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!

Superhuman

It is thought that superhuman abilities are found exclusively in the realm of fiction. Open up a comic book and you will see unimaginable feats of strength, lasers shot out of eyes, and beings moving faster than light itself. What many do not realize however is that all of us possess tremendous ability but lack the belief to wield it. The source is in our skulls. Our brains have many functions but one function in particular allows us to blur the line between human and superhuman. It is the ability to believe. The inability to use this function is one of the most restricting factors in our lives. We have such a hard time believing, especially in believing just how far our limits lie. Those who can do and those who cannot are separated only by belief.

Once upon a time scientists conducted studies and determined that it is humanly impossible to run a mile in under 4 minutes. That is until Roger Bannister came along and believed he could break this limit and proved science wrong. Since then, that limit has been broken time and again - even by high school students. Bannister's story is an old tale yet we still fail to believe in the simplest of things. We don't believe we can get six pack abs, we don't believe we can stop smoking, we don't even believe we can lose a few pounds. Yet out there are superhumans redefining what we are capable of. We cannot possibly run a marathon, yet in 2006 Dean Karnazes ran 50 marathons, in 50 states, in 50 consecutive days! We are too old and have lost our youthful vigor, yet this past year Lew Hollander completed the Iron Man at age 80! It was his 21st Iron Man event which he began participating in at the ripe age of 59. Anyone, anywhere, anytime can choose to become superhuman and you don't even need to order a shake weight to do it. And if your still wondering, yes we can fly, I'll leave you with the proof...

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.

50 Years Strong and Beyond

This past year I decided to stop growing older. I used to have the mindset that as the years roll by my physicality would begin to diminish and by my 50s would be completely inactive in all things physical. What low expectations I had. Back in August I stumbled upon a video on Youtube of Doc Horton himself (Tony Horton, creator of P90X) proving just what a 52 year old can do. The ridiculous shape Tony was in really drove home how young I actually am and gave me the belief that your abilities as you age are not determined by some number but by the choices you make. Here is a guy who set his own bar for what he would and would not be able to do regardless of his age. I now view every year going forward as year of improvement rather than a year of fading. Here is Tony at Venice beach August 2010: 

 

And if you think that is impressive look up Jack Lalanne's(Yes the kitchen power juicer guy) birthday challenges. I believe he is 96 now and still going strong. What is a birthday challenge? It is something to you do to push yourself to the limit on your birthday; A sort of personal milestone. For me I believe my 28th Birthday Challenge will be to run 28 miles. Should be fun considering the farthest I have run before that was 12 miles during the Tough Mudder Tristate and before that 4 miles one time during training lol. Man do I hate to run lol. If you can't wrap your head around Jack Lalanne doing any challenges, remember before he was the old man pushing his Power Juicer on infomercials he was this guy and a fitness revolutionary ----->

Oh and here are some examples of his ridiculous Birthday Challenges:

• 1954 (age 40): swam the entire length of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, underwater, with 140 pounds (64 kg; 10 st) of equipment, including two air tanks. A world record.
• 1955 (age 41): swam from Alcatraz Island to Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco while handcuffed. When interviewed afterwards he was quoted as saying that the worst thing about the ordeal was being handcuffed, which reduced his chance to Star Jump significantly.
• 1956 (age 42): set a world record of 1,033 push-ups in 23 minutes on You Asked For It, a television program with Art Baker.
• 1957 (age 43): swam the Golden Gate channel while towing a 2,500-pound (1,100 kg; 180 st) cabin cruiser. The swift ocean currents turned this one-mile (1.6 km) swim into a swimming distance of 6.5 miles (10.5 km).
• 1958 (age 44): maneuvered a paddleboard nonstop from Farallon Islands to the San Francisco shore. The 30-mile (48 km) trip took 9.5 hours.
• 1959 (age 45): did 1,000 star jumps and 1,000 chin-ups in 1 hour, 22 minutes and The Jack LaLanne Show went nationwide.
• 1974 (age 60): For the second time, he swam from Alcatraz Island to Fisherman's Wharf. Again, he was handcuffed, but this time he was also shackled and towed a 1,000-pound (450 kg; 71 st) boat.
• 1975 (age 61): Repeating his performance of 21 years earlier, he again swam the entire length of the Golden Gate Bridge, underwater and handcuffed, but this time he was shackled and towed a 1,000-pound (450 kg; 71 st) boat.
• 1976 (age 62): To commemorate the "Spirit of '76", United States Bicentennial, he swam one mile (1.6 km) in Long Beach Harbor. He was handcuffed and shackled, and he towed 13 boats (representing the 13 original colonies) containing 76 people.
• 1979 (age 65): towed 65 boats in Lake Ashinoko, near Tokyo, Japan. He was handcuffed and shackled, and the boats were filled with 6,500 pounds (2,900 kg; 460 st) of Louisiana Pacific wood pulp.^[19]
• 1980 (age 66): towed 10 boats in North Miami, Florida. The boats carried 77 people, and he towed them for over one mile (1.6 km) in less than one hour.
• 1994 (age 80): Once again handcuffed and shackled, he fought strong winds and currents as he swam 1.5 miles (2.4 km) while towing 80 boats with 80 people from the Queensway Bay Bridge in the Long Beach Harbor to the Queen Mary.