Giving Up?

Giving up
Have you given up? Are you giving up?
Just the other day I had a member come into my office and tell me that the large sweat shirt I gave him was too small. He wanted to get an extra large shirt now. At first I was going to give it to him but then I remember, just a year ago he was complaining about his diabetes and that fact that he had to lose some weight and that he was sick and tired of wearing XL’s. What happened? Well in a nut shell, he lost the weight and his medications were reduced and he was feeling good, so little by little his OLD life style began to creep back into the picture. Now he is drinking those beers and soda’s again and over eating just like he did just a year and a half ago.
I asked him to sit down and just as he did that, the excuses began to fly. Everything from hereditary issues to family issues however, the best excuse he gave me was…he was content with being the way he was. I sat back and took a deep breath, as my blood pressure began to rise I got up and went to my closet and took out a XXXL and handed it to him. He looked puzzled and stated, “I wanted a XL not a XXXL.” He began to hand it back and I pulled my hand back and refused to take it from him. I stated, “Why stop at an XL. Soon enough the XL will be too small so let’s not play games here and just go to finished product.” I then wished him a good day and turned my chair around and got back onto my computer.
Ten minutes later he comes storming into my office, “You are a piece of work! Give me my large back! You are right, I was giving up. I have come so far and I have gone back to a lot of my old ways and I need to get back on track. You are right.” I turned around handed his old shirt back to him, took him out to the floor and had a great workout.
Are you giving up and just don’t realize it. Have you gone back to those old bigger cloths thinking that they are just more comfortable? Think about the consequences of you going back to your old habits. Is it really worth it? Think about it.

Time for change!!!!!

In 2003 I was once sitting in the room with a friend and we were talking about what we really wanted to do in this life. What was our dream? What did it look like? How could we make it happen? After talking for just a few minutes it was good to find out that his dream and my dream were practically one in the same. We wanted to open up a place in Central New Jersey that could help people fight the battle of obesity. You see his family was fighting that battle in a big way and so was mine. The problem was that we had good paying jobs and we did not know if we focused enough and dedicated enough time to make this happen. I had felt for years the Lord calling me to do something like this. I remember sitting down with him and going over the details of what this gym would look like and after spending many hours of talking and dreaming, we looked at each other and asked the question, “are we serious or, once I leave your home, will we just go back to our normal mundane lives, really not trying to make a difference in anyone’s life but our own?” That night before leaving we swore an oath that we would follow this dream through to its end where ever we lived.
To make a long story short, a few weeks later I receive a call from my friend’s mother and that call changed my life forever. Tommy (my dear friend), at age 26, had died in a motorcycle accident. He hit a bus head on and died instantly. When I was listening to his mother tell me what happened I was devastated and at a loss for words. This was one of the hardest funerals I ever had to go to. However, while sitting in the audience I remember what we had said and from the moment I got into my car I never looked back at my old self and began the process of transforming my life and live our dream. Thus, Parker’s Place was born.
In the spring of 2004 I opened up Parker's Place and my purpose was to bring a place where people could come and feel accepted as they fight the battle of obesity. I wanted this place to give people the ability to get the personal training they wanted and at a modest cost. I wanted people to feel as though they belong to not just a health club but a place where people really cared for their health and well being and over the last 10 years, according to what I have been told, many feel that this has happened.
There is another segment of the population that are just afraid to enter into a health club because they are just too afraid to face the public. They are the morbid obese and that population is getting larger every year. In 2007 I started a program where I take people 50 pounds or more over weight and help them change their life styles. This program is called the Parker's Place Weight Loss challenge and since its inception it has had 7 classes go through the program totaling 162 people and the retention rate throughout the program has been 95% and the average weight loss has been 70 pounds. Lives have been changed because of that program and on so many levels it has taken a life of its own.
In 2011 Parker’s Place did something that implemented something else that has allow it to help even more people. In 2011 Parker’s Place became a 24/7 gym and through the process of hard knocks we finally understood that we could not be everything to everyone and there are people in the community that did not have 9-5 jobs and could not fit the conventional schedules in their lives and those people still needed a place where they could come and workout. Also in 2011, Parker’s Place opened its doors to other personal trainers and for a nominal fee they bring their people in and train them here. Everyone wins! The trainers get to do what they do best and don’t have that big time costs associated with their business. The member wins because they get that person they always wanted and the club wins because it is being utilized.
In 2013, Parker’s Place increased its presents on social media and began putting positive uplifting messages as well as daily exercises on its Facebook page. With all that going on I began to see an upsurge in the demand that was being put on Parker’s Place and I my vision for expanding became clearer and clearer. In 2013 I began to see that I needed more room for more equipment to satisfy that need but I had no room to put it without getting completely overcrowded and very little room for members to operate comfortably.
Well, to make a long story short and without going into too much detail, effective May 1st, 2014 Parker’s Place will be relocating to a bigger facility in Oconomowoc Wisconsin, so that it can meet the demand it has been given. Whereas through this whole process I have seen God’s hand moving, my prayer is that I can stay in the center of His will. I ask all who pray if they could pray for me as I open at this new location.

