Anyway, here are some pictures from then. This is actually about three months after I had started my workout plan. I had probably already lost a few lbs, but I hadn't made a concentrated effort to change my lifestyle yet. I would still smoke the occasional cigarette, eat and drink A LOT of crappy food and good beer. For those of you that do not know, it's actually better for your waistline to drink shitty beer. The reason good beer tastes so good is because it has extra ingredients in it that bring up the flavor and the calorie count. So without further adieu, these are some pictures taken the summer I started my cardio regimen about 2 years ago.
Believe it or not, I was actually in pretty good cardiovascular shape at this point. I was primarily doing the elliptical. I had not started running yet, well, because "I hated running," but that's another story for another day. My weight training regimen didn't actually start until last year. Believe it or not, fat really did not start to REALLY come off until I started weight training. This is why I'm so adamant when I talk to people about the benefits of strength training. This is what I looked like a little over two months ago.
I've actually filled out a little more since then and dropped a little more fat, but I didn't feel like getting off my fat ass to go take a more recent photo, so these will have to do. As I said, I started strength training sometime in the spring of last year and I got really serious about it in the last year. I have no delusions about where I am. I know that I'm not Jason Statham or Ryan Reynolds. Although, eventually getting as close as possible to that point is the ultimate goal.
Now, I don't want anybody to get the wrong idea. The intent here isn't to brag or anything. I want people to know that I've been there. I know how difficult it is to try and shed fat and gain muscle. I know how hard it is when your kids want to play in the yard and chasing them around makes you breathe heavy. I know what it's like when you walk up a flight of stairs and your heart starts to pound. That's really the purpose of the stuff I write. I want people to know that I've been there.
Am I a competitive person? Of course. Do I sometimes wish more people would take it upon themselves to get in shape? No doubt. I get pissed off when I see fat people riding around on carts. I get angry when obese people cut in front of me in the mall and then waddle slower than two snails screwing. I'm human. However, if just one person gets motivated to make a change in their life, if they decide to make that commitment to themselves to get in better shape and my blog or my ramblings on twitter or facebook is their inspiration, that's the biggest reward I can reap from all of the miles I log, all of the weights I lift and all of the stretches I do.
Someone telling me, "Dude, you're amazing. You made me want to get in shape!" that makes every single drop of sweat worth it. To know that I helped somebody to improve their life and maybe even saved their life. That's an incredible reward. As I said, fitness is a commitment. A diet is not something you go off of, it's the way you eat, FOREVER. Getting in shape requires you to commit yourself to it. You can't change your diet and exercise for six months, lose ten pounds and think, "Well, that's it! I can go back to eating shit again." It doesn't work that way. If you do that, the weight is just going to come back and it's going to bring some extra weight with it. Trust me. I've done it. I've ballooned up and down. It's not fun and gets harder to lose every time.
Sorry, I got off on another one of my tangents. Today was a bit of another stream of conciousness rants. Next time, I hope to talk about my taper and how I'm feeling heading into Spartan (Hint: AWESOME). So, as always, train hard, have fun and be safe.
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