TAKING THE GOOD WITH THE BAD

There is some good news and some bad news that has surfaced in the past couple of days that I would like to share with everyone. I will start with the bad news, but it will lead into some pretty awesome news. 

 

This past week I was asked to go meet with my trainer Diana after our workout. We walked over to the coffee shop right next to the gym and that is where she told me she would no longer be training at Workshop Fitness. I did not see that coming. Diana was the first trainer I worked out with, and she does all my measurements at the end of the month to chart my progress. I was acting tough because that is what a man is supposed to do, but I was not handling it very well inside. It has been almost five months with her, and losing such a key part of my training team was a crushing blow.  That is until she hit me up with the good news.

 

Diana and Thomas (The trainer that heads this project) have a company called Physique Foods that I have mentioned a couple times on my blog before. They offer food based on the diet they created, a diet that I am currently on. This is when Diana offered to begin supplying me with my food starting in January. Her title would change from “Ricky’s Trainer” to “Ricky’s Nutrionist."  I could not believe what I was hearing…Free food to go along with the training? I no longer have to worry about cooking? What about my beloved Shake ‘n Bake? After the initial shock wore off I gave her a huge hug and told here this is great news. Getting supplied food only makes the goal of 180 pounds in one year that much easier and obtainable. The best part is that their food is great!

 

I am so pumped to spread the word on Physique Foods and to practice my photo skills as I take some pictures of typical meals they provide me with.  This really couldn’t have come at a better time, because my eating habits were beginning to slide. Earlier this month I had peas taken out of my meals (They are too starchy). This really threw me off because I was eating peas 3-4 times a day (I think I was going to turn into something green eventually-- but would that really have been that bad?)

 

When the trainers took that off my meal plan, I was having a hard time substituting for the ease of making peas. Recently I have been eating bags of spinach like they are chips but I can see that getting old real fast. The shredded carrots were also being treated like pretzel sticks. However, Physique Foods will offer me an array of vegetables to pick from, and the variety will get my taste buds on full alert. So thank you, Physique Foods for joining the party!

PHOTOS

Looking at myself in the mirror everyday has made me immune to any changes I have had over the past couple of months. I mostly rely on the reactions I see from others to really gauge how much I have changed.  Only when I started to look back through some of my photos from Facebook could I begin to tell the changes my body has gone through in the past 4-5 years. I went from about 350 (when I started at Texas State) to over 400, (right about senior year) to currently being about 300.  To see this almost 100-pound transition really shows me how much I have put my body through.

 

At the same time it makes me realize that for a good portion of my teenage years I did not take photos of myself. I remember trying to find some about a year ago, and I realized most of the photos I had were just the standard school photos you had to take. I have minimal pictures of myself under 300 pounds. It makes me feel like there is a time that I don’t really remember myself. It is between the ages of 12-18. It started when my parents got divorced and I moved in with my father. We never really had a camera and we never really did much that required photos. Most of the pictures of me are from photos taken by friends and family during those years. As a result, I don’t have many to really judge myself by where I am at right now compared to when I was younger.

 

When my parents were together, my mom and my dad would take tons of photos of me. There are a bunch of photos that I love looking at when I am in Houston visiting my mom, and there are definitely some ones that I don’t like to see (One particular one of me in the bathtu.  Note to parents: it is just plain creepy to take photos of your children in the bathtub!) Unfortunately I was always a chubby kid, but I didn’t get morbidly obese until about 8^th grade, so these pictures do not really help me out.

 

The whole point I am trying to get at is that I wish I could go back in time and take some photos of myself, but I know I can’t ever do that.  I won’t ever to be able to look at some of my fondest memories of high school because I was too lazy to take pictures of something that, later on in life, I would have loved to look back on. But I am glad that I have pictures from college, and the more recent photos that I can look back on 20 years from now and say that, at this time in my life, I made decisions that changed everything at the age of 25.  With these photos, I can come back to what is becoming the happiest year I have experienced so far. 

TUSA FITNESS ON FOX 7 AUSTIN TONIGHT!

Stay Tuned to  Fox 7 News

Learn how you can roll out your kinks and become your
own massage therapist with Tusa Fitness! 

When: Thursday,December 17, 2009

Time: 5PM
with Lorianna Hernandez

Top it off with free classes in January!

If you miss Thursday at 5PM, stay tuned to Thursday at 9PM or Friday morning.

SIZES KEEP FALLING!

From the beginning, I planned on riding out my clothes as long as possible because I knew I would be going through a lot of sizes during the next year. Here is the breakdown on all the clothes I have had to buy so far:

Shirts: I have been pretty lucky when it comes to t-shirts. I haven’t bought a new t-shirt yet because by the time I would have wanted one it got too cold to get them, though I have had to buy new dress shirts-- I always want to look good for the ladies.

