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Category Archives: My Transformation

Living In A Medicated Society

I love these commercials that are out there with the pretty butterflies flying around the nice flowers while the happy music plays.  If the sound weren’t on I would think that it was a tampon commercial.  The narrator speaks in a soothing voice and announces the latest greatest product on the market that will help you with your road rage or depression.  He goes on to tell you to ask your doctor for a prescription.  This takes a total of about 3 seconds.  His voice speeds up and he says, “this product may cause, drowsiness, constipation, headaches, restlessness, stomach ache, hives, rectal bleeding, something that sounds like asmuthavavo (not sure what it is but I don’t think I want it), hypertension, …(he adds about 50 more).  At some point he inserts, paralysis, heart attacks and death (this part takes the other 27 seconds).
Death? Really? WTF.  If I am taking this product for depression, I think it will make me depressed if I don’t die first.

Within 3 years a commercial comes out about a class action lawsuit against the makers of the same product.  It stipulates that if you took whatever the hell it was within the last three years you may be entitled to a claim.  Probably because when they read the list of what might happen to you if you take it they forgot to mention that you may get black lung or athletes foot.

I’m not saying that all medication is a bad thing but honestly what the hell is some of it for?  I’ll tell you what I believe it is for.  It is so that the pharmaceutical companies can make a buttload of money off of your Road Rage Affliction.  And when there is a class action against them it is so that the law firm representing the people who developed athletes foot (from something they told them would screw them up) can make millions.

How come there are so many people out there who are on several types of medication?  Some of their problems are probably brought on by a medication that they are currently on or one they took in the past.  It doesn’t make sense to take one medication to suppress the effects of another medication.

These conditions that are being treated are both psychological and physical.  Personally I believe that everyone has something that could be considered a mental disorder.  With so many medications out there for mental health there is a huge market.  I have people tell me that I am crazy all of the time.  I’m not denying it.  My own self diagnosis tells me that I am OCD.  I like to count and do weird things in my head.  In some cases I do mathematical problems based on percentages.  When I type a letter or even a post I like to spell things out based on the 8th letter of each line going down.  In the past I had some depression.  I wonder what kind of medication I should take so I don’t count.  I cured my depression by transforming my life.  Life can be depressing.

If I was born about 10 years later, I might have been one of those kids that was put on Ritalin.  Kids are hyper.  Why do they need medication for it?  Don’t give them so much sugar.

I know that there are people with more severe problems than I had.  But there are only certain things that a person can control.  Because of this circumstances arise which cause people to react.  If they receive bad news they usually will become upset and it will add to their stress.  Stress will build up based on circumstance.  A few years ago like many others I was hit pretty hard by a bad economy.  I was very close to losing everything that I had.  All day and all night all I thought about was how much I owed and whether or not I was going to be able to make my next payment.  I had to make choices.  One of those choices was getting rid of my satellite dish, which was running about $150 a month.  Another was dropping my health insurance which was another $150 a month (by the way I was and still am self-employed).  I did get my health insurance back but to this day I still haven’t brought satellite or cable back into my house.  I did end up buying a smart tv and got Netflix.  Eventually, I will probably bring it back but at this point I am not home very much.  Dealing with all of these financial problems made things very stressful.  It led to a great deal of depression and uncertainness.  I was able to get through it and found ways to deal with my stress.  But it wasn’t until I began my transformation that I actually liberated myself from my own self diagnosed mental disorder.  My new lifestyle opened me up who I really was and made me look at everything in a different way.  This includes the way I look at and communicate with other people.  I was able to do all of this without taking medication.  I found a way to take control of my life not have some chemical take control of me.  I did this through diet, exercise and the other things that came about with my transformation.  Once again I am not saying that medication can’t be helpful but I do think it is overdone.

I am not suggesting that Jeffrey Dahmer should  be put on an exercise program and be given a healthy diet.  I don’t think there is a cure for what he has.  However, I would suggest giving him extra dose of the crap that they are advertising in the pretty butterfly commercial.

I avoid prescription medication and even non prescription medication as much as possible.  That’s me, I’m not saying that I don’t take antibiotics when I have surgery on my knee.  I did.  But I do look for alternative means.  First it is possible to avoid high cholesterol, high blood pressure, hypertension or other cardiovascular related problems.  If you aren’t already on medication for one of these things a healthy diet can prevent you from having to take them.  If you are on medication, it is possible to reverse these health problems with a healthy diet which hopefully will allow you to get off of the medication.  Sometimes I wonder how close I was to having to take them.  I definitely wasn’t in as bad shape back in March as I was in 1998.  In 1998 I was told that I was about to POP.

