The final day of the first week of the Brodyssey has arrived. I really feel as if I am in the middle of something powerful and irresistible for no other reason than the fact that I am spending so much of my time and focus during the day toward these goals.
I will not be weighing myself or measuring my arm, chest or waist circumference, because I want the final measurements to be surprising and motivating. I prefer to measure instead how I am feeling, and how other people are responding to me and the differences so far.
The biggest, and most obvious difference since I have begun is an overwhelming feeling of accomplishment. I can steadily watch these commitments I have made move closer and closer toward culmination and at the end of the day, I have a sense of achievement and pride. It's probably not for the best that I have anything more to contribute to my own self-image, but yet I am still finding it even easier to hold my head high and look passersby in the pupil when we cross paths.
I feel healthier since I have gone all organic and have been eating just stews. I am rarely ever hungry. I am full and satisfied and energetic all day, and when it comes time to eat, I eat. There is no discomfort of hunger or over-eating. (More details on this to come in a later post)
My HST routine, having a full-body workout every other day, leaves me feeling pumped and athletic the whole 48 hours until my next lift. The progressive loading is feeling challenging but fun, and I have not yet felt any influence to slow down in the adding of weight. A pumped, strong feeling came to me right after the second workout, and has not left yet, today being the fifth. My shoulders appear broader, my arms appear fuller, and my waist appears more trim. (More details on this to come in a later post)
Since I am reading so much during a day, and writing, and going about the rest of my work as well, my mind has been moving a lot more than normal. Although my brain does occasionally feel like it needs rest, a short episode of Psych or 30 minutes of PS4 gets me right back to working condition. In fact, my real problem I am facing is my mind racing on without me at night. I am getting so used to constantly plugging in to my memory and creativity that nothing slows down for me when I need to get to bed. I have discovered a solution, however, in playing solitaire on my iPhone. Even then, I keep seeing new tricks and shortcuts to the game to increase winning probability, decrease move counts, and shorten time to victory. I guess the brain really is like a muscle.
About halfway through "Hemingway's Boat," and discovering his "Iceberg Theory" of writing is giving me positive feedback to my own writing, of which the steady progress is, cyclically, motivating me to read more and more voraciously.
The outline of my my own book is approximately 85% complete, becoming more realized and complex every time I sit down to write on it. The ideas are coming so quickly that I am needing to force myself to chew through the skeleton before the narration begins. Each time I stop my writing for the day, I feel as though the next day's beginning will be exponentially easier.
Taking a cold shower every day has exactly the expected benefits. And after this time, I do not feel like I am being cleansed in any temperature of water besides cold. I yelped a little bit the first few days, but am looking forward to my showers as of late.
Observations of the supplements are being reserved for later in the journey to solidify conclusions.
Overall, the journey is much less daunting of a task now that I am developing these self-improvement exercises into daily habits. I am expecting that at the end, I will continue most (if not all) of these habits well past the thirty days.
Update: Virility Vitamin t-shirts are almost ready. The "Game Changers" book is in production. The website is up, though not completed. And the campaign is still moving along.
Tomorrow: Why the stew-roids diet? And how does it fit into our understanding of proper nutrition?
Tuesday, January 7, 2014
Monday, January 6, 2014
Day 6 - Ironing Out Nutrition, Part 2
Evidently, something didn't add up for Tom Naughton, writer and thinking man, when he watched Morgan Spulock's Super Size Me. As I'm sure you're aware, for Spurlock's documentary, he committed to eating nothing but McDonald's food for 30 days to test how healthy the food was, and from there, make a few assumptions about American restaurant consumer patterns, point a few fingers, and get some wheels moving in a few obtuse directions.
When Tom saw it, a few problems jumped out at him. Tom claimed to have something that made him a special and appropriate choice to test these hypotheses, a functioning brain. Tom set about to create a documentary-retort to Spurlock, and thus was born the brilliance which was Fat Head.
Initially, the documentary started with the most basic and simple theories, (ones that actually leave you scratching your head when you realize that you've heard them for a decade and never thought enough about them to recognize their stupidity) such as "McDonald's forces you to eat unhealthy food," and "nutrition information for meals at places like McDonald's is too difficult to access."
He continues on by demonstrating, through basic, elementary-level mathematics, that Spurlock has been dishonest about the facts as he presented them in his documentary, and to nail home the point even further, will repeat the experiment, with considerably more transparency, and a lot of peripheral, yet pertinent information thrown in to educate the viewers.
What followed was a collage of medical professionals, doctors, scientists and other germane speakers explaining bit by bit, the specific process by which fat is stored, why it is stored, the function and necessity of cholesterol, examinations of clinical studies, and revelations about why the current understanding of these things is so very, very, very wrong.
I don't want to reveal every detail of the film, because it is truly entertaining and enlightening, and I encourage anyone and everyone to pick it up and watch it. (Spoiler alert, by lowering his carbohydrate count, increasing his saturated fat intake, performing an extraordinarily simple calorie count, and continuing to eat the "good stuff" at McDonald's, such as cheeseburgers, chicken nuggets, etc., he lost 12 pounds, improved his cholesterol AND improved his body fat percentage in 30 days) but the part that I want to highlight is his examination of what was called "the lipid hypothesis."
Only one study, from quite a few decades ago, demonstrated that in some countries where saturated fat intake is higher, there is also a pattern of high cholesterol, which is (was) believed to be responsible for heart disease. These results were untrustworthy at best, as it was eventually revealed in the original study, that only the countries that proved the theory of "fat = bad" were included in the results report.
