“Climbing the Web”

This week has been a week of pushing out of my comfort zone, learning more about me, and regaining my confidence back. It has been a good week controlling my diet, working my body and pushing past what I thought was my limits.

My week started with a good meeting with Kim to review my food log and talk about the next phase in my food plan. After my meeting with Kim, I went back to Sandra and Lara’s and Sandra cut my hair. This was the first step in regaining my confidence. She did and awesome job and after my haircut I started to feel good again. After that we went swimming, I have never felt comfortable being in public with my shirt off. But on Sunday I did and I felt ok with it. In fact I was very comfortable that I even forgot that I don’t like getting in to the deep water diving tank because the last time I did I need two people to help me get out of the tank. So it hit me about 20 minutes after I was in the tank how am I going to get out. Sandra said “you will be fine pulling yourself out of the pool” and she was right it was easy. It was a fun day.

Monday boot camp was brutal, Damir had us doing Tabata, in a circuit. It was hard. I started with bicep curls, my arms were so sore after that station. As I did each station on the circuit, I gave it my all. By the time I was done my arms felt like Jelly.

Tuesday I arrived at 2110 Fitness early and jump on a Hamster wheel. As I was warming up on the Hamster wheel, I remembered that in my meeting with Kim on Sunday I said to her that I wonder if I could run on the Hamster wheel at a 5. After about 20mins of power walking I decided that I am going to give it a shot. So When Kim arrived and jumped on the Hamster wheel beside me I ask her “if I run at 5 for 1 minute that would count as being able to run at 5.” She agreed. So I turned it up slowly. I got to 4.7, got scared and ran the minute at 4.7. Then I turned it down and walk for a 2 minutes. Then I tried again. This time I got it to 5 and I ran for the minute, but kept going to 1 minute and 15 seconds then I hopped off. I turned to Kim and said “I have not been pushing myself hard enough!” She smiled and said “Clearly!!”

So going into my session With Damir I was Excited to share my news, Ryan was running a few minutes late, so Damir and I started without him. Going with the theme of my triumph on the hamster wheel, we started with Dirty Burpees. As I started Damir Said “No stopping! You will do 10 in a row, hopping on all of them!” It was tough but I pushed and did it. Every Set in that session he push me to go beyond and push past my limit or what I thought was my limit. It was an awesome session!!

Wednesday’s Boot camp was a high Cardio! It was so intense. We start at 6:30 on the Spin Bike, after the spin bike he threw everything at us. Push up, burpees; step up, rockstars ... it went on and on and on. We did not stop to break until 7:00pm. It was crazy!! Then we started all over again. Just like in my session on Tuesday he did not let up, he called me out almost every time I tried to stop and catch my breath. I felt bad for my boot camp Buddy Kat Jacob, we were workout almost on top of one another and it was such a hard class I was swearing, and farting all through. But we rocked it!! I really love that Boot camp class I hope we do it again real soon!!

Thursday I did Cardio.

Friday was a very awesome day I reached a goal I have had for a very long time. When I was at alive, Mondays I did 2 hours of cardio on the hamster wheel, while I did that there was always a class going on in the studio right beside the hamster wheel. Kate’s class, it always looked extremely hard. I thought wow she is crazy like Damir; I totally want to try that class when I am in better shape. She was the Sub instructor of Damir’s Boot Camp on Friday. It was as crazy as I thought I would be. I knew we were in trouble after our warm up when the first Exercise was 2 minutes of burpees. It was awesome! Later she took 2 exercises that I find very difficult and put them together. 1 I just became able to do, spider planks, and the other was mountain Climbers. It was brutal, but proud to say it did every set of them. It was so good I feel it needs a great name so I am calling that exercise “Climbing the Web”! It was an awesome Class!

All around it was an awesome week. I got my confidence back, push myself on the hamster wheel way out of my comfort zone and met some awesome goals! Wow it was a great Week!

extremely intense

This has been a hard month; my confidence has not been there. I have had a lot of head issues; I have been on this journey a long time, in my head I am not where I want to be weight wise and fitness wise. It maybe from the fact that I still see myself as being too fat to do things I want to do. Which that is mostly just in my head. An example of that was in Thursday’s session I asked Damir if I Did something wrong in the last set as I felt it went faster for me then when Ryan did it, so I must have made an error. He turned the next set into a race. Ryan went very fast on this round, finished it in 3mins 25 seconds. I thought ok well I am not going to beat that time, no way. Damir Said “get that out of your head, you just need to do the rockstar pushups better and you can beat his time.” As I started Damir was down on the green fake grass matting with me, as I did them he said “get it out of your head you need to stop and catch your breath at the bottom of the push up! You don’t!!” I finished the Rockstar pushups with lots of time to finish the Alternate cleans with the Kettle bells to beat the time. Which I did I finished at 3min 15 seconds.

