30 Days To The Abyss Day 30

Welcome back! Can you believe it? Here we are at The Abyss! I'm glad you stuck it out with me! I couldn't have done it without you! Today I'm just going to recap the journey.

It seems like it was just November when I decided to do this and here we are at the end of December. I had the lofty goal of taking back control of my life by changing my diet, exercising, and cutting the negative bullshit from my day to day. I think the pictures will show that I indeed have made a big improvement in my physique. I did this through a combination of changing what, how, and when I ate and with rigorous exercise. I didn't join an expensive gym. I did it all in the comfort of my own apartment using my own body and a few simple weights. With the exception of one day, I woke up every day and did my workout. The one day that I didn't workout first thing in the morning I had one the most brutal headaches that I've had in a long time. It sucked! I learned my lesson from that. In this month I've also gotten a job and helped a friend at his store as well so sometimes I was gone for 12 hours a day. This really made it tough to keep my motivation up there. The worse thing to happen would be my healing crisis. There was a day this week that I thought I may have to go to the hospital. Thankfully, I feel much better so I know my body is healing itself so I'll be better than new in no time.

On this journey I've talked about why I wanted to do this. I talked about my cleansing system. I talked about specific things that motivated me to start and to stick with this journey. I interviewed my wife about her dramatic weight loss. I've shown you how I do many of the exercises I've incorporated into my daily routine. I've shown you videos and pictures from the things that I derived much of my motivation. Of course, some days, you got little more than my picture for the day. All in all, I think I did a good job of sharing everything on this journey.

Now, time for the pics. Here, once again, are the pictures of Rain that were a huge motivation for me. This is a before, middle, and after series of pics from his training for the movie Ninja Assassin. This was over a 6 month intensive training regimen that consisted of 5 hours of martial arts training and 1 hour of exercising. He mostly ate boiled chicken, raw fish, eggs, and salad.



This is my 30 day transformation. It consisted mostly of pushups, situps, and various exercises with dumbbells and/or kettle balls. I quit espresso cold turkey and the last time I had any was November 30. I massively increased my water intake and I rarely took any headache medication. I ate what we had but I just ate less of it. During my healing crisis this last week I've eaten very little and had more tea and juice than the law should allow.



I really didn't get into the fat burning portion like I wanted to because of my healing crisis. If I had to find a silver lining it would be that since I had no appetite and all I did was drink fluids for almost the entire last week I ended up losing a good bit of that flub anyways. :-D I still plan on adding cardio into my routine. I'm getting anxious to do some running and some Parkour/Free Running! I also mentioned my desire to pursue Pilates as well. Gotta keep the routine fresh, right?!

So, thanks for joining me on this journey. As I stated yesterday, this isn't the end of the blog. It's simply the beginning. I just won't be updating every day. Keep tuning in and as always please feel free to comment, give me suggestions, and just say hello!

I bid you a hearty Hoo Yah Deep Sea from The Abyss! :-D OO

30 Days To The Abyss Day 29

Welcome back! I can't believe my 30 day journey is done tomorrow! This month has flown by in the blink of an eye! I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did! Fear not! While my 30 day challenge to myself is concluding this is really only just the beginning. I plan on continuing along my path and sharing the journey with all of you.

I'm confident that I achieved what I set out to do . . . take control of my life. In this month I got a new job and incorporated a pretty healthy diet and extremely effective exercise regimen back into my daily routine. While I am experiencing a healing crisis I actually look at it as a perfect end to the month. It's my body's last major change in that I'm purging out all of the old crap. Regardless, this was a good month and I'm glad I got off my lazy ass and took care of business.

With a new journey comes new goals. I have a lot I want to do. One of the fitness elements I'm going to look into is Pilates. I think it will help me out immensely with my whole spine issue. I really need to work on my flexibility and I'm to understand that this should help. This is what I found on Wikipedia for it:

Pilates is a body conditioning routine that helps build flexibility and long, lean muscles, strength and endurance in the legs, abdominals, arms, hips, and back. It puts emphasis on spinal and pelvic alignment, breathing to relieve stress and allow adequate oxygen flow to muscles, developing a strong core or center (tones abdominals while strengthening the back), and improving coordination and balance. Pilates' flexible system allows for different exercises to be modified in range of difficulty from beginning to advanced. Intensity can be increased over time as the body conditions and adapts to the exercises. No muscle group is under or over trained.

Sounds like exactly what I need! I have no problem exercising or even running but I've always really disliked stretching. I wonder why I'm so inflexible. :-D

If you know me then you know I'm a photographer. I think people are shocked and confused when they see me without a camera in my hand. I originally started down that path with the intention of being a videographer. However, at the time, it was just too expensive to buy video gear. Of course it was expensive to buy photography gear but video gear was way more expensive so I made the choice to delve into photography first. Photography gave me a good base by teaching me the basics of lighting and composition. I also learned how to run a photo shoot which isn't as easy as you might think. But I've decided that now is the time to pursue my original goal of being a videographer.

Perhaps my loftiest goal is to spend less time wasting away on the internet. I spend way too much time just hitting refresh on boring and relatively useless social media sites. Don't get me wrong . . . it's nice sharing with my friends online. For many of us it's the only way to stay in touch. However, I waste a lot of time on the internet and it just dulls my mind. So, other than keeping up with friends or actually learning something like videography type things I plan on stepping away from the computer more. Besides, I downloaded a shitload of books to my Nook so I gotta get cracking on those!

I plan on continuing this blog. I won't be updating every day but I've enjoyed doing this and I'm stoked that I stuck with it and did my posts every day, with the exception of the day my laptop got hacked and I couldn't use it, of course. I hope you stay along for the continuing ride. I also hope more people comment and give me suggestions for topics.

Tomorrow is the last day. I'll be doing a recap of the month. See you then!

30 Days To The Abyss Day 28

Welcome back! I'm deep into my healing crisis and really taking advantage of having today and tomorrow off from work so I can concentrate on healing and getting healthy! I've had so much fluid I may never want tea or juice ever again!

At times like this, ya know, when you feel like shit and your motivation is at an all time low, you need to find some serious motivation to help you get off your ass and do what needs to be done! Therefore, today, I present you with my motivations for fighting my way through this healing crisis.

First of all, you know one of my big inspirations has been seeing Rain train for Ninja Assassin. Here is the first video I saw of him preparing for the role.



I continued to search the internet to find more material. I found these two videos and even though they aren't in English you can still see what he's doing and what he's eating. In other words you get the gist. They show a bit about his personal life and other projects other than Ninja Assassin. But, we all know that we are a combination of all of our experiences, right?!



And the second part . . .



I also got a lot of inspiration from the movie 300. The transformation those guys had was amazing!