I personally go for home remedies first.  About 7 years ago I went to the doctor and found out that I had a duodenal ulcer.  I asked him what I had to do to get rid of it.  His response was, “oh you can’t get rid of it.  There is nothing that you can do.”  At least he didn’t try to give me some medication.  I went home and looked online for some solutions.  What I decided to try was eat 3 bananas a day with 3 glasses of tomato juice.  In less than one week my ulcer was gone.  It came back about 1 year later and I repeated the process.  I am currently duodenal ulcer free for the last six years.

Another situation involved my dog Bailey.  She tested positive for Lyme Disease.  The vet said, “We can’t get rid of it, we can only control it.  But she will always have it.”  On the way home I called a friend of my that has helped me out with other health related things.  He told me that he could cure it.  A few days later I got something in the mail from him.  It was something made from Berberian Root.  He told me to give it to her several times a day for a long time.  3.5 months later he calls me and tells me, “You can stop giving Bailey the pills.  She is cured.”  I  thought it sounded kind of weird since the vet said it couldn’t be.  I took her to the vet and asked them to test her again.  They told me that I was wasting my money.  I told them that she was cured I had been giving her something.  They kind of rolled their eyes and drew her blood.  15 minutes later two of them walked into the room.  “What were you giving Bailey?”.  Me, “Did it work?” Vet “Well, ah yea, we think.  We have never had this happen.  She doesn’t even have any antibodies”.

In most cases these medications are not meant to cure but to control.  If you take high blood pressure medication, it keeps it down, but doesn’t really take care of your problem.  However, if you eat healthy you can cure your problem with high blood pressure.  If you go back to your old ways, then your high blood pressure will probably return.

Food definitely can cure, and herbs can cure.  The healthier you eat and with regular exercise the less risk you put yourself at for Cardiovascular Disease, Cancer, Alzheimer’s, Diabetes, Kidney problems, etc…

If one person reads this and makes a change to their life, than it was worth me writing it.  Do you want to Learn to S.W.I.M™?

This post is not telling you to not take your medication or not seek medical help.  This post is my opinion and based on my own experiences. It suggests that you take control of your life without putting yourself at risk.  By the way if you are trying to figure out what I wrote in this post, I made that part up.  I am OCD but I also like take advantage of the gullibility factor (That may be another disorder.  I can’t help myself).

What The Quality Of Life Means To Me

1) Living a healthy lifestyle and enjoying it – By making changes to my life I have reduced the risk of a stroke, heart disease, cancer and many other diseases.  I have done all of this with food that I actually enjoy.  Recipes like Fruit and Nut Bars  or Coconut Flavored Chocolate  actually make me feel like I am eating something that can’t possibly be good for me.  I don’t feel like I am missing anything and I am eating healthy.  I also enjoy working out and actually do workouts that have quite a bit of variation.  I compete in Mud Runs and Obstacle Races.  I hike and spend a lot of time out doors.
I actually thought about what it would be like to have a stroke and survive.  I would not want to be a burden on others and I definitely would not want be paralyzed on one side due to a stroke.  Obviously there are other things that could happen to me but I  would rather limit my health risks.  

2) Finding my passion – Experiencing Life the way it was meant to be experienced –  Live and do things that make me feel alive.  Do things that are fun.  For me it is competing and challenging myself.  20 years without it is a long time. It’s working out.  It’s helping others achieve a healthy lifestyle.  Hearing that I made a difference in someone else’s life actually motivates me even more.

Someone else could actually use their own body transformation to help them find what they are missing.  Turns out that it is much more than just a body transformation.  Maybe they haven’t discovered it yet.  If that is the case or if they haven’t pursued it maybe it is for the same reason that it took me so long to find mine.  Or at least to reconnect with it.  I was consumed with work.  I didn’t know how to allocate my time.  Giving myself a break to do the things that I love actually makes me more efficient with work.  It also makes me realize the wasted time that I spent.  My passion might actually become work.  I doubt that I will complain about that.  No excuses.  If I want to do something I do it.  I won’t make excuses on why I can’t do them and I won’t wait on others to do them with me.  If someone else wants to come along great.  (I use to see or hear about things that I wanted to try or do and would wait for someone to come along.  If I continued to wait I still might not have done my first Mud Run/Obstacle Race.  3 friends did the Spartan Race with me in Fenway Park the other day.) If not, I’m on my own.  Fine with me.  It’s my passion not theirs.  If someone’s passion is knitting I probably won’t be able to find the time to spend on knitting with them.  But if that makes them happy great.  Your passion may not have to do with training or nutrition or mud runs/obstacle races (however, try a mud run and see if you don’t get hooked).  It amazes me how many people have told me for the last year that they want to do one of the races and still haven’t.  That kind of accomplishment does hook people).  If you don’t have time to spend on your passion, make the time.  You will be happy that you did.  It will change your life.

