At Elite Fitness in Huntersville, North Carolina, we support three different charities. We participated in two events this year for the Jeff Gordon Children’s Hospital, for which we raised over half a million bucks. Thank you. One for the Dove House Women’s shelter, and two for the Greg Biffle Foundation for the welfare of animals. The latter proved to be a bit of a challenge. It’s not as easy to get people to donate money for animals, when human based charities are in serious need.

So here was my idea: “Benches for Pooches”. We challenged our members to go out and get pledges, per pound, for their best bench press. We would all come in on a Saturday morning and do our best bench press. Then go back and collect for the new no-kill animal shelter in our town. My rescue dog Mocha was the official spokes-dog of the event.

People went nuts. Forty members signed up. Dewalt, Subway, Europa, and Designer Whey all contributed product and prizes. We awarded all weight classes, best over all bench and most money raised. The local Great Dane rescue brought down two dogs who sat on either side of the front door.

At least half of us did a career best bench press. We gave everyone a month to get in shape for the contest, and it made for some great inter-gym competition and trash talking.  Our top lady benched 225 pounds, and our top male lifter benched 585!

So here is the end result: It made for great morale around the gym. It got members excited about working out. And we actually had two people join after the gym after the contest. They were crazy dog lovers too!

So here’s our advice: Pick a charity, set a goal and challenge you friends. We promise you’ll feel great afterwards.

Next, a matter of relaxing by the TV. I do it A LOT! To be completely honest, I probably watch way to much TV to be healthy, but I really enjoying keeping up with all of my favorite TV shows, even if they are re-runs during the summer. But that doesn’t mean I can’t get a good workout in. My best friend Jessi is always telling me to add a workout to my couch potato time, and I’ve finally taken her advice. I do 20 push-ups during the commercial break, which takes me 20-30 seconds. It may not sound like a lot, but with the average 30-minute TV show having 3 commercial breaks, 1 every 7-8 minutes or so, watching TV for a couple of hours will also bring in well over 100 push-ups in a night, with plenty of rest in between. The first couple of sets go by pretty easy, but once I’m at that 4th or 5th set, they get a lot harder, and that’s when you’re getting your benefits. All put together, those push-ups will work the majority of your upper-body muscles, burning calories while sitting on your bum, and if you’re watching TV at night like me, it’ll burn calories while you sleep too, using calories to rebuild the muscle tissue. How about that, losing weight while you sleep! Nobel Prize, please!

Another thing to think about is that diet. I struggle probably more than anyone with overeating, because I’ve been doing it for years. I can out-eat almost anyone (except Joey Chestnut, the world-record setting Nathan’s Hot Dog eating champion), and I’ve been known to put down an entire large meat-lovers pizza by myself, in one sitting. Now, it doesn’t take an expert to tell me that that is neither healthy nor good for my weight loss plan. However, I’ve done it, and there’s nothing that can be done about it now. But that doesn’t mean I should keep doing it! That goes with everything bad for you, like eating a bucket of ice cream or tons of cookies. That little bit of cheating on your diet will take you several steps backwards in your weight loss goals, and you’ll only feel guilt and shame afterwords. Instead, you have to find something to snack on in between meals, and your meals need to be sensibly sized and portioned in order to keep up your weight loss. In the long run you’ll be a lot happier that you had a turkey sandwich instead of a whole pizza.

Finally, just to put everyone in a positive mood and the right frame of mind, as of today I am down 30 pounds from when I started my diet and exercise plan! I’ve had my share of downfalls, pitfalls and stumbling blocks, as well as a few “I quits” in there, but overall I’ve kept at it and have continued to lose weight in the long run, and that’s the important part. I am much, much lighter than I was in January. I may not be where I wanted to be as part of my original plan, but I’m still headed in the right direction, and that’s what really matters! So, even if you didn’t lose your 20 pounds in 21 days (which was my goal over my summer break from school, which I didn’t meet), having lost weight over that time period is still a success, so take pride in that and keep going. Eventually, you’ll reach that goal, and when you do, you’ll be more proud of yourself then you thought possible. Keep it up everyone!

