Me before summer holidays of food and no exercise hit.

Well here I am back to blogging over a year and a half later. With things about to ramp up with the company (Gunnar Optiks Nordics) for a media launch, I figure I get back in the habit of writing without spell check, well not really, but definitely back in the habit of writing non-emails again.

Recently, I have made an effort to get myself back in shape after the summer holidays. Everyone usually looks for the quick fix, the hit the gym, or I will go on a diet, usually with the same old results. After spending a lot of time reading and researching, as well as a whole life of athletics, I am a firm believer to get results you need to have the right diet, with a good mixture of exercise (not just weights, or running, but all kinds of things).

I have dramatically changed my diet to avoid high insulin burning foods like grains (rice, it is hard!! I am asian) and pastas, and sticking to Primal Blueprint diet of meats, vegetables, fruits, and nuts. The concept is more or less the idea we should eat the way we did before farming began and adopt a lifestyle more attuned to that of Grok the caveman, which by the way today is genetically superior to us (all that MW2 video game playing is not helping). My friend Mikael is the one that got me going with the diet by lending me the book, but from what I understand it is very similar to what is called a paleo diet. Now here is my thing with diets or certain meal things, they are so strict. I do my best to stick to “healthy food” but I am not going to say no to the occasional cheeseburger from Fridays, or dinner out with friends at a Thai place, I think it is important to try your best but don’t beat yourself up about sticking to something. Also, by diet I am referring to what you eat not the idea of losing weight by changing what you are eating. For me this diet so far I feel a lot more energy and I eat when I am hungry, and not to the point anymore where I am laying around after 1lb of lasagna ready for a nap.

The sign I was out of shape was doing a fitness beep test for rugby where I did abysmally (think I barely beat some forwards aka the fat guys). So what are the options for getting in shape?

Well Option 1: The Global Gym, which for me I had done before, and well you quickly lose motivation, get tired of the same routine and lets put it honestly a little anti-social, everyone goes to do their own thing or to try to pickup, but in the end you look the same a year later. Option 2: Personal training, which is great for developing competencies on how to do exercises and makes you show up for sessions with a coach, but is really expensive. Option 3: Home gym, great because you can workout to your schedule and when, the problem is you may not always have all the equipment, or the motivation as it is very lonely to want to sit there doing situps for 30mins by yourself. Option 4: Sports/Activities, are a lot of fun and great for fitness, with rugby I have practices usually 2 times a week, and a game every weekend. I think activities/sports should be done in conjunction with a fitness program, as you do not always get to build on fitness as the majority of time it is focused more on skill development. Plus if you get stronger, faster, makes you even better at the activities you like doing for fun.

A new option a lot of people have not heard of before is Crossfit. Well what is Crossfit, other than these workouts that keep popping on my Facebook newsfeed as I have sync my beyondthewhiteboard Crossfit fitness tracker? Well it is growing in popularity in the US and thank you to my friend Melissa who is a trainer back in Canada for getting me introduced and started. Here is two videos to give you an idea:

I have started doing 3x week sessions at Oslo Crossfit and WOW!! I am loving it. Before I tried doing Crossfit workouts at Elixa where I had a membership, but equipment would always be busy, or they would not have the right stuff, or I didn’t know how to do certain movements properly. Now I have some great instructors helping to teach me essential movements like power cleans, muscle ups, etc. Also, I think one of the things I like the most is the social aspect, you are with a group of 20-30 people all pushing themselves and pushing each other to finish the workouts. You don’t get people cheering you on to finish at the regular gyms that is for sure. Lastly, it is one hell of a workout, although sometimes the Workout of the Day (WOD) is only 10-20mins long, you leave everything out there. I am literally on the floor after a session and exhausted, but so is EVERYONE else. Let me know if you want to come try a session (first one is free) and to learn more about it check out www.crossfit.com

All I know is I am having a lot of fun, feel healither, and for some odd reason catch myself spending too much time in front of the mirror between the shower and actually getting dressed 🙂

– Brian