When Casey Robinson and I first connected, it was a phone call with her inquiring about my services. We have some mutual friends who were clients at the time and Casey thought I might be the right fit for her needs.

Even in that call there were several things I picked up on. I could sense a fair amount of self-doubt, apprehension, concern over whether or not she would feel comfortable exercising here, etc.

And while Casey has been with us for a little over a year, we’ve watched little bits of progress move her across the spectrum.

She lost some weight initially, plateaued and then was in something of a holding pattern for several months. Along the way, she was gathering little bits of information and strategies from all of the videos I post in our Facebook closed community and from many of the articles I’ve written.

From time to time, she would ask specifically about certain strategies and methodologies and go back to the drawing board piecing together things she felt would work best for her.

And then a shift happened.

We reconvened on her goals and where she wanted to put her focus. She wanted to spend time working on a heavier traplift and start putting some different dietary philosophies to work.

Next thing you know, her strength is coming up and her body weight is coming down.

The fact that she is getting stronger is not a big surprise.

Truth be told, neither is the fact that she broke past her weight loss plateau.

The real magic behind the shift in Casey’s results has come from her changed mindset.

“What’s that you say, Mrs. Robinson?”

I asked her: What’s been working?

Her response: I track every single thing I eat. I was tracking before but I wouldn’t track something if it wasn’t a full serving size. I also wouldn’t always track alcohol. Now, I track it all. If it goes in my mouth and it has a calorie, I track it.

I even give myself room to splurge a little on the weekends. Sometimes I’ll be going through a week and remind myself “Oh, I get to have that (insert food reward here) on Saturday so I can wait until then.” Many times, I’ll get to the weekend and even though I have enough calories left in my day to have the treat, sometimes I just choose not to.

(And this is the best part)

“It’s not that I can’t have that [food], it’s that I choose not to.” 

For Casey, fine-tuning her diet mentality to what fits and what doesn’t has given her an improved understanding of where she can be flexible and where not to.

Having watched Casey inch further along the spectrum from where she started to where she will eventually be has been just as much of an education for me as it has likely been for her.

But it seems to me, that she has the toughest part conquered now: her mind.

“Here’s to you, Mrs. Robinson.”

The post Mrs. Robinson appeared first on Revolution Fitness and Therapy.

When this post is released, it will be the day before my son Jackson’s tenth birthday.

10 years.

It’s such a milestone that I haven’t quite wrapped my head around what the last decade has been like.

I know it’s been a whirlwind and I wrote about much of it when I dedicated this post to him last year on his 9th birthday.

So, what’s so different in the past year?

Well, as many of you know, Jackson has autism and we gauge progress in a very different way as one might with a typical child.

He does speak more, which is one of his greater challenges.

He might even routinely say a full sentence if he feels the need to get his point across to you.

He’s still one of the happiest children I’ve ever known and he still loves to dance and sing (more on that later.)

Ah yes, he is now a big brother to Sebastian.

And much like his mother and I assumed, he’s mostly indifferent to having a baby around. Jackson tends to work in his own world and doesn’t worry too much about what is going on with those around him.

But when Marissa and I ask him to engage with Sebastian, he’s always very loving, very affectionate and very kind.

I credit his mother, Megan, for raising him to be this sweet boy who knows how to be a caring big brother.

And while there have been some adventures in seeing if Jackson would take to sports, it would seem he’s more like me than we thought. He favors music over most anything else. Over the last month, he’s been taking voice and piano lessons which he seems (at least for now) to be very much attentive to.

He does have his moments of being very shy around people until he sees his reflection in a window or mirror. Then, all bets are off. He’s probably going to start dancing or scripting some moves from a video or movie he’s seen somewhere. He is quite the little ham.

And this is just a small tribute to my little king.

Jackson, I write these words in hopes that some day you might not only read them but understand them. You have always been this unerringly bright light in a world that tends to forget what that can be.

To see your growth and progress year after year makes me so proud to say “I’m HIS Dad.”

I love you big boy. Happy 10th birthday.