3) Spending time with family, friends and my dogs Bailey and Riley – It’s nice when it involves my passion but like I said not everyone will spend the time on mine.  Just make memories and memorable times.  Have fun.

When I do die, I want to be able to say that I lived life the way that I wanted to live it.  That I enjoyed it and didn’t waste a day.
I’m sure that I can go on and on but I have only recently started to reprioritize my life and these are the things that I am spending time on now.  Learn to S.W.I.M.™ and find your passion.

What Is A Midlife Crisis And How Will You Face It?

On April 2, 2012 my life changed.  I made the decision on that day to commit to transforming my body.  Little did I know at the time that I would grow more in 2012 then ever before.  Not only would I drastically change my body over a 12 week, no 16 week, actually I think this thing is a lifetime transformation challenge.  I would change my mind (how I see things, how I am influenced, how I make decisions, etc…)  and my life.  I can not really say that I was unhappy or miserable prior to accomplishing my transformation, but I wouldn’t say that I was exactly happy.  Maybe it was more that I had my moments.  I wasn’t really honest with myself.  As my transformation progressed I became happier every day.   Obviously there have been situations that have happened in my life during this time which may have brought sadness, but I have also been able to continue on with my life in a positive way.  I am excited to wake up every day and I enjoy doing things that I may have missed out on in the past.

At 45 years old I guess I decided that I wanted to meet life head on.  As a little kid I grew up playing soccer and swimming on the swim team.  Once I entered High School, I moved on to football and wrestling.  I  continued with football throughout college. Towards the end of college I moved on to rugby which I played for the next couple of years.  Up until this time I was always involved in pick up games of basketball, team handball, handball and football.  Since high school I had also worked out.  Around the time I turned 25 all of this came to an end for the most part including the working out.  Every once in a while I might walk into the gym but it wouldn’t last.  In 1998 I competed in and became a Runner UP in the Bill Phillips 2nd Body For Life Challenge.  This new inspiration helped me focus on my health and fitness and got me into the best shape that I had been in during my adult life.  I was able to straighten out my nutrition and got into the gym on a regular basis.  This changed my life for the better.  I felt like I was doing everything that I had to do to continue with my healthy lifestyle.  I let it go.  I continued to work out but my nutrition was not good.  My head was not in the game.

In the back of my mind I knew that I wasn’t.  I was having trouble  being honest with myself.  I wanted my competitive life back.  The life that I left behind 20 years earlier.   For those last 20 years I was consumed with work.  60, 70, 80 hour work weeks.  My life was my work.  Sure work can be fulfilling, but aren’t there other things in life?  Once you enter the workforce is there limited time to do things that you really want to do?

I remember the days when we were forced to do one sprint after another at the end of football practice after you beat the hell out of each other.  I had a never quit attitude and would push harder and harder.  One day it all came to an end.  Let’s be honest, I never liked running and I still don’t.  Once it all ended there was no reason to put myself through the torture of training.  Training for what?  Turkey Bowl?  That’s once a year and just like every year I am going to go out and pull a hamstring or sprain an ankle or crack heads with someone else.  I don’t have to train for that.  I don’t have to torture myself for that. Well I do work out and I’m in good shape.  I can walk by the mirror, suck in my gut and see how great I look.
Well I guess that was about the time that my Mid Life Crisis set in.  I realized something was wrong.  I’m working out but I don’t look like I did in 1998 when I finished Bill Phillip’s Body For Life.

This was what helped motivate me to launch my new transformation.  Another Bill Phillips contest (Transformation Challenge).

This is when I started to learn to S.W.I.M.   For whatever reason I missed a lot of this in my first transformation.  Mostly the psychological side.  The part that could influence other parts of my life.  Also what made me decide to go even further on my “Journey to be Fit”.  The part that removed my limits.

I realized that I only have so much time on earth and I already let so many things pass me by.  I’m not going to miss out on something because I can’t make a decision or because I am waiting on someone else.  If I want to do something I am going to do it.  What does NIKE say?  I had been considering doing a mud run for about 5 months.  This is after I noticed the Tough Mudder.  However, I saw that the Tough Mudder was 12 miles and there was no way that I was going to run 12 miles.  Like I said.  I hate running.  I looked around a little more and noticed some shorter races.  Some of these were only 5k’s.  I already was running about 3 miles a day.  No problem.  I did my first race a few weeks into my transformation.  On Saturday, November 17th I will do my 7th race.  It’s a Spartan Race in Fenway Park.  On December 1st I will do my first Tough Mudder.  (I thought you said that you hate running?   Yes I did, but these obstacles are a blast.  The competition, challenge and achievement make you realize that you are alive.

