This week 45 people weighed in—down from the 52 that started. Unfortunately, that’s normal. So, I thought it was time for some straight talk.
After everyone had finished with their first assignment, walk/run a mile and had gathered in the room, I pointed to a large stack of papers on the center table. “Can anyone tell me what those are,” I asked.
There were several guesses about the foot-tall stack, and then someone guessed that they were files of people who had quit. “That’s right,” I said. There were probably 300 membership files sitting there.
So we talked about some of the reasons people had started and stopped over the past few years. Some people had moved away. At least two had passed away.
I told them about Buddy, who used to come in with his oxygen tank. He worked out almost everyday. Even though he was fighting a losing battle, he wanted to do what he could—and did almost to the end.
They learned about my friend Bob, who was dragged in kicking and screaming by his wife. His first words were “I don’t want to be here and I’m not going to do anything!”
I remember saying, “That’s O.K. Just sit here on one of the bikes and watch TV. If you feel like pedaling a little bit, go ahead.” Before long, Bob was riding the bike 30 minutes, and finally, he worked up to coming in twice a day.
Others have left to join the Y. That’s O.K. too. A third of the Biggest Losers this time work out at the Y. The important thing is that they’re doing something.
Some had purchased equipment to use at home, and that’s fine, too—if they’re using it. Unfortunately, most home gym equipment goes unused, and sooner or later gets moved out to the garage, sold in the paper, or even given away.
The real shame is that every one of those people had a goal—a reason for starting. Most of them had reasons for stopping, too. But most of them didn’t get what they wanted.
The hardest thing is starting. Once you’ve done that, the hardest thing is continuing with an exercise program, a healthy diet, or anything else you’re trying to change.
We are creatures of habit, and old habits are hard to break. Experts say it takes 21 days to make something new a habit. We’re 14 days into this thing, and have already lost 7 people.
If experience holds true, before it’s over, we’ll lose close to half of the group for some reason or other. So I asked them, “Which half are you going to be in? The half that quits, or the half that sticks it out and gets what they want?”
You see, life is going to intrude. There will be emergencies, inconveniences, scheduling conflicts, kids getting sick, high gas prices, working late, vacations, and so on. But do you let those things keep you from getting what you want, or do you impose your will on things?
You decide what you’re going to do. I’m so proud of one of our Losers. He’s been a busy executive for years and just never thought he had time to do it, even though he knew he needed to.
He’s hitting it on his lunch hour. I told him to let people know that’s where they can find him if they need him—and not to bring in his phone, either! If it’s that important, they can come get him. And you know what? Things are fine that hour without him. He’s getting it done.
I’ve got one gal who’s getting up at 3:30 AM to get in her early mile. I’ll say. That’s an early mile. You won’t see me in here at that time. But, she works in Indiana, and wanted to get it done. Once she gets to her goal, it’s likely that she’ll back off a little bit and just hit it after work, but for awhile, more power to her.
I finally met the woman I’ve seen running while pushing a double baby carriage, two dogs on leashes running along on each side—and a little one riding a bicycle in front. Now that’s multi-tasking!
She took everyone’s excuses away just by running by. We’ve got her husband involved now. You know he’s going to get plenty of encouragement at home.
Once you’ve started, you’ve got to make the commitment to stay with it, and not let down your guard. Change doesn’t come easy, and the old you will rear up and try to shut things down.
Don’t let it. Stay focused. Have the big picture in mind—you getting smaller. Anything worthwhile never comes easily. There’s always a price to pay, but it’s worth it.
Looking good and feeling good is there for everyone, if you’ll just stay with the program. It doesn’t take nearly as long to take it off as it did to put the weight on.
Still, that’s not fast enough for some people, especially when they see others putting up those big weight-loss numbers on TV, or even here each week. I’ve got to keep reminding them that losing one pound a week is good, two pounds a week is great, and three or more pounds is fantastic.
Even a pound a week will turn into 50 pounds in a year. Most people can double that, if they do everything right. That’s 100 pounds. For most people, they’ll have hit their ideal weight before then.
That brings us to our Biggest Loser this week, Erika Hollis. It’s rare for a woman to put up the higher numbers, because the guys usually have more to lose, and more muscle to help them lose it with. Women also have a different hormone mix that makes it more difficult.
Erika lost an astounding 3.0% of her body weight, for a total of 5.8 pounds. Her two week total is 11.6 pounds lost, putting her in 3rd place for overall weight loss.
She won a $20 Walmart gift card from our sponsor, Terry Elston & State Farm Insurance. Terry is the high school boy’s basketball coach, and is all about helping people achieve their goals!
Second place went to John Rigdon, who lost 2.2% of his body weight and 4.4 pounds. Third place was a tie between two other women woman, Jennifer Bowers and Stacey Reed. Jennifer lost 2.0% of her body weight and 3.9 pounds, and Stacey also lost 2.0% of her body weight, which worked out to 3.4 pounds.
Next week, I’ll give you the skinny on why they’re getting the results they’re getting, and how to put together the perfect meal to keep you eating right, all the time. Right now, it’s time to get to the gym!
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Sunday, October 05, 2008
BIGGEST LOSER "5" WEEK ONE
Before we take a look at how Biggest Loser “5” is shaping up, I wanted to tell you about the Honeybee 5K race held last Saturday at Twin Lakes Park.
Named in honor of Shawna M. Morrison, who gave her life serving in Iraq several years ago, the 3.1 mile run couldn’t have been held on a more perfect day. Sunny and cool, it was a great day for people to get some exercise and test themselves, while contributing to a very worthwhile cause.
Lots of people I know had personal bests. Even I had my best time. I’d been trying to break 26 minutes, and finally did it with the help of a couple friends. Not bad, for a 46 year old snail.
I felt pretty good about that, especially after running through some asthma in the first mile and needing to hit a porta-potty for the last 2 miles. It’s funny how the body always keeps a certain time for things (I could use a later start time, thank you), and running always shakes things up a bit.
Hats off to the YMCA for organizing a great event—the t-shirts were awesome, and I heard they had to order more, after seeing all the registrations. Next year, I’ll bet it will be even bigger. Nice job, everyone that participated! I think Shawna would have been proud.
Now on to Biggest Loser “5.” After getting 52 registrants, we had 48 make it through the first week to the first weigh-in. I don’t know where the others were, or if they’re continuing. We’ll have to see.
I always tell everyone that there will be two groups: one that finishes and one that doesn’t, and ask them which group they’ll in? Starting a massive weight loss campaign is hard. It’s inconvenient and messy, and life intrudes.
Circumstances will always conspire against you (recall the asthma attack & porta-potty issue during my 5K, or my knee during the long run last week). It’s what you do then, that really determines how successful you’ll be. Do you keep trying, or do you let set backs control you?
We also talked about how the results on the TV show aren’t very realistic. No one here gets to live on a ranch without the hassles of work and taking care of the kids. As far as I know, no one has a chef either, and I know no one’s working out for hours a day!
We’re shooting for a mile walk each morning (20 minutes), and a more rigorous, dedicated workout each afternoon or evening. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, they’re hitting the weight machine circuit, and on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, they’re hitting the cardio room for 30-45 minutes.
This week was about getting everyone moving, and we certainly did that during the Friday night workout. Earlier groups have called the room “Tom’s House of Pain.” That might be a little extreme, but basically descriptive.
Everyone did 50 pushups, 50 crunches, and 50 squats, broken up in sets of 10. I told them that while it may seem pretty tough then, in 12 weeks, they’ll be wondering why it was such a big deal. Tough workouts today will be easy ones tomorrow.
Then they did several sets of walking lunges (forward & backwards), monkey runs (on hands & feet), and some stretching. The whole workout is designed to have them doing more and more each week.
As they do things they didn’t think they could do, it gives them confidence. It also makes them stronger. That’s another good reason for everyone to try a 5K walk/run at some point.
The other major goal this week was to get them thinking about their minimum. Regular readers will recognize this term “minimum.” Actually their Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR), I came up with the term “minimum” to help people understand this is the minimum number of calories your body needs everyday to thrive and survive.
According to the American College of Sports Medicine (the established authority on exercise and diet standards), women should never go below 1,200 calories a day, and men should never get under 1,800 calories. This is because most women have a minimum somewhere around 1,250-1,350.
Petite women might be closer to 1,200 and taller, bigger-boned women might be closer to 1,400. This means you need to hit that first, just to provide the body the energy it needs to get through the day.
To feel really good, especially when working out, you need to add another few hundred calories. Stay below your minimum, and your body will think you’re starving, making it very difficult, if not impossible to burn fat for fuel.
This is the number one problem with women trying to lose weight. I already talked with several women who had been eating 800-900 calories a day. One took it up to 1,400 calories and lost 5 pounds this week. 9 out of 10 women don’t eat enough.
1,500 to 1,650 calories a day seems to be just about right for women to feel great while losing weight. For guys, it’s somewhere around 2,250-2,400 calories. It’s usually flipped for guys, though. 9 out of 10 guys tend to overeat, so while the gals need to eat more, we need portion control.
If you’re following along at home, the group is supposed to do 2 circuits on the weight machines. This is not a set followed by a rest, and then another set. Instead, they’re supposed to do a set of each machine, in a row without stopping, and then do it again.
The main goal is to keep their heart rate up, helping them burn more calories. They’re also supposed to turn it up in the cardio room too. Remember, if you can already do it, your body has no reason to change. You’ve got to work hard to drive those calories off.
This week’s winner was Shawn Bowers, who lost an amazing 3.9% of his body weight, for a total of 10.8 lbs. I might also add, that he was one of the ones I was very proud of at the 5K run. Shawn’s a big man, and he ran the 3.1 miles in just over 30 minutes—with all those hills!
Shawn won a Joe’s Pizza gift certificate from Terry Elston and State Farm Insurance. Terry has graciously come aboard as our sponsor and will be standing with us all the way through to the end with a $250 prize for the winner, $150 prize for 2nd place, and a $100 prize for the 3rd place finisher in 12 weeks.
We’ll have Shawn’s picture in the paper sometime this week. Stay tuned for more results from Biggest Loser “5” next week!
Named in honor of Shawna M. Morrison, who gave her life serving in Iraq several years ago, the 3.1 mile run couldn’t have been held on a more perfect day. Sunny and cool, it was a great day for people to get some exercise and test themselves, while contributing to a very worthwhile cause.
Lots of people I know had personal bests. Even I had my best time. I’d been trying to break 26 minutes, and finally did it with the help of a couple friends. Not bad, for a 46 year old snail.
I felt pretty good about that, especially after running through some asthma in the first mile and needing to hit a porta-potty for the last 2 miles. It’s funny how the body always keeps a certain time for things (I could use a later start time, thank you), and running always shakes things up a bit.
Hats off to the YMCA for organizing a great event—the t-shirts were awesome, and I heard they had to order more, after seeing all the registrations. Next year, I’ll bet it will be even bigger. Nice job, everyone that participated! I think Shawna would have been proud.
Now on to Biggest Loser “5.” After getting 52 registrants, we had 48 make it through the first week to the first weigh-in. I don’t know where the others were, or if they’re continuing. We’ll have to see.
I always tell everyone that there will be two groups: one that finishes and one that doesn’t, and ask them which group they’ll in? Starting a massive weight loss campaign is hard. It’s inconvenient and messy, and life intrudes.
Circumstances will always conspire against you (recall the asthma attack & porta-potty issue during my 5K, or my knee during the long run last week). It’s what you do then, that really determines how successful you’ll be. Do you keep trying, or do you let set backs control you?
We also talked about how the results on the TV show aren’t very realistic. No one here gets to live on a ranch without the hassles of work and taking care of the kids. As far as I know, no one has a chef either, and I know no one’s working out for hours a day!
We’re shooting for a mile walk each morning (20 minutes), and a more rigorous, dedicated workout each afternoon or evening. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, they’re hitting the weight machine circuit, and on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, they’re hitting the cardio room for 30-45 minutes.
This week was about getting everyone moving, and we certainly did that during the Friday night workout. Earlier groups have called the room “Tom’s House of Pain.” That might be a little extreme, but basically descriptive.
Everyone did 50 pushups, 50 crunches, and 50 squats, broken up in sets of 10. I told them that while it may seem pretty tough then, in 12 weeks, they’ll be wondering why it was such a big deal. Tough workouts today will be easy ones tomorrow.
Then they did several sets of walking lunges (forward & backwards), monkey runs (on hands & feet), and some stretching. The whole workout is designed to have them doing more and more each week.
As they do things they didn’t think they could do, it gives them confidence. It also makes them stronger. That’s another good reason for everyone to try a 5K walk/run at some point.
The other major goal this week was to get them thinking about their minimum. Regular readers will recognize this term “minimum.” Actually their Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR), I came up with the term “minimum” to help people understand this is the minimum number of calories your body needs everyday to thrive and survive.
According to the American College of Sports Medicine (the established authority on exercise and diet standards), women should never go below 1,200 calories a day, and men should never get under 1,800 calories. This is because most women have a minimum somewhere around 1,250-1,350.
Petite women might be closer to 1,200 and taller, bigger-boned women might be closer to 1,400. This means you need to hit that first, just to provide the body the energy it needs to get through the day.
To feel really good, especially when working out, you need to add another few hundred calories. Stay below your minimum, and your body will think you’re starving, making it very difficult, if not impossible to burn fat for fuel.
This is the number one problem with women trying to lose weight. I already talked with several women who had been eating 800-900 calories a day. One took it up to 1,400 calories and lost 5 pounds this week. 9 out of 10 women don’t eat enough.
1,500 to 1,650 calories a day seems to be just about right for women to feel great while losing weight. For guys, it’s somewhere around 2,250-2,400 calories. It’s usually flipped for guys, though. 9 out of 10 guys tend to overeat, so while the gals need to eat more, we need portion control.
If you’re following along at home, the group is supposed to do 2 circuits on the weight machines. This is not a set followed by a rest, and then another set. Instead, they’re supposed to do a set of each machine, in a row without stopping, and then do it again.
The main goal is to keep their heart rate up, helping them burn more calories. They’re also supposed to turn it up in the cardio room too. Remember, if you can already do it, your body has no reason to change. You’ve got to work hard to drive those calories off.
This week’s winner was Shawn Bowers, who lost an amazing 3.9% of his body weight, for a total of 10.8 lbs. I might also add, that he was one of the ones I was very proud of at the 5K run. Shawn’s a big man, and he ran the 3.1 miles in just over 30 minutes—with all those hills!
Shawn won a Joe’s Pizza gift certificate from Terry Elston and State Farm Insurance. Terry has graciously come aboard as our sponsor and will be standing with us all the way through to the end with a $250 prize for the winner, $150 prize for 2nd place, and a $100 prize for the 3rd place finisher in 12 weeks.
We’ll have Shawn’s picture in the paper sometime this week. Stay tuned for more results from Biggest Loser “5” next week!
Saturday, September 27, 2008
THE FIRST (AND PROBABLY LAST) HORACE-BROCTON MARATHON
You might recall that after four months of training, we got to St. Louis, only to have the Lewis & Clark marathon called off due to rain last week, after two previous attempts (2007 & 2006) that went bad after knee injuries.
After stewing about it for a few days, it became apparent that I wasn’t going to be getting to any other marathons. The Chicago marathon was closed. There were two marathons up in the Indianapolis area in the next month, but I’ve got police training then, so no luck there.
In the end, I decided that we needed to have our own marathon: the 1st ever Horace-Brocton marathon. Its 13 miles from my mailbox to Brocton, so if I ran there and back, plus my driveway, I’d be going 26.2 miles—the exact distance needed.
A friend had a can of spray paint that they use to mark the road, so I marked off each mile. It really helps to have those mile markers, so you can tell yourself “just run one more mile.” Then you gut it out for 10-11 minutes, and then tell yourself that again.
On “race” day, I was getting pretty excited about the challenge coming up. After church, I went home and set out containers at miles 2/24, 4/22, 6/20, 8/18, 10/16, and 12/14. Each held a bottle of water, Gatorade, and a couple zip-lock baggies with some toilet paper.
In real marathons, they have porta-potties at aid stations along the route. Since I didn’t have a porta-potty, I had to get creative. I’m not above stepping inside a cornfield (just between us), but I draw the line at using the corn!
I also left several packets of Gu (a 100 calorie sucrose formula used for quick energy) at several key points along the way to help keep my energy levels up. Typically, you take 3 or 4 during a 26.2 mile run.
After warming up and stretching for a few minutes, I started the timer in my watch and hit the road. The watch would help me figure out my pace each mile, so I’d know if I was on track to finish in less than 5 hours.
That’s actually pretty slow for a marathon. Most people finish them between 4 and 4 ½ hours. Really good runners finish in 3 ½ hours. Amazing runners get done in 3 hours, and experts do it in 2 ½ hours. World class runners come in around 2:05 to 2:10.
The first few miles went well and the weather was pretty good. It was partly cloudy and there was a cool breeze. I was doing about a 10:30 pace and thinking that this might be the time I actually made it all the way through one of these things.
At mile 7 the wind really picked up, and I noticed a storm brewing up ahead. The skies got dark and I started seeing the lightning and hearing the thunder. I said a quick prayer for protection. I wasn’t worried about running in the rain, but a million volts could be a big problem.
Around mile 10, the winds got very strong, and I can’t remember ever running into such resistance. It really slowed things down, but I was keeping pretty cool.
At mile 11, my hips really started hurting. No matter how much running I do, or training in the gym, it never seems to help the hip flexors. They just go crazy on long runs. Some people are good at blocking out the pain. I’ll have to talk to them.
Someone also ripped off my container at mile 12. I figured they’d see the mile markers, water and stuff, and leave them alone. Wrong. I guess they needed it for storing stuff. At least they had the courtesy to leave behind a water bottle.
Finally I hit the edge of Brocton, followed by a nice doggy I’d picked up along the way. I reached the halfway mark at 2:24, in front of the bank. Not my fastest half-marathon time—I’d done a 2:15 in the spring, but that was not holding anything back.
This time, I was trying to be conservative, with half the race still to go. The cool thing was that I’d actually run to Brocton, and was half-way through the race. The bummer was that I was only half-way and still had to go home.
Turning around, I cruised back through town and headed back up the Horace-Brocton road. I ran through a few minor sprinkles, but the big storm just kind of went around me. Prayers do get answered.
Mile 14 and 15 came and went, and I was feeling a little cramping in my left thigh. I’d only eaten a half banana a couple hours before the run and should have had a whole one. When you’re low on potassium, the muscles don’t relax as well.
It got a little better after my Gatorade kicked in, but it must have been a sign of things to come, because next, my old nemesis came calling. Over the last two years, I’ve had knee problems in the upper miles.
At mile 16, my Ilio-Tibial Band (ITB) syndrome showed up in full force. I’d faced it in the last long run (20 mile) a couple weeks back when it kicked in at 19.5 miles. So, I’d backed off the training to get it some rest before the race.
Unfortunately, the inflammation (where the band rubs at the knee joint) made running extremely painful. I toughed it out for a couple more miles, but had to walk every ¼ mile to relieve the pressure.
