Injuries can be great! Kind of.............

No, I haven't lost my mind.(more than usual).

Recently i was injured while at work. So for a few weeks Im not working or training. And it SUCKS. Going through mat withdrawal is a real thing i swear.

But, rather than sit on the couch and consume vast quantities, Ive really tried to make the best out of the situation.

Because you see, injuries can be great teachers. While you may not be able to do what you do normally, you can do other stuff. You can work other areas. While respecting the need to rest and recover, there is still the ability to make profound leaps forward, usually in ways you don't expect.

For me,  its been in many areas. My core work is improved, and balance now is being addressed every time i get near the crutches.

The big issue of course is eating. (You knew id get there right?). Down time can lead to mindless eating and this gives an opportunity to develop discipline.  Not to live like a monk of course, (unless of course you are) but refining what works for you.

I hope this is somewhat encouraging for anyone else,  I know that you too can come out of an injury with improvements, as long as you develop the mindset of opportunity rather than stagnation.

Best to you all and Happy Halloween!

Brian

Change the wiring

So, I was talking to a good friend this morning and he was lamenting how he had "let himself go" after starting a new job that took a lot of time. He said he couldn't even think about eating healthy much less getting to the gym. The others in the room nodded in agreement, saying that life made it to hard to be healthy. 

Let that sink in. Life made it too hard to be healthy. 

Now it's not to poke fun at them because this isn't the first time and won't be the last I've heard this. It seems as a society, a good portion are wired to revert to less than stellar behavior under stress. 

Where do we learn this? Are we raised this way? Why do some find it easier to grab a Twinkie or a beer than a dumbbell?

I think at least partially is because it's easier. Way easier to order a pizza after a 16 hour day than cooking in the kitchen. Way easier to catch Seinfeld than getting to the gym. We work hard dammit and we need downtime. Well...........

I understand the mindset because I totally embraced it. I got bad with it and it led to a whole lot of issues. Because, and this is a key, it's easy to make an occasional indulgence an everyday habit. 

And it's cumulative. And then after months or years, you end up breathing heavy on the stairs, you can't do the activities you used to, and your quality of life decreases. 

Time to alter the wiring. If you are at that point,  you need to step back and look at your behaviors. It's shouldn't be too hard to see where improvement is needed. 

And you can find time. Yes you can. Stop shaking your head and look at your calendar sport. They won't stop showing Law and Order marathons if you miss one to go for a walk or get an extra hour sleep. 

Get the people around you involved. Invest in yourself as a viable human. 

As much as these behaviors may be ingrained, they can be changed. 

When you wake up next morning, try examining your day ahead as a chance to make some strides to get feeling better as opposed to be resigned to another day of drudgery. 

We can do better. 

Shhhhhhhh. Your wasting time.

I talk. A lot. Most of the people I work with would say too much.  Ill talk to almost anyone at the drop of a hat.

And ive had some amazing conversations with brilliant people on a variety of subjects.  But they only carry me so far.

For example; Jiu-Jitsu.  Its pretty all encompassing in my life. And ive spent a lot of time talking about it, the history, the theory, the athletes. Its a great way to pass the time. But, Im not getting any better. The only way of course is to GET ON THE MAT.

Like whatever you do and whatever drives you, the time you spend on your mat. your road, your gym, your recording studio, your dance floor is the spot.  The hours, months, years are your proving ground.

And its also where you learn about yourself the most.  You cant hide out there. Your effort, or lack of is apparent and you cant BS your way out of it.  In fact, it may be place where the true you shines the most.......

So grind.  Do more,  and please do hush up about it .... until later. :)

Right where you should be. Thanks EJ.

         I listened to the most annoying conversation today. Two people were arguing over which was the best way to exercise.  The two forms they were debating were irrelevant as this same issue has taken place in so many different forms over the years its become beyond tedious.

         I have no argument here. I have some criteria for what make a valid exercise program. It needs to be challenging,  it needs to have safety intrinsically involved in it. Getting injured should not be a regular happenstance. It needs to be fluid, allowing the client to grow in ability, strength, and flexibility. And it would help a lot to be engaging, it s cool when you WANT to go workout.

         Beyond that, the field is wide open. Because not nearly enough people are actually DOING some form of regular training. Hell there are too many people who don't MOVE.  You know what i mean.

          So if you want to drag the tired arguments out go ahead, but do it after the workout, while you are sharing a meal or protein drink. Because that means you've done it.

         The title for this post is something a friend and amazing MMA coach Eric Jackson said.  When you are training, or in fact doing anything you love, you ARE right where you should be. Tonight, going to training was difficult, i wasn't feeling great and there were a thousand reasons to just take it easy and stay home.

