F2I: Learning Your Own Body and Becoming YOU

One of the amazing things I enjoy about working out is how much you get to learn about your own body.  When working out, it is basically you against yourself.  Your mind will try and place tricks on you (this is normal and happens to everyone so you are not alone) to get you to stop a couple reps early or not push further when you can or simply try to get you to skip the workout completely.  On the contrary, your mind can be trained to push you beyond the limits of where you have not crossed before and reap greater progress.  See the point here?  If you train your mind as much as you train your body, you will see better results.  Working out is sometimes more mental than physical.  Where the mind goes, the body will follow.

Preparation is Key

Before you even walk into the gym, prepare your meals you are going to eat beforehand.  Let us face it, when it is time to eat, if there is nothing prepared, many tend to splurge and eat anything in sight.  It is just a part of being human.  You WILL do this.  Unless, you spend a few minutes every day preparing meals and making sure clean foods are available when you are done your workout.  By doing this, you will be that much ahead of yourself and deflect any potential ill cravings before they start.  Since we all enter the gym as humans and leave as beasts!

Eating Clean Promotes Quicker Results

Your body will be fueled by what you put into it.  If you put in garbage, you will feel like garbage.  Slow, tired, sluggish, and mentally not able to focus (trust me, I was there and it is NOT the place you want to find yourself).  If you put in clean foods, you will run like a fine oiled machine and have the energy, stamina, and mental alertness that you probably all miss.  I know I am enjoying getting this feeling back and it comes back fast.  I am not talking about months, I am talking about days!  Your body learns quickly and it adapts.  You will be surprised to its growth if you learn it and work with it in the right way.  Listen to your body.

Be Yourself Not Someone Else

Lastly, do not look at someone else’s goals or physique and compare yourself to them.  Everyone’s body is different.  Much is hereditary and tied deep into gene structure.  We will not go into the science behind it, but know that by learning your own body, you become the best YOU possible.  No one else can be YOU.  Make your goals specific to YOUR own body and challenges.  Definitely make them challenging as well.  A goal that is easy will come and go without the feeling of accomplishment.  A goal that is challenge, but still achievable, is worth its weight in gold!  Trust me!

Start with YOU and become a champion like you were destined to become.

Train Hard – Train Smart!

Ray

F2I: Becoming a Champion Through Goals

Week three completed and onward we go tomorrow into the start of week 4. Feeling great and already noticing a difference with increased energy and willingness to be more active with at work and personal activities. This goes a long way when just a few weeks back, you felt lethargic and only wanted to hang around and watch TV, never mind just walking up stairs took your breath away. Sad, but keep being real with yourself. Post pictures of how you looked before and find some as to where you want to be long term. Plaster them in front of you so you see them daily as reminders. Yes, it does work as a form of positive reinforcement…trust me!

Small progression over time is really how champions are made. It is not coming out of the chute and dropping massive amounts of weight fast but more so, taking your time and learning your body over time. Let your body respond naturally to progression and let it learn itself as well. Keep pushing toward your goals and always make sure you use appropriate goals that are YOURS and not someone else’s. What do I mean by goals?

Goals are very important because they are in effect, benchmarks on your journey to where you want to be. Goals should be comprised of both short, medium, and long term goals. The goals should also be achievable (realistic) and not impossible based upon your own circumstances. Never take someone else’s goals and try to retrofit them to your own. You would simply be doing yourself and injustice and if per chance you do not meet them, will discourage yourself at the same time. Discouragement kills.

When you reach each of the smaller goals, you should also then focus on the next small goal which should bring you eventually to your medium and likewise, long term goals. Use them as stepping stones and a positive reinforcement that you are making progress. Never stop reaching for your goals and never simply STOP. It would be better to crawl than just stop altogether. Why waste the precious project you have already made. Remember them.

Onward and upward!

Train Hard – Train Smart!

