I will be doing ONE figure skating competition this year: Vail.

As of yesterday, I am down to 218 pounds. I haven’t weighed 218 since I passed it on the way UP to 260, about 7 years ago.

I am also working on this Couch to 5k program, in order to get back into running form. What running form? Most believe would find this hard to believe, but “back in the day” when I was in the military, I was a runner. Half marathons, to be exact. I really want to return to that form, and really want to do well on this Warrior Dash thing in August.

Tonight is a light interval thingy – run 1 minute, walk 2, repeat 10 times for 30 minutes.

Tomorrow is a Turbulence Training workout. Ugh, I hate those. Dang you, Craig Ballantyne!

Abduction and Adduction

Abduction is defined as those bodily movements which involve actions that are away from the midline of the body or one of its body parts. Abduction occurs in the frontal plain. The muscle that causes this movement is called the abductor.

Adduction is the opposite of abduction and involves movement towards the midline of the body. The muscle that causes adduction at a joint is called adductor.

Agonist

The agonist is the muscle which is directly responsible for the movement at a joint.

Anaerobic Activity

Anaerobic activity is a term used to define activities undertaken without the presence of oxygen e.g. weight lifting and sprinting. Such activities cannot be undertaken for long periods of time.

Anaerobic Capacity Test

A test that is used to measure the ability of the body to undertake exercises of short durations and of very high intensity.

Antagonist

An antagonist is a muscle that has an action opposite to muscles directly responsible for the movement of a joint.

Concentric Muscle Contraction

Concentric muscle contraction involves muscle shortening while contracting, such as the bicep while lifting the weight during the bicep curl.

Eccentric Muscle Contraction

Eccentric muscle contraction involves the lengthening of a muscle during movement, such as the bicep while lowering the weight during the bicep curl.

Extension

Extension may be defined as any movement that involves an increase in the angle of the articulating bones, such as straightening a bent elbow. The muscle which causes an extension is called an extensor.

Fast Twitch Muscle Fiber

Fast twitch muscle fiber is a type of muscle fiber that is suited for high intensity exercise.

Flexion

Flexion is a movement that leads to a decrease in the angle between two articulating bones, such as at the elbow during the bicep curl when the weight is bought up towards the shoulder. The muscle that causes flexion is called the flexor.

Isokinetic Muscle Contraction

Isokinetic muscle contraction occurs when the speed of shortening of the muscle remains constant over the entire range of motion. This type of contraction usually relies on special gym equipment.

Isometric Muscle Contraction

Isometric muscle contraction occurs when the muscle length remains static during exercise. This occurs when the force of the muscle equals the weight of the force applied on the muscle, such as if you hold a weight in your hand with an outstretched arm for 10 seconds.

Isotonic Muscle Contraction

Isotonic muscle contraction occurs when the tension remains constant and where the muscle shortens. Weight training is a classic example of isotonic muscle contraction.

Ligament

Ligaments are strong fibrous connective tissue that attaches one bone to another.

Muscular Endurance

Muscular endurance refers to the ability of a muscle to undergo repeated contractions without fatigue.

Plyometrics

Plyometrics is a type of training that is designed to improve both power and strength. It usually involves exercises such as an athlete jumping from one block to the floor and then to another block.

Progressive Overload

In order to improve the body’s strength or endurance, we must put it under some kind of stress, and as the body becomes stronger we should increase the amount of stress in order to continue achieving gains.

Resistance Training

Resistance training refers to any type of training or exercise where resistance is applied to the body

Slow Twitch Muscle Fiber

Slow twitch muscle fibers are the muscle fibers that are designed for endurance and high aerobic activity. They can produce a large amount of energy using oxygen. For example, marathon runners and cyclists have a lot of slow twitch fibers.

Strength

Strength refers to the maximum force that can be developed within a muscle or group of muscles during a single contraction.

Synergist

Synergist is the muscle which contracts to enhance the efficiency of the muscle primarily important for the movement of a joint.

Tendon

Tendons are connective tissues which are responsible for attaching skeletal muscle to bone.

A much better exercise to consider replacing the traditional ab crunch with is the Swiss ball crunch. Swiss balls are inexpensive and available at most sporting goods stores, as well as major retail chains like Target, Wal-Mart, Sears, KMart, etc., or online.

