Purpose

I've been thinking quite a bit lately about purpose.  Tony Horton, the creator of P90X, talks all the time about purpose.  It's something that I find asking myself pretty much every morning as I wake up for a workout, especially on days like today when I have plyometrics staring at me from my calendar.  I wonder why I do all this.  Why do I pound my body so hard every morning?  Why do I let all those delicious foods pass me by?

This picture makes a return:

I look at this picture, and I just feel sad.  Others may look at this picture and see me celebrating a birthday, but I see so much more in this picture.   This picture happened to be taken during a period of time in my life when I had a ton of problems in my life in general.  I won't go into all of them, but an obvious one is the kind of shape I was in.  This picture was taken near my heaviest point, ~265 pounds.  This physical condition led to so many other problems.

My family has a strong history of some serious diseases.  Although nobody in my immediate family has diabetes, it has a strong, strong presence in my extended family.  I've seen my grandmother as well as other members of my mother's family have issues with diabetes.  The physical condition, my diet, and my activity level during this period of my life most likely didn't help steer me clear of this terrible disease.

Another pretty worrisome disease that steers much closer to myself is high blood pressure and other heart issues.  There are a few members of my immediate family who have/have had issues with high blood pressure.  I see them taking multiple medications just to keep it under control, and I've seen some of the nasty side effects that can occur from taking those same medications.  My grandfather, who I never remember being anything but a smaller man, had many heart issues in his life.  Heck, I was once told by a doctor when I was there for a physical that my blood pressure was high, and I was only in junior high or high school.

When I look at this picture, I also see someone who is often not happy and who is often sick.  There are just so many things about the picture that makes me sad to look at it.

Here is this other picture again:

When I look at this picture, I see pretty much the opposite of the person above.  I see someone who is really happy with where he is and where he is going.  I see someone who has no blood pressure issues, and whose blood pressure is naturally very low.  I see someone who doesn't worry about being afflicted with a disease any day.  I see someone who doesn't absolutely despise shopping for clothes, although at the end of the day, it is still clothes shopping.  Rather it's someone who is pumped because they are able to wear the small sizes of clothes for the first time in over ten years.

So why do I do my workouts and eat right?  Because I've learned that when I take care of my body, it takes care of me.  I don't want to end up taking medications to take care of problems in my life.  I'm not married yet (any takers?), but I hope to have a family someday (soon would be nice), and I don't want to be the person in the first picture.  I want to be able to do things with my family for as long as I can, and I don't want to leave them too soon.  I don't want to become a drag on the healthcare system.  I want to get out in the world and do fun things.  On top of all that, I just want to be awesome!  I would much rather do a full minute of jump knee tucks or corn cob pull-ups that become gooey again.  That's my purpose.

So, what's yours?

Yep, I Brought It!

 P90X Baby!

This is a follow-up/continuation of a post that I made a couple years ago, seen here:

http://bobthejanitor520.blogspot.com/2010/07/change.html

I just wanted to share what I have been working on for the last 90 days.  Upon graduation, I looked ahead at my summer, and I decided that I didn't want to be a bum all summer.  As such, I set a number of goals for myself to accomplish each day and over the course of the summer.  One of the goals I set was to finally finish what I had started back in 2009.  I wanted to lose 15-20 pounds.

Once I got down to around 185 pounds from where I was, I got quite lazy about working at it.  I stopped exercising regularly, and my diet saw changes to add more junk foods.  I noticed toward the end of my college days that these changes were beginning to show and my gut was starting to balloon up a bit.  Now that I didn't have school and the other things going in my life, I knew that time was no longer an excuse that I could wield.  So I started making concerted efforts to clean up my diet and exercise a bit more.

I started doing my own thing exercise wise, which I pretty much based off of the Power 90 program.  As time went on, I just kind of fell into doing the Power 90 program anyway.  I also added in a bit of running, which I've never particularly cared for.  I kept this up until early August.  At this point, I had the crazy thought to give P90X another shot.  I had previously given an attempt back in 2009, but I made it about a week because life got in the way.  I decided to take a stab at it.

This time around, although the program kicked my butt the first few weeks, I had for all intents and purposes completed Power 90, and I was able to crush the program.  I found that I loved the program immensely.  It was a lot of fun, and it was extremely varied so I couldn't get bored.  The longer I worked on the program, the more I learned about myself, my body, my health, and nutrition.  I soon found things that worked, and other things that didn't work.

