I did a little something different. I’ve been saying, I got to get on the bike. So this morning, first thing in the morning, because you know, it’s cold. It’s January, almost February. So it’s still kind of cold. But my room is warm, so it’s like you know what? Before I even go out, I’m just going to ride the bike, ride the bike for an hour. Well, the first little bit was cool. I was not going fast at all, so I was literally just moving my legs for an hour, which ended up turning out to be 69 minutes because my program wasn’t done. But it felt good. Now after, my legs felt like complete mush, and they kind of hurt, and then I was really hungry and so I ate, and then I went into a comatose. So if I continue to do this, hopefully that doesn’t happen every morning because it kind of defeats the purpose if I go straight to bed after because I’m really tired, or rather I get really hungry, and my legs are nice and warm and about dead, and then I eat, and then my body just shuts down to digest the food. So hopefully that doesn’t continuously happen, but I’ll keep you posted. I might do a video just the hour of bike ride because right now we’re more or less talking about the riding, and the pushups, and building ourselves to a full workout. So with that being said, let’s get to today. Today was easy. I mean, it’s getting easier and easier. It’s still not the easiest thing in the world, so there’s no way I’m going to add three reps. That’s just stupid because I wouldn’t be able to do it. But it may be like another week or two, then these two sets are going to be nothing. Just remember, we’re not in a race just to put on the most amount of weights as possible and do a full set. We’re trying to create new habits. And if you read a paper I wrote, create new addictions. We all know we have addictions, so we’re just trying to create a new addiction. So, the treadmill, I could only run on it for 10 minutes. Literally I forced myself to run on it for 10 minutes. It’s over. Tomorrow morning I have to go to Walmart and hopefully they have another treadmill because this one’s not going to work. It’s not working. I can smell the rubber burning, it’s not going to work. It’s over. Other than that, everything’s cool. I’m still disappointed, I didn’t get to run 20 minutes, but hopefully tomorrow that problem will be solved.
Category: Uncategorized
Get your own notebook, Stop acting funny, Stop talking show me the money
Our life is exactly how we make it, now there are different factors which can alter our lives but in the end, it is our choice of what life we live. Excuses are just like assholes, everyone has one, I am no better than the next person in this regard. I make plenty of excuses why I can’t do something, however, I understand that my excuse is just translated as “I am too lazy” or “it really is not that important”. When we discuss money in this context we are not only talking about paper money. We are talking about anything of tangible value you can create or obtain.
Get your own notebook
In school as in life it is imperative to take notes, when we take notes we remember important things. When I am referring to notes I am not discussing last night’s game, or a math problem, or someone’s phone number. No, I am talking about important notes, life-changing notes about life. If we do not take notes then we will forget different interactions, the interactions I am discussing are very important to the success of each individual person. For a reason, I am not sure we as humans love to give people a second chance, we allow people to walk all over us. We justify these actions because if in our hearts we are a good person then we project that on to the world and assume the rest of the world holds our values as their values.
This is not the case at all, your good and my good might not be the same, for you stealing is a horrible thing and cannot be justified in any situation, however, I might have been starving with no access to food so it was ”steal food or don’t eat”. Stealing to me is not inherently a bad thing, but to you, it could be a horrible crime.
Having a notebook allows us to take note of different people and the way they respond in different circumstances. We all would like to live in a world where friends have our best interest at heart but that is seldom the case. Most interactions with so-called friends are filled with intoxicating stories or neurotic dangerous behaviors. How many conversations do we have with our friends where we are truly being honest, where we discuss each other’s shortcomings and how we are going to strengthen each shortcoming. Notebooks allow us to refer back to our relationships to see if this is a positive progressive relationship or if it is just a relationship to pass the time.
Stop acting funny
All-day I hear how and why people cannot get something done. I have always questioned that way of thinking, my thoughts on any situation are always the same. There is a finite amount of time per issue or problem, we have two choices we can spend the time in-efficiently and complain about our problems, and take the victim’s stance. Or we can acknowledge there is a problem and immediately face the problem head-on and think only of solutions.
The funny thing about common sense is it does not become common sense until you have made the mistake and sometimes after you make a mistake more than once. Then and only then do you develop common sense. My aunt told me “all you need in this life is common sense” however, she forgot to mention in order to obtain common sense I would have to make every mistake known to man, survive my bad decisions and learn from them. I am amazed how many people will make a mistake but not learn the valuable lesson created by the mistake, common sense. Mistakes and learning are a part of life and are like saying peanut butter and jelly you need both to make a PB&J sandwich, just like you must make a mistake to learn.
