Hello? Hello? ...Is this thing on? Has it really been FOUR years? Where have I been? What have I been doing? I'd like to tell you I've been hitting the gym harder than I've ever had, that my diet has been spot on, that I've reached my goals and achieved my dreams. I'd like to tell you I've made what they call in the industry "mad gainz"; That my squat, bench and deadlift have all gone up hundreds of pounds. I'd like to tell you I'm in the best shape of my life. That I'm bigger, stronger, faster. I'd like to tell you that my chicken legs are now tree trunks.
Now that we've gotten that out of the way, I can tell you what I have done. I've Failed.
I've recently been reading a book called Failing Forward by John Maxwell. Now, I'm not generally one for the "self help" genre but someone much more knowledgeable than I had it on their top 3 books of all time list. This particular person specializes in psychiatry and philosophy. That being said, I figured I should probably give it a read. Let me just say WHAT A GREAT BOOK. I already find myself thinking about proper steps to take and ways to improve on how I've failed. My fitness goals being one of them.
Which leads us back here. Back to the blog. Why not? I feel like keeping myself accountable updating the blog with fresh content will motivate me to press on. I've grown complacent and its time to reignite the fire. Some history for those who didn't know me back then; Many moons ago I weighed a whopping 145 lbs. At around 6'1 this is also known as what we call "bean pole status". I took an interest into graduating out of bean pole status. I wanted to be able to wear shorts with out a comment about my legs. I wanted people to stop referring to me as "the tall skinny kid". So I started lifting. I had no idea what I was doing. Slowly I started to learn. I started taking an interest in nutrition. I started focusing more on how to improve my lifts and how to eat to achieve my goals. I trained and ate and studied. I saw results. They were satisfying. Comments from friends and family were motivating. I put on some muscle, some fat, I got a little bigger. Not Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson big. But bigger than beanpole status I'd say. Not shredded. I added some pounds and I added some muscle. I did what I sought to do.
But then I failed. I got lazy, I lost some of the hard earned muscle I had put on. I stopped prepping my food and counting my calories. I went to the gym only when I wanted and when it fit my schedule. I stayed home when I felt like it. The past few years I've read more articles, studies, and books on nutrition and fitness than I can count. My failure isn't in the knowledge my failure is in the execution. Which brings me back to blogging. A weekly update to keep me accountable to my execution. I'm sure along the road there will be plenty more failures, but as John Maxwell writes:
"To achieve your dreams, you must embrace adversity and make failure a regular part of your life.
If you're not failing, you're probably not really moving forward"
So, its time to move forward... Again. Who's with me?
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