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2002/11/11, 09:03 PM
This is for those of us who need motivation. We all fall into this category at some point. Whether "just trying to get into shape", or competitive athelete, we all wonder is it worth it? The price is high, but the rewards are even higher! We have to come to grips with one thing,our biggest and hardest competition throughout life comes from within ourselves. Why are we doing this? Where are the results? Why not jusst take it easy and be a couch potato like everyone else? These are competitions we must face sometimes on an almost daily basis. That strength to fight has to come from within you. And, when that isn't enough, a place like this board has tremendous value. You have a community of people here always willing to help. Even sometimes our "best friend" can be a battle. We all have that "friend" who tempts with that piece of cake, "one piece won't kill you". Well, probably not. But will it lead to another? Will we think, well, I ate one the other day, another one today won't hurt me. By all means indulge somewhat, if you can handle it. If not, then know your limitations. These are competitions we must face. The strength must come from within ourselves. Keep the competitive juices flowing. This is how we better ourslves. Strive for more. If we give in and quit, one day it will come back to haunt. We will say, if only we hadn't quit back then, where would we be now? Don't let this happen to you. Be strong. Win that inner competition. You will be all the better for it, in health and appearance. Good luck to all of you, and yours in health!
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2002/11/11, 09:18 PM
Thanks for that one bb1fit.
So true
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To change it, or to create it, simply train it!
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2002/11/12, 11:29 AM
Good post so true. We have at work a birthday a week it seems, plus they have a "bagel" day. If I ate that every time we had that...LOL well lets say that it would not be good. But I get strange looks, cause I have toleave the room, if I donot I eat. I choose not to eat it but when I get back to my desk I have like 3 slices on my desk, cause you know the big guy likes his cake...anyway they just do not understand the struggle I go thru each day, to control this hunger I have. But it is like BB1 says with this site I have been able to do a lot better. Thanks guys!
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IF THE SWEAT AIN'T IN YOUR EYES, AND IT AIN'T STINGING, THEN YOU AIN'T LIFTIN!
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2002/11/12, 11:57 AM
Great words bb1fit! You have such good advice and encouragement. I wanted to tell you that it finally sunk in that what you eat is the telltale of your progress. I wonder how much longer it would have taken me to get that message if you did not instill that in so many posts. My best wishes to you in all that you do! Thanks!
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What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us
----- William Morrow
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2002/11/12, 06:22 PM
Thanks for the motivation. I know that I can be my greatest foe or my greatest ally.
It really can be a battle sometimes. Which makes the victories so much sweeter.
I am in it to win the battle but to win the war!
OK enough sailor talk. :) Hey at least I do not have the potty mouth on here. hehehehe :)
:) Melissa
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Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but rather we have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.
- -- Aristotle
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2002/11/13, 09:57 AM
Great words of advice, from yet another great person via this site. Wouldn't it just be waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too cool if someday we all met at a freetrainers seminar get together! Meet the faces behind the words! Just a passing thought of some really cool people/actually friends/family we all have come to know thru...this message board system.
:o)
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2002/11/14, 06:23 PM
awww fudge. I meant I am in it not to just win the battle but to win the war as well.
Can we say brain fart. :o)
:) Melissa
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Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but rather we have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.
- -- Aristotle
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2002/11/14, 06:40 PM
mandre...you are excused!! LOL...I just did about the same thing. In competition section on here I put up a post aobut who was competing, called curious or just a poll. If you notice, I put pole! What a duffuss I was..well, noone has called me on it yet! :>}
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2002/11/15, 08:24 AM
LOL I started to bb1 but I didn't get back into town until the post was several day old.
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2002/11/15, 10:12 AM
Well thanks Mike, I somehow just knew I could count on you!!
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2002/11/15, 04:55 PM
I married a pole! LOL!
I just got it! :0)
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To change it, or to create it, simply train it!
Ivan
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2002/11/15, 08:05 PM
hehehe bb1fit. Awww I was re-reading some of my posts and gosh the spelling and grammar mistakes I have made. Suddenly my high school English teacher looms over me. "Tsk, Tsk, Melissa you really need to pay more attention I know you can do it. And one more thing do not say aint!"
Oh my goodness I have not said aint in years. She keeps coming up. LOL
She will never know how much she influenced me. Tough on the English. After her that was my best subject in school.