Stop talking show me the moneyWhat do people do with their time? I love movies and I also love to be lazy and do nothing. I am one who can watch movies all day long and be satisfied. However, at the end of that day I would have written a paper, inventoried books, cleaned the house, managed my amazon store, sent all of my emails, do my daily exercises, now that I am attempting to step into the social world create videos. That is what I would consider a lazy day, a day that is raining or cold where I am stuck in the house. What I have noticed with a lot of people is that they work so hard and are so stressed but at the end of the day accomplished nothing for themselves. Then what makes it worse is after a hard day of doing nothing then they buy drugs and alcohol or tobacco. To most people who don't have common sense, this sounds normal, but to me, it is backward. Work all day accomplish nothing then spend the little money we make on liabilities, that is a recipe for disaster.
Stop talking you might learn something: All people do is talk talk talk talk talk talk but after they are done they really said nothing. It is almost impossible to get a word in, we have become so self-consumed that we really don't even talk to other people we just talk. If there is a camera in arms-length then people feel the need to talk and express their opinion on every issue to the camera. What I have learned is when I just listen I realize how miserable people's outlook on life is. Most of the goals and dreams are minor at best. It is a proven fact if you shut your mouth and open your ears you are able to listen better, and with listening better we are able to learn faster.
Show me the money: everyone has great advice but only a few have money, only 1% of the world has real money 10% of the world has like 80% of the world's money. If these numbers are remotely close that would mean 90% of the world is not wealthy, so that would mean that almost all the great advice you hear is trash, advice given by the 90% of people. The funny thing is most people will listen to the man driving the Lamborghini but laugh at the man who has a brand new dump truck. What sense does that make? If you can pay cash for a new Lamborghini or a new dump truck you are not pressed for money as they are about the same price, but one is making money every day while the other is an expense every day. So why would I listen to the person who bought the liability before I talk to the person who bought the dump truck.
Day Twenty Six FYMM Fitness
I got the new treadmill and it about defeated me. I’m not going to lie. I couldn’t figure the stupid thing out. Then they made me register and then it would turn on, but I couldn’t get the stupid thing to move. I started at 11:00. It’s 4:00, It literally took me three hours and 20 minutes to try to figure the stupid thing out. That literally whooped me mentally, Then when I was on the treadmill, it’s a completely different feeling, once I figured out how to make it work. One, it’s really loud. Two, I’m going to have to wear shoes. I haven’t been wearing shoes on the other treadmill. I don’t know, my feet were gripping it, but this mat on this treadmill, something built differently. I still got through my 10 minutes, but I didn’t do the 20 minutes and I didn’t run backwards. In all aspects it was a massive failure. I still rode the bike this morning for an hour. I still did my pushups, two sets. Still did that kind of good stuff, but like I said, I was mentally worn out after the treadmill basically beat me. I’m using that as an excuse, even though it’s a really shitty excuse, excuse my French. However, tomorrow is a brand new day. Although I was defeated today, in my mind, you can still be like, “Erik, you still rode the bike for an hour. And you still ran your mile, why are you complaining?” Because I didn’t do what I wanted to do. that’s good, right? Because if you remember at the beginning of all this. On all aspects of things, from looking from the outside in, it’s a successful day. But in order to be great and to accomplish great things, what other people think as being successful, you have to look at it as being a failure. Because if I lived my life up to other people’s standards, well, I would only accomplish what other people accomplish. But if you hold yourself to higher standards than you are able to achieve at the moment, then you’re telling your mind, this is what we are going to do and from hell or high water, we’re going to accomplish this. Every day I’m going to be angry if I don’t accomplish what I want to accomplish, because the next morning it gives me more motivation to be like today, I’m not going to fail. I’m going to push myself until I succeed. Today we were supposed to work on our abs a little bit. I wasn’t supposed to fail, but like I said, I got defeated and that’s all I can really say. Tomorrow I will not let myself be defeated. With all you guys out there that sometimes you get defeated in a day, look at it, embrace it and let it piss you all the way off and then forget about it. Forget about it and just know tomorrow you’ve got to work that much harder to accomplish your goal. And then with that, I’m gone.