Ray

 

 

F2I: Building and Maintaining Purpose

When you wake up in the morning and you are already asking yourself if you are going to the gym or not, you have already failed.  Learn to get to the point of maintaining your self-awareness and mind to expect and condition a routine without thinking.  When you wake up, you know what is already ahead of you and there is no question, it is just doing.  This takes some time to get to this point, but it will happen.  Keep your purpose in front of you at all times.  What do I mean by Purpose?

For me personally, my Purpose is to get back into shape for health reasons, not necessarily looks, which of course is a nice byproduct of doing everything right.  Your Purpose should be something you hold dear.  Something that will drive you in the right direction and always light that spark you will need in times of challenging events or obstacles.  A Purpose is having an unquestionable set of goals and hunger to achieve them.  Without Purpose, you are going through exercises without knowing where you are going.  It is like walking around in the dark.  Yes, you are moving, but you do not know where you are, where you have been, or where you are going.  Purpose extends beyond goals even.  Goals are fundamental steps to a Purpose, but a Purpose answers the big question of Why.

Tomorrow ends Week 2 for me.  The first 2-3 days are always the toughest when getting back into a routine and establishing a purpose.  Once you are over this initial hurdle, the rest falls into place and is fueled by your drive, hunger, and willingness to simply do what it takes for yourself to reach where you want to be.

Train Hard, Train Smart.

Ray

F2I: The Hunger – The Mentality

When I made the decision to get back into shape, eat clean, and hit the gym, it was for one purpose, my health.  There was no other reason that dictated this purpose.  It was me staring in the mirror and not liking what I saw.  It was me feeling my body and mind continuing to spiral into a lethargic state of hopelessness.  Fortunately, I realized this before it was too late.  I am sure I was on the brink of no return.  When you cannot walk up a flight of stairs in your house without feeling winded, it is time to make a change.  This change I decided to take on once again for a quest of health and well being.

When I go into the gym, I have this sense of hunger about me.  A stronger sense of awareness and humanity.  It is myself battling against my own walls which I throw up as excuses.  When I enter the gym, I tear all this down and prepare myself mentally for what I am about to do that day.  I leave all the excuses at the door.  It is Ray vs Iron and I always win.  Why?  Because it is an internal hunger, a mentality, an inner focus I have always had since my martial arts days as a young teen.

I am not in the gym for glamore, to pose in the mirrors or take selfies, I am in the gym to fight for my own health.  That is the difference.  It is not a casual experience for me.  It is a battle of becoming the best I can be.  When I work out, I become a beast.  I attack the weights aggressively and love the burn it brings to the very fibers of my muscles as they tear and scream for me to stop.  I am an animal but focused in mind and body beyond what is normal.  I understand, I listen, and I prepare myself mentally.  Where the mind goes, the body will follow.

How does one develop this hungering?  Honestly, it takes some inner strength.  Will power.  Pushing yourself every day a little bit further and also knowing your limitations.  I believe everyone has it in them to become a survivalist if the conditions call for extreme measures or actions.  But it is YOU that has to bring that up as the primary focus.  When you are in the gym, do it solely for YOU and no one else.  It is one thing to say hi or wave but another to stand in the gym for 45 minutes simply talking when you have work to do.  Your body AND mind, note both here, need to be trained to do this.  When it is time to battle the Iron, it is exclusively that time and nothing else.

This Friday will be my 1st week down.  I am feeling incredible.  I am eating clean and making some awesome dishes.  You can follow me on Instagram here if you want to see some of them.  I weight myself daily just to continue to see progression and modify where I need to but will post results week to week and will post updates to measures every month.

Enjoy your workouts folks.  Remember, this is YOU-Time…not anyone else’s.  Use it wisely….enjoy the journey.

Train Hard – Train Smart!

Ray

F2I: Day 4 and I’m Sore but Smiling

I am heading into Day 4 and I am definitely sore!  I actually did my first gym workout, which was full body, last Friday.  It typically takes 2-3 days for the full affect of the starting-over pain to kick in.  My legs were so sore I had to shuffle my feet to walk until my calves woke up.  It is clear validation that my muscles are now aware that hey, this is not sitting on the couch and eating pizza anymore but getting back into shape and I better start doing my damn job to help this man.

