.

[Brock Rhysner]

Brock, eggs are definately a good thing overall in my book, but yeah, I would personnally suggest moderation. There are indeed many different body typs though, and it's possible avoiding carbs might be best for you, I can't really comment. Ive tried to avoid grain carbs myself, but each time I cut back I get stomach pains. I've resigned myself to the fact that my body needs them, especially for the amount of running I do. Hence a paleo or an atkins diet would never be right for me. Glad you're feeling great though, you're definately doing something right. Just bear in mind though that cholesterol is something that can build up without you necessarily feeling crappy, hence the caution with the eggs.

Thanks for the advice. I've got some blood work done by my doctor recently, and the worst thing he could find was a vitamin D deficiency. Regardless, I'll be sure to consult him again in the next few months, just to keep an eye on things. As far as the carb thing, as you said, everyone is different. Over the last few days I've kind of been splurging out on them, and I've felt like shit both mentally and physically for doing so. I personally wouldn't advise people doing what I'm doing unless they honestly feel as if they had tried everything else.

Alright, I'm going to admit it. Life kind of gotten the better of me over the last two weeks. I've gotten more responsibilities at work (which is great), however, the stress has left me feeling unmotivated to do my jogging/yoga, especially not at 6 in the morning when I got home late the night before. I lost two inches in the first week, and after the stress I've been going through I'm expecting I've put it right back on again. I feel like shit, and especially unmotivated to continue. There are other reasons, which, considering I've signed up to one of the blogs, I may address there. Regardless, this thing right now is something I'd like to share with the group.

This isn't the first time that this has happened to me. In fact I'm willing to bet that those who have been doing the fitness road for a long time have probably done this themselves (if you're truly one of the lucky ones who haven't done this, then your dedication to your cause is unquestionably the envy of most of us). They get to a point where they make some progress, then something happens. You have a cheat day to reward yourself, you decide to sleep in instead of going to the gym in the morning, or decide that because Yoga was really hard yesterday, I'll skip out on today. These things are fine. In fact it's healthy to reward yourself from time to time with progress, otherwise you begin questioning the reasons you're doing it to begin with.

The problem stems with that ideal progressing. One day off turns into two. Your diet begins to slip. Other things get in the way, and as such your fitness gets put on the back burner. As I've stated before, it happens to most of us, unless you possess a will of fucking iron. I wanted to bring this up because a lot of you are new to the health thing, and I'd like to give a sage word from the guy who's been doing this a few years now.

We all fail. The thing you've got to remember is that you will fail at some point. You're going to have a bad day, and you didn't lift as much as you wanted to, you didn't made it around the track as quickly as you would have liked, you only half-assed your yoga as you stared at the small blond woman in the tight tank top next to DDP (Oh yes Sam, I very much know the one you're talking about...). And if you're anything like me, you're going to fucking beat yourself up about it to no end.

What you've got to remember is that you WILL fail...But you tried. It's the same thing with getting a woman's phone number (if there are any ladies participating, I ask you excuse my metaphor), if you decided to give up after the first time you get rejected then you are going to get fucking nowhere in this world. You already had the no, so at least you asked for the yes. Fitness works the same way. If you beat yourself up over every time you drink a beer or eat a slice of cake, then all that will do is drive you to eat more cake and drink more beer in an effort to make yourself feel better. it is a nasty downward spiral, which is incredibly hard to pull yourself out of, especially as it is your first time around. This I believe will be my third, but I've gotten better at it.

You can't beat yourself up over the inevitable. Even Messi and Ronaldo miss the goal sometimes. It's about having the strength to get back on the horse after it tries to throw you off. For most of us, myself included, this is a marathon. Not a sprint. And sometimes you're going to trip over.

Harsh reality is I didn't really want to come to the boards over the last few days because I was ashamed that I'd let you all down, especially after the encouragement you've shown myself, as well as the continued support you all show one another. So allow for this to be my gift to you all for all your hard work.

I give you permission to fail...But you're not allowed to beat yourself up about it.

Either way. It's not all doom and gloom. I got paid, so I'm going to pick up heavy shit tomorrow in a gym, and as of Thursday 22nd of January, I've been cigarette free for two years (I've had green twice, I think, in those two years. The last time was in late September, and don't look to be getting back into it either.) So yeah, that's my progress report since my last post. Thanks to Drama on his advice so far.

