Jim Demetri
Challenge Essay
WHY DID I DO THIS CHALLENGE WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY?
“A failure is a man who has blundered, but is not able to cash in on the experience.” Elbert Hubbard
My father died at 42 of heart failure my grandfather died of 42 of heart failure I am 52 and had what my doctor calls the “widow maker” 99 percent blockage of my LAD artery and I felt I was not doing enough to ensure a long life with my wonderful wife and children. I did not want my wife and children to experience life without their husband and dad as my mother and grandmother did and as I did. It was painful.
I walked into Results Training back in November of 2009 and met Randy. I was working out on my own about 3 to 4 times a week doing one spin class a week and using the elliptical and treadmill along with a cable weight machine at home. I felt that the only really good work out I was getting was the spin class so I was looking to introduce weight training with an instructor twice per week in an effort to beef up my exercise routine to three good workouts per week augmented by my not so motivated workouts at home alone. What I didn’t realize at the time was that I was in for so much more.
“To climb steep hills requires a slow pace at first.” Shakespeare
Randy began slowly teaching and showing me how to weight train properly, he then asking me to do cardio three times per week while talking to me each session about nutrition. I think if he had laid all of this on me at once it would have been lost on me. It took time to sink in and looking back on the challenge, he teaches me something new each week, each session.
“Don’t bunt. Aim out of the ballpark.” David Ogilvy
“It was a high counsel that I once heard given to a young person, “Always do what you are afraid to do”” Ralph Waldo Emerson
The Challenge.
Some time at the beginning of the year Randy told me the club was going to have a twelve week challenge and that I should enter. We were going to record our diet and exercise routine on a daily log. I think my response was something like “What are you Crazy?” The more I thought about it over the next few weeks I realized that this challenge could help me to establish a baseline for my physical well being that may spring board me to greater health going forward in my life. Why wouldn’t I take a challenge that could help me live longer, build muscles, avoid heart disease, and lower my cholesterol and blood pressure?
• Motivation
• Diet
• Exercise
It was a no brainer. I was in 100%.
“Goals are the fuel in the furnace of achievement.” Brian Tracy
I had to establish goals for the Challenge and looking back I wish I had prioritized my goals with a little more thought.
My Goals
1. Reduce my body fat from 23% to 10%
2. Increase muscle mass in my upper chest and traps.
3. I want six pack abdominals.
4. Increase my good cholesterol to 50 plus.
If I Had to do it again I would have made goal number four (increasing my good cholesterol to 50% plus) as goal number one because this is probably the most important goal for my overall health and is the most consistent with why I am working so hard at this challenge. Staying alive for my family.
I think goal number one was a good goal to have but the second and third goals could have been moved much lower down on the scale of importance.
Regardless of the order in which I prioritized my goals, I stuck with them and plowed forward trying my best to achieve all of them.
“Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out” Robert Collier
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit.” Aristotle
Week one began and I quickly learned that I needed to get my act together. It was much harder than I expected. I had to go shopping for food that would fit my new diet and that I could prepare on my own quickly. I went to Whole-foods and stocked up on pre cooked frozen grilled chicken, turkey meat, almonds, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, sea salt, peanut butter, eggbeaters, veggies etc.. I found restaurants where I could order healthy food. I had to plan out my cardio for the week and of course working out with Randy.
I tried not to have cheat day the first two weeks and Randy explained the many benefits of including it into my weekly routine both psychological and physical. Cheat day started week three. Week four I bumped up the cardio.
I began to think about where and what I would eat each day planning it out the night before or first thing in the morning. Diet planning quickly became a routine and of course I knew exactly when that cheat day was going to be and what I was going to indulge myself in at least six days in advance.
Workouts with Randy were increased from twice per week to three times per week.
I carefully planned out my cardio by giving myself plenty of options so that I would have no excuses for not getting it done. I could work out at Randy’s gym, I could do the elliptical or treadmill at home or I could do spin classes, body combat or elliptical and treadmill at my other gym in North Andover.
One day at a time one week after week one month after month, habits began to form from this repetition. At the beginning of the challenge things that seemed so hard like dieting, lifting weights, cardio start to become part of my everyday life. Although I love sweats I don’t crave them anymore, I love lifting weights with Randy and I enjoy a great sweat from doing cardio.
“There is no happiness except in the realization that we have accomplished something.” Henry Ford
Back in November the week before I started working out with Randy I had my blood work done and a complete physical with my doctor so that I could track my progress. I schedule a follow up visit with my doctor for week twelve of the challenge with another blood work up so that we could compare the results. I was waiting shirtless in the examining room when my doctor walked in, he looked at me, gave me a high five and asked me what the hell I had been doing and where I had been working out because I looked great. I asked him to sit down and open his chart because I was anxious to see and compare the results from my blood work. What he read off the chart almost knocked me off the table.
