Free Spirit Fitness

Just as I opened up this blog and a new white, blank page finished loading, an infomercial came on the television.  I have seen another one almost like it but it had a different name and gave you an extra thirty days.

This info-mercial is called “Insanity.”  They tell you right up front that this is the hardest, most intense workouts, you will have likely ever encountered in your entire life. You can completely transform your body in only 60 days...It is an approach to fitness that is in such contrast from my methods.

They promise a year’s worth of results in just 60 days. They even emphasize that it is called Insanity for a reason. A sequence of clips, featuring well-developed men and women moving at break-neck speed, as some deep voice-over shouts at me from the TV, to get off the couch, and change my body.

I felt a chill run down my spine. I used to do things that way. I kept records of everything and was firmly clinging to the diet I start every Monday.

I remember hitting the gym. Gymbag in hand, and pumped up for a great workout. Today I do Pecs and delts...Lingo for chest and shoulders. The problem I was having may sound familiar to some of you:

I can remember that it was once important for me to know how much weight I could bench-press. It would keep me inspired for awhile, but it wasn't enough. It wasn't worth it. Dread will build a nest in your head if you let it. I couldn't help it because I lacked the will or desire.

But could I hold out for two months? I know it would be hard, but it would work. Can I...Yes. Of course, I can. It is never about ability. It is about want and motive. After being overweight for a couple of years, why do I need fitness so fast?

I am watching these people moving fast and fluently from one thing to another. One clip jump cuts to the next. These partidular set of humans are in great shape. So, based on the evidence,I concur, it definitely lives up to the name.  Tell me if I am wrong…Would a sane person commit to 40-45 minutes per day, six days a week for almost 9 weeks.

For only 4 payments of $39.95 you will get 4 DVD’s that guide you through this grilling and intense workout. You will look like the models and actual people who made it through. And if I would have acted before that little timer expired, I could have had my last payment dropped.

The info-mercial flashed words back and forth in big yellow fonts in front of this group of people killing themselves in the backdrop. "You will get amazing results!" They even boast that you will be saturated with sweat dripping off of you in amounts best measured by the gallon.


My vision of that stole the expression from my face. I have never adopted a fondness for profuse prespiration. But I just have to stick it out for less than two calandar months.

I was thinking I can use my free-spirit philosophy approach to fitness. After being forced into a sedentary lifestyle, I packed on the pounds.

This is me at my heaviest:

As you can see by the display date that was October 9, 2006. People of size are not thrilled to have their picture taken. And while my self-image is not too attached to my self-worth, self-consciousness is a part of every heavy person's life.


By August, 2007, I dropped 125 pounds. This photo I had dropped below my optimum weight to a very lean 160 Pounds. For an adult male, just under six foot tall, and large-bone structure, I should weigh 185 pounds.

In this photo, I may be able to complete "Insanity," but if I can achieve the same results and lose the dread. Although I was huge, my methodology prevented the aftermath sometimes associated with rapid weightloss. Unlike others who have shed that amount of weight often run into a problem with excess skin sagging.

Your skin is more resilient when you are younger, but I am a middle-aged man. It makes no difference. I ate as I wanted. I made smarter choices. I know my body needs certain nutrients to support the whole metabolic process.

Even if you bought Insanity, I hope you don't think that's where it all ends.  You will gain it all back because you want rewards for your strong will...You return to a sedentary lifestyle, because insanity is not something you will want to ever repeat, you will find all of that weight you lost. You might find the weight other people lost as well. Yo-yo dieting is niether fun or healthy. I have lived both lives twice. I have always been generally fit my entire life until I started with the back surgeries.

It began with a Laminectomy in 2000, and finally to a Spinal Fusion in 2003.  The convalesence seemed to last forever. I indulged with food. It was a comfort and a culprit. But, I cannot claim surprise bearing down on me when I knew full well that I was consuming more calories than I burned over an extended period of time.

How could I be surprised. At the very base to one's weight is a very simple concept. You will lose weight if you consume less calories than you burn* and you will gain weight if you take in more calories than you need.

The asterik is representative of an exception to this rule. In fact, I have found myself at a plataeu as a result.

If you are stimulating or working your muscles your body needs fuel to feed the metabolism. A lack of calories and your body will go into a "famine" mode. It will adapt to a lack of food by holding on to fat stores. Really, isn't it common knowledge that it is better to


As the pain became tolerable, and then manageable, I realized the weight was a culprit in keeping my pain levels higher than necessary. It was time to shed the weight. It was how everything in my life up until that moment merged on that hour to inspire the "Free-Spirit" philosophy. It is an approach to life.

I am in no hurry. Hurry is a source of panic and, consequently, a source of stress. I never rush. I would rather be tardy and arrive in a composed and positive state of mind than get there right on time but frazzled by my rushing.

