SecondFocus Blog

A quick update while I am busy working on photo stuff. I am now 10 pounds down. I will do more of an update later and will be kicking things up a bunch with some training partners you might recognize, some new diet and supplement ideas and workouts. Thanks!

And stop standing on the poor thing 4 times a day. It deserves a break…

I am asked all the time "how much weight have you lost?". And I am sure many of you go through the same thing. I have learned over the years that while the scale can be your friend, it can drive you nuts. That is especially true in the beginning of a weight loss program and when you plateau, flatten out, stop losing.

In the first month of losing weight, one of two things will happen. You will not lose fast enough for your own level of impatience or you will lose a good amount and then stop. So either way, I know what you are doing. You get on the scale every moment. You strip off your shoes, your underwear, shave a little closer and get a haircut. It will drive you nuts.

Even worse is when you start weight lifting for the first time and you gain weight! That is because muscle weighs more than fat for the same volume. So you lose fat but gain muscle and there you go, heavier.

So what do you do? Well stop weighing yourself every 12 minutes. If you are so inclined, maybe weekly. But if you are starting out, go for a month. Gage yourself on how you feel and how your clothes feel. Just get it done!

As for me, I am holding out for that month before I weigh in again. But I know I am making progress. I feel better and I can see that I have lost weight. I have also had some random comments from others saying that I look like I have lost weight. So good enough for me. If I were to guess I would say about 5 pounds, maybe a bit more. Good enough, I can be patient. And I am giving my scale a vacation.

Thanks and keep coming back if you "Wanna See More…?"

Okay, well everyone is in love with Jamie Eason…

And she is a buddy of mine and I think she is just great. But this time I am talking about the BodyBuilding.com Shaker Bottles! After years of suffering with shaker bottles that leak, spray all over the place when you shake them and pour nice chocolate whey shakes down my white BodyBuilding.com t-shirts, these shakers are just the best ever. Now I am really not trying to sell you shaker bottles. I am just seriously excited about this. What is really funny is I have tons of shakers around from everybody. Companies just do give me lots of stuff. And I had a bunch of the BodyBuilding.com shakers around but I never used one myself. I always held on to them for photo shoots. Finally I tried one and well, the vote is in.

Okay, a quick update on my getting in shape. I am still gloing strong. Treadmill sometimes twice per day and lifting. I am very so much better, a lot more energy and a general feeling of well being. I will be posting some more workouts at some other gyms with fun workout partners very soon.

So Thanks and keep coming back if you "Wanna See More…?"

Do you dream of running off with a hot girl and a donut…?

Actually I don’t, I have no interest in donuts, however…. Oh never mind. As you may have read in my prior post, I was on the road this weekend for a few reasons. And Friday was my big workout at Iron Bodies Gym. On Saturday and Sunday I was at a shoot at a studio with a very healthy eating and gym going, and our model, Hannah Gordon. By the way, Hannah also does not eat donuts. But one of the people at the studio really had no concept at to what food really is, and donuts are not food…

I wanted to point that out for two reasons. First about diet and food on road trips, traveling and staying in hotels. But more about that in a minute. The next about food on photo shoots. Now you know that I do these shoots all the time and when they are going to go for a number of hours or more, we do bring in food. But on my shoots we always bring in healthy, clean food. and no sodas either…

For those of you who are looking to have your own photos taken in a gym or to document your progress or maybe get into fitness modeling, food at the shoot is a giveaway. If you have a photographer or staff bringing in standard takeout pizza, tacos, cold cut sandwiches and sodas and chips, they do not know that they are doing. Because after a little of that stuff, you are going to hold water, flatten, bloat and very simply not look your best. So think about that and ask when you are planning to do a shoot. And if there is any question, go elsewhere, or at the least, bring your own food and water.

Now as for myself I was a few days in a hotel. After the lifting pretty seriously on Friday, I was not going to fall backwards. So at the hotel I was  careful to eat pretty well. And this hotel and many hotels have healthy food on the menus. Breakfast for me on both days was scrambled eggs, a little avocado, grilled vegetables and two whole wheat pancakes…

Dinner was a chicken vegetable wrap with fruit on the side…

I was saved from the bad food at the studio for lunch by having some proetin bars with me. And Hannah also had protein bars in her wardrobe bag. At least there was bottled waters on hand. The lunch mistake was something I really didn’t think about because I forgot that other people don’t think about food like we do. Maybe that is one of the reasons we have so much obesity. Well yeah!