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The post 10 Years appeared first on Revolution Fitness and Therapy.

When Donna started working with me, we had a conversation about her weight loss goals. It was roughly the same amount of weight that kept coming off and on for years.

Donna isn’t new to fitness either. She loves spinning and being active and she even spent some time doing CrossFit before she came to us.

Like many of my clients, the conversation comes back to: What can you do long term?

Can you crash diet indefinitely? No.

Can you always rely on high intensity training? No.

So, what’s a realistic approach?

It was questions like that which allowed Donna to look at her lifestyle currently and her past and ask herself: Why do I keep repeating the patterns that weren’t working (or weren’t sustainable?)

And Donna remains one of my many clients who I find the continuing dialogue very fascinating to hear.

She has managed to slow down her expectations of what weight loss should be and instead is paying closer attention to how food and drink affect her body.

A couple of weeks ago, she said: “I realize that when I eat an apple it doesn’t satisfy me and I end up hungrier than I would normally be.”

And where one might be inclined to associate an apple as a healthy snack, Donna determined it could screw up the intake of her next meal if she ate it.

It’s this type of self-exploration that many people don’t take the time to do.

More recently, Donna has been experimenting with how her body reacts to different types of alcohol. What she has found is that certain drinks drive her hunger up (white wine) and some don’t (gin and tonic.)

Sometimes, it’s important to step outside of the weight loss conversation and forget about calories in/calories out for a moment.

When you take Donna’s approach, there’s a lot to be said about listening to your body and trying to isolate certain food/drinks to get a better understanding of how your body reacts.

It’s also important to note that rather than throw the baby out with the bath water and give up drinking altogether, Donna is trying to pay close attention to how her former favorite drinks would lead to overeating in some cases.

Recently, I was telling our client Mary about an experience I once had with bread.

I had purchased a fairly popular line of whole wheat bread and found that every time I consumed it, within an hour I would be ready for a nap.

Not being one who would assume gluten intolerance having never suffered from this issue before, I switched to a sprouted grain option and never had a problem again.

Donna is exploring these possibilities for herself as well.

In effect, rather than chasing weight loss furiously only to be discouraged by the rebound, Donna is taking time to learn more about herself, her body, her results and ultimately, her plan of attack.

How will you learn to listen to yourself like Donna?

The post Learn To Listen appeared first on Revolution Fitness and Therapy.

Some time in late 2010/early 2011, I was dealing with two very different situations.

My oldest son, Jackson, was in the middle of a series of tests to diagnose some challenges he was having verbally and behaviorally. Those tests led to a diagnosis of high-functioning autism.

My father had been diagnosed in the summer of 2010 with multiple myeloma (bone marrow cancer) and was quickly losing his battle having not been successful with chemotherapy treatments.

Jackson was approximately 3 years of age. My father, 59.

Watching from an outsider’s perspective of what each of my loved ones were dealing with helped me shape a mantra that stuck with me for several years and remains with me to this day: For Your Father, For Your Son.

I knew that everything I needed to do mentally, monetarily, and physically was bigger than myself.

I knew that I had to make this business successful because providing for my son would be a lifelong endeavor.

I knew that being physically and emotionally strong would be crucial because my father would be leaving my mother and I behind.

And I don’t say this lightly when I say that my ability to deadlift well beyond my bodyweight was a huge help when I had to pick my father up from the floor or from a bed.

There was nothing that was going to stand in the way of me accomplishing these things.

Here we are 7+ years later and I find myself similarly motivated to succeed, to progress and to inspire others how to do the same even though my own life has changed dramatically since then.

And to be fair, the stakes are higher for me now too: I have a wife and another little boy. I have more than 3x the clientele that I did back then and 3x the space for business operations. The times have changed but the motivation has not.

When you hear people say “Find Your Why”, this is what they mean.

And that “Why” can mean very different things to different people.

It can relate to your obligations to family (as mine are.)

It can relate to being a better role model to others.

It can be about fitting into a size of pants you haven’t fit into in years.

And it is 100% okay for you to be selfish with your “Why.”

