My BodyBlog

I had been a cokaholic for 20 years.  I can’t remember a day during those years when I didn’t have a least one glass of coke.  Most days, it was several.  I liked the taste, thought it went well with many of the foods I used to eat, and believed I needed the caffeine it provided or else I would get a headache.  I didn’t see any harm in it, since it had no sugar, and I didn’t put much credence into some media reports about the possible health dangers associated with aspartame.  After all, if it truly did pose a health risk, surely our government health protection agencies wouldn’t let it be sold in consumer products, right?  HA!

On March 13, I decided to give it up.  I knew it was not contributing to my body’s nutritional requirements, and there was just no good reason for me to continue drinking it.  The first two days were a little difficult, as I had some withdrawal symptoms, but I did it!  That was 16 days ago, and I don’t have any desire for it anymore.  My water consumption has greatly increased, and I am enjoying an occasional cup of healthy green tea.

Giving up diet coke was something I could have done years ago, but, like everything else that I’ve done during my lifestyle transformation, I had to be mentally ready to take that step.  All of the small steps I’ve taken to change my lifestyle have combined to mean big changes in my life from where I was 4 years ago.  The weighlifting, cardio, and clean eating are having a huge impact on my body, and I am feeling better than I ever have at any point in my life.

Never forget that a long journey can be made with many small steps.  Are you taking steps to improve your own body and health?  

When leaving a comment on a blog, 9 out of 10 times the system will not accept the security code and it prompts me to enter another one.  I know I’m doing it right the first time, I’m always careful.  Anyone else having this problem??

I’ve touched on this topic in previous blogs, but as time goes on I can see how critical it is to success.  I am talking about one’s attitude, mindset and knowledge, and how that impacts on the whole idea of working out and healthy living.  From looking at my own history, I can see how I was slowed by negative thinking, false assumptions and fears, and a host of other factors that had no connection to what I could accomplish physically.  I wasn’t held back by lack of money, time, or physical capacity, it was my own foolish mind that kept me from ‘being all that I can be’.

I see this all the time when I read people’s comments and blogs on this site.  The biggest obstacle people have to overcome before significant progress can be made is the way they perceive themselves and relate to the rest of the world.  That’s to be expected, it’s what make us human.  This site is all about body transformations.  I think it is also about mind transformations.  Anyone starting out with negative thinking, false assumptions, irrational fear, and little knowledge must go through a mental transformation if they hope to succeed with a physical transformation and permanent lifestyle change.  You have to make an effort to do the pysical part.  Your mental state can make it harder to start the physical part.  However, I believe that the physical effort impacts on the mind.  The exercise makes us start to think differently, and over time we undergo a mental transformation.  I’m not saying it’s easy or automatic for everyone, and it certainly isn’t a complete transformation - even the fittest of us has hidden fears or thinks negatively now and then.  What I’m saying is that people who transform their body also naturally transform their mindset from negativity to positivity, from fear to confidence, from ignorance to knowledge.  The transformations make them not only healthier people, but happier people as well.

I often read blogs of people new to working out and eating right who are immediatly down on themselves for some reason, or who are proclaiming why they can’t do something.  I like to reply with a comment that is positive and encouraging, yet honest and frank, meant to make them think about why they feel the way they do and show them it doesn’t necessarily have to be that way.

So whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned bodybuilder, the next time you find yourself having a negative thought about your body or lifestyle, I hope you will catch yourself and remember that your mind can be your biggest enemy….and your biggest asset also, if you want it to be.  

Two days ago I did 3 sets on the thigh adductor machine, inner thigh.  I’ve used it lots before, but last time I went a little heavier and forced more reps.  And man, do I ever feel it today!  I didn’t know I was capable of feeling sore in that part of my legs!

I’m also a little sore/stiff in my shoulders and traps, but for the life of me I can’t think what I did at my last workout to cause this!  I did biceps and triceps, and a few sets of dumbell front raises and lateral raises, nothing too heavy.  I also did 3 sets on the machine I’ll call ‘glute kickback’.  I always find this machine a little awkward, since you’re kneeling and supporting your lower body with your upper body while doing the kickback motion.  I pushed out three good sets on this machine.  Could this cause the soreness/stiffness in my shoulders and traps?

Anyway, I won’t let any of this stop me from my regular Friday night workout.  This is deadlift night, which I love.  Hope anyone reading this has a great workout as part of your great day!

What do you call it when I have feelings of unhappiness about a big part of my life?  When I can look back and see that some of the decisions I made that brought me to where I am today were wrong?  Is it a mid-life crisis when I feel I need to make a radical change in my life if I want to be truly happy?