I can’t give up, I can’t stop, NEVER NEVER NEVER, Lie for the cause, Die for the cause, Fuck it, Who cares, about me? Nobody so I say it again, And again Fuck You Make Money
When I wrote this I had already been through a lot in my life, however, I did not know how much more was in store for me. By the time I was 22 the struggles I had been through would have broken the strongest minded person, now in my mid 30’s I’m surprised I haven’t given up. At the end of the quote, it says fuck it who cares about me. We have to look inside and understand the thinking I had when I wrote the book and this quote. The fact that nobody cares about me is probably why I’m still alive and why I haven’t given up.
Throughout my life, I’ve been told numerous times how much people love me, but then their actions never support their claims. If what people have been giving me is love, then I don’t really want it. The same people who told me I love you, are the same people who sent me to hell, and when my hell was over, cast me out as a sheep amongst wolves.
I learned at 11 years old I was on this earth by myself and nobody was going to take care of me. The day my mom died is the day everything went to shit. I came up with the theory “fuck you make money” because I was tired of getting hurt by people and I realized that unless you’re trying to make money with me then fuck you, hence the phrase fuck you make money. There are two types of people in this world, people who are willing to crawl through the mud with you and get dirty, then the other type are the people who plot and try and destroy everything you create.
I set out to find other like-minded people that the world forgot about, the people no one cares about. If we take a minute and think about it, almost all of us are or have been forgotten. It is not just Erik and his pity it’s the whole world. We all came into a world where no one cares about anybody but themselves and I’m a prime example. I really don’t give a shit about anything but myself, that’s why I help other people so that I can help myself. When it says nobody cares about me it also should be saying I don’t care about anybody else so I say it, again and again, Fuck You Make Money
Unless you are a part of me, then I don’t care if you care about me. Where it says “I can’t give up” you’re right I can’t give up on the people that do believe in me, that believe in having something better for themselves.The people that no longer want to be a Nigger and want to achieve something in life. The people that have slept under a bridge or have been in a situation where nobody’s been there for them. Those are the people who understand my pain and the struggle I’ve been through. If you haven’t been in a situation where you don’t know what’s going to happen, or you don’t have someone telling you that it’s going to be okay then you don’t understand me. Since I was 11 years old, no one’s told me it’s going to be okay. I don’t remember anyone telling me too much of anything. I remember being sent to programs and then being disowned at age 18.
I can’t give up I can’t stop never never never lie for the cause die for the cause fuck it who cares about me nobody so I say it again and again fuck you make money. Ain’t Life a bitch I have to give my life for this shit, it’ll be worth it as long as every black man’s rich.
The book has numerous quotes about the sacrifices I’m going to have to make and the ones I’ve already made in my life for the cause so lie for the cause die for the cause yes I will. I have died. little pieces of me have died over the years. I can’t sleep, I don’t know how to have a normal relationship, the amount of stress I probably have on me would kill a normal person but I don’t even look at it as stressed I don’t even know what it is.
We have to first analyze our own situations, our own blessings, and our own struggles. When it gets really hard for me, and it does, I’m not perfect as much as I try to be a machine and a robot, have no feelings, and work all day. I go as far as trying to convince myself I don’t need sleep, I don’t need food and I don’t need water to survive. God has a funny way of breaking me down (exhaustion) but if we pay attention God does it in a way that can be motivating. A saying I grew up on is “God will never give you more than you can handle” if that is true then all of our struggles are for a greater purpose. Far too many of us blame God for hardships opposed to thanking him for preparing us for future battles.
Fuck it who cares about me it’s an attitude that I have to have majority of the time in my life in order to survive. When I was younger I was watching the movie “Dead Presidents”. They were in the Vietnam jungle when one marine asked his best marine friend about back home and his daughter. The marine responded, “thinking about going back home will get me killed. I can’t think about it. I don’t want to be a part of it in order for me to survive. I have to live here in the jungle and think of nothing else but this.
While I’m in my jungle and my war zone of accomplishing my goals and building the society I want. I have to have the same mentality as that Marine had, I cannot be buckled down with feelings and emotions, I have to isolate myself in order for me to achieve greatness there is no other way. If I get buckled down with people worrying about me and in turn me worrying about them worrying about me, then I lose mental time & energy. The ultimate sacrifice is to sacrifice oneself, so it would be a great honor to sacrifice myself for the greater good of my people.
