Inside vs Outside; what you can't see will kill you

The age old expression,

"Never judge a book by its cover"

Carries more water in relevance to life than I had once thought. As a fitness expert;  I am often amazed at peoples responses to taking action in assuring their personal health is up to par and their results are flourishing.  While I deeply enjoy the success of my clients, I also am burdened by some of their ignorance.

You see some people think just because they are a certain weight or a certain dress size that they're healthy.  A lot of times that will be the affirming motivation for them to make a change and I understand that. There was once a time when I wore a size 54" waist jean/shorts and XXXL shirts and it crushed me every time I looked in the mirror. Although that was bad, it wasn't as bad as some doctor telling me that at 13 years old I was already on a bad path with my health. Bad weight, pre-hypertensive and on the verge of diabetes.  Throw all that together and you have COUNTLESS reasons to exercise and ZERO excuses.

When I hear someone talk about their weight/size in such a manner that it seems relevant to their personal health, I shake my head every single time. Sure, the outter shell can tell a lot about your work ethic regarding your fitness, but what does the inside have to say?

Do you think Hypertension doesn't exist if you fit in a size 2 ladies?

Do you think diabetes gives a damn about you being able to fit in a L shirt guys?

Do you think high cholesterol cares about you being able to bench press 300lbs?

I'll give you a hint

It doesn't

Looking amazing in clothes and being able to lift some heavy weight is only PART of what it is to be healthy.

It's also about getting your inside in check as well as your outside. There is no set weight or clothes size that reflects what is healthy and what isn't.

Don't worry about the weight you have, only the weight you've lost.

Don't worry about the size you are, only focus on the inches you've dropped

And don't put all your faith in what the mirror shows you, because it is what you cannot see that can kill you.

Get a check up with your doctor every 6 months - 1 year and make sure your vitals are in check.

Diabetes

Hypertension

Cholesterol

And the list goes on.

Effort Yields Results

It has been OBVIOUS. Painfully obviously that everyone wants all the result without putting in the effort. They want to "Get fit quick" way or the magic diet or pill to bring their body to greatness and avoid all the work. 

That's the problem, people don't want to work for it anymore. It's not entirely the fault of their ignorance; other sources are to blame.

The advertising companies who have the nerve to say"This person lost all this weight with Jenny Craig and you can too"When they know DAMN well that person had a personal trainer, worked out 5-6 days a week for a few hours at a time and ate right ALL the time.

It's the fault of the companies who make such things as: BowFlex, Ab Ripper, The Shakeweight & The Perfect Push-up that are seriously trying to get the ignorant masses to believe you can get a perfect sculpted body by doing "Perfect Pushups".

 It's those weight loss remedies who claim you can lose up to 20lbs in a month taking this pill when their models have either been airbrushed or had liposuction/gastric bypass.

Get the hell out of here with that nonsense!

The only true method of gaining is WORK. Work day in and day out, put in your time and you get exactly what you gave. Dont half-ass your input and run your mouth complaining and whining about the outcome when you know damn well you skipped workouts, you ate garbage and you didn't do your cardio.

 Now if you're happy being fat, depressed, unhealthy, ugly, weak, pitiful or all the above then more power to you

But ....

If you aren't satisfied then it's time to shut the hell up and get your self to the gym and get satisfied!

Reality Check

You know what kills me more than anything in my career field? It's not when I see someone having a hard time with their goals, or when someone gets discouraged. It's when someone gives up completely.

When you give up completely all you are doing is saying, " I can't do this " or the following:

"I don't want to lose 20lbs anymore"

"I am okay with being fat"

"I'm okay with not being able to physically help myself if I need to"

"I don't care about myself"

All of these and more are exactly what you're saying when you say "I can't do this" or "I don't want to workout" and in lieu of this, you consciously or subconsciously find a way to make an effort on a far smaller scale.

You immediately go to the latest workout fad, buy P90X, go to Jenny Craig or Weight Watchers and at the end of the day, it still didn't work?

Why is that?  Because not only did you try to take the easy way out of the hard work you need to put in but you also went to some "Lose weight fast" scheme thinking it would do all the work for you.

The result isn't in the method or in the venue;  it's in the work ethic and the work ethic alone.

Your excuses will only keep you fat:

All of your lame excuses for not working out are doing nothing but keeping you fat and ugly. You have not a single excuse that justifies your lack of dedication to your personal health and fitness. You have time. You have the money. You have the ability. You choose not to do it and waste your money on other means of short term satisfaction and still wonder why your clothes are tight and why you look the way you do.

