Struggle

It's funny I can remember the struggle. Lots of the self-help courses have you recognize and then think of ways to combat yourself. So life becomes a struggle against whatever that is. Some call it the reactive mind, Landmark calls them rackets and winning formulas. Whatever it is you learn tricks or methods to fight against this automatic reacting thingy in our brains that wants us to see everything as the same thing. So Jan has hair like Sally (who cheated on us) so we don't like Jan. But with many course you learn tricks to tell yourself the Jan and Sally are different, and you go through life always reminding and fighting against these thoughts. So it becomes a constant search with some new course to finally find the cure and find some peace. Well through some of the courses you can actually learn to delete the rackets and that part of the mind that sees everything as the same thing, and at that point you get freedom. So then the manic search for the right course disappears, and then there is real peace and life becomes a game and you learn to live life as a creative being who sees everything in life in aesthetic band, and everyday every minute becomes a self expression of that artistic (I don't mean drawing or painting, I mean simple as walking down the street or sitting on the couch) expression. And you want to become an example for others and really want to help people. Not just to give sympathy and to say "it's ok, it's hard on everyone" but to say it doesn't have to be hard and can actually be quite fun. Once you learn the tools of life and the responsibility those tools entail you then have to go out and do something. It''s hard to explain.

Before

After 8 Weeks With 5 more to go!!

P90X

Well I was in Louisville for a birthday party this spring and I was asking one of the guys there about his shirt. It was a shirt that had some marathon on it. So I asked him if he ran. He said yeah but right now he was doing P90X. I said what is that? He explained how it was an extreme workout that was hard and he liked it and was getting in really great shape. So I looked it up on my iPhone. it seemed pretty cool. Then I remembered that my wife Robin's friend was in town a few weeks before that and she was doing the power 90 workout and I remembered Tony Horton's face and the room and the three other people with him. And I pieced it together, it was the same guy. Power 90 was an easier version.

What really impressed me was that Kim was doing the workout at our house in the morning after partying the night before. Who does that? Plus she didn't need all kinds of space and it wasn't all kinds of goofy dance moves and techno music.

Well I was flipping through the channels and I come across the P90X infomercial. I watched bits and pieces of it and I liked it. I was especially impressed with Tony being 53 and looking like that and there was some other 50 year old. I'm 38 soon to be 39 on the 27th. I was also impressed that you could do it in a small space and that you could get ripped.

I wasn't sure though and I wanted some more time to make sure etc etc. So anyway my wife bought it for me off Craig's List. The actual workout, NOT A BOOTLEG COPY. I don't believe in that. But I do believe that a private person can buy something and turn around and sell it, just like you might buy movies at a garage sale. I don't think people should be arrested for doing that!

I started the workouts and they were tough. I wouldn't have started except for my wife just saying we're going to start tomorrow morning and at 5:30 I hear the music start and I fall out of bed and start working. After the warm up I felt fine.

I can tell you 8 weeks in I am ripped!! I have a 6 pack and my arms and back are cut!!! It's really cool! I have lots of energy. I was really sore in the beginning but then I started drinking a homemade recovery drink from this site http://www.spma.net/recoverydrinksfin.htm, Simple Whey protein and fruit juice. You need the glucose because you need the glycogen. Read the reasoning on that site. It made a huge difference.

I also went to the grocery and bought Body Fortress products. I use the super NOS blast and the glutamine before my workout and after. I just follow the directions. The NOS helps me to focus and work harder during the workout and the Glutamine has made a HUGE difference in my level of soreness afterward. Their website is www.bodyfortress.com.