The game olan

The Game plan

Ok so here you are out many months after you achieving your fitness goal and you haven’t done anything but sit and relax and now you look at yourself and all that weight you had taken off and told yourself that you would never see again has now come back. Wait! It has just not come back but for good measure you have gain an additional amount of weight that well you are telling yourself you need to finally get rid of.
So you try every diet in the world only to find out that they don’t work. Let me repeat, THEY DON’T WORK!!!!! So now what do you do? A year back you had really been in really good shape and you remember how you did it but you are just not motivated to go back to those extremes. So what to do? What to do?
Well, let me first start out and tell you that the only way you are going to lose those unwanted inches is by using the fuel you have consumed and there is no other way to do it but activity. Dear I say exercise? I know I just turned some of you off but there really is no other way to keep it off. If you stop eating eventually you will either die or you’ll start eating again and more than you did prior to your binge. Remember one thing though, it is not the foods fault that you got the way you are. Food is not our enemy. Ok so let’s get to the game plan….
As you all know I keep things simple and this is no different. Exercise should be part of your life, not your life, so I suggest no more than 30 minutes a day in the gym that is all. So here is how I would break it out and I am giving you the formula that has helped may lose hundreds of pounds and get in better shape.
Week 1
Monday: Get to the gym and sit on recumbent bike for 30 minutes and then go home.
Tuesday through Friday: repeat Monday

Week 2: Begin to introduce weights back into your program

Monday: Now get on that recumbent bike for 10 minutes and then go to the treadmill and walk for 5 minutes. Then begin to introduce weights back into your 30 minute program. Today do chest work only.
Tuesday: Same warm up and then today is back work only
Wednesday: Same warm up then do a leg workout
Thursday: Now I want you to do 15 minutes on the bike and then give me 15 minutes on the treadmill. Let’s see if we can’t get a good sweat on the treadmill to make it worth the trip.
Friday: Same warm up as Monday and then abs work for 30 minutes
Saturday and Sunday Take off

1 Month: Now you should be getting into a routine that should last you a while.
Monday: Let’s start with 5 minute warm up on treadmill or bike and then go hit the weights. Today is a great chest day so let’s get that going. After the workout let’s get bake on the treadmill and run for 10-15 minutes then go home. Your chest workout should not take any more time than 15 minutes (without talking to you friends and neighbors)
Tuesday: Let’s start with the same cardio and then let’s get some back work in then finish the same as Monday.
Wednesday: Yes, its legs day!!!!! Make this as enjoyable as possible. Start by getting on treadmill with an incline of at least 10 and go for 10 minutes then hit those legs like they have not been hit before and then end with a 5 minute cool down on treadmill or bike.
Thursday: Great day for Shoulders so go ahead and hit them and first give me 10 minutes warm up and at the end 5 minute cool down.
Friday: Let’s make this your cardio do. Turn on that music, make that television louder, get focused and give me 30 minutes of hard, sweat off the brow, heavy breathing cardio.
Saturday and Sunday: days off. Enjoy your weekend!