Naughton reveals that, not only were these observations false, and contrived for money, but that there were 28 studies to the contrary that say that saturated fat has NO discernible effect on cholesterol levels and does NOT lead to heart disease, while there are 0 studies that say that there is a connection. The scientists go on to explain how foods are processed in the body, revealing that it is not high fat (or even high calorie) intake that leads to excess body fat storage, but is instead high levels of insulin in the blood directly caused by an over-consumption of foods that are processed in the body as sugars. (breads, grains, pastas, rice, etc.)
The simple, accessible, honest, candid way this information was revealed in the movie helped everything I knew about health and fitness click into place.
Tom Naughton ate satisfying foods that he enjoyed and that left him feeling full and happy. He was able to listen to his body's cravings for what he really wanted, filter that through his functioning brain, and satiate his body while improving his health and life.
Since watching this film, and combining the things that I learned from experimentation, I find it difficult to put on body fat. When I comfortably ate (with a very liberal definition of dietary discipline) this Christmas and all of the goodies, I did not exceed 15-16% body fat at all. My clothes fit great, my workouts are easy and fun in a challenging way, and I finally feel as though the echelon of fitness and physical performance is available to me. I feel encouraged to pursue extreme programs, and serious bodybuilding and powerlifting, knowing that I will never have to worry about getting fat again. I now believe that if I approach working out with the same vigor that I always have, practicing what I now know, I will be able to drop down into single-digit body fat percentages easily.
Further reading for your edification on the subject:
Dr. Jaminet's "Perfect Health Diet"
Jamie Scott's "That Paleo Guy"
Chris Masterjohn's "Daily Lipid"
Miki Ben-Dor's "Paleo Style"
David Evan's "Healthy Diets and Science"
Prof Andro's "SuppVersity"
Nek Kock's "Health Correlator"
Peter Dobromylskyj's "Hyperlipid"
Dr. Deans' "Evolutionary Pyschiatry"
Anastasia's "PrimalMedEd"
And please check out Fat Head by Tom Naughton, and Jamie Lewis' blog, Chaos and Pain. His Apex Predator Diet is spot on for this science and encourages a healthy, aggressive, masculine attitude toward weight training as well.
When Tom saw it, a few problems jumped out at him. Tom claimed to have something that made him a special and appropriate choice to test these hypotheses, a functioning brain. Tom set about to create a documentary-retort to Spurlock, and thus was born the brilliance which was Fat Head.
Initially, the documentary started with the most basic and simple theories, (ones that actually leave you scratching your head when you realize that you've heard them for a decade and never thought enough about them to recognize their stupidity) such as "McDonald's forces you to eat unhealthy food," and "nutrition information for meals at places like McDonald's is too difficult to access."
He continues on by demonstrating, through basic, elementary-level mathematics, that Spurlock has been dishonest about the facts as he presented them in his documentary, and to nail home the point even further, will repeat the experiment, with considerably more transparency, and a lot of peripheral, yet pertinent information thrown in to educate the viewers.
What followed was a collage of medical professionals, doctors, scientists and other germane speakers explaining bit by bit, the specific process by which fat is stored, why it is stored, the function and necessity of cholesterol, examinations of clinical studies, and revelations about why the current understanding of these things is so very, very, very wrong.
I don't want to reveal every detail of the film, because it is truly entertaining and enlightening, and I encourage anyone and everyone to pick it up and watch it. (Spoiler alert, by lowering his carbohydrate count, increasing his saturated fat intake, performing an extraordinarily simple calorie count, and continuing to eat the "good stuff" at McDonald's, such as cheeseburgers, chicken nuggets, etc., he lost 12 pounds, improved his cholesterol AND improved his body fat percentage in 30 days) but the part that I want to highlight is his examination of what was called "the lipid hypothesis."
Only one study, from quite a few decades ago, demonstrated that in some countries where saturated fat intake is higher, there is also a pattern of high cholesterol, which is (was) believed to be responsible for heart disease. These results were untrustworthy at best, as it was eventually revealed in the original study, that only the countries that proved the theory of "fat = bad" were included in the results report.
Naughton reveals that, not only were these observations false, and contrived for money, but that there were 28 studies to the contrary that say that saturated fat has NO discernible effect on cholesterol levels and does NOT lead to heart disease, while there are 0 studies that say that there is a connection. The scientists go on to explain how foods are processed in the body, revealing that it is not high fat (or even high calorie) intake that leads to excess body fat storage, but is instead high levels of insulin in the blood directly caused by an over-consumption of foods that are processed in the body as sugars. (breads, grains, pastas, rice, etc.)
The simple, accessible, honest, candid way this information was revealed in the movie helped everything I knew about health and fitness click into place.
Tom Naughton ate satisfying foods that he enjoyed and that left him feeling full and happy. He was able to listen to his body's cravings for what he really wanted, filter that through his functioning brain, and satiate his body while improving his health and life.
Since watching this film, and combining the things that I learned from experimentation, I find it difficult to put on body fat. When I comfortably ate (with a very liberal definition of dietary discipline) this Christmas and all of the goodies, I did not exceed 15-16% body fat at all. My clothes fit great, my workouts are easy and fun in a challenging way, and I finally feel as though the echelon of fitness and physical performance is available to me. I feel encouraged to pursue extreme programs, and serious bodybuilding and powerlifting, knowing that I will never have to worry about getting fat again. I now believe that if I approach working out with the same vigor that I always have, practicing what I now know, I will be able to drop down into single-digit body fat percentages easily.