And in between walks, there wasn’t much running going on either. At one point, I thought I saw a cricket pass me in just three hops. It could have been delirium, though. Finally, I just called it quits at mile 19, with only 7 miles to go.
You see, I’ve already done three marathons where I had to walk through to the finish and didn’t really want to do that again. Besides, my cutie-pie’s 8th birthday party was tonight, and everyone would be arriving in little more than an hour.
So now I’m 0 for 4 marathon attempts. On the plus side, I got 16 pretty good miles before the other shoe dropped and 19 miles if you count the walking. I guess there’s always next year!
But next week, I’ll have the results from week one of Biggest Loser “5.” There’s still time if you want to participate. We’ve got 50 people started, and have a little room left too. Just let me know before Friday, and we’ll get you going!
After stewing about it for a few days, it became apparent that I wasn’t going to be getting to any other marathons. The Chicago marathon was closed. There were two marathons up in the Indianapolis area in the next month, but I’ve got police training then, so no luck there.
In the end, I decided that we needed to have our own marathon: the 1st ever Horace-Brocton marathon. Its 13 miles from my mailbox to Brocton, so if I ran there and back, plus my driveway, I’d be going 26.2 miles—the exact distance needed.
A friend had a can of spray paint that they use to mark the road, so I marked off each mile. It really helps to have those mile markers, so you can tell yourself “just run one more mile.” Then you gut it out for 10-11 minutes, and then tell yourself that again.
On “race” day, I was getting pretty excited about the challenge coming up. After church, I went home and set out containers at miles 2/24, 4/22, 6/20, 8/18, 10/16, and 12/14. Each held a bottle of water, Gatorade, and a couple zip-lock baggies with some toilet paper.
In real marathons, they have porta-potties at aid stations along the route. Since I didn’t have a porta-potty, I had to get creative. I’m not above stepping inside a cornfield (just between us), but I draw the line at using the corn!
I also left several packets of Gu (a 100 calorie sucrose formula used for quick energy) at several key points along the way to help keep my energy levels up. Typically, you take 3 or 4 during a 26.2 mile run.
After warming up and stretching for a few minutes, I started the timer in my watch and hit the road. The watch would help me figure out my pace each mile, so I’d know if I was on track to finish in less than 5 hours.
That’s actually pretty slow for a marathon. Most people finish them between 4 and 4 ½ hours. Really good runners finish in 3 ½ hours. Amazing runners get done in 3 hours, and experts do it in 2 ½ hours. World class runners come in around 2:05 to 2:10.
The first few miles went well and the weather was pretty good. It was partly cloudy and there was a cool breeze. I was doing about a 10:30 pace and thinking that this might be the time I actually made it all the way through one of these things.
At mile 7 the wind really picked up, and I noticed a storm brewing up ahead. The skies got dark and I started seeing the lightning and hearing the thunder. I said a quick prayer for protection. I wasn’t worried about running in the rain, but a million volts could be a big problem.
Around mile 10, the winds got very strong, and I can’t remember ever running into such resistance. It really slowed things down, but I was keeping pretty cool.
At mile 11, my hips really started hurting. No matter how much running I do, or training in the gym, it never seems to help the hip flexors. They just go crazy on long runs. Some people are good at blocking out the pain. I’ll have to talk to them.
Someone also ripped off my container at mile 12. I figured they’d see the mile markers, water and stuff, and leave them alone. Wrong. I guess they needed it for storing stuff. At least they had the courtesy to leave behind a water bottle.
Finally I hit the edge of Brocton, followed by a nice doggy I’d picked up along the way. I reached the halfway mark at 2:24, in front of the bank. Not my fastest half-marathon time—I’d done a 2:15 in the spring, but that was not holding anything back.
This time, I was trying to be conservative, with half the race still to go. The cool thing was that I’d actually run to Brocton, and was half-way through the race. The bummer was that I was only half-way and still had to go home.
Turning around, I cruised back through town and headed back up the Horace-Brocton road. I ran through a few minor sprinkles, but the big storm just kind of went around me. Prayers do get answered.
Mile 14 and 15 came and went, and I was feeling a little cramping in my left thigh. I’d only eaten a half banana a couple hours before the run and should have had a whole one. When you’re low on potassium, the muscles don’t relax as well.
It got a little better after my Gatorade kicked in, but it must have been a sign of things to come, because next, my old nemesis came calling. Over the last two years, I’ve had knee problems in the upper miles.
At mile 16, my Ilio-Tibial Band (ITB) syndrome showed up in full force. I’d faced it in the last long run (20 mile) a couple weeks back when it kicked in at 19.5 miles. So, I’d backed off the training to get it some rest before the race.
Unfortunately, the inflammation (where the band rubs at the knee joint) made running extremely painful. I toughed it out for a couple more miles, but had to walk every ¼ mile to relieve the pressure.
And in between walks, there wasn’t much running going on either. At one point, I thought I saw a cricket pass me in just three hops. It could have been delirium, though. Finally, I just called it quits at mile 19, with only 7 miles to go.
You see, I’ve already done three marathons where I had to walk through to the finish and didn’t really want to do that again. Besides, my cutie-pie’s 8th birthday party was tonight, and everyone would be arriving in little more than an hour.
So now I’m 0 for 4 marathon attempts. On the plus side, I got 16 pretty good miles before the other shoe dropped and 19 miles if you count the walking. I guess there’s always next year!
But next week, I’ll have the results from week one of Biggest Loser “5.” There’s still time if you want to participate. We’ve got 50 people started, and have a little room left too. Just let me know before Friday, and we’ll get you going!
Friday, September 19, 2008
LEWIS & CLARK MARATHON (2008)
So we knew it was up in the air. Hurricane Ike had just blasted the Texas coast and was moving northeast as a tropical depression. Forecasters were predicting gale force winds and heavy rains sometime on Sunday. I’d been hoping that the worst of it would hold off until after the marathon.
We’d arrived in the St. Louis area on Saturday afternoon after an interesting 3 hour trip. Usually it’s a little shorter, but when my wife asked me if I brought the map to the hotel, I gave her that “I thought you brought it” look.
After we found our way to St. Charles, we went to the Ameristar Casino Convention Center to pick up the packet. An amazing place, it seems that Las Vegas has found its way to the Midwest. Still, we kept wondering where the boat part of the riverboat was. It looked like a bunch of lights and buildings to us.
A quick dash upstairs to the Convention Center yielded my race packet with the all important race number and the computer chip that somehow tells everyone when you start and when you finish. It kind of reminded me of those ear tags they put on cattle.
We left for more conservative digs over at the Country Inn & Suites. Actually it was pretty pricey too, but I was counting on the fact that there was a hot tub in every room. That and the last time my wife and I had gotten out of town for something, we’d stayed there and had a good time.
After bumming around for awhile, we decided to go out and get some supper. There were quite a few fast food joints, but only two restaurants, the obligatory Denny’s and Country Kitchen. Wanting to save Denny’s for breakfast, we decided to go back to Ameristar to try our luck at the buffet.
If you get over the $21 price (each) to eat, it takes top honors for the best buffet we’ve ever experienced. At that price it should.
They had everything, and I mean everything. I thought I was on a cruise ship. Knowing I had to run the next morning, though, helped me keep things in check. I sampled five different salads (out of the 15 possible), and tried 3 different kinds of pasta (out of the 10 possible).
My potluck and buffet strategy, and it usually works, is to take a little bit of a lot of things. I had a couple entrées, and was particularly impressed with the mandarin chicken & rice (rice is good for carb-loading). The salmon was nice too.
I lucked out and found a banana on top of one of the dessert displays. I think it was a display, but we squeezed it and it was real, so we filched it for in the morning, with a couple of oatmeal cookies—perfect. Now my pre-race breakfast was taken care of, and that made the $21 seem more worthwhile.
We also tried a couple desserts and they were fabulous. They usually are. Again the strategy was to have just a little bit of several different things. The discipline comes in when you push the plate over to the edge of the table where the waitress will grab them on the way by.
You have to do this before you eat everything. The waitress also has to get there and take the plate pretty quickly. Otherwise you pick at it until you’ve actually eaten everything. It worked out. She took the plate early. I gave her a good tip.
Back at the hotel, we tried out the spa. We’ve got to get one of those for home. It was just about the same size as our garden tub—it just had jets in it. I wonder if we can get those retrofitted. This is definitely going on our “need to get after we get out of debt” list.
The alarm was set for 5:00 am but never rang, because I was up before it. Anticipation had gotten me up every hour on the hour at 3:00 and 4:00am. Just before 5:00, I woke up from a dream with my mother, of all things. I had only dreamed about her once, a year after we lost her to a stroke three years ago.
In the dream, she was helping me calm down before a musical competition of all things, and I’d been having trouble finding my sheet music and the right clothes to wear. Once I was convinced that everything was going to be alright, I woke up. That’s mom, still helping me after all these years.
Dressed and ready, I went downstairs with my wife to check out the weather, since it was tough to tell from the room. The forecasters were right. It was extremely windy and raining cats and dogs.
After chewing on it for awhile, I decided to call it off and go back upstairs. I know Kathy was pretty happy about it. There were a lot of things that factored into the decision.
When you run such a long distance, research shows you can compromise your immune system. Add running in the cold and windy rain for five hours, and there was a good chance to get sick.
It also bothered me that Kathy would have to wait for me in the finish for an unknown length of time—in the rain. The real kicker was the hour I’d have to spend standing in the rain—before the race began. That was too much.
After we got upstairs, I started second-guessing myself. Finally, I told her that we were here, and I was going to give it a try. After all, it’s what I’d been working up to, for all these years.
Like the amazing wife she is, she didn’t say anything. Just opened the door and we went back down. This time, the winds were gale force. I mean it was crazy.
After another few minutes, I was able to let it go, and told her that it was really about the journey to get there and all the training along the way. The race was just one event, and there would be another chance—even if it was my 3rd try there at the Lewis & Clark.
At peace with things, I went back up stairs and we hit the sack for a couple more hours. At 8:00 am we got back up to more wind and rain, and got ready to hit the road.
My wife found out that they started the race, but things were pretty tough on them. We checked out and headed to Denny’s for breakfast, before we started our swim, I mean drive home.
While we were talking, my wife had this funny look on her face and I thought she might be choking, or getting sick. She said “no, I’m listening.”
It turns out that the two guys in the booth next to us were getting carryout, and had people in the race, so she asked them how it was going. He told her they just called it off—they’d actually stopped the race!
Apparently, the wind and rain was so bad, it was causing extreme flooding in the St. Louis area—and the course was right by the river. It got to the point where it was becoming dangerous, so they called it to a halt, stopping everyone at mile 10.
There, at mile marker ten, the runners were waiting (in the rain) for people to come and pick them up. Suddenly, my day was getting brighter. I couldn’t have done it anyway.
So I’ve got to find another one to run this fall. Or, there’s always next year. But now, I’ve got to go run off that buffet!
We’d arrived in the St. Louis area on Saturday afternoon after an interesting 3 hour trip. Usually it’s a little shorter, but when my wife asked me if I brought the map to the hotel, I gave her that “I thought you brought it” look.
After we found our way to St. Charles, we went to the Ameristar Casino Convention Center to pick up the packet. An amazing place, it seems that Las Vegas has found its way to the Midwest. Still, we kept wondering where the boat part of the riverboat was. It looked like a bunch of lights and buildings to us.
A quick dash upstairs to the Convention Center yielded my race packet with the all important race number and the computer chip that somehow tells everyone when you start and when you finish. It kind of reminded me of those ear tags they put on cattle.
We left for more conservative digs over at the Country Inn & Suites. Actually it was pretty pricey too, but I was counting on the fact that there was a hot tub in every room. That and the last time my wife and I had gotten out of town for something, we’d stayed there and had a good time.
After bumming around for awhile, we decided to go out and get some supper. There were quite a few fast food joints, but only two restaurants, the obligatory Denny’s and Country Kitchen. Wanting to save Denny’s for breakfast, we decided to go back to Ameristar to try our luck at the buffet.
If you get over the $21 price (each) to eat, it takes top honors for the best buffet we’ve ever experienced. At that price it should.
They had everything, and I mean everything. I thought I was on a cruise ship. Knowing I had to run the next morning, though, helped me keep things in check. I sampled five different salads (out of the 15 possible), and tried 3 different kinds of pasta (out of the 10 possible).
My potluck and buffet strategy, and it usually works, is to take a little bit of a lot of things. I had a couple entrées, and was particularly impressed with the mandarin chicken & rice (rice is good for carb-loading). The salmon was nice too.
I lucked out and found a banana on top of one of the dessert displays. I think it was a display, but we squeezed it and it was real, so we filched it for in the morning, with a couple of oatmeal cookies—perfect. Now my pre-race breakfast was taken care of, and that made the $21 seem more worthwhile.
We also tried a couple desserts and they were fabulous. They usually are. Again the strategy was to have just a little bit of several different things. The discipline comes in when you push the plate over to the edge of the table where the waitress will grab them on the way by.
You have to do this before you eat everything. The waitress also has to get there and take the plate pretty quickly. Otherwise you pick at it until you’ve actually eaten everything. It worked out. She took the plate early. I gave her a good tip.
Back at the hotel, we tried out the spa. We’ve got to get one of those for home. It was just about the same size as our garden tub—it just had jets in it. I wonder if we can get those retrofitted. This is definitely going on our “need to get after we get out of debt” list.
The alarm was set for 5:00 am but never rang, because I was up before it. Anticipation had gotten me up every hour on the hour at 3:00 and 4:00am. Just before 5:00, I woke up from a dream with my mother, of all things. I had only dreamed about her once, a year after we lost her to a stroke three years ago.
In the dream, she was helping me calm down before a musical competition of all things, and I’d been having trouble finding my sheet music and the right clothes to wear. Once I was convinced that everything was going to be alright, I woke up. That’s mom, still helping me after all these years.
Dressed and ready, I went downstairs with my wife to check out the weather, since it was tough to tell from the room. The forecasters were right. It was extremely windy and raining cats and dogs.
After chewing on it for awhile, I decided to call it off and go back upstairs. I know Kathy was pretty happy about it. There were a lot of things that factored into the decision.
When you run such a long distance, research shows you can compromise your immune system. Add running in the cold and windy rain for five hours, and there was a good chance to get sick.
It also bothered me that Kathy would have to wait for me in the finish for an unknown length of time—in the rain. The real kicker was the hour I’d have to spend standing in the rain—before the race began. That was too much.
After we got upstairs, I started second-guessing myself. Finally, I told her that we were here, and I was going to give it a try. After all, it’s what I’d been working up to, for all these years.
Like the amazing wife she is, she didn’t say anything. Just opened the door and we went back down. This time, the winds were gale force. I mean it was crazy.
After another few minutes, I was able to let it go, and told her that it was really about the journey to get there and all the training along the way. The race was just one event, and there would be another chance—even if it was my 3rd try there at the Lewis & Clark.
At peace with things, I went back up stairs and we hit the sack for a couple more hours. At 8:00 am we got back up to more wind and rain, and got ready to hit the road.
My wife found out that they started the race, but things were pretty tough on them. We checked out and headed to Denny’s for breakfast, before we started our swim, I mean drive home.
While we were talking, my wife had this funny look on her face and I thought she might be choking, or getting sick. She said “no, I’m listening.”
It turns out that the two guys in the booth next to us were getting carryout, and had people in the race, so she asked them how it was going. He told her they just called it off—they’d actually stopped the race!
Apparently, the wind and rain was so bad, it was causing extreme flooding in the St. Louis area—and the course was right by the river. It got to the point where it was becoming dangerous, so they called it to a halt, stopping everyone at mile 10.
There, at mile marker ten, the runners were waiting (in the rain) for people to come and pick them up. Suddenly, my day was getting brighter. I couldn’t have done it anyway.
So I’ve got to find another one to run this fall. Or, there’s always next year. But now, I’ve got to go run off that buffet!
Monday, September 15, 2008
BIGGEST LOSER "5" Part 3
First a disclaimer: Neither I nor any member of my family is an employee of NBC. Now, I want to tell you one last time to watch the TV premier of this season’s Biggest Loser on Tuesday night.
If you want to see how people lose a lot of weight fast, this is your show. You’ll be amazed and then touched, as you see the contestants tackle a big task—themselves.
It’s like the old saying: “We’ve met the enemy, and he is us.” So true. But this time, these people are doing something about it. You can too. More on that in a minute.
My hope is that it will inspire you to one of the following ways:
1. If you need to lose weight, I hope it will motivate you to get started. If they can do it—you can do it.
2. If you’re already working on it, I hope it will help you stay on course. If they can do it—you can do it.
3. If you’re where you need to be, I hope it will help motivate you to encourage others, especially those participating in the program here this fall. If you can do it—they can do it.
Now the shameless plug. If you’ve been thinking about it for a long time, and you’d be amazed how many people I talk to who’ve been thinking about it for years—this is your chance.
THIS IS YOUR LAST WEEK TO SIGNUP!
Our community Biggest Loser “5” starts on Friday night, Sept. 19th! You’ve got to pre-register to participate. We can’t take any walk-in’s Friday night because it gets too crazy.
We’ve got to weigh everybody in, and then take off and do the initial fitness assessment. We do the test at the start of the 12 weeks to let you see where you are. Then, we do it again at the end on December 12th, so you can see how far you’ve come.
I have to say, enrollment has been a little slow this time. Last fall, when we announced Biggest Loser “4,” we had 68 people signed up in just 3 weeks. Perhaps other things are going on. Maybe people are just waiting to decide. Either way, the time is now.
Registration is easy, but it has to be done in advance. All you need to do is come in to Tom’s Fitness, fill out the form, pay your entry fee ($50), and show up a little before 6:30 on Friday night.
I’m usually here between 9 and 1 pm, and then again after 5pm. It might take a little time for me to get free in the afternoons, because I’m usually teaching or training people, but come and find me and we’ll get it done.
You can be a member here, at the YMCA, Curves, work, home, or wherever. You just have to have a place to work out. If you’re wanting to workout at home, you’ll need a treadmill or exercise bike, and some basic workout equipment.
We’ll meet every Friday night from 6:30-7:30pm for the weigh-in, workout, and to learn what you’re supposed to do the following week. I won’t be putting your weight in the paper—just how much you’ve lost after a month, two months, and then at the end.
This is the last chance I have to tell you about Biggest Loser “5” so get moving. Make a decision. Take some action. You can get what you want—a new you. I’ve seen it too many times to believe that you’re the only one who can’t do it.
All you have to do is start. Then you just need to show up. Then you just need to keep trying. We’ll fill in the gaps and give you what you need to know to be successful. You’ll learn that you can do it, and a lot more about yourself along the way.
Being part of a group will help a lot. Seeing other people do it will help you believe that you can do it too. It also pushes you. When you see them keep going, you’ll decide to keep going too.
Think of it. A new you. How does that sound to you? Lighter, stronger, faster. New clothes. It’s so doable. You just have to do it. So, finally, here are my top 10 reasons for you to get started with us in Biggest Loser “5”:
1. You’ll feel better.
2. You’ll look better (not that it’s all about looks, but this will affect the way you feel about yourself, helping you do #1).
