Stage 4 Thor

Bad joke, I know, I know. While I was sick I had a lot of time to read, learn and take classes that I hoped would allow me to help people if I was to get out of that situation, and I haven't stopped.  Some of that reading and research was pertinent to my situation and some of it was outside of it.  One of the best things about learning and expanding your purview is that you will learn things that might not be useful to you but may be useful to others.  Luckily for me, my parents are aging gracefully and seem to be healthier than most people my age, but dementia is a real threat to everyone eventually, and losing your mind while staying healthy is a whole other struggle that is hard to even imagine.   Alzheimer's (the most common form of dementia)  was one of the things that I came across by mistake.  While I am still young enough that I do not need to concern myself with Alzheimer's...yet, what I do live with and have experienced is "chemo brain" which...

I first showed my friends on Facebook, so if you are getting this message twice...good :)  I finally finished my "book" (it is really more of an essay) on fitness and how faith, love,  and a growth mindset helped me to overcome the biggest challenge in my life. In it, I focus most on the physical aspect of recovery because that was the most obvious and challenging.  This was surprisingly a lot more challenging than I imagined, and it led me down some dark memories that were hard to remember and write.   Today, it is an e-book which means it can be read on a Kindle, a tablet, a phone, or a PC.  A lot of people were confused as to if they needed a Kindle Reader to read it, and you do not.  Some of the formatting might be different between the devices, but it all looks roughly the same.   You can get the book from the link here: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1166946 If you prefer Amazon, you can get it here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B...

If you have ever experienced jet lag, you know that it is a real thing and that memory loss, imbalance, fatigue, and brain fog are all very real, but did you know you can experience jet lag without even getting on a jet?   If you are following my Facebook page, I am sorry :)  But you have probably seen my posts from my Garmin watch about how close to 8 hours of sleep I am getting each night.  Some nights I am getting 8 exactly.  Other nights I am within 5-10 minutes of that goal.   Jet lag is a condition where your internal clock is out of sync with the external clock.  One hour off might not seem significant, but it can be. When your internal clock is out of sync you become mentally dull, irritable, and clumsy, and you may sleep excessively, or not at all .   Something as simple as daylight savings time can have the same effect as if everyone took a plane one-time zone east.  Don't think so?  Car accidents increase by 10% the ...

2 weeks into the bulk  3052 calories   a day 189.3 pounds 14.9% body fat + 0.6 pounds of muscle in 7 days Recently I was asked by a client what to do to gain weight.  The truth is, no one wants to "gain weight", what we all want is to gain MUSCLE and to do that efficiently and faster you need more calories and with more calories comes more fat.  By following this bulk with me you will see that we can keep the fat at reasonable levels while building lean muscle.   Being close to September I am getting ready to do some bulking with the goal of adding 5-10 pounds more of muscle by March while keeping my body fat under 16%.   Now, this might not be your goal at this time, but there are lots of people out there who are interested in an emphasis on muscle gain as opposed to fat loss.  Most of what I write about encompasses how to do both at the same time, but for those of us who are trying to pack on some weight quickly, I will do my best to explai...

At what point, should you start to get moving and back in fitness after an illness or injury? There is no direct answer to this.  Injuries and illnesses are so different across the spectrum, as are things like age, weight, etc.  What I can shed some light on is when I started, why, and how.   When I was getting treated with the first line of chemotherapy I was left with uncertain results.  Was cancer gone?  Was it simply scar tissue showing up on the scan? Nothing to do but "wait and see".  I certainly wasn't healthy, but I couldn't discern between whether that was an effect of the chemo or cancer.   So, with no known answer here, I chose to start the comeback. I was originally optimistic and started to go to a few workouts with my.. .keep reading

Recently I was introduced to Andy Frisella's podcast and his 75 Hard challenge.  For those that do not know, this is a relatively popular online fitness challenge to get you to start forming some healthy habits for 75 days, track your progress, and have a sense of accomplishing a goal.... keep reading

Anxiety and worry might be the largest contributor to stress that I can think of and stress is the largest contributor to death.  If you have any hope of living a healthy and successful life or recovering from an illness or injury, limiting your stress needs to be a priority , and the first step in limiting stress is limiting your anxiety! We all understand and hear about the power of positive thinking, and how you can manifest dreams by creating vision boards and meditating/praying for what you want out of life.   Worry is like making a vision board of all the things you DONT want.    If you believe manifesting works, then it should terrify you to know that you can manifest the negative even easier than the positive.   When you worry about something, you invite that which you are most worried about into your life.   The good news is that 98% of all the things... keep reading

The 7 Scientific Benefits of Gratitude:  Gratitude opens the door to more relationships. Gratitude improves physical health.  Gratitude improves psychological health. Gratitude enhances empathy and reduces aggression. Grateful people sleep better. Gratitude improves self-esteem. Gratitude increases mental strength. I was baptized Catholic, went to Catholic school up until 7th grade, and later in life moved towards Bible-based theology.  I would consider myself non-denominational, but others would align it pretty closely with Baptist, as we continue to baptize adults to be "born again".   I point this out to be transparent about my background and at the same time understand that not everyone is on the same spiritual path.  Like in my fitness posts, I can only articulate what I felt firsthand and what worked for me. Regardless of what religion you practice or your relationship with the universe, the message here is applicable to all, so please keep readi...

  When people see my pictures at the age of 47, I get a lot of questions about what I do specifically for abs.  For older men and women abs seem to be the harder of the muscles to see and develop.   If there was an industry secret, I would love to sell it to you but the truth is that I don't do anything for abs.   Well...that might not be entirely true... keep reading

  Prior to me getting sick, I had been a bodybuilder and powerlifter most of my adult life, and I have heard all the jive about Planet Fitness and the rap it gets for being "soft".  Now at 47 and post-cancer, I have really come to appreciate it in many ways.  So much so, that I deliberately like to check in on Facebook to irritate some of the die-hards.   I think there was so much good that came out... keep reading

  “Don’t give up…don’t ever give up” - Jimmy V When I was 44, I was in a relationship with a woman who I loved who sadly has a terrible drug problem that I was unable to help her through.  She ultimately stole my truck and my money, leaving me on a moment’s notice, rendering my children and me homeless, penniless, and without any transportation. She shut down our corporate account and emptied all the money out o f it... ...and that might have been the easiest part of what I was to face in the next 3 weeks... please keep reading