The Change...

If you follow my post on Facebook than some of you may have noticed a few days ago I announced that I will be moving to Seattle in this upcoming year. I know especially my clients why I choosing to do this and leaving Total Health and Fitness for now. So this blog post will explain why I am doing this and what lead up to it. I know I don't have to explain my self, but I feel like you should all know. First let me clear this up, I love the fitness industry! Fitness is and always will be my life! I will always be apart of fitness in some way or another. As I have thought about my future though, I've realized that there are a few things I need to do first before I can do what I really want to do in the Fitness industry. This job is more a means to an end. So that being said, here is what lead up to this change. A few months ago my friend approached me about going out and doing summer sales. That idea was something I really never had a huge desire to fulfill. I thought it couldn't hurt to venture out and try something challenging though. So I started to study out the summer sales in every aspect possible. As I found more and more info about it it became harder and harder not to want to do it, but still every other day it would feel like something like I would just hate doing. In the mean time I had been talking to some close friends from Seattle Washington, where I served my LDS mission. I had sarcastically suggested to them that they should hire me so I could come up there and work for them. Well little did I know they would really want me to come up there to be apart of their insurance company. 9 months ago they had opened this new office and have already become one of the fastest growing offices in Washington. Well I had so many different options after all this. I wanted to make a choice before the new year. So I started to consider all the out comes of each opportunity. Here's what I figured out. I want to start looking into having business as a big part of my career. I know that both summer sales and the insurance company would provide this. The summer sales would not be a long term thing though. As some of you may know me I need long term commitments when it comes to work. So I thought that doing the insurance company would open a lot more doors for me in the long term. The risk of both jobs were still there, but the long term benefits were huge when comparing. So I chose the insurance. With Total Health and Fitness, again I have loved this job more than any other job i've had. It really was the best thing for me. I have gotten so much out of that job knowledge, skills, and friends. I will miss working there, but I am sure I will always have a hand in that place one way or another. I feel like this will be the best thing for me right now in my life. The best part about being young and single is having these opportunities in life come your way and just being able to try new things. So for now Fitness world good-bye but I'll in the future.

Back on the LEAN

Alright I am back on my joyful, fun, and highlight of my day lean out! Last week was a pretty crazy week for me, but I just did the best I could and lost .8% body fat, and 3 LBS ended up being a good week. Right now I am at 13.7% body fat. I am doing my best to make sure this goes as quickly as possible. I will be honest lean outs are not the most fun thing. I do love the results though. So I know a lot of people read these blogs because of the motivation that it gives to you. I had received a lot of comments on how it helped you with your own fitness goals. I wanted to create something that could get on more of a personal basis, so i created a new blog @ thedriven23.blogspot.com. This blog will talk about where i get drive on my day to day life and other things in my life that I go through. I wanted to create something that more people could relation life situations to. Please follow if you are interested, comment on the blogs and ask questions. I hope most of you were able to sign up for the freedom festival 10k this next monday also! Enjoy your fourth of July!

Ragnar Results

Well I am still alive! I want to thank Team Caselle for allowing me to be apart of their team! That was probably one of the best experiences I've had with all my finesses goals. I wasn't ready for this event at all, but I was still able to complete it by doing my best. My first leg started in the afternoon and it was a lot hotter than I thought it would be. While going I felt like I was making awesome time, and I was right! But somewhere along the last mile I got a bad cramp in my abs. This happened during my training run that Monday and I was worried that it would happen on my run and it did every leg of my race. My first leg I finished it in 35min. That is the fastest I've ever ran four miles! I was happy with the results, just worried I had burned out my legs already. The second leg was at 11PM and it was a three mile up hill run. I was doing awesome until I realized I hadn't even hit the real hill yet. The Hill was a three step hill, meaning it would climb then level off then climb again. It was hard! I still finished with a good time 29min. The last leg was the hardest thing I've put my self through. I woke up from the night and noticed my side hurt really bad and I was really worried. I still had to go run and while I was running before I even got to mile 1 my side cramp kicked in really hard. Dan called me during that mile and I have never had a point to where I really didn't know how I would finish, until that moment. I could have broke down and cried, but good thing for my ego I didn't. It was something I knew I would have to dig deep in order to finish my leg. I finished still with about a 10 min mile pace. I had to tell my self so many times during this race, dig deep, dig deep. It was a time where I knew I could prove something to my self and wanted it bad! Our team finished around 30 hours, great accomplishment. I highly recommend everyone who reads this to go and challenge your self your, your best competition! Go and win!