So far I have gone from a 5X to a 2X in shirts! It is a great feeling to know that I am buying shirts that I would have been buying back in 8th grade. It is a little weird that even though I am 30 pounds heavier than when I was in 8th grade, I can fit into the shirts because the muscle I've put on makes the shirts fit better.

Pants: When I started, all my pants were a 60 inch waist. That is a hard number for me to look at because I just can’t believe I let myself get that big. I mean that is BIG! Thankfully, those days are gone. Back in September, I went to buy pants because my original pants were falling off. I bought size 52 pants, but just a few weeks ago those got too baggy to wear, and now I just bought size 46 pants!! For anyone who's counting, that's 14 inches off my waist, an idea that was so foreign to me a mere months ago that I would have laughed in your face if you suggested it. Now my reality of a 32-inch waistline is halfway there…UNBELIEVABLE.

Going down in sizes with my shirts and pants is a terrific feeling, but there is something else that is making me even happier. The clothes I am now buying fit so much better than my old clothes ever did. If you follow me on Twitter, you may have seen my pictures of the awesome sweater I bought back in October. Some people would see it just as a regular sweater, but it means a lot to me. I haven’t worn a sweater in a long time. This also goes for the jeans I just recently bought. They were a little tight, but they formed to my legs better than any jeans I have had in a long time. When my clothes fit better, I feel better about my appearance. When I feel better about my appearance, I exude more confidence when I am out. I just can’t help myself these days.

OKAY, HERE IT GOES...

I have tried to stay as honest as possible with this whole process as I try to lose the weight that has haunted the first 25 years of my life. I have told you about my food obstacles, discussed the hardships that I have encountered with the workouts, talked about my time at the Dudley and Bob morning show and the many other aspects that have come into play throughout the past 5 months. But I haven’t really talked about how my relationship with women has changed. Okay so here it goes…

 

My entire life I have always wanted to find love and fall deeply, passionately and endlessly in love with that person. So far, I don’t think I have gotten close to this feeling. A big reason is I have never truly felt confident around women that I am really attracted to.  I usually get on the friend “ship” before ever attempting to try my luck at anything more. If I get passed this point, one of two things happens: I usually will either have so much doubt that someone can be attracted to me that I don’t trust the other person, or I grow jealous when they are not around me because I feel that I am not worthy for them to stay with me. The most obvious reason is that I always felt my weight made me unattractive and that I would have to completely sweep a girl off her feet by being charming and free-spirited than with anything physical I had to offer. This all lead to me having short-ended relationships that never came close to the type of connection I was looking for.

 

So as I got this chance to change my life I started to think of all the great things that would happen with me in the department of love. I would be able to find the person I have always wanted and we would run in fields of flowers, play Monopoly all night, have Battlestar Galatica marathons and just plain have fun with someone that I truly felt something with.  Sweet dream-- but it will never be a reality until I really figure out the underlying truth behind all of my problems before I started losing the weight. After much inner debate, and long phone calls with friends it became obvious that as cliché as it seems I had to learn to love myself before I could really love anyone else.

 

Finally getting that through my head was a hard pill to swallow. I thought I always loved myself, but I didn’t. I never felt confident that I could love someone and that I DESERVED TO BE LOVED THAT MUCH BACK because I am a good person too. I still don’t feel truly confident in this, but I am getting better about accepting myself in my skin (I think it helps when you lose 1/5 of your body weight J). But what still stands in my way is that if I try to find love now I could potentially lose focus on the task at hand, the task of losing this weight within the time period I have set for myself.  I don’t feel it's right for me to give less in the gym, or lose focus on my eating patterns because of love.  Not at this stage.  I am doing so well with my weight and my health level that any distraction could really skew my results with Workshop.

 

I think some people will disagree with my point of view right now, but with weight loss will come more confidence, which will allow me to love myself more, and create more opportunities to discover the person I am looking for.

180 Q & A

FYI: My nephew Triston and I in Houston for Thanksgiving.

 

What are the most important things you do to boost your metabolism?

 

The most important thing I do to boost my metabolism is my diet plan that my trainers put me on, which is 5 small meals a day which include six ounces of protein and at least one cup of vegetables.

 

What is your favorite/least favorite thing to do during workout/exercise.

 

My favorite workout is the cardio, especially jogging. This is really going to surprise some of my former teammates who would remember me as the last person that would want to do any kind of running, but I am really embracing making my body move like it never really has. Even when I played basketball a lot as a kid I was never in really good cardio shape, so I am trying to make this a goal of mine to start walking/jogging/running as much as my body can handle.

 

My least favorite exercises are the stretching and minor-league yoga poses that Christine puts me through. It feels good afterwards, but holding a stretch for a minute is tough.

 

Have you found any new veggies you like?

