Stats & GUEST BLOGGER!

Hey campers! Having a good weekend? Sticking to those New Year goals? Hope so! Well, Sunday is stat day so here they are….

Weight-54.5 (no change there)

Skinfolds-
Tri-7
Sub-8
Supra-16
Abs-22
Thigh-16
Bodyfat=%17.61

I didn’t expect much change as this week just did cardio and stuck to my eating plan. Tomorrow will be the first day back at the gym-woohoo! As some may recall, our local gym was closed for 10 days over the hols, so we had a forced break. I’m sure my body appreciates it-but I’m feeling a bit mushy. I could have done some strength exercises here at home like push-ups, dips, crunches, and use the band…but I feel my body did need the break since I hadn’t taken more than a day off from training in the last year. So tomorrow-back, bis and tris-yeah! Well, see how I go with pull-ups!

Starting Tuesday, I’ll be doing a weekly healthy recipe of the week-Tasty Tuesday’s!
Tomorrow, is Monday-which means (according to my own New Year Goals)-no computer! That’s right folks, a full day without turning the computer on. Now-this is easy when I’m out sailing, or visiting family & friends in the states-or the internet just doesn’t work. But none of the above are in action here-so wish me luck!

Last, but certainly not least-I have hubby for a guest blogger-woohoo! He has written several articles for 'Australian Yoga Life' magazine and has been kind enough to share some of his thoughts on balance and New Year’s goals-so without further ado…I present my hubby-John…!


LET’S GET REAL: MAKING PRAGMATIC RESOLUTIONS FOR A HEALTHY AND BALANCED 2009.

With the New Year upon us, I thought it might be worthwhile to take a moment to reflect on what it means to make realistic New Year’s resolutions and set sensible goals for living a balanced life. But just what is a balanced life anyway. Balance is defined as “an influence or force tending to produce a state of equilibrium”, or “to be in and to maintain a state of equilibrium”. Based upon this definition, I think most of us would agree that our own lives are out of kilter in one way or another. But why is maintaining some semblance of balance in our daily lives such an important thing? One reason is that without a sense of balance and stability we tend to fail to achieve our goals and objectives; which, for our purposes today, are our new year’s resolutions. This being the case, it seems elementary that we should understand that a critical part of being a balanced person is to set balanced and practical goals and resolutions for ourselves. Notwithstanding this, invariably we tend to neglect this fundamental precept, in favor of setting impractical, and often literally unachievable objectives for ourselves. By doing this, we set ourselves up for failure and all of its attendant consequences such as frustration, self doubt, and the low self esteem that can follow.

A recent article I read involving the current financial crisis beautifully illustrates this point. In this case, it seems that thousands of customers of a large financial advisory firm had lost nearly all of there nest eggs because they had been encouraged to borrow money to invest in the stock market in a process known as margin lending. The goal here was to greatly accelerate and increase ones investment returns, by leveraging ones own money. Unfortunately, all those who tried this approach failed in their efforts and came to ruin. The reason for this can be summed up in just two words; “unrealistic expectations”. Had these people applied the tried and true evenhanded methodology of investing over a wide range of asset classes (often offered in products referred to as “balanced funds”), and done so with there own as opposed to borrowed money, they would not be suffering now.

This same principle applies to the diet and fitness goals and resolutions we set for ourselves. In making these resolutions let’s be to sure to take the balanced approach. First, we have to look at just what it is that we ourselves have to work with. A case in point here is when many years ago as a competitive body builder, I made a new years resolution that I would put a couple of inches of girth on, and have twenty inch calves by the end of the year. For myself, this was an unbalanced and literally irrational objective as at the time I had been already been training for many years, and probably had already realized at least ninety percent of my already limited genetic potential. Nonetheless, I determined that I could and would achieve this aim, and that it was simply a case of mind over matter. Never mind that what science tells us about muscle fibers, and my having a limited number of calf muscle cells to begin with! Anyway, I soldiered on doing seated calf raises with a couple of hundred pounds, as well as countless sets of donkey calf raises with two of the biggest guys in the gym on my back. Needless to say, I failed to reach my aim.

About twenty years later, when I was in my mid forties and living a more balanced lifestyle in many ways, I began to supplement my more than twenty years of weight training with activities such as yoga to gain more flexibility etc.. After several years of practice, and seeing dramatic improvements in this area, I was reading an article in a Yoga magazine written by a man in his late forties who was giving training tips on how to do the front splits. Moreover, he was actually demonstrating the posture in near perfect form! Well it just so happened that I had been working on this very move for some time, and had recently made to the point where I could reach almost reach the bolster. Of course, the first thing that crossed my mind was that if this guy could do it at fifty so could I, never mind that he was a former dancer! Anyway, my irrational side nearly set about making a new years resolution to achieve the full posture. Luckily, the older and now wiser side (although the juries still out on this one) of me piped in and I decided that instead I’d resolve to do my very best to get by bum down to the bolster by the end of the year and then take it from there. To make a long story short, I continued to make levelheaded incremental goals every year, and now nearly five years later (I’ll be fifty next year) I can actually do the full splits

The point is that in setting our diet and training goals, we have to take the balanced approach and realize that it is a combination of factors that we’re working with including both the physiological and psychological. The physiological include things like genetic potential (I can’t borrow any more calf muscle fibers), diet and training etc., The psychological include things such as attitude, emotion, discipline and self control, as well as rational and commonsensical thinking. It is this type of thinking that is essential when making resolutions or setting specific goals which themselves are factors of critical importance in achieving our objectives. But to be of benefit, these goals must be realistically achievable, and this may mean that they’re set for attaining incremental stages along a much longer progression.

Moreover, and perhaps most importantly, we must always keep in mind that so long as we are one hundred percent certain that we have given the very best of our physical and mental capabilities in our effort to achieve whatever our purpose may be, then we have succeeded. As my mother use to put it “just always do your best, to be your best”. If we can honestly do this, then we have succeeded no matter what the outcome, but only if we can really and truly know in our heart of hearts that we have given the very best of ourselves to ourselves. Unfortunately, this is where so many of us fall short, and we know it! This year, let’s all resolve to formulate realistic and rational resolutions for ourselves, and be one of those who at years end can take an honest, sincere and lucid look into themselves and say “I gave it my all”, “I did my best”. If we can do this, then we’re sure to come out winners, most of which who have either achieved or surpassed the precise purpose of their aspiration or resolution, and who can also proudly say “and I did it”!