And I did not slack off from workouts at the hotel. Most hotels at least have a fitness room of some kind. And I was on the treadmill both Saturday night and Sunday morning for 45 minutes each.

So on the road, you can get it right. I did and I will continue to do so. And I felt pretty good. That’s the way for sure.

Thanks again and watch for the next installment of my journey. And please keep coming back if you "Wanna See More…?"

At my old gym, Iron Bodies in the new location in Costa Mesa, California…

Iron Bodies Gym is like my home and everyone there is like my family. So back in the area for a few days I knew that this was the place to really kick it off again. And to do that I was ready to go with my old workout partner Larry Brown and the girl that joined us a while back, Kimm Winn.

Larry and I, a few years back were the guys that everyone tried to keep up with. We pushed each other very hard and very heavy. And I owe it to Larry for my experience in getting into the big weights because we were able to spot each other and build our confidence and strength to handle it.

Kimm was a housewife three years ago who just came in with her husband Kurt who was really intent on slimming down and getting healthy. She started training with Larry formally and worked into our time frame. I have to tell you that I remember Kimm would whine at 3 reps of leg presses with no weights on it. But she got hooked and this year made her way to the stage at the USA in Las Vegas.

Now Larry got back to competing and has also made it big. They both have won their weight classes and next will be going to the Junior Nationals in Chicago for 2008. And both of the have also won posing awards and are huge crowd favorites.

Anyway they had it in mind to help me on my way with a high intensity workout and so it began…

This workout started with a non stop pace of 8 reps and 4 sets of squats, dead lifts from the rack, leg extensions and bench press. Each set saw an increase in 25 pound plates.

And yes I kept up pretty good. This is me on that bench for real with Larry spotting me to get 275 off the rack, we started at 135…

What was fun about Kimm when she got going and still the same, is that she can out lift and out work most guys. This girl does not know how to not try…

Larry was always really strong and just seemed natural at shoving heavy weight around…

We moved through all that in about 45 minutes total. So aside from moving some serious weight we had some real fat burning and conditioning component to it. But we were not through. Next it was on to biceps where we did two sets of two lifts for 25 reps. This was straight bar and high on the body dumbbells.

And still not done for the day, we went for triceps and shoulders. All of this again was pretty fast running. Very little time between sets, keep that heart rate up.

And that was my first day back to really lifting seriously. And this was on day one of three days on the road on photography business.

It felt really good being back home at Iron Bodies and lifting with my friends. Larry is a very successful trainer bringing lots of people and kids along for everything from football, bodybuilding and serious weight problems. Kimm has been training people too with a growing list of clients especially the girls.

So if you are around Orange County or nearby and want to train seriously in a no frills hard core gym, get on over to Iron Bodies. There is no place like it and soon you will feel at home too. And when you get there say hi to my buddy, Kurt Winn, Kimm’s husband, who has been re-building and working hard to make it even more special. And yes he not only lost weight and got healthy but he ended up making the place even better.

Now I also have to say thanks to my best friend Joe Rodriguez, the original long time owner of Iron Bodies and who shot many of these photos for me. It was Joe who has made Iron Bodies for so many years the home for so very many people and made it a special place for me.

So on from here and thanks for stopping by at this part with me. There will be more soon. So keep coming back if you "Wanna See More…"?

Not my usual choice of food. I have seen my friend, super heavy weight Robert Hatch, cheat with that before however…

Now it was a special moment, we were at the birthday party for IFBB Pro Idrise Ward-El. And it was off season for Rob. He does know how to eat and diet so I am not going to criticize any choices he might make And he is bigger than me. And most everyone…

My own personal diet has to be pretty tight for taking off this extra weight. I know that, I have done it before. Typically in the past I have gone all protein, no carbs and had my best results. And it makes me no more grumpy than my usual grumpy nature. But I have lately seen that this is something else that changed about me. I was not getting the weight loss.

