Slippin' and a slidin'

I awoke from my sleep face first on an unfamiliar futon. My head was pounding and my wallet was empty. My mouth was so dry, it was like my lips had been super glued to my gums and my breath caused some low hanging plants to wilt. A sharp pain coursed throughout my hip and lower back whilst a duller, throbbing pain had found a home in my upper back. My t-shirt seemed to be splattered in someone else’s blood.

As though prompted by the pain, my memories started flooding back. I was in Whistler. And Whistler had won.

Alright, to paraphrase Maria Von Trapp, let’s start from the very beginning as it’s a very good place to start.

Having packed up all my stuff from the hostel in Vancouver (where I found neither the loose women or cheap beer as promised to me by a friend), I quickly scurried across town to board my Greyhound - destination Whistler. 2.5 hours later I disembarked the bus to find snow and ice covered roads.

Whistler is a beautiful place. The cool wind cleans out your lungs and the snow over everything adds a magical element to the place, making me feel like I had emerged into a fairy tale world. I have to admit though, for all its beauty, I did feel a little out of my element. I am used to sun and surf. I was lucky enough to have my friend Cara to meet me off the bus to help me get my bearings, which helped immensely.

Something I learned rather quickly is that ice is very slippery. As I have a tendency to be slightly clumsy at times, I quickly became aware this could be a recipe for disaster. Maybe a little more than slightly clumsy. Ok, I am what could be aptly termed, a clumsy oaf. To give you an example, I was out to dinner with a hot young lady a couple of weeks ago. Generally dinner is a pretty safe environment for me – sitting down the whole time gives me precious little chance to display my oafish clumsiness, allowing me instead to exude a façade of detached coolness, which sends the ladies crazy. Whilst attempting to exude the aforementioned aura, I spotted my glass of water through the lenses of my sunglasses and whilst raising it to my lips, I somehow managed to empty the majority of the contents over my carefully selected sleeveless shirt.

Getting back to the point, knowing my clumsy limitations, I was mindful to tread carefully on the slippery ice. That was, of course, until I started to get drunk.

After a couple of drinks it was decided to head into Whistler Village to continue the festivities. Sadly, I felt the jeans with joggers look that I had been rocking with such aplomb may not fly in the clubs of Whistler, so I threw on some leather shoes to ensure I was looking my best for my first foray into this winter wonderland.

Poor choice!

Within two minutes of donning my shoes I attempted to climb the wooden stairs, slipped, nearly did a full backward flip before landing square on my back. In immense pain I checked my right hand to make sure the bottle of vodka I was clutching did not smash before swivelling the head around to see if anyone saw me. Luckily I spotted no one so, gingerly, I returned to my feet and headed up toward the car. Fall one.

The nightlife in Whistler is pretty cool. People from all over the world grow their hair beyond their shoulders, learn proper snowboard lingo and come together to hit the mountain and have fun. I did look a little out with my shaved head however I just had to say words like ‘shred’ and 'gnarly’ every couple of seconds and I was quickly accepted into Whistler's cool embrace. There was a bit of a queue to get into Buffalo Bills so I slipped the bouncer $40 and headed in with my supposed new found Kiwi friend who gave me the slip as soon as we passed the front door.

From here, the rest of a night is a bit of a blur. There were a few more falls, a backhand to someone’s nose on a friendly dare (hence the blood splatter) and later on, some incoherent dribblings to a taxi driver who somehow managed to understand just where it was I needed to go. This was rather lucky as I had no idea where I was headed myself.

My first night out in whistler. Great night, met some new friends, caught up with some old ones however the score card reads:

Whistler – 1

Bails – 0

A Tale of Four Smells

Boarding the plane I was greeted by an old retired Canadian couple who had spent the last 34 days cruising around our vast continent. Paul and Nancy are a wonderful couple of people however there were two things I have to whinge about.

Number one is the first two of the four smells mentioned in the title. Within moments of sitting down and striking up a conversation with the lovely couple beside me, a horrible odour worked its way inside my nostrils and slid deep inside my throat. A smell so thick I could taste it. Old age and death had attached itself to my two travelling companions. It wasn’t their fault, age and/or death will catch will catch up with us all and they were obviously doing their best to hide themselves from these two malingering beasts however being stuck on the window aisle, inside this odour, for an entire 14 hour flight, was a little uncomfortable. The hatred of the smell was due in large part to the fact I have long suspected both of these beasts of stalking me, trying to age me to make me their own. Death even tried to add me on Facebook once.