 

My favorite veggies at this point are green peas. I am also in love with any veggie that is grilled. Cauliflower is a great veggie for me because it doesn’t have a distinct flavor and I am pretty sure I have the taste buds of a five year old. I am still working on expanding my veggie diversity. Any suggestions would be great!

 

What is something that you love to eat now that you never would have never wanted to eat 6 months ago?

 

I really love everything grilled at this point. Whenever I go out, I look for grilled veggies and grilled chicken. Six months ago I would have gone straight to fried chicken, or chicken fried steak and some french fries.

 

How important is accountability to the process?

 

To me, it is the biggest part of this process. I have tried so many times to lose weight, but I would be shy or timid about it. Doing this really hurt my ability to count on others for help and guidance, and to count on myself to maintain a diet and workout schedule. Now that I have the blog and have the food journal I have to watch everything I do

 

What was the hardest thing to cut out of your diet, and how did you accomplish cutting it out?

 

The hardest thing to cut out of my diet was all the fried food I was eating. If you ask anyone that hung out with me for long periods of time they can tell you that I ate fried foods whenever the opportunity arose. My body had a tough time adjusting to this at fist, but I fought through it and now I have no problems controlling my desire for fried foods.

 

I can usually keep up pretty good eating habits, but when I fall, it's hard. Question: How do you keep from doing that?

 

I allow myself one cheat meal a week and I take full advantage of it. I find having that meal to look forward to during the week controls my other desires to cheat. I really have found a good medium with my food and with my ability to control my old, bad eating habits. I feel one cheat meal is good right now.  When I try to maintain I will increase the “cheat” meals I have, but make better choices when eating them.

 

What is so good about Shake n' Bake?

 

Besides "everything?"

 

Shake n' Bake is a great alternative to fried food. It tastes very similar to it, but it has way less calories/fat/sodium, etc. It also is what a dietician gave me to try when I was in high school, but of course I didn't. It comes in all kinds of flavors and I have not met a person yet who hasn’t liked it when I prepared them some.

HELLO AGAIN FRIENDS

I haven’t written in a bit, and there is definitely a reason behind it.
I have become obsessed with getting under 300 pounds. About two weeks agom I hit 303 and I couldn’t stop thinking about getting under 300, which has been one of the bigger goals for me in this journey. I became completely absorbed with regulating my diet, exercising more and watching what I drink. Nothing happened.
The result? No weight change the first week, and this week it was going slow. It was just so frustrating to not see the numbers fly like that had before.

The frustration was leading to me becoming short tempered, I began to show signs of sass with friends and family, especially with my close friends that were asking me if I had gone under 300. At KLBJ, I was lacking focus when working the podcasts, and I forgot to send a song to a friend- more importantly to Bob, who needed it for his internet show. I just haven’t been the same person since getting so close to the goal, and I was wearing thin. I figured that maybe it was just never meant to be.

My trainers could tell all week that I looked strained. Their words of advice were to not worry about the scale, or to even forget the scale for a week or two. The main concern was that I wasn’t eating enough, or getting hydrated enough for my body to burn the fat because I had told them I was trying to clean up my dieting to get this last bit off for my first real goal weight.

The bottom line of the whole situation is that I stopped doing what was working and ending up slowing the process down due to my own desire to see faster results. If I had followed the guidelines that the trainers had given me, I would have hit my number faster. But...
I hit 299 today!

When I finally saw the number I couldn’t help but get completely overwhelmed with a variety of emotions.
I felt pride that I had lost 71 pounds.
I felt guilt that I still have so much weight to lose and I should have never gotten this big to begin with.
I felt love from all the people that have been pushing me through this whole experience from my trainers, to my family and my friends.
And I felt the fire in my belly that tells me I have a long way to go, and to not forget the big picture in this whole journey.

As I sat in the bathroom with tears in my eyes I wrote my trainers a mass text saying the following: “I just hit 299! Thank you so much! I love all of you for changing my life…you have no idea what it means to me. :)”

The responses in no particular order: “F*ck Yeah.” “Badass, man – that just made my day!” “I can’t imagine how you must feel. Congrats! You’ve worked so hard for it!” “Woohoo! We are so glad to be a part of it and truly enjoy helping you. And Kicking your butt!!”

I can’t wait to reach my next big goal of 250! That is how much I weighed when I was going into 8th grade. I know that's crazy to think of, but my next goal is to weigh what I did over 10 years ago. My goal for that weight is March 13th.
I sincerely thank you all for the love and support. Stick with me and I'll prove to you what one man can accomplish when he puts his mind to it.

