My Dilemma

I'm Polynesian.  I'm big boned.  I have a slow metabolism.  I love to eat.

You know, I've always been a big guy.  In the words of my sister, "You know you were always the chubby and awkward one, right?"

See why I really have no reason to complain?

I have this dilemma.  I love to go to the gym and stay active, yet the Poly inside of me eats like a Poly.  I'm also part Japanese, so you combine Japanese food with a Polynesian appetite...you get the picture.

It's an awfully fun dilemma to be in.  I really shouldn't complain.

In all seriousness though, in my efforts to be healthy, finding a balance in this dilemma will be one of the most important things I do (and biggest battle I'll face).  The reason I'm thinking about it now is that my parents are in town.  When the family gets together, we have great food and I eat more than I normally do.  After this week, I'll probably have a pound or two to shed (but it will totally be worth it).

After a weekend like this, I definitely have to hit the gym hard this week!

To the Mothers in My Life...

...Happy Mother's Day.

I'm extremely thankful to the mothers in my life, especially my mommy and my wife.  There are many other "mother" figures for me to honor on a day like this (my mother-in-law, my mission mom, my Aunty Maile, and the list could go on and on).  For the purpose of this post, we'll just focus on the first two.

To me, they are great motivators to stay healthy and active.  My mother always encouraged her children to eat healthy, to not eat too much, to stay active, to not watch too much TV, to go on walks, to play with friends...you know, all the things a mother does to ensure that her kid stays healthy.  Not only did she encourage, but she DID as well.  I remember my mother going to the gym, to step class, to water aerobics, playing tennis and much more.  When I was in high school, and I was told that I had to trim up for my senior season of volleyball it was my mother who drove my strict diet and ensured I was up early enough to run before school.

Now that all the kids are out of the house, she drags Dad out to do a bunch of fun activities.

Mom and Dad's new favorite summer activity

I've talked about my wife on this blog before.  She's absolutely amazing and is a great example for me.  We've got one little boy and one more on the way.  In between the two boys, my wife decided that she really wanted to get in good shape.  We engaged a personal trainer and my wife became extremely dedicated.  She lost about 20 lbs over the course of a few months and still remains active far into her second pregnancy.  She is such a great example to me.

Family pictures 2010

To all the mothers out there: thank you for being the drivers and motivators behind that which is good. To the mother's in my life, I love you and thank you for being my motivation.

Inactivity. That's What Motivates Me Today.

So you'll notice that I haven't posted in a week or so.  I was on a business trip in Phoenix for a few days, and I spent the last few days of the week catching up on things that came up while I was gone.

I was only able to make it to the gym three days last week.  What's funny, is that 6 months ago that would have been an amazing accomplishment for me.  Now, I feel let down.  That's a good sign right?

Well that feeling of "inactivity" is what motivates me to hit the gym hard this week (and what motivates me to get back to blogging).  I learned a couple of things this week while on my business trip:

1. I love really good Mexican Food.  Man, Phoenix has great Mexican food.
2. Pro baseball games are a blast.  I got to go to my first MLB game while in Phoenix.  It was a blast, but the food selection isn't the healthiest.
3. It doesn't matter where you are, being active feels great.  The hotel we stayed at had a very small "exercise center".  30 minutes of cardio, 100 push ups, 100 squats and 100 crunches later, I felt ready for the day.  I've often found it easy to blame my surroundings for not working out.  I realize more and more how much that really isn't the case.  You can find something active to do nearly anywhere you are.

Well...thanks for listening to my jabbering.  Have a great week!

Progess, Planning and Pals

Those are the three things that motivate me today.  Here's the gist:

As most of you know, I workout with a group of friends from work.  We do an array of different things.  However for the last few weeks we've been doing a workout plan that was developed by another friend of ours.  It's a 5-day a week plan.  Each workout for the first four days includes lifts, super sets, workouts with high-reps, core exercises and full body exercises.  The 5th day of each week is as follows:

5 rounds as fast as you can of:
15 squat jumps
20 push-ups
20 crunches
8 lunges (each leg)
7 pull-ups

One of the purposes of this workout is to gauge progress.  Ideally, you should be improving your time and ability to complete the workout.  The individual pieces of it should become easier as you build strength and endurance.  Here is what my times looked like for the past few weeks:

Week 1:
We actually decided to do this workout once prior to starting the new plan so that we could have a baseline to compare against.  I did the workout in a little over 15 minutes.  I wasn't set up to well (I needed to run to and from a location to do the pull-ups), however, endurance was a large issue.

