One of the forums I tend to spend a lot of time on is The Gear Page. It’s a gear discussion site for musicians, primarily guitarists. On the Pub section, there are frequently posts about fitness, working out and more that I am very interested in and post in quite a bit over the years. I actually started this blog because of those posts and this is where this blog – for me – originated from. If you’ve never checked out TGP, please do – it has grown into one of the most active and interesting gear discussion sites on the Net, and is the largest non-corporate owned (created and run by musicians for musicians) on the Web.

I posted in a thread recently about my theory regarding all around fitness oriented lifestyles and how important bodyweight exercises – since P90X in my case – are to me. I got a lot of questions via private messages and emails over it, so instead of just sending out long emails, I figured I’d just post about them here and take it from there.

If you know my story, I am a guy that was extremely active in my teens/twenties in the gym and active in sports and life. I was in really good shape, but got hurt when I was 27 when I blew out my ankles repeatedly playing soccer. The doctors told me to give it up. I got depressed and within 6 months was leading a sedentary lifestyle for the first time in my life. I made some well intentioned tries at getting back into shape, sometimes succeeding for 6 months or so at a shot… but not playing sports just took away my motivation to work out. My diet slipped. My wife and I started our family when I was 30 and as anyone that enters parenthood quickly realizes, that’s not exactly a time when you can eat, workout and get your sleep with any consistency. (Major understatement!)

From lifting heavy with a smaller frame like mine in my 20′s, I had issues with my shoulders, elbows and wrists. I used wrist wraps, and was extremely careful with my form and using spotters; but I was very strong for my size and frankly tore myself up. Playing soccer outside on sometimes suspect quality fields, I had issues with rolling my ankles and did so with such frequency at ages 25-27 that the doctors at the time told me to stop playing. Sports medicine was not where it is today then.

At age 37 I saw a picture of myself in the pool at my parent’s community pool playing with my kids. I asked everyone who the fat guy in the pool was because, “I thought we were all alone out there.”

I did not even recognize myself.

It was exactly that moment, that I can recall with stunning clarity, that I changed everything. I was 40 lbs. overweight. I was a mess. I was at about 205 lbs.. at 5’10″. When I was in my best shape in my 20′s, my weight always hovered around 163lbs.. I had let myself slip with a lot of self-justification, i.e. “I deserve some relaxation” and “I can get back into shape anytime I want to…” type of stuff. I had not noticed that in the 10 years between ages 27-37, that I had slipped so far. It was not a quick thing, and with two kids starting at age 30, days became blurred as time flies by. I didn’t have time to even think about it really. I ate whatever I wanted, with the constant, “It’s just one meal, no big deal” going through my head as I ordered my favorite lunch from the Wendy’s Drive-Thru: Spicy Fried Chicken Sandwich, Fries and a Mt. Dew. I was drinking about 3-4 20oz. Mt. Dew’s a day. Eating sugar charged breakfasts like Lucky Charms, Cocoa Puffs and the like. With whole milk. I was making up chocolate milk drinks with Nestle Quick and slamming huge amounts of it before bed every night.

It was a time for a change.

I have always subscribed to the ‘Three Pillars” of fitness lifestyle in the past.

1. Diet - the most important component. Simple formula? 6″ plate, 1/2 of it veggies/fruit, 1/4 lean protein, 1/4 complex carb. Simpler still? Smaller portions, everything in moderation. It’s essential to drop a lot of junk out of your lifestyle. Anything that comes in a box, bag or can needs to considered carefully. You need to make water, plain old water, your staple drink. You do NOT need gallons of water like you’ve read elsewhere. You just need mostly water, with other drinks – including milk – treated more as desserts. Some here and there is enough; water… you need. The rest, you do not. Fruit juices are essentially sugar water; with no pulp from the actual fruit, your benefits are minimal at best. Don’t kid yourself otherwise. “Nutrition bars” is simply codeword for ‘candy bars’. All the supplements and protein powders are not needed. Get your nutrition from real foods.
2. Exercise - this can mean a lot of things considering where you are on the fitness scale, physical capabilities, range of health. For some, a brisk walk 3X a week is just the ticket. Get out with your significant other and walk. Try it for a month, tell me your relationship isn’t stronger for it… and your physical well being. Take up yoga, play Frisbee catch with the dog, run around for 30 minutes with your kids (acting like a kid!). Take up a sport. Hit the gym. Ride your bike. Whatever you truly enjoy. That’s the key. It’s not work if you love it.
3. Rest - this one can throw you. Everyone is different, but the accepted norms are 6-8 hours a night of uninterrupted sleep. If you have small children (babies – toddler age) you are essentially SOS (simply out of luck) here; but you work around it and do what you can. If you don’t get your rest, the other ‘pillars’ will support you, but that support will be shaky.

Using that formula, I stopped fast food, dropped soda, and got active. In 3 months, I had dropped 30lbs.. I ramped up the intensity of my workouts (which I’ll cover in another blog post) and lost the last 10 lbs..

I took some flak online on various non-fitness oriented websites for the ‘sudden’ turnaround and lifestyle shift. Lots of, “Yea… great. Talk to me in 6 months after you’ve gained it all back” sort of stuff.

Here’s my “I told you so” to those folks – here I am 7 years later, STILL in better shape than I was in my 20′s.