Still Grinding...

Day 106

Great gym work out today, still training at a really high heart rate, but new exercises and much heavier weights.

Got a pretty good cardio in yesterday, some jogging a little interval work, and some stationary bike, about 30 min all together.

Day 107

Almost a third of the way through this experiment and I could not be happier with the results. I feel great about the sense of accomplishment that comes from sticking to ones goals. I am genuinely just happy about what I am doing, but like all goals once you are about to meet them others arise.

Lately however I have been really trying to focus in on how I can make this a career. I really feel like I can help people go through the same sort of journey that I am on. By no means do I feel like I have all the answers or a secret  solution to anyone’s problems. What I have discovered are the tools one can use to transform their body and in doing so transform their belief system.

If a person can transform their body by visualizing the results they want, by being accountable to a plan, by trusting the process, what other life transformations can they apply these things to? I think the answer is everything.

On my computer at work I have these taped up; I would like to share with you Arnold’s six secrets to success.

1) Trust yourself- be who you want to be

2) Break the rules

3) Don’t be afraid to fail

4) Don’t listen to naysayers

5) Work your ass off

6) Find time to give back

The thing about all of this, there are no secrets, everyone knows these things. It is when we are able to put them to use and make them become who we are, not what we do that the results follow.

I am gonna get in some cardio at some point today. Peace!

Day 108

Went for a nice run yesterday with my boy. Great gym work out this morning.

Day 109

Rest Day

Day 110

Rest day

Day 111

Circuit workout at the hotel, going to try and go really big tomorrow and get two solid workouts in. The plan is to meet my buddy at the gym at 5:30am for some heavy lifting. Work at the gym for a couple hours and than hit up my trainers ski conditioning class at 8:30 and to work by 10am. Sounds like a perfect morning to me.

It's never too late to become what you might have been.

Day 89

Crazy weekend. I took a rest day today, to help get everything ready for my daughters birthday party which is tomorrow.

Day 90

Took today off as well for my daughters party. She had such a blast and I think everyone did, kids and adults. Two days in a row with no exercise, I will be honest I was freaking out about it a little, but did not want to make the weekend about my workouts. I will get after it this week.

I had some birthday cake, just for the record.

Day 91

Great road bike ride, I road 16 miles in 57 minutes. I did not do this ride for a good time. It was a workout ride. I set the bike in the hardest gear and did the whole ride. There is one step hill by my house in the last mile of the ride and I down shifted here because the bike was starting to come to a stop and I thought I was going to tip over. My legs were burning.

I am trying to get faster on my road bike. I need a cadence meter for the second workout and the third will be hill climbs. I wish I had a $1000 dollar fitness budget as there is some gear that would help elevate my workouts, heart rate monitor, cadence/speedometer for my road bike, workout bench, kettle bell weights, and exercise pad, and some resistance straps, all in due time.

Today was my daughter’s real birthday. I can’t believe she is five already. I had another piece of cake.

Day 92

First day on the floor at the recreation center. I had someone approach me about training, so hopefully I did a good job selling it.

After working I worked out for an hour. Weightlifting routine with much heavier weights and lower reps.  Felt good to workout, I was sucking for air the whole time, but they have so many fans it was hard to work up a sweat. I maxed out at the 55 pound dumbbells for chest fly’s, will certainly be trying to push way past this in the next couple of weeks.

Diet is going well, 151 pounds on the scale this morning.

I will start the 100 sit up challenge today, since I have not done it up to now.

Day 93

Happy Halloween! Yes I do plan to eat some candy tonight while I walk around trick or treating. That being said today is an awesome day.

First time in a long time my wife and I had a couple of hours together, kid free. We went for a 4.5 mile mountain bike ride, which was my wife’s first real mountain bike ride in a really long time. She was awesome and is looking forward to next week.

Got in my 100 sit ups.

Day 94

Early morning treadmill workout. This is the one workout where at the end I know I have put in work. Life is goood.

Day 95

Got my 100 sit ups in yesterday for a total of 200 which is defiantly a personal one day record. I am going to take my boy for a nice long run later.

My wife went back to work yesterday, full time. A lot more Daddy care going on in the Leto house these days. 

Day 96

Run was good, 4 miles in about 38 minutes, felt nice to be outside. Did not get my 100 sit ups in. Passed out on the couch thinking about doing them?

Watching two little munchkins all day is exhausting. I have so much respect for stay at home moms with little kids!!

