Every year around the beginning of November, with my birthday coming up on the 23rd, I start to get a little introspective. This post on Rif's blog got me thinking as soon as I read it.
http://rifsblog.blogspot.com/2007/10/its-almost-easy-to-forgetespecially.html
Looking back on my own life, I am constantly reminded that I am healthier, happy and better off now that at any time in my life. God saw fit to keep me alive through all the stupid self-destructive Rockstar shit that I did in my 20's, then led me to the RKC.
I meet people all the time who talk about getting fat, back pain, etc., and then they'll say somrthing like "It sucks getting older" or " I'm not as young as I used to be".
Recently I had a conversation with someone that started with "I guess I need to do something to lose this weight" Of course I started talking about kettlebell training, describing in detail what my class is like. I got a response that KBs are "fine for younger people like you (me), but when you get my age, it's alot easier to hurt your back".
I asked how old they were after a comment like this and the response was "36".
I asked "How old do you think I am?"
"I dunno....26? 27?"
I will be 38 in a little over 3 weeks. I am in better condition, stronger and healthier than I was at 28. Some of the stuff that I am able to do now--Thanks to traing with Pavel and the RKC--are beyond anything I ever imagined, and I ain't done yet. I'm not as young as I used to be....I am younger.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Monday, October 29, 2007
Friday, October 26, 2007
Monday, October 22, 2007
Mmmmmm...cookies......
So after 14 weeks of pretty serious attention to diet and doing some pretty serious workouts geared toward fat-burning, I hit 265.5 lbs last Friday, down from 285 in July. Hooray for me. I'll round up and call it 20lbs.
Then for some reason (that probably has to do with my childhood) I proceeded to "throw down" for most of the weekend. I include non-compliant meals each week but this is the first time in 14 weeks I have gone overboard like this.
Friday night it was a birthday party: Guiness, a red wine called"Bull's Blood" that I had never tried and about 8 or 9 chocolate chip cookies. Then Pizza when we got home from the party.
Saturday started out on track. I did about 2 hours of teaching and filming for what I hope to be my next DVD, then went to a late lunch with some of the students. At Chili's. Ribs, fries, molten choclate cake. Mandy got home from shooting a wedding and a couple of friends came over to watch a movie. Mandy made spaghetti. It was tasty. So were the Dorito's.
Sunday was on track until about 5pm, then we ate at a place in Nashville called "Batter'd & Fried". Guess what kind of food they serve there? I had fish & chips & a couple of chicken tenders. Later we made lasagna and topped off the evening with cookie dough ice cream.
Today I am back on my regular eating schedule and all is well, but I have been feeling it in my belly. I am not upset or going "why did I do that?" Rather I feel pretty good about the fact that I did that and now am back to my regular plan.
Workout was good (I attribute this to an inadvertant carb-load effect from the over feeding) hit a PR in the 32kg UST (165) and I am closing in on my goal for that. C&P ladders 1,2,3,4,5 x5 the first 4 with 32kg, the last with 32kg & 18lb in one hand.
The PN contest ends on November 9th, my original goal was to drop 22lbs by then. I am on track to do that.
Then for some reason (that probably has to do with my childhood) I proceeded to "throw down" for most of the weekend. I include non-compliant meals each week but this is the first time in 14 weeks I have gone overboard like this.
Friday night it was a birthday party: Guiness, a red wine called"Bull's Blood" that I had never tried and about 8 or 9 chocolate chip cookies. Then Pizza when we got home from the party.
Saturday started out on track. I did about 2 hours of teaching and filming for what I hope to be my next DVD, then went to a late lunch with some of the students. At Chili's. Ribs, fries, molten choclate cake. Mandy got home from shooting a wedding and a couple of friends came over to watch a movie. Mandy made spaghetti. It was tasty. So were the Dorito's.
Sunday was on track until about 5pm, then we ate at a place in Nashville called "Batter'd & Fried". Guess what kind of food they serve there? I had fish & chips & a couple of chicken tenders. Later we made lasagna and topped off the evening with cookie dough ice cream.
Today I am back on my regular eating schedule and all is well, but I have been feeling it in my belly. I am not upset or going "why did I do that?" Rather I feel pretty good about the fact that I did that and now am back to my regular plan.
