JIM STOPPANI’S 12 WEEK SHORTCUT TO SIZE: DAY 12

Sound asleep I could here the distant sound of my alarm on my phone. Snooze. 5 minutes later I heard it again. Snooze. Waking up at 3:30AM is hard. I guess it does not help that I literally put the phone right next to me. I don’t really remember what time I woke up actually. I do know that it was around 4AM because I could remember me being on T-Mobile thinking of ordering the iPhone X. I exited the site. I’m proud of myself for once. Why would I need the newest phone when my 7 plus does everything that I need it to do?

I text my friend and I get ready for today’s workout. Upon arriving at the gym, I can feel the itchiness. Slightly. I’m thinking that it does not help that I take preworkout in the middle of the day just because I need to get through my day.

Today’s a leg day. I hate legs. I don’t think I like legs. Actually I don’t like squatting and dead lift. I’m pretty sure my form for romanian deadlifts is bad. I kind of wish I could ask the gym members if my form is okay or how to even do it. I can’t ask my friend because he will simply tell me that it’s perfectly fine.

I’m bad at math. Well, today I was at bad math especially when trying to figure out the amount of plates I should put on a bar. I guess I need to work on that. I’m thinking I like leg extensions and using the machines. I’m hoping that I eventually can get a bigger behind.

So far I’m liking the program. I’m not eating healthy though. Yesterday I ate chinese and I am hoping today I can start doing an “apple diet”. I’m thinking it’s more of a fast, so maybe I’ll eat only apples during 6PM-10PM only. I’ll do that for 5 days. I really want to get rid of my “love handles” because they’re just annoying me.

JIM STOPPANI’S 12 WEEK SHORTCUT TO SIZE: DAY 7

Rest, but don’t rest. Really? I could hardly sleep last night. I probably was sleeping really awkward because my legs were just hurting. I looked at what today’s “rest” day consisted of and it looks like I was supposed to do HITT cardio or just brisk walking. Great. Not only that, I woke up late. Bummer.

I’m at work walking around looking like some robot with an awkward zombie pose. Doesn’t help when customers are walking through the door and I’m in the back of the store doing a thriller walk towards them.

Upon further research, it looks like it’s actually a good thing I’m in pain. Looks like my body is going into some kind of chaos mode which is basically adapting my body so I’m able to handle heavier workouts. Sounds like I’m going through transformations each time I work out. When I look at it that way, I’m excited!

So my goal after work is to hit up the gym real quick to do intervals on the elliptical before I head out to eat with a bunch of friends!

JIM STOPPANI’S 12 WEEK SHORTCUT TO SIZE: Day 4

I woke up to the sound of my alarm. Snooze.

I woke up to the sound of my other alarm. I laid in bed in the dark contemplating whether I should get up. At this point, I decided to not make any excuses. I drank my usual pre-workout with a teaspoon of creatine. Actually, I was a little skeptical about the creatine because I have been paranoid that my face has been bloated since taking them.

I’ve done research and there are people who says that it has happend to them and others who say that it doesn’t cause it. I’m thinking this is all in my head. I head off to the gym. It’s cold outside, but I try to not let this deter me from continuing my training.

As I walk into the gym, I’m greeted by the front desk. Rather I had to say good morning in order for him to acknowledge my presence. There’s not many people at the gym at 4:40AM. What a relief. I walk to the dumbbells to start my workout routine.

I’m not sure if I know how to do shoulder workouts or proper form. I want to ask the person next to me, but he’s too busy making faces while doing his workout. I don’t want to feel like a total amateur so I continue with my workout. I’m honestly amazed how people can lift more than 30lbs. I can do 20lbs when doing my shoulders. What a let down!

I think that this program has me seeing where my weaknesses lie. I have a lot of them, but I do feel different. I’m nto sure if it’s just me but I feel like people are noticing it too. Oh well. Workout complete.

Jim Stoppani’s 12 Week Shortcut to SIZE: Day 1

I was debating whether I should quit Freeletics or not. I signed up for a gym membership and to pay for a subscription to use the app was nonsense. I liked the idea of having Freeletics on hand and being able to workout at the gym, from home, or just do my running. I saw no point in paying for two things so I had to look elsewhere.

I came across Jim Stoppani. I have to admit when I came across the program, I had no idea how to do it. I ended up just quitting the program before even starting it, but I was determined.

I woke up at 3:30AM to head to the gym. I didn’t arrive till around 4:30 where for the first time, I would be doing something totally different then what I was used to. To my surprise, I realized that I couldn’t lift heavy like I thought. Well, I wouldn’t say I can lift a lot of weight but the amount of weight I was lifting today was just sad.

People were looking at me, but I did not care. I was determined to go in there and finish the workout. There were some workouts where I had no idea what they were. Then I had to research them on Google to find out. Thank you Google! While working out my triceps though, I’ve noticed that my left triceps were hurting. I think it was because I was doing 80 pull-ups and 80 push-ups yesterday.

I feel fantastic! I hope I can continue!

20,000 Steps A Day

I’ve been trying to aim for 20,000 steps a day. Originally, I wanted to hit the recommended 10,000 steps but I wanted to do more. It’s actually a lot harder than it looks.

When I first started, I was able to do my running program but with the weather lately I haven’t been able to. I’ve been walking back and forth in the store trying to reach my goal.

I admit the hard part is trying to be consistent. You would think that hitting 20,000 steps is easy because all you do is walk but it’s not. Without keeping track of my steps, I usually hit just 3,000 steps per day which is awfully bad.

