My Xbox stopped working. After 7 years of abuse, the thing had finally stopped playing DVD’s properly. That’s it’s primary use right now since I’ve cut back on playing games. It would play about 40 minutes…and then start skipping like crazy. Yesterday, I broke down and decided to buy a new XBox 306. Alas, Best Buy was out of stock of the elite system (Halo 3 has been good for business!) so I decided to to just buy a DVD player.

Due to the completely ignorant, lazy and inattentive staff at Best Buy, I spent a good hour wandering around the store trying to figure out the best thing to buy. In the end, I stumbled across the few HD DVD systems they had in stock. While I do not get any stations on my TV (on purpose), I really enjoy watching movies, and figure it would help me maximize the enjoyment and value I get from my flatscreen.

The player came packaged with two HD DVD’s, including the movie “300.” It’s one of my favorites….so after getting home, I popped it in to see how much difference it would make. IT TOOK MY BREATH AWAY! I literally started talking at the TV….holy crap! oh my god! this is unbelievable! etc.

The resolution was unbelievable. It’s was like going from black & white to color. It you have a nice TV (720P or 1080P resolution) you absolutely MUST get a HD (or Blue-Ray) DVD player. It is so much better.

But anyway….the point of this post is about getting the body of your dreams. Watching the movie 300, it’s hard to ignore the fact that EVERYONE (even the Senators?) are ripped to shreds. I started poking around and ran across the cause for all those six-packs. It’s Gym Jones.

The brainchild of Mark Twight, a former star climber and all-around possessed uber-athlete, this invite only gym was the training grounds for the cast and crew of 300. His no-nonsense approach called for ridiculous intensity, high variability (they rarely repeat the same workouts) and maniacal focus (training 5+ days per week). Pulling tractor tires, pull ups, dips, dead-lifts, etc….lots of bodyweight exercises (which I am a huge fan of), little rest and a highly competitive (but team-based) training environment.

His site has some great articles outlining his philosophy with some tactical training and nutrition advice. He even has an answer to the rumors floating around that the cast and crew were either a) all on roids b) super-naturally gifted and super-fit to begin with or c) both. As far as Mark is concerned, it all comes down to incredible focus and hard work. I highly recommend reading some of the articles on the site, they are inspiring and motivating!

A big lesson I have learned is the importance of a) maintaining high intensity b) constantly varying workouts c) watching what you put in your mouth every seconds of every day. I often fall into a trap of doing the same routines (same exercises in the same order with the same number of reps/sets). I also am not as consistent as I need to be with my diet. As a vegan training to gain strength and mass, this is especially important.

I was making dinner and started munching away on some local (organic) field greens. I literally shove the stuff in my mouth until I can’t fit any more in and chew it like a cow. My goal is to keep chomping until whatever I am cooking is cooked. Hey, it beat snacking on potato chips.

Today, after a couple mouthfuls, it finally dawned on me….I have a blender…why not use it? I’ve actually never blended my greens before. It seemed incredibly strange filling the thing up with Arugula, Spinach and Red Lettuce….but I tried it out.

In the end, I blended a massive tub (the size of one of the big pre-packaged tubs you see at Whole Foods) of green into about 24 ounces of semi-solid mush. It didn’t taste like anything, and was more of a drink than a solid. It went down really smooth.
This was so much easier than chomping down on the salad…and I consumed about 4 times as much as I normally would have! Bonus!

Add to that my 32 ounces of fresh carrot juice this morning (go Jamba!), 2 apples, 2 bananas and a large bowl of bean sprouts…and I’m running clean today!…as long as you don’t count the two soy dogs I just inhaled.

So I made the commitment last Sunday to unplug myself. It went very well. At first a bit nerve-wracking but once I got over my initial impulses to see “what was going on” online….I actually started enjoying it.

What did I do with all my new-found time?

• I walked around the city a lot
• I ate lunch at one of my favorite places, Pan Africa, an Ethiopian place near Pike Place Market.
• I bought the Sunday newspaper (something I rarely do) and read it at a coffee shop.
• I cleaned my apartment (a little).
• I did laundry.
• I went grocery shopping.
• I went to Yoga class.
• I read a little.
• I just sat around staring out the window.
• I made a bunch of phone calls to friends and family.
• I went to bed a lot earlier than normal (like 9:30pm).

It was great. Gonna do it again this Sunday.

Starting tonight at midnight…through Monday (whenever I get up), I will be completely computer-free! I am not even gonna boot up my machines (well…they are always on…so I’ll start by turning them off).

I expect a boatload of productivity, flashes of inspiration and lots of creativity tomorrow…or maybe at the very least I will finally get those bags of clothes over to Goodwill and my car cleaned out. Either way, it is going to be a good day.

I’ve heard to no end that listening skills are one of the most important, yet underdeveloped skills we have.

I consider myself a decent listener, but find it to be a pretty active thing. When I “listen,” I tend to be thinking a lot….processing things, trying to summarize things in my mind, paraphrasing, etc.

During my yoga class today, my teacher made a pretty profound statement….

“Listening occurs in the absence of thought.”

I guess I am not so good at it after all!