DAY 90 = PCP DONE. A long life of activity, vitality, wellness, and awareness just begun . . .

So it is so hard to figure out how to make a quality, meaningful, and complete last post. But I'm going to do the best I can and hopefully update from time to time in the future. Once a month or so with thoughts on maintaining, new growth, and encouragement for any new PCP groups to come.

So without further ado, here goes nothing!

SECTION 1: PCP Mindset and changes

So if you decide to embark on this journey of changing your lifestyle to be balanced and healthy, to the high limits of expectation. What can you expect to change about your life?

1. In this world you will never "fit in."

2. You will view yourself and others that have the same level of fitness completely different from the world around you. This opinion is usually that you are better. It's hard to fight against that new prejudice.

3. Your habits will change so much, eating dried figs can seem like an "indulgence"

4. You will be overly critical of fitness, especially of others. The type of people who used to seem "fit and attractive" might not any more to you. Especially if even though they are "fit and attractive" they don't approach fitness the same way you do. 

5. You will be happy

6. You will feel "right" or "in the groove" a lot. Things will go your way more often, as a by product of positivity and better performance in all areas.

7. AWARENESS

8. You will value those who are close to you ever more

9. CONFIDENCE

10. Finally, you will change everyone around you for the better, at least for the better of their health, without even trying.

To sum up once you achieve a PCP mindset (It came for me around day 60) so many things happen. All the things above become very noticeable and you will feel very distanced form your former self. But around day 80 you will totally forget how you used to feel and the PCP is like a new skin or personality.

Be prepared for major changes. You your new "powers" for good (those of attraction, confidence and awareness). Fight against the prejudice which comes form self-discipline and turn it into empathy for others who just don't understand what they are doing to their bodies and remember that by making the changes you have you are impacting everyone for the good. 

Your wonderful habits will instill guilt in others. 

They will also inspire.

Share with those who repeatedly ask you how you are doing it how they too can get in shape. While at the same time realize that most who ask are only hitting on you or making conversation, they don't want a sermon. 

And lastly bask in your new found body and posture.

SECTION 2: Where the PCP leads

Be prepared for motivation. You will want to be creative and start more projects. Run with it. But be aware that the first feeling of being superman do fade a little. Around day 30 you see major changes and the workouts aren't too serious yet so you think you can take on the world. wait and be balanced.

The PCP, in my case, also strengthened by belief in natural medicine and I envision a world with everyone in PC daily. It will be a wonderful place when it comes.

Maintenance is a beautiful thing as well. Once you are in truly good shape once in your life maintaining is very easy. 80% of it is diet so never veer to far away from your new habits.

And remember anyone can do the PCP. You can do the PCP.

And once you do the PCP you can do anything else you want.

For me I have many goals. I hope to be back around with those updates in the future. I have some business ideas. So wonderful art ideas. Tons of Parkour and travel to do. And a PCP convention to help Patrick organize. I now have the goals and time to work on and improve my mind-body connection, spirituality, and flexibility.

And not to mention tree-climbing here I come!

SECTION 3: Thanks

Sean, Corry, David, now is my chance to thank you on my own PCP blog for paving the way as the first PCP guinea pigs. Your honest and enthusiastic blogs really made me anticipate doing this even more than I imagined. KNowing I went form commenting a TON to being on the PCP complete roster with you is something I am so proud of. I hope we one day get to meet.

Amy, Tim, Adrian and Emiko, what can I say? This was such a great trip and the support you all gave in the beginning helped so much! We all kind of lost our blogging stamina to some extent (except Tim, a post every day! amazing!) but know you were there doing what I was doing was great and I hope we all get to keep in touch as we continue down our path to whatever our vision of true physical PC may be. I hope we also get to meet one day and reminisce about all the good times. Stay strong my friends!

PCP Japan, you guys are awesome and did amazing it was great to have a group slightly ahead of us to follow and get a preview of what was next to come. Great job guys! You all finished strong!

Hama Mamas, Hang in there and rock that PCP! I hope none of you regret the hard work you are doing and I'm sure Corry's six-pack is motivation for all!

Readers, Family and friends, thanks for the support I hope I have helped you as much as you helped me.

Chen, the man behind the scenes! Thanks for all the hard work with our diets and I hope I one day get to meet you and see you in action!

Patrick, man I don't know what to say. Thanks for the opportunity, the hard-work, and the friendship. I hope the journey doesn't end here and we get to meet in person sometime and not just over iChat! I won't ever forget how I stumbled upon this blog form the yoga garden channel and how I think I have been reading or writing a PCP blog every day since! You have done great work, I hope it pays off, and maybe this time you can make some money at something you love! Keep in touch and thanks again for your inspiration and keeping it real.

