Six pack by summer

WOW, I totally spaced out today.

I stayed up till 2am working on the new Aol Pages Spell with Flickr plugin. [here comes the reverse rationalization] This is good because I’m going to be doing late night driving to alabama.

I did go to the gym last night, and I’ll be going again tonight after work.

After a magnificent feast last night for Mother’s day, I got home and started playing on the computer. I felt my allergies acting up a little bit. Reaching into my drawer where I keep meds, I pulled out a Singluar and took one. Singular is a very mild, long acting allergy preventer (and asthama med). A good solid minute after taking it, I realized that I didn’t take the Singluar – I took the Zyterc. Zyrtec is an awesome allergy pill, however it makes me very, VERY sleepy.

I didn’t even get out of bed until 9:30. No gym yet for me today, I’ll go hit the cardio after work.

I’m also drinking over a gallon of water today to start flushing the salt out (it will be wednesday, at least, until I’m back down).

And wednesday night is when I leave for Alabama. It should be a very interesting week!

7 weeks left.

No gym yet today. I did walk for half an hour last night, and didn’t really eat garbage. Weekends are tough, and I’m learning how to limit the negative impact of it.

I WILL be eating poorly tonight – it’s mother’s day. We’re having, among other things, triffle. Again, not beating myself up about it, but not dismissing it either.

The other thing is this. Last night I spent some time doing something non-work related, and non-fitness related: this project. It’s a viewer for del.icio.us sites. My latest post is a breakdown of the project.

Well, it’s a weekend.

No gym yet today, but no garbage food either – just chicken like every other day. I did have some BBQ sauce on it, to shake it up a bit.

Every thing is a choice, and I have the power and am responsible.

I’ve been listening to Brian Tracy’s “Psychology of Achievemnt” at the gym for the past two days. Audio programs make cardio go slower, but I learn more.
In any event, so far – I agree with his central thesis: by controling your inner state and attitude, you control your external effects. Of course I have plenty of nit-picks with the program, but for now, I’ll chalk it up to the state of science when he made it :)

One thing he talks about is the effect of parents on kids. While he was talking, I realized a few things about my upbringing – one of which is this: the phrase “A poor farmer blames his fields” was told to me by my sister everytime I blamed something external. And while I understood it at the time, I have to say, it is having a HUGE impact on me now. I am in control of my body, health and mood. No one else.

I did legs last night. Got through 4 sets of squats this time (one more then last time). They are KILLER. I also felt like I really “got” calf raises for the first time.
I’m not whining yet about my legs, but tomorrow – expect a sour Erik.

Weight: 161.8
BF: 14.6% (23.62 lbs)
Waist: 35.25 inches
Abdominal pinch: 27mm

Stats brought to you by ME… trackstat.us is down, and has been on and off for going on 18 hours now. Damn you TextDrive. I do love them, but they’ve been going down more lately.

On to the carbs. I didn’t have nearly enough yesterday, and by this morning, this is how I felt (inspired by YTMND):

After the gym and an apple, I feel much better. I think I need to up my carbs in general. Not much, but enough.

I also need to start going tanning so I won’t burn in Alabama next week.

Did you ever have that perfect storm of events in your life that really make you feel like everything is pointing in your direction? That feeling that the saying is true, “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear”? I’ve had a few events in the past 24 hours that really make me feel “special”. I feel like I can have a positive impact on the world, my self and my bank account.

My question is this: does EVERYONE in the world have opportunities all the time to rise-above and do (at least to them) greatness? Is this just blind luck that it’s happening to me right now… OR (and this is MUCH more exciting), are these just visible to me now b/c I’m open to them with my good feelings fostered by working out and eating right???

In any event, cardio today was AWESOME, between thinking about a few different ideas, and listening to a cd it just blew by and was very “productive”.

Last thing – I was 164.4, and somewhere around 15% (according to my tanita, grain of salt.), that means that I probably have to lose somewhere around 8lbs of fat to be in the 10% range. 8 lbs, 8 weeks…. :)

I hit the treadmill again today for 45 mins, with 15 more on the elliptical. I think I got a blister from the treadmill, that’s why I did the last bit off of it.

