So it is now Tuesday January 15th and officially day 2 of my "Getting Back to Awesome" project. I was going to blog last night, but in all honesty i passed out about 15 minutes after getting back from my final workout. Ill go over my first day reactions in my next blog, but there is a topic I wanted to touch upon first.
Mind games. It is often said that we are our own worst enemies and I truly believe this 100 percent. Leading up to the official start date of Monday January 14th felt like a mental wrestling match with a 600 lb sumo wrestler. At some points I questioned whether I could go on with this project. I had to keep telling myself that I made a personal commitment and I was hell bent on following through with it. Sunday night i had finally committed myself to starting Monday, but it wasn't an easy road.
It all started Tuesday the "picture" day. Around 8 pm I had shown up to my close friend's house to take the "current state" pictures. Let me tell you, it was freezing. It didn't help that his studio was in his garage which was also freezing (nice one rob!). Normally I would have no problems taking pictures, but this was different. I was a mental wreck. I must have paced around for 20 minutes before finally committing to the shoot. It was a mix of embarrassment, ego, and a morphed self image that made things so hard to do. It is easy to take picture when you look good, but here you are taking a picture with your shirt off to be shown to everyone when I was barely comfortable taking my shirt off currently in front of myself! In a big way, I felt this was a critical step for me. It was acceptance of where my inactivity and poor diet had lead. It also symbolized my commitment to change. One of the things I learend over the years is that often times it is easy to ignore the problem. The saying, "Out of sight, out of mind" perfectly illustrates this point. It seems silly that you could literally ignore a problem like this. You could think how can you ignore being 336 pounds (my actual weigh in weight the day of the shoot), but you would be amazed at how easy it is to do. People do it all the time and they live in denial. It is not healthy and at some point you have to look at your self straight in the mirror and accept where you truly are before you can move on to make changes. Taking those pictures helped me accept my current position as well as helped me set my goals for the next twelve weeks.
With the photoshoot over I felt like my first hurdle had been cleared. The next step was preparing myself for the shock of the forthcoming project. I knew it was going to be a total change to my lifestyle and diet. Many times it is possible to make small change as to not shock your system too much, but considering how out of whack my life had become I had no choice but to make drastic changes. The training changes were going to be hard, but my biggest problem was going to be cleaning up my diet.
My diet has , on a regular basis, been what makes me or breaks me. I believe most americans are like this. I have met a few metabolic freaks in my life that can eat french fries all day long and stay absolutely ripped, but I was not one of those blessed souls. If I eat good then it shows, but if I pig out then I quickly turn into resembling a pregnant beached whale. I always looked at it as both a blessing and a curse. Regardless of what you look like, having a poor diet is bad for you. Just because your metabolism is abnormally fast and keeps you lean doesn't mean that living off of burgers and french fries is good for you. In fact I believe it is a crutch that lets people justify eating poorly. In the end, the poor eating habits damage everyone not just the people who actively show the added pounds. In this light I take my added weight as a blessing. Its more of a warning sign then anything. My body is literally sending out an S.O.S. screaming to be fixed. It was about time i got that message in a bottle.
Leading up to my start on monday i experienced a phenomenon i call the "pre diet binge". The truth is that im one of those people that really loves food. I especially like good food, but unfortunately I often tend to eat too much of a good thing until it becomes bad for me. Serving sizes have always been an issue for me as it is for millions of Americans. I always eat too much of everything. When I travel overseas I notice how much smaller food portions are and it often doesn't hit me just how big of a difference it is until I return to the states. I knew that going into this project I would have to re-assess my food portions if I were going to be successful.
Going back to the "pre diet binge", it isn't as bad as it sounds. I like to compare it more to a "last wish" for my taste buds. Im not saying that eating healthy food isn't delicious. ok maybe I am, fatty food is so much tastier then healthy food. I can't deny it! And the truth is that it is very hard for most people to let go of their favorite foods, or even to cut back. Under most cirucmstances I would say cutting back on your "comfort foods" would be enough but for the project at hand I wanted to show what is possible when you push things with training as well as diet. The bad food had to go. But it wasn't going away without a farewell party. Over the weekend I had a going away part for my taste buds as I sampled some of my sinful foods. I had a serving of lasagna with my workout partner over lunch, I ate at Panda Express(curse you delicous orange chicken!), and I even had cheeseburgers from Mcdonalds. I would like to point out that I resisted the temptation of paying 1 cent more to make them double cheeseburgers. Go willpower! Finally I had an ice cream sandwich from 7-11 to saturate my sweet tooth. All of this was spread out over a few days, so it may not have felt like what most people would consider a "binge" but in reality it was mental compromise that justified my diet. I am not saying its the way to go when starting a diet, it simply is my method to mentally prepare myself for the battle at hand.