Week 2:
About 12:30, a pretty good improvement.  I was set up a bit better so that I didn't have to run back and forth to do pull-ups.  If you've read previous posts, you'll know that pull-ups are difficult for me, but they got a lot easier this time around.

Week 3:  This week.
I actually did it twice this week.  I ended up going at it alone Friday night and we all met up Saturday morning (today) to do it together.  I learned something interesting from these last two days.  Here are my times:
Friday: 11:34 - I chalk up the improvement from Week 2 to building up strength and endurance.  As I get more and more active, my stamina in this type of a workout has gotten much greater.  Interestingly enough, I've also learned that paying attention to your breathing patterns plays a large role as well.
Saturday: 10:27 - I chalk the overnight improvement to the fact that I was with three other guys who were going faster than me.  I was anticipating a slower time (because my body was tired from the previous night's workout).  My pride set in however, and despite being absolutely gassed at the end of the workout, simply having them around made me go faster.

I realize that eventually, my times will plateau and I'll get to a point where beating my PR won't happen weekly.  However, I am interested and fascinated by the different factors that have led to the improvement.

The Plan has helped with strength and endurance.
My Pals pushed me to do better than I thought I could do.
My Progress makes me pumped to get back in the gym on Monday for another great week of workouts.

Week Wrap-Up | Starting a New Circuit

So I'm kind of torn this week.  We started a new workout routine at the gym this week.  It's been a great week, and the workouts are pretty awesome, but I miss doing the CrossFit WODs.  However I'm sure that we'll be working and mixing them in over the next couple of weeks.

The workouts started on Monday, but I wasn't able to make it to the gym to do them, so I started Wednesday with the guys from work.  Here's what my workouts looked like this week.

Monday: Home Workout
On my way to the gym, my son freaked out and didn't want me to leave.  I ended up doing the following workout in my drive way:

Four rounds for time:
15 double-unders
15 squats
10 burpees
10 squat jumps

I wasn't feeling too hot that day and it ended up taking me 18 minutes to complete.  I hate burpees.

Wednesday: New Circuit Day 3
It consisted of:
- Warm-up with high knees, push-ups and star-jumps
- One-legged straight dead lifts
- Straight-legged dead lifts
- Bent-over Rows super-setted with Good Mornings
- Pull-Ups
- A Core Workout

Thursday: New Circuit Day 4
It consisted off:
- Warming up by jump roping for 5 minutes
- Clean and Jerks
- Bench Press super-setted with Dips
- Skull-crushers
- Wide and narrow push-ups super-setted
- Kettle bells swings
- A Core Workout

Friday: New Circuit Day 5
It consisted of 5 rounds for time of the following:

15 squat jumps
20 push-ups
20 crunches
8 lunges (each leg)
7 pull-ups

I completed it in 12:27.  I did that workout last week in 15 minutes (I didn't fuel up before, and had to run between locations to do pull-ups).  I'm interested to see how my times progress over the coming weeks.

Saturday: Cardio
3.15 miles in 30:30 + 15 minutes of jump roping.  It was a great way to end the week.

It's been a great week.  One thing that I've loved about doing this blog is that it serves as a sort of fitness journal.  Seeing what workouts I've done and being able to think through some of the progress that I feel I've made is a good mental exercise for me.

My wife is headed out of town at the end of this week, so I think that I'm going to gear up for a pretty strict diet while she's gone (it's hard to ask your family to follow a strict diet just cause you want to).  We'll see how that goes!  Wish me luck.

Life Itself Motivates Me Today

Today, life itself motivates me to be active and healthy.

