Tranformation.

I cant believe its been a month since I posted anything. I just realized how busy I have been. Progress has been good weight wise, but my body and posture, already a HUGE difference. At last measurement two weeks ago, my waist was 3" smaller (that was with 1 month of work), and my PBs have gone way way way up. Legs are still kicking my to the ground, groveling like a baby for the few days after, but like everything else, it will go away. I mostly notice my face is not round anymore….i missed the long oval hehehe, and spaghetti arms now have begun to really have some definition….cant imagine how they will look a year from now (or can i????)

I had no idea I would be enjoying this so much. Feels great. For any of you guys like me just starting or just a few months in, just keep going full steam ahead. Ive certainly had a few bad days, and a few days where the diet wasn’t what it should have been, but WTF; onward and upward.’

I need to take some pics.

Tara Stiles posted this on Huffington Post, and it struck SUCH a chord with me, Im going to repost in hopes that someone else will read it and think, ‘thats ME’

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Remember when it was cool to complain how crazy hung over you are and how wasted you got last night? Do you have fuzzy memories of waking up with McDonald’s wrappers scattered around your bed and you can’t quite remember what all happened? Remember a time when you would call your BFF and see if the two of you could piece together last night’s debaucherous events? That was probably around high school or college for most of us.

But, habits begun as some fun and a way of getting around a little social awkwardness (ok maybe a Lot of social awkwardness) have a way of continuing. It’s easy to slip into a late 20s to 40-something who still finds lots of disposable income ending up in bars and junk food. Sometimes it’s fun, maybe. But mostly unhealthy habits just create additional hurdles. We’re required to work doubly hard just to undo whatever happened during those fuzzy hours. Really it’s not that cool. What’s cool is having fun without creating a heap of difficulties that we have to carry around and work hard to undo. What’s cool is being healthy! It definitely makes getting older and moving beyond those college years a lot more fun.

A shift happens when you decide to be healthy. You start to feel really good. You go from wanting not to deal, to actually wanting to deal with life, future, goals, your past, and your relationships. Maybe having a great body motivates you. The good news is a great body goes along with living healthy. Our bodies are all great! We just sometimes need to remember that taking care of ourselves is actually more fun than some of those other habits.

Take alcohol as an example. It attacks the liver first when broken down. Your body can’t use it for energy right away, so it ends up stored as fat in the cellular lymph. Alcohol is considered a threefold factor in creating cellulite because it attacks three basic defenses of our bodies all at once: digestive, nervous and kidney. And how about those "beer bellies" - just a matter of a few extra alcohol calories stored as fat? Not exactly. Calories in-calories out isn’t the whole story here. Rather, the main effect of alcohol is to reduce the amount of fat your body burns for energy. Alcohol gets converted into acetate, which stops fat loss.

A study from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition gave eight men 2 drinks of vodka and sugar-free lemonade separated by 30 minutes. Each drink contained just under 90 calories. Fat metabolism was measured before and after consumption of the drink. For several hours after drinking the vodka, whole body lipid oxidation (a measure of how much fat your body is burning) dropped by a massive 73%.

Your body uses whatever you feed it. If you feed it alcohol, your body will burn the acetate before the fat. That means a lot more hours in the gym or on the yoga mat before you are even chipping away at anything. If you’ve ever been at the gym beside someone who was drinking the night before you can smell the alcohol sweating out of them. Pretty nasty, isn’t it?

You may be thinking, "I work hard and have my life together. I like to unwind on the weekends and get a little wasted. So what’s wrong with that?" Nothing’s wrong with that. Do what you want and what makes you happy. But also spend a little time looking at habits that add a big weight you get stuck carrying around. Why are we so wound up in the first place that make us need to drink so much? It’s a good place to start. It can help sometimes with letting go of the old habits.

Thankfully it’s cool now to be healthy. Organic shopping, cooking at home and with friends, yoga, hiking, walking, biking are all activities that awesomely cool people do. It’s not cool to complain too much about life, job, weight and overall happiness. We all know there is plenty available to do about it. Get to a yoga class, go for a run, ride your bike, eat healthy foods. When you live healthy you feel great - both while you’re doing it and the next morning too. You stop fighting against yourself. You have all the tools you need to shape your life how you want it to be.

after insane thunder and lightning last night (mixed with terrified dog shaking all night long), today was a kick ass workout; all back, i made a lot of progress from last week, and felt great. My most intense workout with these guys to date. After 3 weeks of slow progress…and i have to remind myself, its a marathon not a sprint, faint signs of my jawline are now visible. and the chin (ok the front one) is starting to take shape. I really feel my chest in particular toning up a bit. Im really glad I ended up at a more hardcore gym - the constant inspiration of others workout intensity, and the bodies those build, keeps my motivation at a 10.

after insane thunder and lightning last night (mixed with terrified dog shaking all night long), today was a kick ass workout; all back, i made a lot of progress from last week, and felt great. My most intense workout with these guys to date. After 3 weeks of slow progress…and i have to remind myself, its a marathon not a sprint, faint signs of my jawline are now visible. and the chin (ok the front one) is starting to take shape. I really feel my chest in particular toning up a bit. Im really glad I ended up at a more hardcore gym - the constant inspiration of others workout intensity, and the bodies those build, keeps my motivation at a 10.

