Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Things I'll Never Do......


If you haven't gotten a chance to read Part 1-Things I Stopped Doing and Part 2- Things I started Doing, give them a quick read before you move on to Part 3 of my world famous series.  Just Kidding about that.....

There are a few things that are nutrition/fitness related that I am 99.9% sure I'll never do or try.  I can't say I'm 100% committed to my statement because if someone offered me a large enough sum of money, I'm sure I might conform to 1 or 2 of these "things".  Not that I'd "sell out" and give up my integrity of a fitness professional but as a friendly wager or bet I would probably give in and collect the cash....

Anyway, here is a lit of Things that I'll Never Do........

(1) Go Vegan.  I watched Food Inc. last week and that might persuade some people to turn to a life of fruit, veggies, and legumes but I just couldn't do it.  I love steak way to much to give it up for a "soy" form of wannabe meat.  I also love chicken, buffalo, fish, eggs, and pretty much anything that would be off limits if I turned into a Vegan.

I have made some changes to my food choices, such as buying mostly organic, eating grassfed beef, and eating more vegetables during the day.  But if I had to say NO to a nice grilled Fillet Mignon I think I'd have to kick my own ass.

(2) Run a Marathon.  For the people who have read this blog before or know me personally, it's pretty much well known that I'm not a big fan of distance running.  I know there are people out there who love "going for a run" and competing in 5k's, 10k's, and Marathons, that's a personal choice and if they like it- good for them.  I just don't see the fun in jogging for 3, 4, or 5 hours to finish a race.

I am a pretty competitive person when it comes to sports and other events, and I have done the 5k/10k thing a few times.  In my opinion, I am in much better physical condition at this point in my life than I was back then even though I'm 10 years older.  My knees and lower back feel great now, compared to the days when I had kinks, tightness, and throbbing pain after I used "crank out the miles".  If I ended up doing a marathon I would be scared to see how much strength I'd lose or how "jacked up" my body would be when I crossed the finish line, if I crossed the finish line........

(3) Sell a Product or a Service I Don't Believe In.   When I was working at a commercial gym, we had to sell supplements, training, and something called a "bodybugg".  As far a selling supplements, I touched on that in Part 1 of this EPIC series.

Selling training wasn't difficult if I was going to be the person who trained the client.  However, because I am a teacher full-time I was put in the position to sell personal training packages to people that I would "hand off" to another trainer.  I wasn't okay with that.

There are a few trainers I would feel comfortable working with people that purchased training from me, but most likely the trainers that were "new" or those with lots of availability would take on the client that I spent a good amount of time "building up" the personal training program.  The commission would have been great, it just wasn't why I got into the profession.  So, I made the decision not to sell training to clients that I couldn't train myself.

On to the bodybugg...... Where do I begin?  Our personal training department had contest with other gyms to see who could sell the most units.  We had cash prizes for personal trainers that were leading the company in product sales.

So what is the bodybugg?  It's basically an arm band that measures caloric expenditure throughout the day.  Does it work? Hmmmm. Maybe?  However, if you know you burn 500 calories through exercise and your body burns 1600 a day you are doing great right?  Not if you eat 4,000 calories a day of chips, soda, and hot dogs.

I felt it was more important to try to get my clients eating right and moving more then relying on an arm-band to let them know what calories were burned or not burned through daily activity.  My approach was to save the 300 bucks, and spend it on personal training.  From there, we can work on making better food choices and personally be accountable for our daily activity and caloric consumption.

Of course if I was asked to endorse the Shake Weight, I would do it in a heartbeat!

(4) Watch the Bravo Network (by choice).  This is the most godawful television channel ever created.  My wife would have it on 24/7 if she could.  Every time I hear these housewives arguing I want to stick a dull knife in my ears to stop the pain that these women inflict.  Actually, the E! channel isn't far behind, and Sex and the City might even be worse!   Uggg, I better stop thinking about this communist television programming  before I vomit all over my laptop....

So if end up doing any of the things listed above, I've officially given up my MAN CARD, or I've collected a large amount of money and I'll be sailing around the world in my new yacht- neither is very likely.. .......

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good choices, bro. You'll also never see me in a man thong. lol

Damon Brobst CSCS said...

I'm with ya! Actually, that is a good "betting" situation. Set up a physical challenge - loser wears a man thong....