Day 97

Did a 30 minutes circuit, chest, back, abs workout in the ghetto barn gym last night. I got my 100 sit ups in yesterday as well. Days are getting shorter here, which makes it harder to get in evening bike ride which was the plan yesterday. I will try again today, but who knows what the day will bring. There will be some sort of workout, which I am sure of.

Day 98

Took Maizy for about a 30 minute chariot mountain bike ride, not much but better than nothing. Got in my 100 sit ups and my abs are for sure sore.

Day 99

Headed to the gym to work and workout!

Got a great workout in, I love lifting weights?

Day 100

Rest Day

Still did 100 push ups and 100 sit ups.

Day 101

Awesome hour long jog/walk with my beautiful wife.

Day 102

Trainer Day- Such a tough workout 300 sit ups, dead lifts, plyo-metrics, heavy weight bench 135x20 times, 3x2x1-225pounds eccentric lifting, an exercise I do not know the name of, and 150 pound rows. Ha hurt so bad I was laughing at the end from exhaustion, but felt so good to make it through.

My workouts are going to change up a bit. I am lifting 3 times a week and going to some boot camp classes for cardio. Also putting two rest days back in the mix.  Trainer said I should be really sore tomorrow, we’ll  see?

Switching the routine up a little to shock the body!

Day 103

Rest Day. I am so sore that the bottom of my feet hurt, that was a serious workout yesterday.

Day 104

Awesome day at home with the kids, got some snow which I am psyched about.

Got in 100 pushup, but still really sore. A lot of people are starting to comment on how different I look. I will admit that I like it, “man you look ripped”, is always a nice thing to hear and I don’t see myself getting sick of it anytime soon.

Day 105

At work this morning, and I will get a run in on the treadmill at some point today. I can not wait to go snowboarding with my wife some time soon. It has been way too long.

“The day you take complete responsibility for yourself, the day you stop making any excuses, that's the day you start to the top.”

Day 84

Hit the ghetto barn gym at home yesterday for a good workout.

Great day yesterday out at the ranch. Having the horses out there makes it a whole different experience, “there is nothing as good for the inside of a man as the outside of a horse.” They are such special animals.

Went to the gym early this morning and got in some heavy weights while still keeping my heart rate up. This is going to start getting really fun. I feel like I am about to take this body and my fitness to the next level.

I have two hours of training tomorrow for my personal training. Thursday and Friday I have certified pool operator training all day so should be tough to get a workout in, but I will stick to one of my mottos,

No Days Off!

Day 85

I went for a run today with my son, four miles, about a 10 minute mile. Not two fast, but got something in. Plus my little man is not light, probably pushing about 50 pounds all together with the jogger.

Did my last training at the rec center, I am a now a personal trainer at the Gypsum Recreation Center. Let me rephrase that, once I get a client I will be a personal trainer. My first day on the floor is next Tuesday at 8am.

During the training session I also got my body fat tested 9.2%. I am back up to 152 pounds. My weight seems to be jumping around a bit. I am hoping to put on about 10 pounds of muscle in the next six months.  That is less than two pounds a month, which would put me around 162 by my birthday. If I can keep my body fat below 10% and gain 10 pounds of muscle that would be cool. I am making this up as I write, but just trying to shoot for another goal besides the eight pack.

My goals are refocusing. I want to just work on dynamic health, get a little stronger, add some muscle, keep my cardio up, eat really healthy.

At the end of this road, 280ish days from now I will post a before and after shot of myself as the last post of this blog, but the more I workout the less I am concerned about appearance and the more I am concerned with performance. Although I won’t lie for that last picture I will try to get down to 4-5% body fat.

Got in my 100 push ups today.

Day 86

Went  for a little over five mile trail run in the rain/snow, such a great run. I am at a loss of words to describe how special this run was, kind of an out of body run, really cool. It was surreal, I was so unmotivated to go for a run because of the weather, but once I was out there everything was great. So many things are like that. It is so hard to get things started, or your brain says oh this may happen, or this may happen, but the fact is until you get out there and do it, whatever it is, you will never really know what is waiting for you.

Got in my 100 push ups as well.

Day 87

First snow of the year out at the ranch, hopefully just the start of a heavy snow year. Also if the snow gods are listening, I need it to snow every Tuesday night, thank you!

Tried to get up early for a workout, but didn’t make it in time. Sat on my ass for eight hours in a CPO class, not fun. I was forced to do math equations for the first time in a long time.

Got my 100 push ups in, two sets of 50. I have never done 50 pushups in a row before, felt good about that. Some sit ups and light stretching and off to bed, basically a rest day.

