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How many 20-pound bags of rice are you carrying around?

The other day I was at my favorite store, Costco, and I decided to buy a 20-pound bag of rice. I don’t eat a lot of rice, but my dog does, so I figured I can buy in bulk, save a few bucks. Plus, I really like the cool, burlap bag the rice is in.

I picked up the bag and was pretty surprised by how much 20 pounds weighs.

Then I thought, “I used to carry around the equivalent of three of these everywhere I went.” Yeah, I’ve lost about 60 pounds of fat since beginning my fitness quest four years ago.

Wow, I cannot even imagine carrying around one of those bags of rice around for too long, let alone three. How do any of us ever do that?

I guess we just get used to the extra weight. I mean, it’s not like suddenly we are toting around 60 extra pounds of fat. The weight accumulates over a long period of time, and our body adapts to it along the way.

Are you overweight? How many pounds do you need to lose? Need motivation? Go pick up a 20-pound bag of rice and run down the hall (or the aisle at Costco) with it.

Now put it down and run down the hall. Notice the difference?

Now think about how many 20-pound bags of rice you are carrying around with you all the time, and how much nicer it would be if you weren’t.

Kinda puts you in the mood to lose a few, right?

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Insanity Fit Test – Week 8

Made it through the first seven weeks of Insanity. I think that means I will make it through the last two!

Here are the results of today’s fit test.

05/02/1106/05/11
Switch Kicks (2 kicks = 1 rep)5570+ 27.27%
Power Jacks3070+ 133.33%
Power Knees78120+ 53.85%
Power Jumps2363+ 173.91%
Globe Jumps (4 jumps = 1 rep)712+ 71.43%
Suicide Jumps1419+ 35.71%
Pushup Jacks2840+ 42.86%
Low Plank Obliques3662+ 72.22%

I almost didn’t bother with the fit test this time, because I was disappointed by the lack of progress in some areas last time over the time before (we do a fit test every two weeks). But as I look at the progress from the start of the program, I cannot help but be pleased.

The results speak for themselves. Insanity works, if you are trying to improve your lower body and ab strength, as well as your cardio fitness.

During the fitness test DVD, Chris and Tania compare their results, using their start-of-program and end-of-program numbers. Mine are better than theirs as far as percentage improvement, so I’m okay with my results. They’re pretty fit people. (Yeah, I know they could be fudging their numbers to make me feel better about mine, but emotion is a huge part of any fitness program, so I’ll take it ;=)

The toughest part of Month Two of Insanity is doing a second workout on Fit Test day. That’ll be later. I need to recover a bit.

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Are you poisoning your kids?

It really annoys me when I tell people I’m not going to eat a piece of their birthday cake — because I avoid consuming things created specifically to soothe a sweet tooth — and they say, “I don’t see how you do that. Cake is so good, I could never give it up.” Really?

Yeah, cake is a delicious poison. Enjoy. Why don’t you drink some Drano® while you’re at it?

Not the same? Okay, yeah, Drano will kill you quicker, but that sugar you eat and drink every day will kill you just as surely, by packing on pounds, creating insulin resistance, feeding cancer, increasing triglycerides … you get the picture.

And we feed this stuff to our kids, often as a reward!

Yesterday at Costco a mother was walking in behind me with her two young children. The kids didn’t want to be there, I guess, because kids don’t like shopping. (I don’t get this — I always liked shopping with my mom when I was a kid.) She told them they’d finish up here and then go get ice cream. One of the kids said something I couldn’t hear, and mom said, “And cinnamon rolls.”

Ban Cap'n Crunch with Crunchberries from your houseWow. No wonder the United States is in the midst of an obesity epidemic. We get our kids hooked on these sugary “foods”, and when they are old enough to know better, they have the damnedest time kicking the habit. Thanks, mom!

I am very thankful that my parents never treated us that way. We had sweets from time to time, but there was not a lot of soda around the house, and desserts were not a regular part of the dinner meal, usually only served as part of some special occasion.

