My two big goals for this month are to complete a 12-core workout challenge and to increase my step count.

16 Weeks Out

• Core Challenge: 12 Workouts
• 8-10K step challenge
• SF 5K?
• Pushing myself harder in the gym. Lacking motivation. YouTube is helping me

I am back and forth on the SF 5K. It feels like something worth training for, but we’ll see. As of today, I still haven’t signed up, and it’s at the end of next month.

I am feeling something familiar return because I have been lacking motivation and inspiration, so I’ve gone back to YouTube to follow fitness personalities that inspire me.  I am pushing myself harder in the gym and even in my home workouts. Something is brewing.

15 Weeks Out

• Stepping it up: Adding another Cardio session in preparation for the SF 5K
• Measure out Carbs (Rice/potatoes 120g)
• I used to do way more than this, but I got involved in other things
• I have forgotten what it’s like to demand MORE from myself, and that’s true in and out of the gym. I’ve been coasting because my environment has been so lackluster and mediocre.
• Joining a great team isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s a must-have because it’s true. The best determinants of “luck” are the people you are surrounded by. It’s the people, stupid.
• Observation: The face fell off my Apple Watch, and I didn’t have it for a workout. I kept looking at my wrist, but something funny started happening midway through the workout. I got lost in the music and what I was doing. I was ready to replace the watch that day, but then I decided to try a week without it. I almost wonder if quantifying everything is making us more distracted

14 Weeks Out

Prep Season Upgrades

• Core Challenge: 12 Workouts
• 8-10K step challenge
• Add in another Cardio Session in Preparation for the SF 5K
• Measure out Carbs

Nutrition and Training Updates

• Stepping it up: Adding another Cardio session in preparation for the SF 5K
• Measure out Carbs (Rice/potatoes 120g)

Environment and team are everything

This summer, I am concentrating on what I call my “real life”. One of my goals is to join a great team, and I am beginning to see that the great team I want to join is in my “real life.” Yes, it would be great if I joined a great professional team, but it’s even more imperative to join or create a great team in my real life.

I am coming to a clear conclusion that joining a great team isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s a must-have because it’s true that the best determinants of “luck” are the people you are surrounded by. It’s the people, stupid!

In the last few years, I have gotten pretty complacent. I have forgotten what it’s like to demand MORE from myself, and that’s true in and out of the gym. I’ve been coasting because my environment has been lackluster and mediocre. This is my own fault for becoming passive and valuing complacency and convenience over growth.

Perhaps I needed this complacency to serve as a wake-up call that I do not need to settle for the short stick.

Before I get too hard on myself, I also know that timing is everything. The pandemic, getting caught up in a church and leaving, losing my mother, and knowing I was ready to transition careers were too much to deal with already, and there was no way I could possibly take on more challenges while trying to deal with all that. I would have just ended up becoming overstimulated and burning out.

Is Optimization Creating Better Health Or Less Resilience?

A great question in the Arnold Schwarzenegger Pump Club Newsletter. The author of this article commented that he woke up one morning, and according to his fitness tracker, he was one step up from dead based on the skulls and crossbones on the device.

The issue was that the author felt good and energized, but the tracker told him he was in bad shape.

He questioned whether, by trying to “optimize” our fitness, we are creating less resilience. Sometimes, to reach that next level, we do need to push ourselves harder.

I had my own experience wondering if a fitness tracker is more distracting than helpful.

The face fell off my Apple Watch, and I didn’t have it for a workout. I kept looking at my wrist, but something funny started happening midway through the workout. I got lost in the music and the actual workout. I was really focused.

I thought I was ready to replace the watch that day, but then I decided to try a week without it. I almost wonder if quantifying everything is making us more distracted and less present.

13Weeks Out

Prep Season Upgrades

• Core Challenge: 12 Workouts
• 8-10K step challenge
• Add in another Cardio Session in Preparation for the SF 5K
• Measure out Carbs
• Making sure to get fat in with meals and not so much with carbs. Better for my blood sugar and cravings
• The Additional Cardio session per week is fasted
• Don’t take my phone into my bedroom at night

Nutrition and Training Updates

• Making sure to get fat in with meals and not so much with carbs. Better for my blood sugar and cravings
• The Additional Cardio session per week is fasted

Repetition is the answer to greatness

Have I mentioned that I love the Arnold Schwarzenegger Pump Club newsletter? I especially love the calls to action and the reminder that it’s about repetition and doing the boring stuff that will help us move forward. This week I knew exactly what behavior I needed to change for the weekly homework assignment.

