Showing posts with label tom venuto. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tom venuto. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Abandoning my New Mission

Dear Friends,

I have decided to abandon my mission of having a clearly defined six-pack by March 1, 2009. While this action on my part may indicate failure, and if you'd to think of it as such, that's fine. However, I would like to clarify a few miss-conceptions and hope that you, my dear reader may place this in a separate context. First of all, my decision to abandon the mission isn't based on the difficulty and the commitment required to accomplish my goal. Ask any fitness professional who know what they're talking about and they will tell you that in order to have a clearly defined abdominal muscles one needs to lose body fat. In order to lose body fat, that someone must create a calorie deficit. Now, what is a calorie deficit? Simply put, it is the act of consuming less calories than your body burns. As some of you know, I have dubbed myself to be an endurance athlete and my race calendar for 2009 is quite full of races and events. Starting with Carlsbad Marathon on January 25, 2009 and finishing with an Ultramarathon in December of 2009. Throw in a couple of Ironmans, and a half Ironmen between, and you literally have a full time job called "training". Add to this, my other full time job which actually brings in money to pay for the expenses caused by the "other" job. The nutritional requirements for someone on a fat loss plan doesn't necessarily coincide with someone training for a marathon or an Ironman. For example, many fat loss experts advocate whole grain and whole wheat as preferable carbohydrate sources and discourage of simple carbohydrates while on a fat loss plan. However, while the aforementioned sources are an important part of anyone's diet, starchy foods such as white bread and potatoes are also preferred carb sources for endurance athletes.

In the past few weeks, I have found myself transitioning back to fat loss nutrition and quite honestly, my endurance performance has suffered because of it. I have increasingly found myself with less energy throughout the day and I dehydrate faster during my training. Therefore, I feel like I would be doing a disfavor to my athletic endeavors and ultimately my body by continuing to be on a strict fat loss plan.

I will continue updating my blog and will make extra time to increase the frequency. In the meantime, if you reside in Southern California, please visit and sign up for my running group:
http://www.meetup.com/The-Santa-Monica-Running-Group/

You can also be my facebook friend


In an unrelated note, Tom Venuto, my all time fitness and fat loss mentor has just published a new book titled "The Body Fat Solution". It is NOT your ordinary diet book... Get more information by visiting:
http://www.thebodyfatsolution.com/

It is also available in audio version from http://audible.com

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Bodybuilding Secrets Podcast by Tom Venuto

Last night, as I was going to bed when I received a facebook email from my all time fitness mentor, Tom Venuto. Tom had just released his first podcast for one of his websites, bodybuilding secrets So, I clicked on the link with the intentions of listening to Tom's podcast for only a few minutes as I had to wake up early to train. Well, that few minutes stretched to one hour followed by hour #2. In this podcast, Tom was interviewing Peter C. Siegel, R.H., the world’s #1 sports and peak performance hypnotherapist. It was so good that I actually ended up listening to the whole interview, twice AND I have it in my Zune so that I can listen to it throughout the week(end)!!!!!!

Visit Tom's Body building website to hear the podcast...

Friday, July 18, 2008

What The New “Low Carb” Study REALLY Says

What The New “Low Carb” Study REALLY Says
by Tom Venuto

A news media feeding frenzy erupted earlier this week when a new diet study broke in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) on Thursday, July 17th. Almost all the reporters got it wrong, wrong WRONG! So did most of the gloating low carb forumites and bloggers. Come to think of, almost everyone interpreted this study wrong. Some valuable insights came out of this study, but almost everyone missed them because they were too busy believing what the news said or defending their own cherished belief systems …

Go to http://burnthefatblog.com to continue reading the rest of Tom Venuto's article.

Thursday, May 8, 2008

2008 Wildflower Long Course Race Report

Wildflower 2008 was definitely a very interesting event. A golden gem of triathlons, as some put it, draws competitors from all over the world. All the big names were there, including Chris McCormack, who by the way, ended up winning the event, and coincidentally, was racked only a few bikes away from me. Here I am, a beginner Ironman athlete, transitioning by a distance of only a few feet from a world champ. You don't get to see this in any other sport. The Wildflower Long Course featured a distance of 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike ride, and a 13 mile run.