Furthermore, the whole fast food thing is expensive. Over the past month or so, I’ve spent over $382 at fast food places.  That’s disgusting! That’s almost 2 months worth of food at the grocery store for my whole apartment, which has 4 people in it! What am I thinking?!? Well, it ends today.  I’m back on my no-fast-food diet in an effort to save money and lose weight.  I’ve also stumbled upon an article that says that fast food can actually become addictive, decreasing dopamine receptors or something, so that’s probably not good either.  Regardless, the amount of science and nutritional information and financial information is all overwelmingly against fast food, and my only justification is laziness.  Well, laziness never got anyone anywhere in this life, so I’m going to stop.  Time for me to turn the page over and start a new chapter in my life.  I mean, I just turned 28, what better time?  See you all later when I rant and rave some more about how I suck at dieting.

If you would have told me ten years ago that a little screen on your dash board would have the technology to guide you any where, I would have said you were crazy. But also if you told me ten years ago that I would be in better shape at 44 than I was at 34, I also would have suggested the padded room in the funny farm.

But thanks to goals and guidance I weigh ten pounds less, can lift more weight, and can run much farther. No matter how modest the goal, I have always gotten better results if I was shooting for a target weight, distance, or number of pounds lifted. Without that goal, it’s easy to stop at an arbitrary point.

Same can be said of the guidance of a trainer.  A certified trainer has the kind of ideas and encouragement that makes them well worth the time and money. I would be the first to stop after eight reps. But having the trainer standing there I found myself going for ten, and sometimes beyond.

I also fell into the “routine” trap. Only training certain muscle groups with certain exercises. That put me into a rut and not only was I wasting time but a trip to the gym was becoming very boring. The first trainer I ever worked with showed me a variety of movements that kept the workouts fresh and fun.

So today I’m going to set a modest goal, five pounds off by the fourth of July. And first thing Monday I will consult with my trainer for the guidance, and with the help of Designer Whey, make sure I get the right amount of protein.

While in the  midst of my last set of blog posts, I was reading a fellow Designer blogger’s post, Nathan’s well written piece on Motivation, and saw something that really intrigued me; “the playlist.” And I thought to myself I will write a post about the playlist and its importance. But then when I began to think about it a little more, what playlist would I talk about.  I know that I alone have 6 different playlists for each day at the gym – in which I cycle songs in and out of. But while listening to one of these mixes I saw someone else at the gym, a significantly older man, who had his head phones in and looked like he was rocking out and really using the music to push him through his workout. Then I thought to myself I know that everyone listens to different music when working out but I wonder what types of music gets certain people going, moving and shaking at the gym.  And honestly how hard is it to find this stuff out. In my email archive alone I have tons of people that I know from all different races, ages and slices of life that would probably be able to answer this burning question for me, so of course I threw it out there.  I got a lot of responses with a lot of different playlists, so I pried even further and asked questions about their playlist and reasoning behind it, which helped me narrow down the responses that I received, and found a few that really stood out to me. 

I decided to take all of these electric correspondent interviews that were a cut above the rest and write blogs about them (of course with the consent of the interviewee) and just change the name of the person.  But in the course of doing so I realized that this might not be as enticing as I thought. To make these posts a little more intriguing I thought I would pick out a couple of my playlists that most closely corresponded with the playlists that I received and add a little blogging pizzazz to it – Ok you caught me that makes them more intriguing to me but hey it might make for a good read for you.

The bottom line behind doing this series of blogs was to determine the overall importance of the playlist to different personas within the fitness world. Who’s to say that what I use a playlist for at the gym is what others use it for? I use some playlists for motivation, some for rhythm, some for tempo, and some for empowerment. In trying to unearth the different uses and motivators that the playlist can contain, I wanted to be able to offer what I found to everyone else so that these findings might be applicable to the many different personality types that read these blogs. My main struggle with the fitness world as I have commented on time and time again, is finding the proper motivation to stay in that world. If I think of something that will serve as a little extra motivator that I need or that little piece of mind that I come across that will make my experience in the fitness sphere  a little bit easier and more enjoyable I want to pass it on because chances are someone out there might find it helpful. So over the course of these next blogs I will be exploring “the playlist” pertaining to the benefits they have on different people who are trying to keep fit. As always please feel free to comment especially on the different playlists that are thrown out there and the reasons behind them.  I will make one disclaimer, I was not able to find someone in the 58 or older category to complete this interview and am not going to chance asking someone at the gym what their age is.  So if you know someone of this age that exercises on a regular basis to some type of sound track, let me know and I will get back to you.

