Make The Most of Every Day

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I was reminded once again this week how short life is, and how time passes by so fast.

The first thing that reminded me was that Wednesday was (is) our anniversary. You guys that are in your late teens and early 20′s probably think being married 26 years is FOR-EV-ER, but to me that time has swept through like a passing breeze. I think that Nancy and I would both agree that our marriage has it’s ups and downs, but just like a healthy body, the hard work and commitment a healthy marriage takes is more than worth the effort. Just like when you are working toward being physically stronger there can be the temptation to quit when things get tough. I am grateful for a partner that has never quit on me.

I love you Nancy Carlson.

The second thing that reminded me that life is short is that two of our bootcamp family each lost one of their parents this week. I think whether we know the time is short or it hits us out of the blue, we can never be fully prepared for losing the ones we love. Our thoughts and prayers are both Steve and Colleen and their families during this time.

Events in our lives or the lives of the ones we care about can and should refocus us on what is really important. As I write this Amy, my 5 year old, came in and “disturbed” me by showing me the bear on the back of her quarter from Alaska. She was so proud that she was keeping her money in her change purse. I could have shooed her away because I am busy, but I think I am finally starting to learn that moments like that are all too fleeting, and we need to embrace them while we can.

We make choices every day.

Choose to make the most of this one, and every one you are given.

Make It Happen!

Coach Dean

Test Your Get Fit NH Knowledge

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What do you see when you first walk into Get Fit NH’s Training facility?

  1. Gym Rats- those people who only know how to “pick things up and put them down”.
  2. Rooms full of machines that are difficult to use or you just can’t remember how to use so you jump on the treadmill AGAIN.
  3. An inviting space where you can meet a bunch of great people who all want to get in shape, just like you.

Why is Get Fit NH not just another place to ‘workout’?

  1. The personal trainers individualize your training session within the group.
  2. The Get Fit NH team is seeking to make you work to your abilities but have the time of your life doing so.
  3. The motivation, accountability of the group is like positive peer pressure.
  4. All of the above and more.

To get started at Get Fit NH I need to:

  1. Do 25 pushups, 15 chin ups, squat 650 pounds, and run a half marathon.
  2. Fit into the same size pants I wore before I graduated from high school and definitely the same size I wore before I was married.
  3. Fill in an online registration.
  4. Be prepared to laugh, learn, work hard, sweat, and succeed.
  5. Answers C and D.

What are the trainers like?

  1. Similar to military bootcamp instructors who yell 2 inches from your face with a goal of making you cry in public.
  2. I’m not sure, I have not met them.
  3. The Coaches have a great blend of youth, maturity and experience. Each one brings a different gift and ability to relate to our clients, regardless of their current fitness level and stage in life.

(We’ll I only know who the nicest trainer is. Seriously though, I am proud of each trainer at Get Fit NH for who they are and how they do their job.)

Who can do this?

  1. Those who want to change their life style so they can best stop or slow diseases such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and cancer.
  2. People who realize they have put others first and now need to take care of themselves too.
  3. The crowd who are currently bored with what they do or just can’t get to the next level.
  4. All of the above and more!

I hope this made you smile, and helps you realize that it’s time to get off the couch and get into action!

Coach Nancy

 

Living Out “Make It Happen”

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I was given “Robert Ringer’s 20 Life- Guiding Principles” to read. He compiles a list of 20 sayings that he uses to focus his life and direct his activities.

There were a few on this list that hit home.

His number 12 fits right in with Get Fit NH’s motto – “Make It Happen”

It states – “Never fall into the trap of waiting for something to happen. Make it happen.”

The first time reading through the list, I paused only because he used our saying. Get Fit NH embraces the fact that we can all make it happen, no excuses.

But as I read over the list again, I really had to stop.

The first part of this principle has us not falling into the trap of waiting.

Do I do that? What does that look like? How can it be avoided?

Yes I do that, and I think we all do.

