Taft Spa?

February 16, 2015

Well, I have been here a little over a month and I have already lost 11 pounds and am probably in the best shape of my life. I now weigh 184 (I haven’t weighed <185 for at least ten, and probably 15, years) and I definitely have more lean muscle than when I surrendered.

I attribute this to the following:

  1. Consuming fewer calories consistently
  2. A new workout regimen
  3. No more alcohol

While the food is not bad here for the most part, it certainly isn’t haute cuisine (the foie gras ban in California went unnoticed here). So what I find is that I generally only have a couple of bites of each item on the menu. I supplement that with fresh and dried fruit, nuts, peanut butter and tuna from the commissary. I would guess I am probably consuming 1000 fewer calories per day than I did on the outside.

I primarily trained with weights – although I did some aerobic and core – on the outside. There are no weights here and I knew that in advance (thanks to my prison consultant Justin Paperny!) so I bought a book called You Are Your Own Gym by Mark Lauren. It only has exercises in it that can be done using your own body or simple items that can easily be found around the house (or a federal prison camp) such as a chair, towel, etc. The exercises are killer – only four per day for 30 minutes. I do some aerobic (they have cross trainers, stair masters and stationary bikes) to warm up, then 20 minutes of core and 20 minutes of lower back strengthening. The whole thing is about an hour and a half – which is about what I did before at the gym. The results are better! And yes, it has occurred to me that I could have save a lot of money in gym fees over the years….

Finally, no more booze. As some of you know, I love my martinis and red wine. And I loved them a LOT – especially over the past few years as I have been engaging with various branches of the federal government. I drank almost every day – almost always starting with one (or often two) martinis. It was my way of dealing with the stress of everything that was going on. I definitely was overdoing it (and even got some counseling before I got here – more on that in the future) but I really didn’t care. But the bottom line is that I definitely feel much better not drinking. Do I miss my martinis? Sure – a lot but I like being forced to be on the wagon.

So I certainly don’t recommend committing a felony in order to get in the best shape of your life (in fact, I actively discourage it) but I did say I would focus on the positives and getting in great shape has certainly been one of the positives!

Cheers (with a glass of water)!

David Applegate

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