Training Log & the Starbucks Effect

Bench today
245 - 4x3, 1x5


Scapular Rows superset with
Band Pushdowns - 5x10 each


Bicep is all kinds of jacked up - I need to stay on top of icing and start taking either ibuprofen or megadosing the fish oil. I'm sure the wife would prefer the ibuprofen - my stomach, heart, and brain would prefer the fish oil. We'll see. Either way, operation ice the hell out of it needs to go into full effect. Unfortunately, the pain is influencing my excitement to train, as I just don't feel like pushing that hard through it at the moment. This is for a variety of reasons, but chief among them is likely that I am, in fact, a giant vag.


So what the fuck is the Starbucks Effect? I ran across it while reading The Automatic Millionaire (a book I still haven't made it very far into). The gist of it goes like this - many people will go to Starbucks on a daily basis and spend $5 on a coffee that they could just as easily get for $1 or less at a gas station. Hell, even cheaper if they just make some at home. These same people will often lament their lack of money, and often don't save much because they are constantly strapped for money. However, the authors posit that by saving this daily $5 that would otherwise be spent on Starbucks, these people would be putting away ~$100 per month (which, of course adds up over time, plus the interest it would accrue in a savings or other account, etc.). The moral of the story, then, is not "don't go to Starbucks," (because I'm sure some dipshit would take it that way). The lesson to be learned is - find something that you are wasting resources on that could easily be replaced and allocated elsewhere. For some, especially myself, this is time, not so much money. Do I really need to check email/Facebook/ESPN/SBNation as often as I do? No, it acts as nothing but a time waster. But because
A) I have conditioned myself to do it so frequently, and
B) I am generally looking for something other than work to do,
I wind up wasting way more time than I should.
Figure out what your Starbucks is. Hell, sometimes for me it's training articles. I excuse it by saying I'm educating myself, but really I'm just wasting time so I don't have to do real work. Maybe it's internet porn. Yup, been guilty of that, too. Then, at the end of the day, I lament the time that I don't have, because I need to make sure I'm getting sleep, and getting up early, and the cycle continues. But once you identify your Starbucks, you can start the process of re-training yourself.
Hell, maybe for you it really is Starbucks. Or it's stopping and getting breakfast at McD's every day. Either way, you can start saving yourself money and making yourself healthier by buying groceries, making breakfast at home, and investing the money you would otherwise spend.
In the end, my point is, the time/money/energy that you claim you don't have, is likely there somewhere. It is simply allocated somewhere else. What you have to decide for yourself is, is it worth it to reallocate those resources? If you deem the answer no, that is fine. But don't bitch. Just realize you have decided where to spend your resources, and be comfortable with that choice.