First off, what I did wrong.  As much as I really hate to admit it, I have to officially place both Philly Cheesesteak & NY Pizza, a restaurant near my school, on the fast food list.  I had initially avoided this move, since it wasn’t a Burger King or a McDonald’s, and therefore wasn’t obviously a fast food place, but the fact that the pizza is extra greasy and the Philly’s are made short order (read: really bad for you) is undeniable, and therefore it goes on the banned list.  My friend really was the one that pointed this out; that basically I had been cheating on my pseudo-Lent promise.  So now I’m officially putting that restaurant on the fast-food list, meaning I can no longer go there.  Probably a good thing, because as good as their food is, it’s really pretty bad for you, and I began eating there more and more lately.  Next up is pizza in general.  It’s great to have a cheat day every once in a while, but this week I think I ate pizza 3 different times, and that’s really not good for anyone.  Sure it’s convenient, but it’s also expensive in comparison to say Subway or making a bowl of soup and a sandwich, which is even cheaper.  Plus, eating an entire large Meat Lovers pizza from Papa John’s just can’t be healthy.  So, ordering pizza is out as well.  Now, grabbing a slice if you have some friends over or are at a friends house watching the game is another matter.  1 or 2 slices won’t really be that big of a deal.  My problem specifically has been that I order an entire pizza for myself, and then eat it myself, and I’ve been doing that more and more lately too.  So, no more ordering pizza.

Now, the good.  I haven’t had a drop of alcohol, and I really don’t miss it at all.  Same goes for Soda.  The fast food, as discussed above, is kind of a gray area, but I haven’t stepped foot into a Burger King or any other traditional fast food place since I placed a ban on them.  Also, I’ve been eating a lot less burgers (my friend’s wedding reception BBQ notwithstanding) which has been good for me.  So I am meeting, on all points, everything I said I wouldn’t do, which is good.  And obviously it’s been paying off.  However, I can’t say I’ve been working out 4 times a week.  I have been walking a lot more places now that I sold my car, so that is healthy, but I haven’t set aside much dedicated time to actually work out, and that’s something I need to do.  30 minutes on the treadmill followed up with some decent weight lifting will do wonders for me, and that’s really what I need to do.  But, I can’t say I haven’t been working out at all, since I do walk to and from school everyday, and some days I will walk around my block (which is exactly a mile) several times over the course of a little more than an hour, which is really nice for clearing my head or listening to some music that I’ve been meaning to listen to.  So all in all, the workouts could be better and more frequent, but I haven’t been skipping them either.

Overall, I’ve definitely slimmed down some.  It’s noticeable, and that’s important.  More important than numbers is how you look.  If you’re 5′5″ and 200 pounds, but you have a trim tummy and well-toned legs and whatnot, then your muscles just weigh a lot (I have no idea why this would happen), but so long as you’re happy with how you look, that’s more important than some arbitrary number.  That said, most people, including myself, have a magic number they want to reach, and that’s based on knowing that at that weight we will look a certain way, which is our ultimate goal.  I want to reach 170 pounds, and with the help of DesignerWhey, I’m well on my way of getting there.  So take a look at what you’ve done the last month and what you’ve accomplished, and keep going at it.  Because there is a pot of gold at the end of this journey, but only if you work hard to get it.  Thanks for joining me, and I’ll see you next time.

Nate

Hope this finds you having a fabulous day! I did mention that I started a weight loss challenge and so far I have lost 6 pounds in 2 weeks, which is a great start but I have done these challenges before and know I need to tweak my plan so I get a little better result. I did get a stability ball and have really only sat on it at my desk; I can feel it working on my core! Who would have thought just sitting on a stability ball would make your core stronger? I plan to do on exercises on it as well once I get over the fear of rolling off it onto my butt! Now that would not be a pretty picture!  lol

WOW! What an emotional Biggest Loser show this week. I feel for O’Neal losing his brother to cancer. That was very touching. I know you all shed a tear or 2 along with him. My daughter had that experience with her grandfather. My dad passed in the night and my daughter found out the next day after school. She was crushed that she did not get to say good-bye. My dad was my daughter Sue’s life…she did everything and went everywhere with him.  That was 7 years ago. Time sure marches on.

I have been walking a lot and going to the gym. I even have walked over 20K steps in one day which equals 8.5 miles for me. I have realized that no one is going to step up and help me, no one is going to come knocking on my door  to go walking, no one is going to meet me at the gym, no one is going to help me plan menus for the week, no one is going to say I better not eat that… I do not have close friends or family. So I have realized I am on my own with this weight loss and have accepted that fact. Now don’t get me wrong I have a lot of facebook supporters cheering me on, and designer whey friends and fast track to weight loss friends, and neighbor friends but it’s not the same as someone saying come on I will help you and support you, let’s get walking.