SECTION 4: Before and After

BEFORE

Height - 5' 6.5"

Weight - 148lbs

Waist - 32"

Stomach - 33"

Chest - 36.5"

Thighs - 19"

Calves - 13.5"

Biceps - 12.5"

Forearms - 10.5"

Neck - 15"

AFTER

Height - 5' 6.75" (up .25", posture I think)

Weight - 133lbs (down 15lbs)

Waist - 29.5" (down 2.5")

Stomach - 28.75" (down 4.25")

Chest - 36" (down .5")

Thighs - 19.5" (up .5")

Calves - 13.5" (same)

Biceps - 12.5" (same)

Forearms - 10.5" (same)

SECTION 5: Closing Comments

FInd something you love to motivate you and do it! Get moving! Once you have digested this and the other PCP day 90 blogs, get up and move!

You will thank me later.

Do things the hard way because when you get good at that everything else will seem super easy. A simple Parkour philosophy. Practice the hard moves and when those are easy, everything else is cake. Trust me,

You will thank me later.

Do something to make yourself feel good not just your mouth. Eat real food. Be active. And take each moment by the horns. Don't put things off. Do it now. Yes I mean now!

You will thank me later.

Trust me.

BE PROUD TO BE HUMAN.

That's all I have to say. If you are embarrassed about your body and looks. Upset that you get winded walking up a couple-flights of stairs. Fed up with all your medications. DO something about it. It's your life and your body. Only you can fix yourself. So please start with something, anything. The smallest change makes a difference. Your body wants to be healthy, it's this world that doesn't want you to be. Fight against it!

And be proud to be human . . .

Until next time. 

Nate

Life is a storm, my young friend. You will bask in the sunlight one moment, be shattered on the rocks the next. What makes you a man is what you do when that storm comes. You must look into that storm and shout, ‘Do your worst! For I will do mine!’ 

Day 90 post coming soon

Hey guys I'm working on my day 90 post I want it to be special so bear with me and check back saturday. If all goes well it will be up in the afternoon. If not the latest will be Sunday. Thanks!

Nate

3 days left!

Craziness.

I'll be doing a long post tomorrow about our last week homework assignments. Plus I will probably start writing my day 90 post ahead of time because I have so much to explain.

But for tonight I am off to get a TON of sleep because Patrick says that I should and that's way more permission than I need to sleep in after this crazy weekend.

I never thought it was possible for me to sleep any better but I do. I went from being a great sleeper to being a PRO!

And to continue the course of awesome tree climbing goodness here is a great video from someone in Washington. Absolutely stunning and I can't wait to try some of these techniques. Actually tomorrow I may go to Webster Park and try this out. Especially the work on smaller trees. However I will probably avoid doing it barefoot in this 40 degree weather. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Have a good night and sleep well!

Storyboard Parkour and Nature

I have been looking to the future so much recently. I think it's that I know this 90 day deadline is imminent and I have all this room to do more stuff after!

So I have all these plans I have been forming and I can't wait to launch a few new projects over the coming year. And as usual work ever more toward Peak Condition. And on top of that work towards Parkour. Especially this nature Parkour. I have been watching a bunch of videos on Youtube from other traceurs that have the same idea as me. Let me tell you the basis for wanting so badly to do nature PK.

David Belle is credited with the "invention" of Parkour. But one of the reasons why I respect the man so much is the fact that he does not take credit for this. He feels that Parkour is in every single one of us, that humans have been doing it for centuries but we have just forgotten.  

This kind of view of Parkour is amazing in my opinion. Parkour is such a profound discipline that forces you to connect the body and mind in ways nothing else can why not use it to connect yourself to your surroundings? Since so much of the earth is urban now it only made sense for David to develop the parameters of the discipline in such settings. The predictability of urban environments also makes it safer and easier to train. But my view is why not use PK to strengthen your connecting with the earth?

Squirrels, monkeys, cats, wolves, all practice PK in nature. So should we.

So here is 2 videos of nature PK and what I plan on developing. And also a funny (i think) storyboard about the invention of PK. (not David Belle but originally, however many centuries ago)

Darn! There is something, in this case a fence, in my way! I do not want to keep walking around it. What can I do?

Aha! I have it! instead of wasting precious steps and time to go around I will go over!

This works! How did I never think of this before?!

That was cool. Next time I will try something even faster like leaping or vaulting the fence! Sweet.

Hope you enjoyed it! Here are the videos!

Nature Parkour and PCP Day 90 closing in

So I mentioned before about how I want to do Parkour in nature. The great thing about PK is it can be done anywhere. It's simply getting from point a to b in the fastest most efficient way possible. And to be able to hone those abilities you can practice a certain set of defined movements anywhere. This allows you to become more proficient at getting form point a to point b. 

So here are some cool things my buddy Jason and I found today at the local Powder Mills park. Fallen trees make great places to practice cat-walks and balancing. Also I invented (well I've have never seen it anywhere else) the crab-walk. It's a cat-walk but upside-down. It's great for walking down inclined trees in a quadrupedal motion.

