Day 55: Miami damage control

Status - mission 1 phase 2: Spring break damage control
Mood - disappointed but still optimistic
Water - >1 liter

Day 55 of 84

Wow

It has been far too long since I have made a post on this blog. I am currently writing from my personal computer, but at a friend's house in Virginia. We got in town this morning after having driven about 16 hours non-stop, and there is still another 10 hours to go until we make it back to Providence. We're not planning to leave until late tomorrow afternoon so I at least have another day to get some rest, which I need desperately because the trip definitely kicked my butt.

Speaking of the trip, it was a blast ! I'll have to fill in the details later. Let me say that I will never forget the experience.

I am disappointed to admit, however, that I did not hold strong to my diet - AT ALL

I did enjoy a small salad on the second day of driving, but that was it in terms of my vegetable intake for the duration of the entire trip. The rest of my time was spent going out to different restaurants each night, which, compounded with absolutely no exercise is a disaster waiting to happen.

And what a disaster it was ...

My lack of commitment and complete lose of all inhibition has surely resulted in an overall decline in fitness. Looking in the mirror at myself this morning was a rude eye-opener, and I have no one to blame but myself.

But hey, I enjoyed myself, even at the cost of a little less definition. What I don't plan to do is depress myself further by obsessing over the fact that I basically collapsed under pressure and failed in my mission for an entire week. Instead I am taking decisive action and moving immediately into another phase of mission 1, which will be termed "Miami damage control".

The first step in this phase will be to return to my previously conditioned state as seen on day 54, before leaving for Miami. The next 30 days will be devoted to reach this goal. I will still make daily updates, but will only post pictures at the end of each week (5 days) leading up to the final reveal on day 84.

Phase three will continue on for another 68 days, and will be primarily concerned with decreasing my body fat percentage to under 8 percent while putting on even more muscle.

Currently I weight 186 lbs, which is not to bad considering that most of it is in the form of lean muscle anyway. Still, at the end of 5 months I would like to at least get up to ~ 195lbs.

Generally, I don't concern myself with absolute weight because it is such an inaccurate measure of wellbeing. What most people fail to realize is that a low weight does not necessarily correlate well with fitness, if at all. A thin person might weigh very little in terms of his or her number on a scale, but this does not mean they are in shape or even look good. An example of this is offered by my own experience while wrestling in High school.

At one point during my freshman year I weighed little over 140 lbs. At the time I felt that I was in good physical shape, but wondered why I lacked definition and could never visibly see my abs. I would constantly compare my own physique to that of a fellow wrestler on my team who was extremely lean-looking. Needless to say he became an all-american competitor and went on to wrestle at the collegiate level, but that is neither here nor there. The point is that although our weight was almost identical our physiques could not have been more different. Where I lacked definition he had muscle. I never could understand this, until a few years ago when I learned of the difference between body weight and lean muscle "mass".

In high school I made sure my weight remained low, which was primarily out of necessity (weight class) but stemmed also from my own naive desire. In the process of "cutting" down I lost weight, but this weight took the form of mostly muscle with VERY LITTLE FAT LOSE. Looking back now, my goal should have been to preserve as much muscle (by eating properly) while burning the fat through cardiovascular exercise and weight training (yes, weight training burns fat too). This is the point of interest that I find most men and women ignore. I think if people put less emphasis on losing "weight" and instead focused more on how they look, for example, in a mirror, or with how they felt on a day to day basis, I think everyone would not only be so much healthier, but look better as well !

So let me rephrase: I do not want to gain weight. I want to gain lean muscle mass. There is an important distinction between the two.

Anyways ... I'm tired and need to get some rest for an early rise tomorrow.

My mission recommences

and with a jog

Catch you later,

--Jay

ps. will post picture at the end of next week