I’m a horrible blogger

I’m sure I’ve posted this before, but I really want to do better with this whole blogging thing. 

Anyway. 

I have been out of school for approximately 3 weeks now. I have started the 12 week olympic lifting program from Lift Big, Eat Big (http://www.liftbigeatbig.com/p/programming.html) and I’ve been doing alright on the diet front. I say alright because by most standards I’d be doing great. But I’m trying to go ketogenic and usually end up failing about halfway through the week. I haven’t weighed myself since just before the end of the semester; I’m ok with that. I have also taken up a lot of walking, even ruck marching with a 40lb pack (old backpack, with 4-10lb plates in there). I get some funny looks at the trail, but screw those haters. I found a new trail that’s a bit longer than the old one so I’ve been getting a lot of pavement time in. Including the walking that I had to do at work this morning I’ve walked 6 miles today. And 10.5 for the week. Not all of it with a ruck pack though. 

The lifting has been going very well. I really like the idea that I don’t have to program it myself. And with my 1 minute rest between sets it takes me at least an hour to complete, plus its some solid work. 

I have some newfound motivation as well. I might be taking a little trip in the fall to New England to hang out with some friends from college (the first time around) and perhaps take in a college football game. I don’t want to get kicked off a plane like Kevin Smith did. Now that’s some motivation. I also really don’t want to get groped by some old dude who thinks he has some sort of authority, but that’s the price of flying in this country. 

Time to go get my lift big, eat big on, suckas. 

Kick starter

Yesterday I went to the doctor for the first time in a year. The last time I went it was because I dislocated a finger in my right hand. This time it was because I’ve got a touch of the flu. This was a new doctor to me, my mom works for the parent company that he works under and my mom, sister, and bro in law see him quite often. As usual, they check my blood pressure and temperature first thing and my BP is high. The systolic reading wasn’t that high, but the diastolic was really high. So he just writes me a script for blood pressure medication and tells me to come back in a month for more tests.

I get it, I’m obese, and this has probably been a long time coming. But he didn’t ask me any questions about my lifestyle, diet, sleep habits, etc. Just write a script and shove me out of the office.

So, as soon as I get over this illness (btw, z-packs are awesome!) I’m starting a whole 30. Who is with me?

www.whole9life.com

Taking requests

I need some new music for my work out playlist. All of my followers should post 5 songs that get them amped for working out while I sleep. That way I can add the songs to my playlist and then go knock out some squats, clean pulls, and some kind of crazy metcon. 

You know you want to. 

What’s up Wendler?

Got my fat ass out of bed this morning and did some work. I started the Wendler method (5/3/1). I’m taking it kind of easy because I’ve been out of the lifting game for a bit and I don’t want to hurt myself. Today was just back squats (which I was supposed to do yesterday). After class I’ll go up to the University gym and do some solid effort on the cardio. Had a delicious breakfast of bacon, eggs, and broccoli. When I come home I’m going to make some Paleo Comfort tomato sauce and meat balls. Really kind of looking forward to it. 

It’s about to get real…

Let me be real with you right now. My name is Matt, and I’m a foodaholic. 

2 weeks ago I was eating great, working out, sleeping OK and felt great. I was getting quality sleep over quantity; given my current schedule, I’m OK with that. Since then I have sacrificed convenience over quality anything. I haven’t worked out in the last 2 weeks, I’ve been eating out almost every meal and I’ve had a shit sleep schedule. All this also leads to me being even more unhappy with my life cause I hate looking at myself in the mirror. 

When I lost my job last year I felt like I was at a crossroads with my life. My dad (and the rest of the family) went through a similar situation when I was about 17 and a sophomore in high school. My dad took a job way under his experience and qualification partly out of necessity, but also out of complacency. He lacked 8 hours on a masters of education degree. 8 hours. But he didn’t even attempt to go back to school to complete it. It took a little while for me but I felt like the decision to return to school was the outward representation of my decision to no longer be complacent in my own life.  I would even tell anyone who would listen that I was happy to have access to a university gym (no matter how small) again. Then I got a job that I did when I was in college the first time around. It was the night shift, crap pay, but at least it had access to a much larger university gym. So I have access to 3 gyms total: 1 at work, 1 at school, and 1 at home. I was all motivated to get in shape and feel happier with myself. That didn’t happen. Sure, I could blame it on going back to school and getting back in the groove of that after a 6 year hiatus. Or even getting back to working the night shift and working around a school schedule. But those would be excuses. And this is an excuse free zone. 

Honestly, I hate waking up, rolling out of bed, and seeing myself in the mirror. I don’t like the man I’ve become. How did it get this bad? I now realize that I have really given up in more than one aspect of my life. I’ve told myself so many times that I’m going to do the work, get it done and become the man I want to be. But I always fail. And I’m sick of it. I’m sick of being on campus and getting those disgusted looks from people. I’m sick of wearing clothes that could double as a tent for smaller statured people. And I’m sick of feeling that I’m not adequate of anyone’s attention. I’m pretty damn awesome, I know that. But why would they want to hang out with a guy that’s a loser like me?

Now, I realize that this is probably coming off as pretty superficial. “It doesn’t matter what you look like; what matters is on the inside.” And that’s complete crap. Always has been. It’s a superficial world, always has been, always will be. 

Now here is where I get real. Below is a picture taken of me approximately 20 minutes ago. This picture is going to change by the time the ball drops on 2012 (or the world ends, whichever comes first). For those of you that know me, you know that this is something I would normally do. I’m hoping that putting this out there for anyone to see would motivate me to get to work. 

Let’s see how this goes…

Living right, feeling great

Due to some circumstances beyond my control I have been more or less forced into eating really clean for the last week. I’m not saying this is a bad thing. Actually, it’s pretty great. I haven’t eaten out in over a week now, I think I’ve only had 2 sodas in the same time span. I’ve worked out 4 days already this week. Basically, I’m kicking all kinds of ass. At least I think I am. 

I even hopped on the scale the other day and saw that I lost 15 pounds. I think that’s pretty kick ass too!. 

Off to the gym!

Today’s theme is…

Accomplishment. I’ve got a lot on my plate today, here’s what I am going to accomplish today: 

1. Deadlift or shoulder press. 

2. Cardio

3. finish outlining this chapter for my Development course

Just 3 little things…well, not so little. The chapter for Development is a beast. It’s like a non stop psychology article. And I thought I was done with that crap 7 years ago!

Finally got back into the garage yesterday and hit some back squats. Wanted to retain the ability to walk today so I took it easy as I’m just getting into it. Did a warm up of 3x10 squats with an empty bar, low and slow, focus on form. Then did 3 sets of 5 reps with 95, 115, and 135. I’ll probably do something similar today with the deads. Or I might change it up and do the shoulder press today and save the deads for later in the week.