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.