Further reading for your edification on the subject:
Dr. Jaminet's "Perfect Health Diet"
Jamie Scott's "That Paleo Guy"
Chris Masterjohn's "Daily Lipid"
Miki Ben-Dor's "Paleo Style"
David Evan's "Healthy Diets and Science"
Prof Andro's "SuppVersity"
Nek Kock's "Health Correlator"
Peter Dobromylskyj's "Hyperlipid"
Dr. Deans' "Evolutionary Pyschiatry"
Anastasia's "PrimalMedEd"
And please check out Fat Head by Tom Naughton, and Jamie Lewis' blog, Chaos and Pain. His Apex Predator Diet is spot on for this science and encourages a healthy, aggressive, masculine attitude toward weight training as well.
Sunday, January 5, 2014
Day 5 - Ironing Out Nutrition, Part 1
I think it's safe to say that I have tried every kind of diet imaginable. I have done some crazy abstaining diets where I would cut out entire genres of food, to systems with complex equations that require weeks of preparation before beginning. I certainly did experience some success. I have seen my abs before. Unfortunately, it was always obviously the kind of exercising I was doing that gave me the biggest changes.
After sampling fad diets, to the Federal Government's recommended balanced meal plan, to just trusting my cravings, I came to a simple, yet depressing conclusion: I don't, nor do I know of anybody, that knows what the fuck they're doing when it comes to proper nutrition.
There were a few truths I had nailed down. 1) Being overweight is unhealthy, and therefore, unnatural. It is a warning sign of something else going wrong in your body, and more intuitively, would make survival more difficult for early humans. 2.) Doing any or all of these recommended diets and programs were making me fat, which meant they weren't natural and I should try something else.
The first few things I sampled made sense, but I was disappointed when nothing came out of them. David Zinczenco's ABS Diet was spelled out simply. The science felt good to my simple brain, for the most part, and the promises it made were stupendous. Even the acronym for the food groups you needed to eat spelled out ABSDIETPOWER. That's pretty man-tastic. But, alas, I made little to no progress in the direction I wanted to go, so I had to move on.
The South-Beach Diet had a similar philosophy, and similarly absent results.
My poor misguided mind even decided to be a vegan for a week. (Fact: there literally has NEVER been a single study that showed that the independent behavior of switching to veganism has ANY positive health benefits whatsoever. Don't do it. It's really bad for you. Seriously.)
The first glimmer of light came when I stumbled across an old book by a dude named Dr. Atkins. He was a proponent of a body process called "ketosis," in which the body is deprived of almost all carbohydrates (breads, grains, potatoes, fruits, etc.) and begins to burn on ketones instead. In the absence of carbohydrates, the body's natural source of energy, there is no excess carbohydrate energy to be stored as fat, so fat production just halts and moves rapidly in reverse to power the body's necessary functions. I didn't really understand it too well, and very few people in the world were experiencing long-lasting positive results from his diet, but I decided to try it anyway because why the hell not, I was already morbidly obese.
A miraculous thing started to happen, fat just started falling off my body. I was so excited by the changes being made that I embraced the Atkins lifestyle wholeheartedly. I abstained from entire branches of nutrition, and gorged myself on meats and cheeses, with maybe half a leaf every other day in response to my mother's pleading.
Unfortunately, over time, I started to grow unhealthy. My acne became worse, my digestion slowed down and my body began to smell very poorly. Even though I was losing fat, which was a definite good thing, something else was clearly wrong and needed to be changed immediately. I reluctantly gave up the diet, for the sake of my skin, BO, and BMs, and almost overnight, all of those pounds of unsightly, unhealthy body fat just grew right back where they were.
I wasn't there yet, but I had one piece of the puzzle. Something was different about that diet that gave me great results in a way none of the others could. I circled it for a few years, learning about that diet and similar ones. Eventually, by some magic, serendipitous twist of fate, I learned about the paleolithic lifestyle, or, the Caveman Diet.
The paleolithic diet is intended to recreate the kind of diet that humans ate during the paleolithic era. During that period of our evolution, (and every other period except for the one we live in right now, seriously 99.999% of the time humans have lived on this earth except for the last few centuries) we were taller, more muscular, had nearly perfect teeth, and stored SIGNIFICANTLY less body fat.
The line drawn was the advent of agriculture. If you eat a paleolithic diet, you can eat anything that would be available to you before agriculture, so basically meats, fish, eggs, vegetables, fruits, and (debatably) dairy. The difference between the paleolithic eating and the Atkins diet, is a complete nutrient profile. There are necessary bits for human survival and optimal living that are only present in (naturally occurring) carbohydrates.
Eating this way gave me the healthiest feeling I had in my entire life. Yes, I was getting leaner, but my skin was also becoming clearer, my mood and mental clarity was improving, everything just started getting better. I, still, unfortunately, couldn't lose those last few pounds and start to perform as intensely in the workouts and programs, that by this period of my life, I had begun to pursue zealously.
I had one more piece of the puzzle.
Then I found it, my golden ticket, the last piece that let everything fall into place for me.
... To be continued
Mwahahahaha
After sampling fad diets, to the Federal Government's recommended balanced meal plan, to just trusting my cravings, I came to a simple, yet depressing conclusion: I don't, nor do I know of anybody, that knows what the fuck they're doing when it comes to proper nutrition.