I lifted last night. I’m lifting with John’s help – he’s tweaking my program for me. Last night was chest and triceps. I drank the SURGE afterwards. The first part of the taste was good – like angel food cake, then the “mid-palette” was REALLY bitter, with an even more bitter aftertaste… I think I might drop a packet of sugar in there, hopefully it will cut it.

I gave a spot to this guy who blew me away. Amazing body, RIPPED. Bigger and more balanced then pretty much everyone else I’ve seen at this gym. I spotted him on dumbell bench press – 45 lb then 50 lb. Only 4 then 3 reps… That is just mind-boggling. Other guys at the gym, with smaller pecs, or HUGE pecs and no balance everywhere else, bench two 45s or more on each side of a barbell. I’ve known for some time that size != strengh, but I’ve never seen it demonstrated so clearly.
I guess the question becomes – do you want size or strength? And if you want size, are you going to go about it the right way? Clearly some of the other people in the gym are lifting bench for show, but end up not being nearly as balanced as this guy.

To me, steroids are cheating. They’re a way of “gaming the system” that, for me, isn’t fair. What I didn’t realize was how hard people on steroids still need to work. They don’t take the drugs, then go sit in front of the TV. I think that is a common misconception – and one that I’ve had for years. This guy might be on the juice, so might any number of people at the gym, but you still apparently need to work your butt off. Maybe it can be argued that if you’re willing to risk your health for gains, you are MORE driven then other people.

I’m also realizing that most common wisdom is wrong. If I want a good body, I need to work a specific way, and do enough “right” things to get there. If I want strength gains, then it’s a whole different ball of wax, and also need to work a specific way.

I guess it comes down to working harder AND working smarter. In my case, it’s a single goal (SIX PACK), with a smart backing of the prospect of losing $1,500 that I don’t want to lose!

What’s your goal?

quip of the day: Success is not avoiding the wrong things, but doing enough right things.

I woke up in the absolute worst mood this morning. I overslept, felt bloated from my dinner last night, got a comment from gary on this blog that didn’t help. It took everything I had to drag myself to the gym. I got there, and it was totally packed. I ended up on a treadmill, and started running and walking to keep my HR between 140 and 150. After 25 minutes, the fog started to lift. The last few minutes were great. I felt again like I did at the end of last week – UNSTOPABLE!

When I woke up, I thought, “There is NO way I’m going to get this goal.”

Well – forget that. I’m putting $500 more in, and changing the payout (and the paragraph explaining it in the upper left, if you have any ideas, let me know). I’m going to structure it like this – at the end of this, I’m going to make a chart of how much each person contributed. Based on those numbers, I’ll figure out the split – i.e. if Virid was active in 25 good conversations, but Bob was only in 2, then Virid will get (much) more then Bob.

I think this is fair for two reasons:
1. Why should someone who comments only once get as much money as someone who really helped me through the rough spots, and made the easy parts that much more pleasant?
2. By doing this 8 weeks out, I’m giving PLENTY of time to announce this change.

Last point – to everyone who comments on a regular basis: THANK YOU. There are 4 or 5 of you (off the top of my head, it might be a little more), who comment every or almost every day, and with good, helpful insight. I truly couldn’t get this done without you.

For those that didn’t read yesterday’s 11:30pm post – For my six-pack goal – yesterday was a disaster!
I didn’t eat regularly, didn’t plan out my day, ended up eating garbage.

Today is off to a better start, but not sure where it wil end up. I went to the gym today, and I’m eating an MRP bar now.
However, I’m going out tonight to celebrate my Dad’s 10th aniversary, where I’ll (yes me!) be drinking wine (watch this – the last wine to find out why).

Tomorrow marks 8 weeks out, and as you know, that’s a BIG deal to me.
The week after this one, I’ll be in Alabama for 4 or 5 days building a house, and in june, I’ll be gone for a few days to RailsConf. The diet and exercise will be challenged by those two things, but I will perservere!