Because YOU will have to put in the work, YOU will have to make the food plan successful and realistic, YOU will have to get yourself back on track when your environment will fight to keep you the way you were. Even with trainers like us to help you and guide you, it is YOU who makes the decisions.

So, I believe your right to selfishness is what will help you succeed.

It is selfishness for self-care and self-preservation.

It is to determine your “Why.”

We are fortunate to have a community of clients who are diving into their “Why” as well.

Will you be one of them?

The post I Would For You appeared first on Revolution Fitness and Therapy.

A while back I was reading an article from a coach in my industry who I look up to and he was discussing his path towards learning to play guitar.

I’ll paraphrase the article but this coach researched different types of guitars and finally decided on the one he wanted. He made the purchase, picked up some instructional manuals and courses and told himself he would commit roughly 30 minutes a day to playing.

But he just couldn’t get started.

Based on everything happening in his life, 30 minutes was too much of a time commitment. So he broke it down even further: to about 10-15 minutes a day.

This gave him a sustainable approach and a foundation to build on so he could make strides in learning to play his new instrument.

In last week’s article, I gave my list of all the books I read in 2017. There were 110 books on that list. I love to read but I wanted to conquer some larger books in 2018.

The first on my list was J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic “The Lord of the Rings.”

If you haven’t seen it, it’s the collection of all three stories that saw a resurgence in popularity by film several years ago. Having seen the films, I was acclimated to the stories but really wanted to read the collection.

It’s approximately 1200 pages not including appendices and that would make it the largest book I’ve ever read.

Since I frequently have to read books in a time sensitive manner so that I can interview different authors for my podcast, I needed a better strategy for reading this massive collection and still be able to shift other books in and out of the regimen.

So, I took the aforementioned coach’s tip and decided to break it down.

I’d give myself a minimum of 10 pages every day to take in Lord of the Rings.

On the long side, it will take me 120 days to read the book plus I’ll have plenty of time to read other books along the way if need be. Knowing myself, I’ll probably overcompensate somewhere along the way and have Tolkien’s book done long before then.

What does this have to do with you and your fitness goals?

We are at the beginning of the year where people have the inclination and motivation to make big changes to their diet and exercise plans. More often than not, those best intentions get thrown by the wayside because life has that funny way of interrupting our plans.

Consider the person who makes a plan to do 60 minutes of cardio three times a week. Motivation is high in January and things get off to a rocking start. Then February (or sooner) rolls around and it sure is hard to fit that 60 minutes in when you’re strapped with work commitments, family life, and every other nuance of life.

This same person then finds it hard to fit 60 minutes in once a week and then ditches the exercise plan ready for the next great hope in dietary paradise or high intensity silver bullets (which don’t exist, by the way.)

Many people tend to forget that slow and steady still wins the race. Take a cue from the stories above and you may find it easier to fit in 2 separate bouts of 15 minute workouts in your day. Or maybe you can only do one bout of 15 minutes and you find a way to build on that as you let the habit nestle its way into your lifestyle.

The same can be said for diet changes. Rather than deplete food groups and embark on 7/14/21-day fixes and resets, you can find one meal to improve on for a couple of weeks. Lock that meal down, make it the new norm and then shift to the next dietary tweak.

Lasting progress doesn’t need to be fast despite our emotional pull to the contrary. If you’re not in a rush for a vacation, high school reunion or to become the cover model on the next issue of Shape magazine, then why hurry?

Lasting change comes from making small steps getting you “one step closer” to your goals.

And here’s our resident “Mama Pat”, ringing in the New Year with a bang.

The post One Step Closer appeared first on Revolution Fitness and Therapy.

The goal this year was to read one book a week. I got a little carried away and overcompensated in some places. Roughly a third of these books are directly related to my industry and work here at the studio (36 books.) This year, I made a conscious effort to add more fiction to my plate in efforts to improve my own writing abilities (18 books.) I also got more into musician biographies/autobiographies and pretty much anything I can sink my teeth into that involves punk music in the seventies and eighties (17 books.)