But of course my original inspiration and the inspiration for many in my generation . . .



The shit that guy did was and is still awe inspiring!

So tell me . . . what do you look to for inspiration? Do you hang pictures of celebrities or sports figures near your workout area? I'm more curious to know if you hang pictures of people you want to look like or do you hang pictures of people you don't want to look like? You know, do you hang pictures of Rain or do you hang pictures of grossly obese people looking gross eating garbage at a fair from People magazine?

Two more days!

30 Days To The Abyss Day 27

Welcome back. Sorry for the delay. My laptop got hacked and I just now got all of the damage repaired. Fortunately the damage was just a minor inconvenience and not something more hard core!

I didn't really have much to say anyway because I've continued to decline in my healing crisis. It has now spread to my lungs so that's not good. Like I said before, I'm paying the piper and I'm now coughing up all of the evils I've built up for so long. After experiencing this I can assure you that I will be very conscious of my diet and also my stress levels.

One of my coworkers was kind enough to cover my shift for Wednesday and I already have Thursday off so I can just kick back and rest for 2 straight days and continue to pound the fluids to flush my system of all of this ick. Work has been so crazy busy that I'm practically fall over exhausted by the time I get home and that just isn't conducive to healing. Everybody needs rest and I just haven't gotten any in a few weeks. Boo hoo for me, right?! :-D

There are only a couple days left in this journey and it's been a wonderful time!

30 Days To The Abyss Day 26

Welcome back! Let's talk about being stupid! Today, I was very stupid! I'll chalk it up to the healing crisis making me delirious and not capable of wise decision making. I made poor decisions and I paid dearly for them.

I'm still in the midst of my healing crisis. I continued to pound the fluids after getting home from the in-laws yesterday. I went to bed earlier than usual and I actually got a pretty good night's sleep. I woke up this morning feeling not worse but not exactly better. I decided I needed to up the ante so I added 5 more pushups, 10 more crunches, and 5 more of the modified curl/presses to the routine that I do every morning. That made me feel pretty good. It all went downhill from there.

I had some water and a chewable vitamin c pill, then I I didn't eat or drink anything else for several hours. Big mistake. I probably shouldn't have gone to work at all but I felt lame for calling off so early in the game. Another big mistake. Today was without a doubt the most insane, crazy busy day I have ever experienced at any job! For some reason whoever made the schedule thought that today would be slow so they understaffed the store. I guess they didn't take into account that being a Monday right after Christmas that most people would have the day off to go sale shopping. It was backed up at the drive-thru and inside pretty much the entire time I was there. I ended up leaving late and only ate a banana all day and had a few sips of some water. I really don't know how I made the short drive home. I had a pounding headache, I was clogged with snot, I was too exhausted to even eat. I took some Excedrin and collapsed into my bed. My amazing wife made me a wonderful chicken soup from scratch and brought me fresh water only after she massaged my throbbing melon. It made all the difference. Within half an hour of arriving home my headache was gone and I instantly felt relaxed. Within a couple of hours of eating the delicious soup and drinking a bottle of water I felt good enough to get out of bed. I even went into the kitchen and scrubbed the humidifier clean so I could run it tonight. Last night my throat and sinuses were so dry I almost couldn't breathe.

So, what did I learn from today. Well, first, that I'm still a stubborn jackass that won't do what my body is clearly telling me! I shouldn't have gone to work in the first place. But, I should have been at the very least drinking water all day. And I should never ever go that long without eating something. Even something little. The banana was just too little and a little too late. Lesson learned X 100! Tomorrow my shift doesn't start until later in the day but it also goes for a full 8 hours rather than the 5 1/2 hours today. At least that means I should get a half an hour lunch and two 10 minute breaks which I will have to insist on taking just so I don't feel like I did today.

This brings me to a new challenge. What can I take to work that I can eat immediately even if I'm behind the counter with absolutely no preparation time? I've been buying Cliff Bars, which I like, and keeping them in the truck. I guess I'm gonna have to bring some in with me as backups. What do you for situations like this? I'd love to hear some suggestions.

Four more days!

30 Days To The Abyss Day 25

Welcome back! Well, here I sit, on my couch, after a long day of celebrating Christmas. I drank so much fluid last night trying to flush this ick out of my body that I can't believe I didn't wet the bed! I still managed to get up this morning and workout and take my picture before getting ready and driving up to the in-laws.

Despite there being a ridiculous amount of food I was still able to drink a lot of tea and water and have relatively healthy choices to pick for lunch. If I had been at home I probably wouldn't have eaten any solid food but it was Christmas and it was all delicious so I had to eat something. In retrospect it was probably a good idea to help keep up my strength. I just ate a bowl of soup and a piece of buttered bread in between more tea and water. I've added cranberry juice to the mix since it always helps flush my system. I cut it half and half with water cuz I think it's a bit too strong for me to drink straight.

Unfortunately, I have to work the next 3 days straight starting tomorrow morning and I would love nothing more than to just sleep, drink fluids, and pee. I have Thursday off so that will be my day for catching up on the whole rest and flushing system. Stupid healing crisis messing with my life! :-D

I can't believe I have 5 days left on this journey!

30 Days To The Abyss Day 24

Welcome back! It's Christmas Eve and I'm miserable! I woke up with a sore throat and it went downhill from there! I'm stuffed up and leaking snot like a burst pipe. Guess what I'm going to talk about today!

I don't use the work "sick" when this happens. I refer to this as a "healing crisis." This is my body's way of telling me to slow down and take note. As you would know from this very blog I have been burning the candle at both ends and holding the middle over a stove. I went from having the stress of being unemployed for 2 months to working 2 jobs at once during the busiest retail time of the year. I had back/neck issues that kept me from having any decent sleep. Since I started working the 2 jobs my "normal" schedule for sleeping, eating, and even drinking went out the window. I find myself barely eating all day then coming home late at night and eating too much right before I go to bed. Given all of this I'm really not surprised I'm having this healing crisis. My body is definitely screaming at me to get with the program.

Why do I call this a "healing crisis?' Well, basically, my body is in crisis from all of the stress, the lack of sleep, the back/neck issues, and the poor dietary habits of late. It needs to heal itself from this abuse and the only way it can do this is to force me to take a step back and slow down and take care of myself. Yesterday I went to the chiropractor and she corrected everything that was out of place. There was a lot! Today, other than a bagel in the morning, I've had nothing but fluids. Digestion is the number one process in the body that takes precedence over everything else and it takes a lot of energy to do so. By eliminating any difficult digestion (solid food) I am allowing the energy to be used elsewhere. I've had various teas, a smoothie, and tons of water. Drink, pee, repeat. I also have pretty much just sat around and relaxed all day. I wanted to go out and get my tires rotated, do some shopping, and a few other errands but decided the best thing for me was to just chill. Usually, by just chewing on vitamin C tablets and flushing myself with tons of liquids I can keep the healing crisis under a day or two. Tomorrow will be challenging since it is Christmas day and I'm going to be at my in-laws and there is going to be a lot of food. That's why I'm doing all of this today. I'll continue the massive amounts of liquids tomorrow just to keep it going.

