The Fitness Diary

I am continually amazed still at how the global fitness marketing machine makes up complete bullshit to put stars in the eyes of overweight people, and coerce them to hand over huge wads of cash, for the promise of physical beauty. Here’s one ad I came across today.

6 Second Abs

NEW!! Go from beer-belly flab to just FAB in seconds - with 6 Second Abs! Forget about those painful, neck-wrenching crunches on the floor. Six Second Abs keeps you off the floor in a comfortable seated position and guides you through the perfect crunch motion.

With the 6-Second Abs patented progressive resistance system, you can easily set the resistance to match your fitness level. And 6-Second Abs is like your personal coach. It paces you. It tells you when you’ve done a complete crunch. Just three seconds down and three seconds up. It’s so easy. Just listen to the clicks and every crunch is complete. Every crunch is perfect so you don’t have to do as many.

You can go from beer belly flab.. to fab. Now you can eliminate the paunch for a flat-toned stomach. 6-Second Abs targets your entire abdominals with just a few simple exercises on the upper abs, the lower abs and the side obliques. Just three seconds down and three seconds up. It’s so easy. 6-Second Abs utilises more muscle fibres because you’re getting a fuller contraction. And you can trim those love handles for the sexy waistline you’ve always wanted.

What the fuck?! I thought the 6 minute ab routine was complete crap, and that noone would buy into it. But 6 second abs?! You can’t even sit your arse on the floor and get in the exercise position that fast! And that’s the whole workout!

I genuinely feel sorry for people that are out there, who sincerely want to know how about exercise, and come across this shit. To some extent you would have to be a right retard to believe 6 second anything would work. Any reasonable person would have to know this is just a shameless marketing ploy to separate a fool from their money. But it is shameless on the part of the people telling these lies in the first place, to pray on those who in a lot ways are looking for hope and salvation.

There is no substitute for hard work over a long period of time. To think there is another way, is to live in denial. In the end, there are no shortcuts and no quick fixes. The sooner you come to accept that. The sooner you will be on a path to becoming the shape you want, and enjoying a healthier lifestyle.

Andy.

I’ve decided that this whole exercise journal thing is going to work better if I start treating this blog like a training diary. I actually used a training diary when I was going to gym about 3 years ago and I found it really interesting to be able to look back on workouts and see how strong and fit I would get over a period of time before the inevitable layoffs I would take. So this is going to be the online version. If I get motivated enough I might even try to transcribe the old diary into some kind of online format. That would be pretty interesting to use as a benchmark.

Right now though this blog in it’s present form isn’t really shaping up to be a motivational tool like I was hoping it would. Pretty much because of the lack of entries, which stems from a lack of workouts. So I’m hoping to change all that, by making this a diary of workouts, which becomes a tale of my progress.

It’s time to really get serious about this, and stop talking about doing it, and just do it! Just like the Nike ad!

Andy.

So I think this gym thing has had a bit of a false start. My last workout was 10 days ago - it almost sounds like the start of a confession when I say it like that - which is just too long to call it an extended rest period. Not last week, but the week before I did three days in a row, and was just at the point where I considered myself exercising again, and then I stopped. Not for any particular reason, but it was just falling back into old habits of not exercising because there was always something else to do, including eating junk food.

It seems after a year of not exercising and not watching what I eat, those are the habits that are ingrained in my head, and it’s all too easy to make excuses not to gym after a hard day at work when I am tired by the time I get home. But I’m always going to be tired when I get home from work, so if I keep using that excuse I may as well cancel my membership right now.

A good mate of mine told me that it takes 90 days to make something a habit in your life, meaning you don’t have to think about an activity or action consciously, you just do it as part of a routine. I had thought being a fat bastard and wanting to lose weight, that time would have been reduced by about 87 days. Apparently not. I’m really going to have to take it from the beginning, and find the time to make the routine again, and make exercise a regular part of my day.

Otherwise it’s just going to be another year of excuses!

Andy.

After a long european winter, I went out with some friends on a boat during the first sunny weekend of the new summer, and was pretty shocked to find out that my stomach has taken on the proportions associated with early stage pregnancy.

This is a bit of a serious problem for me for a couple of reasons; firstly, I’m not one of these guys whose comfortable with having a big round belly on them. I really admire those guys that are, because it means they’re secure enough in themselves for their body shape not to matter at all. Now, I’m not someone obsessed with his looks and having a Fabio body to show off, but at the same time, this getting out of shape isn’t helping my general state of wellbeing or social confidence. Secondly, my father and grandfather both developed type 2 diabetes, heart problems, and had knee replacements all as a consequence of being chronically overweight. So a weight problem for me, if not brought to heel, is going to go much the same way as it did the men in my family before me.

Which brings me to the point of this blog; I’m about to embark on an experiment with myself to turn my weight around and acheive a state of health and good fitness. I’ve not seen my abs now in nearly 10 years, and they haven’t seen me either. Chances are they’ve forgotten what I look like, and who they belong to. I’d like to think that it’s not too late for us to get reaquanted. The challenge is going to be seeing this through; I’m 39 years old, with a busy-as-fuck tech job in a web technology startup that I have to travel to out of town from where I live. My diet is pretty shit, and will need a complete overhaul, and I’ve forgotten most of the nutrition information that I once knew like the back of my hand. Most of all, it’s been at least a year and half since I was doing any form of regular exercise, so I have to completely rebuild the routines of my life to include exercise again. So this site, as much as anything, is to help me get motivated and keep my motivation up. God knows this fashion shot above sure gives me plenty of that!

Let the games begin!

Andy.