The Swiss ball crunch is completed as follows: Lie on the ball so that your back conforms to the shape of the ball. Hold the sides of your head very lightly (only for support), and then curl your spine such that your entire upper back comes up off the surface of the ball. In this position, pause and make sure that you can feel your abs contracting, pulling in towards the spine, and your lower back should be digging into the ball. Hold, inhale, then lower yourself back to the starting position.

Replacing your old floor crunches with Swiss ball crunches should make a significant difference in how you feel afterwards, particularly if you already have lower back problems or occasional back pains.

To your fitness,

_

If you’re an active person, then your protein needs go up as well. Since muscle is primarily protein-based, your protein requirements are highest when you’re actively engaged in building significant muscle bulk. Many professional body builders consume 1 to 2 grams of protein per pound of body weight per day!

If your dietary restrictions keep you from eating meat, consider these alternative high protein foods. Items are listed as food, then serving size, then protein content per serving, in grams:

Peanut butter, 2 tablespoons, 20 grams protein
Tofu, firm, 3 ounces, 13 grams
Soy milk, 1 cup, 11 grams
Tempeh, 2 ounces, 11 grams
Whole-wheat pasta, dry, 2 ounces , 9 grams
Black beans, 1/2 cup, 8 grams
Chickpeas (garbanzos), 1/2 cup, 8 grams
Lentils, cooked, 1/2 cup, 8 grams
Almonds, 1 ounce, 6 grams
Oatmeal, cooked, 1 cup, 6 grams
Shredded wheat, 2 ounces, 6 grams
Tahini, 1 ounce, 6 grams
Whole-wheat bread, 2 slices, 6 grams
Baked potato, 1 medium, 5 grams
Barley, quick, 1/4 cup, 5 grams

This list also does not include dairy proteins, such as milk, cheese, and yogurt. All of these tend to be good sources of protein as well, so if your personal dietary restrictions don’t exclude them, they’re worthy of consideration.

To your fitness,

_

Strawberries are one of nature’s super foods. They are packed with nutrition, including plenty of folate, fiber, and Vitamin C. A serving of strawberries actually has more Vitamin C than a medium-sized orange.

What does this mean for your health? Vitamin C is a powerful antioxidant that protects the body against premature aging and is often associated with reduced risk of stomach, colon and lung cancers. Folate, one of the B vitamins, helps break down the amino acid homocysteine in the blood, which helps lower risk of heart disease and stroke. It’s also suggested that folate may lower the risk of colon cancer.

To make your own strawberry smoothies, try the following recipe:
2 C. fresh strawberries, stemmed and rinsed
1/3 C. frozen lemonade concentrate (about half of a 6-ounce can)
1/3 C. confectioner’s sugar (powdered sugar)
3 C. ice cubes

1. Place strawberries, lemonade concentrate and sugar in a blender container.
2. Blend at low setting until mixed.
3. Blend in ice cubes, 1/2 cup at a time, until the mixture is slushy.
4. Serve in frosted glasses.

Super-duper yummy-time!

Until next time,

_

Here are a few facts:

A calorie is in scientific terms “a unit of heat required to raise the temperature of a kilogram of water 1 degree (Celsius) at a specified temperature.” (Note: this is called a “food calorie,” also known as a “large calorie.” The so-called small calorie, which is the type used in chemistry, is defined as “a unit of heat required to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water 1 degree Celsius.”)

Every food contains calories.

A gram of fat contains about 8 calories.

A gram of carbohydrate or protein contains about 4 calories.

A pound of body fat contains about 3,500 calories.

Thus, by cutting caloric intake by, for instance, 500 calories a day, you will burn approximately 1 pound a week.

To lose weight, you must simply burn more calories per day than you take in.

No amount of hype changes these basic biological facts.

According to the National Research Council, the average woman (5’4″, medium frame) who does absolutely nothing, burns between 1,600 and 2,400 calories per day; the average man (5’8″, medium frame) burns 2,300-3,000 calories per day.

The body burns most of its calories replacing tissue, processing food, pumping blood, and so on.

The most accurate equation for calculating how many calories the body burns is called the Mifflin equation. For 78% of the people tested, the Mifflin equation estimates the number of calories a person burns to be within 10% of the measured number of calories they burned at rest.

But there’s a simpler formula for estimating how many calories you burn when you’re completely at rest: add a zero to your weight (if you weigh 175, make it 1,750) and then add your actual weight twice to that figure (1,750 + 175 + 175 = 2,100). Thus 2,100 is roughly how many calories a 175 pound person uses in a completely sedentary state.

