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Eating crow and going home (ALTERNATIVE TITLE: Revolution goes to the dogs)
The results are in: Team Divalicious averaged 14.3 pounds of positive change per person while Team Triple Threat averaged 12 pounds of positive change for person. In case you’re confused, that score reflects a combination of pounds of fat lost plus pounds of muscle gained.
I had thought that Divalicious had quit, but looking at the scores it’s evident that they just quit going to the workouts and did their own fitness program on their own. So I’m very proud of them and now they can have all the money for the charity of their choice, East Texas Paws.
I would like to take this opportunity to recognize a few individuals. I had a couple on my team that worked very hard but for some reason their score didn’t reflect that. Robin Nevills came to at least four workouts a week and stuck to the diet and worked at least as hard as anyone else. Jessica Savage also stuck to the diet and while she didn’t show up to as many workouts, she was pretty consistent and did plenty of activity on her own to make up for it. I just want to say to those two they have nothing to be ashamed of and they should be proud of themselves. For the other squad, Peggy Rains was a workhorse in every use of the term and her point total showed it. Jackie Berry and Cheri Martin also worked hard and I think they are very happy with their results, as they should be.
As for me, I gave it my best shot and I apologize to my teammates for not leading us to victory. I knew those goal-oriented ad girls would be nearly impossible for us to overcome, but I do think they were at least a little worried. But I’ve been missing too many evenings with the family, so I’ll let Chris Daughtry (rhymes with “Jeff Awtrey”) take us out of here.
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The bet is on
We’re entering our final days of the competition, and I’m so bored with it that I had to make things interesting. Triple Threat has the competition on its knees, so we’re just playing with them now. I have resorted to begging Divalicious into competing with us. So, I have a wager with Myste of Divalicious. All she has to do is show up for THREE classes next week and she wins.
Yes, I realize you’re asking why I would make such a stupid wager. With classes being offered six days a week, she should double that production. Please don’t condemn Myste. She is merely a representative of Divalicious, a team which ninety percent of the members have just given up. So I’m looking forward to donating all that money to OUR charity, as well as feeding Myste a little humble pie.
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In case you’re wondering…
We’re still here. It’s obviously the dog days of the program. Participation at Synergy is about as good as it is on this blog. Luckily, it’s a lot better on Triple Threat than it is on Divalicious. I think Divalicious has given up.
Prime example: I’ve lost 13 pounds of fat. I don’t think the divas have even bothered with their measurements.
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You can’t buy a new body
Here is Ryan’s latest column which ran in LDN on Sunday:
A few years ago I worked for American General as an investment advisor, and frequently I would encounter young couples that were saving for their first home. More times than not, the wife could tell me how many hours of overtime her husband worked per week, and exactly how much money each month was set aside for that new home. She could recite the interest rates and tell me just how many more months until they would have the down payment ready. Because the goal of a new house was important to them they took it upon themselves to form a plan and adhere to it . While unexpected expenses would come up and some months they’d get to save more than others, they kept plugging away at that goal of a new home. It was never “too much work” and they cared about it to much to “pay themselves last.” The rent was paid, and no one ever went hungry, but sometimes sacrifices were made. They didn’t go out on the town every weekend, or buy a new pair of shoes for every event. They bought that new home and all the work and all the sacrifices were worth it. You may identify with this story. It reminds of us of clichés like “anything worth doing is worth doing right,” or “fail to plan, plan to fail.”
So in your quest for a new body let’s approach this like you would saving for that new home. First, let’s acknowledge it’s a big goal, a big change that we’re after and it’s going to take some time. Next, we have to set some smaller milestones to reach, and attach some time limits to them. If you’re holding on to the notion that “I want to lose as much weight as possible in the shortest time possible with the least amount of work possible,” try substituting the words “save as much money” for “lose as much weight” in that sentence. Read it again and see if the error in logic jumps out at you. Rather than pin your hopes on a “get rich quick” or “get thin quick” scheme, we need a plan of action. To form our plan of action we have to:
1 Set a goal.
Your goal should be measurable. Saying “I want to lose some weight” is meaningless.
