I recently stumbled upon an old video that I’ve seen before and thought I’d share it. It’s on “how to eat sushi” and it’s quite entertaining. But first, some thoughts on sushi.

I remember when I was a kid I wasn’t a big fan of sushi. I think it was because my mom only used to make a specific kind of sushi, and not necessarily the kind with raw fish that everyone calls sushi. In any case, as I got older I started thinking to myself “you’re Japanese, idiot, you should love sushi” so I decided I’d start liking sushi. And only in the last year have I regularly gone out to eat sushi with friends, all thanks to the recent popularity of all-you-can-eat sushi in the Waterloo region.

I find it interesting that sushi has become an activity that the younger generation has adopted as a sign of affluence or being the cool thing to do. Don’t get me wrong, sushi is delicious and I love it. But I think our current generation is infatuated with it because it only recently realized that it exists and that it’s delicious. At the same time it’s unfortunate that a lot of people are only exposed to cheap sushi and equate eating sushi to gorging oneself. Sushi is more than just gorging and the experience of eating raw fish. The lack of beautiful presentation, delivery, and culture in eating sushi at these all-you-can-eat sushi places takes away from the experience.

I can’t wait until I go to Japan in May when I’ll be eating real sushi.

Today I started cutting. Cutting is a bodybuiding euphemism for “losing fat”. Or the d-word. But we don’t use that word because it’s a dirty, dirty 4-letter word. I’ve seen Mariano go through 2 complete cuts before. His first one was back in the summer of 2006 and the most recent one last summer. It certainly is a test of willpower but after having done it twice before, he’s been refining his process and thankfully I get to experience the 3rd generation of the formula.

I’m doing a cut for a few reasons. I’ve never had abs. Abs are pretty sick. I want abs. And as they say (and as Mariano often reminds me), “Abs are made in the kitchen.” I’m also doing this for Team Jacked. Mariano will be joining me shortly, in about a week, and we both intend to show some significant improvements in our physique over the next few months. We are building our own “success stories” that we can then use to inspire and motivate others to take their own journeys to the Kingdom of Jacked. Team Jacked is still an idea and I will leave the full explanation for a future post but at its core it’s a service that we’d like to provide to get people jacked.

Luckily I teach CycleFit twice a week and intend to attend another class as well so my physical activity is through the roof when combined with workouts and other random fitness activities. I’m hoping this cut will only take 8-12 weeks and then I will arrive at a place we like to call “The Promised Land” where you’re jacked and eating delicious, healthy meals to maintain.

Last night I also took my first set of progress pictures. They will represent the “before” of the transformation and it is with both great sadness and great happiness that I can say that the before pictures are wonderful. I will be shamefully hiding those pictures until the “after” pictures are taken.