          But, getting there and getting the Gi on, I could already feel the change. Being around people as happy to be there for the same person is infectious. And the work seals the deal, moving... yes the joy of movement, of being able to do something with your body that 6 months ago you couldn't think of doing is AWESOME.

          So i invite you to feel that way,  try something or get back to something. And try to look at it as something joyful rather than tedious. If you can't do something else. But just do...........

Health by association. .....

I remember a line from some sit - com that a newly divorced woman, when told how great she looked replied, "Well thanks I just dropped 180 pounds of useless fat. My ex."

Changing lifestyles usually results in casualties.  No more so than when you try to get healthier. If your inner circle meets regularly at a bar with wing and pizza specials chances are a dead lift PRO is not in your near future.

And the support usually isn't there. I still have friends that believe I'll revert to my former habits, almost seems like they are betting on it. Which is fine.

So do you cut line and avoid all contact? No, not yet. Chances are you are making new friends who share your mindset and can be your support.  I share freely that my Jiu-Jitsu brothers and sisters,  after 5 years are some of the strongest bonds I've ever formed.

And if you are lucky, you bring some people along with you. I've had friends surpass me in their efforts to live healthier and maybe I had a small part in that.

That's another thing. There is always someone watching.  You never know who you inspire.

And for those people who never come around? Probably you will see and hear them less and less. But go back to the bar occasionally,  it'll remind you why you started in the first place......

I know its still winter.........

                                 " Don't let the weeds take your garden."- PBG


         So you've embarked on a journey to better health.  Awesome. Probably you've done the hardest part, the just showing up.  And you work... and you grind.... and slowly you start knocking over those goals.....

Here comes a bigger challenge. What happens when you get there? Hopefully not a lot changes.  You readjust your goals, loving how you feel, how you look and keep the process going.  But there can be a downside.....

I equate this to many many patients I meet working on the ambulance.  I ask patient A,  "what medical problems do you have?" Patient A replies, "None. "  My next question is usually, "What medications do you take?". And the list comes out. Sometimes 10 or more.  So I ask, "But these are meds for blood pressure and diabetes! So you have these conditions right?" Answer, "Well no, I take the meds i don't have the problem.".....

Living a healthy life and expressing the best self you have is constant evolving work. Its truly like the garden reference above. Unwatched, unminded, the weeds sneak in until your crops are choked and wither away.  And of course we all don't live like monks. We are humans and we like to have fun and eat stuff that make goats cringe, and there will be a skipped workout now and again.

But really that has to be in the minority. Excelling means work, sweaty, daily, HARD work. Vigilance against those pesky weeds.........

Yep its Magic, and Science, and Art...............

Hey all,

Just got finished reading this great article on cooking and getting your kids involved. The link for it is here:http://www.ctvnews.ca/health/want-your-children-to-grow-up-to-be-healthy-adults-teach-them-to-cook-1.1595345.

Like any quality article, I was able to relate to it on a personal level. I was brought back to my early childhood where I got to learn to cook.  My parents, god love em started me early on learning things that would enable me further in life, cooking being one of the biggest things.

As memory serves, the first thing I made on my own besides the obligatory PB&J, was Meatball vegetable soup. And even then, the creation stuck with me. That and the fact that my family ate it and didn't wind up in the emergency room equaled success. And I got hooked from there.

Its not just plating food. At least for me. To take assorted ingredients  and assemble them to something bigger than its parts speaks of magic to me. Cmon all those witches and their cauldrons?

Sure maybe its garlic instead of eye of newt, and turmeric instead of wing of bat but they had the idea. Stew by any other name........

And you scientists, mad or otherwise? Basic chemistry folks. Altering the molecular structure of something into something else not only works in a lab but in every kitchen every day.

And I didn't leave you artsy types out. Rock star chef types AND home cooks alike can put flair on a plate, In fact how you present your food is as important to how you make it to some. And again, edible art = WIN.

Behind all this was the interaction, the sharing of knowledge in families. some of my most valuable possessions are my grandmothers recipes,  and knowing that i can share the effort and the love she put into those recipies is a wonderful feeling.

I put this, the family unit cooking for itself high among priorities for education and health. Starting your kids learning to shop, cook, heck maybe even grow food gives them the same thing you have.

Power.

I mean it. Really. Tell me what may be more powerful and significant than feeding your family something you have created?

Just some thoughts........

Insane in the Brain!!!!!!

