I have recently been afflicted with one of the most frustrating injuries in the sports world: shin splints. These things suck! They make you feel in you down time like you might be able to get back out there and have some fun, but as soon as you put pressure on your shins you get a rude awakening.

There are many remedies for shin splints I have tried most of them so far and I think they are helping. But the nature of shin splints, is that even if the remedies are helping it could be weeks before you are back to 100%. You can also undo all of your good work with just one single over exertion.

The remedies that I have found best help me are as follows:

Ice – Icing will help reduce the inflamation that causing these painful incidents. There are various suggestions on how often to ice. I have found that icing when you are in pain, and icing various times throughout the day helps me the most.

Anti-Inflammatory drugs – Taking Aspirin or Ibuprofen can really help reduce pain with Shin Splints. The source of the pain in shin splints the actual inflamation in your shins. So it makes sense that Anti-Inflammatory drugs would help reduce the pain.

Compression – Compression socks or wrapping your shins tightly can help to keep your shins in check.

Cross Train – The key with healing your painful shin splints, is resting your shins. Even though it can be really frustrating sometimes, you do need to abstain from the activities that cause your shin pain. Taking up swimming, biking, or rowing to give yourself time to heal.

There are plenty other remedies and suggestions that might help, but these are the options that I have chosen to take.

If my shin splints continue even with these remedies in place, I may end up going to the doctor because prolonged shin splints can be indicative of serious problems such as hairline fractures in your leg.

later,
Dan

Hey there internet, guess who’s back. It’s me Dan! I have been pretty wishy washy on my posting for a while but I thought I would make a quick post to recognize the fact that I have been waging this war for an whole year now. I haven’t won every battle, but I haven’t lost every battle either. I have gained quite a bit of the weight I dropped in the first quarter of 2010 back, but I don’t plan on letting that keep me down. I have nobody to blame but myself. Who keeps getting lazy about eating right and staying active? Me. There are no if’s, and’s, or but’s about it. I have no one to blame but myself. Am I going to let that keep me down? Nope, I am going to use it as an excuse to kick myself in to gear. I think at one point I said something about how you can’t change your life until it becomes more difficult to keep making bad choices than it does to make correct ones. I guess I didn’t hit that point at the time that I thought that I did. I am not sure if I have reached that point now. I hope that I have, but I feel like wafter so many failed attempts I have to remain cautious.

So what is the morale of the story and the purpose of this post? It is to let you know, and let myself know that as completely frustrated as I am, I am not giving up. I will never give up. As much as I want to give up, and quit I just can’t do it. I have to keep doing this, I have to make this work. This IS the most important thing in my life. I WILL have to keep doing this for the rest of my life. My weight will never be something that will be easy to manage, It will be a lifelong struggle. The sooner that I accept that, the sooner I can make a permanent change.

Is this a rambling post? Absolutely it is, I don’t have the patience right now to stop and censor what I type. I am closer to the edge of giving up right now than I have ever been.

anywho, if anyone read this feel free to comment or email me your thoughts, questions, and concerns.

Later,
Dan

Why do you want to change your life? Is it to get healthy? Boost your self esteem and confidence? Maybe you just want to occupy less space? Whatever the reason be, I recommend you define it.

Sometimes losing weight and getting healthy for the sake of losing weight and getting healthy can get tiresome. You need to make Losing weight and getting healthy a means to an end sometimes. Otherwise you may lose site of your end goal and get discouraged.

I personally want to lose weight for all of the examples above. But I have found that as soon as I forget that, or lose sight of my goals. I fall off the wagon and stop taking care of myself. I reccomend you do the same.

Losing weight and getting healthy can be boring. Let something else drive you, or at least lets something else contribute to the drive. The more things you can get working in your favor, helping you along the more things you will have to look forward to in the future.

That is all for now.

Later,
Dan

Sometimes when you are down in the dumps, and wanting to give up you need a little boost. This happens to me all the time. Especially when I have a bad weigh in, or I slip a little bit on my food choices. I have found one of the quickest and easiest ways to give myself a little boost is to watch an inspirational movie.

I have many, many, many movies that I like to watch that inspire me in different ways, but here are 6 movies that help inspire me to work out, stay motivated, and never give up.

1. “300″ – Maybe not the most plausible movie out there, but definitely one of the most Bad Ass. It is a testosterone fill ass kicking session filled with muscle, sweat, and blood.

This is SPARTA!!!

It gets me pumped, it makes me feel like anything is possible, and is also gives me a goal to shoot for. It may take years to get there, but some day I would like to look like a SPARTAN!

2. “Rocky IV” – Adrianne!!!! Probably not the  strongest of the rocky films, but I think it has the best training montage in the history of Cinema. There  is nothing that the Italian stallion can’t accomplish. He can climb mountains, lift, rocks, lift people in a barn, and even grow a beard that would put a grizzly bear to shame. The dude is a beast.