Using these same figures:

“To determine your total calorie needs, you have to add calories for general activity and exercise. With your desk job and workouts, you probably burn one-half again your resting needs, for a total of 3,150 calories (2,100 plus 1,050 equals 3,150). If you were engaged in a regular aerobic exercise program, you would require more calories. On average, walking or jogging a mile consumes about 100 calories” (From the desk of Clarence Bass).

These are, of course, only estimates, and in the end you must get to know your own body, as indeed the Stagyrite once sagely advised.

There is, ultimately, only way to get and stay in shape, and that by wanting it with all your heart and soul. All the fads and all the hype will never, I’m afraid, provide a shortcut for that, although some things may motivate you more than others.

“Spot reducing” (so-called) is a myth. It is physiologically impossible to lose body fat selectively from a specific area — the abs, for example.

Exercising the abs and obliques, just like any other muscle group, only strengthens those muscles and makes them more muscular. It does not burn fat. Those muscles may indeed strengthen under the layers of fat, but the fat still remains, masking the muscles thereby.

Genetics are the real determiner of where and how a person will lose body fat. There is no universal: people lose body fat in an individual manner.

Burning fat comes about primarily through the reduction of caloric intake.

Burning fat does not primarily come about through umpteen repetitions. Countless repetitions are a colossal waste of time.

If you wish to lose body fat, follow these rules:

1. Eat a little less.

2. Eat a little more nutritiously.

3. Do something lower-body aerobic – this includes brisk walking – at least four times each week for at least 30 minutes.

If you reduce your caloric intake about 300 calories less per day from what it normally takes to maintain your current weight, and at the same time if you do something aerobic, focusing on the butt, hamstrings and quads (i.e. walking, running, cross-country skiing, but not bicycling, which becomes too easy too fast), and if you do it diligently, you will, over time, depending upon your own genetic disposition, see your body fat become a thing of the pass. Your abs and obliques will begin to show through, and most important of all, you’ll decrease your risk for diabetes and heart disease.

In response to which, Doctor Howard G. Knuttgen, of University Park, Pennsylvania, answers: “Monumental misinformation … For active adults, 2 or 3 sets repetition maximum per session for each muscle group done 3 to 4 sessions per week.”

Doctor Ralph N. Carpinelli, neuromuscular strength trainer at Adelphi University, in turn responded to Doctor Knuttgen by saying: “There is no scientific evidence, nor is there any physiological basis, that would support the superiority of multiple sets … Theoretically, as people become stronger and wish to attain maximal increases in strength and hypertrophy, which is not accomplished without optimal recuperation, they may require lower volume and frequency.”

Doctor Carpinelli reviewed, rather exhaustively, all the scientific literature available on the subject. His conclusion: “The quantity of exercise is not as important as the quality of exercise” (Master Trainer, Dec. 1997).

The argument is, needless to say, controversial and far from finished.

Try this:

If you’re in good shape — and only if you’re in good shape — experiment with both methods. One week take Dr. Knuttgen’s advice: 3 sets of any lift you like, all to exhaustion. Choose a weight that will allow you to do around 10 reps on the first set.

One week later, do the same lift with the same weight for, but only 1 set.

What happens? How many reps can you do comparatively?

Many believe that when you know you have more sets ahead of you, you’ll subconsciously hold back the better to conserve energy, thereby cheating yourself out of a more quality workout; whereas if you’re only doing 1 set, you’ll remain more intensive and focused.

None of which is written in stone, of course. You should experiment and let us know your results.

One of the main things I’m hearing these days is “V02 max.”

What the heck is V02 max?

V02 max, it turns out, is also knows as “maximal oxygen uptake.”

Most experts today generally consider V02 max to be the best measure of aerobic fitness.

And what exactly does the term “aerobic fitness” refer to?

To start with, “aerobic” literally means “with oxygen”; “anaerobic” means “without oxygen.”

Thus, aerboic exercise is exercise that is fairly intense and undertaken for a long period of time. It is, in other words, exercise that gets your thumper thumping and also makes you breathe hard, for a sustained duration.

“Aerobic refers to the use of oxygen in a muscle’s energy-generating process” (American College of Sports Medicine).

Running is an excellent example of an aerobic activity.

Now as your aerobic activity increases, your body eventually reaches it’s oxygen capacity limit – specifically, its capacity for oxygen consumption.

That limit is the pinnacle of your aerobic capacity.

That pinnacle is known as your maximal oxygen uptake – i.e. your “V02 max.”