What are your remedies when this happens? Do you take a bunch of over the counter "medicine" and pop a bunch of pills? Do you take a few swigs of Nyquil and sleep for a few days? Do you take "natural" remedies from the health food store? Does this happen to you a lot? Are you always on antibiotics? I'm curious to hear what other people do when this happens.

30 Days To The Abyss Day 23

Welcome back! Today I'm going to talk about not beating yourself up. I am a master of beating myself up. I never give myself a break. I'm hyper-critical of everything I do. One thing my naturopathic doctor used to always tell me is that I had to stop beating myself up. Translate this into 30 Days speak and it means that it is totally okay that I went out to dinner with my wife and ate a Blue Ribbon Burger with bacon and fries and washed it all down with a Coke then went to Starbucks and drank a caramel apple spice. It was all delicious and I enjoyed every last bite and every last drop! It's been a rough couple of weeks and I deserved a treat!

This is Christmas weekend and I can guarantee that there is going to be an overabundance of yummy food and treats and I'm going to eat them all! The difference will be that this time I'm going to burn the extra calories by working out more and harder. But, I'm going to eat, enjoy and not beat myself up over it.

So, I know I'm not the only one that does this. Do you do this? Take it from me . . . you should stop! Enjoy yourself and eat what you want this weekend and just do a few more pushups or a few more crunches. Perhaps go for a walk outside and look at everyone's Christmas lights! Either way, give yourself a break and enjoy the holiday season!

30 Days To The Abyss Day 22

Welcome back! Today I'm going to talk about rest and relaxation. These are not to be confused with sleep. I can't believe I only have 8 more days to go!

Lately, I have not been getting any rest. I've been working 2 jobs so I'm gone pretty much at least 12 hours a day almost every day. By the time I get home I'm so tired I pretty much eat something then go into bedroom and fall asleep watching Kolchak: The Nightstalker like I've done every night for months. Problem is though is that I'm not getting any real rest. My back and neck have been bothering me immensely the past couple of weeks so I'm constantly tossing and turning to try to get comfortable and it seems that there is no comfortable position. I wake up even more exhausted and usually with a worse headache than when I went to sleep. So, can you see what I mean by rest and sleep not being the same thing. I get plenty of sleep but I don't get much rest and the rest is more important than the sleep. My wife said I'm pretty much always in "spaz mode" and that I rarely sit still, even when I'm sitting still. It seems that my challenge is to learn how to relax.

I just got a new Nook Simple Touch and I loaded it with a bunch of books and I'm trying to read more. I've read every night before I got to sleep since I got it. It's been nice spending time away from the computer and the television. I believe this is what I'm going to use to relax. I carry it with me everywhere I go now so I can try to just chill and read a few chapters. I miss reading so it's been great to get back to it. I've already been looking through the thousands of books and deciding which ones I want to read. Any suggestions?

Now I want to hear from you. What do you do to relax? What do you do to rest? Do get restful sleep? How do you unwind after a hectic day? How do you fit your exercising into your busy schedule?

Please give me some suggestions for what you want me to address these last days. This weekend I'm going to do more videos showing how I'm changing my workouts to involve more cardio and fat burning. I only have a little over a week to burn this flub away! :-D

30 Days To The Abyss Day 21

It's been a challenging couple of days so I shot a quick video to talk about the stress of daily life. And this one really is short! It's under 10 minutes! :-D



It's gonna be an interesting last third of this journey!

30 Days To The Abyss Day 20

I worked over 12 hour today and just got home. All you get is a picture! :-D

30 Days To The Abyss Day 18

Welcome back! Today I'd like to talk about the mind. You all know the saying, "A mind is a terrible thing to waste." I can say from first hand experience that this is true! I've spent a lot of time wasting mine. When I was in college and especially in the military I was a voracious reader. I didn't have a television, personal computers were crazy expensive, and most importantly I was broke. The only thing I could do was read. Lucky for me I really enjoyed it. I used to take a bus to Gurnee Mills Mall and go to the bargain book store. My method for choosing a book to read was pretty scientific . . . find something with a cool cover and buy it. I have to say I've read some fantastic books. I actually used to say that it saddened me that there were too many books to read and not enough time in life to read them all. I could actually read a book a day because I just didn't want to put them down without finishing them. Then, I got my first laptop. A friend gave me his black and white laptop and piggy backed me onto someone else's Prodigy account. And that pretty much did away with the reading. I've had a computer ever since then and I hate to admit but I've wasted a good deal of time on the internet not always doing the most productive things. I'm a bit of a gadget freak. I have cameras, video cameras, an iPhone, an iPad, etc. But, I just got a new toy . . . . a Nook Simple Touch. I have to say it's pretty cool. I'm using it to hopefully break me of my computer/internet compulsion. I downloaded several books that I thought would keep me interested and my goal is to read every day.

Why am I blabbing on about reading and computers and internet? I think all of this crap on the internet has made me dumber! Now, I certainly don't mean that if you go onto the internet you're stupid. I just mean that a lot of what I end up doing is hitting refresh on social media sites waiting for pointless and stupid updates and that really doesn't do all that much for furthering me as a pursuer of knowledge. I actually do use the internet to find a lot of useful information. I belong to several photography and now videography sites and I've found a wealth of information on them. I even got an online certificate in technical writing years ago. But I think that reading books is just better for you. There, I said it. I may not spend all of my time reading but I'm definitely going to spend less time on the internet. My immediate goal is to read at least one book a week. I don't think that's too far out of the realm of possibility.

I'm going to use this 30 Days To The Abyss as a segue to some serious self improvement! I'd like to perhaps pursue some further education. I'm already looking into a degree in cinematography. I've really been enjoying shooting videos and learning about editing. After the 30 days is finished I'm going to start trying to put together some neat videos with the gigabytes of footage I've already shot. I also seem to be obsessed with becoming a Coffee Master at Starbucks. I really want that black apron! :-D

As a last point, I also hope that reading will help me calm down. I'm too fidgety and can never seem to flip my switch and just sit there and relax. It's one of the reasons why I can't do tai chi or yoga or even just stretching. Probably why I'm so achy and stiff, huh?!

30 Days To The Abyss Day 18

Welcome back! As promised I shot a new video! Today I talk about making smoothies and Vitamix blending machines. Enjoy the video and as always I welcome comments, suggestions and requests.