It does feel good though.  As I type this, I have a smile on my face and I am always a forward thinker.  I am not thinking about how I am going to finish this day but more importantly, keeping my eye on the prize and the results of being a better me in 3 months.  It will only be the beginning though.  This time around, I do not plan on slipping backwards and reverting to my old ways.  It is about me getting into shape and basically fighting to get my health back before it is too late.

I love cooking, so here are a few of the meals I have been making.  If you wish to follow me on Instagram, please feel free too.  I will be publishing most of my meals on there with my iPhone and miscellaneous pictures.  So keep that in mind.  It will NOT be all fitness pictures but anything I feel like taking a picture of.  Family friendly of course.

In regards to my progress.  I’ve cleared almost 5 pounds entering into Day 4.  I am very positive and not really tired at all.  I am keeping my meals ready and available.  The worse mistake you can do is not being prepared meal wise.  If you have hungry, you need to eat.  It is that simple and a survival mechanism we all have.  If healthy food is NOT available, guess what?  You will be stuffing your face with what IS available and that might set you back some.  So be prepared and think ahead.

Today we started doing muscle isolation.  Basically instead of full body workouts we are now focusing on muscle groups.  Today was Chest, Triceps, and Calves.  Tomorrow will be Cardio and Wednesday, back to muscle groups.

It is also important to me, anyways, to keep track of measurements.  Besides what the scale says, which can be deceiving if you do not know how to interpret your own body and goals, taking inches off is important.  There will be times when you will NOT lose any weight but you will lose inches.  There is a reason for this and this is something you need to understand.  If you are always expecting the scale to be less, you might accidentally discourage yourself.

I am sharing my own fat-kid measurements here and these are all in a relaxed position (not flexed or posed in anyway).  I can not wait to be down in the waist line again and just looking like a person instead of some half-clown Neanderthal looking big foot bald guy.  *LOL*  You have to laugh as well.  It is healthy for you.  Enjoy yourself in this journey.

What have you been up to lately?  How is your progression?  I look forward to hearing your results as well.  Remember, this is NO such thing as failure if you keep trying.  Failure only happens when you give in and quit.

Here is a funny ~4 minute video clip for you of me cooking egg whites with an on-the-fly recording. Hopefully puts a smile on your face and makes you laugh too.

Best wishes on your own goals!

Train Hard – Train Smart!

Ray

F2I: Day 1 – The House of Iron

Well this morning was the day!  I headed back to the gym for the first time in quite awhile.  I woke up feeling my usual self of being tired, groggy, and not really all that into anything but I did look forward to starting today while being both nervousness and excited.  11 AM rolled around and I was well on my way driving to The House of Iron to pay tribute to my body and chisel it back into shape.  Well before there is any chiseling, there is a lot of fat that needs to come off.  A LOT!!

As soon as I entered the gym and saw the equipment and heard the music, I knew I was making the right decision.  There was my buddy Dave smiling at the counter waiting for my arrival.  What a great guy and truly full of knowledge.  He has won competitions in various states and has already trained champion competitors in bodybuilding.  I am honored to be trained by him, yet again.

The first week will be a full body routine focusing on various machines and 2-3 sets of high reps (30-50 reps/each) and low-medium weight.  The point of this is to work into my routine and get my body back into a solid program.  Starting out too fast, too heavy just leads to injury.  Why fail by not paying attention and having a good plan.  After this first week or two, we will start doing muscle isolation.

