1,350 Calories. 90 grams of fat, 40 of which are saturated and 3.5 of which are trans.  2,780 mg of sodium.  That’s what’s in my go-to burger at Wendy’s, the 3/4 lb Baconator.  Add the large fries, large Coke along with it, and I’m looking at probably over 2,000 calories in all.  For 1 meal.  That costs me around $10.00.  What am I thinking? Well, specifically the fact that I don’t like to make food, especially complex meals like lasagna or meatloaf (both of which I love) because I’m a terrible cook and I’m lazy in general.  But what about thawing out some burgers and firing up the grill and making my own? Well, that requires at least some planning in advance, which as a bachelor I tend to not do very well (you can ask my BFF Jessi, she’ll tell you all about it).  So instead I walk over to Wendy’s every couple of days or so, and guiltily order up a serving of heart attack with a side of obesity.  Let’s be honest people, I’m about 75 pounds overweight right now, and I personally keep the fast food industry afloat.  That’s not good.  So, I’ve stopped.  At first I said I just wasn’t going to eat beef for a while.  Well….that didn’t work because my roommate kept firing up the grill and grilling burgers.  Which was great, because he’s a way better cook/grill person than me, and his burgers taste way better than mine.  So the whole “no beef” thing didn’t pan out.  Then I said, “I’ll just eat less fast food.”  Well, when one of your meals is over 2,000 Calories then less is still not enough, especially when you want to lose weight.  So for the last couple days I’ve eaten no fast food, and less in general, and my weight loss has picked up again.  So hurray for me!

Furthermore, the whole fast food thing is expensive. Over the past month or so, I’ve spent over $382 at fast food places.  That’s disgusting! That’s almost 2 months worth of food at the grocery store for my whole apartment, which has 4 people in it! What am I thinking?!? Well, it ends today.  I’m back on my no-fast-food diet in an effort to save money and lose weight.  I’ve also stumbled upon an article that says that fast food can actually become addictive, decreasing dopamine receptors or something, so that’s probably not good either.  Regardless, the amount of science and nutritional information and financial information is all overwelmingly against fast food, and my only justification is laziness.  Well, laziness never got anyone anywhere in this life, so I’m going to stop.  Time for me to turn the page over and start a new chapter in my life.  I mean, I just turned 28, what better time?  See you all later when I rant and rave some more about how I suck at dieting.

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Some time has passed since I finished my diet with remarkable success. What has happened since then? Well my weight loss has certainly slowed, and I’m sure a lot of that is due to the fact that I now eat fast food when I please (which still isn’t very often, but more often then never), and drink soda, and for a short while there I was drinking alcohol again, which is fine, except that alcohol contains a lot of empty calories that I really don’t need in my diet. However, an interesting thing happened during my diet. I learned that it’s possible to have fun without alcohol. So, because of that realization, and the fact that alcohol is a primary suspect in making me fat, I am no longer going to drink. It’s time once and for all to focus much, much more on my health, and that is one of the best ways to do it. But it’s not the only thing I need to do.

So basically, although I’m still wanting to lose weight, I haven’t been putting in the work to do so. I’ve been hoping that it would just magically happen because it was looking so easy before when I was on my diet. Nothing comes easy, and nothing is given to you. If you want to lose weight, you have to make it a serious priority, something that I had forgotten. Re-evaluate how important losing those pounds is to you, and if you still want to lose weight then push it up the hierarchy and make sure you dedicate some time as often as possible. Things like an hour-long walk can really help out, though not nearly as much as a half-hour long run. The harder you work, the bigger the benefits will be, and the more weight you’ll lose. But if you won’t put in the work, then you won’t receive the results.

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Hey Friends,

It’s hot in Michigan, we are filling our pool up, we bought a fire pit thing for our back yard….all is good.

My weight stayed the same this week but I m ok with that cuz my pants are not so tight. I was at the tightest stage for my jeans almost having it get another size up but now I am just at the tight stage…next will be the perfect fit, the loose then will have to buy a smaller size..whoohooo!

I am feeling good and excited to start a 12 week challenge in my group at fast track to fat loss site. I am excited Kim Lyons one of the pass Biggest Loser runs this site. I joined and loving the meal planners, challenges, exercise planner and meeting lots of new friends…awwww don’t fret Designer Whey friends are still my favs! Coolest of all…I could win a trip to Loreto Mexico on the Fast Track Vacation Home! FREE! I have to get the most votes and be the most improved in the 12 week challenge… what an incentive! So I expect my Designer Whey followers to vote for me when the time comes to vote. Deal?