It’s also difficult as for me because I do not have a treadmill at home to help track what I am doing. I am waiting to hear if I won a contest to win a treadmill through the Life Fitness brand so send in the lucky vibes for me to win! If I win the weight loss challenge it will be for over 300 bucks that will pay for my Fast Track to Weight Loss with Kim Lyons membership. With the Gold membership you get a personal trainer maybe even Kim who was a Biggest Loser Trainer in the pass! The trainer will help monitor your diet, exercise, give you pep talks, encouragement and suggestions. But as most things in life it is not free.

One thing I am being faithful using is my Designer Whey Weight Control Powders. I love the taste and the energy I get from using this great product. I also carry the 2GO packets in my car so I have no excuse to stop and grab something to eat that probably is not good for me.

Thanks friends for reading this blog entry. I hope it inspires you to continue on your quest to be the healthiest you can be. Life is too short to waste time on unhealthy habits.

Take care, until next time.

Camille

Something that I have been doing lately that has kept me motivated at a constant, continual and healthy rate is to fully document my physical progression. Meaning the whole kit-n-kaboodle: weekly and monthly pics, daily, weekly and monthly measurements, diet journals and of course exercise journals. I have always been opposed to this whenever it has been brought up in the past because for some reason it carried a very narcissistic stigma for me. When magazines or people I knew spoke outwardly about this, for some peculiar reason, I thought that they were just being vein but after working in operations in the business world I have changed my mind. Now I know you are thinking to yourself, what the hell do the business world and your perception on this particular subject have to do with anything, the two go together like “ketchup and mint cookies” (I know you are thinking random comparison right, but once as a kid I got dared to combine the two and believe me I can think of nothing worse: validating this opposition). So anyways, I realized that in order for a business to be successful they have to evaluate everything from head to toe on a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly basis. And being in operations I crunch these numbers and evaluate progression and unfortunately sometimes decline. Being able to see, have and evaluate these numbers is the only way a business can successfully set, retain and reach the goals that will make them flourish. The same should apply to the gym.

What diets have been working the best? How much weight am I sustaining, gaining or losing? What did I look like at the start of this venture and have a progressed? Why have I been stuck on the same weight for these reps? All of these questions can easily be answered if you are documenting what you do at and outside of the gym. It is really easy and will take no more than 10-20 min a day to keep up with. This is extremely motivating for several different reasons. The first obviously being that if you can see improvement on a weekly-monthly basis and especially a yearly basis, you will be much more motivated to stay on that path and keep in the gym or keep on an exercise plan. Just looking in the mirror when you get home does no true justice because your mind is conditioned to have a certain perception of you…I know that sounds weird but it is true, whereas pictures and actual numbers don’t lie. The same goes for daily measurements; they can also be deceiving depending on if you just worked out, if you just ate, if you just did something extraneous, which is why it is helpful to have ongoing data so that you can truly measure progress or as I am about to bring up, back sliding. The second main motivator can be a plateau or decline in your measurements or appearance. Some people get really attuned to how they look or what they weigh because they feel that because they are going to the gym everyday they have to be improving their physical fitness and appearance. But this can most often lead to falsehoods, because many times we plateau or even, what I like to call back slide. For me I was increasing the weight that I was lifting but I was not increasing the mass of my body. This had to do with several factors like daily calorie intake, protein intake and not enough recovery. But I did not notice because I mentally convinced myself that I was getting bigger because I was going to the gym everyday and hitting it hard. So once I started documenting everything and saw that I was at the same level, I was able to isolate the things negatively impacting me and try and improve them one by one. The whole grand scheme of the fitness game might be as hard to understand at first as the initial reaction to a nerdy dude dating a perfect ten: “how is this really supposed to work.” But truly figuring this “game” out is the key because once you can isolate your downfalls and weaknesses you can move on and improve, which acts as a huge motivation. It is like when a teacher yells at and punishes a student for acting out when called on in class. It seems like the right thing to do because this child is being disruptive. But in reality this kid can barely read and was put into this class due to social promotion and lack of funding for special programs, so he is acting out as a defense mechanism. You can not expect motivate this kid and see progress until you take the time to fully understand him, and truly evaluate his skills. And like in the world of teaching and in the world of business, there is no better, cheaper easier way than to personally document this stuff as you go.

These are simply the opinions of a guy who has opinions about anything and everything, take it or leave it as you will.