Day One - About Me

I always considered myself an "athlete". I was a high school swimmer and collegiate waterpolo player. After college I went into the business world and continued a 8 year regime of 5 days lifting/cardio plus 'watching' what I ate. Watching what I ate consisted of muscle milk, sandwiches for lunch and no fried food for dinner (except calamari). With this routine I was able to keep a steady weight and still able to run short distance races (10 miles and under). In 2011 my wife started at a new cross training gym and asked me to join. I refused as I thought I was in good shape plus I 'knew' what I was doing. Then came 2012 when my wife smoked me in both the Broad Street Run and the Philly Tri for the first time. Almost immediately, at her continued encouragement, I decided to join Unite Fitness. The premise for Unite was the NASM phase model (stability, strength and power) with 30min cardio, 30min weights and 15min yoga. The first day of Unite I realized the perception of my fitness level and the reality were not aligned. That first day has changed my life in regards to my complete fitness outlook. As I became stronger and better conditioned I noticed some days I had more energy than others. After consulting the coaches at Unite I found that my nutrition needed to be reevaluated. I started to read the likes of Mark Sisson, Paul Jaminet and Tim Ferriss to better understand my body. As I continued cross training and nutrition the improvements in my body and nutrition it was time to see the results. For Broad Street and the Philly Tri instead of being left in the dust by my wife we were able to push each other to new PR's by almost 10 minutes! I feel like an athlete again and I am just as fit as when I was younger but also healthier than I have ever been before. I am able to achieve my results while still traveling 100k airline miles a year and over 200 nights in a hotel. It was at this time that I was so inspired by the results that I decided to take fitness to another level and become a certified personal trainer via the National Academy of Sports Medicine. I want to share my fitness thoughts and ideals to show that we can all achieve to become the person we want to see in the mirror. Rich