i feel like i got my butt kicked and handed to me on a platter today; Just wasnt there at the gym…for some reason, the concentration and strength was party shot. yeah, was a chest day, and that is my weakest….of course, i can feel it this evening though, so maybe all was not so bad. Im bummin that I cant do legs tomorrow as I have an all day work session with a client, but looking forward to blasting somethin’ on wednesday. The diet is a mixed bag thusfar; a lot of the things I THINK I can eat, from reading on here and elsewhere, I cant; and visa versa. Im making such a huge dramatic change in lifestyle that im being as anal as I can be, and not giving in if I get a craving. Ive had not a single full blown slip in 3 weeks, and only two official cheat meals (both bbq, so aside from the sauce, not so bad anyway). Nothing fried, no bread, no real soda, no chips and no dessert for 3 weeks. that alone for me is huge. Hopefully this will get easier. I only seem to have the cravings in the late afternoon and evenings. On we go. Gotta kick some ass with the iron Wed.

and im enjoying every minute of it. Monday: chest, today: back. Friday, who knows (besides weigh in, measurements and the like….not looking forward).

This ‘getting back’ to lifting and healthy living is having some unexpected changes in myself. Energy level is skyrocketing, body ‘functions’ are normal again after not being for way way too long, and strangly, (and Ill admit first, this is gonna sound really odd) my fingernails and cuticles look great! yup. very unexpected ways.

I really am expecting this to become an addiction; it already is somewhat, in that I do look forward to working out more than just about anything. Im surprisingly (very very much) enjoying it, and the time in the gym. Much to my surprise, Im feeling totally comfortable in there, even among all the very hardcore (and many famous) bodybuilders — as people on here have said again and again, I (really) get the sense that most people dont notice, or could care less that im there; the ones that do have been nothing if not welcoming and friendly. I want to say that again here, because the intimidation factor is prob the one thing that has kept me away for the last many years. Im relieved to know its a complete non issue.

Otherwise, continuing soreness of course. its hurting my chest to raise my arms to type this. So im outta here. Looking forward to Friday

Well, here we go. After way way too many years living in the amazing Napa Valley….where eating and drinking are a competitive sport, I moved back to Socal to be near family and more than a few friends. I immediately felt like a beached whale. It wasn’t like this when I lived here more than 15 years ago… I was actually almost ’skinny’. but age, un-healthy eating (actually VERY good NorCal eating….just way too much of it way too often), and a wine habit that often revolved around many many bottles a night between friends, i ended up with a sizable gut and very heavy, unhealthy physical being.

This probably would have been going on and on if not for one important thing that happened a year and a half ago; I ended up in the hospital….I had not been feeling good for ages, and (what i later found out were panic attacks) were happening on a more regular basis: imagine a full blown heart attack without the heart attack part. When they put the cuff on me in the ER, my blood pressure was 228/120…and the machine was beeping nonstop. Fast forward a year and a half, on meds (which while they work great, i want to get off by next spring), and i made the decision that this was going to be the "Year of Me". I started shooting again at a local range, I started bike riding on the beach, I started taking my dog on hikes and beach, and I reconnected with many a long lost friend. The only thing missing was the guts to do something about my gut. and the rest of the body.

I spent months on this site, looking for inspiration; and found it in droves. Its truly inspiring to see what so many others have done, transforming themselves, that it really has been THE motivating factor to finally push it into overdrive.

I dont do anything half-ass…when I got a small tattoo, i realized I wanted to be covered with one big one…ergo, full back and sleeves. So when I got serious about this new ME, I did a lot of research, hit up a lot of folks on myspace, and here, and got nearly nothing but ‘good for you’ responses.

Part of the big fear is that, I am so out of shape….what would anybody think of me in the gym? (Im writing this part, ’cause ive read it here again and again). The fat guy on the treadmill. The beginner who cant lift much and all that sort of thing. So I started looking for a real ‘gym’….not a spa, or sports club…not a 24hour or any such place. I had the balls to email Dan Decker on myspace and ask him what gyms to check out…since he lives down here too. He pointed me to Club Z…used to be Met-Rx. I went in to check it out, expecting to be totally intimidated, which in fact, was not the case at all. Super friendly lady at reception told me the whole deal, and mentioned a few trainers and such. I luckily hooked up with Greg and Alan, and today, my first day lifting after nearly 20 years and 100 lbs, they kicked my ass.

I went in expecting the simple ‘here are my goals, lets do some light full body stuff to get you going’. but no. No no. I was thrown to the wolves, intense supersets, working arms, for the whole time. And I kept up…and thoroughly enjoyed it. big time. I think this will get addicting very quickly. Now, I have to say, around us are (literally) many guys who have been on magazine covers….in fact, nearly everyone in the place, is what I would classify as very hard core/professional bodybuilder. For (whatever) reason, to this newbe, yep, older guy, everyone pretty much ignored me…they were too focused on their own workouts….so the intimidation factor immediately turned into an inspiration factor.

So here we are, after day one, im SORE, well, more tight….arms have not been used like this in ages, and i feel damn good. and proud of myself, that im finally doing something about ME and that the folks ive met, on here, and most importantly, at my gym, have been beyond inspiring and supportive; Not to mention inspirational.

Ill keep this updated weekly as long as I have something interesting to say.

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