The sets down...and a whole world before me

Image from Flickr, by quinn.anya

I'm beat.  I feel it through out my entire body.  I feel it in new ways, and not just the physical.

My demons almost won, but I made a last ditch check and actually found out that I'm the one who has been winning lately.

Yeah, it's been a hell of a weekend.

Battling the demons

Image from Flickr, by oneselfsacrifice

 

Today was a workout day.  Two more sets down, and might could have banged out a third if I didn't decide to do stiff legged deadlifts instead of squats.  My lower back started twinging.  Stupid, right?

Live and learn.

Still, it was a decent enough workout and I'm pretty proud of it.  The shortening of the length for each exercise seems to be paying off.  All in all, I'm pretty happy about it all.

Yesterday, I wrote about my own past with body image issues, and if I'm completely honest those issues are still here.  Today, while lifting that kettlebell, it was easy to see me slaying the demons.

This is Sparta!

Image from Flickr, by pasukaru76

Why train?

It's a fair question.  Obviously, the answers are often "health" or "lose weight" and so on, and there's nothing wrong with that.  However, athletes often thrive most when they have an event they're trying for, and we are athletes, right?

That's why I've got my target set for a Spartan Race in my future.

The only easy day

Image from Flickr, by Rennett Stowe

I'm a Navy man.  You may not have known that about me, but I am.  I did my enlistment as a Navy Hospital Corpsman, but there was a part of me that dreamed about becoming a Navy SEAL.  During their training, there is a sign that says "The only easy day was yesterday."  The idea is that each and every day is progressively more difficult.

What does this have to do with your training?

How about the fact that you need to embrace the same philosophy, for starters.

A response to "It's too hard"

Image from Flickr, by jimmypk218

It started out as a conversation.  I was talking about my renewed focus on fitness and losing weight, which lead to them saying that they'd love to lose weight, but "it's just too hard".

Folks, what's too hard is being overweight.

I'm still fat.  My body mass index is still over 30, even after losing over 35 lbs.  I'm not going to blast away at folks who are overweight, because I know all to well what they're going through.  Let me say it again: What's hard is being overweight.

Is fitness is a revolutionary act?

Image from Flickr, by chris.corwin

Most of us, at some point in our life, have glorified the idea of normal.  This is usually during our school years, where standing out leads to ridicule and social outcast status.  However, as we grow up, we should shed this idea that "normal" is automatically superior.

Right now, two-thirds of all Americans are either overweight or obese.  Out of the other third, only a handful could be defined as "healthy" in any way other than the fact that their body weights fall within a correct range according to their height.  The current "normal" is to be fat and unhealthy.

Why be normal?  Be a revolutionary instead.

Why 'an athlete'?

Image from Flickr, by familymwr

Yesterday, I wrote about identity and shared the rules I've decided to use to build that new identity.  Rule number 10 may have raised a few eyebrows, because it didn't make a lot of sense on its own.  That rule was "I am an athlete", and I wanted to go into why that was my choice.

First, there's a reason why I ruled out choices like "I am a marathon runner" or "I am an MMA fighter" or similar things.  That reason is simply that I don't have any intention of competing.  While I might take MMA classes (I've taken a few and had a blast), or I might choose to run in a marathon at some point, that's not something I'm actually considering right now.  Why say I compete in a sport if I'm not competing?

In that case, why be an athlete?

Who are you?

Image from Flickr, by kevin dooley

Everyone has an identity.  You identify yourself in one way, while others may have a different identity for you.  In your mind, you may be "mother" or "father", "accountant", "nurse" or whatever.  To others you might be "funny", or "great listener".  These make up your identity.

Maybe it's time to shake things up on that front.

Stacking your deck

Image from Flickr, by LaRuth

There are secrets to success.  When you're trying to transform your life - and if you really want to make any gains with body transformations, you are wanting to change your life - these secrets are what makes it possible.

One rule that is, in my opinion, a hard and fast rule that has no wiggle room is that you are who you surround yourself with.

My motivation and how I use it

Image from Flickr, by Jimee, Jackie, Tom & Asha

I'm 39 years old.  To most folks, that doesn't mean a whole lot.  For them, it just means that I'm older than a 38 year old, but younger than a 40 year old.  It's not like the age of 38 means anything special.

It's also the age that terrifies me.

Over a decade ago, my uncle - a man who was more like my brother than an uncle - dropped dead at the age of 39.  He wasn't the first family member to die at that magic age either.  He was just the latest in a long line of folks to die at 39.  Of course, good healthy doesn't exactly run in my family either.

So, despite rationality, I'm terrified of being 39. 

Understanding 'can't' and why it's meaningless

Image from Flickr, by tropical.pete

 

You've heard it.  You've most likely said it.  "I can't."  We've all done it.  I know I have.

It's also one of the most meaningless words in the English language.

When you say "can't", 99 times out of 100, what you mean is that on some level, you lack the will to actually do something.  I used to think that one exception to this rule was saying that a person with no legs couldn't walk.  Recent history has shown me otherwise.  Oscar Pistorius, despite his more recent troubles, proved that "can't" is rarely as applicable as people want to pretend.