We’ll start an activity or set a goal and for the first few days, maybe even weeks we strive and work at it. We might see some progress. But then for some unknown reason to us, we slowly let go of that passion. Eventually a month or two down the road we figure that avenue didn’t work so we try something else.

We start something new, see some progress, and then let it pass into oblivion.

And we do the same thing over and over, expecting a different result – “this time”.

This phenomenon could be related to our business growth, our job, our training, or our nutrition.

I’ve worked with many clients who for a week maybe even two will log food, eat PPW3, and drink plenty of water. They really are making it happen! They see some changes in their energy levels, their body composition improves, and they might see the numbers on the scale move.

The momentum should cause us to kick it into high gear, but only a few do.  In fact many of us do the opposite, we get distracted and our progress slows, and we are left wondering what went wrong.

In our minds, because there is still activity going on, we expect things to keep progressing.

I mean I am not doing it exactly like I was that was giving me these great results, but it’s close enough, right?

Just going through the motions won’t help. It is consistent application of what I know, over a period of time, that is going to get me to where I want to go.

We can read all the books, monitor all the blogs, and go to all the meetings, but I can tell you first hand our continuous quest for more knowledge is a trap.

The trap of seeing but not doing, of knowing but not applying.

Don’t believe me? Ask your co-workers, family, or friends; to see how many of them have a cookbook relating to some particular diet plan? Ask them if they read the basic principles and did the diet.

It’s human nature not to like being told what to do, at least for very long.

Before I was a trainer I remember this “diet” I was on.

I went shopping for all the specific foods, cooked everything just like they said for one week. The second week, I kind of did the plan but tweaked it to suit my needs, the third week I continued to tweak it myself because the family needed me too. The fourth week looked nothing like the first but I was still doing it. And slowly I fell into a trap. I thought I was doing it but I wasn’t.

It really had nothing to do with the plan – it had everything to do with me.

So how do you continue to make it happen? How can I stick to the plan?

With your training at Get Fit NH we do the planning for you. As long as you continue to come you will move forward in your fitness goals.

The “Other 165″ are a bit more difficult.

How do you continue moving forward at breakfast, lunch, the times out with friends, and on the weekend?

Its all in the plan and the planning.

  1. Keeping our goals in front of us so we see them daily.
  2. Writing out a plan to reach our goals.
  3. Bringing others to your aide to hold you accountable and motivate you.
  4. Admit you need help and ask a professional

TheOther165.com is a site we have created to help you. We’ve put tools at your finger tips. Tons of information, videos, and testimonials are a button away.

You have to make it happen. Each day doing what it takes to get there. Don’t stop when you reach the 1/2 way point.

Keep getting better – keep moving ahead.

Have you enrolled in our Goal Achievement Program yet? The only cost is 5 or 10 minutes of your time to write down what you want to achieve over the next 4 weeks, and submit an action plan to get there. Don’t underestimate the power of written goals. This program will move you forward, but so don’t wait for it, Make It Happen!

But we don’t want you to fall into the trap that because you signed up for TheOther165, you will magically transform in 2 weeks or less.

Enroll in the Goal Achievement Program Here

To your best health,

Coach Nancy

Reflections of a FFB

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Yesterday I celebrated my 45th birthday.

For some reason I have been thinking about turning 45 for awhile. We tend to focus on the “tees”, like when we turn for”tee”, fif”tee”, six”tee” or seven”tee”. (Get real – 30 isn’t really that traumatic)

But for me 45 holds some real significance.

A lot has happened in the last 10 years.

When I was 35 I had two kids, Tim and Jeff. One a sophomore in high school, the other in eighth grade. Those two boys are now both married, one living in Vermont and the other in North Carolina. 10 years later, Nancy and I have had added four more; Derek, Andrew, Karalynn, and Amy. Derek was with us only 11 months when he died of S.I.D.S.,  Drew is 8, KJ is 7 and the precocious Amy is 4 going on forty. How things have changed!

