A personal training & food journal. Read about our weight loss progress at Train With Ron in Chicago, our nutritional habits and the life changes we're making to get in shape and stay healthy!
June 28thWell, I became an uncle for the first time last week – my little brother had a baby… and Monika and I decided to drive back to New York and see the little tyke first hand. Going back was a great decision… not packing some food for the drive was not. One of the first things I noted on the highways and byways of the United States Interstate System is that the healthful food offerings are nearly non existent. What IS offered is food that no human in their right mind would eat if they hadn’t been conditioned to eat crappy food their entire lives. Fast food is bad, but rest stop fast food sinks to a low that no one should be subjected to. The best you could hope for was a fruit cup at Starbucks… if they were open when you happened to stop (we did a lot of driving in the wee hours to avoid traffic).
Anyhow, my new nephew was amazing (Anthony Jason “A. J.” Arturi, 8lbs, 4oz.). All he did while I was there was eat, sleep, poop, and cry… and all of it was fantastic. What a beautiful thing to see… it really affected me in a good way – to see that amid all the chaos, war, and hatred in the world, something so innocent can still exist and survive if love and care are given to it.
All totaled, we had 5 days off from the gym… Monika was really having some withdrawal symptoms… I did too, the entire time I was there I was feeling ‘I should be working out today’, but I was so busy running around that I didn’t make time for it. We ate better on the nights we were at my brother’s house (we BBQ’d chicken, dogs, burgers, and vegetables) but I still ate too much on those nights. Plus, we snacked on gummy bears, chocolate covered pretzels, and licorice in the car (all of which I grew tired of after a few hours… but kept eating it because I was hungry and didn’t want to stop for a “meal”). Today we went back… Monika in the early morning and me at 6pm. I did some “Pure Steel” type lifting mixed in with a little cardio and handled it OK… I was surprised that I struggled with bench pressing 5 sets of 10 reps @ 145 lbs… I was tossing that weight around like a Q-Tip two weeks ago.
I’m glad to be back home eating healthfully and back at Train with Ron. Next time we have to leave town in a car, we’ll be doing it with a cooler fully stocked with fruits, vegetables, and other healthful treats.
June 15thTwelve weeks ago I began doing the Pure Steel workouts with Matt on Tuesday nights. Tonight that program culminated in an attempt – two actually – at bench pressing 220 pounds, which would have been a personal record.
Would have been.
My warm up lifts were all strong, even the 205 felt great, but when I got 220 in my hands, I was too slow bringing it down… I got it up about half way, then hit the brick wall. On my second attempt, I eliminated the error of bringing the weight down too slow, but still hit the brick wall halfway up.
The good news: I did get 215 last week and have definitely gained (or regained) quite a bit of strength over these last 12 weeks. My physique has definitely improved, I have even lost a few pounds (6) while regaining this muscle and strength. After another round of Pure Steel, I should be able to bench my weight – which I hope will come down a few more pounds in the coming weeks. Additionally, I’ve been running the mile to and from TWR on lifting nights (I wouldn’t dare do that on the other nights – the cross training takes a lot out of me).
Today I got a great compliment on how I look from someone I don’t see too often – my boss. That felt awesome! I’m playing another show out this week and then no more shows for a month, which will give us time to gear up with new tunes and new attitude, and enable me to get into even better shape for summer shows! I hope to get some of my TWR friends to some of our shows this summer – we always have a blast… I’m not a marketing guru though, so I’ll have to put a bit more effort into that in the future.
Hope to see you at the gym soon!
June 10thI have been having so much fun going to the gym lately! Not that it wasn’t fun before but doing the Unlimited the last month and a half allowed me to step it up a bit and really added another level of intensity. Consistently I’ve been going at least 5 mornings and even 6 some weeks and I am hooked. I miss it on my off days and I’m consistently not cranky at 6am. That is saying A LOT for me. I am not a morning person, at all. But my body has really adjusted to the morning routine.
I passed 40 pounds lost last week and I’m up to 42 pounds lost as of today. In our house, there are clothes everywhere. Clothes we brought up from storage that used to fit us and that we can wear again, new clothes and of course all of the fat clothes that I cannot wait to be rid of completely. That pile of clothes is growing with each week and I feel so great about that. I love tossing a piece of clothing onto that pile and being rid of it for good. I enjoy clothes shopping now! I would definitely call that a milestone and it seems like there is a new mile stone around every corner.
Once I lose another 22 pounds I will officially be within my ideal body weight range. However, I want to lose 36 more. I’m 166 now and would like to be at 130. Then I will continue to work on maintaining that. The one thing I have to do now is get a little better with my nutrition and increase my water intake. It’s the usual excuse of working too hard during the day to make time for it but I have to set that aside and do what’s important. Really it’s not that bad, but I could do better and I know it!
I love all of the new people at the gym it’s so great to see someone get started as they realize this is not your typical workout. This is a serious hour with a unique and intense workout. One they probably never experienced. Welcome to Train With Ron! Thanks for reading and I’ll see you in the morning!
June 3rdWell, it’s been quite a while since I’ve written, so I’ll try to resist the temptation of overdoing it with an overly long post. Obviously if you read the blog you saw where Monika and I went to Hawaii, which I can honestly say was the best time I’ve ever had in my life… I haven’t felt that grounded, relaxed, and just plain happy in a long time… possibly never as much as I did on that trip. I played golf (shot 105 and a 92 on the Palmer course and a 98 on the Fazio) pretty well, rode a horse, walked on the beach with my shirt off, got a suntan (burn) and just enjoyed life. Since coming back, I’ve been really busy with work but Monika decided to get us the unlimited package. I thought I’d go 4 times a week instead of 3… but I’ve been going 5 times and even 6 when I can squeeze it in for a couple of weeks now. It hurts, but I’m also stronger than I’ve ever been at this point and definitely making some new progress – I’m not really losing weight, but I am still losing inches.
Yep, that's me in the tan shorts getting some air.
I’ve been playing with a band called Thump 808 since early May. Great guys, good music. Thanks to
Ron, Matt, and DB I can actually get some air now! We have a
Facebook page and you don’t have to be a member of Facebook to check it out, so check it out if you like great live music.
Last week I got into what could be considered a pretty serious car accident… I got “T-boned” on the passenger side of the car at about 30 mph, then did about a 120 degree spin-out, and ended up hitting a light pole head-on at about 25-30 mph. My car was totaled… but I walked away without a scratch on me… no blood, no broken bones, no bruises… honestly, not even an ache or pain. I would say “miraculous”, and also lucky… but I attribute this miraculous luck partially to the physical shape I’m in as well. As Ron put it… every play in football is like a car accident and I am built to take the hit at this point – strong and fairly lean.
My latest battle at the gym has been bench pressing in the Pure Steel weight program I’m doing with Matt. I was stunned the day a few weeks ago when I threw up 175 lbs 10 times… that was great for me… but these last two weeks I’ve failed at the heaviest weight (195, 5 reps, and 215, one rep, respectively). I know I’m strong enough to bench the 215… I don’t know if it was form, technique, or just a mental block, but I could not lift the weight. I was aggravated by it, but not discouraged. I’m starting to feel like I can do anything the guys throw at me and I’ve definitely gotten much stronger since starting the weightlifting program with Matt.
I pledge to do a better job of writing more frequently and keep my posts looking like blogs rather than huge essays. I forgot how much I enjoy blogging about this experience. More to come, soon! :)