Hope you had a great weekend! See you tomorrow!

30 Days To The Abyss Day 17

Welcome to day 17. Today I'm going to talk about spirituality. I don't mean this in a religious context. I believe we have 3 facets to our makeup . . . physical, mental, and spiritual. I've talked on end about the physical and the mental but I have yet to mention the spiritual. When I say spiritual I mean what's on the inside of you that guides your path through life. Now, you can take that and turn it into a religious context if you'd like but that doesn't work for me. To each their own.

If you are walking through a crowd and you see someone drop money from their purse, do you pocket it or do you pick it up and give it back to them? When you see someone carrying a box coming towards a door do you laugh as they struggle to open the door or do you open it for them. When you see someone that looks like they're down in the dumps do you just avoid them or do you ask them how they are? When you are at work do you only do a good job when the boss is around? Do you see where I'm going with this? How you conduct yourself on a daily basis when you have nothing to gain but kudos for being a decent human being is the spirituality I'm talking about here!

I've been screwed over by lots of people. I gave them the benefit of the doubt and they stung me good. That could have made me a very jaded person with a chip on my shoulder. It could have made me a racist with a particular beef with several races. It could have made me a selfish piece of shit that doesn't give a rat's ass about anyone besides me. But it didn't! I live every day of my life with this simple philosophy . . . the buck stops with me. I hold the power to completely alter the way the day goes for every single person I come into contact with every single day. So, when I get a waitress that may not be particularly all that efficient or all that friendly I still give a decent tip. Maybe her kid is sick and she's worrying about it to the point of distraction. Maybe she's just having a shitty day. Or just maybe she's a shitty waitress and hates her job. It doesn't really matter to me. Maybe by still being friendly and giving her a decent tip it will snap her out of her funk and she'll be nicer to everyone for the rest of her shift. Now here's a big one for me given that I have a lot of visible tattoos and piercings. I'm sure the word "degenerate" pops into the minds of lots of people I come across. It is one of my goals to show everyone that just because someone has tattoos and piercing doesn't mean that they're scumbags. I'm extremely polite to everyone. Here's a quote from someone who's become a good friend of mine over the years . . . "Man, every time you come in here you look scarier and scarier! But you're the nicest guy I've ever met!" Don't judge a book by its cover kids! :-D

I guess the gist of what I'm trying to say is just treat others how you want to be treated. Have some self respect and treat others with common courtesy. It really isn't that difficult to do and eventually you may actually feel better about doing it and come to like it!

30 Days To The Abyss Day 16

So, I've now crossed the half way mark. Time to step back and take stock.

Well, there is absolutely no denying that I feel better! I've quit coffee/espresso cold turkey and if I only did that I'd be sitting pretty. I can really feel a change in that I now am not dependent on espresso to start my day or get me through the rest of the day. I've been trying different teas but really only drinking water as the main source of my liquid intake. It feel good to not be controlled by that any longer.

In my mind I was always thinking that tomorrow I was going to get up early and get out of bed and work out. I thought that for years but never did it . . . at least not consistently. Now, I wake up, go to the bathroom, put on my outfit, and immediately go into the other room and exercise! In a little over two weeks I feel like a completely different person. Of course I'm still stiff and achy but it's a different stiff and a different ache. Now I'm stiff because my muscles have actually done something. The ache is that workout soreness you get from working out! Whoda thunk it?! It feels good to hurt like that. It's been far too long.

Most importantly, my mind has seen the biggest changes! I have successfully rewired my brain. Almost every movement I make is to get some type of exercise. I think differently when I plan out my days so that I incorporate time to eat properly and to make sure I have plenty of water. I take time to stop what I'm doing if I happen to be sitting in front of a computer so I can stand up and stretch and get my blood flowing. I make different food choices so that whatever I'm eating is going to help make me stronger and more efficient.

But the single most important thing that has changed is my internal dialogue! I've been so much more calm these past couple of weeks. Even though I was unemployed since the end of October I found myself being much more positive. Once I was extracted from that toxic setting I was in for so long I felt the anger and stress melt away. Today I started my new job at Starbucks and it was a great day! I love being around other people! I especially like being around positive, fun, happy people! I was exposed to a very negative person once and after a single phone conversation and about an hour of actual in person contact it was by far the worst day I've had in a long time. It was the day I had a horrible headache and just felt like shit all day. I know now that it was because of that exposure. Next time I'll have my shields up! :-D

That's it. That's the score. I'm thrilled with the changes I've experienced in the first half of this month. It's been a great couple of weeks! But, forward full speed ahead!

The second half of this month brings different goals! Now that I've gotten my ass off of the couch and started exercising I need to change my approach. I've actually already started cutting up. Not only has my wife commented on my appearance but I've noticed it! I'm my own worst critic and I usually don't give myself much credit. But I can definitely see it! More importantly, I can see what isn't working and that gives me some direction on what I need to do. Although I can see abs and see my arms getting cut I can still very clearly see that what I'm doing isn't really getting rid of the fat on my abs. Therefore, this second half of the month is going to be devoted to fat burning.

Thanks for joining me on this journey! I hope you stay the course and hang out with me on the second half of this month. Thanks for the comments and the suggestions. Your words of support have helped me out tremendously! Let's continue on towards The Abyss!

30 Days To The Abyss Day 15

Oh Noes! No video today. Today I'm going to talk specifically about the Dive Test that I've referred to on occasion and how you could prepare to take it and pass it.

First things first . . . I made a little boo boo with something I said in one of the videos. I said that SEALs wear a white t shirt then after they pass Hell Week they wear a blue shirt. That is not correct. Divers wear a white t shirt then wear a blue t shirt after they pass Pool Week. SEALs wear a green t shirt after passing Hell Week. I was blabbing, sue me!

So, here is the Dive test.

- Swim 500 yards (457 m) within 14 minutes, using sidestroke or breaststroke. (Candidates can use both strokes during the swim and are allowed to push off the sides when turning.)

10 minute rest period.

- Perform 42 push-ups within 2 minutes, with the chest touching the ground on each repetition.

2 minute rest period.

- Perform 50 sit-ups within 2 minutes.

2 minute rest period.

- Perform 6 pull-ups with palms facing out. (No kipping or swinging is allowed and the chin must clear the top of the bar on each repetition.)

10 minute rest period.

- Run 1.5 miles (2.414 km) within 12 minutes and 45 seconds.

