Day Eighty-Seven: "Spring arrives"

Spring arrived in Japan as it always does. In this country you can feel spring more than in most others. The warmer air, the birds, the yellow-green of fresh leaves, and above all else, the spray-brush pink of the cherry blossoms. This year, for hundreds of thousands of displaced people, spring must have seemed an eternity away. A month ago to the day today. And for tens of thousands of others, it never did arrive. May they rest in peace. And still today, strong aftershocks killed still more people.

Multiple large quakes again in the last few days. We're getting used to Magnitude 7 quakes. Surreal times. Tonight I was doing side crunches until failure when one of the somewhat stronger quakes hit. I thought the blood was rushing to my head and the room was spinning. Nope. The room was in fact spinning. I cannot even imagine how the homeless in Tohoku have coped mentally with this disaster. It is depressing enough to look out on a city that I love turned dark at night, rain pouring down tonight as the room around me pitches and rolls. I am warm, dry, safe and lucky. It may seem superficial and silly, but if I can't appreciate what I have and can't feel motivated to finish the PCP strong amid all this, there's something wrong with me.

On to discussing the past week in PCP land. As we had switched Days 85 and 86 for the purposes of working out at Patrick's studio, some of us wound up doing shoulder exercises two days in a row. The burn was very much prevalent as a result, especially on the shoulder raise/Da Vinci super set.

The other day I noticed a little something in the mirror that was nice to see. It happened while I was applying deodorant, actually. I noticed I had a bit of muscle at the back below my armpits. Lats? Never had them before.

So, homework. I go to the gym every week so this one was relatively easy. The absolute worst are the middle aged ladies who are at the gym to socialize and chit-chat incessantly on the stretching mats in their tutus. The next worst are the giant gorilla types. You know, the muscle beach types. These guys are clearly taking a bunch of artificial muscle builders and are as thick as tree trunks. They are throwing weights on the floor and grunting and growling. And they don't look good at all. They have classic "big-itis." Just getting bigger and bigger in the upper body and looking silly. Then there are the guys who train for 2 hours. Again, makes little sense. And then there I am, chomping at the bit, wanting to always keep my breaks short, even when I am on weights. Always been that way.

What else went on this week. Trained with James and Rich and Patrick. James and Rich looking good. James with the bulk up in pecs and arms and Rich looking very trim. Impressive.

Had a birthday dinner to attend on each of Saturday and Sunday. Wasn't perfect PCP as I had to skip carbs with no good source of it other than buttered/salted bread and the grilled chicken I got was a bit oily, but for the most part it went ok.

Some meals from the past week:

Veggie omelette

Pile of mixed veggies

Girlfriend's bruschetta (no salt of course). Why didn't I think of this before?

Lunch at the office

Week 12 photos up. 63.6kg (71.4kg), 11.1% body fat (18.5%) A few more days to go.

My Day 91 is going to be a challenge for sure...