Well to you, good sir, I say ‘Rage! Rage! Against the dying of the light’. Author’s note - Please imagine me shaking my fist up to almighty heaven whilst yelling that at the top of my lungs on an abandoned beach. I feel it evokes a much more powerful image than a man sitting inside his hostel at 10.30pm on a Sunday night, in another country, as he is still tired from his flight over and fighting jet lag and wants to be fresh for his Bruce Springsteen concert tomorrow night…………

Ok, perhaps old age is making more inroads than I would care to admit.

My second grievance about these two was that they seem to have been born with iron clad bladders. They went to the toilet once in the entire journey. Once! Being on the window seat meant I had to ask these two frail individuals to move every time I wanted to make an evacuation or even get up to stretch my legs. Being the kind soul I am, much to the disappointment of my bowels and kidneys, I ended up holding on for the final few hours not wanting to disturb them and unsure if Paul was sleeping or if Death had finally made its casting call.

Besides that the flight was fine with one of the in-flight meals I have had the pleasure of devouring.

This brings me to smell three of this sordid saga. Despite not having all the required paperwork with me I breezed through customs. When the customs agent asked me for a copy of my heath insurance a couple of brief rummages through my bag came up empty. After some profuse sweating and silent cursing I looked back over the desk and managed to eek out that I didn’t seem to have it. ‘No problems’ she said as she stapled my VISA into my passport. Phew.

So off I went, through the exit doors of Vancouver airport and into a whole new world. I was greeted with a rising sun, casually dipping its head through some huge, what I believe to be, Conifer trees, from which it’s rays stretched out to welcome me to the second largest country in the world. Moments later I was hit with a crisp, cool breeze which contained a sweet smell that reverberated through every fibre of my being. It was as though God had just brushed his teeth and picked that very moment to blow off any residual stench of death from my person (he did however decide to leave some of the old age hanging on). It was an awesome feeling. A lot of the doubts started to melt away and off I swaggered off with my sunnies on, beanie firmly ensconced to my bald head and coolness factor at an all-time high. If I only I smoked the coolness gauge would have been hitting ‘James Dean’.

I caught the skytrain to my hostel , managed to get lost in the three blocks between the station and where I was staying and had to hail down a taxi to get me there anyway. It was during this three blocks (which turned into something more like eight) which I first encountered the fourth and final smell of my journey thus far.

The fourth smell, I have since learned, appears to be the lifeblood of the Vancouver and ‘Bee-See’ way of life.

I was walking past a church. A nice church, it was rather old and very gothic. As I struggled with my luggage past the doors I caught a smell which took me back to the fields of Coachella, the lands of the Big Day Out and a smell which most definitely reminded me of Otto’s jacket. It smelt of adolescence saturated in teen spirit with angst and rebellion mixed in for good luck. I could also detect faint traces of the sixties and seventies working its way finely through my first whiff of ‘Bee-See Bud’.

 I’m not sure where the smell originated from, whether it was inside the church as someone had been sentenced by the father to five hail Mary’s and three joints after confession or if it was from someone sneaking a quick one in down the side but the smell was working its way out into the fair city.

From this point I noticed Bee-See Bud everywhere. It was on the breath of the taxi driver taking me to my hostel, it lingered quietly in the foyer of my hostel, it was even being cut up in my room by my new roommate when I entered.  I ventured downstairs later on that evening to grab a beer and some dinner and the first person I met as I was ordering my drink enquired as to whether I would care to share a joint with her outside. She didn’t even know my name but she had some ‘Bee-See bud maaaaaan!’.

Smells, they say, invoke the strongest memories. Just a hint of a perfume can take you back to a long lost love, the salty sea air always reminds me of Wanda beach and my childhood and it takes the slightest whiff of Dencorub and I am back in the dressing sheds getting ready for a game of football.

I’ve now got four delicious new smells to add to my memory banks. As I get older and settle back into my life I know I have a magic key that will take me all the way back to Canada and BC in an instant. The memories are all we will have at the end of the day and it’s nice to know that all I will have to do to take that trip is walk past a high school, stick my head in the toilets and breathe in deeply. 