So who you going to vote for to be one of the 3 finalist on the Biggest Loser? I feel for Darris…I have the same problem…I do excellent all day right on target but as soon as the sun goes down the wolf fangs come out and it is very difficult to control myself. Not sure why that is, something I have to work on. Then Koli he really deserves it he did not mess up and did an amazing job at home. I am torn on who to choose. Final show is Tuesday be sure to watch! I am excited to see all the players and how they did.

Well I am off to mow the lawn in 85 degree weather…that should muster up some sweat! My last weigh in is Wednesday for the 8 week challenge I am in right now so we shall see the fruits of my labor and I will blog about it right after cuz I know you all are there with me.

I love my Designer Whey!

Have a great one.

Camille

Ps I love these 90 calorie buns! Put a hunk of chicken along with some fruit on the side then a glass of ice water with a 2GO pack in it… there ya go a complete meal. Be sure to sit outside and enjoy your meal.

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The last time I started a new “Blog Segment” I made the mistake of saying how many posts it was going to encompass (4) and I ended up branching out with many new ideas on the subject and ended up with a total of 14. So this time when I start fresh I am not going to limit myself because as I have come to find out, when it comes to the fitness world and getting my thoughts on paper the little mice in the cage that is my brain are constantly turning that wheel.

While in the  midst of my last set of blog posts, I was reading a fellow Designer blogger’s post, Nathan’s well written piece on Motivation, and saw something that really intrigued me; “the playlist.” And I thought to myself I will write a post about the playlist and its importance. But then when I began to think about it a little more, what playlist would I talk about.  I know that I alone have 6 different playlists for each day at the gym – in which I cycle songs in and out of. But while listening to one of these mixes I saw someone else at the gym, a significantly older man, who had his head phones in and looked like he was rocking out and really using the music to push him through his workout. Then I thought to myself I know that everyone listens to different music when working out but I wonder what types of music gets certain people going, moving and shaking at the gym.  And honestly how hard is it to find this stuff out. In my email archive alone I have tons of people that I know from all different races, ages and slices of life that would probably be able to answer this burning question for me, so of course I threw it out there.  I got a lot of responses with a lot of different playlists, so I pried even further and asked questions about their playlist and reasoning behind it, which helped me narrow down the responses that I received, and found a few that really stood out to me. 

I decided to take all of these electric correspondent interviews that were a cut above the rest and write blogs about them (of course with the consent of the interviewee) and just change the name of the person.  But in the course of doing so I realized that this might not be as enticing as I thought. To make these posts a little more intriguing I thought I would pick out a couple of my playlists that most closely corresponded with the playlists that I received and add a little blogging pizzazz to it – Ok you caught me that makes them more intriguing to me but hey it might make for a good read for you.

The bottom line behind doing this series of blogs was to determine the overall importance of the playlist to different personas within the fitness world. Who’s to say that what I use a playlist for at the gym is what others use it for? I use some playlists for motivation, some for rhythm, some for tempo, and some for empowerment. In trying to unearth the different uses and motivators that the playlist can contain, I wanted to be able to offer what I found to everyone else so that these findings might be applicable to the many different personality types that read these blogs. My main struggle with the fitness world as I have commented on time and time again, is finding the proper motivation to stay in that world. If I think of something that will serve as a little extra motivator that I need or that little piece of mind that I come across that will make my experience in the fitness sphere  a little bit easier and more enjoyable I want to pass it on because chances are someone out there might find it helpful. So over the course of these next blogs I will be exploring “the playlist” pertaining to the benefits they have on different people who are trying to keep fit. As always please feel free to comment especially on the different playlists that are thrown out there and the reasons behind them.  I will make one disclaimer, I was not able to find someone in the 58 or older category to complete this interview and am not going to chance asking someone at the gym what their age is.  So if you know someone of this age that exercises on a regular basis to some type of sound track, let me know and I will get back to you.

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This is the final thought of helpful tips and methods on “defeating the Itis” pertaining to the daily fitness routines that many go through.

Well once again I am coming to the close of another segment and with that I wanted to offer some final thoughts on the underlining message behind this last series of blogs, which is “it doesn’t matter how you get yourself into the gym, it’s just important that you do.” I say getting yourself into the gym but what I am really talking about here is following through in general when it comes to fitness resolutions. It can be as simple as doing pushups and sit ups in front of the TV or running a mile or two around the block every day or making sure that you stick to a certain caloric value on a daily level. Whatever your fitness goals are it is important that you follow through with them, and in order to do so you have to create some sort of routine or regimen that keeps you on the right path to achieving these goals.  That is what I was trying to do with this set of blogs, offer up some helpful tips and tactics to make staying on whatever path you set for yourself a little less trifling.