When I was 35 I had a different career. I was a structural draftsman sitting behind a computer all day, and while I was very good at what I did I didn’t love it, and I was pretty miserable to be around at times. That company treated me well, but ultimately I knew it was not what I wanted to do with the rest of my life.

When I was 35 I was miserable in other areas of my life as well. I stopped weighing myself when I hit 260 on the scale. I couldn’t shop for pants in the “regular” stores any more as my waistline passed 46 inches. There is a picture I still have of a church picnic where I won a couple ribbons for a pie baking contest. What you don’t see is the humiliation from that same picnic when I tried to play some relay games and couldn’t begin to keep up. That was the first time I remember feeling “old”, but in reality age had little to do with it. I had high blood pressure, my blood sugar was crazy, I lived on Pepto-Bismol, and was a picture perfect couch potato.

I had a beautiful wife, 2 great kids, good friends. But I was well on my way to an early grave, and while in the back of my mind I knew it, I was too apathetic to do anything about it.

But then…

In March 2002 life changed forever for Nancy and me. I still remember we were pretty shocked to discover that we were going to be parents again, 14 years after the last time. We used to joke with our friends that we were going to be empty-nesters by the time we were forty; we had to adjust that time line by oh, about 20 years or so. God has a funny way of letting you know He is in control sometimes.

Nancy was 5 months pregnant with Andrew when Derek, our “surprise” baby that had brought much renewed joy into our lives, died at age 11 months. What started out as an ordinary Monday morning started bringing the brevity and uncertainty of life into my daily thoughts.

We live with choices every day.

Some are little, and some are big. But each choice we make is significant, and determines the course our life is going to take.

There are things in life we cannot control, as we were recently reminded with the 10th anniversary of 9/11.

It’s not what “happens” to you that determines the course of your life, but the conscious choice you make in response to it.

Nancy and I had to make a choice. Let the circumstances of our life tear us apart, or bring us closer together. The daily choice to drag ourselves out of bed and move on was not easy, but our faith, family and friends brought us and continue to bring us through.

So why am I telling you all of this?

Because those circumstances changed my life forever in other ways as well.

I really understood for the first time that life does not go on forever. That I was given the gift of life, and I was in the process of taking that precious jewel and flushing it down the drain with my lifestyle.

I was making bad choices, and it showed. When you are 35 years old and can’t walk up the stairs to go to bed without getting winded, there is something seriously wrong. Keep up with the kids? I figured if I didn’t do something about it I wouldn’t be around for the kids for very long.

And that’s how my journey started to where we are now.

With a choice.

A choice to be better today than I was yesterday.

Make that choice every day, and pretty soon you get somewhere pretty big.

Many of you have heard and read my personal journey and how Get Fit NH got started, so I am not going to make this note any longer than it already is.

Just know that I am grateful for all I have and all I have experienced, both good and bad.

These past 10 years have been a pretty wild ride.

My weight has been under control and under 200 pounds for going on 8 years.

I have girls in the house – now that’s different!

I have a wife that has stood by me through all the ups and downs who I fall in love with more and more every day.

I get to do what I love to do every day in a career that I am passionate about. I have the privilege of helping our clients accomplish things they never dreamed they could do.

Helping others make good choices that get them where they want to go.

I’d say turning 45 is pretty cool.

Thank-you for being a part of my life.

Coach Dean

Used Book Store Sign – “Affordable Time Travel”

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I’m out driving this afternoon and I see this sign near the road that was not there last week. You’ve all see similar signs, they are tacked up on a stick written in permanent marker on a thin piece of cardboard. This one had a catchy saying. “Used Book Store- Affordable Time Travel”. Books are in fact a way to ‘Time Travel’. You can go anywhere, be anyone, experience anything, whenever you want to. The possibilities are endless.

