February 19thOnce in a while I take the leap and grill salmon for dinner knowing full well that Dan will most likely have a sarcastic comment, turn his nose or flat out refuse to eat it. He just refuses to eat fish at home. I realize I am no Julia Child but COME ON I cook well (you’ve told me this) and it’s good for you! Argh… whatever …. All of this means more nutrition for me, right? Yes, I eventually cave and make him something else and put the salmon in the fridge for me to eat later. continue reading under the picture ….
Salmon Citrus Salad : Boston Lettuce, Grilled Salmon (when your husband just won't eat it), a couple of sqeezes of lemon and a tiny bit of olive oil. I threw on some tomatoes as well for sweetness.
Today I decided to make a quick salad with it. I’ve never done that before. I’ve made it with chicken and other various fowl but not with Salmon. I put the ingredients above, under the picture, so you’ll see it’s not a big ordeal. Even making the salmon is not that painful.
FACTS: Salmon is an excellent source of omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin D, and selenium. It is also a very good source of protein, niacin and vitamin B12 and a good source of phosphorus, magnesium and vitamin B6.
So that’s one way I get creative eating at my home office. While some of the temptations are not within reach working from home, some of the old habits are still around and they still have to be battled. For the pros, I would say I can eat smaller portions more frequently and I can have a variety of healthy foods available in the fridge to choose from. The con for that is that it’s easy to over eat if not careful. I work on the computer all day and it would be easy to sit and munch. Too much is too much, bad or good. Another pro is that I don’t get peer pressure from coworkers or extra cravings from going out to lunches everyday. The times when I do go to a business lunch I make it a point to choose a place that will offer something healthy to eat. Luckly, most of the time the company I’m with is flexible.
Yes, everyday I make all of the meals for Dan and myself. Yes, it take some planning and effort but well worth it in the end. When we go to our personal trainers having eaten healthy all week we have a much better workout.
February 18thFinally I have a progress picture to share! Taken in our lovely hallway (where it’s not 20 degrees) 
Pictures Notes: I am really critical of myself and I put that aside to post this progress picture.I love my progress, don’t get me wrong. I haven’t felt better in years and I knowthat I am doing the right things. I just have hated taking pictures of myself these last few years and it’s really difficult for me to post it up for all to see. Especially the before picture below. Ugh! If that doesn’t motivate me to keep going to the gym and working out with the guys, I don’t know what would!
The picture on the left was taken in April 2009. We started working out at Train With Ron in October of 2009.
Birthdays & Valentines Day Notes: February is like the ‘perfect storm’ for us. It has been forever for me, but being with Dan it just upped it a couple of notches. Let me explain. Here are all of the birthdays I have going on in February; my older brother Gabor’s, 2 of my cousins’, Dan’s, our friend’s daughter Brooke’s. 3 friends and my own birthday. Add to that Valentines day and all I’m seeing is swirling & twirling cupcakes in my head. It’s hard not to with all of the celebrations. Oh and thanks February for the short month to squeeze all of this into!
The key is to be strong and think of the damage that could be done with going over board.
With that being said, Dan and I did celebrate my birthday with a nice sushi meal at Japonais. I love sushi! I added a couple of glasses of champagne and we split a dessert. That was the splurge. It made working out a bit more difficult the following evening but the motivation to erase any small amount of damage I may have done with my birthday meal was certainly my drive.
DB frequently talks to us about how changes in our diet can effect our workout and energy levels. This is so true. Smaller changes are harder to notice but it’s crazy how my body cannot handle the foods I used to eat a few months ago. Just having a slice of pizza or a soda will send my body into shock and I can even feel ill.
Closing notes: Dan and I are going to Hawaii at the beginning of April and we are looking to really shed some extra pounds over the next month and half. Not that I haven’t so far but if I can push myself even more at the gym, I will. It’s great to feel that now when I do pull ups on the bar I can actually do 6 in a row properly rather than the sloppy one I used to when I started.
Talk to you soon!
February 6th2/6/10
Just got back from my Saturday morning workout and it was a pretty tough one… but it felt awesome to get through it. I am now working out for a full hour (including warm-up… more on that later) with very few breaks, at a high intensity level. Monika and I are pushing ourselves past our previous actual limits… and WAY WAY WAY past our previously “imagined” limits.
I’ll tell you what I mean by imagined limits: the first time I went to TrainWithRon, I walked in the door and saw Kate (another member) doing Push-Up Walks. This is basically getting into the push up position, taking a lateral step with a hand/foot, doing a push up, another lateral step, rinse/repeat about 20 times. It’s pretty brutal. At the time, I couldn’t do FIVE knee push ups in a row. When I saw Kate doing these I thought, “wow, there’s no way I’m going to be able to do that, it’s going to take me a year to be able to do ONE of those.” Well, today I did 15 in a row of them. Not the “easy mode” knee push ups either – real ones – and, I did a total of about 50 of them during my workout – and a lot more.
I think I have finally broken through the mental barrier – the imagined barrier – of what I am capable of. I turn off that voice in my head that says “this is too hard”… “I’m too tired for this”… “I hate this particular movement / exercise”… and that has made a HUGE difference in the intensity I work out with. Both Matt and DB have noticed this and said something to me about it in the last two workouts. They’ve noticed me training with increased intensity and have increased the difficulty of the workouts.