That one month routine should last you a few months before we will need to change it up a little. Notice how the gym does not become your second home but just s stop off place to get what your body so needs to do… exercise. Now stop screwing around and go get it done.

The effects of Detraining

I was reading an article the other day that was emailed to me by a friend and after reading the article I thought it best to write my thoughts out and share it with everyone who reads this. Now the article dealt with biking and what physically happens to a person when they physically put the bike up for the season however I want to expand upon that and discuss the implications of what happens when after getting yourself in better shape we decided to take time off or we feel as though we have made it and we decided to relax. In a nut shell there are some good points and some bad points of taking time off after working really hard to get yourself in good shape but let’s just go thru the process that everyone and I mean everyone, goes thru when they stop working out. So here we go.

So here you are, you’ve reached your goal and your feeling pretty good about your success. Now you feel as though you want to take some time off and enjoy your new found freedom and life.

Day 1: This is the day after all of your success. You feel good and strong and self confident. You feel as though you just concord the world and everybody can see that and complements you on your new you. Now your body is now in a repair mode and for the next three days your body is repairing itself. All the muscular damage you may have done is now being repaired and the process of it returning to normal has begun. On the average in three days your muscles have had time to fully recover; muscle carbohydrate stores (glycogen) have been topped up, muscle fibers damaged during hard training is being fully repaired, and favorable metabolic changes in the muscles have had time to occur.

1 week: Now you are thinking about going back into the gym and actually you should or at least get active again. This is important because this is the time when most begin to really fall off the wagon and begin the process of going back to their “other” life. Now you are beginning to forget about the hard work it took for you to get to where you were and in some cases you don’t want to have to revisit there. However I will tell you, your body is use to if not accustomed to that level of activity (exercise).
At this time because of the time you have taken off, you are beginning to put back on some weight. Now not much, no more than 5 to 10 pounds but it is not too noticeable as of yet. Also pertaining to your heart, you begin to feel sluggish and your heart is not pumping as efficiently as it did just a week earlier. This is due to the inactivity and the fact that your heart has not needed to work too hard. But mentally you are thinking that everything is still feeling alright and you have not lost too much of your fitness. Your cloths are still fitting pretty good and mentally you still feel OK.

1 month: Now your old life style is back in force and full in swing. All that working out and all the trimming and all that drive has driven away from you now. You are beginning to see those bulges again and those skinny clothes aren’t fitting as they did just a few weeks ago. Your afraid to get on a scale because you know that you have gained back some of that weight you took off and told yourself that you would never go back to. Well, unfortunately the reverse process has really taken hold now and what you were able to do just a few months ago, you can’t even come close to now. Why is that?

Well, you muscles are no longer as efficient as they once were. The biochemical pathways that you had developed to help your muscles burn the fat efficiently have deteriorated and now they are back to the way they once were. On top of that your muscle mass has deteriorated. This is not good, not good at all.

6 months: At this point you are no longer that person you want to be and you are fully back into your old life. You have gained all if not even more of your weight back. You may have tried to go back to the gym a few times but with no avail, your motivation is just not there and now you have lost all that confidence you once had. You feel embarrassed to tell people what happened to you just 6 months earlier and in some cases you may not even ever bring it up in any conversation and if someone does you are quick to change the subject.

Not good! At this time your circulatory system is even worse than it was before you started exercising the first time. Your heart is working harder than it has ever worked before and your musculature system is depleted to a point where you can do none of the things you could do just six month earlier.
1 year: At this time you want to try again but this time you want to make it stick. ‘THAT’S IT THIS IS FOR LIFE!” I hear a lot but what people don’t realize is that it will be twice as hard to get to the same point as you did one year prior. Your body has put in place some safety features that will not allow it to lose the weight or get yourself in good shape as it once did. Your body is going to hold onto the fat longer and this will be frustrating because you will be putting in the work and seeing little success. All the while you will be putting a huge strain on your heart to pump like it once did a year ago and that in itself can be damaging. When you gained all the weight back and you lost all your fitness, your heart had to work really hard, again, just to keep you alive. Now you’re asking it to push even harder, think about it. Can you say potential stroke?

