Final Post- I Am A Niking

What is a niking you ask?  Why it's the combination of a viking and a ninja, or so my friends have led me to believe.  Because of my recent increased strength my friends have been calling me "the viking" a lot more frequently.  I've been called the viking (or "Yeldarb the terrible") since I was a young kid because of my blond hair and I was always taller and stronger than most.  Plus my moms side of the family is all scandinavian and I guess they were there for a long long time, I guess you could say the time of the vikings.  Okay I'll take it, but as far as I'm concerned this guy right here doesn't look like a viking:

Probably more like a viking out of training.

Now after some training I'm closer too it:

Now that's more like it.

Now I'll admit that I still have "room for improvement".  Especially when it comes to trimming my body hair instead of taking a giant chunk of it right off in the first sweep and then having to go from there (I am not looking forward to the re-growth to say the least).  And I guess that the body can still shape shift until it's as close to perfect as possible.  But to be honest I'm satisfied with where I'm at.  Whatever happens to me is up to my body, because what I'm going to focus on is exercising because it makes me feel good.  I want to take the strength that I've obtained and use it toward athletics, which brings me to the next point:

Ninjas

I can't think of anything more awesome then ninjas.  Their stealth ability to complete their mission without being seen or heard is astounding and I look up to their morals to help the common people of society.  With that being said I don't recall talking about them that often.  But others in my life have proven me wrong with my new nickname "the niking" and my sister even felt the need to make me a hoodie a couple of years ago to honor my respect for ninjas:

Although I don't wear the thing outside in the public I think it's pretty funny.

Fine, great, grand, wonderful, I will take the new moniker and walk into the streets of Chicago everyday in my black garments and help the common people to the best of my abilities:

(Note this suit used to fit me perfectly and now the pants are basically falling off)

With that being said it really just shows how I feel with my new stronger body.  But a more realistic accomplishment has been achieved through this.  A more humble approach to this project that I personally think is far more important then a fit body:

Mindful Living

My special activity was mindful living with a picture of me on my meditation cushion.  To be honest my meditation practice hasn't really changed throughout this.  The cushion is right next to my bed and is the first thing I do when I get up.  Simple enough.  I just breath and relax my body and mind to head out towards the day with a better attitude.  The mindful living aspect that I saw was more about the choices I made.  Choices dealing with food and attitude.  Once the wrong food choices came into view I would push them away, and once the negative attitude came up I would just push it away.  Put a smile on my face so to speak.  So to me the mindful living wasn't really about the meditation cushion, it was the daily choices.

But here's the thing.  During the whole process we were being "suggested" on what to do.  So were they really my choices?  I still had a helping hand (so to speak) on what to do, and although I still made the correct choices (most of the time) it wasn't without the help of others.  You've got Patrick who guides us along the way, and chen who is in my mind a ninja that choses our fate.  The experienced veterans that have came before us who nudged us in the right direction the entire time.  And then the teammates (Kim the hong kong hiker that climbed over countless lags to accomplish her goals (that she will achieve), Nathaly who pushed through the project all while focusing on saving the planet, and Ramiro who overcame his extreme a.d.d and sinus infection to finish this project with full force) that have provided support the whole way through.  So when I think of actual "mindful living"  I can now see that during the three month duration of the project it was really only practice for the act of "mindful living".

From the beginning to the end I was aware that after this was done it would be Halloween weekend and I always believed that I would "party my ass off".  The day after the project ended I did absolutely nothing.  Nothing.  My body deserved it, and I was proud to give my body the break.  Once I woke up the next day I knew that we were supposed to hold off on the jumprope for awhile.  But those three months were our time, our time over there and all around.  Now it's my time, my time over here, and if I want to jumprope that's up to me.  I wanted to move around, and I basically need to when I get off of the cushion.  So after I stretched a bit I did the ten minutes of jumping, and that seemed a lot easier then the two nine minute sets.  I could feel that my insides were all prepared for my healthy breakfast (don't judge, I liked my pcp breakfast), and that's kind of how the whole weekend went.  If we were done after two months and it were Halloween I would have probably gone to the parties and been like, "oh hell yeah, give me a shot of that.  Oh it's pure gasoline, sweet, give me a double, that sounds good."  But honestly I just wasn't about it, I just went through a week of supersets and my body needed time to heal, time to rest.

Once the weekend came and I had no one to suggest what I should do, and didn't have any goals in front of me I was actually pretty peaceful.  With no one in control I was in control and I started to just listen to my body.  When it came to the meals I didn't just make my normal PCP meals I had developed.  I listened to my body and what it wanted, and what it wanted was healthy food.  Food that grew from the earth and prepared in a healthy fashion, and to me it was good, damn good.  I started making smoothies for the snack with no concern towards it's weight and if I got close to being full I stopped.  Once sunday came around I felt like working out, so I did my own version of a superset.  I didn't go as far as we did before (I did only 3 or 4 sets around) because I didn't want to push it until I got sick, but it felt good.  I feel awake and alive.  I feel good, body and mind.  And so in conclusion that's what I've defined as "mindful living".

That's great 'n all, but from my perspective the special activity should have been music.  The fact that I can play music all day and not have any hand problems is the greatest reward I've been given from doing this.  So I'm getting a commemorative tattoo in honor of PCP.  On the inside of my right bicep I'm getting: You Broke It, and on the left: You Fix It.  The blue collar approach to healing.  My bands last gig for the year is on wednesday and then we go to the studio.  This time I'm going to join the party, but be more moderate than before.  This is how I'm going to approach the whole thing.  I'm going to indulge from time to time, but since the majority of my daily life and night life will be "Body fit and mindful", I'm pretty sure I'll stay that way.  With the knowledge I've received through doing PCP if I ever feel broken down I'll fix it.  

I wouldn't be writing all this without the practice that I did with PCP.  I am honored and thankful that I went through this project and wouldn't trade it with anything in the world (PX90 or what have you).  I wish the best for those who come next.  Push through it all and get the most out of it.  A special thanks to Patrick/Chen and the veterans before us for their knowledge and support.  And big ups to Fantastic Carrot!  We Did It!

SUPERSETS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

These supersets are crazy.  Start with the pull ups now go to the chest dips now run around the block and go to the creep and start floor jumping now do the hokey pokey and spin yourself around.  Really?

I really don't have that much to say right now.  Every time I finish a superset I just lay on the floor for about a half an hour.  I'm going to pull through and complete all these supersets but I will in no way lie and say that I'm having fun doing them.

Beds rule.

Yodo: welcome to the jungle

So Patrick commented with this link yesterday:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oT5HPiYY6p0


Talk about intense.  Unlike the 8 min abs vid there is nothing funny about it.  The intensity and timing of the dude's voice combined with the crazy music makes me feel like I'm on some guerilla mission in the jungle.  I had to watch the video at first to see the order of it and I thought to myself, "I can't do this, what the hell is he doing?!"  But I'm not the type to turn down a challenge so I got to it, and actually completed it.  I was pretty surprised that I could do it, and to Patrick's/Chen's credit I don't think I could have before this project.  I definitely felt my abs working in different ways and guess what I did 8 min abs right after (probably because I'm a lunatic).  That burn could start a forest fire.