MONTH 5

 
How crazy is it that I am about to start month 5 of my workouts? The love, pain, sweat and work have all been so overwhelming, but I feel that they will compare nothing to the time period between Thanksgiving and New Years. It's is the time of year that most people say goodbye to their good habits and over-indulge in the turkey, pies, casseroles and cranberry sauce that we all love so much. This time of the year I think of the white chocolate-covered Oreos that my grandma would always have at her house, and would always somehow disappear when we came over. Then I think of my love of gingerbread houses, and how one year my friend Amey made me this great gingerbread house which I ate in its entirety. It was so good, but unfortunately (fortunately?) I won’t be doing either of those this year. I am so close to getting under 300 for the first time in a long, long time that I shall not transgress. (I was trying to figure out when I was last sub-300 with my friend Tyler a couple of days ago, and we came to the conclusion it had to be around Sophomore year in high school). 

 

Realistically, I am not expecting to keep the same weight loss (about 4 pounds a week), but I am going to still push myself at workouts and try to eat even better when I can prepare food, because I know I will be eating out a lot.

 

I got a really great tip from my friend Holly the other week that I will put into motion after I go under 300.   The trick is to not get on the scale, but to judge my weight loss from the fit of my clothes. This will allow me not to fret over the scoop of banana pudding I had at the Christmas Sweater Party, or the couple of drinks I had with my old friends that came in town. Adjusting some rules and giving myself the occasional break should help release the tension/guilt I feel when I “cheat” on my diet.

 

The next month will be interesting but with a little help from friends, family and my trainers I think I will get through with great results! 

NEXT PHASE OF MY JOURNEY

I cannot even begin to tell you how much my life has changed since July, but I am not satisfied yet! The weight is coming off, Dudley and Bob is going great and my social life is thriving but there is a new movement I want to start and that is conquering fears. With this in mind I have come out with two scenarios that I think will test some of my deepest fears:

1 – I will be boxing “Chuy Manana” within 3 months.

I have always avoided getting in fights. For one, I have never known how to control my size or strength, and I also feel a certain moral aversion to physical violence.

I never got in a fight growing up for two reasons: I was always bigger than all the other kids, and I can usually talk myself out of any kind of trouble I am in. I am inspired by my friend Karl who got into boxing shape 3 years ago and fought at Texas State in a boxing match. He didn’t win, but he still did a great job and showed no fear even when he was in a ring with a guy trying to knock his head off. That’s something I would have been scared to do. My quest for new experience makes me feel like this is the right situation with Chuy. I know him and he is a great guy. I am really looking forward to kick my inner Rocky into overdrive and compete with a friend that I have made along this journey. In some subtle way I will be stepping into the ring against myself, pitting my fear against itself in a physical confrontation and test of will. Hopefully, I'll kick the shit out of it.

2 – Once I hit the weight requirement for skydiving I am going! I am not that afraid of heights, but jumping out of a plane is something I never thought I would want to do. When I was about 8 years old one of my friend's mom offered to pay for a ride at Fiesta Texas for us. The ride tethers you to a cable, then pulls you up into the air to about 150 feet and drops you. I couldn’t get myself to do it because I couldn’t handle the height. That was when I felt I was too big to do it, though, and now that I am working my way towards a suitable weight to skydive I am all about it. All my friends that have done it say it’s the best time in the world, and why would I want to miss out on that? Hopefully I can do it sometime in the April/May time frame.

By completing these two goals I will show myself that it's not just the weight I am changing but rather my entire outlook on life.

MONTH 4 RESULTS

Today is the 4 month mark and that means more results for you to feast your eyes upon. The first two months with Workshop saw incredible numbers in the inches department, and then October came around with results that were pretty good-- but not as spectacular as the first two months.

 

The success was still there for me, though.  It’s hard to get upset when you lose 9.5 inches off your body in a month (amount lost in October). November has been a different story with inches and weight loss. I think I have some explaining to do.

 

Neck: No Change

Chest : Down .25 inches

Arms: Down 1 inch

Waist: Down 1.75 inches

Belly Button: Down 2 inches

Hip: Down 1.5 inches

Thigh: Down .25 inches

Calf: No change

Weight Loss: 13 pounds

 

Total Inches Lost: 48.5 inches

Total Pounds Lost: 67

 

OK.

 

Breathe, Ricky, just breathe a little…I understand I still lost weight and inches, but for the numbers to keep shrinking is really hard to see. I can’t blame the trainers; I can only blame myself.

 

In the past couple of weeks I have been enjoying a little too much.  For both my trip to Fort Worth and my Westwood reunion weekend in Austin, I drank way more than the allotment given to me by Thomas and my other trainers. I have also had 1 to 2 more cheat meals more than I normally do (I usually have about one a week). With the workouts getting more intense, I decided to slow down the cardio I do outside of the gym, which could have also slowed my progress down. A lot of factors went into results that I personally feel are lackluster.

 

Even though I feel like the numbers are not what I want to see right now, I know what I need to do to see them get better. I need to shore up on the diet, not drink as much when I go out and pick up the workouts from home.  This is a great month to test out how bad I really want this change with all the temptation around me…Can I fight the urge to find the easy way out? I know it won’t be easy but nothing so far has been easy.