What would I put as a sign outside of Get Fit NH Bootcamp? “Make It Happen” of course. At the end of each training session we shout to each other – Make It Happen! You see it on our t-shirts and jackets. Make It Happen is a lifestyle. It’s how we live.

For each of us we’ve determined how many bootcamp training sessions we will make happen each week. This is an important time we set aside to help take care of ourselves. But what do you do beyond the 1, 2, or 4 hours of training? What about the other 165 hours in a week?

There are certain things we can control within our lifestyle. Our lives are impacted by the people we hang around with, they ‘ll help form our character. The things we do in life or don’t do impact our bodies. How much sleep we get and the amount of water we drink will touch the makeup of our life. Even the food we eat effects our lives.

All these and more make up our 165 hours outside of Get Fit NH Bootcamp. Do we still wear the ‘Make It Happen’ sign during the other 165? Do we eat supporting our training and our health? Do you plan for enough sleep? Most of us admit to not drinking enough water.

So what is the sign you hang up near your desk at work? “Be back in ten minutes”?

What sign do you hang around your neck while at home? “Do as I say, and not as I do”?

And when you are alone? Do you have a sign? What drives you to binge or not binge when no one is looking?

Think about it. Your Get Fit NH time is planned and designed to have the highest impact along side a supportive 165 hours outside of the gym. What sign do others see when they look at you? What sign do you want them to see?

With the ‘Make It Happen’ lifestyle sign the possibilities are endless!

Don’t just say it…live it.

Make It Happen!

Coach Nancy

Just One Thing

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I tend to be an “all or nothing” kind of guy. Either I do something flat out, 100%, no quarter given, or I don’t do it at all.

While that might sound like a positive, often times in my own life I find that if just one little thing knocks me off track – it’s not perfect – I can get aggravated and just throw in the towel.

Even worse, if everything isn’t perfect, if I don’t have all my ducks lined up in a row right from the start, whatever I am working on may never get off the ground!

And that’s one of the reasons that I hired a coach, in my case a business coach. Nancy and I meet regularly with her in order to keep the business headed in the right direction. She helps us see what is working, map out future projects, create action steps for those projects, and then keeps us accountable to those action steps. Nancy and I are also both in separate “Mastermind Groups”, and we are each responsible every Friday to give an accounting of our week and what we accomplished.

So why am I telling you all this?

Because based on my experience with hundreds of clients, there are a lot of you that are a lot like me.

Mulling over in your head all the reason’s why you can’t, which in turn paralyzes you into taking any action at all.

In the arena of diet and nutrition I see this all the time, and my goal is to help you break out of that cycle. We can talk all day long about what your ideal nutrition plan might look like, but then a dangerous thing happens – you start thinking about it, and your mind begins creating all these scenarios and “what if’s” of why it can’t or won’t work.

Here’s what I want you to do to break out of that cycle.

Just.One.Thing

I don’t want you to worry doing everything right – right now.

Choose just one thing you can do every day and build off that.

  • Not eating breakfast? Eat breakfast every day for a week. I don’t even care what, just eat something.
  • Vegetables never pass your lips? Add them to just one meal every day for a week.
  • Skipping Meals? Make sure you get in three every day for just one week.

Then build off that success. It might look like this:

  • Add a protein to your breakfast (eggs, yogurt, cottage cheese) every day for a week.
  • Eat vegetable at two meals, every day for a week.
  • Leave the starchy foods off the last of your three meals of the day, every day for a week.

Follow that pattern consistently, and pretty soon you have made a significant change into both your habits and how you look and feel!

For most of us however there is another critical part of the equation. I mean, who’s gonna know if I do those things or not? Makes it kinda easy to slide…not good.

Accountability

It’s a word that grates on many of us, but in reality we never outgrow the need for it.

Our bootcamp training is built around the concept of accountability to yourself, to your coaches, and to your training partners. When you aren’t here, you are missed and we let you know about it! :)

As your coaches, we understand that some of you want more accountability in the area of nutrition and body composition as well. As your coaches we want to help those of you who want more education and accountability.

