A Man Reborn

Decided to start writing a bit more about other things than just working out. I like writing, so the more practice I get the better I’ll get at it.

Took it easy this weekend – just what I needed after the 5 weeks of craziness at work. Friday I vegged out for a few hours and finished off Final Fantasy XIII which I hadn’t played since I started the project. Pretty good ending although the whole tesseracts area of the last level really made no sense and was a bit dull. Got a txt from Tosha who I met at the fiendraiser a couple of weeks ago seeing if I wanted to check out a mexican wrestling show – sweet!

Saturday I took Ozzy for a bike ride and then headed over to Kombat for a weight workout. Did squats, military presses and bent over rows. Low reps, heavy weight. No messing around with a million machines – just the way I like it. I just got an iphone so I did some searching for fitness apps and got one called GymBuddy. I’m using it to track my sets and reps and to make sure that I progress properly. So far I like it and I’ll give it a proper review after I use it for a little while.

I’m bad at keeping up with cleaning when I get super busy at work, so 5 weeks resulted in my bedroom and office both looking pretty disastrous. After my workout I spent a good chunk of time getting them both cleaned up and it feels good to get it out of the way. It’s a lot easier to maintain it once it’s super clean. I even found all the old blood stains (fake :P) that had found their way to my door frames and out of the way areas in my bathroom while doing zombie makeup.

Left to meetup with Tosha and got stuck in CNE / TFC traffic on Lakeshore (note to self: avoid driving through this area until the CNE is over). Met up and Shanghai Cowgirl and had a tasty havarti/jalapeno/avocado grilled cheese and a pint of big wheel, which I’d tried at the conscious food festival a few weeks ago and really liked. After that we were off to Santo Sangre for some luchador action!

The show was awesome – so much fun! When we got there we saw a couple of couches right at ringside with no one sitting in them. I think everyone just assumed they were reserved and didn’t bother sitting in them – so we sat there, got the best ringside seats and no one said a word. Ended up sitting next to a couple of little kids who totally made the experience all the more amazing. Seeing how excited they got and how into the show they were made me smile and made me happy to be a big kid. I can’t live my life without play and fun and I do lots of things that I’m sure could be looked down on as childish, but whatever – it makes me happy and that’s all that matters. Anyway – few pics below.

After the show we got to meet all the wrestlers and get pictures / autographs. Got pics with the legendary El Santo del Hijo as well as with Trish Stratus and Lita who used to be in the WWE – bonus!  Was going to meet up with some friends after the show but that got derailed so I popped over to another friends place for a bit before heading home.

Sunday I took the dog for a bike ride and then dropped him off after a few K before heading out on a longer ride myself. I got an app called runkeeper pro to track my running/biking – so far I’m liking it – it tracks via GPS and tracks the route and all the timing stats so I’ll be able to tell how I’m coming along. I’ve got a lot of riding to do to get ready for the Ride to Conquer Cancer next June.

Got back and headed over to the farmer’s market – picked up some summer squash, potatoes and peppers for dinner. Made the potatoes into hasselback potatoes and grilled the veg and had it with some chicken breast I had grilled earlier.

What else… found out that Kombat is doing a seminar at the end of October with Andy the Destroyer Souwer, one of my favourite K1 fighters. I’ve got it on my list to train with a champion, so I’m definitely signing up for this. I’m expecting it will be a pretty intense seminar, so I’ll be sure to step up my training quite a bit over the next 9 weeks to make sure I can get the best out of the seminar.

… and I guess I’m a glutton for sleepless punishment, because I somehow ended up with plans for every night this coming week. The good thing is that I’ll be out with friends and not working. I’ll need to be creative with my workout timings and making sure I get some sleep too!

It sucks that I missed fan expo – not because of the show itself, but because of the people there that I didn’t get to hang out with.  I’ll have to make sure I make opportunities to see them all soon!

