UNLOCK YOUR FULL POTENTIAL

Today was my one year anniversary of the start of my health and fitness journey with my personal trainer Kathy Cooper ❤️. I had a custom shirt made just for the occasion for my workout today, lol.  She is such a hard working inspiration and I’m so fortunate to have her kicking my butt the last year.  I still have a ways to go to get to my goal weight but down 120 pounds is a good accomplishment in a year, as well as one year of intense weight lifting 3 days a week, which is helping to recompose my body to be heavy with muscles and not fat!  One day the fat will be low enough to actually see the muscles haha.  I’m proud of myself for having never missed one scheduled workout.  A few takeaways of the past year for anyone interested.  The hardest part was just taking the first steps to commit to walking through the gym doors and starting the journey.  We can have many excuses why we can’t commit to being physical and eating better, but none of them change the projectory of where you will be down the road, which as we age, only gets worse.  Once you build a routine it gets a lot easier because your body wants to get stronger and you’ve worked at building a community of like minded people who will encourage and set an example.  If you can afford a trainer I highly recommend as they will keep you focused and pushing super hard while constantly correcting form to prevent injury.  My back was always bad from my skydiving accident but this past year it has been amazing.  Prioritize lifting weights.  Cardio has its health benefits but weight lifting is invaluable to improving your metabolic health and having muscles to live as we age.  How long do you want to be independent as you age, being able to take care of yourself?  You need muscles and unfortunately we lose muscle as we age and the only way to reverse it is with weight lifting.  You can’t exercise away a poor diet and you need to prioritize eating protein for muscle growth.  Cutting out carbs and processed foods does help with controlling appetite but the temptations are everywhere and coming from an all or nothing lifestyle of eating it’s hard to find a balance of eating healthy most of the time and while allowing some treat meals without it creating a desire to binge.  That is a work in progress.  Goals for year 2, continue my weight loss.  Get my knee surgeries done so I can move properly again and be in less chronic pain as currently I suffer everyday and night from it.  Keep getting strong and lifting heavier.  I love the bench press.  I’m working hard to do real pushups.  I’ve been doing straight arm planks and just recently I’ve been able to bend my elbows under my weight to do a partial pushup.  Want to go hiking with Brian on the property with Max, I want to go skating at the arena with Kathy and ride a horse in the next year.  Lots of things to plan and look forward to