I have thought a lot about why I feel this way.  So, for anyone who cares to read, and for my own self-analysis, here are some ‘DEEP THOUGHTS’……

How did I get to where I am today, at the age of 43? I’m a professional in the financial services industry, I am self-employed and I make a decent living. But I have absolutely no passion for what I do! I went down the road to be certified in my profession because it seemed like the right thing to do at the time and I was more than capable at doing the work.  More than that, it was the easiest and most stress-free thing for me to do at the time.  Many of my decisions have been based on a stress-minimizing strategy, caused by the hard times I went through as a teen.  It jaded most of the decisions I made as a young adult.  Now, after working in this field for almost twenty years I feel trapped.  I won’t complain about the money, even though I could make a lot more money if I were more ambitious or went to work for someone else in a larger community.  I’ve read that people who love what they do for a living look forward to getting up in the morning for work and they enjoy what they do everyday….that’s certainly not me.  What a shame for me to go through life feeling like this…but what do I do?

What are my strengths and passions in life?  I’ll describe them (in no particular order).

• I love to serve customers in a retail environment.  I’ve been exposed to it helping my wife sell at craft fairs and flea markets, and helping at local charity sales.
• I love to teach people one on one, and have had some experience with it over the years (tutoring, giving workshops to small group, software training to small business owners).
• I like to do the accounting and financial management of my own small business.  I am very organized and I know I would be a good financial manager for any small business.
• I am a great listener.  I have always had people tell me their troubles, even people I don’t know very well!
• I am practical.  I try to be straight forward and tell people how I see things in clear language.
• I am open-minded.  I try not to rush to judgement, but instead judge other people more by their actions and less by what they say or what other people say about them.
• I don’t give opinions on subjects based on emotions- I like to know all the facts.  If I don’t think I have enough facts or knowledge about a subject to give an informed opinion, I’ll say so.
• I don’t mind admitting when I’m wrong or when I’ve made a mistake.  I’d rather learn from a mistake than pretend it didn’t happen.
• I have very good written communication skills and pretty good verbal ones.

Now, my passion: I love everything about leading a healthy lifestyle.  The weight lifting, the cardio, the eating for muscle gain and fat loss…doing one motivates me to do the others since they go together to produce fanstastic changes in my body.  It is like a snowball effect - the more I do, the more I want to do.  The more I learn about my body the better diet and exercise decisions I make, the better results I get, the more I want to do, etc; etc;  I have never felt this way about any other thing I have done in my life.

The changes in my body are very rewarding, and I do have more goals I am working towards, but it’s not meeting goals that is the most satisfying part of it for me.  I just love to be at the gym!  I love the atmosphere there, I love to be around other people who are working out, and enjoy the comraderie I have developed with some of the other regulars.  I love lifting weights - that feeling of fatigue and strain when you are nearing failure but you know you can do just one more if you bear down and give it everything you’ve got - then the exhileration after you do it!  Accomplishing things with my body that I never thought possible is the best feeling I’ve ever had.

Reflecting on my strengths, skills and the new lifestyle that I am passionate about, I believe that I would find all of the personal fulfillment I am looking for by being a personal trainer and owner/manager of a fitness centre.

But how do I get from where I am now to there?  I have no formal training or experience in the industry.  I live in a suburban area with a gym that meets the needs - another one wouldn’t work, there just aren’t enough people to support two gyms.  Is this just a pipe dream?  Should I just focus on what I now do for a living and be grateful I have the resources and time to support my new lifestyle?

At every point in my life, good things have happened to me when I was just at a low point and about to give up hope - finding my wife, becoming self-employed, getting my business to the point where I could make a decent living, starting to improve my health by working out at a time when my attitude was starting to be one of acceptance of my body as it was and that I didn’t have it in me to change.  Did I make these positive things in my life happen, or was I lucky that they just happened to me?  I have to take some of the credit for being patient and recognizing what I needed to do to start improving whatever aspect of my life I was unhappy about - even if meant taking a risk of failing - a big deal to someone who is conservative and risk-averse by nature like me.

Maybe that time has come again.  I recognize what it is about my life that I am passionate about and gives me true fulfillment - maybe its time to take another risk and make something happen.  My instincts tell me this is the right direction to go in.  I just don’t know how to do it yet in a way that wouldn’t cause too much disruption to my wife from a financial and lifestyle point of view.  We’ve worked hard to get where we are today, I can’t expect her to sacrafice any of that security in the hope that I might succeed at a career change.  So what do I do?  My answer right now is to keep learning, keep improving myself and keep my eyes open for opportunities to become more involved in the fitness world.  It’s taken me 43 years to figure out what I want in life.  Rarely do people get what they want overnight.  It takes hard work and commitment.  I’ll just have to keep following this lifestyle and have faith that all will work out for me in the long run……advice anyone?  

Couldn’t get out of the driveway today.  The car is blocked in by 10 foot high snowdrifts, the result of a blizzard that rolled through here during the last 24 hours.  The guy who ploughs our driveway when its that bad was up to his eyes in calls - said he might not get to us until tomorrow!