3. You’ll lower your risk or heart disease, diabetes, and a whole slew of other things (which also helps with #1).
4. You’ll secretly enjoy getting “that look” when you come down the hall with just your underwear on (make sure you’re in your house).
5. You’ll be able to run and play with your kids (or grandkids) without having to stop to catch your breath or worry about CPR.
6. You’ll have more energy to do more things and will be physically able to do them.
7. You’ll be more confident (see #4).
8. You’ll be more content (see #5).
9. You’ll be able to bend over and tie your shoes (you’d be surprised how many people tell me this one).
10. You’ll be able to get back up off the toilet without having to use your hands to help you up (this was priceless—a little lady in her 60’s told me this about 2 weeks after starting working out. She wasn’t in Biggest Loser, but it was still pretty cool).
Like I said last week, let’s do this together! Get in here ASAP so I can put you on the list. See you Friday!
If you want to see how people lose a lot of weight fast, this is your show. You’ll be amazed and then touched, as you see the contestants tackle a big task—themselves.
It’s like the old saying: “We’ve met the enemy, and he is us.” So true. But this time, these people are doing something about it. You can too. More on that in a minute.
My hope is that it will inspire you to one of the following ways:
1. If you need to lose weight, I hope it will motivate you to get started. If they can do it—you can do it.
2. If you’re already working on it, I hope it will help you stay on course. If they can do it—you can do it.
3. If you’re where you need to be, I hope it will help motivate you to encourage others, especially those participating in the program here this fall. If you can do it—they can do it.
Now the shameless plug. If you’ve been thinking about it for a long time, and you’d be amazed how many people I talk to who’ve been thinking about it for years—this is your chance.
THIS IS YOUR LAST WEEK TO SIGNUP!
Our community Biggest Loser “5” starts on Friday night, Sept. 19th! You’ve got to pre-register to participate. We can’t take any walk-in’s Friday night because it gets too crazy.
We’ve got to weigh everybody in, and then take off and do the initial fitness assessment. We do the test at the start of the 12 weeks to let you see where you are. Then, we do it again at the end on December 12th, so you can see how far you’ve come.
I have to say, enrollment has been a little slow this time. Last fall, when we announced Biggest Loser “4,” we had 68 people signed up in just 3 weeks. Perhaps other things are going on. Maybe people are just waiting to decide. Either way, the time is now.
Registration is easy, but it has to be done in advance. All you need to do is come in to Tom’s Fitness, fill out the form, pay your entry fee ($50), and show up a little before 6:30 on Friday night.
I’m usually here between 9 and 1 pm, and then again after 5pm. It might take a little time for me to get free in the afternoons, because I’m usually teaching or training people, but come and find me and we’ll get it done.
You can be a member here, at the YMCA, Curves, work, home, or wherever. You just have to have a place to work out. If you’re wanting to workout at home, you’ll need a treadmill or exercise bike, and some basic workout equipment.
We’ll meet every Friday night from 6:30-7:30pm for the weigh-in, workout, and to learn what you’re supposed to do the following week. I won’t be putting your weight in the paper—just how much you’ve lost after a month, two months, and then at the end.
This is the last chance I have to tell you about Biggest Loser “5” so get moving. Make a decision. Take some action. You can get what you want—a new you. I’ve seen it too many times to believe that you’re the only one who can’t do it.
All you have to do is start. Then you just need to show up. Then you just need to keep trying. We’ll fill in the gaps and give you what you need to know to be successful. You’ll learn that you can do it, and a lot more about yourself along the way.
Being part of a group will help a lot. Seeing other people do it will help you believe that you can do it too. It also pushes you. When you see them keep going, you’ll decide to keep going too.
Think of it. A new you. How does that sound to you? Lighter, stronger, faster. New clothes. It’s so doable. You just have to do it. So, finally, here are my top 10 reasons for you to get started with us in Biggest Loser “5”:
1. You’ll feel better.
2. You’ll look better (not that it’s all about looks, but this will affect the way you feel about yourself, helping you do #1).
3. You’ll lower your risk or heart disease, diabetes, and a whole slew of other things (which also helps with #1).
4. You’ll secretly enjoy getting “that look” when you come down the hall with just your underwear on (make sure you’re in your house).
5. You’ll be able to run and play with your kids (or grandkids) without having to stop to catch your breath or worry about CPR.
6. You’ll have more energy to do more things and will be physically able to do them.
7. You’ll be more confident (see #4).
8. You’ll be more content (see #5).
9. You’ll be able to bend over and tie your shoes (you’d be surprised how many people tell me this one).
10. You’ll be able to get back up off the toilet without having to use your hands to help you up (this was priceless—a little lady in her 60’s told me this about 2 weeks after starting working out. She wasn’t in Biggest Loser, but it was still pretty cool).
Like I said last week, let’s do this together! Get in here ASAP so I can put you on the list. See you Friday!
Thursday, September 11, 2008
BIGGEST LOSER "5" Part 2
THE TELEVISION SHOW
If you’ve watched it in the past, you’re probably all set to tune in next Tuesday night for the new season of “The Biggest Loser” on NBC. If you’re not a regular viewer of the TV show, I want to encourage you to watch the show on the 16th.
You’re going to see some amazing things. Like the courage these participants have, putting it all out there on national TV for all to see—and there will be a lot to see. These are big people.
They’ve let things go for years. Most of them are morbidly obese—overweight to the point they have life threatening consequences. Even walking will be difficult for them when they get started. But they’ll do more than walk.
When you see how hard they work, especially as big as they are, it takes away all our excuses. Sure, they’re living on a ranch and don’t have to go to work—exercise is their job. So they have lots of time on their hands. But the things they’ll do will amaze you—and themselves.
They’ll start realizing that they can do things they thought were impossible. They’ll start seeing themselves in a new and different light. It gives them hope, maybe for the first time ever.
I remember the first season, thinking that this was going to be a show that made fun of fat people, and I didn’t want any part of it. When I watched the show, though, I was really surprised.
Sure, they build up the drama, and do the TV thing, and the winner gets $250,000 which helps, but everyone’s treated with respect and dignity, just like we want to do here at home. And when you see the transformations, it’s just amazing.
That’s why I like for our people here to watch the show. It helps to see someone else going through the battle. If they can do it, maybe you can do it too.
Maybe that’s another reason the groups do so well here. Everyone’s in the same boat and we all have to paddle if we’re going to make it.
BIGGEST LOSER “5”
You won’t have to be a member at Tom’s. You can belong to the YMCA, Curves, a gym at work, or even work out at home if you have the right equipment. Some like to work out here. You just have to be able to work out somewhere.
You’ll have to be willing to work out twice a day, six days a week. That’s right—twice a day. Now it’s not as bad as you might think.
The first workout is simple. Walk a mile in the morning every day. Twenty minutes. That’s 3.0 mph on a treadmill. I’ve never met anyone in at least basic health that couldn’t do that within their first week. Most people do that the first day. If you think it might be difficult, get started walking now.
If you want to lose as much as possible, as quickly as possible, that extra easy workout in the morning makes all the difference. It gets the metabolism moving, and gives you a calorie burning edge, all day.
Later in the day, you’ll do your 2nd workout—which is a much more demanding workout. It can be at noon, after work in the afternoon or at night and will take around 45 minutes.
On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, you’ll be building muscle and getting stronger. This will speed your metabolism up and make you a fat burner.
On Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, you’ll be doing cardio for your heart and lungs. It will burn lots of calories, and will help you build your endurance.
Each week, we’ll be teaching you how to do more and more things, and giving you new challenges. This helps increase the intensity, and helps you keep losing weight.
As you get stronger, you’ll be noticing that you’re also losing inches—and your clothing will start fitting loosely. It’s very common to have people drop several clothing sizes during the 12 weeks. What a problem to have!
I’ll be giving the group an initial fitness assessment that first day, and then some initial direction on how to get moving that first week. Everyone will also get materials that will help them start thinking about how to start eating right, along with some homework assignments.
SIGNUPS UNDERWAY
Signups are this week and next. The first night is Friday the 19th at 6:30 pm. You have to be signed up in advance (before 9/19), because it’s crazy on that first night.
It costs $50 to participate for 12 weeks and 13 meetings. I did the math—it works out to about $3.85 a meeting. That’s about the price of a quarter-pounder and fries, which is pretty tasty, but won’t help you get what you want. Being in the Biggest Loser “5” will.
You’ll learn everything you need to know about how to get this done. You’ll also be surrounded by a group where everyone’s trying to accomplish the same thing.
You’ll also have me motivating you—and pushing you. I’m not as good looking as Bob or Jillian, but we get the job done. Perhaps most important, you’ll be accountable, having to report in every week.
You won’t have to bear almost all, on national TV. I won’t be putting your weight in the paper, but I will be reporting results every 4 weeks. We’ll also have a picture of the weekly winners and their weight loss each week in the paper.
So there you have it. The ball is in your court. What are you going to do about it? Watch the show on TV. But don’t just watch the show. Realize that you can do this too. Right here, right now. It’s your time!
If you’ve watched it in the past, you’re probably all set to tune in next Tuesday night for the new season of “The Biggest Loser” on NBC. If you’re not a regular viewer of the TV show, I want to encourage you to watch the show on the 16th.
You’re going to see some amazing things. Like the courage these participants have, putting it all out there on national TV for all to see—and there will be a lot to see. These are big people.
They’ve let things go for years. Most of them are morbidly obese—overweight to the point they have life threatening consequences. Even walking will be difficult for them when they get started. But they’ll do more than walk.
When you see how hard they work, especially as big as they are, it takes away all our excuses. Sure, they’re living on a ranch and don’t have to go to work—exercise is their job. So they have lots of time on their hands. But the things they’ll do will amaze you—and themselves.
They’ll start realizing that they can do things they thought were impossible. They’ll start seeing themselves in a new and different light. It gives them hope, maybe for the first time ever.
I remember the first season, thinking that this was going to be a show that made fun of fat people, and I didn’t want any part of it. When I watched the show, though, I was really surprised.
Sure, they build up the drama, and do the TV thing, and the winner gets $250,000 which helps, but everyone’s treated with respect and dignity, just like we want to do here at home. And when you see the transformations, it’s just amazing.
That’s why I like for our people here to watch the show. It helps to see someone else going through the battle. If they can do it, maybe you can do it too.
Maybe that’s another reason the groups do so well here. Everyone’s in the same boat and we all have to paddle if we’re going to make it.
BIGGEST LOSER “5”
You won’t have to be a member at Tom’s. You can belong to the YMCA, Curves, a gym at work, or even work out at home if you have the right equipment. Some like to work out here. You just have to be able to work out somewhere.
You’ll have to be willing to work out twice a day, six days a week. That’s right—twice a day. Now it’s not as bad as you might think.
The first workout is simple. Walk a mile in the morning every day. Twenty minutes. That’s 3.0 mph on a treadmill. I’ve never met anyone in at least basic health that couldn’t do that within their first week. Most people do that the first day. If you think it might be difficult, get started walking now.
If you want to lose as much as possible, as quickly as possible, that extra easy workout in the morning makes all the difference. It gets the metabolism moving, and gives you a calorie burning edge, all day.
Later in the day, you’ll do your 2nd workout—which is a much more demanding workout. It can be at noon, after work in the afternoon or at night and will take around 45 minutes.
On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, you’ll be building muscle and getting stronger. This will speed your metabolism up and make you a fat burner.
On Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, you’ll be doing cardio for your heart and lungs. It will burn lots of calories, and will help you build your endurance.
Each week, we’ll be teaching you how to do more and more things, and giving you new challenges. This helps increase the intensity, and helps you keep losing weight.
As you get stronger, you’ll be noticing that you’re also losing inches—and your clothing will start fitting loosely. It’s very common to have people drop several clothing sizes during the 12 weeks. What a problem to have!
I’ll be giving the group an initial fitness assessment that first day, and then some initial direction on how to get moving that first week. Everyone will also get materials that will help them start thinking about how to start eating right, along with some homework assignments.
SIGNUPS UNDERWAY
Signups are this week and next. The first night is Friday the 19th at 6:30 pm. You have to be signed up in advance (before 9/19), because it’s crazy on that first night.
It costs $50 to participate for 12 weeks and 13 meetings. I did the math—it works out to about $3.85 a meeting. That’s about the price of a quarter-pounder and fries, which is pretty tasty, but won’t help you get what you want. Being in the Biggest Loser “5” will.
You’ll learn everything you need to know about how to get this done. You’ll also be surrounded by a group where everyone’s trying to accomplish the same thing.
You’ll also have me motivating you—and pushing you. I’m not as good looking as Bob or Jillian, but we get the job done. Perhaps most important, you’ll be accountable, having to report in every week.
You won’t have to bear almost all, on national TV. I won’t be putting your weight in the paper, but I will be reporting results every 4 weeks. We’ll also have a picture of the weekly winners and their weight loss each week in the paper.
So there you have it. The ball is in your court. What are you going to do about it? Watch the show on TV. But don’t just watch the show. Realize that you can do this too. Right here, right now. It’s your time!
Saturday, September 06, 2008
BIGGEST LOSER "5"
It’s that time of year again. The leaves will be turning soon. A cooler breeze is in the air. And on TV, a week from Tuesday, we’ll be seeing Biggest Loser “Families.”
It’s that time of year here at home too. After a break for the summer, we’re ready to get back in the saddle with our local version of The Biggest Loser. Last year was pretty cool as we had the opportunity to work with local people, just like you and me, in Biggest Loser “2”, “3”, and “4.”
The programs kept growing, with more than 150 people participating, 68 of which started Biggest Loser “4.” About 60%, or more than half, finished each contest.
It seemed like each group inspired the next one, because the results kept getting better and better. Steve Johnson, Jr. had owned the previous record from 2006 in Biggest Loser “1” with a weight loss of 44 lbs.
He won Biggest Loser “2” last fall with a very respectable 38.8 lbs. Then in Biggest Loser “3” things exploded. Chris Redmon set a new record, losing 56.5 lbs in 12 weeks, but still came in third place!
Since the winners are determined by total percentage of weight loss, Bill Lewis took 2nd place with a 52.5 lbs, and Joe Stidham stole 1st place, losing 49.5 lbs, both with a higher percentage of weight loss.
Then in Biggest Loser “4” last Spring, Josh Rigdon raised the bar by losing an amazing 57.6 lbs, followed by Bill Lewis losing another 40.6 lbs. By then, Steve and Joe had reached their long term goals, joining the 100 lb club, and Bill and Chris were not far behind.
The women were pretty impressive too, even with a couple of disadvantages going into it. Guys have more testosterone, enabling them to push harder, building more muscle, in turn burning more calories. The hormone structure in women is different, making it quite a bit harder.
Still, Cheryl Redmon lost 36.4 lbs back in Biggest Loser “3” and in Biggest Loser “2”, Shirley Fiscus lost 30.4 lbs. Many other women lost between 20-30 lbs, and several participated in several sessions, losing over 40 lbs total.
I’ve still got quite a few gals working out, that are asking me when the next contest starts. They’ve learned that they need that extra push and accountability to help them get to that next level—primarily on the food side of things.
They’ve got the workouts covered—trust me—I’m hammering them. It’s the daily keeping track of food, and the weekly weigh-ins that make the difference. And sometimes, people slack a little bit on the workout side.
Remember, in the contest, people are expected to workout twice a day. It can be as simple as walking a mile in the morning (20 minutes), with the “real” workouts coming at lunch or in the afternoons or evenings.
The early workouts are designed to get your body burning calories early, so you can really get after it later. It’s O.K. with me if they don’t do it but it’s proven that people lose more weight when they do this, than when they don’t.
For those people that want to lose as much weight as they can, as fast as they can, that other workout really matters. In the end, you have to do what you can do.
Like I keep telling them, the weight loss numbers they put up on the TV show aren’t normal—those people live apart on a ranch, don’t work (except for exercise), and don’t have to take care of their kids.
Even our “winners” numbers aren’t normal. They are exceptional people that have pushed themselves beyond what most people will do, and beyond what even they can sustain for more than 12 weeks.
At some point, everyone has to back off, and fall into a more reasonable routine. The trick is to make the routine still meaningful and productive.
Unfortunately, I see people slipping into mediocrity in their workouts all too often. Instead of continuing to try to find ways to progress, or push themselves, they start getting comfortable.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: If you can already do it, your body has no reason to change! You can walk several miles a day and not lose weight. Sure, there are health benefits, but weight loss takes more than that.
You have to burn more calories, and your body will get very good at doing the least amount of work for the least amount of effort. That’s why you need to continue to shake things up.
In the end, if you can sustain a 1-2 lb a week weight loss, you’ll get what you want. Even if you need to lose 100 lbs, you can do it comfortably in a year.
Another way of looking at it is “If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always got.” I’m not sure where I got that one, but it’s true. If you’re not happy with things, you’ve got to change some things.
That brings me squarely back to the topic of this article: “Biggest Loser “5.” We’re starting two weeks from Friday on September 19th. If you’ve been thinking about it, this is your chance.
You don’t have to settle for second best in your diet, in your exercise, or in your life. I’m living proof that you can be in the best shape of your life now (I’m 46). All you have to do is make a decision that this is your time for you.
Time is going to pass, whatever you do. A year will go by. Where will you be? What will you be? Will you be what you want to be? You can be.
It will be $50 to participate in the 12 week contest and you won’t have to be a member at my gym—you can workout anywhere you want. The prize will be $500, plus whatever we can drum up from a generous sponsor (anyone?). We’ll meet each Friday night from 6:30-7:30 for a weekly weigh-in and a progressively harder workout.
We’ll be talking about proper nutrition, and perhaps most important, holding you accountable. I won’t be putting your weights in the paper—only your weight loss, which could be substantial. Come on. Let’s do this together!
It’s that time of year here at home too. After a break for the summer, we’re ready to get back in the saddle with our local version of The Biggest Loser. Last year was pretty cool as we had the opportunity to work with local people, just like you and me, in Biggest Loser “2”, “3”, and “4.”
The programs kept growing, with more than 150 people participating, 68 of which started Biggest Loser “4.” About 60%, or more than half, finished each contest.
It seemed like each group inspired the next one, because the results kept getting better and better. Steve Johnson, Jr. had owned the previous record from 2006 in Biggest Loser “1” with a weight loss of 44 lbs.
He won Biggest Loser “2” last fall with a very respectable 38.8 lbs. Then in Biggest Loser “3” things exploded. Chris Redmon set a new record, losing 56.5 lbs in 12 weeks, but still came in third place!
Since the winners are determined by total percentage of weight loss, Bill Lewis took 2nd place with a 52.5 lbs, and Joe Stidham stole 1st place, losing 49.5 lbs, both with a higher percentage of weight loss.
Then in Biggest Loser “4” last Spring, Josh Rigdon raised the bar by losing an amazing 57.6 lbs, followed by Bill Lewis losing another 40.6 lbs. By then, Steve and Joe had reached their long term goals, joining the 100 lb club, and Bill and Chris were not far behind.
The women were pretty impressive too, even with a couple of disadvantages going into it. Guys have more testosterone, enabling them to push harder, building more muscle, in turn burning more calories. The hormone structure in women is different, making it quite a bit harder.