Please help by donating what you can!!

On the 11th October 2011 God, the universe or whatever you would like to call the cosmic sentence, took pity on my Dad after his long battle with cancer and gently leaned over and blew out the flame containing his life. I can remember sitting in the small room at Calvary, which seemed unseasonably cold and grey, as we waited and waited for Dad to finally let go and move on.

It was horrible to see what this disease had done to my Dad’s once strong body. A body which brought me life. A body which had clutched me to its hairy chest. A body which had hauled me clear from waves when near drowning. A body which had cared for me when I was ill. A body which was now a shell of it’s former self - frail and emaciated. A body only tethered to this life by the strong spirit of the man within. With every laboured breath, the murky greyness in the room seemed to increase as we all sat in silence, wondering if that breath was the last one.

Eventually it was.

I can distinctly remember the surrealness of emerging from the grey room and looking out into a spectacular sunset, the sun’s golden rays spreading out over Botany Bay as though they were arms welcoming back Dad’s spirit and realising that greyness in the room was nothing more than my imagination. A reflection of the collective grief welling up within us all.

During Dad's battle I can remember the worst part, for me, was being unable to do anything to make him better. I felt completely impotent. It made me feel a little worthless. Here was this man, my Dad, who had given me life and done so much for me and when he needed it most there was nothing I could do. Of course I could be there for him and let him know I loved him. These things would help him and support him but they wouldn’t make him better. I’m ashamed to admit that these feelings of inadequacy did lead to me probably not doing as much as I could, as seeing him brought these feelings on. I mean I was there for him but I could have done more. I even found a little solace in the bottle at times. Selfish I know - it’s as though I was making his illness about me - but these were the feelings that it conjured up. My stepmum Kim was a rock of support for him.

Two days after the first anniversary of Dad’s death (the 13-14th October 2012 which coincidently falls on what would have been Dad’s 62nd birthday) my sisters and I are embarking on a 200km ride over the two days as part of SunSuper’s ride to conquer cancer. We are raising funds for the Dr Chris O’Brien Lifehouse which is a leading cancer research and treatment clinic who will hopefully produce a cure for this insidious disease soon, so no one else will have to watch it eat away at their loved one’s.

My sister Jodi has recently had her own bout with Cancer. She is still recovering well from her radical hysterectomy which she had a couple of weeks ago and is going to do this ride with me. Strong woman!

This is where all you guys come in.

 This ride is about raising funds to allow for continued research into beating this disease. We were lucky, Dad didn’t suffer a great deal compared to some people. Everyone out there will know someone that has been affected by this disease and chances are someone very close to you will be affected soon too, unless we can stamp it out of existence. Mothers, children, wives, girlfriends, fathers, brothers, sisters, young, old no one is immune. For me personally I see this as my opportunity to offer something that I couldn’t when Dad was ill, assistance in making other people better.

 The minimum expected amount of funds each rider is expected to earn is $2,500 We are aiming to get to double that each so $5,000 for each of us three meaning a total of $15,000. This is not going to happen without all your support. Please please give generously and help us, Team Bailey, achieve the fundraising goals we have set for ourselves.

Please show your support by donating and sharing this story and this page on your facebook walls or amongst your friends. You can donate through here - http://cfrau.convio.net/site/TR/Events/Sydney2012?px=1149766&pg=personal&fr_id=1070

We will also be conducting some raffles and possibly an event prior to the ride too for funds so please all of you who have a business out there and can contribute something to be raffled off or put into a prize pool please do so.

Anyone who feels they are up to the challenge and wishes to join me for the ride get in there - the more the merrier - the rego is $50. Bear in mind though that everyone is expected to do fundraising to hit the minimum individual rider amount of $2,500.00 (don’t worry we will be fundraising together and splitting proceeds between each other evenly for raffle proceeds and events its just that SunSuper needs every rider to hit that minimum). Join through this website - join as a team member of “Team Bailey!” using the password “bails” and join us on this challenege!!!

Thanks so much to everyone who helps out, it really means a lot to us.

Team Bailey-
John
Cassie
Jodi
You????

After the deluge

I'm sitting here chomping on a Boost (I took the fact that Woolies had my old mate on sale for $1 just as I finish the Blitzkrieg as a sign the universe wanted me to partake of one) and gazing at my side on after shot. How I love that shot. I might print it up and post it around the city so other people can gaze upon my beauty and brighten their day.

