Kids are amazing. First of all they grow from microscopic to being eating, pooping, and sleeping machines in only nine months. They look like aliens with their huge heads, and can melt the heart of the hardest of us with just one smile. They quickly sponge up everything in their environment as development continues. Gradually this rapid growth declines, until bam! Puberty hits and flings the human child violently toward adulthood. Birth and puberty are remarkably similar to me. They are both like jumping out of a perfectly good airplane. It is a lot like this:

I am remembering a conversation I had with one of my older brothers over Thanksgiving dinner last week. Just like most people he has put on more than a few extra pounds of butter over the years. He is finally doing something about it. Somehow we started talking about diet. He told me that he believes if he does enough exercise, he will be able to eat whatever he wants. I told him at the end of the day it is still about calories in verse calories out. To lose weight you have to burn more calories than you take in. It's the calorie deficit that requires the body to reach into that stored body fat. I explained to him about the simple math of how many calories you can burn with exercise, versus how many calories you can ingest with just one super-sized value meal of whatever variety. Clearly in the battle to lose weight, eating less is the key. This doesn't mean that exercise isn't important. Eating less is like fire, and exercise adds the gas to it.

While he understood what I said, I don't think I handled his response as well as I should have. He basically said, "all I know is that when I was younger I could eat as much of anything I wanted to and never gained an ounce of fat." I remember when he was 17. He looked like a marble statue. Prominent six pack showing without having to flex at all. He was naturally thick and muscular. I only saw him lift a weight once. And that was just to show off. I was always skinny compared to him. I accepted that you can't out train a bad diet, but the fact of the matter is, it was true that he did eat as much of anything he wanted back then. Now I think I understand why.

When we are kids our bodies are as flexible as rubber. When we are 20 something we can look at weights and put on muscle. By the time we are 40 something it seems like we can look at food and put on fat. What's going on? Youth is a survival mechanism. It is designed to be forgiving. Eat junk, don't sleep, burn the candle at both ends. Youth isn't wasted on the young, without it must of us won't even make it past our 20s. Youth has a shelf life though. You cannot continue eating and partying like a 20 year old as you get older and expect to remain healthy. I am a firm believer that it is not the advancing years that make a person old. It is the absence of youth with no correction for the unhealthy lifestyle of the young so typical of us all who had wild oats to sow. Take away the crutch of youth and not correct the lifestyle, and you will suddenly find yourself on the other side of the hill. As we get older the crutch of youth is removed because we are supposed to know better. Having gone down the wrong road many times myself, I can personally affirm the wisdom found in 2 Timothy 2:22 to "flee the evil desires of youth." The years will past. Better learn to check yourself, and put your lifestyle right. The absence of youth is nothing, the maintenance of health is everything. 

Daily Grind Friday November 30, 2012

I am going to call my new workout routine 100s. Gettin' 100s of reps baby! Sore this morning. I've figured out why I've been on the cardio kick lately. It has to do with my four days of feasting over the Thanksgiving holiday. I was up to 199 pounds this past Monday. After having been over weight for so long, it is hard for me to tolerate getting soft again. So high ho, high ho, high ho, I've been doing more cardio. As of this morning I'm back down to 190, and my desire for all the cardio is going down with my weight. I will most likely do less cardio next week.

Warm-up

--Standing Drills #2

--Ropa Dope 10 Spot

Superset

--Wide Grip Pull-ups (shoulders, back and arms are really sore and these hurt) bodyweight 10 sets of 10, last 3 sets I had to come off the bar for a few seconds. Finished the by doing 4 reps, then 3, then 3 more. 

--Dips bodyweight 10 sets of 10 

Spin Bike 30 minutes of sweat and pain (the good kind).

Total Workout Time: 1 hour, 40 minutes

Workout Quality: A2. Solid work.