Still, Cheryl Redmon lost 36.4 lbs back in Biggest Loser “3” and in Biggest Loser “2”, Shirley Fiscus lost 30.4 lbs. Many other women lost between 20-30 lbs, and several participated in several sessions, losing over 40 lbs total.
I’ve still got quite a few gals working out, that are asking me when the next contest starts. They’ve learned that they need that extra push and accountability to help them get to that next level—primarily on the food side of things.
They’ve got the workouts covered—trust me—I’m hammering them. It’s the daily keeping track of food, and the weekly weigh-ins that make the difference. And sometimes, people slack a little bit on the workout side.
Remember, in the contest, people are expected to workout twice a day. It can be as simple as walking a mile in the morning (20 minutes), with the “real” workouts coming at lunch or in the afternoons or evenings.
The early workouts are designed to get your body burning calories early, so you can really get after it later. It’s O.K. with me if they don’t do it but it’s proven that people lose more weight when they do this, than when they don’t.
For those people that want to lose as much weight as they can, as fast as they can, that other workout really matters. In the end, you have to do what you can do.
Like I keep telling them, the weight loss numbers they put up on the TV show aren’t normal—those people live apart on a ranch, don’t work (except for exercise), and don’t have to take care of their kids.
Even our “winners” numbers aren’t normal. They are exceptional people that have pushed themselves beyond what most people will do, and beyond what even they can sustain for more than 12 weeks.
At some point, everyone has to back off, and fall into a more reasonable routine. The trick is to make the routine still meaningful and productive.
Unfortunately, I see people slipping into mediocrity in their workouts all too often. Instead of continuing to try to find ways to progress, or push themselves, they start getting comfortable.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: If you can already do it, your body has no reason to change! You can walk several miles a day and not lose weight. Sure, there are health benefits, but weight loss takes more than that.
You have to burn more calories, and your body will get very good at doing the least amount of work for the least amount of effort. That’s why you need to continue to shake things up.
In the end, if you can sustain a 1-2 lb a week weight loss, you’ll get what you want. Even if you need to lose 100 lbs, you can do it comfortably in a year.
Another way of looking at it is “If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always got.” I’m not sure where I got that one, but it’s true. If you’re not happy with things, you’ve got to change some things.
That brings me squarely back to the topic of this article: “Biggest Loser “5.” We’re starting two weeks from Friday on September 19th. If you’ve been thinking about it, this is your chance.
You don’t have to settle for second best in your diet, in your exercise, or in your life. I’m living proof that you can be in the best shape of your life now (I’m 46). All you have to do is make a decision that this is your time for you.
Time is going to pass, whatever you do. A year will go by. Where will you be? What will you be? Will you be what you want to be? You can be.
It will be $50 to participate in the 12 week contest and you won’t have to be a member at my gym—you can workout anywhere you want. The prize will be $500, plus whatever we can drum up from a generous sponsor (anyone?). We’ll meet each Friday night from 6:30-7:30 for a weekly weigh-in and a progressively harder workout.
We’ll be talking about proper nutrition, and perhaps most important, holding you accountable. I won’t be putting your weights in the paper—only your weight loss, which could be substantial. Come on. Let’s do this together!
Tuesday, September 02, 2008
HERE WE GO AGAIN
If you read last week’s article, you might remember I was telling you about my marathon training. After a pretty successful 18 mile weekend run, I had a pretty messed up 14 miler, due in part to wearing the wrong shoes!
This was the toughest week yet, with 4 runs on the schedule: a 5 miler, a 10 miler, another 5 miler, and then the big one—20 miles on the weekend—for a total of 40 miles. This sounds pretty impressive to me until I remember that real runners often rack that many miles up every week.
For me it was what we’d been working up toward, as preparation for the big one, 26.2 miles in 3 weeks. There was another wrinkle. I was down by St. Louis all week for some police training.
It took some finagling, since I normally work out on Mon, Wed, and Fri, and do cardio on the other days (just like I recommend). I keep it scheduled, so the routine itself keeps me making progress.
I ended up doing both the first 5 mile run and my workout when I got free on Monday afternoon, since I was going to be tied up all day and night on Tuesday, which became a rest day. Sometimes you have to make adjustments (just ask a chiropractor).
There weren’t any nice trails or tracks or anything down where I was so I ended up tracing out a 5 mile loop from the hotel in the car. That way, I’d know where I was going.
It was kind of nice, running some new territory and seeing some new faces go by. Then I headed down to the local Gold’s Gym and hit the weights for 30 minutes.
When I travel, I always make it a point to find out where you can work out. If there’s no place to work out, I’ll do pushups, crunches, and body squats in the room. There’s always a way to get it done.
Tuesday was a rest day, due to the training all day and that evening, so Wednesday I had the big mid-week run—10 miles. I traced out a different route, using part of the course I’d run on Monday, but going in a different direction.
It was exciting, knowing I’d be in newer, more difficult territory, especially since I wouldn’t have access to water on a regular basis. To counter that, I took a bottle of water with me, and took a drink every 20 minutes or so and threw it away when I got to Lowes.
Then, it was just 4 miles back to the hotel, and a 20 minute stop in the Jacuzzi down by the pool. I took some heat from my wife for that.
There were also a couple of long hills that I knew would be a challenge. It went really well—better than I expected. Apparently, the 14 mile shoes debacle from the previous week had actually helped me out, because I was stronger.
That’s a principle I’ve noticed here in the gym. If you ever have a bad workout, don’t worry too much about it. Your body doesn’t really know the difference. It just knows it was hard, and that’s where all the gains come from.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re running, lifting weights, or just in life. If things are easy, there’s not much reason to change. When things get tough though, look out, because change is on the way—it has to.
The next day, Thursday, was going to be like Monday. I had both a 5 mile run, and my workout to fit in. So, after work, I went to the gym. Ready for something different, I ran a mile on the treadmill and then hit the weights—20 pull-ups and 15 shoulder push-presses, a pretty lethal combination.
Then I ran the 2nd mile and then did the pull-ups and push-presses again. Then the 3rd mile, more pull-ups and push-presses, 4th mile and weights, and then finally, I ran the 5th mile, and a ¼ mile walk to cool down. It was pretty cool, since I’d never done that before.
That’s another principle that works for several reasons. Exercise regularly—on a planned schedule, but change things up when you do. It’s good for your mind, since it’s fresh and exciting, and often times, a challenge.
It’s also good for your body. Do the same thing, over and over, and your body has no reason to change—it can already do it. That’s why I like to shake things up.
When I’m training people, I’ll often have them run ¼ or ½ mile, and then do some exercises in the weight room, going back and forth. It really gets you in shape. It also helps you keep the weight off, cause it burns tons of calories and has a wicked long after burn.
Friday was a rest day, since I finished the school and was traveling home. Then Saturday was more training at the police academy. That brings me to Sunday, and the long weekend run—20 miles.
It’s funny how your mind works. I’d decided to run at 4pm, when the sun started going lower in the sky. I’d be running into the sun for awhile, but then turning around and going the other way—giving me a break, and keeping me from getting burnt.
After spraying on a ton of sun-block, I hit the road. It went pretty well for the first 10 miles. I was running a 2.5 mile loop that took me home for a drink every 25-30 minutes. At mile 7.5, I had to take a bathroom break (that’s the good thing about the loop that takes you home).
After mile 10, I had some cramping going on. Don’t know why. Just know I didn’t like it. Having to slow to about a walk, it finally went away after about a mile. Perhaps I was dehydrated. I’d had my potassium with a banana earlier. Oh well.
At mile 15, things started slowing down. It’s funny, but I remembered the long 18 miler a few weeks ago being easier. It always seems to work that way. You have a good one, then a not so good one.
The real trouble hit me at mile 19.5 when my right knee started developing the same old ITB syndrome that I’d fought through the previous year. Yikes. That wasn’t good. I tried to run through it for a little while, but ended up walking the last half mile home.
That didn’t bode well for the marathon, coming up in three weeks, since this is exactly the same thing that happened last year. It was the same knee, on the last long run of training, three weeks out.
I remember hoping last year that the 3 week taper before the race would give it enough time to heal, and it kind of did—until mile 17 during the marathon. So now, there is a big question mark. Will it or won’t it? Here we go again.
This was the toughest week yet, with 4 runs on the schedule: a 5 miler, a 10 miler, another 5 miler, and then the big one—20 miles on the weekend—for a total of 40 miles. This sounds pretty impressive to me until I remember that real runners often rack that many miles up every week.
For me it was what we’d been working up toward, as preparation for the big one, 26.2 miles in 3 weeks. There was another wrinkle. I was down by St. Louis all week for some police training.
It took some finagling, since I normally work out on Mon, Wed, and Fri, and do cardio on the other days (just like I recommend). I keep it scheduled, so the routine itself keeps me making progress.
I ended up doing both the first 5 mile run and my workout when I got free on Monday afternoon, since I was going to be tied up all day and night on Tuesday, which became a rest day. Sometimes you have to make adjustments (just ask a chiropractor).
There weren’t any nice trails or tracks or anything down where I was so I ended up tracing out a 5 mile loop from the hotel in the car. That way, I’d know where I was going.
It was kind of nice, running some new territory and seeing some new faces go by. Then I headed down to the local Gold’s Gym and hit the weights for 30 minutes.
When I travel, I always make it a point to find out where you can work out. If there’s no place to work out, I’ll do pushups, crunches, and body squats in the room. There’s always a way to get it done.
Tuesday was a rest day, due to the training all day and that evening, so Wednesday I had the big mid-week run—10 miles. I traced out a different route, using part of the course I’d run on Monday, but going in a different direction.
It was exciting, knowing I’d be in newer, more difficult territory, especially since I wouldn’t have access to water on a regular basis. To counter that, I took a bottle of water with me, and took a drink every 20 minutes or so and threw it away when I got to Lowes.
Then, it was just 4 miles back to the hotel, and a 20 minute stop in the Jacuzzi down by the pool. I took some heat from my wife for that.
There were also a couple of long hills that I knew would be a challenge. It went really well—better than I expected. Apparently, the 14 mile shoes debacle from the previous week had actually helped me out, because I was stronger.
That’s a principle I’ve noticed here in the gym. If you ever have a bad workout, don’t worry too much about it. Your body doesn’t really know the difference. It just knows it was hard, and that’s where all the gains come from.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re running, lifting weights, or just in life. If things are easy, there’s not much reason to change. When things get tough though, look out, because change is on the way—it has to.
The next day, Thursday, was going to be like Monday. I had both a 5 mile run, and my workout to fit in. So, after work, I went to the gym. Ready for something different, I ran a mile on the treadmill and then hit the weights—20 pull-ups and 15 shoulder push-presses, a pretty lethal combination.
Then I ran the 2nd mile and then did the pull-ups and push-presses again. Then the 3rd mile, more pull-ups and push-presses, 4th mile and weights, and then finally, I ran the 5th mile, and a ¼ mile walk to cool down. It was pretty cool, since I’d never done that before.
That’s another principle that works for several reasons. Exercise regularly—on a planned schedule, but change things up when you do. It’s good for your mind, since it’s fresh and exciting, and often times, a challenge.
It’s also good for your body. Do the same thing, over and over, and your body has no reason to change—it can already do it. That’s why I like to shake things up.
When I’m training people, I’ll often have them run ¼ or ½ mile, and then do some exercises in the weight room, going back and forth. It really gets you in shape. It also helps you keep the weight off, cause it burns tons of calories and has a wicked long after burn.
Friday was a rest day, since I finished the school and was traveling home. Then Saturday was more training at the police academy. That brings me to Sunday, and the long weekend run—20 miles.
It’s funny how your mind works. I’d decided to run at 4pm, when the sun started going lower in the sky. I’d be running into the sun for awhile, but then turning around and going the other way—giving me a break, and keeping me from getting burnt.
After spraying on a ton of sun-block, I hit the road. It went pretty well for the first 10 miles. I was running a 2.5 mile loop that took me home for a drink every 25-30 minutes. At mile 7.5, I had to take a bathroom break (that’s the good thing about the loop that takes you home).
After mile 10, I had some cramping going on. Don’t know why. Just know I didn’t like it. Having to slow to about a walk, it finally went away after about a mile. Perhaps I was dehydrated. I’d had my potassium with a banana earlier. Oh well.
At mile 15, things started slowing down. It’s funny, but I remembered the long 18 miler a few weeks ago being easier. It always seems to work that way. You have a good one, then a not so good one.
The real trouble hit me at mile 19.5 when my right knee started developing the same old ITB syndrome that I’d fought through the previous year. Yikes. That wasn’t good. I tried to run through it for a little while, but ended up walking the last half mile home.
That didn’t bode well for the marathon, coming up in three weeks, since this is exactly the same thing that happened last year. It was the same knee, on the last long run of training, three weeks out.
I remember hoping last year that the 3 week taper before the race would give it enough time to heal, and it kind of did—until mile 17 during the marathon. So now, there is a big question mark. Will it or won’t it? Here we go again.
Sunday, August 17, 2008
OLYMPIANS & US
I had the chance to watch some Olympic coverage last week. They were showing women’s gymnastics and the announcers were talking about how the girls were struggling a little bit, but still made the team finals.
Two had injuries serious enough to limit their events. That had to be pretty tough to take after preparing all their lives. A couple others took an extra step on their landings, and one over-rotated, sitting down on her dismount from the uneven bars.
Big mistakes if you’re in the Olympics, I guess. But did you see what they were doing right before that? Only a few people on the planet can move that way. To me, they were fantastic—extra steps and all.
I also saw a 33 year old woman in the vault—more than twice the age of most of the other competitors. She'd just made the finals. It was her fifth Olympics, a record for women.
Their quest is amazing to watch—their dedication, the commitment to excellence. We can learn a lot from these athletes.
But I’m just as impressed when I go down and watch my cutie-pie and the others at the gymnastics center. Right now, her group is learning how to do better cartwheels, back bends, and back walk-over (basically a backwards cartwheel). I think we can learn a lot from them too.
Right now, they’re light years from what I saw on TV, but they’re just getting started. And if someone rises to the top from here, that would be great.
But if none of them ever takes it to that level, that’s O.K. They still got a lot out of it—better fitness, coordination, balance, confidence, fun—all of which make it worthwhile.
I believe we’re all created for a purpose and we’ve all been given certain gifts. Some people are so gifted, that with hard work, and given the right opportunities, they can be rise to be the best in the world at what they do.
I also believe that we don’t have to be the most gifted to benefit. We don’t have to be the best to make the pursuit worthwhile. Take my running for example.
You don’t have to look far to find a better runner. It’s always a struggle just to finish, let alone try to improve my times. When I run that marathon next month, it will take me more than twice as long as the winner and they won’t even be world class.
I’m always near the back of the pack, and that doesn’t look like it will change much. But there’s something about the pursuit that makes it worthwhile for me.
If I push myself it gives me the moral authority to push others. It helps keep me lean, especially since it’s easy for me to eat more than I need.
It also helps me learn how to be more disciplined in other things. If I can keep going when I don’t exactly feel like it (anything over 13 miles), then I can make it through other things too. You learn how to finish something.
I’m amazed when I see the best in the world do what they do, but the pursuit was just as valid when I was slugging through my snail paced 18 miles earlier in that day. It went pretty well. Nobody died.
It’s just like the spark I see when someone finally gets it. They’ve started working out—and have just figured out that they’re going to be able to make it.
They’re doing things they didn’t think they could do. They’re feeling stronger and know they’re going to be able to take off the weight—and keep it off.
It becomes a pursuit for excellence. It might have started in desperation, but then it becomes a quest, a journey. They’re learning how to enjoy being physical. They’re feeling good about themselves.
I just watched the American men swim to the gold in the 4x100m free relay. They had the fastest split time in history and smashed the world record. They also beat France, who’d been trash talking all week. I’ll bet they’re feeling pretty good about themselves too.
Two had injuries serious enough to limit their events. That had to be pretty tough to take after preparing all their lives. A couple others took an extra step on their landings, and one over-rotated, sitting down on her dismount from the uneven bars.
Big mistakes if you’re in the Olympics, I guess. But did you see what they were doing right before that? Only a few people on the planet can move that way. To me, they were fantastic—extra steps and all.
I also saw a 33 year old woman in the vault—more than twice the age of most of the other competitors. She'd just made the finals. It was her fifth Olympics, a record for women.
Their quest is amazing to watch—their dedication, the commitment to excellence. We can learn a lot from these athletes.
But I’m just as impressed when I go down and watch my cutie-pie and the others at the gymnastics center. Right now, her group is learning how to do better cartwheels, back bends, and back walk-over (basically a backwards cartwheel). I think we can learn a lot from them too.
Right now, they’re light years from what I saw on TV, but they’re just getting started. And if someone rises to the top from here, that would be great.
But if none of them ever takes it to that level, that’s O.K. They still got a lot out of it—better fitness, coordination, balance, confidence, fun—all of which make it worthwhile.
I believe we’re all created for a purpose and we’ve all been given certain gifts. Some people are so gifted, that with hard work, and given the right opportunities, they can be rise to be the best in the world at what they do.
I also believe that we don’t have to be the most gifted to benefit. We don’t have to be the best to make the pursuit worthwhile. Take my running for example.
You don’t have to look far to find a better runner. It’s always a struggle just to finish, let alone try to improve my times. When I run that marathon next month, it will take me more than twice as long as the winner and they won’t even be world class.
I’m always near the back of the pack, and that doesn’t look like it will change much. But there’s something about the pursuit that makes it worthwhile for me.
If I push myself it gives me the moral authority to push others. It helps keep me lean, especially since it’s easy for me to eat more than I need.
It also helps me learn how to be more disciplined in other things. If I can keep going when I don’t exactly feel like it (anything over 13 miles), then I can make it through other things too. You learn how to finish something.
I’m amazed when I see the best in the world do what they do, but the pursuit was just as valid when I was slugging through my snail paced 18 miles earlier in that day. It went pretty well. Nobody died.
It’s just like the spark I see when someone finally gets it. They’ve started working out—and have just figured out that they’re going to be able to make it.
They’re doing things they didn’t think they could do. They’re feeling stronger and know they’re going to be able to take off the weight—and keep it off.
It becomes a pursuit for excellence. It might have started in desperation, but then it becomes a quest, a journey. They’re learning how to enjoy being physical. They’re feeling good about themselves.
I just watched the American men swim to the gold in the 4x100m free relay. They had the fastest split time in history and smashed the world record. They also beat France, who’d been trash talking all week. I’ll bet they’re feeling pretty good about themselves too.
Sunday, August 10, 2008
THE OBESITY EPIDEMIC
Did you know that if a child has one obese parent, there’s a statistical likelihood that that child will grow up to be obese themselves? Or that if a child is obese as they move into their teen years, there is an 80% chance that they’ll stay obese as an adult?
These are sobering facts that should really bother us, yet we don’t seem to be doing much about it. I’m about to say some things that are probably not politically correct. They just may get some of you upset, so I’ll just apologize now and get that out of the way.
I think that we’ve gotten used to being a fat nation. There are movements out there trying to making “plus size” more socially acceptable. While most restaurants and fast food joints have added healthier choices, the top sellers are still the worst things: burgers, fries, and pop.
