You're NEVER too old to change your life!

This popped up in Google Reader this morning and I knew right away that I had to post it here and e-mail it to some people in my family.

Staying a Step Ahead of Aging

Dr. Wright, a 40-year-old runner, decided to study people who kept training as they got older or began competing in middle age. She wanted to know what happens to them and at what age does performance start to decline.

Their results are surprising, even to many of the researchers themselves. The investigators find that while you will slow down as you age, you may be able to stave off more of the deterioration than you thought. Researchers also report that people can start later in life — one man took up running at 62 and ran his first marathon, a year later, in 3 hours 25 minutes.

[more...]

The man in the images above is a good representation of my personal vision of myself as an old man, except I'll have bigger muscles :)

Do you have a vision of yourself in a year? Ten years? Fifty years? If you don't, you should! Take the time to form a mental picture of the ideal you, and keep that vision in your mind as you strive towards your goals. It will make a big difference when the going gets tough and you feel like quitting.

The Most Stubborn Fat

Someone sent me a Meebo private message earlier tonight and I wasn't at the computer to reply. They wanted to know where I had my most stubborn fat.

Like all, or at least most men, my stubborn fat is right around and below my navel. It's frustrating but I've come to accept that at least for this phase of my transformation it's not going anywhere. Granted it's far, far, far less than it was last summer when I started this journey but it's not gone either.

So, that's my answer!

New Low Weight

I weighed in at 165.4 lbs. this morning! 12 days left until I officially end my cutting phase.

After that I'll raise my daily caloric intake by 200 calories a week. On March 15th I'll finally be eating 3,000 calories per day.

The macronutrient ratios I've settled on are as follows:

Protein: 183 grams
Carbohydrate: 342 grams
Fat: 100 grams

I'll also be eating a lot more fruit than I've been eating during my cutting phase. As usual the diet will be about 90% clean foods and I'll be having a weekly cheat meal as well- stuff like pizza, Chinese, etc.

I'll be tracking my fat gains using AccuMeasure 3000 calipers. I'll bulk up for a minimum of 2 months, and possibly longer depending on fat gains.

Have a great day!

Fat Acceptance??

This kind of garbage turns my stomach. How anyone can suggest that being fat is an acceptable way to go through life is completely beyond me. I'd love to know how many of these people who go on diets are:

1) Eating clean
2) Eating enough (you know most of these knuckle-heads go on semi-starvation diets and trash their metabolism)
3) Lifting weights three times a week

Folks, if your nutrition isn't dialed in and you're not lifting weights you're not going to get lean and stay that way, period.

To defend being overweight as some sort of virtue is sickening.

Study Of The Day

U.S. Researchers Link Belly Fat To Higher Risk Of Heart Attack, Stroke

Boy, I'm glad I got rid of all that nasty visceral fat I had accumulated in my abdomen over the last ten years.

Being lean is a treat you get to enjoy each and every day.

Study of the Day

I think I'm going to start posting studies that show the benefits of a healthy lifestyle including proper diet and regular exercise. Here's one for today:

Exercising Just Three Days May Provide Heart Attack Protection

The Importance of Omega-3 Fatty Acids!

YADD (Yet Another Diet Drug)

Well, the drug companies are at it again, busy concocting a new diet drug because some people are stupid and weak and gullible enough to believe that a pill, any pill, will cure their weight problem.

The article leads off by suggesting that people simply lack the will power to resist eating crap. No, sorry. You don't lack will power. You lack desire. You would rather eat crap than lose weight. Let's face it. If you keep falling back on your old habits, be honest with yourself: being fat doesn't bother you that much. That's okay, too! If you're happy eating crap and being fat, go for it. I think happiness is more important than health. Being healthy and miserable is no way to go through life and if eating garbage makes you happy then stop fighting it. Of course, many folks find that they are far happier when they eat clean and exercise regularly but others don't find that at all.

Will power is a temporary tool that can be useful for maybe 24 hours. There are times when I do not want to go to the gym, and I force myself to. Will power. Your long term tool for success is desire. How bad do you want to be lean? It's either a burning desire for you that will easily overwhelm your desire to eat junk and skip workouts, or it isn't. I don't know how one can manufacture desire but desire is the only way you will achieve your goals over the long term while remaining happy and sane. Will power, whatever that is, only lasts so long because as the phrase implies it is the brute force of your mind compelling you to do something you don't really want to do.

These drug companies make me sick because they play on the worst traits in people. People want a quick fix, they want something that makes life easier, they want immediate gratification. Hey, look, a pill! In the mean time, the drug companies reap billions of dollars in profit and in the end, you're still overweight.

Until they can create a pill that makes you want to be lean more than you want to eat junk food and watch television, people will continue to get suckered by drug companies and people will continue to be overweight.

Almost finished..

Tomorrow I will finish Fat Loss II from the book "The New Rules of Lifting".

Sunday I'll do my first workout of Fat Loss III which involves one "giant set". That's four exercises done back to back without any rest, followed by sixty seconds rest. Repeat four times. Should be grueling to say the least. I should wrap up Fat Loss III on February 6th, at which point I'll begin Strength I and begin easing my calories up to maintenance level and beyond to begin bulking up. I can't wait!

Have a great day!

Progress Photos Posted

As you can see below, I've finally posted all my progress pics going back to last summer. All the photos start with the first and go in four week intervals.

I'll wrap up my cutting phase which is going on seven months now at the end of January and begin bulking for at least two months, possibly more depending on fat gains.

Keep in mind that I did take a two week break from dieting in November, and in reality should have done so much sooner.

You should never stay in a caloric deficit for more than four months, and the leaner you are the shorter your time in a caloric deficit should be. Those in single digit body fat levels shouldn't diet longer than four weeks or perhaps eight weeks at the very most without a two week maintenance level re-feeding before resuming dieting.

Personally I will never again diet for more than two months at a time. Hopefully if I manage my body fat I won't have to cut up for more than a month at a time.

Progress Photos, 4 week intervals, front

Progress Photos, 4 week intervals, side

Progress Photos, 4 week intervals, flexing

Anti-Alzheimer's Properties of Fish Oil Discovered

Many Alzheimer's researchers have long touted fish oil, by pill or diet, as an accessible and inexpensive "weapon" that may delay or prevent this debilitating disease. Now, UCLA scientists have confirmed that fish oil is indeed a deterrent against Alzheimer's, and they have identified the reasons why.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/12/071226003611.htm

I currently take about 3.5 grams of combined EPA/DHA per day in the form of 12 pills daily, 2 with each meal. Some days I get even more because I eat salmon as often as five times a week.

This large amount of Omega-3 fatty acid consumption brings my Omega-6 to 3 ratio much closer to 4:1 or better which is where everyone's ought to be. Most Americans however have a ratio of 20:1 or worse, which has been correlated with all sorts of nasty ailments.

I also partly attribute my drastic drop in blood pressure to my consumption of Omega-3 fatty acids. Last summer, before I decided to change my life, my blood pressure was 138/90. That is classified as pre-hypertension. Today my blood pressure is 100/60, which is the absolute lowest blood pressure still considered normal.

If you don't currently supplement with fish oil, you should!