If your friends aren't helping you; they're hurting you:

If your friends aren't encouraging you to take a look at yourselr in the mirror and do something about yourself then you need new friends because if they aren't encouraging you; they are only keeping you down.

Oh, you got problems?

That sounds familiar, but we all have problems and while you may not be able to solve them all right now; I guarantee working out will relieve some of that stress and keep other problems from forming! Like:

Weight Gain

High blood pressure

High cholesterol

Poor sex drive

Depression

And the list goes on.

If you still look cute after your workout,  you aren't done yet!!

If you aren't covered in sweat and on cloud 9 by the time your workout is done then I'm sorry to say but you have WAY more work to do. There is nothing "cute" about working out. You'll grunt, you'll sweat,  you'll smell and you'll feel amazing as hell doing it. Those little 20 min walks on the treadmill aren't going to cut it unless you're there to kill time or boredom.

I've seen people completely change their lifes by changing their bodies and I've seen them throw it all away due to their worthless excuses and lack of support and guess what;  they're right back where they started if not worse. Don't be that person. Don't waste your time and your money. If you're going to whine and cry , that's fine but you still need to work out and push yourself. 

Self Help Symposium

The quote above comes from the man himself,  Bruce Lee. A person fitness advocate , a prime example and a strong believer in the philosophy of what is Self Help.

Forged by real life experience and fueled by hardships, he became the symbol of Health and Fitness in balance and harmony. What this quote means is relevant to us all and I want you to soak in what this means.

To me, this means that the only one that can help us through anything is ourselves.  No outside help can change the most significant thing in our own personal lifes. That is the content of our character.

We all know at least one person whom have had everything and all the help one you could possibly think of but still couldn't help themselves.

No amount of extra money could save them from debt. No amount of help could save them from their own personal demons.

In fact,  all it could do was merely prolong the inevitable. 

I am no stranger to seeking outside help or opinion; it is in our nature to seek aid and that's perfectly fine..

However, as the saying goes, you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink it.

So look inside yourself as I ask this simple question: "Are you happy?"

If you are, then continue being happy.

If you aren't;  then do something about it.

Don't wait for something to happen because nothing's coming your way. YOU have to go and make it happen. Dont wait for things to change, because they won't on their own. Only YOU can make them change.

Happiness or Success?

Happiness and Success .... two contrasting and complimenting aspects to which we base our very life upon. But what is happiness compared to success? Can it be,"Happily Successful" or should it be,"Successfully Happy"?

Though it is relevant to us as individuals,  we meet at common grounds of desire and determination to achieve what we see as "happiness" . Whether it's Money, Love or Goals.

This reminds me of the story of the wise man and the western man. Both met at a temple to discuss life and all its meaning. As the westerner sat and talked to the wise man about life, he served tea to them both. The more the westerner spoke to the wise man, the more he kept filling his tea cup. As the tea began to overflow then westerner said, " My cup is full sir". The wise man stopped and said

"One cannot intake if one is already full"

The westerner quickly realized that he traveled all this way to learn, yet he had been speaking the whole time.

As Buddha says,  get rid of ego and rid yourself of desire, and one is only left with the truth.

As a society, we know no satisfaction. Our cups are void of any structure to fill. As we progress,  we constantly want and desire more of it until, inevitably our obtained become meaningless.

Now remember, I'm speaking about happiness;  not success. Because they both are relevant to you; they remain irrelevant to eachother.

Once you let go of desire and let go of ego; you have the truth of what happiness can be.

The Las Vegas Informer Exclusive: Sherry B. Hasty Rise to Success

Sherry can be defined as many different things but the one thing that would be able to cover them all is, “Successful”. A 40 year YOUNG full time traveling RN, a mother and an amateur bikini competitor who was born in San Antonio, TX and graduated from Angelo State University in ’99. Sherry was in her 20’s, she would go to the gym and do what I would call a “casual” workout. It wasn’t until she turned 40 when things had started to change. A coworker of hers underwent a gallbladder surgery due to a horrible diet and that’s what did it. Sherry joined a gym, got a trainer and started getting after it. She attended her first show with my neighbor and then knew she wanted to try her hand at competition.

She quickly cleaned up her diet and in 12 weeks she her 6 pack and that’s very usual for a woman in her 40’s so this was, obviously, a huge deal for her.  After that, she knew she was going to go for Bikini competition and see what she can do. Sherry placed 3^rd and that qualified me for nationals in her first show. From then on she was placing differently through each show due to competing back to back, and then things started taking a toll on her body. She then decided to take a break for a year and placed 1^st on her first show back and this just reignited her passion to compete. Sherry was then featured in Max Muscle Magazine in September 2011. Sherry now works as a full time traveling nurse, a part time model for HTFU and a part time office assistant for HTFU LLC.

