TheLaFitExpo 2015

I am TOTALLY pumped for my annual trip down south to TheFitExpo.  For the past three years I have traveled to Los Angeles for TheFitExpo.  I have not only seen myself grow over the past three years but also TheFitExpo, It seems to get bigger and better every year.  This year I am even more excited to be attending TheFitExpo as a FitFluential Ambassador.  When I heard about this opportunity I was so excited.  We were given the opportunity of spreading the word via social media.  This will be the sixth time I have attended TheFitExpo since 2012.  They literally have something for everyone and everybody.  It doesn't matter if you’re a fitness pro or just a fitness enthusiast.  TheFitExpo covers everything from MMA to Olympic Weight Lifting to bodybuilding.  I know my main reason for attending three years ago was to meet some of my favorite MMA Celebrities.  This year they have a stacked line up of MMA Stars from UFC Hall of Famer Tito Ortiz to current UFC Welterweight Champion Robbie Lawler. You also have the opportunity to train with the best.

 The Paradise Warrior Retreat is a separate ticketed event featured throughout TheFitExpo weekend. The Retreat will offer fans of world champions and MMA legends the chance of a lifetime to learn from the best in the fighting game -- the "secrets" that made them who they are. This event is a melting pot of participants of all ages, genders and disciplines who will have the opportunity to learn the principles and strategies of fighting that can be applied to any type of combat or in day-to-day survival. Instructors for this event will be the 2014 Fighter of the Year, Robbie Lawler as well as Luke Rockhold, Chad Mendes and Kabib Nurmagomedov.For more info on this visit www.paradisewarriorretreat.com. 

The Evolution Fitness Conference also gives everyone the opportunity to train with some of the fitness industries elite trainers like Jillian Michaels Bodyshred or take Celebrity Sweat with Eric the Trainer & Billy Blanks.  If your interested in making fitness a career check out the Fitness career center where these fitness professionals can help point you in the right direction. 

If you act fast the Evolution Fitness Conference is having a flash sale through Wednesday January 28,2015.         

Saturday Evolution Fitness Conference Half-Day (AM or PM - Includes 2 sessions.But, with this EFC Flash sale, anyone can go to www.efcnow.com, register for the Half Day (which includes two workouts, the Fit Expo and the FCC) and pay $25 when they enter the source code EFCFLASH at check out.

I always look forward to THeFitExpo.  I always come away fired up and ready to rock.  Check out their site for a complete list of events and celebrities and follow my blog and other social media handles as I will be sharing via social media during the two days of the expo.  Keep an eye out for the other FitFluential Ambassadors who will be attending TheFitExpo as well and feel free to say hello. 

  

Life is about choices

This past week my family took a wonderful road trip.  We drove over 1800 miles through three states in 6 days.  We went to Phoenix to visit with my trainer Bill Sienerth and also to cheer on and see  IFBB Pro Sara Kovach win the Phoenix Europa.  We had such an amazing experience. We got to see and experience things that I never thought possible. Things that I would have never dreamed of before I decided to Choosefitness. 