With Kim's post yesterday and Ramiro's comment about "Think of where I'll be in a year" it's crazy to think that in the last week I realized that this is just the beginning.  Now that we know how to eat right and the science behind exercising the possibilities are endless.  I mean Rock Climbing?  I wouldn't have thought about doing that before this.  Shit, last night my friend brought up skydiving and immediately I said, "I'm in."  Oh and that's another thing:


Will-power:


I was basically forced to go to a BBQ last night.  I was actually really pissed about it.  I didn't want to be around a bunch of food while I'm basically at the end of this.  But when I showed up I just refused the food.  I sat there and watched everyone eat and I didn't even think for a moment about joining in.  And then a friend said, "Stu, you're being requested from the little ones."   So I went to where the kids were and started playing with them.  While everyone was barfed out with the BBQ and carrot cake I had the energy to be a human punching bag to a bunch of young hooligans.  Thinking about how Patrick said that this will help the whole family and friends thing.  I'm basically these kids uncle and instead of passing out on the floor I can pay attention to the, "hey stu, watch me body slam and then elbow this."  and, "hey stu, this guerilla (stuffed animal) died the moment I punched it."  Those kids are hilarious, and I enjoyed the BBQ after all.    


I thought that this would be a short post but since it turned into a long one I have one more thing to say.  I've heard of some friends of friends that have done the PX90 (or whatever it's called).  I guess it's  a workout plan and has nothing to do with diet.  All of them have returned to their unhealthy body form after the thing ended, and I'm assuming because they don't know about the diet.  I'm glad that I found this project instead of the other one.  

8 Minute abs

This is a post for team JFD.  8 minute abs might be a little tough and you might not want to do it.  But believe me, the more you do it the easier it becomes.  When I started doing it the time went slowly and I just wanted to get through it.  But now it seems like I'll blink my eyes and I'm at the last section of it.  So if I were you I would start doing it consistently as soon as possible because those ab muscles are pesky funkers.

Family reunion of sorts

I went to a musical family reunion last night.  At one point there was 25 musicians playing at once.  Two trumpets, two trombones, two flutes even, I don't even want to list it all.  It was nuts and fun.  But that's not the point of this.  My band was basically born out of this musician lineage, and so some of the people have known me forever.  The cats I haven't seen for awhile all commented on how I look better "then I have in my entire life".  That felt really great because some of them said, "man being a musician taking care of themselves is a rare thing."  Anyways what I wanted to write about was when they asked me what I did and I responded, "eat right and workout."  They all looked at me like I was lying to them.  It can't be that simple, I must of found the fountain of youth and drank from the holy grail or something.  Nope, eat right and workout, that's it.

As for our homework assignment I've figured it out.  I actually didn't want to go to a gym, just had no interest in it.  I'm really about going to this mma style gym where it's athletic and fun, but a homework assignment must be done.  I'm meeting up with a friend of mine that goes to a gym, but he goes to climb their wall.  Rock climbing has always seemed awesome to me.  It's like a chess match climbing up those walls, and any sport that involves the mind like that is enticing to me.  I'll walk around and see what the gym is all about but then I'll get to the wall and maybe find a new permanent activity.

I just had an egg explode while I was cooking it hard boiled style- weird.

Oh yeah, thanks for all the chest hair suggestions.  I don't think I would have ever gone through with it in the first place.  With this mop on top of my head I would look hilarious without chest hair, as if I were photoshopped or something.

I'm so hungry I could eat a LAG

Last night I went to bed hungry which hasn't happened for awhile ever since the bigger dinners came.  And still with the small dinners I rarely went to bed hungry.  The only thing I could think of is that I've had a little cold the last couple days, and I usually eat a lot when I have colds (and I always get colds around this time in chicago when the weather is getting colder).  It's a pathetic cold in my opinion.  I can go about my days just fine I just have a little fatigue and sinuses.  Little sniffles aren't going to stop me from doing anything.  I can get through the exercises just fine with a little fatigued throughout it, but then again the workouts are harder.  I'm just making sure that I get plenty of sleep, and although I still have some signs today I'm definitely better than yesterday so I think I'll be top form real quick like.  But the hunger caught me off guard since our diet is definitely large and in charge, it was a little strange to me.

My pics yesterday sucked.  I don't know why after all this time I can't take a consistent photo.  I know nothing of lighting, and when I look in the mirror and then look at the pictures I see two different things.  I guess it doesn't matter that much because I know I'm doing well and all that, but to be honest I would just like to take a good picture.  I've been thinking I need to go out and just take pictures and try to get better.  I know this isn't really part of the project but I've always wanted to have decent skills at that.  

I showed a friend of mine my progress and he said that I've got to get rid of my chest and ab hair.  I've got this scruffy chest hair that is kinda in the way of my pecks.  I'm not really sold on the idea since winter is coming through.  I still have to think about it because it kind of annoying to have the hair, so maybe I will.

Sleep sleep sleep, tea tea tea.

Delirium- Final Indulgence

I had trouble figuring out what to do for the final indulgence.  A unhealthy large meal?  So. . . go to any restaurant in the city of chicago.  Ummm. . . too many choices, what to do, what to do.  And then yesterday happened.  We had band practice as we always do but this time one of my band members was fired from his job.  It was 6:30 and he was drunk, and I mean hammered.  He was talking on the phone to people about the matter and me and my other band member looked at each other like, "what's in store with this band practice."  We started trying to get things together and just work on something (we hate not being productive) and then we were surprised that he came back and we got to work.  I thought to myself this would be an excellent time to use up my indulgence and go out to eat.  When I brought the indulgence up they said, "nice it's half price burgers at smoke daddy's."  Smoke daddy's has been around since the 20's and has some of the best BBQ in the city.  Done and done.

The first bite was a smack in the face.  I got dizzy and started laughing.  This is what unhealthy food tastes like.  My mouth was instantly coated with flavor.  I quickly ordered a glass of whiskey (you said unhealthy and I went unhealthy) to wash the salt down.  I was surprised on how I reacted to the salt.  It tasted great but just made me thirsty.  I had sweet potato fries for my side and I thought I wouldn't eat them all but once I had one it was over.  Some of them fell off my plate and I said, "Don't think you can run from me, because I'm going to eat every one of you."  In a weird voice and my friends started to laugh.  And then it was over, me and my band started acting up like we alway do: loud and obnoxious.  Laughing extremely loud and cheering on the band.  The other quiet couples probably hated us, but the waitress loved us.  That's the misconception about waiters and bar tenders.  They don't want some quiet and cold table of four that whispers to each other.  They want the fun table that will keep them awake and have fun with them.  You've got to make them feel like your enjoying yourself and then they'll want to sit down and talk to you.  That why my dad knows everyone in this city.  My family is the most loud and obnoxious family on the planet, but we are always the only table that gets free plates of food.  When the chef comes out to talk to us with are normal street cloths, the couples with the fancy suits and diamonds in their ears always look at us and wonder why the chef isn't talking to them.  It's a business, do you think it's good for business to sit there and hold your breath and nibble your food?  Of course it isn't.  And of course I've gone completely away from my point.  The point is my good friend lost his job and by the end of the night we were laughing in the streets and he sounded great today and has high hopes for the future.  I think that was more important to me then the unhealthy food.

Today is a different story.  I knew I wouldn't look different, but my mouth sure did.  I can tell that the salt and grease did horrible things to my gums.  I flossed right away and got to the bike and jumprope.  I still haven't done a trick but as of yesterday I started doing to alternating foot steps like the boxers do.  Sometimes I get caught up but still I'm happy that I can do that.  My healthy breakfast tasted great.  The hamburger tasted great too but the weighed down feeling didn't feel great at all.  I'm glad that I ate that stuff and am really happy to get back to my healthy diet.  Back to it.