I have a lot of people who wonder what the hell I am doing with my life.  Over the last 10 weeks (not long after completing my transformation) I have driven up to Plainfield, IL and stayed for 4 days and 3 nights each week.  I go there so that I can train at Xtreme Speed, which is a performance center owned by a friend of mine.  These guys are very intense.  I decided that I want to be on a whole other level.  In order to do that either train with people who have the same goals.  People who want to be where you want to go.  Or people who are already there.  These guys are already there.  I missed two weeks because I also went to Jackson, WY to have some new and old injuries treated by a friend of mine that does some amazing things with healing injuries and even illnesses with his own formulations.  (I will have more on my blog about him soon).  I also had a trip to Denver where I attended Bill Phillips new Transformation Program.  Basically all of my recent trips have been for myself.   It’s not like I stopped working.  I can work from anywhere.  I just made the decision to do things that I wanted to do.  At this point it is anything from sight seeing (places like Red Rocks in Denver) to training (which I love, especially when it is something different.  I also have another performance center that I will be checking out in the coming weeks) to running in mudruns or obstacle races.

I love the challenge.  I love being able to compete.  I love being more athletic than I have been since I was 25.  It’s never too late.

Is this my Mid Life Crisis?  If it is… Bring it on!  I’m turning 46 in 8 days and I look like I’m in my 30’s and feel like I’m in my 20’s.  Over the last 7 months I have totally transformed my body, mind and life and brought competition back into my life.  I also hope that I can help influence others to join me in this life changing experience.  

Don’t Let Travel Hold You Back

 

 

I travel a lot and my idea of going on the road in the past included taking a break from my workouts and cardio.  It also included a cheat meal that lasted for the length of my trip.  This cheat meal usually carried over for a couple of days upon my return home as well.

 

I decided to plan out how to live healthy on the road.  I make sure that I have time to get my workouts in, which may mean leaving later in the day to get my workout in at home or arriving earlier and getting it done when I arrive.  I do the same thing upon my return.  It takes Self Control to wake up 1 to 2 hours early if that happens to be the only time that you can fit it in.  In my case, it’s not a matter of finding the time when I go certain places.  I work out with a number of other people in different cities and in some of those cases they work out early in the morning.  Morning work out do make me feel so much better for the rest of the day.  I use the hotel facilities or I find a local gym.  As far as cardio goes, I like to find cool places to run.   I love trail running and will find out what is close by.  Mountains, lakes, fields, whatever.  If, I am in a city, I might just run the city streets.  Nice scenery or a new place can actually be inspiring.  Take advantage of your surroundings.  Get out and do some site seeing.  Don’t be that person who goes into a city and doesn’t see anything except a meeting room, an office, a restaurant and bar.  That’s what I use to do and it is much more enjoyable now.  I can go back to some of the same cities and still run in the same places, because they are so cool.  My two favorite places to run are at Red Rocks outside of Denver and in Vermont where I vacation for one week out of the year.

 

As far my nutrition goes.  If I am driving, it’s easy.  I bring a cooler and some food and my food processor.   The food that I bring includes Oatmeal, Eggs, Bananas, something that was premade like Almond Coconut Chicken.  I will also bring a snack like home made Fruit and Nut bars.  Sweet potatoes (already cooked).   I will also include protein powder or protein gels. In a lot of cases I will stay in places like a Towneplace Suites, because they have a kitchen and I can cook there.  I’ll also go to a Wholefoods  or another store that has organic foods, once I get into town and pick up something that I can cook in my room.

 

If I fly, I will bring a shaker bottle and protein powder packs or protein gel packs.  Flying can make it tough to get a meal that meets my nutritional guidelines.  Eating every 3 hours means that I will have to plan ahead and have something close by that is easy to make.

 

I do go out for some of my meals and I do get a little picky with how things are prepared.  I do try to have one cheat meal on the road.  Other than that, most restaurants will try to help you out when you order.  If you ever worked in a restaurant, than you will know some of the things that they will add to your food.  Order a steak and typically they will put a big chunk of steak butter on it.  Check out this video on ordering in a restaurant.

 

Thinking ahead and preparing for your trip will be a big help.  Don’t let travel be an excuse to blow off works out and eat like crap.  Turn it into a challenge and pat yourself on the back when follow through with everything that you promise yourself that you will do.  Don’t forget to S.W.I.M. 

