Tag Archives: health

Day 280: Take good care of yourself

Day 280 - front

  • Weight: 138.2 lbs.
  • Workout C: 31 minutes, 32 seconds; next: Workout C, June 10
  • Total inches: 125.4
  • Protein: 137g (7g over target)
  • Calories: 2,191

I’m exercising. I’m eating consistently. But I’m not fully taking care of myself.

Stress is a killer. It could be from poor health, financial woes, family problems, terrible work situation or mental anxiety. I’m certainly dealing with a full plate of stress in getting my conference together to launch in 6 weeks.

And while I can still function and be fairly productive, it’s not a lot of fun. Stress is eating me up.

It’s affecting my sleep. It’s affecting my outlook. It’s making me feel depressed.

I’ve been told to take care of myself, but I haven’t listened very well. (Which, of course, compounds the stress.)

I can do a few simple things to take better care of myself …

1. Write down my fears and my solutions. Believe it or not, I had already done this months ago. Today, I printed them out so I could see my fears on paper. They’re much less scary than banging around my head over and over.

2. Breathe deeply for 5 minutes. I have set a daily reminder on my phone.

3. Do alternate exercise breaks. I am lazy, and Project Bulk embraces that willingness to do as little as possible. However, getting out for a walk or stopping to do 25 minutes of yoga isn’t just a mental break. It will help me with the rest of my day and ease my overall stress.

4. Write. Writing is one of the most relaxing things I do. But it takes time, so I often put it aside when I’m in heavy work mode. I’ll just have to snag some time here and there to write a few blog posts, even if work related (see this post, for example).

My calm exterior often belies the stress simmering underneath. I don’t have to let it fester. I can choose to take care of myself.

How do you deal with your stress? Have at it in the comments.

Day 280 - side

Day 6: A question of body image

day 6

  • Weight: 123.0 lbs.
  • No workout today
  • Total inches: 116.0
  • Protein: 118 g (2 g over target)

Ginny has always given it to me straight.

“Your blog is about body image and girly shit,” she said.

Indeed.

This is new territory for me. While I’ve relied on my friend’s good taste for help with clothes, hair and fashion in general, I’ve never discussed those topics at length on this or any other site.

Vanity is a factor in Project Bulk. I want to look more muscular and remove some of the gut.

After checking my body fat percentage, I realized that better health is also a factor. Having a score of 23.5 percent puts me closer to Poor than Average for men in my age range. Consider that Good is 18.1 to 19.6 percent, and Excellent is 13.6 to 16.3 percent.

So adding muscle and trimming some fat would put me a few steps closer to an ideal percentage.

The “Can I do it?” challenge is a big factor. I certainly have a curiosity to see if any of this will work, if I can pull it off. Just because a book says so doesn’t mean I buy it.

Men may not always discuss body image among peers or in public, but that doesn’t mean some of us don’t think about it. And it definitely doesn’t mean we don’t want to improve it.

Maybe better abs will get this girly label off me …