Question Everything

(This post is philosophical and has nothing to do with my pcp development)

Question everything, especially me.  Being american I hear about the obesity problem more then I would like.  Sure it's a problem and it definitely is a environmental condition, but there are other things.  My sister went into the hospital for anorexia in high school and it was definitely scary.  People are so focused on the exterior that they are willing to starve themselves to "look good".  The thing that is so great about this project is that it is a healthy process to creating a "good body".  Eat, enjoy, live life to the fullest.  Why are the social comments I've recently received based on, "Looking good stu, you've been working out?"  instead of, "Looking good stu, you've been eating a healthy diet?"   I know that sounds stupid, but I think about it from time to time that we've been ingrained with propaganda telling us life is more about a killer body and money than a healthy and happy life.  In the last two weeks I've been tired of telling people that have noticed my fitness level of what I'm doing and having them respond, "I should do something like that."  Replace the word should with will and there you go.  That's what everyone on this project has done and the progress is well deserved.

After I wrote that last sentence I snapped out of it and got back to reality.  I'm done with my rant now. . .

Peanut Butter

I had this weird craving for peanut butter last night.  I didn't run out and get some but I thought that the craving was really weird.  I never even had peanut butter around my house before the project.  Sometimes I would get almond butter for an almond butter sauce (with the coconut milk the almond butter seems to make it seem richer), and then sometimes I would get cashews because I'm a sucker for cashews.  But peanut butter was never a big staple in my kitchen.  I could only assume that it's some childhood memory or something.  PB & J was a staple growing up.  PB, Banana, and honey was my favorite.  And the mega tasty PB and bacon which was a random treat.  But honestly thinking about that sandwich makes me want to throw up right now.  I don't crave it today, which is really weird to me that I was craving it last night and then didn't have any and now I don't crave it at all.  I was satisfied with my normal breakfast and am looking forward to lunch.  Cravings are weird.

I can't believe we are so close to the end.  Time just kinda slipped by.  The workouts are harder so it's not like I can just coast through the next couple weeks, but knowing the end is near makes it easier to just do the workouts and eat the right way.  I guess it's just the feeling it would be pointless to give up now, it would a waste of the time we already put in.

I want to pull off some badass jumprope trick.  I'm getting really loose and comfortable jumping around but in terms of the tricks I haven't pull off anything.  I try and fail.  I guess I just have got to try try again.

I was walking down the street the other day and got really angry at my belt.  My pants were about to drop to the ground, and I was on the move so I got a little frustrated.  But then I was like, "this is what it's all about right?  Feel proud instead of angry, and buy a new belt."  Simple enough.

Mantra

I was listening to one of the reggae mixes I made and this chorus got stuck in my head all day and I couldn't stop singing it.  It goes, "me say forward ever ana backwards never."  You know, forward never backwards without the patois.  And then I thought about it later and it's a perfect mantra for PCP, at least for me anyways.  Each week the workouts get harder but not to the point where you can't do them, and then use the will power to get those extra reps in till failure.  So that's what I'm going to think before every workout.

Yep, that's it.

Goals

So when I went to dinner with my parents the other night they reminded me of something by saying, "How are your hands?"  I completely forgot about my hands and why I even joined this project to begin with.  You see earlier this year I had to go to physical rehab for my hands.  I could do any physical activity you could imagine and was in decent condition but my hands would go numb during work and playing guitar.  After a lot of tests and all that crap they found that it wasn't my hands but an upper rib bone sticking into my shoulder muscle which in turn caused my hands to go numb (probably from repeated bike accidents).  As I've said before I can handle pain (and evidently don't even notice it), but that numbness was really kinda scary.  So I went to physical rehab and fixed the problem. . . sort of.  They went about it in a way that seemed like it was for a sixty year old person.  I actually "graduated" extremely early so they say, and on my last day my therapist yelled to everyone, "look at this guy, he got better because he put in the work".  All the other people would just show up and complain and had lesser problems than I (or so they say).  They just seemed to not want to get better, as if they were comfortable with their condition because it gave them an excuse to complain.  Anyways I got out of there and I was doing better to the point where I could perform a show but the problems would come back if I played longer.  The exercises that they gave me were the most minimal ones you could imagine and I thought it was a half-ass approach to solving the problem.  I'm still young and have a lot of years ahead of me so I was not content with the situation with my hands.

So on to my goals of joining this project.  I saw pcp and liked the idea of exercise and a healthy diet and thought to myself, "If I can get my body into peak condition and my hands don't work then I don't know what I could do."  Well. . . my hands haven't gone numb for awhile now.  I would probably say about a month or so.  SUCCESS!!!  I had a feeling that all I had to do from the get go was get in shape.  I'll admit that the physical rehab did start it off with solving the whole rib/shoulder thing but it didn't finish the job.  So I guess you can say that my PCP goals are complete.  What?  Fuck that, my goals at this point are to finish strong.  I think once the hand problems faded away I had new goals, and I've been living them out.

I just had to sit back in my chair because I'm kind of in shock right now.  I'll sum up the other things because I can't really think about them right now, I'm just in shock of how this "test" of joining PCP actually worked.  I'm amazed.

Dinner: My dad told them that if they brought out extra stuff that he'd kill them.  My dad's no one special he's just the most social person ever and is kind of an anomaly.  I got halibut and cous cous, and it tasted extremely decadent (I like the light food that we're eating).  Good talk, good times.

Primus:  Ummmm. . . . awesome.  fuckin' awesome.  The younger generation don't seem to know how to mosh, so my friends and a bunch of other cats my age started one and it was all love.  Chicago mosh pits aren't about hurting people it about making a circle of raw energy.  We all gave each other high fives afterwards.

Workouts:  failure to the extreme.  I'm really going to try my hardest to finish this project as well as I can.

Are egg whites literally flavorless?  I don't mind, at least they don't taste bad.

Had a mango yesterday and god damn was it awesome.

Last stretch thoughts, and some pics

I'm already happy knowing I don't have anything crazy coming up (except for paint ball war next saturday, but that's pure fun).  I can know relax and get the sleep my body deserves and conquer this next 30 days (or 29 or whateves).  I've lost more weight than I would have liked.  I'm at like 158 (starting at 177).  I'd really like to be at 165 or even 170.  That means really pushing through the exercises and failing as hard as I can.  If I can muster those couple more reps at the end and then jump into the next exercise as quick as I can I'm sure I'll get the results.  Diets has gotten to the point where it's actually just convenient to stick with the diet and not even think about anything else.  Almost like I barely think about the food thing at all.

Actually now that I think about it I actually have to cheat tomorrow.  It's my birthday tomorrow and I'm going out with my parents for dinner.  Nice place, and the cheating will only be with whatever salt they put in it and not weighing.  Which shouldn't be too bad, since I'm just going to get fish and veggies, and try to avoid the carbs.  But here's the thing:  my dad is an interesting character.  He knows everyone, and I mean everyone.  Where ever we go, everyone already know who he is and immediately starts joking around with him.  The hosts, waiters, bar tenders, valet parking if it's there, prep cook, dishwasher, the owners, everyone.  The chef always sends out these extra plates of food that my dad never even looks at.  All he wants to do is drag the chef out of the back and talk his ear off, which he does.  I always go for the extra dishes, so this time I have to not think about them.  My minds in the right place so I think I can manage.  I'm celebrating with my friends at a primus show on saturday, but I'm going to cheat there, just rock.  My friends I'm going with know the project I'm on (they might not understand it yet, but they know I'm on it).