As I watched the clock on Sunday night turn to midnight and Sunday rolled into Monday I knew the battle had begun. There was no looking back, twelve weeks lay ahead of me. In twelve weeks I would find out if I could beat my ultimate opponent, myself.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Santa Barbara Body Sculpting's "Getting Back to Awesome" Project
Hello and welcome to my "Getting Back to Awesome " project (thanks for the name idea Rob! ) I figured this would be the perfect time to share with you a little bit about myself as well as give you an overview of the "Getting Back to Awesome" project.
To begin I will give you some background information on myself. My name is Leon Jesmanowicz, I am 25 years old and I have been a SantaBarbarian for the last fourteen years (outside of my 16 month hiatus, more on that later). I have been a personal trainer and nutritional consultant since 2000 and in 2004 I started my personal training company Santa Barbara Body Sculpting (http://www.sbbody.com/). I have done modeling and competed in bodybuilding as well as had side jobs ranging from managing store fronts, to bouncing at nightclubs, to taking care of kittens at a pet store (they are pretty darn adorable after all!).
Now, if there is one thing more varied then my professional life, then it must be my personal life especially when it comes to my body. I was born and raised until the age of six in my birthplace of Wroclaw, Poland. During my early years I was always extremely skinny and tall, even though my mother fed me like I was a prized pig, I couldn't put on any weight. After leaving Poland in 1988 we moved to Germany and then Holland before making our way to the USA in December of 1990. It wasn't until then that i was able to fill in my frame and stop looking like somebody locked me up under the stairs with no dinner every day (thanks McDonalds!). Throughout my teens and early twenties I had gone through ups and downs when it came to my physique and personal health. In November of 2005 I had become what I like to jokingly call "full of awesome". I was in the best shape of my life, I was helping people reach their goals and life was great.
Unfortunately, as the saying goes "The bigger they are, the harder they fall." With that being said, since that time I have learned that above all else I am human. I am a man like any other man that can reach great heights as well as be unbelievably humbled by the trials and tribulations sent towards us by life. In times of prosperity it is easy to feel over confident and "invincible". But when you least expect it, life comes around and smacks some humility into you. In between the time I was "full of awesome" and now many things happen. Things that happen to everyone, things that have befallen the best of the best. Within a 24 month span my life had been ripped apart by tragedy within my family and friends circle. Personally I had been plagued by injuries both mental and physical. I learned the hard way that people i thought i could trust, suddenly were the knifes in my back. It was a dark portrait of what my life had become. I attempted to go a new direction in my life by moving to Los Angeles for 16 months and attempting to try and ignore all the bad that had happened, unfortunately like any wound left unattended it soon got worse rather then better.
Luckily for me, I believe that every bad situation has a silver lining to it and it is from this silver lining that the "Getting Back to Awesome" project had its origins. After 16 months in Los Angeles i had decided to move back to my strongest roots here in Santa Barbara in order to make things awesome again! I was left with a daunting task, i had been working a desk job for 16 months and that coupled with my injuries had lead to chronic inactivity (read: couch potato), I had been left staring at a body that was 80 lbs over weight and a shadow of my former awesomeness. Something had to be done, and I felt I would approach it like all my other projects, and that was through pushing it to the limit. Because if you are going to do something, you might as well do it right!
The "Getting Back to Awesome" project is simple at its core. I have 12 weeks during which I am going to attempt to get as close being "full of awesome" as possible! But there is a catch, oh why does there always have to be a catch! I'm a firm believer that two extremely strong motivators for people are "rewards" and "fear of humiliation". People generally love rewards, and hate humiliation so i thought "geez Leon! what would happen if we put both on the line".
So the deal was as followed. I would start out by putting an ad in a local newspaper where it showed three pictures; a picture of me when I was full of awesome, a picture now, and a question mark(?). I personally always had a hard time relating to all those "before and after" pictures in magazines and ads as you never knew how the person really transformed. Plus there was no risk. They only showed the "bad" pictures after they were in shape. There was no pressure, because if you didn't make your goal nobody would see it. With my project, at the end of the 12 weeks I will have to fill in that question mark in the ad with my new status. Basically we flip around the "before & after" idea and give it an added twist. Talk about pressure!
With the "Back to Awesome" project everyone who wants to follow the journey from Aweful to Awesome can thanks to the miracle of blogs (bless you blog inventor guy!) During the project I will be sharing my diet, training strategies, as well as mental strategies and personal reactions as the project wears on.
In the end my intentions are for this project are two-fold. My primary objective is to get back to my healthy lifestyle and earn a physique that I can be proud of again. My other goal is to show the world that nobody is infallible and it can be hard when life knocks you off your horse, but if you work hard you can get up and be stronger then ever. I have had clients over the years always say to me "when I was younger, I was a football star and I was in great shape" or "before I had my kids, you wouldn't believe the body I had" and to that i say, "well lets get that body back!". Hopefully for those trying to get back to their former Awesomeness my journey can be an inspiration. For those that have never been in shape and are just starting out I am hoping that they can see that they are not alone when it comes to dealing with the hurdles thrown in their way on their path to living a healthy lifestyle. At the end of the day with the right kind of training and guidance anyone can sculpt that body they always wanted. The road to awesomeness is not an easy one, but hopefully my experience can motivate you to reach new levels of physical health and well being.
