My Old Fitness Lifestyle vs. Current Fitness Lifestyle

It’s been 14 years since I made the final decision to pursue a career in health and fitness.  Just two years after starting my college years in Business Administration I enrolled in a degree in Exercise & Sports Science at Oregon State University.  The ironic thing is I couldn’t stand business back then, but today as an owner of Element 5 Fitness, I completely appreciate it and actually enjoy the business side of things.  But I digress.

Many, many things have changed in relation to how I approach my nutritional habits, my workouts, and my auxilliary physical activity.  From 1995-1998 I approached fitness with a balls-out approach of working out 5-6 days a week, which included 45 minutes minimum of strength training, followed by 1-3 hours of recreational basketball at least 3-4 days per week.  I was also mountain biking and rock climbing regularly, and snow boarding during the winter at least two times per week.

I was very lean, and was able to eat whatever I wanted.  I supplemented well only because I knew that I wasn’t getting all the necessary nutrients from the foods I was eating.  I was spending a lot of money on multi-vitamins, protein powders, meal-replacement shakes, you name it I’ve more than likely tried it.

You see, although I was in an Exercise Science program I was still set in the mindset of “I can do whatever I want, and because I’m so active I won’t gain any fat”.  When in reality I was just too lazy and undisciplined and resorted to supplements to “make me healthy.”

In 1998 I started my personal training career at the university’s gym, and to prove I was a product of my product I knew I needed to change my mindset in order to change my fitness lifestyle.  I enrolled in EAS’s “Body of Work Spokesperson” Contest (this was just before it was renamed to the now famous Body for Life Transformation Challenge).  I was already hooked on EAS’s products at the time that I wanted to become a spokesperson.  I ended up as a semi-finalist, and was awarded a certificate of achievement and a “Success Coach” certificate as a means to help other individuals who were pursuing the Body for Life challenge.

(Couldn’t find my 12th week photo, sorry!)

BUT, I know you’re diggin the Kid ‘N Play hairstyle! LOL!

My Certificate of Achievement

My transformation created a huge shift in my lifestyle.  I finally set concrete goals, wrote them down, and ACTED on them.  I kept a food and workout journal everyday, and was even meticulous about weighing my food – talk about anal.  I was monitoring EVERY SINGLE thing that was going into my body.  I was always within roughly 100 calories above or below my target, I drank a minimum of 96 ounces of water per day, took all my supportive supplements, slept 7-9 hours per night, and even took yogo twice a week to improve my flexibility.  I was dialed in, and no one and nothing was able to upset my regimen!  I finally practiced what I preached, and I took what I learned from this experience and applied it to help other individuals create transformations of their own.

Fast forward to 2002, which was the start of a more holistic approach, and the start of my re-education in my field.  In 2002, I was fortunate to win a contest to the World IDEA Convention, which is the largest fitness convention in the world.  The convention lasted five days, and I went to as many cutting edge educational courses (at the time) as I could.  Long story short, I realized that what I knew and understood up to that point was simply outdated and that I needed to make more of an effort to keep up.  This sparked a voracious appetite to do hours of research and testing out many nutrition and exercise protocols.

Fast forward to today.  I’m a big believer in Dr. Berardi’s Precision Nutrition lifestyle program and this is what I adhere to 90% of the time.  Hey, you gotta allow yourself to cheat 10% of the time, but more on that in another blog.  Nowadays I don’t count calories, eat more whole foods, less simple and starchy carbs, WAY more fruits and vegetables, use less supplements, and increased the good fats in my diet.  As for my workouts, they’ve been cut down to 30 minutes or less.  I’ve simplified them into quick and efficient workouts, which have allowed me to get the same results in half the time.  It seems that the more experience and knowledge I gain, the methods become simpler and more laser focused.

So what’s next?  Well, I’ve decided on pursuing another transformation to prove that less is more.  Stay Tuned!