Been a while....

I haven't written anything in a while because I haven't been doing much. As the end of the semester of school that just ended I had a ton of school work. Lots of assignments , final projects and group work to do and some tests as well so I wasn't going to the gym. I was sitting a lot and eating crap and staying up really late.

I did end up going for a run on the treadmill yesterday and I want to go again tomorrow. My gym is closing for the holidays on the 22nd I think. So I wont be going to do that for a little while. Probably not until the new year.

Until then ill try to not go crazy eating. Lots of stress is off because I did pretty good in school and go into my final semester soon. Stress now is coming because money is really tight. I've been trying to get EI for 3 or so months now but my last employer has been holding me up because she claims I stole her equipment. I didn't.

Anyway I hope that gets dealt with soon. That would take a bunch of stress off.

I did do a part time job in the beginning of the school year but they started making me work 6 days a week and when id ask for days off because I'm a student they never did. So I had to quit so that I was up until 5 am every day doing homework and having to get to class by 8 am.

Right now my big issue is my sleep pattern in way off. I'm up until about 5 am then I sleep till noon then do stuff and pass out around 6 pm until 8 or 9 then I'm up until 5 am again. Might need to get some pills to help me sleep and get back to normal.

Hope to do another treadmill run tomorrow....

Another Muay Thai Class.

So today (last night, I left this and finished it the next day.)after a couple days off I went to the evening Muay Thai class. it was really good. Worked mostly on form , but it was also a great workout. Working on form is important because when your muscle memory is well trained , then your moves will start to come out far more consistently. You want your kick to always come out the same , you want your hook to come out the same and so on.

So I get a little disappointed when I throw a kick and end up of balance because I know that I used to be a lot better at that kick. Or It doesn't have the power I expected in it. That's what happens when you stop doing things you enjoyed. You get bad at them and most times you just stop doing it and never come back to it.

Well I want to get back to where I was and go beyond that. I know that to do that I will have to start lifting weights again more regularly and also make sure I stretch as well because I was a lot more flexible a while back which helps with high kicks and it also help in jui jitsu because the more flexible you are the easier lots of the moves are to pull off as well as the easier it is to get out of holds and locks. If youre not flexible you are prone to tapping out early.

So today I did a treadmill run for 30 minutes. 10 minutes of that was a warmup and 20 was interval running and walking. My calves hurt before the run and so I wasn't sure how long I would last. I remember that at some point that pain goes away and your muscles are then used to the activity and that's really where you can work on improving more.

I will check my weight on Monday to see if there was any improvement yet, but if there is it wont be much because I still didn't eat all that well.

I've been doing nothing but school lately so tonight I'm going out to have a couple drinks with a friend.

Anyway, song of the day.
I just came across this today and it was catchy and damn just check out Nicole....

Treadmill Run

It's really horrible outside. Windy and rainy, but I wanted to go for a run again because it's been a while since my last one. Luckily I have a treadmill downstairs, so that's what I used. I also decided to wear a 20 pound weighted vest and one of those sauna suits as well.

I only did 15 minutes changing between a jog and a fast walk. The added weight made it really tough. On top of that I have still been eating crap. So that doesn't help at all. So starting today I will start monitoring what I eat and I'm thinking that if I have the willpower I will try to shoot for about 1500 calories a day. So far today a bagel and egg.

Tonight I plan to go to a Muay Thai class since this weekend other than the run last night I haven't really done anything active. I spent a lot of time sitting in front of a computer doing work and playing some games online.

Why do I want to get in better shape? There are a few reasons. First of all is for health. I had a friend die of a heart attack last summer and he was my age (35).

I also want to be able to have energy and have fun playing with my kid(s) when I have my own some day.

The other thing is that it is really fun to do things that require you to be active. Martial arts is fun, and the better you get at it the more fun it gets. Biking is fun, rollerblading, all that stuff is fun. Think about when you were a kid and had to go to gym class. That was the best class ever. As we get older though we stop doing all that stuff. Then we sit around and get lazy and eat, and watch tv and sleep.

Then when we miss the fun stuff we used to do and we try to do it again, its hard. Its tough to get active a gain because you have extra weight, your joints hurt you aren't flexible anymore and you don't have the lung capacity anymore.

Lastly, though it may be first for some people, is that you look better. Unless you're rich, most women wont go for an overweight person if they themselves are in good shape.

Motivation song for today:

Yesterday's Muay Thai class.

I ended up going to Monday nights Muay Thai class and I'm glad I went, though it was a bit of an easier class which is ok but it was still a good workout. We worked on some combos, starting off fairly simple then building on each combo after every round. In between each round we did 30 sit ups, then the next round was 30 squats , then back to sit ups.

I have been thinking about what I want to do with this Maui Thai and I think that I want to finally take the testing and start advancing in levels. When I was at Kombat Arts in Mississauga, I advanced in Jeet Kun Do. I remember the testing and I remember the shirt I got for passing that has the phase 1 on the sleeve and it was really cool. I think I still have the shirt somewhere. I loved JKD.

I never took the Maui Thai testing though. I think now I want to when I feel I'm ready and I want to go at least to advanced level. First test is white level/beginner, the intermediate, advanced, then fighter and then instructor I think.

