Darren’s Weekly Workout Review
I’ve been in Denver, Colorado the past week for annual technical conference (OMG it was amazing – but another story for another blog)… Main issue I had was keeping my workout discipline on the road and made a conscious effort to reschedule them.
With my P90x on “rest week”, I thought – why not extend this to allow some practicality while on the week long trip and wow I’m glad I did. The schedule definitely wouldn’t have allowed my normal P90x schedule, I was able to leverage bands and body work (pushups, situps) to retain body composition and flexibility and actually lost a couple pounds in the process (despite eating everything delicious in sight).
Anyway, back to work – LOTS on my mind and super focused to kick some serious sales ass in the coming weeks; creatively and tenaciously! I’ve got a few more blogs in my mind to share too – coming up on my 42nd birthday and realizing I’ve been hitting all my goals is an amazing experience. I’m ready to share more of that as I tie in new goals. Look forward to some fun birthday photos later!
I’d shared a blog a while back about a coworker from Ohio who I’d admired for running and was able to meet F2F and ask him questions about running (coinciding with my Running 101 book I’m reading) and he gave an idea of walking 30 minutes and making one of those minutes a run until I’m able to do 2 and then move up to the 30. I’m going to give this a try. NO MORE EXCUSES!
Feeling Like I’ve Not Slept Lately…
Granted, I don’t sleep much. However the past 2 days I’ve been in a semi-zombie state but still making progress and rocking forward. My brain just feels off from where I want it to be. I’ve looked at my food and supplement intake to see if something’s impacted this sleep or how I feel but can’t come up with any explanation.
In fact I’ve not even taken GABA before bed which I was doing for a while. Well, I’m not going to over-think into this when I have things to do and feel like a zombie. Perhaps it’s just another step towards growth. Perhaps this is what happens as I approach 42. Yeah I’d not really thought much of that, perhaps both my body and mind are needing more than the few hours of sleep I normally feel OK with. Last week I’m up at 5 every day and working out, this week barely ‘aware’ as I wake to an alarm at 6. That’s the other difference – I’m depending on an alarm. I’ve always had one as a “safeguard” but don’t like to depend on it except when necessary traveling. I usually wake up and turn it off before it’s ever even close to alarming. I mean who wants to wake to an alarm, what a horrifying experience. OK I digress. My body is probably trying to take care of itself and is speaking to me. Now it’s time to learn to listen within.
66 Days Remain in 2011. Be Good!
I’ve been pushing myself harder both personally and professionally.
Taking the attitude that I should push until I break something and then work around there can be dangerous and wise at the same time when managed appropriately. I’ve been doing the P90x and am on the “rest week”, basically lower impact workouts before the next round. I’ve contemplated a pause during this period, extending the “rest week” and adding some core intensity. This may prove more realistic and stress relieving during a couple weeks of upcoming travel. Goal being strengthen core so I return to more intense workouts. This brings me to last night when I kicked my own ass.
Feeling an incredible sense of urgency about my work and eager to make more sales progress immediately. I’m partially aware the majority of my stress is internally generated, however that doesn’t make it any less real or important and I’d rather drive myself than have someone ever have to do it for me… Anyway my point is I’ve learned the best way to manage self-induced or externally received stress is fitness.
Last night I decided hitting a boxing bag was the best way to stay focused and burn energy. WOW I was intense! Felt the workout all the way through my chest and did some extra pushups to enhance things. I woke up today feeling good, then stepped out of bed and OW! My shoulder blades feel like they were pulled apart during the night or something. YIKES! I think my body is adjusting to the extra intensity. THIS is why I’m thinking of taking 2 weeks to refocus on core and push my body harder than before so I can obtain even better results with my P90x and other efforts.
Team call at work last week one gentlemen from Cincinnati mentioned wanting to run when we were all together on an upcoming business trip. Something about that commitment to fitness that required nothing more than a little time, some good gym shoes and probably a heart rate monitor (runners love their paraphernalia!) and made me wish I could run. Maybe I can run and need to get over the awkward arm-swinging version I’d been mocked as a child and give it a try again. It’s been over 3 years since having a cigarette, yet my lungs feel strained with cardio work. THIS is what drives me to improve; the awareness that I have been and can be continuously better.
I’m going to be 42 in 10 days and glad I’m aware of the need to workout NOW.