Your goal should be realistic. Ten pounds in two weeks is not realistic.
Your goal should be meaningful. Is one dress size meaningful to you, or is three?
2 Set a time frame.
Again, the time frame should be realistic, yet meaningful. Two pounds of fat lost per week is about the most the human body can lose. If you’re losing weight faster than that it is water and/or muscle and is only temporary.
3 How?
That’s the big question. How much diet? How much exercise? How to find the time, the energy, the babysitter. We’ll be getting into specifics next column.
Ryan Rex is owner of Synergy Fitness.
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Crazy stuff with balls
Synergy is big into balls. Throwing them, sitting on them, even standing on them. Most of it has to do with strengthening the core while working out the rest of the muscle group. For instance, you can put your legs on a fitness ball and do push-ups. So you’re strengthening your abs while trying to stabilize yourself on the ball and your chest from the push-ups at the same time.
So I do a lot of that kind of thing in ball blast when I work out in the mornings. But last night, Ryan, the trainer, took me on a new adventure.
Stuff like trying to put my arms on two balls and letting them roll to the side as I was in a push-up position (how I didn’t break my nose I don’t know) or resting the balls under my forearms and letting them roll to my elbows (much harder than it looks).
But my favorite was when he tried to get me to put one ball under my toes and the other under my chest then lift up into a push-up position. I don’t think it’s humanly possible to do a push-up on two balls but he pulled it off. Actually, he had a lot of trouble doing it so I don’t know why he thought I had a chance. I came close once but the good thing is just trying to do it was exercise enough.
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Time for a Turn Around
So it’s been tough for me to get back into a routine again after catching the flu and missing a week of work. Yikes! Last week was my first week back, and despite feeling drained of energy I managed to make it to two classes. I jump started the week with a 7 a.m. spin class, and handled it surprisingly well despite some sniveling.
Fitness fusion Thursday night was a different story. Lifting weights proved to be much harder than before the flu. I didn’t realize how much damage a week of not working out could do to my strength. Even though I couldn’t work out as hard as I would have, I kept up my healthy eating routine. Well, that’s if you’re not counting the sugar-coated cough syrup and throat lozenges I ingested throughout the day.
Well, this blog entry has become rather depressing, so I’ll switch over to what I have planned for this week. Eating right, working out and making up for lost time. And for everyone who thinks the flu has sabotaged my contributions to Triple Threat: You can think again! I own this. See you at the gym.
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Week 6
Okay, so for the most part, I love Synergy Fitness and the fantastic programs they have going on over there. I love the flat out challenge of the Spin class Xand puts us through, and I was very proud of myself for actually doing all of the challenges he put us through last Monday. ( First time for that!!!) I love that I can challenge myself to go further than I did the week before. Not that it is really getting any easier, but I don’t think that is the point. ( On a whiner day I’ll swear they are trying to kill me through slow methodical torture methods, and they don’t realize how old I really am, or how out of shape I really am or some other mumbling and grumbling) But they keep on pushing me to go a little further and I do. Every time, I keep going, a little longer, a little further in this fitness journey.
Part of my journey has been making some changes in my diet, Well it hasn’t been easy. I want to eat what I want to eat, but I have been pretty good with my diet. I have cut out a lot of sugars and extra calories from sodas, cut back on my coffee, and I am eating 5 times a day (well, on most days). I really love all the real answers we get when we pose questions to Ryan. For example, I never in my wildest dreams thought my late night cravings could ever be because I was not eating ENOUGH during the day.( my calories were a little on the minus side of what I needed to be eating). I like his style of giving you all the information and examples you need, in a very clear and concise way. It gives you the freedom to make decisions based on your own good judgment.
I have always known about exercise and good nutrition, I was in the fitness industry a few moons ago….. Boy it’s come a long way. What I haven’t known about is the high tech way the fitness industry has evolved. Synergy has put this together in a setting that is fun and challenging. I have to admit I was a little skeptical at first, when they wanted us to do math, figure our pulses and such. I thought this was going to be too complicated to keep up with, and I’ll just say I have been pleasantly surprised, it really isn’t complicated at all.