So I want to go to at least advanced and then at the point see if I want to go one more step. I am not as good as I used to be and that's because I haven't gone much in the past few years. There was a point though where I could do well in MMA and Jiu jitsu and stuff like that.

for Jiu jitsu we used to do "shark tank" where 4 or so people would go onto the mat, then 4 people would go against them. The winner who taps the other person out would stay on and another guy waiting would go against them. Some days I was on the mat for the whole class and I was exhausted and full of my sweat and other peoples sweat but id keep going.

Today I would not know what I'm doing on the mat, so maybe I'm thinking of staying another hour after Muay thai to do Jiu jots.

I used to take 3 hours of class some days when I was in good shape. I loved it. I'm glad I have time to do this again.

The point where I realized I had gained some good skill and could compete against some of the better fighters in the gym was when  I sparred this one guy name Matt . He was a muscled up brick wall and he needed a sparring partner, so I volunteered . I ended up going toe to toe with this guy and trading punches and I think I was faster than him so I was able to counter a lot of his punches and even stop them mid air. The match was pretty intense and a lot of people started to gather at the ring to watch.

When it was over people were coming up to me patting me on the back saying how awesome that was. I did feel awesome too. Not that I won or he did , but it was a toe to toe match against one of the toughest guys.

Today id get my butt kicked. So I would love to train again and get up to that level again and I think its very doable.

I just need to keep being consistent in going. Today though I did absolutely nothing. But that's ok as long as I don't make that a habit.

I need to go for another run soon.....

MOtivationa song of the day is the Mortal Kombat movie theme!!!

Ate half a Delissio pizza.....

I eat crap and it sucks. It sucks because sometimes I'm so busy in a day that the quickest easiest meal is the way to go and that always means unhealthy. When you stop and you look at how many calories you just ingested you sit there thinking "holy crap that much for that?!?"

So there goes almost a full days worth of calories and its only the first quarter of the day!

So men in my age range need about 2200 to 2400 a day..... more than that and youll gain weight, less and youll lose.... So I guess I'm going to have to go to the Muay Thai class tonight because those classes burn a lot. You can burn up to 1000 in a very intense class.

So I just looked up some calculations and it says 1700 is a good number for me to lose weight fast, so ill try that out. I remember when I was about 28 I stuck to 1000 a day and lost a bunch of weight, but it was tough.

I was going to go for a run last night but my legs are really hurting. So that was put on hold. Though  I want to go again soon.

Though that thought process gets dangerous. The "I can go tomorrow" thoughts. That messes us up with lots of things.

Especially with people like me, who sit in front of a computer a lot. I do programming, so lots of the day I'm on here reading and trying to program, then I'm watching youtube and playing a game ..... so being active is secondary. I have the "ill go tomorrow" thought a lot. The next day I do it again. "ill go tomorrow"

and you keep doing that until you haven't gone to the gym in a month  or you haven't mowed the lawn or you haven't done something someone asked you to do because you keep putting it off and the more you put it off the lazier you get.

For now, here's the motivational song of the day. Ill make another post tonight.

Day 2

I went to do a Muay Thai class at Pound 4 Pound in Pickering today at 2 PM. There were only two of us there which turned out pretty good. Better than there being 3 people and having an odd man out.

So we worked on reactive pad work. Which is the pad holder holds up which ever pad he wants you to hit. He doesn't call it out , he just holds it in the right spot , so his left hand in front of his face would be a jab, or holding it palm down would be an uppercut, both hands facing down by his waist would be a kick, and so on. And the other guy has to hit them as fast as he sees it.

It's a good workout and is a lot better than already knowing what combo you are doing and just doing the same combo over and over for 3 minutes until moving on to the next one.

The warm up before that was skipping for 3 rounds of 3 minutes and one minute of pushups and one minute of squats between sets. I realized that the instructor was taking video at the end of the session, so If I can find it on the website I might post it unless I look like I'm dying.

I also, got to see this Lambo at the flea market after leaving the gym.

Oh and I checked my weight today to see what I'm starting at and its 240..... So  I want to go to 200 .

Also here is the motivating workout song of the day.

A New Start.

A New Start.

For quite some time I have felt like I couldn't really be myself. I made a tough choice recently that I feel is the right one for my future, health and sanity. Sometimes things start of exciting and fun, but people cant keep their true selves hidden forever. Things start to come out, but since you're invested you tend to come up with excuses for certain behaviour. You even defend it at times and pretend it will go away.

You invest time and money into people who never show appreciation and turn around and accuse you of never doing anything for them. You start to skip out on friends, you skip out on activities you love doing.....

Looking back I can see all the red flags that I ignored. Unfortunately a kid was involved. Not mine, but one I developed a father/son relationship with since I was in his life since he was 6 months old....

Ill miss him and think of that kid a lot and wish I could see him grow up, but I know I will also have my own some day.....

So, I want to start new, and get back the person I used to be. One thing I loved was being in shape , riding my bike every weekend, running, doing martial arts and best of all going out with friends , and laughing and being silly and enjoying life.

I think I wanted to start this blog to keep myself on track, and also because its like having a free psychologist.

I went for a run tonight and I couldn't do as well as I used to but it was a decent start.

At the end of my run a song came on that I think was very fitting for what I've been going through the past little while. Even if it's not your style take a listen. Sometimes life throws a lot at you but you have to shake it out.... and no its not Taylor swift.

A start to Improve on.

I tried to get the moon in there through the trees.

Tomorrow I'm going to do Muay Thai in the afternoon and will weigh myself at the gym for a starting point.