Sounds simple, huh?! But it wasn't! They watch you like a hawk and if it looks like you're milking it (not giving it your all) then they can fail you on principle. You're also expected to improve every time. Eventually you're expected to get the maximums each time for the pushups, situps and pullups, then continue to improve your swim and run times. I got the maximum for everything and always swam under the max time but I could never get the max on the run time. I could run forever but I couldn't do it fast! It got to the point that we were constantly doing the Dive Test after we got through Pool Week. It just became one more thing we did. I'm not making this up but we did thousands of pushup, situps, pullups and a whole bunch of other stuff on a weekly basis! Thousands! Not to mention how many miles we ran! I went through a pair of running shoes every month! I actually started buying 2 pairs so I had a clean/dry pair every day while the other pair got washed and dried. We ran on pavement, grass, sand, rocks, and we ran through grassy fields, wooded areas, sand dunes, mud, and knee/hip deep water. I'll say it again, it was brutal! But for the most part we loved it! The harder and more brutal it was the more I loved it! I loved being able to do things that most people couldn't do!

So what can you do to prepare for this brutal physical training. Well, the easy answer is to start doing pushups, situps, and pullups and start swimming and running your ass off! But here is a suggested program to properly prepare for it all.

Week 1

Running: 2 miles, 8:30 pace, Mon/Wed/Fri
Pushups: 4 sets of 15 pushups, Mon/Wed/Fri
Situps: 4 sets of 20 situps, Mon/Wed/Fri
Pullups: 3 sets of 3 pullups, Mon/Wed/Fri
Swimming: Swim continuously for 15 min. 4-5 days/week

Week 2

Running: 2 miles, 8:30 pace, Mon/Wed/Fri
Pushups: 5 sets of 20 pushups, Mon/Wed/Fri
Situps: 5 sets of 20 situps, Mon/Wed/Fri
Pullups: 3 sets of 3 pullups, Mon/Wed/Fri
Swimming: Swim continuously for 15 min. 4-5 days/week

Week 3

Running: No running
Pushups: 5 sets of 25 pushups, Mon/Wed/Fri
Situps: 5 sets of 25 situps, Mon/Wed/Fri
Pullups: 3 sets of 4 pullups, Mon/Wed/Fri
Swimming: Swim continuously for 20 min. 4-5 days/week

Week 4

Running: 3 miles, 8:30 pace, Mon/Wed/Fri
Pushups: 5 sets of 25 pushups, Mon/Wed/Fri
Situps: 5 sets of 25 situps, Mon/Wed/Fri
Pullups: 3 sets of 4 pullups, Mon/Wed/Fri
Swimming: Swim continuously for 20 min. 4-5 days/week

Weeks 5-6

Running: 2 / 3 / 4 / 2 miles, Mo/Tu/We/Fr
Pushups: 6 sets of 25 pushups, Mon/Wed/Fri
Situps: 6 sets of 25 situps, Mon/Wed/Fri
Pullups: 2 sets of 8 pullups, Mon/Wed/Fri
Swimming: Swim continuously for 25 min. 4-5 days/week

Weeks 7-8

Running: 4 / 4 / 5 / 3 miles, Mo/Tu/We/Fr
Pushups: 6 sets of 30 pushups, Mon/Wed/Fri
Situps: 6 sets of 30 situps, Mon/Wed/Fri
Pullups: 2 sets of 10 pullups, Mon/Wed/Fri
Swimming: Swim continuously for 30 min. 4-5 days/week

Week 9

Running: 4 / 4 / 5 / 3 miles, Mo/Tu/We/Fr
Pushups: 6 sets of 30 pushups, Mon/Wed/Fri
Situps: 6 sets of 30 situps, Mon/Wed/Fri
Pullups: 3 sets of 10 pullups, Mon/Wed/Fri
Swimming: Swim continuously for 35 min. 4-5 days/week

Second 9 weeks:

Week 1 & 2

Running: 3 / 5 / 4 / 5 / 2 miles, Mo/Tu/We/Fr/Sa
Pushups: 6 sets of 30 pushups, Mon/Wed/Fri
Situps: 6 sets of 35 situps, Mon/Wed/Fri
Pullups: 3 sets of 10 pullups, Mon/Wed/Fri
Dips: 3 sets of 20 dips, Mon/Wed/Fri
Swimming: Swim continuously for 35 min. 4-5 days/week

Weeks 3-4

Running: 4 / 5 / 6 / 4 / 3 miles, Mo/Tu/We/Fr/Sa
Pushups: 10 sets of 20 pushups, Mon/Wed/Fri
Situps: 10 sets of 25 situps, Mon/Wed/Fri
Pullups: 4 sets of 10 pullups, Mon/Wed/Fri
Dips: 10 sets of 15 dips, Mon/Wed/Fri
Swimming: Swim continuously for 45 min. 4-5 days/week

Week 5

Running: 5 / 5 / 6 / 4 / 4 miles, Mo/Tu/We/Fr/Sa
Pushups: 15 sets of 20 pushups, Mon/Wed/Fri
Situps: 15 sets of 25 situps, Mon/Wed/Fri
Pullups: 4 sets of 12 pullups, Mon/Wed/Fri
Dips: 15 sets of 15 dips, Mon/Wed/Fri
Swimming: Swim continuously for 60 min. 4-5 days/week

Week 6 & Beyond

Running: 5 / 6 / 6 / 6 / 4 miles, Mo/Tu/We/Fr/Sa
Pushups: 20 sets of 20 pushups, Mon/Wed/Fri
Situps: 20 sets of 25 situps, Mon/Wed/Fri
Pullups: 5 sets of 12 pullups, Mon/Wed/Fri
Dips: 20 sets of 15 dips, Mon/Wed/Fri
Swimming: Swim continuously for 75 min. 4-5 days/week

There you go! Now, get off your ass and get busy!

30 Days To The Abyss Day 14

Ok, it seems I brain farted my description for yesterday's video. I didn't discuss EM school until today's video. So, um, yeah, in today's video I discuss EM school and Dive School and run in wild tangents and blather on for 31 minutes! :-D Enjoy!



No picture today cuz I had to run out quick this morning. Perhaps I'll edit it in later today. As always, keep the comments and suggestions coming!

30 Days To The Abyss Day 13

Welcome back! It has been requested that I talk about my military experience. So, today I talk about my decision to join the Navy. I also talk about boot camp, electrician's mate school and I do the usual blabbing. It seems painfully obvious that I just seem to average about half an hour for most of these videos so I'm just going to stop even trying to make them shorter. I did split things up and made a second video to talk about Dive School but that's for tomorrow. Enjoy the video!



Keep the comments and suggestions coming and I'll keep cranking these out!

30 Days To The Abyss Day 12

Welcome to day 12! I got my ass outta bed this morning and shot video of my morning exercises so I could actually post today before midnight! Whoda thunk it?!

Here I show you how to do a modified 8 count bodybuilder and some variety on crunches. Check it out and give me some feedback. As always I welcome comment, suggestions, and requests.