Although I did get about half an hour of shovelling in today (our back door was drifted in), I couldn’t let the day go by without an ‘official’ workout.  I blasted abs, here’s what I did:

4 sets each of

standing twists with a broomstick - 50

side dips with copy paper in a bag for weight - 30 each side

crunches on floor with legs on chair - 30

lying leg raises on the floor - 20

Feels great to have accomplished this!  When the best laid workout plans are thrown off by things beyond your control, you have to improvise!  That’s the difference between those who talk about being consistent in leading a healthy lifestyle but always have excuses, and those who just find a way to do it, no matter what life throws at them!  Which one are you?

No gym for me tonight, nor for anyone else in eastern and Central Newfoundland.  Everything is closed due to a blizzard that started about 3pm.  It’s expected to last 36 hours, and before its over we’re supposed to get 100 km (62.5 mph) winds, over 50 cm (24 inches) of snow, and several hours of freezing rain.  Nothing to do but stay home and get ready for the big clean up afterwards!

For those of you not familiar with where I am, Newfoundland is an island in eastern Canada.  We sit in the North Atlantic, and our weather can get a little crazy.  The best way to describe it is ‘variable’, especially on the eastern part of the island where I live, which is greatly affected by ocean currents.  I’ve seen snow, hail, freezing rain, rain, fog, and sunshine on the same day!  We have several snow storms each winter, one or two of which are severe enough to be called blizzards.

If you’ve been born and raised in a warm climate and haven’t experienced a blizzard, it’s hard to describe it.  The snow is thick and driven by howling winds.  Its unsafe to be outside, and if you dare to drive you’re taking your life in your own hands since the roads can’t always be kept clear.  Yet, there’s something magnificent about it.  Watching it from the safety and warmth of your house, you can’t help but marvel at this wonder of nature.

I went to the gym last night, and this is a planned day off, so I’m not missing a workout.  I’ll have to see what happens tomorrow, I may have to move my Tuesday workout to Wednesday.  The upside is, I’ll get plenty of extra cardio thanks to shovelling!

Boy, do I have egg on my face.  I’ve been enjoying doing the deadlift for the last five months, after learning proper form thanks to bodybuilding.com videos.  My PB has gone from 225 to 324, and I get great satisfaction from doing this exercise.  But the problem is I’ve been thinking this movement is good for leg muscles only, and has nothing to do with lower back!  Sorry to anyone I’ve misled talking about the deadlift…..

I guess I was focused on the advice I’ve read about using your legs to lift and keeping your back straight.  I assumed then the deadlift was to strengthen legs only.  Much to my chagrin I was reading articles about deadlift today and they all talk about the deadlift being a compound exercise which strenghtens primarily the lower back and hamstrings, but it also strengthens the core and has a positive impact on the entire body.  This completely makes sense when you think about the way you are moving when doing the deadlift, and which muscles are involved.

Despite all of its benefits, the deadlift is often scorned by many casual lifters who see it as too complicated, too risky for back injury, or something best suited for power-lifters.  I’ve read that even many personal trainers don’t incorporate the deadlift in the routines of even their fittest clients, and a lot of personal trainers haven’t mastered proper form themselves.

At my gym, over the last four years I can count on one hand the number of people I’ve seen doing deadlifts.  Come on folks, give it a try, I think you’ll like it!  Just be smart about it.  Watch videos and read about proper form, and then practice with the bar only until you are comfortable with the movement.  Start with low weights and build slowly over the span of several months.  Listen to your body, and at first sign of pain during a lift, abort it.

Today I’ve learned how the deadlift really benefits you, and over the months I’ve learned that if you treat the deadlift with respect and keep working at it, the gains in strength and mass you can achieve are tremendous! 

I have a lot of thoughts about this subject.  I had saved a long draft post where I explored the subject from the perspective of someone who’s been there and then changed his lifestyle around totally.  But who wants to read a long blog post?  I started to bore myself with it, so decided to scrap it and just state my main messages.  So here goes:

• Obesity in western society is an increasing epidemic supported by free-market consumerism, government indifference, and inadequate knowledge of what it takes to lead have a healthy body.
• The combination of an aging obese population and childhood obesity will results in ever increasing health care costs that will become unsustainable for government and society in the near future.  The situation must be reversed.
• Education is the key.  When more and more individuals have knowledge about what it takes to be healthy, pressure will be applied to governments and corporations to make the institutional and market changes necessary to support healthy lifestyles.  This is already happening to a small extent, but must be increased.  Educating children is vital to making a permanent change to the obesity problem.
• If you are obese, know that you can change your lifestyle and body, given the right knowledge and tools.  Reach out to others for support and get knowledgable about what you have to do to make the change.  If you’re not obese, be a positive role model for others and if you know someone struggling to overcome obesity support them however you can. 

Day 3 will soon be over and I’m happy to report that today seemed much easier than yesterday!  I had no trace of a headache, and I didn’t get that late-afternoon ‘must have Diet Coke’ feeling that bothered me the first two days.  I hope this means I’m over the hardest part of the withdrawal.  Anyone out there who’s given up diet soda, let me know how long it took you to get over the craving!