So last night i was reminded of how fallable i am in regards to the emotional attachment to food. I was at a small gathering celebrating a number of our birthdays which are coming up. pretty much all the food there was off my normal list of eating but i dabbled, including birthday cake. (HEY IT HAD MY NAME ON IT DAMMIT :) ). Later in the evening, i was talking with a friend who is also conscious of how they eat and had eaten like myself. I said, "Ive been so good! Now im going to pay for it!" UGH. Yeah, my stomach has been doing somersaults since then which given how i eat is to be expected. The other response is the more troubling. Ive been so good. How many of us have said that after a similar experience? And why? Why do we punish ourselves by emotionally attaching ourselves to what we eat?

Some reactions are good to be sure, the smells of holiday dinners reminding us of better times, a favorite recipe filling the house with that aroma. That is the positive side, but somewhere along the line a validation sinks in. We are good if we finish our veggies, bad if we cheat much. If we do good things we are rewarded with foods, that we are taught are ones to avoid.  Where does this lead? It can lead to a  overdose of "comfort food". See? assigning emotional comfort to food.  The if the trend continues, as it did for myself, we can find ourselves unhealthy, seeking ways to unlearn what we have learned to regain health and (again for myself) sanity.  And the extreme ends of it fall into eating disorders, shame spiraling, and its own brand of insanity. Place yourself in the mindset of a young person, bombarded with images of what "perfect bodies" look like, and then the next second hit with 10 commercials touting the most unhealthy but trendy crap a laboratory can put together.

But its amazing how it stays with you. Here I am, smarter than ive been ever about eating and exercising and still, I assign punishment to myself for eating a slice of cake. Frailty is thy name Fitmedic....

So where does it go? Where do we stop this? Is it possible to look at a plate of food and take the emotion away? can we look at it at its most basic, as a source of (hopefully) clean energy to allow us to live our lives as best we can ? Any change would probably start around the family dinner table. Not rewarding good grades with an extra dessert for instance. And by the way, if there isnt a family dinner table, maybe there should be? A chance to avoid Tv, cell phones, computers and other distractions and be as a family group, however its constructed at the time.

Id like to think that something i wrote could get people to think, about their own situations they face and how they deal with it. Maybe the next time you have a meal, whether its a normal day or a cheat day, acknowledge how tied in emotionally you are. DO you feel bad or good after eating? The ask why? The answers may be interesting......

All the best :)

What, why, how?

Lets talk goals. Or why you set them and maybe why they don't succeed. 

First the easy part. What do you want? Can be anything, in this case lets use me. I want to be better at Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. It's simple to want something but that's where it ends. Wanting wont get it done. Usually it means a prolonged serious effort, especially if what you want is meaningful. 

Brings up the next question, what are you willing to do? This stops a lot of people dead in their tracks. For my goal I'm willing to train whenever it's possible whether I feel great or lousy, through minor injuries sacrificing social events , relationship time, sleep to achieve what I want. Chances are if you want something there is a variation of the above you will have to do. It's not easy but that's kind of the point. If it was easy, everyone including you would already have it. This separates a lot of people and their "goals" making them more fond wishes then reality. 

It sounds like I'm being a hard ass and I'm not overly sorry. Anyone with goals has a mountain to climb in society today. Too much has been made way to easy to acquire and it deadens the drive to excel above mediocrity. And it hits me too. There are days I'd like to hang with my friends but I also know that I'll be better served on the mat. It's all about what myself and everyone else are willing to sacrifice. 

So.... What do you want? Write it down at the top of a page. Now below it What are you willing to do? That's where the real work is............

My debt to you

Had a brilliantly motivating day today. One of those that crystallizes what I'm trying to accomplish. I got to meet along with one of my dearest friends Ron Gardner, Roger Long. I've gotten to know Roger through Facebook and was excited to meet him in person. Both are dealing with Parkinson's disease and they are excelling. I can't do justice to their stories so look for the links at the bottom to get it from the source.

But I digress. To listen to them, going through the work that is their lives it makes you really humble. I've accomplished some in my life, but I know there is so much more to get done. And Roger was kind enough to remind me why I started FitMedic in the first place. It was and still is because I owe it to you. What I've done can be done by anyone, and that's what I'm here to do. Encourage you to accomplish what you want. And it may be similar to my story, it may be totally different. But we all have that story. And the success that I've had, well, not to share it is truly selfish. And yes for the cynics out there I am running a business and there is money involved. Ill never deny that I'd like to make this a successful entity. And if FitMedic is successful and people are reached and their goals are accomplished then everyone wins.

One last point that Roger made and I thought this was amazing was that he had met more people an established more friendships because of his condition than he ever would've. Well that's the thing. When people need help and extend themselves out there, very often it comes back in spades. So in that spirit I'm here extending myself to you. I'm not the be all end all of trainers and may never be but I've been through some of the same crap that you are dealing with. And you need to know you can get farther along the path with effort. Thanks Ron and Roger for refocusing and Inspiring me.

