Attainable Goals

[thepnutgallery]

I read an article on MSN Health & Fitness yesterday about giving oneself "attainable goals" for fitness. Examples from the article included exercising 4 times in a week, or portion control for a week.
The concept is fairly simple: small milestones, which ultimately put a much larger objective within reach. This has led me on a train of thought the destination of which is this:

For my birthday this year, I want a perfect body.

This is for several reasons. 1) It's something to want, and I haven't wanted anything for my b-day in a very long time. 2) I'm turning 24. Don't ask me why this frightens me out of my wits, like no age before it ever has, it just does. And 3)I may well have enough money saved up at the end of the year to get the laser hair removal that I so desperately want, which is saying something since I made about 10G last year, but the LHR does me little good if my body underneath the hair looks like it does now. So, yeah. A perfect body is the big goal. The smaller ones are all about exercising througout the day, aside from dance class. My goal for now is to exericse every morning, at least 3 additional times before 3pm, and before I go to bed every day for a week. That's a total of 5 sets of crunches/push-ups/leg work/whatever else I feel like exercising, plus dance class and swimming with the Bunny before work, for those keeping track at home. I will likely have the same goal every week from now until my b-day. I will probably update my journal more often, both as a reminder to myself of my goal, and to keep people who care in the know about the general goings on in my life. There's also a peripheral goal of "stop eating everything in sight", but that really is less important than the former, and would be a significantly more difficult goal to keep.

I've undertaken several (hundred) diet & exercise regimes in my lifetime, and I think most all of them have worked, from 20 push-ups and 60 crunches everytime I use the bathroom, to sets of 20/120 every couple of hours, to having Aimee stretch me every night for about 90 minutes (credit where due: that one worked the by far the best, but neither of us have time for it anymore) Always, though, just as I start to see a difference, I stop. I'm not sure why this is; sometimes I think I'm actually scared of getting the body I want (or rather, the best I can do with what I've got), other times I think I'm just lazy. Who knows. Hopefully, with a weekly renewal of vows, so to speak, and the fact that my goal is now a concrete, existing thing in the universe that others are witness to, this won't happen. I'm also going to try to keep my inspiration up; watching Matt play Rocky does wonders, and so does porn.


On a final note, this is possibly my favorite picture ever:

Well, my favorite picture that's not of a mostly naked male, anyway.


Squeak

Comments

[npgmaverick.livejournal.com]

Please xplain what a perfect body is.

[thepnutgallery]

I dunno. The best I can get, whatever that is. This could potentially make for an extremely easy cop-out come b-day time, but I like to think better of myself than that.

Squeak

[mewbot.livejournal.com]

Hum, I noticed during your Columbia that your arms in particular are looking really toned and stuff. Good luck! <3

OH MY GOODNESS TWENTY FOUR. You old man. :D

[(Anonymous)]

Because sometime the scale isn't the best indicator or progress, you should think about taking some photos and dating them. Take another set every 2-3 weeks and compare. This way regardless of what that silly scale might be up to you can SEE where you are improving and not. Kisses from Orlando!

[lizetta.livejournal.com]

IMHO-

You missed the point of the article. An attainable goal must be something tangible. "A perfect body" is not tangible, so you're never going to reach it. There will always be something you can point to as not being perfect.

What is it that you exactly want here? You pointed to Matt, and that confuses me. Matt is who he is, and there is nothing wrong with being thin, but I don't think he has the body of a dancer. If that's where your metabolism is set, then that's where it is, but I honestly think you would have to be emaciated to get that skinny.

You have a very muscular form. And dancers need muscles, right? If you lose muscle, it seems to me you would lose a lot of dance ability. And you've always prided yourself on being strong. I love hearing you tell people- "no I can carry it". In those moments, you really challenge what people think of you. I can't imagine you without that ability.

Sometimes I worry about you sweetie. You have an amazing body (I caught myself staring during your Brokeback Trixie, like in a way that one should not do to someone they've known nearly forever). I think that your body fits who you want to be. I understand that desire to keep pushing yourself, and I don't have a problem with that. But I think it's gotten to a point where it's unhealthy and obsessive, and I worry that it will never be enough.

I understand that birthdays can be challenging. I'm having trouble with my next one as well. It's a good time to reflect on all of your life, and make the changes you need to make to continue to grow in life. So I get that. I'm just wondering if this is the right place to spend all that energy.

[thepnutgallery]

I think there's been some confusion, and understandably so, as I wasn't very clear. While I wouldn't say no if, say, a genie magically offered me a build like Matt's, or similar, I do recognize that for me to actually attain that build would be damn near impossible, and certainly not worth the tremendous, unhealthy sacrifice I would have to make to get it. For some reason, though, looking at Matt in the Rocky shorts reminds me that, while I can never have his body, that's no reason not to try to be the best I can be. Really, Matt doesn't even have my opinion of a perfect body. I'm a poor judge of these things, but maybe Matt +5-10lbs? Realistically, I don't think I can attain that, either. My goal, I think, and this is subject to change, is Brent Everett. Feel free to Google him for an image, but be warned that he's a porn star.
I do appreciate your concern, and certainly my history with these sorts of things is reason enough to doubt any new plan, but I tinhk this is probably the safest, most plausable plan I've ever had. My attainable goals are all about exercising througout my day. The hope is that, in 6 months time, this will lead to the big goal. Maybe I'll fall short, but that's no reason not to try, I think. "Shoot for the moon, if you miss, you may land on a star". Not sure what that's from.

Squeak

[lizetta.livejournal.com]

That does make more sense.

It's probably my own self image talking here too, I mean, if you aren't happy with how you look, I should be ashamed... There is a line between self acceptance and wanting to push yourself, and so long as you have a good mix of both, I think that's healthy.

[faerierie.livejournal.com]

Lindy was telling me this summer about a woman who does LHR for favors (not sexual, but just whatever you've got that could benefit her) rather than money. And she said her mom's been going to this woman and has like almost no hair at all. So when I get home I might have to look into that to pick up where the clinic so disappointingly left off (I have much much much less hair than I once did, but I still shave every Friday). You should talk to Lindy.

xoxox

[thepnutgallery]

I should talk to Lindy. Or you could talk to Lindy, and pass the information on to me. Either way, you should visit this link: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0006DOWV4/qid=1140204017/sr=8-2/ref=pd_bbs_2/104-3100574-4845564?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance&n=284507.
I saw it and thought of you.

Squeak

[faerierie.livejournal.com]

I talked to Lindy. She's going through some really hard stuff right now, poor girl. But she said the woman will give you LHR if you clean her messy house. Send me an email and I'll give you Lindy's number?

[ladyadry.livejournal.com]

"sometimes I think I'm actually scared of getting the body I want"


I just have to say that, I know exactly what that statement means. My fear of getting a better body is much stronger than my fear of possible future health problems right now. that's not to say my own opinion may not change in the future; but right now, I am scared to death to be thinner.