Skippy71’s BodyBlog

Well, that’s it. It’s over. *waves to 2007* Bye bye ya bastard, don’t let the door hit ya in the ass on the way out. Hello 2008. You better treat me a damn sight better than the last one did. LOL.

Howdy everyone. 

Just two days away until Santa arrives so to everyone on BodySpace…

And this goes double for all the amazing friends I’ve made here and those of you who have been so helpful with your advise as I’ve worked these past 5 months to improve myself.

Lots of love and all the best for 2008

*hugs*

Well…time’s moving fast I have to admit.  Christmas is just 2 days away and then 2008 is only a week past that.  I can’t believe how fast this month has ripped past.

That having been said, that means I have just 9 days remaining before I (knock on my bald-ass head) join the ranks of the non-smoker. I’ve faced a lot of challenges in my life and have overcome most of them (I’m still alive aren’t I?) but I have to admit, I have mixed feelings about this one.  Part of me is looking forward to being able to conquer this, and experience the financial and health gains that will certainly result.  The other part of me is asking myself "How the bloody hell am I gonna pull this one off?" and is already furiously chomping away on my finger nails in…well, let’s call a horse a giraffe…outright panic.

I’ve tried most of the gimics before.  Pills (they made me horribly ill), the patch (worked one day and then something about the adhesive caused the worst allergic reaction on my skin I’d ever experienced in my life - bleeding welts under the site and my whole arm felt like it was on fire).  Hell, I’ve even tried laser therapy and hypnosis (both were good for about a week each and cost more for the sessions than 3 cartons of coffin nails).

So here I am…a little over a week away…wondering what I’m gonna do to keep myself busy and my mind off it. I’m taking the first week of January off of work so I can seclude myself at home, but I can’t spend the whole week in the gym (as much as I might like to).  My wife and kids have to take the chance on being around me at some point. LOL.

So…I’ll be going cold turkey on this one and I’m wondering if any of you have given up this dreadfully disgusting and expensive habit?  I’d love to hear your stories on this one, find out what - if anything - you used to cope with the first few days of withdrawl.  From what I hear, those first 4-5 days are the most crucial, as the nicotine is filtered from your system.  You get through that first week and your half-way there, then it just becomes a matter of willpower.  So I’ve heard.

I’m gonna use this section as a lead up to my quitting smoking, and beyond.  Been working on my transformation plan for almost 5 months now and I think its finally time to give up my worst habit.

Been a smoker for more than half my life (started when I was 16 and I’m now 36) but I really want to be in the best shape of my life, this seems to be the next logical - and a necessary - step. 

So over the next few weeks, this will be the area I use specifically to - at first - psyche myself up for what will be one of the biggest challenges of my life, and then - after the 1st - to vent my spleen and take my shit out on whatever as the withdrawl takes hold.

Consider yourselves forewarned lol.

Motivations.  We all have them.  That’s why we hit the gym 5 times a week, why we pedal our butts off on those LifeCycle’s until our legs feel like they are on fire.  It’s all about meeting that next goal, testing the next limit.  Perhaps you just want to be healthier.  Maybe you’ve been eyeballing a new bikini and know you need to drop just 5 more pounds to be able to show it and yourself off at your very best next summer at the beach.  What ever the reason, its never an easy thing and as we get well and truly into the Christmas season some of us are probably finding it harder and harder to keep things moving along.

When the thermometer drops, when the kids have been tailing you bugging you for this, that and the other as you fight through lines during Midnight Madness at the mall, when you see the credit card balance dwindle away to near nothing, when you catch that all too tempting whiff of apple strudle and cranberry stuffing its easy to allow yourself to slip a little and think "Nah.  I really don’t feel like doing my 5 miles on the treadmill today.  I’ll make it up tomorrow…or the next day…or next week."

