I must reform my life NOW. The truth always surfaces…

Somewhere Holden Caufield is narrating my life, calling me a huge phoney.  I’m in love with exercise, in love with finding new forms of discipline, in love with exposing the truth about fitness to all who want to hear, but I could be better.  Removing my shirt in public already draws automatic attention from men and women.  With the energy, effort, and focus I know I could display in my life, I could be an elite athlete, not just a guy with a great body.  Living with integrity is a lot more than simply doing what others won’t; it is living to YOUR OWN standards.  Creating and keeping those standards is a dreaded part of life in this society, but is what keeps society’s great individuals great.

So as a trainer, an aspiring competitive runner, and a weekend warrior in various sports, I WANT to have the world’s best performing body, not because so many will find me sexy, but because my body is my business.

My understanding of this before was that:

I know how to exercise and how much

All I have to do is more than fat people do, which is almost nothing

I exercise enough to not totally have to “watch what I eat”

As long as certain body parts look great there’s no real urgency

Recently, admitting these deep-down beliefs has caused me to cringe and brought on some deep mental depression, especially because I’ve always stressed that superficial thinking is what has delivered us into an obesity epidemic.  A fitness philosophy based on the idea that it is not as superficial as the average yo-yo dieter’s and not as hopelessly ignorant as an obese person’s is still not a positive one.  My first goal is to overhaul my own philosophy, then my goals, then my habits.  The level that I am seeking is my own, I want things that only small fractions of the population can achieve, so I DO NOT recommend anyone reading ScalesonFire.com following my training routine exactly, that isn’t the point.  I do expect everyone who reads to get a real insight into conservative fitness and how it works.

To start, here are my three goals this week:

1) Determine exactly what I’d like to accomplish with my body long-term (One Year)

I will start a road race as an elite runner, which would require a pace below 6:05min/mile.  I’ve been running for three years, competitively for one year, and I’m quite far away from competing at that level.  I’ve got a simple but ridiculous strength goal of 1,000 consecutive push-ups, pull-ups, dips, weightless squats, sit-ups, good mornings, and calf-raises.  I’m incredibly far away from this goal, and I’m yet to find a consistent, effective routine to help practice for this goal. I’d also like to master my own yoga practice and teach yoga.

PLAN OF ACTION-

I am amidst a 200 mile in 40 day challenge that provides my legs with valuable miles they didn’t get during high school Cross Country because quite frankly, I didn’t care about running in high school, I played baseball.  When this is done, I plan to run in more races so that my race performance improves, I will also have the stamina and speed for effective speed training like sprints, plyometrics and speed interval training.

Although I use it a great deal, I’ve owned this piece of equipment far too long to not have mastered it.

Also, I must find a strength workout THAT ACTUALLY HAPPENS EVERY DAY, and that also promotes increasing numbers within proper form.  Regardless of the way my body currently looks, my numbers in the exercises I’ve mentioned are poor and pathetic (with pull-ups being my nemesis).  Today I will start with five sets of 5 in each exercise:

5×5 sets of Tri-set Sit-ups (Middle, Left, Right) for 75 total

5×5 sets of Squats

5×5 sets of Good Mornings

5×5 sets of Tri-set Push-ups (Diamond, Standard, Wide) for 75 total

5×5 sets of Tri-set Calf-Raises (Supintated, Neutral, Pronated) for 75 total

5×5 sets of Tri-set Pull-ups (Close-grip palms away, Standard-grip palms in, Wide-grip palms away) for 75 total

5×5 sets of Dips

Although the numbers are low, they will be easy to complete confidently with the other activities I do each day.

Lastly, I must practice yoga regularly (4-7 times per week) at my regular studio New York Yoga, not simply to improve my practice, but because my body simply won’t stand up to higher volumes of exercise without it.

2) Gain full control of what goes into my body

Part of this change is becoming less of a hypocrite, and if I’m stressing to clients and friends that discipline with food and intoxication is one key to fitness bliss, then I must be the embodiment of this bliss.

PLAN OF ACTION-Aim to do nothing that is particularly harmful to my body, my ability to focus on my goals, and my ability to live effectively.  Aim to embrace my personal beliefs on consumption over those of society, not matter how much this alienates me.

There’s no such thing as an effective diet plan, simply things we know we should and shouldn’t eat. Here’s my list, without the emotions that keep us in food prison.

There is no diet plan or belief system that is just right for everyone, but if we all as individuals jotted down two lists, the first a list of things we believe humans should eat because they improve the body, the second a list of things we believe humans should never eat being that they are harmful to the body, these two lists would be a specialized, personalized diet plan.  The only problem is that emotional eating involving friends, family, outings, stress, upbringing, habits, weakness, and pleasure will skew the honesty of these lists.  I do encourage everyone I meet to try making these two lists with the understanding that emotions should not be involved, and if everything on the second list bores them, then living longer, being fit, and personal accomplishment also bores them.

3) Schedule all of this so that it isn’t stressful

Because this process only stresses the fat or lazy.  As a fit person, I should be able to live as active a lifestyle possible without my world crumbling and do things at times they won’t be interrupted by people who don’t share my passion and by things much less important.

PLAN OF ACTION-I’m a personal trainer, and again, my body is my business.  Other trainers feel that YOUR body is their business, but as the barber with the bad haircut should never be trusted, neither should the trainer with the beer gut.  I teach discipline, consistency, and virtue.  Teaching exercise is secondary.  Teaching these things to myself first will improve the quality of what I do.

The things I’ve outlined here are my own, but anyone reading can understand that figuring out your goals (they should be all about accomplishment and never superficial) and creating plans of action, taking a hard line on things you should and shouldn’t eat, and making it an important part of your schedule is a way to achieve any fitness goal conservatively.  In our society, it is the only way.