In regards to my schedule, I will be in the gym for weight training Monday, Wednesday, Friday.  On Tuesday and Thursday I will be there for cardio and core.  Additionally, on the weekends, I will get some fresh air and walk some nature trails and tracks around my house.  I must admit, I have NEVER been a runner so my pace will be slow and steady with a power walk then slow-paced jog routine to get the heart rate up.  You really do not need to run at all.  Just pick some form of cardio for conditioning.  Weights also increased cardiovascular performance too.  Pick a cardio routine you will like and stick with instead of fighting with yourself.  If you do not like running, then try cycling.  If you do not like cycling, then try walking up and down stairs.

The entire full body routine took a little over 1 hour and that is resting about 20-30 secs between each set.  It is important to rest between sets unless you are super-setting, which is a different story and something I am not ready for at this time.  If you are just starting out, do not even be afraid to take 1 minute between sets.  Listen to your body!

The hour went by pretty quick and the good thing about having a partner, or trainer, is you get to talk to someone which keeps you not only moving along with motivation but also eases the drudgery of having to go through this yourself.  My advice, find a partner, someone who is will to be there for you without question and vice versa.  Feed off each other’s energy and just make it happen.

For nutrition for this week, I am simply getting back to eating clean. Previously, I was probably taking in 5,000+ calories a day (yes that is WAY over the normal) and eating way way too much food, especially the wrong kinds of food.  This is probably why I’m so out of shape.  Anyways, I am trimming this down to about 1,000-1,200 calories per day.  As of this message, I have consumed about 600 calories and getting ready to make myself my next meal.  I will be eating about 5-6x per day with appropriately sized portions based upon the following system:

• Breakfast
• Healthy Snack
• Lunch
• Healthy Snack
• Dinner
• Healthy Snack

After the workout, it is important to get some form of protein back into your body to assist in recovery.  I made myself some nice lean chicken spiced with black pepper and basil.  Along with fresh spinach, broccoli, and grape tomatoes sprinkled with fresh lemon juice.  It tasted good and I am happy I like to cook as well, which is also good for you mentally.

Off to make my next meal!

Train Hard – Train Smart!!

~Ray

In The Beginning

The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.  Here is my FIRST step to a new me.  A new me that will take me away from the drudgery that I have been facing on a day to day basis of being tired, out of shape, and ill physically and mentally.   I am very AMPED about this because it is about time I get into a place mentally where I can push forward!

My road to fitness will include my routine in the gym, my concepts of becoming in shape and staying in shape, nutrition, and sharing positive energy and thoughts with anyone who is reading this and silently taking this journey with me.

In the end, I have a goal of reaching 200 lbs. by July 2014.  I am currently at 255 lbs. and way overweight (yes, I know this might seem excessive and risky for some, but it depends upon each person’s body and what they are able to do in their own situation. Before I dropped 56 lbs in 6 weeks.  It is possible).  In regards to my current health situation, my blood pressure (hereditary) is currently controlled by a small dose of medication and if I don’t get my diet under control, on my next visit to my doctor in July (hence the July 2014 goal date), I will also be not only increased in the bp med but also prescribed a secondary pill for cholesterol control. Yes, I am a mess.  The only thing that is keeping me together is the years of martial arts training and feeding myself positive knowledge from masters at a young age.  I am still very mentally sharp, although, I can quickly see this dwindling if I do not take that first step right now.

So, my journey starts tomorrow at 11AM.  I will be going back to my old gym and working with my former personal trainer and great friend Dave, who prior, got me down from 225 lbs. to 185 lbs.  I felt the best I had in years but then life happened.  I sacrificed my time to care for family members who needed it and I put myself last.  However, now that everything is on the up and up, it is time to take advantage of this wave and start getting some “RAY TIME”.

Do you have goals of your own in 2014?  I would love to hear from you.  Please send me an email or respond to this blog below.  We can work off each other’s positive energies and celebrate each others successes together as a team.

Train Hard – Train Smart.

~Ray

Please note:  I am not a professional or trained in physical fitness nor am I a nutritionist.  The thoughts on this blog is what is currently working for me.  I would ask that you please check with your own personal physicians before trying these exercises, nutritional plans, or experimental fitness routines.