 

When I talk to people about my weight loss, a topic that comes up a lot is hitting a “plateau”.  This comes with the usual words of encouragement of "fight through it," and "it'll be OK." 

 

My usual response is that I will be able to handle it. Now that the hour draws near, I am feeling more and more desire to escape the clutches of this so called “plateau,” but it just seems inevitable. I will have to come to grips with the idea that, at some point, I won’t lose as much weight or inches off my body.  Thanks, guys, for checking out the update, and be sure to listen to Dudley and Bob tomorrow as we discuss the results on the show.

SHARING MY SUCCESS WITH YOU

Four months with Workshop Fitness has changed my life forever, and it’s also affected a lot of people around me. Whenever I see someone that I haven’t talked to in awhile they always have a bunch of questions. How much do you work out? What are you eating? Who are your trainers?

Of course, I love answering these questions, but I want to give people that I don’t get to see as often the same chance in case they are looking to begin their own weight loss, or would like some of the information I have been given. So for the next week please feel free to e-mail me your questions, concerns and opinions of my first four months. I promise to read each and every one, and to answer the best ones next week on the blog. I won’t use your name if you don’t want me to, and I will send the response before posting if you are worried about your name being on the blog. Thank you guys in advance, and once again I appreciate all the support!

LETTER TO MYSELF

I was recently asked if I had any words of wisdom for a gentleman who is 17 years old and is struggling with his weight.  I asked about him and was told things that really reminded me of myself at that age which made me think what would I say to myself if I could go back in time. This is the letter I wrote down:

Dear Ricky Lawson (Soon to be Sir Pat),

I write to you knowing that these words will be hard to swallow, and that you probably won’t react very well to what I have to say. It is hard to accept that people know what they are talking about, especially when it comes to something as personal as your health. No one ever wants to admit that they have a problem.  It shows a lack of discipline and a loss of self respect.

You are a very proud person who is very aware of what he can accomplish if pushed correctly. You worked hard to get better at basketball, be a more social/funny person and to be a better writer. These were great talents you had but you are wasting them. You have become weak with your laziness and your acceptance of mediocrity. I never thought anything was wrong in my life until I realized how happy other people were around me, and all I wanted to do was see them unhappy. You can’t live your life like that.  All it will lead to is being consumed by hate and jealousy. Realize how much the people around you love you and how much support you will receive if you push yourself to places you never thought you could. Take everything in stride and never forget to be nice to EVERYONE! If we were to take care of this problem now, your future life in college would be re-written, and our life as we know it would not be the same.

Some of the things you have to look forward to in the next 8 years: Failing to come back to both sports you love (Basketball and Football), getting bigger than you ever imagined, self-destructing in almost every relationship you begin, having more embarrassing stories than one person should ever have, losing yourself in your indecisiveness with faith, and creating un-needed space with a lot of people you love.

 There are some things that happened in those 8 years that I love (New friends, Texas State, Fuplex), but that's not to say I would not make changes if I could. To be healthy is to be thriving in life and that’s not what is going on right now. Please listen to what I have said and consider this all before you crumble this up and throw it away as you drive towards Conan’s for your meeting with Parliament.

You have too much to give to let it all sit for 8 years.

Love,
Ricky

P.S.  Its okay to be scared, it means you are alive.

UT Basketball Game

This past weekend I got the pleasure of going to the first game of the season for the University of Texas Longhorns. Even though I went to Texas State, the team I follow the closest is Texas. It’s been my team since I was born and I can’t fight a good thing. I am sorry-- it's just not in my blood, which bleeds burnt orange, by the way 

              The Longhorns play in the Frank Erwin Center, or as it's called in the streets, “The Drum”. It's been a staple in my life since my youth. Growing up my favorite sport was basketball, and my father would take me to games all the time whether it be UT, March Madness or the Texas high school state playoffs. At the time- around the age of 16- I began noticing something: whenever we went to the games, I did not fit very well in the seats! I always had to sort of lean to one side and always felt uncomfortable. I didn’t really make a big deal of it but it was something that was always in the back of my mind whenever we made plans to go see a game or concert.  As I got older and bigger the problem only increased, eventually getting to the point where it physically hurt getting into the seat because I was too wide.  This would be the main reason I would skip out on the events people would invite me to at the Frank Erwin Center; it just was too painful to sit in the stands for that long of a period.

              So on Sunday as Sean and I were walking up to the game, I was thinking to myself whether or not I had lost enough weight and inches to fit comfortably in the seats again. Thankfully, I had! I sat right down and had some room on both sides. I was so happy with myself. It’s these little things that really show me how far I have come. In the future I am looking forward to more stories like this to report. Thanks guys!

