Okay. This is it. Last day. It ended with a stop at
Asiana Noodle Shop for some excellent chicken, shrimp, noodles, veggies, and chilled sake with Seabass.
Thank you Patrick, for all of your knowledge, support, and positive attitude (As well as sharing it!). Thank you Sebastian, for the introduction to all of Patrick's wonderful creations (Zen is Stupid, the KWSG, and of course the PCP), as well as your support throughout it. Thank you Will, for listening to my worry and wisdom day after day. Thank you to my family, who were fairly supportive after getting over my awesomeness! Thank you to my other coworkers, who put up with my health-harassment and demanding eating schedule. To all my other friends- I hope to share company soon. Thank you for always being there. Thank you Osamu, for sitting on my blog banner up there, and reminding me how I felt when I started this, and what I have achieved since. I feel terrible having those old pictures of me next to yours, as if I did your image an injustice.
It's astounding that in this 90-day time period, I have reconfigured my body, improved my fitness and health, and the combination of the current payoff and future benefits of both knowledge and willingness to apply will probably add many years to my life expectancy. It's a wonder everybody isn't doing this.
This is me maintaining my balance! No wall for these legs!
Seeing this end is like saying goodbye to an old friend. I'm not sure I've ever had such a relationship with my body before. It's shown me what I really look like, how my limbs really move. It's shown me what I'm capable of, and what I can improve on. It's shown me
how easy improvement actually is. The PCP has changed my outlook on people, on health, on society. I feel like I've become part of an elite group, a special club, a fraction of the population very small, but hopefully growing. Something tells me that I'll never stop being asked about the PCP. I'm happy to keep telling the tales.
I think, what shines most clearly in my mind from this project, is that this is a
trade-off. Exercise and proper diet, that is. For working an indoor job 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, I'm giving up the life a hunter-gatherer would have. In turn,
I must make up for it the best I can to maintain this body through a life it never evolved for.
Another I've learned, is that every project, every self-improvement exercise, is a lesson in
patience. Nothing happens overnight. Without patience, most projects could not succeed. Certainly there are times that need to be rushed(that occasional morning I woke up late, for instance), but never the results. What do I mean by patience? I mean being comfortable with
consistency and slow-change. I've never been a very patient person, and only over the last couple years have I become more mature in this area. This project has definitely opened my eyes to what patience truly looks like, and better still, I have proved to myself that I can manage it when asked of myself.
What goes with patience?
Focus. Focus is a clear requirement for the Peak Condition Project. Not only focus on each muscle group during grueling reps of pull-ups, but focus on diet, mindfulness toward consumption. Focus on the day at hand. When to eat, when to sleep. When to workout, and when to stretch. When to sit and when to stand. When to shave and when to wash. When to cook, when to clean. Combining work, transportation and a social life, I've had to be 100% mindful of all these actions and more. Focus on tomorrow as well. Mindfulness of what food is available, and what needs to be acquired for the health of the next day, be it food or sleep.
SPOILER ALERT: Most of all.
There is no spoon. There is no "peak". It is an everlasting project (better called life) to maintain and improve, which can never be completed. There is always another muscle to work or stretch, another spoonful of maple syrup you really shouldn't have consumed. There's always a nutrient you could use more of and one you could use less of, not to mention the ever-constant of aging. This project has "reset" my body, if you will. It is now prepared to venture forth into the world of health and fitness, ready to seize the day!
Relevantly, I wish to share this quote from Stirling Silliphant on Bruce Lee with you. I discovered it around day 40ish, and ever since have recalled it most days:
Bruce had me up to three miles a day, really at a good pace. We'd run the three miles in twenty one or twenty two minutes. Just under eight minutes a mile [Note: when running on his own in 1968, Lee would get his time down to six and a half minutes per mile]. So this morning he said to me "We're going to go five." I said, "Bruce, I can't go five. I'm a helluva lot older than you are, and I can't do five." He said, "When we get to three, we'll shift gears and it's only two more and you'll do it." I said "Okay, hell, I'll go for it." So we get to three, we go into the fourth mile and I'm okay for three or four minutes, and then I really begin to give out. I'm tired, my heart's pounding, I can't go any more and so I say to him, "Bruce, if I run any more,"-and we're still running-"if I run any more I'm liable to have a heart attack and die." He said, "Then die." It made me so mad that I went the full five miles. Afterward I went to the shower and then I wanted to talk to him about it. I said, you know, ''Why did you say that?" He said, "Because you might as well be dead. Seriously, if you always put limits on what you can do, physical or anything else, it'll spread over into the rest of your life. It'll spread into your work, into your morality, into your entire being. There are no limits. There are plateaus, but you must not stay there, you must go beyond them. If it kills you, it kills you. A man must constantly exceed his level."
My Stickies on my MacBook Pro have become littered with quotes from Bruce, and if there's anything that motivated me past the valley the most, it's him. He has inspired, I've read halfway through the book "The Art Of Expressing The Human Body", I've watched all his films. I know why Patrick chose him as a role model, and what his existence has done for this project, and in turn for me. I also understand the lesson he taught us with an unfortunate early death. Patrick mentions this in his final PCP post (day 125). Overwork is not what these bodies were built for either, and it's very possible to be detrimental in the opposite direction.
To maintain this body, I plan on occasional exercise during the week, daily jumping rope and furiously learning Tae Kwon Do. I only hope I can avoid most temptations dietary wise, but why would it be hard after what I've been through? What we've all been through. I also have express permission from Seabass to drag him out of bed now every morning for rope jumping.
I look forward to being able to apply this body properly to a sport like Tae Kwon Do. I'm very confident I will excel in time. Patrick recommended wushu, but nobody in Burlington teaches it. (What a surprise)
To followup, I give you my "Pro tips":
- Blender. Every day. Eggs and milk. Cooking eggs is messy, and you lose nutrients in the heating process. Chuck the egg white (or whole egg depending on diet) in the blender with milk. Cinnamon can be a nice addition. I've discovered I like eggs best raw.
- Make most foods 3-4 days in advance if you work a 9-5 or similar shift. It removes a lot of stress from the morning routine.
- Random climbing equipment makes excellent resistance band rigs.
- Yoga mats are good for ab workouts, but the thin ones are too hard on the back after about 2.5 months.
- You can easily get the same results and play video games/persue other hobbies at the same time. I have a level 65 Shaman in WoW that I started in week 2 of the PCP. I've also played through half of Half Life 2, and several other games. I've read a couple books, and worked full time.
- The chicken is an amazing animal.
- There's a large numbered kitchen timer made by CDN. It's function is perfect for exercise.
- Find a quiet place to sleep, lest your rest time be disrupted. Make sure to have daylight in the morning, so you have energy to get out of bed and jump.
- Incline pull-ups are well and good, but buy a real pull-up bar. The kitchen table is ready to fall apart.
- Having a nice body makes you more confident, and may cause you to walk around the house in your underwear, much to your housemates' dismay.
I could go on and on philosophically discussing the benefits of putting your best foot forward in fitness, but you guys already know how I feel! Better than ever! With that, project two starts:
My new personal daily blog.
May the force be with you.