:) Melissa
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Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but rather we have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.
- -- Aristotle
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2002/11/15, 08:56 PM
Really good post BB1 and Mutt I totally know how you feel, working in the corporate field, we are constantly habving birthdays, baby showers, anniversary parties, or just plain fridays, it is terrible!!!! Thank god we have discipline!
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Bettia.... You are nothing less than Beautiful in my eyes.
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2002/11/17, 04:17 PM
Nice pics bb1fit. I like.
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Lisa
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2002/11/20, 08:51 PM
Geesh we need a poster of you and one of Leslie (she looks like a Barbie doll!) as our inspirational pics. Actually I'm not in to ever competing in anything like some of you do but you both look GREAT! So all that hard work, vitamens, supplements etc. pay off!
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2006/01/25, 08:15 AM
bump
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2006/04/26, 01:24 PM
Thanks bb1 for the advice, my biggest thing is snacking on junk. The kids like sheese nips, and it is my addiction. But for the past two days I haven't had any at all!!
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2007/01/11, 01:53 PM
Looks like it's been awhile since anyone posted here, but that was a great post BB1.
I especially liked this "our biggest and hardest competition throughout life comes from within ourselves."
So true!
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Either You Worked Out Today or You Didn\'t
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2007/01/11, 02:13 PM
Right...and life in general does not make things easier. It is so easy for something to 'happen' during a day to sway us from the gym/healthy lifestlye. As we age, it only gets worse. Stay focused, we all have 24 hrs. in a day as the cliche' goes. How we choose to use 1 hr. of that time maybe 3 days a week is totally up to us.
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Quoting from BIGKATT:
Looks like it's been awhile since anyone posted here, but that was a great post BB1.
I especially liked this "our biggest and hardest competition throughout life comes from within ourselves."
So true!
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"If it ain't broke, you aren't trying."
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2007/03/11, 12:21 PM
I read this elsewhere (hope no one minds me posting it here) and it felt like a good reminder to me.
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"So, what are you doing for a living these days?" Bob asked me. We're sitting on the couch at one of those tedious holiday get-togethers, you know, the ones where you're supposed to be nice to family members you never see except during major holidays and funerals. I think Bob is my wife's brother-in-law's second cousin or something.
"I'm the assistant editor and a writer for Testosterone magazine," I say. Bob looks at me with a blank expression on his face, as if I'd just told him I sell handmade testicle warmers beside the freeway and was looking to open franchises across the nation.
"It's a bodybuilding magazine," I say.
Blank expression. Deer caught in the headlights. Ronnie Coleman doing trigonometry.
"Oh," Bob finally says, "I heard you were, like, one of those bodybuilder guys or something. So, what's that like, you know, working out every day and stuff? I just don't have time to lift weights all day, but I have been meaning to get rid of this beer belly." He takes another sip of beer. "What do you suggest?" Sip.
At first I was a little offended. I wanted to grab him up and say, "You can't tell I'm a bodybuilder?! Look at my ass! Now, if that's not a nice round squat-built piece of sirloin, I don't know what is! You think that comes naturally? I can crack walnuts with this puppy! Wanna see? Huh, punk? Do ya? Do ya?"
Then I realize this just might cause a scene and could cost me several Christmas presents. I was planning on returning any presents I got and using the money to buy a power rack, so I didn't want to jeopardize this gift getting opportunity. I also realized that old Bob probably had a certain preconceived image of a bodybuilder and I just didn't fit that image. I'm not gorilla huge; I weigh about 205 at 5'11" right now. (When I first started lifting I was a pudgy 159, so that's not too shabby.) Also, I wasn't wearing clown pants, a fluorescent string tank top, a hanky on my head and one of those little fanny packs. And isn't that what real bodybuilders are supposed to wear?
Bob continued to sit there drinking his Natural Light, smoking a cigarette and waiting for an answer, oblivious to the fact that he'd come this close to seeing some serious walnut- crunching ass power. I tried to figure out how I could explain to the average guy what the typical T-Man does and why he does it. How could I get him to understand what it is we do, how we feel, how we live? So I took a deep breath and told him something like this:
"Well, Bob, I guess you could use the term bodybuilder if you really need a label for what it is we do. Most of us actually don't stand on stage and compete, though. We lift weights and manipulate our diets so that we'll look good naked. Sure, it's healthy too, and we'll probably live a longer and more productive life than the average guy, but mostly it's about the naked thing. Truthfully, it goes beyond even that.