Staying on these paths that we make for ourselves is much easier if we make our goals realistically obtainable. Creating goals like seeing a drastic change in your body figure or a major decrease in your weight or wanting to be in the top ten for a marathon are all perfectly fine goals, and yes it is true that anyone can achieve them. But what is unrealistic are some of the timelines that people put forth to reach these destinations. If you are a hundred pounds overweight and in really bad physical health, you are not going see results over night in trying to be in the top ten places of a marathon. But you will see significant improvement and over time if you keep on a realistic schedule you will arrive at that goal. I read stories all of the time about something like this happening, so it is absolutely reachable. But within all of these stories that I read, there are always depictions of the (in most cases) long road that it takes to get there. Which is why it is important to set bench marks for these physical aspirations because while it is in fact important to always keep the main goal in sight it is even more important to mark your progression in reaching it. Lots of time we burn out on our habitual fitness routines because we are not seeing the results we want and we are not receiving that notion of self gratification that we feel when we accomplish our goals.  In this day and age with convenience in technology, schooling, and infrastructure break down, as a society we want immediate results. We loved this “internet thing” when it was brand new even though it took 15 min to change the page we were on. But now we spit at our computer when it takes more than ten seconds load. Don’t get me wrong this progression in life is amazing and I wouldn’t trade it for the world, but it has enabled us as a society in many ways. And part of that enablement is how we handle situations when the going gets tough.

We all hit walls in every aspect of life, there is no avoiding them. But it is what we do when we hit those walls that makes or breaks us. I for one spent a lot of my life getting to these walls and trying to find a way around them instead of a way over them.  I would set goals with unrealistic timelines to achieve them and when I would hit one of these walls I would just create a new goal with a new path, instead. And I would keep doing this over and over again every time a wall popped up.  This just creates a labyrinth where we often find ourselves circling back to where we started and losing a lot of ground and time in the process.  Sometimes when we get to these walls it is in fact good to try and go around them, but in doing so it’s imperative that you remember to find your way back to that original path or you will slowly progress away from your true objective until it is completely out of reach for you.

With the right goals and timelines, it is much more accessible to stick to your routines to help you acquire what you truly want. And when you hit these so called walls try and climb them, use some of the techniques that I have shared with you or create your own to keep you on that mental and physical corridor that is needed for you to reach your overall goals. Once again, these are simply the opinions of a guy who has opinions about anything and everything, take it or leave it as you will.

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This is part 7b of helpful tips and methods on “defeating the Itis” pertaining to the daily fitness routines that many go through.

Continuing on with the subject of little things you can do when you are at the gym to motivate you through those tough workouts: one thing you can do is go the “easy route.” Ok now the real easy route would be to get up and walk out and be done with your workout prematurely, but the easy route here pertains to your own personal definitions of “easy.” Trying to articulate this now in my head and put it on paper at this moment would make me sound like I am blurting out non-sense (not much different from my other blogs right?), so it is better suited in this case just to go off a personal example. On Mondays I typically do “chest” and Tuesdays I typically do “back” and both of these are by far the hardest two days to work through. After the first sets on either day I am exhausted, because I am maxing out (here I’m talking about doing about 4 sets of 5-6 reps at max weight and one set at 3 where weight is increased even further) two muscles that account for the majority of my upper body.  So what I will do is put the first three exercise sets that I do as the hardest three that demand the most physical exuberance out of all the different exercises planned for that particular workout. I have about 10 other exercises that I can do at this point regarding chest or back but I know at this moment I am physically exhausted and a likely candidate to throw in the towel.  So what I will do is then pick three to four exercises that I think are easier than the other six of those ten choices. In reality they are all equally challenging and work your chest and back muscles just as hard as any other chest or back exercise, but in your mind for whatever reason they are easier. Everyone has those couple of “easier” exercises for every muscle or exercises that you find really easy but work really well. Whether it is switching to a machine instead of trying to do it with free weights or whether it is running at 6 % incline rather than doing a set on the stair master, in your mind they are easier to do than the other option. I like to save these exercises as a form of a backup plan, meaning that I typically won’t employ theses exercises when working a certain muscle because most days and weeks I have enough energy and natural motivation to power through that particular workout. But everyone has those days where energy and motivation are as hard to find as Bobbie Fisher. When those days hit I always try and power through what I can of the normal routines and then switch to my reserve drills to allow me to truly conquer those fatigue demons.

