May 8th, 2012: No knee jerks and no hair triggers on the program. 268 today. This program and the process are a program and a process. There aren’t any magic tricks, there is no secret, and there are no shortcut codes or free passes. It’s for real, it seems to be working, and as I build it and tweak it and follow what knowledge I had in the beginning, I’m more convinced of it’s reliability.
I haven’t had any huge weight increases, I haven’t had a plateau for more than probably a week, I’ve learned to really look forward to what I eat when I eat it, I haven’t gone to bed hungry often, and I don’t feel like laying down in heavy traffic or jumping off a building. What the hell more could I ask?
I hope your day is solid and maybe the universe’ll throw you a bone. I feel strong today about things and hope you do too. Slow, but strong and determined. You and I will reach our goal weights and that’s when we’ll really start kicking ass!
May 8th, 2020: Nothing much interesting happened in the last 24, and my 2012 blog post was mostly brick and mortar, so I’ll go ahead and offer that explanation of how I use a scale to determine the intensity level of my cardio workouts. First of all, consider checking out the following website to learn about the actual Borg Rating-of-Perceived Exertion Scale (RPE).
I’ve modified this for my own use, and yours if you’d like. First of all, I go from 1-10 instead of 6-20. At level-1, I’m watching Netflix and eating ice cream. At level-10, I’m getting chased uphill by a grizzly bear and there is a single, climbable tree 40 yards from me.
In between those, it’s all relative and it requires you to match how you feel with some sort of number.
I don’t hang out too much from 1-4, or even 5 for that matter, and maybe that’s why the Borg scale starts at 6. I do start at 5, though, and hang there for maybe 2-3 minutes. I can have a back and forth conversation with somebody at 5.
At 6, I’m starting to feel like I’m doing something other than sitting on my ass, and I know I’m heading into a workout. At this point, I can talk in one sentence intervals, but then I’ve got to take a breath. If I’m listening to music, I can sing a song out loud as if I’m right there on stage, which, in my fairy- world, I really am.
At 7, it takes me two breaths to get through a sentence, and I’m not really hearing my listener’s response. I’ve switched over to a physical-being more than a mental one as my blood-flow priorities have changed. At the concert, I still see myself on stage, but I can’t sing along.
At 8, if I’m forced to talk, I can only get one word out at a time, and responses from me will more than likely be nods or fake smiles. I’m not on stage at the concert, I’m in the audience and I can hear the music and lyrics.
At 9, I’m not having fun anymore – happiness will have to wait until later when I get an endorphin rush. I avoid eye contact with anyone because it’s game-time now, and I’m really fighting. If I’ve got the ear-buds in, I know I’m listening to music, but I don’t care what song it is, and I couldn’t remember what the song was if you asked me.
At 10, my vision has become tunneled. I can only remember to breathe and try to relax. I won’t respond to human interaction, and it’s everything I can do to keep swinging. I only know I have to try my best. If there’s a timer around, the urge to keep looking at it is unbearable, and when I glance at it for the 10th time that minute, I notice that time is nearly standing still. I feel like I’ve stepped into some sort of hellish continuum of time, space, and pain, where 20-30 seconds has warped into the longer side of eternity. If I’ve got the ear-buds in, I’m not even aware if a song is playing or not. I don’t even care about senses of vision, hearing, etc. It’s all about just trying to gasp for air like my trachea is an Edelbrock intake-manifold that has to get enough oxygen in there so my engine doesn’t stall and I collapse in a heap.
In a 30-minute workout, I’ll spend probably 2-minutes at level 5, 8-minutes at level 6, 5-minutes at level 7, 8-minutes at level 8, 6-minutes at level 9, and a minute at level-10.
Give it a try, and then adjust it to what works for you!
