What was different before.

It was eight years ago that I was on my first part of my first weight loss journey. I had struggled for years with my weight, but for the first time I started actually seeing results. I had just come off 10 months of my back being out and barely able to walk, and I knew with me being point where I could move with limited pain, that it was time to start being serious. My first 30 days I lost 30 LBS, my body was feeling much better. Over the course of 10 months I continued dropping weight until I had gotten down to 197 LBS. But I was in my twenties then, things were different.

So that brings us to now. Over the past couple of years, I have tried to restart my weight loss journey, but keep hitting roadblocks. The first road block came when my uncle had passed away. I had to come off of my workout schedule to attend the funeral and slowly started losing motivation. When I was able to start back up, my back went out again, causing me unbearable pain for months. After that got resolved, I moved. When I moved I thought that everything was going to change, that I was going to work out all the time and get back to where I was. But workouts were few and far between, and then my back went out again.

So I have been thinking recently why am I hitting so many hiccups in this weight loss journey? What is different now than back the first time? I know I'm older, and with age weight loss becomes for difficult, but I should still be losing some. Sure, my back is still bothering me, but that isn't stopping me much from doing light cardio and workouts. I've even been in the apartment fitness center a couple of times a week. But my halt in weight loss and motivation, I believe is from one thing. Distractions.

When I first embarked on initial weight loss in 2010, I had zero distractions. Sure, I had to have a job and work, but that job was a part time job and I had a ton of time to workout and prepare food every day. I also wasn't dating or trying to date, and I stopped hanging out with friends. I had zero distractions in my life. I was selfish, I did everything for myself. My food was for me, my choices were for me, I worked out every single day. Now my life seems full of distractions. While I am single, I have been trying to date more, I am trying to be more social, I work a full time job that has a much higher stress level, and when I come home from work I turn on the TV and get lost in YouTube.

Distractions are part of life, but I need to work on minimizing them as much as possible. I am getting older, and while some will say 36 isn't old, my body doesn't agree. I need to make choices for food for me. I need to not binge when there is food that I really want. I need to make healthy habits into permanent habits. It's time to put the distractions that I can control out of the my sight, and focus one me. Only with this focus, can I truly change.

15 Minute Workout

Don't complain that you don't have time to workout. I am going to give you a 15* minute workout that is going to get you sweating and make you work for it! When I don't have time to put in a full workout, this is the route that I go, especially if I am looking to get my heart rate up. So go ahead and pick up some weights that you can use through this whole circuit. You want challenging, but the point in this is to keep the same weight through the whole workout.

To get a great workout in 15* minutes, we are going to stack several movements together. Form is not to be ignored though, so if it takes you longer, that is fine. We want to keep safe, but still get a good burn and workout in.

Grab your dumbbells and start with your hands at your side. I am going to break this down move for move, that way it doesn't get too confusing

• First we will do a burpee/squat thrust movement. Bending over with a straight back, keep your core engaged. Keep reaching until dumbbells touch the floor, it is ok if you bend your knees here to accomplish this movement. Kick your feet back and hold a straight plank position


• Now we are going to preform a push up as far down as you can go. Keep your body straight, and your core engaged. Remember, form is everything. If you need to do the pushup from your knees, that is ok. But you want to build up to doing a pushup from standard plank position.


• When you come up from your pushup, we are going to do the renegade row. This movement is preformed by taking one arm at a time and pulling it towards your back like you are rowing and returning to starting position. You will do a single row with each arm.


• Now back into a pushup.


• After the second pushup is completed, come back into standard plank and bring your feet back to your hands and we are going to stand up. Make sure to keep your back straight as this movement is going to be along the lines of a deadlift.


• When you reach the top of the movement of the deadlift, you want to supinate your hand position (Point palm of hands facing out in front of you) and we are now going to complete a single bicep curl with both arms at the same time. No alternating here. Hold this curl at the top of the movement.


• From here, we are going to rotate our arms out to our sides, if done correctly, you should look like a goal post. Now we press the weights over out heads, and return back down to that starting position.


• At this point bring both arms back in front of you at the position after the dumbbell curl, and complete the eccentric motion of the curl, bring your arms back down to your side.

Now repeat the above 10 - 12 times and that is one set. You will do a total of 3 sets of this workout. Allow about 1 - 2 minutes of rest between sets and stay hydrated. Go at your own pace, but keep that heart rate up. This should get more difficult with each rep and each set.

Full Body Circuit

This circuit will get your heart rate up, and have you sweating before you know it. As always, when starting a workout you should consult your physician first.

• Warm-up; This can be anything to warmup those muscles and stretch, try jogging in place for a minute or jumping jacks.


• Weighted Squat with overhead press - Use dumbbells that you are comfortable with, no need to go heavy - 20 count


• Burpee w/renegade row - use light weights, preform your burpee with your weights in hand. Hold plank position and one arm at a time, pull like you are rowing, focus on those lats - 15 count, each arm


• Chopper Lunge - using a light weight or no weight, you will go into a traditional lunge at the same time as making a chopping motion to the side of the front leg. Do each side 15 times. (Be very careful)


• Overhead Triceps Extension - Using a dumbbell you are comfortable with, hold tightly over head by one end, slowly bring dumbbell behind your head squeezing your elbows in toward each other and back up. - 20 count


• Russian Twist - Sit on your rear, legs in front slightly bent, heels on ground. Remain looking forward and twist your torso from side to side for 20 count on each side. For added difficulty you can raise your feet from the floor.

After you complete this round, repeat 2 more times. Listen to your body and use caution when doing these exercises. If you are unsure of the move you can look it up online or email me. Enjoy.

Social Fitness

In today's society of social media, we tell the world everything we do. This is also the case when it comes to our workouts. You wake up in the morning and post to Facebook or Twitter "Going to the gym" or "Getting ready to do some P90X Plyo". Of course people get a bit annoyed at this, but what if I told you, that this action could make or break your fitness goals?

Think about it. You might not have a workout partner for the gym, or in fact you workout primarily from home. It is up to you to make sure you do your workouts and no one else. However, if you are posting every day when you do a workout, then you are holding yourself accountable. Accountablity is important during fitness after you have set your goals. Without accountability, you would workout maybe a week and then just stop. When you post online that you are going to workout, and you post this every day, people will notice when you don't post about it. These people that notice will write on your wall or tweet you and ask if you worked out, or say "What, no workout today?".

But checking in is also as effective if you use Foursquare or Facebook Places. Checking in to your gym or fitness center and publicizing this on your Facebook and Twitter timeline holds you to the same accountability. All this may seem annoying, but you would be surprised at how many people care and want to see you succeed. Just don't share when you are pooping, ok?