Let them eat cake!

As I write this, I have my foot soaking in an Epsom salt bath due to a pretty immense bruise encompassing a few toes.  I actually just finished a piece of my son's birthday cake and it was wonderful.

I don't feel bad about eating the cake for a couple of reasons, and they are:
1. It was still in my calorie budget. 2. It was there in the house.
3. It tastes freaking amazing.

I honestly tend to do pretty well when I have one of these sweet treats in the after hours. What I do is I eat whatever it is, so in today's case..cake, and sometimes Oreo's. Then I go ahead and brush my teeth.  This allows for me a better chance to avoid any further temptation.

Sometimes I don't feel bad about it on an intense workout day. Sadly today was mostly just running drills, which ended up with me injured. Days like this it's best to eat less but better quality. I still ended up eating the cake.

My suggestion to you is that don't fight the temptation if it's something regular. Figure out what works best for you to not drown in this temptation. For me it's my teeth brushing and in today's case, an all important soak in an Epsom salt bath.

Charlie Foxtrot

Now that school is back in action, and for this I am referring to my children are beginning their pre-school and I'm back teaching (plus taking a class for my MBA), life is a little bit of a clusterf--k.  The days are long and the nights are too.

What's about to become the rundown of my wife and I's life is going to be simple (on the surface) and complicated otherwise.  I'm usually in at work around 7, with some of the days shuttling back and forth between training & teaching.  She's usually in about 8 and most days done at 5, unless they call a meeting.  I'm done at around 5 or 530 each day.

Sometimes she has the luxury of walking while on her lunch break.  Usually I take advantage of a workout if someone cancels.  When we get home it's straight to cooking dinner, getting the kids a bath, and getting them off to sleep.  Then we usually clean up the house and look forward to all of it the next day.

This time of year also begins fall sports.  This past weekend I had the girls at gymnastics, after a fitness class I taught where we live.  This week begins soccer (which I won't lie, I love due to all of the running).  So we'll have that to look forward to in addition to everything else that goes on in life.

Right now, it's 10pm on Sunday and I'm writing this in preparation for beginning my own class in the morning.  It's online, which grants me some degree of freedom to do the assignments on my own time, but nevertheless it's still brutal.

Our workouts become opportunity.  Now I remember how the dad-bod gets built in the first place, it's not due to the lack of desire, but the lack of opportunity.  There's also the chicken nugget and mac & cheese diet, but more on that later.  

Facebook Group

https://www.facebook.com/groups/martinhubnerfitness/

The link above is my new Facebook group.  This group is to help motivate you, to hold you accountable, and to educate you on all things fitness and nutrition.

I'm hoping to grow my following this way and for now the group will be public until the end of September.  If you would like to join, go ahead to the link and join.  If you think someone else would like to join, please invite them.

After I make it a "closed" group in October, I'll be running it as a membership site.  SO, if you grandfather in, you'll be good to go.  After that, it'll involve a monthly recurring fee.

Join now and invite those who'd be interested!  Thanks!

Facebook & Instagram

Nearly every post that I put out via this blog is posted to Facebook, Twitter, & Google + (The latter is mainly because it exists, not because I'm tremendously familiar with it's use).

In the upcoming few weeks, I'll be starting a Facebook group dedicated to people who I train or who follow me for training.  For most of the year, I've posted all of my blog posts via my personal Facebook page (which I still plan to do) and through my FFL page, Southern Guardians LLC.  I'll be dissolving my Southern Guardians Facebook page in the coming weeks as it's no longer worth my efforts.

I'll be posting via my own Facebook Group which will allow for me to better interact with all of you who need to work on your own health, physique, stress, and whatnot.  I'll be keeping it an "open" group for about a month, while I generate some buzz behind it.  Afterwards, I'll be closing the group to those who are already members or will be getting some training from me.

I'll be using Instagram pretty heavily as well.  So far, I'm using it as a platform to promote my training as well as show some of what my own personal workouts are.  Because it's much more visual than a blog or something similar, you can see a lot more.

These roll-outs will be in the upcoming weeks.  I've already began the Instagram this week, as it just really came to me that it's a pretty good platform (and I am getting better at using it).

Instagram: martin_iii_mc

Back To School Challenge

Contact martinlhiii83@gmail.com to get in on the 30 Day Back to School Fitness Challenge

Back to school again....