Ragnar

Alright I haven't been able to update the blog because of how busy I've gotten with everything. Well it's the night before the big Ragnar race. I wanted to just kind of talk about training and feelings going into this. Honestly I am very excited! This will be a lot of fun. Am I ready? I doubt I'm as ready as I could be. I love this feeling of not sure if you can accomplish a big task or not. It's a time you can prove to your self what your really made of! The pain you go through to get there makes it worth it in the end. If you didn't know, I've only been training for this for about two weeks. I have had to really push my self to get all my runs in. I have had to push it to finish them all! My last run was this past Monday and I am a little nervous that my right calf tightened up before I even hit mile 2. I told my self this is where you will have to put in your mental game in order to finish this. I was able to finish with one of my best times yet! I am pumped and ready to go. People have told me it isn't about the winning just go have fun. I can't help but make this all about winning! I am a competitive person and just being my best is everything. Looking at it physically I have a lot of doubts. Mentally I am over prepared and know this I am more prepared than most people could be in two weeks. I am READY! I will take pictures and post them next week. Next week it's back to lean out! Doing things we couldn't see our selves doing, is what makes us grow!

P.S. If you will be in Utah for the 5th of July come join me as I run the freedom festival 10k. It is an awesome and fun run to do! SIGN UP TODAY! http://www.freedomfestival.org/

Week 1 Lean (TACO'S???)

I still can't stand CHICKEN! I wasn't perfect on my menu, but I was at least 95%. The results came out to be .8% loss in body fat, which was about 1.5 LBS of fat off my body, and then 1 LBS of lean mass gained. We aren't sure if those are fluids or not yet. As hard as the lean out is, I do enjoy doing it. When I have to eat so clean I feel like I am at my most healthy health. This program will also have to be a little longer than we planned. I was just asked to do the Ragnar relay! While getting ready for events like this I can't be on a lean, due to the need of carbs while gearing up for it. So I will just post how training for this race is going. Yes, I know I have two weeks to get ready and I am a little behind. This will be a little bit of a challenge, but I am not worried I enjoy fitness challenges. As I was on my run yesterday, I had a thought come to mind about how I tend to over do what I am really capable of. Such as entering a race with no cardio endurance in me at the time. I was even running and thinking I need to slow down! There is just something inside of me saying "no do your best push through your weaknesses" I just refuse to walk and slow down, even when I know I need too. I love fitness challenges, because I am able to test my self each time. I love the feeling of being able to prove to my self and others, what can be accomplished on complete will power. Obviously even I have limits and there are points where I do have to listen to my body. I will always push to that point though. I see results by doing this. Most people are worried to push to this point, why? Because it hurts! It's not comfortable! Many times I have the thought quit come into my mind, but what makes the difference is never giving into it. Your results are a product of your own will power! Challenge your self a little and let pain become a feeling you look forward to. I hate training, I never feel awesome doing training, I just know the reward for doing it.
Also if you are wanting a great way to have healthy tacos, get some ground turkey meat and a 30% less sodium taco seasoning packet. Cook it all up, and then add your favorite tortilla with it and your veggies. This is a perfect meal to have for family dinners and it is very tasty! No, I didn't have any taco's on my lean out, I just made my turkey meat like this.

End of the Build!

THANKS GOODNESS! I am so glad I am done with 10 sets of 10 reps! I think I might have shed a tear while I realized that I had just finished my last workout! I will be honest menu wise I didn't do the best. I think most of it was knowing that I would be leaning out this week, that I just wanted to enjoy flavored food! I am set and ready to go. I am cooking my chicken and rice as I type this. With the build I feel like I gained as much muscle as I would have liked to at this point in time. Over all I gained about 9 LBS of muscle. I feel like this is a good amount for the six weeks. I am ready to lean out! I want to run again, which is weird?! I am glad I get to pull off all this extra fat now! Starting this I will be taking a few different supplements. I am now doing our fat burners, flab-u-less, and burn baby burn. I will also be on our fitness fuel. So I say bring it on! My thoughts for this week is really focused on Value. Recently our office just hired two new employees. While we have been working on training them, I have been thinking a lot about value. I think about the value of our program, my clients, and goals. As I began to really break down that word I realized everything in our lives has value in one way or another. If we choose to do something or not do something it is all because of what we see the value in. If I give up on a goal or don't do my best at it, then it isn't because of anything else other than the value I see in it. Obviously I can say I want it, but there are a lot of things in my life I want. I just don't get it, because of value of not having enough money or just no real need at this point. If I had the opportunity to get my dream car for 200 bucks by the end of the week. I would do everything in my power in order to make sure I got it. Why? Because there is a value to me I can see and it is attainable. So it goes with our goals. We want to reach our goals, but what's the value of them to us. Finding and remembering that value in your goals is what will make you successful. This can be used in every aspect of your life. SERIOUSLY! take a look and examine you'll find what you really do value and sometimes you will find shocking answers! Take your goals and life with full value in them, make those things important to you valued as high as gold!

