I was worried about this week.  It was our first week with a full five days of practice.  I was worried that I was going to be exhausted both physically and mentally.  I was worried that the combination of my age and amount of physically activity would make me prone to injury.

Each day, the workouts were intense.  The first hour always kicks my butt!  It's an hour of sit-up type activities, in their various disguises of torture my coach calls "exercises".  After an hour of torture on a padded mat, then it's two hours of diving.  We switch back and forth between the 1-meter board and the 3-meter depending on the day.  This past week, Monday, Wednesday and Friday were all 1-meter days.  Tuesday and Thursday we were on the 3-meter board.  Next week, it'll be the opposite.

It was a lot of fundamentals this week... working on the approach, getting my arms up faster, keeping my chin up, taking the dives up instead of out, etc.  All bad habits I've formed over the years from being my own teacher.

I didn't feel progressively more exhausted as the week went on.  By Friday, I was still in pretty good shape.  I ate lunch with my son at his Middle School "Dine and Dash", and so the meal requested was Carl's Jr.  Not exactly the best thing to eat before diving.  HOWEVER, to my credit, I had small fries and a turkey burger sans cheese.  So it could've been a lot worse.  The good thing about that was that on Friday I had a lot more energy because I wasn't going into practice on a practically empty stomach.  So that was a nice change.

Friday's practice definitely put me through the ringer!  We were working on keeping my arms up for a reverse jump and we tried various techniques.  One of them, jumping off the side of the pool--which I wasn't crazy about because I was afraid I was going to crack my head on the edge.  So like an idiot, I volunteered to do it from the board--which is about 3 feet higher than the side of the pool.

Well... I didn't land it so well.  And this was the result (see fat picture below).

This picture is depressing on so many levels.  It was painful.  It's painful to see that I'm actually that fat.  It's been more than 24 hours and it actually still hurts.  Go figure.

Possible captions for this photo: 
- Camera adds 10 pounds
- 10 pound potato in a five-pound sack
- It's the angle
- It's not the angle

So it was a frustrating start to a practice.  

The one thing I wanted to get before I left for the day was either a reverse 1-1/2 or a back 1-1/2.  I didn't care which one.  I just wanted to get one of them on Friday and I want to nail the other one this next week.

Coach Jose knows that I'll try pretty much anything.  I've got tons of bruise photos to prove that.  So he won't let me go for it, unless I can nail the lead up a couple of times in a row.  So we made it through my entire list and we had about 15 minutes left of practice.  I asked if we could work on the back 1-1/2.  Jose had me start with a back somersault.  I hit it once, then I missed,  Then I hit it twice in a row quite nicely.

Coach Jose said, "Okay, I'll let you try the 1-1/2.  But you need to do exactly the same thing you just did."

"Okay," I told him.  I got on the board, turned around with my back to the pool.  I let out all the air in my lungs.  Took a deep breath in as I pressed the board, one, two times.  I swung my arms around as quickly as I could and threw the dive with all my might and with absolutely none of the technique I had just practiced.  I spun around one full rotation.  I kept spinning and opened up to enter the water...SMACK!  I landed flat on my back.  That was at least the second hard smack of the day.

I got out of the water and it was back to fundamentals.  I did two more back somersaults and executed them like I was suppose to.  I had one last shot to try my 1-1/2 back before practice was up.  I got back on the board, kept telling myself to do the exact same thing as the somersault.  I took a deep breath in one more time as I pressed the board and threw my arms in a circle.  I vaulted into the air and flipped around 1-1/2 times, opened up and went into the water with a pretty crappy entry.  But at least I had made it!  I had taken the dive up enough to have enough time to do the rotation.  FINALLY!

That's one of those dives I've learned a number of times and then proceed to unlearn it after not practicing it for a few weeks.  It's so frustrating!  The other one I have to learn again is the reverse 1-1/2.  Hopefully that'll be this upcoming week.

I'll try to post a video a little later of the smacks.  They were a sight to behold!

I left practice Friday feeling very happy and proud of myself that I'd accomplished the dive I wanted to do.  I vowed I'd be good on my dieting over the weekend.

Today is Saturday.  We started the morning at a showing of Kung Fu Panda 3.  I resisted getting anything from the concession stand and almost made it to the previews.  But the smell of the buttery popcorn was just too much.  I caved and got a medium popcorn and diet soda.  It was so good, but probably a million calories.  Afterwards we went to lunch at BJs.  I ate from their "Skinny" menu or whatever they call it...but again with the tempting, delicious food!  The Pizzookie just sounded way too good and eventually I caved and ate the Pizzookie.  It was so good!  Not sure it'll be worth it in the long run, but it was heaven at the time!  Curse you, peanut butter Pizzookie with amazing chocolate ice cream! 

Yesterday, Monday, the three-meter board was broken.  I had psychologically prepared myself all day to do 3M, so when I got there and it was broken, I was disappointed--but maybe just a tiny bit relieved.