Day Twenty Seven FYMM Fitness
Whoa, I’m beyond exhausted. I don’t know, but I think I know what it is. It’s a new treadmill. I can go faster. So you know, faster, faster. Yeah, I really didn’t think riding a bike for an hour in the morning would do anything, but I’m exhausted. I started off running and I was like, “There’s no way I’m going to do 20 minutes.” For the first five minutes, the only thing I was doing was thinking of an excuse. What to tell you guys why I couldn’t do 20 minutes, right? But then once nine minutes came, it was like, well, this is not that bad. And what I was watching on TV was pretty interesting. So I kept going. And then when 15 minutes came, my mind switched. Like, alright only five minutes left three fourths are done. This is nothing. It’s funny how it took 10 minutes on a treadmill to convince myself that I could do 20 minutes. With that being said, your mind is crazy, man. It’s always going to try to convince you it can’t do something. I have no idea why it does that. It seems counterproductive. We have this amazing machine in our head, in our brain. But, it’s like the mind’s number one job is to tell you, you can’t do something. I’m a firm believer I can do anything, I believe I can fly. It’s just my brain hasn’t figured that one out yet :). We have to conquer our minds on a daily basis, it is difficult. It’s really difficult. Water, My intake of just drinking one of the big liter water bottles isn’t enough anymore. I’m still really, really thirsty, and I’m thinking that has a lot to do with riding a bike for an hour in the morning time. because I’m sweating a lot. So, I’m having to rethink that. maybe next week, or the week after that, we’ll start working on my diet. Once I get used to all of this and be able to do this and be like, “Yeah, baby, this is easy!”, but right now I’m far from that. I am more like “Yeah, this is miserable.”, we’re right back where we started about a month ago, but let’s not forget we’re adding a whole hour workout to it. Progress over perfection. Don’t let your mind defeat you because literally its whole job is to try to convince you, you can’t do something, which is counterproductive. But once you figure out that your brain’s sole purpose is to try to convince you to not do something, then your whole job is to be like, “Nah, just shut up.” You know what I’m saying? I’m going to do this no matter how many ways you try to convince me, I’m not going to do it. I’m still going to do it. So figure out how I’m going to do it and stop trying to convince me not to do it. All right, with that being said, hope you’re feeling better. I’m complaining a lot, but I swear to it I’m breathing better, I’m feeling better and I’m glad I did this.
I don’t need to fight you Because in the end, you’ll believe in me too, And fight for me dude
This is a good one, I’ve thought about this, and then been in so many different situations where this is so true. Sometimes, I’ve had to make myself be the “bigger man” so to speak. It is harder to not fight than it is to fight. Especially when it’s a lose-lose situation, the popular cartoon Boondocks calls it a nigga moment. when you are in a situation that seems impossible to get out of because of your pride or whatever it is, gets in the way.
I don’t need to fight you because in the end you’ll believe in me too and fight for me dude. I have to laugh at this because there are so many different situations and so many different times throughout my life where this quote has come true or proved valuable. I’m a very difficult person to deal with, nobody in this entire world has told me I’m an easy person to deal with, besides myself. I like to push people and push people, test their buttons, and see what they’re made out of. I’m an intense person. I don’t like imperfections, I don’t like when people don’t strive to be perfect in everything that they do.
Now it’s impossible for me to be or to tell you to be perfect because that is just an impossible feat, I am never going to be a perfect human being; no matter how many people I help, no matter what I do, no matter how many people follow me, no matter how many people believe in me. I’m never going to be perfect. I do, however, strive for perfection and that’s what I ask all of you to do is just to strive for perfection. It doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to be perfect, just try for it.
I’m a difficult person because I’m going to challenge you, I’m going to push your buttons, I’m going to bring the best out of you, from the best of my ability. Sometimes, I’m a rather annoying person that can crawl under your skin. I won’t give up on you, just like I Won’t Give Up on myself if you become Fuck You Make Money then it’s for life. As it is a mentality change, a paradigm shift.
The message is so powerful, as long as we consistently have the Fuck You Make Money mindset, over the years, and over time we will develop skills, which develop successful habits. This is imperative in order for us to succeed in life. In the beginning, it’s obvious, we don’t have these necessary traits in order to succeed. School and the “dumbing-down” of music help contribute to the problem.
