90

It was perfect.  I was anticipating the rain and the the last day of PCP, and a thunderstorm broke out during my last work out.  It felt great.  It was a nice comparison for day 1 to day 90 as well.  On day 1 I felt kind of weird going to exercise on our deck with the neighbors around, but on day 90 I couldn't of cared less about how I might have looked working out in the rain.
Thank You's
In public speaking courses they warn against thanking people by name because they say you're bound to forget people, but rules are meant to be broken.
First off my wife Steph who is supportive of me in everything.  I love you and thank you for all the help.  So many things, like groceries or cooking some extra stuff if you saw I was low, but mostly for being loving and caring.  Love you.
Group members
Greenie and Wei,
When I saw you day one photos I thought whoa these two already look like fit rock stars.  But, you pushed on to the super fit rock gods.  You were both so strong through out the 90 days I found it really helpful how serious you took it and you seemed to do it with ease and a lot of energy.
Lukas,
Didn't hear from you much, but it was good to see how that approach can work.  Every now and then you would post throw a picture up and soldier on, it was good to see how that can be successful.
Lori,
Loved reading your posts.  I like how you seemed to reach out to the group to make connections in the beginning it helped to bring us together.
Tony,
Just typing your name brings a smile to my face.  I felt like you kept gaining momentum as it went.  When I crack my first beer (probably tomorrow) I'll be sure to say a cheers to you.  Your posts were funny, honest, and I liked knowing there was someone else working around a lot of good food and drink during the program.     
David,
Your posts were very inspiring and motivational.  I loved hearing about how your health and mood was getting better and better (maybe I'm having a selective memory of the positive ones lol).
Jackie and Julia,
Not sure if you will be reading this or not, but if you do.  It was great to make a brief connection with you.  If you are still pursuing an interest in fitness and well being I hope you have found something that works for you, and you can always try it again if you want.
Other people
Jason B.,
Got to thank Jason he was the one who passed this on to me.  It was challenging like you said.  I'm glad I did it.  Thanks for the posts, and it was nice to know someone who did it first.  From time to time I would check in on you old blog posts and find almost identical feelings on the same day in the program.  Thanks again.
Molly,
Thanks so much for the consistent check ups and feed back.
Patrick,
You got a great system.  I'm already curious about some of the other programs, but I think I will try to integrate this one first.  I appreciate all the work you do through out this.  You can tell you live and breathe this life, especially in reading all of your past articles.  So many of the messages came at just the right time.  Thank you.
Chen,
No idea who you are, except what Patrick has told us.  Thanks for doing all the nutrition work and with no concern for being in the spot light.
Now I'm starting to wonder who I'm forgetting so let me throw a few pictures up and see what else comes back to me.

Hey dough boy I got a pair of jeans for you.  I always thought these to big pants pictures were always kind of fabricated (pun intended).  It's not that I thought people were straight out lying I just thought, "well a lot of people" wear baggy clothes so if you pull the waist it will stick out".  So I choose a pair that fit me pretty snug.  In fact I mentioned it to Steph as she was taking the picture and she said something about how they made my a** look before that was not very flattering.






I really thought I had more muscle then that back there.

Well in one of the photos you can see some muscle.  The funny thing is I feel like I'm just in good enough shape now, to think about getting into peak condition. But, I'm also ready for a little break.




 Alright it's getting late I got to wrap this up.  There are a bunch of photos on the flicker site.  I'm sure I am forgetting tons.  Oh one last thing.  I think the most important lesson from this project has just been to learn how consistent effort is what makes a difference, probably in whatever you want to do.


Couple of other photos I like from the last day.

No Arms.
    and
Cringe/Smile

Day 86 "Mommy that guy is shaking"

That's what I heard as I was working out at the YMCA today.  I was just finishing my exercises and doing the second or third set of V-sit/Plank super sets. The mom just said he working hard dear.  I'm pretty sure the little girl was used to the scene, because mom was kicking butt on various exercises and dad was dead lifting like 300 lbs. and when mom and dad were both busy the girl would go off on her own and bust out hand stands and other crazy gymnastic moves. 

Surf and Turf for Dinner.

I lost that little slice of burnt squash on the side to the fire.  Almost everything on the grill is PCP compliant, except for that veggie burger, I hear there good with bacon.  










