BodyLight? Body Right!!

Does it seem that despite your best efforts, your body just doesn't reflect your workouts?

Even after spending hours in the gym, running and biking for miles, watching your carb intake, you look in the mirror and what looks back doesn't have a "gym body" or "six pack abs" or even look all that fit.  Worse, perhaps you only feel comfortable going to the beach overseas, because at home, somebody might recognize you!

I know the feeling.  While in comparison to most guys my age I look pretty good, that's not good enough for me.  I want to appear as fit as I feel.  Not "fit for my age," but "fit for anybody."  Sometimes I wonder, though, at 52 years old, what's really possible?

Many voices promise they have the secret to a younger looking appearance.  But I'm careful whose advice I follow.  I won't take hormones.  I won't dye my hair, get a facelift or try surgical liposuction.  I will eat right, get plenty of sleep and exercise.   And, I'm committed to giving those love handles a fight.

In 2012 I discovered a new technology promising victory in my never ending "battle of the bulge."  I was told that a special device used medical grade LED lights we to "melt fat."  I heard similar promises before.  But a friend urged me to take a closer look at this new technology.

Amazingly, the LED devices I examined generated the same light wavelengths as an FDA-approved fat busting laser.  So the lights were already proven to be effective in shrinking fat cells.  That got my attention.  Further, this new LED device employed higher frequency bulbs meaning that the light penetrated even to the deepest layers of fat.   This meant that unlike the fat busting laser that required long sessions and treated small areas, the LED device delivered superior results, in less time.  Now I was interested.

In fact, a physician friend told me that I found the "holy grail" of fat reduction.  Finally, a device that used proven technology without nasty side effects.  And, since the devices were less expensive than other fat reducing lasers and radio frequency devices, the services were affordable for everyone.  At that point I knew I needed to start a business offering LED fat reducing services to the public.

That's the beginning of the BodyLight story.  And there's much more to tell . . .


 

Math Can be So Tiresome

My son thought the guy made sense.

I thought he was full of s**t.

I heard similar arguments before--from a guy I knew in college.  "I could get A's in all the classes you take," he used to sneer.  "But you wouldn't last five minutes in my classes."

He might have been right.  He studied actuarial science.  You know, the facinating course of study that prepares people to set insurance rates.  All that complicated math--I would be lost in five minutes.  And bored, too.

My undergraduate classes were far from boring.  I took Shakespeare.  I read Hume and Mill.  I even studied Jazz music.  My liberal arts studies included heavy doses of literature, philosphy, and speech classes.  The closest I got to math was Statistics and Economics.  No, not prepared for a job in the insurance industry. 

Students who abandon math and science cut themselves off from lucrative potential careers.  And, many commentators worry that our nation is losing ground to the rest of the world as interest in advanced Calculus continues to fade.  At the same time, even "easier" courses of study in the arts and humanities require effort.   Being able to do something doesn't mean you're good at it. There's a song, "If you can walk, you can dance."  However, just because you can dance doesn't make you a dancer.

In the same way, just because you can write, doesn't make you a writer.

My son was speaking to a college recruiter encouraging bright high schoolers to pursue coursework in engineering.   He told the teens not to waste their time taking writing courses, because, "All engineers can write.  But not many writers can be engineers."  Just love that logic, don't you.

Don't get me wrong, I urged my oldest daughter to study engineering--I thought she could write her own career ticket.  She took political science instead.  And the second daughter?  No math there, either.  And the youngest boy?  The one who really is good at math and science?  He'd rather study journalism right now.

Chips off the old block these children of mine.  And, despite my pleadings to keep their options open--I can't be very persuasive when I followed a different path myself.

If I spent more time thinking about it, I could come up with a quippy comeback for the stuck up Math guy, but for now, I'll leave him and his socially inept friends to go figure out my insurance rates, while I go write a memo for my client.  Or maybe download that new Stanley Jordan track.

The Gun Show

Welcome to the Gun Show!  Like Ron Burgundy knew all too well, nothing attracts attention to a guy's physique faster than some well sculpted biceps.  An athletic build requires some upper body bulk to accentuate your flat abs!

However, if sitting on a bench doing curls is not your thing, you can build your biceps effectively doing nothing more than push ups.  Yeah that old gym exercise!

Sometimes we get the idea that only high-tech exercises performed in laboratory conditions (e.g. at the gym) will help us reach our fitness goals.  However, you may not realize that some of the most effective exercises can be performed anywhere without special equipment.  Push ups are one such exercise.

A few weeks ago I was impressed by some college football team mascots.  You know the ones.  Guys who do push ups everytime their team scores.  They do them quickly in full costume.  Which made me wonder, how many points could my favorite team score before I would be out of gas in a push up contest?  I discovered my limit:  40.   Thank God I'm not the mascot for the Crimson Tide.  I'd be fired immediately!