It's that time of year, and many in other states have already done so, but it's back to school.  Where we live, the public school system begins this upcoming Monday, and the University on Tuesday.  This is that time where the students are "hungover" from their summers, the teachers/instructors/professors are anxious to get back into the swing of things and earn that paycheck.

It's the time of year to where schedules that were once open are now closed and full of activities, meetings, etc. for all of the parties involved.  It's also when nutrition and fitness become an afterthought.
Do not forget, that if you're a parent of a student or a teacher of one that your fitness and nutrition is important.  Just because you put it out there for another doesn't mean that it's the right decision.  Make sure that you take care of yourself so that you may take care of others.

If you don't have time to hit the gym, there are other options available.  Go for a walk, get together with other teachers, parents, or whomever and do a home workout.  Plan your meals and prepare them in advance if possible.  Whatever the best scenario, go ahead and work through it.

Think of this time of year being for a new you, and not the New Year.  This is the moment to seize the change, not the New Year.  Go ahead and make it so.  

Parenting "Bods"

If you've followed my blogs, my Instagram, or in conversation (some of you), you may have noticed the whole #destroythedadbod or the #fightthefluffy tags that I use sometimes.  And many of you that know me personally know that I have three kids.  This leads me to my next point, the parent "bods."

As a dad, and one who's battled with weight my whole life, I have at times a "dad bod." About 3 months ago, I had a radical change of direction on my training and diet and I'd consider myself to have a "dad-bod light" at this point.  I've been running, lifting, sparring, and actually monitoring what I eat. All of these things have allowed for me to drop, as of last week, 15lbs.  When in the midst of my heaviness, I didn't realize I was as heavy as I was and on top of that I got into the rut of thinking "I'm working out pretty hard, I need the calories."  How wrong was I?

Regarding the "mom bod," this is much harder to fight than the "dad bod."  Generally due to you know, having kids, the mother's body is under far more stress than a father's.  This stress can come from the generally interesting "pregnancy cravings," to the longer lasting effects of the variations in hormone productions due to pregnancy and possible lactation.  With all of this, the diet must be even more fine tuned for a woman than a man, and on top of that the exercise is equally important.

The final thing to consider, for both, is the stress of having a new child or in my & my wife's case, multiple children.  Things that you want to go ahead and try to do, like exercise and eat well, sometimes fall to the wayside so that the kids are properly cared for, or satisfied (chicken nuggets and mac & cheese isn't exactly healthy, but it keeps them fed at times.).  Allowing the time to exercise sometimes get's replaced by doing things around the house, or falling asleep.  There are many more challenges to keeping a reasonable physique with kids in the house than when there are none.

In the next week, I'll have a couple of posts to go into how to better prepare your time with the kids in the house and with a chaotic lifestyle.  

30 Day Fitness Challenge

Are you stuck in a rut?  

Would having a new workout plan, even if it's something simple to do from home help you out? 

Are you tight on time? 

Do you just want a new challenge? 

If you've answered yes to any of these, then I have the solution for you.  I have developed a 30 day fitness challenge that uses nothing but your own body-weight and household goods.  This way, if you don't have time for the gym, not to worry, your house will be the gym!

$10 get's you a month-long fitness program that will help to turn your body into a machine.  Your days of not knowing what to do are behind you as you'll have a different exercise each and every day, plus an additional challenge built in.  

Contact me today, martinlhiii83@gmail.com, for more information or to go ahead and give it a shot.  If you're local, I do accept cash, otherwise a PayPal link will be provided to you.  

I look forward to hearing from you!

Roll out

Next week I'll be rolling out a few things for you to go ahead and try out.  If you follow me via twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or YouTube you'll be able to catch the video I'll post regarding the few things.

I'm starting to have some realizations of how my industry works.  And the ideas that I'm having will help for me to grow within the industry and for you to reap the benefits of this growth.

All I ask from you all, my readers, is to "Like," "Share," "Retweet," and any other possible sharing feature that the platform you're on can do.

Thank you all for reading, and I'll be updating with more content next week!

Update on the Dad-Bod Adventure

My training, and very often diet, goes in cycles.  Usually the winter months, especially where I live in the mountains, is spent lifting heavy weight and generally eating a less than stellar diet. In the past, the summer was usually getting up early and going for a run or a loaded walk, basically one with a 50+lbs backpack on.