 

Nutritional Guidelines That I Followed During My Transformation

The most important thing about my transformation was and still is mostly psychological.  It is all about controlling my own mind.  I have to make choices and they include not eating processed foods, sugar, drinking alcohol.  It also means that I  will make sure that I eat 6 healthy meals a day.

More Self Control.  Know when to say when.
Portion control is something that people have a great deal of trouble with and I was no exception.  When people eat out the portions are typically huge.  An easy way to figure out a good portion is to look at the palm of your open hand and that is what your protein portion should be.  Your fist would be your carbs and for vegetables that would also be your fist.

I don’t really like to refer to what I eat as a diet, because I believe that the word diet comes with a negative connotation.  People try diets.  People do diets for a set amount of time and in some cases an undefined period of time.  Low carb no carb, grapefruit, 30 day diet.  These are diets that you can’t stick with.  I guess you get on them and lose some weight and go back to your old ways.  You are setting yourself up to fail.  Planning is a great idea, however, I don’t like to plan to fail.  If it happens, I’ll learn from it but I don’t want it predetermined.  In 1998 when I did the Body for Life and got my body fat into the single digits, I was on a diet that I couldn’t stick with. It was pretty much a bodybuilder diet.  All of my food was bland.  If I wanted to get crazy and spice things up, than I would put spicy mustard on my bland chicken.  In some cases I would also cut my carbs.  You do cut fat, but you also burn muscle and you feel like crap.  I stuck with it for a long time. Eventually, I failed.

My new program had to include a nutrition plan that I could stick with for life.  I had to enjoy my food.  Based on my past history this would have been impossible.  I didn’t think that I could find something that was good for you that also tastes good on a daily basis.  I learned enough from the turkey baster diet to start looking into organic vegetables and fruits and free range chicken and eggs and grass feed beef.  Plus seafood.  First of all this way of eating tastes so much better than the crap I was buying prior to my transportation.  I already knew that processed foods were not good but still had to have the self control to avoid those foods.  I got rid of all of the food that I no longer allowed my self to eat.  I cleaned out my cabinets and it all went to a food drive.   Instead of getting sauce out of a bottle or can, I started to make my own with organic tomatoes and other organic vegetables.

The following are the guidelines that I set up for my transformation and that I continue to follow:

It provides more of a view of what to eat and what not to eat. I did make changes throughout my transformation but most of it was early on.  I still make changes occasionally.   I started screwing around with a different diet and dropped it close to the start of the program because I looked at it and realized that I could not do it for life.  I didn’t think that I could do it for another day.  Oh, I guess I couldn’t.  The nutrition program that I ended up following is awesome.  The food is great and I can do it for life. I don’t feel like I need a cheat meal and I am not anxious. I have been ripped before and ate bland food and it doesn’t work as a life style. You always want to cheat. There are lots of options with the way that I eat.

When I finished the first 12 weeks I had started to pay attention to calories for the next 4 weeks, in order to see how many calories I was eating. They ranged between 2500 and 3000.  I eat protein and carbs with every meal and I have 6 meals a day. Protein intake is close to my body weight in grams. I am estimating that I eat around 200 or more grams of protein a day.  Typically, my carbs in my first two meals come from Oatmeal. It ranges between 1/2 a cup and a full cup.  Oatmeal takes a long time to break down and it is low on the glycemic index. The other meals are usually sweet potatoes which break down quickly. Sometimes I replace them with brown rice or quinoa. Carbohydrates are fuel.  These foods will provide you with energy and will help you build and retain muscle.  They also possess many other benefits.  I actually use them in several different recipes.

Carbs
Vegetables – I eat organic vegetables – for the most part I stick with spinach and asparagus, sweet potato and occasional will add other vegetables to food that I make.  There are plenty of choices.
Fruits – Go with organic here also – tomato, avocado, grapefruit, bananas.  I add a number of other fruits to my diet as well.  Tons of choices here also.
Grains: I stay away from grains with the of exception of oatmeal, quinoa, brown rice.
Nuts: They are high in fat and carbs, however they are very nutritious and should be a part of your diet.  Just don’t overdue it.   I probably eat almonds more than any other type of nut. And I do eat peanut butter or almond butter every once in a while.
Protein – I stick with food that doesn’t have hormones or other crap in it. Grass Feed Beef, Bison, Seafood (usually fish), Free Range Chicken and Eggs

The way I define processed is anything man made.  This includes bread and pasta.  Both of which I love.  When people talk about carb loading the day before an event, I don’t consider pasta.  I eat, extra sweet potatoes and oatmeal.