You’ll find in this list some cookbooks as well. I only included them if there was actually something to be read in terms of philosophy, etc. Hopefully, there’s something you see below that serves (or has served) as inspiration to you as well. I have almost always been a voracious reader but I am notoriously bad at retaining all of the information I read. I would imagine part of that is because I read for pleasure and not too much for note-taking. You should be able to click on any of these titles which will lead you to either Amazon or the author’s website to purchase a copy of your own.

Looking into 2018, I plan on reading a lot as well but there are some much larger books which will likely take more time for me to devour. If I can finish next year at an average of a book a week or more, I’ll be pretty happy.

Enjoy!

1) The Swoly Bible-Dom Mazzetti
2) Giftology-John Ruhlin
3) The Men’s Fitness Exercise Bible-Sean Hyson
4) Your Next Big Thing by Ben Michaelis
5) Jailhouse Strong by Josh Bryant and Adam BenShea
6) My Life in Advertising & Scientific Advertising by Claude C. Hopkins
7) Black Coffee Blues by Henry Rollins
8) Be Obsessed Or Be Average by Grant Cardone
9) Strong & Sculpted by Brad Schoenfeld
10) Post Office by Charles Bukowski
11) The Charisma Myth by Olivia Fox Cabane
12) Essays On Health by Alexander Juan Antonio Cortes
13) As Is by Erin Brown
14) Sula by Toni Morrison
15) Disco’s Out…Murder’s In by Heath Mattioli and David Spacone
16) The Natural Way To Beat Diabetes by Spencer Nadolsky and Lou Schuler
17) The Hungry Brain by Stephan Guyenet
18) Real Conversations Vol. 1: Henry Rollins, Jello Biafra, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and Billy Childish by V. Vale
19) Desperate Characters by Paula Fox
20) The Great Cardio Myth by Craig Ballantyne
21) Why Motivating People Doesn’t Work…And What Does by Susan Fowler
22) Stay Leaner, Longer by JC Deen
23) Now What? by Dan John
24) Living With No Excuses by Noah Galloway
25) Unsubscribe by Jocelyn Glei
26) I Hate Selling For The Fitness Professional by Ryan McKenzie
27) Born Standing Up by Steve Martin
28) Talking Back To Diet Gurus by Mike Howard
29) Disgrace by J.M. Coatzee
30) Science And Practice Of Strength Training by Vladimir Zatsiorsky and William Kraemer
31) Why Do I Hurt? by Adriaan Louw
32) Tim Book Two: Vinyl Adventures From Istanbul To San Francisco by Tim Burgess
33) Excellent Sheep by William Deresiewicz
34) Why Me Want Eat by Krista Scott Dixon
35) How Adam Smith Can Change Your Life by Russ Roberts
36) Iron On My Mind by Dave Draper
37) The Madman by Kahlil Gibran
38) All About Powerlifting by Tim Henriques
39) Triggers by Marshall Goldsmith
40) Letters To Lola by Erin Brown
41) The Founder’s Mentality by Chris Zook and James Allen
42) Instinctive Management by Dr. James Jones
43) The Alchemist by Paulo Coehlo
44) Fat Loss Happens On Monday by Josh Hillis and Dan John
45) Night Train by Martin Amis
46) Do I Come Here Often? by Henry Rollins
47) The 22 Immutable Laws Of Marketing by Al Ries and Jack Trout
48) Boy In The Air by Don Bajema
49) Delegate To Freedom by Leigh Martinuzzi
50) The Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Workbook by Matthew McKay, Jeffrey Wood, and Jeffrey Brantley
51) The Non-Designer’s Design Book by Robin Williams
52) The Last Shred by Andy Morgan
53) The Muscle And Strength Pyramid: Training by Eric Helms, Andy Morgan and Andrea Valdez
54) The Muscle And Strength Pyramid: Nutrition by Eric Helms, Andy Morgan and Andrea Valdez
55) How To Live A Good Life by Jonathan Fields
56) Legacy: 15 Lessons In Leadership by James Kerr
57) Myopia by Mark Mothersbaugh
58) Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
59) Eat, Lift, Thrive by Sohee Lee
60) Fascinate by Sally Hogshead
61) The One Minute Workout by Martin Gibala
62) My Damage by Keith Morris
63) Smile For No Good Reason by Dr. Lee Jampolsky
64) Oh So Pretty: Punk In Print 1976-80 by Rick Poynor
65) How Should A Person A Be? by Sheila Heti
66) The Happiness Equation by Neil Pasricha
67) Train Dreams by Denis Johnson
68) Boss Life by Paul Downs
69) Smile, You’re Traveling by Henry Rollins
70) Stay At Home Strong by Sumi Singh
71) Optimal Nutrition For Injury Recovery by Lyle McDonald
72) Give by Nicholas Kusmich
73) Astrophysics For People In A Hurry by Neil DeGrasse Tyson
74) Success And Luck by Robert H. Frank
75) Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
76) Clapton: The Autobiography by Eric Clapton
77) Superhuman You by David Whitley
78) Forever 5/3/1 by Jim Wendler
79) Effective Weight Loss by Evan Forman and Meghan Butryn
80) Swim Through The Darkness by Mike Stax
81) Pleasure Not Meating You by Melody Schoenfeld
82) Designing Your Life by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans
83) Gourmet Nutrition by John Berardi, Michael Williams and Kristina Andrew
84) Dept. Of Speculation by Jenny Offill
85) 100 Best Album Covers: The Stories Behind The Sleeves by Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey Powell
86) The TB12 Method by Tom Brady
87) Get A Grip by Gino Wickman and Mike Paton
88) 33 1/3: Bob Mould’s Workbook by Walter Biggins and Daniel Couch
89) Understanding Metabolism by Scott Abel
90) Marketing Breakthroughs Of Highly Wealthy Online Trainers by Jon Goodman
91) Habits Of Highly Wealthy Online Trainers by Jon Goodman
92) Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff…by Richard Carlson
93) The 50th Law by 50 Cent and Robert Greene
94) Ask The Dust by John Fante
95) Relentless: A Memoir by Julian Edelman
96) Zero To One by Peter Thiel
97) The 16-Word Diet by Jay Wiener
98) Franny And Zooey by J.D. Salinger
99) Finding Joseph I by Howie Abrams and James Lathos
100) The Freaks Shall Inherit The Earth by Chris Brogan
101) A Guide To Flexible Dieting by Lyle McDonald
102) Heart Of Brass by Tiger Moody
103) Recovery by Russell Brand
104) Chronicles Vol. One by Bob Dylan
105) Sovereign by Erin Brown
106) Easy Strength by Dan John and Pavel
107) With Winning In Mind by Lanny Bassham
108) My Absolute Darling by Gabriel Tallent
109) Autobiography by Morrissey
110) Travesty by John Hawkes