Swim
The swim portion was fairly straight forward. No waves, no "sharks", and a semi-clean water. Swimming, being my weakest sport, went well. While there were a lot of people for my wave start, I didn't feel cluttered, maybe because I became aggressive at first and claimed my territory right away. It wasn't that bad.

Bike
Onto the bike... This was a different story. Obviously, Wildflower has one of the toughest bike courses in any half-ironman distance triathlon, but this just wasn't my day. The bike leg was horrible. No matter how hard I pedaled, I wasn't going and people who were not supposed to pass me, were zooming by me like it was nothing. Very disappointed, nevertheless, a learning experience.

Run
Onto the run.... Tough run course, no doubt... but I felt very strong during the run. As soon as getting off that disappointing bike ride, I started jogging out of the transition area. Upon passing the sensors, my legs didn't feel like they just came from a 56 mile bike ride. As a matter of fact, they felt fresh... I absolutely enjoyed the run. With putting out only about 60-70% effort, I was able to run the hilly 13 miles in about 1:53. I could've kicked it up a notch or two, but realizing that I wasn't going to meet my initial goal of finishing the event in 5:30, I decided to enjoy and savor the moment.

General Thoughts
It seems like all the training up to this point had paid off. I felt very strong during the event (even though I bombed the bike portion). I was only mildly tired afterwards and felt like I could've probably stretched the event an extra few hours.

Wildflower 2008 Long Course had many military members participating, in which many of the athletes were veterans injured in Iraq and Afghanistan. It was very touching to see them right before the swim and throughout the event with missing limbs, blind, and with many other disabilities. But again, I realized that these people are the reason that I am able to stand in front of Lake San Antonio, with my wetsuit on, alongside thousands of other athletes, living in peace and not being in an imminent danger of being shot at. To take this one step further, these brave Heros are about to embark on the most difficult half-ironman distance triathlon and not let their handicap stand in the way. One of my favorite quotes from one of my favorite people, "Stop Whining" Arnold Schwarzenegger, is as prominent as ever.

I would like to thank everyone who supported me and continue to do so in all my athletic endeavors. A special thanks goes out to my wonderful coaches (Paul, Rad, & Brad), my special lady Cynthia, mom, dad, brother, grandparents, teammates, mentors, everyone who donated to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, and of course Tom Venuto and Fitness Renaissance, LLC.

Some Pictures:

Glad to have it Over


Struggling up a Hill


Me, my buds Carlos (aka running machine), Jake (aka all around cool guy)


No, I don't normally smile when I run.
I knew they were going to snap a photo.


FINISH

Monday, April 21, 2008

Interview and Desert Triathlon

I had the pleasure of getting interviewed by Kyle Battis, the manager of burnthefatinnercircle.com regarding my fat loss journey and transformation. I encourage anyone to please sign up and listen to the interview. I share a lot of my strategies and helpful tips and hints. Tom Venuto's Burn the fat inner circle is an excellent resource and community for anyone interested in health, fitness, losing weight, getting lean, etc. I cannot say enough good things about it and the amount of support and exclusive content (articles, interviews, tools, calculators, discussion boards, etc) that the site has to offer is absolutely amazing and can not be found anywhere on the internet. To get more information about my interview and the site in general, please visit http://www.burnthefatinnercircle.com/ or click here.

Desert Triathlon near Palm Springs, CA took place yesterday, April 20, 2008. I raced the "international distance", which featured a 3/4 mile swim, 24 mile bike ride, and 6 mile run. A full report with pictures will be posted in the next couple of days. Stay tuned!!!!!

Also, due to a few requests, I will be posting more "before" pictures sometime this week. I used my credit card yesterday on my way to Los Angeles from the Desert Triathlon at a local store. The cashier asked to see a second form of identification because she did not believe that the picture in my drivers license was actually of me.