There were a few truths I had nailed down. 1) Being overweight is unhealthy, and therefore, unnatural. It is a warning sign of something else going wrong in your body, and more intuitively, would make survival more difficult for early humans. 2.) Doing any or all of these recommended diets and programs were making me fat, which meant they weren't natural and I should try something else.
The first few things I sampled made sense, but I was disappointed when nothing came out of them. David Zinczenco's ABS Diet was spelled out simply. The science felt good to my simple brain, for the most part, and the promises it made were stupendous. Even the acronym for the food groups you needed to eat spelled out ABSDIETPOWER. That's pretty man-tastic. But, alas, I made little to no progress in the direction I wanted to go, so I had to move on.
The South-Beach Diet had a similar philosophy, and similarly absent results.
My poor misguided mind even decided to be a vegan for a week. (Fact: there literally has NEVER been a single study that showed that the independent behavior of switching to veganism has ANY positive health benefits whatsoever. Don't do it. It's really bad for you. Seriously.)
The first glimmer of light came when I stumbled across an old book by a dude named Dr. Atkins. He was a proponent of a body process called "ketosis," in which the body is deprived of almost all carbohydrates (breads, grains, potatoes, fruits, etc.) and begins to burn on ketones instead. In the absence of carbohydrates, the body's natural source of energy, there is no excess carbohydrate energy to be stored as fat, so fat production just halts and moves rapidly in reverse to power the body's necessary functions. I didn't really understand it too well, and very few people in the world were experiencing long-lasting positive results from his diet, but I decided to try it anyway because why the hell not, I was already morbidly obese.
A miraculous thing started to happen, fat just started falling off my body. I was so excited by the changes being made that I embraced the Atkins lifestyle wholeheartedly. I abstained from entire branches of nutrition, and gorged myself on meats and cheeses, with maybe half a leaf every other day in response to my mother's pleading.
Unfortunately, over time, I started to grow unhealthy. My acne became worse, my digestion slowed down and my body began to smell very poorly. Even though I was losing fat, which was a definite good thing, something else was clearly wrong and needed to be changed immediately. I reluctantly gave up the diet, for the sake of my skin, BO, and BMs, and almost overnight, all of those pounds of unsightly, unhealthy body fat just grew right back where they were.
I wasn't there yet, but I had one piece of the puzzle. Something was different about that diet that gave me great results in a way none of the others could. I circled it for a few years, learning about that diet and similar ones. Eventually, by some magic, serendipitous twist of fate, I learned about the paleolithic lifestyle, or, the Caveman Diet.
The paleolithic diet is intended to recreate the kind of diet that humans ate during the paleolithic era. During that period of our evolution, (and every other period except for the one we live in right now, seriously 99.999% of the time humans have lived on this earth except for the last few centuries) we were taller, more muscular, had nearly perfect teeth, and stored SIGNIFICANTLY less body fat.
The line drawn was the advent of agriculture. If you eat a paleolithic diet, you can eat anything that would be available to you before agriculture, so basically meats, fish, eggs, vegetables, fruits, and (debatably) dairy. The difference between the paleolithic eating and the Atkins diet, is a complete nutrient profile. There are necessary bits for human survival and optimal living that are only present in (naturally occurring) carbohydrates.
Eating this way gave me the healthiest feeling I had in my entire life. Yes, I was getting leaner, but my skin was also becoming clearer, my mood and mental clarity was improving, everything just started getting better. I, still, unfortunately, couldn't lose those last few pounds and start to perform as intensely in the workouts and programs, that by this period of my life, I had begun to pursue zealously.
I had one more piece of the puzzle.
Then I found it, my golden ticket, the last piece that let everything fall into place for me.
... To be continued
Mwahahahaha
Saturday, January 4, 2014
Day 4 - How To Stay Motivated
Before I get into describing the details of my programs and the science behind it, I'd like to spend some time first discussing the process of creating a goal and reaching it.
After all, its not JUST the lack of knowledge about self-improvement that gets in the way of people reaching their goals. There is a lot of misinformation out there (just wait til I write my post about the Lipid Hypothesis) but every single person knows that ten minutes of vigorous physical activity a day can do miracles for their health. So why don't people just do it?
My theory is that society today encourages and provides comfort. For the majority of human history, humans were not comfortable, we were part of the food chain, hunting, gathering, nomads in groups not too terribly unlike prides of lions. Every person was the best survivor, warrior, leader, father, provider they could be, or they died.
Today, if you (or anyone) suddenly found yourself in NEED of being better in a short amount of time, you would be amazed at what you could do.
Back then, every time a small decision was to be made, the ubiquitous NEED to survive/replicate/repeat was always the primary deciding factor.
Unfortunately, (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) we don't have that need anymore. We are comfortable apart from nature. We have carved the world into our image and manipulated it to do what we desire it to do. We have even gone so far as to invent unnatural foods and gorge ourselves on them just so the natural process of eating can be a little more immediately satisfying (if eventually detrimental).
What we can do, to be our best, is to try and recreate that need, functionally. Now, we cannot put ourselves in life/death situations in which your survival is dependent upon you losing 200 lbs and doing a pull-up (or you could, but I'm not encouraging it) BUT you can make your decisions AS IF you did.
Making a change is not one choice. That is a common misconception of New Year Resolutions. People make one decision to be better and it goes nowhere. Making a change is creating a new pattern. Making a change is making THOUSANDS of choices every day.