Riding the coattails of this “easier” workout scheme, I also will switch up the order of what muscle I want to work on a given day. Like I stated before I try and get the toughest two workouts finished by Tuesday because I like to keep that mentality that “the hardest part is already behind you and it is a downhill battle from here on.” But some Mondays and Tuesdays I will have just about as much enthusiasm as a zombie from a 60’s horror film, you know the ones with their hands parallel to the ground moving at a pace of 10 steps a minute. So I will scrap the Chest and Back weekly startup and go right into a Triceps and biceps workout, because I actually look forward to those two workouts every week. Or I will completely flip the script and say that I am going to go to a full upper body workout on Mon, Weds and Fri or Tues, Thurs and Sat and fill the opposite days with non resistant core and leg workouts.  Some weeks this is my saving grace, because before trying to utilize these little tricks I would just hit a half a day’s work out or miss a day completely, which in turn would throw off my entire schedule. And you know what; sometimes your body and mental capacity within the realm of the fitness world need that derailment.  For me it is not beneficial unless I plan it. It is one thing to plan a week of half workouts or plan to take a two week break, but it is another thing to come up short on your goals because you were simply just “too tired.” Every time I think I am too tired and end up finishing a work out I feel so much better about myself and every time I fail to do so I feel like I have truly let myself down. So instead of letting yourself down and succumbing to the daily fatigue factors, take the “easy” route, for once it is actually ok and beneficial to do so. Once again, these are simply the opinions of a guy who has opinions about anything and everything, take it or leave it as you will.

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Remember in high school English when we learned the concept of a euphemism?  From the Latin for beautiful, it’s basically a nice sounding word for something that sucks. And when you’re trying to lose weight the plateau definitely sucks.

It can come at any time in the weight loss process. After, say, the first ten or so pounds lost, you’re still doing the right things but can’t lose any more weight. That is the dreaded plateau but there are ways around it.

Neely Simmons trains several championship athletes at neelysimmons.com and elitefitnessnc.com. She was kind enough to offer us some of her tips for getting past the plateau:

H.I.I.T. -  High intensity interval training. Alternate high intensity activity with low intensity movements to raise and lower the heart rate to help speed up your metabolism.

Supersets - Follow one exercise up with another similar movement. That cuts down on rest between sets.

Cardio in the Morning – Do your cardio first thing in the morning, before your first meal to jump start the metabolism early in the day.

Eat more often – You don’t want to eat more, just more often. Instead of three meals try five, but definitely make sure they are smaller. Designer Whey protein shakes make great mid-morning or mid-afternoon meals. I’ve found that whey protein keeps my energy up, gets rid of hunger and helps me recover faster from my workouts. I always keep the Protein 2Go packs with me, especially when I travel.  There’s no easier whey, I mean way to get protein when I’m on the go. 

Water - Drink your weight in water. For example if you weight 230 pounds get 230 ounces of water per day.

I will be heading these tips over the next week hoping for a better Wednesday weigh in. I’ll let you know how they worked for me!

- John Roberts

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This is part 7 of helpful tips and methods on “Defeating the Itis” pertaining to the daily fitness routines that many go through.

So up until this point, I have just been bombarding you with all of these alternative ideas and concepts about how to motivate yourself into actually getting your foot inside the door at the gym. And although some of these might prove to be helpful I overlooked one key element and that is “what is motivating you once you have actually stepped into the gym.” Yes there are the typical reasons (very valid ones I might add): I want to lose weight, I want to improve my looks, I want to get stronger, I want to be more involved in the fitness community, I want something productive to do to relieve the stress of a hard day, I want to improve my health, etc. Like I said, these are all extremely valid reasons, I know because they are constantly recycled in my daily thoughts.  The great thing about these is that every person can have their own and create their own unique goals and lifetime milestones from themselves that stem from these.  And I say to those who abide be these ideals and others that follow a similar lifeline, rock on and use these as motivators to get you into the gym and to get you through your workouts, I know I certainly do – they are excellent tools. But they are obvious ones that we think about all the time. What I want to get at in these next couple of blogs are the little tiny tricks that keep you going when you are in mid work out. All this time I have been talking about the crash that we can all feel that prevents us from getting into the gym but what about that brick wall that sometimes pops like the annoying “punch the monkey in face and win a Car” web pop-up. I have a couple easy, tiny behaviors that you can employ as your so called pop-up blockers at the gym, to help you tear down that wall.