Wednesday’s Melatonin Hangover
Just a Month Away from 11/11/11!
Unsure the value of the mysterious date coming up of 11/11/11 but figured it was worth mentioning. I’m currently on day 4 of my coffee withdrawal and going just a little crazy, especially combined with my aggressive lower carbohydrate dieting and focused on discovering my RHT (Rapid Human Transformation) project every day.
People sometimes say its not good to make a lot of changes at once, that we should gradually introduce new concepts or life modifications into our lives. I believe if we’re determined to make tremendous growth that we should commit wholeheartedly into what is is we’re looking to achieve and make great things happen.
Mentally I feel less focused than before modifying caffeine and diet, however I’m slightly less anxious and anticipate this all will pass too in time. I’m accepting this short-term discomfort as a step in the journey towards long-term awesomeness. I’m feeling confident that surviving 3 days of this modified lifestyle is a good sign of things to come and that if I can do 10% of something, I can do the remaining 90%.
We are our biggest obstacles in life, sometimes it’s important for us to get out of our own ways and reach towards our dreams!
I’m hopeful that by 11/11/11 I feel extremely balanced and focused. I’m curious how much change and awesomeness I can add to my life during just this short period of time. I’m confident that staying on this journey, which likely will have some more challenges before getting easier is extremely worthwhile.
Day 3 Darren’s Coffee Withdrawal!
Taking a break from coffee. Day 3. Feeling rather cloudy but less anxious. Mental clarity shall increase in time. Here’s a picture of one of my favorite coffee beverages, the iced Americano and what I plan to break my coffee fast with at some delicious point soon.
Taking Back a Low Carb Lifestyle
I enjoy low carb dieting or rather a low carb lifestyle. It’s much easier to limit flour, sugars and other unhealthy foods and focus on nutrient dense choices such as lean turkey, fish, chicken or beef and berries. It’s actually rather easy to follow!
Personally my challenge is being a carbohydrate/sugar addict – it’s tough. I’ll find myself in situations professionally as well where breads and starchy foods are the norms. We also eat so many ‘comfort foods’ like pizzas, Chinese foods, pastas, etc. What about my favorite sushi addiction? Well, I’ll be focused on balance and I have a plan.
I’m being very careful about having high quality lower carbohydrate and higher protein foods available at home and doing much of my own cooking. If I choose to have a sushi break I’ll make sure to crank up my exercise to compensate. Overall will be limiting sugar, fruits and flour and not worry too much about rice or vegetables.
Let’s call it a medium carbohydrate diet system for now. My goals are balanced between nutritious deliciousness and fitness.
I’ve found over time that we can leverage either fitness or diet more to keep a positive healthy lifestyle and take off some fat in the process. I’ll be sharing some recipes here, as well as my blog and of course on my low carb this and low carb videos sites.
Pushing Through a Nasty Flu…
I don’t believe in sick days – Well, I do believe they exist however I’d likely feel more sick if I were to take off from work and allow additional tasks to accumulate. I’d rather work (avoiding customers today and instead catching up with mandatory training and emails). Been feeling off since yesterday around 8pm and was up all night with nasty stomach issues, fever and a slight cough – today the cough is gone and took some oscillococcinum which seems to slightly impact symptoms and even some ibuprofen to help this fever drop.
I’m convincing myself that getting sick is a good thing – it’s a chance for the body to kill off some old cells and accumulate some newer and healthy ones. Maybe all my fitness and diet changes the past couple weeks caught up with me. Maybe I caught something from a family member during the holidays or when I was out shopping – who knows.
I do know I don’t have time to be sick so my goal at this time is getting food to stay in my body, not be too hard on myself today and focus on what I can accomplish. I’ve got people coming into town tonight for a show we’re doing with customers tomorrow – and have to head to the city to setup a table display. Right now even that’s intimidating to me so I’m going to start with getting food to stay in my body.
Perseverence – No Matter What
Been on a roller coaster reset lately as I gear towards a healthier lifestyle while remaining focused on professional growth. Today was no exception and feeling nervous as the weekend winds down and I focus on goals for this busy upcoming workweek. Change most always feels uncomfortable at first.
Damn well aware of how much work I need to focus on diet and exercise and how easy these areas find crutches for neglect.