Week 5

Alright one more week with the build. This weeks results: I gained another pound of lean body mass. I'll admit i could have probably gained more. Due to how busy we've been at the office, I haven't been able to eat as often as I need. Of course I know not eating hinders my results. DRATS! I will still do my best to finish out this last week strong. Dan and I both agree I am one week behind still. I don't care to gain that much more lean mass. I feel like I have put on enough lean mass as is. I am ready to do a lean out and see that transformation rather than seeing muscle mass put on. These 10 sets with 10 reps is very rough to do. I even lose encouragement to get in the gym because of them. So even for me, yes, life hinders my program even. The best thing I can do is keep going and see where I end up.

Week 4

What a intense week of workouts. After deciding that we need to go more intense with my workouts, I am worn out. We decided to do 10 reps and 10 sets! I can honestly say I have never felt anything like these workouts! These will probably play the biggest mental game with you while doing them. With the new workout l gained another 1.5 LBS of muscle this week. I can really see differences in certain parts of my body, which is always motivating as most of us know. Again with my meals I have missed a few meals due to being busy. So far we are still doing good on the program. I know I promised to have PDF's of my programs I will have to do that soon, I apologize. The thing that I have been thinking about for the past few days is how much sacrifice it takes to reach our goals. If we don't have to sacrifice anything to reach our goals, then I believe we haven't set a goal at all. Some of you may have seen my facebook status earlier this week, it said "success takes sacrifice." For a lot this program I have had to make changes to my lifestyle in order to be successful in this program. The goals have to worth the sacrifice, we all have to take that into consideration. One of the biggest you have to do while doing your goal, is always remember to finish what you started. I know I've talked a little bit about this in my blogs before. I guess I can't stress this enough though. Goals will shape who we are and who we feel about our selves. If we don't finish our goals, it does begin to affect all aspect of our lives. Which may seem pretty drastic to a few, but that's why I think exercise goals are such an important thing for everyone to have in their lives. When you complete a fitness goal it teaches you what you can put your self through and still come out on top. It's always about giving it your best and seeing where you end-up, which teaches you how much more high you can go from there. I could go on for a long time about goals and the affect they have on our lives! The biggest question is what are you going to sacrifice in order to reach your success?

Week 3

Alright here are the week three results. First off I did go out of town this last week to Seattle, I can't say I did very well though. It wasn't a matter of eating bad as it was I just didn't eat enough! So this week I weight 172 gaining very little muscle and fat. Dan and I talked and realized that we are now behind our goal. We are going to drop the HST program and go to what we know works best. So my results should start to change drastically from here on out.
Recently we had a client in here who had gotten injured while training. They obviously weren't to excited about this. They got me thinking though. So I wanted to touch on my thoughts about this just a little. Now if anyone knows injury while training its me. I have had 3 surgeries on one shoulder in 4 years. I have torn my ligaments so much in one that it would no long hold my shoulder in socket, I have broken my arm arm wrestling, and then had to have the rod they put in my arm taken out. Injuries are a part of having a active lifestyle and training. We want to avoid them obviously, but remember even professional athletes get injured at the most inconvenient times. After every injury though I have loved proving to my self that I could always come back better and stronger. I mean right now I can bench more than 200 LBS, which is really good for having bad shoulders, but after surgery I was in golds gym only lifting the bar and STRUGGLING! It isn't always about getting to the goal, sometimes its just about the things your doing to get to your goal, that make it all worth it! The hard work you put into your goal is proof to your self on what you your self can accomplish when you set your mind to it. It's like that saying when we get knocked down, we get back up again. When we get back up come back better and more confident in knowing we can complete our goal even better than we had plan before we got injured. So message would be, there are no end points to our goals, just new and better ways to accomplish them.

