Please share this with your spouses and
anyone else that you think might want to participate.
The goal is to be ready for an Ironman
Triathlon in 18 months, to be in the best shape of our lives, and to feel
committed to our new way of thinking/being.
I recommend seeing a doctor before
embarking on the process, mostly because I’m not a doctor, a nutritionist, or a
physical therapist. I take no responsibility for your lives or
choices. That’s not the lawyer in me talking; it’s common sense. If
you feel pain that is not related to building endurance/strength, then you
shouldn’t be doing this.
The first period will be the
detoxification process. Don’t kill yourself on first two weeks of this
journey. Like the Ironman, this is an endurance test. So if you
decide that as part of your detoxification that you need to give up coffee,
wheat, cigarettes, alcohol, cooked food, negativity, meat, soda, the news,
sugar, or calories, then maybe just choose coffee. You’ll have plenty of
opportunities to give up anything else later. Lets take baby steps
because the last thing you need is to feel like a failure three days into the
program.
To balance the detoxification process,
the first month will also focus on creating new habits that edify. This
is also a double-edged sword. Don’t try to do them all at one time.
Just choose one thing to add. Obviously these things are subjective just
like the detoxification process. For example: daily affirmations, gratefulness,
eating fruits or vegetables, having daily vitamins, supplements, eating meat,
having two glasses of wine, drinking coffee, reading, or doing something
creative. I can’t tell you what you should cut out (detox) or what you
should add (edify). Whatever it is you believe, is probably right.
So let’s say you’ve decided to cut out
sugar and add in a glass of wine before bed because you believe sugar is poison
and wine helps your heart and puts you into a deeper sleep. That’s
excellent. Stick with those decisions and you’ll feel like you’ve
conquered something that in turn builds your self-esteem exponentially throughout
this process. It’s the upward spiral. We need these little
victories to help us with the really difficult process of sticking with the
exercise program.
The exercise program that I think has
helped me out the most has always been something that is closely connected with
nature, makes me feel like I’ve really worked hard, or that is done with
others. I have a hard time putting in a movie and doing P90X or going to
the gym and lifting weights, but if those things work for you then do
them.
My exercise program is going to
alternate between strength training and endurance on a daily basis.
You’ll soon realize that it’s difficult to do a leg workout at the gym and then
go for a long run the next day. When you do leg strengthening, the next
day you might want to do another strength day or if you have access to a
swimming pool, do a nice long slow swim focusing on your upper body. The
nice thing is that there’s an odd number of days in the week, so that one day
where you do leg strengthening followed by another day of upper body
strengthening, you’re still on schedule.
Scheduling is another double-edged
sword. Try to be flexible. Just like in life, which is the ultimate
endurance test, the persons who adapt and are flexible are then ones who
survive and evolve. Plan, but don’t quit if you can’t follow your
plan. Just readjust and move on. Always keep notes, so that you
know how long you’re running, how many more pushups you’re doing, or how many
Speedos you’ve ruined. Not only will you find the statistics motivating,
but they’ll also keep you on course when you’ve had to readjust your
schedule.
So if you’ve actually made it this far
down into my ramblings, then you might also be serious about giving this a try
with me. If so, I’d direct you to the blog below I set up that will have
my grocery shopping list, my schedule, and my detoxes/edifiers.
Good luck to us! In 18 months, I
hope we’re a tighter knit group of people who thrive off each others’ energy
and looking like our bodies feel.
About the blog: The older posts are
towards the bottom. This writing may be the first thing you see when you open
it, scroll down to see the previous post if you want.
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