Dinner with Bill, Sara Nancy and the kids after Sara Europa win in Phoenix

   Sometimes I am amazed on how making one little decision in life can have such a huge impact on not just myself but others around me.  Over two years ago I made the decision to Choosefitness.  I literally felt like I had one foot in the grave.  It is like so many other vices or addictions out there. I lived in complete and total denial.  I figured if I avoided taking pictures or going out much i would not have to face the fact that i had let myself become morbidly obese. I use the term morbidly obese instead of overweight due to the fact that I weighed in at 390 lbs.  I am almost positive I weighed more since i started walking and cutting out junk food two weeks prior to my doctors appointment,  I had several health issues sleep apnea being the worst.  During one of my sleep studies I stopped breathing for almost 45 seconds. The nurse came into wake me up and switch me to a different machine.  I avoided looking at myself in the mirror because frankly I did not like what I saw looking back at me. Life is about choices.  It is about living with the choices we make good or bad.  I had chosen to let my health spiral out of control.  I chose to sit and eat a whole large pizza in one sitting.  I chose to drink a 12 pack of Pepsi in a day.  All these bad choices led me to hit finally hit my rock bottom.  I am husband and a father of two wonderful children and I had no energy to play with them.  I would get winded trying to walk across the yard to get a ball or to chase them.  It took an amazing friend to literally scare the hell out of me.  I will never forget what he said to me that night.  He told me when you die from a heart attack I will tell your kids you where a great guy.  To this day those words still get me a little choked up.  The very next day I chose to start trying to make a difference in my life.  It started with by making different choices in what I ate and drank.  It started by choosing to go walking.  I never forget the first day having to have my wife come pick me up because I was literally exhausted. I thought i had walked for ever turned out to be less than an 1/2 mile.  Every day I made the choice to walk further and further everyday.  Even if it was just a few steps more than the day before.

  

Day 1 March 10,2012  390 lbs

    In July I made my next huge choice.  I chose to attend the San Jose Fit Expo.  I felt so out of place walking around all these fit people. I had lost weight but was still about 350 lbs.  I felt like people Would look right past me.  I felt so uncomfortable and was ready to leave.  On my way out I stopped off at the Gnc booth.   A guy turned around and started talking to me. He asked me if i worked out.  My first response was great here we go another muscle head going to lecture me.  I told him I started working out and losing weight.  He asked me if i had a trainer and i told him no.  That's when Bill Sienerth handed me his card and said he wanted to train me. I was thinking no way this guy really wants train me.  As I turned to walk away he told me something i will never forget.   he told me I WILL HELP YOU CHANGE YOUR LIFE.  I was thinking that a bold statement.  We kept in contact Via twitter and Facebook until November when again I made another choice.  I decided to finally sign with Bill.  It has to be the best decision I have made when it comes to my health.  He did what he said he was going to do.  He helped me change my life mentally and physically. ON the first month I was down almost thirty lbs.  He put together a healthy life plan that was taylor made for my weight loss.  I had a goal of losing a 100lbs in a year.  With Bills help i crushed that goal by 25 lbs.  Since I decided to Choosefitness I have been able to live life in a whole new perspective.  

Crossing the finish line at my first 5k race.

Jumping over the fire at the Warrior Dash

   

I am doing things I thought never possible before.  I have ran my first 5k in March.  I just completed a major goal of a Warrior Dash.  The Warrior Dash was a goal Bill and I had set two years before.  I am competing in the Men's Health Urbanarathon in San Francisco in less than three weeks.   During our vacation we hiked down Bright Angel trail for a few miles with my kids.  These are all things that are all made possible by deciding to Choosefitness to change my life for the better.  None of these things would have been possible with out making a choice. 

Bill And I holding up my old size 56 waist pants

I have been asked if i regret not starting sooner.  My answer is no.  I believe I started when i was ready to choose the right time. Although my decision might have been out of desperation and fear.  I honestly believe i was not ready before even though i had tried and failed in the past.  I am not saying I have been perfect over the past two or so years.  I struggle like everyone else does. I sometimes get caught up on how far others are coming along and not seeing changed fast enough in myself.  I will have a pity party and falter for few days.  This again is a choice that I make.  I then make the choice to pick my self up and continue on.  I need to remember I'm not competing with others but with myself.  Each day making the choice to be better than I was the day before.  I focus on how far I have come and not on far I have to go.  I Choosefitness to change my life so I can experience and enjoy life in a whole new way.  If you want more info on how or where to start your journey click on the Choosefitness link to contact my trainer Bill Sienerth or feel free to contact me as well.

Who is ready to Run The City?

