willpowerthru

I took the day off work. I would like to think that it had nothing to do with the meat eating lifestyle that I’ve come back to with a vengeance. It had something to do with the meat eating lifestyle that I’ve come back to with a vengeance. I really did feel like poppycock for the entire morning today. I guess I REALLY overdid it yesterday. Whatever…

Today marked day one of my buddy Justin and I starting our Air Alert 3 workout. We figured out how high we both can jump and the program says that we should be able to add more than 8 inches to our jumping abilities. I’d really like to get five more inches on my vertical, because then I can cross off “Dunk a basketball” from my bucket list for the year.

There are 45 total workouts over the course of 6 weeks. This will put us ending the program right around Halloween, and I really want to go to a party dressed up as “Guy who can dunk a basketball”.

The workout is pretty brutal and I know it’s going to be a little tough on the knees, but if I can dunk after it’s over…holy hell that would be amazing.

So here’s how we measure up:

Ben’s Vertical: 26 1/2″

Total height reached on initial test jump: 119 1/2″

Justin’s Vertical: 30″

Total height reached on initial test jump 123 1/2″

I have an advantage as I have pretty big hands and can pretty easily palm a basketball, while Justin cannot palm a basketball. For those of you who know nothing about basketball, being able to palm a basketball means being able to do this:

It makes it a lot easier to dunk if you can palm the ball, so that’s the only advantage I have over Mr. Justin in this endeavor.

I’ve also decided that because the Mudathlon is coming up in 6 days I’m going to knock out an 11 day challenge that (for starters) should help me not die on race day, and it should help with the basketball dunk goal as well. It’s a rather simple one and I hope it will help me get back into the swing of things after I destroyed myself yesterday and today with the food intake.

I’m going to eat perfectly from now until the race on Saturday. Drink beers on Saturday night, then go right back to eating perfectly until the following Saturday. What exactly does that mean? My version of perfect eating falls in these guidelines:

No more than 2000 calories a day. These 2000 calories will be made up of veggies/fruits/lean white meats/fish/nuts/beans and rice. No pork or beef. Just chicken and turkey and moderate servings at that. No Deli meat either. Nothing fried or battered and nothing that is frozen and then prepared in a microwave is allowed either. Nothing that would be labeled a desert is involved either. The only prepackaged stuff I’m going to eat is granola bars/instant oatmeal. I’m going to attempt to cook myself dinner every night and INCLUDE veggies as a side dish. I will cook a different veggie as a side every night, but I’m not going to say that I will finish them every night. I’m stupid, but not that stupid. Saturday will be the race and then I’ll have some beers that night, but I’m going to get right back on it starting Sunday and going all the way until the following Saturday the 28th, which is my birthday. I plan on drinking the night away then too. After that I’ll probably reassess the diet and see what I want to change/try as my next food related challenge.

So that’s the newest challenge. It’s rather boring, but it should be a little fun to see me try to stomach a different vegetable on a nightly basis. Plus I’m still doing to pushup workout and now the leg workout, so we’ll see how quickly I turn into this:

I’m pretty sure I just looked into the future to my birthday this year…ladies….

So that’s that.

Here’s something else.

I’m starting a side business. A t-shirt company. I know what you are thinking, “Ben, that’s so original and no one has every done that before and you are probably a genius”. Calm down, spazz…I’m not trying to make this my full time job, it’s just something I think could be fun to try and possibly make a little money here and there selling some funny shirts. I’m going to focus on simple designs and simple shirts, nothing supremely complicated.

So far I’ve bought the website (there is really nothing on it right now, just a placeholder and a little story about how it got started and a design submission idea) and I’m by the end of the week I’m forming the LLC. I’m going to call the company:

That’s kinda what I want the logo to look like, but I’m still probably going to adjust it a little more. I want to get all my ducks in a row so I can go live in about a month or so, but for now it’s in the works. Ryan Panos get’s credit for the company motto: “You can’t bullshirt a bullshirter!”

So that’s a thing I’m going to try. I have no illusions that I’m going to be the next threadless or whatever, but I think it could be a way to have a second income stream if I build it the correct way. If anyone knows anything about t-shirt printing, I’m pretty much teaching myself the ins and the outs of everything. The sales and marketing part I think I’ll be ok with, it’s everything else that’s terrifying. In a good way…I think.

My Bucket List until December 31st 11:59pm of 2012 is as follows:

1. Dunk a basketball. THE TRAINING HAS BEGUN!
2. Raise 500 dollars of other people’s money for the LaPorte Small Animal Shelter (It’s easy to donate, harder to raise those funds).
3. Go on a 4 day weekend getaway somewhere tropical by myself.
4. Meet a famous person, people from reality TV don’t count.
5. Become SCUBA certified.
6. Attempt to break a Guinness World Record Most people in one place wearing sunglasses at night! 7/6/2012! Wrigley Field!
7. Learn to play one entire song on an instrument.
8.  Start a side business, or create some form of secondary revenue stream. *Your multi-level marketing pyramid scheme is not what I’m looking for, sorry*
9.  Achieve one of the following: 1) Weigh 205 pounds. 2) Have under 10% body fat 3) Have noticeable abs
10.  Bungee Jump (I’m 100% f*cking terrified of heights)
11.  Learn to Juggle four beanbags at once.
12.  Complete a sprint triathlon