I asked Coach Erin to come up with some concepts of what such a program would look like, and she did a fantastic job of outlining what we are now refining and will be rolling out to you in the coming weeks. I am confident you will be thrilled with what’s coming down the pike!

But that doesn’t mean you should wait around and do nothing!

Here’s a summary of what I have learned from my coaches that applies to you too…

  • Don’t wait for perfection to get started
  • Don’t expect everything to go perfectly once you have started
  • Don’t try to do everything at once
  • Be Accountable

So let’s hear it. In the comment box below tell me Just One Thing you are going to start doing today.

Make It Happen!

Coach Dean

When’s the last time YOUR doctor said “Wow”? (in a good way:)

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Got a couple notes last week from two guys in our 6:30am class that were a great encouragement to me and a testament to what hard work, consistency, dedication and solid programming can do for your body, and more importantly your overall health.

Thanks for the notes guys, and keep up the great work!

“Just a big thank-you to (Get Fit NH) Bootcamp. It’s been 2+ years since my last physical. The first thing out of the Dr’s mouth was “wow”. He asked me what I had changed. Of course I asked him why. He said it’s because I had lost 30 pounds since my last physical. I told him about (Get Fit NH) bootcamp 4 times a week for one hour along with diet changes. All my blood work was good as well. I did throw in some good words for you !! He told me to keep up the good work. He explained the long term benefits to my health and well being by better eating and weight control. Thanks to you and your staff for helping me “make it happen” – Jere

“I highly recommend Get Fit NH Bootcamp…my pants don’t lie! Since starting in January of this year I have lost 4 inches on my waistline, 2 pant sizes and dropped 30lbs. I have not been at this weight or size in over 20 years and Dean and CJ helped me get their in less than 6 months. It works because you have a team behind you, don’t keep trying to go it alone…get to camp!” – David

I HATE Recovery Weeks!

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Is that what you are thinking? Maybe you just started training with us and you are unfamiliar with the concept, or maybe you just believe that your body is different than anybody else’s and you just don’t need it!

I assure you we absolutely love the fact that you want to keep working and getting better – it’s my mission today to reason with you and explain why time off absolutely makes you better!

The Recovery Curve

I saw the recovery curve for the first time during my time with Australian physical preparation coach Ian King. His principles laid the foundation for the way we program, train and especially recover here at Get Fit NH. The principles that work with professional athletes apply to us too!

The following illustrates a “good” recovery curve:

The green line represents what we are all looking for – continual, never ending progress over time. We are getting stronger, faster, thinner, better looking (ok at least that’s what I wish for).

Reality Check – ain’t gonna happen. The process of changing your body is not linear, in fact what we are looking at in an optimal training environment is more of a “One step back brings me Two steps forward”.

A closer look at the chart will help explain what I mean.

The red line represents Equilibrium. This is where your body wants to stay, no matter if your goal is losing fat, gaining lean, or both. As you have no doubt found out, forcing your body to change is hard work – really hard work. When you walk into Get Fit NH, our training is designed to elicit that change. But it’s not as simple as “working out” day after day after day. In fact as I am about to illustrate, training without proper recovery is actually hurting you, not making you better.

The blue line represents the “recovery curve”. Starting at the left hand of the chart all the lines intersect. For this illustration that point is where your first training occurred – you “worked out”.

But what’s going on?

Instead of performance going up, that line is actually heading down – this is what is called Depletion. If you think about it makes sense – you have worked hard, you are fatigued, your body is depleted of nutrients – you are spent!

Don’t worry, your body will get over it, if you treat it right! This is what we call Adaptation. Your body wants to be able to handle the increased demand that was placed on it, and starts the process of getting better.

You are in charge of if and how fast that happens. A few of the factors that influence this adaptation include Recovery Nutrition (read up!), stress levels, sleep habits, supportive nutrition, age, and training history.

