I just finished checking my stats for this week.  Wow, I had no idea how effective the cardio sessions would be!

	Previous	Goal as of 11/24	Actual as of 11/24	Diff to Previous	Diff to Goal
Body Weight (lbs)	232	232	232	0	0
Body Fat %	18.2	18.0	17.5	-0.7	-0.5
LBM (lbs)	189.78	190.24	191.4	1.62	1.16

Today marks 30 days into my first mission and I am very happy with my progress so far.  Tomorrow is my weigh in day and I'm very interested in seeing what the nubmers say this week.

Today was a rest day.  I did not do any workout today at all.  It felt good to rest.  I am coming up to the conclusion of Fat Loss III and that is exciting as well.  After that, I go into a hypertrophy routine to gain muscle.  I am looking forward to that as well.

I really do not have alot to say today.  I hope this post finds you well.

Until tomorrow…

Over the past two days I've observed a youth hockey team play against two very different level teams.  While the end result was ultimately the same, the way the results were achieved was completely different.  What I observed got me thinking about exercise and physique transformation and how mental both issues really are.  Read on, as I explain throughout the post.

On Thursday, the team in question was paired against a far superior team.  In fact, the better team is probably the best in the state at their age level.  The talk going into the game was that the better team should win by 11 goals.  Yes, 11 goals is what I said!

The underdogs came out and immediately took control of the game.  In fact, they got the first 3 shots on goal and were pretty much dominating the favorites.  Other than a mistake by the goaltender, leading to a 1-0 lead for the favorites, the underdogs took it to the favorites in the first period.  In the second period the referee started to call alot of penalties against the underdogs.  As an outside observer, it appeared that this particular official had it in for the coach of the underdogs.  The underdogs played 15 minutes of the second period shorthanded and gave up 3 goals as a result.  You could hear the spectators who were cheering for the favorites saying that the third period was going to be an avalanche of goals in favor of the favorites.  Anything but that happened.  The underdogs again took it to the favorites and dominated the third period.  Neither team scored, so at the end of the game, the score was 4-0 the favorites.  Anybody who has ever bet on a sporting event knows this is really a loss for the favorites.  They failed to cover the spread. 

What happened?  The answer is simple.  Mentally, the underdogs believed they could beat the favorites.  All of their actions showed this to be true.  The executed better, hustled more and had crisper passes.  They played with a fervor not often seen at this level (and I've been an observer and a coach at this level for a long time).  Everyone left with a smile on their face.

Today I watched this same team play a team that is much inferior to the favorites of the previous day.  From the opening drop of the puck to the final whistle, it was evident that our heroes from yesterday, the underdogs, were not in the same frame of mind.  Today they didn't believe in themselves.  They played with hesitation and lacked any fire whatsoever.  They just looked awful.  It was like a different set of kids stepped onto the ice.

What happened?  Again, the answer is simple.  Mentally, the underdogs thought they were going to have problems with the latest team.  There was history between the two teams.  Prior to the game, the new team told our heroes they were going to hurt them physically.  This got into the heads of our heroes and they played with such hesitation that they couldn't muster a shot on goal for half of the first period.

It is no different with exercise or physique transformation.  If you believe you can do it, it will happen like you want.  If you don't believe you can do it, failure is imminent.  When attempting to burn fat you must come out like our heroes did in their first game.  You must approach it with the attitude that you are going to win.  You need to have the attitude that nothing is going to stop you.  People will tell you that you are going to fail (just like our heroes being an 11 point underdog), but if you push past that and believe in yourself, you will succeed.

Today was my 5th B workout in the Fat Loss III sequence.  My log:

Exercise	Weight/Reps
Front Squat	140 x 10 140 x 10 140 x 10 140 x 10
Chin-ups (assisted)	(140) 10  (140) 10  (140) 10  (140) 10
Step ups	40 x 10 40 x 10 40 x 10 40 x 10
Dumbbell push press	50 x 10 50 x 10 50 x 10 50 x 10
Back Squat	80 x 20 80 x 20
Lat pulldown	75 x 21 75 x 21
Step ups	25 x 20 25 x 20
Dumbbell overhead press	35 x 21 35 x 21

With today being Thanksgiving, I wanted to be extra careful about emptying the tank, so I did a Body for Life type HIIT session.  I did four intervals of 1 minute at 3.5 mph, 1 minute of 4.5 mph, 1 minute of 5.5 mph, 1 minute of 6.5 mph.  I finished with 15 more minutes of steady cardio for a total of 35 minutes of cardio.

That's all I have for today.  I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  Tomorrow is back to the weightlifting for me.

Until tomorrow…

As I did my morning cardio, I started to think about progress and what it means to people.  There seems to be a small debate amongst the Shredder Council about numbers and their place in the process.  I am on the side that says that numbers are pretty much essential for measuring progress.  While I can see the reasoning behind not focusing too much on the numbers, I feel like not focusing on the numbers is failing to plan.  I've always been taught that failing to plan is planning to fail.

Now, if you don't focus on numbers I am not saying you are destined to fail, so don't get me wrong.  At the same time, can you truly say numbers don't matter.  One person, Lilla, commented that at one point she was 92 pounds and now she is about 110 pounds.  She says that her body fat percentage was the same at 92 pounds as it is at 110 pounds.  I say this proves the point that knowledge of the numbers is important.  Let's say that Lilla was 18% body fat at 92 pounds.  This means she had 75.44 pounds of lean body mass.  Now she is at 18% body fat at 110 pounds.  That's 90.2 pounds of lean body mass.  At which point was Lilla healthier?  Clearly she is in better shape now at 110 pounds than she was at 92 pounds.  Without knowledge of the body fat percentage number we would not be able to come to this conclusion.  Most people would immediately say that Lilla was healthier at 92 pounds in the absence of the body fat percentage number.  Thus, that number is extremely important in the determination of how healthy a person is.

To me, the scale is irrelevant.  I've proven, through crunching numbers, that I can stay at 230 pounds and still be extremely healthy just by dropping my body fat percentage down.  It all depends upon your goal.  There are reasons for having a low body weight as a goal.  If a low body weight is your goal, the scale becomes extremely important.  If having a low body fat percentage is the goal, the scale is extremely irrelevant.  In fact, I could go up to 250 pounds, as long as my body fat percentage is dropping.  However, I would not be able to be comfortable with this concept had I not crunched the numbers.

Society places alot of emphasis on the scale.  In each post that rails against the number crunching I see the author discussing the scale and how we shouldn't be upset by what it says.  I agree with that 100%, but I say that the scale is completely irrelevant and that is why we should never be upset by what it says.

Until tomorrow…