So there you have it.

There’s more:

“As intensity increases beyond V02max, your body must shift to anaerobic (without oxygen) energy production. An oxygen debt begins to build at this point and blood lactate levels climb. In general terms, one’s ability to continue exercising in the face of rising oxygen deficit and lactate levels is called anaerobic capacity.

“This is important because many high-intensity sports (including basketball, football, soccer and speed skating) require a high level of both aerobic and anaerobic fitness. Clearly, total fitness involves both high V02max and high anaerobic capacity” (From “FORGET THE FAT-BURN ZONE: High Intensity Aerobics Amazingly Effective”).

A lot of individuals with incredible looking abs do very little in the way of regular ab workouts. Ray, for example, does ONE ab workout per week, for about 15 to 20 minutes.

In this video, Ray presents a pretty intense ab workout that takes less than 5 minutes. Do this 2 or 3 times per week, in conjunction with your daily walking, running, or other cardio, and you’ll be strengthening the core muscles while also dropping body fat, helping that six pack come to the surface.

[video:youtube:uMvC6_M085U]

Over-enthusiasm leads to excessive exercise, which in turn causes over-training. Over exercising can lead to not only injury and wear and tear, but it can also cause mental fatigue. It is one of the biggest reasons why people give up exercising. Training should be done only to the point that it is comfortable to the mind and body. The maxim “more is better” does not always hold true while exercising. In case the muscles have been over fatigued, they usually recover after 48 hours of rest. If the problem seems to be a muscle tear, sprain or issue related to the bone, you must treat it as a sports injury and seek medical attention.

Joining our writing team is Ray Harvey, whom you may be familiar with from our “Skip The Gym – The At Home Total Fitness Program” workout DVD. Ray is a top notch athlete, holder of a Colorado state high school distance running record, and pioneer in the world of at-home workouts. Watch this space for his contributions, coming soon.

Our goal here is to create an interactive community with our customers and readers. Don’t hesitate to contact one of us for information about our programs, products, or for more info about anything you read here.

To your fitness,

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From a purely capitalistic perspective, it’s a wonderful thing! However, most of those gym memberships will go unused after February or March, and any weight that most people lose will come right back in a few weeks or months.

Rather than adapting New Year’s resolutions, why not instead focus on real, measurable, and achievable GOALS?

A goal is different from a resolution, because a goal has measurable progress and a defined date for achieving some benchmark. This is in stark contrast to a “resolution”, which simply states the desire to make a change.

My own two fitness related goals for the year are incredibly simple:

1. Drink soda only on “free” days
2. Avoid eating from a drive through window except on “free” days

These two goals are not only simple, measurable, and achievable, but also incredibly powerful. Let’s take a look at just the soda factor. I’m a heavy Mountain Dew addict, and have been for years. I’ve gone weeks without it before, but pick it right back up again when I give up the crash diet. A 32 oz. Mountain Dew contains 440 calories, and it is not uncommon to drink one of those, or two 20 oz. bottles per day. Since one pound equals 3500 calories, you can see that eliminating that 32 oz. Mountain Dew on all but one day per week (my free day) will allow me to lose 3.5 pounds per month. That’s 42 pounds in one year! Not bad for a simple habit change. I’m constantly dehydrated anyway, so I need to drink more water as it is. Fortunately, I love water. The other side of the Mountain Dew equation is the cost. I’ll save $546 a year by only drinking a gigantic Dew once a week instead of every day. That may not sound like a lot, but that will cover an entire month of my figure skating training , including ice time, and that’s something that I place a high personal value on.

So, if you’re thinking about jumping on the annual weight loss bandwagon, I would encourage you to take time to seriously evaluate your lifestyle and identify one or two simple, measurable, and achievable GOALS that you can implement to work towards.

Happy New Year!

Until next time,

_

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To read more about it, you can read the sales page, testimonials, and all that stuff on the Eat Stop Eat Web Page.

Then, right after work, I skated another 45 minutes until 5:30, then drove back down to the YMCA rink and skated for about 30 minutes. Needless to say, by the end of that third session at the Y, my feet were aching, thighs were burning, and I was exhausted.

However, I feel great! I skated for two solid hours today, including two essentially back to back sessions. It feels good knowing that I can do that, especially when I know I’ve been practicing things that require more muscle engagement for me at this point. I’m sure that I’ll regret it come morning, but doing a self-check right now, I feel fine, and don’t have any more muscle or joint pain than I normally would.