(Now, I do recall consuming a lot of vanilla ice cream with chocolate chips added to it. Hmmmm…. To this day, that is my biggest food weakness — I cannot have vanilla ice cream in the house or I will eat it. Coincidence?)

How about you? Do you give your kids the junk food that will haunt them for the rest of their lives, the kind of food that has caused “adult-onset” diabetes to be renamed “type 2” diabetes, because more and more kids are being diagnosed with the disease. Are you that parent?

I know, I know. “You don’t have kids, Steve, you don’t understand.” True enough. I am also an adult and can more easily control my sugar intake. Plus, after all, I ate a lot of sugar in my lifetime, so, yeah, been there, done that, enjoyed it. Should we really deprive our kids of those delicious cupcakes and beverages?

We should, but I acknowledge that this is a difficult task. After all, Cap’n Crunch with Crunchberries is a damn tasty cereal! (Even though it does tear up the roof of your mouth.)

Still, you can do your part to help keep your kids healthier by not having these poisonous foods and snacks at home and — seriously — not using them to bribe your kids. Don’t serve dessert all the time. Leave sugary sodas at the store. Don’t buy Cap’n Crunch. Help your kids create good habits, instead of feeding their bad ones.

You do a lot of stuff for your kids that you know they will thank you for later in life. Keeping their sugar intake down is just another one of those things. Let’s stop poisoning our children.

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I’ve discovered the key to Insanity!

This is not all that big a revelation, and, yeah, sometimes I’m a little slow on the uptake, but bear with me.

The key to Insanity is that you are not expected to be able to complete the workouts!

Now that I have hit upon this, I find it to be quite obvious.

The individuals participating in the videos are taking breaks, some of them many more than I am. Even Shaun T, who spends most of his time coaching, i.e. not working out, takes breaks when he jumps in to participate.

The level of exertion during these routines is huge. It’s huge by design so we will try to push ourselves as far as we possibly can.

And that, simply put, is the key to Insanity. Do the videos all the way through, pushing yourself as far as you can, but take as many breaks as you need. Stop the DVD after each interval for a longer break.

Keep trying to finish the workouts, but don’t be discouraged that you can’t. You are not supposed to be able to.

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No time for fitness? Maybe you should get a puppy

I don’t have a direct recollection of any epiphany I had regarding making time for fitness. I am busy. Every minute of my day seems to be accounted for. My life has been like that for years, and I dig it. I like to stay productive.

But at some point I decided that I needed to add time for fitness.

I don’t necessarily think it was a conscious decision. I mean, I had known for years that I needed to exercise, but I just never seemed to be able to justify the time out for a regular program. I’d walk here and there, but nothing regular.

Then I got a dog, a Westie.

She was a puppy when we got her, and she had a ton of energy. I work out of the house, so I really needed her to calm down, but she was always bothering me to play, keeping me from getting work done. I mean, could you say no to that face?

Eventually I hit upon the idea of walking her every day. (Yeah, you may have noticed that I can be slow to pick up on the obvious.) I started with a 20-minute walk, and eventually worked up to 45 minutes to an hour — and sometimes longer — daily.

Here’s the key change brought about by that decision, and it wasn’t the physical change resulting from the exercise. It was a mental change.

I had previously thought that I could not be away from my office for that long in the morning, believing I might miss something important from a client. We are a small company, so we thrive on being very responsive to our customers. However, as my dog and I went on our walks, I realized I could be away from the office. Nothing catastrophic happened. We’re still in business.

Every once in a while I did — and still do — get a phone call while we’re out walking that causes me to head straight back to the office, but that’s cool.

By walking the dog, I discovered that I could take time for exercise.

So I added more.

Now I walk the dog — only for about a half-hour now that she’s older — AND do an hour or so of Tony Horton’s P90X OR One-On-One OR Insanity AND maybe even some Ultimate Power Yoga.

Not only has my world not come crashing down around me, because I exchanged other time for fitness time, but my quality of life has dramatically improved. I feel better, look better, and just enjoy life a lot more.

How about you? Do you have trouble convincing yourself to make time for fitness? Maybe you should get a puppy.