Potentially Crazy Decisions

I made a potentially crazy decision last night that I followed through on this morning.  Alice and the children are visiting her parents in Virginia for a few days, so I am without a vehicle as our second car is uselessly occupying my back yard.  Being the innovative and daring individual I am (ha ha), I decided to ride my bicycle to work this morning.  I thought, "It's only 3 miles.  It won't be all that bad."

Then I started the journey.

As you might already know, I am doing Beachbody's Insanity workouts.  Those things are near-death experiences almost every time, so I figured riding a bicycle couldn't be nearly as involved.  I was wrong.

It's amazing how little you notice the various undulations in the road when you're driving a car.  I've driven the same path I rode this morning literally hundreds of times and never noticed that the bulk of the trip TO school is generally uphill except for a few brief moments of gentle downslopes.  And, of course, the journey is capped with a monumental upgrade for the highway overpass.

I made it to school, but not without a lot of heavy breathing, burning quads, and sweat.  And the whole experience was fueled by a soupy bowl of Protein-enhanced Cream of Wheat.  Not exactly the best meal one can eat pre-workout.

I still have to get home this afternoon (I'm writing this during some down-time at work).  Then I'm supposed to do Shaun T's Fit Test and go to a karate class this evening.  Somehow I think that 4 workouts is a bit much for one day.  Something might have to give, but I don't want to 'not' do something.

There's a potentially crazy decision just waiting to be made about this evening, and I have no idea what I'll end up doing...

Pushy Salespeople

So, last night I took a trip to my not-so-local (17 miles away) supplement store to buy another 2.2lb jug of Monster Milk.  I'm a straightforward kind of guy who operates in stores similar to a hunter seeking his quarry - track, locate, kill, and retrieve.  Simple enough, I walked into the store, grabbed the 2.2lb jug off the shelf and started toward the checkout counter.

That's when the blitzkrieg happened.

There were two people working in this little store.  The one who divebombed me was "Stacey".  It started innocuously enough - "Can I help you find anything?"  Nope.  My sought quarry, chocolate Monster Milk, was in my sights all but bagged.  "Do you need a shaker cup for that?"  Nope.  My blender does the job just fine.

What followed was a barrage of questions and suggestions that came so quickly that my stuttered responses made me look more like a novice weight trainer than a seasoned gym vet.

"How many meals do you eat?" "Does that include snacks?" "How much protien are you eating? You need more protein."  "How often do you work out?  Oooh!  That many!  That makes you an elite athlete.  You need protein, and aminos, and multivitamins, and blah blahblah blah blah."

While I appreciate the "elite athlete" comment (and I'm ANYTHING but "elite" at this point), I can't stand that this person, who by her own admission neither eats a decent diet nor exercises regularly, felt it necessary to barrage me with a bunch of information she memorized from the staff handbook.  I've been in the fitness and health field now for about a decade.  If I don't research it, I'm not taking it.  If the research doesn't show a demonstrable intrinsic value for a particular product, I'm not buying it.

She didn't even stop when I informed her that her L-Carnitine supplement has 2 ingredients that, when found in combination, form a know carcinogen (citric acid + sodium benzoate = benzene, for the curious out there).  It should have been readily apparent that I am not a noob when it comes to what I consume!

Just sell me my Monster Milk and let me leave, please!

Let this serve as a warning to some of you who might find yourself on the receiving end of one of these pushy sales types.  Chances are they don't give two turds in a toilet bowl about your health; they just want to get into your wallet.  Taking a bunch of supplements in order to make up for dietary shortcomings is good for the store and bad for you and your finances.  Eat the right foods frequently and your diet is probably 98% complete.  A multivitamin might be a good safety net, but don't be talked into forking over more money based on the word of an uneducated nitwit who is simply regurgitating corporate sales bullpucky.

It's On Its Way!

We won't pay retail for anything if we can absolutely avoid it, so in typical fashion we decided to look online for Shaun T's Insanity workout before purchasing from the actual infomercial.  After several tries, we finally found someone that would actually respond to our queries regarding the DVDs they had listed in online ads.

As it turns out, we got a pretty good "two-fer" in the process.  This person was selling both Shaun T's Insanity workout along with their copy of P90X.  These are original programs still in their boxes.  The Insanity workout is unopened.  We got both for about the same price as one of the programs.

