Finals Days of BBC5 - Evals Time (Again.)

You can click on the image to see it full sized (suggested)

These images will be poster sized when I launch the the 6th Season of Bajai BootCamp aka BBC6.

Longer ago than the years I've been working out I met a Philadelphia body builder who told me it's not the quantity of muscle, but the quality. I was probably bulky at the time; the muscle I'd built while in the Navy had been covered by the fat that came from eating too much bad food too often. When I finally got my act together in the mid-1990s, all I wanted to do was lift weights - "guy lifting" I called it. Everything I did was to build upper body aesthetics, which meant a lot of bench presses and working the muscles that supported heavy bench presses. I got better definition up top, but the belly was still big and present.

Eval pic from 2000 (Y2KC)

I'd dropped 25 lbs. landing at an even 200 by the turn of the century and I was pleased with that. All I wanted to do was get stronger.

Okay, so let's fast forward to 2011 when I decided that every day should be a workout day and I'd make myself accountable to my self by not only training daily, but posting a blog about it.

At some point I succumbed to the reality that nutrition was more important than exercise and that my plans to train harder and not align my diet with training discipline was mythology. Breaking my old eating habits turned out to be more difficult than getting into the gym on a regular basis.

Let's take another leap to March of last year (2015) when I decided to eliminate wheat from my diet. It wasn't as tough for me as it's been for several of my friends - I either don't have opiate receptors in my brain (doubtful) or there's just something odd about me, because I didn't have that much difficulty quitting the wheat. Of course this meant giving up pizza, wraps and my favorite, quesadillas. The results speak for themselves. Images 1 and 2 show the difference between a diet of wraps, pizza slices and carrot cake (all little goodies I used to treat myself to on a weekly, or even monthly basis) and a diet without.

December 2011, 6 Months into BBC-1

Another realization, which I'd made years earlier but put into practice with verve as I learned more and more about food and eating, is that dieting is not an on-off strategy... it's a lifestyle. Two of my favorite double-entendres, are fit for life and eat for life, because both are very, very true.

A week ago, I wondered if maybe I wasn't eating enough protein to fuel my muscles, (I posted an entry about this), so I decided to buy more protein foods, basically meat (I handle meat better because I have O+ blood, there's an entry about that also) - turkey, chicken and grass fed Angus beef, to go along with the lamb and goat I've been eating for a while now in my stews and soups.

Essentially, going into the next season of Bajai BootCamp, I'll be eating more Paleolithically and as for the training regimens, I'll be adding (have already added) wind sprints; I'll be continuing with the body weight/gravity training and weight lifting once a week. The walks will continue, because that's primarily how I get around and hopefully, I'll be able to add more yoga and martial arts exercises (which both mesh nicely into body weight training) into my routine as the seasons progress.

So, that's it. I've managed to post several more photos of myself on this blog. No apologies. I didn't realize until I saw the 2015 pic along side today's pic just how much of an improvement I've made.

I keep getting better as I move through time.

This is important to emphasize because there are people with less time on this plant than I've spent here, that consider themselves old and believe they can't change their situation, improve their health or their physique. There are three reasons I do this now, 1) because I'm addicted; 2) I like the results; 3) I want to prove it can be done.

Thanks for indulging me.

Pisces Sun - Virgo Moon

I was born under a Full Moon in Virgo. I never really got into astrology, but when i heard about it I started reading my "charts" or at least about my characteristics. A lot of it seemed accurate and during the course of life i either became more Pisces, or Pisces became more me, in that I may have fashioned my personality to fit that which was described in astrology charts.

As i wrote this, it seems doubtful. On the one fish, I'm so contrary that I'd probably resist going along with the flow, on the other fish, I'm not sure we can stray very far from where our personality is supposed to be. In addition to the sun and the planets, I am a result of my surroundings and experiences. The times in which I've lived and the methods I've chosen to deal with the information I absorb from the world.

