Thanks Universe.....

I hope everyone had a wonderful memorial day because i sure as hell did .... Spent some lovely time with my friends and their family.....spent some time in the pool... and spent a lot of time EATING... and EATING.... dang it.....I told myself i would be better this weekend that i would start the cycle and get serious about  everything.... that did not work out for me at all..... my memorial started with a lovely stack of  the best pancakes i ever  had.....  and it just got worse from there...... by tuesday afternoon i found myself   at the nearest Chinese  buffet  at the desert table  eating cream poofs! I cracked open my  fortune and low and behold the universe had this to say

"If You Develop The Habits of Success, You Will Make Success a Habit"

It was  just the swift kick in the ass that i needed to get me back on the path.... well the path for most part 

fortunantly i did not gain any weight  .... all though i did not lose any either

....

yesterday i did my first Lifting session for the B4L.....and It was hard .... even with low weights it kicked my ass.... then i got home in time to squeeze in a couple of classes... which thankfully i  went because i got to  test for my shirt level in  MMA...

Officially a white shirt now.....  i know it is just a shirt but i paid for this in  hard work and sweat! looking forward to  continuing to learn and improve!

Andrea and   i  had a celebratory swim after class.....

 Getting strong and staying Active!

When the going gets tough.......

I usually quit.... but   that hasn't worked for me so far...... so  this time I'm gonna try to roll with the punches..... and i mean that literally... because  today  i got my ass beat! Lets face it ... i have never been a particularly  athletically inclined fellow.... even in high school the only sport i played was softball and  i quit that my Junior year to pursue less productive  things like doing drugs! So  this BJJ, MMA, and kickboxing training  is the most hardcore sport i have  ever "tried" to do..... and i say "try" because tonight i feel like  i just got my ass handed to me over and over and over and over..... and over! i wanted to throw down my gloves and quit.... i was frustrated ... i was pissed off.... and no i was not just mad about getting beat..... I was a lil peeved at some of the guys in the class and their " show my balls" attitude .....My thinking is we are all here to learn  ..... you have been doing this for how many years.... yeah....I am on my second month... it doesn't make you a bad ass  cus you beat me in 2 seconds ...... now stop  with the "my penis is bigger than yours" shit and  be cool and teach me! I am not  able to learn shit if you  just  submit me in  1 second flat.... and guess what you didn't get shit out of it  either......so needless to say i was  very very frustrated .......but that is the way it goes ..... "so what did i do?" you ask......

 I  Velcro-ed  those  damn gloves back on and stayed for a second  class! I am not quitting this time.... come hell or high water... i will see this through... i may suck at it right now  but i  won't always .....

On a lighter note..... I finally got  "Body for Life" in the mail ... gave it a read... and will officially start the  circuit on monday ....I think i have  the  lady friend on board with it too so if i can get her to  go to the gym with me  that will help me stay motivated for sure.......Gotta look strong in front of my  girl you know.... just kidding!

as of yesterday  i am out of the 260's.....the going is slow  but  that just means i am really  losing it and not just crash dieting it off so  i have to really work it off.......

 who knows...... maybe someday i really will have a 6 pack......  lol... One can Dream!

Officially Official

Its Official .....i am one big ball of injuries.....One Gimp Knee... One Throbbing Elbow ....now Add one severely painful Deeply bruised rib........ every time i  have to do forward rolls or  i get taken down  a searing pain  shoots through my  left side .....did i mention every single injury is on my life side! More Ice i guess....

Its also official  as of today i am Officially 260.....  1 more pound and i will be out of the 260's forever !

also can i just say that the multi grain  honey oat  waffles are  heavenly and  may just be my new favorite breakfast! I went  grocery shopping yesterday and mostly stuck to the body for life shopping list  with a few other things  added .... nothing to bad ....really trying to work on  the nutrition part of this! P.s. i also tried  the elite low carb rich chocolate whey protein today as a meal replacement about an hour before class and it kinda made me feel overly full and sick!

Sorry for the  quick , scattered update.... i've been quite busy today.... now time to go  soak in some soothing bath salts and  hope i'm not too sore tomorrow! Stay Strong !

Starting a new cycle

Here is the truth.....I Don't have a clue what i am doing in the gym.....I usually get in there ....stretch.... do about 30 minutes of cardio then wonder aimlessly around doing this machine and that machine  a set here a set there.....with no set gym schedule at all....and let's face it .... that is not doing a thing and while i applaud myself for the effort... I am just flat out failing at getting strong and buff..... I need a regiment ... i need a game plan ... i needed..... my dad!   In  '98 or '99 hell it could been 2000  not quite sure of the year .... my dad dropped over 100 pounds and got into the best shape of his life.... this dude got swoll... and i wanted to know how..... his advice was to pick up the book "Body for Life"  by Bill Phillips .....so  i  ordered it on amazon for 4 dollars.....SCORE!  while i eagerly await  the book ( i also got the book  "Eating for Life" by Bill Phillips.....    yay" ... i also checked out the bod for life website... which gave me some pretty good info on the  best way to lean down and hulk up..... So i think this will be my first 12 week cycle.... Doing the body for life program!