Fear is nothing to fear. It is something to lose. Fear has the potential to be incapacitating. Fear is your enemy. Do everything you can to make fear unwelcome in your head. Love trumps all. Love is a powerful force. It may well be the same energy we receive from the Creative mind's active force. For Christians, is love a face of the Holy Spirit dwelling in each of us. It is how omnipotence is achieved.

Whether you are a scientist or clergyman, you believe in the same things but use different terminology.

Describe God: The Alpha and the Omega. He has always been, will always be, is everywhere, all-knowing, and in everthing composing the material world. "I am...who I am" was the answer Moses got from the burning bush according to Exodus.

That means He is whatever it is He needs to be. "I am" are two of the most powerful words in the English vocabulary according to Rhonda Byrne, author of "The Secret" and "The Power" (both of which I own on audiobook)

She believes that because it is what follows those two words that determine who we are. You can be the lost bobber of a fisherman floating around a lake. You have not taken your rightful domain and are adrift in a sea of circumstances.

You are happy, and then angy, sad, and happy again all in an hour. If we can choose what to think, then why do we so often make stupid decisions. We know perfectly well that we are sowing some really nasty seeds what we can expect come harvest time.
Describe Energy
I found that ironic, since I claim to ease you into workouts and be smart. You don’t need me to tell you to keep going. You will feel that certain burn caused by the lactic acid build up and then you decrease resistance, change angles, or switch to another muscle group.  You do not worry about a single thing. I will have video relating to each chapter's material available through links. You will see me as I explain what I wrote to insure clarity.

I don’t remember a time that it felt good standing in a puddle of my own sweat personally. I hate it when I am dripping sweat all over the place…it burns my eyes, and my shirt is completely soaked. There is little I dislike more.

What would I get for just short of $160?
Along with the four INSANE WORKOUTS, I am treated to two additional DVD’s at no additional cost… More INSANE WORKOUTS!! Or, I could buy FREE-SPIRIT FITNESS for much less than just one payment but I have to be patient. I have to wait ten months in stead of two.  The results are virtually no different when the smoke clears. I just took my time because it is the way I live my life now that I am finally able.

Even if I was free from the torments of back pain and surgical recovery and was a perfectly fit and mature male, I would be terrified of approaching fitness with such ferocity.  I never particularly cared much for copious amounts of sweat being released form every pore in my body. I would not kid myself. I know that dread would kick in before the 60 days were completed…Hell I feel dread just thinking how dreadful committing to that would make me.  I sweat badly enough already. It is a side-effect of the pain medication I get from a pump that is implanted in my abdomen.

I guess it depends on you, or in this case, me, and what course to fitness I would choose. I certainly believe their claim guaranteeing results in two months of 45 minutes a day, six days a week for almost 9 full weeks. YOU SHOULD SEE AMAZING RESULTS…ANYTHING SHORT OF THAT WOULD BE A HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT.

I have as much machismo as any other adult male and I am not ashamed to admit that Insanity terrifies me just to think about. They repeated several times that it is the hardest workout you, as the average consumer, will ever execute. I am in no hurry for results. I am happy and grateful just knowing they are coming. I don’t need changes to happen that fast, and there would be no way any human being could make such a taxing and labor-intensive workout a regular part of their life.
That’s 45 minutes of intense work that you do every day, except one, every week. Even bodybuilders wouldn’t try claiming they could implement that as a permanent part of their life. You burn out.
These workouts are best compared to a wooden match. You strike it over a coarse surface and it ignites into a combustive flash of flame then it drops down. The human body was made to be a body in motion, not in an insane sequence of motions that actually jeopardizes injury.

Our bodies adapt. Life in general adapts. That is what you are doing when you begin using resistance training, or any kind of work-oriented movements that you feel in your muscles for a brief moment after you have finished your activities. But, nothing should last over night. I firmly believe that following the “No Pain, No Gain” philosophy is like following the logic shared by cavemen. It is a true statement to the extent that you should feel a burn and keep the motions under strict form until it becomes difficult to complete the next one. It is a moment that is not totally free of what you could call pain, but that’s it.

Yes, I push myself, just not beyond what I can handle using “robot arms.” or a steady, consistent pace that runs the course of a full range of motion.We did agree on one part. The man selling Insanity in this infomercial did advise that you not count repetitions. You keep going until the muscle stops working due to the inability. FSF follows that, but just on a much milder level of intensity. As long as it enough to produce results, I see no logic in pushing it farther and making my training harder.
As it happens with me, and likely many of you as well, I notice that I quickly lose my enthusiasm toward something so physically demanding.  You know that it is not going to be a permanent change as soon as the thought of engaging in that degree of radical training inspires dread.

Any fitness program will work if you sacrifice, burn more calories than you consume and stick with it.  But are these rigid programs really the way you want to spend the rest of your life?

I refuse to blindly follow the next craze that someone else has designed for me and every other person with my fitness goals.

I don't want to count the number of repetitions or sets I do.  I don't want to stare at the clock that counts down how much longer I have to go.  I don't want my meals to be portioned or skip desert, but I do want to be healthy.  I want to be fit and feel good about myself.