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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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Day 4 – Is Nutrition Truly 80% of the Work?

This post goes out to those brothas and sistas in the office, either working for the man or for themselves! For those who feel that they cannot shake the crazy, busy lifestyle long enough to take care of their nutrition. I HEAR AND FEEL FOR YOU! I WAS YOU AND AM STILL YOU!!!

This is by far the hardest part of changing your body composition!

Right now I can think of at least five (5) men, all technical professionals who are well off in their career. They have kids/family to support outside of the very busy work grind. Yet, they shared with me their troubles and tribulations on eating. As difficult as it is to get into your schedule and maintain, Nutrition is almost a dirty word in today’s context. You see so many gimmicks and tricks on morning news shows, you wonder if it is all real. Well, some of it is real…

As mentioned on Day 1, it’s important to first find where you are with nutrition!

For myself, today’s accountability – probably the hardest of all areas that I share with you – is my food habits. Let’s take it back to 2016 when I was finally making it to my next milestone in my Corporate America run. I was about 4.5 years into my management position as a project manager, finally understanding what needed to be done… to get things done in that field, and making an income to match (broke that 6-figure mark, yea boi!).

As my responsibility grew, so did the hours… there were times where I was at the office/at home until 2:00AM (having started at 9:00AM) working to get things done. Parts of my team were in China and Germany. So that meant staying in the office till 7 or 8PM to catch China during their morning or waking up at 12AM to catch Germany during their morning hours so they could work while I slept… for a few hours.

The idea that you can get all of your work done in 40 hours/week is absolute BS!

That is if you want to be successful, provide for your family and grow, gaining more experience, leveraging that experience to create more knowledge and repeating the process with the bank of wisdom you work so hard to fill up. We all know and feel the cost of living going up. One job, at least in the area I live (SF Bay Area job), is not enough to get things done. Especially if you have someone to care for. If you’re on the ‘40 hours and I’m done boat’ and the 50, 60, 70 or even 80+ hour work week doesn’t speak to you, feel free to scroll to the next post, swipe up or close this sucka out…

I truly want to speak to those who have a desire to build all areas of their lifestyle!

Not only is fitness important, but more importantly, what you eat. It’s true when they say you are what you eat… don’t believe me? Check this cool ish out! OH, As I way saying, it is hard to “fit nutrition in” when you’re so busy. Ok, so if we agree on that topic, then ‘what do you know Ryan that will help me figure all of this out?’

So glad you asked, I’ll share with you what I’m doing right now!

To offset the poor habits I created during my old job, I am gradually moving back to the eating habits I worked so diligently on back in 2013-2014. If you happened to watch the first bit of the cool video I posted above, they started in on the science of carbs and how they turn into glucose. Glucose = energy right? Yes, it is the main fuel source of the body! My goal is to keep a high level of intake on my carbs, but not insanely specific on what carbs I eat. Here’s the reason why: I’ve added to my schedule 30 minutes of fairly intense exercise and need that additional energy to support this additional energy expenditure.

As I gain in consistency, I’ll start to “clean up” my carbs. For now, I’ve been eating carbs consisting of whole wheat bread (with no HFCS), cheese filled tortellini with pork/chicken sausage, pita with hummus and rice & beans. I’ll have a salad here or there. Also, the goal is to work back in avocados and keep the protein intake up as much as possible. Ideally, I’ll work towards 1g of protein per desired pound of lean muscle mass (which will be well over 200). My recent protein find are these not so bad protein bars from Costco.

PRO TIP – you may find these bars on amazon or eBay if you’re not in an area with Costco or don’t have their membership.

That’s cool Ryan, anything else to share!?

Yes, as a matter of fact, I want to leave you with my economically friendly and super easy dish of the week! *Cue for the cool intro music* I made this recently! Use a rice cooker and walk away (just make sure you have it set to warm your food after the cooking is done). I call it Sanders Mexican rice, brought to you by my younger bro Elliott:

SANDERS MEXICAN RICE
By Elliott Sanders

Ingredients:

  • 2 Cups of Brown Rice
  • 3 – ½ cups of Water
  • 1 Can of Pinto Beans
  • 1 Can of Black Beans
  • ½ Cup of Salsa (Mild, Medium or Hot per your preferences)
  • Minced Garlic for taste
  • Pinch of Mediterranean Sea Salt

Add all ingredients into rice cooker and hit preset cooking button on cooker. When done, combine with protein of choice (I find lean ground beef, chicken – shredded or ground – or ground turkey are nice options). You may add additional salsa for flavor if you want to make this a vegetarian/vegan option. If you aren’t on board with brown rice, do white. Be sure to do your research on white rice as it has down sides compared to brown rice.

Oh and if you didn’t catch it, yes indeed, nutrition is 80% of the work!

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Project FRESH TV – Ep 1 – An Intro to F.R.E.S.H.

Introductions Aren’t Always Easy

It has been a long time coming for me to get to this point, but I’m excited to share the following… an Intro to Project: FRESH. What is Project: FRESH? Where did it come from? How did I create it? Why is it important to you and I? I’ve been a coach (mainly in nutrition and fitness) since December 2012. I started coaching because I gained a greater insight on what it means to be healthy. After losing 32 lbs and adding on some lean muscle mass, I realized I could give back. I took what I learned from my own experience and gave it to my parents… and later other individuals.

Fast Forward Four Years

After what seemed like a very long and depressing run in Corporate America, I found myself frustrated with my progress. I did my best to balance my walk in Christ, a 60-80 hr/week job, my health and my coaching, but didn’t seem to put it all together. Depression set in for me a number of times. I lost a major portion of all the momentum I had built from the start. I felt stuck in my job, my health and my business.

Turning Point

At the end of 2015, I decided to spend the turn of the year at my Church inviting Christ in and giving Him control over my business… something I hadn’t done before. Through people, experiences, books I read and much prayer, something changed. I’m thankful He led me to a friend of mine – Eden – who through her Transition Expert program, helped me address the areas I was avoiding. I accepted responsibility for where I was in life and took action to change.

Fitness & Nutrition Are Not Enough

During that transition period, I wanted to create an experience that focused on more than health and fitness. I understood from my prior experiences that life changes did not result only in how many workouts you did in a month or how well you ate in the last 21-30 days. Real lifestyle change took place in all areas of your life. I had previously created a F.R.E.S.H. – Fitness. Recreation. Education. Sanctity. Health – for my clients and coaching team as a way to establish focus on lifestyle. I rediscovered how important it is to focus on incorporating all areas of your life into making positive and healthy lifestyle change. Project: FRESH was born and I made changes to my coaching business to bring it to you…

It All Came Together When I Made the Decision

In short, Project: FRESH was created to help you and I elevate to new heights in our walk with Christ, careers/vocations, relationships, and personal health. Our focus is to lead by example and in turn help you do the same for your families, friends, communities and all others you influence on a daily basis. I couldn’t have established this business without making the decision to put together everything I learned and apply it to my coaching business.

Project: FRESH – Ryan, You and Your Intro to a FRESH Lifestyle

There is no time like the present. I’ve operated under this thought process since the beginning of 2016. I’ve found that Urgency is crucial, neither you nor I know when a crucial time may come where we do not have the choice to impact our health. I believe strongly that God can heal anyone from any disease or ailment we face, but why should we wait for that moment to find out. There are preventable steps we can take together to help you live the life you desire! Click below to learn more about Project FRESH and please share with others! We want to help you do something for yourself as we did. Check out our intro video and start with us today!

 

 

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