Challenge for you

Take the first steps!

So like I said in earlier posts, the key to becoming a better person and going on any journey is to take small steps, the same holds true for health and fitness. In that idea I challenge my readers to take a first step and this one is an easy one.

Yesterday's Tomorrow is Today

First of all I know we are getting into a time if year where most people just let loose and shove anything they can find into their face. Trust me I do it on some days as well. Like all things keep it in moderation and you should be OK. Be honest on this next question, how many people have gone into the season with the idea of "I am going to enjoy this time eat what I want and my new years 'resolution' will be to lose the weight I gained PLUS get in shape." For those of you that know what I am taking about think back to if you actually did that or if you gave it a go and gave up, kept the weight you put on the previous holiday season and went on with life. Fast forward, new holiday season, new weight gain, new resolution...bigger pants. Let me pose this idea to you Resolutions are CRAP. All it is is an excuse to pick a day to "start" because the new year makes the most sense but thing about this, a Thursday is just as good a start day than new years day. You don't have to go gung ho just get started. That is the spirit of this post, start the trend of changing now, resolutions don't work life changes work, drastic changes are hard (quit smoking cold turkey for example) small changes are easy, small change after small change equals big change, equals results you want!! Think about it, you don't drop ship in a house, you build small parts each day until it is finished and sturdy. Same thing goes for your fitness.

What can you do to start?

Here is my challenge to you, take a minute to look at what you are eating each day, don't change what you are eating, if you are eating healthy great keep going, if you eat like the average person great don't change a thing. That is the best part of this challenge it is easy. Go to MY FITNESS PAL and create an account, it is free. Use it to enter in what you are eating, be honest don't cheat no one sees it but you and track what you are eating. At the end of the day look it over and see how you really did vs. how you thought you did. Do that for a week and then decide if what you are doing is the best thing for you and your health. If you have an eye opening realization and would like some help getting things under control post a comment below or contact me directly if you have my information and I will be happy to send you suggestions to clean up your diet. 

Don't be scared, take this challenge it could change your life. 

Justin

We all have long days

I am just lucky enough to have three of them every week for the last 5 weeks now but that is OK because I only have six more long weeks to go. Give me a minute to explain what I am talking about. It is very important to me that Whitney gets to stay home with Haley and work with her everyday on becoming a better child. I am not saying there is anything wrong with putting your children in day care at all there are several out there that are great and they all are held  to high standards. (At least her in TN they are) I think that it is everyone's wish  to be able to have a parent stay home with their child when they are young. I am just blessed enough to have found a way to make that happen.

How it is done

Here is how I do it. I work two (three if you count my Beachbody Coach) jobs. The first one is a full time Senior Technology Consultant for Kraft Technology Group, I help small and medium businesses with IT needs so they don't have to hire a staff, and I now am helping the IT audit group with bank compliance audits and things of that nature. My second job is an Information Technology and Information Security instructor at ITT-Tech. This is where the long days come in. Three days a week Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday (Yes EVEN FRIDAY) I finish my day job at 5 PM and drive 11 miles (normally takes about 40 minutes in Nashville traffic) to ITT where I work from 6 until about 10:30. It goes without saying that it can take a toll on you and make you really tired the next day just so you can wake up and do it all over again. On top of all that I am usually doing a Beachbody fitness program that has me working out up to an hour a day six days a week. Schedule balance is key here!!

How I do it

I wake up everyday at 5 AM sometimes a little sooner depending on what I have going on that day or where I am starting my day, a client office perhaps. I do this so I can get my workout in, for me not getting that little bit of sleep in the morning is worth the benefit I get from working out each day..and trust me the benefits are there you can tell from the pictures I put up in the last post. Once I am done with the workout I have a pretty darn scheduled morning up until work. I eat the same breakfast just about everyday with some changes so I have to cut up my apple, cook my four eggs, heat the oatmeal and decided what type of yogurt I am going to have. Once I am done it is clean up and lunch packing time. I pack my lunch for work everyday, not only does it save money but it is also a great way to see some weight loss. Too many restaurants have meals that "appear" to be healthy but in the end they are very far from it. When I pack my lunch each day not only do I now what I am putting in my body but I know all the nutritional information on it as well. (Huge deal for me) I enter everything I eat into My Fitness Pal and I will talk more about that in future posts. You should check it out because it is free and easy to use. Packing lunch everyday only take about 10 minutes because I normally have a good idea of what I am going to have when I go to bed so it is just a matter of getting together in the morning.