Since the beginning of my journey I have heard Kim Talk about how she loves the kettle bells, how awesome swinging them is. Ryan has also said how awesome it is. Now I have always wanted to swing them, but because of my apron that just was not possible to do it right. A few week ago Damir and I tried to do them again and I could now physically do them, just had to work on my form. So after doing them at 2110 and in boot camp and still not feeling like I was getting it, I review the videos that I made of boot camp. I study how smooth it is suppose to look and I am happy to say on Thursday I was able to do 20 in a row correctly without stopping and it felt pretty smooth.

I have always have had great training sessions with Damir, they have changed into extremely intense hours. Since Damir has settled into 2110 Fitness he keeps raising the bar. I used to say Thursdays workouts were my last chance workout, like on the biggest loser. Thursday’s were always crazy. Now the equipment at 2110 is so awesome, Damir is like a kid in a Candy store, I sweat my ass off right from the start. Now every session seems to be like the old Thursdays workout but more and more intense. When I am on the bus headed to 2110 I start to get very excited, not knowing what he is going to have us do. Will there be The Big ass Tire or the weight sled in today’s workout. The place has made our training session extremely intense; it has become my favourite two hours out of the week. I used to start out cold, not warming up before our sessions; I can no longer do that. I get to 2110 and I hop on a treadmill to get my heart going because I am sure we are going to start out with a bang.

Boot camp has also been awesome in last month. Damir has turned into the guy from the DQ commercials. In Boot camp we just don’t do jumping jacks.... we do squatting jumping jacks.........or ......we don’t just do burpees........... We do dirty burpees..... or..... we just don’t do pushups .......We do rock star pushups. So it has been very crazy there as well. There were a few days where the only part of my body that did not hurt was my nose. The best was this week when we ran the “hill of Hell” we didn’t just run up and down the “hill of hell”.... We zigg zagged from the "Hill of Hell” to Macleod trail. It was awesome!!

Food as always has been a struggle in the last month. I have made a few poor choices, a few weeks ago I worked late and the store Manger bought pizza for everyone. I normally pass on the free food at work, as I am on a plan and I try to stick to it. But the smell was amazing so I caved and I had a piece. It tasted so good, so I had a second piece. That was not the right thing to do, now it seems all I wanted to do is cheat and have something bad. This week Kim has given me a new plan and I am doing much better. I really like it. I have also change my lock screen on my Iphone to a photo of a quote on the wall of Damir Studio. It is helping keep me grounded and on track.

I am looking forward to next week!!!

Damir Loves Burpees!

My week this week has been an amazing week. This week I counted some of the staple exercises I do week in week out. I started to counted from my training session last Thursday to my session today. So let’s start with the Big Ass Tire Flips in my training sessions I flip the tire 31 times, that is over two sessions. Flipping that tire is so empowering. Damir ‘s new thing is to have us flip the tire after doing so much work that my heart is flying out of my chest. No thinking just flip it. Don’t tell Damir but I love that dam tire.

Next 103 Alternate cleans with the Black Kettle bells. Once I was good at this exercise, but lately I cringe when he says it is in the session. In fact last Thursday Damir list off everything we going to-do in our session and I was smiling after he said everything because it was not on the list. But of course Damir used his Jedi mind trick and read my mind and somehow it got dropped into our workout. On Tuesday he added them in near the end of our session and as I did them on our last round he asked me to do it nonstop in the last 20 seconds, but I decided to put them down 3 seconds short of the 20 seconds. Now this pissed him off little and instead of moving on to the next exercise I had to do them again and not put them down until Damir said? It was hard and I bitched a little but I finished it.

183 Burpees, this is an exercise I have done in every class and training session. I have done those in my dreams as I slept this week. Damir Loves Burpees! Doing burpees in boot camp is much harder than in my sessions. In my session I try and do them on the green matting (fake grass) at 2110 fitness. I just throw my body down with no fear. It is awesome!!

Mountain climbers, another one of Damir’s Favourites, i have done these bad boys in every session and boot camp this week expect today’s. The thing I like about the mountain climbers is that they lead to other great bootcamp Exercises like Bear crawls, pushing the smaller weight sled and much more.

