New Year - New Body

Seems a lot of people are talking about losing weight, becoming more healthy, working out, etc. Oh wait that's right it's the beginning of the year. Resolution time. This is when so many lock down one of the 2 fundamentals to change their bodies - desire. The other fundamental is more tricky and usually is the reason why many of the "resolution" folk don't hit their goals. That fundamental is belief.

Often people sabotage themselves because they don't believe they can hit their goal and for one reason or another jump on the excuse train to quitsville. "I can't possibly do this or do that so I'll cut a corner here, a corner there" and then "I'm getting no results, I'll never have those massive guns or that six pack - oh look soda, oh look ice cream...oh look soda with ice cream in it!". That's about the gist of the process. Part of the problem is misinformation. We are just not educated enough to understand how the processes in our bodies work and that affects our belief in the end result. If we lose the belief that we can enact change in our bodies we will eventually lose the desire.

A good example of this is the thought that you can spot target fat loss. "Oh look at my belly, I know! I will do 1000 crunches and my abs will magic their way from under the layers of fat!". Turns out that doesn't work and all you gained is a strained neck and an injured back. Reason being, it's true what they say , abs are in fact made in the kitchen. I am a firm believer in the 80/20 rule (80%  nutrition, 20% exercise). If you eat properly (that's great tasting healthy food - it's not a myth people!) you will shed fat over your entire body.

Can't tell me this doesn't taste fantastic!

 Your last fat stores to go tend to be the exact problem area you are looking to "target", like your belly bulge. No amount of crunches are going to make that pouch budge until your other stores are depleted. And on top of that crunches are terrible for you! stop right now! Do some functional core centric routines (abdominals does not equal core btw) and you'll have much better results and avoid imbalances since you are not helping your lateral obliques or your back which can lead to injury due to imbalance, and oh wait no working out due to said injury, and eating since you are sad you cannot work out...but i digress. There is a reason that your body stored all that fat there to begin with. We cannot control which area our body burns fat from at a given time, but we can continually burn it until all that's left is that final problem area and that too will disappear.

Maybe our resolutions should be adjusted to avoid misinformation and using our brains to understand how exactly our systems work so at the end of the day, we can still believe in our end result. That way we can avoid the eventual pitfalls including losing the excitement you had on January 1st that this is your year to rule the pool! Also, maybe we can change that to the year we become more healthy so we can live better quality lives for longer than we would have otherwise, but hey if "rule the pool" gets the same results - there's your motivation. Keep the belief!

Check out the fat I didn't spot reduce - also 0 crunches. Zero!

"There's no way you can get in shape working full time raising an infant and using DVD programs" - Cool story bro

Fit Quest

 
A year ago I made a decision. I decided to go against who I believed I was and make a change as to who I would become. A year ago I put the bulk of my free time in geeking out. My days were filled with video games, movies, comic books, beer, and terrible food (delicious but deadly). Fifty wings, a bowl of chilli, a pound of shrimp, and beer to wash it all down was my staple meal at Hooters where you would find me at least once a week. Such a lifestyle led to my slow and eventual transformation into the stereotypical out of shape gaming geek.

I put so much time and effort in the nerd life I wondered what I could do if I put that same amount of time focusing on the opposite more active lifestyle. Motivation was key. Getting in shape purely to look good was too flimsy of a motivation for me so I needed something more to focus on. That solution came when my cousin suggested we do an event as a team. That event was the Tough Mudder. Training for such an event was definitely the perfect catalyst in ensuring I would train and continue to do so or risk failing to complete the Tough Mudder with my team (you can see our team videos here).

Now, a year later, I have completed 2 Tough Mudders(one 5 mile, one 12 mile)  and in 4 days will participate in my 3rd. A year ago I hated to run and would gas out at a measly half mile or less. Today I still hate to run (I have only run a handful of times since last year and in the past 3 months only a single time), but as evident from a one mile time trial a few days ago (7:40), I can now definitely run a mile or more unlike last year, and at a decent pace to boot. A year ago my first Tough Mudder was a good challenge. Today that original Tough Mudder would be a warm up. A year ago I was addicted to video games to the point where I would routinely spend 40+ hours playing weekly. Today I still love video games because we all know video games are the coolest thing in creation, however my 8+ hour game binges have dwindled to only a few hours (still a lot of game time I would say but I love it). A year ago I was a food addict and ate to my hearts content. Today I still am a food addict and I actually eat more food daily than I used to eat, but my food decisions have been vastly improved. I actually am eating every 2-3 hours for as long as I am awake and I enjoy the food I eat now just as much as the horrible food I ate in the past. A year ago I was 180 pounds of flub looking down the barrel of a shorter, fatter lifetime. Today I am a lean, mean, 160 pounds and will be as active 30 years from now as I am today.

I am happy to say I dodged a huge bullet by deciding to do a complete 180 physicaly despite lacking the knowledge of how to properly accomplish my goal. I avoided the trap of crash dieting, calorie counting, pill popping, and many other "known" methods to "lose weight". My focus was to become healthy and as a result I lost weight, built muscle, and burned fat. I learned as I went and am continually adding to the foundations I have built. That decision is also why I created this blog. My mentality has changed so much in a year I figured I would log my thoughts so that I could look back and see where my head was at during a given point in time. In the mean time I am helping those around me with their own "Fit Quest" and will continue to do so (in fact I am studying to get my NASM certification).

...one of my friends just brought up a good point about men who work out neglecting their legs. I definitely work legs but don't seem to take many pictures so here's some sexy leg action!

Mind - Body - Soul

Balance. Balance is supposed to be the source of peace and happiness in our lives but who has the time to figure out what balance is let alone achieve it. Our worlds move so fast we barely have time to even realize we are out of whack, but if you just pause for a moment the answers usually come rushing up and slap you in the face. I've found the secret to be pretty simple for me. In my case, I focus on 3 simple things - mind, body, and soul. Everyday I feed my trinity and my life is better for it. Each aspect isn't necessarily exclusive despite being completely different components. The things you do to take care of yourself can fall into any combination of mind, body, and soul. Lately to feed my mind I have been reading a lot. I have been reading plenty on health, nutrition, and fitness which enriches my training. Formulating food strategies is definitely amplifying the results of my workouts. My energy levels are high and my body composition is moving along the path I want it to take. Many would stop there and focus solely on mind and body...actually probably only body (and really only physical appearance and not actual health). 

Balance: Not so much

Soul should definitely have as much attention as mind and body. For me feeding the soul is all about emotion. Help someone with something - anything, listen to some epic music, create something - If it's food, I want some, except dessert, I don't like sweet things (makes cutting out sugar pretty easy for me lol). I spend time everyday with my wife (mostly couch time since shes 9 months pregnant!) and always make time for some kind of other relaxation activity. I used to spend a ton of time playing video games and watching movies. The past couple of months I haven't played any video games at all (extremely, extremely out of character for me) and my movie watching time has greatly decreased. I think I may be addicted to health and fitness related activities lol. All in all everything I have been doing as it relates to taking care of mind, body, and soul decreases my stress levels. I usually don't stress about much at all but it would take a lot to throw me out of whack, especially now. Live long and prosper.