Here's some pics from the show last sunday.  There were a ton of them so it was hard to pick some good ones:

Photo

I forgot to take my photos.  So I'm going to have to take them some time today, which is great because I look and feel like crap today.  Last night was great and I'm proud of my band, but I'm relieved that it's our last gig until this is over.  I need to sleep more regularly.  That's really the area that I have not been doing well in.  Some nights I get a lot and then others I don't get any.  I would love to be consistent with sleep.  Sleep. . . I would love to go to sleep right now.  Right now I have to get a new phone because I lost mine on saturday (my normal day this weekend).  Really?  God damn it!  I hate cell phones and how we rely on them.  Now I've got to be that guy that has to be like, "hey friends, can I get your phone numbers please.  pretty please with sugar on top".  Great.

I really did have a great time last night so I'm glad it all went down.  My professional photog friend took pics last night so I'll post them when I get them.  But here I'm going to go into a personal aspect of my life that I would probably not post about but we're supposed to blog it out. . . girls.  I haven't really thought too much about having a new girl friend since I've been on this project.  I really just can't imagine being a decent new boyfriend type character while doing this.  I can barely take care of washing my dishes and I'm supposed to treat a girl all nice like, ummm. . . I don't think so.  But. . . last night I meet a girl and we instantly got along.  She's a rocker girl and is intelligent, has a sense of humor, clever, likes the same things as I do etc.  Which is great right?  And then to her looks, she was absolutely beautiful.  Which is awesome right?  It is but this is what made every single god damn drunk friend of mine say something offensive while I was talking to her (every single time I was talking to her throughout the night).  I mean I swear to fucking god I can't believe how immature my friends were.  And you'd think it was just the dudes, but it was the girls too.  It makes me want to never drink again because I don't want to be that asshole making a friend look bad.  But from what I can remember I never did anything like that.  Yeah I get it she's "hot" but look I don't usually just go after "hot" girls because they usually have an attitude and I don't need that.  I was talking to her because we got along, and if she can see me perform and be more into me then hey I hit the jackpot.  I've got to say that she was a trouper through my friend's offensive actions which makes me think she's a great person.  The extra spectacular stupendous awesomeness was that I didn't have my phone so I had to set up a "let's meet up again next week" thing.  I'm hoping that she shows up.  It's not everyday that you meet someone you cliche with so well on the first encounter.

I am so god damn pissed at my friends right now it's unbelievable.  I'm glad kinda because I have a lot of energy because of it and am going to use it towards the workouts.  If I have one positive thing to say right now it's that I get through my exercises on being pumped.  I make sure to gather a bunch of energy before the workout and afterwards I feel really balanced on the final rest.  Ahhhhhhh, that final rest, how good you are to me.  I actually feel better now that I "blogged it out".  Wow, sorry guys.  

I AM IRON MAN!

I have a crazy weekend all planned.  Why?  Because I'm stupid, that's why.  Life throws you a ninety mile an hour curve ball and somehow your eyes are able to correctly analyze it's trajectory and tell your nervous system to swing a bat and brutally crush the ball three hundred feet into the screaming crowd as you run around the bases calmly while your team is standing at home base waiting to give you high fives.  If that's not a home-run run-on sentence I don't know what is.  BLAHBLAHBLOG!

I basically rushed through the workout yesterday determined not to skip anything.  It actually went pretty well and I noticed that failure came quicker.  My awesome boss let me leave at 3:00 and I went to pick up one of my band members and we headed up to milwaukee.  We meet our other band member up there and his girlfriend (who's my friend too, I introduced the two).  And then we went and saw Janelle Monae and Of Montreal.  I'm in love with Janelle Monae.  She has got to be the most talented "new" musician that has popped up in the pop world.  And she's beautiful and her stage presence (energy) is amazing.  She just looks like she's having so much fun up there.  The rest of the stage performers were awesome and it was an inspiration to us all.  Of Montreal's show was a bit too "artsy" "look at me I'm weird" for me, but I enjoy their music so I had a good time.

Tonight I'm supposed to see my friend from out of town deejay and "party", but I'm already thinking of excuses so I should probably not go.  I've got a gig tomorrow, so I better get some rest or I feel like I'll be too tired to do the exercises tomorrow.  I'm still on track which is why I feel like Iron Man, so I've got to keep well rested.  Our performance tomorrow is again at 11:00 pm.  We always headline these shows which is a compliment but we're kinda sick of it.  Only because we show up at 7:30 to load in our gear and then wait around until 11:00 to perform and we're supposed to be the "exciting show-stoppers".  Our oldest member is 34 and has two kids, give him a break.  I noticed my energy has gotten more sustainable since I've been on this pcp stuff.  Which makes a lot of sense, because being healthy is literally allowing energy to flow through the body with greater potential.  I love it, I don't know why other people don't take care of their bodies.  I remember talking to a friend at a BBQ in july about he just turned thirty and his life is over.  I said to him, "Dude your a dude, grow a pair.  Our life has just began, it's far from over."  I'm far from done, and being on this project has shown me how far from done I really am.  PCP MUFUCKAZ.

A family friend of mine offered to take me to the bears game on monday night, and I simply can't turn that down.  So on my weekend continues.  I can sit through a bears and not eat crap (I actually didn't eat that crap before) and drink that crap (which I drank before) .  I'm a beer snob so I can deal with not drinking crappy beer (which is pronounce bear in chicago, we have a funny accent (I can't say the word accent properly, and is hilarious to me)).  The funny pcp element to me about the game was my family friend said to me, "I hope you can get off this gay ass cleanse your doing and have a few beers.  If you can't I understand, but I'm getting yammered."  I laughed at that because he said it funny, but I never told him I'm doing a "cleanse".  Why don't people listen for once in their life.  I tell people I'm on a workout/diet plan.  The outcome is a cleanse but that's not the overall goal of this.  This kid could use PCP too, because he was an athlete and is now out of shape.  Some people will never learn.

PCP Rules (rules said with a chicago accent).

Kim can talk to me from the future which makes her a superhuman.  Nat is literally superwoman so there you have it, and Ram is champion of the entire world and the two of them combine to make the mega-force Natramlyo.  There's a new show on the history channel called Stan Lee's superhumans that shows you real-life people that have superhuman ability's.  He should look towards PCP for it's next episode (Patrick has the ability to change normal life slobs into superhumans).

Jumpy Jump Jump

I'm all about the timed jumprope.  When I was counting it was normal straight forward basically tedious jumping.  All I thought about was counting and if anything it just messed me up.  Once I got to like 500-600 I would get confused and mess up.  Now it's like a walk in the park, or a short beach.  I'm jumping this way and that, moving my feet around side to side and front to back.  When I hear the timer I always try to do some kind of trick.  I'm not there yet, but I'm going to keep trying.  I mean it's still not necessarily "fun" but it's a hell of a lot better and I'm not dreading the ol' jumprope.  I likes.

Workouts have been harder in the sense that the third exercise for the muscle group is tiring but not impossible.  Nothings impossible, right?  We're fantastic carrot, whatever that means.  I feel like I wanna make some t-shirts for us.  I just made a bunch of funny baby t-shirts I'm surprising my sister with, and then I went crazy and made some shirts for my band.  I'm going to ask one of my graphic design guys to hook up a logo.  I guess that's not much of a surprise but if I make them I'd have to have shirt sizes and addys anyways.  Shirt sizes would have to be decided after the whole thing anyways.  So fuck it, that would have to be later and the logo would have to be awesome.

Food is food what can I say.  I went to my chef friend for spice recipes but all of his stuff included salt and he pre-mixed.  Whateves.  I'm kinda back in "just eat and it's not really that bad, and hey it's pretty fresh and good, so shut it" mode.  Which is a long name for a mode but is really easy to do.  I did notice I've got to slow down with the actual eating part, so I've been trying to catch myself in the act and slow it down.

Blah.  I've got nothing more.  I should write all my blogs after a bears game.  Blah.