In today’s society, we don’t challenge our peers in a positive manner. If we listen to music, nobody is holding anyone accountable for the future damage these songs will have on our youth and society. It’s always, “I’ll beat you down” or “if you come on my block I’m going to f*** you up” or “I’m going to come to your block and f*** you up” or “I’m going to take your girl” or “Come let’s fuck” or some stupid s*** just like that. None of it’s challenging ourselves or the community to be productive.
Tupac said it best, “If we want to be gangsters and we want to live that lifestyle then let’s start our own country if this is what we want to do then let’s do something about it” I cannot agree more with that mentality and I blame us as a people for what our situation has become.
I’m telling you I don’t need to fight you, as Harriet Tubman would say “she saved thousands of slaves but she would have saved thousands more if she could only convince them that they were a Slave”.
It is very difficult for me to explain we are still slaves, it is so taboo for Black Americans to hear they are still slaves. We have been told repeatedly slavery ended in the 1800s, so that has to be true.
The truth is, we have not changed our mentality as a race, as a race of people what do we aspire to become? But even worse what is expected of us? What is expected of you as being black?
Nothing is expected of you besides going to jail or doing something stupid if you’re a black woman you’re expected to live off of food stamps and have a whole bunch of illiterate stupid kids. If you’re a black male, as I am, we are expected to go to jail. It is not a “maybe I will, maybe I won’t” it is an expectation in America. If you are a black male you’re going to go to jail.
In the United States, it is a great achievement in most black families to graduate college, but it is a commonality a “norm” to have been to jail. Why is it a great achievement to graduate but it is not a great failure to end up in jail? We treat jail as some kind of sick “rights of passage”. Education should be expected not the other way around.
We expect ourselves to go to jail, while we give ourselves cookies for doing what our ancestors died trying to do. Which is learn, why is that an achievement to learn? Learning is more or less a basic necessity, just like you need to drink water, you need to eat, when you’re walking up and down the street you’re exercising your muscles. Our brain is also a muscle. Why would you refuse to exercise that muscle, doesn’t make any sense! Hopefully with better understanding now, we are our own worst enemies.
I say this again
I don’t need to fight you
Because in the end, you’ll believe in me too
And fight for me dude
There’s going to be a lot of people when they read this who are going to disagree with what I am saying. Not because they actually disagree, but because I’m calling them on their own shit and saying that they’re worthless but not just them in a singular form but in a plural, meaning everyone.
If we are not consistently trying to better ourselves on a daily basis, not on a “weekend warrior” basis then the inevitable result will be a deterioration of a person, a race, a nation. There are only two directions, not three, progression and regression. The third option which so many of us fall into is stagnation, however, stagnation is the same as regression.
In order for us to achieve great things we have to change our morals, what’s important to us and why is it important to us. By understanding our past we can predict and understand our spending habits, our morals, our communication skills, or lack thereof and our family dynamics. We have absolutely no identity, we don’t know anything about ourselves and we don’t care that we don’t know anything about ourselves.
The world considers us African Americans, but most of us have never even seen Africa, or ever had the desire to go. So how and why can we be considered something that we have no emotional attachment to? But yet we accept ourselves as being classified or called something because we have no self-identity. We don’t know what we are and if we don’t know what we are then how can we ever achieve anything great as a race, as a culture, as a people?
Until the time we decide to disregard everything we were taught in schools by the conquers and, decide to rediscover our pasts. Yes, some of us have Royal African blood and Royal Indian blood, from vast regions of the native united states, and through the transatlantic slave trade.
We will use me for the example, through my lineage I have royal blood on both my Native American side and on my African side. Most everyone wants to believe they have royal blood and they are a king, but runs at the first sign of trouble and avoids responsibility. As king, you must only think of the empowerment of your people, as a king is ordained by God to provide; food, knowledge, protection, discipline, and structure for his people. Most believe being king is a blessing but it is a curse for a true king is unable to sleep until he knows his kingdom and his people are safe. It was not just the King who was transported, it was his royal court, his soldiers, his doctors, his advisers. Opposed to using our ancient soldier blood of having no fear to destroy each other or using our ancient blood to create belittling music and images. We need to remember when the time is right the King will reappear. The question is will you be ready?
David White says “America Is Ours just as much as there’s, we built this place” We can’t lay dormant and believe what everyone tells us, “that this isn’t our land! we are African, I am not African, I have African blood but my great-grandmother was Native American. So why do we classify ourselves as being African when the majority of us have native blood? So if we have native blood then why are we not taking ownership of our native land? Or our Native language, or culture?
