After my Arms workout this morning, I was awarded two Garmin badges: fulfilled my Gains req's and I worked out on the Chinese New Year's Eve 2024. Historically, I've used this data as a reset for my resolutions, but those remain rock solid; I'll still be talking about New Year's Resolutions in July!

Instead, it made me rethink a few things, how can I put myself in a more remarkable position to achieve what I set out to do in the beginning.

This year is special: I have accomplished physical transformation. Yes, yes, the body needs the time to match the image. But the mental game? I changed me:

• I cannot see eating anything else but carnivore; Twinkies seem like eating a couch cushion;

• I look forward each weekday to my lifting sessions—I love seeing the pump;

• I train every day to become better than the black belt I once was;

• I love the mental space of my morning walks, mapping out Bartlett and strengthening the mental fortitude to not quit as I prepare for my 5K races.

The change has happened. It is just a matter of time for my abilities and aesthetics to catch up.

This is the year when I will burst into a room, bearing a six-pack and toned calves, my face aglow with kindness with a smile that is contagious. I'm ALIVE!

I had a fantastic workout this morning so you know somewhere I hit the wall.

I got up like I do every morning at 2:30 by the clarion call of my Garmin to raise up my butter stein of coffee and celebrate another day of being ALIVE. After a bit of tidying up the dishes and kicking off the clothes queue, I went through my 16-point inspection of stretches and sun salutation sequence. For now, I only press deep into the maneuver a couple of times to just warm up and hit anything the prior stretches may have missed.

It was a Shoulders Day: 5x15 of Arnold presses, sitting rear lateral raises, and upright rows—this one is tricky in context to this healing forearm and specifically weighted to work—nothing close to redlining it! Unfortunately, the left forearm/shoulders just look out the window and watch the scenery pass.

But one element of this routine has evolved: I don't really rest between sets. I have that 1 minute between sets, but instead of resting (or cleaning), I turn the thing into supersets of Taekwondo. I slap in 15-30 kicks, forms, or just stances. I'll get in a front, middle, or back stance. One of the benefits of the stances is just to stretch and build my legs. In particular, a right back stance puts stress on my injury from August 2022 (below and to the left of my patella) AND my current issue with its related quad. Controlled stress is a wonderful thing!

I finished all of that and began my scheduled 5-mile cardio route. But a little bit more than a mile in I thought, "No, I'm going on an adventure."

As I walked on January 1, I thought to myself how I would like to walk down every road of MY Bartlett, the hometown I knew in 1996. Maybe I could skip cul-de-sacs. While I've been route driven in 2024, after plugging the KML data from Dec 8 to present into Google's My Map, my first thought of the amalgamation is Stranger Things season 2. And some of the roads come off as the cabling trunk leading to the backside of a network rack.

This morning, the last 4/10 stretch of the 5.4 miles was terribly hard, even if my heart rate was among the lowest of the miles. It's a good place to be because I was growing, but the fun element was lost. It's weird because I felt worse than in my 8-mile walks.

Why? I dunno. On my long walks, I don't lift prior. And maybe since yesterday was a fat focus day (239/14), it contributed something to it? I just know I reached that lovely place where I was happy to leave my mouth hanging open catching flies as I clumped home.

For the past couple of days I've been doing something new: behaving like a crazy person in the shower. OK, so that was my initial impression as I poured 6 cups of warm coffee over my head.

Yes, I'm trying out coffee as a shampoo! It came to me as I read this ingredient to my Old Spice shampoo: caffeine. Plus, there was that whole PAIN-FULL incident the other day of having a gel pop back onto my eyeball.

I have since learned that I'm not the only one that uses coffee. Apparently, it promotes hair growth and dyes hair darker—what 40-something-year-old man doesn't like THAT? And it leaves my hair oh so SOFT and FLUFFY!

While cheap, I cannot suggest going with old Folger's. That smell. But, a cherry from ALDI? I might have to try a bit of that egg nog coffee to fully climb aboard the crazy train.

Laden with the final spritz of a Christmas 2020 discounted Nautica, I celebrate the month that was January 2024:

• Broke my 2nd and 3rd-time all-time records for steps in a day since 2013;
• Achieved 556,898 steps for the month;
• Hit 10,944 daily step goal 28 out of 31 attempts;
• Walked more than 108 miles in cardio sessions, besting December's 72 and May's 41;
• Lifted 22 days.

"The singularity is here."

Naturally, all of this is fueled by my high-fat carnivore dietary maximization. Now day 12 into The 36th Expedition with the the new fat focus approach for Wednesdays and Sundays, my average overall is:

36E: 236.5 / 63, or 2,380 kcal

While I don't really work out the math before I eat—I just want to make sure I'm north of 200 and not TOO far past 75, while not eating any eggs/meat on my FF days, but just butter and broth, I try to listen to me, what do I need to do for my body? That said, it amuses me how it compares with The 35E, when I lost 5.88% weight:

35E: 228.9/75.6, or 2,362.5 kcal (no FF)

18 calories difference? I couldn't have planned that!

I feel really good and positive. My shape continues to transform and become more defined in the mirror. I will have a double-digit weightloss come March 3rd. Thus far, I have the expectation to be sub-200 lbs by my birthday. And mathematically, it is feasible I'll smash a LONG time goal, my high school weight (163) in December. That said, I haven't pushed beyond 5 HFC Expeditions in a row (cue Destination Unknown). But, I will. Watch me.

Now someone who has been besting me in 2024 with her 2,500 calories a day is the ever-encouraging Kelly Hogan (around the 15:14 mark):

YouTube Link