Christine's Unique Workouts

This opportunity at Workshop Fitness has been one of the benchmarks in my life. For all the trainers to be a such a part of it amazes me; their heart and dedication to my health makes this experience all the more worthwhile. I think it's time for me to write a little bit about each of them so that you can have a better picture of what they do for me.
In previous posts I have talked about Christine being the trainer that is most like a doctor. What I mean by this is she asks a lot of questions about how my body is feeling and then designs a workout for me that will help relieve stress on those areas. My biggest problem area is my lower back and Christine always has great ways to fix it. She likes for me to do stretches that focus on the back and then she gets a foam roller so that we can “push out the bad” in my back. The workout with the foam roller feels like someone is running you over with a tiny truck, but it’s so effective! Christine is also very good at working out my abs. (She is so good she put out a DVD workout for abs that you can check out here. Christine will get those fun bouncy balls that you see at the gym, make me sit on it, and then I will bounce on it for about five minutes while sucking in my abs and moving left to right, left to right, left to right... you get the picture.)
The most refreshing aspect of her workouts are that they are very low impact. For me this is so crucial because a lot of my workouts involve lifting giant tires, or dragging a 100 pound water hose, so bouncing on a ball is a nice change that doesn’t wear my body down and at the same time gives me an effective workout. The thought of a low-impact workout to me always seemed like a waste of time until I met Christine. She utilizes long stretches, body positioning, bouncy ball workouts and low-resistance cardio to make the most out of the hour we share every week. If you guys have any more questions on Christine Tusa,please check her web site here.

LEEDA'S AWESOME STORY

Writing on this blog and talking on the radio have been made my life feel almost complete for the past couple of months, but I wasn’t sure how effective my progress was to other people. Of course, I love hearing how people think I am doing a great job, and how I look better now-- but I wanted to hear more from people who were changing their life because of what I was doing. Well it finally came in the form of my friend Leeda, whom I grew up one street away from her back in our elementary days.

Her brother and I were in the same grade and I would go over to their house to watch scary movies and enjoy their hilarious parents (I love Michael and Leeda’s parents, they are the best!). As soon as I started my blog, Leeda was giving me words of encouragement and was always asking me questions about Workshop Fitness. When I posted my results from three months in she finally said enough was enough and that she wanted to go checkout Workshop Fitness out, too! I got her to contact Mariesa, and now Leeda will be working out at the gym with Mariesa and Diana. The real kicker of this story is that Leeda is receiving this as a gift for graduating from the University of Texas. She originally was thinking of going to Europe, but she decided she would rather train with my friends at Workshop. To me that shows a lot of heart and dedication to her body and her health. I am so pumped for Leeda because I think she is going to really have some crazy results from the trainers. Updates will be coming soon so stay tuned!

GOOD ARTICLE!

As I surfed the Internet this week I came across an article that really caught my eye on nutrition called “7 Steps to Boost Your Metabolism”. The article goes into detail on doing such things as eating a sensible breakfast, enjoying healthy snacks during the day, exercising properly and eating in relation to your workouts. These are all things that we were taught but it's always nice to be reminded. I think the article gives a little more insight than our old health class teachers did back in the day. Here is an excerpt that really caught my eye:

End of the Day/Dinner
If you live close enough to walk or ride a bicycle home from work before dinner, do so. After sitting around all day after your morning exercise, a short walk or jog before dinner is a nice reminder to your body that the day has not yet ended. Of course, dinner should be smaller than lunch, because your body will have less time to process this meal before sleep. In fact, it is necessary to never eat after nine or ten at night, because by then your body’s digestive system is painfully slow and preparing for sleep. Eating desert is entirely okay, especially if you’ve exercised, so long as it does not contain corn syrup. Corn syrup, thick carbohydrates and creams are terribly difficult for the digestive track and clutter your insides with crap. Instead, go for frozen yogurt (which contains probiotics), dark chocolate or fruits. Drink a last glass of water before bed and begin again in the morning. Consistency is truthfully the only thing that counts here.

When talking to people about my diet this is one of the biggest inquiries. I think that Made Men really nailed it with their instructions on end of the day meals. At first when starting my diet this was the hardest part because I was used to stuffing myself at night with tons of carbohydrates and high fructose corn syrup. When I first started weaning myself off all the sugar I was having terrible shakes and felt so sick. But it passed and I now feel 100 times better because of that adjustment. So check out the article and try some of their techniques in your own life and you will see some great results people!

