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Getting Up On You

A couple weeks ago, I mentioned that I had gotten sick. I’m pretty sure I shook someones hand at a funeral I attended and of course the AC was on, which caused my nose to slightly run. This was the kind of head cold that caused a severe burning sensation to run through my nose, mouth and throat like race cars with hot wheels. Not only did those pains take place, but I felt like I had led weights resting on my cheek bones and temples. It was miserable. Thing is, it was my fault and I knew it. It made me think, I need to write on the topic of ‘Getting Up On You.’

One of the hardest (yet also easiest) things to getting into a routine that fits your lifestyle and gets you on track to the life you want to live is getting educated on you. Or as I like to call it, Getting Up On You. This may seem simple, we all are human and generally have the same body functions right? We all need to sleep, eat, drink water, go to the bathroom, etc. But what about exercise, what we eat and how much we sleep or drink? How do those areas impact our daily living?

Not Going Back To Being Sick

I know exactly what it was that set my body up to basically abandon me when I came into contact with that nasty head cold. Tuesday afternoon is when the head cold hit hard. Going back a few days before, I overate on Sunday night due to stress from the week prior. My wife and I also stayed up later than usual, which left with with about 5 hours and 13 minutes of rest… approximately. My first class on Monday starts at 6:00AM, a HIIT Bootcamp class. The rest of that day was busy, no nap or time to catch up after a short night’s rest.

Coming into Tuesday, my wife wanted to get a workout in early morning because she had a 15-hour day at work coming up. That meant getting up at 4:30AM and getting to the gym when it opened at 5:00AM. After a warmup and sit in the sauna, 1 minute sprints on the treadmill was first. I finished up with some roundhouse kicks into a heavy bag 30 seconds per leg with 30 seconds rest. I finished with heavy bag sit-ups (if you aren’t familiar, this is how they look). By the time I hit the funeral, by body’s immunity was completely gone and basically told me, “Good luck dude!” By 6:00PM, my nose was an open faucet, burning tires started running their laps in my throat and nose and I was cancelling clients and classes.

Should’ve, Would’ve, Could’ve

If it wasn’t clear, this head cold wasn’t fun! I haven’t been sick like that since college which was 5+ years ago. Based on how my body works, if I had spent some additional time sleeping and eating sooner before bedtime plus eating more carbs to keep my energy up, my immunity would have been better. I probably should have dialing down my workout a bit as well (apparently my heavy bag sit-ups were intense enough to draw some attention at the gym according to my wife… do people not do these?).

Have You Been Here Before?

So, have you ever found yourself in a situation like me where you pushed so hard you got sick or injured? Were you trying as hard as you could and still broke down? Want to know how to get past that hurdle? I’ll tell you what I’m currently working on and why I’m so excited about it! It’s a program that is going to help you get the body of your dreams, live the lifestyle you desire to live and help you keep your schedule the same, if not more simple.

It’s Important to Know The Details

I could go on and on about macros and micros and how important it is to keep track of these… and it definitely is! In fact, here are my stats (pictured below) from yesterday. Looks like I need to get some more carbs in, and definitely more protein! I covered this topic a bit in a previous post, but stay tuned, I’ll get into this further down the road. We could get into the specifics, but let’s keep it simple today!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Details, Details, Details

I’ll share with you a piece of this program that I’m putting together and testing on myself. It deals with that nutrition component I mentioned earlier. I call it the ‘Chill Out and Eat!‘ plan. ‘Chill Out and Eat!‘ may be used by someone else (I’m not sure) but is kinda like being in a 7th grade chemistry class experiment. You remember how your teacher had the Bunsen burners set up on the chem lab tables with several trays of different elements? It was your goal to identify each element based on how it interacted when you set it on fire (the fun part!). For example, when you light calcium on fire, it produces a orange flame; sodium produces a yellow flame, and Copper produces a blue flame (my favorite). Well, when we eat certain things or sleep certain ways or drink however we like, each decision produces different results. This program is centered around that idea!