Day 88

I made it in early today and got in an awesome new workout. I found a great website www.fitnessblender.com. Did two different workouts off of this, it was new and fun, and I highly recommend this website. It is 100% free and seems to have all different type of workouts with a really easy to follow format.

I am also a certified pool operator, Yay! Scored 55 out of 60 on the first test I have taken in well over 5 years.

I will get my 100 pushups in along the way today. Last day for pushups, tomorrow I will start on 100 sit ups a day on top of my workouts.

Make the rest of your life the best of your life!

Day 80

Sprint interval workout.

1 x 1:32         2 x 4:22       4 x 9:36

1 x 1:53          2 x 4:23

1x 1:53

1 x 1:57

Not very goo compared to when I did it on the treadmill. The distance may have been off a little because we were not running on the track. My lovely wife did join me and did a great job. The sprint intervals are not my favorite, but I am going to keep doing them because there is probably a good reason I don’t like them, they are hard. I will keep doing them till they are easy.

Day 81

Trainer Day!!! I had such a great workout this morning with my trainer. We did a boxing workout and it was awesome. I felt really good the whole way through. It was a moment of vindication that all this working out is really paying off. I lost about 5-7 pounds since the last time I weighed myself. Right at 149ish. Six pack is starting to come in nicely if I do say so myself!!

New focus is on some heavy weights, which I like because I was thinking the same thing. Time to put some mass on this frame! I also got a challenge, 100 push up a day for the next week, with a different challenge following the next week.

We also discussed some road bike training which I am excited to try out.

Day 82

Mellow day at home, I did some yard work. Worked the 3-11 shift and I will workout after. I am going to put in an hour on the elliptical machine, get a real good sweat going, burn some more fat. I am also going to get those push ups in. Really looking forward to hitting the iron this week.  Starting to look a little skinny, but some heavy weight should fix that in no time!

Day 82

30 mins on the eliptical and 20 on the stationary bike with 100 push ups thrown in  last night.

Rest DayToday! I got the 100 pushups in, but other than that just hung with the family all day. I did have a cheat day today. I ate a piece of pizza and some birthday cake at a kids party. Oh well! We went to the horse rescue party today, and it feels really good to be helping such a worthy cause. Might be doing a little horse back riding tomorrow?

Day 83

Not sure what I am going to do today for a workout. I have a bit of a stomach ache, probably from that cake? I am thinking about a road bike today, but maybe just a treadmill workout at home.

The Bronco’s have a bye week, but I am looking forward to a little NFL anyways!

“Destiny is no matter of chance. It is a matter of choice: It is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.”

Day 76

My wife got the stomach bug today. It has taken the Leto’s down. Spent all day with the kids which was awesome, but no workout except carrying around my son all day.

I have recently started counting all calories, and just about everything else going in the old body. I use MyFitnessPal app on my Iphone. I just got my wife an Iphone 4 for .99cents. She lost her 3s a week or so ago. That’s not important but awesome, point being I am really watching everything I eat even closer. Trying to take everything to the next level.

I started to feel a little down lately. I just re read my blog and I noticed I do not really talk about how tough this is. It is tough to find time to workout, to work at my jobs, to become a personal trainer, to be a dad, and to be a husband.  To find the motivation to eat healthy and to work out and, a lot of times I don’t want to work out. Shit I don’t want to do anything, but where would that get me? So what do I do to keep going?

I spend most of my free time looking at motivational quotes, videos, anything to spark that fire in me, to remind me why I started this journey. I can’t reinforce enough that it was not the eight pack. I needed to let myself know that I could make a change in my life. There are so many things in this world that I can not control. What I can control is what goes into my mouth, and how often I exercise, and when I exercise how hard I push myself. These things are for the most part totally up to me.

When I decided to make this change my pie in the sky was to get an eight pack. I am 76 days in and have for the most part really stuck to my program and little by little I am seeing the physical changes occur. More important than that is the mental change that I am going through. 

I will not give up on this journey.  I know that. My behavioral change is starting to become a mentality change. I do not think about things the way I use to.  I am not the same person I was 76 days ago and I will never be that person again. This is not different from anyone else. No one is the person they were 76 days ago. We all change, the difference is I am taking control of the changes. I am purposefully creating the person that I want to become, little by little, it will not happen over night, but it will happen.

It is however a constant struggle and I don’t want that to get lost on anyone wanting to do this same sort of thing. It is not easy, but nothing worth doing ever is.  I remind my self of this multiple times a day, and one day I will not have to remind myself, because it will be who I am.

