What's your excuse?

What's your excuse? Don't get standoffish with this question. Every one has a busy life. Between kids, work, school, after school activities, volunteering, etc, etc, it's hard to find the time let alone the energy to workout. My excuse to not go after my fitness goals was, "I'm tired." I work and volunteer a lot. It's common for me only be home 2 days in a 2 week period at times. 

As I mentioned I my introduction, I am an airline pilot so my schedule is always changing. 12-14 hour workdays and well as getting up at different times of the day are common. It's hard to adjust my body to all these changes. Add my volunteering to this, and my time becomes a luxury. I travel to volunteer so in itself, 2-4 days or gone once every few weeks when I volunteer. With all of this traveling, my body gets tired fast. I always used this excuse to not workout. I thought that inward already doing and moving enough that a workout was not necessary. This is where I gained all of those pounds and got to the worse shape of my life. 

When I began to workout, I realized something. Not only did I lose weight and felt better, I had more energy everyday. I began to be able to run more, snowboard longer, not need to take as many naps, perform better at work, and get home and have the energy to go out. Turns out my excuse was not valid.

Now I am not saying everyone's excuse is not valid. I was just showing that adding some workouts to my daily routine enhanced my life overall. Take this story as an inspiration for you to spend 20 minutes a day on the treadmill or outside, to do sit ups or crunches, or be a little more active with your kids. You'll be amazed what more you'll be able to do with more energy. 

For those who have a hard time finding workouts that are quick, or are not going to kill you the first time you try, I have some ideas for you. Come back soon and see what they are! Until then, think about ways to become a little more active everyday.

Being Fit: A Personal Perspective

How many people look at supermodels or bodybuilders and say, "man, I want to be fit like that"? Or you see a movie star and ask the same? Or worse yet, when you see an average person at the beach that makes you self concious about taking your shirt off. This has all happened to me and I knownim not the only one. I started to work out to look like these people. Even looked up Daniel Craig's (James Bond. Yes I have a man crush on him) workout routine so I could be him. 

I soon found out, I was still not happy working out. I didn't like what I was doing, the workouts, but most of all, I didn't like the fact that I defined fit as a look. A look of appeal to myself but mainly to others. One thing that also frustrated me was the fact that I was getting nice biceps but didn't use them or were impractical for my goal. But again, wast was my goal? I decided to find my own definition of fitness; one that works for me uniquely. That was the epiphany.

I realized that everyone has different fitness goals so in essence they all define fitness differently. I have my goals which are to be as conditioned as a soccer player, as agile as a snowboarder, and half or 3/4 as strong as the people competing in Amrican Ninja Warrior. Have you ever seen them? They have an agile, strong, slim body; exactly what I want.

The point to this is to find your own definition of being fit. Do you want to have that beach body with the six pack? Do you want to be a body builder? How have slim muscles or just loose weight to be able to fit in your favorite dress or suit? (Yes I have a favorite suit and trust me, it has been an inspiration to loose weight.) Don't feel pressured to be someone else you are not. You are who you are and be proud of that. Defining your own fitness will not only help you feel and look better physically, but you'll be happier overall. I feel more confident also. So, how do you define fitness?

About me

So who am I? As I said in my last post, I'm not any expert on fitness or anything, I'm just an average guy working toward a healthier lifestyle. People that see me think I'm healthy but I don't completely feel or am heathy or in shape. When I was a kid, I was always in shape. I played soccer, was always outside running around, riding bikes, doing things that boys did. As I got into high school, I played more soccer, I became a soccer referee, I picked up snowboarding, and began to play indoor soccer during summer and winter. I was always in shape and could eat whatever I wanted.

My weight/health struggles began when I went to college. Everyone says they gain 15 pounds their freshman year but me, I gained 35 pounds. Went from being 140 to 175 in just one semester. I was working out but less. I wasn't playing soccer regularly, I was still eating whatever I wanted and I began to lift a lot of weights. Lifting weights was not bad, I got really strong but my diet was detrimental to my body. I went home for the holidays and didn't work out at all but still ate poorly. Came back to college and still didn't work out. All that muscle turned to fat real quick. Before I knew it, I was weighing close to 180 pounds. I struggled with that for 3 years and never really understood why. I began to eat a little better didn't find a a good diet or routine. 

My senior year of college, a buddy of mine saw me struggling and suggested I followed his workout and meal plan. I did and I lost weight! I was excited. I felt better, felt more active, was able to do more, I was happier, more confident, things were going well. I went down from 190 to 168 in 3 months. I was eating better and working out. When I started second semester, I realized that my friend's workout plan was only focusing on strength mainly in the upper body. I approached him about doing more cardio and balance the weights more through the body. He didn't really have workouts for that so I began to explore other options. I did ok that last semester but when I graduated, I was back to gaining weight and not working out.

I got a job as a commercial pilot flying tours over the Grand Canyon. I tried to keep my good diet to help me keep my weight low but it was hard to workout with long days of flying every day. I was very tired every time I got home so I chose sleep over exercise. 6 months later, I started a new job as an Airline Pilot flying a small jet around the United States. If I thought coming up with a routine while I was flying at the canyon was hard, this new lifestyle was going to be hell. I love my job but it's really hard to stay healthy. I got up to 198 lbs, ate a lot of fast food at the airport between flights, and had weird sleep habits die to my ever changing schedule. This life was not good for me. I was fat, unhappy, not confident, and confused because no matter how much tried to work out, I couldn't loose a pound. I always thought, I want to be in shape and healthy again like I was in high school but I knew that I was not going to be able to workout as much as I did with the lifestyle I live. That's when I began to talk to my co-workers that were healthy to ask and see what they did. There was one question that I was dying to find the answer to. What does it means to be fit? For that answer, I'll have to tell another story....