Thanks to everyone for the positive feedback, comments and questions. It really is appreciated. I was going to do this follow up with just a few key points I had picked up in case anyone was wanting to do their own challenge but following on from the feedback I'll go into a little more detail about my eating and training plan as well. To anyone that is thinking about it, my advice is do it. You will surprise yourself with how quickly things change!

The main things I took from the challenge that really helped me along the way to achieve my goal, in no particular order, are:

1. Accountability

I actually know a few people who have done a similar challenge now and all achieved unreal results. They all said the same thing - having someone or something that you are accountable to was instrumental in pushing them through the inevitable troughs. I have to agree. For me, having this blog and knowing that if I failed it would be on the world wide web for all to see kept me going, as did having Scotty Capelin there to report to. He would have called me out if he knew Ii wasn't putting in any effort or seeing any results. I suggest if you are going to give it a crack to write down your goals on a piece of paper and give it to a friend that you respect and that will be honest with you in how they think you are going. Report in to them each week with your exercising and food intake for the week which leads in to my next piont.....

2. Honesty

There are many things that will affect how you train and eat and what results you actually see. Honesty is key in making sure you achieve the results you want. If you are doing it so you have a better chance of nailing the hot bird on the train then don't try and tell yourself or anyone else that you "just want to get fitter" or "just be healthy". If you fell off the wagon last night and ploughed through 2 pizzas and a 1.25 ltr coke then washed it down with half a chocolate cake, say so. Don't write down in your food journal "grilled chick breast and half a cup of broccoli". Firstly, if you are not honest with why you are doing it (this goes for training in general and not just any challenge that you may have set yourself) then you are unlikely to get the results you want. Training to attract a girls attention would take a different path then training for sport or just general healthiness. If you have a blow out one night (and it will likely happen) own it, dont try and hide it and dont't feel bad (unless you are doing it every day). Make up for it by burning the extra calories the following day.

3. Preparation

Failing to prepare is preparing for failure. Taking the time to plan training sessions ahead of time will lead to a healthy progress in the right direction. Arriving at the gym and pottering around for half an hour while deciding what to do will likely result in doing very little and the little you do do will likely be just those exercises you like doing. Preparation is vitally important when it comes to food too. It takes a little extra effort to get up and make your lunch for the day but is well worth it. Where possible you will want to carry all your food for the day with you. You don't want to rely on shops for buying what you might think is healthy food as you don't know what they have put in it when preparing. Sometimes you may get caught out without food. In these cases make as healthy option as possible, if you have to eat a sandwich then go for multigrain bread or wholemeal. Make sure there is some lean protein in there and avoid butter, mayo or added salt.

4. Goals

If you don't have any specific goals set then you don't know where your heading and the only way you will get there is by pure luck - much like me when trying to pleasure a woman. Setting goals allows you to plot your path to success. Your goals should abide by the SMART principal - Specific Measurable Attainable Realistic Timely


5. Prescence

Be present in your training. Don't just go through the motions. This will bring you more in tune with your body as well as helping you push through those days where you really can't be bothered (which will come, believe me). It's the pushing through these moments where you really feel your best. Like shares in a bull market, its easy to make money when everything is going good. It's when your feeling like shit that having the ability to push yourself through a quality training session can leave you feeling on top of the world. This also helps you to listen to your body. While at times it is good to push through those tired moments you need to listen to when your body is telling you to take a rest. Recovery is vital for growing stronger and leaner so even though you are training at a high volume and intensity, allow time for recovery. you can even work some active recovery in there with a few light training days - a light swim instead of boxing for instance.

6. Tracking / Training diary

I strongly suggest keeping a training and food diary. This allows you to keep track of how your progress with everything as well as preventing things like unconscious eating. For me personally, every time I entered in a good meal I felt like I had a little victory. I was just using an excel template I created, it doesn't have to be anything fancy. When it got deleted from my computer I don't think my eating was as good. Knowing that if and when I ate something that I wasn't supposed to that I would have to write it down really kept me from gonig to the biscuit tin or hitting 1 in my speed dial and ordering some Thai home delivery. Then after I had finished with my Thai lady going down the road for a feed of Macca's.