My HDL or good cholesterol had jumped from 42 in November to 49 in April. This should be between 40 and 50 for a male and the higher the better. My HDL had jumped 7 points.
Oh my God.
My overall cholesterol had gone down from 132 to 117
My LDL when down from 70 to 59.
My Triglycerides went down from 100 to 47.
My blood pressure was 120 over 72.
I had to ask him three times to be sure he got it correct and then asked him to write it down for me so that I could give the results to my wife. My doctor who is also a good friend hugged me and told me he was so happy for me and that I should keep the workouts going. I thanked him and then asked him to let me go so I could call my wife. I shared the news with my family and then made a beeline for Randy’s gym to let him know. I was like a little kid on Christmas that just had his wish granted. Randy wasn’t in so I ran home and posted a thank you on the web site.
Thank you Randy, Thank you Randy, Thank you Randy, Thank you Randy Thank you Randy
“The only way of finding the limits of the possible is by going beyond them into the impossible.” Arthur C. Clarke
I thought the contest was going to be over at week twelve but the group wanted to extend for three more weeks. I was feeling like I had come very close to achieving the 50 plus good cholesterol level that I had set for a goal and I probably could not get much better than that so let’s call it a completed challenge and get on with the voting. The group voted to extend three more weeks and I lost that battle.
I remember Randy telling me that often during these challenges you go places with your diet, cardio and weight training that you never imagined possible. He was right again because I kept up the pace with my cardio and weight training but improved my diet by drinking more water and increasing from five meals per day to six meals per day. Although lowering my weight was not a goal, lowering my body fat was so it would make since that I would lose weight during the challenge (and I did). I began the challenge weighing in at one hundred and ninety five pounds (195 lbs) and by week eight I was down to one hundred and seventy nine pounds (179lbs) but was stuck at the one hundred and seventy nine pound level for five weeks until I weighed in on Thursday of week fourteen at one hundred and seventy six and a half pounds (176.5lbs). That’s a drop of eighteen and a half pounds which is amazing because I increased the amount of food I was eating and my wife was asking me if I was taking steroids because I was looking so much bigger. It makes me wonder what accomplishments are next. Will I be looking back on this a year from now saying that was nothing.
“Every ceiling, when reached, becomes a floor, upon which one walks as a matter of course and perspective right.” Aldous Huxley
I have come close but have not met all of my goals I set for myself for this challenge. Over the next year my goals are to get my good cholesterol HDL over the 50 mark, get my body fat down to single digits, put on more muscle in my upper body, and strengthen my legs. I will accomplish these goals by continuing to weight train three times per week with Randy and by doing more weekly High Impact cardio Training. I will also continue to eat six healthy meals per day.
“The man who makes a success of an important venture never wails for the crowd. He strikes out for himself. It takes nerve, it takes a great lot of grit; but the man that succeeds has both. Anyone can fail. The public admires the man who has enough confidence in himself to take a chance. These chances are the main things after all. The man who tries to succeed must expect to be criticized. Nothing important was ever done but the greater number consulted previously doubted the possibility. Success is the accomplishment of that which most people think can’t be done.” C.V. White
Doesn’t that just sum it all up?
My wife always said that she will never tell me I can’t do something because she knows it will motivate me to do it even more. Don’t tell me I can’t raise my HDL over fifty (50) points, Don’t tell me I can’t get my body fat down under ten percent (10%), DON’T TELL ME I HAVE BAD GENES AND I CANT LIVE A LONG LIFE TO ENJOY WITH MY WIFE AND KIDS.
I WILL PROVE YOU ALL WRONG
THAT’S WHY I DID THIS CHALLENGE…….
Why I did this challenge By James P. Demetri
I want to thank Randy for helping me through this challenge, mentoring me, encouraging me, pushing me but most of all for becoming my friend. Thank you.
I want to congratulate all of the other challengers. What an achievement! Because of your hard work you must feel on top of the world. I tip my hat to all of you and the many more successes that are truly coming your way.
My Goals Challenge Results
1. Reduce my body fat from 23% to 10%
I reduced my body fat to 12.5%
2. Increase muscle mass in my upper chest and traps.
I feel I have accomplished this goal
3. I want six pack abdominals.
I feel I have accomplished this goal
4. Increase my good cholesterol to 50 plus.
I increased my HDL or good cholesterol to 49
Not a goal but Great Results of the Challenge
My body weight went from 195lbs to 176.5lbs
My overall cholesterol had gone down from 132 to 117
My LDL when down from 70 to 59.
My Triglycerides went down from 100 to 47.
My blood pressure was 120 over 72.
See Jim's pic/video here:
http://animoto.com/play/LFuCSB7v1EIAkaj7Ui8kVA?ref=a_fpxdreizJim's journal link
http://resultsbyrandy.com/forum/index.php?topic=152.0
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