The recovery curve continues with Supercompensation. Here is how Coach King describes this process:

“It is only when recovery is allowed that we see the super-compensation effect, the unique phenomenon where the bodies physical capacity is elevated in response to training, in anticipation of another exposure to the same stimulus.” – King, I, 1999/2000, Foundations of Physical Preparation

In other words your body has gotten better in response to your training, a new Equilibrium is established and this state  is when we will ideally train again. Our programming at Get Fit NH is carefully designed to give this the best chance of occurring, but as I hope you are discovering, you have a lot to do with this with how you treat your recovery!

As you can see, when things are clicking, this process when repeated over and over means you are getting better and better, the blue line is headed up – pretty cool!

The flip side to all this is what happens when the recovery process isn’t working so well.

This chart represents recovery gone “bad”:

When we continue to train in a state of “Depletion”, regardless of the reason,  the adaptation to supercompensation effect doesn’t occur, and instead of getting better, we find ourselves in a downward cycle. This can happen when we train the same muscle groups too soon, when we haven’t taken the steps described above to recover optimally (sleep and nutrition for instance) regardless of time between training, when we train too hard coming off an illness, etc. The last thing we want to happen is new equilibriums to be established in a downward pattern – not good.

The long and short of it is your body absolutely needs to recover from hard training. Consistently training in a fatigued state results in injury and illness. Your body is an amazing machined designed to put up with a lot, but it was also designed to need rest.

Which leads us to:

Recovery Weeks

Face it – you can get beat up anywhere. Our responsibility at Get Fit NH Bootcamp is to help you get better!

That includes recovery weeks. We have found that somewhere between 8 and 12 weeks of training is just about right to take a full week off and let your body recover.

That doesn’t mean that you spend your training time on the couch eating bon-bons, but if you insist on going down to PF and hitting the weights or running 10 miles every morning, your body will suffer in the long run, and perhaps even in the short term.

If you find yourself fighting this concept, ask yourself this – Is your unwillingness to take a week off a well reasoned decision based on what you know to be true, or is it that your attachment to training is so strong emotionally that makes it so hard? You will not lose all you have gained by taking the week off, I assure you! Again to quote Coach King, “…if you don’t (take time off)…most of you are going to lose it anyway!”

So now that we have established you are ready, willing and able to embrace recovery week, what do you do?

Glad you asked!

Three Steps for Successful Recovery

1.) Physical Rest and Regeneration

-        Our bodies must rest and recover to prevent over-training (or under-recovering) issues so that we can come back 100% healthy and energized for the next phase of the program

-        Focus on maintaining and/or increasing flexibility and tissue health by stretching and foam rolling daily. 15-30 minutes is fantastic!

-        Daily restorative walks are beneficial during this week. 30-60 minutes briskly walking (not jogging/running) will keep your body refreshed and active, without negating the purpose of this week. Don’t overdo it!

2.) Physiological and Psychological Rest and Regeneration

-        We must normalize key anabolic hormones, refill muscle glycogen, increase caloric intake, and prevent any diet induced catabolism (losses of lean body mass) so that we can enjoy greater fat loss for the next phase of the program

-        We have taken the road less traveled by being flexible eaters with a long-term approach to success and thus we will take a break from our aggressive fat loss nutrition plans. This is not a free for all, so stay away from your “trigger foods” (junk foods and sweets) that open the door to excessive calorie intake.

-        Instead plan (key word) and enjoy 2 or 3 controlled free meals to reward yourself for all of your hard work, but do not overdo it!

-        Caveat: If your nutrition habits have been less than optimal, more than likely none of this applies to you. Instead now is the time to plan and prepare to make the changes necessary to see the results you want. Spend some time in our “Practical Nutrition” archives and get started!

3.) Celebrate the Fruits of Your Labor

-        Take some time to reflect on how far you have come since you joined Get Fit NH Bootcamp in terms of improving your overall health, body composition, and performance

-        Enjoy your results!