Name one basic behavior you’ve gotten inconsistent with. Not a fresh plan, but an old one you half-abandoned, or one you heard about that sounded too basic, that you ignored.  Then do only that for the next 14 days. No additions allowed. Let the results remind you what you already had.

Taking my phone into the bedroom at night. I can make all the excuses I want, but I end up scrolling, and if I have it in my bedroom at night, I wake up and scroll instead of doing my morning routine.

The phone is back out in the living room.

Apple really needs to bring back the iPod because I want to listen to music before bed.

12 Weeks Out

Prep Season Upgrades

• Core Challenge: 12 Workouts
• 8-10K step challenge
• Add in another Cardio Session in Preparation for the SF 5K
• Measure out Carbs
• Making sure to get fat in with meals and not so much with carbs. Better for my blood sugar and cravings
• The Additional Cardio session per week is fasted
• Don’t take my phone into my bedroom at night

Nutrition and Training Updates

• Supposedly working on flexibility
• Got my period, but doing low-impact cardio and stretching for one day, then I was back to reality.

I haven’t done a great job with flexibility this week, so I will keep that as a focus for the next week.

A switch has flipped

It feels like a switch has flipped on. I cannot explain it to you, but I feel a familiar energy returning. I’ve heard from the woo-woo crowd that we are returning to a 2014-15 energy, and I have to say that is tracking for me. I felt a switch flip on in my head, and I’m feeling an energy I haven’t felt in over ten years. It’s the energy of momentum, hope, and the drive to go to the next level.

It really is the workout

A few weeks ago, Arnold said the workout would be the game-changer, and it is. The workout is helping me get my spark back. The workout is what is helping me come alive again and know that something is brewing and taking shape.

It sounds crazy, but sometimes the last ten years feel like a really bad dream I woke up from, because so many people have returned to my life from before 2020.  Unfortunately, I know it wasn’t a bad dream because every day I am hit with the reality that my mother is no longer here.

However, I have felt more glimmers of hope in the last six months than in the previous six years.  Even my gastrointestinal issues are acting right! I give partial credit to Panorama’s sourdough bread. I believe the sourdough cultures are good for those of us with gut issues. The gentleman who sells the bread at the Farmers Market told me that even those with celiac disease who cannot eat wheat can eat their bread with no issues.

I do think that the biggest factor, though, is that I am aligning with my true self. The body does keep score.

11 Weeks Out

Prep Season Upgrades

• Core Challenge: 12 Workouts
• 8-10K step challenge
• Add in another Cardio Session in Preparation for the SF 5K
• Measure out Carbs
• Making sure to get fat in with meals and not so much with carbs. Better for my blood sugar and cravings
• 120-5 Minutes of Cardio Per week
• 15 Flexibility Workouts this month
• 2 Days of Fasted AM Cardio and Strength in the afternoon are officially on the table

Nutrition and Training Updates

• 120-5 Minutes of Cardio Per week
• 15 Flexibility Workouts this month
• 2 Days of Fasted AM Cardio and Strength in the afternoon are officially on the table

The goal is 120-125 minutes of Cardio per week. The further we get into the prep, the more that will increase.

It’s also on the table to do AM Cardio and then strength-train in the afternoon, as I did back in the day. I may be ten to fifteen years older, but I can do it and so I will.

This week I did 135 minutes of cardio and only stretched 2 days. This has to improve. My goal is 15 Flexibility workouts this month.

The Fire is Lit

I’ve been watching YouTube videos from some of my favorite women in fitness, like Cyd Gillon, Andrea Shaw, and Lauralie Chapados. Seeing the work these women put in without making excuses has made me want to work harder. I am definitely not on their level, but there’s something about seeing others who are working at a high level that helps light my fire.

I remember the days of Fasted AM cardio and strength training later that day, or maybe teaching classes and still having to train in the gym that day and do cardio. I pushed myself to do more than I ever thought I was capable of, and I need that same kind of fire right now.

When Arnold said the workout would be the difference-maker for the change we’re looking for in our lives, it hit me so hard because I know, without a shadow of a doubt, that it’s true for me. Being faithful and pouring my efforts into the workout will lead me to my destiny. Before you think I’m crazy or doing too much, I know it down deep in my bones.

Even though I can’t see it yet, the fire inside has come alive since I committed to what I know is true: this fall will have a major acceleration

Remember, this is a prep season for the Fall Acceleration.  I do not know what is in store this fall. I just know I need to be ready for September.

