The Cabinet

With a few exceptions, avoid eating out of the cabinet.

I May Not Be There Yet

Very Interesting Daily Change

This guy is an internet legend. It's very interesting to see what it looks like if you were to change your body and take pictures of it every day.

My Own Quote

This is something I often say to my most successful clients.

"You think like a rich person but you eat like a poor person."

What that means is, they can have all the money in the world but when its time to eat, you would think they weer a starving homeless person who was afraid they would run out of food, or one day lose the ability to pay for food.

When those things are out of sync, you can never truly be successful.

We Are Awesome

Moving, dancing, happiness, joy, celebration. These are the best of traits of humanity. Go out and dance, play, celebrate, move! Live your life, do not distract yourself from it.

Amazing Runner, Triumph Of Will

I Can Totally See This

Go Out And Play

Idea Of Beauty

This is what a beautiful woman looks like in Brazil. How different it is here.

Things My Client Says...

Actually had a new client ask why there isn't kibble food for humans? It would make life so much easier...

Wow so many things wrong with this.

A Biased Review...

"I had been telling Sam that I wasn't comfortable with my weight and how I looked. He told me I looked great and that I was wonderful just the way I was. Of course he would say that though, he's my husband..." Read More!

Ben's Review

"I'm a long time fan of the UFC/MMA and first contacted Sam about training MMA, and have been training with him twice a week for the past seven months.

Let me rewind a little..." Read More!

Miko's Review

"I passed on the dozens of trainers and gyms in the area and opted to see Sam Y because of his style in teaching, coaching, training and inspiring you.  Without being loud and in your face, he motivates you..." Read More!

Another New Yelp Review

"Sam isn't just a trainer, he's a coach. Losing weight isn't just simply lifting weights, running on a treadmill or any other exercise you can't think of. First and foremost being healthy is a new way of thinking..." Read More!

Live Your Life!

Stop updating on Facebook about it, Tweeting it, Yelping it, blogging about it, talking about it, living the life for some online game or persona, e-mailing about it, instant messaging, get off your Iphones, Blackberries, androids, etc. Stop distracting yourself from your life. Stop just planning your life or some future vacation with all your girlfriends who may bail out or waiting for New Years to do something.

Go out and just live your f'n life.

Top Reason For Failure

It's the same thing as it was when you were a child. Procrastination. It's what it has been, what it is now, and what it always will be.

Miko: An Ongoing Success Story

I hardly ever write about specific clients or show photos of them or do that typical trainer thing. But I thought this story was special and worth sharing because it's inspirational and an interesting experiment in training and the power of the mind over the body:

I currently have a client. Her name is Miko. She's from a mixed decent: half Japanese and half black. Though she was given a Japanese name, she tells me she identifies more with her black heritage. She's from Pontiac, Michigan. Why do I mention her race and the state she's from? Because Michigan is one of the top 10 fattest states, and black women have the highest rate of obesity as compared to other groups in the US. Those are just the statistics though, and do not offer a complete story.

Somewhere in her life she also decided to become vegetarian. Not for any moral reasons, she told me she just fell into it. And stuck with it because thought it was the healthier way to live. That's kind of a common story I hear a lot as well. 

Miko works in the tech field and works from home. So she sits all day, snacks, and finishes off her day with a cocktail. To balance all these things out though, she does Jazzercise and line dancing. She's never had a personal trainer. And then she came to see me. I had to factor in all these variables that made her who she is/was.

I asked her, why she was here, when she had live her whole life without a trainer before. Two reasons: first she never felt completely comfortable with her body, she never felt toned or fit and she's never been under a 150lbs as an adult. Secondly, she was going to have surgery soon. Very soon. Actually two weeks from our first meeting. She was having a myomectamy. It wasn't dangerous, but required a long recovery time. She was afraid she would gain a lot of weight, and never be able to lose it. So she decided to plan ahead.

I've never had someone prior to surgery (a lot of post surgery clients though) sign up for training, with surgery being the main factor. Sounded like a great experiment. What will happen  when she starts training prior to surgery?

Age: 44

Height: 5' 7

Weight: 153

Body fat: 33%

Waist: 35.5 in.

Hips: 42 in.

Arms: 12 in. 

Thighs: 22.5 in.

Shoulders: 39 in.

Hip to Waist Ratio: 85% (ideal is to have your waist be 70% of your hips for a woman)

So I had 2 weeks. Only a handful of sessions to work with her. What could I do? I could try to give her a head start and try to get her to lose some weight fast, which is what most trainers would do...but I'm not most trainers. I spent all my time trying to make her more resistant to injury, make her body more supple and flexible, teach her movements she could do at home that were not stressful or load bearing, and I talked a lot about mental focus with her. A lot of sports psychology, of staying motivated, staying hungry, increasing desire, being patient, giving yourself tasks, making yourself a success.

The reason being, so that she would rebound from her surgery faster and not have it take as big of a toll. Secondly to have the surgery not take as much of a mental toll as well.

When she out of surgery, I constantly gave her homework. I gave her books to read to keep her mind right. When she was in bed ridden, I had her work on those shoulder mobility and range of motion drills I showed her. A focus was to minimize range of motion loss. I sent her videos to watch. It was a long recovery over 6 weeks before she cold start walking again for exercise. Then she walked, did all the stretches, read all the books, and took all the dietary advice I gave her. Even with all this, it was impossible not to gain weight. She could barely move, and she had to mainly eat mush and popping pills. This was why mental toughness was a huge part of the plan, because we couldn't stop this, only minimize the damage.