Schools used to have physical education classes daily. Now it’s every other day. In some cases, kids don’t even get it anymore.
There’s an old saying: “If you think you can, you can; if you think you can’t, you can’t. Either way you’re right.” If you get resigned to being overweight, you’ll stay overweight. If you make the decision to do something about it, you’ll do it.
We do have a choice with this. We can get down to our ideal, lean weight—the TV show “Biggest Losers” proves it every season. Our own local version has proved it, time and time again. People can lose 100 lbs if they just make up their mind to do it.
I spoke with someone yesterday who told me his dad died from heart related problems at an early age. So did his brother. Of course, this is a massive risk factor that makes heart disease a strong probability for him. The fact that he’s seriously overweight all but guarantees it.
Still, he won’t dedicate even 20 minutes a day to a walking/jogging program. Now he’s definitely a busy guy with a lot of important irons in the fire. But none of those things will get done if he has a heart attack. But he’s just too busy.
I mean, come on. GET UP 20 MINUTES EARLY! A little less sleep now just may prevent a much longer sleep later, if you get my drift. Make some changes. Say no once in a while. You must make time for this.
And if you have kids that are tending to be overweight, it’s not too late for them either. But if you deny the reality of the host of physical problems they’re facing later, not to mention the mental anguish, you’re locking your kids into a life long struggle.
I see the difficulty people have with this every day. It’s not easy, and many people struggle with it. It doesn’t have to be that way. Things can change if you want them to.
Better choices now can make all the difference later. I like a burger and chocolate shake as much as the next guy, but it’s a treat, not a regular meal. It’s not as nutritious, and eaten regularly, will not only make you fat, it’ll make you sick.
I’m sure I’m going to offend someone else here, but QUIT TAKING THE KIDS OUT TO EAT ALL THE TIME! I know its fast—that’s why they call it fast food—but the consequences can last a lifetime. You’ve got to start making sure they eat right.
You need to get them moving, too. I got to watch two of my grand kids playing tee-ball the other day. It was cool, and my cutie-pie can sure hit the ball! But it’s not really physical exercise. Not yet.
At that age, it’s a bunch of kids standing around waiting for the batter to finally hit a pitch served up by the coach. If they need too many whacks at it, they hit it off the tee. Now that’s when all the action starts—a mob of little ones swarming the ball from every direction, and the batter finally runs to 1st base.
The problem is, the action lasts but a moment, and it’s a long time between hits at that age. That means a lot of standing around time. Now that’s fine, and it’s a necessary part of the learning curve, but the kids need more activity. Keep them in tee-ball, but have them do other things, too.
Try gymnastics at Talent’s Unlimited. Now that’s a workout. Or dance class. Or martial arts. They offer it at the Y, and I’ve taught a program here in town for over 20 years.
I used to think the main attributes the kids received in our classes were confidence, self-control, and of course self-defense. Now I’m starting to think that the most important thing we give them is movement. Organized physical activity, and the chance to become lean, and learn how to stay that way.
Even if you don’t take advantage of programs like those, you can take them out for a walk, or a bike ride. Or play a game with them yourself. That way you both reap the benefits. Plus, you’ll be a great example. If the kids see you taking better care of yourself, they’ll be more likely to do it too.
If you’re overweight, it doesn’t mean you have to stay that way. And if your kids are overweight, it doesn’t mean they need to start that way. It’s up to you. It’s up to us. We can stop this epidemic.
These are sobering facts that should really bother us, yet we don’t seem to be doing much about it. I’m about to say some things that are probably not politically correct. They just may get some of you upset, so I’ll just apologize now and get that out of the way.
I think that we’ve gotten used to being a fat nation. There are movements out there trying to making “plus size” more socially acceptable. While most restaurants and fast food joints have added healthier choices, the top sellers are still the worst things: burgers, fries, and pop.
Schools used to have physical education classes daily. Now it’s every other day. In some cases, kids don’t even get it anymore.
There’s an old saying: “If you think you can, you can; if you think you can’t, you can’t. Either way you’re right.” If you get resigned to being overweight, you’ll stay overweight. If you make the decision to do something about it, you’ll do it.
We do have a choice with this. We can get down to our ideal, lean weight—the TV show “Biggest Losers” proves it every season. Our own local version has proved it, time and time again. People can lose 100 lbs if they just make up their mind to do it.
I spoke with someone yesterday who told me his dad died from heart related problems at an early age. So did his brother. Of course, this is a massive risk factor that makes heart disease a strong probability for him. The fact that he’s seriously overweight all but guarantees it.
Still, he won’t dedicate even 20 minutes a day to a walking/jogging program. Now he’s definitely a busy guy with a lot of important irons in the fire. But none of those things will get done if he has a heart attack. But he’s just too busy.
I mean, come on. GET UP 20 MINUTES EARLY! A little less sleep now just may prevent a much longer sleep later, if you get my drift. Make some changes. Say no once in a while. You must make time for this.
And if you have kids that are tending to be overweight, it’s not too late for them either. But if you deny the reality of the host of physical problems they’re facing later, not to mention the mental anguish, you’re locking your kids into a life long struggle.
I see the difficulty people have with this every day. It’s not easy, and many people struggle with it. It doesn’t have to be that way. Things can change if you want them to.
Better choices now can make all the difference later. I like a burger and chocolate shake as much as the next guy, but it’s a treat, not a regular meal. It’s not as nutritious, and eaten regularly, will not only make you fat, it’ll make you sick.
I’m sure I’m going to offend someone else here, but QUIT TAKING THE KIDS OUT TO EAT ALL THE TIME! I know its fast—that’s why they call it fast food—but the consequences can last a lifetime. You’ve got to start making sure they eat right.
You need to get them moving, too. I got to watch two of my grand kids playing tee-ball the other day. It was cool, and my cutie-pie can sure hit the ball! But it’s not really physical exercise. Not yet.
At that age, it’s a bunch of kids standing around waiting for the batter to finally hit a pitch served up by the coach. If they need too many whacks at it, they hit it off the tee. Now that’s when all the action starts—a mob of little ones swarming the ball from every direction, and the batter finally runs to 1st base.
The problem is, the action lasts but a moment, and it’s a long time between hits at that age. That means a lot of standing around time. Now that’s fine, and it’s a necessary part of the learning curve, but the kids need more activity. Keep them in tee-ball, but have them do other things, too.
Try gymnastics at Talent’s Unlimited. Now that’s a workout. Or dance class. Or martial arts. They offer it at the Y, and I’ve taught a program here in town for over 20 years.
I used to think the main attributes the kids received in our classes were confidence, self-control, and of course self-defense. Now I’m starting to think that the most important thing we give them is movement. Organized physical activity, and the chance to become lean, and learn how to stay that way.
Even if you don’t take advantage of programs like those, you can take them out for a walk, or a bike ride. Or play a game with them yourself. That way you both reap the benefits. Plus, you’ll be a great example. If the kids see you taking better care of yourself, they’ll be more likely to do it too.
If you’re overweight, it doesn’t mean you have to stay that way. And if your kids are overweight, it doesn’t mean they need to start that way. It’s up to you. It’s up to us. We can stop this epidemic.
Sunday, August 03, 2008
WHY NOT ME?
Have you ever wanted to do something, but wasn’t quite sure about it? You thought you’d like to do it, but didn’t know if you could. It seemed pretty hard, so you backed away.
You’re not alone. It seems like it’s much easier to not even try sometimes. Why put yourself through the hassle? Why get started, make the investment, get things going, if you know it won’t last anyway, right?
The problem is that nothing worthwhile comes easily. If you only do those things that come easily, it’s possible you’ll never really be doing anything big, that’s life changing.
You could miss the one thing that turns everything around, set you on a new course, and take things to a new level. It’s like the old saying, “If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always got.” It’s easy to fall into mediocrity.
Don’t get me wrong, if you’re happy—really happy—with the way things are, then that’s O.K. Don’t rock the boat. Sometimes, that’s exactly the right thing to do.
Unfortunately, I don’t think the majority of us really feel that way. Almost all of us have a deep felt need to do something. To try something, go somewhere; to be something different.
We’re wired a certain way to do something special. If you’re a believer, you could say we’re designed that way. Until we do it, or become it, we’re never going to be completely happy. This applies to our bodies too.
And we know that things aren’t the way they’re supposed to be. Look, even a child knows when something is wrong. We know we need to take better care of ourselves. We know we need to eat better. But then we don’t.
It’s the same thing with that deep felt need. I think it’s really rare when someone can truly say that they’re right where they’re supposed to be—doing exactly what they’re supposed to do. Too many of us settle for second best.
We take the easy way out and try to make the most of it, and then spend the rest of our lives wondering, “What if…?” We take one step forward and two steps back and wonder why we’re not getting anywhere.
It’s time to get off that train. Let me share something that works for me, and something I’ve seen in others who seem to get what they want.
When you see someone doing something that you’d like to do, ask the question “Why not me?” I’m not suggesting you start complaining, I’m suggesting you start considering.
Who says you can’t do that? Why can’t you do that? Why can’t you go there? Why not, really? What are the reasons that make that impossible? What would it take to make it possible? Is it something that could be done if you really tried—really worked at it?
I’d like to run a marathon in less than 5 hours (I’m a snail). Why not me? What’s it going to take? Lots of running, four times a week. A speed run, a tempo run, a recovery run, and a long run (see last week’s article for more details).
I’ve run (trotted) three of them now. It’s getting tiresome seeing people several decades my senior passing me up (God bless em).
Last year in mile 24, a sweet gray 70 year old woman caught me, slowed down and asked, “how you doing sweety?” I managed to get out “fine, but this is hard.” She patted me on the shoulder and said encouragingly “that’s O.K., you can do it.” Then she left me in her dust. Seriously.
Yesterday I really didn’t want to run 16 miles. I was tired from working on this tree that fell down in the recent storm. It’s a 100 year old oak tree. Well, 99 years. It’s enormous and I’ve been cutting on it for a week and have several weeks to go.
It was too hot to run outside, so I waited till 6pm to start. Too late, it turns out, because I ended up running an hour and a half in the dark. I told you I was slow.
It was inconvenient. I missed out on some time with my wife. If I want to achieve the goal in the fall though, it had to be done. Next time, I’ll start earlier. But I’m going to start, because I keep wondering, “Why not me?”
I met a woman today wondering the same thing. She’s retired, overweight, has some medical problems and just doesn’t feel good anymore. She wants a better life and has finally reached the point where she’s thinking “Why not me?”
I’m tired of settling. So is she. Together we’re going to accomplish something. We’re going to cover new ground. Make a new start. Find something special in the future. Sure it’s going to take some hard work and sweat. It’s going to be inconvenient, even messy sometimes.
But life is inconvenient. Life gets messy. Even when we’re settling. A year is going to pass, whatever we decide to do. I want to spend it going somewhere. Doing something important. Making a difference. How about you? Have you ever asked, “Why not me?”
You’re not alone. It seems like it’s much easier to not even try sometimes. Why put yourself through the hassle? Why get started, make the investment, get things going, if you know it won’t last anyway, right?
The problem is that nothing worthwhile comes easily. If you only do those things that come easily, it’s possible you’ll never really be doing anything big, that’s life changing.
You could miss the one thing that turns everything around, set you on a new course, and take things to a new level. It’s like the old saying, “If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always got.” It’s easy to fall into mediocrity.
Don’t get me wrong, if you’re happy—really happy—with the way things are, then that’s O.K. Don’t rock the boat. Sometimes, that’s exactly the right thing to do.
Unfortunately, I don’t think the majority of us really feel that way. Almost all of us have a deep felt need to do something. To try something, go somewhere; to be something different.
We’re wired a certain way to do something special. If you’re a believer, you could say we’re designed that way. Until we do it, or become it, we’re never going to be completely happy. This applies to our bodies too.
And we know that things aren’t the way they’re supposed to be. Look, even a child knows when something is wrong. We know we need to take better care of ourselves. We know we need to eat better. But then we don’t.
It’s the same thing with that deep felt need. I think it’s really rare when someone can truly say that they’re right where they’re supposed to be—doing exactly what they’re supposed to do. Too many of us settle for second best.
We take the easy way out and try to make the most of it, and then spend the rest of our lives wondering, “What if…?” We take one step forward and two steps back and wonder why we’re not getting anywhere.
It’s time to get off that train. Let me share something that works for me, and something I’ve seen in others who seem to get what they want.
When you see someone doing something that you’d like to do, ask the question “Why not me?” I’m not suggesting you start complaining, I’m suggesting you start considering.
Who says you can’t do that? Why can’t you do that? Why can’t you go there? Why not, really? What are the reasons that make that impossible? What would it take to make it possible? Is it something that could be done if you really tried—really worked at it?
I’d like to run a marathon in less than 5 hours (I’m a snail). Why not me? What’s it going to take? Lots of running, four times a week. A speed run, a tempo run, a recovery run, and a long run (see last week’s article for more details).
I’ve run (trotted) three of them now. It’s getting tiresome seeing people several decades my senior passing me up (God bless em).
Last year in mile 24, a sweet gray 70 year old woman caught me, slowed down and asked, “how you doing sweety?” I managed to get out “fine, but this is hard.” She patted me on the shoulder and said encouragingly “that’s O.K., you can do it.” Then she left me in her dust. Seriously.
Yesterday I really didn’t want to run 16 miles. I was tired from working on this tree that fell down in the recent storm. It’s a 100 year old oak tree. Well, 99 years. It’s enormous and I’ve been cutting on it for a week and have several weeks to go.
It was too hot to run outside, so I waited till 6pm to start. Too late, it turns out, because I ended up running an hour and a half in the dark. I told you I was slow.
It was inconvenient. I missed out on some time with my wife. If I want to achieve the goal in the fall though, it had to be done. Next time, I’ll start earlier. But I’m going to start, because I keep wondering, “Why not me?”
I met a woman today wondering the same thing. She’s retired, overweight, has some medical problems and just doesn’t feel good anymore. She wants a better life and has finally reached the point where she’s thinking “Why not me?”
I’m tired of settling. So is she. Together we’re going to accomplish something. We’re going to cover new ground. Make a new start. Find something special in the future. Sure it’s going to take some hard work and sweat. It’s going to be inconvenient, even messy sometimes.
But life is inconvenient. Life gets messy. Even when we’re settling. A year is going to pass, whatever we decide to do. I want to spend it going somewhere. Doing something important. Making a difference. How about you? Have you ever asked, “Why not me?”
Thursday, July 24, 2008
YOU CAN DO THIS, TOO!
I love seeing people working out. Just the other day, I came in the gym and heard this sound… “pound, pound, pound, pound.” I walked into the cardio room and there was Chris Redmon blazing away on the treadmill.
You might remember Chris from Biggest Loser “3.” He was the biggest loser without getting to be the biggest loser. He lost 56.5 lbs (more than anyone else in the group, and a gym record for 12 weeks), but a slightly lower percentage of body weight than the winner (Joe Stidham) and runner up (Bill Lewis) that time.
Even though Chris and his wife Cheryl didn’t participate in Biggest Loser “4”, they were always here working out—you could set your watch by them. Somehow, they were able to maintain their commitment and focus, after the contest was over.
So here he was, pounding away on the treadmill, going faster than I’d ever seen him go, with his wife running next to him. When I looked at the display, he was going 7.0 mph. Now speed is a relative thing. Some go slower, some go faster, but for Chris, that was really impressive, considering that he’d only really started running during his contest, just 24 weeks ago.
What I always recommend is that you start out by walking. Then, when you feel ready, you jog a minute and then walk two minutes, repeating for as long as you can. As you get stronger, you can do more and more running intervals.
Usually, the running speed is right around 5.0 mph on the treadmill. If you’re outside, that is a 12 minute pace for the mile (if you ran the whole thing without stopping at 5.0 mph).
Sometimes, someone will be more comfortable jogging a little slower, but somewhere around 4.5 mph is probably the slowest you’ll run. Any slower, and you can walk that fast. Once in a while, someone will start running a little faster than 5.0 mph, but that’s a good average beginning running pace.
Then, the goal is to improve your 1 mile walk/run time. If you walked the whole thing at a very comfortable pace (3.0 mph), it takes 20 minutes to complete a mile. In our groups, we often had people starting with 20 minute miles at the beginning, and taking 3, 4 and even 5 minutes off their time in just 12 weeks.
If you do it in 15 minutes, you know you’re running some and walking some. As you get closer and closer to 12 minutes, you’ll be running more and more. Once you can do the mile in 12 minutes or less, you’re pretty much running the whole way.
Chris told me that he’d gotten down to around 11 minutes, which was fantastic, and now, here he is, turning it up some more, running 7.0 mph. He said the furthest he’d ever run was a mile (since that’s what we’d been doing in the group).
Now, he needs to set a new goal. I told him that one day a week, he needs to try to go further each time. Next time, add a quarter mile (one lap on the track). Try to run it all, but if you have to walk, that’s O.K. Whatever it takes to get there. This is called distance running.
Then, next week, add another quarter mile. Now you’re up to a mile and a half. Same thing. Whatever it takes to get there. Each week, keep adding a quarter mile. Pretty soon, you’re running 2 miles, and a month later, running 3 miles, which is basically a 5K.
The fitness benefits from the extra miles are pretty simple to understand. Do more work and you burn more calories. Run further and it will help you keep on track with your weight loss goal.
One day a week, you should work on your speed, like Chris was doing by doing a speed run. Say a week from today, Chris should try running at 7.1 mph, if only for a little while. Then rest up, and hit it again, working at that new speed. The following week, he can try 7.2 mph.
People are always surprised when I work with them on this. They can always go further and faster than they thought they could. That’s the ticket. You’ve got to build the intensity. Running faster is harder, and when you up the intensity, you burn more calories.
Finally, one day a week, you should do what’s called a tempo run. Pick a pace between your speed run (fastest) and distance run (slowest) and try to go for say 20 or 30 minutes at that tempo.
For example, say Chris would drop down to 5.7 mph for his distance run of two miles. He also can go 7.0 mph for shorter distances (say quarter mile repeats). He should pick something like 6.0, and try to do most of his 20-30 minute run at around that pace.
Each of these three basic types of runs will help you burn more calories, because they do different things for your body. They also make things more interesting, because each workout has a specific goal in mind.
Finally, the next thing is to set a goal for doing a 5K sometime. I recommend the Honeybee festival this fall. It’s far enough away that anyone can prepare for it. Remember, it’s not how fast you go.
You can walk the entire thing if you need to. Or jog a minute, and walk two minutes the entire way. It’s entirely up to you, and how much you want to push yourself.
The important things are to set a goal, which gives you motivation and something to look forward to. Then keep working toward the goal, which helps you stay on track with your weight loss. Finally, when you accomplish the goal, you’ll feel pretty good about yourself and what you did.
I can tell you this. Last year at the Louis & Clark Marathon, there were over 4,000 of us lined up before the event. Guys, gals, young, and old. Some were experienced. Others, like me, were there for their first time.
Most were there to run a half marathon (13.1 miles); about one fourth were there to try the whole marathon (26.2 miles). Quite a few were there to walk either the half or full marathon. The one thing I noticed, though, was that no one was obese. It was unusual to have that many people together, and no one was really overweight.
