This is the first ti’me i’m doing this workout in the series and I’m a fan!

600 calories burned in 60 minutes of martial arts mayhem.  Combat, in general has a killer music sound track.  where are turbo is more party music, Combat is rock’in music.  (Side note:  I hope turbo-kick starts using more rockin music over crappy house dance music, my classes tend to like the music more than party squad music)

So between taking a turbo class Monday night, Bikram last night and Combat this morning, i’m beginning to feel my energy levels growing again.  I wonder if the cases of girl scout cookies had just finally caught up with me and wore me down?

Ultimate rest is ordered so i’m ready to begin that when it arrives which means I will have to cut back slightly on my workouts but i’m good with that.  I will be the most detoxed person on the planet between doing the reset with it’s re balancing diet and supplements, drinking 21 days of only distilled water AND Bikram’s detoxing yoga.  My skin better be glowing by the end of April.

That’s all I got for now.  if you want any more information about the workout programs i’m doing, check out my site.

www.beachbodycoach.com/brucea

Have an amazing day!

I got up this morning determined to do Combat plyo and then go to bikram before work.  my body was sore and didn’t really want to do any jumping so this would be a feet of pure will when….

OH, Today is a combat off day!!!!

I got dressed and rushed out the house to bikram where my favorite instructor was teaching…abi

I think she was the 2nd instructor I met on my current journey thorough yoga.  I like her because she always seems happy and energetic, bright eyes and bouncy.  Some of the other instructors seem so serious it’s almost like a job.

I got a good stretching in but somewhere around bow pose, I got struck with the giggles and they got progressively worse until I was having to cover my face from laughing.

Nothing about bikram should be funny.  Seriously, my balls are sweating!  What’s funny about that?  This pose has my nose in a mat and the ghost of feet’s past came up to meet me and I couldn’t stop laughing

5:30 am, 5 people in a room and i’m a large black man laughing my ass off.  I felt like the guy from Marry Poppins floating on the ceiling.  Anyway, I survived

This evening found me teaching my last session of Turbo-kick for the next two weeks.  I’ve broken it up into 8 week session so the next one starts on April first.  Anyway, I had a long day and didn’t really feel like teaching.  I was THIS close to cancelling class when a few people showed up looking like they were having worse days than me and everyone just needed to get the stress out.

Que the music!

Round 51, Lets rock this joint!

With in 2 minutes I was feeling better and jumping around and having a blast!  I also got the flyer for the next round…check it out:

For some reason I look like a convict.

Anyway that’s all I got.

Laters baby!

Combat 30 lead my workout this morning with some sweat generating punches and kicks.  My shoulders are extremely sore, I think it’s mostly from sleeping on them wrong, but it makes combat and Turbo kind of difficult at times.

Turbo was a 20 minute HIIT which compliments the combat workout quite nicely.  340 calories in 20 minutes isn’t to shabby!

I’ve been doing at situp/core challenge as well (I know, add another activity to my schedule) but this one is simple.  i do it either between workouts or at night while watching TV:

The dates are off since it was for last year but the activities are solid.  I never realized how much not center core work I haven’t been doing.  Sure, there is lots of “CORE” work and obliques in all the activities i’m doing but I haven’t done just plain sit-ups in….forever?

Evidence of this is when I get sore 30 reps in…ugh.  in the future, i must remember to focus a little attention to center abs.  They are the muscle that ultimately compress the abdominal and make you slender…I can feel the difference as this is my 2nd week in.

Goals for this week:

Drink more water
Less sugar (girl scout cookies)
more veggies
hit yoga at least 3 times this week
start running!

It’s march and it’s nicer out, I should have started putting some miles on probably two weeks ago but it’s never to late to start.  I may end up running at night, which I hate, but i can’t think of when I’d squeeze it in otherwise.

Have a great one and keep your energy up. Fitness is a journey and a gift.  We are blessed with health when we are young and blow it somewhere in our late 20’s.  Now you have to journey to find it again but the journey is fun and exciting.  I love feeling and seeing the thing my body can do now that it couldn’t two years ago. (3 workouts in a day for example).