Again
I don’t need to fight you
Because in the end, you’ll believe in me too
And fight for me dude
What I’m writing are just my thoughts that’s it. I’m not right, I’m not wrong. I’m just a person with an opinion. Hopefully, my opinion offends a lot of people because if it offends a lot of people then people will talk about it. if I don’t offend anybody with what I’m saying then nothing’s going to change. The only way things change is when people become offended and get riled up enough that they want to fight me, but then it’s my responsibility to manipulate the situation and convince them of my thinking and of my opinions. I’m not opinionated from selfish thoughts on the contrary I’m opinionated because I want to see growth and I’m sick of seeing people blame everybody but themselves for their own problems. If I can piss everybody off enough to want to fight me because their life is miserable and been blaming everybody in the world for their own situation. then that’s great, that is amazing actually for that split-second I got their undivided attention and if they can sit down for a little bit and actually understand what I’m trying to say. Because in the end you’ll believe in me too And fight for me dude.
Day Twenty-eight FYMM Fitness
I like this new treadmill. I get to run faster, but running faster doesn’t necessarily mean easier, right? It means you’re going to wear yourself out faster, which I am. I’m not going to lie. I am. Whew. I’m tired. Feeling the expansion of my lungs better, I guess, because when you’re running faster, you have to take deeper breaths or at least I take deeper breaths. And I also more forcibly try to get the air out so I don’t get cramps. Running backwards, I almost fell twice, so I’m not going to lie. I slowed down. I was trying to go backwards at four miles per hour, which I’ve been going at three, when my legs are a little bit more jelloy than normal. So running backwards today was not an easy task. I about fumbled a couple of times, but that’s good because my legs are tired. I still rode an hour this morning. I’m not going to lie. Again, a key topic that we talk about throughout this whole journey is the ability for our minds to convince ourselves that we cannot do something, right? Hardly ever does my mind ever be like, “Erik, you can do it.” It’s usually me sitting there like, “I can do it brain, come on, get in line.” Right? Because most of the time my brain is trying to figure out every way for me not to do something. So even this morning I’m waiting, because I’m uploading videos and that takes forever to do and transcribing them. Or waiting for uploads, like I said, it takes forever. So I watch the history channel, to learn more things. Actually I learned some really interesting things today. A couple more books got put on the list, I mean, they’re on the Amazon list that I’m going to buy. I’m up to 35 books right now. Well, what I said is I was like, man, like how I’ve been saying, for multiple times where I’m like, “Just convince yourself, it’s only 10 minutes.” Well now, we’re way past that 10 minute mark, because we’re running for 20 minutes. I was like, look if you’re watching this is really interesting. I can either sit in this chair and complain that my butt hurts or I can get on the Bike and complain that my butt hurts. Because at the end of the day, my butt is still going to hurt regardless, because I don’t have the most comfortable of chairs. I have a little kitchen table chair, one of the Walmart ones. So it’s a metal frame, So it hurts. So sitting on a Bike is just as uncomfortable. I was like, “why don’t I just do something while I’m doing nothing? I might as well sit on the Bike and move my legs. So that’s what I did. And at first, I’m not going to lie, today was a difficult day. I think it’s hump day Wednesday, so I’m going to make my body eval video today. I think it’s just being tired, just normal, being tired. But other than that, I wouldn’t give up being tired for the way that I was feeling. Because even now, my buddy comes over and smokes a cigarette with me. I can’t smoke the whole thing. It’s disgusting. Well hopefully eventually we’ll get it to where I’m like, “Man, I can’t smoke anymore. It’s disgusting.” But we’re not there yet. Before I was like, whoo, yeah, this cigarette’s nice. But now it’s, “Oh this is gross.” And I could taste it in my mouth then the worst part of it is when I’m running, I can breathe the cigarette, which is disgusting. But since I’m doing body eval I’m going to keep this where it is and keep going, man. If you’re still doing this, at this point, pat yourself on the back and two, keep going.
