The Wedding Diet- Shedding up to 65 LBS by Your Big Day

Photo Credit- jrodmanjr

Phoenix, Arizona 2011

I hopped into my old Ford Truck and leaned back to rest. It was 3:30 AM and I had just finished swimming 30 laps after a brutal weight room workout. I was exhausted, but had an unbelievable high going, a high of endorphins, happiness and accomplishment. I turned the key and my truck started, this was another small win for me on this early morning. I rolled the windows down and let in the warm desert morning air. I felt accomplished, unstoppable and full of life.

I had lost 45 lbs in less than 2 months and I looked damn good. My impending deadline was two weeks away and I would embark on a voyage through Europe that would change my perspective and my life's path forever.

I remember how good I felt with my pals in Berlin, I need to get back to that feeling now.

Fast Forward to Today

Two years later I sit here in Seattle's Ballard neighborhood at my house, comfy on my couch, too comfortable...

I think back on the euphoric high from that evening, the work I put in day in and day out, the intense focus and unwavering determination. It is both disappointing and inspiring at the same time.

I have come so far since that day personally and professionally and grown from a single, nomadic guy seeking to understand himself and the world around him, to a man who has a fiancée, a career and a daughter. My life is rich in love, happiness and my career is flourishing but as in all things, there is a give and take that comes along with these things.

As much as it embarrasses me to admit to my audience, I have gained back the weight I lost during this enlightening period of my life, not all of it, but close. I know find myself less than 5 months away from my wedding day, a day I have dreamed of being my very best for my entire life and yet I sit here far away from the goal weight that will have me looking great, something my fiancée deserves, something I deserve to give to myself.

It is time to kick my ass into shape BEFORE my wedding day is here!

Photo Credit- Extra Medium

So as I did in 2011 proclaiming my 30lb weight loss in 42 days, I am once again proclaiming to my readers that NOW IS MY TIME!

No doubt, I have much more responsibility and far less time these days, with a daughter and a highly demanding career, however I aim to prove that these things are no match for strong will and determination, something I have proven I possessed in the pass and will once again find inside. I am out of time, it is now or never. I hope to be posting my wedding pictures 5 months from now in a follow up to this post, looking lean, mean, tan and unresistibly sexy.

THE WEDDING DIET

I know how to construct a diet that works, the problem is sticking to it. So for this diet I am choosing a plan that gives me enough time (5 months), to get in great shape and shed 65 LBS by my big day. This will not be a crash diet, however I will incorporate elements that will at times be very calorie restrictive as there are three phases in this diet I plan to incorporate to not only give me a jump start, but to cleanse my system .

 PHASE 1 Days 1-7

7 Day Juice Fast

Photo Credit- Katrina Rain

Diet

I completed a 7 day Juice Fast earlier this year and I can tell you it was difficult, but I haven't felt better in years. I plan to use this method to give me a nice jumpstart on the weight loss process, while also cleansing my digestive system and shrinking my stomach a bit which will help suppress my appetite once I start on a healthy diet 7 days later. During my last week long juice fast I lost 17 LBS and I would be thrilled to come close to this number this time.

Gym

During this time period I will be going to the gym only to hit some low intensity cardio walking on the treadmill or getting on the elliptical for 20-30 minutes, hitting some simple heart rate interval training. Also I'll be heading into the steam room and sauna to sweat out the garbage I've been putting in my body and might even get some swimming in if I'm feeling up to it.

Photo Credit- Tomasito.!

Phase 2 Days 7-90

This will serve as the most important phase of the diet hands down. The critical time period for nearly any diet is the 2nd week through the 90th day. 90 days seems to be what it takes to make life altering progress and 14 days seems to be the point where most people lose focus.

Diet

My diet for this phase will be simple and strict. Lots of veggies and lean protein and very minimal carbs.