Excuse my american

Couldn't take the picture in the morning because of the bears game.  We won.  Oh well, I look pretty scrawny in the morning too, so I guess it doesn't matter.  I feel like I'll have a six pack by the end of this.  Who knows. . .

For my next comment your going to have to excuse my americana but I love to swear (fuck is my favorite word because it's so versatile, and me ma actually agrees with me so. . . )  This project makes so much god damn sense.  I saw the week workouts and I could see that now, "PCP has finally started" thing.  Focusing on each muscle group until you've got to fail, I can see how it's going to get harder, and I'm with it.  I'm in, let's do this shit.  I feel so good I'm going to start breakdancing again, and win the battle.  And I'm serious, I'm going to call my friend who works with kids to bring them off the street and focus on hip hop (I've never looked hip hop but I've been since age six and know all the original old school chicago cats, I can do all the elements and it's really weird being that I'm a punk).  I'm going to start battling kids, and I'm about to turn thirty one.  Fuck it right?

And you. . . you. . . Patrick.  Your like that ten year old you play in chess.  You think to yourself, "I've got this in the bag" and then all of a sudden he says, "checkmate".  And your like, "what the fuck, what just happened?"  So you play harder and don't hold back even though it's a ten year old.  And then out of the blue he says, "checkmate" again.  And you look at him with surprise as he gives you this cocky smirk.  He deserves the cocky smirk, and you get tougher.  But time and time again he says checkmate and gives you that smirk.  And you gotta take the smirk and like it, because this god damn kid is beating you at your own fucking game.  You can't smack him, he's a ten year old kid, and guess what he's winning.  Do you give up?  Of course you don't, because your a stubborn old man and your not going let this punk kid win.  But he does. . . and the game continues. . . where the fuck is bobby fisher?  Japan.  He's in japan right now, and he's winning.

Does this blah blah blog make sense?  I don't give a shit.  I feel like I'm on some crazy natural high right now, and I think I'm going to run around outside and give people high fives.  Fuck yeah, bears down.

Something different

Wow, when did the new team show up.  It's more like a legion.  Are you trying to build an army or something Patrick?  Well, good luck all of you.  I respect anyone that does this project, it's hard but worth it.  Team mango is small but deadly, and team badass has given us a lot of support so I'm sure they'll do the same for you.  Alright, on to my post. . .

There's a cuban restaurant across the street from me (actually there's at least one on every block in this neighborhood), and they were partying last night like they do every wednesday.  As the awesome music was playing I started picturing myself dancing around eating cuban nachos.  Then I started thinking about what my first meal would be after this is done.  Jibarito (steak sandwich with fried plantains as the bread) is definitely top of the list.  Not from across the street but this little joint a couple of blocks away where this glowing nice old lady brings out her special garlic sauce that makes the sandwich heaven.  Then I was like maybe I should just go straight for hamburger and get it over with.  Something really stupid and crazy with bacon and a fried egg.  And then. . . then I caught myself and what I was thinking about.  I can't be thinking about that stuff when I'm barely half way through.  I just saw Nat and Ram's post with all their food and it looked awesome, so I'm going to do something special this weekend.  I don't know what, but something PCP compliant and different from the mash-ups I've been eating.  I've finally got a weekend without anything going on and I'm going on a mission to liven this place up.  Get my fridge to look more like natram's.  Ramnat?  I guess both of those don't work.  O'well.

Kim wrote a good post about being tired for work-outs and the fact that we've been working out everyday for forty-seven days.  I'm right there with her on that.  But now that I think about it I'm proud of all of us.  That's not easy for anyone to do.  Soon we'll be where team badass is and be champions.  I want my crown.

Random Monday Gig

I had a gig last night on a monday, which I've never really liked.  I guess simply because it's a monday and I wonder why I'm in a bar on a monday.  That seems simple enough.  It was funny to see my band instantly get into band mode and start to have drinks.  It was dollar taco night and they had some of those.  And then I suddenly noticed how I wasn't eating (I ate right before I left for the gig), and I wasn't drinking.  No one said anything, and that was awesome.  I feel like I would of talked some smack to me before I started this program, but I've explained it to my band time and time again so they practically didn't notice.  I should mention we practice three days a week and while on thursdays they (and I used to) have a lot of beers but I never do since I've been doing this.  I was actually really proud of my band for the support.  It's the first time I actually noticed it.  They weren't giving me crap about it before but they could have.

The night actually turned out to be awesome.  The first band were these two girls from miami.  A drummer that threw down while singing, and a wicked keys player that had a beautiful voice.  They were the biggest sounding two person band I've ever heard and their songs all rocked.  The next band was from philly and brought a full stage worth of equipment.  They had both electronic instruments and tons of drums scattered everywhere.  At one point it sounded like a drum line was on stage all while they were singing.  I can't really explain them or the other band that well but they were both full of energy and had original sounds without being "weird".  My band agreed that it was our worst performance ever.  But our worst isn't bad at all.  We don't know why it was, but we were headlining on a monday.  We didn't start performing until 11:30.  The crowd was still yelling and screaming loving the music and we still did our thing (we're a party band that jumps around stage soloing and talking to the crowd about normal life awesomeness).  We felt like crap but everyone loved us.  We got along with the other bands really well throughout the night, and are going to try to meet up again on tour or back in chicago.  I had a lot of fun.

I didn't get home until 1:30 and had to live a normal tuesday.  Working out was hard as hell.  I noticed my failure came faster than other "normal" days.  But I'm still proud that I didn't break the diet and still did my thing.  I'm sure the workout will be back to the same strength tomorrow after I get a "normal" nights sleep.

I'm going to take my next picture in the morning because I have the four pack rocking then.  I lose it later in the day (I take my picture at night after all my meals).  I've got to stop slacking on the picture front.  I hate cameras but I've got to learn how to use one properly.

Kiwis are funny.

Coconut Oil

The other day I asked Patrick if coconut oil was cool for the project, and he said it was a good fat (just don't use a lot).  That's a good way to add flavor to dishes.  It's kinda expensive but it lasts awhile.  Today we got the email about the diet and exercise is better for your body.  And I remembered where I learned about coconut oil to begin with.  I was a a seminar for Qigong.  It was a four day seminar and one day the teacher got really into food healing.  To put it bluntly he has cured cancer with food.  People would go up on stage and tell the same story, "I had cancer and the medical field said I would not live for vary long, and then I went to the food healing approach and I no longer have cancer".  It was all vary emotional and a lot of stories were shared.  I'm not sick in any way but I was impressed how all these problems were solved just with food.  The teachers whole thing was that health care is just going to get more expensive so we've got to take care of ourselves.  I didn't go on the plan because it is a bit excessive and meant for people that have problems.  But I got to say that since I've been on this diet I feel like everything is working better inside.  I don't really know what's working better but I can feel it.  I feel the changes more than I see them and that it just fine with me.

Actually when I think about it I feel the organs working better, but the muscles have been a bit run down the last two days.  Especially my legs, they feel like jello.  I do all the exercises without problems but I feel really sore I guess it is.  I haven't taken a bath since I was like ten, but I think I'm going to test the waters.

I got my first person to tell me I look different.  I actually think I look the same since I wear the same t-shirts.  But she just kept going on about it and said she felt bad that she hasn't changed, which I don't get at all.  I saw a lot of people I hadn't seen for awhile and it was good times.

Bears football started today and we won.  Bam.

Food for Life

I went on my bike ride and did the jump ropes before breakfast (like Patrick suggested) and it actually was better for me because I didn't feel weighed down.  So I'm going to do that every day I think, or as many days as possible.  I'm been skipping the yoga classes because I've been so busy, but I've been stretching and I can tell I'm a lot more limber.  I think I'm going to set it up so I go three times a week again, and just frinkin' do it.

