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

I've had to put my work with AR on hold for a larger project related to the dictionary project. For about a year I'll be working almost entirely on this other project. Then I can get back to AR/MR work. Until then, I'll have some updates on the project and my progress that's the topic of today's post.

You can either chase your dreams with everything you've got and know you did your best. Or you can be afraid of what people say and only have regret. Choose your dreams.

Yesterday I kicked my ass with my workout. It wasn't that bad, actually, and I woke up this morning ready to do the next one. That's what happens when you have motivation. My motivation is chasing a 41-year-old dream. That dream requires me to be in better shape than I currently am. Now, I just have to be in shape to pass the physical to start. After that, I'll have to get in better shape to maintain. So, right now I have 70 days to get in great shape. The Army does it in 10 weeks why can't I? The difference is I need to have the endurance for the different parts of the physical first.

I like Coach Greg Doucette. I don't know him, however, I think we'd laugh a lot if we ever got together. A while back I bought two of his books. The cookbook has been amazing, though I've not used it like I should. The Home and Hotel Hypertrophy book is what I'm going to focus on for now. In his book there are different workouts based on level and whether you have no equipment, hotel equipment, or home gym. Not being one to start at a beginner level and jumping right in to the hardest part of everything I'm going advanced with some home equipment. I use my TRX a lot. I have an elliptical, 50# weight vest, and some weights. These are the basis of my equipment. I also have two kettlebells that you can assemble yourself with your own weights. They are both 44 pounds. I sometimes carry them around the yard, do walking lunges, or walk up and down the stairs. All I have to do is carry them.

I'm not going to give details about my workout. I mean I'm following Greg's workouts to a T except I can't do pullups so I'm doing negative pullups. I have zero expectations of perfection. I've found that being consistent, doing the work, doing the work harder than last time, and resting harder than last time are pretty much the keys. If I had just stuck to my plan in 2012 or all the way back to 1997 I wouldn't be where I am now. If we're going to go that route then if I hadn't started smoking again after basic training and kept working out each day I wouldn't be where I am now. I can't dwell on that. I can learn from it.

The process I've chosen is pretty rough. Monday and Thursday are lower body workouts mostly. Tuesday and Friday are upper body workouts mostly. I do 3 mins at a time with a resistance of 10 and I push hard for those 3 mins. Then I get off and do one set of one exercise, maybe one set of a second exercise. Back on the elliptical. I wear the weight vest while doing all of this. This takes about an hour to an hour and a half. I also go out to the deck which has like 10 steps or so and I take one step per second and then race back down and do it again for 4 minutes. I'll mix it up after that and do up the stairs as fast as I can and then slowly back down. I am also adding some interval training in where I remove the weight vest and do sprints from the front of the yard to the very back of the yard wait less than 10 seconds and run back up to the front yard. In 2002, I was running 10ths of a mile for several miles like this and my run time went from 14-minute miles down to a 5:30-minute mile over 5 months.

On Wednesdays, I'm doing a walk around the yard with the weight vest for an hour or so. On Saturday and Sunday, I'm doing stuff around the house without the weight vest. This is to give some rest from pushing so hard the other days and because doing the stuff around the house is still pushing it. I lift heavy boxes and move stuff, walk around the yard throwing limbs to the burn pile, etc. I look at everything as a way to move, lift, anything physical. I remember in basic training we walked everywhere. Then we'd do some pushups, flutter kicks, etc for a little bit. The point was not to give up and continue pushing through for the couple of minutes we had to.

While I'm pushing my body harder than last time (thanks Coach Greg), I am also listening to my body. I stretch sore muscles several times a day. I make sure I don't overdo it to the point of injury. Joe Rogan said (paraphrasing) "don't train to 100% - train to 75%. If you train to 100% and can't work out for a couple of days because you're injured or sore then what good is that. if you train to 75% each day and you're not injured or so sore you can workout then you've trained 5 days a week at 75% instead of 2 days a week at 100%." I agree with this. I give it a pretty good go of things but if something isn't feeling right I'll slow it down or reduce the weight a bit.

Lastly, let's cover foods. My food list hasn't really changed. I don't eat or drink anything processed or with extra sugar. I go mostly keto. I eat as many eggs, fish, shrimp as I want. I can also eat as much cauliflower, broccoli, spinach, Brussels sprouts, carrots, onions, and peppers as I want. If I need a little energy I'll have some rice, potatoes, or corn. I drink 16oz water every hour from 6am to 7pm. I also don't restrict my food. If I want a candy bar I'll have one. If I want olives or avocado then I'll have some. I don't want them, but if I do I will. Sometimes I want a Dr Pepper or Coke. I make sure I log exactly how much I have and then I work that off with jump roping or some other cardio. I'm pretty strict on not eating bread though. When I reach 2 weeks then I have one day where I can eat anything I want. I never want a lot and I never want the things you'd think I'd want.

I've never been motivated by much in my life. Playing hockey, rollerblading, sometimes software projects. I like being motivated by this. Even if I don't pass the physical fitness I'll be on my way to doing it later. This is just the first time I can take the test. I don't know when that will be. And when I pass if I'm not accepted into the program then I can still try for other programs in the area.

Until next time. Dodadagohvi. ᏙᏓᏓᎪᎲᎢ.