So, first off – I went to Muay Thai class for the first time in a long while.  Today was nice and humid and the warm up nearly killed me (sprints!), but hey – this is my punishment for having neglected my cardio for so long.  I will suck it up and deal, because I know it will get better shortly.

It’s kind of strange to see what knowledge / technique I retained from when I used to go often.  Keeping my hands high at all times is no problem for me even when my shoulders burn with fiery pain.  Getting tagged more than enough times because my hands were low will do that.  But, it was good to come back and it felt great to do a really intense workout.

Moving on… I’ve always had issues with motivation.  Sometimes it seems like my motivation comes and goes like the wind.  I am going to spend some time trying to figure out exactly what triggers these motivation state changes for me so I can use them to my advantage instead of the other way around.  What I do know is that when I am in a good state, there is little to nothing that can stop me.  So I’m going to ride this wave and make some changes.  Gonna pick up some new habits and reclaim some others that I’ve let slip.  My immediate focus is to be super-strict on these for the rest of the month – I started yesterday, so that’s 21 days – in my own experience 3 solid weeks is enough time to make a lasting change.

So, here goes:

1. Stop complaining without doing anything to remedy the situation

This came from an article on Tim Ferriss’s blog.  I’m a big fan of his book, The Four Hour Workweek and I’ve implemented some of his basic ideas with positive effects.  I’m also working on an even bigger change, but that’s a whole other post for later.  Anyway, the idea is to not describe a person or event negatively without indicating some steps to fix the problem that prompted the reaction in the first place.  To remind me, I’ve got a blue rubber band on my left wrist.  If I slip up, it goes to the other wrist.  I’m big on the idea that thoughts become actions, so this makes sense to me.

Source: http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2007/09/18/real-mind-control-the-21-day-no-complaint-experiment/

2. Cut back my meat consumption by 25%

For a number of reasons I am going to cut back on the amount of meat I consume.  I’m going to start by cutting it down by 25%.  I’m not going to do any set plan ala Meatless Mondays – just going to make sure that at least 25% of my weekly meals don’t contain meat.  Which leads right into my next change.

3. Keep a food journal

In the past my best results at getting in shape have been when I kept a detailed food journal.  I’ve got an iPhone coming in the mail soon which will make this a cinch.

4. Follow a morning ritual

Another belief I’m big on is that your mental state controls your outcome.  Starting the day off in a negative state  can quickly spiral into a bad day overall.  The morning ritual is designed to put me in a positive state of mind where I’m ready to take on the day properly.

1. Wake up – don’t snooze, don’t toss – when the alarm goes I’ll pop out of bed like a bat out of hell and open my blackout curtains to get  some sunshine in the room.
2. Drink a big glass of water – morning = dehydration.
3. Move and get the blood flowing – anything really, just 5-15 minutes of quick exercise.
4. Listen to a motivating song.
5. Read my goal list and feel and envision how I will feel when I achieve them.
6. Think about things in my life I am grateful for.
7. Clean myself up – groom, dress, etc. – self explanatory – but with a little more attention to detail.
8. Cook breakfast and prepare my lunch.

5. Intense exercise at least 4 times a week

Another habit that I’ve fallen out of with a negative result on my body and my mind.  Intense exercise does amazing things for me.  I think clearer, feel better and just plain feel great.  I’m writing this hours after a hard Muay Thai class today and I’m completely awake, full of energy and super focused.  The next 3 weeks are also going to be ridiculously busy at work.  One of my problems has been that I allow myself to make work an excuse to not workout.  This is just bullshit – there’s always time and the net result is that I have more energy and am more focused so if I am super busy it’s to my benefit to fit in a workout.

21 days (20 now, as I started yesterday technically) to go.  It might look like a lot, but each is a small change when broken down.  I know myself and I know that right now I’m in a hyper-motivated state so it’s a good time to tackle these.  When I make these into established habits then it will be easier to keep my momentum going when this state of motivation wears off – and it will.