That was a very hard won battle. Here’s how it happened: a couple of weeks ago, Moni and I got in the car after a Wednesday nighter and I asked Monika “how did you do?” (She had been in a different group than me that night.) “Do you hurt? I am so sore, that was so hard… I had to do (x y z exercise) and it was soooo hard…”
She replied, “You know, honestly – you need to stop complaining and telling me and yourself how hard it is and how much it hurts. You just keep telling yourself that stuff and you don’t try as hard… it’s hard for me when I’m trying to get through the workout and you’re complaining and saying how hard it is.”
At first my reaction (inside) was negative… but I thought about what she was saying, and she was right. I did not need to focus on the difficulty or the way I felt… I needed to focus that energy on completing the movement. The next time I went to TrainWithRon I was taking a short water break and noticed a sign they have up that I hadn’t seen before: it’s a quote from Sir Edmund Hillary, the first man to climb Mount Everest. He said, “It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves.” If anyone on the planet knows – he does. That quote, combined with Monika’s feedback, really hit home. I started to tell myself there is NOTHING these guys can throw at me that I cannot do. It is going to be hard, it is going to hurt, and I am going to DO it.
Ever since I adopted that mental attitude, my workouts have improved – I take less breaks, the breaks I take are shorter, and I press through the difficulty because I have more confidence and I will not let that voice inside my head that tells me “you can’t” win out over the one that wants me to succeed.
I am a little surprised that it took that event to get me into this mindset… when I was younger and played a lot of hockey, this attitude came inherently to me. I was not going to be outraced, out hit, I was going to be the guy out there making things happen, making plays, getting to loose pucks, taking shots, and taking the fight to the other team. Somehow I lost that edge, or did not apply it to my training, but I am really glad to have it back because it’s helping me progress to the next level.
Today I weighed in at 242.5 pounds… that’s about 10 more lbs gone since Jan 1, 2010, for a total loss of 35. NONE of my clothes fit me, in fact, I am going to the storage unit later to dig up some clothes and see what I have that I can still wear. I feel AWESOME. My lower back never, ever hurts (it used to hurt just walking around sometimes and ALWAYS if I did anything strenuous.) and I have tons of energy. I can run 5-10 minutes at 5mph and carry on a conversation while doing it. My muscles are filling out, I look healthy, and I feel so much more confident when I get dressed in the morning because as opposed to bulging out of my pants, they’re falling off me. I now weigh less than I have in the last 5 years (since I moved to Chicago). I haven’t taken a Zantac (heartburn medication) in months – I used to eat them like they were candy.
Things have changed – my eating has changed, my workouts have changed… and my attitude towards them has changed. When we first started I DREADED going to TrainWithRon because I knew I was going to leave in discomfort. Now, I mentally prepare myself for the training session by telling myself I am going to push myself, and that there is nothing they are going to throw at me that I cannot get through.
Tonight I will play on stage with my new band – it’s the first time in ten years that I have been in a band and played a live show. Part of the reason for that is I could not confidently get on stage in front of people in the shape I was in, regardless of my talent level.
This change in life has had far reaching effects that go beyond the physical form. I’ll talk more about that next time. I’m getting a little choked up writing all this… I just want to put in one last word of thanks: to Matt, Ron, and DB – you guys are AWESOME. You have helped me change my life. You are excellent examples – you guys WALK the WALK. You motivate me, push me, and challenge me. You are worth your weight in gold. I also want to thank my wife Monika – she pushes me, she tolerates me, and she handles all the food stuff (makes my healthful lunch every day, and great dinners)… I couldn’t do this without you 4.
November 2ndDan and I enjoyed dinner last night at Carmichaels with an old friend who came into town. Carmichaels is a steak place and that’s pretty much all they have. Yes, they do have fish, but you go for the steak. So we all had steaks. I ordered a plate of steamed asparagus on the side to share and our fiend (who is NOT on a diet) ordered garlic mashed potatoes. After I was done with my steak I did have a scoop of the potatoes and so did Dan. Typically we would have mashed potatoes on the plate first thing and more than what we had last night. What Dan I were really proud of ourselves for was the rejection of the dessert selection. I saw the waiter coming with the tray and I should’ve just stopped him there but maybe our friend wanted something. We let the waiter describe the Coconut cheesecake, the big cookie with ice cream, lava cake and many more and then we politely declined. Now this is where your mind starts working over time. Letting you know ‘it’s OK, you’ve worked hard and you deserve to treat yourself’. It’s amazing the amount of energy the body exudes on just trying to manipulate you to do the wrong thing. We prevailed and walked away feeling good about it.
Saturday we had our 8th session at TWR and with each we feel stronger and leaner. I look forward to posting a new picture of us to share our progress soon. Up until now Dan and I worked out together with the trainer but this past Saturday Dan worked out with Matt and I with DB. I was teamed up with a couple of people more advanced than me so I had to work extra just so i could sort of keep up with them. I can’t let it get me down though because I am still in the beginning stages and they’ve been at it for much longer. If anything, it’s positive motivation.
I look forward to next week when we have Dr. Chiu, a board-certified Chiropractic Neurologist at TWR to talk about healthy diets and what the latest in nutritional and genomic science has to say say about how we can use food not only as fuel, but also as a delicious way to activate the genes that can allow us to burn fat, build muscle, and boost the brain.
