Health and Fitness Cult!

Wow! Gabe is so determined!

Nice!

So today I've logged my fourth day at working out. I did some free weights which made me realize why I haven't done free weights in a while. I was wobbly and weak. My knees had me worried but I did what I could without straining myself. The whole point of doing these exercises is so I won't be wobbly and weak anymore. I really need to do this. I know if I don't build up my strength I'm gonna have issues with walking and getting around when I'm older. I'm trying to pace myself though so I don't injure myself either. When I was younger I think I was putting too much strain on my body which caused my injuries and I don't want to stress my body out anymore.

So my ultimate goal is not losing weight or gaining weight but building up my overall body strength.

I've been doing a program that I wrote. It's pretty solid. I might write an article about it. If not, I'll post it in here.

In my quest for a leaner 2013, I swam the following in my lunch break yesterday:
x10 breaststroke lengths
x10 front crawl
x10 backstroke
x10 butterfly

Tomorrow I'm hoping to go for a run with the boyfriend again. He's a supportive coach and I like feeling my flab jig and then ache afterwards.

Oh and this is my third week with no cakes or candy!

PS. Do any of you guys know anything about t'ai chi? I am tempted to try it!

Go you, Hattie, great job!

Did i tell you guys i taught myself to swim? Well not exactly myself but i read through the swimming chapter of The 4 Hour Body over and over, then i tried it at my girlfriend's dad's ten feet deep pool and it worked. So now i can swim pretty effectively. It's fun. This was the summertime, i haven't swum in months.

Awesome! Did you enjoy it? How come you never learned how to swim?

I don't know, i was always scared of water or something. I could always kind of swim under water but i was too awkward on the surface. I think it's because i'm tall or something. But i have it figured out.

That's awesome Amber (and Gabe). I'm really impressed by how you handled the situation. I have a few years before I have to start tackling these day-to-day problems/decisions with my kids and I have no idea what I'm going to do. There are a lot of great moms around here and I'm constantly filing many of these stories away for the future in the back of my head... but I'm really impressed that you were able to let Gabe make his own decisions and support him without hounding him. You are a really good mom.

That's amazing, good job!

Thanks Don.

Figuring out and supporting who they all are as individual independent humans is very important to me. I don't ever want to put pressure on any of them to be who I want them to be, I have been through that (still going through it in my thirties) and it is just awful. To spend so much time trying to please a parental figures idea of you even though you can't stand most of the things they decide you are and like, then spend so much more of the adult life resenting it and trying to break free.

I want them to be themselves and share who that self is so I may lift that self up and help them foster the most healthy thinking and feeling and behavior possible based on who each one is. Sometimes it backfires on me as I end up too lenient and have to remind myself and them that I may be a confidant and adviser, but I am not "friend" I am "Boss" (for now).

Hattie you're a killer swimmer. I'm hyperventilating just thinking about the first 10 laps.

I got asked what my ultimate goal was today and last night. So far it's just being able to squat what I used to without feeling like my knees are going to crumble underneath me.

My roommates invited me to go with them to the little gym we have hear tomorrow, so I'll finally have a reason to not be lazy.

Reminds me of a lab partner I used to have. He'd always be watching youtube videos of people swimming. I asked him what the fuck. He said that he wanted to be a professional swimmer. Whatever that is. I was like, oh alright. A few weeks later he explains that he doesn't actually know how to swim or have access to a pool. But one day he might.

And he's going to be damn ready when that day comes. Damn ready.

Cons :
- a good teacher is hard to find and Tai Chi attracts many quacks.
- little interaction with fellow students (unlike aikido)
- necessity to motivate oneself to exercise alone

This is for you Ludwig.

That's about it.

I have this Tai Chi dvd i bought at Walmart for $1. I watched it a few times, it was pretty interesting, mullets and parachute pants aside (it's a really old dvd).

Thanks for your advice!

I think I may have seen an old Chinese guy in my building doing T'ai chi on the roof of the gym, so I'm going to track him down.

mister miyagi !

Is that what you call Ludwig, Barbara?

No, I'm Master Shifu !

ha nice!

yeah, guess who´s kung fu panda !

hehe

i´m a master of clumsy-do !

Other than that, I agree with Ludwig.

Walking to work everyday has become quite a work out these days because of all the snow.

Every little bit counts!

That was an awesome video but now my abs hurt.

I switched from doing tae bo exercises I found in magazines to following a youtube video by some trainer. It was 25 minutes long, I only lasted 12 and sweated more than I have in years. I'll keep going, though, most videos were an hour long, so maybe I'll get there one day.