[Judge]

My DDP Yoga pack came in today.  Got it set up on the computer so I can stream them without using the DVDs, and I'm ready to get going tomorrow.  My fiancee is going to do this with me, and it's motivation enough to get started.  Going to try the first two moves tomorrow.

[Duckman]

Awesome stuff Judge.  I'm finding keeping people updated on progress in this thread is a really good motivation to keep going.

Brock, you've described my life to a T there buddy.  The trying, the failing, the punishing yourself and letting the negative and depressive thoughts affect your actions and behaviour.  It's one of the worst parts of battling depression.  You never get over it and the first instinct is always to go to the negative thought or feeling, because they're the strongest and the easiest to give in to.  I guess the main thing I do is always tell myself it's a blip - not a way of life - and I can break that by just getting back to it the next day.  It's not easy, if it was - there wouldn't be any relapses into depression or comfort eating/drinking/smoking, whatever it may be.

The first step is recognising that (which you've done) and then trying to get that positive mindset right.

I know from doing 6 months of Cognitive behavioural therapy a few years ago, that it is possible and there are a lot of tricks you can use on your brain to keep those dark and negative thoughts in the back of your mind, as opposed to dominating the forefront.

Louis CK made an interesting point about over eating and the shame you feel from it.  A psychologist friend of his pointed out that the over eating or whatever is a symptom of something else - it's not the cause, it's just the end result.  You can't hate the food or even yourself for eating the food.  You need to address what anxiety or depressive thought your trying to compensate for by over eating/drinking/smoking.  It's such an instant gratification, that's quickly followed by shame that you get the reward (hormone release from eating) and the shame almost at the exact same time.

The point about addressing the issue, rather than blaming yourself or the food is something really worth keeping in mind.

And never be ashamed or guilty about sharing anything with people here.  You won't be judged mate.  Only supported.

I've just done another Energy session and it was so tough.  My limbs and muscles just aren't used to this kind of work, so I was stiff and sore, but the more I did and the more I sweated my ass off, the better I felt. 

Anyway, I've rambled enough.  Keep up the good work folks and keep supporting each other - I think we've got something really good here.

Cheers,
Duckman

[Drama Queen]

Huge thumbs up to Brock for that post. It's so easy to come here and brag after the good stuff, takes a lot more effort to talk about the things were not so proud of, when the overwhelming feeling (at least in my experience) is to want to just slink away. The fact that you are sharing this with us shows that you hold yourself accountable in your quest for fitness and health, and leaves me feeling confident you will be back on track with a vengeance sooner rather than later.

One side note Brock. About the getting up really early in the morning to jog/workout... How much sleep are you getting the night before? Because I am becoming more and more convinced that anything less than seven hours just does not cut it. Sleep is SO important and SO under acknowledged by people these days. Truth of the matter is that depriving yourself of sleep in order to work out might help you achieve certain goals, such as weight loss, or endurance building, or training for a particular sport etc, but in the overall picture of general health it is hugely counter productive.

My DDP Yoga pack came in today.  Got it set up on the computer so I can stream them without using the DVDs, and I'm ready to get going tomorrow.  My fiancee is going to do this with me, and it's motivation enough to get started.  Going to try the first two moves tomorrow.

Looking forward to hearing about your progress judge. Awesome that you have someone to do it with.

At some point I am going to try DDP yoga and do a compare/contrast with regular classroom yoga just to settle my ever growing curiosity about it. Again, not heard a single bad word about it anywhere!

[Duckman]

To me, there's nothing more important that a good night's sleep.  When I had my dark times a few years ago and basically had a bit of a mental break down, I went 3-4 days without sleeping.  It's an absolute killer.

Sleep is your body's chance to sort shit out in your brain and body, right down to a cellular level.  I've seen studies that show lack of sleep or a fucked up sleep pattern can alter the internal clocks of each cell, which can lead to illness and disease.

I found getting a routine going was amazingly beneficial.  So no TV for an hour before I want to go to sleep.  No phone especially - the light from the screens kick starts your 'wake up' hormones and it's been shown in studies that if you look at one of these screens, it will put back the time you fall asleep by half an hour.

