I've been reading Plato's
Republic, so maybe I've just got this on my mind a little more than I should.
As I lay awake in bed this morning, contemplating whether I should remain in bed and get my full seven hours of sleep by kicking in for another hour, or should I get up and go to the gym and do my workout and just get it over with, I had a thought.
I heard the traffic of the city outside, and I felt like I was in a competition to be more productive than the early morning drivers out there. That woke me up. Why? I don't know, adrenaline or something. The fight or flight reflex. Something. Point is, I was definitely awake and not motivated to go back to sleep.
I am a man who believes that paradoxes, or duality of being, forms most of reality for us. We ignore it at our own peril (even though many do, sometimes me). So I wondered who I would be competing with by getting up so early. Truly I would only be competing with either my self (the version of me that would just sleep in), or a transferred persona of someone "out there" that would be my nemesis, and again, that persona would really be my own creation, thus, by extension, me as well.
And Then Plato Got In My Head. What if competition within was just, where competition without was unjust? That is, if in any event, that my need to win at the cost of someone else -- a real person -- losing, is always unjust, while my effort to win against myself -- to exceed my best effort yet -- is always just. The measurement of who performed best is neither just nor unjust, it's one of those things that doesn't really matter. We make up stories about how it matters, but the stories are based on our need to compete.
I think there's something here worth exploring, but I have to go workout now so that I can compete better.
Should have gotten my picture taken last Saturday. As of this coming Saturday, I'll have been in the
Men's Health Abs Diet contest for seven weeks, rather than the required six weeks to qualify for the car.
Still, I'm
very excited about this. I tried the Body for Life thing. That was not so good. Why? Here's how BFL works: you still have to eat six times a day, but the way the meals are suggested, it's pretty clear that they would very much like you to be downing one or two EAS Myoplex® shakes (at around $4 a shake) each day. Plus take some EAS creatine supplements, plus ... whatever. It's also a 12 week plan, although you are supposed to see results earlier. Even with that, I probably could have done it, but the real killer comes when you see what the recommended meals are like. The regular meals, I mean. You can't get much more to the "I'm eating this for my health, not because I like it" side of the meter. Plus, even when I was trying to do it, it still felt like I was not eating enough.
Abs Diet is different. Is it better? Well, for practical reasons, yes, although maybe not for objective reasons. The practical way it is better is that a) it is working, and b) I'm still excited about being on it, seven weeks later. I eat a lot of foods that I ate before, and not so much of some other foods that I ate before. I still feel like I'm eating like
me. The cheat meal (one a week) is smart; I do use it. Am I getting ("dunh-dunh-dunnnnnh")
stupefyingly amazing results? Probably not. Do I care? Uhhhhh NO. Because eventually I will get the results, and I'm quite okay with my pace.
So far, I've dropped from somewhere around 195 pounds to a predictable 183 or less, and my body-fat ratio is about 22 to 23%. And it just keeps going. I've increased my strength in the gym, but most important,
I'm still going to the gym, even after seven weeks, and I still feel like going. This is a win for me, regardless of whether I qualify for the Crossfire convertible. Although I'd be lying through my teeth if I said I wasn't still interested in the car...
I am listening to a free download of this CD from MSN, and I'm reallly enjoying it, even though I'm not a terribly big tenor sax fan. Nice and jazzy -- not smooth jazz. Apparently David is a Latin/Cuban musician, but the Latin influence in this CD is very subtle (to me).
I heard Bill Maher use this term on Fresh Air. You'll have to listen to it yourself to see how he uses it.
To me, it means the large number of people who want to feel that they are part of the political process by having an opinion about a political issue, but have not actually bothered with the hard work it would take to determine the facts behind the issue. Rather, they seize the opinion of a celebrity (which could mean actors, sports figures, politicians, comedians, etc.) and represent it as their own.
These are the people who believe that all or most problems could be solved by applying their demagoguery wholesale.
I, on the other hand, subscribe to the notion that the world is best served by simultaneously serving both sides of a paradox. More on this later, when I can better think of a fine way to illustrate what I mean.
I know that Madonna's song "Crazy for You" was featured in a movie about a kid who wanted to be a wrestler. Came out in the 80's. I could find it on
IMDB but I don't want to take the time right now.