Now in week 6, I am really beginning to see some solid results. My whole core is much more defined, and more tone. My stamina has increased. I feel stronger and more in touch with the body I live in. (and as silly as it sounds…..) It actually feels pretty good to look in the mirror and say WOW! I did this. My hard work is starting to pay off, and it feels great. See ya in Spin!
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Not what it looks like!
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Back in the game
It was cold. It was raining. I had already been in my favorite flannel pants for more than an hour. I was wearing my slippers. I couldn’t find any sweats. I was reading a really good book. I was tired!
These were all the reasons I had for not going to work out last night. But, because I missed nearly two weeks of workouts due to back-to-back health issues, I sucked it up and went anyway.
I’m glad I did.
Doing the exercises, I could definitely tell that I was weaker than I was a couple of weeks ago, although Ryan assured me that I probably did not lose any muscle during that time.
I did have a hard time with one exercise that involved hanging from a pair of rings, which is weird since I don’t have any problems hanging from my rings at home.
The best part of the workout was beating the punching bag with a bat. I think if everyone in the world made time for that at the end of each day, world peace could be achieved.
Today I’m feeling a little sore, but I’m glad to be back in the game.
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Chugging along …
The hardest part about the workouts, to me, is finding the time to do them every day. I did make another 6 a.m. “ball blast” session today. I’ve lost five pounds, give or take a pound, in the 3-4 weeks I’ve been doing this. I can definitely tell a difference.
(Confession: I’m still not on the preferred diet — I don’t even know what it is, exactly — but I am watching what I eat more closely that I normally would. The no-veggies diet probably isn’t the best for our Revolution, but I am feeling better overall.)
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No pain no gain?
I’ve been super proud of myself for jogging some and walking some while on the treadmill. I actually got to where I liked jogging…except for this minor problem of this sharp shooting pain up my leg from my shins. I thought this probably was just because I’d never jogged before and I should just work through it, but last night at PT I asked Ryan about it. Apparently I have shin splits! Yippee for me! Ryan said that’s where the muscle starts tearing away from the bone and it’s pretty common. He gave me some tips like get some new shoes and start walking on an incline, but most of all he told me to stop jogging. You’d think this would be common sense, but apparently I don’t have any. I also was a little disapointed because surprisingly I found that I like jogging! That’s right-I actually ENJOY it. (minus the sharp shooting pain of course). I’ve never enjoyed any kind of physical activity. My hand eye coordination are pretty much 0, so I was never any good at sports. I used to hate gym in school. But it feels good to just run, especially when you’re frustrated or upset about something. I think running and punching or destroying walls (which I helped a friend do when she was tearing her house down) are both great therapy. Too bad I have to stick to walking now.
Oh and everyone not going to PT please go! It’s at 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday. Anyone in the New Year’s Revolution program can come. I was the only one there last night and Ryan was nice enough to tell me we could work on anything I wanted. I had about four or five personal trainers all to myself making up things for me to do and got a real good work out. However, as great as that is, I’d much prefer NOT being the center of attention so everyone come on out tonight!
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Core stability
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Early morning workouts, Part III
Jessica and Denise have talked about the experience of working out in the early morning hours. I decided to give it a try this morning.
6 a.m.
Ball blast.
Xand advised me that ball blast would be a good alternative to the lighter-weight Fitness Fusion. But the only open time was at 6 a.m.
6 a.m.
So I laid out all my clothes last night and set the alarm for 5:30 a.m.
5:30 a.m.
…and got up this morning. I was pretty much in a daze driving to Synergy. I walked in and hear a voice in the spin room yelling at the class members to pedal faster and harder. I almost turned around and walked out. I can’t believe a spin class starts at 5 a.m.
5 a.m.
Who wakes up at 4:30 a.m. and decides they want to pedal for their lives and get screamed at?