Tune in tomorrow when I talk about my motivations for joining the Navy, more specifically, the Deep Sea Diving Navy. I'll touch on my preparations for the physical demands of Dive School too.

30 Days To The Abyss Day 11

Today was a very busy day so I'll keep this short . . . here's a short video. I show you some exercises and that's it! The shortest one yet! :-D



Thanks for joining me again! Keep the comments and suggestions coming!

30 Days To The Abyss Day 10

Welcome to day 10. We're already a third of the way through this journey and it's been great! I feel better than I have in a long time and this has definitely kick started my motivation. I find myself bumming if I don't drink more water and I'm constantly doing some form of exercise regardless of where I may be. If you're still here that's awesome! If you're just joining me that's awesome! If you got bored and left already that's too bad but life goes on and I'm still charging forward!

Today I present another almost 30 minute video. I can't seem to get away from that length! :-D I talk about heart rate monitors and kettle balls with handles. And of course I blab about a bunch of other stuff too. By now you know once I get going I just can't shut up!

So, sit back and enjoy the video. As always, please feel free to leave comments and/or suggestions for upcoming topics!



See you tomorrow for more fun and hijinks!

30 Days To The Abyss Day 9

Welcome back! Today I'm going to talk about a few tips and tricks you can use to get a little more, last a little longer, and look a lot better! I'm not taking credit for any of this stuff. I'm sure I'm not the first person to think of this stuff and I know I picked some of it up from others who have motivated me.

First on the list is music. I follow a gal's blog and she was training for her first marathon. When asked what she did to train she said she started by creating a play list with one song on it. She picked a song that totally jacked her up and she ran for the duration of that song for her first run. She ran the entire time the song was playing even though she was in such horrible shape that even running for just that one song was brutal. Eventually she added another song. Then another. You see where I'm going with this?! Eventually she had a pretty big play list so she even specified the order of songs so she could build in some slower run time and also build in some faster run time. She ran the Chicago Marathon and completed it with a pretty decent time.

Next on the list are little cheats. I've mentioned some of them in earlier posts. What I mean by little cheats is finding ways to get a little extra out of your daily activities. I mentioned parking further away in the lot from the store. You can take the steps instead of the escalator. I also had a rule that if there were accessible steps I would never take an elevator if my destination were under the 5th floor. When you're carrying a grocery basket you can do curls. When walking up the stairs you can add a calf raise. I read that Bruce Lee used to lift Brandon like a little weight. It was good for his muscles and Brandon loved being lifted like it was a game. This list is endless.

The last thing on the list was a joke. You know, if you're doing all of this other stuff, of course you're going to be better looking! So what other ways can you think of to add a little extra? What ways do you use to get past that wall? Let me know!

Guest Post -- Food, Glorious Food

Hey, cats and kittens! This is Katy, CJ's lovely wife, filling in with a discussion of food and eating. A big part--perhaps the biggest part, in fact--of my own personal health-gain/weight-loss journey has centered around changing my personal eating habits. I won't say "changing my relationship with food," because I've never had a problem with food, per se. I'm not a compulsive eater; I don't binge and purge; I don't obsess. None of that. I just didn't make good choices for myself!

Several years ago, before I even embarked on my current campaign for personal health, I started trying to eat as many organic foods as possible. I'd read a book, you see...many of you may have read it. If not, I highly recommend running to the library tomorrow and checking it out! The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan. I always describe it as being "The Most Interesting Book You Didn't Know You Wanted to Read."




Pollan talks a lot about the state of food in the US today, tracing four meals from farm to plate. His discussions of the farming and processing that goes into making something like a McDonald's burger and his discussion of the way things are done on a small organic farm are, for me, the two most influential parts of the book. This is like Fast Food Nation stuff, and you will never ever eat a fast food burger again, I swear it.

But just eating organic isn't really enough. Organic is so much better, sure, but organic junk food is still junk food! (Organic corn chips from Trader Joe's are better than Fritos, maybe, but they're still salty fatty chips in the final reckoning.)

The thing is, like I said in my little interview the other day, I didn't think I ate all that badly. But I didn't really pay close attention, either! I made a lot of assumptions, many of which made an ass of me, as assumptions are wont to do, ha. A lot of foods are low calorie--but high in sodium, which causes you to bloat up and retain water. Many of these foods are highly processed, many of them are marketed as being the "low fat" or "low calorie" version of something. People buy them, thinking they're eating well--but they don't think about what has to be put INTO the food to compensate for what was taken OUT of it. Usually, what they put in is salt!

A lot of foods seem like they should be good for you, but have a surprisingly high number of calories--peanut butter is a good example. Two tablespoons has 200 calories! By contrast, you can eat two entire cups of baby spinach for only about 20 calories. And which do you think will leave you feeling fuller longer? That's right! If you pick the right ingredients (lots of raw veggies, maybe some lean protein, a simple vinaigrette), you can have a HUGE salad for about the same number of calories as those two little spoonfuls of peanut butter. And that's just one example!

So the first part of changing my eating habits was to actually start reading nutrition labels! Something so basic and simple, but so easy to ignore when you're impulse-shopping at the grocery store. If it's too high in sodium, I don't buy it. (Except miso paste. A gal simply must have SOME indulgences and I refuse to give up my miso soup!) If it's high in calories, I'll probably still buy it (peanut butter is a good example again!) but with the foreknowledge that I will need to eat it more sparingly than I might have previously.

The second part was to start eating more veggies and fruits. This one is pretty self-explanatory, I'd say! We all know we need to eat them. But frequently, we don't. (And pizza is NOT a vegetable, whatever the government says!) Most vegetables are so low in calories it's almost stupid. You can eat so much, for so little! What's not to like??

And the third part was committing myself to cooking more of my own food, rather than buying pre-packaged, highly-processed "convenience" foods. (Michael Pollan talks a lot about processed food vs real food in another book, In Defense of Food. I'd also highly recommend this one!) When you cook for yourself, you have so much more control over what's actually in your food! Restaurants frequently use way more fats and sugars (and the demon sodium!) than you would when cooking the same thing at home, meaning it's much better health-wise to just do it yourself. Now, I don't always have time to do cooking. I work a lot, and I work late hours. So it isn't like I cook every single meal I eat from scratch or anything; I'm not superwoman! But I do what I can, and I feel better for it! This has also led to increased perusal of cookbooks and recipe sites online. (I'm going to end this post with a little resources list including some of my favorites!)

But a final thought...all food is not created equal! Exercise is important, but burning calories is not the only component here. What goes into your body is just as important, if not more important in some ways. Food is your physical fuel, but there is definitely a mental component, as well. Eating good-for-you food is only helpful if you actually enjoy it, too. If you don't like what you're eating, you're going to be so unsatisfied mentally that you'll end up pigging out on junk in addition to everything you already ate, and no one needs that! So find the foods and the recipes you enjoy, and master them! Tweak them to make them perfect! Enjoy your food, enjoy your health, enjoy your life!