Getting Up On You

It’s quite simple, you can actually start on yourself right now! You are a walking, talking experiment and what goes into you is what is going to come out. Remember, kinda like the fire burning those elements producing a reaction, what you eat & drink plus how you sleep & burn energy causes a reaction. That reaction will provide you more energy or it will make you really sick and tired. Does the 2:00PM work slump ring a bell? So I’m sure you already have a pretty solid understanding of what your body does and does not like, right?

Keep Track

Good, time to keep track! How much water is too little or too much? Was that greasy burger ok or did it make me fall asleep at work and give me an upset stomach? I don’t want you to get caught up on what everyone else is saying to eat or not eat. I want you to stay focused on what your body is saying to eat or not eat! Trust yourself, it will tell you. I’m keeping this VERY simple because without this being the first step, it gets too complex too fast. Next, keep track by logging it into a food tracker or journal. I use MyFitnessPal. It’s simple, free and allows you to keep notes. In fact, my notes last night were, “eat more protein, take in less sodium and keep working on the carbs.” Also “overall, I feel strong in lifting weights and pushing through on HIIT.” Submit and done! If you’d like to keep up with me or need a partner to help you start this Getting Up On On process, shoot me a friend request on MyFitnessPal!

 

Blogger Bio

Oliana and I at Bigsby Bridge

Oliana & I @ Bigsby Bridge

Ryan lives in the East Bay with his wife Oliana. He works diligently to bring all the resources and tools necessary to provide a complete package to his clients. His focus is on personal training in fitness, nutrition, time management and other key areas of lifestyle. Outside of the private training/group fitness classes, Ryan & Oliana work on their walk with Christ, personal fitness and lifestyle goals together. They would like to one day have 2-3 dogs and work w/out having to report to a job. They both love movies, getting outdoors (especially camping), and eating food!

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Where’s My Rest!?

Recreation is a joy for many people! With the holidays approaching, some of you who are reading this may be in a State similar to my home state. The fall colors have come and the temperatures are dropping… all too quickly might I ad. But something popped up that changed the course of my topic… Rest.

Where’s My Rest!?

The context of this post today was going to cover recreation in the winter time, but after getting quite sick with a head cold earlier this week, I decided instead to focus on Rest. Anyone out there dealing with some form of sickness? Are you feeling extremely tired and overworked? Are you struggling to find a time to get in some real rest that leaves you rejuvenated? Did you know that in your extremely busy schedule, it’s very possible to do so!?

Where to find this Rest?

Imagine you just came off a long week of work, making solid progress in your job/work. Also, you’ve been able to complete your workouts at the gym/home while stay up with your friends/spend some quality time in your close relationships. Even though you were successful in the things above, you feel that those accomplishments just didn’t quite scratch you where you itch. So, you decide to ramp up your fun over the weekend.

Weekend Blues

If you’re like myself, a solid weekend full of fun eats can be relaxing. Or perhaps you also like to get out and hit parties to dance it up. Maybe you get outdoors on a beautiful hike or hit some waves. For some of you, working through Saturday (and maybe even parts of Sunday) feels “necessary” to keep up with the grind, there’s just “so much to do”. Whatever may be the case, you get all of that end and it feels like you’ve done something, but come Monday morning, you feel exhausted, still unfilled and lacking the refreshment you need to really press forward into this new week!

What’s The Problem!?

Many times, health (and the quality thereof) is directly associated to how much stress we have in our system. From a physiological standpoint, cortisol is a neurotransmitter the body uses to push us forward in times where we need to “go” and go quickly. However, if you’re constantly on the “go” with little down time, over time our adrenal system get’s worn down and our immunity starts to take a hit. At best, you feel lethargic, low in energy and not able to push as hard as you’d like. At more severe cases, like myself, you find yourself getting sick or stuck in bed all day long.