I've got a suggestion for the bread.  Now I would never really promote this because it's not a flavorful as most breads but because of the carbs going down in grams I will.  It's sprouted grain bread from Food For Life, and called Ezekiel 4:9 and they have a low sodium version (it says on the nutrition facts that there's 0mg of sodium).  Because it's sprouted it weighs less than normal bread and two slices is exactly 70g (which is our breakfast weight).  I've only found it at whole foods though, so before you try to go buy it remember it doesn't taste like anything really.  It doesn't taste bad but it's really boring.  I ate it before this project because eating normal bread always made me tired, so I was pretty much a rice type person.  Again this is health food not comforting tasty bread.  I thought I'd suggest it because of the weight thing.
 
Peaches are in season.

Senses

I went to see the machete movie with a friend.  If your in to action/killing flicks and Robert Rodriguez this is a must see.  If your not into seeing blood never watch it.  Some family brought there six year old kid to the show, and they left in about a minute, so that should explain how crazy it is.  But in my opinion it one of the most awesome movies I've seen.

That's not the point of this blog.  When I went in my friend got popcorn and pop and I was happy not to have anything.  I actually never wanted anything, which is awesome because that's a tempting place to grub out.  It was a pretty crowded and all I could smell was that fake butter.  It was overwhelming and I felt sick to my stomach for a second.  The first thing I thought of was years back with some other friends we saw some movie and I got a popcorn but over salted it and put way way way too much butter on it.  I couldn't even eat three hand fulls, but my friend said he would and literally ate the whole thing.  I was surprised he didn't just die right there.  Anyways I never thought of the smell of that stuff being so horrible and I'm wondering it the sense of smell is changing like the taste buds.  Just a thought, I have no idea if that would be scientifically true.  What am I, a scientist.  Once the movie started I forgot about the smell and enjoyed the movie.  I walked out feeling great instead of feeling like crap from the junk food.

Exercises: good.

Diet: Good, but my stomach has to adjust to the egg white and fruit dinner.

Avocados are god.

Clean Up Crew

I'm disappointed yet motivated today.  I made plans to do a lot this weekend (I made them awhile back) and although I still can do some of them I can't do the major ones.  I was supposed to go to Great America tomorrow with a bunch of people.  I love roller-coasters but at the same time it's an all day affair and I couldn't do the diet (and would have to replace it with the worst possible greasy food) or the exercises.  On the flip side it will be one of the busiest weekends of the season (which means really long lines) and the whole thing is ridiculously expensive.  So I told them thanks but no, and before I could explain why they said, "We're not too excited about it either because it's going to be really cold (it just started getting cold on friday), but the kids really want to go, so you know. . ."  So I feel good about that.  There's also a good music festival this weekend and I would have to eat greasy food and it's an all day affair.  So whatever it's not like I having been to great American or gone to a billion musicfests.  Instead of getting down I'm getting together with other friends, and monday I'm going to a cubs game (I can sit through those without drinking or eating).  I know I get hungry faster so I'm eating right before I go and showing up in the third inning.  So at least the whole weekend is wasted.

I'm motivated to continue because I'm the type of person that will just slack for a couple days and then just fall off instead of jumping back on.  So I'm doing this.  I feel good, and am seeing improvements.  I'm glad my friends are not the type of people that hold it against you if you break plans.

8 minutes abs is hilarious to me, and that really is the reason I get through it well.

Ok apple, banana, and egg white dinner.  Do me justice.

Crash

I ate it really hard on my bike just now.  I was going downhill and skidded and flipped across the pavement.  I know how to fall because of skateboarding growing up, and for some reason I have an immunity to pain.  I remember three thugs that attempted to mug me and the lead guy punched me in the face and I just started laughing.  He didn't like that so he punched me again and I said, "I'm over this" and walked away.  What could they do?  It was the middle of the day, and I wasn't giving them anything.  I wouldn't suggest this plan of attack to anyone.  I have a seemingly unbreakable head.  I literally fell on my head skateboarding twenty times without a helmet and I never broke it open and actually never cried.  Wait, I just went on a tangent that really is not the point of this blog.  The point is that I fell on my bike and everyone stopped in their tracks to see if I was okay.  But I jumped up immediately and started laughing and gave people the thumbs up.  I cleaned off the cuts and biked home with a smile on my face.  Oh well, right?  Everything is fine.  Not so, my knees and elbows are all cut up and the exercises are a lot harder.  I'm pissed at myself right now because I see my as actions being reckless.  I just made the week harder just because I like going fast downhill.  The need for speed has got to stop, and I've got to be more careful or the project will be harder than it should.  I care more about the project than a quick downhill run.  So I'm making a vow to myself to not be reckless on my bike.  If I come to the blog space with another injury I would appreciate you all verbally slapping me in the face.  Thanks.

On to a more tasty point: I found a bunch of salt-free spice mixes, and it really makes all the difference.  Now every meal is a bit different and I'm enjoying the meals.  I'm also getting more creative, so that helps also.  Even fruit has gotten better.  An apple is good, but with a wee bit of cinnamon it seems more like a snack to me (I don't know why).

As for my team, um, names aren't coming to me that fast.  They're always long and pointless, but I'll keep trying.  Kim had the suggestion as team rockstars which would be cool for me, but I think we can do better.  I feel like is should be funny and awesome at the same time.  But no matter what I'm pretty easy, so whatever we decide is cool.

New and Improved

When I received the email with the new exercises I read that they were harder, but when I looked at them I said to myself, "I got this."  But they really were harder.  For me it all comes down to the extra ab workout.  I can do all the other exercises to the max and with little time in between.  But once those abs start then the struggle begins.  I can get through it all but I pretty much collapse afterwards.  I guess that's a good thing.  I don't feel bad afterwards just a little worked.  Again I'm assuming this is a good thing, and without it I'm sure I wouldn't survive the future exercises.

I'm dealing with some drama in my life, and the reason I don't want to blog about it is because I don't really care that much.  My life is moving forward and to have things from the past coming to me and trying to bother me is kind of useless.  I'm focused and have goals that I want to achieve.  The first being PCP.  I can't exactly look into the past right now, and some people think I'm avoiding things, but I'm not.  The future looks bright and the past is foggy.  I guess I should mention it a little.  My ex-girlfriend basically threw me to the side and it ruined me for awhile, but I'm completely over it.  She keeps showing up to my gigs and it seems like everyone is uncomfortable about it except for me.  I don't care though. Anyone has to right to go anywhere and it doesn't bother me.  I'm just happy to be playing well at the gig.  People say that she wants to be friends but I don't want to.  I've got to focus on myself and being good to my real friends.  With all the stuff going on in my life I just don't want to deal with it.  I'm nice to everyone and shouldn't have to deal with something that I'm not concerned with.  I guess the only reason I'm saying any of this is because PCP has allowed me to focus on improving my life and I don't want to stop and turn around.  I'm happy with the way things are going and I don't want that to stop.

Eating has become a routine.  I don't even think about eating other things.  I'm basically a robot with food, and I eat the diet plan without remorse.  Seeing that makes me believe I'll definitely continue it after the 90 days.

Might as well try

After drinking tea, eating garlic, and blowing my nose all day I decided to do the jump rope.  I had to take a lot of breaks but I got through it.  Once I did I continued with the other exercises.  Again I had to take more time in between the sets or I would pass out, but I finished them all.  I was pretty much laid out on the floor for a while with my heart racing and mouth almost drooling.  After that passed I feel pretty good.  My nose is still stuffed up but everything else feels better than before.  Maybe I needed to sweat.  I'm going to take a bath and see if that heals everything up.

