• Alan Grayson’s diary

As BP prepares to lower a four-story, 70-ton dome over the oil gusher under the Gulf of Mexico, the Russians — the world’s biggest oil producers — have some advice for their American counterparts: nuke it.

Komsomoloskaya Pravda, the best-selling Russian daily, reports that in Soviet times such leaks were plugged with controlled nuclear blasts underground. The idea is simple, KP writes: “the underground explosion moves the rock, presses on it, and, in essence, squeezes the well’s channel.”

Yes! It’s so simple, in fact, that the Soviet Union, a major oil exporter, used this method five times to deal with petrocalamities. The first happened in Uzbekistan, on September 30, 1966 with a blast 1.5 times the strength of the Hiroshima bomb and at a depth of 1.5 kilometers. KP also notes that subterranean nuclear blasts were used as much as 169 times in the Soviet Union to accomplish fairly mundane tasks like creating underground storage spaces for gas or building canals.

I will be the first to say that it is very easy to put on a few extra pounds, sometimes without even realizing what you are doing wrong.  My advice for losing weight has also been simple:  Eat better, exercise more.

As a former international athlete and long time soccer player, I’ve worked with Olympic trainers, top college coaches, and even a few well known professional coaches in my past. Training as an athlete was mentally simple, you can always find a goal to push you to that next level when times get tough. I started lifting weights as a 4th grader to make up for my size and to not be knocked off the ball. My freshman year of high school, I had the 2nd highest bench press and the fastest 40 yard dash time in the school, out of all freshmen playing athletics. I would run 3 miles before school at 6am, then more during lunch at the track, practice with my school team and go straight to my club teams practices. If you were sore or felt bad, well you know what, that team down the roads star player isn’t sick and he’s been sprinting his tail off for weeks. I could find motivation in anything on or around the field. You look at me wrong now, I’m going to toast you later. You out run me today, I’m going to work harder than anyone you’ve met to make sure that never happens again. And I did just that. I can not think of a single individual goal I set that I didn’t achieve with this mindset in sports.

Instead of taking one of the 30+ offers to go to school for free and play ball, I made the 18 year old mistake of wanting to party and meet people instead of continuing with my soccer career. At my peak fitness levels I had 6 pack abs, bench pressed 90 lbs over my weight, ran NFL caliber 40’s and could knock out 5-6 minute miles for hours. I was 5 ft 8 and 165 lbs.

Over the last 9+ years of fast food, beer, soda’s, chips, and a hatred for running in the Florida heat, left me at 195 lbs. I’ve dropped 10-20 lbs here and there in the past but never stayed on a solid routine for longer than 20-30 days. Even back  in school, I had pizza and cookies for lunch, drank beer on weekends and enjoyed numerous sodas daily. Though I’ve trained hard in the past, until recently, I’d never fully incorporated a top level diet into my plan.

For the past 3 weeks, I’ve eaten better than any point during my life. I dropped 20 lbs quickly and put on a lot of new muscle. I haven’t consumed any of the following items since before March 19th: Fast food, soda, coffee, energy drinks, candy, or alcohol. I also stay away from sodium and bad carbs as much as possible, esp at night.

During this time I’ve learned so much about what to eat, when to eat it, what it does to/for your body and how your body burns off the food you eat. I have been eating chicken breast, steak, tuna, salad, veggies, almonds, cottage cheese, eggs, apples, blueberries, pineapple, protein shakes and water exclusively. I’m also taking vitamins, omega 3, and a few other supplements. I skate or ride the bike for 30-60 mins daily, along with walking/running the lake or nature trails 3 times a week. I lift weights for an hour or so 2-3 separate times daily depending on which muscles I’m targeting and how much time is available. I have also worked my abs and core harder than any point in the past and it really shows.  I have 10 or so abdominal workouts I go through each day, totaling well over 1,000 crunches.

My goal is to go from 195 lbs to the most ripped abs you’ve ever seen however long that takes. I’m right at 175 lbs which is only 8 lbs over my playing weight of 167, though I had more muscle back then.  This week I’m going to double up and start doing cardio twice each day to try and lose 5 lbs and get under 170 for the first time in over 9 years. I already feel so light and quick on my feet, it’s hard to imagine what another 5-20 lbs could do. I highly recommend changing your diet and fitness activity to increase your energy levels, confidence, and all around mood. In just a few weeks, my body has begun to work at its optimum levels for the first time in years. I think that 155 lbs is where I should be, so that’s the goal. I’m hoping to be there soon.