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!

We would just like to take the time to thank you from the bottom of our hearts for all of your hard work and dedication to improving your health and fitness… keep Making It Happen!

You will never know how much this means to us and how much this is appreciated. It has been a total team effort from the start and though we provided you with all of the necessary programs to get the results that you were seeking, YOU DID ALL OF THE WORK! We cannot wait to get even better results during the next phase of the program!

The KING Reigns Supreme

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“Lord Almighty, I feel my temperature rising”…(must be Marvelous Monday at Bootcamp)

Monday night, 6pm Bootcamp had the whole Big Family in attendance. That would be Big Daddy (40KB), Big Mama (36KB), and Big Boy (32KB) rockin’ and rollin’ on the gym floor. If they weren’t doing the KettleBell Swing they were Deadlifted. Our Motto: GO BIG or GO HOME! Since no one left, we went BIG!

“Higher and Higher, Its burning through to my soul”…(and my core right down to my gluteus maximus)

Our Mantra: “You can do anything for 40 seconds” (or 2 minutes, or whatever is required for time). This is the class if you need motivation, they’ve got it in spades! When you are pushed to your limit… they’ll push you a little more.

Add in: the HOTTEST Trainer this side of Memphis who whispers the Challenge, “the other classes did 21 partner band rows”. With a twinkle in her eye and a slight grin, “I’m just saying…” – oh it’s ON! Green Band!

“Girl girl girl, you gonna set me on fire… it’s hard to breathe, and my chest is a heavin…”

When we are all done with our Tabata Tuesday workout someone says (& it doesn’t matter what day it is, someone always says…) “Lets go do some Hills”. Today I replied all proud of myself, ‘I already did Hills’ (yeh me!). I was then informed that I had done “PRE-Hills”, it was time for “POST-Hills” (really?!)… and out the door we went. Lynn  is doing 10 hills now (U go Girl!), making our Fran proud (we miss you Fran!).

I gotta say 6pm is definitely not made up of slackers…

“My hands are shaking, and my knees are weak. I can’t seem to stand on my own two feet.”

“Who do you THANK when you have such luck, I’m in LOVE… I’m ALL SHOOK UP” (side note: I ran out of lyrics and had to switch songs, gotta love THE KING… who knew he was singing about Bootcamp?? Sven needs an Elvis soundbite- can I put in a request?)

Blog you later.

gretchen

Sizzlin’ Summer Slimdown Winner Jeff Huckins Tells His Story

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For those of you who don’t know Jeff, you are really missing out! This guy gets in here and makes it happen every single day! In the story below he references that his weigh in November of 2010 was over 375 pounds. Here we are in mid-May 2011, and at last weigh in Jeff was 286.4. Do the math, that is nearly 90 pounds lost  since that time – that’s Making It Happen! Read Jeff’s story below for his “super secret” strategy :)   Great work Jeff! – Coaches Dean & Nancy

Well let’s see here, where do I start? For those of you who do not know me my name is Jeff and I am one of the crazy people who drag themselves into the Concord gym at 5:00 in the morning.

I have fought with my weight my whole life and by November of last year tipped the scale at 375 plus pounds. I knew something had to be done to lose the weight and improve my overall health but also felt as though I had tried, and failed at, everything.

In the preceding year I watched three of my overweight coworkers lose dramatic amounts of weight. Two of them had bypass surgery and took the weight off at an amazing rate. This “easy” option intrigued me and I had many very candid conversations with both people. I even went so far as to attend a seminar at CMC with one of them and get my doctor’s blessing to take the next step.

This option comes with many risks, no guarantee of success, and quite frankly scared the %$*# out of me.  This being said, I was still seriously considering it.

Over the last year, I had also been watching my good friend Karl very closely and started to notice several changes. Even before his weight loss became obvious his lifestyle changes stood out to me. Here he was still eating a good amount of food, although very different types then before and losing weight at a steady rate month after month.