(And here’s a shot of 5 our superstars post-workout: Alex, Donna, Stacey, Amy and Richard.)

The post Why Don’t You Read The Book? appeared first on Revolution Fitness and Therapy.

Calories can be extremely confusing for a lot of people.

Even if you think you’ve counted your intake right, there are countless ways for them to be incorrect.

Cup measurements can differ from scale measurements when it comes to food.

Restaurants can add oils and butter to food to make them taste better right before you get served.

The bartender could pour more or less of your liquor and the same could be said for your mixer (think Jack and Coke or vodka and cranberry.)

You could have digestive issues which prevent you from metabolizing food completely.

And then there’s the friendly server at Chipotle who serves you a more generous helping of guacamole with your salad.

With examples like these, it’s easy to see how calorie counting can get really screwed up.

All of this is to also remind you that calorie counting is not an exact science. You can get a general idea of where things are at so you know where you’re heading but sometimes it’s easier just to focus on the problem areas of your diet:

-Weekend splurges

-Mindless snacking (at home or the office)

-Frequent trips to the pantry or fridge (even after a meal)

-Added calories from drinks/energy drinks (think low calorie options or sweeteners added to coffee or tea)

Or, you can look at behavioral triggers such as family members who stress you out (causing you to overeat in frustration), buffet dining (which few people can actually control), or work events where both alcohol and appetizers are in abundance.