Sure, there were some people who were “in progress” with their weight loss, while others were at their ideal lean weight, but no one was what I would consider “over-fat.” Do that much work to get ready, and you get in shape.
So, here’s where you start. Hit the weights 3 days a week, and walk/run the other 3 days. On your running days make one day (after a rest day) a speed run where you work on speed. Make one day a tempo run, where you try to run a certain distance, or for a certain amount of time at a certain speed. Finally, one day a week, do a longer, slower distance run.
In a couple hours, I’m gonna go out for my distance run. I do it on the weekends since I have a little more time. This week it’s 15 miles, which is going to be pretty tough, since it’s sunny and hot out today (Sunday). If I want to be able to do the whole 26 miles in September, though, I’ve got to get used to running distances.
Sure, I’m a little extreme about this, but I’ve set a goal, and that means I’ll practice, and that means I’ll keep in shape. Plus, I’ll wear a lot of sunblock and a hat, and come back and soak my head every 2.5 miles when I get a drink. I’m not kidding. It will help me cool down.
Now you don’t necessarily have to get that crazy about it. There are things even I won’t do. Did you know there are people that run across the desert? I’ve got a friend that does 50 mile races!
There’s something for everyone, though. It’s self paced and you decide how far you take it. Start slow and see how it feels. You might decide you like it.
One thing’s sure. You’ll take off the weight. Oh, and Chris? He grinned and told me he was up to 90 lbs. In just 6 months. Now that’s cool. 10 more to go. I know he’ll do it. He’s running now!
You might remember Chris from Biggest Loser “3.” He was the biggest loser without getting to be the biggest loser. He lost 56.5 lbs (more than anyone else in the group, and a gym record for 12 weeks), but a slightly lower percentage of body weight than the winner (Joe Stidham) and runner up (Bill Lewis) that time.
Even though Chris and his wife Cheryl didn’t participate in Biggest Loser “4”, they were always here working out—you could set your watch by them. Somehow, they were able to maintain their commitment and focus, after the contest was over.
So here he was, pounding away on the treadmill, going faster than I’d ever seen him go, with his wife running next to him. When I looked at the display, he was going 7.0 mph. Now speed is a relative thing. Some go slower, some go faster, but for Chris, that was really impressive, considering that he’d only really started running during his contest, just 24 weeks ago.
What I always recommend is that you start out by walking. Then, when you feel ready, you jog a minute and then walk two minutes, repeating for as long as you can. As you get stronger, you can do more and more running intervals.
Usually, the running speed is right around 5.0 mph on the treadmill. If you’re outside, that is a 12 minute pace for the mile (if you ran the whole thing without stopping at 5.0 mph).
Sometimes, someone will be more comfortable jogging a little slower, but somewhere around 4.5 mph is probably the slowest you’ll run. Any slower, and you can walk that fast. Once in a while, someone will start running a little faster than 5.0 mph, but that’s a good average beginning running pace.
Then, the goal is to improve your 1 mile walk/run time. If you walked the whole thing at a very comfortable pace (3.0 mph), it takes 20 minutes to complete a mile. In our groups, we often had people starting with 20 minute miles at the beginning, and taking 3, 4 and even 5 minutes off their time in just 12 weeks.
If you do it in 15 minutes, you know you’re running some and walking some. As you get closer and closer to 12 minutes, you’ll be running more and more. Once you can do the mile in 12 minutes or less, you’re pretty much running the whole way.
Chris told me that he’d gotten down to around 11 minutes, which was fantastic, and now, here he is, turning it up some more, running 7.0 mph. He said the furthest he’d ever run was a mile (since that’s what we’d been doing in the group).
Now, he needs to set a new goal. I told him that one day a week, he needs to try to go further each time. Next time, add a quarter mile (one lap on the track). Try to run it all, but if you have to walk, that’s O.K. Whatever it takes to get there. This is called distance running.
Then, next week, add another quarter mile. Now you’re up to a mile and a half. Same thing. Whatever it takes to get there. Each week, keep adding a quarter mile. Pretty soon, you’re running 2 miles, and a month later, running 3 miles, which is basically a 5K.
The fitness benefits from the extra miles are pretty simple to understand. Do more work and you burn more calories. Run further and it will help you keep on track with your weight loss goal.
One day a week, you should work on your speed, like Chris was doing by doing a speed run. Say a week from today, Chris should try running at 7.1 mph, if only for a little while. Then rest up, and hit it again, working at that new speed. The following week, he can try 7.2 mph.
People are always surprised when I work with them on this. They can always go further and faster than they thought they could. That’s the ticket. You’ve got to build the intensity. Running faster is harder, and when you up the intensity, you burn more calories.
Finally, one day a week, you should do what’s called a tempo run. Pick a pace between your speed run (fastest) and distance run (slowest) and try to go for say 20 or 30 minutes at that tempo.
For example, say Chris would drop down to 5.7 mph for his distance run of two miles. He also can go 7.0 mph for shorter distances (say quarter mile repeats). He should pick something like 6.0, and try to do most of his 20-30 minute run at around that pace.
Each of these three basic types of runs will help you burn more calories, because they do different things for your body. They also make things more interesting, because each workout has a specific goal in mind.
Finally, the next thing is to set a goal for doing a 5K sometime. I recommend the Honeybee festival this fall. It’s far enough away that anyone can prepare for it. Remember, it’s not how fast you go.
You can walk the entire thing if you need to. Or jog a minute, and walk two minutes the entire way. It’s entirely up to you, and how much you want to push yourself.
The important things are to set a goal, which gives you motivation and something to look forward to. Then keep working toward the goal, which helps you stay on track with your weight loss. Finally, when you accomplish the goal, you’ll feel pretty good about yourself and what you did.
I can tell you this. Last year at the Louis & Clark Marathon, there were over 4,000 of us lined up before the event. Guys, gals, young, and old. Some were experienced. Others, like me, were there for their first time.
Most were there to run a half marathon (13.1 miles); about one fourth were there to try the whole marathon (26.2 miles). Quite a few were there to walk either the half or full marathon. The one thing I noticed, though, was that no one was obese. It was unusual to have that many people together, and no one was really overweight.
Sure, there were some people who were “in progress” with their weight loss, while others were at their ideal lean weight, but no one was what I would consider “over-fat.” Do that much work to get ready, and you get in shape.
So, here’s where you start. Hit the weights 3 days a week, and walk/run the other 3 days. On your running days make one day (after a rest day) a speed run where you work on speed. Make one day a tempo run, where you try to run a certain distance, or for a certain amount of time at a certain speed. Finally, one day a week, do a longer, slower distance run.
In a couple hours, I’m gonna go out for my distance run. I do it on the weekends since I have a little more time. This week it’s 15 miles, which is going to be pretty tough, since it’s sunny and hot out today (Sunday). If I want to be able to do the whole 26 miles in September, though, I’ve got to get used to running distances.
Sure, I’m a little extreme about this, but I’ve set a goal, and that means I’ll practice, and that means I’ll keep in shape. Plus, I’ll wear a lot of sunblock and a hat, and come back and soak my head every 2.5 miles when I get a drink. I’m not kidding. It will help me cool down.
Now you don’t necessarily have to get that crazy about it. There are things even I won’t do. Did you know there are people that run across the desert? I’ve got a friend that does 50 mile races!
There’s something for everyone, though. It’s self paced and you decide how far you take it. Start slow and see how it feels. You might decide you like it.
One thing’s sure. You’ll take off the weight. Oh, and Chris? He grinned and told me he was up to 90 lbs. In just 6 months. Now that’s cool. 10 more to go. I know he’ll do it. He’s running now!
Sunday, July 20, 2008
TOM'S STORY
I’ve spent a lot of time these last few years talking about some of the people I’ve worked with. Since the latest contest is over, I thought you might like to learn a little more about me, and why I do what I do.
For those of you that don’t know my story, I grew up as a severe asthmatic, back before they really had medicines that would help. Not allowed to do any physical activities, I had to sit on the sidelines in gym class (back then, we had P.E. every day).
The other kids gave me quite a hard time about it, but what they didn’t realize is that I would have given anything to be out there with them.
I spent most of my time reading and practicing music, but wanted to do things, play sports, and wasn’t able to. I was a pretty skinny kid, and my parents didn’t give me much junk food, since it was thought to contribute to asthma attacks.
Still, I was pretty lucky, because now-a-days, such inactivity is a sure recipe for obesity (more on that another time). If I’d had access to all the fast foods and junk foods that kids have today, I’d have been in trouble.
After graduating from high school and moving down to Vincennes, IN to go to school, I was hit by a train on October 2nd, 1980. Ironically, the thing that almost did me in wasn’t the train, but a massive asthma attack at the time, and I went into respiratory arrest and quit breathing.
God was surely looking out for me that day. Instead of dragging me down the tracks, the train simply knocked my car off to the side. At the same time, an ambulance also just happened to be returning from a call!
If I’d been knocked to the other side, I’d of been blocked by the train, and they wouldn’t have been able to get to me quickly. As it was, they got there right away, knocked out the back glass and got me out to start rescue breathing.
I have a faint memory of going down a bright hallway. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t heaven—just the hospital corridor. A few hours later, I woke up on a respirator. The nurse asked me if I knew what had happened, but I didn’t remember anything. She told me I’d been hit by a train and I was lucky to be alive.
When I went to see the car a week later (remember the old Datsun B-210?), my knees got weak. It was twisted up in a ball, and I couldn’t see how anyone could have made it out alive. I only had a couple scratches.
I knew I had to have been spared for a reason, cause people don’t survive things like that. How many people have you ever heard of that got hit by a train and lived?
I continued college, and started training in martial arts and working out, to get stronger. I got so interested in it, that I became a martial arts instructor and eventually got a master’s degree in physical education, specializing in exercise physiology and sport biomechanics.
I still had a lot of problems with asthma attacks, especially during workouts, and spent quite a few stays in the hospital—several near fatal. Later, the medicines got much better, and I could finally do more and more.
I never outgrew the asthma, but a couple years ago, they finally came out with Advair and Singular, medicines that let me train as hard as I want, with no symptoms at all! I’ve got to stay on the meds though. If I stop, all the symptoms come back, big-time.
That’s when I started running, and was able to start competing in some pretty rigorous jui-jitsu competitions. I’ve run 3 marathons, and am training to do one September 13th. I’m also doing some pretty crazy workouts at the gym and am even working on some basic gymnastics—great for your core.
Looking back, I’m pretty sure this is helping me make up in some way for those early years. The running has also made it much easier to help maintain my weight—especially as I’ve gotten older.
Even though there were a couple occasions when I almost died, when I look back, I’m grateful for all the experiences. It’s led me do everything I’m doing now, and has made me want to help everyone get moving and eating right, because I know what it’s done for me.
Anytime I get to run or do one of our crazy workouts, I’m grateful for the opportunity, because I couldn’t always do it. Now that I can, I’m going to take full advantage.
Research shows that inactive kids are at great risk for obesity, and once a child is obese, odds are that they’ll continue to be obese as adults. The good news is that most kids don’t have any physical reasons why they can’t get moving.
If we can get them up off the couch and off the computer, they can stay healthy and avoid the growing trend of youth obesity. Then they won’t have to spend a lifetime making up for it.
I’m the lucky one. I want to work out. It’s not work for me. Many people don’t see it that way though. Once they get started and lose some weight, it can change. When they look and feel better, and feel better about themselves, just like I did, they’ll find a new life in front of them. That’s why I do what I do.
For those of you that don’t know my story, I grew up as a severe asthmatic, back before they really had medicines that would help. Not allowed to do any physical activities, I had to sit on the sidelines in gym class (back then, we had P.E. every day).
The other kids gave me quite a hard time about it, but what they didn’t realize is that I would have given anything to be out there with them.
I spent most of my time reading and practicing music, but wanted to do things, play sports, and wasn’t able to. I was a pretty skinny kid, and my parents didn’t give me much junk food, since it was thought to contribute to asthma attacks.
Still, I was pretty lucky, because now-a-days, such inactivity is a sure recipe for obesity (more on that another time). If I’d had access to all the fast foods and junk foods that kids have today, I’d have been in trouble.
After graduating from high school and moving down to Vincennes, IN to go to school, I was hit by a train on October 2nd, 1980. Ironically, the thing that almost did me in wasn’t the train, but a massive asthma attack at the time, and I went into respiratory arrest and quit breathing.
God was surely looking out for me that day. Instead of dragging me down the tracks, the train simply knocked my car off to the side. At the same time, an ambulance also just happened to be returning from a call!
If I’d been knocked to the other side, I’d of been blocked by the train, and they wouldn’t have been able to get to me quickly. As it was, they got there right away, knocked out the back glass and got me out to start rescue breathing.
I have a faint memory of going down a bright hallway. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t heaven—just the hospital corridor. A few hours later, I woke up on a respirator. The nurse asked me if I knew what had happened, but I didn’t remember anything. She told me I’d been hit by a train and I was lucky to be alive.
When I went to see the car a week later (remember the old Datsun B-210?), my knees got weak. It was twisted up in a ball, and I couldn’t see how anyone could have made it out alive. I only had a couple scratches.
I knew I had to have been spared for a reason, cause people don’t survive things like that. How many people have you ever heard of that got hit by a train and lived?
I continued college, and started training in martial arts and working out, to get stronger. I got so interested in it, that I became a martial arts instructor and eventually got a master’s degree in physical education, specializing in exercise physiology and sport biomechanics.
I still had a lot of problems with asthma attacks, especially during workouts, and spent quite a few stays in the hospital—several near fatal. Later, the medicines got much better, and I could finally do more and more.
I never outgrew the asthma, but a couple years ago, they finally came out with Advair and Singular, medicines that let me train as hard as I want, with no symptoms at all! I’ve got to stay on the meds though. If I stop, all the symptoms come back, big-time.
That’s when I started running, and was able to start competing in some pretty rigorous jui-jitsu competitions. I’ve run 3 marathons, and am training to do one September 13th. I’m also doing some pretty crazy workouts at the gym and am even working on some basic gymnastics—great for your core.
Looking back, I’m pretty sure this is helping me make up in some way for those early years. The running has also made it much easier to help maintain my weight—especially as I’ve gotten older.
Even though there were a couple occasions when I almost died, when I look back, I’m grateful for all the experiences. It’s led me do everything I’m doing now, and has made me want to help everyone get moving and eating right, because I know what it’s done for me.
Anytime I get to run or do one of our crazy workouts, I’m grateful for the opportunity, because I couldn’t always do it. Now that I can, I’m going to take full advantage.
Research shows that inactive kids are at great risk for obesity, and once a child is obese, odds are that they’ll continue to be obese as adults. The good news is that most kids don’t have any physical reasons why they can’t get moving.
If we can get them up off the couch and off the computer, they can stay healthy and avoid the growing trend of youth obesity. Then they won’t have to spend a lifetime making up for it.
I’m the lucky one. I want to work out. It’s not work for me. Many people don’t see it that way though. Once they get started and lose some weight, it can change. When they look and feel better, and feel better about themselves, just like I did, they’ll find a new life in front of them. That’s why I do what I do.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
BIGGEST LOSER "4" -- WEEK 12
Well that was it. Another 12 weeks gone—just like that. I’m always amazed how fast things go. One thing is certain though, time always passes. The only question is what will you have you done with it?
This was another great group of Biggest Losers. We started with 68 and ended with 31 making the final weigh-in, a little less than half the group which is about normal. I always tell them when we start: “Half of you won’t finish for one reason or other—which half are you going to be in?”
A lot of different things came up to take them out of the game: jobs, illnesses, vacations, summertime, lack of interest, too hard, not what they expected, ____________ (fill in the blank).
The ones that bother me the most are those that I simply never heard from. They just stopped coming. I always wonder if they’ll find a way to get what they want. Life always intrudes, and it’s what you do when that happens that makes all the difference.
Keep in mind, that I don’t feel that this is the only way. It’s just the way to lose the most weight in the shortest amount of time. It’s perfectly fine to take it a little slower and do it gradually. In fact, more than half of the remaining contestants ended up leaning in that direction.
Even if they just lose a pound a week, they can still get what they want. So it takes a year, or even a year and a half? Time is going to pass anyway. How long did it take to put the weight on?
One of the biggest challenges facing the group is figuring out what to do next. They’ve been used to being pushed by me and each other. We kept raising the intensity, and kept setting goals along the way.
Now what they need to do is set a new goal—right away. They need to figure out a new plan, and start working it, right now. Otherwise, things can easily slip back in the other direction.
We had several examples of how that can happen, with people going on vacation and gaining 8 & 10 pounds in just a week or two. Imagine if you “permanently” go on vacation. I once had a member lose 80 pounds and then put it back on—plus a few pounds!
It’s a lifestyle of making better choices that will stand the test of time. That’s one of the things our resident nutrition expert Camilla Whitkanack, MS RD talked about in our final meeting. She has a great presentation of good versus bad choices that’s always an eye-opener, and like with our last group, I believe it made quite an impact this time, too.
Of the 31 people who made the final weigh-in, most of them were able to do the final one-mile walk/run test to see how it compared with 12 weeks ago. The average improvement was around 3 minutes, with several completing the mile 4 minutes faster and one even took 6 minutes off her time!
The weekly winner was also our final winner, Josh Rigdon, who'd been feeling the heat from Bill Lewis, our 2nd place finisher. Josh turned it up in the last week, working out 3 times a day, and worked out 4 times on two different days.
All that calorie burning had the desired effect with Josh losing 4.5% of his body weight and a crazy 10.2 lbs in the final week. That brought his total up to a contest winning loss of 21.2% of body weight and a new Biggest Loser record of 57.6 lbs in 12 weeks. He won a $20 Kroger gift certificate from Dimond Brothers Insurance for being the weekly Biggest Loser, and the $500 grand prize for taking the top spot overall.
Josh had also taken some heat because he’s young and pretty athletic but he’s worked his butt off (literally). For the first time ever (and probably last time too), we’re including before and after photos so you can see for yourself.
Bill was pretty impressive too, losing 18.1% of his body weight and another 40.6 lbs, all at the young age of 67. That pretty much shot down the “lost it because you were young” theory. It also brought Bill’s total weight loss up to over 93 lbs in 24 weeks!
3rd place overall went to Judy Rush, who’s been pushing hard the entire time even though she has a bum knee. Judy lost 13.0% of her body weight and a total of 24.8 lbs making her the top lady this time around.
Here’s how the overall winner Josh fit into our Biggest Loser Hall of Fame:
1. Josh Rigdon lost 57.6 lbs in Biggest Loser “4” this summer.
2. Chris Redmon lost 56.5 lbs in Biggest Loser “3” last spring.
3. Bill Lewis lost 52.5 lbs in Biggest Loser “3.”
4. Joe Stidham lost 49.5 lbs in Biggest Loser “3.”
5. Steve Johnson, Jr. lost 44.0 lbs in Biggest Loser “1” last fall.
And finally, here are the total numbers for the 31 people who completed Biggest Loser “4” for the last 12 weeks. Contestants are listed in order of percent of weight loss and then total pounds lost.