Who is ready to Run The City? Thanks to Fitfluential and Mens Health Urbanathalon I will be taking on the street of San Francisco on November 23, 2014.  Some of you may have never heard of this awesome race.  It is an obstacle course race that has two separate distances to choose from.  You can choose the classic which is a 10 mile course with 15 different obstacles or the all new sprint, which is a 3 mile course with 8 obstacles.  Here is a brief description take on their web page.

WHAT IS THE URBANATHLON?

In 2014, Men’s Health is returning with our 9th annual URBANATHLON series, celebrating the Men’s Health work hard, play hard mentality. The URBANATHLON challenges competitors—or more accurately, flat-out dares them—to set new personal standards for what it means to be fit.

Whether you are taking on the classic distance or the all NEW sprint distance course, the URBANATHLON is the ultimate test of endurance, strength, mobility and pure toughness. Post race, the excitement continues at the Men’s Health URBANATHLON Festival, with DJ sets, food and drink, and tons of stuff from our sponsors to demo, sample, and take home.

There are three different locations with races coming up.  You can choose from three different locations New York (October 18) Chicago(October 25) and San Francisco (November 23).  I will be running the new sprint distance in San Francisco.  This will be my second OCR race in less than a month and only my third official race ever.  I have been on a personal fitness journey for the past two years.  When I started in March of 2012 I was 386 lbs. Over two years later and 165 lbs lighter I am looking forward to testing myself in the streets of San Francisco on Nov 23.  

Men's Health Urbanathalon has been generous enough to allow me to share a discount code : FIT  to get 20% off your registration.  I hope to see you all out in San Francisco on Nov 23 

Reebok All Terrain Supers are Super

Disclaimer: I was given these shoes free of charge.  All opinions are my own.


For the longest time i have always bought shoes and worried about not getting them dirty.  It didn't matter if if was for pleasure or for play,Until now.  I received a gift card Via Kelly Olexa a while back for Reebok. I was able to go in a design and customize my own shoe.  It is actually a pretty awesome and simple feature they have one the Reebok website.  You pick out the style of shoe you would like to design,  You can choose to make it completely your own or start with a base that you can tweak to your liking. They make the process fun and easy to use.

 I chose the All Terrain Super because I wanted a rugged shoe that I could get dirty and not worry about them falling apart like other shoes  have tried in the past. We live out in the country so there a lot of fields, canals, orchards and mud to run through.  I have worn these shoes for every workout in and out of the gym for the past month or so.  They have hit the treadmill weight room and beach.  U couldn't wait to get these bad boys wet and dirty.  My family recently spent a weekend in Pismo Beach.  I packed my running bag and couldn't wait to hit the beach with my running partner who happens to be my five year old daughter Karley.  We hit Grover Beach and two sets of stairs before we took off across the beach. We started out along the sand until we hit waters edge.  I was surprised at well they held up getting wet in water. We continued along the beach running in and out of the ocean water.  Going from being splashed with water to being completely submerged.  I was expecting them to loosen up or become uncomfortable when they got wet.  To my pleasant surprise this never happened.  One of the awesome features this All Terrain Super has is the water ports in the front of the shoe to allow the water to drain when the shoe is wet or gets muddy.  The only thing I did not like was that the sand seemed to settle in the front of the shoe and not get washed out with the water. The sand would build up under the front of my foot so I had to stop and rinse it out about half way through my run. Had an amazing time testing these shoes out on the beach.  One of the best things about the All Terrain Super is the easy clean up.  I took out the sock liner and just rinsed them off in the sink.  I set them out to dry Over night and by the next day they had dried out.  One of the thing i had experienced in the past is once my other shoes had dried up they began to fall apart.  They have held up and are just as good today as they where the first day I put them on my feet.

 I was able to test out another feature this past Saturday while I visited Yosemite National Park with my family was the underfoot rock guard.  I took the opportunity to climb up Bridal Veil falls. The Granite rock is slippery and jagged.  I didn't feel any of the sharper edges of the rocks through these shoes thanks to the underfoot rock guard.  I was a little worried about not having a hiking shoe on since we walked and hiked a bit.  I didn't feel any discomfort during the day at all. 

