10 Minute Workout

Boom. Picked up Mario Lopez's Knockout Fitness for a flight back to Boston. It's a Men's Health publication and Lopez co-authored it with a very experienced trainer, Joe Dowdell. Some great ideas and plans in that book. Here's a ten minute workout I just did.



From back in the day:

Last Week of January 2015

The end of the first month of 2015 is approaching. Six days left. What can you accomplish? How did you stack up against your goals? The majority of people forget their New Year's Resolutions by March. How do you keep going?? Here's the answer...You set a larger goal- and if you do fall off, and you have that McDonald's or those beers, or even a bottle of wine, you get back on....



Tomorrow is Monday. What will you do this week to position yourself in February where you want to be? What if January was just a reintegration month? Like that scene in the Abyss when Ed Harris learns to breathe water, there's a re-acclimation process.


So this is what I want for myself this week:

1- Stricter Paleo. Let's tighten up that belt towards an end of February goal of fitting back into the suit I bought last June.

2- Three workouts with weights...Schedule them! Keep a journal!

3- One day sprints and one day of an activity I enjoy (surfing or boxing)....




But what is the larger goal?

The larger goal is to get into the best shape of my life by my birthday in June. I'll have to think of a way to quantify that...But I'm thinking of performance-oriented goals like 50 pushups, 10 pullups, 6:30 min mile.

Set achievable goals. Keep a progress journal. Find compatriots. Succeed. Set new goals. Be fit for life.

ATTITUDE => ALTITUDE

The Best Shape of Your Life in 2015 and Kelly Slater

Still taking on the 21 Day Mark Sisson Challenge. Their app was a no-go for me. Didn't work out- so I've been pretty much on my own. Been doing well overall. But my question is-
WHAT IF THIS WAS THE YEAR THAT YOU GOT INTO THE BEST SHAPE OF YOUR LIFE? WHAT CHANGES WOULD YOU HAVE TO MAKE?



Kelly Slater is in awesome shape. He's 42 and he's still killing it. When I saw him surf in August in Malibu, it was crazy how good he was, just cutting up and down, owning waves, putting everyone to shame in the water. He did a 720 degree aerial in Portugal last year. He competes against guys half his age. So what's HIS secret? The new Outside magazine addresses Kelly's continuing relevance in surfing and great health. Also, there's the book, For the Love, by Kelly with Phil Jarratt.



According to the article and the book, he has a few healthy habits-

1- He swears off milk and makes his own almond milk.

2- He eats healthy fats. He mentions if he could (and sometimes he does), he'd eat Guacemole and chips all day.

3- He's experimented with CrossFit and some other stuff (yoga) ,but overall, most workouts are water workouts.

4- He's down with hot baths and massages, and spends a fair amount of time relaxing, listening to music, playing music, and trying to maintain balance in his life.

5- He's eating a largely protein based diet, though the article mentions some stuff like chia seeds and goji berries in granola for breakfast.

From the article:
"The one thing that stands out in his otherwise low-key program is his yogi-style diet. Most days his breakfast is a homemade pudding made of chia seeds, raw nuts, goji berries, and yogurt. At home he makes his own almond milk in a blender, straining it through cheesecloth. He frequently drinks a concentrated dose of omega-3 fatty acids from marine algae. Over the past couple of years, he’s cut out almost all caffeine. When he’s traveling for surf contests, his “very big suitcase” is packed “half with clothes and half with food.”



Pretty amazing guy...and a good role model.

21 Day Primal Challenge

It's a new year and you want to shape up, you say. Let's say you've put on some weight over the holidays. Not uncommon. Hit the gym harder? Eat less? Exercise more? That would be the standard advice. For years I did the same thing. I got stronger in the gym, but typically my weight was the same...until 2011, when my friend, Joe Bagg, introduced me to the Paleo Diet. He had done a nutritional certification with Robb Wolf, author of the Paleo Solution, through Crossfit. I had tried vegetarianism for mostly ethical reasons but it hadn't worked for me. I felt better about not eating animals, but had digestion issues with the emphasis on beans and tofu products. A few months later, I did Robb Wolf's 30 day challenge and it worked out well. By February of 2012, I was lean and my body had adjusted to burning fat over glucose. Joe was an important part of helping me stick to it and giving me some pointers (ex. Make sure you're eating enough fats- like avocados and olive oil). You can check out Joe's story here. I made this short documentary, Paleo Jazz, about him in 2013 (shot on 16mm b/w).



This January I'm starting Mark Sisson's 21 Day Primal Challenge. Sisson is the author of the Primal Blueprint and has started this challenge as a way to inspire others and connect those isolated Paleo folks with others around the world like them. The guidelines are simple. I've taken the basics Sisson's site, www.marksdailyapple.com:







If you're interested in joining me, drop a comment or email me at gabe.rosenn@gmail.com. I firmly believe that the Paleo or Primal diet is the key to health and longevity. I've also begun the Spartacus 3 workout...Spartacus 1 was a great fat-burning circuit, based on the workout that actors from the show used. Reprinted here from Men's Health:



Hope to hear from some of you.

Good luck out there! Happy 2015!
GPR