Good and bad....

This week has been interesting. I am yet to work out, so obviously that is the bad. But the reason for my lack of working out I see as a good. I've been sleeping very well this week. I've only gotten up once in the middle of the night, which was last night and only because I forgot to set the timer on my heater and it got too hot in my room. My alarm goes off at 0530 and 0600 and I usually sleep through them, finally getting out of bed around 0730. Which puts me into work at about 0900 and I leave the office around 1800. This is too late for me to work out as it gets me too amped and I have difficulty falling asleep. I'm hoping that with today off I can kind of reset some of that. I'm going to get in a workout later this afternoon.

Now I'm going to talk about something a bit different. If you know me in the real world (as opposed to the internet world) you know that I'm kind of a survival buff. Ever since the great ice storm of 07 I've been working to be prepared for another disaster whether it be natural or man made. But I came across something that I've been neglecting, and that is physical fitness as a survival tool. Obviously I feel that some of my knowledge would help me a bit, but knowledge only gets you so far. You've got to be able to endure things as well. And my endurance is severely lacking. WIth this thought, I think that I've found my new motivation for working out. Crossfit preaches a lot about GPP--General Physical Preparedness. And I think my GPP is rather low. It's about time to change that, I think. I'm going to try to throw in a few different wrinkles in my training this year. Maybe take a couple of saturdays and go down to the Wichita Mountains and throw in a mountain hike/climb with a pack and weighted vest. Also planning a camping trip up at some family land were I will have to pack in/pack out...no facilities or resources. Will probably have to pack 100 pounds of gear a mile in and out.

Now with all of that said, I don't think that the world is going to end in 2012. But I'm not counting out crazy people misinterpreting natural occurrences and just generally going crazy. Time will tell. The goal is to be prepared for anything. If a tornado hit, would I be able to lift a heavy object off myself or family member? Right now, probably not. If the SHTF, would I be able to cover the 5 miles from my office back to my house on foot in a short amount of time (less than 3 hours)? Definitely not.

Preparation for the unknown and unknowable starts now.

Goals 2011

My Fitness and Health Manifesto

I have said many time that I want to be healthier, fitter, and generally more awesome. I feel that it is time to finally lay out my goals in a written form and post in a public place to be held accountable for my goals. I’ll try to organize them in short term, medium term, and long term. We’ll see how this goes.

SHORT TERM--END OF MARCH 2011

1). Get diet back in line with Paleo Standards and as close to 100% compliant as possible.

2). To work back to my 1 Rep Max in the dead lift, back squat, press with flawless form. (155 shoulder press, 305 dead lift, 345 back squat).

2). To work up to a solid 10 minute of jump rope (singles).

3). Complete a pull up from a dead hang.

4). Complete 25 perfect form push ups

5). Drop 40lbs.

MEDIUM TERM--END OF SEPTEMBER 2011

1). Keep diet at Paleo Standards and 100% compliant.

2). Establish new PR’s on the press, dead and back squat to the following numbers: 175 press, 350 dead, 400 back squat.

3). Establish double under jump ropes and work up to 30 minute sessions.

4). Establish 10 pull ups in a row from a dead hang.

5). Complete 50 push ups with perfect form in under 2 minutes.

6). Establish a sub 12 minute mile run (been a long time since I have ran that distance, best time in the mile is 9 mintues) with proper pose technique.

7). Complete 2 workouts a day, breaking up strength and met cons

8). Drop 50lbs.

LONG TERM--END OF JUNE 2012 AND BEYOND

1). 100% Paleo Compliance.

2). Work up to a max press of greater than 175 (I’m giving this goal a little flexibility as I feel like my press is pretty solid and in all honestly it probably won’t improve that much. A 200 pound press would be really awesome, I’m just not real sure on how probable it is).

3). 400+ dead lift.

4). 450+ back squat.

5). Complete the local Fight Gone Bad fundraiser

6). Establish a “Murph for babies” during my employer’s annual March of Dimes fundraising drive.

7). Drop another 60 pounds.

8). 6-pack abs.

9). Run a 5k.