I went to a funeral yesterday.  The services were for the child of a very good family friend.  The child had tragically passed away at 2.5 months old.  As you can imagine, it has been devastating for the family.

While at the funeral yesterday I had a lot of time to reflect.  It made me grateful that my son was healthy, and that despite our scare and two-night stay at the hospital with RSV while he was less than a year old, he's okay.  It made me grateful that my nieces and nephews are healthy.  It made me grateful that despite health scares, my family is all still around.  It basically made me grateful for life.

That gratitude motivates me to treat and live life well.  That's what I'll be thinking about at the gym today.

Inspirational Stories of Others.

Early in my high school years I was able to attend a conference that featured a motivational speaker.  His story was about overcoming cancer and the pain and trials that he endured.  His challenge and message was about overcoming life's adversities with a smile.  He spoke about the impromptu concerts he and his friends put on while he was undergoing chemo therapy and the happiness that brought himself and other patients.  He talked about the importance of optimism and forward thinking in the midst of trial.  He shared his story so that other's could benefit.

This is a common occurrence isn't it?  The sharing of the extraordinary stories of others serve to buoy others around them.  Isn't this how Oprah made her money?

I think in health and fitness, the principle is no different.  The amazing weight loss of someone (The Biggest Loser), the amazing strength of another (The Strong Man Competition), the amazing physical skills of an individual or team (name any professional sport) motivates us to be our better physical self.  Here are a few things that inspire and motivate me.  If this blog pans out the way I hope, some day, I plan to share interviews with a few of these individuals that I so vaguely speak about.  They are common themes we've all heard before, however I am still inspired by the individual insights into an individual's story.

The weight loss of friends.  I have two friends in particular who have experienced a great amount of weight loss.  For both, the motivation wasn't vanity, but instead good health and positive feeling about life.  I am amazed by their dedication, discipline and journey.

Stories of individuals who overcome serious injury.  I just read an article about a budding professional snowboarder who fractured his back.  He was told that he'd never walk again (theme sound familiar?).  He's now a Crossfit stud (check out the article for the full story).  I can think of personal acquaintances who needed to go through grueling physical therapy to overcome an injury and/or major health concern who are now an inspiration to me.

There are numerous stories that can be shared, but the point is this: sometimes, the motivation we need comes in the form of others.  I'm going to venture to say that everyone around you has an interesting story to tell.  You've just got to get it out of them.  I believe that it was Dale Carnegie that taught that the key to being interesting, is to be interested in others.

Be interested in others and they'll tell you their story.  They may not be a motivational speaker, but I'll venture to say that you'll find great motivation and inspiration in their story.

Week Wrap Up

Here's what my workouts looked like this week:

Monday: Chest

For some reason, I felt like I had gotten hit by a train over the weekend.  Therefore, I didn't feel like doing a MetCon.  We did a chest workout instead.  It included the following:

A short warm up

4 sets of Bench Press

3 sets of Decline Bench Press

3 sets of Incline Bench Press

3 sets of Overhead Shoulder Press

The funny thing about this workout, is that this is the type of workout I would have done a few years ago on a normal day.  We did this workout today because we wanted to do something "lite".

Tuesday: CrossFit

21-15-9 of

225 lb Deadlift

135 lb Overhead Squat

I ended up scaling the weight back on the overhead squats for the 2nd and 3rd round to 115 (I don't have the core quite yet) but was able to complete the workout in 10:30

Wednesday: CrossFit

Run 1 mile

155 lb clean/jerk - 21 reps

Run .5 mile

155 lb clean/jerk - 21 reps

Run 1 mile

I ended up doing the .5 mile in the middle on an elliptical machine.  As much as I wanted to, I didn't end up scaling the weight back on the jerks (looking back I'm really grateful that I didn't) and completed the workout in 41:30.  I know, not an impressive time, but I'm just glad that I finished in one piece.

Saturday: 

5 rounds for time of:

15 squat jumps

20 push ups

20 crunches

8 lunges (each leg)

7 pull-ups

I completed it in 15:10.

