Reviving my Jeffness

300 pushups

500 situps

200 squat thrusts

3 mile run

stretch

100 mountain climbers

collapse into an exhausted ball of sweat

shower

eat bananas and peanut butter

yelled at world cup qualifying results…

 go team!!

Ok…leaning..clean diets..cheat meals….loading..bulking…blahblah yackety smackety.  I’ve grown weary of fitness catch phrases.  From now on I choose to live right according to my own sensibility.  I’ve also figured out my tongue is a lemming.  It will like what I tell it to like as long as it looks good and feels good.  That and there are a million and one things you can do with tuna that don’t keep fat.  A million more for chicken….  and another million for non-tuna fish.  I’ve been able to sub bulk granola and assorted trail mixes for my oatmeal joneses….  Now, I just have to practice what my more health educated people would call.."portion control" because I eat like the stereotypical 300 pound guy ..um.. if he ate veggies, trail mix and other so called healthy foods.  I guess he wouldn’t be stereotypical then now would he…

ok..back to the point.  no frills.. bells and whistles… it doesn’t have to be sexy or marketable…just doing whats right at the dinner table and at the gym or wherever you choose to do it… do it right.  that works every time.

Ok.  I’m settled into the home.  I’ve taken care of the distractions.  Time to get back to it.  I was a little less than willing to fess up to the degree to which I fell off during the transition.   Truth is, if I had stuck to it I probably would have been less stressed, and a bit more focused.  I feel like I left my best friend locked in a closet 1000 miles away…  Can never be without a fit lifestyle again.  I heard someone mention something about accountability partners and maybe thats what I need since I’m normally on some lone ranger type stuff…  I’m like batman…who needs a superman type to remind him to stay in touch with the WHY!  or something.

I put up some new not so progress pics.  Put them up to face the fact that I let myself go..I’m still better than the original start date which is a blessing but I’ve lost alot of the muscle I busted my arse to get.  That hurts…that hurts alot.  I’ve been getting myself back into a schedule and have incorporated 3 mile runs to keep my cardio in check.  I’m creative enought to use what I got to get me thru til I find a gym. 

Problem is…I’m like a gym snob.  I can’t fathom how I got to be so since my only serious gym membership just ended 2 months ago.  Even still, I find myself reluctant to join certain gyms.  I KNOW, employer sponsored or not, I won’t be joining another boutique gym with its hipster members who are only there to use the equipment to model the latest in cell phone technology and workout gear.   I’m real wary of the gym chains but I think I’m going to have to go a lesser of evils rout on that unless someone knows of a quality no frills gym in the DMV (DC/Maryland/Virginia for those who thought I was speaking of the Dept. of motor vehicles). 

My father says I overthink things and stand in the way of my own progress.  Now, If he were to lose those bowling balls in his shirt then he could be my fitness accountability guy… 

the search for the perfect mix continues….

People!  Never underestimate the value of like minded/similalarly missioned people!  Returning home has made a few things VERY clear.  Muscleheads need muscle heads…period.  I care not if you go to the gym in a blindfold with stereophones on your ears or if you workout in the dungeon you’ve erected in your garage or basement.  You. Need. Bodybuilders. In. Your. Life. 

Some of us are thick and must find this out the hard way.  Me for instance.  I set off on a solo mission determined that I should succeed on my own without any contact with muscleheads because EVERY. ONE. OF. MY. FRIENDS. are currently living very unfit and pushing maximum blubbage and their food is beginning to look sooooo goooood [insert droolage here].  So here I am looking at the 3 cheese ranch dressing and thinking how fetching it would look on my chicken while sideyeing the brownies (which, by the way, i’ve never liked) thinking..maybe i’ll have some because thats what everybody else is doing it aka its been so log since i’ve had sweets even a brownie would taste like pastry heaven.  I wanted a musclehead to just walk by…just WALK BY.  Alas..nobody walked by because when out with friends and family I seem to enter a void where fit people do not exist and the only person giving halfway sensible encouragement for eating clean is my father and his pal..the gut that looks like someone stuffed a kickball in his shirt…yaay!

Lesson:  a lone gunman can’t aint walking out of an ambush…this aint the movies!!

Meanwhile..i rediscovered the core synergistics dvd from p90x…  and i lub it to pieces!!!  May have to do the whole program again just because I’m feeling like a challenge right now…aka..still haven’t found a gym and need regularity in my workouts….

Gotta get going though.. I still plan to compete…

can’t stop my GO!

peace and God bless

I haven’t touched a weight in a month…just running and calisthenics… still no gym…haven’t found one of those yet (it is from lack of trying..just too busy right now).  Mucho slimming out-o.. muskles getting longer.. I have a look of fit..not rip.  Frustrating problem to have…as its one of those "simple to fix BUT…." problems.  This, Young Jeffrey, is why you need a gym.  While you can motivate yourself to train on your own… You are someone who needs background comedy to keep from being bored to tears…

I also need help with a lubrication problem..or at least I’m hoping its a lube job problem.  My knees and elbows… they don’t hurt…and stiffness is the wrong word… i just have a "feeling"  and its not comfortable.  So body detectives… any ideas on how to keep lubed up besides slightly above normal hydration?

