As expected, a day or two after completing my first training session, I'm struggling to lift an arm, to turn to my left, or my right and there are muscles somewhere in my mid-section that clearly haven't seen any of this exercise for some time. That's DOMS for you, or Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness, and I got it bad!
But strangely with every ache and every whinge to whoever will listen, it so far seems worth it. These are the beginnings of the journey and this soreness has to happen. Allow me to quote Mr Wiki:
The soreness is felt most strongly 24 to 72 hours after the exercise. It is thought to be caused by eccentric (lengthening) exercise, which causes microtrauma to the muscle fibers. After such exercise, the muscle adapts rapidly to prevent muscle damage, and thereby soreness, if the exercise is repeated.
Delayed onset muscle soreness is one symptom of exercise-induced muscle damage. The other is acute muscle soreness, which appears during and immediately after exercise.
Yeah, thanks Mr Wiki, duly noted.
So today has been the first day I have been able to move relatively freely. So under the watchful eye of our ever alert guard dog Aslan, I've managed to push out a number of the set core turbo-charged exercises expected of us during the Fight Fit Training Camp, which consisted of:
The fatigue set in quickly, but knowing that most of this journey is mental, what else can you do, but push on, right?
So that's where I'm at today training wise. Yep, so far, so good! Not had to reach for the bucket of shame (I'm sure that's to come).
So on to my diet and as you will see from my intro image to this blog, it's protein and and it's greens/veggies. As noted in my first diet blog, Stu from Primal Food was expecting the hate on Day 4 (personally I was thinking more like 3 days, but what's 24 hours between a person and your diet mentor). But I must say, that so far the diet and the food has been pretty good. I've had to get used to eating at a certain time.
The diet is well on the way, I'm totally stoked that Stu has made this diet completely do-able and so far, I still like the guy. No we're cookin'!
So I find myself thinking a lot about this journey and what lies ahead, it's almost consuming me. But I still have to work and carry on a home life. There's no question it's a bit of a juggle, but I've never been so determined to succeed at anything. And it just so happens I'm a perfectionist at heart. In the past I know deep down that I often look to easy out's and excuses to why I can't do the hard work. Putting myself out there like this is probably the self deprecating kick I needed to finally do what I know is right for me from a health and well-being standpoint.
Sacrifices will be made here and there. There will be some mornings I wont get to wave my kids goodbye before school. There are going to be evenings where I am home late when I know my wife needs the help at home. And to that end I feel selfish. But at the end of the day, I want to be around in 20, 30 years time for my kids and my grand kids. There's no more important time than right now to change my lifestyle for the benefit of my family and obviously myself.
For those DadBod's out there, who say they don't have the time, I think you need to pull out all the stops to make the time. And it doesn't have to be 3-4 days a week of high-intensity exercise or adhering to a strict diet that throws you into a ketosis firestorm. Walk where you can, do it at lunch time at work, get of a stop earlier for your tram and walk, get outside and kick a ball around and reminisce about the good ol' days when you were the main man in your local football team. Skip that breakfast can of soft drink in the morning and replace it with water, drop that extra sugar from your coffee.
All these little things add up over time. Exactly the same way you got your "beer gut", so now try and reverse that. That's determination and so far for me, it's all in the mind.