I am starting this new thing I am excited about. I am tying it together with the Virility Vitamin Indiegogo campaign, and this Brodyssey. What I am doing is compiling a small book, a collection of tips and small, easy steps anyone can do to turn their New Year Resolution into a permanent lifelong change. I am calling it "Game Changers." They will be posted periodically on the Virility Labs Facebook page and will be available for download hopefully before the conclusion of the campaign.
The first few Game Changers (back to the point) I can offer is this: first of all, set for yourself a concrete, measurable goal. Know exactly how much you want to weigh, how much you want to lift, what you want your body fat percentage to be, how much money you want to make, how many friends you want to have, whatever. And then when you know what that is, keep it present in your mind ALL THE TIME. I don't care if you need to tie a string around your finger or tattoo it to your forehead, but KEEP it on your mind.
Second of all, if you do this, then every time you make a small decision, such as what should I eat for lunch or how should I spend this hour of free-time or on what should I spend this extra one hundred dollars, that need should be right there in your brain, causing you to make a small decision to get you one step closer. You can make ALL of your little decisions every day in favor of your goal if you keep it there, if you transform you goal into a need.
That should be it for today. Game Changers are going to be flying out of my brain like popcorn over the next few weeks, so be sure to like us on Facebook so as not to miss a single one.
After all, its not JUST the lack of knowledge about self-improvement that gets in the way of people reaching their goals. There is a lot of misinformation out there (just wait til I write my post about the Lipid Hypothesis) but every single person knows that ten minutes of vigorous physical activity a day can do miracles for their health. So why don't people just do it?
My theory is that society today encourages and provides comfort. For the majority of human history, humans were not comfortable, we were part of the food chain, hunting, gathering, nomads in groups not too terribly unlike prides of lions. Every person was the best survivor, warrior, leader, father, provider they could be, or they died.
Today, if you (or anyone) suddenly found yourself in NEED of being better in a short amount of time, you would be amazed at what you could do.
Back then, every time a small decision was to be made, the ubiquitous NEED to survive/replicate/repeat was always the primary deciding factor.
Unfortunately, (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) we don't have that need anymore. We are comfortable apart from nature. We have carved the world into our image and manipulated it to do what we desire it to do. We have even gone so far as to invent unnatural foods and gorge ourselves on them just so the natural process of eating can be a little more immediately satisfying (if eventually detrimental).
What we can do, to be our best, is to try and recreate that need, functionally. Now, we cannot put ourselves in life/death situations in which your survival is dependent upon you losing 200 lbs and doing a pull-up (or you could, but I'm not encouraging it) BUT you can make your decisions AS IF you did.
Making a change is not one choice. That is a common misconception of New Year Resolutions. People make one decision to be better and it goes nowhere. Making a change is creating a new pattern. Making a change is making THOUSANDS of choices every day.
I am starting this new thing I am excited about. I am tying it together with the Virility Vitamin Indiegogo campaign, and this Brodyssey. What I am doing is compiling a small book, a collection of tips and small, easy steps anyone can do to turn their New Year Resolution into a permanent lifelong change. I am calling it "Game Changers." They will be posted periodically on the Virility Labs Facebook page and will be available for download hopefully before the conclusion of the campaign.
The first few Game Changers (back to the point) I can offer is this: first of all, set for yourself a concrete, measurable goal. Know exactly how much you want to weigh, how much you want to lift, what you want your body fat percentage to be, how much money you want to make, how many friends you want to have, whatever. And then when you know what that is, keep it present in your mind ALL THE TIME. I don't care if you need to tie a string around your finger or tattoo it to your forehead, but KEEP it on your mind.
Second of all, if you do this, then every time you make a small decision, such as what should I eat for lunch or how should I spend this hour of free-time or on what should I spend this extra one hundred dollars, that need should be right there in your brain, causing you to make a small decision to get you one step closer. You can make ALL of your little decisions every day in favor of your goal if you keep it there, if you transform you goal into a need.
That should be it for today. Game Changers are going to be flying out of my brain like popcorn over the next few weeks, so be sure to like us on Facebook so as not to miss a single one.
Friday, January 3, 2014
Day 3 - Concrete Starting and Goals
I want to share the starting place and the specific goals I am setting for myself on the Brodyssey. The more specific the goals are, the more likely I am to reach them.
When it comes to the diet/fitness side of things, on Day 0, I weighed 197 pounds (89.4 kg) with approximately 16% body fat, give or take 1-2%. I am 6 feet tall, (1.8 m) with a waist circumference of thirty-three inches. A cold bicep flex is 15.5 in (39.37 cm) and my chest is 45.25 in (114.9 cm)
From what I understand about HST, I should be able to pack on 2-4 lbs of muscle in 30 days. So I should either be heavier with a similar body fat percentage, or lighter with less.
My ideal goal is to drop below 15% body fat while increasing the circumference of my chest/arms by 0.2 in.
Elsewhere, in Roosh V's Big Ass Book challenge, he outlines that I should read a book over 500 pages in 15 days. Since I'm doing a 30 day program, I will simply read 2. He recommends to read a nonfiction (either historical or biographical) with a masculine perspective. I have decided to focus on Ernest Hemingway, a man with whom I relate strongly.