We should get the programs next week.  For now, we're just trying to decide what area of the house should be utilized for this program.  Someplace that can handle pools of sweat...

We'll keep you informed, as always.

Be well!

Of Purple Belts and Finer Things

In my last post I detailed the innards of the belt testing I was set to experience.  I'm pleased to report that I and the rest of my family (well, my wife and 2 boys, anyway.  The girls weren't taking karate at the time) were successful in passing our belt tests in Isshinryu Karate.

Belt progressions, for reference sake, are as follows: White (beginner), Yellow, Orange, Blue, Green, Purple, Brown, Brown w/ black stripe(s), and Black. 

Silas was promoted from Orange to Blue.  Alice and Daniel both skipped Blue belt, going from Orange to Green.  I skipped Green and went from Blue to Purple - which is ironic because that was the color of much of my skin after the test.

Belt tests can be brutal, especially once you hit the higher ranks.  Purple belt was pretty hard (but I think Sensei might have felt nice and cut my kumite session a little short), but my next test is going to be the real test of my fortitude.  When I test for my Brown belt, a goal I have for September this year, there's little or no holding back on anything.  I'll need to know 6 empty-hand kata (pre-arranged fighting sequences), a bo (long staff) kata, history of Isshinryu, falls and rolls, 15 upper-body basics, 9 kicks, and about 30 minutes of kumite (sparring).  Since my Purple belt test took right at an hour, I figure I'll add at least 20 minutes to that to accomodate the additional kumite.

I need to be in peak physical condition by then.

Which brings me to my next thought.  I'm not much to buy into what I see on TV, particularly where infomercials are concerned.  I freely admit that I am an infomercial junkie.  Most of the time I love to pick on the various claims in the commercials (see my Body Shaper review), but every once in a while I see something that piques my interest.

In the next few weeks we're going to get ahold of the DVD program for Shaun T's Insanity.  Insanity is a 60-day fitness program that is designed to help participants rid their bodies of that last little bit of stubborn body fat.  I have NEVER, even when I was trying like mad to do it, been able to get rid of love handles and that little roll of fat that circles my body at the equator (right at belly button level).  My HIIT sessions and other work either aren't intense enough or they aren't hitting my body as hard as they used to.

So, once I get and start this program (Alice is doing it with me - yee-haw!), I'll give you a day-by-day run down of it here at Wo40.com.  I figure we'll get the program in early April, which will see us finishing the program in late May or early June depending on shipping time.  I expect it will be one of the more comprehensive reviews of the program out there.

Enjoy!

No, I'm not Dead

It's just been one of those winters.  I've felt uninspired and unmotivated.  Something tells me that failing to get a bit of recognition from what I thought was a very important individual made me realize that I have some issues with ego.  Just one of those learning things that I have to deal with.

I've been diligently attending my karate classes 3 times a week.  I'm up for belt testing and promotion this week.  I've got to perform 15 upper-body basics (punches and block-punch combinations), 9 kicks, 5 pre-arranged fighting sequences called kata, and proper falling/rolling technique.  Each of the basics require 3 repetitions on each side, so while 15 basics might not sound like much, doing 6 of each one tends to be a little tiring.  Each of the kicks will be done the same way, so instead of just 9 kicks, I'll be doing 54.  After all of the basic stuff and kata, there will be 10-15 minutes of kumite, or sparring.

Kumite is one of those things that you just don't realize is difficult until you've been at it for about 2 or 3 minutes.  I would put the kumite experience on par with running on the treadmill at 7.5 with a 8 degree incline for about 10-15 minutes.  It's OK at first, but after a little while just breathing becomes an issue.  Worse yet is putting all of that fighting after 20 minutes of basics and kicks.

My time is currently spent practicing kata or helping others learn the same.  I'm at the dojo (training school) 3 nights a week for 2-4 hours and volunteering to help on occasion.

Not that I'm trying to neglect wo40.com.  I'm making a conscious effort to write blogs more often and pull together some additional articles for the site.  I'm still trying to figure out how to get video on the site and a few other things - podcasts, speaking engagements and the like.

Thanks to THB for recently reminding me that I've been remiss in my attention to wo40.com.  I appreciate everyone who stops by to read.  Be well!