10 Weeks Out

Prep Season Upgrades

• Core Challenge: 12 Workouts
• 8-10K step challenge
• Add in another Cardio Session in Preparation for the SF 5K
• Measure out Carbs
• Making sure to get fat in with meals and not so much with carbs. Better for my blood sugar and cravings
• The Additional Cardio session per week is fasted
• Don’t take my phone into my bedroom at night
• Black Coffee Only

Nutrition and Training Updates

• Black Coffee only: no more half-and-half
• Change up Workout Split: 2 Legs Days and 100-120 minutes of Cardio per week

“Why am I even doing this?”

This was my thought on the Arc Trainer one day this last week. There is no event, no prize, no anything, except to complete this 16-week prep season.

Since I started, I have lost about 1-2 pounds, but weight loss isn’t the goal.

The goal is to commit to completion.

The goal is to come into the Fall prepared for major change and acceleration.

It’s not about praise.It’s not about applause

It’s about committing and finishing something I set out to do.

 Little strokes fell great oaks

“Why am I even doing this? Every day is the same. Nothing changes.”

These are the negative thoughts I had this week because I am putting in the work, but nothing appears to be changing. Results aren’t coming fast enough, and I want life to move ahead.

I call this season the void, and others call it the messy middle.

I have the goal.

I have been consistent for a few weeks

Results are lagging behind my efforts.

The middle is where most people quit programs.

I used to tell people in 12-week programs that if you can just make it to Week 9, you’ve made it. Weeks 5-8 are brutal. You’ve come so far, but it still feels like there’s so far to go.  I feel the same way about half marathons. It’s much easier to envision the finish after mile 8.

Little strokes fell great oaks. – Ben Franklin

We’ve been sold a world where everything happens quickly: fast deliveries, fast fashions, a fast track to stardom through going viral, and fast money. As a result, all of us think mild effort should produce quick results. One stroke of the axe and the whole tree should come crashing down.

Life doesn’t work like that.

As Adam wrote in this week’s Pump Club Newsletter, the magic is refusing to quit chipping away at the tree.

“The magic isn’t in any single stroke. It’s in the refusal to stop before the tree comes down. “

 For any goal, the process is what we should focus on, not the results. If we focus on the process of showing up, being consistent, getting the reps and rehearsal in, doing what needs to be done, then the results will follow.

When I was having my moments of doubt during cardio this week, I wondered what the point was because, to be truthful, I don’t have any goals beyond completing the 16 Week prep.

I’ve made up my mind to keep swinging each week.

I have a sense that after the tree comes down, the real results will reveal themselves.

I won’t be doing the SF 5K. I don’t want to pay for it because I have financial goals that I want to hit. If there are other 5K’s in the fall, I may sign up for one of those.

9 Weeks Out

Prep Season Upgrades

• Core Challenge: 12 Workouts
• 8-10K step challenge
• 100-120 minutes of Cardio per week
• Measure out Carbs
• Making sure to get fat in with meals and not so much with carbs. Better for my blood sugar and cravings
• 15 Flexibility Workouts this month
• 2 Days of Fasted AM Cardio and Strength in the afternoon are officially on the table
• The Additional Cardio session per week is fasted
• Don’t take my phone into my bedroom at night
• Meal Prep Day once per week
• 130-150 Minutes of Cardio Per Week
• Add in 1 Day of Lifting

Nutrition and Training Updates

• Meal Prep Day once per week
• 130-150 Minutes of Cardio Per Week
• Add in 1 Day of Lifting

Identity Shifts

This week I noticed subtle changes in my behavior. I’m prepping my meals ahead of time, going directly to the gym after work for cardio, and making sure to do my flexibility even if it is only five minutes.

Six weeks into this, I’m noticing small upgrades, such as taking a 30-minute walk instead of scrolling on my phone. My Monday evening walk is becoming automatic, and getting up for workouts is, too. I no longer snack out of boredom, and because my meals are higher protein, I don’t snack much anymore.

My identity is shifting. I’m seeing myself as someone who puts in the work, and that’s what I’m doing. My results have been minimal so far. I’ve lost about 1-2 pounds, but the goal isn’t to lose weight. The goal is to complete the sixteen weeks. I’m using the same methodology they use in fitness competitions: we get stricter and more intense as the weeks go on. There will be another change eight weeks out, where I will ask more of myself

Raising the Stakes

Prep season is about preparing to GO FOR IT during the Fall Acceleration. I don’t even know what IT is, but I know I need to be prepared because whatever IT is will involve high stakes, and where there are high stakes, there must be preparation and discipline.