I eat RAW honey and cinnamon 2 to 4 times a day.  Both of these are very beneficial.  If you are going to try it out make sure that you get RAW Honey.  In order for your body to digest it easily it has to be RAW.  Processed honey will cause your blood sugar to spike.

I replaced table salt with Sea Salt because table salt has a negative effect on your body and Sea Salt provides electrolytes and minerals for your body.  It contains some great health benefits.

I take supplements which includes a good protein powder every day.  If I want additional carbs with my protein shake, sometimes I will add half of a baked sweet potato to it.  One way to see if you are taking a good protein powder is to check the label and see how high Cholesterol is on the product.  Good protein will be low in Cholesterol.  Typically it is going to be more expensive.

I also add Metamucil or Psyllium Husks to my regular diet.  It adds needed fiber to your diet and has many benefits including reducing cholesterol.

This is my sample diet on a typical day

I add things to my diet which will help burn fat, lower cholesterol, provide energy, lower blood sugar and other things that play a role in being healthy.  If you take a look at any of the recipes that I put in my blog, you will notice that I put the benefits of the ingredients at the end of the recipe.

Wake up
Make a shake with 3 raw eggs, 1/2 a cup to 1 cup of oatmeal, raw honey, cinnamon  sometimes add protein powder sometimes add a banana or other fruit – add a couple ice cubes

Run within one hour

1 hour after run
3 egg omelet with tomatoes, onions, garlic, hot peppers

cup of oatmeal with honey and cinnamon and a grapefruit

or
Oatmeal Pancakes
Grapefruit

3 hours later
Almond Coconut Honey Chicken
Tropical Sweet Potato 

Spinach

Prior to workout
Protein Shake with half a sweet potato blended into it

Post workout
I take a recovery product that has carbs and sugar immediately after workout (I stay away from sugar other then post workout)
Protein Shake within 15 minutes of my workout ending

1 hour later
Seared Tuna with Mango and Ginger
Asparagus

3 hours later
Protein Shake

I usually get my carbs from vegetables at night.

Water is an important for health and it will also help fill you up.  Drink 50% of your weight in ounces of water,  plus 16 ounces for each pound that you lose working out.  I try not to drink water 30 minutes before or after I eat.  It can interfere with digestion.

I allow for one cheat meal a week.  However, it usually ends up being once every two weeks.
It could be pizza, pasta, pf changs, a steakhouse where I eat bread, ice cream or something out of the ordinary for me.  It never seems as good as i use to think that it was.  Still tastes good but i eat so many other good things that are good for you.  To tell you the truth I have felt terrible the day following a cheat meal several times.  My body isn’t use to some of the things that I rarely eat and it reacts in a negative way.

Self Control and Will Power are crucial for your diet.  I still go to dinner with friends and I am very careful when ordering out.  There are plenty of temptations when you go, from bread to alcohol.  You have to be strong enough to control your mind.  Also, if you don’t plan on eating something that comes with your meal it is always better to have it removed from your plate before it is brought out.  Remove the temptation.  Plus it’s a waste of food.

Funny thing is that people think that when they are trying to lose weight, they can’t enjoy their food.  That is exactly what I thought because that was my past experience.  Not only are my regular meals good but I eat several things that make me feel like I am cheating, including the Oatmeal Pancakes.  If you love chocolate checkout the recipe in my blog for Coconut Flavored Chocolate.

Planning is another important aspect of the nutrition program.  I wrote down everything that I planned to eat and followed up with what I actually ate during every meal, every day.  I got into such a routine, even though my meals varied that after about week 8 or 9 I stopped writing anything down.

Enjoy your food and make it work for you not against you.  Take advantage of the healthy benefits that these foods provide.  Learn to S.W.I.M. to improve your life.

Not the Right Diet for Me. But a Great Story:

 

During the beginning of my transformation I had started a particular diet.  I had been trying it out for several weeks and almost every time that I ate, I felt like I was suffering.  There were some exceptions. Some of the food I really  enjoyed.  There were some other positives because I started to eat organic fruits and vegetables and grass-fed beef and free range chicken and eggs.  The problem with it was the way that they were prepared.  I figured that if I suffered long enough then I could get down to my goal weight and go back to another diet (probably the same thing that I was already doing, which would eventually bring me back to 240).
I found out that the guy who created this diet was coming to St. Louis and would evaluate me and give me a more specialized diet.  I agreed and was hoping that he was going to tell me that if I did this diet for 3 months I would be ripped and could stop eating something that made me wish I had no taste buds.  