Today, Tuesday, was the antithesis.  I didn't think that the board would get fixed overnight.  But it did.  So we worked on 3M all day.  I predicted that I'd have just two smacks.  Here's a quick summary of how the day went.

I've done better on my diet today.  I think it's starting to sink in that I have a competition coming up in about three weeks.  Unfortunately, I don't think I'm going to lose 30 pounds in 3 weeks.  But I'll just do the best I can and however fat I am at that point...well, that's what it'll be.

Day two of dive team started out after a full day of "school".  It was my first day of classes, which was interesting.  I went to First Aid and then after practice I had Health.

Dive practice was on the three meter board.  I went through the normal warm-ups, line-ups, etc. and then began my "set".  I started with fronts.  I did some front dives, 1-1/2's and then moved onto some 2-1/2's.  For whatever reason, I just didn't hit my 2-1/2's.  I'd make it around, but barely.  I'd never really extend out of the dive or open up, so it looked like a huge human ball going into the water.  And that much weight hitting the water at that speed created quite a splash.  Not the look the judges go for.

Then I moved onto the back dives.  I walked to the edge of the board, turned around and took a deep breath to prep for my first back dive of the day.

This is what ensued...
​

It's been six days since this happened.  Today is my first full week of dive team.  I'm mostly recovered from this.  And I've learned my lesson to make sure I jump it up more and not let my legs "go for the ride" so to speak.

​Heading off to Dive Team, day six.

It's Friday morning, 1/15/2016.  Today I start dive team!  I'm so excited!  I got a text from the coach last night with the schedule for the weekend (the HOLIDAY weekend).  We're doing 2 hours of dryland today and 2 hours of diving!  That's four hours of working out!!  And then there's practice on Saturday morning at 6:30 am and another four hours on Monday!  I think they're trying to kill me right out of the gate!

I've managed to work out every day since the beginning of the year, minus Sundays, so I feel like I'm in better shape than I was two weeks ago.  However, I packed on A LOT of weight over the past three months, so that's still an issue and I still look ridiculous in a Speedo.  (But that may always be the case regardless of weight.)

Anyway, I was so excited this morning, I just had to do a quick entry in my blog!  I'll update tonight with how the day went.

There are a limited number of spots on the El Camino Dive Team and I got one!!!  Actually, I don't know if it's limited or not.  But I'm the ONLY person on the dive team right now.  It's good and it's bad... good because I get all the attention.  I get to do what I love for two hours straight without having to share the coach, time or boards with anyone else.  That part is AWESOME!  But bad in the sense that I don't have anyone else there to push or motivate me.  No one to watch dive and try to one up them.

But that's okay.  I have the two best people around me...Greg Louganis has been there 100% to support and encourage and coach me.  And Jose Bahena has returned this year to be the El Camino Dive Coach just so he can help me get to state.  I know it's a huge sacrifice of time for both of them and I'm very grateful for them both.

Okay, funny story...today towards the end of practice I was working on a flip with a full twist.  When I jump on the end of the board, I'm supposed to breath out.  So I made my first jump and blew out, and a huge loogie went flying out of my mouth into the pool.  I was so caught off guard, that I just started laughing while still trying to throw the dive.  The dive ended up being a bit of a mess, but it was the weirdest thing.

The other crazy thing, I was working on riding the board, which sent me higher and higher into the air with each jump.  As I came down, I caught the corner of the board and was off balance.  This launched me to the side A LOT.  So much that I flew into the lap lines which hadn't been moved over quite far enough for horrible mishaps like that.  It hurt a little, but didn't do any long term damage.  I think if I put together a compilation of bad dives, it would look like I had a horrible day.  But if I cut together just the good ones, I think the day would've looked pretty solid.

It was a fun day and I am SO glad to be back on the boards and finishing this part of the journey.  I just hope that when the regionals get here, I will be ready and can make it to state!

I just finished my Monday workout of Insanity.  It was only 39 minutes and that's counting the cool down.  I know it goes to an hour in a few weeks and I just don't know how I'll last that long.  This is miserable.  Maybe it's worth just being fat and eating good food.  Today I just ate fruit all day.  Boring.  I'm trying to do one of those all-you-can-eat cleanses.  Day one is fruit.  I hate it so much.  Tomorrow is just vegetables.  Even worse!

Not much else to report.  Dive team starts in four days!  I can't believe it's almost here.  I'm so excited, which is good because I went diving last week and I felt burnt out on it.  I crashed and burned a lot and felt like I couldn't do anything with any sort of complexity.  I'm sure that had something to do with it.  

​But like Greg says, "at least you got in the pool."

True that!

It's hard to believe it's we're only one full work week (Monday-Saturday) into the new year.  It feels like it's been forever already!  I set out to work out everyday except for Sundays.  So far so good.  A couple nights it was ROUGH!  I'm not gonna lie!  Most nights I didn't start until late, but I fit in at least a 30 minute workout every day.

