Regenerating. Time Lords, Eat Your Hearts Out

My Regeneration

In the universe of Doctor Who, the Doctor has the ability to regenerate. His body undergoes a transformation, causing a complete physical change.

This generally happens when he has been injured, or otherwise gone through enough bodily stress to warrant a new self. Time Lord's like the Doctor can do this automatically when their body needs it, or they can trigger the change on their own.

Think about it. How marvelous would it be to build a new body from scratch.

I have good news. You can do exactly that. Unless you're a Time Lord, it's a slower process for us humans (and if you are a Time Lord, I'd love to see your Tardis,) but we do it every day. 


In April of this year, the doctor told me I had to go on blood pressure medication or drastically change my lifestyle. Notice, that's "doctor" with a little "d."

I generally don't tell people how quickly the transformation took place for me, because frankly, even I find it ridiculous. I'm not sure what my April weight was, but sometime before that I weighed in at 250 pounds. At 6'0, that's a bit too much, right?

Today I weigh 188 pounds. And what's more, I gained muscle and can do things with my body I couldn't dream about before. Well, I could dream. But that's all.

How did I do it, you ask? You did ask, right? Even if you didn't, plenty of others have.

`1. I Eat Healthy

You've heard this plenty of ways. "You can't outrun your fork." Combine that with, "You are what you eat," and you're on the right track.

I don't diet. I put good food in my body. Yes, to a certain point, weight loss can be about calories in < calories burned. But weight loss and health aren't always synonymous.

I'm not on the paleo diet, but it's close. I don't eat gluten, and limit all other grains. My food consists mostly of meat, fish, fruits, vegetables, nuts, berries and olives. There are exceptions, but not many.

The human body really does regenerate. And it does so with the food we put into it.

2. I Enjoy My Workouts

This wasn't always true. At the beginning, it felt too hard. I couldn't move. I perceived through this. As my fitness improved, I found the things I loved doing.

For me this includes swimming, one of the best full body workouts out there. It also involves a variety of free weight and body weight exercises.

You may not enjoy them at first, but the sooner you find the fun exercises for you, the sooner the transformation can begin. And you may find, as I did, that things you hated before are fun- once you can do them.

3. I Get Stronger. I Constantly Improve

Early on in my training, I came across the 300 Sparta Workout. I'll blog about that in the near future. It's a workout designed by Mark Twight, the trainer responsible for getting the actors in shape for the movie 300. He is quoted as saying, "Appearance is a consequence of fitness."

When I read that quote, I thought he was mad. Appearance was one of the number one reasons behind me getting fit, at the time.

I understand it now. I still have some appearance related goals. But, even as specific as they are, they're too broad to do me any good. As I've adapted my goals to be, well- goal oriented, I've found even greater success. "I will learn the butterfly stroke." "I will complete the 300 workout challenge." I will do accomplish this, and I will accomplish that."

Those goals don't happen overnight. Or rather, if they do, you've set the goals too low. The goals should work towards making you better each time.

Every week, I try to improve. Every workout. One more set. Five more pounds. Ten seconds quicker. When I push myself that way, I find I'm capable of more than I ever thought.

I'm capable of regeneration. And so are you.

Keep transforming. Keep regenerating.