Day Twenty-Nine FYMM Fitness
I feel good. It’s amazing, this new treadmill. Just by increasing the speed from six to seven, it’s a world of difference. Well, my goal right now, just because I want to expand my lungs a lot faster. (I’m not worried quite as much with adding another set of push-ups and sit-ups.) I’m more concerned with building my lung capacity and I want to run faster. So in order for me to do that, as much as adding another set of pushups and things is great, and our original goal from last month is to be at four sets by the end of this month, however, I’m going to tweak that a little bit, because I really want to get my cardio up and be able to breeze through 20 minutes at maybe eight and just do that. That sounds like a good goal, because I’m just comparing to years ago, I was 30 pounds heavier than I am right now and I used to start off on the treadmill at eight. Now, I can’t even get to eight, so it’s a personal vendetta, so to speak, on why I’m like, “No, this is impossible. I’m lighter. I need to be able to get to eight miles per hour.” So that’s my little goal. I’ve been riding the bike every morning this week for one hour, give or take five, 10 – 15 minutes. Today, I think I was there for an hour and 15 minutes so it was right around an hour, however long the little course, the class, I’m taking at the time. But I think that’s really wearing me out, because since I’ve been doing that, I mean, we’re going to keep doing it because like I said, we’ve got to get past that, hurdle, it’s all just a mental barrier. Of course, everything you do in the beginning is hard so this is to be expected. But it’s just because I’m really tired after. I mean, I do it first thing in the morning, I’m trying to really get on there before four in the morning so I’m done before five. But then, so far, each day around eight o’clock in the morning, I’m exhausted, I’m really sleepy. And I’ve noticed after I’ve used the treadmill, I’m starving, I have to put something into my stomach. So, that’s what we’re going to do, we’re going to start experimenting with what to eat in the morning. The banana is cool, but it’s nowhere near enough I guess because I’m also burning almost 700 calories in the morning and then, “Oh yeah, I’m going to eat a banana.” So I’m still like, “Man, feed me.” So I’ve seen some fruit at the store, lazy, they cut it up for you and everything, so I’m debating whether to get some fruit. Now, obviously, they cut it up so it’s going to be more expensive. So if it works, I can just cut costs easily by buying the actual fruit as opposed to buying it cut up because I’m lazy. But I’ve got the ab machine put together. I worked on it for maybe 20 sit ups and, yeah, that’s not going to be fun. That’s not going to be fun at all, really. It’s going to suck. It’s going to be miserable. But I’m thinking, after I ride the bike, I’m going to do that. I’m going to try to get 100, but I know that’s just bull. I’m not going to do that. I know myself. But I can get to 50. I can force myself to get the 50 just because it doesn’t seem like such a big number. So we’re going to start off with 50 sit ups a day with the little AB roller thing, ab cruncher, or whatever you want to call it. Yeah, we’re going to start with that and see what happens. Yeah so, keep going. If we look back a month, it all started from 10 minutes. So just remember and keep it in her head, all you really need is 10 minutes to change your life and change a habit. Once you continuously do something for 10 minutes, it becomes second nature. And so that’s what we’re doing. So everything that we’re doing, again, I want to stress the point that we’re doing everything extremely slow on purpose, because we’re gradually building ourselves into this where it becomes a habit, where it becomes part of our DNA, so to speak. So I don’t want us to get super sore every day. I don’t want us to max out every day. We’ll just slowly. Remember, all y’all got to remember, the turtle and the hare, who won the race the turtle or the hare? The turtle did. So that’s what we’re trying to do, we’re trying to be the turtle.
Day Thirty FYMM Fitness
Today was pretty easy. This is a new treadmill. There’s one little problem. Every time I’m running, it’s sliding backwards. It is scratching my floor. I don’t know what it’s doing. I mean, it’s working. Got to solve that quick problem. But other than that, I am doing good. Second set is getting easier. It’s not quite to the point where I want to do a third set. Well, probably do one more. Today is Friday, so we’ll probably do one more week. So starting Monday, we’ll do one more set of just two. And then the week after that, we’ll start adding three, because I mean, one, that’ll be sufficient time, and then we still might be able to stay on schedule by adding the fourth set by the end of the month, which would be cool, because then we’ll be at full sets. The hour long bike ride really wears me out in the morning time. I guess you could say, “EriK, it’s supposed to. You’re riding 20 miles.” Yeah, but I feel like I’m a machine, you know what I’m saying? I’m just sitting there and moving my legs. It doesn’t seem like I’m doing anything. But I get sleepy after. But let’s see, I did 60 sit-ups opposed to 50, because I did three sets of 20. So the third set, I wasn’t just going to do 10. I might as well just do 20. Yeah, my new goal, my goal for the treadmill is since I’m running 20 minutes, you’ve got to make it exciting, because if you just run 20 minutes, even though I’m watching inspirational, good stuff on TV, it still gets boring regardless. So you’ve got to challenge yourself.
