IT! The pain, the near-crying experience. 130 is new to me, so it was great, and it was worth it. Oh wow, I’ve heard of exercises that make even big guys tear up, but till today, I realize that THIS CAN HAPPEN! WOO HOO!

So, there are a few things that lead up to my calves being rocked like they were. On tuesday I accidently had 350lbs on the hack squat machine (I was going for 260, but the machine automatically has 90lbs without any plates. I did not notice this at first) I didnt want to go down in weight since I was able to rep out on 350 (PR, by the way) but I definitely rocked the calves. THEN YESTERAY, for PT they had us run a mile and a half. I was going to just walk it cause I was gonna workout on my own afterwards, but they said they’re gonna wait for EVERYONE to be done before the session was over. I did NOT want to be that guy, so I jogged it.

A quick story on that PT session, I jogged it, and it was a light jog. This light jog beat everyone else doing the mile and a half. I knew SOMEONE was going to comment on this in some way or another, and not in a ‘GOOD JOB, MIKE!’ kinda way. And sure enough, someone did. Somone commented that they didnt feel bad cause Im only 24…. Im thinking,"Seriously?! I only did this good because I WORK HARD to keep up on my own fitness! If I go back to my old habits, I’d be struggling on this mile and a half! AGE has NOTHING to do with this! You work hard, YOU TOO can rock this run."

I can think of several people older than me on BB.com that can COMPLETELY blow me away. They are my insperation.

Sorry, back to calves. Yeah, 350lbs on tuesday, a run on thrusday, then 130lbs today. Nearly cried. Life is good.

Oh, and the punching bag was AMAZING today. A song came on towards the end of my session, an upbeat, danceable song, and I rocked away on the bag. It felt great. I love my new gym!

Except it has closing times….grrr. Anyway, the week started out stressful, continued to BE stressful, and up until the workout today, it ended on a good note. As George Lopez says, "Why you cryin?! WHY you cryin!? Tears of Joy? Why you cryin?"

Oh yeah, Tears of Joy….