Where does the energy come from?

This might sound crazy but most of the energy comes from the fact that I do wake up early and workout each day, it really starts your day off right and gets the blood going which wakes you up. Not to mention it releases endorphins in the body that puts you in a better mood, and trust me in my lines of work it is needed! I also drink one meal replacement shake by the name of Shakeology everyday, normally as a snack or as a end of dinner treat. It is super healthy and has the same nutritional value of hitting a salad bar 5 times. I truly believe this has a huge impact on my daily energy and mood as well (because that is what my wife tells me) I will go more into Shakeology in future posts but if you want to learn a little more about it you can WATCH THIS VIDEO it gives you all the info you need about it and if you have any questions you can comment below or contact me directly. Think of it as putting premium gas in your car, the better the fuel the better the performance, and that goes the same for the body. 

Why tell you all this?

I go on this rant not to tell you how awesome I think I am (not the case at all) but to show you that a little planning and dedication can really go a long way in starting your journey to a better you. Remember nothing starts without a first step and having a clear plan in that first step, set a goal of what you want to be better at then pick the tasks that you need to do to head to that goal. Once you have that you just start banging them out one at a time until you get there. I was telling Whitney the other day that once I accomplish something it seems much less impressive to me (that is my own flaw) but I have gone from being a 265 lb person to the person I am today who just happened to run his second half marathon  this year and is planning on hitting the treadmill at lunch today to run a 5K. Small steps lead to huge results.

Justin

A new blog a new me!

Thanks for checking it out!!!

So this is my second run a a blog my first one did pretty well and I got a good number of hits from it, a lot of them were from web spiders or people over seas trying to spam my readers with ads but hey a hit is a hit right. The first blog was fun and I enjoyed writing it until I got really busy at work and had to stop for a little while. Oh, and the other thing was I just talked about how my workouts were going each day and I think people get a little tired of that after a while so this one is going to take a different approach at the whole blog thing!!!

A little about me!!!!

First of all I am not all that much of a writer and I am certainly not a proof reader by any stretch, and trust me as you read this each time I post you will quickly realize that. If you can't tell by the first paragraph I have gotten into being active and fit over the last two years  and have done great doing it. I started 2011 at 265 lbs and a size 46 waist now I am 145 lbs and a size 30 if you can believe that. I used my new passion for fitness to help other get the same results that I have by becoming a Team BeachBody Coach. It has been challenging and rewarding all at the same time. I love hearing people tell me about the great results they are getting. If case my success is hard to believe (for some it can be) here are a few pictures of the person I was physically and the person I am now. Yep fat guy to not so fat guy and no that is not the same shirt!There are a lot of reasons for doing what I did but that is for another post. I am at IT "professional" if nothing else in knowledge but as everyone knows we only grow up so much as men but I am working on that part too don't worry. SEGWAYYY I am also a husband of a wonderful woman, and the father of the best child you could ask for, more on that in future posts as well. I will be using this blog to talk about them and how I want to be a better husband and father each day. My wife and I have also gotten into clean healthy eating over the last few years and have found some great sites to get really good meals that are healthy and low cal. Our two go to sites are Skinny Taste and Skinny Ms among others, so as I plan to share this blog with people I work with as a coach I will post about some of the meals that we have had with links and perhaps even pictures you never know!!! SIDE NOTE the formatting of where the pictures are is strange because I could not figure out how to put them where I wanted. One last thing, I am also working to become more God centered and a better person, I now take part in two bible studies and have started praying everyday, trust me those are both huge for me. As part of this goal I will post about things I pick up in the studies and how I think they apply today. That is the great thing about the bible, it is really a living document!! There is plenty more I want to cover but I don't want this first post to go too long and lose all four readers before I even get started. 

What I hope to do here!!!

I have decided that our lives are wasted if we are not constantly trying to become better people too many of us here in America have decided that OK is good enough, and that is sad. (I am also betting that is why we are in the shape we are in today) We have to constantly challenge ourselves to be better people, emotionally, spiritually, physically, and mentally. I have decided that journey is not over for me yet and I will continue to push myself further and further to become "A Better Bumpus" I encourage others to do the same and I hope that my telling about my journey, with all its rewards and struggles, will motivate others to follow in my foot steps. OK HERE COMES THE CHEESY If each of use work to be a better person before we know it we will be living in a better place. 

So yes this is a wordy one but a good one. (At least I think it is an OK start!)