For those of you who know me, please push me to keep these goals in line. I know that I’m going to stumble because I’m only human. I know that this stuff is not necessarily going to get easier as I am getting older, but I feel like these goals are achievable once I get my diet in line and maintain that diet over the course of the rest of my life. And for those of you keeping track, the magic number in total pounds lost is 150 pounds. The goal body weight is 180 pounds. Which I haven’t been at since I was in 6th grade.

As I still have some things to do to recover from the events of this past summer and get my garage back in order I am putting a tentative beginning on this endeavor as January 1, 2011. I don’t really believe in New Year’s Resolutions, but I guess this is one. I won’t promise to update daily, but I’ll try to update weekly and I’ll be keeping a personal food/workout/thought journal with me as well.

Now, anyone want to join me?

Matt

Getting back into it.

I know, I've been slacking. Things have been crazy. I had half of a roof on my house all summer and half of the ceilings collapsed as well. Needless to say working out/eating right haven't been on my agenda. That's going to change. In January I'm going to do take Gluten Free January to Ketogenic January. I know that I've said this all before, but I'm going to succeed this time. I'll detail my goals later in the week. I'll try to blog once a week.

Please, for those of you following the blog or whatever, push me in this endeavor. Call me fat, lazy, all the above. Help motivate me. Help me get that elusive 6-pack.

In the meantime, watch this and get psyched.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwvoTDoO9Hg

Matt

Almost there

Tomorrow will mark week 3 of my Whole 30. I'm feeling great. And I've only eaten out 4 times in the entire 3 weeks. And it's all been paleo. The first time was at iHop which was surprisingly easy to eat good food. I had sirloin steak sauteed with onions and mushrooms (I asked, they used canola oil, I asked them to use no more than a tablespoon...I'm pretty sure they did). I also had some steamed broccoli with it. And a glass of water. The waitress seemed a bit interested since I declined adding cheese to the broccoli or even touching the piece of garlic bread that came with it. It was only $10. I've also hit Jimmy Johns a couple of times...having an unwhich each time. An unwhich is a sandwich withouth bread. The last time I had double roast beef, just to up the protein content.

Friday night I went out to Texas Roadhouse and had a nice NY Strip. I asked for double veggies, but I only got the single. Oh well. I loaded up on some fruit when I got home.

I've definitely noticed that I am spending more on groceries, which is a good thing. I'm going to need to sit down and plan out my budget in order to maximize my groceries. I have a membership to Sams so that is helpful that I can buy meat in bulk. I can also buy frozen broccoli like crazy there. And it's cheap. Just need to plan ahead to buy fresh veggies and fruits. I am also in the center of a couple of quality farmers markets that I would like to take advantage of this summer.

My ankle is feeling pretty good, so I'm hoping to start running soon. Figure that I'll start jumping rope first (need to work on the double unders!). I'm also about 3 weeks in to the PTP and am thinking about doing another one probably in August. But for this PTP I'm going to work on the snatch and the front squat. Not only to increase my load capacity on those lifts but to also focus on the formI'll probably do another Whole 30 as well, but this time be more strict about the amounts of food I eat, just to lose the weight. But I really feel that if I stick to a strict paleo diet like I am now and up my cardio I'm going to lose more weight.

I'm not having very many struggles except for my urge to go get a happy hour from sonic. I've already got a couple of plans for some cheat meals when this is over. My goal is to not go crazy. I'm making some pizzas for a party I'm hosting in a couple of weeks, which I'm really looking forward to. I also plan on partaking in a soda or two on the 4th of July. And probably a cheeseburger. And mac and cheese. OK, maybe that's a little crazy.

2 weeks

So I was told that I need to update by more than one source, so here goes.

Started the Whole 30 on Monday May 17. Its been almost 2 full weeks since I have had processed sugars, carbs, or grains. The first couple of days were ok. Day 3 there was an episode of vomitting with sweats/shakes. It was a rough day. But I've been feeling rock solid ever since. I've also been doing the PTP program and loving it. I've been working out 5 times a week.