I also would see him leaving work in shorts and a tank top wearing shoes that made him look like he had monkey feet. Dean may know the type of shoes I am talking about. I started talking with Karl more and more about what he was doing and he convinced me with his words and actions that this was for me.

The next thing I am about to say is perhaps one of the more difficult things I have ever had to admit. So here it goes “Karl was right.” There I said it. If you’re reading this Karl take a minute to enjoy it because you are not likely to hear me utter those words again. On a serious note, thank-you for steering me towards boot camp.

It was November and I had made up my mind to give boot camp a try before I move any closer to the surgical option. I figured if nothing else it would help me lose the required amount of weight mandated before I could qualify to go under the knife.

I was on Dean and Nancy’s waiting list for around two months when I got the call to come give boot camp a try for a couple of weeks. I enrolled in the program full time starting the first of January.

I showed up to boot camp on the first morning expecting that it would be like a fat farm or an episode of the biggest loser. Boy was I wrong. The first member I met was Dennis, a tall thin man in incredible shape. In the name of conversation, I asked “what are you doing here?” He answered by saying that this is how he stays in shape during the triathlon off-season.

I remember thinking to myself, “Boy am I in trouble!” and I was right.

I remember watching as the rest of the members walked in, most only slightly overweight if even at all. I was and still am by far the largest person in our class. By the end of the first “active warm-up” I was ready to start cooling down. I did what I could on that first day and left feeling pretty discouraged by the end of class. Everyone was patting my back and telling me I did a great job, and that I started one of the most difficult days that they had ever seen, it will get easier.

Looking back, I greatly appreciate the positive commentary even though the truth may have been being stretched just a little bit. In the past few months I have seen several new people start the program and amazingly, just like me, they have all started on one of the most challenging days ever.

The truth is every day is challenging for me, and everyone in every class. There is no finish line, if you can do ten push-ups today, try for eleven tomorrow. The first two weeks were definitely the most difficult for me. I remember wishing that my truck had an automatic transmission because shifting was so painful. I hurt in places that I didn’t know I had muscles.

Since that first morning my overall health has improved dramatically. I feel that I have made positive and meaningful changes in my life that I can live with long term. I try to follow the PPW (Protein, Produce & Water every 3 hours) concept 95% of the time; however I do allow myself to indulge also. In the past I have been way too strict on myself, causing me to fall off the wagon completely and regain all the weight I would lose along with a few bonus pounds.  Now, if I have cake and ice cream at a birthday party this afternoon I enjoy it and eat a healthy dinner.

As far as exercise goes, I am hooked on boot camp. On the days that we do not have class I  seek out other ways to fill the void. I spent the winter months on snowshoes and am now starting to do some running. I have worked up to the point where I can jog five miles fairly comfortably. I feel that I am a positive person for the most part. I love life and hope that these changes will give me a few extra years of it.

The most important factor for success is anyone’s life is their support structure. Mine is huge and solid as a rock. My wife is a constant source of encouragement. Although I know she would still be there for me if I weighed 500 Lbs., I also know she is pleased to see my overall health improving. Karl’s and Jill’s continuing success and his constant ribbing keep me motivated. Dennis has been so supportive and has encouraged me from day one. The poor man has sacrificed himself as my band-buddy.

Considering the size difference he is incredibly hard to drag across the floor. I am looking forward to doing a 5K with him by the end of the summer. Dean and CJ do an incredible job keeping the workouts fresh and fun. They really do believe in what they are doing and are great at it. I have never met Nancy in person, but according to what I have heard she is a lot like Dean only better at everything she does. (Sorry Dean, but that’s the word on the street)

The entire 5AM class in concord is AWESOME. Thanks for the encouragement and sorry to anyone who has slipped in one of my puddles of sweat. Finally, I would like to thank the five pounds of simulated fat that occasionally shows up for a work out, gets tossed around the room, and motivates us all.

Thanks to everyone, Jeff

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