Also this week I have done 25 Km of cardio. This started with the 10KM Stampede Road Race on Sunday, this was quite a day. As we were at the start line, I was looking around and I was the biggest person there. There was a line that Matt from Biggest loser season 2 said in last year’s biggest losers follow up show as he got ready to do a big race he noticed he was the biggest person about to attempt to do it. He said “sometimes it is good to see a chubby guy set out to do something he is not supposed to be able to do.” It was a hard task, as I started I controlled my breathing as much as I could and for the first 5 km I jogged as much as I could and walked , the last 5 km I power walked it. It was a long time to spend pushing myself on my own. Pushing through the pain and pushing my body to go faster past my body’s limit. The volunteers clapping and encouraging me to finish was awesome. At about 8 Km’s they merged the 3 races the full and half marathon runners with the 10km runners, when they started to pass me it was very emotional for me as they were patting me on my back and clapping as they passed me. For me it was not about how long it took to finish it was about finishing .........or finishing strong. Giving it all I had which is what I did. Yes I had a time in mind it want to finish by, but I was more focused on just finishing strong. I finished a 10k i am very proud i was able to meet this awesome goal!! It was also awesome to do it with the empowerment Boot camper crew, support from strangers is one thing, but support from my follow boot campers was much more special. Thanks Ladies it meant allot that you were all there when I finished.

I have other great milestones I have reached this week. The 10k was the biggest one, however this week I am now able to-do the dummy pickups correctly. It was an awesome feeling to be able to step it up and do it right. It maybe my new favourite exercise!!

This is an example of some of things I do week in week out.

updated Rules to surviving personal training

Over the weekend enjoyed a great movie Zombieland, it was a very cool movie. It got me thinking that there should be rules to surviving personal training. So bear with me as I have a little fun here.

Rule #1 Cardio

Just like in the movie Zomieland cardio is very important part of surviving your session with your personal trainer. Yes your trainer will push that cardio is a good thing and most likely the treadmill will be your new best friend. What I have learned is that starting on the treadmill before your session is a good thing, makes for a happy trainer. Happy Trainer = great session :o)

Rule #2 Vomiting can only happen in the locker room bathroom or learn to swallow

Let’s not kid are selves there will be Vomiting, when you feel that it coming the best thing to do is to head for the locker room weather you do it or not better to be safe, then to have to swing a mop.

Rule # 3 Never ever say “I can’t do that”

Those 4 little words turn your trainer into the Drill Sgt. from full metal jacket. Nobody wants that!

Rule # 4 Crying is for the shower or the ride home

You may have urged to cry when you finally do something that you could not do before or that you are in that much pain. In my experience it best not to do this in front of your trainer, it is uncomfortable for your trainer & it may shows weakness. I love my trainer however, any weakness he finds, he likes to fix. Fix it he will!

Rule # 5 do not confess your bad habits

Confession is for church and cops, telling your trainer that you just knocked back a tub of Ben and jerry’s is not a very good idea. This will just make your trainer unhappy! Unhappy Trainer = Burpee’s lots and lots of burpee’s or stairs lots and lots of stairs. However if your trainer asks you if you have cheated, always, always, always tell the truth! They know if you’re lying

Rule # 6 enjoy your victories

Both Scale and non scale victories. You just kicked some ass Enjoy!

Rule # 7 Smile when your body makes those special noises!

Farting and burping is going to happen, get comfortable doing this in front of your trainer, because it is going to happen.

Rule # 8 calling the person saving your life an asshole is ok

Sometimes you will feel like calling your trainer names like “asshole or Satan’s little helper” it is ok because they have heard it all. In my experience he likes it and gets off on it!

Rule # 9 wear something to keep the sweat out of your eyes

Sweat is going to come out of every pour! Keeping it out of your eyes will help when doing stuff like cleans with the kettle bells, nobody want to take one of those to the head.....trust me it hurts!

Rule # 10 when saying “I need a good ass kicking or bring it on” make sure Walking is optional the next day!

You can, & should say this from time to time. However, if you do make sure Walking is optional the next day!! I have done this and when I have it is a very intense session. They know your limits and want to push you beyond them, so egging them on is always fun!! However like I said make sure Walking is optional the next day!!

Rule #11 food is fuel

Eating the right food before a workout is an important key to a good session, if you eat a junk or fast food your workout will not be a fun experience.

Rule # 12 your trainer is always right.

When training from time to time you will find that your trainer has made an error in counting or the order of the circuit, I find it best to let that go, sometimes it is best to not to be right. Correcting your trainer can result in more burpees, best not to argue with the person who decides how many burpees are in your future.

Rule # 13 the only thing worst then saying “I can’t” is saying “I am trying”

Like Yoda your trainer does not like the word try, some say trying is lying, or I will tell you when you’re trying.... saying I am trying will make for an unhappy trainer. Again Unhappy trainer = Burpees lots and lots of burpees

Rule # 14 try to never be late

Being late to a training session or bootcamp will cause undo attention, your trainer has a plan for your session arriving late will result in most likely no rest time, also in a bootcamp I have found if you are late they will give you added attention so catching your breathe is out .

