DoTheEvolution.Me

Final week.  At this point I’ll say that I’m DEFINITELY excited to take next week off, and the idea of sleeping in is quite lovely to me.  However, I have to admit to myself that I feel better when I’m training than when I’m not.  So while this may officially be the last week of the routine, I’m going to continue on pretty strongly after that.  Life is momentum for me, and the simple act of committing to get up each morning and move heavy weights around has created some in my life and i have no desire to waste all that energy.

Chest was pretty good this morning, dumbbell bench press was quite tough, I was reeeeaaally struggling by the final reps.  Fantastic.  Had a great couple of sets of bicep curls as well, it blows me away how much less weight i’m doing than I used to, but how much more intense they are with proper focus at the proper weight.  No cheating.

Sluggish today.  No particular reason, got an okay amount of sleep, woke up on time, ate fairly well this weekend….but when I pushed things didn’t move as fast or as powerfully as I wanted them to be.  One of the great things I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing with my strength traininng, though I think it applies to any practice, is the joy of highs and lows.  Often they come for no particular reason, days I intend on having the best workout ever turn out ho-hum, while other days where i feel like I’ve barely been able to get out of bed turn out to be the best.  Learning to enjoy the ride, whether its up or down, has been a great practice for me.  States come and go, as do good and bad workout sessions, moods, the weather, and so much else.

174.2 on the scale this morning.  My goals to have the lovely number 173 flash up on that scale by a week from friday.    Make it so.

Routine was a bit different today, didn’t workout till 8am as I stayed up late last night along with fellow crew to watch the premiere of the television show I helped create….So slept in a bit this morning and decided to workout a little later.  I definitely ate off diet quite a bit this weekend, both friday at a gathering at a friends and last night at our little premiere shindig.  While it was nice to splurge on some junk food and whatnot, I’m definiitely feeling the effects in my body.  I feel a bit sluggish, tired, and more congested than usual.  Looking forward to getting back to cleaner foods for the week!

Wasn’t my strongest chest workout this morning, partly because of the lack of sleep and poor eating this weekend.  Definitely didn’t feel as strong as normal.  So begins week 12!

Stats this morning: 37″ and 20 on the calipers.

I think this morning was the first time I ever felt strong on a chest day.  Not strong like I lifted a shit ton more weight than I normally do, but strong like I moved up in weigth a bit last week, and was able to meet that weight with abundance this morning.  I felt good.  Felt strong.  Felt powerful.  Strength Training works.  If you aren’t doing it, now’s your chance to start.

I’m in week 11 of 12, though I’ve decided to go to 14 weeks officially.  the TV show I helped co-create is having a premiere party here in Boulder on May 15th, so I’m going to push through until then.  That party shall be a celebration of the AND the completion of my official challenge.  It’ll be the end of about 15 weeks of near complete sobriety as well.  (had 2 beers snowboarding, and went to a vodka tasting a week or so ago, but haven’t drank otherwise since Basecamp).  Not sure I even really miss it that much.  Feeling good feels pretty good….

176 even on the scale this morning.

I was tiiiiiired this morning.  I stayed up much to late working on some utterly annoying problems with a website I recently built.  It was tough getting up this morning, and I wasn’t feeling an abundance of energy by any means.   However, it was still a pretty good workout, I went up in weight on some exercises, which felt good.  I’m totally in love with Side-Raises right now, not sure why other than they make my upper body absolutely scream when I’m doing them.

This weekend was interesting, I went off diet a bit, had some killer vodka at a sampling friday night, and ate out for dinner both friday and saturday.  What was most interesting was how much I was able to feel the difference between my normal meals and the ones I ate out.  Friday’s voka + chicken quesadilla combo and saturday’s crab rangoon + chicken teriyaki both almost immediately made me feel congested and sluggish.  My annoyingly hyper senstive sinuses/respiratory system both felt the effects of the dairy, booze, and bread immediately!  Made me appreciate the clean diet I’ve been on, besides the fitness training benefits, it apparently helps keep some other shitty stuff from happening to my body too.

Started week 9 or 12 this morning, and I’m officially 2/3rds of the way through my training program.

This AM’s push routine felt good, real good.  My sets of the dumbbell bench press were particularly great, and I’m already feeling a little sore in the region.  My weakest exercise was definitely tricep kickbacks, just osmething about that exercise that doesn’t feel very good or natural to me.

Anyways, 4 full weeks left, and I was 178.6 on the scale today at the gym (fully clothed, shoes, sheet).

Push it out.  Push it alllll out.
Chest/Triceps/Biceps today.  Great workout, felt strong, pushed myself hard.  My body is changing, not drastically, but noticeably.  Feelin’ strong.  Feelin’ like I could, and am, going to do this for the rest of my life.

Felt great about this morning’s workout.  Had a lot of emotional energy when I woke up that I focused on translating to physical energy via the workout routine.

Food wise, I’m hungry pretty much all the time now, which is a good sign my metabolism has gone up.

After my great workout Saturday, I began feeling the onset of a cold, my body got tired, sinuses got congested, and head started pounding.  I immediately went and bought some Cold Snap, Airborne, and ZiCam.  Spent the rest of Saturday and Sunday resting, very much willing my body to beat off the cold so I wouldn’t have to interrupt my training.  The bad news is I wasn’t able to do anything this weekend, the good news, I was healthy enough to workout this morning.  I’m going to continue taking it easy most of today, pumping my body up with plenty of fluids and cold remedies.

This morning’s workout went great though, I felt in tune and on edge with just about all of my exercises.  Tricep kickbacks were the only thing I didn’t feel great about, wasn’t really able to feel the burn, going to try dropping the weight a bit so I can bring and feel a bit more intensity next week.

This is week 6, so as of this Saturday I’ll be halfway done with the program.  I’m going to try and make the second half even more intensive than the first.  Cheers to that.

Today kinda sucked.  I didn’t get much sleep this weekend, and the time change screwed up my internal clock a wee bit.  Made it to the gym no problem, but just never really dropped in to my workout.  This morning, the weights worked me out, not the other way around.   I’m continually blown away realizing how intensely my internal state and presence affects my performance in the gym.  Today I was doing the same exercises, same weights, in the same room at the same time of the day as I do every Monday.  But without the complete presence of my mind also pushing the weights, the workout just wasn’t the same, and I know I wasn’t reallly giving 100%.

But, at least I went, and I will keep on going.  One of the joys of any routine or personal practice is the continual reminder that all states are impermanent.  Next week I may have the best PUSH workout of my life.  The week after that, who knows….the trick is just to keep showing up.

Especially now that spring is coming, meaning summer is just around the corner….got to be lookin’ good for those bathing suit days, HA!