For instance, I’m already giving myself permission in my mind to eat poorly considering the pressure of the workweek. Now I’m reversing this wiring and instead add increased fitness initiatives and preparing healthy meals ahead of time to prevent any types of self-imposed hurdles and make things easier!
For lifestyle changes I’m keeping it easy and when at home making sure to have healthy options for dining and snacking always available. It’s a lot easier to make healthy choices when there’s several healthy things to choose from.
Check out this berry tasty vLog about my detox journey:
Healthy Powers of Perseverance!
You need perseverance when re-calibrating health. There is a lot that can go wrong in life, but you should at least feel safe about your health. When it comes to perseverance in your health you will have to take steps to get and stay healthy.
Perseverance is when you don’t give up no matter what. You find something, you stick to it, and you make it all that you can. You will find that perseverance will help your to become healthy. You will find that when you do became healthy you feel so much better about yourself, however, you will notice that it’s easy to slip up. This is when you need to get perseverance so that you can make something of your life.
You will find that with perseverance you will be able to carry on with your diet or healthy living. It takes a lot to be able to stay healthy, but initially a great deal of will power to get on the right track. Once you are on track to good health, you will find that it is easier to stay with it, then it was to start initially. You’re still going to have weak moments. You begin to feel like you could have one smoke or one donut and then you’re hooked again. Even a simple mess can throw you completely off track.
You will realize perseverance comes from both your own self will and the help of others. When you have others on your side, you will feel like you can do everything and anything. You will find the empowerment for you to get healthy and stay healthy.
You will be able to everything that you want. You will be able to make goals for yourself and then you will find anyway that you can to make the goals come to life.
When it comes to something like your health, you will find that it can be critical to find the will power to change. You have no idea, but you could be killing yourself by eating the wrong foods or by smoking. It’s important that you do find some perseverance.
Eat Well, Work Well and Live Well!
I’m a big believer in focusing on health goals on several different levels; spiritual, physical, mental, emotional and relationships. Physically it’s easiest at times to see our progress as it’s often visible in terms of other health aspects. We may appear mentally or emotionally together when we’re really working on things internally. Overall health is a comprehensive system of different interconnected universal aspects of life.
Here’s my lunch from today, you’ll see some tuna sushi, some spicy tuna rolls and eel sushi. I love sushi and since there’s zero processed foods involved I feel rather good about it though aware I’m mostly pigging out before diving deep into low-carb!
98 Days Left and Day 27 Yoga-X!
Weekend reflections…
There’s 98 days left in 2011 and I’m on day 27 (finishing up week 4) of P90x. Feeling focused and rocking with a passion and vigor like never before.
I’ve had to re-calibrate life systems (don’t we have to do this constantly?) quite a bit this year and have been achieving great results. I’m determined now to streamline and focus time management to gain even more productivity in the coming weeks.
Namaste!
The ramblings of a crazy man? Possibly...
This is Darren Williger and I am taking a look at what I can accomplish in the next 100 days, both personally and professionally.
September 2010 I had this thought - WOW there\'s just over 100 days left this year. Then I realized all my annual goals, professionally and personally - and said \"Darren, it is time\". A GoDaddy coupon code encouraged me to pull the trigger on this new domain and had the site up in minutes.
December 2011 seemed like an awesome time to do this exercise again! Over the next 100 days I will be taking a more serious look at my health and wealth, learning to focus more on what\'s important, and scheduling everything in my life for maximum productivity. I\'ll share details here, mostly to hold myself accountable and track my results on achieving greatness!
I\'m totally immersed in my new career and focused on learning more daily. It\'s been an incredible shift these past few months. On the side I\'m going to be exercising, writing, making more videos, photographing meals, tweeting, speaking and eating. Looking to minimize unproductive time sucking activities.
I\'m limiting my side business focus to weekends as I ramp up my new career. New blog coming soon, appropriately named Saturday Night Marketing. I\'m very excited!
It has been one helluva year so far - many challenges, and some frustration sweat and tears along the way - additionally, many net new opportunities have unfolded as several old ones fall by the wayside. Seems this pattern has repeated in life relationships as well.
I am so excited and grateful for all the incredible opportunities I\'ve been afforded and ones I will continue to create for myself. I\'m not going to allow anyone or anything (including myself) get in the way of the success and greatness I deserve!
Thanks for joining me on this journey!