Advice from Abe Lincoln's personal trainer (@JustinStrelow)

Be Your Own Fitness Instructor

First, let me preface everything in this post and any future posts I may write by shouting from the mountaintop: I am not a medical doctor, personal trainer, or nutritionist!  I have never responded to a late-night “Become a personal trainer!” commercial, nor do I have any certificates of achievement from my local Jenny Craig. However, I was Abe Lincoln's official personal trainer for Halloween so you might want to take notes.

As you may have noted from my sarcasm, I don’t think any of us need any of that!  I say this as a combination of ex-athlete and software developer, both of which have shaped my current outlook on personal health.  Let me explain..

Many moons ago, I played collegiate and professional volleyball.  At competitive levels, the coaches are always trying to get the most out of their athletes.  Being as “hops” (jumping ability) is so important in volleyball, our coach put us all on jump programs.  However, each of us was on a different program!  They actually did needle biopsies on our legs to determine our muscle compositions (quick twitch versus slow, gas exchange rates, and other stuff way above my head).  Each of us 20 or so players then received separate, customized instructions on how to develop our leg muscles… all to do the same thing: jump!  This experience taught me something very valuable about fitness – every individual responds differently to training methods.  Certainly there are basic principles that are just good policy, but we must all tailor fitness to our own bodies.

Thankfully for us, we have the internet!  I truly believe it has everything you and I need to build a good fitness plan for ourselves.  The problem is, 95% of the internet is BS!  Case in point:  I just made that stat up.  And yet it’s on the internet.  And somebody will probably use that stat somewhere.  To take a relevant topic, be sure to eat lots of fruit to lose weight!  But be careful, because fruit will make you obese!  I can justify any “fact” if I’m lazy enough in my research.

Years in my career in software has taught me how to pore through all the idiocy of the web and get to real information.  Most of us rely on googling daily for information, so I’m sure many of you already have somewhat of a critical eye. If you don’t, develop it!  Then use it to help craft that perfect plan to meet your fitness goals.  As pertains to fitness, I generally append words like “research”, “clinical study”, “medical journal”, etc. to my fitness queries to make sure I’m getting accurate information.

It is my personal, unprofessional opinion that neither you nor I need a professional opinion!  A clear fitness goal, knowledge of your body and knowledge of the internet is all you need.  Good luck in your goals!

~ @JustinStrelow

@ThatPaul: Fitness & Combating Stress

My fitness goals have always been a little different than most. Before joining the military, I weighed about 115 pounds and had a hard time keeping up with the physical demands of basic training. As training proceeded I noticed that I actually looked forward to the fitness training. At first I was convinced it was because it was my escape from the crazy Drill Instructors. Now, I know that was only part of it.

I have continued to try to make a workout routine part of my regular schedule. If you are like many, life gets busy and it becomes a challenge to make time to get in some regular exercise. As I may be bogged down by weekly tasks I often have to remind myself how great I feel afterwards. There are several obvious benefits to maintaining a healthy lifestyle but practicing regular fitness can help you fight stress.

When you work out, your brain functions at a more rapid pace. Blood is sent to your head, stimulating the brain, which can partially explain the inability to sleep immediately after a workout. Waste products are moved more quickly through your body, which helps antioxidants do their work. Additionally endorphins, or the chemical that makes you feel happy, are increased and released into your blood stream during exercise.

Knowing this, you are able to leverage you body’s state by doing some things that are productive after the work out. Plan your day, knock out some emails, write a blog post or just take some time to relax. I work out for the feeling I get after a great day at the gym.  As they taught us in the military, the only limit to what your body can achieve is in your mind. I can tell you that you can do great things if you are able to understand how fitness affects you, your mood and your body.

I am gracious for the opportunity to take part in Fittest Tweeter, not only because it provides me the ability to get into the shape that I was years ago but, for the support and camaraderie. I know that Fitness Tweeter will help use all in different ways. Ultimately we will all be in better shape because of it!

~ @ThatPaul

@TinyRoads: Why do I run?

Why do I run?
I run because it makes me feel good.  I like to exercise.
I run because I think that if I do, I get to eat whatever I want. 
I run to soak up rays of sunshine. 
I run to see parts of the city that I live in that I would otherwise never notice.
I run to stay in shape.
I run because I've set a goal to run in a marathon.
I run because it's consistently one of the best times for me to think.  Oftentimes, when I have a difficult decision to make, I find that it helps not only to sleep on it, but also to go for a long run. 
I run to participate in a community. 

All of these goals are important to me, obviously, but they're also important to me for what they're not.  I'm not running to lose a certain amount of weight.  I feel like I'm pretty much at the weight that I'll settle at.  If I can maintain, I'm happy.  But I won't be able to maintain that weight eating whatever I want, especially drinking whatever I want – I run so that I can continue to eat and drink what I like.  I hate sitting still, sitting inside, so running gives me an opportunity to get outside, not only to soak up Vitamin D but also to see things that I wouldn't normally.  I have a goal to run 1,000 miles this year, which is important to me, but one of the things I'm most interested in is completing a marathon in less than four hours.  If I can run at a consistent pace, not too fast (no one's going to mistake me for the winner of the race) but not too slow (I'd obviously like to finish above the first half of my age group) I think that I can do this. 

