Osiyo. Dohiju? ᎣᏏᏲ. ᏙᎯᏧ? Hey, welcome back.

Every so often I try to keep up with my personal weight and workout journey. I get fed up with not feeling well and vow that this time I'll make sure to follow through to the end. I get about 3 months in and have made progress and then I stop. I've wondered why, but I know why. During those 3 months I pretty much stop doing everything else. I get engrossed in losing weight and working out and eating pretty badly. I mean I eat good foods but either not enough or I have starved in the hopes that I can drop the weight. When you don't eat and you workout that makes a bad set up. So at some point during the 3 months I get stressed out. I have one default for stress and that's to eat everything. I go to get gas and then pick up a bunch of candy bars or something and eat them like I've been in the middle of nowhere starving for 10 days. I hide the wrappers so no one will know like an addict. I am an addict. I have to treat it that way. I also lacked motivation. I mean so what if I feel better I didn't get anything else done. It's irrational but irrationality drives all of us. Start with "it won't happen to me." You don't know. You just don't think it can.

I have the opportunity to do something I've always wanted to do. When I say always I mean, I remember the day I knew this is what I wanted to do. I don't know if I'll get to do it, but I owe it to myself to try. This opportunity will require me to be in better physical shape. I'm overall strong. There are areas that are lacking strength. And over all of that is fat.

Rather than workout with weights mostly, I've taken a page from the functional fitness handbook. This opportunity will require carrying heavy weight for short distances and having roughly 60+ pounds of gear at all times. Pretty much the same as when I was in Iraq. I'll need to be able to move long distances with this weight and go up and down stairs. There's a bit more to it, but that's essentially it.

My workouts are going to be different than I've done before. Not completely but somewhat. For the last few days I've worn a 50 pound weight vest. I stand most of the day. I do squats while on calls. I do some TRX exercises like T-Y-M flies, adductors, abductors, and chest press. I have parallettes so I do dips and I attempt to hold myself up for longer periods of time while doing leg lifts. My outdoor work is with a weight vest running for 50-100' at a time before taking a few second rest while I turn around. It also includes other exercises like picking up more weights and shuttling them across the yard. I do some kettlebell swings and I've created a sledgehammer area where I can swing a sledge hammer into things. I do these circuits for 45 minutes. I can tell you that when I take off the vest it's like I can float. When I get a few weeks down the road I'll add some box jumps to the list. or jump up on the rock wall I have that's about knee high.

I like this approach because I can listen to music and do it. If it's raining outside I'll have my garage set up for some of the work. Then I'll have to just set some distances for when it's not raining. I have 83 days to do this and do the best I can. Hopefully, I'll be strong enough to pass the physical test.

If you've followed any of my other blog entries you'll know I'm tracking every metric I can. I basically treat myself like a lab rat so I can know what worked and what didn't.

Tonight I'm finalizing my "course" so I can make sure to get the different workouts I need in.

Until next time. Dodadagohvi. ᏙᏓᏓᎪᎲᎢ.