An aspiring writer and renaissance man myself, I feel as though I would benefit greatly from a study of the man. My first book is nonfiction, just as Roosh suggests. It is "Hemingway's Boat," by Paul Hendrickson which is a biographical account relating the events of the latter half of Ernest's life with his relationship with his boat, Pilar. (more discussion on this in a later post)
The second is a compendium of Hemingway's short stories. It's fiction, I know, but it will a) increase my understanding and connection to the man, which is Roosh's intent, to draw a masculine influence and b) it will inspire me with my next challenge:
The Writer's Challenge. Shoshanna Evers used a very simple formula; she wrote 1000 words a day until she finished her book, and now she is wildly successful with more than 20 books for sale. I am being a bit ambitious with this program, if you couldn't already tell, so my goal is 2000. At the end of 30 days, I will have 60,000 words on the book I have started. (again, more discussion on this in a later post)
In my free time, I will be picking through Tim Ferriss' 4 Hour Work Week, which I plan on finishing before the 30 days as well as reading ahead in my BAB challenge, and writing ahead in my writer's challenge. I will allow myself only an hour of playing my brand new PS4 each day. (Herculean self-control) And I will meet my minimum requirements every day, or I will punish myself by completing twice the minimum the next day. I will strive to accomplish more than the minimum each day, and if I finish something early, who knows? I might throw something else in as well.
Thanks again for dropping by. What are your Resolutions? Are you resolute?
Don't forget to support the cause! http://igg.me/at/virilityvitamin/x/5921240
When it comes to the diet/fitness side of things, on Day 0, I weighed 197 pounds (89.4 kg) with approximately 16% body fat, give or take 1-2%. I am 6 feet tall, (1.8 m) with a waist circumference of thirty-three inches. A cold bicep flex is 15.5 in (39.37 cm) and my chest is 45.25 in (114.9 cm)
From what I understand about HST, I should be able to pack on 2-4 lbs of muscle in 30 days. So I should either be heavier with a similar body fat percentage, or lighter with less.
My ideal goal is to drop below 15% body fat while increasing the circumference of my chest/arms by 0.2 in.
Elsewhere, in Roosh V's Big Ass Book challenge, he outlines that I should read a book over 500 pages in 15 days. Since I'm doing a 30 day program, I will simply read 2. He recommends to read a nonfiction (either historical or biographical) with a masculine perspective. I have decided to focus on Ernest Hemingway, a man with whom I relate strongly.
An aspiring writer and renaissance man myself, I feel as though I would benefit greatly from a study of the man. My first book is nonfiction, just as Roosh suggests. It is "Hemingway's Boat," by Paul Hendrickson which is a biographical account relating the events of the latter half of Ernest's life with his relationship with his boat, Pilar. (more discussion on this in a later post)
The second is a compendium of Hemingway's short stories. It's fiction, I know, but it will a) increase my understanding and connection to the man, which is Roosh's intent, to draw a masculine influence and b) it will inspire me with my next challenge:
The Writer's Challenge. Shoshanna Evers used a very simple formula; she wrote 1000 words a day until she finished her book, and now she is wildly successful with more than 20 books for sale. I am being a bit ambitious with this program, if you couldn't already tell, so my goal is 2000. At the end of 30 days, I will have 60,000 words on the book I have started. (again, more discussion on this in a later post)
In my free time, I will be picking through Tim Ferriss' 4 Hour Work Week, which I plan on finishing before the 30 days as well as reading ahead in my BAB challenge, and writing ahead in my writer's challenge. I will allow myself only an hour of playing my brand new PS4 each day. (Herculean self-control) And I will meet my minimum requirements every day, or I will punish myself by completing twice the minimum the next day. I will strive to accomplish more than the minimum each day, and if I finish something early, who knows? I might throw something else in as well.
Thanks again for dropping by. What are your Resolutions? Are you resolute?
Don't forget to support the cause! http://igg.me/at/virilityvitamin/x/5921240
Thursday, January 2, 2014
Day 2 - New Year's Resolutions
I had reserved this post to give a little more information on me as a man, information necessary to know to understand all these crazy things I'm doing to myself over the next few weeks.
But then Jamie Lewis over at Chaos and Pain ( chaosandpain.blogspot.com ) uploaded a post on New Year's Resolutions. From the title, "Fuck New Year's Resolutions - I Portend Doom," it's pretty easy to guess Jamie's stance on them. His blog is mostly about the sport of powerlifting being bogged down by everything outside of a love for lifting heavy things and being strong. He criticizes the compartmentalization of the sport, and the dissonance between sects of lifters, amongst other things. He's an opinionated fella.
I'm not a powerlifter; I certainly am not as well-versed in the mechanics and experience of weight training as athletes or zealots. But I am a hobbyist, someone who simply enjoys getting stronger and better-looking.
The thing that Jamie and I share is a hatred for the common "New Year's Resolution." The thing that I hate the most about it, is that it is, in fact, NOT a resolution. The vast majority of resolutions fail quickly. The weeks and months after January 1st see gyms across the world filled with people that should have been making better decisions about their body and health decades before, only to abandon it after a few weeks (or days) for Honey Nut Cheerios or CinnaBon or whatever the fuck.
If a New Year's Resolution were exactly that, a RESOLUTE decision to change and improve, and if every person who resolved to change for the better, did, then it would be the most amazing, life-changing tradition known to man.