Certain Low GI (Glycemic Index) or "Slow Carbs" will be the only carbohydrates I will be consuming but I plan on limiting these to mostly black beans or lentils. Also I will avoid dairy at all costs. This biggest thing I can stress to make this diet work is KEEP IT SIMPLE. Eating the same things over and over again is very boring, I get that, but it is the easiest way to prevent making exceptions and straying out of bounds. No bread, no dairy, no high GI carbs.

A sample day will look like this-

Breakfast- 60g Protein Shake

Lunch- Beef Patty 90/10 & Veggies

Dinner- 2 Chicken Breast Green beans

Pre bed- 60 g Protein

GYM

I really need to kill it at the gym in order to look amazing and fill out a nicely tailored suit with a nice V taper from my shoulders to my smaller waist.

The gym is the easiest part for me, I love it, it just takes consistently getting there every day.

Sample Week-

Monday- Chest/Back 3 exercises per muscle group 4 sets each exercise rep range 12,10,8,4-6

ex- Chest- BB Bench Press, Machine Flys, Incline Press

      Back- DB Rows, Wide Grip Pull Downs, Reverse Flys

Cardio- 20 MIN

Tuesday- Legs & Lower Back,

Legs- 4 exercises 4 sets 15,12,10,8 Lower back 2 exercises 4 sets 15,12,10,8

ex- Legs- Squats, Hamstring curls, Stiff leg dead lifts, quad extensions

      Lower Back- hyper extensions weighted, Supermans

Wednesday- Shoulders & Abs 3 exercises Shoulders 12,10,8,4-6 Abs 20,20,20

ex- Shoulders- DB Military Press, Front Raises, Upright rows

      Abs- bicycle crunches, weighted sit ups, leg raises

Cardio- 20 MIN

Thursday- Biceps & Triceps 3 exercises each 12,10,8,4-6

ex- Biceps- Seated Preacher Curls, DB Curls, UH pull downs

      Triceps- Skull Crushers, tri bar push downs, overhead db extensions

Friday- Weights Off Cardio 40 Min

Saturday-Chest/ bi's - 2 exercises supersets alternating- BENCH/Curls Flys/UH Pull downs Rotate muscle groups weekly

Sunday-OFF

Photo Credit- matthewcoughlin

Phase 3 ALL IN Days 90-150

Diet

My diet will remain very similar to Phase 2, however I will implement more good carbs in order to maintain more muscle mass and allow for increased intensity in the gym. I'll also allow for some dairy, but if weight loss stalls this is the first thing to cut.

sample day

Breakfast- 60g Protein, Oatmeal or yogurt

Lunch- Beef Patty/ Veggies with black beans

Dinner- Chicken or Fish- Veggies

Pre bed- 60g Protein, 1 tbsp Almond butter (sludge)

Workout

The gym is where I am going to earn that last 10% that will take me from good to great and in order to see amazing results, I will have to ratchet things up a notch after the initial 90 days. Here I will implement Some hardcore workout strategies I've used effectively in the past including German Volume Training for a jumpstart the first 3 weeks and then moving into a lower rep count workout and focusing on strength.

Week 1-3

German Volume Training as outlined here.

Week 4-8

min 3-4 exercises per muscle group 4 Sets 4-6 reps Max effort

Cardio- All low intensity at this point focusing on fat loss and trying to not lose any muscle. Longer cardio periods 40-60 minutes 5 days per week.

Helpful Tips & Tricks That Work

A few things that I have found work extremely well when on a diet like this are listed below.

• Drink a TON of water, 1-3 Gallons daily
• Keep a daily journal in a place you see everyday. Track diet and exercise here as well as progress.
• Pick out an outfit that you would like to wear confidently and put it on display in your home.
• Protein in the morning EVERYDAY within 30 min of waking up.
• Keep clothes and shoes in the car as back ups, no excuses for missing the gym.
• No Alcohol. It throws everything off.
• Any cheating is held to ONE meal, nothing more.