Anyway, ball blast is a good alternative to Fitness Fusion. We use heavier weights and more with the big fitness ball. Now it’s just a matter of getting myself up at 5:30 a.m. on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
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Stop blaming yourself
This is Ryan Rex’s column that ran in Sunday’s LDN print edition:
It’s that time of year again. Time to really buckle down and lose some weight. You know all the reasons you should really stick with it this time; for yourself and your own self esteem down to living longer and being alive to see your grandkids graduate high school. You’ve seen the statistics and read and tried every quick and easy tip to fast and easy weight loss there is. You’ve been on every diet, paid for gym memberships you never use, and ran more miles on the treadmill than you care to remember. If only you had the willpower, and more time. If only someone would just “tell you what to eat.”
Stop blaming yourself. Every program you were on, every diet plan you tried was flawed by design, and had no chance of working. Think about it. If the low-carb approached really worked long term, Oprah would be thin, the obesity crisis would be over, and I’d be out of a job. We’ve all tried low-carb and got excited that first week when we saw the scale go down. We were never told that because carbs bind with water that the majority of the weight we lost in the first two weeks was water weight. When the weight loss slowed, we went crazy on the cardio until we were miserable. I don’t know anyone who has the willpower to be miserable 24 hours a day, especially when the program is slowing down or not working all together. So when we let carbs creep back into our diet, the water weight was re-gained, and with one final surge of desperation we either starve ourselves or run mini-marathons on the treadmill before giving up, blaming ourselves for lack of willpower.
So what now? The only true, long term solution to a long term problem is for you to learn and understand how your body works and design a program that fits your unique lifestyle. You are an individual with your own food preferences, work schedule, and social obligations. If you were a celebrity you could hire a personal trainer, chef, and dietician to do it all for you. Because most of us do not have that kind of expendable income, we fall prey to unscrupulous advertisers that promise quick and easy solutions. Unfortunately there is no quick and easy solution or fail proof plan other than making you part of the process of changing your behaviors and lifestyle and taking responsibility for your body and your health. Doing that takes work. It’s much easier to “gamble” by sending $19.95 to the late night infomercial, “just in case.”
Ryan Rex is owner of Synergy Fitness in Lufkin.
Good spirits
Tuesday afternoon I was actually in a mood where I was looking forward to a workout. I was craving the hard work, craving the soreness. That’s a mood I’ve never experienced before.
Last night at personal training, I pulled off some difficult balancing exercises. Plus, it’s always a boost to the ego when one of my workout partners, Ashley, gives a “Yay Jeff!” (She’s a mother to two young children. It probably comes out naturally for her. But that’s OK, I’ll be her five-year-old!) Then I matched a personal best in the bicep curls, and rather easily.
So New Year’s Revolution is making me feel better in body and mind. Nothing can bring me down, can it?
Oh, wait, I have Spin tonight. Well, it was good while it lasted.
Happy Valentine’s Day. I have a steak dinner and steamed veggies lined up. I may reward myself with a small piece of cake.
Getting used to it
I’m a late-comer to the group, but I’ve been doing the workouts for two weeks now. My legs are still burning from the Spin class last night.
I haven’t overhauled my diet yet (I don’t eat veggies, for those who don’t know), but I am eating better foods from time to time, and I’m drinking more water (by necessity, because of the Spin cycle). And I’m definitely feeling better overall. I’ve lost a pound or two, and I could see myself losing 10-15 by the time we’re done. Hold me to it.
Just the facts
I go to lunch with my friends in editorial every Friday. We have one particular local restaurant that we go to more than others, and that was the plan for last Friday. Well, they have a salad that I really like there, but I’m pretty sure it was going to be more than my calorie quota could fill.
I was really craving that salad so I decided to try to look it up online to see how many calories it had. But their Web site didn’t list the nutritional facts for any of its menu items. So I called them and was told to try their corporate number. I called it and was told they didn’t have the nutritional facts for any of their menu items.
