FLASHBACK – I FOUND THE FOLLOWING IN A WORD DOCUMENT FROM 1186 DAYS AGO:
I read a book about habits and how elite athletes train without compromise. Even the days that they don’t feel good, they just do it. I wanted to feel different about myself and my progress in EVERYTHING. I just needed something that I knew I could do if I decided to… so I told myself that if I can’t take the time to run at least 1 mile everyday there is something bad wrong with me. If I can’t do 25 pushups and 25 situps everyday to keep myself healthy I am a piece of crap. I’m not saying that you are a piece of crap if you can’t do 25 pushups and situps…. I just know that I’d be lying to myself if I honestly thought I couldn’t do it.
So I decided. 217 days afterwards I am continuing working on what I tell myself is my current health code. I started with 25-25-1. That was my minimum and I have decided that I cannot do less. Today it is 55-55-1-15. That’s 55 situps, 55 pushups, 1 mile, and 15 pullups. It is working. I feel better than ever and I am not only tuning my body, I am getting in tune with myself.
Most days I am now 60-60-1-15, but 55-55-1-15 is my current minimum because I have some big goals by age 55 and these numbers remind me of that every day.
It is important to note that I really don’t consider this a workout. From a true “working out” perspective, I know it is tough to build muscle doing body weight at such low reps, but what it really has turned into is a better health routine and focus for me.
I have noticed that I am burning over 3,500 calories on average every day so I have been losing some weight. I started out around 189lbs and I am weighing about 185lbs after 217 days. I am pretty pleased that I have not lost more weight. My shoulders are becoming more defined. My arms are doing okay. My back is getting some work from the pullups… What I have lost is in my butt… who am I kidding? I’ve never really had one.
The next step is to stress my legs and butt instead of just running. I don’t want to stop running until I turn 50 years old which is coming in 270 days. I feel it is time to add to my body code to get some butt back to help balance out the strength of my upper and lower body. My lower body has just been cardio. It is time to do some strength exercises. I feel like a key is to keep the numbers low enough that I can do them everyday without tourture. It’s the EVERYDAY that is the goal.
Tomorrow I start 55-55-1-15-15. The added 15 is 15 deadlifts with 70lb dumbbells. I should be able to do much more, but for now I know I can do this. We’ll see how it goes. I wish I was documenting with photos or video, but I am not to that point yet. I hope one day I can share this with others and maybe they will take the pics and videos of their progress. I just know that it is working for me.