That was the trap I fell into a year ago when I first tried to improve myself and better my health.  It got colder and I just didn’t feel like going out in it if I didn’t have to.  Work would wear me down and all I wanted to do was dump my butt infront of the TV with a hot cup of coffee instead of dragging it to the gym.  I’d get home from a trip to the mall for pictures with Santa and just couldn’t see myself going back out and dealing with the line-ups at the leg press.  So in the end, I ended up not going at all…all winter..and the next thing I knew it was July and all that time I’d be paying for a membership I wasn’t using.

Not this time.

It’s not easy to stay motivated under any circumstances, especially when you are looking at the rolls in the mirror and thinking "How long am I gonna have to do this before I see my shoes again, before I can move the entertainment unit without needing a chiropractor afterwards?"  But as we’ve all heard time and time again…physical transformation takes committment, its about building good habits and most importantly having some patience.  The results may not come for weeks or months, but if you stick with it, keep telling yourself you can do this — you WILL do this — they will come.

So what’s different this year for me as opposed to last year?  Well…not the weather that’s for sure.  If anything, its gotten colder, earlier than it had 12 months ago.  It was easily -35C when I went to the gym yesterday. If I remember correctly, it was more like -10C at this time last year.

Honestly, I think my big kick in the A$$ this year has been work.  I hate my job.  I’m a customer service rep in a call center, which means I get paid to listen to people complain all day.  Not so bad, in that many complaints are justifiable and I get some satisfaction in sorting out some of these issues.  My employers on the other hand, well let’s just say that it’d be nice to see my colleagues and myself treated more like our efforts are appreciated.  Basically, I go into work thinking this is going to be a good day and I come out ready to see if I can break 11 miles per hour on the elliptical and kick my chest press up another 10 lbs - as opposed to wanting to kick my supervisor in the chest and out the nearest window.

I’m sure you get the idea.  That’s one motivator. 

It’s true what they say.  Exercise has this amazing overall effect on the body.  It helps to release stress, improves your ability to sleep and gives you an almost euphoric feeling that’s better than any drug out there.  I don’t think I’ve been in this good of shape since I was in my early 20s. One of my big problems the past year was illness, I was sick constantly through the spring and summer months.  But you know something…I haven’t had so much as a head cold in about 4 months now.  My athsma hasn’t be bothering me nearly as much - even with the drop in temperature - and I generally feel more limber and less tired.  Working in a call center, its hard to avoid picking up every known bug out there.  We’ve had staff booking off constantly and my kids have already had a couple of good bouts of the flu since school started. 

Motivator #2.  Can I get through the whole winter without having to take a day off for any reason other than wanting a stress day just to spend it in the gym? 

I’m actually not sure who’s been happier with the progress I’ve been making recently, myself or my wife.  She’s been very supportive of what I’m doing, eventhough it’s keeping me away from home that little more often.  Alot of the pictures that are going up on my page are taken by my wife.  Just yesterday she was commenting that I am not the same man she married.  I think here words were "I’m not sure what you’ve done with the old Royce, but I hope you buried him good and deep cause I like you waaay better". 

Motivator #3.  Having my new shoulders and pecs groped constantly LOL!

As for the 4th.  Well this one is purely for me.  Who doesn’t remember Hugh Jackman as Wolverine from the first X-Men movie?  Especially near the beginning of the movie where he’s getting all feral in that cage fight in some nameless bar in Northern Canada.  Here’s a refresher….

I didn’t think so a year ago, or even 5 months ago when I started all this…but I think I can get to looking like this by my next birthday in April 2008.

This is what’s keeping me going, keeping me on track through the grip of winter and chaos of the Holiday season.   What about everyone else?  What’s motivating you?  Feel free to drop me a quick note letting me know.  I’d love to hear about it.

Cheers  

You know it was a good workout when your heart is still pumping half hour after your last rep, your legs feel like rubber and your arms still feel warm to the touch after being out in -20F near blizzard conditions.  Yeah.  That was me today. 

