In the past year I have undergone a massive lifestyle change from the immature habits developed over 4 years of high school to a much more stable and healthy lifestyle. At the center of this change is my physical health. This past January I decided I wasn’t gonna fall into the abyss of averageness in America by continuing my unhealthy living habits. I decided I want to live long, as long as i possibly can. 52 pounds less fat and 8% less bodyfat and I realized I couldn’t have made a more important decision for myself.

What began as a quest for physical fitness has led me to the most productive, content position of my entire life. Let me begin by giving you a brief rundown of what led me to my decision. Throughout high school I played a lot of sports, and trained for college soccer since middle school. My athleticism covered up my unhealthy living decisions so it was hard for me to see the consequences of my decisions. It was not until my sophomore year of college that the consequences caught up.

I played 1 year of division 1 soccer after high school and then left the team to follow by passion for entrepreneurship. During that year of training in a D1 environment I learned more about fitness and healthy eating than I could have ever imagined, but when I left the team I was left with a wealth of knowledge and a lack of ambition and commitment to use that knowledge. It took 5 months of doing nothing and putting on weight to realize I needed a change.

From March 08 to August 08
210lbs and 18% body fat to 165lbs and 10% body fat

Eating

The first change I made was the way I was eating. This may be the hardest change for most people, but for whatever reason I found the change easy. After a period of meditation on the types of food I was actually putting in my body the change seemed mandatory. The thought of all the chemicals and unnatural concoctions I had been ingesting disgusted me. It was very easy for me to replace the bag of chips with a bowl of fruit, the eggos and pancakes for granola, yogurt, and fruit, the pizza and french fries for a steak, whole grain rice, and grilled veggies. I understand that this shift might not be so easy for most people, but give it a try for a week or two and just try and tell me you don’t feel wonders better.

1. Eat as natural as possible. Avoid High Fructose Corn Syrup and any ingredients you can barely read/pronounce. The closer to the ground your food, the better. Stick to fruits, veggies, and organic meats as much as possible.

2. Limit the size of your portions by increasing the number of portions. I keep hearing that this is very difficult for most people, but if you can try to increase the number of portions you eat throughout the day in exchange for the portion size. 6 small meals throughout the day is far better for your metabolism than 3 large meals. Think of your metabolism like a fire, you need to keep feeding it small portions, if you give it to big a portion it’ll go out.

3. Try to maintain a protein:carb ratio of 3 or 4:1. I stick to about 160 grams of protein and 60 grams of carb per day.

4. CHEAT! Give yourself weekends off at the beginning of your diet. Move to 1 day a week off as soon as you can. When I say off I mean off, eat whatever you want and however much you want. Sunday is my off day, and you’ll see me grabbing every Snickers ice cream bar, ChocoTaco, and bag of Doritos I can find. By the end of the day I’m disgusted and for the rest of the week I can’t even think about junk food. (I’ve heard rumors that it is good training for your metabolism as well.)

Fitness

Fitness came considerably easy for me because previous to my weight-gain I had always been active and athletic. My “muscle memory” let me get back into workouts and training techniques that may not work for someone else in a similar position, so I’ll avoid the specifics of my workouts for now. The important part is that I did SOMETHING. My first few weeks of working out were simple 3 day-a-week workouts in the gym. Nothing too intense, nothing that I dreaded going to, just enough to get me back into the mindset of being in shape.

The crucial element to all of my workouts is the Core Workout. I first learned about proper core development tactics while training in college soccer when a trainer introduced me to “Core Performance“.

Core Performance is a must-have for ANYONE interested in being more fit and/or healthy. A strong core is what distinguishes a good athlete from a phenomenal athlete. A strong core will help you to overcome aches and pains caused by muscle compensation such as back pains from sitting at a desk or in a car all day.

1. DO SOMETHING. Find something active that you can actually enjoy and do it often, beit running, jogging, walking, or playing a sport.

2. Get yourself to a level where you can increase your fitness level. Once you are at a point where true training isn’t so bad, its easy to get yourself fit.

3. Embrace CORE Fitness. Core training will make life better. Visit www.coreperformance.com for more information.

What is your goal?

Do you wish to simply be healthier and live longer? Do you wish to be more athletic? Do you wish to compete in an athletic event? Do you want to lose weight and/or build muscle?

The answer to these questions will each take you down a unique road to change, but the core values will remain consistent throughout.

- Fitness is a lifestyle decision, not a temporary solution
- Healthy eating is a lifestyle decision, not a temporary solution
- A lot of wrong fitness training is worse than very little correct fitness training
- Maintaining a healthy lifestyle does not require a lot of time
- Healthy living is not limited to physical fitness or eating habbit, healthy living is just as much about mental health as it is physical health, though often physical health brings with it a healthy mind

I know this post is a bit jumbled, and may not be the most useful, but its a start. I plan on continuing to write about my fitness and lifestyle lessons so stay tuned for more.