These things affect all of us. They’re real, not imagined. They are easy to forget about. And by forgetting about them, it doesn’t make you unintelligent, ignorant or less of a person.

It makes you a lot like the rest of us. Flawed but cognizant.

And it’s that cognition that can help you find success.

Pretend you’re a fly on the wall of your own life.

What would you see? What would you uncover? What would you solve?

You’re not wired all wrong. You’re normal.

The majority of my clients struggle with things like this. And if they struggle, then chances are, you might struggle too. And if you can focus on those things and bring them to light, problems can be solved.

We can help.

The post Wired All Wrong appeared first on Revolution Fitness and Therapy.

What does it mean to be strong?

It means one thing to a high school football player, something else to a competitive powerlifter, a post-menopausal woman concerned about osteoporosis, or someone who has spent the last two decades pushing no more than a pencil to paper or keys on a keyboard.

And honestly, what’s the value in it?

For starters, there is something to be said about progress. When you can barely lift a given weight for 10 repetitions one day only to come back a week later and get 12,13, or 15 reps from the same weight, it feels good.

That little voice that sneaks in to say “Yeah! I did that!”

To be able to chart over time, how your body responds to higher weights or more repetitions of a given weight can have an almost exhilarating effect on some.

And yes, I’m showing my bias. I support my family by helping people find that strength.

I love seeing people get stronger. I love the confidence I can see in their face when they do something they previously thought they couldn’t. I love the physical results of someone who compounds that strength over time and partners it with a reasonable food plan.

Strength does mean different things to different people (as it should.)

For one person, the strength to do a proper push-up is enough to make their week.

For another, it’s being able to bench press more than their body weight or perform a pull-up.

And it can be easy to get caught up in what others do as well. Since some of my clients have been beating their personal records week in and week out, they’re routinely hopping on the internet to watch others do the same as a way to get more motivation.

My professional advice is to get as strong as you can with as few injuries as possible. With greater strength comes greater trauma to the body and with trauma comes risk. Those risks are not always preventable but they can certainly be mitigated.

Get strong enough to know you’re making progress. Then determine how you want that progress to continue.

Will you go for more reps next time or more weight? They both count.

There’s no age limit on the ability to get strong either. “King” Richard, who I’ve written about before, is nearly 78 years young and he recently hit a new personal record on the bench press (even though we were working his traplift fairly aggressively for awhile.)

All it takes to get stronger is your will to do so.

Just ask John, who pulled a massive 470×2 yesterday.

The post Strong Enough appeared first on Revolution Fitness and Therapy.

Several years ago, I met Amy through our mutual friend, Crissy. Little did we know then, that she would end up switching where she worked and find herself at a hair salon right next to my studio.

While there was a little bit of conversation about her beginning training here, Amy got married and started a family with her husband. In the meantime, some of her colleagues started training here.

In the spring of this year, Amy reached out to get the ball rolling on her journey. She just recently hit a milestone of 30lbs down and, by her admission, the lightest she has been since high school (over twenty years ago.)

I wanted you to hear about her experiences straight from her mouth, so today’s article is more of an interview so you can see what it’s been like for her.

JASON: We have known each other for several years and have even worked right next to one another for several years as well. What made you decide it was time to finally get started?

AMY: I believe the bottom line of why I started working out was I needed something for myself. I wanted to feel better about myself all around. I wanted to be the girl who decided to go for it so I did. I had always been an athlete and always loved being active. I got married and had 3 babies in 4 years. I had just lost myself physically and most of all mentally.

After my last and final baby, it took me about 4 months to get my shit together and pull the trigger. I had goals which scared me a lot but I was also super excited to try and reach them! Having you next door just made the deal sweeter for me. A couple of girls from the salon were working with you, loved you and had nothing but positive things to say about you. Knowing you from back in the day helped as well. I am so thankful our paths crossed again. I had no idea how instrumental you were going to be for me on the journey.