We were lucky enough to catch Sherry with a little free time and she sat down with us and indulged us in the life of a woman her personifies and radiates the HTFU mindset and lifestyle.

LVI: What’s does HTFU means to you?

SBH: HTFU to me means absolutely everything. I’ve been on my own since I was 17 and I had to grow up very fast. Basically I had to “HTFU”

LVI: Sherry, give us an idea of what your weight training routine is and how you get psyched for a workout

SBH: My routines normally include 2 hours a day .My legs are my weak point of my body so I workout legs 3-4x a week. Squats, Lunges, Dead lifts etc and mix it up with Plyometrics as well. I use a lot of Cellucor products as a staple of my supplement regimen. I do cardio for an hour a day on a stair climber. I’m not a huge fun of cardio but it’s got to be done. My favorite exercise is squats. Least favorite is box jumps. I usually begin my prep 12 weeks out from a show to give me enough time to dial in my diet and cardio to get the desired results.

LVI: What are your thoughts of the growing and changing fitness fad s that are going on now days?

SBH:  I am pretty old school when it comes to my training. I don’t fluctuate a lot with my weight so this keeps my contest prep slightly less stressful on my body. I prefer to do it that way because us women cannot pull and drop weight that easy. I eat clean a lot throughout the week and occasionally on the weekends I’ll have one cheat meal or so. There are a lot of different fitness fads and diet going around and the problem with that is a lot of people want something instantaneous and quick. They’ll buy whatever they think will work and don’t do a lot of research to know what they’re getting themselves into. Everyone’s body is different and what works for someone may/may not work well for you

LVI: Sherry what are your thoughts on Personal Trainers, good or no good?

SBH: It is definitely something that has blown me away lately. I remember going into 24 Fitness and the trainers, staff and managers would be in great shape and would look great. Now, I walk in and see unfit trainers, big staff members and it looks like all of these people who work in a gym look like they don’t even workout! I don’t understand when it became okay for people who look like they don’t know what they’re doing or how to do it and try to tell someone else how to work out and how to lose weight!

LVI: What’s your favorite cheat meal?

SBH: Pizza, pancakes and breakfast tacos!!! You can have a cheat meal! It’s not going to hurt you that bad, but you have to earn it with a week of dedication and commitment and it’s all in moderation.

Look for Sherry in Chicago for the Junior Nationals on June 13^th, 2013 to earn her pro card and begin to make this goal of hers a reality. Sherry and HTFU are going to Isle of Man TT to do some sponsorship work with athlete Brandon Cretu in the races.

Clothing by HTFU 

Photograph by Harry of LGHSX Photography 

The Process

I once wrote of a segment that I called "Trust The Process" and I want to explain to you what I mean when I say that. Life has a process in which things breakdown, go wrong or fall apart and then they're built back up again. Much like our muscle tissue when we workout. 

We go through a process of constant break down and build up over and over again to achieve a goal, in this case our dream physique. 

However, in life, while have the exact same process, there is a difference because there are two types of people in this world. There are those of us who take this process headon. We shift and progress through all the pain, the bullshit and the doubt because have faith in ourselves and that all of our effort will not have been in vain. 

When it is all said and done and it's all over; we are met with great rewards for our struggles and further our journey to even better rewards.

Then there are those of us who do the exact opposite. We carry on until we hit turmoil and the second we do; we regress. We regress over and over again until we are no better off than where we were when we first started our journey through life.

I, myself, cannot settle of an average being. I cannot settle for average anything. I want great EVERYTHING.  No matter how bad things get, no matter how hard life hits you MUST, yes MUST, keep getting up and keep pushing forward. 

Life isn't easy! You know this! 

Times are gonna be hard, money is going to be tight and things aren't always going to workout but if you keep going and you don't quit I promise you your reward is on its way. I GUARANTEE you that all of your work will pay off dearly because that's the process.

Each and every one of you have done so much in your time and have accomplished a lot,  and all I want for each and every one of you to have more and more success.  Trust the process because it's the way life works. Keep your mindset right , your work ethic high and stay ahead of that curve because if you do, I promise you have the greatest life imaginable. 

 All you have to do is decide to do it. Take that love you have and all that passion you have ans spread it into all areas of your life and watch the seeds of all your labor bring a fruitful harvest for you and your loved one's to enjoy forever.

Happy Training.