Tried something new today.  Instead of just walking into the gym and jumping straight into my massing sets I decided to warm up a little on the basket ball court.  Spent my first half-hour or so pumping the ball around taking shots with both my left and my right hand (gotta keep it even right).  Can’t believe how fast I got a sweat going and how much my legs were burning by the end of it.  Read recently that its just as important to do something genuinely athletic in one’s efforts to improve overall fitness rather than focusing strictly on muscle size and straight cardio.  5 months now since I started all this and this was the first time I’d gone anywhere near the court area. 

I’m a righty but as it turns out, I’m just as effective in shooting baskets with my left.  Considering overall I maybe made about half of my chucks overall, I doubt the NBA recruiters will be calling me at home anytime soon though lol.  Still, it was a lot of fun.  Definitely something different and something I’m going to have to do every now and again if for no other reason than to improve my aim.

Afterwards, I went back into my usual routine.  An hour of high weight - low reps, 20 mins on the eliptical, and then another 45 mins or so of low weight - high reps.  Tried to work my shoulders again today.  My right one especially isn’t feeling the best so I went with a slightly lower weight than I have been and tried focusing a little more intensely on each rep rather than trying to shock and overload. 

Hey…something’s better than nothing right. 

I also seem to have hit another plateau with my arms.  Haven’t seen an increase there in a few weeks as far as load.  Tried to kick the weight up to 150 lbs on the preacher curl yesterday and couldn’t get through the first set - ended up dropping it back to 140 for the rest, and just stuck with the 140 through today’s bulk session. 

Aside from that, I’m looking to make some changes to my leg and glute work.  Aside from the eliptical, I’m doing quad extensions at 4 sets of 8 reps at 190 lbs for bulk, and leg presses at 3 sets of 20 reps at 250 lbs.  Not seeing a whole lot happening in the way of size increases or definition at the moment and I’d really like to see some results in my lower half.

Any suggestions would be appreciated. 

But I have seen the occassion deer and winter hair outside my door.  As soon as the snow hits, you can see little tracks in the snow near my patio and occassionally, at 4 am while I’m getting ready to leave the house for work, I can see the odd deer or family of deer strutting around the townhouses across the road from my bedroom window.

Yep.  It’s winter and as I’ve been sharing with some of you, its gotten bloody nippy up here in good ol’ Winnipeg, Canada the past week or two.  We had a huge dump - a good 6 or 7 inches - day before yesterday and there’s a nice fluffy covering all over the place.  Sadly, with that much snow, the thermometer tends to bottom out and its been getting down past -30C (about -20F) with windchill pretty consistently the last few days.  On my way for my workout today it was -38C (-35F) as I was waiting for the bus and only slightly warmer when I came home.

How it got warmer, after the sun went away, I have no idea.  But I’m not complaining.  LOL.

Speaking of my workout.  I’m not afraid to say, I hurt like a sonofa…. especially in my arms and calves.  Been really pushing it the last few days.  Don’t know if its anything to do with the weather, but I seem to be having to really work a lot harder lately to stay at the weights I’ve been lifting rather than backtracking.  I also seem to have to really push myself on the eliptical machine to get my heartrate up to a point where I’m actually accomplishing something.  By the end of my cardio today, my knees were definitely buggin me and I was a little worried about how I was going to go when it came time to do my machine extensions and presses.

4 more weeks and I’m gonna give this quitting smoking thing a try - the next step in my efforts at reaching my optimum physical condition.  Put in a request at work for a week off starting Monday the 31st so that I don’t have to worry about subjecting my co-workers and customers to what I’m sure will be some pretty freaky mood-swings.  May have to lock myself away at the gym or my bedroom that week so my wife and kids don’t have to worry about being subjected to it either.

In the meantime.  Gonna take the day off tomorrow and give myself a rest day and a chance to recoup after the last 2.  May take Friday as well, depending on how I’m feeling.  The real problem with this weather in maintaining my motivation to go out in this to get to the gym.  Thankfully, the Y is just a couple of blocks from work and I generally stop in after my shift since I’m out in it anyway.

Thats all for now folks.  Cheers