Introduction

My name is Jim. I am 34 years old.
This time last year I was noticing some things were happening. I could feel myself getting old. My left shoulder often ached really bad, and it always felt restless – a terrible feeling. Right hip, left knee, and lower back were suspect too. I would pull muscles taking a jumper off. I was smoking and drinking too much. All I wanted to do in my spare time was watch TV. Getting old was really going to suck, I thought, but what can you do?
I was losing weight. I don't think it's healthy to weigh less than you did when you were sixteen, but I did. I got down to 75 kilograms, and I'm six feet tall. Basically I was turning into a weakling. Yea, ok, even more of a weakling. I got a job sitting in an office all day, waiting for smoke breaks. Habits formed. Can of coffee on the way to work. Smoke. Work. Lunch, coffee, smoke, 3 kit kats, work. Coffee, smoke on the way home, better get some chips for watching TV after my son goes to bed. Every day. Summer, add beer. Winter, add more coffee. No hamburgers or fish n' chips or pizza, but that's because they are hard to get here. Chips, coffee, smokes and beer's all I needed.
Then I started waking up in the middle of the night, sweating, with the thought in my head "I am going to die of lung cancer." Jesus. Try going back to sleep after that happens. Eventually I would go back to sleep, and the next day I would have a smoke on the way to work and forget about the dream, but then a few nights later it would happen again. "I am going to die of lung cancer." Fuck off!
One day I would go to the doctor's and he would tell me I had lung cancer. I thought about what I would do if that happened, and read about other peoples stories on the internet, and saw a photo of a man my age, skeletal, on his deathbed, with his wife and little son sitting next to him crying. I can barely bring myself to think about that photo now. It was too easy to put myself in that photo. I stopped smoking. I quit on September 13, and now I look at people who are smoking like I look at people waiting for a bus. No interest, envy, pity, nothing. They are just waiting for a bus. Nothing to do with me. It's weird.
I put a bit of weight on, felt better immediately, and wanted to do more to feel better. A guy I work with is into weights. He would shake his head when I whinged about my shoulder, and he would laugh at my arms. He recommended Power 90, a DVD fitness program. And I did it, even if it meant finishing a workout at eleven at night, or doing two in one day because I missed one the day before. I finished on Christmas day. I weigh 81 kilos. Healthy, toned, energy to burn, Felt awesome. Best I've felt in ten years.
But I could have done better. I still eat chips, drink coffee. Not as much, but it's still there. My workouts could have been more intense. Much more intense. When it got easy after a couple of months, I was happy because it was easy, and a lot of the time I just went through the motions. I trailed off in the last two weeks when I should have been busting it and really reaping the benefits. My 90th day was actually a little disappointing when it should have been awesome because I knew I could have done better. That's going to be my goal this time. To really sweat. To push my muscles until failure instead of just doing the usual number of reps.
Since I finished Power 90 I've had Christmas, New Years, and a trip to Hawaii. I reckon those five days in Hawaii almost wiped out any gains I had made with the workout. Lots of food, lots of beer (Bud). A great time. So today I'm going to start Power 90 Master, which is the next step up in the series. And in three months when I finish that I'm going to start Power 90X (eXtreme), which just looks mental. So six months from now I am going to be in the best shape of my life, and I'm going to know that it very easily could have gone the other way. I could have been a fat desk jockey too buggered after a hard day of typing to kick a ball with my kid. Being a shit because I feel like shit and look like shit. Showing my son that daddy doesn't really care if he lives or dies. I want my boys to see that their dad enjoys life and takes care of himself and values his health.
This time I'm going to keep a blog, because it does get dull sometimes, and the motivation can slide, and one month in, two months in, I know I will need whatever I can use to get me up for it, to get that intensity to make it worth while and not a waste of time like it was towards the end of my Power 90. Ten minutes before work finishes I want to look at something on the computer to fire me up and keep in my head until I get home, get changed and put the DVD in.
My equipment is a set of 5 kg dumbbells, a set of 10 kg dumbbells, and a yoga mat. I work out in the garage. I have the DVDs on my iPod, which I plug into the car and listen to it through the car stereo and watch it on my iPod screen. What? Yea. I'm going to have to work on that. I will need music to pump me up, and a bigger screen to see what to do, because Power 90 Master is pretty varied. I might move the spare TV from upstairs down into the garage. I will buy some speakers for my iPod too.
I'm not going to go on a diet. My weight isn't the issue for me. It's cardio-vascular, and toning up. I don't want to lose weight. I gained 5 kilos doing Power 90. I will stop eating shit, like chips and chocolate, and stop drinking coffee, and not drink beer in the Summer. Other than that, I don't really eat anything that you could classify as junk, though there is a lot of processed food here. I will have to watch that. The chips, coffee, and chocolate can definitely go, though. Breakfast will be two slices of home-made bread with jam, a protein shake (200 ml milk, couple of ice cubes, a banana, and two scoops of protein powder), and some porridge if I have time. Lunch is whatever they serve up here at work. If I'm home, I'll try to make a sandwich. Dinner is whatever Junko cooks. Snacks are home-made popcorn, nuts, sultanas, health bars, fruit. At the end of Power 90, I would get really hungry around 10 am and 5 pm. I'll have to keep the snacks going so that doesn't happen.
In the next week I'll put a photo of me before I started Power 90, and one of me now. I will also post photos at 30 days, 60 days, and 90 days. Hopefully the improvements will be apparent. Today I weigh 80 kg.
And look, maybe Power 90 Master doesn't deliver the goods. It doesn't seem very popular, and at first glance, it seems a little all over the place. I might want to do more weights than what appears to be in Master. After a month of it, if I feel as though I want more, I will look at starting Power 90X early. That I know will kick my ass, for sure. We'll see how we go. On the other hand, what's the rush?
So, this is my schedule for this week

15 January 2009 Sweat Cardio 3-4 + CH200
16 January 2009 Sculpt Circuit 3-4
17 January 2009 Sweat Cardio 3-4 + CH200
18 January 2009 Sculpt Circuit 3-4
19 January 2009 Sweat Cardio 3-4 + CH200
20 January 2009 Sculpt Circuit 3-4

And next week I'll start Power 90 Master for real

22 January 2009 Plyo Legs
23 January 2009 Core Cardio
24 January 2009 Sculpt Circuit 5-6
25 January 2009 Sweat Cardio 5-6
26 January 2009 Upper Middle Lower
27 January 2009 Cardio Intervals

I'll report back soon.
-Jim.