Bumps are still out there

I have had a lot of challenges to overcome in my weight loss journey in the gym; the first was the same as Po’s old nemesis from Kung fu Panda, Stairs! It was hard but Damir and I fixed the stair issue I had very quickly and I started taking one stair one foot at a time. Next was my fear of falling, it was not the falling that was the issue it was the getting up off the ground. I still remember that Friday like it was yesterday, I came in the gym and Damir threw a mat on the ground in front of me. And said “lay down on your stomach” the fear in my eyes must have been very evident, because he said “just do it, we are not moving on until you do it” when I finally got down on my stomach I remember laying there just terrified how I was going to get up and a little direction from Damir I got off the ground crying the whole time. Then after I was on my feet, Damir saying “again!” It all seems so long ago, that the mind problems with doing certain things were done and over with, I was wrong, I hit another one of those fears this week.

In Thursday’s session we did this workout on the pure motion equipment, we basically went around this huge thing with 10 stations, one was hanging on this bar with your feet in the air, like the money bars when you were a kid. Before we did it I try to do it and was successful, I held it for 1 second. As we started going from station to station, I started to panic, how am I going to do it, when I got to that station I could not do it. It was like I was back starting at the mat on the ground again; thinking there is no way I can hold my body weight up on the bar. Damir knows me very well he said “stop think and just do it” but on the first round I was not able to wrap my head around it. On our rest between rounds practised and did it again. We started the second round and again I freaked myself out about it again, and when I got to the station again I had an issue with it. I was totally frustrated, in the third round Damir try just to mix up the stations and have me do it without thinking about it but it do not work. In the fourth round I told myself that I can do it, Damir would not have me do something I could not do! Did not help, in the last round, Damir started me two stations away from it and I was able to do it once I think in the 1min I was on the station. But it was very clear, my worst enemy, “fat Brian” was stuck in my head. Thursday session was a very hard one and was very mentally tough. So there still many non food related bumps still out there.

Friday’s boot camp was awesome. I decided before I arrived that if there were step jumps I was going to try and do them, instead of doing step up, because I need a win this week after Thursday’s session. As Damir went through all the stations at boot camp, I could tell it was going to be a hard class. When he did the step jumps I smiled, and said to myself, ok you can do it. Sandra and I were Partners. We pick a station three stations away from the step jumps. We did I think 5mins at each session. The first 3 station flew by. I reached the step jumps; I had butterflies in my stomach, just like the day before with hanging off the bar. , so while we were in switch, rest time, I stood in front of the step, I turn to look to see if Damir would approve if I tried, it looked like he was waiting to see if I was going to do it, so closed my eyes and I hopped on the step, when I open my eyes I was on the step but my heels were hanging over a little, that when I Heard, “don’t do that the whole time Brain” come from Damir, I asked “can I try again” “yes” Damir said grinning. This time I did it with my eyes open and I landed right in the middle of the step right where I was supposed to!! I must have the biggest smile because all the girls in the stations across from me were so excited I was able to do it!! It was good to end the week on a high note after not really completing the hanging off the bar!!

Goals for this week are to run /walk 15 to 20 km over the next seven days. To prepare for the 10k in July & the 10k in August that Sandra, Lara and I are committing to do, so come out and join us for the 10k if you can!

Simplicity in the hand of a master is always amazing!

The month of June has always been a hard month for me. For many reasons, the biggest is that back in 1986 I saw my Brother Cory get hit by a car, and he passed away. I seem to have this black cloud over me in June. I have done amazing things in June as well, I joined that special club of 100lbs down in June, and I started my weight loss journey in June. But for some reason I just can’t seem to shake that black cloud. This year it seems to be harder than ever, I am stressed in all aspects of my life. To top it off father’s day is this weekend and I am not on the best terms with my Dad. Lately I have been thinking about my brother, how if he was here we would totally be hitting the gym together! Kickboxing together, running the 5k together and playing catch. It could be the reason I am thinking about Him more this year is that one on my new closest friend Sandra is the same age he would be and I am doing all these great things with her. It is awesome because we kind of have that connection that I have been missing for awhile.