I then wrote a letter to the corporate office asking that they begin making the nutritional facts available or I will have to begin dining elsewhere. I received a letter back simply saying, “Sorry, we don’t have that information.”
There has been talk that restaurants should make their information available and the restaurants are balking. It seems they’re scared we’ll find out that what they’re feeding us is really not healthy.
I think the FDA should make it a law to have restaurants make it available. The food we buy in the grocery store has the labels, why shouldn’t restaurants be held to different standards?
What say you?
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Anxiously awaiting the results
Well, we all weighed in and had our fat pinched again on Saturday. I’ve gained three pounds, hopefully all muscle. I dreamt last night that Ryan told me I gained 9 pounds of muscle and lost 6 pounds of fat.
While I’m not expecting my real-life outcome to be quite as miraculous, I’m hoping our conversation tonight goes something like that, anyway.
Until then, I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the news is good news!
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Jeff? Is That You?
Ask Awtrey what this was all about…
Early morning musings
So I woke up 30 minutes early, to do the recommended 20-minute, kick-start-your-metabolism morning workout, not realizing how cold it is outside.
I walk out in shorts and a t-shirt, realize I’m insane and run back inside to put on warmer clothes.
I did a short walk before starting my run. I noticed I was not able to run as far as I can during the evenings. Usually I run three sides of my block and walk one short side. Today I could only run two sides of my block without stopping. I think it had to do something with the cold air freezing my lungs to death.
Weird stuff happens in Brookhollow before 7 a.m. I heard birds singing. A few dogs barked at me while I was out. I realized that sunrise is much earlier than I thought. I had expected it to be pitch black outside.
I noticed other people out walking and running. What’s up with that? Some of them looked retirement age too. I thought the whole point of retiring was to REST.
As I was making my last lap around the block I saw a school bus come into the neighborhood — at 7 a.m.!! I can only imagine those poor kids go to a school for children whose parents hate them.
Overall, I guess it wasn’t so bad, but I’m not sure I can do it every day. One day at a time…
The never-ending battle against Spin class
My struggle with Spin class has been well documented on this blog and gets more frustrating each week as I still have trouble and more of my fellow employees figure it out. Last night I was beginning to think it just wasn’t for me as yet another employee, Jessica, joined the class and made it look effortless. So my thighs were feeling the burn pretty bad and I was getting depressed for the first few minutes, knowing I had a long way to go and I wasn’t going to be able to keep up.
Xand instructed us to “get out of the saddle,” which is the term to stand on the bike and pedal. This was the hardest part but for some reason yesterday something clicked and I figured out how to use my hips and take a lot of the stress off my legs. Standing was ten times easier and I actually enjoyed it.
I feel like I overcame a major hurdle in the class and now just have to learn to do the intense spinning while sitting to catch up to the rest.
But in the meantime, might I suggest a new technique to spin? See the video:
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Latest comments
I’m really proud of everyone’s hard work and dedication. It took a lot of sacrifice to get to where we are today. I learned a lot about the type of workout it takes to achieve positive results. It pretty much boils down to a solid cardio workout
... read the full comment by Jessica | Comment on Eating crow and going home (ALTERNATIVE TITLE: Revolution goes to the dogs) Read Eating crow and going home (ALTERNATIVE TITLE: Revolution goes to the dogs)
Hi Ryan, I agree there are way to many people out there beating themselves up because they have a hard time losing weight. This just seems to send them into a downward spiral and they end up gaining even more weight.
I think the best diet
... read the full comment by Becky Gillaspy | Comment on Stop blaming yourself Read Stop blaming yourself
For some of us, low-carb DID work and we weren’t miserable as you claim. Come on, Ryan Rex! Be real with people. I lost 180 pounds on the Atkins diet in 2004 and have kept it off by continuing to eat better than I ever thought possible ever since.
... read the full comment by Jimmy Moore | Comment on Stop blaming yourself Read Stop blaming yourself
Don’t spoil your cake with those candies on your desk. ;)
... read the full comment by jessica | Comment on Good spirits Read Good spirits