First official day.

Today I was sore. More than a little. My step dad asked if I wanted to go to a restaurant called San Sushi in Towson. He was a little back and forth about it though, so I said to myself that if he decided to go, I'll work out tomorrow. Wouldn't you guess it? He stayed home. I'm so glad he did. Pushing through some soreness towards the beginning of your program is a great feeling. I have given myself an extra skip day before in my life, and as long as you keep at it, it might not really effect it. The reason I say might is that sometimes we have to be honest about why we are pushing it to the next day. Is it because I will perform terrible today, or because I have to do ___. Excuses are tricky that way.

As I write I am enjoying a cold bowl of lentils and leeks. Cheap snack, pretty easy to make a good soup out of. Oh, and I have a story for you readers. I went without a stove for 3 or less weeks due to remodeling. So I ate mostly veggies and went light on everything else. I lost most my muscle I had begun to build (which Is why I get to start on week 1 again). I have a vegetarian friend named Vince. I was fascinated that he could maintain what I am guessing is at least 35+ pounds on me without meat.

He told me that he just keeps himself on a 4000 calorie diet. Makes sense. The problem wasn't that I wasn't eating meat , I just plain cut down my calories. This brings me to a very important point. One I feel confident about opening this whole "health blogger" series up with. The importance of nutrition. It has been said by some pros to not even bother going into the gym until the part is down. I agree with that. Proteins and calories are essential to building muscle. Of course, eat your veggies,too. These vegetables help your body to get everything out of foods and function properly. I was talking to Dan Cenidoza over lunch once, and he said frankly "If your pissing in the fuel tank the car isn't going to get very far." So that speaks a lot on eating vegetables and eating quality foods (not always just the cheapest). By the way, I trust what Dan says about this stuff, he literally bends steel into art, with his hands.

So if you are a mainly ectomorph like me, be sure to shovel it in. Being satisfied isn't enough when you have been eating 1800 calories for years of your life.