THE WORKOUTS ARE INTENSIFYING

Ladies and gentlemen, I have made it through 15 weeks of intense workouts with Workshop Fitness. For the first 10 weeks I was feeling the pain, but there was a feeling that maybe I could do a little more than what was required of me. The trainers must have had the same feeling, because over the past month the workouts have gotten much harder. Thomas has been pushing me with higher weights on my bench and shoulder presses, Paul has been pulling out the sled more and putting on three 45 pound plates on it for me to push, Diana now is doing interval jogging workouts with me, Mariesa is still the same (HAHA J) and Jason really enjoys making me run and pick up telephone polls. This is a huge leap from the “Walk-n-talk” sessions I used to do, where I could literally do little more than walk and talk at the same time. I think with time they have built trust with me and now, have a better idea of where my limit is and they know how hard to push me. In turn, I have also have gained more trust in them, so when they ask me to do something that on the first day of training I would have never been able to do, I feel confident in myself. First instance, just this past week Paul set up a workout where I would flip this giant tire ten times and then hit the tire with the sledgehammer twenty times. I did five sets of this workout and after it was over I was just beat but I felt so accomplished in doing so much work! That was one of the workouts I will remember being a benchmark for my progress. Another benchmark for me was about two weeks ago when Jason made me run 8 miles per hour on the treadmill for 30 seconds…the previous high for me was 7 miles per hour so I was really scared to do it, but Jason trusted I could do it and I did! I was huffing and puffing but it really made me proud that I had gone from being exhausting from a light jog to now full-on running for 30 seconds. Now to think what will happen 15 weeks from now is a little scary but its going to be fun living it out!

BLOG IS SUFFERING WITH MY SUCCESS

In the past couple of weeks I have been getting asked about the inactivity with the blog. My response to this is that since my results have become more apparent, and the weight continues to go down, I feel the need to be more social. This leaves me with less time on the computer and more time with friends. The goal of this whole life style change was to figure out what life is to me and then do everything in my power to make myself happy. That is the biggest reason why I started working out, eating healthy, rekindled old friendships and began new ones. Three months ago I felt lost, lonely, and confused on what I wanted to do in life. In just this short time I have felt so overwhelmed with emotions of love, courage, failure,and faith that if my life was a recording, you could mark the tape at July 23, 2009, and label that moment “End of Side 1…Please switch sides.” This new side to my life is going on right now with extreme expectations and goals, and I LOVE EVERY MOMENT OF IT. If you ever want to know what it feels like for just one week of your life, say 'yes' to everything that is offered to you. Even if they are things that you normally wouldn’t do. (I realize this is the premise of “Yes Man," but it's completely true.) My example is that a couple of weeks ago I went to a dance club with a bunch of old friends from college. I normally would not have gone to this bar but I said to myself “why not?” I was so happy I did it too, because it might have been one of the best nights I have had in a long time, and it was fun to just let myself go on the dance floor. Yes I like to dance like an idiot, but it doesn’t matter if you are having a good time. I would not have had the same fun that night if I didn’t go and now that I did I have a great memory for the rest of my life. It's just one of the many times that I initially wanted to say 'no' to something, but figured out that’s what I used to do and that isn't living to me anymore. It took me a long time to look at myself in the mirror and find everything I didn't like about myself. Now is the time to fix what I can to make sure that life stops passing me by.

DUDLEY AND BOB SPOT

This morning Diana and Thomas of Workshop Fitness came on the show to talk about my results over the past month. Here is a clip from it.

STORIES FROM THE PAST

Hey guys! This is so last second and its also being put on the site on Halloween so I don’t’ really expect a huge response but I just found out I am having this interview on Monday about my life and I need help remembering some funny/good stories with my friends. The memories I have are plentiful but I just want to make sure I don’t leave any good ones out so if you have one that you remember please e-mail it to me here. The interview is going to be combined with some of my workouts that Workshop Fitness has been filming to make a video about my progress. Thank you in advance for the help people. Happy Halloween!

MEAUSREMENTS MONTH 3

I really cannot believe that it has been 3 months! I really have to hand it to Workshop Fitness for letting me stick around and be part of their family. Thank you guys so much! I really do love Thomas, Paul, Christine, Diana, Mariesa and Jason for all the work they have put me through and all the encouragement they have given me. I hope you realize how much I love you guys; you are the reason I am so happy and feel so alive today.

This past month has been the most challenging so far. I got really sick at the beginning of it and had to miss 4 workouts. I also didn’t lose any weight the first week of the month because of my sickness. It was a total bummer that first week and a half but I really tried to push myself through the sickness. After I started feeling better I really tried to propel myself harder than I normally do and my back just started to give out. It was just one thing after another! I really started to worry that I wasn’t going to lose any inches and I got myself very upset over the prospect of not fulfilling my expectations. Thankfully, after getting my results, it looks like my worries were overblown! I didn’t get quite the same numbers as I have been getting in the past, but I did lose more this month than I had in either or those first two. Here we go:


Neck: Down .25 inches
Chest: Down 1.75 inches
Waist: Down 3 inches
Hips: Down 3.75 inches
Thigh: Down .25 inches
Calf: Down .25 inches
Arm: Increase .25 inches

Total inches lost: 9.25 inches
Weight lost: 19 pounds

So, Grand Totals over 3 months:


Inches: 42.25!
Pounds: 54!
Percentage of weight loss: 14.5946%

Thanks Monty for taking the cool pictures, and also making a sweet logo for me! I’m still figuring the t-shirts out because I am going to find a different t-shirt to put the print on. If you want one, just e-mail me about it and I will put you down for a shirt when I put the order in. I am not sure how much the t-shirts will cost yet but right now I’m thinking around $15 depending on how cheap I can get them. Alright guys thank you very much for checking out the update, and there is definitely more to come!