Most of those who lost the least still reported a loss in inches and clothing sizes even if the scale wasn’t as kind. I think the numbers are going to start going their way soon though, especially given their great effort in the last few workouts and the final one mile run. It’s been an honor to work with all of them.
Name, %, lbs:
1. Josh Rigdon 21.2 57.6
2. Bill Lewis 18.1 40.6
3. Judy Rush 13.0 24.8
4. Steve Jones 11.8 29.8
5. Kelly Reed 11.6 23.0
6. Tracy Rush 10.6 25.4
7. Shawn Bowers 9.9 30.4
8. Mike Elledge 9.7 29.4
9. Darren German 9.3 28.0
10. Stacey Reed 8.8 17.0
11. Janet Tyler 8.7 15.2
12. Jeannie Kaufman 8.4 13.6
13. Kellie Gates 7.6 16.8
14. Jerryca Leeman 7.4 17.2
15. Theresa Finley 5.8 13.0
16. Pam Kelly 5.7 15.4
17. Laura Whitaker 5.5 16.2
18. Lisa Eskew 5.4 9.8
19. Rhonda Shaw 5.4 9.0
20. Kelli Stidham 5.2 14.0
21. John Kaufman 4.7 10.0
22. Sheri Hackett 4.5 10.0
23. Lynn Anderson 4.1 8.0
24. Bridgett Trover 3.6 6.6
25. Kathy Rhoads 3.5 6.2
26. Jasmine Camp 3.5 7.6
27. Shirley Fiscus 3.4 6.6
28. Tina Cooper 3.3 6.0
29. Karen Kerrick 3.0 4.5
30. Mandy Neal 2.6 5.8
31. Dawn Stewart 0.0 0.0
This was another great group of Biggest Losers. We started with 68 and ended with 31 making the final weigh-in, a little less than half the group which is about normal. I always tell them when we start: “Half of you won’t finish for one reason or other—which half are you going to be in?”
A lot of different things came up to take them out of the game: jobs, illnesses, vacations, summertime, lack of interest, too hard, not what they expected, ____________ (fill in the blank).
The ones that bother me the most are those that I simply never heard from. They just stopped coming. I always wonder if they’ll find a way to get what they want. Life always intrudes, and it’s what you do when that happens that makes all the difference.
Keep in mind, that I don’t feel that this is the only way. It’s just the way to lose the most weight in the shortest amount of time. It’s perfectly fine to take it a little slower and do it gradually. In fact, more than half of the remaining contestants ended up leaning in that direction.
Even if they just lose a pound a week, they can still get what they want. So it takes a year, or even a year and a half? Time is going to pass anyway. How long did it take to put the weight on?
One of the biggest challenges facing the group is figuring out what to do next. They’ve been used to being pushed by me and each other. We kept raising the intensity, and kept setting goals along the way.
Now what they need to do is set a new goal—right away. They need to figure out a new plan, and start working it, right now. Otherwise, things can easily slip back in the other direction.
We had several examples of how that can happen, with people going on vacation and gaining 8 & 10 pounds in just a week or two. Imagine if you “permanently” go on vacation. I once had a member lose 80 pounds and then put it back on—plus a few pounds!
It’s a lifestyle of making better choices that will stand the test of time. That’s one of the things our resident nutrition expert Camilla Whitkanack, MS RD talked about in our final meeting. She has a great presentation of good versus bad choices that’s always an eye-opener, and like with our last group, I believe it made quite an impact this time, too.
Of the 31 people who made the final weigh-in, most of them were able to do the final one-mile walk/run test to see how it compared with 12 weeks ago. The average improvement was around 3 minutes, with several completing the mile 4 minutes faster and one even took 6 minutes off her time!
The weekly winner was also our final winner, Josh Rigdon, who'd been feeling the heat from Bill Lewis, our 2nd place finisher. Josh turned it up in the last week, working out 3 times a day, and worked out 4 times on two different days.
All that calorie burning had the desired effect with Josh losing 4.5% of his body weight and a crazy 10.2 lbs in the final week. That brought his total up to a contest winning loss of 21.2% of body weight and a new Biggest Loser record of 57.6 lbs in 12 weeks. He won a $20 Kroger gift certificate from Dimond Brothers Insurance for being the weekly Biggest Loser, and the $500 grand prize for taking the top spot overall.
Josh had also taken some heat because he’s young and pretty athletic but he’s worked his butt off (literally). For the first time ever (and probably last time too), we’re including before and after photos so you can see for yourself.
Bill was pretty impressive too, losing 18.1% of his body weight and another 40.6 lbs, all at the young age of 67. That pretty much shot down the “lost it because you were young” theory. It also brought Bill’s total weight loss up to over 93 lbs in 24 weeks!
3rd place overall went to Judy Rush, who’s been pushing hard the entire time even though she has a bum knee. Judy lost 13.0% of her body weight and a total of 24.8 lbs making her the top lady this time around.
Here’s how the overall winner Josh fit into our Biggest Loser Hall of Fame:
1. Josh Rigdon lost 57.6 lbs in Biggest Loser “4” this summer.
2. Chris Redmon lost 56.5 lbs in Biggest Loser “3” last spring.
3. Bill Lewis lost 52.5 lbs in Biggest Loser “3.”
4. Joe Stidham lost 49.5 lbs in Biggest Loser “3.”
5. Steve Johnson, Jr. lost 44.0 lbs in Biggest Loser “1” last fall.
And finally, here are the total numbers for the 31 people who completed Biggest Loser “4” for the last 12 weeks. Contestants are listed in order of percent of weight loss and then total pounds lost.
Most of those who lost the least still reported a loss in inches and clothing sizes even if the scale wasn’t as kind. I think the numbers are going to start going their way soon though, especially given their great effort in the last few workouts and the final one mile run. It’s been an honor to work with all of them.
Name, %, lbs:
1. Josh Rigdon 21.2 57.6
2. Bill Lewis 18.1 40.6
3. Judy Rush 13.0 24.8
4. Steve Jones 11.8 29.8
5. Kelly Reed 11.6 23.0
6. Tracy Rush 10.6 25.4
7. Shawn Bowers 9.9 30.4
8. Mike Elledge 9.7 29.4
9. Darren German 9.3 28.0
10. Stacey Reed 8.8 17.0
11. Janet Tyler 8.7 15.2
12. Jeannie Kaufman 8.4 13.6
13. Kellie Gates 7.6 16.8
14. Jerryca Leeman 7.4 17.2
15. Theresa Finley 5.8 13.0
16. Pam Kelly 5.7 15.4
17. Laura Whitaker 5.5 16.2
18. Lisa Eskew 5.4 9.8
19. Rhonda Shaw 5.4 9.0
20. Kelli Stidham 5.2 14.0
21. John Kaufman 4.7 10.0
22. Sheri Hackett 4.5 10.0
23. Lynn Anderson 4.1 8.0
24. Bridgett Trover 3.6 6.6
25. Kathy Rhoads 3.5 6.2
26. Jasmine Camp 3.5 7.6
27. Shirley Fiscus 3.4 6.6
28. Tina Cooper 3.3 6.0
29. Karen Kerrick 3.0 4.5
30. Mandy Neal 2.6 5.8
31. Dawn Stewart 0.0 0.0
Monday, June 30, 2008
BIGGEST LOSER 4 -- WEEK 11
We just finished the next to the last week of the contest and we’re getting ready to wrap things up for the summer. We had 3 great groups in a row, but I think that it’s time to take a break from the contest.
Instead, I’m leaning toward giving a special workout on Wed’s and Fri’s at 5:30 where people can come in and get the same workout I do with my personal training clients. It will be a group workout and it will be tough. Level III and Level IV stuff designed to keep your body changing for the better.
I do a similar group workout called on M, W & F at noon. Basically, it’s a group of people that want to be pushed, challenged, and coached. Everyone works at their own level, but I push them all.
Everyone has an inner athlete just waiting to be discovered (even if you never were one) and that’s what those workouts are about. It’s easy to control your weight when you’re an athlete and it’s really cool becoming more athletic, and leaner and meaner.
As we move fully into those dog days of summer, here are a few thoughts. If you want to change the way you look and feel, you have to have a big desire. It takes desire to change. It’s got to be a really big desire, or it won’t stick. Another way of putting it is that the pain of doing it has to be less than the pain of not doing it. Fix your eyes on the prize or the goal.
The next thing is commitment. You have to be committed to doing it or it will simply get lost in the shuffle. There’s too much going on. Your commitment will determine how high a priority it is. If it isn’t up near the top of your list, forget it—you’ll end up quitting.
Things are so fast paced. We live in a fast food society and if it takes longer than about 3 minutes we lose interest. Our news channels have news and more news that scrolls across the screen. All to keep our interest, because they know we’re about 5 seconds from tuning out.
But it’s our commitment that matters. If you’re committed, you stay with something and figure out how to make it work. Even when it’s tough, you make it work.
Another thing you need is willingness to change. You would be amazed at how many people I hear from that aren’t happy with the way they look and feel. It’s like pulling teeth, though, trying to get them to change.
After I hear all the reasons they can’t try it my way, one of my favorite lines (which sounds kind of cocky but I don’t mean it that way) is: “so how’s that working for you?” Really. If it’s not working, why not try something different.
You also have to learn how to be intentional. You do things on purpose, for a reason, every day. You look for opportunities to intentionally do things that move you in the direction you want to go.
This is important because if you don’t, life intrudes and will always move you in a different direction. You’ve got to schedule your workouts. That’s what you do at that time, every day. Same thing with how you eat.
You also have to have a plan. A wise person once said that failure to plan is really planning to fail. Knowing you need to do something, and knowing what to do are two different things. Find someone that knows how and hook up with them. Get a mentor. Find a coach. Listen to them. Read some books. Do a Google or Yahoo search on it. But do something.
Finally, perhaps above all, you have to be consistent. Doing the same things over and over, day in, day out has great power. It’s how we get fat, or how we get thin. It comes down to what you do each day. Like the power of compounding interest, good habits add up too.
If you slip up, acknowledge it, and move on. It won’t do you any good to dwell in the past. You’ve got to be willing to forgive yourself for the dumb things (and quit doing them) and start looking ahead again.
This week’s winner was Bill Lewis—again. You may recall he lost 52.5 lbs in our Biggest Loser “3” and had been doing very well this time around—until he went on vacation for 2 weeks and put 10 pounds back on.
He’ll tell you it was because he ate too much and didn’t get enough exercise. Bill has such a way of making this simple. When he averaged 5 lbs a week I’d ask him how he did it and he said he just walks/jogs an hour on the treadmill twice a day.
It’s pretty simple, but it’s also quite a lot of work. If anyone else was complaining that they weren’t losing enough, I’d ask them if they were doing that?
After Bill got back, he took off 8 lbs last week, and this week lost an amazing 5% of his body weight, and a total of 10.0 lbs. He’s like a machine. This week he turned it up to walking 3 times a day, plus walking to and from the gym!
So far, he’s lost 33.6 lbs and with the 52.5 lbs from before, is up to a total of 86 lbs in 23 weeks. And he still has a week to go. Bill received a $15 Subway gift card from Dimond Brothers Insurance. Next week we’ll have the final results. Right now, it’s time for my run.
I’ve got this crazy desire to run a marathon on September 13th and I’m committed to getting ready. Last year I had to walk the last 8 miles due to a knee injury showing up during the race and I know I have to be intentional about my training, so each workout has a purpose.
I’m following a plan by one of the many expert marathon trainers out there (Hal Higdon). I’ve got to be consistent in my training if I want to get strong enough to do the 26 miles and hopefully avoid injuries. This week the long run is 12 miles so I’ve got to get going. See you next week!
Instead, I’m leaning toward giving a special workout on Wed’s and Fri’s at 5:30 where people can come in and get the same workout I do with my personal training clients. It will be a group workout and it will be tough. Level III and Level IV stuff designed to keep your body changing for the better.
I do a similar group workout called on M, W & F at noon. Basically, it’s a group of people that want to be pushed, challenged, and coached. Everyone works at their own level, but I push them all.
Everyone has an inner athlete just waiting to be discovered (even if you never were one) and that’s what those workouts are about. It’s easy to control your weight when you’re an athlete and it’s really cool becoming more athletic, and leaner and meaner.
As we move fully into those dog days of summer, here are a few thoughts. If you want to change the way you look and feel, you have to have a big desire. It takes desire to change. It’s got to be a really big desire, or it won’t stick. Another way of putting it is that the pain of doing it has to be less than the pain of not doing it. Fix your eyes on the prize or the goal.
The next thing is commitment. You have to be committed to doing it or it will simply get lost in the shuffle. There’s too much going on. Your commitment will determine how high a priority it is. If it isn’t up near the top of your list, forget it—you’ll end up quitting.
Things are so fast paced. We live in a fast food society and if it takes longer than about 3 minutes we lose interest. Our news channels have news and more news that scrolls across the screen. All to keep our interest, because they know we’re about 5 seconds from tuning out.
But it’s our commitment that matters. If you’re committed, you stay with something and figure out how to make it work. Even when it’s tough, you make it work.
Another thing you need is willingness to change. You would be amazed at how many people I hear from that aren’t happy with the way they look and feel. It’s like pulling teeth, though, trying to get them to change.
After I hear all the reasons they can’t try it my way, one of my favorite lines (which sounds kind of cocky but I don’t mean it that way) is: “so how’s that working for you?” Really. If it’s not working, why not try something different.
You also have to learn how to be intentional. You do things on purpose, for a reason, every day. You look for opportunities to intentionally do things that move you in the direction you want to go.
This is important because if you don’t, life intrudes and will always move you in a different direction. You’ve got to schedule your workouts. That’s what you do at that time, every day. Same thing with how you eat.
You also have to have a plan. A wise person once said that failure to plan is really planning to fail. Knowing you need to do something, and knowing what to do are two different things. Find someone that knows how and hook up with them. Get a mentor. Find a coach. Listen to them. Read some books. Do a Google or Yahoo search on it. But do something.
Finally, perhaps above all, you have to be consistent. Doing the same things over and over, day in, day out has great power. It’s how we get fat, or how we get thin. It comes down to what you do each day. Like the power of compounding interest, good habits add up too.
If you slip up, acknowledge it, and move on. It won’t do you any good to dwell in the past. You’ve got to be willing to forgive yourself for the dumb things (and quit doing them) and start looking ahead again.
This week’s winner was Bill Lewis—again. You may recall he lost 52.5 lbs in our Biggest Loser “3” and had been doing very well this time around—until he went on vacation for 2 weeks and put 10 pounds back on.
He’ll tell you it was because he ate too much and didn’t get enough exercise. Bill has such a way of making this simple. When he averaged 5 lbs a week I’d ask him how he did it and he said he just walks/jogs an hour on the treadmill twice a day.
It’s pretty simple, but it’s also quite a lot of work. If anyone else was complaining that they weren’t losing enough, I’d ask them if they were doing that?
After Bill got back, he took off 8 lbs last week, and this week lost an amazing 5% of his body weight, and a total of 10.0 lbs. He’s like a machine. This week he turned it up to walking 3 times a day, plus walking to and from the gym!
So far, he’s lost 33.6 lbs and with the 52.5 lbs from before, is up to a total of 86 lbs in 23 weeks. And he still has a week to go. Bill received a $15 Subway gift card from Dimond Brothers Insurance. Next week we’ll have the final results. Right now, it’s time for my run.
I’ve got this crazy desire to run a marathon on September 13th and I’m committed to getting ready. Last year I had to walk the last 8 miles due to a knee injury showing up during the race and I know I have to be intentional about my training, so each workout has a purpose.
I’m following a plan by one of the many expert marathon trainers out there (Hal Higdon). I’ve got to be consistent in my training if I want to get strong enough to do the 26 miles and hopefully avoid injuries. This week the long run is 12 miles so I’ve got to get going. See you next week!
Monday, June 23, 2008
BIGGEST LOSER 4 -- WEEK 10
When we began the 12 weeks, we started the group with what I call Level I training (circuit training with machines) for a month. Then we introduced them to Level II workouts (single exercises with free weights and dumbbells).
After that, they started on our Level III training (compound exercises with free weights). The goal was to keep the workouts progressing so their bodies would never get used to the training—that way they’d keep changing.
The Level III training helps them get great workouts fast—none of them take longer than 30 minutes. They also burn more calories because you’re working several muscle groups at the same time.
Here’s the final week of workouts for the group, in case you want to give it a try.
Monday
Pushups on Rings (or Ball)
Jumping Pullups
Ab Routine #1-4 (Crunches, Legs Up, Crossing, Leg Lifts)
*Single Arm Cable Lateral Raises (1 set to max)
Wednesday
Thrusters with Bar
Reverse Pullups
*Floor Wipers (1 set to max)
Friday
Jumping DB Clean & Presses
EZ Bar Curls
Hanging Knee Raises
*Ball Pikes (1 set to max)
This week’s Biggest Loser was Bill Lewis, who lost 3.8% of his body weight and a total of 8.0 lbs. That’s impressive, even if he was taking off most of the 10 lbs he’d put on during his recent vacation.
He’s not the first one to face that problem this summer. As soon as he got back from vacation, he got back to work and took off eight pounds. Bill won a $20 Walmart gift certificate from Dimond Brother Insurance.
2nd Place went to Pam Kelly who lost 2.1% of her body weight and a total of 5.6 lbs. Any other week, she probably would have won, but this happened to be the week Bill got back!
Pam was in the last group of Biggest Losers also. She recently took me up on a challenge I made at the end of the last group. She ran/walked a 5K race a few weeks ago and plans to do another one soon.
Next week I’m going to introduce the group to Level 4 training. Believe it or not, many of the workouts are done in 20 minutes, and one in particular takes less than 10 minutes, but it’s intense. I’ll tell you more later. Right now, it’s time to get to the gym!
After that, they started on our Level III training (compound exercises with free weights). The goal was to keep the workouts progressing so their bodies would never get used to the training—that way they’d keep changing.
The Level III training helps them get great workouts fast—none of them take longer than 30 minutes. They also burn more calories because you’re working several muscle groups at the same time.
Here’s the final week of workouts for the group, in case you want to give it a try.
- Start with a 5-10 minute Cardio Warmup.
- Do each numbered exercise 12-15 repetitions in a circuit, four times, without stopping.
Finish with a single burnout exercise* with maximum reps!
Level III Workouts—Week Four
Monday
Pushups on Rings (or Ball)
Jumping Pullups
Ab Routine #1-4 (Crunches, Legs Up, Crossing, Leg Lifts)
*Single Arm Cable Lateral Raises (1 set to max)
Wednesday
Thrusters with Bar
Reverse Pullups
*Floor Wipers (1 set to max)
Friday
Jumping DB Clean & Presses
EZ Bar Curls
Hanging Knee Raises
*Ball Pikes (1 set to max)
This week’s Biggest Loser was Bill Lewis, who lost 3.8% of his body weight and a total of 8.0 lbs. That’s impressive, even if he was taking off most of the 10 lbs he’d put on during his recent vacation.
He’s not the first one to face that problem this summer. As soon as he got back from vacation, he got back to work and took off eight pounds. Bill won a $20 Walmart gift certificate from Dimond Brother Insurance.
