Beachbody: Curse Those T-Shirt Nazis!

Apparently when you complete a Beachbody workout you get a free t-shirt. Or... wait. Let me rephrase that. Apparently when you complete a Beachbody workout you CAN get a free t-shirt. Apparently in order to do so you need to submit before and after pictures showing your physical transformation. Apparently these pictures need to be accompanied by weekly weight measurements and include inches lost around legs, waist, and arms. Apparently if you neglect to do this—like I have—Beachbody won't give you a free t-shirt. That's right. You get nothing. Nadda. Zip. They're like t-shirt nazis. "No t-shirts for you!" That's a Seinfeld reference, by the way. Well I've completed my nine weeks of Sean T.'s Insanity. It kicked my butt more often than not, but I deserve a free t-shirt! So I'm going to do what any formerly rational adult male who has been made mentally insane from Sean T.'s ridiculous workout routine—I'm going to do it again. Nine more weeks of nut-so workouts. This time I'll follow the t-shirt nazi's strict regiment—step to the left, speak clearly, no extraneous comments—and submit the required information because, dagnabbit, I want my t-shirt! Thanks to my wife so willingly signing up to be a Beachbody coach, we now get a discount on workout programs. We've recently gotten our hands on a whole bunch—PiYo, T25, P90X3, 21 Day Fix—and they all come with free t-shirts providing you properly document your progress. I don't know what's come over me, but I'm determined to get my sweaty paws on those t-shirts, so I'm going to pound my body through every workout and document what is sure to be a Shrek-to-Hulk transformation to appease the nazis at Beachbody. Some may call me a glutton for punishment, but in actuality I just have a high tolerance for pain—I suppose that's why I've been able to live in the northeast for as long as I have. Anyway...

Dani was recently telling me a story she heard about a fellow Beachbody coach who was walking through the airport one day wearing one of her Beachbody P90X shirts when many people started a conversation around how hard P90X is. First it was the cab driver, then the TSA agent, then the lady at the terminal, then another and another. By the time she boarded her plane she had contact information for eight potential clients.

So getting these t-shirt isn't just proof of accomplishment, but it can also draw in business.

But clients or no clients, I'm getting my free t-shirts!

Flexing My Muscles... or Lack Thereof

It's called "Insanity." It's a six week workout series that I've been going through with a friend. To give you an idea of how hard this workout is I'll tell you that my wife passed out from the intensity of it the first time she tried it. So, instead of my wife, I've found a workout buddy who lives up the road from me and we've been plowing through it every night for the last two weeks.

The workout is, as the name implies, insane. It's a high energy, high impact, heart-racing, sweat-dripping excursion into total body pain. The only thing I can imagine that's any worse is maybe giving birth, but, being a dude, I will never have to experience thank.

Insanity, by fitness professional Sean T., is the kind of workout I prefer though because it doesn't involve any gym equipment, weights, or exercise gear. It's just you. Your body. And a ton of cardio and plyometric exercises. It's an expensive kit, but, thankfully, I had bought it years ago, back before we were following such a strict budget.

Thanks to my workout buddy—who has attended medical school, and knows a lot more about the inner workings of the human body than I do—I've been learning a lot about fitness. Exercise is just a small part of getting into better shape. There are some dietary practices one has to employ in order to see results, because I can follow the workout instructions to a T, but if I'm not doing something as simple as drinking enough water than my body is going to suffer.

I can't help but relate this whole Insanity experience to my finances. In many ways, the financial disciplines that Dani and I have been practicing for the last year or so are very similar. If I think of my workout as my budget, then everything I do leading up to the workout is like my spending habits. If I have $1,000 in monthly bills, but only budget $500, then at the end of the month I'm going to have a hard time meeting my budgetary goals. Likewise, to get the most out of my workout, I need to make healthier choices throughout the week—a banana for a snack instead of a cookie, more water and less lemonade. It's these little choices along the way that make the whole thing work.

My friend and I just completed the second "fit test," which acts as a sort of gauge of how you're doing. I'm pleased to say we have both seen some measurable improvement in our fitness level. It'll be interesting to see just how much progress we can make in the weeks ahead.

Keep pinchin' ... or, as Sean T. likes to say, "Peace out!" :-)