So I talked to my trainer about reaching a new goal:  100 consecutive push ups.  Figured this was a good way to focus on my upper body a little, and achieve a nifty new goal.  Rebekkah agreed that working up my consecutive push up number was a good idea.  She suggested that several times a week I do 100 push ups.  The first set is as many as I can do.  The second would be the same:  as many as I can do.  And keep doing sets until you reach a cumulative 100 push ups.  Seemed like a good idea.  Her only caveat was to try and do one more push up in the first set every time.

Ah, a plan to reach 100.  Kind of slow, I know, but a plan.

For two weeks now I've been doing push ups on my "off days" when I neither swim nor go to the gym, and I'm up to 47 consecutive push ups.  It's slow progress, I know, but progress nonetheless.

The way I see it, in our personal fitness goals, we're either moving forward, getting bored, or going backwards.  I'd rather be moving forward--and working on being a featured showman at the Gun Show.

Good luck!

What Next?

As the weather gets progressively worse, how do I hold on to the significant fitness gains I made this year?  While the temptation is strong to take a nice, long winter rest, I know that my weight, which seemed to melt off so easily this year with a stepped of fitness routine, could easily creep back.  And I'm not interested in going back to where I started from.

So what am I to do?

First, I've established a "ceiling weight."  As I continue to weigh myself daily, I've decided 165 pounds is as high as I will allow my weight to rise this winter.  If I exceed that weight, then I will impose a strict died until the extra pounds are shed.

As far as exercise, for now I'm working on three routines.  First is three weekly early morning swims.  On the suggestion of a local triathlete, I joined a swim club who works out at the beautiful pool at Grosse Pointe South High School.  From 5:15 a.m. - 7:15 a.m. members can swim their own workout, or follow the workout determined by one of the team coaches.  Currently I'm following the coaches' workouts because they add variety to my workouts.  And, in asking for explanations of the various drills, I'm getting now something I've never had in my life:  actual swim coaching.

Since swimming is all about efficiency, and is the one part of the triathlon where technique is most important, I expect this coaching will benefit me greatly.  It already has.  One of the coaches has identified problems with my stroke and body position in the water.  By improving these aspects of my swimming, I will swim faster and more efficiently, which should improve my triathlon times.

Also, I've stepped up the amount of laps I swim.  The daily workout for "master" swimmers (e.g. members over 18) is 3200 meters, which is approximately two miles.  This summer, my swim workouts rarely exceeded one mile, but included biking to and from the pool.  Now I've doubled my distances, but I drive my car to the pool.

The second part of my weekly fitness routines includes at least three five-mile walks with my wife and our dog.  This is a great way to include my spouse in my workout program, and helps keep my legs well exercised.  It also burns a surprising number of calories!  We believe we can continue these walks until the sidewalks become snowcovered--which may not be until late December.  After these walks, I've added three sets of calisthenics in my basement workout room:  150 crunches and 100 pushups.  I'm working on a goal this winter to perform 100 push ups consecutively . . . without a break.  While that may seem easy to some readers, for me, who has never had a very strong upper body, this is a major achievement.  I'm currently up to 44 pushups.

Finally, my fitness level greatly benefits from twice-a-week workouts with our physical trainer, Rebecca Metry.  Her input is crucial.  Beside "rounding out" our workouts by focusing on parts of the body not exerised during my swims and walks, she makes sure my total body remains in shape.  And, Rebecca's professional expertise makes her a terrific touchstone for all my fitness questions--be they about my
various aches and pains, or proper nutrition during workouts.

A month into my new routine, I'm encouraged that my weight has not ballooned, and I've found a way to include nine hours of exercise into my week (four hours swimming, three hours walking, two hours with the trainer).  As long as I stay consistent with this program, my weight should not be a problem, and, I'll be in a good position next spring when I start planning for racing season again.

You see, next year I will compete as a 50-year-old athlete, putting me in an older competititive group, and increasing the likelihood that I achieve one of my main 2011 fitness goals:  placing in the top three in a triathlon.

Second Time Triathlete

For goal oriented people, it's sometimes a little unnerving to actually cross the finish line.  Because, once you reach your goals, you need new goals to keep going strong.  In my case, this year a number of long held "wishes" became "goals" became "accomplishments"--almost unexpectedly.  Now, the question is, what do I do next?

I started losing weight this year almost by accident.  Last December, I was freed from the obligation of getting up and going to work every day.  In the immediate aftermath of that shocking occurance, I needed to add activities in my life so I would not sit around being depressed.  One of the first things I added was twice-a-week sessions with my wife's amazing physical trainer, Rebecca Metry, who works out of the Next Level gym in Grosse Pointe Woods.