One Who Knows Their Limitations, Thrives!

A wise man once told me, “son, you must learn and understand your limitations…”. We often lose sight of our limitations based on the constant demands of work, relationships and pursuing a life of better health. Although these are important and “good for us”, they easily take us out of the game and rob us of the Rest we need so badly.

So how do we get to know our limitations? How do we take better care of ourselves in this fast pace life we live? Glad you asked! This is a topic I wasn’t ready for at the time, but started to touch on back in April of 2018.

3 Steps to Taking Back Your Rest

  1. Take inventory of your relationships, environment, and circumstances. Is there something that is slowly eating away at you? Oftentimes, in our health, wealth or relationships (maybe all three), there’s something that is deep down, eating at us constantly. What is that for you? Is it a relationship that leaves you feeling angry or frustrated? Is it a job you are struggling to find progress in? Maybe it’s your finances, no matter how hard you try to stop spending, you cannot stop? Be truthful, take record and write this challenge down!
  2. Once you have it written down, share it with someone you know you are able to trust. Not only share it with someone who is trustworthy, but also make sure they reciprocate with you too. I have found myself in relationships where the reciprocation isn’t there. Thereafter, I end up getting more frustrated due to lack of connection and authenticity in that relationship.
  3. Once these first two are done, find tools to address this challenge. With the help of your trustworthy friend, mentor or family member as accountability, take steps to work on it. There are a number of vast options out there, so be diligent in your search. As you progress, you will find that it wasn’t your activities that were wearing you down. That underlying challenge that is robbing you of your true Rest is what’s wearing you down.

So what’s robbing your rest? Please share in the comments below! Feel free to send a private email to me if this relates to you and you feel comfortable sharing. I’m also over at the gram, hit me up!

Blogger Bio

Oliana and I at Bigsby Bridge

Oliana & I @ Bigsby Bridge

Ryan lives in the East Bay with his wife Oliana. He works diligently to bring all the resources and tools necessary to provide a complete package to his clients. His focus is on personal training in fitness, nutrition, time management and other key areas of lifestyle. Outside of the private training/group fitness classes, Ryan & Oliana work on their walk with Christ, personal fitness and lifestyle goals together. They would like to one day have enough space for 2-3 dogs and work w/out having to report to a job. They both love movies, getting outdoors (especially camping), and eating food!

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Getting Started Again… Again?

Ever find yourself looking at the beginning of a fitness journey and wondering why you decided some time ago to get off your last one? Essentially, Getting Starting Again? … Again? If so, then this post may read familiar for you.

Has it been a long time since the last fitness journey was in full swing? You may find yourself in a holding pattern, wanting to get back in the game but not following through. I relate with you! From the end of 2012 till mid to late 2013, fitness was a daily part of my life. My initial net change was ~33 lbs (mostly fat mass loss and detox from college years). My second net change was 6 lbs (solely muscle mass) over a period of a couple of months.

Through the end of 2016 before my wife and I got married, I focused on mass building programs that helped me gain another 21 lbs of lean muscle plus about ~5 lbs of body fat. A considerable change for my composition. To sum it up, I felt great. Here’s some evidence!

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Finally checked my progress today. Right after Christmas, I started this mass gain program with the goal of maintaining or losing body fat by my birthday 5/10. Here's the progress numbers so far in about 90 days: Jan 12: Weight 208.0 lbs BF%: 10% April 8: Weight 221.0 lbs BF% ~9-10% That's a solid LBS just by keeping to.the #dirty30 workouts and  cal days. The last  weeks have been decent too, gaining 3 LBS while doing this #spritual #fast I'm on with my congregation. I have  month and  days to get to 225 and keep burning the #flab thats taking its sweet time to leave. Always fun to look back at #progress #TrainHard #EatClean #ConsistencyPaysOff #TransformationTuesday #Changing #GrindDaily #DCF #40DayFast #SixToSix #FiveTen #Goal #Date #Gains #BuildMuscle #nutrition #supernoms #ReadyForMore

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However, possibly like you, my exercise since 2014 is intermittent at best. I owe that to my priorities being set on my work and more recently, my faith and my wife.