Unfortunately, adult skaters have two things going against them when it comes to practice, that the little kids don’t. These two factors are:

1. A job.
2. The normal aches and pains of aging.

How often should skaters practice? The real answer is, “As often as you can safely physically handle — and afford.” Most of the adult skaters I talk to say that they practice 2 or 3 times per week, usually for 45 minutes to an hour each session. In studies I’ve seen regarding skill retention and advancement, this really is a minimum level to make any sort of progress in skills over the long haul. For most adults, skating one hour per week is likely to be sufficient to maintain recreational skating skills, but if your objective is gain new skills and improve proficiency, additional ice time is likely needed.

For the kids that I skate with, there are definitely three very distinct levels of commitment that I see. Based on hours skated weekly, they are:

1. “Recreationally Competitive” — these kids seem to skate 8 to 12 hours per week. They all seem to love skating, but they have other hobbies as well, and probably active social lives. They tend to realize that they will never compete at Nationals, but they have fun and do their best and skate in several competitions annually.

2. “Competitively Competitive” — these kids skate 2 to 4 hours per day. Several of the girls that skate my morning sessions do back-to-back morning sessions, then back-to-back afternoon sessions after school. These kids are on accelerated testing and competition tracks, and, frankly, they are the ones that bring home the medals from all of our regional competitions. Some of them have been to Sectionals, and the occasional one might make it to Nationals at their test level, skating 15 to 20 hours per week.

3. “National / International Competitors” — Being so close to Colorado Springs, I am fortunate to be able to rub elbows with elite skaters on occasion. These kids are national and international champions, and their lives literally revolve around figure skating. If they are still in middle or high school, they all have some sort of shortened academic day. For example, U.S. ladies silver medalist and reigning World Junior Champion Rachael Flatt attends class for 5 periods per day at her high school, and skates approximately 24 hours per week, plus has off-ice training for jumps and spins, plus time in the gym for weight training, running, and probably ballet, too.

Personally, I’m comfortable being in the first group. I’ve been skating for 10 months now, and I’ve probably averaged 3 hours per week on ice. My goal is to bump that up to seven to ten hours per week, effective, well, immediately. As I continue to lose weight, the stress of skating on my hips, knees, back, and ankles will diminish, which will ultimately be what enables me to practice that much.

Of course, remember that taking up figure skating as an adult IS the start of a new fitness program. Therefore, you should definitely consult with your physician before starting to make sure that you are healthy enough in the necessary respects to engage in a sport like this.

Until next time,

Jassen Bowman

What usually is required for people to take massive action in regards to their health and fitness is some event. Perhaps it’s their first heart attack, or a loved one develops cancer, or it could even be something positive, such as an upcoming trip to the beaches of Hawai’i.

One of the things that my trip to Australia forced me to do was to alter my eating and drinking habits for two weeks. Mountain Dew was available in Sydney, but it was about 1/2 km walk to the nearest convenience store that carried it, since the 3 convenience store AND the major grocery store within one block of the hostel didn’t carry it. In addition, alcohol was incredibly expensive at the local bars. Drinks were twice as much as they are at bars here in Colorado. Lastly, there was incredibly cheap, yet incredibly good, authentic Asian food all around downtown Sydney.

What that boiled down to was nearly two weeks of very little soda, and a stable diet of rice, vegetables, and very little red meat. Add in a couple trips to the beach and one trip to the Canterbury Olympic Ice Rink (which only reaffirmed my love of the sport), and I committed to continue eating better even after my trip.

I already know I get plenty of exercise. I skate for an hour 3 or 4 days a week, hit the gym 3 times a week for cardio and weights, and do random bits of yoga and speed skating off and on. I’ve lost over twenty pounds in the past year since I started ice skating, but I’m still at 220. Why? Because of my diet, and no other reason.

In the epic (and kinda creepy) 1999 film “American Beauty,” the primary character, Lester, played by Kevin Spacey, overhears one of his daughter’s high school cheerleader friends, Angela, say, “If he just worked out a little, he’d be hot……If he built up his chest and arms, I would totally…” This was much to the disgust of Jane, of course. Several days later, Lester is shown out trying to join his two gay neighbors for a jog, and this exchange takes place:

Lester Burnham: I figured you guys might be able to give me some pointers. I need to shape up. Fast.
Jim Olmeyer: Are you just looking to lose weight, or do you want increased strength and flexibility as well?
Lester Burnham: I want to look good naked!

