Belly Buster (or Gut Check)

Ever since I took weight training my senior year of high school and seen how exercising four days a week can change a body I've tried to work out and exercise regularly. I have been fairly unsuccessful in that endeavor as I have bouts where I go for a few months and hit the gym three times a week and then the next few months not go at all. Throughout most of the year I mostly get at least one session of basketball or football in a week, but any doctor (like mine did) will tell you that that is not enough exercise to be "healthy". Combine this lackluster effort with my sedentary ways of sitting in front of my computer or the TV, and I have harvested myself a pretty hefty gut. I will not put up a photograph because firstly I'm too lazy right now and secondly because it is not the purpose of this blog to make you vomit. For those curious as to how bad it could be (being as lanky as I am), a personal demonstration can be arranged. To give you some sort of idea though: if you saw me shirtless in a remote African village, you might think that I was suffering from Kwashiorkor.

Is it lack of motivation, commitment, or simply the fact that I am lazy by nature? With the past few months of non-work, I actually have been getting some home workouts in here and there -- but there is no substitute for a squat rack. Which is why tomorrow I will be accompanying a couple of friends to a local L.A. Fitness and using a Free Pass to see if that place is for me. If I can't drag my own butt to the gym, hopefully the threat of a monthly fee going to waste will. Weight training not enough to take care of that abdominal fat, I am going to try and get some cardio in everyday -- which will be hard, as I hate distance running with a passion. Combine all this with 8 Minute Abs and I feel like I am on my way to an ideal body:

1. A healthy one. First and foremost this is for my health -- to build good habits for the rest of my life and give me a good foundation to stave off disease and infection.
2. A good looking one. Vain or not, having a good self-image is the first step to boosting self-confidence. I'll feel like I've succeeded once I secure a six-to-eight pack.
3. One built for athletic performance. At the very least I want to improve my baseball game; faster [twitch-muscle fiber], stronger [core and power foundation], better. And preferably without the use of HGH. 
   

I'll put up some stats once I get a real measuring device -- that 165 lbs to the right is a guestimate (although it's probably fairly close). My goal right now is to change whatever fat is in there to muscle -- about 175-180 lbs of it. Well, minus brains and bones and blood and guts and peepee and stuff. Let's see how succesful this endeavor becomes... It is my intent that by summer I can distribute to all you loyal readers some tickets -- tickets to my gun show.