Random Friday-ness: Episode 8

Woohoooo – welcome to Friday!! The sun is shining in London, Ontario and all is right with the world. How did your week go? Did you set some outrageous goals for yourself and knock them off the to do list this week?

How’s your fitness going – can you tell me your 1-2 action steps you are using to achieve your goals?

The Random Challenge

Random pic – St. Patrick’s day treat

Tyler and I just finished a 28-day challenge – my goal was to lose 2% body fat, add 2lbs of muscle and hex bar deadlift 225lbs – if I failed to accomplish that, my punishment was no Barakat dinners for 8-weeks.

Well, it looks like my preferred customer status at Barakat is at risk because I failed – but I feel good about it! I feel good because although I only got my deadlift up to 210lbs, that is still a new personal best for me AND I did lose the 2% body fat and added over 2lbs of muscle which is usually hard for me. So I will keep working on the 225lbs.

Next 28-day challenge – workout 5 days per week, lose 2% body fat, do 6 chin ups. If I fail – no beer for a MONTH – so failure is not an option 🙂

So why don’t you set a 28-day challenge for yourself.

Random #1 – why don’t girls wear full clothing when they stand in line at the bar for St. Patrick’s Day and it is -4C outside? Why?

Random #2 – if you ever find yourself in Dublin you must go to the Guinness Storehouse – it is awesome and the view from the bar (where you get a ‘free’ Guinness is worth the price of admission alone). Go see the Book of Kells at Trinity as well – amazing library.

Random #3 – The more my hairdresser talks, the shorter my hair ends up

Random #4 – thanks guy at Starbucks who just closed the blinds to keep that pesky sunshine out – yeah, hate feeling the sun on my face on a beautiful morning – PS – you smell like you are wearing ladies perfume.

What I am reading…

1. The Power Of More by Marnie McBean – what sticks with me so far is how she talks about motivation and how it doesn’t matter the source of your motivation as long as it comes. So some days you may be motivated to do the work because you are so inspired to excel or achieve the goal that it almost feels easy. On other days you may only be motivated by the fear of looking like a quitter to others. I found this reassuring. Was anyone else under the allusion that you should spring out of bed everyday eager to conquer your goals?

2. Be Our Guest: Perfecting The Art Of Customer Service by Disney Institute – A great book if you deal with people and the tips are scalable to to any business. Revolution Conditioning is clearly NOT Disney, but if what they do works on a grand scale all around the world it will certainly help our athletes have a better experience to go along with their awesome training. The big point that has stuck so far is that we should not treat people the way we want to be treated, we should treat them the way THEY would like to be treated – – aahhhhhhhhhh.

Awesome song du jour…

U2- Invisible

I love this song for a few reasons – it is a U2 song, the procedes got to project (RED), which strives to eliminate transmission of HIV/AIDS from mother to child and finally because it is an AWESOME song! Enjoy.

If you cannot see the video in the player below – you can click on this link – http://youtu.be/ajVoeX4eqIQ