To Be Human

Most animals live off their fat, hibernate, or just plain lose weight in the winter. Humans are the only animals I know of that actually gains weight in the winter. I've heard so many people tell me they need to lose their winter fat. Then what happens? New Years rolls around and they make a resolution to lose all their winter fat.

There are no buts here. No, but we are still (fill in the blank). There's nothing good coming out of this. We just need to change.

Beyond The Beyond

Beyond goals of weight loss and muscle building, there's another reason why people work out so hard. They have a goal of self cultivation. They are successful in other facets of life, but that's not enough. Their lifelong goal is to cultivate a self, be a certain type of person.

Training is part of that goal of self cultivation.

Pain In The A##!

My clients say I am a real PAIN in the ABS!

I take that as a compliment.

The Crux

Okay, you've been working out hard, feeling tired, worn out, beat up. You are suffering through the work outs and somehow you're still here and one day you stop to notice, I'm not sore today.

That's the crux. You're no longer sore, you're now past all the hardest stuff. It's all results from here on out. This is the worst time to stop because you've finally arrived at the other side, you're finally getting in shape.

Our Bodies Are Amazing

Our bodies are truly amazing. It's not just a saying. There's so many things we can do with it beyond the typical, make love, have babies sort of thing. Things we can do often, physical activities.

Like climbing, hiking, swimming, surfing, sailing, hang gliding, acrobatics, martial arts, parkour, free running, boogie boarding, parachuting, indoor flying, skateboarding, bmx, or just running really fast for that matter. There's so many other activities that people do beyond these.

Not only are they amazing to do, it feels amazing to do them. To look down from hanging from a mountain, or top of a precipice, or the world inside of a wave, or looking behind you and seeing all the other racers trailing behind you...

It's an amazing feeling, that you are doing redefining your limits, seeing a perspective few can share, and have a sense of self confidence that no one can deny you, not even nature itself.

There are clients who just start out who tell me about how their bodies don't feel amazing, they can't sleep well, they are stressed, and they've never done anything physically that has particularly felt amazing. Their bodies went from an amazing gift to a trap, a rotting piece of flesh.

So what path do you choose? A path of liberation or a path of the rotting flesh drowned out by food, alcohol, TV, drugs, video games, computers, and other things that makes it rot more?

Being Geeky Bad For My Health?

As I always suspected! Being geeky and inactive may lead to autism! Be active as a family!

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.12/aspergers_pr.html

Lasting Power

As a general rule, if the food keeps for too long, its probably not that good for you. Keeps long in the cabinet and long in your body.

The Future

I see a future where we are all one people, one religion, one religious party. At least it seems we are headed this way. A future where everyone is going to be overweight, who are immersed in some online game/media, who eat some form of kibble made for humans.

I don't even know why religions or political parties argue so much. All the members are getting too big, too involved with game or social media, and eat food out of wrappers and packages. They are the same people, all their differences are in their head.

Look at yourself or people you know, how many of you cannot get off of Facebook, or your e-mail, or some fantasy football or online game, or your phone, how many of you eat prepackaged foods, how many of you are bigger than the last generation? So you may have different religions or political views, but how different are you? If in the end you all purchase and vote and create a world where there's more entertainment, more use of finite fuels, quicker and richer foods? Then is your political agenda that different? Is your God that different?

A lot of people want this future. I hope it never happens but it's really already happening. You know when they do a documentary, or news program about obesity and it shows Americans with their heads cut off, and it just shows their torso? I wonder how many people are watching TV one day to see a torso and a t-shirt in a mall that is very familiar? Those bodies belong to someone and sometimes its you. It's not some blank anonymous other, those are real people and sometimes that person is you.

There are studies like the Dunning-Krueger Effect, where we see how poor people are at judging how bad they are at something. A lot of people never realize how poor their health truly is until that visit to the doctor, or some medical calamity happens. Be honest with yourself, look where you are headed, and do something to slow that down, stop it, and reverse the momentum.

