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| Trying to Smile as I'm grunting out on the calf press Selfie |
I woke up beat up and tired from this weeks training. I'm worried about my pelvis and I just wasn't in the mood to train. I procrastinated and did inside computer work all day long. Dragging it out.
Part of my day was spent dealing with an issue that was causing me some angst which made me a little out of sorts and irritable. I was not in the mood to train.
There was points I was justifying not training today in my mind as I'm getting older and I need recovery time. Which is true if I was running or cycling today. If that was the case I would need a break. It's not true when you have to do weights and a swim.
At around 4 pm the World Cup was on. I wasn't having the best day and I was thinking what would be awesome right now would be to sit down and watch the game with an ice cold draft beer. I could visualize it so clearly.
Then there was the self talk. Telling myself that if I have that one beer the prior two days have been a total waste. Reminding myself how hard it is to drag an extra 20 lbs around on the bike and run. Remembering Reid's words to focus on the goal and succeeding and then you don't need discipline.
The biggest motivator was that I didn't want to sabotage myself and have to start over. I finally came to the conclusion that I may not train today but I'm not going to eat unhealthy or drink beer. I figured that if I still eat healthy and drink no alcohol the day is still a win. If I don't train and then eat poorly or drink alcohol then the day has been a total failure.
To lose the amount of weight I need, er, want to lose it will take more days of eating healthy and avoiding beer than it will training consistently. I've said it over and over again and it's proven true, the only way to lose weight is through diet. Diet is 90% of losing weight, exercising is 10% and if anyone tells you differently they are lying. I know this to be factual.
There was an interview with Mathew McConaughey I saw recently. The interviewer was asking him about the incredible amount of weight he dropped for the movie Dallas Buyers Club. He played a man with aids. McConaughey told the interviewer that losing weight was all diet. He tried to exercise his weight away and couldn't. He had to adhere to a strict diet and it was hard.
Fact is it's even harder when you get older. Once you turn 40 years old losing weight becomes much tougher. If you've been doing Ironman's or endurance sports for a number of years it's even harder as your body is so efficient at converting food into fat to support your training. When you stop training the body doesn't realize it and keeps converting food into fat as it still thinks it needs to.
As I mentioned today I was oh so close to eating crap and having a beer. What helped me aside from not wanting to let outside forces have any power over me was that I spent some time sorting and deleting personal images. I deleted 2200 off my computer. Going through the images I saw many of me in my peak shape in 2009 and 2010.
It was kind of motivating to see that and imagine what it would feel like to be back at that weight and fitness again. I'm on track to do it and I know it I just need to stay the course. Easier said than done.
This morning I stood on the scale and started the day depressed when I saw 205.8 lbs. Which basically means I did 10 hours of training over two days and ate perfectly, had no beer and was now up 1.4 lbs. That's where you ask yourself if it's even worth the effort.
The answer is yes. I've been hear before. It's not fair. It takes about 3 weeks of constant training and eating properly until you start to lose pounds. At first you start gaining muscle, which weights more than fat and then as you continue to train hard and stress and tear down your muscles your body retains water to repair the damage. You don't see weight loss until a few weeks go by and your body adjusts and equalizes once again.
So here I am today not in be best frame of mind. I did have a win in I reached a point that even if I don't train I'm not sabotaging my diet regardless.
I was physically and mentally tired and at 7 pm decided to go upstairs to watch TV in the bedroom. My plan was to fall asleep and I mentioned to Alice if I did fall asleep to wake me by 10 pm for a business meeting. I actually went to the bedroom for two reasons. The first was to put a show on with therapeutic sound, like the guys voice from Frontline, in this case it was Real Sports on HBO and the second reason was to keep me away from the kitchen and temptations of the pantry.
It worked and then some.
An email came to me that removed my angst I had for most of the day and that along with the rest got my motivation back. I looked at the clock at 8 pm and saw that I had two hours until my meeting. I sprang up, got my gym and swim stuff and headed to LA Fitness.
Earlier in the day Reid went and came back feeling great. Then as I was leaving Alice told me Alyssa was there working out. In only one hour I went from bailing on training today to ready to attack and I did.
I blasted the weights. I took some C4 before and blasted the weights. Pushing more weight than I have in a long time. I didn't mail this workout in. I went hard. It was the most sweat I've ever generated in a weight training workout ever. I'd say 90% of my shirt was wet from sweat.
Then I hit the pool. Hitting the cool water of the pool after weight training is heaven. If I wasn't weight training before the cool water is a little uncomfortable until you get swimming and warm up a bit.
I've discovered why I dislike swimming so much. It's because it's all about sets and time. You are constantly looking at your watch and doing intervals. Tonight I decided not to focus on intervals. I just swam. Just like I bike and just like I run. I don't focus on time and just do. Doing so made for such a much more enjoyable swim. I enjoyed it.
My arms were sore from the weight training so it wasn't a fast swim. The women in the lane beside me was going much faster than me and then my competitive spirit bubbles up. I was doing my own thing and she was keeping up to my freestyle stroke with her breast stroke. I couldn't take it any longer and near the end I started picking up the pace and matching her stroke for stroke.
If your a triathlete you've been there. You're at the pool and the person the lane over becomes your competition and vice versa and with no words you just start competing. I've done it many times. At the end of tonight's swim I decided to turn on the burners and went from behind her to way in front of her over just 25 yards. I flew by so fast that it basically said to her that he was playing possum.
The upside to all that is she made me work harder and by her being beside me it made me have a much better workout.
Today is one of those major wins. I went from not wanting to train. To not wanting to eat health. To wanting to have a beer and then it all turned around. I ate perfectly healthy, I didn't have beer and I trained and both the sessions were awesome. Especially the weight training.
To me the day isn't over until midnight. I got it all done, just 2 hours under the wire.
Weights - 45 min
Swim - 49:03 / 2190 meters
Oh, almost forgot. Alice got a Fitbit. Mine broke so we got new ones. In her first day of just running errands she got 14,000 steps. I think I did 1400 steps today. She's super competitive with herself and she was checking it throughout the day. So her I am Mr. Ironman and she kicks my ass on Fitbit today.
Also below is Reid's school film project. He did it over 2 evenings. It was totally improvised, they had no script. He had no camera man and he had to do acting and then had to edit it. It's his first film project he's done in 5 years, since he was 12 or 13. He took it seriously and all things considered I think he did a great job.
I'm expecting a call from the school. They are not to have drugs, alcohol, guns, violence or swearing and his video has them all.
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