This is what prep season is for.

Six weeks have been completed.

Ten weeks to go.

8 Weeks Out

Prep Season Upgrades

• Core Challenge: 12 Workouts
• 8-10K step challenge
• Add in another Cardio Session in Preparation for the SF 5K
• Measure out Carbs
• Making sure to get fat in with meals and not so much with carbs. Better for my blood sugar and cravings
• 15 Flexibility Workouts this month
• 2 Days of Fasted AM Cardio and Strength in the afternoon are officially on the table
• The Additional Cardio session per week is fasted
• Don’t take my phone into my bedroom at night
• Meal Prep commitment at least once per week

Meal Prep commitment once per week

My upgrade this week is committing to meal prepping at least once during the week.  It doesn’t have to be Sunday. It can be any day, but I think it’s easiest to take one day to prepare lunches. It’s one less thing to worry about.

This is one chore I’d like to not think too much about.

Whether it’s preparing chicken, turkey, or even making a plan for what’s for lunch, life works better when certain chores are on autopilot.

Keep doing the work

This week I looked at myself in the gym mirror and told myself to keep doing the work. Period.

Just keep doing the work, and a few days later I saw the biggest drop on the scale that I’ve seen in a long time. I actually hit one of my milestones, and I am at my lowest weight in over a year.  We’re halfway to the goal line, and it’s not about the results. It’s about the habits I am forming, the discipline that is returning, and even the desire to be more that I haven’t felt for a long time.

 Long Prep Season for a short encounter

I am giving myself a sixteen-week preparation season, but many sports take longer than that to prepare for a short encounter.

I was watching track and field on television this past weekend, and these women were running a 5K in just over 15 minutes! That is incredible! I started thinking about how other track and field athletes spend years training for races that last under 10 seconds.

All of that preparation for such a short encounter, but it’s not about the duration of the race. It’s about the preparation and process to get there.

I don’t even know what I am preparing for, but this sixteen-week prep season may be for a short encounter that will lead to the opportunity of a lifetime.

It’s not about the results of the preparation season; it’s about all the work that I put in to become the person who can meet the moment when opportunity comes across my path.

As we approach the halfway mark, I’m starting to turn the intensity up slowly but surely. I want to cruise and then blaze into the fall!!

Let’s go!

Years ago, I took the Mindset Performance Institute certification, and the certification founder, Brian Grasso, used to say, “Count your wins,” and I have been doing that faithfully for two years now. Being in the void space between two realities of past and future, I need the encouragement more than ever to not get stuck in the past and continue to move forward.

I tracked all my wins from July, and there were a lot of them. Many were small, but they still counted because those small wins will add up to big victories. For example, I walked three days per week in the evening, and that’s a win, and that is how habits are formed.

7 Weeks Out

Prep Season works little by little

One of the things I love about prep season is that every week or two you add one small change that will further progress. Instead of saying, “Ok, now we’re going to do an hour of cardio per day,” you add a few more minutes every week or every two weeks. Instead of dramatic drops in diet, you add little tweaks here and there so the changes are more subtle and easier to manage. I’ve also cut down wine to two days per week instead of three.

I’m already halfway through this prep season, and eight weeks out is another shift in the intensity. I am increasing my cardio and becoming more intentional about food. My nutrition focus is to rock the proteins and good fats. It’s helped because it’s become easier to say no to pointless snacks because I’m satisfied.

Halfway through, I’ve lost four pounds, with my biggest drop coming this week. I’ve been stagnant, maybe losing 1lb every three weeks, and then one week a big drop of 3lbs.

I can still do that

I’ve seen this happen over and over again after Week 8 of a program. I believe this usually happens to people after Week 8 of a program; the body starts to reward consistency and acclimate to its new environment. I also believe hormones and metabolism come into play.

It’s all coming back to me now. Getting up early for workouts is no longer an issue for me, and I’m also inspired to do more. I find my inspiration online.  I watch YouTube videos of what other people are doing, and I think, “I used to do that. I can still do that.”

It really is the workout, stupid.

I feel like being committed and intentional about the workouts has helped me tap into an energy I haven’t felt in ten years, and there is a reason for it.