Now diet, on the other hand did not go so well.  So I didn't lose any weight, but I didn't gain any either.  With today being Sunday, it was nice not to have to work out today.

I added all my classes to my calendar today.  It's so strange to be going back to school.  I'm excited about that, actually.  I think it may be easy and I'm really looking forward to seeing what film majors learn in production class.  Hopefully I'll learn something, but also be able to help the kids in the class by providing experience opportunities.  We'll see what happens.  I'm off to bed early for once.  This week has wiped me out!

I wasn't going to write anything today, but I have to tell you about my day.  Because I think there are many people out there that struggle with the same type of eating and diet issues that I feel like I face and fail at every day.

This morning I woke up with the resolve to eat well and keep the calorie count in a reasonable range.  I planned on keeping a tally in my head.  I had an 80 calorie greek yogurt and a banana for breakfast.  For lunch I had a Chinese chicken salad.  I went to Costco and did some shopping and sampling (phase 1 of my diet demise).  Dinner started off well--chicken and turkey sausages.  But I needed something else and I felt like I'd eaten healthy all day.  So then it was pretzel sticks followed by a huge thing of popcorn and I ended it with four of those chocolate toffee Laceys that they sell at Costco.  FOUR!  One should be enough.

By the time I was done binging I was stuffed and felt horrible and ashamed at what I'd eaten and my lack of discipline.  Not to mention I have terrible heartburn from eating so poorly.

I hopped on the scale today and I've hit 190!  Ugh!  I was down to 156 at one point and had stayed around 170 even with the ups and downs.  This yo-yo weight loss and gain is so frustrating!

I've worked out every day this new year (except Sundays) and I didn't want to break that.  So tonight at 10 pm I started watching McFarland, USA and started my Insanity workout.  I was inspired as I watched those kids run!  It made me workout harder.  I think I even cried once or twice while I was jogging in place and watching those kids overcome their obstacles.  And I couldn't help by smile and cheer when Kevin Costner yelled out, "McFarland is going to state!"  I hope I'll be able to yell out the same thing, "Mackey is going to state!"

There were so many parallels in this movie.  Kevin (@modernwest), if you ever happen to read this blog, you'd make a great Big Fat Diver!  You're a couple years older than I am, but I could totally see it.

And so my resolve tonight, is to get rid of that junk food that gets me every night starting at 6pm.  Or at least the Laceys.  Sorry for the gross picture of my trashcan, but I needed to make a statement to myself (which by the way, throwing away perfectly good dessert falls just below homicide in my book.  It's CRIMINAL!)

Here's to a new day tomorrow and staying on task with diet and exercise!  Ten more days until dive team starts!!

I think I wrote about this in my book that today should be National Diet Day--but for last year.  And so begins a new year--the first Monday of the year, when everyone goes back to the grind.  That was today.  And just like last year, I started off with relatively great resolve...except for one thing...

Today I shot the cover of my book.  I wanted to do donuts or cookies or something along those lines.  So I ordered almost $40 worth of donuts and then went back to the studio to do a shoot.  I manhandled most of them and so when I was done, I couldn't exactly offer them to anyone else because I'd been touching them all day.  So I started to eat them.

And the diet gets put off another day.

On a positive note, I started working out on Friday 1/1.  I worked out Friday and Saturday.  I rested on Sunday, but tonight I'm going to work out again.  I think I may start the Insanity program again.

Saturday I went over to Greg and Johnny's house--such nice guys!  It was fun just sitting and chatting with them about everything from Christmas break, to advice on the book, my upcoming diving schedule, etc.

So here's the cover to my book.  It's still going through some final revisions and I'm going to try to get approvals from the people mentioned.

​Dive team starts in 11 days!!

Happy New Year!

First of all, welcome to my blog.  This is the start of the "end" of my journey.  I've said this before, but hopefully this will be the last four months of what's been a five year journey.

This entire week, Janice and I had been planning to start our diet today.  To end the year, we made a stop to Bake You Happy cupcake shop....well... it was cheaper to buy a dozen cupcakes than ten.  So I bought a dozen.  And knowing that we couldn't kill them all in one night, it meant delaying the start of the diet until Monday.  And here's the worst part.  I've lost my sense of taste.  You'd think I wouldn't want to eat calories I couldn't even really enjoy, but I still crave the same bad food I always eat--even without being able to taste it.  That's crazy!  So today's diet included cupcakes for breakfast and In N Out for lunch.  Nice.

I am going to start working out today though.  So hopefully that'll help curb the bad cravings.

That said, I'm starting the new year with a goal to lose weight, just like everyone else.  I've done it before, but have managed to put back on 30 pounds.

My other goal this year is to be on the local community college dive team and make it to the State Championships here in California.

I'll keep updates on my blog here throughout the next few months as I make progress towards my goals.

Happy New Year, and here's to everyone making and keeping this year's resolutions!