Day Thirty-One FYMM Fitness
All right. I’m convinced now, I really am. I’m convinced we’re programmed to be worthless, to be losers, to basically just be told what to do. I’m trying to think of a politically correct way to say we are programmed to not think we’re not programmed, to use our brains. Our brains are literally in our way. I say this because of this, all day today, I’m dreading the 20 minutes. I had to convince myself to start back at 10 minutes. I was like I got to just get on the treadmill. If my brain was optimal to help me accomplish these things, then I would have the willpower, I’d have the motivation to get on the treadmill. But on the contrary, I have the motivation, even though I’m not doing anything, to continue to not do anything. Now, it just doesn’t make any sense. I’ve been doing this for about a month now. And we would think that by now we’ve created the habit to where it’s just second nature. Riding the bike in the morning time, I don’t want to do it, but it’s easy because I’m not going very fast. And I just convinced myself, just move your legs. All right. So for an hour, even though that’s a very long time, I’m only running for 20 minutes, I still associate running as being worse. I ran 10 minutes, well, 9 minutes and 30 seconds at five miles an hour, which is slower than usual. Because we wanted to get two miles in 20 minutes. So that means that we have to run six miles an hour in order to do it. So going into the second mile, I’m behind. Okay. I’m a mile per hour behind. Now, this is the same person who did not want to do this and started off going five miles an hour because I did not want to run. My mind was convincing me that I was all right. I don’t have to do it. You’ve been doing it for quite some time. What does it matter? Just quit, right? This is that person that got onto the treadmill and wasted 10 minutes. Well, 9 minutes and 30 seconds running five miles an hour. Well, lo and behold, I ran two miles in 20 minutes and 30 seconds. It might’ve been 15 seconds. So what happened? I’m not really sure, but something in my mind, I don’t like losing. At one point in time, my lack of motivation turned into determination not to lose, right? Because running less than two miles in 20 minutes is a loss. So did I lose it? I guess I lost, but I didn’t lose by very much. But what that did is now it has me thinking. I ran at eight because I knew there was no way I was going to be able to catch it unless I ran at eight. So for the last couple of minutes, I ran at eight. That’s three miles per hour faster than when I started. Yesterday, I tried running at eight and I couldn’t do it, I only ran it for like 45 seconds. Not today, a day that I couldn’t do it in the beginning. If you told me I was going to run eight miles per hour at the end, I would say, “Yeah, right, it’s not going to happen. I’m only going to run five miles an hour and that’s that.” All right. But again, I’m going to reiterate. My determination not to lose outweighed my laziness. So we know that we can do more than we even believe it. We just need to learn how to figure out how to tap into that energy on a consistent, daily, minute, hourly basis. Because when determination out won laziness, I was able to run faster than normal. Now, let’s look at the rest of the day. Now after, I was winded. I was,. “Phew-y.” I walked for a couple of minutes to catch my breath, and then I ran my four minute backwards. So I didn’t miss it, and I ended up being on the treadmill longer on a day I didn’t even want to go. Now, let’s look at the secondary part of the workout. It was easier.. Today was probably the easiest time I’ve had doing two-a-days, which is again crazy. The day that I was going to come up with another excuse on why I couldn’t do anything for you guys is the day that during the middle of the second little part of the workout, I was contemplating being able to add a third set. Now, to me, that’s just mind blowing how much our mind plays tricks on us. We have to break through this blockade of laziness and stubbornness and whatever-ness, letharginism-ness, whatever, right? We have to break through that because on the other side is growth. With that being said, I want to take a shower. I rode the bike. Actually I started today late. I’m not going to lie. 5:30 is usually a late day. And 2:30 is when I’m usually up. But today, I did not get out of bed until probably 7:30, well, 8:30. But I also went to bed early yesterday, at 6:00, because I was really tired yesterday. Woke up around 10:30, because someone called me, and then I didn’t go back to bed until three in the morning. So it makes sense why I didn’t go to bed or wouldn’t wake up until 8:30, 9:00. But that might be the reason why I was slow, but we never know. Again, I’m going to end with this. We have to get through our mental blockade in order to allow growth to happen.