I found myself making cleaner and cleaner eating choices.  I haven't had any products with added sugar in nearly 90 days.  My last sugary food was a child-size scoop of caramel cashew from Aggie ice cream as I left my home behind.  A week prior to that I had had a raspberry shake from Bear Lake, yummy yummy yummy!  I have even gone almost the entire 90 days without any bread products, the only exception being one whole-wheat English muffin in mid-September.  Funny thing is that now I have next to zero cravings for sweet things that can't be answered with some fruit, and there are few temptations for me. After all, I would hate to go to all the work, just to have it destroyed with a few minutes of a party.

The thing that I loved about P90X is that it was intense, but fun at the same time.  One of my favorite workouts, which I have a very love-hate relationship with was my ploymetrics day, which is basically like an hour-long sporting event.  It is so much fun, but it kills me every time.  My legs always feel toasty-toast afterward.  I also love the challenges that P90X brings.  I never thought I would love doing Yoga, but this program made me a believer.  Yoga X is probably my favorite of the workouts because it works everything.  It is extremely difficult, yet so easy.  It is incredibly intense, yet so relaxing.  It is seriously amazing.  I am crazy flexible now because of this workout, just ask my mother about that.

My brother recently asked me which was more difficult, the diet or the workouts.  I have to say that the diet really wasn't too difficult for me once I got used to it.  Although, just as soon as I would get used to living the diet, my diet would change on me.  I just have to wonder how it is possible to dislike a diet where I get to eat cashews, almonds, and peanuts on a daily basis.  I have really learned to eat differently, and I have even tried many, many new foods over the last few months.  For instance, I have recently wondered how I've gone through 24 years of my life without trying a sweet potato.  It is now one of my favorites, and it is extremely healthy.  The diet really did take a bit of an adjustment, but the foods I eat just make me feel so much better than all the other junk that I could put into my mouth that may taste a bit better.

The really amazing thing about this program has been the changes that I have felt in my daily life.  I sleep much, much better at night than I used to.  I received poor sleeping genes, and I would often take a few hours at night to actually go to sleep.  Now I can go to sleep almost as soon as I want to at night.  I sleep like a rock now, and I wake up ready to attack my day.  My blood pressure really isn't a concern anymore,  as my numbers are both naturally in the double digits.  For the most part I feel like I have more energy throughout the day.  I would highly recommend this lifestyle to anyone.

Here are my before and after pictures for your perusal, if you dare...
By the way my before pictures are taken roughly six months prior to beginning Power 90/P90X, and they aren't the greatest pictures, but whatever.


Before:

 

Day 30:

Day 60:

Day 90:

Hope your eyes have not been burned out by now.  A couple more pictures with my shirt on.  The first was around 2007 I believe, the year I graduated from high school.  Taken in front of the Saint George Temple, I was near my heaviest at around 265 pounds.  I am wearing an extra large shirt and 42 inch jeans (I still have that shirt, and will take a picture of me wearing it now soon).

I took this picture this week, and I am wearing a small shirt and 30 inch jeans.  Neither of which I have worn for at least 10 years, but possibly as long ago as 13 or 14 years (that would be about 11 years old or so).

So, I've had the question now what.  I plan to continue on with the healthy eating and exercising lifestyle.  As I mentioned previously, I feel so much better doing it than not, so why would I stop.  Even though looks aren't necessarily the most important thing, my body is still hanging onto that last belly, its "last hurrah", and I want it gone.  I am starting to see a bit more definition in my stomach area, its more pronounced in my arms and legs.  There are only two regrets that I had with my first round of P90x.  Number 1 is that I didn't purchase a pull-up bar from day one.  I finally bought one in my last month, and it was an immense help with strengthening my back.  The other regret is that I was extremely stubborn about increasing the number of calories I consumed daily.  I finally made the jump for the last 3-4 weeks.  I immediately felt much better, albeit stuffed, and I worry now that I really hurt my results by not doing it sooner.

With that said  I will be starting round 2 of P90X tomorrow, and I am pretty pumped about going after it again. I have issued a challenge to my family, and I would also like to extend the same challenge to everyone else to join me as I go after this second round.  No program necessary, just move and groove for 90 days.  Get out and be active 5+ days a week or 22+ days a month.  I may even try to blog through this round to keep people involved, we'll see how it goes.  And just remember if you think "I can't"...

I've got your can't right here!