5 Months to my Wedding! Feel free to Join me on me journey to looking and feeling great and follow along. I will be posting updates every 2 to 3 weeks with progress, photos and maybe a video or two!

Buenos Aires- Drinking and Stumbling on a Warm Summer Day

It’s inevitable.

Complacency will always show its lazy, unchanging face, no matter how ambitious your goals and dreams are.

Buenos Aires, Argentina 2010

It was noon by the time I awoke and peeled myself from my seat soaked bed, feeling the ringing in my ears that comes along with a long night that stars with 2 for 1 well drinks and ends with hot dogs and beer at 4 AM. It was summer in the city and my little apartment in San Telmo didn’t include air conditioning in the outrageous $320 a month rent I was forking out.

Bummer.

These are the kind of mornings that make you take a short look in the mirror, indentify that you look about how you feel and then proclaim that you must accomplish something with your day and attempt to forge a more productive path in your future.

It was 2 months into my South American excursion and I decided that today would be the day that I finally shot some video for my blog which had become quite popular in recent months. I always felt like an idiot trying to shoot video while traveling. After all, I travel alone and being an oversized gringo, I just felt like I looked funny holding out a flip cam in an effort to document all the fun I was having.

For one, it kept me from having as much fun, but secondly, I just hate looking like a tourist. The best travel moments it seems cannot be caught on tape and are better off remembered through your own embellished memories that you will forever encapsulate in your own further embellished stories.

But I regress.

Today, I was going to capture some fucking video, one way or another.

In the following video, I documented my little day in the sun. From wake up to pass out on my journey through Buenos Aires, trying to give people a firsthand idea of what my experience was like. Through editing and the realization that sitting and talking to the camera wasn’t an option, the video is basically a music video of me messing around in BA, with Kid Cudi playing in the background, my jam at the time.

It is funny to me that I was trying so hard to make a video for my followers to see what I was doing, when in reality I never posted it because I was embarrassed to. I know look back at this and laugh. It reminds me of all more solo journeys through cities I’ve had that have been so random and awesome, heading out in an unknown city and just taking everything in, while throwing back some cold ones.

It took me forever to even make the video and I never even posted it…

Until now.

So check this out and enjoy my idiotic stumbling through a foreign city from when I was up, up and away in BA.

Why Seattle is the Best City in the World (and my marriage proposal)

 Via- Aaron GustafsoThe Back Story

At a deliberate pace that would annoy any frenetic city dweller that happened to be drudging angrily behind us,  my soon to be fiancée and I strolled arm and arm down 5^th Avenue. We were making our way to a free wine happy hour at the Vintage Park Hotel, a nightly bonus to guests of the hotel. Of course we weren’t staying at the hotel that night, but we were however resourceful thinkers.

Our agreed upon destination was Seattle’s tallest building, the Columbia Tower.  We would never make it there.

 I digress…

I’ll come back to this story later on, but for now I’d like to tell you why and how this monumental night came to be. This city, the city I now call home, is only 35 miles from where I was born and raised. But it is only recently that I’ve discovered how amazing Seattle really is.

 

 Why I Love Seattle

Via- Surrealize

Now let me be clear, I am not one of those hometown people who think their city is amazing just because they have never been anywhere else.  In fact for a while, I was a hater.

I blogged in 2009 about how fed up I was living in the area and how I needed to get away fast. This was before I ever discovered my hometown for what it really is. Living in the suburbs nearby a city IS NOT anything like living in the city.  

After traveling throughout the US, South America and Europe extensively, let me tell you why Seattle, my hometown tops the list of my favorite cities in the world.

The Culture & Diversity

Seattle is hugely diverse. Rainier Valley, just east of the city is actually the most diverse neighborhood in the country.  Now I normally try to avoid that area, but when I do go through, it is usually ok as long as I don’t smile, wink, nod or wave and make sure I take off my watch and ring.

