The Fourth

Monday the 4th of January 2016: ONE
Me: Zilch, Zero, Nada

It’s the first day back to work after our holiday break, and in typical new beginnings fashion, things we had planned didn’t pan out.

We were going to get up this morning at 5am to do our workout. Well, that didn’t happen because we both “accidentally” slept in. To be fair though, I had turned down/off the volume to my alarm for the holidays and forgot to turn it back up (this is definitely an excuse, not an explanation). I was almost late for work. Though, I did manage to get my morning coffee (thank you to my life saving wife).

However, I won’t let this minor setback deter me from my life goal. So, I will hit the weights and treadmill tonight. All the better, because I don’t have anything going on tonight anyway and it will keep me from thinking about drinking a beer.

In case you’re wondering what workout plan I follow, it’s from http://www.muscleforlife.com/. Generally, I agree with most of the things that Mike Matthews talks about regarding weight lifting. “Lift heavy” is basically his mantra. I went back and forth, and hemmed and hawed about it when I was lifting regularly. Mostly because I was really worried that I would injure myself while trying to lift such heavy weights. Especially, when it came to dead-lifts and squats which I really, really suck at.

Also, last year, I bought his custom meal plan, which is great if you can stick to the work out regimen (like I didn’t). My only complaint is that they use Whey protein for everything, kinda over doing it on the Whey in my opinion. I don’t like eating Whey protein, so I tried to find my protein in other ways/forms. I really prefer a more holistic approach. Organic meats etc. I’d rather my diet not consist of eating Whey 2-3 times a day. So I stopped eating it. (I will say, they customize the plan to what you’d like to do. “The sorting hat takes your choice into account” as Harry Potter says in the movie. I didn’t mind eating Whey to begin with, but after a while I realized it’s probably not the healthiest way to get protein. So I stopped eating the Whey. No whey! Yes whey!)

Anyway, supposedly it’s a really great start if you want to build muscle, but also lose weight. The jury is still out. This year, I’m going to really put Muscle For Life’s plan into action and see how well I do in 3–6 months. I think last year when I tried it, I couldn’t let go of drinking. I’m ready to commit this go round.

JB