One Bite At a Time...

It's the answer to an old question; "How do you eat an elephant?" It seems inane, but the approach is very effective. Attack each problem or scenario methodically & take small bits that you can manage. Small pieces can be more easily handled and one does not become overwhelmed by the size of the overall task at hand.

This is the one of the best prescriptions for success that anyone can follow. It's how I'm approaching the language lessons. Just getting started & turning it from a hassle into a habit. The physical training needs to be dealt with the same way. Slowly, one bite at a time. Virtually any endeavor that you take on can be tackled in the same fashion. In fact, it's the most logical apporach and the most successful. Ironically, this approach is really the only one that works. One cannot routinely accomplish but a single task at a time regardless of how motivated they are.

I need to remind myself of that with every day. It all gets to be a bit too much sometimes. The only way to get started is to tackle individual components, pieces, "bites"... and become religious in accomplishing them. I know exactly what I need to do. The necessity of doing it is obvious. The trick is the movivation to get the task done THAT DAY!

I know more than enough to build my own physical training routines. I've been at it for long enough to know what works for me and what does not. To date, setting on my arse is the one technique that is GUARANTEED not to work! Yeah, it is the easiest. I have ample examples of just how effective sloth is at putting one into a pitiful condition.




In the past I've emphasized strength training alone. I made some significant gains... and of not for a combination of bad luck health wise & being eager for excuses... I'd probably be squatting around 500-pounds right now. I'd have that 250-pound overhead press! This time around I intend to make a point of incorporating aerobic training along with the strength aspect in order to get the fat index down where it ought to be. As I've said before, I tend to drop weight incredibly fast when I crank up my metabolism on a regular basis. Quicker than most people in fact.

I had some "pasta" over the weekend. I thought that I was over eating. Well, I was a choir boy compared ot others. The pan we ended up getting (phone ordered was around 12x8 inches of spagheti with cheese. I had a single helping with salad Saturday night. I also had a piece of carrot cake. I'm thinking that was about 2-cups worth of pasta. I had about the three cups the following afternnon. The salad was gone a was the rest of the carrot cake. I was a bit unnerved that two people could down the nearly 3/4 remaining of that pan the next evening.

Hey, I've eaten a lot in a single setting... and I'm now wondering if that's why this was bothering me. I was able to eat less & feel pretty good about it. I wish I'd had more salad. So it's going to be back to the nuts, tuna, salads... and whatever else I can think of to eat that's lean & loaded.

I still haven't been able to find the George Foreman grill. That hacketh me off. I'm hoping that I've simply overlooked the box that it's hiding in. I'm suspecting however, that it was one of the items that was left behind when I moved my property out of the storage locker back in 2003. I really don't want to have to buy another grill... but I know from experience that this is a sure fire way to find the original!

So I need to formulate a program that's varied enough that I won't get bored, but also something that will provide enbough focused resiatence to build where I need it. I'm also going to need to factor in what kind of window I'm looking at time wise. I know that I can get through a full 5x5 lifting session in around 90-minutes. The aerobic sessions should only last an hour or so.

Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar. Keep intake to levels that will support exercise but not body fat. Practice and train major lifts: Deadlift, clean, squat, presses, C&J, and snatch. Similarly, master the basics of gymnastics: pull-ups, dips, rope climb, push-ups, sit-ups, presses to handstand, pirouettes, flips, splits, and holds. Bike, run, swim, row, etc, hard and fast. Five or six days per week mix these elements in as many combinations and patterns as creativity will allow. Routine is the enemy. Keep workouts short and intense. Regularly learn and play new sports.

CrossFit How-To



One thing that's going to cut inot the training time is having to drive to somewhere that I can run. Why? Because there's no place around here without dodging traffic. During daylight hours I can probably make the shoulder on Military safely enough. Once the days begin getting short again, I'll be limited though. The public trails usually close at dusk. In the colder months that's about when I get home. I'll have to turn to using the treadmill at that point. Oh well. We have two of them here.

Hey, I should have three months of great weather right now! The basement has thawed out and the standing water is nearly dried up. The sun doesn't go down until around 8:30 PM right now. If I travel directly to the trail after work, I can probably be home by 6 or 7 PM. The Krav classes will keep me out later but I can deal with that.

At this point, I'm not all that interested in "size". There will be a time later where I can start packing on the more significant amounts of lean mass. For now I want something more akin to... a lean, mean, killing machine.




I'm reminding myself that I'll be competing physically with guys who may be a decade younger than me... or possibly young enough to be my kids. I'd like to have them looking at me in awe... but I'll settle for utter disbelief. It won't just be the overall fitness. I do want some decent lean mass. I'd like for them to have to work to keep up with me. I should have no problem putting together such a program. The CrossFit approach is going to be interesting. The Krav Maga, running \ Fartlek and weightlifting crammed into one week? Yeah... ONE BITE AT A TIME!