Also I have noticed the movements change a lot because of the environment. You have to use more caution than speed because limbs can break and bark can slip or break away. Also things are round an uneven not flat and sturdy. When you gorilla walk a tree or cat walk your feet have to curl and grasp around the trunk, more so the narrower it is.

So I look forward to doing this more and more. There were awesome rock walls, stairs, and railings at Letchworth to practice on too.

Also this winter I am going to start snow-shoeing and cross-country skiing. Also as soon as the snow melts my friend Doozer and I will start hiking trails and country roads with full packs preparing for our trip to Europe. The great thing about the PCP is when you are done and already in shape you can spice it up a ton and it all works to maintaining your fitness.

So here are some pics. Enjoy! It was a beautiful 65 degrees and sunny!

What we were dealing with. Plenty of fallen trees. Many of which connected to make long balancing courses.

The new Crab-Walk!

Jason Trying out a Cat-walk

Jason doing another Cat across a tree on a slope with a 10 foot drop underneath.

Awesome sitting spots we found!

Alright have a good one!

Hiking and a Physical

So I went on an awesome hiking trip this past saturday. I mentioned I went to Letchworth State Park here in upstate NY. 

It was great!

I did about 6 miles of hiking I think. But we stopped a lot for do some random filming and just to mess around. A couple things we did which were much easier in the shape I am in now was climbing trees, climbing a couple steep inclines, and A rocky cliff/slope. It was great fun and I want to do some winter hiking. Maybe even get a pair of snow shoes!

So here are some picks and a new fitness picture up. I don't notice a huge difference and I feel that I won't in the last week but the sense of accomplishment is great. I'm looking forward to PK and good weather in the spring to have the opportunity to really get in amazing shape! These 90 days so far have done something truly amazing. And that is to form a unshakable foundation for fitness. Amy was talking about how she won't be at her "ultimate shape" at the end but we knew this going in. The human body can always improve and that's why it's great. So lets have a great last week everyone!

Enjoy the pics! More to come in other posts. I have a story board of "what is Parkour?"

Also I had a check-up (physical) with my doc today. It went really well! He was super-excited to hear about the changes I have made and noticed them right away and said I am at the perfect weight right now, unless of course I put on more muscle mass. We had a discussion about how health care would be cheaper and better if everyone did the same stuff. And how sad it is as a doctor and pharmacy tech to see how so many people could just make minor changes and have tons of improvement.

And apparently have 98 over 54 blood pressure was a really good thing for someone my size fitness and age. I thought it was freaking low!

Have a great night everyone! I'm off to watch some survivor and listen to Bright Eyes!

Wow tomorrow is day 80!

I can't believe there are only 11 days left. Well tomorrow I will hopefully get a short post in because I will have a busy day I want to leave something each day for sure. Even if it's really short.

Later this week I'll be back with a long post about my awesome hiking/climbing/trail-running/amateur film-making trip to Letchworth State Park hear in NY. It's the Grand canyon of the east, and boy did me and my best friend Jason have a LOAD of fun. More on that later.

So for my indulgence I sampled many things. It all came to the 1,000 calories and boy was it a LOT of food. 

So this is what I had. And how it tasted. I got everything at Wegmans again because it is my most favorite place on earth.

1 cup New england clam chowder - Amazing, not salty at all, potatoes nice and soft, plenty of clams. Creamy and good and warm

1 slice garlic cheese pizza, dipped in marinara - Awesome but greasy. I put parmesan and red pepper on it too. I should have skipped the parm because it was too salty. Over-all a very good choice, the marinara was pure awesomeness. Plum tomatoes and basil freshly pureed all the way baby!

2 glasses spiced apple cider - Amazing and it will never get old. I love that taste

1 pumpkin square - Great! But the sugar on top ruined it. So me and Jason are gonna make PCP worthy ones. After all the man is a chef. It had a whole wheat and walnut crust which could stay the same, and the pumpkin on top could have been a little thicker. But it's only pumpkin so pile it on! Veggie servings! And instead of a crumbly sugar topping, which made it WAY too sweet for my PCP taste, we were thinking either only sprinkling cinnamon and nutmeg on top OR if you want to be a little non-PCP drizzling some thin lines of some 80% dark chocolate to bring down the total sweetness of the dish.

Observations - My stomach was PACKED. It was all very good and I am happy with the whole meal and this part was really neat. Hoe I treated it mentally. It would not be easy for me to start eating that stuff all the time because in my head it was a "one-time thing" so-to-speak. So even though post-PCP I may have occasional indulgences what I am saying is that is all they ever will be. My body is not used to that, neither is my taste buds, so getting back into a habit of doing that would require time, money, and many trips to the bathroom. All of which I don't want to spend to start eating unhealthy again.

Over-all my body took it fine. A little sugar rush from the cider and pumpkin bar. A little upset stomach from the grease on the pizza. But not too bad. My best and most thought out indulgence yet!

Until tomorrow have a good one!