The founder of the diet comes into town and when I met him, he looked into my iris and would say things like, “Hmmm”, “Ohhh”, “Ahhhh”, “Ewwww”, “Holy Shit”.   I guess that can’t be all that good.  I felt like I was seeing a fortune-teller and come to think of it he did look at my palms.  I think I got a “enhh”.   He then went on to tell me, “You have toxins throughout your body.  It’s a good thing that you are a fat guy, because your fat is holding the toxins in.  If they get released you will become very sick.”  Well that wasn’t something that I wanted to hear.  Sick or not, I’m getting ripped up.  “Oh and you have a tumor in your lung”.  “This diet that I will give you will clean out all of the toxins in your body”.  Ok great, now I can do this diet until the toxins are gone and then get ripped.  “Now what I want you to do is eat a tiny piece of raw unsalted cheese every 5 minutes of the day.  You can carry it in a little pouch.”  Did he just tell me to eat a little tiny piece of cheese 5 minutes of the day all day long?  Do I have whiskers and a pointy nose?  If I do this am I going to be eaten alive by Garfield?  What the hell. That won’t make me lose the weight that I want to lose and get me ripped.  I don’t know about this diet.  “You see there are certain things that need to be done to have an effect on your body.  For instance…if you are depressed it is because your e. coli are lacking in fats.  You need to get fats to your e. coli.”  I’m wondering where he is going with this. I know what e. coli are and this isn’t making too much sense to me.  “So you need to do this by inserting fats in your rectum.”  I’m sitting there in shock, this isn’t what I signed up for.  This dude wants me to stick a F***ing T-Bone up my ass.  Are you serious?  A steak. There is no way that I am doing that.  After this I don’t even know if I want to eat a steak again.  He goes on, “So you would do this by taking some raw unsalted butter and naturally heating it to 105 degrees.”  I don’t understand.  What is natural about that?  Is it something that I was already supposed to know?  Were my parent suppose to tell me when I was a little kid that I was supposed to heat raw unsalted butter to 105 degrees for a reason that I was about to find out, but I already knew what was coming?  Was it instinct?  I think it’s instinct that dogs lick their ass, so maybe it’s instinct that I heat butter to 105 to stick up mine.  At least it’s not a steak.  “And then you take a turkey baster…” Wow, this is really interesting.  So interesting that I was already done with this diet when he got to heating up butter.  A turkey baster.  Really?  If I weren’t depressed, I am sure that I would have been after following his basting procedure.  I feel like there is a popcorn joke coming, but I’m sure that it would come out kind of crappy.

So that was it.  That was the end of my evaluation and that was the end of my diet.  As I got up to leave, he reached his hand out and I said, “Forgive me if I don’t shake your hand.  But wasn’t that  a turkey baster that you had in your hand when I walked in?
The things that I did get out of this diet were some good recipes (that had nothing to do with cheese, butter or turkey basters), I learned about the positives of organic food and free range chicken, eggs and grass-fed beef, and most important I got a great story.  

My Transformation: It Almost Ended Before it Began

My Transformation: It Almost Ended Before it Began

Now I had to figure out when I would begin my new program.  I had a trip to Denver coming up and decided that I would wait until I got back from that trip to begin.  Oh I had a trip the following week and then one right after that.  I’ll figure it out.  I was just making more excuses.

A few days later I notice that Bill Phillips had started a new company.  It’s Bill Phillips Transformation.  This was the same guy who founded EAS and started Body For Life (BFL).  He revolutionized the fitness industry with BFL by helping millions of people transform their lives.  Body For Life and it’s Champions from the first BFL like Porter Freeman were what inspired me the in 1998.  I checked out his new company and saw that he had come up with a new and different program that helps people transformation their bodies and lives while participating in his new challenge.  I decided that I should sign up.  The registration deadline was April 2nd.  Today’s date was April 2nd.  What a coincidence, no more excuses, I’m signing up and starting right away.  I had been stalling and hadn’t really planned anything out.  One of my biggest problems with my nutrition and even working out was travel.  A trip was what was keeping me from starting my new journey.  I had no other choice but to start the next day and plan things out during the first week.

