Fin

Boom! Obligatory weight loss big pants shot.

Well, I guess this is my final post.  I was really trying to think of something to tie it all together, like a list of things I've learned or something similar, but I have more of a collection of feelings and experiences now rather than a coherent summary statements.  I could say a lot of things, but they would probably only make sense to people that have gone through it.  So I guess I am telling anyone who is reading this and hasn't tried the PCP to do it.  It will change you for the better.

I did learn a lot of things, but mostly about myself.  Some of the most obvious things I learned that would be applicable to everyone include: Losing weight is easy.  Getting ripped is hard.  Diet is the most important lifestyle change you can make.  More important than you can even imagine until you do it.  And it's actually relatively easy, you just gotta stick to it.  Having a support group like Team Cookie Monster helps.  I went on a sugar binge yesterday (a baked a bunch of vegan desserts this weekend in anticipation), got a lousy high from it, felt sick, and couldn't wait to get back to my balanced diet the next day.  When you eat balanced, eating out of that balance makes you feel like crap, and you just want to get right back in that balanced state.  I also spent a lot of time really thinking about what I eat, what I put into my body, how it makes me feel, how it impacts those around me, how it impacts the world at large.  These are all very important points for everyone to think about for themselves, but it's so easy to overlook when you can get so much calorie dense food for so cheap in our society and not have to worry or think about where it comes from.  Really, if we have the need to worship something, it should be the food we eat.  It really is that important.

And to Team Cookie Monster, we did it.  I sincerely appreciate everyone's support as well reading about everyone's successes and lessons learned.

I leave you with me baking, mostly because I like the juxtaposition of the Arm&Hammer box next to my guns.

Day 89

Technically, it's day 90 here, I'm not ready to do my last post, and I didn't have internet access all weekend.  Yesterday's super-set was actually really fun.  I prefer the full body exercises like pull-ups and push-ups, so throwing several full body exercises into one set was pretty much the bees knees.  I also realized of all the things I've learned doing this project, the most important for me can be summed up in one word...vegetables.  I can no longer imagine a meal without fresh veggies, and cannot fathom how I went so long eating so few of them.  Anywho, back to work, full blown last post coming up, most likely tomorrow.

Gym Visit

Since I'm a graduate student, I'm already on campus a huge portion of my life and I'm required to pay fees for our Student Recreation Center, which is code for a fancy gym.  You know, pool, indoor track, weights, the works.  So as part of our homework assignment, I stopped by today.  I don't really hate gyms, but can't say I like them either.  There are always people grinding away on some cardio or weight machine and it really seems like 90% of people there have no idea what they're doing.  We've just been trained culturally that if we put in our time, our lives will be better.  Unfortunately, if you don't work out intelligently or with sincerity, this just simply isn't true.  So yeah, a lot of overweight people on exercises bikes, a lot of dudes that look really strong but also pretty damn fat.  The thing that really bothers me most about gyms, though, is that people drive there.  I realize that some people live far away and want to lift, but it's on a damn college campus.  How hard is it to walk the 5-10 minutes to get there?  Why would you drive somewhere just to run on a treadmill when walking there and back would get you the same workout?  And be better for the environment?

No Title

I think I have finally lost the remaining bit of Thanksgiving, or about the same fat level as before.  So I'm really excited about this week, the final push.  For PCP of course, not for life, I really can't imagine life now without working out regularly.  One technical question about planks though.  Has anyone else had problems breathing while performing them?  It didn't seem to be an issue for me until the last couple of weeks, but sometimes I have to stop them short, not because of the burn, but because I start feeling light headed.  I just can't seem to figure the breathing out now.  Also, the long planks really kill my shoulders, I think I tense up my entire body too much.

Life choices

Another day of PCP.   It's funny, I don't really think of this as a count down anymore, as I know I will continue on with most of these habits after day 90.  Also, I don't think I will have quite reached peak condition for my body after day 90, although I know I'm close.

One of the big reasons I chose this project was because my mental state was really inconsistent.  I thought a major part of it had to do with the work environment I was in, but I also knew I wasn't in great shape and I  definitely wasn't eating well.  I needed to tease out whether it was truly the work or if it was just a body/mind issue.  So I thought if I put in a serious effort to make these changes I would see a vast mental improvement.  Unfortunately, while my body was getting better, I wasn't improving mentally.  So this week I made some major changes at work.  I'll blog more about it this week when everything is finalized, but needless to say a major burden has been lifted and all the mental goodness that comes along with a well-tuned body is finally coming through.  I realize this is kinda vague, so like I said, more details to come.

Another Day Closer

It's so nice to be back eating PCP again.  I definitely gained a little fat over break, but it's already melting away a bit.  Although I think that might have screwed up chances for a six pack by the time our 90 days is up, I'm not too concerned.  This wasn't really about body image for me but about cultivating healthier habits.  It's amazing that we can eat so much delicious, real food and still get more and more trim.

I'm Back

Hello Team Cookie Monster!  I apologize for the length between my last few posts, we traveled to my wife's family's place for Thanksgiving.  Unfortunately, there was no internet at her Tia's house (tia is Spanish for aunt, so if you learn one thing from me, there is a new vocab word).  While the entire PCP project thus far has been a great learning experience, there was massive failure on this trip.  I guess failing  is also a great learning experience though.

The diet was almost non-existent during this time.  Part of it was my personality is very not forceful, and I work very hard to not inconvenience people, especially when I'm a guest.  And my wife's family is Mexican, so the cultural and language barrier just made it that much more difficult.  As a male, it's culturally important for the females to make sure the man is always taken care of (my wife was raised in the US, so we don't follow this at home, thank goodness).  Which means that food is constantly forced on me.  And since I was a guest, food was constantly forced on me.  And me saying no means food was constantly forced on me.  I don't mean to say some of it wasn't delicious, but actually most of it was way too salty or sugary or both.  I have never felt so unhealthy.  I know this isn't true, because I have been more unhealthy in my life before, but my body has been cleansed of so many bad things since this project started that the constant salt and sugar just made me feel absolutely terrible.  I felt bloated the whole time, my bowel movements were totally messed up, and I was constantly craving raw vegetables.  Also, so much salt and lack of fresh fruits and vegetables just left me feeling constantly dehydrated.  I could not drink enough water to feel sated.  I think it would have been much easier just to claim I was a vegetarian, as everyone just said I was too skinny to worry about the food.  And I was not allowed in the kitchen, as that would have been rude on my part and because that's just not the place for the man to be.  I felt really bad about myself when I got home late last night as I feel I let everyone down.  But it also just made me more committed to making the life choices that PCP is instilling a permanent part of who I am.

I don't want to make it sound like it was horrible, I had a lot of fun.  There was plenty of singing and dancing involved.  And it was really funny that my wife's mother and I both understand rudimentary English and Spanish, respectively, so she would ask me questions in Spanish and I would answer in English, and we both understood each other.  We just both lacked the confidence to make the jump into the other's language.  But I never want to eat like that again in my life, it would have been so much more enjoyable if my body would have felt better.

It was also nice to be away from work and to have time to think about what's really important.  It seems obvious, but health and family is so much more important than anything else you do in life.

Also, as I mentioned before, I had to chance to read Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer while I was on break.  A really, really good read, and gave me the push I need to decide to become a vegan.  I am going to wait after PCP is over to make the change, but I think it's an important and necessary choice for me.  I went to buy some chicken today and just thinking about where it came from made me put it down in disgust.  So I guess I'm just lacto ovo pescatarian the next couple of weeks, which will give me time to research how to transition.

Well, long post, two more weeks team. JFD