Don’t let the weekends (and FOMO) ruin your goals.

It’s Friday night.  You have just got home from a 50 hour work week and your phone rings. ” Hey man what’s up.  We’re gonna go to the bar in a couple hours, wanna come?”  Well you did have an extremely stressful week and you don’t want to let your friends down by not going so, you decide to go for a drink or two.  Well, it’s now 3 am and 12 beers and $15 worth of Taco Bell (that’s a lot of Taco Bell) you’re home passed out on your couch.  So you had planned on working out Saturday morning but now you’re hungover as hell and the only thing that is going to make you feel better is pancakes from Ihop.  You get your food and lay on the couch all day.  6:00 pm rolls around and your finally feeling better and what happens?  The phone rings again.  “Yo, we’re gonna go get Mexican and maybe go to the casino, you in?”  Chips and salsa does sound pretty good….3 am rolls around and you’re two pitchers of margs down and out $300 from the stupid Men In Black slot machine.

What’s the moral of this story you ask?  Don’t have any friends?  Not at all!  All you have to do is have better judgement and more willpower.

FOMO, or Fear Of Missing Out, is a real thing!  I know I have a bad case of it.  You have to tell yourself that if you stay home every once in awhile instead of going to that party or going to have really unhealthy food the world is not going to end.  Now do you have to become a hermit and hide in your apartment and eat nothing but grilled chicken and broccoli?  Absolutely not!  You just need to find balance to reach your goals.  If you know that you are going to have a few beers on Friday night, cut down on your carbs earlier in the week.  Diet is not day-by-day.  Dieting is a continuous process.  Think of it like your car.  You only have enough gas to last you a week, don’t use it all up in one day!

Be smart guys.  Make smart decisions.  This weekend, for example, I knew that I was going to go get some pizza and beers with some friends Saturday night so during the week I did’t have many carbs.  Also on Friday I didn’t go hit the bar becasue I knew I was going to be having drinks Saturday night.  I woke up Sunday with no weight gain as well.

It’s about balance guys.  I fully support going out and having a good time.  Hell, I’d love to have a beer with everyone out there.  Just don’t go crazy and let Friday and Saturday ruin the work you put in the rest of the week!

Cheers.

 

Day 2

It could be worse right?

I woke up this morning the most sore I have been in  a long time.  For some reason I didn’t start with Cory Gregory’s “Get Stacked 1” plan.  I jumped to 12.  Maybe not my smartest move but I’m loving the workouts so far!  Lots of super sets and short rest periods have me dripping sweat by the end of the workout.  Plus, I’m liking the squat every day with lunges!  Kicking. My. Butt!

The diet is where I’m struggling.  Without going into much detail because I want you to go sign up and see for yourself (the site membership is $8.99 which is a STEAL) Cory has combined intermittent fasting along with anabolic diet (carb cycling).  I just have to get used to the intermittent fasting.  I’ve scheduled to have my feeding window in between noon and 8:00 pm and by the time 10:30 am rolls around I’m starving!  Everything I’ve read says I will get used to it so I’m staying strong!

Best part of the diet is I don’t need so much caffeine!  I wake up, take preworkout and go to the gym and that is the only caffeine I have all day!  Normally I will have another 2-3 Monster Zero’s throughout the day.  My adrenals thank you Cory!

Gonna keep going strong.  This diet allows for weekend cheats so be on the look for my first beer review (and perhaps YouTube video…) this Saturday.  Until work hard and keep it fun.

Cheers.

Time for something new

Albert Einstein defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.  If that’s the case, lock me up!  For the past 5 years in my lifting career I have done basically the same workouts.  International Chest Day on Mondays, back on Tuesday, legs on Wednesday, shoulders and arms on Thursday, and whatever I feel like on Friday.  Then I would spend the weekends on the couch playing 2K with my roommates and drinking beer.  Really the only thing that has changed is I watch HGTV with my fiance instead….

No more.  I am going to do something that I always said I would never do.  I am going to pay for a workout program.  Enter corygfitness.com.  I have been following Cory Gregory for a long time and he has become a favorite of mine in the fitness community.  He is strong, shredded, and he enjoys drinking beer on the weekends just like me!  For those of you who have no idea who I am talking about here he is  I told you, the dude is stacked.

So for the next 90 days I will be following strictly his diet, Anabolic Fasting, and his “bodybuilding” workout program, Get Stacked.  Follow along and enjoy the ride.

Cheers.

Getting back on track

Life comes at you fast.  One minute you’re going through the motions then BAM something happens to change everything.  As I said in my last post, my fiance had a close family member go in for a outpatient procedure and end up having life changing complications.  Now I’m not going to go into any more details about what happened for privacy’s sake but the family member is doing a little better and is on the road to recovery.

So after spending the weekend out of town and eating out every meal (pretty sure I had burgers and fries 4 times in three days) and stress drinking more than I should, it is time to get back on track.  Now I didn’t step on a scale this morning but just looking in the mirror, it wouldn’t have been pretty.  So I sat down this morning and lined up some goals.  Let’s review shall we?

1. Get my ass back in the gym
2. Wear my Fitbit and track my exercise
3. Get the diet back together

Sounds pretty simple right?  It should be.  Time to get back on track and have some fun.  I will have plenty of updates on my new workout program and diet later on.  Stay tuned.

Cheers.

Make fitness fun again

You see it on almost every fitness account on Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, etc.:

You gotta grind!  Up at 4 am!  If you’re not squatting 900 lbs what are you doing!?!?

That mentality has never made sense to me.  Why is my 5:30 pm workout after work any different than your wake up at 2 am, at the gym by 4 am workout?  We got the same workout in?  We burned the same amount of calories?

Why should I “suffer” through my workout? “Live in pain or remain the same” is a ridiculous quote.  Now I get that I shouldn’t be comfortable during my workout but in pain?  That doesn’t make much sense to me.

Why should everyone have to squat or deadlift to be considered to be healthy and have a great workout?  To be fair, I LOVE squatting and deadlifting.  Not much feels better to me than picking up 500 lbs off the floor.  But then there is someone like my mom.  Why is here workout looked down on compared to mine because she went to our local high school and walked two miles on the track and I went to the gym and put 400 lbs on my back and squatted down and stood back up a few times?  We both got out and did something, right?

Everyone can be fit.  It doesn’t take much.  You have to find an activity that makes you happy.  That’s it.  For me I love power lifting.  For my mom it’s going on a walk.  My fiance loves to swim.  You just have to find your thing.  The thing you love to do that burns calories and gets you off the couch.  It doesn’t matter if its lifting weights, running, swimming, biking, hiking, soccer, basketball, tennis , karate, boxing, or even something as simple as walking around your neighborhood.  Make fitness fun again!

Cheers.

Progress is key

 

What a difference a week makes!  Now, I’m sure the majority of this is post vacation and 4th of July water(booze) loss but I’ll take it!  Let’s keep the ball rolling! Cheers.

Staying Accountable

That’s really why this blog was created: accountability.

Like I have said in previous posts, I have tried and lost weight before.  I gain it back because I was never accountable to myself (plus my diets have not been sustainable but that’s a whole different post).  Telling myself I want to do something is one thing.  Putting it on the internet for the whole world to see is a whole different ball game.  So whether I am posting a progress picture, what I ate, my workout, or just how I am feeling, it is all going to keep me accountable for my actions.

With that being said, I woke up this morning at 255 lbs.  Not bad for a week, especially one filled with burgers and beer.  Let’s keep the train rolling.  Cheers.