I will be an author, personal trainer, and motivational life coach. 

Day 77

I spent the day working, than taking care of an emergency at our rental unit. A sewer drain that was filled with sewage got backed up and I had to go rent a seventy five foot snake to unclog it. Really shitty day, literally.

After I got home and showered for about an hour. I kissed and hugged my wife good night and than did 100 push ups, 100 sit ups, some planks, and some stretching, ate a little food and off to bed around midnight.

Day 78

I woke up this morning smiled at the moon still in the sky. Three little birds slept outside my window, but I was awake at 5am. Helped put my son back to sleep, prepared my meals for the day, than I was out the door to workout. I got a great circuit workout in at the hotel, concentrating on my legs, shoulders and back. I kept my heart rate high the whole time, got a great sweat in, dripping.

Two more days left till I meet with the trainer again. The only thing I know we are going to do is measure body fat, because I am curious. I have got to get in a sprint interval workout in the next two days.

11/16 is the opening day at Vail, almost one month away, hopefully a powder day!

Some people go to church, we go snowboarding...

Day 71

No gym.  No nothing. I am taking another rest day. Feel wiped out.

Day 72

I rode the mountain bike towing my daughter in the chariot. I love hanging out with my little girl, she is so awesome!

Day 73

I went for a run pushing the Bulldog. That is what my self and others call my son, his other nickname is meatball, he is round, cute, and so cuddly. When he was littler he always looked kind of grumpy so he looked like a little bulldog growling. Know he smiles all the time so it is loosing its effect, but I still love it. He was super good on the run, about an hour, and he slept the whole time, maybe four or five miles total.

I still feel pretty weak from being sick. I have not really pushed myself working out since I have been back.

Day 74

Went to the gym and had a good workout going until some guy interrupted me to talk. Turned out to be a good conversation, but jacked up my workout. I have got to get my home gym set up to avoid this. There is to much social shit going on in gyms, I just want to work out!!!

Day 75

Good road bike ride today. I took it pretty mellow, but had a pretty good time heading out, slowed down a bit on the way home but all in all a good ride. I am starting to feel like myself again. I did get caught in a rain storm on the way back. Sometimes Colorado rain can be so cold, guess it might snow tonight.

This will be my 15 or 16 winter since Taber and I basically started building our lives around snowboarding.  I would not recommend this for everyone, but it seems to be working for us so far. Things have changed a bit, and the kids (thankfully) and work (not thankfully) are taking more and more precedence in our lives. However when the snow starts to fall and the mountains start to open I still get just as excited as I did every prior year.

 I am more patient these days and I try to watch less snow porn this far out, but the thought of catching some more powder days this year is just as enticing as ever. This year I  got my best riding buddy back after a year on the pregnant reserve list. I also think this is the year my daughter is going to start really riding, as opposed to sliding with me catching her. Who knows what the 2012-13 Vail winter will hold? I can’t wait to find out.

“'Tis healthy to be sick sometimes.”

Day 68

I did not do the sprint interval training. It was 12:30am by the time I got on the tread mill. I warmed up for about five minutes set the tread mill to 12.5 and started the first sprint. I made it about twenty seconds before I lost all motivation to continue. I was not at all into it; in fact treadmills in general are something I am not very fond of at the moment. I am going to take this workout outside sometime in the future. I ended up getting on the elliptical machine for about 20 minutes than creating my own little circuit workout. It was fun to do something a little different.

Today I went on a 16 mile bike ride, in about 52 min, taking about 3 minutes off my time, averaged about 3.14 minutes per mile.  Eight miles is down hill and eight miles is up.

Day 69

Last night I woke up at around 3am curled up shaking in the fetal position and threw up, a lot. Spent all day Sunday cramped up and could not eat anything till around 10pm. Not a great day.

Although I did catch some cycling on TV in between the football games, the woman were doing a 16 mile time trial and the winning time was around 32 minutes. The men were doing 30 miles and the winning time was under one hour. Granted the guy that won pretty much passed out at the finish, but that is some impressive bike riding. I also discovered my new favorite TV show, Duck Dynasty.

Really though my wife is the best. She went from having two kids to three and did not miss a beat. She is awesome and in need of a spa day soon.

Day 70

Still feel like shit, but I am vertical so that is an improvement. My lower back is sore from puking so much if that is any indication of the violent nature of my regurgitation.

Going to take it easy today, eat healthy, rehydrate, and try to get to bed early tonight.

Tomorrow I will ease back into a workout, probably hit the gym.