Teaching turbo tonight, I’m on the last two workouts of this session and them i’m taking a two week break from teaching until April.

Enjoy the ride.

www.beachbodycoach.com/brucea

The force is strong with this one!

Saturday was an amazing workout day.  It started with TF Core and stretching and ended with an amazing life P90X class taught by yours truly!  This is the start of a new session so the room was packed with newbies and fittest loser contestants and they all brought an A game which always makes it easy to teach!  Of course, I then went home, at a box of Girl Scout cookies and passed out for the rest of the day (stupid sugar coman)

Sunday was TF 45 which was kind of harder than I was expecting it to be but it needed to get done.  I rested for a bit and then went to yoga in the afternoon.  This was my first time back at Bikram since last tuesday when I realized i was sick.  Felt great, I sweat buckets so I feel for the people next to me in a pool of my DNA but that’s the name of the game. 

You literally sweat this much:

I can easily wring a gallon of water out of my towel and mat by the end of class.

So that brings us to the NOW

TF Hiit 20!  20 minutes of HIIT drills designed to ignite your metabolism and keep it burning for hours after you’re done.  I didn’t have the best HIIT session this morning as I was still feeling kind of lazy and slow but by the end I was in full motion.  which is good because today starts my 2nd workout programs

This is my first NEW workout program in a long time!  I tend to not do martial arts based workouts because I’ve been doing martial arts for decades and I get annoyed when the moves are not correct or the form is off or blah blah blah (Yeah I’m a karate snob, sue me)

Combat if …GREAT!

I literally felt like i was in a sparring class from back in the day.  The punches and moves are on point.  The intensity is there.  They have accents that could make me listen to her talk for day!

If you’re bored with your current workouts, I can’t recommend combat enough!  This was my first session and i’m trying to figure out if i’m going to do it or Turbo in the morning because I need to do both but i’m committed to the turbo contest and I want to get it done and combat can be my reward :)

YES, I will REWARD a tired body with Combat, it’s that good!

if you’re interested, check it out and order it  LES MILLS COMBAT

Tonight i’m teaching turbo again so this workout party is not going to stop yet!  Have a great day and keep pushing play.

Spring is around the corner and I have some great BeachBody deals coming your way!

#P90X 

The joyride continues.  I did Kenpo-X this morning, my least favorite of the P90X workouts.  I’ve done martial arts off and on for years and doing Kenpo to me feels like a martial arts demo class you do in high school where the TKD instructor comes to class and teaches you a few punches and blocks to get you interested enough to come and take their class.  

For a lot of people, this is their favorite P90X session, and that’s great and in the spirit of that, I decided to take a different look at it in order to find the X that i’m missing.  I focused more on keeping my core tight and turning each activity into core routine over a punch kick routine.  To do this I had to actively work on turning more from my trunk before extending my arms or legs and WOW, world of difference!

Kicks on my left side are still a tad painful and lack the power they had but i’m still healing and I think this recovery week is doing wonders in helping me build up that core and hip strength again.  Remember how two weeks ago, after my 20 mile run I said that my core muscles for breathing where tired?  Doing the core exercises this week i’m making a concerted effort to work the breathing and muscles to fatigue and continue to push them.  I felt it a lot yesterday during core syn and I continued that feeling today with Kenpo-X

I’m suppose to run 6 miles today but I have class tonight so I don’t know if i’ll get to it, if not I”ll do it tomorrow.  Tomorrow is Yoga-X, time to get that flexibility working more.  My right calf is not feeling the best, almost like a shin splint.  Of course now would be the PERFECT time to develop this so I know i need to work on more stretching.

Saturday’s long run is 8 miles and then it’s the home stretch!  P90X and marathon training together is VERY HARD!  Keep pushing play every day and little by little progress is made.  Last year around this time was my first 1/2 marathon.  Now i’m doing a full one and this all started a year ago.  Took me 5 years to get up to 380lbs, I’m willing to give myself 5 years to get back down to 215lbs.  I don’t think it’s going to take that long but i’m not going to stop because there is no alternative.

