Ask any body builder and most of them would vow on one thing which is about thier food intake. There is an old saying in the computer world. Garbage in, garbage out. That is, the computer is only as good as the input you give to it. Similarly your body is only as good as the food you give it.
[For everyone else, who is on steroids and performance enhancements drugs, you shouldn't be reading this ! and should be chilling out with your new found strength]

As part of this idea, my chief resolution for year 2012 was to 'Cook healthy food myself' Now the 'myself' part is very important, because I was one person who found all types of excuse to keep myself away from cooking including common excuses such as lack of time, lack of knowledge and so on.

As part of realizing this goal, today I bought potato and some onion and also checked my stock of chilly power, salt and oil. Everything looks oil and this should give me all the propulsion I need, to take me to the cooking orbit. I also plan to keep a record of what I have done, what I plan to do that week, make sure I have everything required for that menu or make a purchase list of things I need to buy ( Not having things required was another 'genuine' excuse I used to make many a times)

Lately I have been doing with eggs, sausages, making juice myself - rather than buying canned juice with preservatives and also buying fresh fruits(which I was do before) and so on

Wish me all the best

Labels: fitness, health

Every goal that you set for yourself, is like a relationship. This means that just like any other relationship, the relationship with your goals, needs constant nurturing and evaluation. Now this may seem a little out of the way. Lets take some real life examples

Relationship with your spouse
Your relationship with your spouse is a multi dimensional exchange. Here are a few points you obviously take care on a regular basis

1. Giving your personal best
You have to work on your relationship and provide regular nurturing in terms of love, care and support

2. Feedback
You have to constantly seek for feedback, sometimes it could be direct whereas sometimes, it could be intuition, either way, you have to gain feedback from your partner and modify your actions accordingly

3. Gratitude
Always be grateful for whatever the other person does for you and thank in whatever ways possible

Let's now see how these can be applied to your goals as well


Relationship with your goal

If your goal is to be fit and build a great healthy body, again that becomes a relationship for you. Note that this can be applied to any type of goal, that you set for yourself. Lets see how the points above should be applied to your goals as well


1. Giving your personal best
You regularly work on your goal, spending your time, money and energy.

For example, I am heading to the sports shop now to get a pair of dumbbell rods, so that I can put my 5 Kg plates on that and start my biceps routines again. Now I have been reasoning myself to be content with 4 Kgs one that I already have, so that I don't have to spend this additional money. But guess what, its not helping me.
Although one might question the benefit that 1 additional kg could make, I believe its worth the money I am about to spend, considering the results I will get.

2. Feedback
Here the feedback comes from my body itself. I get to see what works, and what does not. What pains and what tares and so on. If I keep a regular note of all these ( how much did i gain? etc) and act on it, it can bring tremendous results.

3. Gratitude
I should always thank God ( Universal power/ force / Life giver or whatever you may name) for giving me this great body and also the opportunity to work with( and not towards) my goal to achieve what I want. Also being thankful for the support system that you have, and in my case that would be websites, forums, Facebook friends, twitter friends, fitness videos, and books

I am sorry if this sounded too philosophical, but this is what I had in my mind. God bless you.

Labels: acs, fitness, health, inspirational

Among all the things I want to set right with myself in this special year, one would be of making the right choices. Sometimes not making a choice is also a choice. For example, today I got up at 7:00 AM and I wanted to go for jogging and I had 2 choices:

1. Get my back up, head for brushing and the daily routine, with the water still being cold and head for jogging ( Explicit choice)
2. Stay at the comfort of the warm, soft bed and continue to sleep and have the excuse that I struggled for the entire week and I have got the 'right' to relax on a cool Sunday morning ( Implicit choice)

Now by not opting for choice #1, we wrongly assume that we have not taken any choice, which is not the case. We have implicitly chosen choice # 2 and all the results that come up with that, including:

• Guilty feeling that I did not achieve the goals I set to myself
• Tummy size, would remain the same and I have the genetics, food to blame to
• Miss the great fresh air of the park and chance to add a few more years to my life

Remember, every type of inacation is also a form of action. I learned it the hard way, in the last few weeks. Hope this helps you in taking a close look at all the 'Inaction' items in your list.

Me and facebook
If you are interested in finding me at facebook, and subscribe to my updates, please bookmark my www.facebook.com/fitnessjustin. I am sure you will find it interesting if you are into health and fitness.

Back at office
Our EMC traning would commence tomorrow and would last for two weeks. They intend to cover topics such as xDesign, xAdmin and xPresso. Although we are proficient in these tools and have more than 2 years experience in working with these, we are going to be introduced to the new feautes of this tool as part of the 4.1 release which came a few months back. Training would be between 4:00 PM and 1:00 AM.

Last week, had some really interesting conversation with Seena, Anuroop and Ameer( Hadn't talked to them in years, probably a year or more).

So that's all for today, have a great productive and interesting week ahead.

Labels: fitness, health, job

Labels: fitness, inspirational

Not even a gram less or more !! This was the number shown on the electronic weight scale today at one of the restaurants where I check my weight on a weekly basis. I was so over joyed that I could not believe what I saw. This would not have been possible without the great books, fitness videos, blogs, my hall of fame photos of people whom I want to become, and definitely motivating words/ tweets by hundreds of health/fitness lovers on twitter. And best of all nutritious and healthy food by my fiancee that just goes along with my daily exercise routine. Thank you all and a BIG thanks to you Jesus :)

Weight gain badge from livestrong

Labels: dream, fitness, health

This is in continuation with my previous post 25 weeks to Arnoldation, which tracks my fitness goals and areas that I am proud and the things I should improve upon.

Weeks 5 - 10

1. Made it a point to hit park on weekends and other holidays and make atleast 5 - 8 rounds of jogging coupled with 10-12 rounds of fast paced walking.
2. Weight shot upto 69.5 KG, Yehaaaaaa, I am so closed to reach my first milestone, which is 70 KG(154.3 pounds)
   
3. 'Push up' count reached 50 for the first time, and that too in proper form
4. Reps for flys, and raises have crossed 15(earlier less than 6)
5. More crunches that ever before, to take care of the tummy
6. I can see visible changes in my forearms, biceps, tricpes, rib cage, thighs; Small but significant and motivating me to push harder
7. Included meditation as a daily routine
8. Have become more conscious even while doing day to day tasks like, lifting a bucket, sitting while traveling, make sure to walk with the correct posture(ear, shoulder, hips on the same straight line)
   
9. Two rounds around ITPL(for about 20 mins) in the evening, on most days
   
10. Learned more about ab excercises from the book The Complete Guide To Abdominal Training by Christopherm Norris
    

Plan for the next 4 weeks

1. Include more variety in food intake to accommodate duck eggs, protein shakes, salads, cheese, butter etc
2. 60 mins of strict workout and 20 mins of rounds inside the park, prior to that
3. 'Presses' using barbell with 4 kg( 2 kg plate + weight of barbell)
4. Learn more about exercises, food, nutrition and physiology
   
5. Incorporate ALL the main moves that I learned in KungFu prior to the work out or during that
6. Make sleep and rise times fixed and do not fluctuate a lot
7. Increase 'Curls' and 'Fly's dumbell weights to 7 KG (5 + 2 kg plates)
   

Labels: fitness, health