The last paragraph was very enlightening.I have highlighted some sentences that resonated with me.

Flashback image from April 2008... City Hall, Philadelphia

by Grant Lewi 

This comes from http://horoscopespot.net/pisces-sun-virgo-moon/

You are able to put your intuitions over and to bring them to bear logically on your life. You are a good judge of people, with an absolute determination of the correctness of your judgments. Once you are determined about the inner worth of an individual, nothing he can do, however erratic or unreasonable or reprehensible, will shake your faith in him; you understand him from the inside out, and you are willing to let him work out his own problems in his own way. You believe that “to understand all is to forgive all,” and though you are a harsh judge when you estimate a person to be fundamentally unsound, you are equally lenient when you know that the core of his being is sound. Your tolerance is specific rather than universal, intellectual rather than emotional, for you apply to your intuitions a high degree of logic and common sense by which you can make them plausible, both to yourself and others. This integration of facts felt and facts known gives you a quiet self-assurance which rises from the working together of your mental and emotional natures; these are not generally found at variance with each other.

You don’t find yourself doing by impulse things of which you disapprove; and though you may do things of which others disapprove, you have a good reason of your own why you are all right. Your conscience is a real force, but as you are tolerant of others you are also tolerant of yourself, and though you won’t often stray from the beaten track, when you do, you do it calmly and without excitement – with a quiet conviction that you are acting according to some code or other, which you may have made up for the occasion, but which is very real and definite to you. But, by and large, you will lead a conventional, orderly, and understanding life.  

You have a keen sense of humor, laughing readily, which may not give an accurate impression of your fundamentally serious nature. You are amused by life at the same time that you are acutely conscious of its underlying tragic implications. But this consciousness does not interfere with your enjoyment.  

You have a private litany of faith, a sort of exclusive metaphysics of your own, by which you weave together apparent contradictions into the integrated philosophy by which you live and estimate life. This position is mildly good for business activity of the non-executive variety, and also for such creative work as calls for accuracy, thought, and application, rather than inspirational creativeness. Makes good humorists and joke-smiths.

Shred - 008

I've stopped short of calling this a Fitness Regimen, a challenge or one of the seemingly annual, sometimes biannual fitness routines that I initiate around this time of year; but maybe it is. I was in Florida after two weeks in Asia where i wasn't able to get my normal exercise in, although I was walking a lot and did some AM calisthenics. Anyway, in Florida I had access to the gym and since i was jet lagging, I'd get up early and workout. My daughter and I decided to simply, Shred, this would be our action word... the first word, I, at least would say in the morning to remind me to work out.

This appeared during a walk through Philly

Because we have an unofficial workout crew on social media, I decided, to keep myself accountable, that I'd update my status with a "Shred - ###" implying that this could go on for at least 100 days. Who knows, maybe it will, or maybe I will miss a day and have to start over again.

So I took some eval pix to remember... 3-22-16

During this Shred phase, I hit my 3:1 (Muscle mass:Body fat) ratio goal. Managed to hold onto it for two days and then lost it. Today, Shred - 008, I reclaimed it with 3.06:1 ratio and a reading of 14.5% body fat, just over 25 lbs., of fat which means I'll have to adjust my goal downward to.. let's say 22 lbs. (easier to tackle than 20).

This 8th day of Shredding puts me over the one week mark, which seems significant. I trained outside today, ate well and walked for a good 30 - 40 minutes. The full moon is in Libra, and the fact that it's a full moon may be what's giving me the energy. I was also off from work and fitness training today, so I had the whole day to myself.

Much needed and much appreciated.

...what 3:1 looks like... looks to me...

...like there's more Shredding to be done.

I've got about 268 or so days to do it. My aim... 170 lbs +/- 2... on the day I retire. I don't even know how to predict body fat... so I'll shoot for 11-12% ... with an open mind, that maybe I can hit 10%, but not mad if i don't.

Namaste