Almost immediately I saw results.  For days after my workouts I was so sore that I could barely climb steps.   This was from a guy who had always been physically active, who had faithfully maintained a running regimen on my home treadmill for ten years.  However, my exercise was unvaried, and little more than 1.5 hours a week.  It possibly kept my blood pressure under control, but certainly not my weight.  The additional two hours of exercise with the trainer, working long neglected muscles, along with an improved diet, meant that something unexpected happened for me during last year's holiday season . . . I lost weight!  And it happened without a specific plan in mind!

Like most Americans I had a general goal of losing weight.  I knew I weighed too much, but I wasn't disgusted with myself.  I'd been fatter a few years earlier and I was wearing the same wardrobe I'd fit into for the past six years.  I believed I'd found the "middle aged me" and was more or less content with the person I'd become.  That was before I needed to face the cold realities of an impossible job market, and the prospects of vying for business opportunities with people in some cases half my age.   Being a short, chubby, bald, middle aged guy didn't seem all that appearling any more.  I needed a makeover--and some dramatic goals to become the new person I wanted to be.   I wanted to be a thin, fit, hard working-middle aged guy who oozed confidence. But how to get there?

First, I needed a specific weight loss goal to reach.  Second, I needed a workable plan to get there.  Finally, I needed some outside motivation to keep me from cheating along the way.  By March, I had all my goals in place:  my specific weight loss target was 30 pounds, which meant going from 195 pounds in early December to 165 pounds by the end of June.  I picked 165 pounds because I graduated from college at that weight.  My plan to get there?  I needed to up my exercise.  Rather than just three 30 minute runs at home and two sessions with the trainer, I needed to add more exercises at home.  This quickly became a 15-minute ab workout in my basement that I did prior to my runs.

The external motivation came when I became impressed by the strides taken by my daughter Lonelli who was preparing for her first triathlon.  I decided (at her invitation), I could do one, too.  So I committed to participating in a strenuous race in June in Detroit.  I had 10 weeks to get ready.

This was the final factor that pushed me across the finish line for my weightloss/fitness goals.  To prepare for the swim portion of the triathlon, I began daily workouts outdoors at our local pool after Memorial  Day.  With the swimming my weekly exercising increased even more.  And, amazingly, my weightloss picked up again. In fact I crossed the threshold of my weightloss goal a full two weeks early.  The triathlon provided me the focus I needed to achieve my weightloss and fitness goals.  And the results were dramatic.  At the beginning of this journey, I had no idea I'd end up thin, fit and with "six pack" abs.  And that outcome came without any plastic surgery or other artificial interventions.

Fearful that once the race was over, I would revert to my old ways and turn back into the pudgy "middle aged me" rather than the buff "middle aged me", after my first race I signed up for another race in late August to keep me working hard at my fitness.  I continued daily swims, regular runs and bike rides, two-times-a-week training sessions, and healthy eating.

And, amazingly, the weight continued to come off.  In fact, at one point I dropped to 158 pounds, which was my weight 26 years earlier when I had competed in an earlier triathlon.  And, it was my weight when I got married.  However, even I thought 158 pounds felt a little too light.  In fact, "thin" clothes I had bought only a few months earlier were now too loose.  I found bottom.  But what would be my new "correct"  weight.  I believe 162 pounds sounds right.

So what about the second triathlon?  This time my training seemed more purposeful--I had specific results goals this time rather than just hoping I'd finish.  Also, knowing I could complete a triathlon reduced my general feeling of anxiety before the race.  This time I felt excited rather than scared.

The conditions on August 22, the date of the Island Lake Triathon were ideal:  The water was 75 degrees and calm (no waves in the lake) and the air was 78 degrees and the sky overcast--no sun beating down during the bike portion or the run.  At the same time, there were new challenges.  The bike course included sizeable hills and a portion of the run took place on grass and included running down a hillside.

In the end, I finished strong--10th out of 24 in my age group; 115 out of 324 overall.  Of the three components of the race, I improved my bike time, even on a difficult course, primarily due to improvements I made to my bide.  I nearly matched my run time and finished 3rd among my age group.  And, I was 10th in the swim, which was my biggest disappointment, since I trained in swimming the most.  However, since I know my swim stroke needs serious work, I was not surprised.

With my triathlon season over, the pool closed, and a long, cold winter ahead, what am I going to do now to make sure I don't backslide?  I like how my new body looks, and I want to keep it, even if its hidden under layers of clothes.