Resources:

Books
"The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan
"In Defense of Food" by Michael Pollan
"The Just Bento Cookbook" by Makikoh Itoh
"Local Flavors" by Deborah Madison
"Super Natural Every Day" by Heidi Swanson

Websites
http://www.101cookbooks.com/
http://smittenkitchen.com/
http://www.skinnytaste.com/
http://eatmakeread.com/
http://justbento.com/
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Thanks to my lovely wife for guest posting! Here's my pic for the day. Sorry this is so way late but I was on a photo/video gig and just got home!

30 Days To The Abyss Day 7

Today is my 43rd birthday! I had a wonderful day and it's awesome how many people took time out of their day to wish me happy birthday. I promised you a day in the life so here it is condensed into a short video. And yes, this is exactly how I am even when the camera is off! That is the central message for today. You just gotta loosen the sphincter and have fun every opportunity that you can! So go have some fun!

I'm still waiting for suggestion on topics to cover. Hit me with them!

30 Days To The Abyss Day 6

Welcome back! Today I want to talk about planning. In order to juggle all of the things you have to do in a day you have to have some sort of plan. As I mentioned in an earlier post when I was in the military it was very easy. Your days are already planned for you. Every day is pretty much the same schedule so it's easy to incorporate an eating/exercise regimen into the mix. However, I'm not in the military anymore. Now I have to remember what I need to do before I even plan it and hopefully not too many unexpected things pop up to screw up the scheduling. Today I pretty much had my day planned out. An urgent call from a friend at 8am and again at 10:30am pretty much changed that. Then, I got another call from another friend at 11:30am and it pretty much threw any planning out the window. I just got home at 9pm and here I sit typing this post.

So, what can you do to get into planning your days out with the ability to incorporate everything you need/want to do and leaving some room for those unexpected things? Well, the first thing to do is to actually plan your day out. If you don't make a plan how can it get screwed up?! The more you do this the easier it will get. Now, here is the hard part . . . you may have to get up earlier to give yourself enough time to get everything done. That will get easier too! I'll give you an example from one of my schedules:

8:00am Wake up
8:05am Take bentonite
8:10am Go to the bathroom/check emails/surf the cyber world for news
8:20am Pushups, situps, pullups, dumbell presses
8:25am Finish cleansing system
8:30am Shower/get dressed
9:00am Search job boards/make phone calls/send emails/etc
11:00am Eat breakfast
11:20am Get bags packed with necessary gear for the day
12:00pm - 4:00pm Help at friend's store for holiday rush
2:00pm Eat snack
4:15pm Do whatever needs to be done before places close for the day (bank, etc)

Ok, you get the idea. But this didn't actually happen today. Once I got that call at 8am the schedule got completely thrown out the window. And that is because I didn't plan properly! I actually didn't plan at all because I assumed I wasn't working at my friend's store. Shame on me! I got the one thing I absolutely had to do done but I really didn't get anything else accomplished. Other than my morning workout I also didn't do any other exercises. I'm also sitting here at 10:30pm frantically typing out this blog.

Here's what I wanted to convey with this post . . . . that in order to achieve your goals you have to have a plan but no matter how well you plan there are always unexpected bumps in the road. You can try to plan for them but sometimes you just don't have enough time in the day to get to everything. And here's the big message . . . IT'S OKAY NOT TO GET TO EVERYTHING! Don't beat yourself up if you don't get to everything on the plan. When you plan out tomorrow just add those to the list.

Tomorrow I'm going back to video. I'm going to take the camera with me everywhere I go and I'm going to let you experience a day in the life. I promise to do more cuts so you aren't watching an 8 hour video. It is going to be an unusual day though because tomorrow is my birthday! Aren't you exited to spend my birthday with me?! :-D

Thanks for joining me and I'll see you tomorrow!

30 Days To The Abyss Day 5

Welcome back! Let's talk about stress. First off, here is what it says on WebMD.com . . . "Stress is what you feel when you have to handle more than you are used to. When you are stressed, your body responds as though you are in danger. It makes hormones that speed up your heart, make you breathe faster, and give you a burst of energy. This is called the fight-or-flight stress response.

Some stress is normal and even useful. Stress can help if you need to work hard or react quickly. For example, it can help you win a race or finish an important job on time.

But if stress happens too often or lasts too long, it can have bad effects. It can be linked to headaches, an upset stomach, back pain, and trouble sleeping. It can weaken your immune system, making it harder to fight off disease. If you already have a health problem, stress may make it worse. It can make you moody, tense, or depressed. Your relationships may suffer, and you may not do well at work or school."

Here's my take on stress put in my own words. Stress is inevitable in life. You either deal with it or it eats you away to nothing. There are 2 types of stress, distress and eustress. Distress is generally considered the bad stress. Eustress is generally considered the good stress. Both can be good and both can be bad. Too much of either can be destructive. For the sake of this blog entry, I'm going to refer to distress as stress for the remainder of the post. And bad stress is what I'm talking about here.

We've all experienced stress. As early as we can remember we've experienced it. Walking into a classroom for the first time. Being called on to answer a question in front of everybody without knowing the answer. And as we grew up it continued. Asking someone out for the first time. Taking an exam. Interviewing for a job. And sometimes it gets much worse. Finding out you're pregnant (and you didn't intend to be). Losing your job. Having a significant other face a debilitating disease. The list goes on. And life goes on. You have to be able to handle stress! How you handle stress can be just as destructive as the stress itself! Drugs, alcohol, destructive behavior (cutting, abusing others), or worse yet, doing absolutely nothing.

How you handle stress doesn't have to be destructive. You can find better ways to "blow off some steam". Personally, I don't really watch or read too much news. Just enough to be in the know but not enough to be depressed. I watch cartoons every night before I go to bed so I go to bed laughing. I crank the radio and sing at the top of my lungs when I drive. My photography was my passion and my videography is quickly becoming another. I carry a camera and a video camera with me everywhere I go! I shoot ever day! It brings me great joy when someone else appreciates my vision. I'm rekindling my joy of exercising. Who knows what else I'll experience in the days to come.

So, your homework is to sit back and see how the stones lay on the board. Why are you stressed? How are you dealing with it? And if you're not dealing with it or you're destructively dealing with it, how can you find better ways to deal with it.

Thanks for stopping by and see you tomorrow!