Starting Again… Again is where I find myself today, still holding onto that desire to achieve a peak level of fitness that I never have before. The weight of past’s progress feels heavy, especially knowing I can do better. One would think the results I gave above are simply ones that can motivate me to push to the next level, but sometimes you simply underestimate just how much you can allow life (yes that’s right, I am owning it) to “get in the way” and stop us from doing what we desire most. It’s frustrating…

That being said, time for a workout break. If you find yourself wanting to get back in the game, this may help you get that push forward! >>>

 

And we’re back. Man that felt great! Getting Started Again! But it also gave me clarity to finish this blog. I have a dilemma and that is that I’ve allowed myself to get in the habit of keeping fitness as an optional task. Rather than focusing on today, I’ve allowed yesterday’s results feel like a task I cannot achieve again. At times, doing exercises like this seems daunting, even when I use to nail them in the past. In fact, I’m not really starting up again per se, having completed 8 weeks of weight training/HIIT exercises through August and September 2018, but continuing forward with that momentum some 3-4 weeks later after completion of that program.

Here’s how I plan to do so:

1) Keep Blogging – Also Getting Started Again

This is my accountability to Getting Started Again. If I continue to blog (last time I blogged was April 5th) with the focus of writing about my next transformation, I need to first workout to have that transformation take place. Genius right!? Well, this is one form that will help me do that and also work on my writing.

2) Set Accountability In Place

Not only will blogging help, but I’ve gone into agreement with a mentor of mine that each of us are going to push to achieve our best physical fitness to date. If you knew my mentor, you’d say ‘Ryan, man! You have no excuses!!’ Well, you’re right. My mentor just turned 50 last month. I have absolutely no excuses to Getting Started Again! Plus, I have my promise to you as my audience to keep this going.

3) Stick to a System

Many times what you find is programming that looks like this: ‘Lose 10 LBS in 60 Days’, ’28 Days to a Healthier, More Slim You’ or ‘3 Weeks to Reset Your Mind, Health and Body’. None of these are bad necessarily, however once you reach that 60, 28 or 21 day mark, the program is over, leaving you to your own devices. That’s what happened to me after all of those previous gains.

What you will see differently here is me using a system that is ongoing with no “end date” in mind, making adjustments periodically (say every 30 or 45 days for example). The initial results I shared took 8 Months! Don’t get me wrong, it is my goal to have a significant change from where I am now (that photo will come, just don’t feel up to sharing right now) to the end of 2018 (right before Christmas week). However, instead of setting a end date, I’ll systematically set mile markers to assess, adjust and progress forward.

4) Add Rather Than Take Away

Simply put, the psychology of loss is hard. We don’t do well with losing loved ones, pets, jobs, income, vehicles and anything other tough loss you can think of. The same psychology is in effect when considering “loosing” bad habits, and as you may have found, it also applies to Getting Started Again. From experience, as well as from professional recommendation, it is better to add positive daily habits (like exercise or healthier foods) rather than think about cutting bad foods, forcing yourself to workout hours on end and obsess with losing weight.

Think of it this way, where your focus goes, your energy flows. Would you rather focus on loosing weight or adding positive, yet simple and small habits to your lifestyle? One is arduous and an upstream battle while the other provides peace and a gradual growth of confidence & success.

5) Strive for Results, Rest in Progress

Whenever I miss the mark, which I’m certain there will be plenty of (and I’ll be sure to share that also), stop and take on a “attitude of gratitude” for where I’ve come so far. The fact that I’m pursuing a deep desire vs. sitting around thinking about it is progress and something I can take rest in! Beating myself down will only get me back to where I write from today, Getting Starting Again… Again.

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