Twice this week someone has brought donuts to the office. And twice this week I have abstained. I've come too far to quit now, right? Today the big wigs announced that they were buying pizza for the office on Tuesday. Guess I won't be participating in that either. This had me thinking today. My employer has in the past made some big gestures towards improving the health of the employees company wide, which makes sense because healthy employees have less sick days, on the job injuries, etc. But how is it helping us by serving pizza and donuts all the time? Followed by having us sitting in cubes for 8+ hours a day while they work us to the bone (the work volume at my office has been insane since Thanksgiving, morale is low, and 13 employees have quit this month alone)? I realize that it's perceived as a good gesture to provide these types of meals for the employees, but when more than 60% of the department has a weight problem, what's the motivation?

I've read on the Whole 9 website of people who have completed the Whole 30 about how it changes their relationship with food. I'm not even 2 weeks in and I can already see that my relationship with food has been changed. Instead of picking out all my change and hitting the vending machine, I plan ahead for those mid-morning/mid-afternoon snacks and pack jerky, nuts, and fruit. I've found that a couple of walnuts and some cold water goes a long way in quelling the mid morning hunger strike. I also find that I don't eat when I'm bored any more. I drink water...a lot of water.

The workouts have been excellent. There's been a few of them that have called for running, box jumping or jump roping that I've avoided because of my bum ankle that is just now getting healed up from the sprain that I had a month ago. I'm think that after this press/deadlift PTP is done I'm going to do some Crossfit Football WODs for a couple of weeks and then do the PTP with front squats and possibly pull ups. I'm not really sure how I'm going to work that out, but I really need to work on my pull ups since I can't really do them. I now have the assistance bands and the plyo boxes, so I might as well work on them right? I know that I am getting stronger as well. I warm up with 135# on the bar for deadlifts and it's starting to feel like nothing. I'll do some warm up presses with a standard Oly bar (45#) and it feels like a feather. Can't wait to do the 1RM of these exercises in a few weeks.

Haven't weighed myself since I started this because I don't want to see the fluctuations and think "what's the point?' I'm planning on weighing in on either Monday or Tuesday, so hopefully it's a good result.

Whole 30

I've been doing a lot of research lately. Researching the basic formula of human performance. I know what I want to do, and I know that our race is capable of much more than what we think. There was once a time when man had to walk everywhere, hunt, kill for food, gather necessary vegetables and fruits. Times were probably much simpler then. There wasn't a worry about showing up late for work, or paying bills on time. Or what is going on with American Idol or Justin Bieber (just who is this no talent hack anyway? Seriously, are they selling record deals at the mall now?). The only concern in life was just surviving. To me it doesn't really matter what you believe, evolution or creation, there was this time when a daily stressor was running away from dinosaurs, tigers, bears and finding your next meal. Sounds a little better to me than sitting in traffic going to work every morning.

This rambling does actually have a purpose. At the beginning of April I started blogging about my first attempt at the Paleo Diet (aka: the caveman diet, the hunter-gatherer diet, etc). Well, I am attempting it again. Basically. I am beginning the Whole 30. The Whole 30 is a commitment to 30 days for nothing but solid, good foods. Lean meats, vegatables and fruits. This is to reset my body and hopefully drop some pounds. All while putting up more pounds in the weight room. I came across this blog this past week and the information I read has opened my eyes. The blog is www.whole9life.com. It can get pretty science heavy and throws around some bit words like glucose, cortisol, insulin, etc. I suggest you give the site a glance. I'll post some other links in the coming month.

I will also be following the Whole 9's PTP (power to the people) program for the next 35 days or so. This is a strength program designed to increase my overall strength. I'll be working primarily on the deadlift and the shoulder press. There will be plenty of other exercises thrown in there as well. The PTP is on the Whole 9 website as well.

Now I know that I've said in the past that I'm going to a better job of posting on this thing. I'm still really going to try. I really do enjoy writing. However, there may only be 1 big update a week. I'm going to keep a food journal and also jot down any thoughts or observations about how I'm feeling along the way. I'll try to share that all with you as well.

Paleo: Day 4

Only had 2 real meals today. Found some good recipes in my paleo book, so I tried out two of those. Paleo Meat balls and paleo meat loaf. Both are pretty awesome. But I made those for the week. Hello, lunches.

Breakfast/lunch: Flank steak, 2 turkey bratwursts, Asparagus, and some strawberries.

Dinner: paleo meat balls and boccoli, grape juice.

Anyway, I'm actually feeling really great today. However, tomorrow is Monday which means another week at the office. Fun times.