"Let's be honest here. We do it because of people like you, Bob. We look at you sitting there with your gut hanging over your belt and we watch you grunt and groan just getting out of a chair. Guys like you are our inspiration, Bob. You're better than Anthony Robbins, Bill Phillips, Deepak Chopra, and Zig fucking Ziglar all wrapped up into one. We love it when guys like you talk about not having time to exercise. Every time we see you munching on a bag of potato chips, you inspire us. You're my shot in the arm, Bob, my living and breathing wake-up call, my own personal success coach.
"You want to know what it is we do? We overcome. We're too busy to train, too, but we overcome. We're too busy to prepare healthy meals and eat them five or six times a day, but we overcome. We can't always afford supplements, our genetics aren't perfect, and we don't always feel like going to the gym. Some of us used to be just like you, Bob, but guess what? We've overcome.
"We like to watch 'normal' people like you tell us about how they can't get in shape. We smile and nod sympathetically like we feel your pain, but actually, we're thinking that you're a pathetic piece of shit that needs to grow a spine and join a gym. You smile sheepishly and say that you just can't stay motivated and just can't stand that feeling of being sore. (For some reason you think that admitting your weaknesses somehow justifies them.) We listen to you bitch and moan. We watch you look for the easy way out. Because of people like you, Bob, we never miss a workout.
"You ask us for advice about diet and training and usually we politely offer some guidance, but deep inside we know you won't take our advice. You know that too. We smile and say, 'Hope that helps. Good luck,' but actually we're thinking, 'Boy, it would suck to be you.' We know that 99% of people won't listen to us. Once they hear that it takes hard work, sacrifice and discipline, they stop listening and tune us out.
"We know they wanted us to say that building a great body is easy, but it just isn't. This did not take five minutes a day on a TorsoTrack. We did not get this way in 12 short weeks using a Bowflex and the Suzanne Somers' 'Get Skinny' diet. A good body does not cost five easy payments of $39.95.
"We like it that while you're eating a candy bar and drinking Mountain Dew, we're sucking down a protein shake. You see, that makes it taste even better to us. While you're asleep we're either getting up early or staying up late, hitting the iron, pushing ourselves, learning, succeeding and failing and rising above the norm with every rep. Can you feel that, Bob? Can you relate? No? Good. This wouldn't be half as fun if you could.
"We do it because we absolutely and totally get off on it. We do it because people like you, Bob, either can't or won't. We do it because what we do in the gym transfers over into the rest of our lives and changes us, physically, mentally, maybe even spiritually. We do it because it beats watching fishing and golf on TV. By the way, do you know what it's like to turn the head of a beautiful woman because of the way you're built? It feels good, Bob. Damned good.
"When we're in the gym, we're in this indescribable euphoria zone. It's a feeling of being on, of being completely alive and aware. If you haven't been there, then it's like trying to describe color to a person who's been blind since birth. Within this haze of pleasure and pain, there's knowledge and power, self-discipline and self-reliance. If you do it long enough, Bob, there's even enlightenment. Sometimes, the answers to questions you didn't even know you had are sitting there on those rubber mats, wrapped up in a neat package of iron plates and bars.
"Want to lose that beer belly, Bob? I have a nutty idea. Put down the fucking beer. I'll tell you what, Bob. Christmas morning I'm getting up real early and hitting the iron. I want to watch my daughter open her presents and spend the whole day with her, so this is the only time I have to train. The gym will be closed, so I'm going out in my garage to workout. You be at my house at six in the morning, okay? I'll be glad to help you get started on a weight training program. It'll be colder than Hillary Clinton's coochie in there, so dress warm.
"But let me tell you something, Bob. If you don't show up, don't bother asking me again. And don't you ever sit there and let me hear you bitch about your beer belly again. This is your chance, your big opportunity to break out of that rut. If you don't show up, Bob, you've learned a very important lesson about yourself, haven't you? You won't like that lesson.
"You won't like that feeling in the pit of your stomach either or that taste in your mouth. It will taste worse than defeat, Bob. Defeat tastes pretty goddamned nasty, but what you'll be experiencing will be much worse. It will be the knowledge that you're weak, mentally and physically. What's worse is that you'll have accepted that feeling. The feeling will always be with you. In the happiest moments of your life, it'll be there, lying under the surface like a malignant tumor. Ignore it at your own peril, Bob.
