Day 4 | 12 week Kettlebell RKC Minimum Challenge
April 22nd, 2010 by CaseyToday was my 4th day on Pavel’s RKC Minimum Kettlebell Challenge. It’s a 4-week minimum program, and if I finish, I move up to the real RKC (Russian Kettlebell Challenge) that lasts another 8 weeks.
Let me tell you …
Read more...Raw Food Post-Workout Recovery Drink
April 19th, 2010 by CaseyHere’s the recipe for my Raw Food Recovery Drink.
Read more...Day 1 | 12 Week Kettlebell Challenge
April 19th, 2010 by Casey
Today is a beautiful day! It’s 1:30 in the afternoon, and I’ve already got my first kettlebell workout under my belt.
The workout was 23 minutes long, and it really kicked my butt. After I finished, my legs and arms were shaking. I must be doing something right!
I weighed myself this morning: 181 lbs, 22.1% bodyfat. These numbers are a bit high — I think it’s water weight right now. I believe I’m closer to 177, 20% bodyfat. Regardless, I’ll be graphing my weight for the next 12 weeks.
Tomorrow, I look forward to the other workout in the program, the kettlebell get-ups. Once my form is solid, I’ll be putting up a video.
Here’s today’s morning workout. I’m taking an Ashtanga yoga class at 4:30. Gotta hydrate between!
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The workout was 23 minutes long, and it really kicked my butt. After I finished, my legs and arms were shaking. I must be doing something right!
I weighed myself this morning: 181 lbs, 22.1% bodyfat. These numbers are a bit high — I think it’s water weight right now. I believe I’m closer to 177, 20% bodyfat. Regardless, I’ll be graphing my weight for the next 12 weeks.
Tomorrow, I look forward to the other workout in the program, the kettlebell get-ups. Once my form is solid, I’ll be putting up a video.
Here’s today’s morning workout. I’m taking an Ashtanga yoga class at 4:30. Gotta hydrate between!
Read more... Raw Food, Traveling in Europe and Cycling
April 18th, 2010 by Casey
In August of 2009, I quit my job as a bartender at a wonderful bar in Northern Michigan. I had great weekend shifts, made amazing money, met influential CEO’s & CFO’s, became friends with the founders of Hands On Disaster Response, and chatted with a few billionaires.
Why would I want to leave such a great job?
The drive to leave the life of a bartender and move on to something else took a full year to surface. One year after working as a bartender, I gave my 2-week notice — much to everyone’s surprise!
Spending 40 hours a week with a group of people starts to feel more like an extended family than co-workers. But, I knew in my heart I needed to leave.
When I left the bar on my last shift, it was bitter sweet. A few farewells, and that was it — I was driving home to plan the next phase in my life. My girlfriend, Kristen, and I talked on end about wanting to travel Europe and we decided that now was the time. Kristen had just finished her undergrad studies and was looking for work. I suggested we take our bikes over to Europe and bike around for awhile. As the conversation evolved, we ended up planning to leave Michigan in mid-September and fly into Madrid. Our return flight was from Rome to Los Angeles, 4 months later.
We were given the opportunity to do whatever we wanted for 4 full months. With the help of HelpX.net, a low-priced website that matches you up with homes/farms that need workers, Kristen and I roughly mapped out a few of the places we wanted to stop. Valencia, Barcelona, Avignon, Rome, Florence. We brought our bicycles along and took a chance. We had NO idea what we were getting ourselves into, but I’m so happy to say that it was the best experience of my life.
Traveling abroad does more for you than just show you different sights. By traveling by bicycle, we were able to meet with locals, talk to complete strangers every single day, disappear into hideaways to camp for the night … we were really alive!
The two of us blogged the majority of the trip over at http://www.rawandfit.com/biketour Due to my computer breaking in France, we don’t have much after that. We do, however, have a TON of great memories!
In regards to eating raw while traveling … it’s difficult. It’s hard to haul around all the raw foods you need. It’s even more difficult to find organic produce. But – it’s possible. We maintained a high-raw vegetarian diet. It wasn’t perfect, but it was what we could do. Please read about our travels, and comment on the posts here:
http://www.rawandfit.com/biketour
Here’s a video of where we stayed one night, while stuck in France:
Watch Sleeping in a Train Station Read more...
Why would I want to leave such a great job?
The drive to leave the life of a bartender and move on to something else took a full year to surface. One year after working as a bartender, I gave my 2-week notice — much to everyone’s surprise!