However, the good point is that at this time, with you coming back, there is hope but you need to be smart about it and have a realistic game plan and most importantly, make this your final time. Finally make this part of your life… forever. In my next blog I will discuss the game plan.

Bad days

We all have them. They are a part of life. The question that we should be asking ourselves is not when will they be going away but, what are we learning in the midst of them. Have you ever heard the phrase, “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”? There is truth to that on so many levels.

I know of a person who over the last several years had just not had a really good life. According to him there have been glimpses of day light but shortly thereafter to find himself back dealing with issues and pressures that many will probably never have to deal with or understand. He told me that it has gotten to a point now that when he has a good day he almost dreads it because he knows that on the other side of it will be an equally bad day. The question he constantly asks himself however is, “What am I learning from this?” He tells me that in every situation there is a lesson that he needed to learn but the biggest lesson that he is learning is that he is not really in control but God is. I would roll my eyes every time I would hear that but this is what he shared with me…

A few years back his family went through a major health issue, cancer, which almost took the life of his wife but did take the life of his mother. At that same time his financial situation was bleak at best and he almost lost all of his possessions including his house. Just to add insult to injury as his families health was failing and his business was struggling to stay open and he finds out that through an error with his bank his house had the potential of going into foreclosure which destroyed his credit rating and he lost all of his credit. He tells me that at one point he just broke down and cried. He did not like life and really began to feel bad for his kids. Why? Because if his life was this bad for him he could not imagine his kids having to go through this pain and survive.

He then tells me that 15 months later things began to change for no real reason. The bank mailed him a letter and approved his “Making Homes Affordable” application and his family illnesses were getting better. He did lose his mother to the fight but his wife is fine now and his business was saved. When I asked him what he did to get on the other side of these issues all he did was say, “I really did nothing but pray that some people would come along side me and help me through them and every time I prayed… they did.”

At the time I met with him he had just come from achieving another personal mile stone and was very happy with his results. He tells me that when we are happy and have no problems it is easy to praise our Maker but is that real praise or is it selfish and conditional. “Hey God, as long as I am happy and things go my way, I will praise you but if they don’t, are you really in control?” Does this attitude sound familiar? Don’t we all feel that way most of the time? But have we ever learned anything through good times? I know I haven’t.

I just saw him the other day and he tells me that he is now faced with even greater trials. I wonder how God will work him through these and what lessons he will learn while going through them. I can honestly say that as weak as he thinks he is, when many look at him, to them he looks very strong. I can only hope that he gets to the other side of his issues and rejoices at the blessings that have to be on the way. Remember this, for every bad day that we go through there is an equally and opposite effect… a good day.

Good health at 50

There will be a point in one’s life when they will be looking at turning the big 50. When that comes will you be physically ready? Lately I have been asked by many people how it is that I can be as “old” as I am and still look and have the physical numbers as I do and I think it is time that I write this all out so that those that are older than I and younger than I can understand. Now please note, I am not bragging nor am I saying that I have all the answers. I can only go by my own experiences and what I have seen that has gotten me this far in my young life.

On January 2014 I went to my doctor like I do every year for my annual physical. A few hours later I received an email from him with my results and I was really surprised at where my numbers stood. I won’t bore you with all the details but I will highlight a few of them.

Weight 180

Height 5’10”

Cholesterol 155 (Last year it was 110 don’t know what happened)

HDL >39.9 54.6

LDL <130 121 Triglycerides <150 60 PSA 0.0-4.0 0.28 Testosterone 280-800 970 Resting Pulse rate 51 When I look at my Red blood cells and White blood cells they were in excellent standing. Now the question so many have asked me is how I am able to get such numbers and here is what I believe is my formula. I believe that it is quite simple, do those things that are beneficial to the body and those things that are not, well, just don’t do them. 1) I try and get 6 to 8 hours of sleep a night. Now that always doesn’t happen but then I will find myself a few minutes during the day when I can close my eyes and relax. It is amazing what 30 minutes can do when you are tired in the middle of the day.