Eating before you sleep is a really bad idea too.  Your body fires up and burns calories during the night, which in turn wakes you up.  Same is true with drinking.  It's why you never feel refreshed after a sleep following drinking.  Your body is processing the booze and you never get into that deep, REM sleep stage - which from the studies I've read is the most important phase of sleep.

Getting at least 7 hours of sleep is essential for me.  I find reading in bed relaxes me down and I get a much deeper and less interrupted sleep.  It's not all the time, and sometimes I find myself awake for hours on end, but it's much better and less frequent than it used to be.

Can't stress enough how important it is and how much it helped me with my depression when I was able to get a solid, deep night's sleep. 

[Drama Queen]

Ugh, even knowing and acknowledging this, I am still often guilty of the last minute iPad browsing (though a LOT less since I deleted Facebook) or the late night eating.

Well, now that I've admitted to that, time to start addressing it. Less iPad, more old fashioned paper books.

[ToneCold]

Have to agree on Sleep, when I was working nights, I was fine for about 8 months, then I went massively downhill, depressed and irritable, no motivation...

I have not been to the gym since last monday, but every day I have made efforts to do something to try and make up for it, seeing as I've been moving flat. I still feel better than pre-gym and days of work combined with moving have hopefully been a good substitute.

[Duckman]

Apparently the old Kindles are ok, because they use a different type of light.  But the phones and tablets, the light they use is the kind that kick starts your brain into wake up mode.  Those bastards!  Trying to keep us up all night checking pointless shit on the net!

[ToneCold]

Those bastards!  Trying to keep us up all night checking pointless shit on the net!

Indeed, comin in 'ere, taking MFX and Twitter's jobs...

[Duckman]

Exactly!

[Brock Rhysner]

Thanks for the support guys. Means a lot.

As far as the sleeping goes, I can't agree enough. I just went for a nap now, thinking that I'd be down for maybe an hour, and almost 4 later...

I was being good with it. Laptop off by 9, watch TV until 10, then typically out like a light as soon as my head hits the pillow (The fact I LOVE my bed helps considerably). Weekends I'd usually stay in bed until 8:30 or so, but still do the excersize as I typically have all day to do it unless I've plans booked. The good news is that I've got next week off work, so I'll be able to get the routine back into order, of which I can't agree more with Sam. Routine is key with something like this. Before everything went off the deep end, I was finding it getting easier and easier to get up every morning with a smile on my face because I know I was benefiting. I believe one guy said something, which seems kind appropriate;

"It all starts with effort. Effort then turns into routine. Then routine turns into habbit. And we all know how hard it is to kick those..."

Some guy Brock can't remember the name of

It gets easier with time, remember that.

[Judge]

Getting a good bed is really really essential to having that good sleep.  I never had a problem falling asleep, even if I was using an iPhone right before I went to bed.  I tend to fall asleep within 10 minutes of closing my eyes.  The problem I had was that the bed I had was fucking up my back and causing it to twist itself and causing muscles to tense.  This was making me wake up constantly and never really falling into a REM sleep cycle.  I knew this too because I wouldn't dream.

As has been discussed, REM sleep is when the body goes into it's "repair mode" and fixes things and regenerates tissue, repairs internal damage, etc.  Well coincidentally I never fully healed from my surgery I had nearly two years ago.  After finally getting tired of lack of sleep, I went and dropped over a grand on a good memory foam bed.  Let me tell you that the change was near miraculous.  I was able to get a good REM sleep for the first time in years and I finally had a dream while sleeping.  My back stopped hurting and I woke up refreshed and not shitty groggy.  And within a month I finally started completely healing from the surgery.

So moral of the story: Get a good goddamned bed.

[ToneCold]

After an incident involving me, an idiot on a bike, and a cold canal yesterday evening on my way to work, I had to borrow some dry uniform. I usually wear size 38 but found that 34 was biggest size trousers in the office..  imagine my surprise at being able to just about squeeze into them! Must have done some good these last few weeks.

[Brock Rhysner]

That first set of smaller clothes is always the best feeling. Excellent work Tone.

[Judge]

DDP Yoga: Day 1

Fiancee and I started learning the moves and positions tonight.  We spent 20 minutes perfecting the first two.  Holy crap biscuits my arms and legs are burning.  I was sweating like crazy and my heart beat was way up.  This is legit stuff.