Look for my upcoming blogs as my start date of Monday January 14th approaches and beyond!
To begin I will give you some background information on myself. My name is Leon Jesmanowicz, I am 25 years old and I have been a SantaBarbarian for the last fourteen years (outside of my 16 month hiatus, more on that later). I have been a personal trainer and nutritional consultant since 2000 and in 2004 I started my personal training company Santa Barbara Body Sculpting (http://www.sbbody.com/). I have done modeling and competed in bodybuilding as well as had side jobs ranging from managing store fronts, to bouncing at nightclubs, to taking care of kittens at a pet store (they are pretty darn adorable after all!).
Now, if there is one thing more varied then my professional life, then it must be my personal life especially when it comes to my body. I was born and raised until the age of six in my birthplace of Wroclaw, Poland. During my early years I was always extremely skinny and tall, even though my mother fed me like I was a prized pig, I couldn't put on any weight. After leaving Poland in 1988 we moved to Germany and then Holland before making our way to the USA in December of 1990. It wasn't until then that i was able to fill in my frame and stop looking like somebody locked me up under the stairs with no dinner every day (thanks McDonalds!). Throughout my teens and early twenties I had gone through ups and downs when it came to my physique and personal health. In November of 2005 I had become what I like to jokingly call "full of awesome". I was in the best shape of my life, I was helping people reach their goals and life was great.
Unfortunately, as the saying goes "The bigger they are, the harder they fall." With that being said, since that time I have learned that above all else I am human. I am a man like any other man that can reach great heights as well as be unbelievably humbled by the trials and tribulations sent towards us by life. In times of prosperity it is easy to feel over confident and "invincible". But when you least expect it, life comes around and smacks some humility into you. In between the time I was "full of awesome" and now many things happen. Things that happen to everyone, things that have befallen the best of the best. Within a 24 month span my life had been ripped apart by tragedy within my family and friends circle. Personally I had been plagued by injuries both mental and physical. I learned the hard way that people i thought i could trust, suddenly were the knifes in my back. It was a dark portrait of what my life had become. I attempted to go a new direction in my life by moving to Los Angeles for 16 months and attempting to try and ignore all the bad that had happened, unfortunately like any wound left unattended it soon got worse rather then better.
Luckily for me, I believe that every bad situation has a silver lining to it and it is from this silver lining that the "Getting Back to Awesome" project had its origins. After 16 months in Los Angeles i had decided to move back to my strongest roots here in Santa Barbara in order to make things awesome again! I was left with a daunting task, i had been working a desk job for 16 months and that coupled with my injuries had lead to chronic inactivity (read: couch potato), I had been left staring at a body that was 80 lbs over weight and a shadow of my former awesomeness. Something had to be done, and I felt I would approach it like all my other projects, and that was through pushing it to the limit. Because if you are going to do something, you might as well do it right!
The "Getting Back to Awesome" project is simple at its core. I have 12 weeks during which I am going to attempt to get as close being "full of awesome" as possible! But there is a catch, oh why does there always have to be a catch! I'm a firm believer that two extremely strong motivators for people are "rewards" and "fear of humiliation". People generally love rewards, and hate humiliation so i thought "geez Leon! what would happen if we put both on the line".
So the deal was as followed. I would start out by putting an ad in a local newspaper where it showed three pictures; a picture of me when I was full of awesome, a picture now, and a question mark(?). I personally always had a hard time relating to all those "before and after" pictures in magazines and ads as you never knew how the person really transformed. Plus there was no risk. They only showed the "bad" pictures after they were in shape. There was no pressure, because if you didn't make your goal nobody would see it. With my project, at the end of the 12 weeks I will have to fill in that question mark in the ad with my new status. Basically we flip around the "before & after" idea and give it an added twist. Talk about pressure!
With the "Back to Awesome" project everyone who wants to follow the journey from Aweful to Awesome can thanks to the miracle of blogs (bless you blog inventor guy!) During the project I will be sharing my diet, training strategies, as well as mental strategies and personal reactions as the project wears on.
In the end my intentions are for this project are two-fold. My primary objective is to get back to my healthy lifestyle and earn a physique that I can be proud of again. My other goal is to show the world that nobody is infallible and it can be hard when life knocks you off your horse, but if you work hard you can get up and be stronger then ever. I have had clients over the years always say to me "when I was younger, I was a football star and I was in great shape" or "before I had my kids, you wouldn't believe the body I had" and to that i say, "well lets get that body back!". Hopefully for those trying to get back to their former Awesomeness my journey can be an inspiration. For those that have never been in shape and are just starting out I am hoping that they can see that they are not alone when it comes to dealing with the hurdles thrown in their way on their path to living a healthy lifestyle. At the end of the day with the right kind of training and guidance anyone can sculpt that body they always wanted. The road to awesomeness is not an easy one, but hopefully my experience can motivate you to reach new levels of physical health and well being.
Look for my upcoming blogs as my start date of Monday January 14th approaches and beyond!
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