2nd Place went to Pam Kelly who lost 2.1% of her body weight and a total of 5.6 lbs. Any other week, she probably would have won, but this happened to be the week Bill got back!
Pam was in the last group of Biggest Losers also. She recently took me up on a challenge I made at the end of the last group. She ran/walked a 5K race a few weeks ago and plans to do another one soon.
Next week I’m going to introduce the group to Level 4 training. Believe it or not, many of the workouts are done in 20 minutes, and one in particular takes less than 10 minutes, but it’s intense. I’ll tell you more later. Right now, it’s time to get to the gym!
Sunday, June 22, 2008
BIGGEST LOSER 4 -- WEEK 9
At the last meeting we talked about continuing to turn up the cardio intensity with High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), and in their weight workouts with our Level III training. This last month is all about turning up the intensity.
The main mistake I see people make is that they do the same things that they’ve gotten used to—that they’re comfortable with. But if you’ll change it up, your body will continue changing too. That will help you get past the normal plateau’s you’ll find along the way.
I taught them the next two week’s Level III workouts, so here they are in case you’d like to try them. Each workout will hit your entire body—the pushing muscles (Chest, Shoulders & Triceps), the pulling muscles (Back & Biceps), your lower body, as well as your core.
Remember, the goal is to do everything back to back, with no breaks, except for water. Make sure you get with someone who knows how to do the exercises, so you can do them safely.
Monday
DB Thrusters (Squat & Press)
Ring Pullups
Floor Wipers
*DB Curl 21’s (1 set to max)
Wednesday
DB Single Arm Clean & Press
DB Curls (both arms, together)
Ab Crunches on the Ball—one leg raised
*Ball Pushups & Knee Curls (1 set to max)
Friday
EZ Bar Deadlift, Curl & Reverse Press
Pilates Crunches
*DB Lateral Raises (1 set to max)
Level III Workouts—Week Three
Monday
Jumping Squats with Bar
Pullover Presses on Ball
SA Dumbbell Curls
*Floor Wipers (1 set to max)
Wednesday
Push Presses with Bar
EZ Bar Curls
Hanging Knee Raises
*Ball Pikes (1 set to max)
Friday
Jumping Lunge with SA DB Press
DB Curl 21’s
Pilates Crunches
*SA Cable Curl (1 set to max)
This week’s Biggest Loser was Denise Cravens, who lost 2.8% of her body weight and 4.2 lbs. Denise has been working hard for months and was pretty happy to be in the winner’s column! She received a $25 Casey’s gift card from Dimond Brothers Insurance.
This will be the 3rd twelve week Biggest Loser we’ve done in a row and I’m wondering if it’s time to take a break. I’d bring it back in September to coincide with the TV show like we did last fall.
It’s really up to you, though. We started with 68 people this time, and 57 people last time. If there’s enough interest to do a 4th one this year during the summer, I’m willing. It would start on 7/11 if we did it.
The other idea I had was to take a smaller group of say 20 people, and personally train them for the summer—no contest—just hard work and results. We’ll have to see what develops. You’ll have to let me know.
See you next week. Right now, it’s time to get to the gym!
The main mistake I see people make is that they do the same things that they’ve gotten used to—that they’re comfortable with. But if you’ll change it up, your body will continue changing too. That will help you get past the normal plateau’s you’ll find along the way.
I taught them the next two week’s Level III workouts, so here they are in case you’d like to try them. Each workout will hit your entire body—the pushing muscles (Chest, Shoulders & Triceps), the pulling muscles (Back & Biceps), your lower body, as well as your core.
Remember, the goal is to do everything back to back, with no breaks, except for water. Make sure you get with someone who knows how to do the exercises, so you can do them safely.
- Start with a 5-10 minute Cardio Warmup.
- Do each numbered exercise 10-12 reps (guys) or 12-15 reps (gals) in a circuit 4 times!
- Finish with a single burnout exercise* with maximum reps!
Level III Workouts—Week Two
Monday
DB Thrusters (Squat & Press)
Ring Pullups
Floor Wipers
*DB Curl 21’s (1 set to max)
Wednesday
DB Single Arm Clean & Press
DB Curls (both arms, together)
Ab Crunches on the Ball—one leg raised
*Ball Pushups & Knee Curls (1 set to max)
Friday
EZ Bar Deadlift, Curl & Reverse Press
Pilates Crunches
*DB Lateral Raises (1 set to max)
Level III Workouts—Week Three
Monday
Jumping Squats with Bar
Pullover Presses on Ball
SA Dumbbell Curls
*Floor Wipers (1 set to max)
Wednesday
Push Presses with Bar
EZ Bar Curls
Hanging Knee Raises
*Ball Pikes (1 set to max)
Friday
Jumping Lunge with SA DB Press
DB Curl 21’s
Pilates Crunches
*SA Cable Curl (1 set to max)
This week’s Biggest Loser was Denise Cravens, who lost 2.8% of her body weight and 4.2 lbs. Denise has been working hard for months and was pretty happy to be in the winner’s column! She received a $25 Casey’s gift card from Dimond Brothers Insurance.
This will be the 3rd twelve week Biggest Loser we’ve done in a row and I’m wondering if it’s time to take a break. I’d bring it back in September to coincide with the TV show like we did last fall.
It’s really up to you, though. We started with 68 people this time, and 57 people last time. If there’s enough interest to do a 4th one this year during the summer, I’m willing. It would start on 7/11 if we did it.
The other idea I had was to take a smaller group of say 20 people, and personally train them for the summer—no contest—just hard work and results. We’ll have to see what develops. You’ll have to let me know.
See you next week. Right now, it’s time to get to the gym!
Sunday, June 15, 2008
BIGGEST LOSER 4 -- WEEK 8
It’s been eight weeks and it’s time for another update on everyone’s progress. We started with 68 people and 36 people made the weigh-in last Friday.
As usual, the contestants have divided themselves into three groups. The first group is made up of people who have quit for one reason or another. They’re not around anymore.
The second group is made up of people that are still involved, but I don’t see them much. Quite a few of them have been on vacation this summer. Some make a Friday workout and weigh-in, and then miss another. Some have been sick. At least one had knee surgery.
Finally, we have a core group of people left who are really pushing hard. I see them in the gym all the time, doing more and more. Around 20 to 25 of them make the regular Friday night workouts to learn how to turn it up.
This time, after the weigh-in and announcements, I spent about 10 minutes explaining the new exercises. In the first four weeks, they did Level I exercises on the machines. In weeks 5 to 8, they did Level II exercises on the free weights.
If you’ll remember, free weights cause you to use more stabilizer muscles and engage your core more—burning more calories and giving you a better workout.
This week, they’ll be starting on Level III. Instead of simple one-movement exercises that primarily focus on a single muscle group, this time, they’ll be doing compound movements that combine different exercises.
The Clean-Jerk and Press is a good example. You bend down and pick up the bar, jerk it up to shoulder level, move yourself slightly so you’re underneath the bar, and then press it overhead.
Another example is the Walking, Lunge, Curl & Press. Holding 2 dumbbells just light enough for you to be able to shoulder press them, take a walking step forward (lunge). While maintaining that position, curl both dumbbells up to your shoulders, and then turn your hands and press the dumbbells up over head. Lower the weights, take another long lunging step and repeat.
These exercises are demanding because you’re using so many different muscle groups all at the same time. They have a huge influence on your metabolism and are awesome calorie burners. They also engage your core the whole time.
I gave them four weeks of workouts to finish out the 12 weeks. Each workout is different, causing your body to respond more dramatically. In case you’d like to try them on for size, here’s their Level III workout for Week Nine:
As usual, the contestants have divided themselves into three groups. The first group is made up of people who have quit for one reason or another. They’re not around anymore.
The second group is made up of people that are still involved, but I don’t see them much. Quite a few of them have been on vacation this summer. Some make a Friday workout and weigh-in, and then miss another. Some have been sick. At least one had knee surgery.
Finally, we have a core group of people left who are really pushing hard. I see them in the gym all the time, doing more and more. Around 20 to 25 of them make the regular Friday night workouts to learn how to turn it up.
This time, after the weigh-in and announcements, I spent about 10 minutes explaining the new exercises. In the first four weeks, they did Level I exercises on the machines. In weeks 5 to 8, they did Level II exercises on the free weights.
If you’ll remember, free weights cause you to use more stabilizer muscles and engage your core more—burning more calories and giving you a better workout.
This week, they’ll be starting on Level III. Instead of simple one-movement exercises that primarily focus on a single muscle group, this time, they’ll be doing compound movements that combine different exercises.
The Clean-Jerk and Press is a good example. You bend down and pick up the bar, jerk it up to shoulder level, move yourself slightly so you’re underneath the bar, and then press it overhead.
Another example is the Walking, Lunge, Curl & Press. Holding 2 dumbbells just light enough for you to be able to shoulder press them, take a walking step forward (lunge). While maintaining that position, curl both dumbbells up to your shoulders, and then turn your hands and press the dumbbells up over head. Lower the weights, take another long lunging step and repeat.
These exercises are demanding because you’re using so many different muscle groups all at the same time. They have a huge influence on your metabolism and are awesome calorie burners. They also engage your core the whole time.
I gave them four weeks of workouts to finish out the 12 weeks. Each workout is different, causing your body to respond more dramatically. In case you’d like to try them on for size, here’s their Level III workout for Week Nine:
Start with a 5-10 minute Cardio Warmup.
Do each primary exercise 10-12 reps (guys) or 12-15 reps (gals) in a circuit 4 times!
Finish with a single burnout exercise* with maximum reps!
Monday
Clean Jerk & Press
Standing EZ Bar Curl
Pilates Crunches
*Single Arm Cable Curl
Wednesday
Walking Lunge, Curl & Press
Ab Routine #1-4: (Crunches, Legs Up, Crossing, Leg Lifts)
*Dumbbell Lateral Raises
Friday
Box Step Ups with Curls
Single Arm Dumbbell Press on Ball
Hanging Knee Raises
*Tricep Overhead Press
While half the people tried out the exercises, I took the other half of the group into the cardio room and showed them how to do high intensity interval training (HIIT).
Basically, HIIT is a way to pack 40-45 minutes worth of work into 20-24 minutes. It doesn’t matter what equipment you use. They used the treadmills, ellipticals, and exercise bikes, rotating on each after 7-8 minutes.
What you do is take a perceived exertion scale of 1-10, where 1-4 would be about like lying on the couch. Level 5 and 6 is pretty easy and you could do it indefinitely. Level 7 is where we started—not too hard, but you can definitely feel it. That was their 2 minute warmup—at what felt like a “7.”
Then they cranked it up to what felt like an “8” on their perceived exertion scale. This meant they were jogging on the treadmill, or walking up a very steep grade. On the bikes and ellipticals, they cranked up the levels until it was pretty hard, but they could still do it.
After a minute of working at what felt like an “8”, they backed it down to a 6 or 7 to recover for a minute. Then, they took it back up to what felt like an “8” for another minute, and so on.
After 8 minutes, they switched to a different piece of cardio equipment so they could see how it felt while doing other things.
When they’d done several intervals at an “8”, they did one at what felt like a “9.” A nine is very difficult. You can do it for a while, but only for a little while (a “10” would be too difficult to continue). They were all watching the clock, cause it was killer—but they did it!
Finally, after about 20-22 minutes, they did one final interval at a “9”, but for two minutes! This one was brutal. I could really hear them breathing hard, grunting and groaning, with focused intensity—exactly what it takes to get what you want. One of them told me “I thought I was about ready to die, at the end of those two minutes.”
They stayed on for a couple minutes, and backed it down around what felt like a “5” to cool down a little bit. One other important note: make sure you have your water bottle with you, and every time you are on a resting interval, take a sip or two of water. By the time you’ve finished your workout, you should have finished the bottle. This will keep you hydrated.
Well there’s their workout strategy for the next four weeks to finish out the contest: HIIT training on cardio days, and Level III workouts (compound exercises) in the weight room. Of course they’ve got to keep watching what they eat.
The winner this week was Theresa Finley, who lost 1.4% of her body weight and 3.0 lbs. Theresa won a $20 Kroger gift card from Dimond Brothers Insurance for her hard work.
Remember, for most people, losing a pound a week is pretty predictable. Two pounds a week is doable if you’re walking a mile in the morning and then getting your real workout in later in the day. Anything over two pounds a week is outstanding. Here’s the breakdown after Week 8:
1. Josh Rigdon 14.3 % 38.8 lbs
2. Tracy Rush 11.4 % 27.2 lbs
3. Rodney Rodrick 11.1 % 27.2 lbs
4. Judy Rush 10.3 % 19.6 lbs
5. Julie Reed 10.1 % 17.3 lbs
6. Kelly Reed 10.0 % 19.8 lbs
7. Darren German 8.3 % 25.0 lbs
8. Mike Elledge 8.1 % 24.4 lbs
9. Steve Jones 7.0 % 17.8 lbs
10. Shawn Bowers 7.0% 21.4 lbs
11. Kellie Gates 6.9 % 15.4 lbs
12. Jeannie Kaufman 6.8 % 11.0 lbs
13. Janet Tyler 5.7 % 10.0 lbs
14. John Kaufman 5.5 % 11.6 lbs
15. Kelli Stidham 5.2 % 14.0 lbs
16. Alta Cary 5.1 % 12.3 lbs
17. Karen Kerrick 4.3 % 6.6 lbs
18. Lynn Anderson 4.2 % 8.2 lbs
19. Lisa Eskew 4.2 % 7.6 lbs
20. Julie Wieland 3.9 % 7.6 lbs
21. Pam Kelly 3.6 % 9.6 lbs
22. Laura Whitaker 3.5 % 10.2 lbs
23. Samantha Wombles 3.4 % 10.0 lbs
24. Denise Cravens 3.4 % 5.4 lbs
25. Sheri Hackett 3.3 % 7.4 lbs
26. Theresa Finley 3.0 % 6.6 lbs
27. Gary Lane 2.9 % 8.0 lbs
28. Tina Cooper 2.8 % 5.0 lbs
29. Jasmine Camp 2.8 % 6.0 lbs
30. Rosa Wolfe 2.7 % 6.2 lbs
31. Bridgett Trover 2.2 % 4.0 lbs
32. Mandy Neal 2.1 % 4.8 lbs
33. Shirley Fiscus 1.2 % 2.4 lbs
34. Penny Spinner 1.1 % 1.8 lbs
35. Loretta Morgan 0.1 % 1.4 lbs
36. Kathy Rhoads 0.1 % 0.8 lbs
Friday, June 06, 2008
BIGGEST LOSER 4 -- WEEK 7
Have you ever been so proud of someone you just wanted to burst? Of course you have—if you’ve ever had kids or grandkids.
Well, last Friday, I took 22 of the Biggest Losers out to the H.S. football field and laid down a challenge: 8 laps around the track (2 miles), with 25 body squats, 25 pushups and 25 sit-ups after each lap (200 total)!
The challenge was actually a mental one as much as a physical one. To my amazement, no one said anything—not one complaint, not one argument, no one bargained. They all just kind of gave me that faraway look and said O.K. What a great group!
My plan was actually to have them do half that much—4 laps around the track (1 mile), and 100 total body squats, pushups and sit-ups. I wanted to see how they’d react though. Plus, when it got tough, I wanted them to remember that it could have been twice as much, and that would keep them going.
Don’t think I was taking it easy on them. Even a mile is tough when you throw in 25 squats, pushups & sit-ups in between each lap—try it sometime. In addition, they were supposed to run anytime they could.
If they were pretty good at running, they were to run the whole thing, as fast as they could. If they hadn’t been running much, then I wanted them to at least try to jog at times down the straight-aways.
After they got back in from the 1st ¼ mile, I let them in on the secret and they were all pretty happy about it. But you know, I think they would have done it even if I hadn’t cut it in half.
This is that kind of group.
Take Judy Rush for example. She’s lost 22.2 pounds to date in 7 weeks. That’s great, but she’s lost 70 pounds total, including the 47 pounds she lost before we ever met her. You could see why, if you watched her working out with the group.
Judy has some pretty serious knee problems, but she never quits. She even does the squats with everyone else, although she has to modify them, going just halfway down on the one side. I even saw her sprinting down the back straight-away!
No wonder she’s lost 70 pounds. She might never win this contest, but she’s still a winner, and a great example. She also takes your excuses away.
Everyone finished the workout, and they all agreed it was pretty tough. I challenged them to try the 2 mile version sometime. Anytime you put some running intervals in between full body exercises in a workout, you’ll burn a lot of calories.
This week’s winner was Gary Lane, who joined us at the start of Week Two. Gary lost 2.0% of his body weight and 5.4 lbs during the week. He received a $15 Subway gift card from Dimond Brothers Insurance.
Next week, I’ll give you everyone’s two-month totals and tell you how we’re going to turn it up yet again. We’ve got to keep things moving—and these guys and gals can take it. Right now, it’s time for my workout!
Well, last Friday, I took 22 of the Biggest Losers out to the H.S. football field and laid down a challenge: 8 laps around the track (2 miles), with 25 body squats, 25 pushups and 25 sit-ups after each lap (200 total)!
The challenge was actually a mental one as much as a physical one. To my amazement, no one said anything—not one complaint, not one argument, no one bargained. They all just kind of gave me that faraway look and said O.K. What a great group!
My plan was actually to have them do half that much—4 laps around the track (1 mile), and 100 total body squats, pushups and sit-ups. I wanted to see how they’d react though. Plus, when it got tough, I wanted them to remember that it could have been twice as much, and that would keep them going.
Don’t think I was taking it easy on them. Even a mile is tough when you throw in 25 squats, pushups & sit-ups in between each lap—try it sometime. In addition, they were supposed to run anytime they could.
If they were pretty good at running, they were to run the whole thing, as fast as they could. If they hadn’t been running much, then I wanted them to at least try to jog at times down the straight-aways.
After they got back in from the 1st ¼ mile, I let them in on the secret and they were all pretty happy about it. But you know, I think they would have done it even if I hadn’t cut it in half.
This is that kind of group.
Take Judy Rush for example. She’s lost 22.2 pounds to date in 7 weeks. That’s great, but she’s lost 70 pounds total, including the 47 pounds she lost before we ever met her. You could see why, if you watched her working out with the group.
Judy has some pretty serious knee problems, but she never quits. She even does the squats with everyone else, although she has to modify them, going just halfway down on the one side. I even saw her sprinting down the back straight-away!
No wonder she’s lost 70 pounds. She might never win this contest, but she’s still a winner, and a great example. She also takes your excuses away.
Everyone finished the workout, and they all agreed it was pretty tough. I challenged them to try the 2 mile version sometime. Anytime you put some running intervals in between full body exercises in a workout, you’ll burn a lot of calories.
This week’s winner was Gary Lane, who joined us at the start of Week Two. Gary lost 2.0% of his body weight and 5.4 lbs during the week. He received a $15 Subway gift card from Dimond Brothers Insurance.
Next week, I’ll give you everyone’s two-month totals and tell you how we’re going to turn it up yet again. We’ve got to keep things moving—and these guys and gals can take it. Right now, it’s time for my workout!
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