Last of all, I love the community that running affords me.  When I work out, it gives me something to talk about with the people that I work with as well as people I know a little less intimately. It's my hope that this site will serve as another little reinforcement.  We all need someone telling us good job when we succeed.  Whether your goal is to lose those last five pounds, or to lose a target weight that's a huge number, whether it's to get up off the couch and start running and culminate in a 5K, or to continue pounding the pavement to the tune of 20 or more miles a week, I feel like this Fittest Tweeter Challenge will help all of us.  Good luck!

~ @TinyRoads

@ZoDogg34: I don't believe in diets.

I don’t believe in diets. I don’t care if you are eating low carbs, or drinking grapefruit juice or eating cookies – diets are a scam designed for someone to make money.  So why am I writing this blog and participating in the Fittest Tweeter? Well, I just want to eat more healthy (and I was talked into it by @DigitalRoyalty).
 
A couple of years ago, before my son was born, I was sitting around the house watching one of those Mystery Diagnosis shows on Discovery Health one night when I caught a story on a perfectly healthy in shape guy in his early 30’s who was diagnosed with colon cancer. At the time my wife was pregnant and I decided I didn’t want to go out like that – so I began to look into some of the causes. To my horror I discovered that I had two strikes against me…a family history (grandfather) and bad eating habits.
 
Now, like I said, I don’t believe in diets, but I decided that eating not much other than pizza, burgers, and other things loaded in saturated fat was probably not a good idea, considering that saturated fat intake is one of the causes of colon cancer. So I quit eating it. Cold turkey. I went to eating almost zero red meat, and nothing fried. I replaced French fries with side salads. I replaced burgers with grilled chicken. I probably cut out at least 80% of the saturated fat I ate on a regular basis.  I also lost weight. A lot of it. About 20 pounds. At the time I was about 195, which for a guy who is about 6-1 and active wasn’t really bad, but people started noticing how much weight I lost…and I had to go buy a bunch of new pants.
 
So, again, why am I doing this Fittest Tweeter? Well, I kept it up for about a year, but things have changed and I went back to some of my old habits. I have more responsibility being a dad, and my time to exercise and play basketball is reduced. I have a new job with an on-site cafeteria that actually has good food. Unfortunately most of it (the good stuff at least) isn’t really healthy. I’ve gained about ten pounds back from what I lost, and those new pants I bought are starting to get a little tighter. I’ve been telling myself for a while that I wanted to go back to eating healthy again, and thanks to Fittest Tweeter, now’s as good of a time as any to do it!

~ @ZoDogg34

@DevonStebnicki: George Forman'ed & dropped 8 lbs in 3 days

Monday I went to the zoo with my best friend, my boyfriend, and my son. I had my son in November and at the end of my pregnancy I weighed 240lbs. The first month after I lost 50lbs which is normal, whatever. Anyway I went back to work in January and lost five more lbs. I have been stuck at 185 for a while. Right now I would call myself fat simply because I’ve always been healthy, and muscular. I carry my weight thru my middle.

On Monday evening I ate two pieces of pizza, and 4 chicken wings. My best friend has somehow gone from a size 12, to a size 5 (I think) maybe 3. So I’m at the zoo sweating my a*s off, while she looks oh so cute and glistening. I friggin hated her Monday so I was motivated by the little green monster. Monday night I was tweeting about how I hated her and how I had better legs and everything. All the sudden this RT comes up from @DigitalRoyalty about the #fittesttweeter. So I ran out, got some slimfast (cuz I really do like the chocolate ones) and weighed myself after eating... 185lbs.

For the last two weeks that’s what I have been having for breakfast cuz it’s quick and easy. Anyway, so yesterday morning I had my first slimfast, I had a dr.pepper for my headache. I had a nature valley honey and oats granola bar. Then I felt guilty for having a dr.pepper so I drank lots of water. I had a second slimfast, and when everyone got home I made my bf a burrito, I George Forman'ed myself a chicken breast, and microwaved "Steamed Fresh Steamers" and a "singles" of brussel sprouts. Oh yeah and I had an orange crush. Today I got up, fed my son, had some coffee. Weighed myself I weighed 179, I did some upper body workout while my son played, and I got a little bit of a sweat goin’, had my slim fast. Got hungry at 12 had a granola bar, and a slim fast. I weighed myself again 177. So I have yet to figure out what I will have for supper because I have no chicken breasts. I think I will run to Safeway, get my breasts, have some brown rice and more brussels sprouts!!!

~ @DevonStebnicki