In all seriousness it is a dangerous neighborhood in spots, but it isn’t that bad and Seattle as a whole is a pretty safe city, safer than most that I have lived in. The food here is also on another level. So many options, nearly anything you could want is nearby and they do it pretty damn well. From food trucks parked at the gas station to the high end boutique restaurants you can get whatever you need.

Diversity is welcomed here, similar to how I felt in Berlin (save for the stuck up Germans, which were definitely the minority), Seattle is a melting pot where everyone lives in cohesion with one another and generally we all get along. Sure this might be the image the entire US tries to convey, but things seem much less segregated here than in places like Arizona, where it feels more like the races stay more separated. I can’t explain why this is true, but I can feel it when I travel between these cities.

The Attitude

It is true, there is a bit of a tree hugging, hippie vibe here and you will get scowls for not using the recycling bin. You smell pot on the city streets, and it is basically legalized here. We are overall pretty accepting and welcoming. Sure there are a lot of annoying hipsters and dirty may be the new clean as many guys seem to go for the “Unshaven, withdrawn, wanna-be rockstar on a bender” look. But for the most part, people are pretty normal and nice. I would venture to say it is easier to make friends in this city than most others that I have traveled too.  Ballard is where I live, and along with Wallingford, Fremont, Greenlake and Capitol Hill, these are the neighborhoods that are where young professionals and young families are coming too in huge numbers. 

The Neighborhoods

The Cha on Capitol with the ladies

Capitol Hill is more the mecca for the young singles, but it is where we all go to party and check out the weird, but awesome bars.  Cha Cha Lounge and the Unicorn are among my favorites and the atmosphere and the diverse crowd are great for chilling and people watching, just plan your cab ride home, you’re not driving.

Ballard has changed immensely since the 90’s and home prices, rents and the demographics here are changing daily. Take a gander down Market St. and stroll Ballard Ave and you will get a feel for this areas personality and the ever changing town center. Cranes rise high above of 15^th Ave NW and new housing is springing up like crazy in this area. Old houses are being knocked down and new 3200 sqft homes are erected in their place, making better use of these in city lots that are becoming so scarce from the high demand.

Via- Transit Nerds

South Lake Union is quickly becoming the epicenter of the tech savvy, young entrepreneurs of the city and the Microsoft, Amazon and startup crowd all hang out around this area as new apartments and high end skyscrapers seem to be popping up monthly. A mass movement of high paid, business minded young professionals are flooding the area, driving demand for housing and services up and creating an entirely new, hip community (think San Francisco).

Via- SeattleRachel

Greenlake is dope during the summer and in general is a pretty cool place to congregate. Forza Coffee is among my favorite places in the area and it is actually where I am writing this from. You can chill, have a coffee, meet clients and hang out and work as long as you’d like, but do be warned, they play Dave Matthews sometimes. They also serve beer which is awesome if you want to call it in early and have a little happy hour action going on. A great way to liquor up your clients and get them to sign the contract for their new home, (kidding, kind of).

Via- Photocayote View from Wallingford

Wallingford is sweet, as is Freemont. Similar vibes here, Wallingford has some of the best views of the city in places and is centrally located between the best neighborhoods and nightlife. Fremont is pretty cool too, right across the bridge from Queen Anne and a quick ride into downtown. There are some cool local spots here and I would imagine this area is going to transform in the coming years, much the way Ballard is now.

Via- IRQ506

Downtown is pretty awesome too, and my fiancée and I will take the D line from Ballard into the city to hang out all day and knock back some cold ones before catching a bus back. The Yardhouse is pretty awesome, yes it is a chain, but I love every one of them. Downtown is well laid out and it is easy to walk around to nearly every major attraction weather permitting. If you get a chance, you have to hang on the rooftop deck of the Hard Rock in the summer time, one of the city’s best vantage points overlooking Pike Place Market. This is a good place to saddle up and catch a buzz while in the midst of the massive steel and glass skyscrapers rising to all sides around you.