And what picnic is complete without your digital scale.  Taj is already in bed, and Nico out grew that bib a long time ago, but he threw it on to keep his pajamas clean (it didn't work). 





I almost forgot.  Yesterday I was tired not really interested in working out and I hopped into the car to go over to the Y.  I turned the car on and guess who's on the radio?...nope guess again alright I'll just tell you.  Anthony  Robles.  Who?  Well he was one of the guys I considered for the motivational piece of the project.  He was the college wrestler who won the NCAA championship for his weight class despite only having one leg.  Hearing him talk about his path of coming in dead last his first year of high school wrestling to NCAA champ his senior year of college changed my mind set drastically.  Then later in the day Nico was asking me about wrestling and he started to talk about "that one legged wrestler we watched on TV" there really must be something to a collective conscious.   

Only a few more days left.

Day 83

Had a few days in a row without PCP exercise and a loose PCP diet.  However, I was doing about three yoga classes a day and still eating a lot of veggies just not a lot of animal and probably too many carbs.  It felt great to be doing yoga again.  The asana practice felt really easy in terms of strength, and it was nice to be part of a yoga practice that took a more in depth look then just an exercise practice. I camped out while I was there.  Here are a few photos to give you a feel for the camp site. 
A camp site has gotta have
A slide into a lake                                                        Bingo

Lots of RV's (this wasn't even close to the biggest or most plush)               A pancake gathering








I liked the camp site.  It was pretty hokey, but kind of charming too.

Pictures of the Ashram.

Main room

gurus got a swag table

Sri Dharma Mittra

And to top it all off one of my favorite people Jesse Giggles

It feels good to be doing the PCP work outs again, but its nice to add in some breath work and meditation too.  More to come soon.  I hope everyone is feeling well for this last week.

Day 76 And Indulgence

I have to admit I always feel like I am kind of rushing the indulgence when I do it.  But this one wasn't didn't leave me feeling too bad.  I had three peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (small raisin bread) and a glass of whole milk.  I'm sure there are some out there who think that's a pretty lame choice, but that's been my craving.  The whole milk felt kind of weird, like drinking half and half.  Then later I had a hot fudge sundae.  That was really good.  I'm pretty sure I went over the 1000 calories. 
The work outs are getting tough.  60 chin ups damn.  And I have been having a hard time with doing lots of planks at the end of the work out, but the other day I was able to pull off the 5 90 second planks which felt great.  I'm sure there's more to talk about, but that's all for now.
Oh wait I know. If anyone in Portland who reads this has some music to listen to while exercising I would appreciate it.  I need something new on the ipod.  Anyone got the white stripes or rage against the machine.  I'm open to suggestions too.  Prince was great for jumping rope last week.  Up beat.
 

Day 71 Wow!

Only 19 days to go.  I can't believe how fast it seems to be going by right now.  It's kind of hard to realize how close to the finish we are.  Although one of my goals has been to be ready for our summer league tournament on July 30th so Patrick if you have any tips feel free to pass them on.  You've mentioned the patterns of trough and peak from the process of breaking down and building muscle so it would be nice to be hitting a peak around that time.   Almost fell off the diet last night.  I was feeling exhausted physically and emotionally and I was ready to reach for some comfort in the way of calories.  Oddly enough I put on the TV and Man versus Food was on.  If you haven't seen this show it is about a guy who travels around the US eating at different restaurants.  But here's the catch he always takes on one of those eating challenges.  For example 15 dozen oysters, or five pounds of hot dogs drowned in chili, nacho cheese and french fries, or a milkshake made with 1/2 a gallon of ice cream + 1/2 a gallon of milk + a sandwich as big as my head.  Oh lets just see a clip to get the point across.  I think Detroit is a good place to get a gross clip of too much food. 

This one doesn't show him eating the burger but you get the idea.  Plus that burger is way bigger then most of the challenges I've seen.  So anyway, my point is watching this show pretty much takes away any desire to eat or at least to binge for me.  Alright got to go.  More soon.

Happy Fathers Day! A little late.

Check out this great MSN video: How To Use Your Kids To Work Out At Home




I thought this was pretty funny for fathers day.  

Day 62

Feeling good.  Got the work out done this morning in under an hour (about 50 min) with the jump rope (16 min) included.  Might try to get to a yoga class this afternoon, but it also depends on what the Reed-Smith family is up to cause they are leaving Maine for N.C. They will be missed.  More tomorrow...or later.