7. Education

I remember when I was younger we had a fellow signed up for footy from Cairns. Let's call him Bob. Bob came down and about halfway through the season broke his leg. Unable to run for 6 weeks Bob set about throwing himself into the gym to try and keep his health as much as he could. When he came back the trainer found out he had put on 10kg and his skinfolds had gone through the roof. Bob was stunned. His face scrunched up and his chins wobbled more than Harold Bishop's doing the Macarena. "I really don't know what could have gone wrong" Bob cried "I've been eating really well - Steaks for dinner, a lot of fruit through the day". When questioned further it turns out Bob had been eating about 2 cakes a day. Bob thought, because they were carrot cakes and banana cakes, they were filled with fruity goodness. Now granted that Bob wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed but education is key in making right decisions in both food and exercise selection.

8. Ongoing plans

Whilst doing the challenge it is easy to get caught up staring squarely at the donut and not at the hole. You put in all this effort and get the results you were after then once it's done bang. you sit back on the lounge and start eating some macca's. You need to remember that health is a lifelong journey and not just for the time that the challenge is set. With this in mind it's a good idea to set some goals for post challenge or at the very least a plan to ensure a smooth transition. When doing a challenge like this you are going to have to make a few sacrifices as well as devote a fair amount of time to obtaining your goals. This isn't viable for the long term and you will need to come back to a plan with greater longevity to increase your own longevity.

9. Enjoyment / making it easy on yourself

Try to do exercise and eat food you actually enjoy. Some of you there will feel that is an oxymoron but seriously, there are that many activities out there just about everyone can find something that they like. If you can find somewhere near your work or home that will also help. It's an effort to get there, especially initially and so you want to cut down any excuses your mind may use to justify not going. Making it seem like less of an effort to get there will increase your likelihood for sticking to it.

10. Weights

Not a lot of people like them but resistance work needs to form part of any weight loss plan. Some people are worried about blowing up like Arnie but trust me, unless you eat 7000 calories a day, lift weights twice a day and inject 4 chicken farms worth of steroids into you every hour that isnt going to happen. Resistance and load bearing work can burn calories for twice the amount of time as cardio after the exercise is finished. Muscle mass also increases your metabolism as it costs the body more energy to maintain muscle mass than fat. Besides this, added muscle gives you a better look - the wafer look went out with Lara Flynn Boyle. Lara Flynn who you ask?? Exactly.

11. Personification

Something that really helped me push through at times was this blog - personifying the fat into a little army that I was doing battle with drove me to really fight them. I found myself picturing little white pieces of fat tissue with big Arab style beards and AK-47's and army helmets firing fat filled bullets at me. I had to set my troops onto them by eating healthily and exercising super hard. This weird little trick worked in my weirdly wired mind but you need to find what works for you. Is it picturing that hot bird from the train naked, shaved and presenting?? Or perhaps it's seeing yourself in that slinky dress you bought on Rodeo Drive 2 years ago but haven't been able to wear yet. Whatever it is, having something to focus on that pushes you through when your in the hurt locker can really help.

12. Sacrifice

There is inevitably going to have to be some sacrifices made by you if you want to be successful in a challenge like this. Mainly socially. Going out to dinner, going out for a beer. These are both big no no's. This could possibly lead to some negativity about your challenge from those around you. If you have a partner and/or a family it might be a good idea to sit down and discuss just what you will be doing beforehand so hopefully you can get them on board. Another big sacrifice that will have to be made is time. Training and planning meals etc is going to take up large portions of your day. For me, I don't have a family (at least not until after the court cases) so it wasn't so bad giving up 2-3 hours a day to train. I was only missing out on my daily television and porn time. If I had a family, I wouldn't have been able to devote as much time to it. That's not to say I couldn't do it, it just means I would have to adjust my expectations and training regime accordingly. I was seeing friends of mine down the gym at 5am who would train then go to work all day so they were home in time to see their kids. that's commitment.

Again, I can't stress enough just how great I feel having finished this challenge I set myself. It's helped to put me back onto a path again with re-discovering my passion for fitness and also giving me the courage and clarity to make a career change into the fitness industry, which I am really excited about. I'll be making the change about August, just as its coming into the warmer months, to try and help people get ready for summer! Bring it on!!!