All in all I am very satisfied and impressed with Reeboks All Terrain Super. I would highly recommend this shoe to any one especially if you are into obstacle course running.  Next testing ground for them will be a Warrior Dash event in mid October.

Back to where it all started

 I had the privilege of taking my children with me to The San Jose Fit Expo.  The Fit Expo will be an even that I will always try to attend whether its in norther or southern California.  For many of you who may not know the fit expo is an event that changed my life.  It opened me up to so many different avenues of fitness.  They have something for everyone.   It doesn't matter if your into bodybuilding, cross fit, zumba or even mixed martial arts.  It doesn't even matter where your at in your fitness journey.  the first time I attended was to meet UFC hall of fame legend Tito Ortiz.  I was tipping the scales at about  350 lbs and felt so out of place around all these fit people.  As I was on my way out the door I saw the GNC booth.  I walked over to see what they where handing out.  Little did i know that split second decision would change my life for ever.  This is where I met my trainer Bill Sienerth. Ill never forget what he told me that day.  He said when I was ready he would change my life.  Almost three years later he has helped me do just that.  I went from being an over weight dad who couldn't play with his kids with out getting winded to a dad preparing to train for  half marathon.  the journey has not been perfect but I continue to plug away at it.

Having Karley (5) and Nathan (4) attend this years expo was such an awesome and emotional experience for me.  to expose them to all the different kinds of fitness from Cross fit to Parkour to Bodybuilding.  It was fun to see Karley watching a demonstration and her mimicking what the lady was doing while she was waiting in line to meet Kali Muscle.  I usually have a game plan when i go to the Fit Expo.  I will pick my top vendors i want to visit and hit them first.  Of course that went out the window with the kids in tow.  We hit the bodybuilding.com booth first.  As we stood in line I actually got a little emotional.  I was thinking back to three years before and feeling out of place and tired from walking around at 350 lbs to being in line weighing 230 lbs that day and sharing this day with my children. We got to meet the bodybuilding.com athletes we took a group picture with Jerome Ferguson.and Karley got to take a picture with Jessie Hilgenberg.  As my plan of attack went out the window we walked around to the booths that the most noise or lights.  One of the must meet athletes was 4x Mr.Olympia Jay Cutler.  My son has meet Jay before but Karley just had to meet him. My kids have seen him in pictures with my trainer Bill so they just had to meet muscle man Bills friend.  The kine moved fairly quick and Karley finally got her wish to meet Jay Cutler.    She was so excited that he gave her an autographed picture. It was so awesome seeing the way these athletes interacted with not just my kids but all the kids that they met that day.  We moved onto the Allmax booth to meet the Mark "Flex" Anthony.  He is the first ever Men's Physique Mr.Olympia.  I had meet him a few times before with Bill.  He took the time to talk with the kids a bit and autographed a picture and took a photo with the kids.  We then stepped across the way to The Evogen Nutrition booth,  It amazes me how much our kids remember at such a young age,  My son had met the Hany earlier in the year.  Although he didn't remember his name he remembered he had meet him.  He ran up and said hello.  The kids then got to meet Evogen Athlete Ifbb Pro Steve Kucklo.  WE made the rounds to more boths and got to meet other athletes like Ufc Hall of famer Tito Ortiz, Kali Muscle.  One of our last stops was to 1 day you may booth.  The kids got to meet Rich Piana.  It was funny seeing the kids next to him.  I think his bicep was bigger than both kids put together.  I let the kids pick one thing they got to buy from the expo.  Nathan picked some sort of snack food he like and Karley actually picked a poster signed by Rich Pianna. I took the kids to watch a cooking demonstration by fellow Fitfluential Ambassador Magan Pettit.  She was showing how to make protien pancakes and smoothies.  My kids absolutley loved both so mush we had to make them at home.