Like I mentioned before I had the chance to have lunch with my friend Abbas from ProFight Supplements. And as I was eating my typical chicken and salad, he tossed a slice of pizza on my plate. Not the take out kind, but the clean California style type. His advice was that I needed some good carbs to crank up my metabolism and to give me just a little more energy. So some good carbs are now part of my diet. And yes I am getting more of a boost from it. So that was a good idea.

By the way I have moved off of just 45 minutes of cardio and now lifting. Chest yesterday but more workout follow up in another post.

Thanks and I really appreciate all of the comments. Stick with me, it makes it more fun. And tomorrow I take it on the road. I will be working out at another gym with some interesting people and also making use of a hotel workout room. So this will be the first time out since I am back at it, on the road. Keep checking in to see what happens and if you "Wanna See More…?"

I am sure you have seen plenty of ads with photos like this…

We all take them in stride and the supplement companies are really just trying to get our attention. But we know that these claims like ‘78 pound weight loss in three weeks’ are a little exaggerated. But what of these fat burners and such. For the most part I think they are all worthwhile but it is a matter of finding what works for you. That is what makes BodyBuilding.com so valuable, you can find all the information and reports you might ever need right here. And no other resource has as much information as you can get here.

Now I have always run towards the heavy side. This photo of me with the Cessna from a few years ago is about where I usually find myself when I am not working at it really hard. For me, and I am sure a lot of you, it is genetic. And because I am that way but have been involved in lifting since I was 12 years old, I truly do have a lot of practical experience about weight loss and lifting. I have through my adult life been down to as little as 140 and as much as 250. I know what works for me and I have helped a lot of other people along the way who are just like me; Working people, not genetically inclined to be ripped, some younger but all of us getting older.

So what works for me? For one thing I have to stay in the gym almost daily. And with my schedule I have to be flexible about when. But more details about that in another post. I need a lot of protein intake and carbs are not friendly to me. I am lucky in that I have no interest in sweets, cookies, cakes, any of that stuff. It has no interest to me. And again I will go into food later.

Along the way I have tried many a fat burner and many with great success. But your body changes and I have seen that what worked for me in the past is not working now. Not to say they are not good, just not now for me. So I was looking for soemthing different and I remembered a product I have overlooked. I should not have because it is made by a company where I have good friends and I have seen a lot of people I know recommend it and use it. The company is ProFight Suppelements and the product is C.C.B.

So I called my friend Abbas at ProFight. Abbas is one of those secrets in the business. Some people call him the ‘professor’ and a lot of people know him as their secret weapon for contest preparation at both the amateur and pro levels. Something that very few people know is that he also trains a number of very top celebrities who you see in the biggest movies.

Abbas and I met for lunch and he brought some products for me. And at this point in where I am he said "C.C.B." was the supplement for me, specifically saying that it is really optimized for my cardio stage of weight loss.  More specifically he says it will increase fat and sugar  metabolism, promote fast weight loss - mainly body fat, help with proper cholesterol levels and other good benefits. And as I said I have friends who are very competent bodybuilders who swear by "C.C.B.", so I am giving it a try.

So let’s see what happens. I will be posting more soon and I hope all this relates to many of you who are people who have weight issues like me. So Thanks and keep coming back if you "Wanna See More…?"

Eggs…

At least my egg whites from Egg Whites International. I have been using these liquid egg whites for a few years now. I first was introduced to the product when I did a photo shoot for them. This photo of Renee kissing the egg has gone on to be on all the company brochures, the sides of their company van, their magazines ads and the center of their trade show display. It was a really fun photo shoot. And Renee made that egg very happy!

I am not much for cooking. I actually find it pretty much of a bother, have no interest and won’t take the time. So liquid egg whites were perfect for me. I used to get 6 dozen eggs per week but that was annoying, I don’t like going to grocery stores either. Now I get a box of 4 one gallons, and just leave the one I am not using right away frozen. Four gallons will last you a long time. They are pasteurized so they last a long time. You can drink them right out of the container or put them in a shake. Usually I just pour some in a pan and cook them just like eggs. Very quick, very easy and a great protein source. I love them!

Well I really don’t keep my refrigerator this full with them but I always have them on hand. So this is my first product recommendation and one I have a lot of experience with. When I was lifting heavy and in great shape this was a regular part of my food intake. And now that I am taking off the pounds, these egg whites will help me get there. I know this for sure.

