TODAY IS THE DAY.

Today is the day.

When things are easy, it’s easy to be good. But life isn’t easy.

205 lbs. Bench 225lbs x 25 reps. Free jump 5 feet. Squat 225lbs x 30 reps.

Before medical school, I was able to achieve my current gym goal; whether that was physique, mass, calories, conditioning, strength, you name it. I was able to try different diets, cook all the chicken, eat 6 meals a day, spend over an hour in the gym, and most of all stay in a routine. All this hard work paid off. I was one of the strongest guys in the gym. I was the only one using the 130 pound dumbbells. I was the only one box jumping 5 feet. I was in the zone. My hidden motivation was to act like I was training for the NFL combine—where you have to be the best of the best in order to be recognized. Then medical school started.

Medical school is as hard as everyone makes it out to be. Honestly, however, it’s not all about being smart. Yes, being smart will make things a hell of a lot easier. It’s all about the hard-work and dedication. A lot like the gym—yes good genetics will make it a lot easier but it’s all about the hard-work and dedication. Unfortunately, the time commitment of medical school began to take over causing some of my priorities to change. Yes, for the longest time I was able to eat my 6 meals a day and make it to the gym on a consistent basis. But the stress and the too frequent loss of sleep made my gym sessions difficult. It’s hard to go to the gym and lift your best weight when you are only sleeping 4 hours a night.

I tried everything. I used the gym as my motivation to not sleep in and catch up on sleep on the weekend. If I didn’t wake up by a certain time my negative reinforcement was not going to the gym for the day. This worked for a while until my body just stopped caring. Missing a day here and there began to add up to weeks off. Then of course my body began to feel the wrath of not exercising. It was a messy spiral that was difficult to control.

Then my life was blessed with an amazing girl—the love of my life. But again, things change. When we moved in together it seemed as if it was no longer feasible to follow the “bodybuilder diet.” No I am not blaming this on her. And yes we make it work. We meal prep every Sunday, however, she’s a normal human. She would rather not eat boring chicken, broccoli, and rice. So we compromise and eat healthier food with taste and some diversity.

But all these variables began to alter my calibration. Prior to medical school I knew exactly how many calories I was eating and what the macro-nutrition was of all of the foods that I consumed. I knew exactly what weight-lifting regiment worked for me and how many hours of cardio I had to put in during the week.

All of this changed. I lost sight. But recently, I found one of my old progress pics; I’m taking back my physique. Today is the day that I will re-download MyFitnessPal. Today is the day that I will take a new initial progress picture. Today is the day that I’m going to back track and fix my weak points. Some of my research here on out will focus on busy people. Not professionals with set schedules but people who don’t know when night will involve no sleep and when they’re day will be so screwed up that they have trouble eating or meal prepping.

Stay tuned.