Sober Moment 2.25.09

I'm gonna try something new.  For a number of reasons, but mostly because I just felt the need to post today.  It's not all partying and drankin' with D. Kareem.  So the sober moment posts are just going to say what's on my mind.  What I'm thinking about as opposed to what I'm doing.  Not sure how often these will be posted or if it will be a regular thing.  But let's give it a go.

Yesterday marked the beginning of the 14th week before Memorial Day.  Why do I know this?  Partly because memorial day is my next work holiday (fuck!).  But mostly because Memorial Day marks the beginning of beach season and the end of my get-in-shape-for-the-beach season.

Last year, I got really intense about gaining weight for the summer.  I was looking back at pictures of myself with a very muscular ex (through whom I met Urban Sprawl), and I was tired of being skinny.  I wanted to be able to turn heads with my clothes on (several sex partners have said I look best with my clothes off... god, I'm not even going to attempt to clean that one up).  Basically, I wanted to be even more vain that I already was.  

So I did some online research and started 2008 with a 4-day-a-week heavy lifting regimen and a high-protein diet (eating ever 2-3 hours and such).  After 4 months, I had gained about 8 lbs (which was a first for my high metabolism), and all my clothes looked so much better!  I continued to work out through May, but I had plateaued and it didn't make much difference.  But I was so tired of spending 6-7 hours a week grunting and sweating (by myself) that I cut back to 2 days per week during the summer (okay, and the fall and winter).  I got some professional pictures taken (see the banner) because it was doubtful that I'd be doing this next summer (or ever again).  But in the 5 months, I'd probably only skipped about 4 days.  I was really proud of myself because my gym was near my office.  So if I took more than one weeknight off, I was trekking my ass down 100 blocks from home on a Saturday.

So a year and change later, I decide I'm going to give it 10 weeks of the hardcore lifting and eating rather than 5 months.  Luckily my body maintains well, so only going 2 days per week hasn't wrecked me.  But I've definitely lost my ass (remember when these jeans used to fit?), and my shirts aren't as tight.  My plan was to ease into it by doing a month of 3 days  per week prior to the 10 weeks.  Then a Monday night party came up.  Fuck it.  I'll just go from 2 to 4 and deal with the change when it comes.

However, I did change up my 2-day-per-week workout to be a bit more intense.  And I went from isolated leg exercises to lunges.  I'm having trouble walking today.  And I'm not looking forward to the last week in March.  I guess I could have said, "Yesterday I changed up my workout, and today I'm really sore," but what fun would that have been?

On a totally different note, most of my deepest thoughts or best ideas come to me in the shower (music included), and that happened to me today in SoHo Crush's shower.  I remembered a conversation with a college friend from Palo Alto in which I had implied that California was a sort of liberal, anything-goes sort of state, and he got slightly offended.  Well, there was the whole proposition 8 thing, so I guess it definitely has it's conservative– wait, don't they have legal weed in Cali?  Medicinal or not, I'm sure the Book of Mormon has something to say on that!  

But then again, I doubt you'd get excommunicated from the the LDS for smoking weed the way you would for committing homosexual acts.  See how intellectual I am?  $160,000 of tuition and fees at work.

PS, if anyone wants details on that workout plan from '08, I already have it written up in an old email, so I can send it if you want.  Hit me up in the comments or on my email (in my profile).