"Don't look at me like that either. This just may be the best Christmas present you'll get this year. Next Christmas, Bob, when I see you again, I'm going to be a little bigger, a little stronger, and a little leaner. What will you be? Will you still be making excuses? This is a gift, Bob, from me to you. I'm giving you the chance to look fate in those pretty eyes of hers and say, 'Step off, bitch. This is my party and you're not invited.' What do you say, Bob? Monday, Christmas morning, 6am, my house. The ball's in your court."
Okay, so maybe that's not the exact words I used with Bob, but you get the picture. Will Bob show up Monday? I don't know, but I kind of doubt it. In fact, Bob will probably take me off his Christmas card list. He probably thinks I've got "too much Testosterone," like that's a bad thing. I think Bob is just stuck in a rut, and as the saying goes, the only difference between a rut and a grave is depth.
The way out of the rut is to make major changes in your life, most of which won't be too pleasant in the beginning. The opportunity to make those changes seldom comes as bluntly as I put it to Bob. Most of the time, that opportunity knocks very softly. What I did was basically give Bob a verbal slap in the face. You can react two ways to a slap. You can get angry at the person doing the slapping, or you can realize that he was just trying to get you to wake up and focus on what you really want and, more importantly, what it'll take to get it.
If you're a regular T-mag reader, I doubt you need to be called out like Bob. But maybe you've caught yourself slacking a little here lately. Maybe you've missed a few workouts or maybe you started a little too early on the usual holiday feasting, like, say, back in September. Just remember that the time to start working on that summer body is now. The time to get rid of those bad habits that hold you back in the gym is now. You want to look totally different by next Christmas? Start now. This isn't because of the holidays or any corny New Year's resolutions either. The best time is always now.
Christmas day I want you to enjoy being with your family and friends. I want you to open presents, sip a little eggnog and have a good meal. But if your regularily scheduled workout happens to fall on December 25th, what will you be doing at six o'clock that morning?
That's what separates us from guys like Bob.
Get to the gym!
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2007/03/11, 12:27 PM
Hmm, I just realsied there are some bad words in there and I can't edit my post to censor them. Sorry if anyone finds them offensive.
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2007/03/11, 12:44 PM
I remember reading that...can't remember how I came upon it, but it was entertaining.
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2007/03/13, 09:11 AM
WOW! Jonshez that was a good read.
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A** kissing only works if you know which one to kiss.
If your dog is fat, you're not getting enough exercise. ~Author Unknown
"Insanity is doing the same thing you've always done and expecting different results."Roger Milliken
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2007/03/13, 11:06 PM
lol that was great kinda reminds me of me when i started here...I was Bob....difference is I showed up...
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Jason Fox 6\'1\" 380lbs
Problems are only opportunities in work clothes-Henry J. Kaiser
The only person\'s opinion that matters is the person in the mirror.-Original
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2007/03/13, 11:06 PM
lol that was great kinda reminds me of me when i started here...I was Bob....difference is I showed up...
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Jason Fox 6\'1\" 380lbs
Problems are only opportunities in work clothes-Henry J. Kaiser
The only person\'s opinion that matters is the person in the mirror.-Original
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2007/04/22, 10:27 PM
Yeah, it may have bad words in it but that gives it the emphasis needed to really drive home this post.
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2007/05/31, 03:53 PM
When you come home tonight I will have my favorite jeans hanging all over the house, (you know the ones I can't wear anymore) Getting out the pics tommorrow, they will hang everywhere too. Thanks Baby I needed MOTIVATION:love:
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THE NATURAL WAY IS THE ONLY TRUE PATH TO SUCCESS, PRIDE, JOY, HAPPINESS, LONG TERM FULFILLMENT AND SELF-ESTEEM!
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2016/07/31, 02:02 PM
Wow, that opening post I made 15 yrs. ago. Still holds true. The competition is within us. Noone lives our lives for us.
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2018/04/11, 11:17 AM
Still a great post!! Need all the motivation I can get, it's far to easy not to do what I should and need to be doing.
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2018/12/24, 07:46 AM
Thank you for good post)
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MOTIVATION