In order to give myself an edge I decided to hire a personal trainer.  I wanted an outside perspective.  I wanted a new atmosphere and I wanted a place that was all about training.  I wanted a performance center.  I checked out a place that I heard about that was actually a little closer to my house than my gym.  It was called Emerge Fitness.  I took a look at the trainers online and liked what I saw as far as experience.  I drove over and met with Matt McCarthy.  We talked for a while and I told him that over the next 12 weeks I wanted to drop from 240 to 200 and I showed him my old before/after pics and said that I wanted to achieve the same goal.  I was thinking that he probably thought that I was full of crap but later he told me that he thought that I could do it, because of my confidence.  I liked what i heard and  I bought 50 sessions so that I would have a full commitment.  If I didn’t get results it would be my fault and I would have wasted $2,500 and would have had nothing to show (more motivation).  Workouts were set up for 4 days a week with a 5th that I would do on my own.  My first workout was the next day.
(I’ll get into my cardio program and nutritional program in a future blog, but my diet was very clean.)

I got through the first 3 workouts and my motivation had climbed.  I left for Denver keeping in mind that I had to be very careful with my program when I traveled.  Traveling had been a major problem for me in the past.  I wouldn’t work out and the entire trip was a cheat day.  I ate anything and everything and drank a lot more alcohol on the road than at home.  Some of my bad habits would make it back home with me upon my return and could last for a couple of days or a couple of weeks.

I landed in Denver  and that night went out with one of my friends/clients Jarvis Green (former Defensive End with the Patriots and Texans).  It was a great dinner I ate two loaves of bread, shared a few appetizers including fried calamari and ate some kind of pasta.  I also had about half a bottle of wine and had a number of beers.  That night back in my room, I felt awful.  I had just done what I promised myself I wouldn’t do.  I already failed.  If I can’t take control of my diet and my training program on the road, than I wasn’t going to be able to accomplish my goals.   I stay weak minded, I had to take control of myself.  I needed something that I could stick with.  I decided to write off that dinner as a cheat meal and the next day I got up and jumped on the tread mill and an hour later had scrambled eggs and oatmeal for breakfast.  The rest of the day I ate very healthy.   I went to dinner again with Jarvis, only this time I left the bread alone and I ate a salad with salmon and balsamic vinegar in it.  I did drink two beers but other than that I was pretty happy with how I had gotten through the night.

The rest of the trip was great and the best part is that I stuck to my nutritional plan and continued with my workouts and cardio.  My failure on this trip made me stronger.  It’s better to screw up early.  I felt like I had made it over the hump.  I finally had a trip that I didn’t come back heavier from.  I actually lost weight out there.  After this trip I knew that I was on the right path.  For the next several weeks, I went on several more trips.  Each one was a challenge, but I passed up drinks at parties and clubs with friends and food that in the past I would have stuffed myself with.  

Identify your biggest problems.  Be honest with yourself.  Face your fears.  Overcome and you will succeed.

My Transformation: How and when do I begin?


Prior to my transformation, I was already working out, I was already running and I was already eating healthy (Or so I thought). When I look back I remember coming to the realization that I lacked the psychological aspects. I was not putting all of these pieces together in an efficient manner and I was cheating myself.   I was afraid to admit to myself that I wasn’t happy with the way that I looked or felt.  I did know it in the back of my mind.  I knew that I could lose a couple of pounds (but couldn’t face that it was more than a couple) and I would start cutting weight, but it would quickly come to an end and I would increase my weight again.  A set back (Excuse) would take place and make me lose my focus.  On March 21st I posted my old before/after photos from the Body For Life Competition that I competed in and became a runner-up in 1998.  The first body transformation truly did get me to make a life changing decision. However, traveling and laziness caused me to binge more and more. I felt like I ate healthy and I was working out every day and running every day.  The reason for me posting these pictures was to motivate me to accomplish my goal of getting the lean body that I used to have.  If I could dust off my current body, I could look great.  The best thing that came out of my post was a comment that a friend made.  This is a friend that I have a ton of respect for.  He has done things that many others including myself have been unable to do.  He played in the NFL.  His playing weight was 320 pounds and when his NFL career ended he did his own transformation and got down to around 240 pounds.  He knows what it takes to achieve great things including a transformation.  As a joke he said “….and now you’re back to your before stage!! hahahahahaha.”  I knew that he was kidding but that’s all that I needed to get the motivation that I needed to finally say that I was going to commit to get my program started.  It made me look at those pics and got me to do the math.  Let’s see I started at 262 and finished at 199.  I’m 240 plus right now.  I am closer to my before stage.  What the hell did I do to myself.  How do you get to around 3% body fat and then get your FAT BODY back years later.  Didn’t I learn anything?  I did.  I learned how to lie to myself.  I learned how to have a weak mind.  I’m going to get my body tuned up again and I’ll make sure to share my new after pics.  My friend who made the comment will see how much his comment pissed me off (like I said, I knew that he was joking, but I wanted to say those words myself.  I was pissed at myself).  

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