30 Days To The Abyss Day 4

Welcome to day 4. Today I have a video where I discuss my motivations for this 30 day journey. I also interview my wife about her own journey. I apologize for the lighting and graininess of the video. I'm experimenting with the video camera to see what works best. Also, sorry for the length. It's just about 30 minutes like the intro video. I'm going to try to cut them down or separate them out so you aren't stuck watching your computer for half an hour.

I make reference to this set of pictures as being one of my motivators. This is a before/during/after pic of Rain, the star of Ninja Assassin. His transformation during the making of this movie is incredible and will continue to be a motivation for me throughout this 30 days and long after as well. By the way, the time frame for these pictures is 6 months from his start to the completion of his training. Pretty amazing, huh?!



Now, here is the video for today.



That should do it for today. Sorry I posted so late. Vimeo, the site I use to host my HD videos was being mean and wouldn't load my video for a few hours. Thanks for stopping by and as always please leave me any comments or questions that you may have.

30 Days To The Abyss Day 3

Welcome to day three! Today I'm going to talk about gear. One thing I've found is that you don't have to belong to super-ulta-mega gym to get fantastic results. You can achieve amazing results with absolutely nothing more than your own body. However, some basic gear can help you break up the monotony of just doing pushups, situps, pullups and running through the neighborhood day after day. I'm going to show you what I use given my budget and living arrangements but it's up to you to determine what you will need or want to achieve your goals.

The single most important piece of gear I have is a Camelbak Groove water bottle. I got mine at Target ($25) and they also sell the replaceable filters. These things are pure genius and super simple. They allow you to fill up with water from any source and the filter takes out the gunk and nasty taste and gives you a bottle of tasty refreshing water. I carry mine with me everywhere and I've filled up in the kitchen sink, a public bathroom sink (shudder), any number of drinking fountains and even a garden hose. There are a number of different types but my research showed these to be the most reliable and the filters last many more fill ups than the competition. You can get over 300 fill ups with these before replacing the filter. Look around cuz the prices vary. Here is the link to the Camelbak site. http://www.camelbak.com/Sports-Recreation/Bottles/CamelBak-Groove-6L.aspx




Next, and without too much description is the rest of the gear. You don't need a lot of weight or even really heavy weights. I got a bunch of different sizes so that I could really vary my exercises. There is also a jump rope in there because it is a great overall body exercise to jump rope. There is also a TRX exercise system (http://www.trxtraining.com/). I haven't used it yet but it comes highly recommended from my friend who's been on a SEAL Team for the past several years so I'm looking forward to putting it to the test. Another piece of equipment in this picture is a heart rate monitor. If you want to get really technical and do different types of training and keep track of what's going on then you have to have one of these. Keeping track of your heart rate will help you determine if you're working in a cardio zone or a fat burning zone or even if you're about to have a massive coronary! And of course in the second picture is the Iron Gym. I got this to do pullups and various ab exercises so that I don't need someone else to hold my legs.


































Depending on your goals you may decide that you need other equipment. You also may decide that you would just prefer to belong to a gym. Whatever you decide just remember that a piece of equipment unused is nothing more than clutter. Get off your ass and get moving!

30 Days To The Abyss Day 2

First things first . . . I left the apartment without offloading today's picture so I'll have to edit it in later or just not post a pic today. It looks the same as yesterday anyways.

Over the years I've had a lot of people ask me about my cleansing system. Most people think I'm out of my mind for doing it. However, some people are genuinely curious about it so I decided that I should document it early on in the journey. I was introduced to it back when I was in Dive School. I went to an organic health food store type place and told the guy I was in Dive School and was coming up on Pool Week (a diver's version of the SEAL's Hell Week) and that I needed something to give me a lot of energy as fast as possible that would last as long as possible as well. He explained this system to me and told me I'd feel the effects immediately after doing it the first time. I got everything and went back to the base and did it and did indeed feel the effects. I also changed my diet drastically to only include organic foods and I stopped eating any dairy or meat. Other than the apple juice for the system the only thing I drank was water (well, beer, but that goes without saying) and I drank a lot of it. Since life in the military is so regimented I had no problems working this system into my daily routine. I woke up at 6:05am every day and did the system. Then I rode my bike to school. We ate lunch at the same time every day. I rode my bike home and did the system again then a little later we went to dinner. Other than the copious amounts of beer we drank at the clubs every night I was only taking in the purest forms on nutrition and tons of water. I never felt better. All of my allergies went away within a week. No more sneezing, throat clearing, spitting, etc. I could breathe with absolutely no problems. No constipation! I went in and did my business and was out in less than 2 minutes. I had no acne issues. Because I had zero sugar in anything I ate or drank I was never bitten by a single mosquito even though everyone around me got eaten alive. I went to sleep and fell asleep immediately and woke up every morning at 6:05am on the dot without an alarm. Can you see why all of this appealed to me?! I continued to learn as much as I could about organic foods and supplements to try to help me feel even better. At that point in my life, given my strict healthy lifestyle and the brutal physical/mental training of Dive School I was completely convinced that I was immortal! It was a great time.

I'll never forget that first time I did the system. It was a huge step for me and I continue to use it to this day 17 years later. I certainly don't cleanse every day but from time to time when I'm feeling particularly like shit and I know it's because of my crappy diet I get the ingredients and do the system for a week or two and it makes all the difference in the world. Without further delay, here is the system video.

30 Days To The Abyss

Welcome to my new blog, 30 Days To The Abyss. I'm doing this blog as a way to document the next 30 days where I will take charge of my physical/mental/spiritual health. I've titled this blog this way because I'm a former US Navy Deep Sea Diver and I always joked about going back to the abyss every time I had to do a dive, and I was never in better condition physically, mentally or spiritually as I was back then. I welcome you to join me on this journey and encourage you to leave me comments and ask me questions. I'll be happy to share any knowledge and experience I have that I've built up over decades of trying to live a healthy lifestyle. Sometimes I falter and I'm in need of a kick to the head to get back on track and the next 30 days are that kick that I really need right now. I'm going to let the videos set the stage and since the inaugural video is pretty long at 28 minutes I'm going to shut it and let you get to it.

I'm not going to video everything everyday for the next 30 days because that would be extremely boring. I'm going to try to keep things fresh and show you various exercises that I'll be doing and perhaps sharing some stories as well. If enough people join the ride and ask enough questions I may even record my answers.

So let's jump right in and make our way towards the Abyss.

First, I'm also taking a picture everyday so I can see my progress throughout this journey. One thing that drives me crazy are before and after pictures where the person is obviously made up, super tanned, shot professionally, etc. for the after picture and the before picture is done to make them look pasty and horrible in something that is way too small for them. I'm taking a picture in the same outfit as in the videos - a pair of black spandex pants and my black beanie hat. I'll be in the same spot with roughly the same lighting every day!

And now on to the intro video.