Week 2 Finish

I did it! I cheated! I had doughnuts! I felt horrible after! I started to walk to my car and about lost all of them! There you have it my cheat for the week. So here is how I did this week. We were right about our pinches last week. They were a false pinch. With everything I am doing to my body, my pinches were way off. So I don't have an exact report to tell you this week. We figure I am gaining about 1.5-2 LBS of muscle. I do have to say this week was one where I wasn't as prepared as I would have liked. I did my best though. This week I will be leaving for my best friends wedding in Seattle. I have made sure that I will only miss one workout. I have packed all my food. So here's my little advice for the week. When your trying to change your lifestyle and maintain one. People will not accept it. It's sad that being healthy and doing things the right way has become the wrong way! Today's society do not understand, what I am doing, along with everyone else and does this. When I went shopping for my food with my BEST FRIEND, I heard your nuts and crazy. Rubbing it in that he got to eat whatever he wanted. I know what I do is out there, and crazy! I laughed with him, because he's exactly right I am nuts and crazy! I love it! People always in the end admire those who do such strict things in life and accomplish them. So remember no one will understand your goals like you do. Keep with it and be successful!

Mountains in Life!

I went on a hike today and I had some thoughts come to my mind that I thought would be good to share with all of you. I went on a hike up by bridal veil falls. The weather has been awesome for a good hike I recommend everyone get out and do something! As I was hiking and getting close to the top of the mountain I had this thought come to me. As we start hiking we feel great and are very excited to get to the top. We go for a good amount of time, but towards the steeper parts we feel more like what am I doing? After a few breaks we are ready to go again. We may even hit a point where we think well actually I feel good I don't need to finish this (we become content). But if we decide to keep going we soon see how close we are to the top. That makes us feel ready to just get up to the top, but that can become the hardest part of the hike, because of how vertical it can get. As we push through it we get to where wanted to be and feel like we've really accomplished something good! My reward after was feeling GREAT! and just enjoyed the hike down feeling like I could do even more today! Same goes for our goals. We always feel that point were we can become content, or just want to feel like this isn't what I had in mind. If we choose to push through it though,k we realize our goal is always within reach. It does get harder before it gets much easier for us though. The rewards out weigh the hard work but a ton! Not only do you find something new within your self of accomplishment, but also after the rewards in your life, the down hill relaxing feeling of accomplishment is amazing! So before you decide your goal isn't worth it, remember the rewards that come from you pushing through the steep parts of your goal, then keep going!!

Week 1 Finished!

I just want to let you all know how week 1 went. Well I will start out with the cheats I had. Now they aren't going to seem like cheats to you, but they are only cheats to be because they aren't on my menu or I didn't eat at the right time. Saturday night I went out with a group of friends to get some sushi. I made sure though, that mine was all raw and now creams or fried on it. Dan and I just did my pinches. My results: 171.6 LBS which is a 4.2+ on the scale. 14.3% body fat, +.8%. Weird I know? I told Dan it's funny, because even when I know how the program works. I still have to play the mental game seeing number go up. We also noticed, that after winter I decided to lean out and loose all my winter body fat. I looked at what I weighed then 171.6 LBS with 17.6% body fat!! Now compare my numbers where I am now. It is very interesting how quickly we can change our bodies. It just takes hard work and dedication to your goal in order to reach it. There are reasons why everything is up there way that they are. So next week will be interesting to see what my body does do.

Low calorie day plus advice from a former body builder!

I decided I should talk about my low calorie day. I was also told I am to wordy so I am going to make sure it's shorter ;). I just want to start out letting everyone know especially my clients how amazed and proud of them I am and anyone else who starts and completes this program! This is very hard to do and you do have to put up with a lot! So I am really impressed with you all!! I haven't cheated yet so I'm clean there. Low calorie days though. I don't mind, but they are hard. I was hungry and very tired all day! The only plus I felt by this was not being as bloated! It still took a lot not cheat, one cheat could ruin the whole point of the low calorie day. I also learned yesterday by talking to a former bodybuilder that my weight training program may not be the best way to gain. Of course I asked what has he found to be most successful?? He said "nutrition 7 days a week!" there you have it success is upon this many have realized this. Follow the plan see results. Simple?