Ignorance And Procrastination

‎"Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, and not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science.” - Charles Darwin

Interesting upcoming book about how little we really know about...how little we know.

Infomercials

I notice nowadays infomercials can be separated into two categories. The first is get rich quick schemes. The other category is all about weight loss. 

Is this a sign that America is getting fat AND poor?

Now there's even infomercials where you can lose weight AND get rich. Where you show how much weight you've lost with some product, sign people up under you into a pyramid, and sell the product that originally "helped" you lose the weight.

Is this the new American dream?

Recover Long

Train short and hard but recover long!

Don't Try This At Home

You know how they have to tell kids not to try this at home? The reason cooked they say this is because children feel so liberated in their bodies, they feel like they can do anything they see. And in general they can almost do anything they see. Remember when we used to feel like that? Liberated in our own bodies? Before we stopped moving that is...

Chemitarian?

Some people call themselves vegetarian, or vegan, or they are on this cleanse or this diet or that. How come they all seem like chemitarians as one of my clients puts it. Meaning they eat mainly a lot of chemically processed foods, refined foods, processed grains, and nonmeat food matter. Potato chips, Doritos, Cheetos, Twinkies are all things I've seen people eat who've sworn off meat.

All these diets still are heavy in chemicals, processing, and low in real raw vegetables.

Desire or Addiction

When your desire for food is more than your need for food, is when you have to start asking yourself if its becoming an addiction.

News Flash

Hey folks, quick news flash here. Real food is not cheap.

What Is A Trainer?

It's not very well known but there are bars called hostess bars or dance halls called hostess dancing. It was more popular in the past, but it's still around. A hostess bar is a place where you pay by the hour and the hostess compliments you, blows up your ego, acts interested, listens, and does everything for you. Like get you a napkin, your drink, pick up stuff, just fawn over you, flirt with you, etc. Hostess dancing is pretty similar. You go to a club and pay a girl to dance with you, tell you how good you are, how handsome you are, etc. 

A lot of people seem to think that's what trainers do also. Trainers think that's their job, and the clients expect that when they hire a trainer. Someone who compliments them all the time, gets them their water, their towel, tell them how good they look, how they are too lean, too buff, the man, too strong, flirt with you, make you feel desirable and sexy, stretch you, open the doors for you, put the weights back for you, hold your hand while you are doing lunges, support your back while your are lifting something, etc.

Wait-a-minute, seems like people expect this also at the nail salons, from their stylists, their hair dresser, dry cleaners, etc. No wonder hostess bars are becoming obsolete.

Well the buck stops there. A trainer isn't a host or hostess. They aren't your cheerleader. They aren't there to pick up your weights, get you your towel, tell you how good looking you are. Why the hell would they put your weights back when the whole point of you being there is to lift a lot of heavy things? That makes no sense. Why is the athlete resting while the trainer goes to get their water?

Would you expect that from your football coach or tennis instructor or martial arts instructor or one of your professors in college? No. So what are you paying for? It's a waste of money to use your trainer as an emotional crutch. And it that's what the trainer is best at, he is not maximizing his job. 

A trainer's job is to train you, on your lifestyle, habits, diet, athleticism, and your mind. Whenever I have my athlete/client stretch after a work out and they see a trainer gently massage their client or stretch them, they ask me why I don't do that for them? Then I ask them, why don't I just work out for you instead too while you just watch. 

The client needs to work out, not pretend to work out. And trainers need to start doing their jobs, I don't care how much money they charge or what celebrity they train or how expensive the jeans they are wearing while they train their clients are. Are you a trainer or an actor/trainer?

Emotional Eating

So you only eat whatever you want when you are upset. It's a treat, a reward, and it's only when you are upset about something, so its excusable. But what happens if you are the type of person who is always upset???

Looks Can Be Deceiving

Just because someone looks out of shape doesn't mean they don't work out. It just means they eat poorly.

Flex!

I asked a new client to flex her stomach, she asked me how.