Sunday, January 16, 2011

Chapter Five - Fiber Shredding and Workout Plan - Nine Years To Live (Commentary)

You don’t know how out of shape you are until you start running and I’m not talking about a stair climber or treadmill. I’m talking about actually shoe to road pounding.

 

I always hated cardio. Course I was a smoker so running was my least “tangible” way of getting fit. I had cut smoking out three weeks prior to stretching my legs for the first time to do the “unthinkable.”  I knew I couldn’t expect much and it was a good thing. I made it about two and half home lengths before I was buckled over gasping for air. Then I walked two and half houses then would run for a house length then repeat process. I was frustrated that I wasn’t getting further but accepted that it was a work in progress.

 

Within a month of this process, I was doing a mile before falling to my knees and was managing two miles on a treadmill.

 

I had always been fascinated with Bruce Lee’s philosophy, and mind. I had adapted his philosophy of mind and body after my wife had left. I had already adapted his philosophy on work years before. I had read some of his early writings and after High School adapted the art of “writing everything into words,” until present. Bruce Lee may be the reason I write so much to be honest. His raw approach to how he studied and worked his trait, I also carried over to my life too.

 

My camera work and editing comes from his philosophy of, “Be water. Be shapeless and formless in your approach.” There is no “format.” This practice has helped my company be successful with the diverse jobs we do. One day a corporate detailed infomercial, the next day I’m on a skateboard following kids off a flight of stairs, the next day, we’re making a film. I become the job I was doing as Bruce taught me to do.

 

Now his philosophy on training may be a little far fetched for me. His workouts obviously involved a lot of martial arts. Sure if I was going to do it then, “DO IT,” but at this venture into the journey, just rebuilding and then building from the rebuild would be the primary goal.

 

Here was a typical work out day for the legend to give you an idea of why, I wouldn’t be able to adapt to this.

 

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Have you seen Rocky? Well hitting a big slab of beef may look over dramatic but I can assure you it is murder. The same concept goes for a heavy bag. Even the best of shape will feel their body’s fail after ten minutes of forcing themselves on to it.

 

Heavy Bag

There were a million ways to approach and work a heavy bag: Combos, straights, hooks, one handers, whatever. To start I just punched the crap out of it. As I started seeing results I toned it down a bit, working on technique. This consisted of one handed taps using each fist until my shoulders melted off my body. I found this method although not as “active,” worked my body even more thoroughly.

 

 

Jump Rope

This was another high cardio anytime kind of workout. Even if you are new to jump rope and only manage 10 to 15 rotations before tripping up, it was a great “in between” exercise I could do whenever I found a couple of minutes.

 

Speed Bag

Not much  of a heart worker but great for hand eye coordination and shredding your, (shoulders and biceps,) with optimal work.

 

Underneath the new layers and fat pockets on my mass of waste, there was muscle. I wasn’t starting from scratch so I guess from a “vanity” point of view, it wouldn’t take but six months to get back to where I was. I was ten years older though so muscle memory may be  a little slower. Within the first 30 days I began noticing a difference. Of course, I was bombarding a haggard body with force it had not with stood in a long time. My workouts were clean. There were rare times, “I didn’t feel like doing anything, ” and those were usually days where I had been sleep deprived from some random wake ups by my restless son in the middle of the night. 

 

My workout plan faltered many times due to time. I was logically only allowed about an hour and a half to devote to my new way of life at an actual facility. Twenty five minutes would be devoted to running so that gave me an hour for “fiber shredding.” 

 

My original plan from many moons ago was a three day spread.

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But I also would work out 6 days a week because well... I had nothing better to do. Now that I had a business to run and a couple of kids to keep straight even 5 days would be stretching my limits. The challenge was to try and get all muscle groups in twice a week leaving the weekend to rest.

 

Sure I don’t get all of them in but my weak point, (chest and shoulders,) get the commitment needed.

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On Day 1 Workout, I do all machine builds. The stress isn’t quite as bad making me less sore the day after but the Day 4 workout or 2nd Rotation, I do free weight builds which gives me a very sore day after but also gives me a 3 day turn around to rest.

 

Still being impatient with the result process, I began the supplement stacking. I never just do anything to do it.  I do things to get what I want out of it, this was no different.