This one simple reason can be quite compelling. While I was in Australia, where speed skating is MUCH bigger than it is in America, and where I met a designer for men’s figure skating costumes, I finally found my WHY. I found the reason why I really need to lose weight, why I need to slim down. What’s my why? It became very, very simple:

I want to look good in Lycra!

Booyah!

On Monday, while in Provo, UT, I stopped at McDonald’s for lunch and ordered chicken McNuggets, fries, and a Pibb. Every aspect of that meal tasted disgusting. I could taste the chemicals in the food for the first time in my life, and the soda was so syrup laden and sugary that I could barely drink it. I ended up not even eating all of it, which was probably a first for me in my life.

I haven’t touched another soda since Monday, and really have no desire to. I had a couple different energy drinks on the drive through Wyoming, and those seemed equally nasty, although they kind of always are. I have almost an entire case of Red Bull left over from the Burn, and I had one of those this morning, and it was OK.

Out on the playa, most camps don’t have the luxury of the full kitchen that the HeeBee’s have. Therefore, many people out there live off backpacker food. I’ve long been a fan of the freeze dried and dehydrated meals from Mountain House and Backpacker’s Pantry that you can pick up at REI, and on the rare occasions when I actually cook from scratch at home, it’s invariably something similar to those meals. For the most part, I figure that I can’t cook it in a slow cooker, I’m probably not going to cook. During periods of extended car camping, I found it easy to make simple stews, pasta recipes, and rice dishes that can be cooked in a Thermos (no joke – it acts like a slow cooker, just pre-heat with boiling water for 10 minutes, add dry ingredients, then add more boiling water, seal, set in sun or hot car for 5 or 6 hours).

I’ve decided to keep up with some of the habits I picked up from the playa. Watermelon and pineapple were daily fare, as were bacon and eggs. I picked up a slew of Mountain House meals at JAX and, for 30 days starting today, will only eat those for two meals per day.

While that might sound crazy, these just-add-boiling-water meals in a bag are much, much healthier than my normal daily fare, and cheaper, too. Pre-burn, here’s what a typical day would look like for me, for all meals and snacks, spread throughout the day:

-breakfast burrito from a gas station + 16 oz energy drink
-granola bar of some sort, plus a jerky stick and a 20 oz Mountain Dew
-lunch at a neighboring Mexican or Italian place (1200-1800 calories, easily)
-dinner at Burger King or McDonalds (another 1200+ calories)
-often a late night snack, which was usually something quite craptastic

Total Calorie count: 4500 to 6000 per day, easily

Now, post-Burn, here’s what I’ve had today and plan for the evening:

-breakfast of 3 pieces of bacon and two scrambled eggs with salsa and 16 oz of water (roughly 500 calories)
-Red Bull (110 calories)
-lunch of 1/2 of a Mountain House chicken & rice meal (400 cal)
-another Red Bull
-dinner will be the other half of the Mountain House meal
-late night snack of Clif bar (250 calories)

Total Calorie Count: 1,770

This is the first time I’ve counted this stuff up in a LONG time, but that’s a huge drop. What I noticed at Burning Man was that, because of the heat, the water, and the constant activity, eating became a thing just for fuel, not because it was there and I was sitting on my duff. My appetite was easily 1/2 what it usually is, so today’s calorie count will be in line with that.

According to this BMR Calculator, my daily basal caloric requirement to maintain my weight is 2145 calories. That’s a negative difference of 375 for today, which is 3/4 of a pound of fat lost per week, or 39 pounds per year. Cut out the Red Bull and it’s 1.2 pounds per week, or 61 pounds per year. Considering the fact that my goal is to lose 50 more, that’s actually achievable, with NO exercise.

Let’s add in the 1200 to 1800 calories per week I burn figure skating, and the 1,000 calories a week I should be burning in the gym for off-ice training, and it comes to just under 2 pounds per week of weight loss, putting me at my goal weight in only 6 months.

Holy smokes. That’s achievable. I hadn’t thought that through until right now. This post was supposed to just be about a 30 day challenge of eating Mountain House meals every day. Even better, I’m actually eating stuff I want to eat, and it doesn’t seem that restrictive.

The best part, though? I’ll save over $700 a month on restaurant and convenience store spending, even taking into account the cost of Mountain House meals and fresh fruit.

Burning Man just became a ten times greater experience.