Just one of those days

Yesterday. . . happened.  One of my best friend's sister went into the hospital, and they don't know what she's got.  I know her well and she's loved.  She's a single parent and a funny gal.   I'm not sure why she is sick, but being that no one knows is just. . . weird.  In these situations I just get angry.  Others might get worried or sad.  Me, I get angry.  Angry.  I ate my food angry, did my workout angry.  Angry.   Then I read the email about indulgence.  I had to think about this for awhile because there were some options, but I soon got a call from my friend and he wanted to drink. . . whiskey.  Yes, whiskey, the vile beast that lurks in my families blood line since forever.  I filled my glass half way and the rest with water so I wouldn't get sick, and then things dissolved. . .

Sick.  At first I thought I was hung over, which was weird because I actually didn't drink that much.  I couldn't really because I had two half glasses of whiskey and after that I was pretty much flying.  Guess the tolerance went down.  But I'm sniffling and sneezing, hucking and chucking.  Sick.  I've never known whiskey to get you sick.  Pretty much the opposite.  People in scotland drink whiskey as a remedy when their sick, but I guess they would drink it if they weren't, so who knows.  I'm guessing the stress and anger also had something to do with it also.  I'm not really angry today, just waiting for the call.

I had the idea that I was going to do the exercises anyways, but then realized that would be stupid.  I'm going to continue the diet with one important ingredient- garlic, garlic, and more garlic.  I'm sure I'll smell great, but I just want to be better for tomorrow and start up again.  For the rest of the project whiskey can go straight to hell and drink itself.

The Speed Of Change

The speed of change is a term I've only heard through music.  At first every musician wants to play as fast as they can, but most of the time that sounds really sloppy.  So the speed of change is used to describe the length of time in between the notes.  You play the notes really slowly but practice the speed that you go from one note to the next.  That might not make sense (I don't think I'm describing it too well), but the point is when I play a guitar solo I can play as fast as anyone can imagine all while dancing around head banging and looking at the crowd.  The fact is I don't even think about it.  It all comes naturally because I've played music for as long as I can remember.  Speed is just a side note and style is all I care about.

I just noticed I'm rambling so I'll bring up my main point.  I uploaded new pictures and I don't really notice too many differences.  I've done all the exercises and kept to the diet but I don't see too many changes.  But why should I?  I don't want to start comparing pictures of myself.  So I thought of the term speed of change.  I saw a lot of musicians give up just because they weren't seeing the results they expected.  I simply practiced every single day because I enjoyed it and once I had the skills of a "professional musician" I barely noticed.  I had to be told by the older jazz musicians that I was a professional, and once they told me I said, "fuck jazz, I'm going to play funk and rock."  I started looking at the pictures and I finally asked myself, "how do I feel?"  I feel great and I can tell that things are changing, so I'm not going to look at the pictures.  I'm just going to do the exercises and diet because they make me feel good.

Because of timing I basically had a day to decide whether or not I was going to join the project.  I joined because I looked at the pictures of people that have finished.  Not because of the weekly changes, but because I looked at their first and last pictures and saw an incredible difference.  So the point of this   rambling blog is that I'm not going to look at the pictures at all.  I'm just going to continue. . .

kudos to anyone that understands this blog because I don't really know where the hell I was going with it.  I'm always a little "foggy" on sundays and would usually be eating some bacon and I'm glad I'm not.

blah blah blog

Pull up bar vs. Me

Pulls up are harder than I thought.  It's the only exercise I can't go beyond the suggested reps.  But to be honest the biggest battle was trying to get the pull up bar stable.  The first time I got it up on my door frame I tried to start the pull ups and I instantly fell to the ground with the pull up bar.  I didn't get hurt or anything so I laughed a little and declared war against the bar.  The second time I got the bar up there I used all my might and assumed it was secure.  I did one rep and then the bar slowly sliding down the door frame with me.  Again I thought it was funny, but the war wasn't over.  Time to get the tools out.  I basically tightened the bar until the wood started to crack and it still wasn't on there as steady as I needed.  After awhile I got it on there so tight that this whole building would have to fall before the bar does.  I wish I got video of the whole thing.

In terms of the eating I never knew how much salt I used before.  I put salt on everything, and thought that it was healthy because it was sea salt.   I could put a bunch of salt on my hand and be like, "Wow, that's some good hand."   I feel like that's been the biggest thing for me, and since I haven't used salt I feel like my body is working well without it.  Since I feel better I don't really think I'll jump on the salt train after the whole project is done.  I wanted something sweet yesterday, but then I had the fruit course of kiwis and it worked to take that craving away.

I randomly opened my freezer and found a box full of salmon that my dad gave me a couple of months ago- score!  I also found a curry mix that doesn't have any salt in it and spiced up the chicken I got real nice like.

Budgeting

Wow, I'm bad at budgeting.  Veggies are all getting eaten, but I don't know who I think I am eating all this fish. . . in chicago.  Chicken it is, fish will have to be a once and awhile thing.  Also only about 1/3 of the fruit I get lasts.  Oh well, live and learn.

Spinning the wheels

I went to a birthday party last night.  When I got there my friend was so drunk that all she could do was scream (she's in a punk rock band so I guess that has something to do about it).  I'm glad I went just to say what's up but I didn't stay long because being the only sober one was pretty lame.  Then again I was probably the only one that didn't wake up with a hang over.

I went for a bike ride early in the morning because the air show was this weekend and I wanted to see that. None of my friends wanted to go because it's crazy crowded with suburban families and I can understand that would be annoying with a hangover.  One of my friends would have gone to take photo's but he's in colorado rock climbing and I'm jealous.  I'm just saying.  I eventually rode past all the madness and hung out at one of my favorite spots (above).

Went to a BBQ later and no one asked me why I wasn't eating anything.  Good times, good people, good day.

I like knowing what I'm doing while I'm working out, and can see the mistakes I was making in the past.  Feel the burn.

Not my body, not my problem, that's what I say.

Elena made a good point about my blog yesterday saying, "most people don't care."  And I agree to the most part.  My close guy friends don't get the project but they will say good luck.  The people that don't care are the people mostly concerned with themselves.  Which is crazy to me.  I have a friend that had kidney failure last year (at 29) and when I told her about the diet part she said she would "die" if she did that.  I don't understand the people that complain about their body but don't do anything about it.  I wish I could say to myself not my body, not my problem, but I can't.  Once I've completed the project I'll try to get some people to see what it's all about, but until then I'm keeping it all to myself.

I'm going to tell my sister what Tara mentioned yesterday and I'm sure she'll agree to wait for two years. Her deal is that she's an actress in LA and deals with that whole scene.  She just got back from filming a tv show, and I think the pressure of the set brought up the weight concerns.  I told her that I'm sure no one even noticed if she gained weight.  It's too bad that there's so much pressure on females to be skinny rather than healthy.  I'm a dude from chicago so there's absolutely no pressure for me to be skinny or healthy.  The only thing I "have" to do is watch every bears game and I can't put ketchup on my hot dog and the city of chicago is fine with me.

I woke up today and told myself I didn't want to do any exercises.  Work is hard and whatever (blah, blah, blah).  But then out of nowhere I just started doing them.  I noticed while jump roping that I didn't think about it and just started up, which was really weird.  Afterwards I felt great so I was glad I did it.  I find that even though my body is tired my mind is more awake after the exercises, almost like a shot of espresso.  So I told myself even if I don't want to do the exercises I'm going to do them.  I also started yesterday taking the muscle workouts to the max like Patrick is talking about.  My neighbors probably think I'm doing some crazy things in my apartment because of the grunts, but I don't care.