First, I'm going to watch my scale closely.  If I see my weight creeping up again, I'll take serious action--cut out all sweets/alcohol/snack carbs, until I get back to my "correct" weight.  Second, I need to keep up daily exercise.  Not just the gym workouts and three times a week on the the treadmill.  But, as long as the weather holds, long walks with my wife, as well as three-days-a-week workouts with a masters swimming group at a local indoor pool.  I will only keep off the pounds if I exercise daily--I like food way too much.  Finally, I'm making plans for next year.  In 2011, I'll be considered 50-years-old for triathlons, which means I'll be competing with older men.  My goal is a top-three finish in a serious event--and the sooner I pick the event, the sooner my training will begin.  

I don't want to become a yo-yo dieter, nor do I want to look back at the pictures from this summer and say wistfully, "gosh I looked good then."  My desire is to find a fit and health place--where I'll stay for the next twenty years at least.

I'm open to suggestions on how to stay there.  Let's take this journey together.

Why This Blog

Great, another fitness blog.

Another person pushing products, gym memberships, exercise gear, supplements, etc.

Another person promising amazing results with minimal efforts.

Well, not here. Not from me. I'm going to tell you all a different story about how to achieve your fitness goals. And, because I don't promise 90-day results, nor will I hit you up for cash, most people will ignore my wisdom. That's a shame, because I believe my story is one that could be easily replicated by millions of overweight, out-of-shape Americans looking for a new lease on life.

I did it. You can too!

No magic formula, secret exercise program, hip hop music. No, in this blog you'll be encouraged to eat sensibly, exercise A LOT, and stick to a plan. There are no shortcuts to fitness. No easy ways to lose weight. However, if I could go from an out-of-shape fatty to a guy placing fourth in a triathlon, who has not another pound to lose in SIX MONTHS, then it's true that dramatic results are possible in a short period of time.

How did I do it?

Three keys: 1. Portion control; 2. Five hours or more of vigorous exercise a week; 3. Changing your eating patterns (e.g. eat a breakfast with fresh fruit EVERY DAY, no eating after 8 p.m., deserts only twice a week).

You're probably shaking your head saying, "That's it?" Yep, that's it. I will explain the keys in more detail in later posts. But, this is a good place to start.

I did it. You can do it, too!

A Changed Man

Last December when I lost my job, I was fat, out of shape, and depressed. See the top picture? Yes, I was smiling, but inside I was miserable.

I decided to do something about it.

At 48 years old, I decided if I didn't do something drastic now, I would slide into old age just another grumpy elderly man, someone who could have done better, but ended up being just like everyone else.

This year I've taken charge of my life and I'm proud of what I've accomplished. I no longer "work for the man," instead earning income through my own business. Further, I really like how I look, which has increased my confidence as I "do my own thing" professionally.

I believed like many others that weight gain and declining fitness are inevitable symptoms of the aging process. In my mind I knew a better future awaited me, but I had lingering doubts and fears. We Americans receive a steady stream of messages that say we're all going downhill after 40, and that we need a cocktail of prescribed medicines so that we can keep our blood pressure and cholesterol levels under control, enjoy regular sex, and even pee like normal. Yuck--no wonder nobody wants to grow old.

Feeding into this same sentiment is a multibillion dollar dietary supplement industry that promises consumers that by ingesting expensive pills, consuming protein shakes and shooting up with various hormones and steroids, old age can be pushed back, if not conquered. And since we're willing to take pills for just about everything else that ails us, we buy these products as well.

I knew there was a better, less expensive, healthier way to approach middle age. See the second picture. That's me six months after beginning a new lifestyle that included daily aerobic exercise, weekly work with a professional physical trainer, and improved dietary habits. Since I train with a partner, the cost for me is about $50/week. So, my "new body" actually "cost" me $1,200. At the same time, my blood pressure and cholesterol levels are so much improved that I'm on no medications. And, increased physical activity has raised my testerone levels naturally, which means . . . well you can figure out for yourself what that means.

So let me tell you about my "new" body. My weight dropped 30 pounds (from 190 to 160). My waist shrunk six inches (from 37 inches to 31 inches). My chest has also reduced--from 42 inches to 40 inches, but I'll take a nine inch drop any day of the week (chest minus waist) over a five inch drop. What's even more amazing to me is that I weigh the same now that I did when I was in college back in 1982. I thought weight gain is inevitable with slower metabolisms when one ages. Apparently that's not true.

And my diet--I'm not on any diet. I just eat more carefully, making sure to have a nutririous breakfast every day, plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables throughout the day, and limit late night snacking. I still eat meat and potatoes, sausages, popcorn and ice cream. I just control my portions.

My story is uplifting--a person need not be defeated by circumstances, but instead can overcome adversity with hard work, determination, and a good attitude. My message to anyone who reads this blog is there was no magical formula, no crazy diet or exercise program, no expensive machine, no visit to a motivational speaker, no death scare, no voice from heaven that empowered me to make this change. My motivation came from inside me--and it's inside you, too.

I can say for everyone reading this, if I can do it, you can too!