Before I recap the home stretch of my 90 day challenge, please take a few moments to watch this inspiring video about former NBA player and cancer survivor, Wayman Tisdale...
http://sports.espn.go.com/broadband/video/videopage?categoryId=null&brand=null&videoId=3740128&n8pe6c=2
What an inspiration!
A video like this really puts something like my personal fitness challenge into perspective. It is all well and good to push yourself but how about people like Tisdale who have no choice but to look at a situation like that and face it head on. His mental strength and personal faith are amazing.
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Day 87 was a jam packed day in my calendar. I had a few appointments and a whole bunch of work to do from my home office. I am working on a new internet marketing system for our home based healthy chocolate business. The reason it is so exciting is that I am designing it with my business partner Ted Payne and we are doing it in such a way that we can teach other business people how to do the same. As a speaker, trainer and coach, anytime I figure out how to do something, I just want to share it with anyone who can use it for their benefit. It is my purpose in life without question.
I will continue to update this blog and in fact, justinpopovic.com as a domain will be transfered to this new marketing system once it is complete. Therefore, to continue following this blog, you will have to use the original blogger domain http://justinpopovic.blogspot.com/
Having said all of that, I had a full day of business and then at about 3:30pm, I did something that I rarely ever do...I had a nap!!! I slept during the day for about 1.5 hours. I have been pushing myself so hard and accomplishing so many goals recently that my body just shut down. I woke up from the nap feeling groggy but it was some well needed rest.
I then had an evening out with my dad to catch up. With all of my business activities, I have not had much time for my family (other than wife and son) so it was a great opportunity to catch up and take some down time away from work.
I got home around 10pm and realized that I still had not done my workout for the day. So at about 10:30pm, I put on my workout clothes and went to the basement for a 15 minute power session. I did a long series of situps and pushups to the point of exhaustion. I just had this inner drive to push myself harder than usual. I think the fact that this challenge is almost over is having an impact on my intensity level. It worked well because I had a ton of energy afterwards and I was able to once again work well into the night.
As for today, day 88, it was another long day for business. Probably about14 hours of work when all was said and done. It was also Thursday night pickup basketball and I had a great time. I felt like I had a lot more energy than I had in the past few outings. I played well and I came home not feeling overly sore or exhausted.
The final 2 days of my challenge begin tomorrow. I am looking forward to winding it all down and taking some time to reflect on what I have learned.
As the 90 Challenge winds down, I have become much more disciplined with all aspects of the program. My diet has been amazing and I have really been pushing myself at the gym. Knowing that day 90 is around the corner seems to have ignited a new level of drive.
I am not noticing the fatigue in my body as much as I had last week. It could be adrenaline or it could be just a better mental attitude overall. I have to admit that I was placing a lot of focus on how physically tired I was feeling the past few weeks. Now I am primarily focused on the overall success of this challenge and the feeling of pride that I am almost done.
In the back of my mind I have been thinking about keeping the fitness streak going but deep down I am really excited to get some rest days so I don't think that is going to be in the action plan! I also think I need the rest days to rebuild my strength and come back stronger than ever.
I have also been off coffee for 2 weeks now and I have to say that I'm very happy about that. Other than a couple of early morning cravings, it was an easy thing to drop. Drinking coffee was literally a habit and not something I needed at all. In fact, I had been drinking so much that it wasn't even tasting great anymore. Once the challenge is over, I will have coffee on Saturday and Sunday mornings as a treat. It's all about the balance
As for my workout routine, Day 85 composed of a very tiring and intense chest and back weight routine. It was tougher than normal because I spent over an hour shoveling snow earlier in the day. So it was almost like doing 2 workouts. Then I did 15 minutes high intensity cardio on the stepped which was an activity I had not done in quite some time.
Today, Day 86, was a full arm workout. Biceps and Triceps. Despite having had a few weeks off, I did nto notice any loss in strenth. I did pretty much the same amount of weight as usual. I also capped off the weight lifting session with another high intensity cardio workout on the stepper...15 minutes.
It is now 1:30am and the fatigue is kicking in. I really feel it inmy legs from that workout. But I am working on a few business initiatives that require MANY hours of concentrated work. So I will persist and keep my eye on the target. The anticipation of the excellent results will be enough to keep me going until I reach the finish line successfully.
Another long string of days without blog updates. This will be a catch up post to review all of my activities over the past 5 days. I have just completed a very long weekend at Harv Eker's Millionaire Mind Intensive seminar with my wife Jessica.
Intensive is the key word here. We started the training on Friday morning at 8am. We did 12 hours of training on Friday. Another 12 on Saturday and Sunday was planned for 10 hours but we had to leave early to attend a party for my sister's birthday.
It is an excellent seminar and I recommend it to anyone who is interested in gaining control of their financial future. It promotes personal power and positive financial habits. My wife and I have a bunch of new plans and systems to implement for our family financial situation. Its all about systemizing!
The most difficult part of the entire weekend was fitting in some time for a workout. I will explain that in a second but first I will summarize my fitness for days 80 and 81.
Day 80 was Wednesday. I had a very full day of work from the minute I woke up until about 5:00pm. I then had only 45 minutes to drive to the gym, do a cardio workout and rush home to prepare for a business presentation for our Healthy Chocolate Home Based Business
Day 81 was another fun session of Thursday night basketball. I have never felt so exhausted after exerting such minimal energy. Usually I am running up and down the court all evening without much effort but the longer this challenge has gone on, the worse my long term endurance seems to be.
Then came days 82-84. Because I was at the Millionaire Mind seminar, we would be up at 6am to get ready and drive an hour to the event. As I said earlier, we spent 12 hours at the seminar (for each of days 82 and 83) and then another hour to drive home. So both Friday and Saturday night, I did not even return home until about 11pm feeling TOTALLY exhausted.
In order to keep my committment, I did a short 15-20 minute workout each night. The same workout. I did 6 sets of interchanging pushups and situps. 30 pushups immediately followed by 50 situps (crunches) followed by some leg stretching. It was not an intense workout but it was extremely tiring because my low energy levels after such long and intensive days of training.
As for Day 84, it was yet another very long day. Up at 6am to get ready for the last day of the seminar. An hour drive to the seminar. Training from 8am until 1pm. An hour drive home to get ready for my sister's birthday. Spend the afternoon at my sister's party. Drive home and get my sone ready for bed. Then head to Sunday night men's league basketball.
Our team won tonight!! We moved to a record of 2-3 and again, I felt extremely exhausted from the very beginning of the game. It effected me to the point where I do not think I played as hard as I could. We did not have enough bench players to allow for enough rest, so I had to sacrifice some of my usual intensity. It was an amazing workout nevertheless and I was very happy that we won.
All in all, the past 5 days were very enlightening, very physically tiring but mentally enhancing. I feel like I have moved to a new level of committment and understanding. My wife and I are also very excited to have taken financial education training together. It is going to have a very positive effect on our relationship from a money perspective. I recommend this to all couples...and all people for that matter.
The final working week of my challenge begins tomorrow