Spending 40 hours a week with a group of people starts to feel more like an extended family than co-workers. But, I knew in my heart I needed to leave.
When I left the bar on my last shift, it was bitter sweet. A few farewells, and that was it — I was driving home to plan the next phase in my life. My girlfriend, Kristen, and I talked on end about wanting to travel Europe and we decided that now was the time. Kristen had just finished her undergrad studies and was looking for work. I suggested we take our bikes over to Europe and bike around for awhile. As the conversation evolved, we ended up planning to leave Michigan in mid-September and fly into Madrid. Our return flight was from Rome to Los Angeles, 4 months later.
We were given the opportunity to do whatever we wanted for 4 full months. With the help of HelpX.net, a low-priced website that matches you up with homes/farms that need workers, Kristen and I roughly mapped out a few of the places we wanted to stop. Valencia, Barcelona, Avignon, Rome, Florence. We brought our bicycles along and took a chance. We had NO idea what we were getting ourselves into, but I’m so happy to say that it was the best experience of my life.
Traveling abroad does more for you than just show you different sights. By traveling by bicycle, we were able to meet with locals, talk to complete strangers every single day, disappear into hideaways to camp for the night … we were really alive!
The two of us blogged the majority of the trip over at http://www.rawandfit.com/biketour Due to my computer breaking in France, we don’t have much after that. We do, however, have a TON of great memories!
In regards to eating raw while traveling … it’s difficult. It’s hard to haul around all the raw foods you need. It’s even more difficult to find organic produce. But – it’s possible. We maintained a high-raw vegetarian diet. It wasn’t perfect, but it was what we could do. Please read about our travels, and comment on the posts here:
http://www.rawandfit.com/biketour
Here’s a video of where we stayed one night, while stuck in France:
Watch Sleeping in a Train Station Read more...
Exercising & Hitting the Wall
April 17th, 2010 by Casey
The bike I was riding
I bike often, and it’s my preferred method of working out – partly for the fun of going so far, but also because it’s great exercise.
Now, when I first started biking, I wasn’t eating too healthy. I would still pig out on pizza and beer at night then throw on my spandex and go for a morning ride. It wasn’t until a very scary morning did that all start to change rapidly…
It was just like every other morning… 7am I was suiting up for my ride. I grabbed 2 bottles of water and set out to see where I could go. I was planning about 40 miles that morning, but wasn’t sure if it’d be longer. The morning was beautiful, and I was in a great mood. I set out on my own and found some very cool things on the ride. I usually stop and chat with people, or watch the sun rise if it’s early enough.
This day was similar to all the rest… until I reached the half-way point. I changed the plans to go somewhere I’d never been before, and ended up in the middle of no-where. As I was approaching my mile-mark, I started getting a headache. The next 2 miles, I felt like I was drunk. My body wasn’t responding to me, and I was about to fall off my bike.
So, I sloppily popped my shoes out of the pedals and jumped off. The second I got on the ground, I fell over. I closed my eyes, wondering what had happened. The spins kicked in and I was sick to my stomach. It was the worst feeling I had ever felt!
Fast-forward 10 minutes and I was in front of a gas station. I had walked my bike to the town I was near and popped in. I felt like I was out of energy and by brain was screaming for calories. The only thing I could do was to purchase a few conventional oranges and green bananas and chow down. I was hoping that the sugar would give me the spike to beat my headache and help me feel normal again.
After about 20 minutes of fighting this feeling, I started to feel better. I regained control of my body and decided to take the ride home easy.
Once I got home, I looked into what happened. Essentially, I had burned all of my calories available in my body and it was starving for more. Cyclists call this “hitting the wall” or “bonking”. Either way, it was a terrible thing to have happen!
The reason I’m telling you this is because I lacked one important and critical skill when going for those long bike rides. I hadn’t practiced listening to my body and trying to understand what it really needs. I could have been on a dirt road on the out-skirts of town and bonked… then what? I would have been in big trouble!
Now, when I’m out on rides, I stay in tune with how I’m feeling. If I feel poor before I head out, I pinpoint the reason and I deal with it then. This has given me a huge edge in every aspect of my life, and I am a much stronger person for it.
I challenge you to start listening to your body NOW, before it starts SCREAMING at you when something terrible happens.
I wonder if this same idea would have saved my parents from getting cancer in the first place …Read more...