I just got home from the grocery store, and my shopping bag has quite a few things that I never have in my fridge. These things include

-grapes
-strawberries
-cheese
-blueberries
-pineapple
-blackberries
-raspberries
-hummus
-celery
-whole wheat crackers

All the fruit is made up of those pre-cut plastic buckets of fruit. Why? Because I’m lazy, and that’s the only way I’ll end up eating it.

So, why on earth was this the summation of my shopping trip?

It has a lot to do with the reason I’ve made more progress in the past 12 days towards my Bronze test judge appointment in figure skating than I’ve made in the past 9 months.

First, a few of my all time favorite quotes:

“Successful people do the things that unsuccessful people are unwilling to do.” -John Maxwell.

You don’t need someone else’s permission to become successful. – Dan Kennedy

The path to success is to take massive, determined action. – Anthony Robbins

“The key to success is discipline. What is discipline? Discipline is self-control.” Gunnery Sgt Phil Yoho, USMC, my NROTC officer instructor

People that meet me generally think I’m one of those super-motivated people that takes massive action, and that’s the reason I’ve done so many things in life and had so many opportunities. People that REALLY know me, however, know that simply isn’t reality. By my very nature, I am a lazy, unmotivated, slacker. I am capable of taking massive action, and have a long track record of doing so, but I do it in crazy spurts of productivity that generate necessary results, and these spurts of activity are spurred only when the pain caused by inactivity exceeds some threshold. It’s like rolling a boulder uphill – it’s not gonna happen unless there is sufficient reason to do so. Otherwise, why bother?

There is really only one glaring exception to this generality about myself: I’ll go out of my way simply to find out where a road or trail goes, or to see what’s around or over something. I’m the one that pushes the button to see what happens, and opens the box just to see what’s inside. I’m the cat that curiosity killed.

OK, so what the heck does this have to do with figure skating, or grocery shopping?

I tend to define myself as a person by external things, and am therefore motivated primarily by external stimuli. When I was in the Navy, the military was a massive part of my identity as a human being. It was the thing from which I drew my desire to succeed, and sometimes, my motivation to even live. Once the Navy was no longer a part of my life, it left a gaping black hole that I tried various ways to fill, and they mostly failed.

Roll around to the end of 2007. With my marriage two years gone, my religious faith buried, and my business in shambles, I was having a massive identity crisis, which required massive action. That’s how I ended up with a massive career change and a drastic change in hobbies.

Entering the tax field was one of the best thing I’ve ever done in my life. I truly love what I do, and nearly two years later I have even more passion for what I’m doing than I did when I started. With the new job also came the motivation to start over financially in it’s entirety, thus the Chapter 7 bankruptcy. After filing bankruptcy, my income also started to increase a little, and for the first time in two years I had some actual disposable income. Oh, and a rink on the way to work.

I’d been a figure skating fan my entire life. One day on a whim I stopped in and asked about learning to skate. I went straight to private lessons on public sessions, and was very fortunate to find a coach that I clicked with.

Fast forward, and while I occasionally speed skate, whack a puck around the ice, curl, and shoot, figure skating has become the thing I attach my identity to, along with work.

I’m in a phase of massive action at work, for one very simple reason: I reached the point where I breached the breaking point, and the pain of working long hours and building the systems I’m building will result in a great enough reward at the end to make it worth the sacrifice now. These systems will enable me to increase my income while working remotely, which will satisfy my curiosity to travel the world AND enable me to spend more time doing stuff related to figure skating. Tada – external motivation!

Back to working on my trial judging. Why am I suddenly motivated to advance towards that goal rapidly? Again, simple. Since figure skating is now deeply attached to my self-esteem and sense of self-worth (no matter how bad of a thing that attachment is), my failure to keep satisfactory pace with my goals for my own skating skills has led me to compensate for that failure by shifting my focus back to judging.

It’s probably overcompensation, to be honest. I’ve trialed three test sessions in two weeks, will take my Bronze written exam in a few weeks, and have also started working on test requirements for my Silver appointment, and have registered for the Silver level school at Nationals in January. I have also set things up to start working on my accountant appointment and System Specialist appointment. Yep, that’s officially overcompensation.

And why? Because I’m not picking things up on the ice at the pace I want. And why is that??? This finally answers the grocery question (btw, the cheese cubes, grapes, and strawberries that just became dinner during the course of typing everything above was actually very delicious! and filling! and, OMG! healthy!).