THE FOUR THINGS I HAVE LEARNED FROM THIS JOURNEY UP TO THIS POINT

 

1.     People are going to all react differently to what you are doing – I thought everyone would be happy for me for finally taking care of my weight problem and for the most part that’s been the case. However I have also gotten some negative feedback. I have just had to take both sides and move forward with what I have to do. 

2.     Being competitive is still in my blood – When I was growing up I was taught to compete and be the best at whatever I was doing. I believed this as a way of life and in doing so loved to play sports all the time. This also led to me turning into the player everyone wanted on their team, if for no other reason than not having to play against me. But as time went by and my interests turned away from sports I think I lost a lot of that fire that I felt really allowed me to succeed in sports and life. With that fire exhausted I became lazy and stagnant with my life, something that I regret but am happy that I have recognized that fault. Workshop Fitness has really helped me find that fire once more, and I don’t plan on losing it again.

3.     Reconnecting with people is worth the effort – The working out is great and the results are fun but the one thing that really has stood out to me is the people that have responded to me in my journey. I have heard from people I haven’t talked to in years giving me words of wisdom, their similar stories, or just a “GREAT JOB!” It’s been hard to stay connected throughout all these years whether it’s someone from my high school days or college, but hearing from an old friend makes my entire day. I start thinking of all the good times we had and how much I enjoyed being around that person. For some reason I was blessed with a great memory and I hope I haven’t scared anyone with me recalling a story that is ancient and still remembering a lot of the details. That’s just me!

4.     Eating healthy has changed everything in my life – Before I started working with Workshop Fitness my diet was just beyond bad. The amount of drinking, poor eating, and little to no sleep was just leading me down a path I did not want to be on. But with the help of all my trainers my diet is back on track and my health is recovering from years of abuse. I never realized how much good food there was out there and that not everything in this world needs to be fried (Fuplex purchase of a fryer was the high point of this). I now understand the importance of a balanced diet and really trying new foods because you never now what you might like.  With eating healthier I now have way more energy, feel happier throughout the day, and when I need to go to bed its easier for me to fall asleep because I don’t have a ton of sugar in my body trying to keep me up.  It all makes sense but needed to be drilled in my head before I did anything about it.

That was a fun list to write…a note before I leave…I am getting my measurements done on Wednesday so I will post the results later that day with pictures!

 

PEOPLE THAT INSPIRE ME: OUT OF CONTROL FAT ROLL

 Earlier this week I picked up the Austin American Statesman and in the Life and Arts section there was a story about a group of four ladies who were having a weight loss competition at their work. The really cool thing about the competition was that they were going to blog about their experience (Sound familiar?). They would hold themselves accountable if they cheated on their diet or if they did not participate in a workout on the blog. They even put all kinds of information that they have learned along the way. I really felt a close connection with their idea and am inspired to see they all did a great job in their 18-week workout challenge. I would definitely recommend a visit to their blog if you're enjoying mine. You can check it out here.

3 MONTHS DOWN

On Friday it will be 3 months since the first day I met my trainers. It seems like yesterday I went up to Workshop Fitness for the first time scared, anxious, and excited to get this process started. The one thing I was really afraid of when I arrived was that the trainers would see me and think “LAZY!” But I think I have showed them that I will work hard for the goals we have laid out

It is also one week before I get my measurements done with Diana. Just like last time I am really worried that I will not get close to last months numbers (16 inches lost). I know that I can’t hit that number every time but it’s something that I would like to get close to. And since it’s the last week before the measurements I will be sure to push myself just a little harder than normal to produce the numbers I want to see.

GREAT TO HEAR FROM YOU

 This past week I got the pleasure of seeing a lot of friends that I had not seen in a couple of days/weeks/months/years. I went to my good friends Evan’s house Saturday and I couldn’t believe how many people wanted to talk to me about my blog. It really made me feel like I was doing something right. It’s nice to get positive feedback on this whole experience.  It’s hard to tell how much my physical appearance has changed when I see myself in the mirror everyday but to hear people tell me how much I have changed really hit me hard. The hard work is really showing and it just makes me more motivated each time I go to the gym. I am so appreciative for everyone reading my blog and sharing my journey to get healthy.  It means the world to me that I have great support and friends to keep me in line through the good and through the bad.  THANK YOU!