Where Did I Leave Off?

Stopping at the Vintage Hotel for the free wine, I let Nicole know we would not be making it to the Columbia Tower tonight. She seemed disappointed, I understood. After all, that was my plan, I had to throw her off my scent.

Via- LarryUCS57

She tried to keep a positive outlook and we headed to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory as she wondered why I wasn’t ready to propose at the Columbia Tower, Did I have cold feet?

After an amazing dinner we headed back to our room at the Westin which is in two circular skyscrapers that look pretty damn cool and provide great views from nearly every room.  I conveniently couldn’t find my room key and Nicole opened the door and turned the light on.

 “What the Hell?” She exclaimed as she followed the rose pedals through the entry way into the room and saw the dim flicker of candle light off a bottle of Malbec, our favorite wine. As she turned around she saw this on the bed…

 And as she turned to me, I dropped to a knee and once again proclaimed my love for her, letting her know that there is no other woman in the world for me and there never would be.

Thanks to Mom and Dad for staging the room!!

She shuttered a tearful yes and my plan had come to fruition. The city I love, the woman I adore and our future together, building out careers and our family in this one of a kind place, Iit is more than I could ever ask for.

Seattle is the one for me, the city I will always call home. Though I may stray at times on trips around the world to see, learn and grow, I will always come back here. I have made my choices, chosen my city, my bride, my career and the future is bright.

Bling Bling

Now it is Your Turn

If you’ve been here, if you are from here, tell me why you love Seattle. What is it that draws you to this wonderful city?  I still am a newb having only lived in the actual city since January. Tell me what are your favorite places, bars, restaurants, things to do in and around Seattle?

Use the comments section below, I’d love your feedback!

Living Bueno is Back! What I learned from a Year of Hard Work

Preface- Why so few posts in the past year?

It is no secret, I have been away from the blog for a while, caught up in pushing through one of the busiest and most challenging periods of my life. But now my friends, I am back!

I had blogged consistantly for nearly two and a half years and it was time for me to focus on living life, building a family and a career and more recently moving into and adjusting to a new city.

I started Living Bueno not just as a travel blog, documenting my new experiences while transversing the globe, but rather as a lifetsyle and self improvement movement. That movement is continuing now.

Building Your Best Life Today

Via- Shadowplay

Next week I will be turning 27, not nessesarily the most monumental of birthdays, I'll admit. However this year has definetly been a defining time in my life. I rebuilt my career and had an excellent year in real estate, got engaged to my beautiful fiancee and begun planning our wedding and moved to Ballard, living in the city of Seattle for the first time. This has been stressful and chaotic without question, however I feel like I am in a better place now than I have been ever before. What is exciting and inspiring to me is that making huge, difficult, but nessesary changes in your life is not nearly as difficult as it may seem.

How to Get What You Want Out of Life

Conquering any task you desire is possible. What is first nessesary however, is the concious decision to focus. Focus is by far one of the most underappriciated game changers in our society today. Nearly anyone who has accomplished anything great has had the ability to set everything else aside and single out a specific goal, driving forward with precision and unrelenting focus until the task is achieved.

The Power of Focus

Via- HammaD.TN

I decided about this time last year that I would get back into the real estate industry and that would be my chosen career path. It just made sense. I was damn good at it, I enjoyed it and I had all the connections in place to make it happen.

However without focus, this endeavor would have not been successful As a real estate broker, staying focused and on task is not the easiest thing to do. No one tells you what to do and you are in charge of your own business. Furthermore if you do not focus and create results, there is no wage to fall back on, commission only, no pay check will come in that you do not earn.

Having a strong focus and driving forward is what ultimatly propelled me to having a very good year in real estate sales. Focus however, seems to be a lost art in todays ADHD inducing society.

Most of us cannot get though ordering lunch without scrolling through facebook updates and it is a miricle anyone accomplishes anything with how distracted we all seem to be on a regular basis. Focus is overcoming the distractions, worrying about only the prize on the horizon, shunning the unimportant nuances that aim to destroy our dreams.