When our rink was shut down in September for maintenance, we all had to skate elsewhere. After a lesson at APEX one morning, my coach and I were talking in the parking lot about food. It’s been obvious for a while that my weight has become a limiting factor in the advancement of my skating skills. I can’t jump any higher, it makes balancing difficult, it kills my flexibility, tires me out faster carrying the extra baggage, etc., etc., etc.

So we were talking about food. One of the biggest things out of that conversation was that I should buy pre-cut, packaged veggies and fruits, that way they’re convenient and I’ll actually eat them. And I will do so, since when I’m sitting in front of a computer, which I do 12+ hours per day, I tend to graze on whatever’s at arms length. That tends to be a lot of chips, soda, cookies, donuts, pastries, chocolate (one of our employee’s moms owns a local chocolate business….that’s dangerous), and things that are microwaveable for lunch and dinner — meals in a bag or a box, which are never healthy. OR…lunch becomes a run to a nearby drive through.

I was hoping that some of the good dietary changes I was forced into at Burning Man would stick with me. I even did that 30 day Mountain House meal challenge, which worked great, for a while.

Throughout all of this, though, I have simply lacked the motivation to make a lasting change.

So why am I now staring a 3 pounds of fruit sitting on my desk?

I want to succeed ON the ice, not just in the judge’s box. I know for a fact that I will consider myself a failure if I don’t achieve certain things, such as eventually getting up to at least my Novice moves, Adult Silver freestyle, pre-silver compulsory dances, and Novice free dance.

I’ll never forget something that Madison said to me one day after practice in the locker room. I was fairly pissed off at myself for having a bad practice session, and she asked what was wrong. My reply was, “I suck!” She looked at me with a strange look and said, “Umm, you just started.” I had been skating for just over a year at that point, but in the grand scheme of things, she was still right – a year is just beginning still. It gave me pause, calmed me down, and is just one of those things I remember sometimes and that I’ll never forget. Kids can be amazingly insightful at times.

Sitting at a 4+ hour test session this morning, after a practice session myself, was motivating as both a skater and as a judge. Talking with Leslie, another trial judge, was part of it, because she’s 45, has a bum knee, and an artificial hip, and she’s got her Senior moves, pre-Gold dances, and at least her Adult Silver freestyle done.

So there it is. Now I have all this fruit to eat. Fun times.

I wanted to write about my battle with overspending on food, too, and lifestyle choices, but writing this kind of drained me mentally. Needless to say, the insane amounts of money I spend every month eating out or on crap at the corner 7-11 are intimately tied to my poor diet, and it is literally my single biggest monthly expense, exceeding my truck payment, my rent, and even my figure skating bill (we’re talking a four figure dollar amount on really, really bad months).

I fix one problem, and I help solve at least three others: overspending, jumps/edges/balance, and self-esteem. Not to mention adding a few years to my life, and making those years more productive.

mid-April 2008: first lessons

May 2008: bought my first pair of skates

June 2008: started working on 1 foot glides

July 2008: remember getting frustrated around this time with apparent lack of progress; started working on going backwards

August 2008: still feeling stuck in a few ruts, but looking back I actually was making progress – working on edges (forward/backward left/right inside/outside on a circle), was starting to get forward strokes under control. Started skating freestyle sessions, under contract, for the first time, doing the 6:45am adult session on Mondays only.

September 2008: Big Office Move over Labor Day weekend, took us to new office that is twenty minutes from the rink. Attended the Colorado Springs Invitational, where I got to soak in a lot of local skating talent, and met World Junior Champion Rachael Flatt for the first time. Also made some contacts for costumes, and spoke with some judges, found out why I hadn’t heard back about my trial judging application. Made contact with the regional vice chair of judges and began the process of finding a mentor. Started to learn to identify elements by takeoff foot, edge, etc. Started working on first “tricks” – lunges, bunny hops, and side toe taps.

October 2008: Attended Southwestern Regionals in Colorado Springs. Met Rachael Flatt again, as well as Jill Trenary, Kathy Casey, Rockne Brubaker, Keauna McLaughlin, and many locally known skaters. Started second contract session, for Monday and Wednesday mornings. Started working on backwards one foot glides and very first spinny things – backwards pivots and two foot spins. Discovered that I am probably one of the 15% of skaters that spins naturally in the wrong direction (e.g., clockwise).

This list is by no means all inclusive. For example, I don’t remember what month it was in which two-foot turns became the bane of my skating existence (I still can’t do them while moving).

Until next time,
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