Workout was good (I attribute this to an inadvertant carb-load effect from the over feeding) hit a PR in the 32kg UST (165) and I am closing in on my goal for that. C&P ladders 1,2,3,4,5 x5 the first 4 with 32kg, the last with 32kg & 18lb in one hand.
The PN contest ends on November 9th, my original goal was to drop 22lbs by then. I am on track to do that.
Saturday, October 20, 2007
New look for my blog
As badass as I think the black background was, it was brought to my attention that some visitors were having a hard time reading it, so I changed it. Let me know what you think.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
The lies we tell ourselves
"The mind and body adapt to both comfort and deprivation.....Suffering provides the opportunity to exercise will and to develop grit....Suffering is the gateway to true knowledge of one's self, and therefore humility. Season the physical with psychological difficulty and risk and administer at the proper dosage to achieve higher consciousness." Mark Twight, http://www.gymjones.com/
New girl shows for class today. She WON 12 weeks with me in a bridal drawing I did and today was here first day. She needs to drop some weight before she gets married next spring.
She tells me she already knows how to do the swing. Upon demonstration I am reminded of Brett Jones' wisdom -"Swinging a kettlebell and doing kettlebell swings ain't the same thing."
I clean up the mess and proceeded to the Getup, which she had some trouble with, but nothing that wouldn't work itself out in a few reps. I explain to her that she is going to be very sore in the next few days. "I doubt it, I already do a lot of squats."
Now, I can tell but the way you look and squat how much squatting you do on a regular basis. She doesn't squat much. She doesn't move like she squats and she isn't built lke she squats.
"Besides," she continues, "it can't be worse that the hiking trip I took this summer." Really?
Musta been some hiking trip.
The rest of the crew shows up and it is time for class, which looks like this:
Get-ups 10:00
10 lunges/10 pushups 10:00
Swing 1:00
run 1:30
x4 rounds
She didn't make it.
During the 1st set of post-swing running, one of my other ladies cuts me a look that says "She doesn't belong here." I am inlcined to agree. On the 2nd set of swings, she started :30 after everyone else and dropped the KB with :10 to go. Some kinda hiking trip indeed...
After the 2nd set of swings, new girl is walking, not jogging.
After the 3rd set, she doesn't even bother to walk. She tells me "This isn't for me." I ask why.
"It's just so BORING" she gasps. " I need a lot of variety."
By BORING I think she meant "too hard" and by "variety" she meant "treadmill".
A lot can be said about my class, but boring? No....not hardly. It was too hard and she didn't have the courage to look at herself and admit it. She did not even have it in her to finish the class, which is actually kind of rude in my opinion. Had she told me it was too hard, I would have respect for her decidion to QUIT before the end.
As she walked away, one of my other ladies was returning from the short jog. She looked at the quitter, hobbling off to her car and said "Well, there you go" and got back on the line for the next set of swings.
New girl shows for class today. She WON 12 weeks with me in a bridal drawing I did and today was here first day. She needs to drop some weight before she gets married next spring.
She tells me she already knows how to do the swing. Upon demonstration I am reminded of Brett Jones' wisdom -"Swinging a kettlebell and doing kettlebell swings ain't the same thing."
I clean up the mess and proceeded to the Getup, which she had some trouble with, but nothing that wouldn't work itself out in a few reps. I explain to her that she is going to be very sore in the next few days. "I doubt it, I already do a lot of squats."
Now, I can tell but the way you look and squat how much squatting you do on a regular basis. She doesn't squat much. She doesn't move like she squats and she isn't built lke she squats.
"Besides," she continues, "it can't be worse that the hiking trip I took this summer." Really?
Musta been some hiking trip.
The rest of the crew shows up and it is time for class, which looks like this:
Get-ups 10:00
10 lunges/10 pushups 10:00
Swing 1:00
run 1:30
x4 rounds
She didn't make it.
During the 1st set of post-swing running, one of my other ladies cuts me a look that says "She doesn't belong here." I am inlcined to agree. On the 2nd set of swings, she started :30 after everyone else and dropped the KB with :10 to go. Some kinda hiking trip indeed...
After the 2nd set of swings, new girl is walking, not jogging.
After the 3rd set, she doesn't even bother to walk. She tells me "This isn't for me." I ask why.
"It's just so BORING" she gasps. " I need a lot of variety."
By BORING I think she meant "too hard" and by "variety" she meant "treadmill".