Wanna know what my motivation is today?  Results.

I realize that I still have a long way to go, however I am grateful for the results that I've seen.  Pull-ups have always been something hard for me to do.  Even when I was in my "prime" I struggled doing pull-ups.  For many of the MetCons we've been doing over the past few months as well as our daily warm ups, I've needed to do a lot of jump pull ups.

I was warming up the other day, and noticed that I could pump out 5-10 pull-ups for each of my 3 warm up sets.  That was a small victory for me, but a victory none-the-less.  Sometimes it's the little things that keep you motivated and moving.

If not, hopefully this will help.  I love the types of exercises that this group does.  A lot of functional movements and core elements built into majority of the workouts.

When you consider what type of physical activity this group engages in and how dominant someone like Laird is in his sport, you've got to be motivated by, and admire the type and amount of training that goes into it.

Happy Weekend.

Health Should Be Enough To Motivate You

Growing up, I thought that I was resilient to nearly anything.  Throughout high school and college, I rarely got sick.  I had a few injuries (threw out my back, landed on someone's foot and sprained my ankle), but nothing that you wouldn't expect from the type of activities that I was engaged it.  For being so active, I was surprised at how little my body broke down.

That wasn't the case a year ago.  I found myself getting sick more often, I was affected by recurring migraines and although I was less active, I experienced a about the same number of injuries over the course of one year than I had through two multiple years prior.  For not being so active, I was surprised at how much my body was breaking down.  I thought to myself, "There is no way that this is coincidence."

Since being back in the gym for the last 3-4 months, I think that I've gotten one mild migraine and got sick maybe once.  Despite being MORE ACTIVE than I was a year ago, and engaged in MORE PHYSICAL ACTIVITY, I haven't experienced any real injuries.  Again, I think to myself, "There is no way that this is coincidence."

Here's to good health.  That'll keep me motivated to workout any day.

Hiking Timpanogos at 60+. Are you kidding me?

Photos courtesy of my Canon

Late in the summer of 2010, I joined a group of young men from our local church on a hike of Mt. Timpanogos (often referred to as simply "Timp") in Utah.  Here are some stats about the hike (taken fromLocal Hikes):
- 12.4 miles round trip
- Elevation gain of 4652 ft.
- Typically takes about 7.5 hours to complete
It is an absolutely beautiful hike.  The route we took put us through both lush green forestland as well as rocky terrain.  Watching the way that the landscape changes is fascinating.  About 3/4s of your way up, there is a small lake called "Emerald Lake", which is mostly created by the melt-off from Timp (more images below).

It can be a pretty grueling hike, and I made the mistake of doing the hike without ever really training for it.  For our young men, they were fine.  They were young, resilient and had way more energy than we did.  I re-aggravated a right hamstring injury and wasn't able to make it to the top of the summit (I'm planning on doing it again within the next year or to best the beast).  Despite not being able to make it to the top, I was blown away with the beauty and the shear "awesomeness" of the hike. 

On our way down the mountain, my leg was feeling much better and so my pace picked up quite a bit.  A young man I was with and I passed a few groups and a few single hikers on our way down.  One of the single hikers we passed was an older woman.  I stopped to talk to her for a bit and had an eye opening experience.  In our conversation, I found out that she had grown up in the area and had hiked Timp nearly every year since she was younger.  I can't remember the exact age, but if I recall correctly, she had been in her late teens.  She said that she fell in love with the trail and made it a point to do it every year.  She was in her late 60s, early 70s. I asked her if she had come with anyone else, and she simply said, "Oh no, just me."

I was blown away.  Here I was, in my mid 20s in awe at the physical ability of a 60+ year old woman.  She had completed this hike probably 40+ times and continued to do it, alone, into the later years of her life.  To me, that is an amazing physical feat.  I shared my admiration with her, we said our good byes and I went on my way.  Little does she know that I still think back on that experience and despite not knowing anything else about her, I consider her a sort of role model.

Part of the Group

Emerald Lake

Note to self: Taking pictures of wildlife with a fixed lens may not be the best idea.  I got a little too close for my comfort.