I am going to have to be more dedicated to Lifting though..... Tuesday Thursday and Saturday ....because my cardio days are Monday Wed And Fridays with class .... I'm not sure how this is going to work but i guess I will just have to figure it out.... even if that means being at the Gym at 5 am before Work......or do i keep  fighting  totally separate from the BFL cycle ....  either way  

Its about time i learn the true definition of dedication......

Also this seems to be a new regular occurrence in my life......

Getting stronger everyday in Body and Mind! 

Evil temptation.....

Well its been a few days .... honestly i haven't had much to write about ....my diet hasn't been bad but it hasn't been the best either....I'm still working on this whole diet thing...... for the most part i try to stay lean and low cal... but  then i'll get a craving and give in and then keep  giving in for a few meals and or days  till i say WHAT IN THE HELL MO... and get back on the wagon.... i guess that's how it  goes though... just trying to make the right choices one decision at a time!

Today has been a rough one in the  cravings department .... today is a Thursday so naturally i'm at work all day .... and if i hadn't mentioned  work days are especially hard to maintain the healthy eating because of unforeseen calls and not being able to eat on a schedule... also i do better if i bring my lunch but sometimes i am not able to get back to the office  to actually eat it  ... anyhow  i digress .... today i come into work and what  is the first thing  i see as i walk into the kitchen ........

That's right .... fluffy beautiful cupcakes.... and cupcakes are my weakness... cupcakes are my favorite....

I have resisted  these evil cupcakes all day long......I will not break...... i will be strong....

As far as the scale goes.....I'm only down  one more pound...but in the clothes department im down a full size in everything... and i'm feeling great

In the training  department  i have  gone from barely making it through 1 - hour long session to 2 full hour to hour and half long session ...  all in all its progress!

I don't have a lot of full body pictures because  i have tried to avoid  the camera   but here is the most recent ......23.5 pounds down ....I'll try to take monthly updates  for this ....

As Always Staying Strong in mind and body! and Thank you for everyone  who is continuing to read and support me in this!

Cheater Cheater Applebees Eater

Well so much for my three hours of work out yesterday .... Lets just say  after i finally made it home  i sat my  lazy ass down on the couch and  only moved to get the worst possible  food i could put into my body......It was like  all i could think was .....Girlfriends out of town and  since I'm not a relationship cheater and i live to far away from everyone to  go  do awesome things that i can't do when she is around ( i can't really think of anything that i can't do when shes around )  but i wanted to cheat..... and cheat i did .....donuts for breakfast....applebees spinach artichoke dip and wings for lunch and i made myself  a steak and broccoli for dinner......and after all that calorie ridden  fat-asstic  food ofcourse i was to drunk on the blue cheese to actually  go do a single work out .....I wanted to cheat..... i thought it would be great ..... and like  with most cheating of any kind the only thing i was left feeling was  bloated with guilt.... Lesson of the day  ... When you cheat you only end up cheating yourself ......

Today is a new day though and  the sun is shining and its hot as hell outside and my knee feels a lil less painful today than it did yesterday ...... on the plus side i think i gave my knee a much needed  break  with all my laziness yesterday!

Ouch.. need more ICE!

Not much to report  for the last few days......Wednesday i had a few good work outs .... hit the gym for some cardio and lifting ..... then went for a back to back 2 hour  jiu jitsu then MMA class...... even though im trying to stay light on the knee it didn't help much because today work was killer......I'm Icing it down as i sit here!
We will see how things go ...... the lady friend is out of town so i plan on hitting another 3 hours of work outs tomorrow as well before I'm  unable to do so on the weekend.....

2 Steps Forward ....1 Step Back...

So Monday night  after MMA training i stuck around to practice and Shot take down ..... boy do i wish i had  just gone directly home! Instead after  a couple run through i  went  down  made a move and BOOM ...a horrible  pain surged through my left knee ..... I used to get a similar pain back in high school  often .. i always thought it was my knee cap  slipping out and back into place...... so i just attributed it to that  even though it hasn't happened in about 9 years....  the pain usually  goes away  after about an hour ! Not this time .... i iced it last night and  still when i woke up this morning  it  was slightly swollen and stiff .....After talking with Andrea , we decided the best option was to  just go to the Doc and see whats was up.......After getting some Xrays to rule out a small patella Fracture...  Its mostly decided  that it is probably a miniscal tear ......

 well poo.... I think the apparent disappointment  was written all over my face because my wonderful  lady friend  immediately tried to make me feel better about it but  i truly was disheartened ....all i could think was  all this hard work was  right down the drain...... I tried to tell myself that i wouldn't lose  motivation and that i could just keep at it ... work on upper body  and do my best but absolutely nothing was making me feel better about this 

I decided to  go up to the gym and tell my coaches  about what the doc had said .... and boy did they make me feel so much better.....Hank,  one of the  trainers up there came out and  met before i even got through the door.... and in about 1 minute flat he had changed my whole perspective ..... he told me " it doesn't have to end  training ...... Get  back in this gym and we can work on everything else and avoid that knee while you heal" .....basically about 3 months ago he had the same injury and and it took about a month to  get him back  at  normal training but  if i work hard and  rehab my knee right then i can be back in the game too ....makes me feel a lot better about ........

 so here is to 22 pounds down  ... staying motivated ... and staying strong in the mind  even when my body doesn't want to be!