I do not speak of this as an all knowing guru who has conquered these deamons, but rather as someone who has suffered with this precise hinderance for too long and who is now attepting to change by overcoming it. Though adderal, ephedrine and other pharmacuticals can without question do one hell of a job in helping to fight this battle, at some point we all need to possess the ability to maintain prolonged focus and discipline in order to achieve our goals. Otherwise anything we dream up is nothing more than a new years resolution that is doomed to be broken when we lose focus a few days later.

More than anything this year, I knew that I know had a family to support and a life to build with my soulmate and partner. This goes along way in helping you focus on what is really important. If you are trying to achieve something great right now, you will simply have to want it bad enough to change and possses the ability to maintain your focus long enough to make it happen. THAT IS IT.

Focus and win or lose focus and perish.

The end.

Going forward

I'll be writing much more on how to build a great life in the coming weeks, something I am proud to say that I have done. I also have some huge goals for this year and  will be making some big moves here in the next few months to find out what I have up my sleeve. Improving my health by losing a ton of weight, learning new interesting skills and expanding my business tenfold are on my shortlist at the moment and for you travel nuts out there, I will be taking a trip near the end of the year!

Enclosure

The Art of Hustle- In the Beginning

THE LAWS OF HUSTLE

Law #1- "When things are going crazy, you must stay sane"

I graduated high school in 2004. Despite above average grades and strong test scores, it seems that every teacher comment and counselors recommendation echoed the same sentiment.

Very intelligent with a lot of potential... IF he would apply himself.

I didn't see myself as a college type of guy. Another 4 years of school seemed like a brand of torture that I wasn't quite ready for. I opted to make a 2 year commitment and attend community college, dropping out about 3/4's the way through my freshman year.

I had big dreams and a whole lot of ambition, but no stability, no foundation and no life experience to guide me through the coming turbulent times.

Photo Credit- VinothChandar

It was at this time that I had begun a career in real estate in early 2005. At 18 years old, it wasn't going to be easy to convince my elder clients that I should be in charge of what is most people's largest asset. Again it seems that it would involve me having to actually apply myself.

I got lucky.

The market was peaking and by partnering with my mom, I had given myself a bit of much needed credibility. In the next three years we would enjoy moderate success in the real estate market as prices exploded and nearly everyone with a pulse signed up for an adjustable rate mortgage. Of course this madness would eventually come to an abrupt end, the crash leaving me in a tough spot.

I was young and admittedly rather careless financially. My income had grown every year, I had accumulated assets and bought and sold my own property for a handsome profit. I had a waterfront condo, a Mercedes and an extravagant lifestyle for a 20 year old, but mostly I had a big shit storm on my hands.

Photo Credit- Carolynconner

Naivety and irrational thinking that was brought on by this huge market boom had taught me in my first years as a real estate professional of a market that was not sound, artificially inflated by unsound mortgages backed by reckless government entities. I wasn't sophisticated enough at the time to understand fully why the market was so phony, it seemed as though prices would always rise, deals would always be out there and my income would only grow year over year.

Everything I had evaporated in a matter of months. My income stopped, prices fell and there was no way I could continue the lifestyle that I had adopted. Going from making six figures, to being broke and unable to get much more than a bartending gig, that will change your perspective pretty quickly.

A purging of our housing market was necessary, that is now quite obvious in retrospect. Along with this adjustment, my two properties I owned currently would get foreclosed on, my Mercedes repossessed. I say this honestly to you to point out one of the biggest and most costly lessons I've had to learn.

When things are going crazy, you must stay sane

I was at Rock bottom cleaning houses, bartending and doing freelance writing work over the next few years in order to make ends meet. I was down, but not out. To get back I would need to do what so many mentors before had instructed. I would be forced to apply myself in all facets

Stay tuned for part two...