Why you should work out, Part Deux
July 4, 2012So here i am sitting in a puddle of my own sweat drinking a cool down drink to recapture some of my fluids i’ve released all over the floor like a drunken slug.
I can’t stop dripping. It’s unsightly.. think of the senator from X-Men, the one who Magneto irradiates and his genes get messed up. Just before he dies he turns into a big body sack of water before he simply pops and drains away.
Just keep pushing play!
That’s me, right now.
The city is in a record heat wave. I picked the worst day in the world to do Plyometrics, or PlyoX as it’s affectionately known as.
“PLYO X… I HATE IT, BUT I LOVE IT!”
-Tony Horton
Not too long ago i wrote about why you should start working out, at least from my own perspective and life’s experience, yours may differ. But something happened today that i thought i’d share which is another reason to start working out.
At work today, a coworker bought a 4 pack of some delicious looking ‘Drumstick‘ ice cream cones. Strawberry Cheesecake flavor with ‘Extra fudge‘ in the cone. Man it looked sweet, specially on a putrid 35 C degree day. Since i swore off sugar and excess fat this should have been easy.. but even i turned the box over to read it’s (and i use the term loosely) ‘nutritional‘ contents. Even my mind was starting to rationalize letting me eat one.
Per Drumstick
Calories: 210
Fat: 8 grams
Sugar: 23 grams
On the surface, this isn’t the worst possible snack. And considering the heat, and the overall super low volume of junk i consume, i could very well have justified it. Even all my colleagues were egging me on saying one wouldn’t kill me or stop my progress. And they’re right. One won’t.
But one can so easily and quickly devolve into two, then four, then a few, and so on. Every slippery slope starts with one, especially when there’s peer pressure involved.
I politely declined and that was the end of it. Then my one colleague who is also working hard to lose weight, who also turned down the drumstick looked at me and said:
“Now that is what i call devotion!“
Took a second to sink in but color me impressed! He continued:
“See, i know i can’t eat that.. i know i’m fat, and have to cut it out. YOU are built and could easily eat that whole box and not see anything show up, and you still turn it down. Total dedication!”
He was doing a great job buttering me up and i wasn’t about to stop him:
“You’re determined to never become fat again! I can appreciate that. I want to get there too!”
He just created an alternate for my namesake.
Go figure.. it’s another BMW!
Devotion. Dedication. Determination.
And he’s right.
The only reason i’m sitting here at my laptop feeling sweat pouring down every inch of my body is because i’m determined never to be that guy who used to see his stomach roll over his belt when he sat down in a chair. I never want to feel my man boobs bounce and chaff against the seat-belt of my Focus <sarcasm><snark>while driving on the smooth pristine pothole-less streets of Toronto </sarcasm></snark>.
I have the devotion to avoid eating crap because i know every piece of junk i eat means i have to sweat just that much more later. I REALLY would have enjoyed eating that brick of sugar and the whole 5 minutes it would have taken me to devour it. I would NOT enjoy the 30+ minutes i’d have to spend burning off the calories and fat from it. Action/consequence. I understand this better than most. Probably why i’m fiscally sound too.
And i have the dedication to do my workout, even in this unbearable heat. Granted i took a few extra pauses on the DVD and took a long mid-session break to go drown myself in the sink but hey.. it would have been all too easy to say ‘Nah, not today, too hot’.
Working out reinforces good habits in you and prevents you from taking the easy way out or being pushed into doing things you would normally not do. You feed off it’s results and use it to dictate your next actions in a beneficial manner towards you and your ultimate goal. It helps keep you on the straight and narrow rather than the ‘easy’ path.
And this is a concept that can be applied to everything you do in life well beyond exercise. Taking the easy path might feel good or quick short term, but over the long haul it will come to fuck you over. Just ask Yoda.. he knows his shit!
If you end your training now – if you choose the quick and easy path as Vader did – you will become an agent of evil.
Just one more reason to start working out. Do or do not. There is no try.
That’s just my opinion. But what do i know.. i’m not a therapist.
I only play one on TV.
Now if you excuse me, i need to go find a mop.
M3 
Nice. The journey to good health begins one bite (or lack of one) at a time.
Nice man.
For me, the dieting and suppliments are the easiest part of being healthy. It’s less ‘going out of your way’ to do something like the gym. You make a choice immediately do it (eat it or don’t eat it). Not buying food that breaks it and not eating at restaurants that don’t meet it. Just doing that, suppliments, and the interval fasting has lost me a ton of weight.
Now I just need to get better at going to the gym. This once a week isn’t cutting it. Just have a hard time because my schedule doesn’t allow anything like a daily ‘I go to the gym at ____ time’ thing and is also physically demanding sometimes, so I can’t wear myself out those days either
I will say, people that knew me last year when u had 25 pounds more on me… Well, Its nice to lose weight, see the people you were attracted to gain it, and turn them down while they’re all over you because you don’t want any of that anymore
I know i sound like a broken record and a shill for Tony but… have you considered p90x? You won’t become Arnold, but that’s not the point. You get defined, sculpted and toned, ripped even. Beauty is it’s all done in your home, at your leisure, fitting your schedule. You modify and cheat or make it up later where required. No spotters, no risk of weights crashing on your face, no being a hero and hurting yourself, no dealing with huge meatheads who rib you because you’re not ‘jacked’ like them, etc.. and you don’t lose any amount of time spent getting to/from the gym or blame shitty weather on not going. The only negative is you don’t get to see fit chicks working out.. but really, if your game is good, you’ll meet them later out at the pub anyways right? 😉
A powerful motivator it is aye. Revenge is a dish best served cold. Altho i don’t believe in karma, i’m still tempted to say it’s a bitch!
I haven’t considered p90x. I’ve done some at home shot I’ve Cooked up myself, probably a month or two longest. I didn’t know p90x was an at home thing, got a good intro website?
Gotta care and look forward to it for it to be revenge. I simply had it happen, reveled in it, and let it push me forward. It was hosting a pre-red pill girl on my couch to help her out. Figured I’d regress, like a lot of the internet says to expect at place like FFY’s.
So, no expectations, but bet I could have fucked her despite her having a new ‘long distance serious relationship’. I simply.,, didn’t want to. Suddenly the 36DD at 5’2″ was 140lbs instead of 125 or 120, and I didn’t want yo touch it.
Revenge is easy. Detached I don’t give a fuck is harder.
Its funny you post this. Someone today just remarked how I lost weight and they haven’t seen me in two weeks. In that whole two weeks I haven’t even set foot in the gym due to an injury….guess its that good ole AFTERBURN effect,,,2 weeks still going strong.
I always watched the infomercial, but it was all these real transformations on YouTube that sealed the deal for me.
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=p90x+transformation+men&oq=p90x+tran&gs_l
Touche’
Definitely something to be said about the afterburn. I usually seem to lose more fat during my offweeks than when i’m working out. Maybe it’s just my muscles aren’t swollen as much. But i do look more lean and chiseled a few days after not working out.
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