He said something that really stuck with me: "the go-getter, just rolled out of bed one day and said, "fuck it, it's time to get fucking brutal"" (http://chaosandpain.blogspot.com/2014/01/fuck-new-years-resolutions-i-portend.html)
To me this sounds, not like what we know of a New Year's Resolution, but like someone who has resolutely decided to change himself for the better.
I was always a fat kid, really obese, in fact, until midway through High School when insecurities and bullying made me decide to make some changes. I began to run, a horrible idea in retrospect, but yet better than remaining the Blob that I was. I ran and I ran and I ran and I ran, until I reached a stupid twelve miles a day. I just couldn't allow myself to eat without going for a several mile run afterward. I got so skinny and frail that my family was more worried about me than when I was wider than I was tall. My mom took me to doctors and tried to make them tell me to eat. From what I can remember, they were of little help, they were probably just impressed I wasn't another American fat kid.
I remained thin through college, body fat percentages vacillating up and down with the seasons, but always thin and frail. A few year's ago, something changed. I was driving to Austin from Crockett and fell asleep at the wheel. I was going 70 in a 3/4 ton Dodge truck.
I'm told I flipped the truck several times, through a nice family's yard, mowing down several yards of their fencing, before landing upright aligned perfectly within their driveway. The top of the truck had been ripped completely off, leaving me sitting straight up, still comfortably in the driver's seat. I was awake only for a second as they alerted me they would be pulling me from the wreckage, and I didn't wake up again until I was in the ambulance on the way to the hospital.
I had broken my thumb, my shin bone, tore my face up, cut my ear in two, received a concussion, but worst of all, I had snapped my shoulder loose. The tendons and connective tissue had cleanly separated, allowing my shoulder bone and clavicle to freely wander around my body, though most of the time they decided to protrude a few inches above the skin. This left me with very little movement for several months.
So I sat, through reconstructive surgery and physical therapy and I just watched my body atrophy away. My arms and chest and legs shrank into hollow caricatures of limbs, particularly my left arm, still bound in bandages and a sling.
After the therapist and surgeon cleared me for work and exercise, almost six months later, I had one of those moments when I rolled out of bed and just decided that things were going to change. I always had that spirit of wanting to be better, but it took a near-death robbery of my body function for a while to motivate me to aggressively seek out perfection.
In the last two years, I have increased my average body weight by 35-40 pounds while at a lower body fat percentage. I am not near where I want to be yet, but that's what the Brodyysey is all about. It's about education, inspiration, motivation, supplementation and, finally, and most importantly, rolling out of bed, getting fucking brutal, and taking action.
Thanks for tuning in.
Tomorrow: starting stats from Day 1 and concrete goals.
But then Jamie Lewis over at Chaos and Pain ( chaosandpain.blogspot.com ) uploaded a post on New Year's Resolutions. From the title, "Fuck New Year's Resolutions - I Portend Doom," it's pretty easy to guess Jamie's stance on them. His blog is mostly about the sport of powerlifting being bogged down by everything outside of a love for lifting heavy things and being strong. He criticizes the compartmentalization of the sport, and the dissonance between sects of lifters, amongst other things. He's an opinionated fella.
I'm not a powerlifter; I certainly am not as well-versed in the mechanics and experience of weight training as athletes or zealots. But I am a hobbyist, someone who simply enjoys getting stronger and better-looking.
The thing that Jamie and I share is a hatred for the common "New Year's Resolution." The thing that I hate the most about it, is that it is, in fact, NOT a resolution. The vast majority of resolutions fail quickly. The weeks and months after January 1st see gyms across the world filled with people that should have been making better decisions about their body and health decades before, only to abandon it after a few weeks (or days) for Honey Nut Cheerios or CinnaBon or whatever the fuck.
If a New Year's Resolution were exactly that, a RESOLUTE decision to change and improve, and if every person who resolved to change for the better, did, then it would be the most amazing, life-changing tradition known to man.
He said something that really stuck with me: "the go-getter, just rolled out of bed one day and said, "fuck it, it's time to get fucking brutal"" (http://chaosandpain.blogspot.com/2014/01/fuck-new-years-resolutions-i-portend.html)
To me this sounds, not like what we know of a New Year's Resolution, but like someone who has resolutely decided to change himself for the better.
I was always a fat kid, really obese, in fact, until midway through High School when insecurities and bullying made me decide to make some changes. I began to run, a horrible idea in retrospect, but yet better than remaining the Blob that I was. I ran and I ran and I ran and I ran, until I reached a stupid twelve miles a day. I just couldn't allow myself to eat without going for a several mile run afterward. I got so skinny and frail that my family was more worried about me than when I was wider than I was tall. My mom took me to doctors and tried to make them tell me to eat. From what I can remember, they were of little help, they were probably just impressed I wasn't another American fat kid.
I remained thin through college, body fat percentages vacillating up and down with the seasons, but always thin and frail. A few year's ago, something changed. I was driving to Austin from Crockett and fell asleep at the wheel. I was going 70 in a 3/4 ton Dodge truck.
I'm told I flipped the truck several times, through a nice family's yard, mowing down several yards of their fencing, before landing upright aligned perfectly within their driveway. The top of the truck had been ripped completely off, leaving me sitting straight up, still comfortably in the driver's seat. I was awake only for a second as they alerted me they would be pulling me from the wreckage, and I didn't wake up again until I was in the ambulance on the way to the hospital.
I had broken my thumb, my shin bone, tore my face up, cut my ear in two, received a concussion, but worst of all, I had snapped my shoulder loose. The tendons and connective tissue had cleanly separated, allowing my shoulder bone and clavicle to freely wander around my body, though most of the time they decided to protrude a few inches above the skin. This left me with very little movement for several months.