I’ve noticed that my legs started feeling heavy. Sometimes when I am walking my steps, I get a little wobbly. I think I’m losing more weight, but that could be a combination of the walking and the intermittent fasting. Who knows? What I do know is that when I stopped a whole week trying to reach my target goal, I felt a little less confident. I felt like I was slowly gaining my weight back or I wasn’t just myself. I felt more depressed and I lacked more focus.

Losing Weight Intermittent Fasting

I’ve been intermittent fasting for a couple of weeks. Usually, I would only eat within a 4 hour window and then the rest of the day I would just drink water. There were some occasions when I would eat and then I would eat at night which would mean I broke my fast for that day. Yet I’m here writing to let you know I don’t feel like I’m gaining any weight at all. Actually, I feel that I’m still losing weight regardless. I feel fantastic!

I go to the gym when I can, but I think I’m going to start wearing shirts and never look at my body definition until like a year later. I want to base it off on how I feel instead. For those are still losing weight from intermittent fasting, let me know when you first started.

Dear Future Self: Surrendering

Dear Future Self,

It’s me again…

Since the last time I wrote you, I think I managed to get a hold of things. I guess you probably forgot that you got lectured by your boss. I didn’t realize that I am so depressed. I thought that I was okay, but apparently other people can sense it that it was affecting my work progress. Crazy huh?

My boss is very worried and he’s worried to bring me on as a partner in the business if I’m not getting back to my old self. I guess I can’t really handle my emotions well. I ended up crying. Shameful…

Today, I managed to complete most of my todo list. I’m not sure what music you’re listening to, but just in case you ever feel down… listen to Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. I’m not sure what kind of music it is. It could be swing. It could be jazz. Either way, it uplifts me. It makes me want to dance.

I’m done making excuses for why our life is the way it is. No worries though. I’m taking action little by little. I guess any kind of action is better than not doing anything at all which is why I continue to write.

Make sure to never skip a workout whenever times are getting difficult. That’s what I’ve done and doesn’t actually help. If you can manage to just get up and go for a run, you’ll feel a lot better.

My boss says that I am constantly trading things and selling things to get other stuff because I’m looking for a quick fix on obtaining happiness. It was such an eye opener that I never thought of that behavior. I guess what I’m looking to do now is try to obtain happiness without binging on food and buying materialistic things. After all, it’s not really helping me financially and the burden is getting heavier.

Life is a puzzle. Well that’s how I want to view it at this moment. It’s a massive jigsaw piece that I’m trying to piece together. I’m going to be experimenting and experiencing new things hopefully. Whatever piece I do not want, then I’m going to toss it away. I probably won’t make sense by the time you read this, but it makes sense to me at this present moment.

Whatever you are doing…. don’t give up.

Dear Future Self

Dear Future Self,

It’s a tad bit awkward knowing that I’m writing this. I was originally supposed to just do a regular blog post talking about what kind of progress I’ve made throughout the week. It’s actually harder than it looks, so here I am writing to you in hopes that one day you’ll look back to remember the struggles you are going through.

My life has been a mess. I realized that the only person to blame is myself. I’ve made some idiotic mistakes that got me in this situation in the first place. I’m financially struggling and I can’t run anymore.

You’re probably in a good place right now or at least I hope so. I’m hoping that by the end of this year, I will be able to walk a path far better than this one. Right now, I have a wonderful girlfriend who’s been with me through everything.

She’s been with me through all my hardships, and I sometimes feel like I don’t deserve that kind of love. Afterall, I feel that she deserves someone better. Future self, if only you could give me some kind of hint on where I should go… this would be a lot easier.

It is in my hopes that the person I love is the person I’ll end up marrying because I know she sees a part in me that I don’t even see. So I guess, I’m trying here… Let’s face it. I wanted to give up. I wanted to stay in my comfort zone, but it just feels like I’m being pulled away from that more and more I try to stay in this little world of mine.

If you look back at this whether it’ll be tomorrow or a year from now. Please let me know how much I’ve progressed since writing you this.

It’s Not All About You; Engage Others

It’s a brand new week I’m off to a good start. I was able to do my running before I went to work. I was able to do my body weight training. I was able to do my miracle morning and then clean up the whole store.

So what’s my plan for this week? My plan is to be consistent with the content I’m posting but more importantly I think I want to start engaging with other people. I used to sit back and just get likes and comments. I would expect for people to like my posts, but I never replied back to people. What’s worse is that I would never comment other people’s posts either.

So starting today, I am hoping that I would spend at least 1 hour each day commenting people’s pictures or social media posts. People put effort to put content out there so the least we can do is interact. Social media was created so we connect with others, but sometimes we’re just seeking attention for ourselves only.

Day 1 – Running Towards My Fear

I woke up early and stared at my computer. I stared at my to-do list and figured that there’s no point. I probably procrastinated for a good hour of moping around and complaining about my current lifestyle.

I’m not sure what it was, but I knew that I couldn’t just sit still. If I really didn’t like the way my life was, then I had to do something about it. No one was going to help. Only I could help myself. Of course there’s going to be people who support me and people who want to help, but when it comes down to it…. you need to get up. So that’s what I did.

I went to go for a run and even though I haven’t ran the past couple of days. It felt amazing@! It felt amazing knowing i was able to accomplish one task which made me want to accomplish more.

Sure, my bills are looking bad right now but if I keep trying and keep being persistent then eventually they’ll all be eliminated and that’s what I have to stay focused on. I have to keep making small steps that will better my future.

How much can I progress?