2) I eat 3 square meals a day. That’s right Breakfast, lunch and dinner. My biggest meal of the day is Lunch followed by breakfast and then dinner is very small. I never stuff myself at night. I don’t see the point. Why fuel my body to just sit down afterwards and fall asleep. Most people have a very small breakfast practically no lunch and then find themselves really dragging in the middle to the end of their day and then go home and devour the fridge.

3) Alcohol has not touch these lips since first year of college and that was 30 years ago. I just don’t see the point of drinking until you feel weird. Some people call it “putting a buzz on” but what they are really doing is destroying their brain cells and making their bodies work harder than they should. This also goes for cigarette smoking. Never, never, never. I have seen what it does to so many and I just don’t see where my body will benefit from it.

4) I exercise every day. Once a day I get a good 30 minutes of exercise in. Did I say every day? Yes every day even when I go away on VACATION. What better time to really get your body in really good shape but on vacation when you really have nothing else to do but enjoy and relax. There is no better relaxation then when you finish a workout and know that you accomplished something good for your body.

Now some of you are going to say that I really don’t understand how busy you are. You may be right but just take this into consideration, I start seeing people at 5am and don’t finish seeing people until 8pm from Monday to Friday and then on Saturday I see people from 5:30am till 2pm and at 7:30am I teach an aerobic class. Also, I am married with 3 children (18, 15, 13) and the 13 year old is a girl… shall I say more on that subject. Once a week my wife and I still find time to go out and look at each other and in a few weeks we will be married 22 years and I am an active member of the United States of America Track and Field Association and a High School soccer official. I know what it is to be busy but I still find time to do those things that I know in the end will benefit my body.

So many have asked me about how I am able to look and feel the way I do. So many want to know my formula and well, now you know it.

(6-8 hours of sleep) + (3 meals) + (no foreign substances in my blood stream) + 2(daily exercise) =
Healthy Life
Try it! It’s never too late.

Short Term verses Long Term work outs

“I spent three hours in the gym today”
“I can’t go to the gym because I just don’t have the time”
Do you hear these excuses? I do and all the time. This is the reason why I believe that people can get what they need to get done in 30-40 minutes and no longer. Yes, this includes cardio work and weight training. There have also been studies that have proven that short term workouts are much better for the average person than long drawn out workouts, even when it comes to building muscle or losing weight.

The following excerpt from an article published in the UK Telegraph, "6 Minutes of Exercise A Week As Good As 6 Hours" by Peter Zimonjic, elaborates on this study.

"Just six minutes of intense exercise a week does as much to improve a person's fitness as a regime of six hours... Moderately healthy men and women could cut their workouts from two hours a day, three times a week, to just two minutes a day and still achieve the same results, claim medical researchers".

No, I think this is a bit extreme but I understand where he is going with this. So let me put my little spin on this. Studies have been done through several Universities that, in their final assessment they found that with short term work outs (less than 1 hour) your caloric burn can stay with you up to 2 days whereas with long workouts, (more than 1 hour) when you are ready to leave and go home, your body is pretty much back to normal. They have shown that your caloric burn has stopped by the time you get out to your car.

Look at it this way, you should be trying to make working out part of your life, not your life and if you are going to spend hours at the gym, it is no longer a small part of your life but it has become a large part of your daily life. I can see how this can drive people away, especially since our lives are so busy in so many other important areas.

I believe that 30 to 40 minutes of working out is sufficient for Joe Public because, face it we are not trying to become Olympic athletes, but we are only trying to get ourselves in much better shape and maintain it over the rest of our life. How can you do everything in 30-40 minutes? It’s easy. When you get to the gym already have your workout in mind and plotted out so that once you are off the treadmill (only 10 minutes) you can immediately get right to work. Now because you are only going to be working out for 30 to 40 minutes, the usual 10 minute water breaks are not necessary. Once you finish with one exercise immediately move to the next exercise and continue this until you get everything done. Then at that time get some water and get ready to leave.

Now for your Olympic athletes and those that are sports specific this idea will not work because there is so much more that goes into understanding the training necessary to be on the top of your game for that particular sport. However for Joe public just wanting to get fit and stay in shape, 30– 40 minutes daily is just fine.