A lot can be said about my class, but boring? No....not hardly. It was too hard and she didn't have the courage to look at herself and admit it. She did not even have it in her to finish the class, which is actually kind of rude in my opinion. Had she told me it was too hard, I would have respect for her decidion to QUIT before the end.
As she walked away, one of my other ladies was returning from the short jog. She looked at the quitter, hobbling off to her car and said "Well, there you go" and got back on the line for the next set of swings.
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Even more snatching
Felt strong today, so instead of donig my planned 32kg snatching intervals, I went for another shot on the SSST.
I decided to go without setting the KB down. The first set was 15/15,everything after that was 10/10.
I wish I had the video rolling on this one, but I didn't. I set the gymboss to beep every minute for pacing. Here is the minute by minute breakdown of the reps:
I decided to go without setting the KB down. The first set was 15/15,everything after that was 10/10.
I wish I had the video rolling on this one, but I didn't. I set the gymboss to beep every minute for pacing. Here is the minute by minute breakdown of the reps:
- 31
- 27
- 26
- 25
- 25
- 25
- 25
- 23
- 22
- 31
Total of 260. I'll take that. My goal for the PN Challenge was 256. I think I am done with this for now. I am looking at what is possible with 32kg.
This is especially sweet since it was just June when I nearly killed myself with 140 reps after recovering fro the Danish bird flu, or whatever it was. Today I hit 140 at a little past 5:00.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
I've been snatching a little
OK, I've been snatching a LOT.
Sunday: 500 reps w/24kg in 38:30
227 in the first 10:00, the rest was in sets of 10.
Monday: I did some EDT stuff with pullups & 2x32kg C&P, some burpees w/2x32kbs and then
150 32kg snatches n 15:00. All sets of 10 or 10/10.
Tuesday: Rest
Wednesday: SSST 24kg 239, roughly 96% of my max of 250. 26 RPM, Switching hands every 13 reps for 7:00(182) :30 break,14 reps from 7:30 to 8:00(196), rest :15, 13 reps from 8:15-8:45, rest :15 & 30 reps for the last minute.
Tough, but not as bad As I expected.
Sunday: 500 reps w/24kg in 38:30
227 in the first 10:00, the rest was in sets of 10.
Monday: I did some EDT stuff with pullups & 2x32kg C&P, some burpees w/2x32kbs and then
150 32kg snatches n 15:00. All sets of 10 or 10/10.
Tuesday: Rest
Wednesday: SSST 24kg 239, roughly 96% of my max of 250. 26 RPM, Switching hands every 13 reps for 7:00(182) :30 break,14 reps from 7:30 to 8:00(196), rest :15, 13 reps from 8:15-8:45, rest :15 & 30 reps for the last minute.
Tough, but not as bad As I expected.
Friday, October 5, 2007
Alwyn Cosgrove's Wisdom
First of all, it is pronounced just like "Allen", don't let the old-school Scottish spelling fool you. Here are some of his thoughts on fat loss, present in the ever-so-gentle Cosgrove fasion..
Here are a few basic truths about fat loss that no one really wants to hear:
- Think about the foods that you are about to consume. Are they going to bring you closer to your goal? Or will they make you feel like crap and take you farther away from what you want? Yeah, I know that when you were younger before you had kids you could eat blah, blah, blah and not gain weight. Too bad. Times have changed.
- You do not need something sweet to finish your meal. This is a conditioned response from your childhood days when cleaning your plate meant ice cream. “Need” something sweet? Do you realize how much you just ate? You don’t need anything. Dessert is not a physiological need for survival. It is just a bad habit. Habits can be broken. You do not need the cheesecake.
- Cookies, doughnuts, and muffins are crap food choices. You can't ever justify eating them on a regular basis. And low carb, fat-free cookies, doughnuts, and muffins are still crap. Don't kid yourself.
- Yes, you can eat fast food. It's called grilled chicken sandwiches or a turkey sub, Jarod. Fries? No. And you do not need to “super size” for an extra 50 cents.
If you want to eat whatever you want, you have two choices.
1) Move a lot. A LOT.
2) Gain weight, get fat, accept it, and stop complaining.
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Things that are Awesome- My dog Rosie
Don't be fooled-she is the most enrgetic Bassett Hound I have ever seen.
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