When you workout for your health, take a mindset that this is the only option.  I’m going to get healthy the natural way, it may not be the fastest way to drop weight, there may be set backs but the end result is something that lasts.  Change your diet, up your activity level and enjoy life, it’s that simple!

Start!  It doesn’t have to be much, or long but you have to start somewhere.  Stop struggling with the same problems, the same diets, the same weight.  Make a decision that enough is enough and simply begin to change.  

if you need help doing this, email me and join my free beachbody support group.  I don’t want you money, I want you healthy!  I want to be able to surround myself with people who can randomly decide to run a 5k because they were in the neighborhood and it looked fun.  I want people around me who can hike up to the top of a hill because it’s there and I want to see the view from the top.  Today is a great day to start and i’m here to help you

www.beachbodycoach.com/brucea

Have a great day!

I was going through some old posts and last year when I started doing Turbo-Fire for the first time during week 8 I said the following:

http://dsafitness.tumblr.com/post/11987085362/tfw8d4-naked-yoga

As a leg thigh guy, Aly, Chalene’s modifier workout girl, has GREAT legs!  I wonder if i can find her on facebook?

So fast forward a year…..

Who would have ever thought I’d be taking a picture with Alee!  

I really do love Beachbody!

#ultimatereset

Day 6 is in the books and I can say that I feel much better about this process.  I feel like i’m getting things out of my system that don’t need to be there.  Funny, when I get sick, I have spots on my body that hurt, my knees, my finger joints, odd things like that.  Day 6 of the reset and I have little pains in my legs and fingers and I just know its spots in my body that are purging toxins

I have a weird theory,  I believe that your body stores viruses and toxins in your muscles after it beats them.  Kind of just locks them away like in a prison.  I think this is why people get sick when they start to lose weight, primarily muscle mass.  The muscles break down so say you got sick at 175lbs, when you get back to that weight, the muscles release the virus it was holding and you get sick again.  Silly I know but it’s just a theory.

For not working out, every night I feel as if I’ve done some type of workout.  This is the body working on itself internally.

Breakfast today:

Tempeh, Kale and Avacado.  This was better than it sounds.  I haven’t made a final judgement on Tempeh yet but this morning it was pretty good.

Lunch:

Quinoa salad and a micro greens salad with home made dressing.  One of the things I will take away from this reset is Quinoa.  I could eat it and oatmeal until Jesus comes back and be happy…i think.

Dinner:

I made dinner, more importantly I made Zuchini cashew soup and it was good!  I’m taking this one away from the reset as well.  I didn’t know how easy it is to make soup.  I also have millet for the first time, it’s ok, it’s like quinoa and oatmeal so i inherently like it.  The rest is a beet, onion and sweet potato bake.  It wasn’t bad, and I can see me making this again….with a steak :)

So day 6 is done and i’m hitting the grocery store tonight for what we need for tomorrow.  Week 2, the detox week begins on Wed.  Emotionally I’m still in a chaotic netrual mood.  Kat is more emotional today but over all we are doing this and its exciting!

Tomorrow i’m teaching Turbo so I need to have a bit more in the calorie department but i should be fine.  Have a great night!

Today was an ultimate breakdown!

I got sooooooo mad this morning eating breakfast.  I didn’t necessarily want bacon and eggs, I just didn’t want what I was eating.  I got cranky and whiny and generally moody.

Its only been 4 days but I can say my taste have changed.  The children are not doing our diet so I had to make burgers for them this evening on the grill.  I didn’t want one.  I didn’t want what I had to eat either.  It’s a weird transition.  I’m not necessarily craving “unhealthy” foods and fatty foods but i’m not wanting the healthy foods either.

Today I was really no fun to be around.  Saturday’s have traditionally been my eat what i want fun days and shit got real today.  I had to eat Lentil bean salad again…this shit taste like dirt to me!

But you know what, I managed to calm down and stick with the plan and I feel better for it.  In 3 days i’m down 5lbs.  Not a huge number but it’s a start.

