My fifteen week journey back to Perfect Health "THE SUPER CHALLENGE"

Week 3 Day 1

What's going on in my head?

Not taking pain medication when you need to is not clever. Again I let my head pain run a bit longer than I should and got to the point where I was about to lose my dinner. Thought I could make it through 24 hours without any medication at all. I have to remind myself that I am not a drug addict and the pain meds are there for a reason. When the pain subsides altogether I'll come off them. In the mean time I get a little concerned about renal failure and the like although I'm not taking huge amounts of tablets they are probably strong enough to get rid of the headache experienced by two Arizona plains bison taking a charge at each other.

So I went into the gym today feeling a bit fragile. I upped my game by the time I hit the iron and had a really good session.

Moral of the story...if you are in any kind of pain and you KNOW that you are not using for anything other than relief...take the darn things, that's what they're for.

I received this from Carlos and I think it is a valuable read for anyone

Discipline Defined

So what is discipline, anyway? Discipline to me is the difference between winning and losing.
Discipline is a daily recommitment, because it is daily that I can get off course. By keeping myself on a “short leash ” I can better maintain a steady course. It is when I relax and allow myself to become indulgent or distracted that I get off track.

Discipline is doing what ever it takes especially when you don’t want to! And doing it well and without an attitude!

In designing my commitment, I need to factor in not only a daily inventory of my direction, I also need to have the proper attitude regardless of how I am “feeling”.

Discipline is to do what needs to be done when it needs to be done.
Putting off making an important decision could be to plan for failure. The philosophy of an achiever includes margins for error (being human) and the “mid-course direction change” required to get back on track as quickly as the error is identified.

Whether you like it or not, whether you want to or not.
I need to resolve that it doesn’t have to be pleasant or the “right timing” I don’t have to like it or want to do it, I just need to do it! This, of course does not include training to the point of overtraining, training with a legitimate injury, or illness. In other words this is not intended to allow for overdoing anything. I should not take this as an occasion to find fault with this philosophy, rather I should factor in fail-safes to help me avoid laziness, knowing our human condition.

Discipline is not eating when you want to, and only because you want to.
Here is where I address any excuse to eat for pleasure. This is an area that has to be dealt with to help me ensure success. Just because I want it (whatever, food etc.) doesn’t mean that I should have it-especially if it will take me away from my goal. So I ask myself, will this get me closer to my goal or take me further from my goal? The answer to that question should determine the action that I take.


Discipline is not drinking when you want to and only because you want to.
Drinking (could be anything) for pleasure also needs to be identified, or else I will fool myself into indulging in some indiscretion that I did not make myself aware of. Aren’t we tricky? Then I would convince myself that, “for the life of me, I can’t figure out what went wrong!” I need to be honest and committed even when there is no one else around.

It’s not for everyone -- just those who want to win!
To require excellence for myself means that I need to have a working philosophy that identifies all of (that I know of) the pitfalls that I may encounter and an idea of how I would attempt to remedy them. And certainly this isn’t for everyone; it’s for those who are striving for excellence. And yet excellence is not unrealistic. Excellence is not perfectionism. Excellence is doing my best each and every time I try. And I have learned that each “best” can be different, and I have learned to accept that. The outcome of such a pursuit that involves responsibility and accountability would be maturity.

As an athlete I’m not looking for excuses why I can’t -
I’m looking for reasons why I can – Carlos DeJesus



The Purpose Of Discipline Is To Birth A Habit.
By Dr. Mike Murdock

When you perform the same action or task thirty consecutive days, it becomes a Habit.
The psalmist prayed seven times a day.
Daniel prayed three times a day.
Jesus, as was His custom, went to the synagogue regularly.
Uncommon Achievers Do Daily What Common Men Do Occasionally.
Whenever you fail in your life, that failure can be traced to something that was occurring daily in your mind, home or life.
Whenever you succeed in your life, that success can be traced to something occurring daily in your mind, home or life.

Men do not really decide their future—they decide their focus.
Focus creates their habits.
Habits determine their future.

FANTASTIC - Thank you Carlos, I think what you wrote is really important and needs to be inernalised.

TRAINING 1st number is my start weight and 2nd after 4 weeks

Leg ext 10kg 40kg

Leg curls 20 40

Calf Raises 12 60

Quad Blaster b/wt b/wt

pullover 5 12

Bench bar 50

seated row 20 67

laterals 4 8

bent over row 10 30

dips 3 8

curls 4 12

triceps 20 50

upright row 20 35

shrugs 20 40

hyperext b/wt b/wt

ball crunches b/wt b/wt

reverse crunches b/wt b/wt

Making nice progress. Feeling very confident back in the gym.

NUTRITION

My plan may take longer than I thought. After analysis it seems that my metabolism is completely out of whack and needs to be stabilised. I have only been eating on average 1600cals per day which is way too low for me and I need to increase my intake to around 3000 cals per day. Now this has to be done gradually and will take 10 weeks at which stage I start fat burning. That will probably take another 8 weeks or so which takes me to December 22. This is 18 weeks from now so I'm going to extend my SUPERCHALLENGE by 5 weeks and call it a 20 week challenge.

SUMMARY

I'm OK about extending my SUPERCHALLENGE to a 20 week challenge because I really want to do this properly and get it absolutely right. Nutrition plays a very large part in getting into shape and I want to get my matabolism into the best 'fat burning mode' I can.

Discipline and mind set go hand in hand. One doesn't work without the other. Once you have those under control you will be UNSTOPPABLE.