So I sat, through reconstructive surgery and physical therapy and I just watched my body atrophy away. My arms and chest and legs shrank into hollow caricatures of limbs, particularly my left arm, still bound in bandages and a sling.
After the therapist and surgeon cleared me for work and exercise, almost six months later, I had one of those moments when I rolled out of bed and just decided that things were going to change. I always had that spirit of wanting to be better, but it took a near-death robbery of my body function for a while to motivate me to aggressively seek out perfection.
In the last two years, I have increased my average body weight by 35-40 pounds while at a lower body fat percentage. I am not near where I want to be yet, but that's what the Brodyysey is all about. It's about education, inspiration, motivation, supplementation and, finally, and most importantly, rolling out of bed, getting fucking brutal, and taking action.
Thanks for tuning in.
Tomorrow: starting stats from Day 1 and concrete goals.
Wednesday, January 1, 2014
Day 1 - It Begins
It's here.
Day One of the Brodyssey is upon us.
The Virility Vitamin IndieGoGo campaign went live just moments ago:
http://igg.me/at/virilityvitamin/x/5921240
And that means it's time to get started.
Today is mostly preparation, although I will be meeting my minimum quotas for the day.
These are the programs/challenges I will be tackling over the next 30 days.
1. Stew-roids diet - popularized by the Almighty Jamie Lewis over at Chaos and Pain, one of the best, manliest, smartest, ballsiest blogs in the history of ballsy. www.chaosandpain.blogspot.com
2. Hypertrophy-Specific training - created by Bryan Haycock, a visionary, currently the man in charge over at thinkmuscle.com
3. The Big Ass Book Challenge - Roosh V, famous for teaching the thinking man how to talk to women has issued this challenge a few years ago to make a man a more inspired, intellectual creature. You can find more of him at rooshv.com or returnofkings.com
4. The Writer's Challenge - a simple call-to-arms for all of those people who claim that they will one day write a book but never get around to it. Renowned romance author, Shoshanna Evers began this trend, and now she has published over 20 successful novels. I guess it works.
5. Kre-Anabolyn and Mass Pro Synthagen - These are hands-down, two of the best supplements I've ever tried since I started tinkering with weight training five or six years ago. One, a powerful, steroid-like (minus the negative side effects) artificial testosterone from plants, the other, a complete amino acid matrix for all workout needs. These come from the geniuses over at musclemass.com , and a specific shout-out to Rob Regish, who has been very supportive.
6. N-Pept10 - my first venture into the world of nootropics, this one comes highly recommended from Jamie Lewis, who compares its effects to the high Bradley Cooper got from the pill in the movie, Limitless. This will be taken with the BAB challenge and the Writer's challenge.
7. Four-Hour Work Week - Every day I will be implementing a new idea from Timothy Ferriss' timeless book towards Virility Labs or another of my entrepreneurial ventures.
This afternoon, I have a measurement to take down my official starting weight, body fat percentage, etc. and an appointment with a certified personal trainer to run down what I'm going to be putting my body through.
Specifics and more information on the bro behind the Brodyssey coming in the next few posts.
Wish me luck.
Day One of the Brodyssey is upon us.
The Virility Vitamin IndieGoGo campaign went live just moments ago:
http://igg.me/at/virilityvitamin/x/5921240
And that means it's time to get started.
Today is mostly preparation, although I will be meeting my minimum quotas for the day.
These are the programs/challenges I will be tackling over the next 30 days.
1. Stew-roids diet - popularized by the Almighty Jamie Lewis over at Chaos and Pain, one of the best, manliest, smartest, ballsiest blogs in the history of ballsy. www.chaosandpain.blogspot.com
2. Hypertrophy-Specific training - created by Bryan Haycock, a visionary, currently the man in charge over at thinkmuscle.com
3. The Big Ass Book Challenge - Roosh V, famous for teaching the thinking man how to talk to women has issued this challenge a few years ago to make a man a more inspired, intellectual creature. You can find more of him at rooshv.com or returnofkings.com
4. The Writer's Challenge - a simple call-to-arms for all of those people who claim that they will one day write a book but never get around to it. Renowned romance author, Shoshanna Evers began this trend, and now she has published over 20 successful novels. I guess it works.
5. Kre-Anabolyn and Mass Pro Synthagen - These are hands-down, two of the best supplements I've ever tried since I started tinkering with weight training five or six years ago. One, a powerful, steroid-like (minus the negative side effects) artificial testosterone from plants, the other, a complete amino acid matrix for all workout needs. These come from the geniuses over at musclemass.com , and a specific shout-out to Rob Regish, who has been very supportive.
6. N-Pept10 - my first venture into the world of nootropics, this one comes highly recommended from Jamie Lewis, who compares its effects to the high Bradley Cooper got from the pill in the movie, Limitless. This will be taken with the BAB challenge and the Writer's challenge.
7. Four-Hour Work Week - Every day I will be implementing a new idea from Timothy Ferriss' timeless book towards Virility Labs or another of my entrepreneurial ventures.
This afternoon, I have a measurement to take down my official starting weight, body fat percentage, etc. and an appointment with a certified personal trainer to run down what I'm going to be putting my body through.
Specifics and more information on the bro behind the Brodyssey coming in the next few posts.
Wish me luck.
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