Breakfast:

Seriously, this breakfast would have pissed you off as well.  

Lunch:

Lunch ended up being a lot of food.  Food I didn’t really want but food.  The Nori sushi tempeh roll was pretty good but I think i’m over broccoli in my salad for a bit.

Dinner:

Dinner wasn’t bad and I like Quinoa so this was a bonus.  I’m not a fan of sesame seeds.

I did figure out something today, when you make food, the respect and energy you put into it (I know i’m sounding all hippy right now) directly influences how it taste.  I made lunch myself after my breakdown and the Nori roll was great!  I put time and care into trying to make it.

Breakfast i was not happy and kind of threw it together and that’s how it tasted, like a bunch of fruit and yogurt on a plate with dry toast.

Again this is all part of the journey, respect your food and it will taste better…most of the time.  I have no respect for Lentils…that shit is nasty…and i’m guessing i have 2 more weeks of them to eat…oh well.

Reset day 4 D-U-N  Done  lol

#asylum #tbb411

Welcome back to the Asylum!  I haven’t done my scheduled workout since last Wed night because I few out to Vegas for the BeachBody Coaches summit!  This was an amazing experience.

That is Turbo-kick queen Chalene on stage in the parking lot of the Tropicana leading a 4500+ turbo kick session!!!

So I wasn’t skipping my workouts, I was working out with Shaun T, Tony Horton, Chalene, the Lesmills Combat team (New Zealand accents are just as sexy as brittish).  It was probably one of the best 4 days I’ve spend in fitness clothes ever.

Shaun- T leading the Asylum/Insanity…ASYLUM 2 workout.  That’s right Asylum 2 is coming soon!

And of course, the King of all things fitness closed it down

This was my 2nd workout with him in 2 days.  Talk about tired and sore and the heat!!!  But it was all worth it.  i got to preview Turbo-kick round 51…which was in the mail waiting for me when i got home!  I got to meet my turbo kick sweethart Alee.

Got to taste Vegan Chocolate Shakology!!!  Excellent taste and purely vegan, like tropical shakeology.  I got to connect with other coaches and talk about our fitness journey and how we are helping others and making a little money in the process.  Beachbody is an amazing company and I can’t wait to do this again next year.

Nothing is more inspiring than working out with a room full of people who have all gone through or are working through the same programs, weight problems and successes and sweating and smiling and being instantly connected and know the person next to you will have a word of support if you are getting weak.

My first Tony workout on Thursday (I got in early because i’m P90X certified… number 244..i’m not bragging…i’m really not as I met number 64 and number 6) but all the P90X certified people got to go in first and if there was room left everyone else could come in….there was room left, it’s the freaking MGM!

Anway…

I worked out next to a guy and his wife who had lost 240lbs, the guy was still huge but his wife looked amazing.  Monica!  The super woman warrior godess from here, was also there.  I worked out about 20 feet from her!

This entire experience has pushed me even closer to my goal of opening my own fitness studio.  I want people to see the benefits of consistent workout and using Shakeology and other products from beach body that WORK. 

If you’ve ever been interested in trying P90X, Turbo-fire, or Brazilian Butt lift and Shakeology, message me.  I have a special going right now were you can try it for FREE!!!  (15.00 shipping) but you can try to workout and Shakeology for 30 days free.  See the results, feel the healthy and if you don’t like it, send it back, not harm no foul.  Beachbody has really changed my life and I’d love to share that with you!

Asylum this morning was speed and agility - how that for changing gears :).  I’m a little stiff but I’m able to move and after seeing this live, there is no way i’m not doing it.  I’m also teaching turbo tonight!  I’m excited to get back to this and I may start teaching at a few other places soon.  I have fallen off my running schedule but I think I’ll survive with everything else I’ve been doing.

Keep pushing play and never give up on your health!  If you need help, message me and I will help you.  I’ll get you plugged into my support group and I will keep you motivated to drop 10-15-100 or even 3 lbs.  Everyone has a struggle and a way they want to look.  Don’t let lack of support keep you from your!

www.beachbodycoach.com/brucea