First Day on menu and in the gym!

Alright here's how the first day when. It wasn't hard at all with the foods. I ate exactly perfect and at the right times. There was one challenge that I did find through out the day. It is that when i am with clients, they happen to come at the time when i am suppose to eat. I did have to pay close attention to it. I was also use to being able to eat whatever was around. I didn't I only ate my food. Again what is the one thing that kept me going? BEING PREPARED! Honestly so many times if I wouldn't have had my food right there I would have just crumbled! The only mistake i did make through the day is I missed one of my scoops of my MRP. Oops?! So that is basically how my nutrition went today. Now the weight training. All I can say is WOW. I have never really felt the way I felt after this workout today. I am doing what's called the HST. It is designed to focus just on muscle building. To give you a brief overview of what it is. Basically you super set every major muscle group. You make sure to do heavy weights and go at a speed of 2/4/2. This means I go up really quick let it down 4 seconds and then back up. I do one set and some times 2, but you then do 15 reps. It doesn't look hard really until you do it! Holy cow i couldn't really grip anything before I was half way done! I couldn't believe the burn. Basically from what I get from it, is that I am building lactic acid in my muscles which is why its designed like this. I will build a storage and then next week use that one my other workouts. I am still trying to figure it all out, so I do hope I am doing it right. I am sure I will feel grand tomorrow. Anyways it really was a good day for the goal, so I head is down and I am still full on running at this!

Getting ready for the week!

Alright it's now Easter and with tomorrow being day one of my 12 week program, I am preparing mentally and physically. One of the biggest things that will make having and creating a healthy life style is by not being prepared. I have also been making sure that I look at how things are going without a menu right now. I try to find what are going to be hold ups during the program and what I am going to have to do to over come those things. With my life I am rarely home and drive up and down Utah county continually. With obligations and social life coming into play I really have to look at what I will beed to change in order to be successful. Although I haven't been on a menu this week it has been easier, but I have noticed that I feel just not healthy. To simply put it. I have been excited to get back on a menu and start hitting the gym hard again. I have noticed that not having a goal or something to work for makes it hard to workout. I feel more like I am running circles and just got NO where! So tonight I will enjoy our family Easter dinner and then go straight to making and preparing all my food for this week! I will have to carry around all my supplements around with in a gym bag. I make sure I carry around a cooler lunch box. Now I know most people wouldn't want to do this, but again with my life style it is the only way I know I can be successful. Mentally I know that I will need to focus on how I feel now. That isn't the best. So I need to make sure I get a good nights rest and then be ready for getting in the gym tomorrow. This is all hard work. It takes dedication and determination. I always tell my clients to think of themselves as athletes and to train as professional athletes. It takes some sacrafice to get use to this new life. It will be fun though I am excited. I will post one more blog after my day tomorrow and then continue to do this each week to let you all know how it is going.

Prep week

When I go into a build I make sure I go on a two week maintain. This is where all my favorite foods I've cut out come in every now and then. Not everyday! But I treat my self. I do put a little fat on and lose a little definition, but I know that it will all be coming off soon! I still make sure I train hard. When I am in the gym for these last two weeks I've been doing hard circuit training. I've also kept up on my runs making sure I don't get lazy. Once you've stop lifting and running it's way hard to get back into it. So I never consider my self not training. While I thought about my next goal I really thought what would make me most commuted to sticking to my goal. Because not even I always reach my goal. This time I thought with everyone watching me and Dan helping me this time I will have a little more responsiblity to finish it out strong. With that being said my goals for these 12 weeks are: put on close to ten pounds of muscle, and then get down to at least 10% body fat. Right now i'm sitting at about 168 lbs with 13.6% body fat. During this if you go to our facebook page total health and fitness USA you will see exactly what I'm eating everyday and what my workouts are like and what topform supplements I'm taking. Everyone always asks me how I do what I do, like how I eat so much and still stay so thin and lean. Through this blog I will explain what I am doing and why. This weekend I am just creating my game plan. I am thinking up to three weeks ahead of what I am going to do for my planned events. It takes that much planning when going on to these goals. I have to figure how I am going to have my food supply with me at all times and no excuses. So just keep following I hope we can all learn from this blog.