For the Kids | My Motivation To Be Healthy

Sorry, no video today.  If you can stand it, you simply get to listen to me blab for a few minutes.

I'm the youngest of three boys.  When I was younger, I would play basketball with my older brothers and their friends.  I remember my dad would open up the gym to our local church on Thursday nights during the summer and all my brothers' friends would show up to play.  My dad would play with us (and do pretty well).

That tradition morphed over the years, and now there's a group that plays every Saturday morning at 6:00am.  The group is much older now, but none the less a good tradition.  Whenever we're home, we go and play, and my Dad will still come out and play with us every now and then.

My brother and I were reminiscing on our Thursday night games one night and he said, "You know, when my kid is 16, I would hope that I'm in good enough shape to play with him like Dad did with us."  All the males in the family really bonded on the basketball court and I realized later, how my Dad used those opportunities not only as a chance for us to have some fun, but for him to really exercise great parenting skills.

I've thought back on that conversation time and time again.  When my oldest son is 16, I'll have ventured in to the land of the 40s.  A couple months back, I got a few injuries (pulled muscles) from doing simple things that I did all the time growing up.  That was a bit of a wake up call.  At the rate I was going a year ago, I probably wouldn't have been on pace to be able whoop up on my sons when I'm 40.

Much of what I'm trying to do today to stay healthy is not for the short term, but instead the long term.  I valued so much the opportunity to play basketball with my Dad and do other active things with him (we went on a pretty big hike in the Haleakala Crater pretty often when we were growing up), and I hope that I can provide those opportunities for my sons for as long as I am able.

Why I Love Crossfit

So I've been fortunate this past month or so to be working out with a group of guys from work.  They're big fans of Crossfit, so I've kind of been thrown into the middle of a crazy workout regimen.  At first, I was really intimidated by the concept and the workouts.  I'm still intimidated by some of it, but not as much anymore.

Courtesy of Crossfit.com.  This isn't me by the way.

If you aren't familiar with Crossfit, you should look into it.  It's a training program that is used by different law enforcement agencies, military personnel, athletes, and martial artists to name a few.  By design, the programs delivers fitness that is general, broad and all inclusive.  Workouts tend to emphasize multiple muscle groups in motion together.  The great thing about the workouts, is that they are scalable to whatever your fitness level.  My explanation does it no justice, so you should check out the Crossfit Website and the Crossfit Journal.

As I mentioned, I was really intimidated by it at first, however I have grown to love Crossfit.  Here are a couple reasons why:
1. Results.  Isn't this the ultimate reason you do a work out.  We do Crossfit workouts about three days a week.  In the last month I've lost 7 lbs.  I've also felt myself get stronger and increase stamina.
2. Adrenalin and Heart Rate.  Crossfit workouts don't take a lot of time (partly because in many of them you're competing for personal best times), however your heart rate skyrockets for some of them...it's a great feeling.
3. Time.  Effective and efficient workouts.  That's great for me because I mostly go to the gym during my lunch break.
4. Satisfaction.  When you're done...you feel great about the fact that you finished.

Needless to say.  I'm a fan.  Crossfit is really about "functional fitness" to me.  If you get an opportunity...look into it.  Like Milk, it'll do a body good.

Lessons from this Week

Another week down.  It's been about four since I've been back at it.  I've lost five pounds, toned up a little and am building stamina in the gym.  I quickly realized that stamina is what suffered the most for me during my "leave of absence" as I like to call it.  I can still put up some weight (not a ton, but some), but I struggled with the stamina to do long workouts.  Workouts seem to be getting longer, and my energy and strength lasts much longer than it did prior.

There's a couple lessons I learned this week:
1. If I compartmentalize health, it doesn't work - Health is about lifestyle, not about actions and time.  If I'm only "healthy" during the hour I'm at the gym and the time I'm eating, I'm compartmentalizing my health and cheating myself.

2. Protein Shakes save me.  I think that I mentioned this before, but seriously, if I don't get a good protein shake in me after a workout, I will crash pretty soon after.