3. “The Shawshank Redemption” – Up until now the list has been about nothing but big muscle-y dudes beating the shit out of/killing other dudes. This movie is a little bit different. The Shawshank Redemption would easily be in my top 10 movies of all time list and should probably be in yours as well. It is about a man who is sent to prison for a crime he did not commit. He spends 19 years in jail, and never loses hope. At the end of the movie Andy(the main character) escapes from prison through a tunnel he has been digging for 19 years.  After watching this movie I feel like I can never give up. If Andy didn’t give up after being repeatedly abused in prison, how could I possibly give up after missing a few meals, or gaining back a few pounds? (P.S. one of my favorite bloggers ever just wrote a post that is pretty much concentrated on the Shawshank Redemption and Hope…you should check it out. )

4. “The Karate Kid” – “Wax on! Wax Off! Wax On! Wax Off!” This is one of the most memorable lines in all of cinema. If you haven’t seen Karate Kid, you need to get out of that cave you have been living in for the last 30 years and get with the friggin’ program. Anyone who doesn’t get caught up in the excitement of the final tournament (in both the old version and the new version) has some serious problems. Watch It, Get inspired, and Sweep the leg!

5. “Yes Man” – Yes man is an hilarious movie starring Jim Carrey. I don’t love it because it is funny(it is) I love it because Carl(Carrey) becomes just about everything that I want to be in the movie. He starts out the same way I see myself sometimes. Unmotivated, Rude, Lazy, and Uninterested. After attending a bizarre seminar about always saying yes to everything Carl decides to give it a try. He starts saying yes to everything. He finds that his life changes  for the better(mostly). This is what I need to do in my life and I am betting some of you need to do in yours. Say yes more, take chances, do things that you might usually be afraid to do. I know that if you do this your life will improve for the better and you will be more fulfilled overall.

6. “Run Fatboy Run” - I absolutely LOVE Run Fatboy Run. Run Fatboy Run is about a man who has always run away from everything important in his life. He runs away from responsibility, has a crappy job, a crappy apartment, and barley sees his son and has alienated the woman he loves(of course he alienated her because he ran away on the wedding day while she was pregnant). Dennis finds that his ex-fiance his about to marry a total prick. Dennis discovers that this total prick considers himself something of a fitness buff and is about to run a local marathon. Dennis decides to run the marathon to prove to his ex-fiance that he can finish something and that he is prepared to fight for her and for his son. Dennis then begins to train for the marathon. Slowly but surely he gets stronger and stronger.A few days before the marathon Dennis’ ex agrees to marry her current(prick) boyfriend. This destroys Dennis and causes him to quit training and decide to just give up. Dennis is then evicted from his apartment and loses his best friend due to the consequences of giving up.  The day before the race, Dennis receives word that his young son has run away and begins a mad frantic search to find him.

When Dennis finally finds his son, he tells his son that he can’t just run away and quit when things get difficult. This lights a bulb in Dennis’ head and he recommits himself to running the marathon. During the race, Dennis is very badly injured. But to prove to himself and his family that he is not a quitter he proceeds to finish the race. After 10+ hours, Dennis finishes the race and is born anew. A new man ready to conquer anything. This is how I want and need to be with my every day life. This is how we all should be. We should embrace difficulty and conquer it.

I hope to continue to post a new article every Tuesday and Thursday(at least) and will catch you all on the flip side.

PEACE,

Dan

disclaimer: Let me admit that I wrote this article as fast as I possible could(damn school, eating all my time). Future post will be better!

Hola, there currently non-existent readers. How have you been? It has been a few months since we last spoke. I have been doing well. I have been a tad lax in my goal of becoming less fat. There have been many changes in my life since I started being a bad boy in terms of my lifestyle change. I moved out, changed jobs, started going to school, and started concentrating most of my funds to my debts. I would like to try to use those things as excuses for why I haven’t stayed true to my long term goals, but I know I would just be lying to myself. The true reason is that I am just forgetful and lazy. I have found that if I am not constantly reminding myself of what I really want, my true desires fall by the wayside.

I thought I was a changed man. I figured that I had stuck with it for enough time that I would become habitual. Uhhh, I guess not. I fell back in to my old ways. That is what I am here now to remedy.

Why “Team” finished being fat do you ask? Well, I live in an apartment full of my best friends. 60% of whom are in a similar physical predicament as myself. None of them are in as quite as bad of shape as I am, but want to do the same thing that I am trying to do none the less.

So Its effing go-time kids. This thing is going in to fully fledged dedication mode and this time I have a checks and balances system to help me along. With a support system, we are all hoping that this whole thing will go a lot smoother. With a support system we will have a better chance for success.

Starting with week we are tracking everything. The measurements and photos are being taken tonight. So here we go, round 2 (really its like round 6, but lets go with 2 for appearances) I will fill you in on the details.

Is it hypocritical for a fat guy to give weight loss advice? I think so…so instead of giving advice, I am just going to fill you in on what I am doing in an informative way.

There is nothing else that I can think of typing right now, so I will see you the next time I see you.

Peace,
Dan