The first of these is what I like to call the “only” factor.  The “only” factor refers to the method by which you count while working out. When counting focus on what you are striving toward and what you have already done.  Meaning that if you are on your 2^nd of 4 sets don’t think of it as the 2^nd set but instead put yourself in mind frame that you “only” have two sets left or that you are half way done with your sets for this exercise. This works perfect for running as well and in fact that is where I got the idea in the first place.  When I used to run cross country to get in shape for the soccer season back in high school, I used to hit a giant mental barbed wire fence after the first mile in every race that I ran. On every regular run day I would be absolutely fine and be able to power through the entire run without the mental fatigue. But for whatever reason when it came race time I would be so drained psychologically that after that first mile I seriously always wanted to quit. After burning out my first couple races and losing my hard earned place after that first mile, my coach began to trouble shoot for me.  At first the obvious diagnosis was that I was just physically burned out after the first mile, but when he saw me run time intervals on the track he knew that was not in fact the case. He taught me this technique of focusing on what you have accomplished and then honing in on fact that you are already partly done so really you “only” have this much more to go.  I was thinking to myself in the beginning holy hell I still have two more miles to keep at this pace, but after I really focused on this new method of thinking everything turned around. I would hit that mile and not think about the 2 miles I would think to myself “ok just keep this pace for ½ a mile more (which is much more reasonable than for two more miles) then when I hit that ½ mile point I would think to myself ok that last ½ mile was very doable just go a ½ more mile at the same pace. I would have just enough mental and physical energy to do that for one more ½ mile and then when I realized I only had one ½ mile left I would actually pick up the pace because I knew that it would all be over in no time and I would be so much more happy with myself if I did it. The same I found out carried over for the gym. By far chest and back are the most physically and mentally demanding days for me out of the whole workout week.  So I started putting the 3 most challenging exercises at the very beginning of my workout, then once I hit that burnout point I would tell myself that “I have already done the three hardest exercises and that I only have 3 left.” Then I would do the two next easiest exercises and tell myself that I “only” had one more to do. Then half way through my last one I would convince myself to do one more exercise afterword just to push it and feel that much more accomplished because at most I only had 7 min left at the gym.

Looking at this on paper it might sound like a giant crock pot of self indulged crap, and it might even seem a little confusing,  but when actually set forth in motion and practically maintained, it really works. I always thought that it was just something that worked for me but I started telling people about this when they would share with me in passing about problems with burning out not just in the gym but in many different facets of their lives, and they told me that it truly started working for them as well.  Maybe they are just trying to make me feel good about myself by telling me that this works but hey it works for me and it is something that is so easily done that I whole heartedly encourage you to give it a try for a little while. Once again, these are simply the opinions of a guy who has opinions about anything and everything, take it or leave it as you will.

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Hello Friends!

Hope this finds you having a fabulous day! I did mention that I started a weight loss challenge and so far I have lost 6 pounds in 2 weeks, which is a great start but I have done these challenges before and know I need to tweak my plan so I get a little better result. I did get a stability ball and have really only sat on it at my desk; I can feel it working on my core! Who would have thought just sitting on a stability ball would make your core stronger? I plan to do on exercises on it as well once I get over the fear of rolling off it onto my butt! Now that would not be a pretty picture!  lol

WOW! What an emotional Biggest Loser show this week. I feel for O’Neal losing his brother to cancer. That was very touching. I know you all shed a tear or 2 along with him. My daughter had that experience with her grandfather. My dad passed in the night and my daughter found out the next day after school. She was crushed that she did not get to say good-bye. My dad was my daughter Sue’s life…she did everything and went everywhere with him.  That was 7 years ago. Time sure marches on.

I have been walking a lot and going to the gym. I even have walked over 20K steps in one day which equals 8.5 miles for me. I have realized that no one is going to step up and help me, no one is going to come knocking on my door  to go walking, no one is going to meet me at the gym, no one is going to help me plan menus for the week, no one is going to say I better not eat that… I do not have close friends or family. So I have realized I am on my own with this weight loss and have accepted that fact. Now don’t get me wrong I have a lot of facebook supporters cheering me on, and designer whey friends and fast track to weight loss friends, and neighbor friends but it’s not the same as someone saying come on I will help you and support you, let’s get walking.

