Hi Friend,
first of all, I really feel like I need to say "sorry for the lack of communication" over the past few weeks.
I've been in and out of my office for going on two months now.
various reasons, but suffice it to say, I'm really enjoying the summer this year!
some business I'd like to take care of first:
the June winner of my "monthly gift" contest is Robin M. of Indiana. If that's you, get ahold of me so I can shoot you off your $80 gift package of Sunrider Foods in the mail.
secondly, I'd like to mention that I was approached by a writer for the "globe and mail" who wanted to do a story on me, but as I was traveling, we missed each other and he ran another story.
thirdly, Harvey Diamond's agent got ahold of me about me interviewing Harvey for my radio show. Harvey has a new book coming out and is doing the interview circuit. I'll let you know when that happens and how to listen to the interview. For those of you who don't know, Harvey is the co-author of "Fit for Life" and is the book that started my whole journey.
Now on to the meat of this email (as it were).
I started my summer volunteering at the T. Harv Eker "Mind of Steel, Heart of Gold" personal growth camp back in June where I met the most amazing woman. I wrote a bit about her in my blog:
http://www.formerfatguy.com/weblog/blogger.asp
I was then asked to do some contract work with Peak Potentials working at some of their camps. My summers in the past have been spent volunteering at Enlightened Warrior and Wizard camps each year, and now after Mind of Steel, Heart of Gold, was asked to work them on contract.
I worked two back to back Warrior camps in the beautiful area around Banff Alberta in the heart of the Canadian Rockies.
Spent a week in the city and then flew back to Vancouver to spend some time with the lady I met. From there, I flew to Los Angeles for a business convention and then back to Vancouver where I am now.
It's been a very intersting juggle of fitness, relaxation and travel in the Canadian Okanogan.
I've been living the "balance" of input vs Output and in practicing what I preach, as my fitness levels get lowered, my intake of food has to lower. Spending a lot of time flying and driving and NOT being in the gym twice a day really changes the caloric and nutritional needs of my body.
As we're traveling, we've spent some time on a couple of organic farms and one of the families were vegetarian. I've had a lot of questions about what I do, and when I explain my "story" to them, they're stunned. The common question comes up about "what do you eat" and my answer has been exactly what I talk about all the time on my website.
my core foundation is about health and making sure my body has all the nutrition it needs to balance and cleanse itself. I explain that I eat Sunrider foods to ensure my "foundation" and then that my program of foods is dynamic just like my weight training and cardio. I eat according to my goals and my daily activity. I change my diet depending on circumstance, what I have planned for the day and what my activity level will be. I have to admit, it's been wonderful being able to see how the organic farms operate, how the families cook and prepare meals and in one case, seeing how the family raises organic chicken and eggs.
just to give you an idea of what my typical weeks have been like and how I modified my diet, here's a sample.
week of Mind of Steel, Heart of Gold (very active, on my feet most of the day, long days). Ate vegetarian with fresh fish. Dropped 5 pounds that week. Ate higher in carbs as my activity level was a little higher.
week in the city: Trained 3x a day in the gym, cardio in the am, weight training in the afternoon and cardio a third time in the PM for 5 days. Increased my calories by about 1500 per day to a total of about 4500.
two weeks working Warrior camps, as active plus a lot more than Mind of Steel, Heart of Gold. Ate a lot more proteins AND carbs. Dropped another 7 pounds in two weeks, some muscle, some fat. Mostly cardio during the days, no weight training.
one week back in the city, 5 days of weight training, back to my normal program based on Sunrider and "Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle". Gained 5 pounds back by the end of the week. Body fat stayed the same. (all good)
1 week of travel to Vancouver and LA: 4 days off training all together, then 2x a day training while in LA at the hotel. Cardio in the AM, weight training in the PM otherwise, very inactive (sun time by the pool of course).
1 week back in the city in Edmonton, back to twice daily training, cardio and weights, normal diet.
1 week now of traveling by car through British Columbia and some time in Vancouver (for the annual fire works competition). Sporadic training schedule. Some organic eating, some vegetarian fare, a lot of eating out and fine dining. Results: as yet unknown, but I do see that I am getting leaner so it's been good all things considered.
guess what?
as far as I'm concerned, my diet is pretty on target for my goals and my activity level. I know that I can crank up my metabolism when I need to and I feel that I've earned the right to take a week off and do some fine dining with a very lovely woman. I'm going to really really enjoy it. I also know full well, that I will have to get back onto my normal routine to not only push forward through to my goal, but to "earn" my week of dining out. That's fine with me.
the way I see it, is that I have 60 plus years ahead of me and one week off will be fine.
my lifestyle is such that fitness has become the norm. Do I worry about the week I just took off? no! do I realize that I have to get back to work? Yes!
I should also point out that I'm evaluating a brand new product Sunrider has put out which will be available shortly. So far I have VERY positive results about it and I'll keep you informed. In short, it's a product that feeds your metabolism as well as being very highly antioxidant (against free radicals, or molecular sharks in the body).
I'll be back in my office in about a week and will get out the latest "weight management e-zine" for you then.
Until next time,
Eat Well, Be Well
Rob