This was her right before she came back to training. She was now able to walk, move around, see friends. She gained around 9-10lbs.

Weight at time of photo: 162

She's trying her best though to cover up her size with a jacket in the middle of a sunny California day.

Now that she was back. I put her right back onto the program. We started off very slow even though she did well on her own. She read everything I sent her and did the best she could with the dietary changes I gave her.

We met twice a week. Each week a new phase in the program. 7 phases, each consisting of new dietary changes. One of those being, eating meat again...she was not resistant and open to it, but she did it very slowly.

All my clients are great, but they follow my exercise and eating and lifestyle guidelines to varying degrees. I can't make them, I'm not gonna pretend I'm a cop or a drill sergeant or any other job field that I'm not a part of. If they come in and tell me they want to eat this way or live that way, or only want to do these exercises or tell me how they want to train that day, I will do whatever they want, it's their body and I am just their guide. But we will no longer be within the controlled variables of my program and they are really staging their own program/experiment. And their results are their results and I have no idea what they will be and neither will they. I have to be true to what a trainer is and when they pay for me, they aren't really paying for me, they are paying for my program so they have to believe in it and follow it. The ones who follow everything I say to the letter, have had very positive results. Miko was one of these people. 

I think it's a lot due to the mental prep work we did prior to the surgery. I am definitely convinced it is better to start before and not after any major life event. Not after a surgery but before, not after you had the baby but before, not after the wedding but before, not after the move but before, not after the new job but before, etc.

We started off slowly with just fish, then turkey, chicken. She still doesn't eat red meat but getting her off of grain substitute protein and onto real protein was a big step. 

Now after the 7 week program:

Age: 44

Height: 5' 7

Weight: 153 to 162 to 132

Body fat: 33% to 23%

Waist: 35.5 in. to 29 in.

Hips: 42 in. to 38 in.

Arms: 12 in. to 11 in.

Thighs: 22.5 in. 20 in.

Shoulders: 39 in. to 37 in.

Hip to Waist Ratio: 85% to 76%

(Let me just add, we just weighed her after she came back from a Vegas trip. That's some dedication!)

She told me that one of her biggest surprises was that, she lost weight after eating meat again. She always thought the reverse was true. It flipped her understanding of healthy diet upside down.

Now she's finally below 150. Well below. Her focus now is to get stronger, gain more endurance, change whatever physical limits her body has had before. She still wants to get to a 70% hip to waist ratio. She wants a stronger core...you know...it's the usual stuff clients always want. Getting toned, being fit, etc. etc. It's all the same to me. None of that is what's important. Her biggest change isn't that her core got stronger, it's that her mind got stronger. She came in a timid woman. Now she has the heart of a lion.

You can't expect to solve your problems with the same mindset that created them. And she has changed her mindset.

The goal for everyone is the same, you just don't know it. It's my goal, your goal, the only goal. To be as injury proof as possible, strong as possible, lean as possible, and tough as possible. Everyone's optimum level is different, but it's all about the journey of self cultivation and she is taking the journey with all out effort.

UPDATE -

Miko a month and a half later is now 122. And this is after Thanksgiving! She is done trying to lose weight and is finally happy where she is!

Homeless Stud

While I was parking my car, I saw a buff homeless guy in a tank top rummaging through trash, pushing a shopping cart. He was a bit older. He strutted and flexed just in case anyone was watching.

With all the problems he must have going for him, he still carries himself with confidence and finds time to do work out using playground equipment. Not just time, the motivation and lack of willingness to fail in this endeavor.

You got a car, a computer, a place to live, a gym membership, a refrigerator, and access to fresh foods. What's your excuse?

The Matrix

If you ever have seen The Matrix, it shows a bleak version of the future. It's scary because it almost seems plausible, this world where we just entertain ourselves all day via a connection to a system that's close to the world wide web. Except it connects directly to our brains. And eating and using the bathroom is all taken care of for us.

But they were very inaccurate about one thing. In this world, everyone in these cocoons are skinny and good looking, like Neo was. But in fact if he had been fed instant mush food, and never moved, most likely he would have been pretty obese. In fact all human beings would have been, and they would have been able to create more power this way as well. But it is a movie after all. How would a bunch of obese people be able to save humanity?

It's strange how most people are becoming overweight, yet in the distance future when we are all less active and eating even more poorly, we are looking like this:

But that's movie magic...

Food As Culture

So I know a region, or country, or a race can have a culture. And food can be a part of that culture. But when did food itself become culture? And how do we make food just...food? It's become so loaded and now people get so offended or are so sensitive about it as if it's like their history, their mother's love, their religion, their personality, their cult, their self help, their god?

A Strange Coincidence?

I notice, that the less the client breathes and holds their breath while working out, the more sore they are the next day. May be something to this.

Train Hard To Eat More

Training a lot and training hard doesn't include eating more.

Very Funny

4 Days On 3 Days Off

Do you work out and eat well 4 days in a row but do very poorly the following 3 days? Usually Friday, Saturday, Sunday? This is pretty common for a lot of folks.

And somehow those 3 days can eliminate all the good work you did in the past 4 days. In fact you can actually gain more weight in those 3 days then you can lose in the next 4. Something to think about.

Gymnastics

There mere act of standing up straight is like gymnastics to some people.

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.