Fifty-Six Alpha

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Fifty-Six Alpha is the MOS (Military Operational Specialty) Designator for Chaplains in the Army. My goal is to get into shape so I can join the Texas National Guard as a Chaplain. I am a proud 31 year-old Nerd who has struggled with weight issues all of my life. I am an ordained Minister, have pastored two churches and have served as the interim pastor of a third and also have a Chaplain Endorsement from my Denomination. I have completed Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) at a hospital. CPE is a kind of chaplaincy training program where you minister half the time and spend the other half of the time doing intrapersonal work, individually and in group, to learn how emotional hang-ups affect how ministry is done, it's tough. I have also been a volunteer Police Chaplain for two Texas police departments, and am still serving with the second. I want to serve concurrently withy my police department and a national guard unit. I also have an unrelated day job.

For too long I have let self-doubt and self-loathing win as I attempt to be healthy, to be fit, to be lean. Through counseling I have come to label that voice of laziness my saboteur. The saboteur tells me it's too hard to work out, I hate working out, I won't stick with it so why bother. In telling my counselor that I don't know how to get over that self-doubt, the counselor suggested I get angry at the saboteur.

That works.

Now, when I feel self-doubt, I get mad, I tell the voice to shut up, I condemn it in language not befitting a minister (it's all in my head, so it's okay). I have realized, the saboteur is not real, so it gets no compassion, no mercy, no forgiveness. I kill it each time it arises to sabotage my path to health. It may have unlimited lives, i.e. can keep coming back, but I have unlimited ammo with auto aim to defeat it, and I have one more bullet than it has lives. I also don't have to fight this battle on my own, God gives me the strength I don't always have to love myself, and the only thing that can get in my way is that voice of doubt. Today is Tuesday, and I only had that counseling session back on Friday. It's amazing how much that silencing of self-doubt has made things easier. What began as an attempt to make sure I stay consistent with working out has helped me in many other areas of my life. I know now I WILL make it to the goal, because all it takes is consistency, and this time I believe that consistency is possible. Every other time in my life that I have tried to get into shape I was defeated before I began because I knew the changes I made would not be permanent, that at some point I would get lazy again.

No longer.

Now Fifty-Six Alpha is my mantra, the goal I work toward.

Incidentally, the exercise plan I'm using is to move toward passing the Army PT test for my age bracket. I'll be 32 by the time I get Army-Strong, so I'm using those scores as my target. The PT test involves Pushups, situps, and a 2 mile run (in that order). So I'm doing as many pushups as I can (not many yet, but it will improve), the same with situps, and am working on pull ups. They are not a part of the test, but the obstacle course will involve a lot of pulling myself up onto stations. I'm then working toward running 2 miles at speed. I use a treadmill with an MPH indicator. I'm increasing the distance by .05 miles each day (today will be 1.75) and once a week I'm adding .1 mph to my speed (currently at 3.7, I need to get to about 8.5 to really score well on the run).

[Porkins77]

"I have realized, the saboteur is not real, so it gets no compassion, no mercy, no forgiveness. I kill it each time it arises to sabotage my path to health."

This line really spoke to me. I have had the same problem all my life and this is exactly what I need to do...destroy that which is evil, so that which is good may flourish (to steal a line from The Boondock Saints)

Welcome, Tank!

PS- I love Texas and can't wait to get back there.

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Texas loves you my friend. We'll leave the light on for you.

[Porkins77]

Will ya leave the a/c on for me too...cuz it get haaawwwwt.

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

We'll turn the A/C on about October, durn thermostat gets stuck about May and we can't unstick it till then.

[Whitewizard]

That's a pretty impressive goal. A lot of people underestimate how important chaplains are for military and first responders. Sometimes they can be the difference between coming home healthy and coming home to a world of problems. Good luck getting there, it sounds like you've done a lot of hard work already.

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Athena, yes I have, Its been a real encouragement to have something to do besides hanging from the pull-up bar and pulling really hard. I'm still doing that, but I'm also following the one freakin' pull-up plan Steve put together. Thanks.

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Good News! I'm proceeding to level two of the One Freakin' Pull-up workout. I managed to go through level one starting at 15lb dumbells and proceeding to the next higher weight each workout. Today I start the body-weight rows. In other news, I planked yesterday for 3x14seconds and am up to 7 pushups (two and a half weeks ago I could't do any pushups). My 2mi run walk is proceeding nicely as well, I went from walking the whole 2 miles till now I am running approximately 1/5 of the distance and add more running slowly but steadily each day. This feels awesome.

[BeigeTurtle]

Hi tanktimus! Congrats on all the progress (and I, too, love the idea of not showing the saboteur any mercy). Do you mind if I ask how you advanced in your pushups? I'm also at zero, and my utter lack of upper body strength is a bit of a bummer. Right now I'm doing knee pushups, but I'd like to move on to full pushups. Thanks!

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

BeigeTurtle, I started at one and kept at it. Each day I was like, well if I did x yesterday, surely I can do x+1 today, it's not that much extra effort. It also helped that I looked up proper form for pushups. Since I'm working toward National Guard chaplaincy, I looked up the proper form for an Army Pushup and found out I was actually making things harder on myself than I had to. Also, when I was doing the inverted rows for the pull-up progression, I'd do dumbell presses on my back. Get some dumbells, as light as you want, and do 3 sets of eight presses. Lie on your back and push the dumbell's up till your arms are fully extended and then back down. When you can do 3 sets of 8, increase the weight. Do this three times a week, but keep working on pushups every day. Also, planking will help you keep your back straight during a pushup.

Athena, congratulations on your progress, keep it up.

[BeigeTurtle]

Thanks, tanktimus. I think I need to be pushing myself harder to add on as I do things. It's easy for me to get comfortable in a workout and then not move forward from there. I need to keep reminding myself that while working out should be fun, it shouldn't necessarily be comfortable, either.