I read this story about a guy who wandered into the woods and lived there for 27 years. Now I grew up in NY in the 70’s and 80’s and this dude basically sounds like a homeless person. He’d walk around and pilfer camp sites and refuse bins … How is he not just another homeless guy? See when you’re homeless and lucky enough to be living in rural Maine, they write stories about you in GQ.Now I want you to notice something about the picture above, look at how trim our wilderness vagrant looks in his prison scrubs compared to just about everyone around him. And they’re accusing him of stealing? So you have this community of over-eaters who don’t get enough outdoors exercise and they arrest this poor guy living in the wilderness who’s only trying to save them from their penchant for marshmallows and pop-tarts? Sad.
This supports my theory about optimal body weight. Your body naturally wants to be at that range of no visible body rolls to carry around. It reminds me of a conversation I once had with this obnoxiously condescending bicycle-shop owner who went on for about 10 minutes about guys who’ll pay an additional thousand dollars to trim 6 ounces from a bicycle frame and meanwhile are 30 lbs overweight. He had a point. There is a reason why every couple of pounds in carrying-weight trimmed from a 4 man tent (below the 15 lb. Walmart behemoth weight) comes roughly with about a hundred dollar increase in price and even more when you get down to those “elite" equipment snob weights. There’s a difference between weight that you can drop and not worry about (like firewood) and weight that you have to carry around, that’s why people will pay $500.00 for a four pound tent and eight grand for a bicycle and even more for a divorce!
So your body wants to be where you don’t have this very expensive weight hanging off your belt. And while an Italian bicycle designer isn’t going to track you down and write you a check for three thousand dollars every time you drop 8 ounces, the motivation is clear. I still brace myself for pain that isn’t there every time i stand from a sitting position … that’s motivation. I end up wondering whether I should go off into the wilderness like this guy. Being homeless in Northern Minnesota would be a lot easier than being homeless in Manhattan …… lots of lakes to fish from … And, you don’t have to worry about pizza stealing subway rats, or the C.H.U.D. threat, or sharing your steam tunnel with a cat lady. I’ve heard grouse is delicious and not that difficult to catch. I’d have to wait for the kids to be a little older, and with my luck the wife would tag along and convince me to stop at the IGA convenience store for jerky (she’ll never admit she likes the stuff so I have to buy it) and corn nuts.
You can call it “starvation weight” or your personal “cave-dweller” weight — that optimal efficiency weight where you are not carrying around any excess baggage, a boxer’s weight.
In getting there (lately) my energy has been down and I’ve been bleeding more from my gums and cuticles but I’ll get my cholesterol tested in a couple more weeks and I’ll know more. I will at least have a true baseline reference. Getting as close as possible to my homeless-person weight should hopefully help get my cholesterol numbers down as I don’t think the homeless suffer from hyperlipidemia any more than the normal population, at least those not residing near major pizza establishments. I figure once I get down to 160 or so I’ll get my blood drawn and then I can hopefully start packing on some pounds. I don’t like how it appears to be a lot easier to throw me around in the dojo compared to when i was 185 or so … Ideally I’d like to pack on 10 to 15 lbs of muscle, which is not easy without the aid of steak and cheese …
One punch man is still going two or three days a week (although I’m limiting the squats to once a week) … The foot injury is all but resolved, running pretty much free, which is nice. Noticeable disadvantage in some aspects of ne-waza (groundwork) at this lower weight but am quicker on my feet and far less prone to injury. Been having some distorted thinking but nothing out of the ordinary … the squirrels are still monitoring my movements.
Opening day tomorrow!
Atlanta Braves @ New York Mets, Monday, April 3, 1 p.m., ESPN (Julio Teheran vs. Noah Syndergaard)
HAPPY THORSDAY EVERYONE!
No comments:
Post a Comment