Roger Long: http://thelongwayup.org/

Ron Gardner: battlingparkinsons.com

Doing What You Can When You Can

Constant learning is necessary for everything we do in life if we want to succeed. In the 4 years that I've been training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, I have had the pleasure of training with amazing people, bringing abilities and personalities to the mat. What may be most impressive is how people deal with adversity in the form of injury. Now, when high intensity activity happens so do injuries, its just part of it. And at my school they stress that injury is not a reason to skip training. Its a matter of doing what you can and getting on the mat. So many of my training partners have come in bandaged up or with braces to train in what they really love doing. The latest is a friend of mine who has been a huge inspiration in how he carries himself on and off the mat. He is in his 50's and looks at least half that. So during training about 2 weeks ago he tore the biceps tendon in his right arm. He has the benefit of some top notch medical care and was able to get surgery done quickly with a prognosis of 6 months until full recovery. But there he was tonight with his right arm covered in a brace, strapping his Gi on and going out and working his ass off on the mat. Yep he couldnt do everything we were doing but almost. We all were inspired by what he was doing, but to him it was just getting on the mat and doing what he loves.

So where does that leave the people who dont train at my school? No different. We all have to deal with injuries at one time or another both physical and mental. Thats a given,\.But whether we go hide and heal and play it safe or get out there and do what we can starts to define who we are. The work you do is way more far reaching than the immediate discomfort. We spend every day carving out what our life is going to be. Inspire yourself and others. Today. NOW!

P.s. To all my training partners, pleas edont be offended if i didnt mention you specifically in this . You are all brave amazing people and its an honor to work and grow with you.

Everyday Heroes

When you look at the best in any field one of the characteristics is the disdain of mediocrity. Constant improvement and learning characterize these men and women. But I put it to you that it shouldn't and in fact can't be something relegated to a small section of society. For an entirely too long of a period mediocrity and just "getting by" has been the mode of operation. And it germinates. When we expect less of ourselves we put out less to others. An then some hold others to higher expectations than they do themselves which is well, ridiculous.
Whether its at work or in our relationships, accepting mediocrity or just getting by doesn't increase our ability to be happy or make more money or get better as an Individual.
So can you go out and be Michael Jordan? Maybe not but your life can be a damn sight better than it was yesterday. Are you ready to take the plunge?

Slaying the Ego

Just finished an article about Zen and the Martial Arts. in Japan, the word Dojo has a duel meaning. One, a place for martial arts training, but also " the place for killing the ego." and it's true, the hours of training and the effort and the sometimes humbling experience of getting worked over helps keep the ego well in check if not very tiny.

So why can't it be like that everywhere. ? And for everyone? Doubtless you've seen people consciously making poor decisions because their ego won't let them admit a error. This rarely is confined to a single episode and usually leads to a string of poor decisions.

So as a little exercise, take a minute of two every day and examine a choice you are making. What is driving that choice, common sense or ego?

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Mission Not Impossible

       Hi everyone! With the new format here and the further upgrades planned to the site thanks to the awesome work by Webmeetsworld.com, I wanted to share what I and FitMedic is about and will be in the future.

       As many of you may know(or not), I have been a paramedic here in NYC for the past 12 years. Ive seen some amazing things and stuff that I'd just as soon forget. But the underlying theme was that I see many people who are at their worst points in their lives.

       Not surprisingly, my health had gone down a disturbing path at the same time. Too much idle time combine with binge eating the worst foods piled on the pounds and the problems started. Finally it took an intervention by family and a abrasive in-your-face Dr. to finally set me on my path.

       As I got healthier, it spurred me on to learn more about my body, myself, and health in general. Along the way I started training in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BBJJ! OSS!) and started eating Paleo, and along the way met amazing people who encouraged me to keep on going. I recieved my personal trainer certificate from NASM and soon after my certification as a Fitness Nutrition Specialist.

       So now, my goal is to pay it forward. I have seen firsthand what happpens to people who dont take care of themselves and I want to help keep it from happening. I want to work with everyone form high-end athletes to couch potatoes taking the first step. I want to share what I know and continue learning to help people reach the potential they may not know they have.

       So I make it clear to you now, as this blog and website grow, so will I. I will continue to learn, write, encourage, lay the hammer down when necessary and be the best trainer I can be, Understand that yes, FitMedic is a business, but my business is my passion and i think its pretty cool.

       Thats it in a nutshell, im looking forward to getting to know you. You will hear from me soon, and often.

                                                                                        Brian Collins EMT-P,CPT, FNS
                                                                                        Fitmedic68@yahoo.com
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