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Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Nine Years To Live - First Sixty Day Video Diary

Chapter Four - The Diet Plan - Nine Years To Live(Commentary)

I have my mother’s metabolism. She’s as skinny as a rail and could eat three double cheeseburgers without so much as a fart... But even with her heredity I manage to push the limits of fatness. I took my “luck” for granted for many years even in conversation sometimes bragging that I couldn’t gain a pound. And yes, I should be 60 pounds over weight or more with what I did to my body from 1992 - 2010 but somehow am only about 27 pounds over instead. If I wouldn’t have done anything it would have only been a matter of time.

 

The way I managed it... Simple.... I did nothing and ate and drank everything.

 

There were “glutten pockets” everywhere. The Movies, fuhgeddaboutit- Large Coke, Large Popcorn. Guys night out- Beer, Hotwings, Artichoke Dip. Dinner Out - Biggest Steak on the menu, fries, Blue Cheese dressing on the salad.

 

It never failed. If I was hungry on the go, Frito Lay chips and coke. When the kids wanted McDonalds I almost got excited that I’d get to smash an extra value meal super sized.

 

When I was on the road, it was the biggest meal possible when I could eat to tide me over through the 16 hour day shoots and sometimes more. I ate and it always the biggest portion the establishment could give me.

 

I hated pills. You would be hard pressed to get me to take an aspirin unless it was in powder form. There was a reason I hated them which i will not share in this memoir but let’s just say, I detested them like a sickness. I would with ease be able to get Adderalls through my doctor. I hated them too, but found when I took them, I would transform into a one track beast if I was in front of an editing bay, so when big edit jobs came along a trip to the doctor and a 120 count of Amphetamine Salts was nabbed to “get me through.” When I was on these monsters, I wouldn’t eat at all.... Literally. In fact, I would wait and eat one big meal usually thirty minutes before I went to sleep.

 

(The digestion would dull the Adderall edge enough for me to fall asleep.) It was horrible. I lived atrociously and my diet was a disgrace. Days and Nights I would sit in front of that edit bay for 14 hours sometimes more and drink a two liter of Coke, chew on sunflower seeds and stuff tobacco in my mouth. And smash a Whopper Value Meal at 12:30am at night. That was my diet.

 

When the job was done, I’d flush the Adderalls that were left over. There would be a two day hangover that rendered me dead for 48 hours. The worse feeling in the world and I would normally time the “wean off,” for days when the kids would be with their Mom because I was almost worthless literally during the “detox.” That third day, I would feel like a million dollars but would binge on food, sweets, and soda to make up for the 8 day famine I had done to my body just days before.

 

All the while the kids ate what was easy for me.  Chicken Nuggets, Burgers, Pasta, and Pizza. Everything was cooked, (some of it from scratch,) some of it “quick dinners.”

 

I hated myself as I got bigger and bigger over time. I stayed in denial as I got bigger. I swore I still “looked good” despite being very self conscious about the sags and “bitch tits,” that were forming. Yet with all that, my health was the least of my concern.

 

Upon the beginning of Project Nine Years To Live, I knew I would not only have to change my ways, but worse, somehow retrain the kids to eat better. That was to be the challenge. There was no question that talking to a professional Health Consultant would be my first step.

 

Lisa Kemerait was my only choice. She had been a vegetarian since she was thirteen and had saved her own life by becoming very aware of “good health.” She was brilliant and better than that, a friend of mine.

 

Here is ten minutes of our meeting. It is very minimally cut but the information she gives about Diets and Diets for Children is very insightful.

 

 I left there overwhelmed. I didn’t feel my kids would go for any of the changes.

 

And I was right. Three nights in a row, they turned their nose up to a healthier dinner. I tried everything. (They did enjoy the honey Cheerios approach.) See below.

 

I thought maybe I would wean the new diet on little by little. Maybe try one night a week for a bit and slowly add days.

 

I ditched a day at work to spend all day at the grocery store.  I looked at everything and bought the healthiest “kid friendly food” I could find, exchanging bi-product hot dogs for the Kosher ones, Tyson’s Kid Nuggets for frozen, (but raw,) Chicken Strips with breading separate-- Just to state a couple.

 

I felt proud of myself until I got the bill and my grocery budget had soared an extra $70 dollars with the change.

 

My first thought: No wonder America is overweight. They can’t afford to be healthy or at least eat it. Nonetheless, the trick worked. The kids and I were eating a meat, vegetable, fruit every night.

 

That was enough for me to figure out that re budgeting for a healthier lifestyle would have to be a must at this point.

 

With all the elements in place, it was time to get this fat ass in shape....

 

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