I saved the best booth for our last stop.  We hit the Gnc booth on the way out just as I had three years ago.  Although my trainer Bill was in Florida I still wanted the kids to Meet some of the other Gnc Athletes.The kids know the big red letters is where there friend muscle man billy works.  Nathan thought for sure I was joking when i told him Bill was not going to be here this time. The kids got to meet Ifbb Bikini Pro Narmin Assria and Ifbb Men's Physique pro Trent Calavan.  We talked for a bit and they took an awesome picture with the kids. 

It is great to see how all these athletes interact with there fans.  It is especially great to see how they interact with the little ones.  Even though the expo was a few weeks ago my kids talk about it like it was yesterday.If you have never attended The Fit Expo in San Jose or In Los Angeles i highly recommend it. Maybe one day ill be able to stand on stage at and share how this event not only changed my life but my families as well.

Don't let your past dictate your future!!

I finally hit the golf course for the first time since I started my journey over two years ago.  I love golfing because its challenging and relaxing at the same time.  I had always struggled with going even though it was something I enjoyed.   My friends would invite me to go but I would make up excuses on why I couldn't go.  The main  reason being I had become to big to enjoy it. None of were turning pro anytime soon so we would always hit the local course.  They charge 18 dollars for a round.  It is a great price only draw back for me was you have to walk the course.  It took all I had to get through it the last time I went.  My back would hurt from from the bending overall the time.  my form was horrible because I basically had to try and figure out a way to swing with this massive belly hanging from my midsection.  I never knew what it was like to have a normal swing.  I literally had to stand far away from the ball because my stomach would get in the way of hitting the ball.

One of my coworkers invited me to go golfing this weekend,  I figured why not the family was out of town and I didn't have any other plans.  I went out to the pump house and literally had to dig my clubs out.  It took me while to get my bag and clubs dusted off.  I was hoping to get in some practice swings at the driving range but there  was  Jr tournament going on so we had to start right away the lady said.  I teed up the first ball and let it rip at least so I thought.  I topped the ball and it bounced down the hill.  I noticed right away that my stance was off and I had to stand closer to the ball.  We walked to the bottom of the hill where my ball had rolled to.  Grabbed my next club and took my swing.  I connected and hit with in 25 yards of the green. I started to regain that enjoyment for the game once again.  We walked the whole course and had a blast.  I found out from my friend I only got par on three holes that day.  It didn't matter that I played a horrible round.  What did matter was that I finally took that little step put of my comfort zone.  I tried something again that I once found excuses to run away from.

It was like trying experiencing it all over for the first time.  I had to relearn how to swing and follow through.  As I played  the course it made me realize how far I have come.  It may seem small to other people but re-experiencing things I had done in the past is a constant reminder that I am not the same person I use to be.  I have been struggling the past few weeks with realizing that I am a totally different person than I was before.  I let one persons comment sit in my mind and bug me.   I know they didn't mean it in a rude or obnoxious way but I still let it get to me.  I was getting down on myself because  I was allowing myself to get caught up in others peoples progress.  Even though I work my butt off I don't see results as fast as other people do.  I Feel it and see it in my clothes and see it in my arms.  Sometimes I let the old mindset kick in and still see the fat guy looking back at me in the mirror.  I know that I am not the same person I once was but we are still human and have down days.   I just let my day last a few days.   I didn't go crazy and binge just felt crappy.  I felt good in the gym but was down once I  was done. I finally snapped out of my funk after talking about it.  Sometimes I forget to use the tools and people god has placed in my life.  We tend to forget how easy it is to apply the tools we have learned and have been given.  It's funny that a simple game of golf put thinks back in perspective for me.I need to continue to focus on the positive things that are going on now. Don't be scared to try things that you failed at or found difficult to do in the past.  Embrace the challenge of conquering the things you could not do before.  Once you have completed those things no matter how small or big they are find new things to try. It's like learning to live all over again the only difference being that I am a better version of my what I was before. We need to remember to not let our past dictate our future.