To think I wanted to take up tae bo this semester at college, it would have been a 2-hour session every week. Fuck no.

I'm telling you, you should really look into Bodyrock.tv or the workouts here: http://zuzkalight.com/

In my opinion, those two sites are the best out there for losing fat and getting "toned."

I've recently made an excel sheet to explain my diet. It's way easier to do than that equation that I gave last time that was based on the Sports Science blah blah blah recommendations.

The thing with exercise, fitness, and diet - you have to constantly be experimenting and trying new things. Change things up. Studying, reading, anything you can do to compile better information. It's hard to sort through what actually works because 90% of the information out there is sponsored by supplement companies or written by juicers. 99% of Muscle and Fitness can be tossed in the trash. That really goes for most magazines on the market.

I found a book that confirms a lot of what I've figured out on my own. If you look back on my program I wrote for ManArchy, it was lifting heavy with low reps for size and strength. And fast paced movements with little to no rest for tone and fat loss - HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training). This is what I've found that works. The book that I found is called Bigger Leaner Stronger by Michael Matthews. Highly recommend it. The information might seem really basic in it, but that's what works.

The spreadsheet I created is based off of his diet recommendations (with coincidentally were exactly what I figured out on my own). It's refreshing when your beliefs are all confirmed.

I've attached the spreadsheet. Just input your weight. Girls can take the pre and post workout "meals" (I use protein shakes mixed with the right amount of gatorade for carbs) and half the amounts in them. Everything else is the same.

When I say "Bulk" on there, that doesn't mean get fat. It's a slow gain. Your abs might get covered a little, but you'll still have a flat stomach.

Any questions, let me know.

Also - this will sound obsessive, but I weigh a lot of my food. It's quicker, cleaner, and easier than measuring things. And it's much more accurate. That way you know exactly what's coming in calories-wise.

I don't need to lose weight, I just want my thighs and stomach to be a tad smaller. I've never counted calories or been on a diet, I'm just focusing on eating healthy (most of the time, since mum's always home and cooks every day). Thanks for the advice, though. I'll definitely check out that site.

The calorie thing wasn't for you, it was for everybody in general.

I joined a new gym this morning you guys. I'll miss my old one, but this one has more equipment, is closer, and is part of a chain so I feel more confident in the way they're running the business part of things. My PT says he can work with me there, too, so yayyyyy!

I liked the old one, but it was owned by an individual, and he's having a lot of issues in his personal life that are starting to carry over into the facility. Hope things work out for him, though.

I've been considering joining another gym also. The one I'm at now is a chain. I signed up for a ridiculously cheap deal (I pay $9.99 a month). And when I signed up, it was empty - so I didn't care that there wasn't much equipment. But now that people are trying to keep their resolutions, the place is always packed.

I'm thinking of going to the Powerhouse by my apartment. It's a little farther. But it's way bigger. And I hear it's mostly empty.

Wow, that is super cheap! This is a Snap Fitness 24/7 thing. Do you have those there? We got a joint membership (2 people) for $59 per month. That's a little more than what we paid before, but I'm thinking it will be worth it. We're doing month to month instead of committing to twelve months just in case. And...I can walk/jog/run to this new one if I want because it's right across from my neighborhood.

I've never heard of Snap Fitness. The gym I'm currently at is Fitness19. They're everywhere (which is the reason I do like them). The usual price is 19 bucks (hence Fitness 19). But I paid a bigger joining fee to get a cheaper monthly rate.

The last row was supposed to say "MAINTAINING." But I decided to just remake the excel sheet for you guys.

You're going to live forever, Pete.

One of my fitness idols is 70 now. His still going strong. I actually emailed with him recently. This is him at 64:

HIS WAIST IS SOOOOOO TINY

HIS WAIST IS DISNEY PRINCESS TINY!!!!!

It's Frank Zane. He was Mr Olympia 3 consecutive years.

I've emailed back and forth with him a few times. I've also read most of the books he's written. He mailed me this once:

I've heard of him before, I think he is pretty awesome actually.

The first picture you posted he has a Disney Princess tiny waist in, no matter how awesome he is, which may actually be proof that a waist like that is in fact attainable.

That is great that you've got to email with him, it is always nice to be able to talk with people you admire, makes you feel better about things, finding out they are actually humans is inspiring.

I second the princess waist. It looks like they photoshopped an older man's head on a 30 year old's body. And even his head doesn't really look 64.

By the way, it's sooo cool that you kinda talk to one of your heroes.

His head looks sixtyfour.

If you tell me his head looks younger than sixtyfour then that means I am that much closer to having a head like that/my peers having heads like that.

For you, his head looks 210.