JASON: So, you lost 30lbs in about 6 months. How did you do it?

AMY: I lost 30lbs by having 1.) Courage to take the step, to make the move. 2.) Determination to feel better, look better, and move better. 3.) Discipline. I told you all the time if I was at a gym I would not be here. I had to use MY time wisely because MY time was very limited. I had to move and eat like a normal human.

JASON: It wasn’t an easy process initially for you and I remember you having a lot of doubt of being able to do this. What changed?

AMY: I absolutely had doubt about losing weight… Come on, don’t we all? I had tried before and it is really scary to make that commitment. For some reason I think my mindset changed when I started to feel stronger physically. It triggered something mentally for me. I started to think, “I could do this!” It became exciting for me, it became kind of like a game and I was just going to win, period. It also helps if you have a good trainer and positive people around you…just had to get that in there!!

JASON: Not only do you have a part-time job but you’re the mother to three children under the age of 4. How did you deal with the time constraints to reach your goals despite so much on your plate?

AMY: This is a hard one for me to answer. I dealt with the time constraints really by not wasting my time. Not making excuses that I had no time. I really just said “Amy, get over yourself”. I think it goes back to being determined, and focused. I had to let go of some things at home whether it be enjoying my TV show with food in my lap, or knowing my husband had it covered.

JASON: For you personally, what was the most difficult part of losing weight? Conversely, what did you find to be the easiest?

AMY: Let me say that for some reason this all feels like an out-of-body experience. I still can’t believe I lost 30lbs. I wonder if other people feel the same way? That being said there was and is absolutely nothing easy about me losing this weight. One of the hardest things that sticks out the most at this time was my family….in particular, my kids. When we first met to talk about my goals you asked me how many times my hand went to my mouth a day with food.

In my mind I thought “Shit…probably about 20 times. My kids eat all of the time and so did I. That was the first thing I had to change. I had to be utterly aware not to put their food in my mouth. It had become such a habit that was very difficult to break. Another thing that pops into my head that scares me and is going to be difficult is keeping the weight off. I think people might forget about that part. That might be by far the most exhausting part to think about so far.
If I am being honest with you right now I don’t think I can tell you anything that was easy about losing this weight. Reaching this goal was a hard mountain to climb one that I will always be climbing

JASON: Many people start to listen to their bodies and make adjustments along the way to either diet or exercise. What changes did you make on your own that helped along the way?

AMY: ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I had to change everything about my life. The only thing my body told me is that it was hungry and I was going to be sore no matter how many squats I did! (HA!) I had to change how much I ate, what I ate, how often I ate and had to figure out how to move more then I already thought I did.

When I first came to you I said I feel like I should be so much skinnier then I am, all I do is chase after kids. You told me my body was used to that so I had to change that as well. It took me a couple of months to find my rhythm and not feel like I was totally going to die because I was choosing not to have those beers and some wings drenched in BBQ sauce and deciding to get on the treadmill instead of taking a nap with my kiddos. I understand now why when I read about other peoples success stories they always said stick with it. With this kind of emotional rollercoaster you have to stick with it.
My body now does tell me I am hungry in a good way. The foods I choose to eat I actually have grown to like and don’t crave the deep fried foods as much anymore. Please don’t get me wrong people… that beer and those BBQ wings still call my name and are a nice treat from time to time.

JASON: What is the best advice you can give to someone struggling to lose weight right now?

AMY: This is a hard one too because everybody is so different. I think I would tell someone not to put so much pressure on themselves . The struggle is so real, to find that inner strength. I know it sounds cheesy, but really, I didn’t wake up one day 30lbs lighter although that would be pretty awesome. Take it slow. It really is just one meal at a time. I would tell them that they are beautiful the way they are. Now you are just deciding to be healthier, fitter, faster and stronger. REMEMBER THAT.

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is a leaner, stronger, healthier, happier Amy (who still has some more goals to hit.)

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