Not my salt intake, not my problem, that's what I say.

In Response To Kim

Kim wrote a blog about being secretive which I can totally understand.  The funny thing is I haven't been but every time I bring it up people don't understand what I'm talking about.  First of all I've got to stop referring to it as "PCP" because people think I'm on drugs.  After some explaining people inevitably ask, "So it's like a workout plan?" and I respond, "Well, there's a workout plan but 80% of it is diet."  And then people immediately assume that I'm starving myself to death.  Once I tell them that I'm eating a lot but without salt, sugar, etc. . . I'll see that people are still confused so I'll stop talking about it.  So even though I haven't been secretive about it I choose to not bring it up that often.  And honestly I've mentioned the blog and no one has asked to see it.

There is one person that was very interested in the project though.  My sister just had a little girl (and she is amazing) and wants to be in shape again.  I think she would be a perfect candidate for the project but I worry that it might be too difficult while she has a newborn.  I can't imagine barely sleeping while on this project and I'm not far in.  Seeing other peoples blogs I can tell that it's just going to get harder, and I know she can be really hard on herself.  I'm going to get through the 90 days and talk with her about it.

Mangos rule.

Healthy Body, Sick Mind

Is a Operation Ivy song and the state that I assumed I should be in because my main computer shut down for good last night, which is probably the worst thing right now because that's where I work and record music.  Maybe I don't think too highly of myself because I would assume I would be doing something really stupid like buying a bottle of whiskey and starting a fight with one of my walls, but I'm not.  I'm really calm and still have a sense of humor about things.  I don't want to go off the pcp path so I guess I'm not.  I like being tired at night from the workout and the diet is steady.  I like how everyone has suggestions on food, and I can experiment with my meals instead of just noticing the lack of salt.  I can't tell if I look different but I feel different, and it's a good feeling.  I remembered an event that happened to me about eight years ago that has always stuck with me.  I was at a level three sound healing seminar on a organic farm and resort in Colorado.  Everyone there choose to stay in the cabins during the seminar, but I wanted to save money so I stayed in a tent.  One night there was a huge storm and my tent broke so I shivered the night away in rain water.  The next morning I was extremely cold, tired, and angry as I went to get breakfast.  I didn't want to sit with the other people I had meet so I sat at a table and sulked looking at my perfectly prepared breakfast.  And something happened, something I didn't ask for but welcomed.  There were nine teachers there and one of them was a tibetan buddhist monk.  Now I'm not a buddhist (I'm nothing really) but I feel those monk have a pretty good philosophy.  He came to my table with such a humble presence and said, "Can I sit here?" as if I were saving the seven seats around me.  I said sure and he sat down, so I tried to explain my current condition by mumbling, "You'll have to excuse me, I spent the night in the rain. . ."  He never acknowledged any of my ramblings, but instead just looked at me and said, "It's good, good."  He was referring to his bowl of oatmeal in front of him.  His plain white, salt free, no cinnamon, no honey, no nothing, bowl of oatmeal.  I replied, "Yes, very good."  I was a liar, a dirty, wet, and stinking liar.  I'd never had a bowl of plain oatmeal in my life, but what he was talking about was his food is good and I agreed with food being good.  So I starting eating and we continued to talk.  Not about buddhism but how breakfast was good, and so was life.  I walked away from the table rejuvenated and ready to continue the day.  My body was still run down but my mind was happy and alert.  I'm going to try to keep that mindset through the project, and keep thinking to myself that the food is good without salt, and even though my calves are sore I'm going to do the exercises.  Rest in peace computer, you performed well while I had you.

Coffee Now!

I woke up today and knew I had a lot of work to do.  This week is a busy week and my boss's brother died so I have to do some extra work.  I kind of stood around for a minute or two and thought to myself, "Coffee now!"  I started to cook two hard boiled eggs and took out some bread to warm up, and then I went across the street for the coffee.  It was at that moment that I realized my normal habits with coffee: sugar and cream please.  So instead I ordered a plain ice-coffee and I got to tell you I'm not a fan.  I know a lot of people love the taste of coffee but I just found out I like the sweetener and cream a lot more.  I then thought I could add some almond milk I had in the fridge, but I checked the ingredients and noticed sugar was second after water.  I've decided I'm just going to drink tea because I don't usually put anything in it anyways, plus it's cheaper.  My attention drifted away from the coffee and onto the eggs.  I love eggs but I tend to use salt on them more than anything.  I tried to think of what I could add for flavor and came up with cayenne pepper (I didn't see anything about not using spices, let me know if this is not cool).  Once I added that I thought they were delicious and I didn't miss the salt at all.  I'm thinking that adding spice to all my meals will make me forget about the salt.  Now that that's said: BACK TO WORK!

The Big Gig

I had a gig last night at a great venue that I grew up going to.  The crowd seemed to have a great time, and my band certainly went crazy on stage, so it was a great time all around.  The difference between last night and the gigs before was obviously the project.  All gigs are the same for musicians.  You show up around 8:00 for load-in and sound check, and then wait there until 2:00 to get paid.  That means you're in the same bar for six hours straight.  Usually we set up our gear and then sit down for some food because the venue we give you a percentage off of entire menu.  So as my band offered me some quesadillas or some fries I proudly said, "No thanks." and watched as they ate.  To be honest I didn't really want the food, it looked really greasy and I ate a healthy meal at home before the show.  I didn't rub it in their faces though because I think people can eat whatever they want as far as I'm concerned.  But I can't help to think that I would have been right there with my band grubbing if I wasn't on the project.  I felt great on stage and my band and I performed at the peak of our abilities.  Then the adrenaline kicks in and all you want to do is get drunk.  We got free beer and the young kid in me wanted to get wasted and run around giving people high fives.  I have to admit I had two beers to calm the nerves, but I stopped after that.  Instead of getting completely drunk I decided to amuse myself with watching the drunks around the bar, which was actually hilarious.  The headliners after us performed their "last show ever" and the crowd was dancing around like crazy.  They were nice guys and really had an incredible performance, so that was entertainment enough.  I was thankful I stayed till 2 because we got our biggest pay ever.  Gig nights are usually the time when I throw healthy habits out the window, so I was happy that I didn't eat everything in site and get completely drunk.  If I had I would have probably not been able to get back to the project for a couple of days, so I'm going to approach all the gigs in this fashion.  It's cool to think the project will help out in the crazy activities I participate in.  Two thumbs up.

360 degrees

So I managed to pull off a good session with the jump rope.  I even made it to 60. . . once.  Even though I could only make it to 25 the other times I was happy with the improvement.  The first thing I did was turn off my tv.  Instead of trying to jump rope and pay attention to the tv at the same time I was able to just focus on the jump roping.  Once I did that I noticed I was making it harder than it actually is.  I slowed down the tempo and relaxed my shoulders and just tried to keep a steady rhythm.  It seemed to work and made to work out process a lot easier.

Body vs. Mind

So I'm day 3 and I've found that the diet hasn't upset my body as much as my mind.  What I've been doing is making the same amount of food (stir-fry mostly because that's really all I'm good at) and then putting half of the portion in the fridge for the next day.  After I finish eating I wait for about 15 mins. and I'll notice my hunger is gone but my craving to eat the rest of the food lasts for more than an hour.  I think it's just the taste factor or something.  That container of food in the fridge is calling me, "Hey Stu, I'm still here and taste delicious."  I'm just hoping in a week or so I'll forget it's in the fridge.

Get Ready!

Stu is ready to ROCK!