Day One... I Feel Like Dog Shit That Has Been Re-warmed...

 After spending the entire month of December abstaining from intoxicants (The polite way of saying, I stopped drinking alcohol...) and doing a full Murph every day, I piled on P90X3 on top of that and...

I injured myself... 

Imagine that... My 55 year old body couldn't take it. For those of you who aren't familiar with the term "Murph" it is a HIIT workout that kicks the living shit out of you. A traditional Murph consists of:

1 mile run

300 squats

200 push-ups

100 pull-ups

1 mile run

Those of you who know me, know that because of severe injuries, I have two pins that hold my foot together. The calcaneus bone is bolted to the talar bone so I have zero flexion in my foot.  So, because of that, I cannot run... So... I looked online and found that 100 full on burpees is equivalent to running a mile. I would like to say that running a mile and doing 100 burpees are not equal and for those of you who have gone out and cruised a mile in your expensive shoes and ear buds should not attempt 100 burpees as they are the single most brutal exercise know to human beings. I would rather, if I had my druthers, run 2 miles rather than do 100 burpees, but again, bolts and pain and stuff...

Anyway, I digress... So there I was... No vodka, doing a Murph a day and eating a 100% whole food, plant based diet... I felt pretty good around day 20. I was cruising through it and I decided that I would add a P90X3 cycle into the mix... 5 days later, on day 25, I went down with a severe back sprain and my whole existence went sideways from there...

I started drinking again, I started eating fast food... Although I stuck with my vegan diet, after almost three years, I don't want any meat but... There is so much trash out there that they call "vegan food" that does not resemble food in any way, shape or form... Taco Bell, Flame Broiler, Subway, Panda Express all have vegan options. From December 27th or so up until Sunday, January 10 I partied pretty hard. Bloated from alcohol, brain fog, joint pain, inflammation, psoriasis, the shits, headaches and genuinely feeling depressed from losing 6 months worth of hard work in about two weeks, I made a tough decision in the shower. I decided that 30 days was definitely not enough and if I was going to challenge myself, I would go all in and go for 90 days. Not only would I increase the tempo, I would increase the time...

Starting today and for the next 90 days...

Up at 5:30...

1/2 Murph (50 burpees, 150 squats, 100 push-ups, 50 pull-ups, 50 burpees)...

Tony Horton P90X3...

Plank Challenge...

30 minutes on the guitar...

20 minute meditation...

30 minutes writing (This Blog will do nicely unless that book needs to be written...)

Fast daily from 6:00 PM to Noon the next day...

100% whole food, strict vegan diet...

No over eating... 

No alcohol...

Today was the first day... I failed to get up at 0530 and didn't make it out of bed until 0600, I failed my 1/2 Murph and P90X3 because my back is still stiff from my injury and I feel like fucking dogshit from the alcohol/bad food detoxification... Everything else is done or on track to be done before nightfall...

Now... Why am I doing this? That is a damn good question and I believe I have the answer you are all looking for... For the past year, I have done some seriously extreme exercise challenges. Everything from 5,000 squats in a month to working my way up to a 12 minute plank. I have done 30 Murphs in 30 Days, I have beaten the P90X3 cycle multiple times just because I could I guess. I did them because they were challenges and if you live your life without challenging yourself, then I fucking feel sorry you, simple as that. You will never know what you can do until you stop making excuses and try.

The weird thing about challenges though is that once you beat them, they aren't a challenge anymore. They are conquered and in order to challenge yourself you have to move up a level... In my case, I have beaten every challenge so far and this one is no different to me. As soon as I tell someone what I am doing, they immediately jump to their own defense and say "Oh man, I could never do that..." I know, that's what I used to say before I fucking did all of this. Everything is impossible until to complete it... Seriously, think about your limitations and just how far you have pushed yourself in the past. 

You don't have to do what I do, you don't have to rock climb, skydive or ride a skateboard... You can start challenging yourself in small ways and beat the fuck out of those challenges... When you have climbed your mountain, you're not done, pick a higher mountain. So maybe this month you will challenge yourself to work your way up to 25 pushups a day and then next month a plank challenge, then squats... Maybe in six months you can tap me on the shoulder and tell me to jump out the fucking plane cause I'm slowing you down...  

Day one almost in the bag... I'm sick, have the shits, I am tired, cranky, I have brain fog, a rash that I haven't had for years has re-appeared and I seriously just want to have a drink and a fucking vegan burrito... 

I am going to spend 90 solid days doing all that I can to finish this... 

See you tomorrow, this ride is just getting started...