6 Weeks Out

Prep Season Upgrades

• Core Challenge: 12 Workouts
• 8-10K step challenge
• Measure out Carbs
• Making sure to get fat in with meals and not so much with carbs. Better for my blood sugar and cravings
• 15 Flexibility Workouts this month
• Don’t take my phone into my bedroom at night
• Meal Prep commitment at least once per week
• Cardio 130-150 mins (At least one fasted)
• Cut wine down to two days per week

Nutrition and Training Updates

• Increased cardio to 130-150 minutes per week
• Cut wine down to two days per week
• Protein Shake on Sunday mornings

Brick by Brick

Legendary R&B husband and wife duo, Ashford and Simpson sang that if you want a mighty mighty love

You’ve got to lay it brick by brick to make it stick.

You’ve got to use all of you, ’cause that’s the glue

 I have a habit of thinking in song lyrics and then singing them randomly.  I want both a mighty mighty love and a mighty mighty life, so I’m building brick by brick to make it stick.

As I’ve gotten deeper into this prep season, I’ve been thinking that each workout, each time I have said no to snacking, and each time I push myself to do more is laying another brick.

I’ve completed ten weeks of prep season, and each week I’ve felt my resolve grow stronger. Each week has unlocked another layer of something that has been dormant within me for at least ten years.

The Fallacy of the Comparison Game

While much has been made of comparison and social media, that is a real issue. I also think that there’s a comparison game that is more personal inside of us.

We compare ourselves to a fictional version of ourselves that never existed and will never exist.

We compare ourselves to where we think that we should have been, what we should have done, and where we think we should be in our lives. We compare ourselves to the version of ourselves that made all the right decisions, never made any mistakes, and never had any disappointments.

That person does not exist. We all make poor decisions, make mistakes, and face disappointments because life is messy and unfair.

 One Brick at a time

I once heard someone say that Americans love massive displays of effort. We aren’t impressed by a person laying one brick at a time consistently for a year. We would rather hear about the person who lays 5000 bricks in six weeks and then buy their Secrets of Bricklaying” program to try and replicate their feat.

I’ve been burned enough times by that kind of thinking to know that the simplicity of laying one brick at a time consistently is the way to success.

When Arnold Schwarzenegger first came to the United States, he worked as a bricklayer to support his bodybuilding dreams, and he encouraged the Pump Club readers to develop a bricklayer’s mindset

“Every day, lay one brick.

One workout.
One meal where you have protein and fiber.
One bill paid.
One job application submitted.
One chapter of a book read.

Each decision you make is a brick you can build on.” – Arnold Schwarzenegger

I started thinking about the bricks I’ve started laying.

First is this prep season, by being consistent and being determined to finish it, but that isn’t the only brick I’ve been laying.  Last Saturday, I had already hit my cardio goal for the week, but I thought, what’s wrong with a little extra credit?

I am so tired of mediocrity, so let’s get it!!! I hopped on the stepmill for ten minutes.

Brick laid.

I signed up for the writing class and have submitted two short stories, receiving positive feedback on both. I’m also using my brain for the first time in years. We had to read three books in ten weeks, write a paper each week, and write our short stories. This class has done so much for me because I need the rigor before I enter the next phase of my life. At first, the thought of reading eighty pages a week, writing a paper weekly, and writing short stories was overwhelming, but I needed the challenge to rebuild my confidence. I’ve been keeping up.

Another one.

I have been disciplined about the financial goals I plan to achieve by October 1 because I want options for my future. Each additional payment and contribution is a brick toward that future.

And another one!

When I think about my progress since the beginning of the year, it’s amazing that so much has happened, but it’s because of the consistency of laying one brick at a time until my new life starts coming into view.

Revisiting My Health and Wellness Goals for 2026

• Prioritizing Healthy Relationships: Reconnecting with my favorite people and meeting new favorite people
• Reconnecting with my body: Allowing myself to feel again.
• Living my inner mantra: I am vibrant, and I radiate vitality
• Continue planning menus and preparing meals to avoid coming home unsure what to do.
  • I now have a calendar in the kitchen where I write down the meals for the week.
• Fresh Fish once per week
• Squat 135 easy for 10 reps
• Lift at least 3 days per week
• No more Mayonnaise: chocolate, sparkles, a hint of spiciness, and a touch of leopard
• Strengthening my Core: 12 Core Workout Challenge
• Increasing my Step Count to 8-10K daily
• 16 Week Prep Season 4lbs down
• (July) Down a solid 12 lbs since last year’s Fall Push