I want start by saying I love training with Ryan. In order to talk about today’s session we must go back and talk about June 7^th session first. On June 7^th Ryan and I had an awesome session with Damir, the session started with Damir showing us the sled “he said push it” after we did he commented “see how light it is, you will be pushing it the whole hour!! One of you would push it the other will do cardio based exercise until the other has pushed in up and back a number of times! You will then switch!” So we started with burpees as our cardio exercise of course. We did about half an hour, with a few different cardio exercises in there. By now I could tell how long Ryan was going to be with the sled, so when Damir Said “Mountain climbers” for our next Exercise I think I start to panic, I may have even had tears in my eyes. Damir looked at me and said “this is going to be hard, but you can do this!” As I started to do them Damir sat right next to me as Ryan starts with the sled I just stare at the ground and pound them off. That first round I did not look up to see where Ryan was I just kept going. That first round Damir did not say much he just corrected me. I try to do the sled very fast, hoping Ryan would be as nice. The second round of mountain climbers, again I just stared at the ground and I start pump my legs, as I start to slow down that is when Damir Says “go back to the place you were in the first round” I finish the second round and I made it without stopping in that round I do believe and hit the sled. The third round of mountain climbers, the longest round was finally here. This time I started out strong and then my legs gave out and we just started. I got back up pretty quick and started again, and that is when everything else in the loud gym went away and all I could hear was Damir talking me through it. It rocked he was so awesome and I made it through. It was a simple workout but awesome, very awesome!!

Today was a rough day right from the get going. I arrived at work to find out that they still have not finished the new seal on the roof in the area I am working. So it basically rained in my work area all day. So by the time I got to the gym I was not in the best mood. My bus was late, so I was late; Ryan had cancelled because he was not feeling well. So I knew it was going to be intense because one on one with Damir is crazy. As I Came out of the locker room I saw Damir standing on the treadmill with that Giant fucking grin on his face and his hair down. I knew from that moment this is going to hurt!! As I stepped on the treadmill he said “you are only going one minute at a 15 incline” and when the minute was up we hit the weights hardcore. Then back on the treadmill for a longer time and of course it was at a 15 incline. About 10 minutes in it was so awesome, all the shit in my life went away and I began to smile. It is amazing that after 10 minutes with Damir my whole day changed for the better! He has that kind of effect on everyone I think! At 20 minutes in everyone else in that very busy gym just seemed too melted away like on the 7^th, it was amazing, it was like it was just Damir and I in the room. Everyone was still there but my mind just did pick them up.

The session was a very simplistic session, no Giant Tire, no carrying Damir, no hill of hell, just Damir and I with Weights and a treadmill. Like with cooking, Simplicity in the hand of a master is always amazing! The session was one of the best ones I have ever had! Not because it was one on one, it was because he pushed me way past my limits! It was so awesome. Not sure if I will be able to lift anything tomorrow but it was totally worth it!!

I looked like a big fit football player

I have had a very busy couple of weeks, my Sundays have been full of 4 and 5k walks, but were more like 16k both weekends. Last weekend I did a 12k walk on the arc trainer on the Saturday and did the 4K MS walk on the Sunday. When I was done my legs were so sore! I felt so strong.

This weekend I did took Saturday as a rest day. Instead of hitting the gym and doing 2 or 3 hours on the arc trainer I did my annual fundraiser to raise money for the Alberta Children’s hospital. I shrink wrapped my shelf to a bench at the Wal-Mart I work at for 8 hours. It was much different this year. As I did last year after I was shrink wrapped I had a coworkers take my photo so I could put it up on Facebook right away to invite people down. Later in the day I got a text from Ryan, he mentioned that he was floored by my photo. At the time I thought nothing of it as I was busy with my fundraiser. Later when Ryan picked me up to go out to dinner and a movie He mentioned it again. So while we waited for a table I look at the photo. It blow me away as well, the shrink wrap had made my Apron disappear. Ryan was right I looked like a big fit football player. That is what I would look like if I did not have my apron. Also on my sign was my weight loss, this was the first time I have had people question that I really lost that much weight. Most could not believe I was ever 520lbs, the Wal-Mart greeter that was at the door with me kept saying “no he really was, I remember when he was that big” it was a good day I raised more money than my goal of 520 dollars.

Today I did the Wal-Mart walk with my friend Kelly; we did it in excellent time! Kristy and I had to walk from the 7^th street LRT stop to the Pumphouse Park it was like doing a 5k before the 5k! It was awesome doing the walk with Kelly! Kelly kept me going fast and we finished far from last! The only let down was that when we finished the walk the food they were giving the walkers was Hot Dogs, Chips and Pepsi. I understand that it cheap and they most likely got it all for free from there venders. But come on, they went on about how the walk was a healthy way to start to lose weight. Then at the end of the walk to feed everyone crap!! Well I guess I need to try and change the Wal-Mart Culture.