3. Working out with friends and others motivates me in the short term much more than remembering the long term health benefits.  Not that those long term benefits aren't important, however it's tough for me to be motivated by them in the short term.  Finding short term motivators keeps you on pace for the long term.

4. I admire my wife's dedication.  She got back in the gym (we invested in a personal trainer for her) a few months ago, and since then she's lost about 20 lbs and remains active despite feeling sick due to pregnancy.

5. Portion control comes with time and patience.  Wow is this a hard lesson for me to learn.

We're celebrating my son's 2nd birthday this weekend, so not much time for the gym today...we are going to a jumping gym however, so that should be fun.

I'm looking forward to starting week five on Monday.

I Don't Like Being Alone

I'll tell you what the hardest part about working out is for me...motivation.

I know all the long term benefits

- Better Health

- Feeling Better About Yourself

- Longer Life Expectancy

- Vanity (always true to some extent)

However none of those are immediate and right in my face when I'm at the gym or getting ready for another set.  I'll tell you what is though...a buddy who's pushing you to finish.

I've also found that I get stuck doing the same workouts and the same routines if I don't have a workout partner to shake things up a bit.

Yay for workout partners.

It's Been a While...But at Least I've Been Busy

So I'm not gonna lie...it's been a while.  It seems that the holidays, work and other projects have really taken my time away from the blog.  The holidays took a toll on the weight loss and fitness and I've been busy getting back into the groove and putting myself on a good schedule.

Thanks to some friends at work, a supportive wife and an iPhone app (more about the app later), I've got to say that I've been doing a pretty good job at staying active and eating okay.  I won't say that I'm eating healthy yet, but do think I'm gaining some head way on the matter.

My days have been mixed with pick up basketball games with friends, dumbell circuit workouts at home, crossfit workouts with my boss, visits to the gym and a lot of energy trying to be conscious about my diet.  I hear that it takes two weeks to make a habit out of something...I hope that's true and I hope it sticks!

I've found that oatmeal is a great breakfast, boiled eggs are a great snack, open-faced sandwiches are great for lunch, and that most of my calorie intake is for dinner (approximately 50%).  I've got to work on that.  If I don't have a protein shake or something similar following a workout, I can expect to crash about three hours later.  I have a weakness for Ranch dressing (not the leanest of salad dressings) and that I don't really have a major sweet tooth... except for one day out of every two weeks.

Needless to say, I've learned a ton about myself and my habits these last few weeks.  I've got 5 lbs to show for it and about 42 more I've got to lose by Thanksgiving of 2011.

The Eventual Goal

I think that one of the healthiest points in my life was when I got married.  For nearly an entire year prior , I was working out consistently five days a week, eating well and in a really good place for my health.    When I got married I was pretty happy with where I was health wise.  A year before that, I was probably in the worst shape that I had been my entire life.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, over the course of that year, I lost about 75 lbs. A wedding and honeymoon will provide that motivation I guess.

Here's a picture of me playing with my wife's nieces in Hawaii just after our wedding.  During the year mentioned above, I was home in Hawaii for three months, during which I was hanging drywall for work and after work my buddy and I would either surf or work out at 24 Hour Fitness.  When I got back to Utah for school, I got a membership at Gold's Gym, and I was a usual at the 9th East gym in Provo.

I was by no means a specimen and not anything impressive in the pictures above, but obviously in much better shape than I am now (This picture to the left was taken in August at a "family olympics").  This is what getting too comfortable in a relationship (which isn't necessarily a bad thing), and a job that puts you at a computer for majority of the day will do to you.  I stopped working out consistently, started eating out a lot more often and paying less attention to certain signals that my body was sending me.  It took two pretty painful signals to get my attention (a strained hamstring and a strained quad two months later).  I definitely don't have time to work out like I used to, but I'd like to eventually get back to the shape I was in when my wife and I got married.  It's been a fun goal for she and I to go at together.  She's currently doing much better than me.  She's lost about 10 lbs in the last 45 days or so.  She turned into kind of a gym addict...it's really cute and pretty hot.