January 2, 2012

“Resolve to Evolve”

Rest

• Slept at 2:30 AM
• Woke up at 8:45 AM

Weight

• 181 lbs

Feeding 1 9:00 AM

• Shake- vanilla muscle milk, spinach, frozen strawberries, water, ice
• 1 tsp Fish Oil

Workout 10:15 AM – 10:55 AM

• 1. Clean and Push Jerk 195x5x4
• 2a. 36″ Box Jump BWx5x4
• 2b. Weighted Neutral Grip Wide Pullup 35x5x4
• Ladder 15 reps, 9 reps, 6 reps
• 3a. DA KB Swing 40 kg
• 3b. KB L Sits
• 3c. Hanging Leg Raises

This was an awesome workout. In addition to working out with one of my usual workout partners we had a special guest join us. Needless to say she kept us motivated and we actually finished in record time. There’s nothing like feeding off the energy of others.

Feeding 2 11:40 AM at Coppelia

• Omelette- manchego cheese, roasted peppers, chorizo
• Home fries
• 3 bites of toast
• Sweet plantain
• 24 oz water

Activity 3:20 PM – 3:30 PM

• Walked dogs to the dog run and did a light jog around the small lawn. Not much but it was cold.

Feeding 3 4:00 PM

• Boneless chicken breast from last night
• Eggplant coconut soup from last night
• 16 0z flavored white tea- monkey picked oolong, strawberry slender pu-erh, mate lemon blast, imperial acai blueberry

Feeding 4 7:00 PM

• Puerto Rican pasteles
• 3 pieces of chocolate- 2 Godiva, 1 Vosages
• 3 Vodka club soda drinks

I had this feeding while with one of my best friends who was going through it. Although I had a choice not to eat or drink what I did, I chose to eat and drink that anyhow. There are some things that are more important than yourself at times and in this particular situation, it was being there for my friend.

Feeding 5 11:55 PM

• Handful of trail mix
• 1 tsp Fish Oil

January 1, 2012

Rest

• Slept at 3 AM
• Woke up at 10 AM

Weight

• 181 lbs

Feeding 1 10:45 AM

• Egg White Omelette- spinach, tomato, feta chesse,
• Blackberries
• 1 tsp Fish Oil
• 16 oz water
• 16 0z tea- mate vana, rooibos chai

Activity 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM

• Walked dogs to the dog run then to the marina and back home

Feeding 2 1:40 PM

• Apricot
• Two handfuls of trail mix

Feeding 3 4:45 PM at Greenwich Village Meatball Shop

• 4 meatballs- steak, bacon, and cheddar w/ mushroom sauce
• Market salad- green leaf, arugula, roasted fennel, almonds, pomegranate seeds, pomegranate vinaigrette
• 16 oz water

Feeding 4 6:30 PM

• Chobani strawberry yogurt

Feeding 5 10:40 PM

• Baked Boneless chicken breast- salt, pepper, tumeric, basil, olive oil, lemon juice
• Eggplant coconut soup- yogurt, cashews, cinnamon, chilli powder, coconut milk
• 1 tsp Fish Oil
• 16 oz water

Today was pretty laid back. The early part of my day I spent trying to come up with my wellness plan and finding out ways to work on mental fitness

I spent a good part of the late afternoon watching television with one of my best friends. We actually watched the 2011 Cross Fit games on ESPN 2 and it got me pretty amped up and looking forward to my workout the following day.

It’s 2012 so I figured I’d start by writing about what I want to accomplish. I never have specific resolutions except to do better than the previous year and be better than the previous year. Well this year is a bit different.

PHYSICAL FITNESS IS ONLY ONE ASPECT

I’ve decided to adopt more of a wellness lifestyle. Prior to this, I had more of what you would call a fitness lifestyle and I’ve been quite successful and consistent with it over the past 5 years even though it has been a part of my whole life in some way, shape, or form.

For those of you who don’t know me, I’m a firm believer in balance. Especially balance in all areas of your life and it was last year that I realized I wasn’t as balanced as I thought I was. A lot happened to me and needless to say, fitness couldn’t help a lot of the challenges I was experiencing. It did keep me sane through it all for the most part but it wasn’t until I took a yoga class that I realized there were two other sides that I was neglecting.

ENTER MENTAL AND SPIRITUAL FITNESS

Let’s just say after I took a yoga class, that same night I had one of the most vivid dreams I’ve ever experienced. I knew the colors, textures, people, and even the temperature in my dream. That never happens!!! I barely even remember what goes on. The following day, when I woke up, I literally felt like I was flying.

I shared this experience with some of my closest friends and some others who take yoga and they all said that typically is normal. I was like, “I need more of this!” Even though this can be classified as exercise, it totally impacted me in a way my workouts didn’t. Spirit to me is defined as “a sense of self and of a relationship of that which is greater than self.” I know this may sound “New Age-like” but for the first time in a really long time I felt as if there was something greater than me out there and I definitely wanted to connect to it whatever was. So as I am writing this now, I am still currently exploring yoga and even meditation and energy work and it’s effects on me and what experts claim it will do.

So where does the mental fitness come in? Well… as I researched more of the benefits of yoga and meditation I saw a common theme among all the sites I was on and books I was looking through…

True balance is about body, mind, and spirit.

And through physical, mental, and spiritual fitness, this balance can be achieved. So I obviously looked up how to increase your mental fitness and boy did I open another pandora’s box. I won’t go into the details of it but you can easily do the research on your own. Know that as far as the mental aspect goes, I will do things such as expanding my reading so it’s not only about fitness, maybe go to more museums, brush up on my Spanish or learn French even to being more expressive with my friends, and doing “brain games.” There is so much. Luckily for me, if this will be part of my lifestyle, I have the rest of my life to do all that.

WELLNESS EVOLUTION

What I do know and believe is that for me, WELLNESS IS BALANCE and that this life style will be achieved by the integration of physical, mental, and spiritual fitness. This really is going to be an evolution for me that I look forward to.

The ultimate goal of this journal is purely personal. I will simply be tracking down my journey into wellness and also have a section on daily reflections. Not just the things I do to achieve it but also the challenges, and even the mistakes. And at the end of the year I will evaluate what I’ve done. Because this is a lifestyle I don’t expect this to be something I may figure out in a year or even two or three.

This is something I will be doing for the rest of my life, but it is my hope that those of you who follow this will be inspired to lead a life that is balanced, whatever balance means to you and will embrace a lifestyle of wellness, however way you want to go about doing that.