What kind of things have you been able to now that you could or could not do before?

My First Reebok Experience!!!!

 I was fortunate enough to win a gift card from Reebok via Kelly Olexa (Ceo,founder) FitFluential.  I was a little hesitant to step outside my shoe comfort zone of Nike. I figured why not give it a whirl especially since it was free gift card. I have always worn Nike for as long as I can remember.  A lot of that reason was just due to the fact that they carried the wide sizes.  Who knew my feet would also shrink with my weight loss.

It took me a while before I finally settled on a pair that I liked. I had seen a commercial during the summer with one of my favorite fighters Quinton "Rampage" Jackson promoting the Atv19 shoe.  I thought to myself those look funky.  In November I saw an article and again a fighter I am a huge fan of Johnny "Bigg Rigg" Hendricks had on some Atv19. So when I won this gift card I already knew what kind of shoes I wanted to get.  I was amazed at how hard it was to find a store in my area that not only carried Reebok but also carried the Atv19.  I finally found some at Dicks Sporting Goods store in a town about 30 miles north.  It was my first time in there store and was impressed with not on the store but there customer service.   I told the sales attendant what I wanted and what size.  He brought them out and told me to take them for a spin.  They had an area marked like a track to try them out.  I tried them on and ran up and down the aisle a few times. I was a little worried about the way the lugs would feel.  I had tried on another brand shoe that had something similar and I could feel the lugs and it made them uncomfortable.  I was happy with the fit.  The didn't slip during acceleration.  I knew that it would be a different once i got them and used them for a bit.  I was confident enough with trying them on that when I got home I jumped on Reebok.com and went to design your own.  I loved the way that Reebok lets you customize your shoe exactly they way that you want it.  It was actually a lot more time consuming than I thought it would be.  There where so many different options to choose from.  Reebok doesn't leave anything out when it comes to designing your shoe.  They even let you choose the type of laces you want for your custom order. I had NKN put on the back of my custom shoe.  It the initials For my wife daughter and son(Nancy  Karley  Nathan). I finally made my choices and hit order.

I was very impressed with Reebok's customer service.  I received a phone call because I put my Po box as well as my physical address on my shipping info. They got my correct shipping info and sent it out priority.  I received my shoes a few days later.  I opened them up and realized that the toe cap color was not the color that I had chosen.  It was supposed to be Trust blue like the other part of the shoe.  Instead it showed up and was violet.  I assumed they had made a mistake so i called customer service.  I explained to them that I thought they had made a mistake.  They double checked my order and the mistake was mine.  I must have hit the wrong color when I was finalizing my customer order.  The customer service rep explained that it happens pretty often. She offered to take my information and pass it on to a supervisor for review.  She explained that they would contact me within three days to let me know if there was anything they could do for me.  The next day my phone rang and it was Reebok's customer service.  They informed me that they where going to give me another gift card so I could order a new pair of shoes.  I was blown away that would offer to replace my order even though it was my fault.  I offered to send the shoes back that I had received and she said to keep them and gave me a code for a new pair of custom Reebok shoes.

The thing I love the most about the Atv19 shoe is that they are comfortable on all kinds of terrain.  The lugs are deigned to get through mud, loose dirt and other different types of terrain.  When I run at home we do not have public sidewalks or parks to run at.  I transition from the road to the canals with gravel and loose dirt to almond orchards.  No matter where I am at they hold up and my comfort is never Compromised.  They never loose traction on the loose dirt on the canals and the lugs give a great cushion when running on the road.  I am totally pleased with my first experience with Reebok. There customer service was top notch and the Atv19 are awesome.  I cant wait to order my next pair of Reebok.  

Do you have different kinds of shoes you use for different runs or workouts?