It’s also difficult as for me because I do not have a treadmill at home to help track what I am doing. I am waiting to hear if I won a contest to win a treadmill through the Life Fitness brand so send in the lucky vibes for me to win! If I win the weight loss challenge it will be for over 300 bucks that will pay for my Fast Track to Weight Loss with Kim Lyons membership. With the Gold membership you get a personal trainer maybe even Kim who was a Biggest Loser Trainer in the pass! The trainer will help monitor your diet, exercise, give you pep talks, encouragement and suggestions. But as most things in life it is not free.

One thing I am being faithful using is my Designer Whey Weight Control Powders. I love the taste and the energy I get from using this great product. I also carry the 2GO packets in my car so I have no excuse to stop and grab something to eat that probably is not good for me.

Thanks friends for reading this blog entry. I hope it inspires you to continue on your quest to be the healthiest you can be. Life is too short to waste time on unhealthy habits.

Take care, until next time.

Camille

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This is part 6 of helpful tips and methods on “defeating the Itis” pertaining to the daily fitness routines that many go through.

Something that I have been doing lately that has kept me motivated at a constant, continual and healthy rate is to fully document my physical progression. Meaning the whole kit-n-kaboodle: weekly and monthly pics, daily, weekly and monthly measurements, diet journals and of course exercise journals. I have always been opposed to this whenever it has been brought up in the past because for some reason it carried a very narcissistic stigma for me. When magazines or people I knew spoke outwardly about this, for some peculiar reason, I thought that they were just being vein but after working in operations in the business world I have changed my mind. Now I know you are thinking to yourself, what the hell do the business world and your perception on this particular subject have to do with anything, the two go together like “ketchup and mint cookies” (I know you are thinking random comparison right, but once as a kid I got dared to combine the two and believe me I can think of nothing worse: validating this opposition). So anyways, I realized that in order for a business to be successful they have to evaluate everything from head to toe on a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly basis. And being in operations I crunch these numbers and evaluate progression and unfortunately sometimes decline. Being able to see, have and evaluate these numbers is the only way a business can successfully set, retain and reach the goals that will make them flourish. The same should apply to the gym.

What diets have been working the best? How much weight am I sustaining, gaining or losing? What did I look like at the start of this venture and have a progressed? Why have I been stuck on the same weight for these reps? All of these questions can easily be answered if you are documenting what you do at and outside of the gym. It is really easy and will take no more than 10-20 min a day to keep up with. This is extremely motivating for several different reasons. The first obviously being that if you can see improvement on a weekly-monthly basis and especially a yearly basis, you will be much more motivated to stay on that path and keep in the gym or keep on an exercise plan. Just looking in the mirror when you get home does no true justice because your mind is conditioned to have a certain perception of you…I know that sounds weird but it is true, whereas pictures and actual numbers don’t lie. The same goes for daily measurements; they can also be deceiving depending on if you just worked out, if you just ate, if you just did something extraneous, which is why it is helpful to have ongoing data so that you can truly measure progress or as I am about to bring up, back sliding. The second main motivator can be a plateau or decline in your measurements or appearance. Some people get really attuned to how they look or what they weigh because they feel that because they are going to the gym everyday they have to be improving their physical fitness and appearance. But this can most often lead to falsehoods, because many times we plateau or even, what I like to call back slide. For me I was increasing the weight that I was lifting but I was not increasing the mass of my body. This had to do with several factors like daily calorie intake, protein intake and not enough recovery. But I did not notice because I mentally convinced myself that I was getting bigger because I was going to the gym everyday and hitting it hard. So once I started documenting everything and saw that I was at the same level, I was able to isolate the things negatively impacting me and try and improve them one by one. The whole grand scheme of the fitness game might be as hard to understand at first as the initial reaction to a nerdy dude dating a perfect ten: “how is this really supposed to work.” But truly figuring this “game” out is the key because once you can isolate your downfalls and weaknesses you can move on and improve, which acts as a huge motivation. It is like when a teacher yells at and punishes a student for acting out when called on in class. It seems like the right thing to do because this child is being disruptive. But in reality this kid can barely read and was put into this class due to social promotion and lack of funding for special programs, so he is acting out as a defense mechanism. You can not expect motivate this kid and see progress until you take the time to fully understand him, and truly evaluate his skills. And like in the world of teaching and in the world of business, there is no better, cheaper easier way than to personally document this stuff as you go.

These are simply the opinions of a guy who has opinions about anything and everything, take it or leave it as you will.

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