As far as where to from here for me - well I'll be training for my fight coming up in about 10 weeks and after that 200km charity ride. I'll update in about 6 weeks to show how I'm travelling with my fitness and explain how i have changed up my training and eating to be more boxing specific.

Now in response to those that wanted to know, my eating looked like this:

Meal 1 (about 6am) - Yoghurt (yoplait forme brand - low-ish sugar, fat free) with almonds and small amount of oats sprinkled over it meal

Meal 2 (about 9am) - Protein shake with milk

Meal 3 (about 12pm) - Baby spinach leaves, 185gm tin tuna in springwater, 1/4 avocado, chickpeas and lentils (from a can)

Meal 4 (about 3pm) - 2 boiled eggs (generally only eat the white sometimesd I might eat a yolk)

Meal 5 (about 7pm) - (Post training) protein shake with water

Meal 6 (about 8.30pm) - Grilled chick breast with vegies (broccolli, cauliflour, carrot, asparagus)

On days I train in the morning as well as arvo I would train on an empty stomach, have my protein shake after training and yoghurt with the almonds but without the oats as meal 2.

I would stick to this basic plan most days, sometimes mix it up a little. Generally I would be sticking to keeping down carbs and fat and keeping up protein (to allow me to burn fat faster - by restricting carb intake the body will use fat stores for energy more readily). Cause fruits tend to contain carbs, especially things like bananas I would stay away but have been taking a multivitamin.

Once a week (I did Thursdays) I would have a protein only day. Protein only days I would eat something like this:

Meal 1 - steak

Meal 2 - Shake

Meal 3 - chick breast

Meal 4 - 2 x Egg whites

Meal 5 - shake

Meal 6 - kangaroo steak

I have to stress that I am not a dietician or nutritionist. This eating plan was made based on a basic model that I came up with from my own knowledge then tweaked a little based on feedback from Scotty Capelin. It worked for me but may or may not work for you. I wasn't counting calories or anything but did take into account percentage of protein, fat and carbs of each item.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!!!!!!

DEBRIEFING

 MISSION: Operation Blitzkrieg

 MISSION SUMMARY: Attack Fat occupied strangleholds on my body in an strategically co-ordinated incursion consisting of a collaborated effort between the three troops Cardio, Weights and Nutrition, effecting mass lipicide and overthrowing the current military dictatorship led by General O’Sumwans Bin Eating and Commander in Chief Morbid Obesity

 SPECIFIC GOALS: Over the space of 8 weeks remove 12-15kg of Fat occupied territory effectively halving my bodyfat and growing back three quarters of my hair to allow a proper comb over that no longer stands up on end in defiance of any wind as though it were shaking its fist yelling “you’ll never take me alive you bastard”.

 START WEIGHT: 98.3KG

 FINISH WEIGHT: 85.6kg

 TOTAL LOSS: 12.7kg

 MUSCLE GAINED: App 2-3kg

 HAIR GAIN: None however I did acquire a mullet wig (actually made from real mullets so you know it’s good) that will allow me to do both business and party with equal aplomb without the necessity of changing wigs. I am classing this as a win.

 FINAL RESULT: A whopping 15-16kg of fat has been removed from the host belly. I have also gained a reasonable amount of muscle along with an enormous sense of accomplishment and lingering glances. 

STATUS: Accomplished

At 0600 hours on the 19th March 2012 the first incursion into Fat occupied territory was launched. Since then it has been a constant battle with the infidels attempting to spoil all attempts at clean and healthy living even going so far as poisoning my food leading to a horrible 4 days of illness which gave me a new appreciation of the terms “2 ply” and “soft and fluffy”. During the course of the mission I was also hit with some devastating personal tragedies along with other occurrences which could have easily led to a de-railment of the operation however the forces of good have prevailed and the mission objective has been accomplished.

 “Vini, vidi, vici” is a latin phrase. It is a quote attributed to Julius Ceasar, emperor of Rome and means “We came, we saw, we conquered”. A poignant line and well known historical quote. I learnt it from the same place I have learnt a lot of hard lessons in life – A poker machine at Caringbah pub. It has been used throughout time by many important historical figures and leaders however I think Bill Murray said it best in the classic 80’s movie Ghostbusters when emerging triumphant into the function room of a ritzy hotel, their grey uniforms covered in green ectoplasm from their first encounter with “Slimer” he announced to the stunned crowd “We came, we saw, we kicked it’s ass!”