Since moving back to the hometown I haven’t had time to train.  I know things are coming together and I’ll have my training time again but I do know that I will work much harder to keep that time in.  Call it addiction…call it whatever.. what I do know is that I not only have come to appreciate that post workout can’t move from soreness mixed with adrenaline rush of hard work completed but I miss it when its gone.  That and I feel like I lost about half the muscle I built…  things worth having are worth working hard at to keep …….. or something. 

muscle is great… health is even better…  don’t take it for granted because you don’t know what you got til its gone!

peaces

days are busy since the move.  being back in the hometown is very weird and I haven’t been able to properly fit in my workouts yet.  sloppy has been the best way to describe my eating since I’m not completely set up…and sloppy also describes my abs.er uh..my flabs even.  once you lean out to a certain extent you canNOT backslide even a little because your abs will rat you out EVERY time!!

so now.. i have to re-discipline myself in my new environs to regain control of my flabs and make them sexshay again. 

biggest problem…i now have no gym..NO GYM!!! 

going. through. withdrawal.

well… as long as my arms and legs work I have exercise.  Started running again.  Middle distances this time..won’t be damaging my feets again.  Wiped the dust off the ol p90x dvds and pulled out my calesthenics notes.  This should do until I find an adequate gym.  Hopefully this will exclude Bally’s and these so called boutique gyms..  BUT… I am on a budget..at least for the short term… 

Anyone in the DC area know of a good place to push iron..please pass the info on…

Took a look at myself in the mirror today.  I had been trying hard not to.  To just do work without thinking about the "look"… 

think i’m gonna do that from now on.  regular progress pics (yummyliscious) are good and everything but i think a relative newbie like myself can get caught up in the "look" and overthink the actual training. 

basically the mirror said as long as i concentrate on the work… (abs r popping) stay consistent with my training (v-shape is loverly) that the "look" will take care of itself… let the superficial go (looking goood) and build things that endure.  (sexier. than. ever.)

just made a HUGE change in my life…  took the step that is a doozie!  part terrified part serene.. weird mix… just gotta stay sharp and focused and let my training not only build my body but relax and sharpen my mind. 

i feel like a new world has gifted itself to me…. 

ok… i had a “this only happens on TV” moment last night.  was winding down from a very long day and the commercial for p90x comes on.  now, i already have it so i don’t need to be sold.  but i get so friggin pumped from watching the commercial that i get up and do a full calisthenic workout in my PJ’s at 11pm (an hour past my body’s new bedtime!!).  So what? you say… well it had been about 5 days since i’d last been to the gym and my motivation was quickly getting lost in ironing clothes, reading time, reviewing schoolwork time and playtime…not to mention sleep, eat, bathe them…bathe me… um..i think you get me….

So at 12:15am i’m heaving..my stomach is sore, my arms are spaghetti and my legs are macaroni and i remembered what I started all this for…and was pleasantly invigorated… not like..ahhhh this feels good, but some Highlander-Connor McLoud just beheaded someone-THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE!!! type invigoration.  Needless to say the neighbors and the kiddies were not happy with my warrior cry interrupting the best part of their sleep but hey.. sometimes you just gotta!

big huge elephant sized shoutout to the p90x commercial… you made my day. 

t- 2hours 2 minutes til i hit the gym

life is good.

on a less important note…  i also saw the “ab circle” commercial right after the p90x and while i may have a slight crush on the hots..i mean host…  can someone please tell me what the ham sammich a “fitness celebrity” is and why oh why would anyone refer to THEMSELVES in such a way?!?  i know you’re selling a product but if you have to tell someone you’re famous..chances are you’re not.

thanksbye

ok… i had a "this only happens on TV" moment last night.  was winding down from a very long day and the commercial for p90x comes on.  now, i already have it so i don’t need to be sold.  but i get so friggin pumped from watching the commercial that i get up and do a full calisthenic workout in my PJ’s at 11pm (an hour past my body’s new bedtime!!).  So what? you say… well it had been about 5 days since i’d last been to the gym and my motivation was quickly getting lost in ironing clothes, reading time, reviewing schoolwork time and playtime…not to mention sleep, eat, bathe them…bathe me… um..i think you get me….

So at 12:15am i’m heaving..my stomach is sore, my arms are spaghetti and my legs are macaroni and i remembered what I started all this for…and was pleasantly invigorated… not like..ahhhh this feels good, but some Highlander-Connor McLoud just beheaded someone-THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE!!! type invigoration.  Needless to say the neighbors and the kiddies were not happy with my warrior cry interrupting the best part of their sleep but hey.. sometimes you just gotta!

big huge elephant sized shoutout to the p90x commercial… you made my day.

t- 2hours 2 minutes til i hit the gym

life is good.

on a less important note…  i also saw the "ab circle" commercial right after the p90x and while i may have a slight crush on the hots..i mean host…  can someone please tell me what the ham sammich a "fitness celebrity" is and why oh why would anyone refer to THEMSELVES in such a way?!?  i know you’re selling a product but if you have to tell someone you’re famous..chances are you’re not.

thanksbye