Thanks and keep coming back if you "Wanna See More…?"

The mysteries of Cardio…

Cardio is a subject pondered and discussed by many as well as by top trainer Charles Glass. I am certain that Charles has a lot of experience on the subject and I will talk to him about it soon. But for right now, I need to get going so I am going to draw on my experience. So what I have been doing for the last few days is “slow cardio”. And I did have this conversation with my good friend and World Champion, Bob Cicherillo…

Bob wrote a really good article about “slow cardio” that I really suggest you read. I consider Bob the thinking man’s bodybuilder. He has been lifting for a very long time and has seen a lot come and go. Bob also has a good idea as to the wear and tear you can put on yourself. So when I asked Bob about me and cardio he really had a couple of simple but smart suggestions. The first was roll out of bed and get the gym for about 45 minutes or so on the treadmill. And if I could get to the gym a second time during the day, all the better. But the issue for me was going to be when becuase I am a pretty busy guy.

Now I can do 45 minutes or more on a treadmill without getting bored thanks to the magic of the Ipod. But first thing in the morning might be an issue. Not that I am not up early. I am usually up around 4:30 but that is when I am first dealing with e-mails etc especially with the East Coast. So for me I need to be flexible but still make sure I am in that gym everyday especially at this point. So slow Cardio for me right now everyday is the job.

By the way, there is a new discussion about Slow vs Fast Cardio right here on BodyBuilding.com. So read that too. And then there was also a Super Feature on cardio you should check out…

But let me quickly tell you what “Slow Cardio” is to me. And this is not without some experience too. What works for me is on the treadmill starting out at an easy walk for a few minutes and then bumping it up and down in speed maybe every 10 minutes or so. And then I will also add in and take out some incline along the way. I try to vary it and keep it going with enough work to build up a sweat. Now in the past I have done alot of running too and really thinned out quickly. But for right now, at least for a couple of weeks I will keep it slow. But not this slow…

That is where I am for now. If you have any thoughts and ideas, speak on up. And as I get around to my friends and bodybuilders and other trainers, if you have any questions as we go along, let me know. I will get them answered and we can all benefit from it.

Thanks and keep coming back if you "Wanna See More…?

Walking in to the gym behind hot girls in skimpy clothes or Olympia sized bodybuilders you sometimes see me walking in with an entourage of assistants, makeup artists and hundreds of pounds of lighting gear and cameras. But in the last couple of years there has been something extra coming in with me that I don’t need. And that is my own extra weight!

For a long time I was in pretty good shape. I was in the gym daily pumping away at it, pushing heavy, pushing hard and driving everyone half my age into the ground. My training partner was often saddened by seeing me walk in the door becuase he was hoping he might get a break that day. And Larry is a big strong guy and a heavyweight competitor.

But I am here to admit that as my work and travel schedule got busier, my gym time went away. And all that travel and time in hotels took revenge on me with the wrong food at the wrong time. And of course the only thing you saw me lift in the gym was a camera.

So I am here today to tell you that enough is enough. BACK TO IT! I know what I am doing and certainly hang my head low having gotten to where I am which is out of shape and overweight. What happens now is back to the gym and back to eating right.

First off I am going to work at taking some pounds off and building up some stamina. How? Well a bunch of things enter into that component. But I am going to add some fun to this that you won’t see in other transformation stories. For openers I am going to ask all of you to come along with me whether you are 20 or 50, a guy or a girl, in shape or getting there. I am going to help us all along by taking advantage of my contacts in the business to bring you all kinds of interesting and informative things about trimming down and building up.

Hey, maybe I’ll take a day and go work out with my buddy Maria…

I’ll see what bodybuilders I can work out with and some top trainers. I will talk to some of the top supplement people in the business for a little insight and bring you what I learn. And I will try out some different supplements to see what I like and what seems to work for me. And maybe they will work for you.

I will not force you through any long videos but just some reports right here and some photos. Information that I hope you can use and take with you. No cooking segments by the way, I don’t cook!

So take this journey with me! I am going to update this blog very often. You will still see some of my photo stories too but the emphasis is going to be working out and getting fit. Time to get started! Thanks! Here we go…

And keep coming back if you "Wanna See More…?"