Whatever way you look at it operation blitzkrieg has been a resounding success. Looking back to my first blog I have come a long way. The whole fitness thing has not just helped to re-shape my body closer to what it once was but as I have mentioned a few times throughout the blog, helped in focusing my mind to make some decisions regarding just where it is I am heading in this mortal coil.

Before I go any further I have to send a huge thankyou to Colonel Ketosis – Scotty Capelin. After reading my first blog and seeing the plan I had set out Scotty contacted me to offer his assistance in the way of a facility (www.tribesocialfitness.com.au) along with advice on exercise and nutrition. With my hand on my heart I can say that, without Scotty, I would have faltered within the first week. His advice on my eating plan and how to tweak it a little for better gains (eating specifically for fat loss rather than performance was a big thing) and his little tips along the way really helped me in getting my game face on.

Tribe is an awesome place to train and I am now an official member. The lads are aiming to take the best of both worlds – personal training and health clubs – and effectively fuse them together so you get the benefits of working out in a large health club with the accountability, friendliness and of a small studio. I think they have nailed it pretty sweetly too. Everyone there - members and trainers alike - are all really friendly and get along with each other giving it a real team atmosphere.

Anyway, enough of thanking Scotty, his head is big enough already. Let’s get back to the real hero of this journey - me. Over the next few days I will be posting a few of the key things I found and discovered during this operation for anyone else that might be considering doing their own challenge.

I’ve made great headway in getting back to my old body, which is what my ultimate goal is. Next challenge will be my second fight – July 27th at Cronulla Leagues club. This should be a great night. Contact me for further ticket info. I will need as much support as possible on site for the night!

Now, the part you have all been waiting for. The photos. Any girls and gays that are reading this I suggest you quickly run and grab a handkerchief or some other form of towel to wipe all the drool which will no doubt be running freely from your mouth at the sight of my freshly hewn torso. You may also find yourself compelled to lock the door, light some candles and play some Barry White. If it happens, it happens, run with it. I won't tell anyone.

Weigh in this morning - 88.25kg.

This represents a total loss of weight of 10.05kg. I have added approximately 2-3kg of muscle in this time so that represents a turn around of approximately 12-13kg of muscle which is the goal I was aiming for and I still have 2 weeks to go.

Really looking forward to seeing how far I can get in these last 2 weeks to really bring it home.

Just a quick update today to let you know how it's all going. Stay posted for some more shortly.

On the back foot

Writers Note: This is for my weigh in on Tuesday 1st May 2012. I typed it up and thought I published it to my blog however went in tonight to find it still sitting there.

I've come through this offensive with a fantastic win ratio thus far. Every week we have seen the allied forces remove more Fat occupied territory from the host nation. This week, surprisingly, was no exception. The allied troops came through victorious once again with a weight loss of 700 grams weighing in at 90.2kg. This gives us a grand total so far of 8.1kg of Fat that has been bombarded with brutal allied bludgeoning. The forces of Fat are back-peddling faster than a dyslexic reading a how to book on bike riding.

I say surprisingly for this week as my body is still bouncing back from being sick where I lost, what I assume to be, a lot of water weight which would have come straight back. On top of that, with me still recovering I didn't push myself as hard as I would have liked so I am ecstatic that I have come away with another win.

I was looking over my earlier posts for when I started the blitzkrieg and can see I've come quite a ways. Initially I just thought I'd get in and rip into a bit of training. I didn't think I was that unfit or overweight. My first blog says that I am looking for an 8-10kg reduction in fat.

By the second week I had already increased that to 10-12kg of fat. I can remember that I was already getting that old love of training back. Having a set goal and structured program I had devised was incredibly helpful as was having Colonel Ketosis Scotty Capelin helping out too and holding me to further accountability. His advice along this journey has been priceless and had me remembering things I used to know and even learning stuff that I should have already known.

I've found my love of exercise again and along with it that "kick inside".  I haven't pushed myself like this for years and am loving every moment. Not long to go now and the offensive will be concluded with victory a certainty. With victory assured it would be easy just to rest on our laurels now and coast to the finish line but instead I plan to push harder and harder for these last few weeks to see how far I can get.