In May, I was convinced to begin running and have actually enjoyed myself while doing it.  When I began the running, I was a stout 232 lbs, this coming off of a winter and spring of lifting and honestly eating whatever I wanted to.  I could barely run about 200 yards without gasping for breath.  I could do a lot of other things relatively well, but was basically sucking wind the whole time.

As of today, August, I'm down to about 218 (I'll have an updated weigh in later today).  I can run upwards around 6 miles without stopping, at a 9-10 min mile pace.  I can still do many of the things, such as deadlift above 400lbs and squat above 350, that I was able to do at the heavier weight.  I feel better overall, both internally (you know, health), and externally (appearance).

Most of what I have been able to do is because of better monitoring my eating, improving my cardiovascular fitness, and through positive encouragement from friends and family.  I promise you, even as a fitness coach, it's not an easy endeavor.  I work long days helping others and often my own fitness and nutrition becomes neglected in doing so.

My goal is to reach 210, at that point I'll be doing another dietary modification so that I can trim down the fat mass.  I honestly like to remain at that weight if I'm able to.  It's the perfect storm of being large enough to do the weights, small enough to run, and fast enough to fight.

Don't ever think you cannot do anything, all you need is the support, encouragement, and sometimes the coaching.  

Cleverness

a clever fighter is one who not only wins, but excels in winning with ease. 

Sun Tzu- The Art of War

A clever fighter is a talented fighter, one who was born for the fight.  This fight may be anything, in the context of the text it was the warrior against an enemy, but in modern times it may still be this but it can also be applied to what you do for training.  

Each of us bears our own strengths and weaknesses.  In our strengths we may be thought of as "clever" and in our weaknesses, much less so.  The winning in our strength comes from being able to do it with ease.  

Strategically and tactically, what we do must become natural to us.  If you want to become stronger, you must have the technique to the point to where you no longer think about it.  If you want to become faster, your stride must become greater and your breathing more rhythmical so that you may become faster. 

Cleverness is the ability to be smarter than what you are fighting against.  Most of us, in training, are against inanimate objects and therefore our plan may dictate the terms of our cleverness.  Do not let things get in your way.  Become clever, and greater than your foe, and you'll keep winning. 

Carbs: Best friend & Worst enemy

Carbohydrates, or carbs, are the nutrition world's best friend and worst enemy.  For weight management, they are one of the major role players, with the other primarily being fats.  However, with low carb diets in abundance out there, it's probably worth noting what the value of the carbohydrate is.

Carbohydrates are basically sugar.  Not sugar in the sense of what you'd add to tea or something, even though that is accurate, but any thing with the molecular structure similar to what you see in this image.  Basically, they're broken down into single molecule sugars (monosaccharides), double sugars (disaccharides), and longer sugar chains (polysaccharides).  Depending on the molecule, will determine which of these that they are.

Most sugars that are introduced to the body in any form eventually are broken down into glucose, which is a monosaccharide.  Depending on the size of the molecule, the time to break it down is an important factor in weight management.  So starchy foods, such as breads, oatmeal, potatoes, etc., take longer to digest than things like candy, cookies, etc., because of
the molecular structure.

Eventually, the sugars make it into your blood stream where they can then be routed into the muscle and other cells for energy production.  They are a faster used form of energy over fats, and can be replenished quickly.  So, for intense exercise, carbs are good.  If you are not accustomed to exercise or at the least, intense exercise, then carbs may be used in slight, but then be stored in your fat cells for use later.  So, this is why carbs sometimes make you fat.

When you're carb depleted, say on a low carb diet, your body will use it's internal carb stores (glycogen, a cellular storage form of carbohydrate) first.  Afterwards, and the longer duration of the diet, your body is forced to use fat stores as energy because you've depleted it's carb stores.  Therefore, when you are on a low-no carb diet, you lose weight, but in the form of fat.  Usually these kinds of diets are best suited for those who engage in minimal exercise, figure athletes, and those who have an abundance of body fat on a non-training day.

I wanted to share the basic run down of carbohydrates with you because of it's villanous nature.  Next week, I'll be discussing fats and how they're important for your overall health and well-being.