Remind me next time I take photo’s where I do a little flexing to use a mirror so I can actually see the weird faces I do when I pose…. Sorry guy’s I am really not photogenic and these are in no way supposed to be pro-photo’s. But I did promise you After Shots so here you go!
I must say that although I did not reach my ideal weight of 212lbs in this summer shot at the XBT, I am in no way disappointed with my results. I started this guinea pig session of the XBT a couple months ago after being laid up with a broken ankle for 3 months. I was in the worst shape of my life and the heaviest at 250lbs. In the past 10 weeks I have dropped a total of 24 pounds off my frame while maintaining and actually adding lean muscle mass. In the past when I have dropped weight, I have always lost a lot of muscle and strength in my workouts. This time round I wanted to lose the pounds without sacrificing any muscle or strength in the process. The result is that I look and feel a lot better but the scale is still not where I wanted it to be. Losing 24 pounds, 6 inches of my waist while maintaining quad and calf size, and actually putting an inch on my biceps is a huge step in the right direction. I have done this all while on the road and traveling. (Dealing with restaurants and travel). It has been tough but was a great challenge for me prior to returning to my Martial Arts Academy (www.OttawaKarate.com) which I will do later today. I now have 60 more days of training in my hometown with my students and home cooked foods which I will now focus on refining my body all the way down to the desired weight of 210-212. At that weight I will definitely have my lowest body fat in a decade and be in the best shape of my life. The key to success here is that I realize that although I didn’t realize my exact weight goal of 212lbs, I did drop 24lbs and look and feel 100 times better than before. If I hadn’t set a difficult goal to attain, I most likely would not have been as strict or hard working as I was. I will be teaching my XBT program starting at the end of September and with the added motivation of my new students and the energy at my school I am sure to reach my full goals by the end of October… I will keep you updated… For all of you who took the XBT challenge or who will be taking the XBT challenge at my school starting October 4th/2008, I want to thank you for making the decision to better yourself and to challenge yourself to greatness. Decide each and every day to (DO SOMETHING) to move your life ahead, whether it be going on a walk, lifting some weights, playing with your children, or reading a book… Do something positive every day and your life will never be the same…
Karen and I decided to go out and challenge ourselves to a day of Aerating 45 homes spread across Oakville, Ontario. No staff member in Spring Masters history had ever Aerated more than 38 in a single neighborhood with no drive time, so we figured it would be fun to try and break that record. Of course Karen had never Aerated a lawn before and I really haven’t done much more than finishing up a few lawns here and there over the past few years. We started out at 8:15am arriving in Oakville around 9am. By 12:30pm we had already finished 26 homes but then we got into our large properties and corner lots. We ended up drinking 16 bottles of water and gatorade on Tuesday as it was incredibly hot/humid for the start of September but finished the day 2 minutes before our goal time of 6pm. Karen’s first day of Aerating was a success as she learned all the tricks of the trade that she has been training Spring Masters staff on for years. I was super impressed with her strength and endurance as she whipped the 300lbs aerator around like a rag doll. We finished the day with nice sunburns and blisters in the double digits on our hands. I think I will take an early retirement from Aerating, until of course one of my guy’s breaks 45 lawns.
Before leaving my stay in Arizona this month, I wanted to do something local to the Area. Since I have never climbed/hiked a mountain (let alone a hill before) I figured that climbing Camelback Mountain would be a great test of my stamina/strength gained while here training. I waited until my training was complete and it was my last day in Arizona to attempt the Mountain. I wanted to make sure that just in case I slip and roll an ankle it wouldn’t affect my training, so there I went on the final of my month long trip. Saturday at noon I arrived at the base of the mountain. It was hovering right around the 100 degree mark. First thing I noticed is that all the hikers that were arriving or leaving had full gear (hiking boots/back pack/water hose etc.), of course I had running shoes, IPOD, and a bottle of water…. (I’m such a rookie…lol) The mountain itself is very rocky, with cactus, and low lying shrubs mostly and the incline varies from fairly flat to hands and knees steep. Of course I chose the “CHOLLA” course which is described as “Very Difficult and for advanced hikers only” it is a 1.5 mile trail (if that’s what they want to call it) that has an elevation of 1300ft. or so. My idea was to climb to the summit and then when I get there, get one of the other hikers to take a picture of me so that I could show my friends… Well that plan didn’t go to plan because once I reached the summit, I soon realized that nobody else actually climbs all the way to the top, especially on a Saturday afternoon at 1pm with 105 degree Sun beating down on them. So at the top I waited for about 10 minutes then realized I was quite alone and started my way back down. About 1/3 from the top I encountered a older man with a climbing stick and he was nice enough to take a quick picture of me standing on a rock with the summit in the back ground. All in all, I have never really been into that kind of thing before, but the accomplishment of conquering the mountain was quite exciting and I will now start planning a new adventure on a “REAL MOUNTAIN”. Hopefully I can convince my girlfriend Karen to climb something huge within the next year or so… CONQUER THE MOUNTAIN IN YOUR LIFE!
It is the night before my last week in Arizona. I have 5 more days of extreme training sessions at Athletes Performance and the Lions Den in Scottsdale Arizona. This weekend I was able to sit front row at “Rage in the Cage 114″. Rage in the Cage is a regional MMA circuit that promotes MMA fight cards in the south west. It was inspiring to see all the excitement around these relatively inexperienced fighters throwing down like the are in the UFC.With my last week in front of me I have many encouraging results to report. Although I have not measured my waist/bicep/quad/ or body fat in a few weeks I am sure there has been improvements in all. I finished my second last week at 227lbs. Now in the past when I have dropped down to the low 200’s it was always protocol to burn both fat and muscle, and this time round I have kept up strong with my weight training and protein intake to retain my muscle mass. From the way I feel at 227lbs it feels as though I’m under 220lbs and if I finish a week from now around 220lbs I will feel like 210 or even lower. Although my original goal was to hit 212lbs by the end of the program I will be very happy with 220lbs or within a couple pounds of that mark. With my retention of muscle in this XBT program I am fine with the look and feel of my body and am in no way fixated on what the scale says.My eventual goal is to drop my body fat % down to a rate where I can be 205-210lbs but if that takes me a few more months then I would rather do it gradually by losing body fat rather than burning my 14 years of muscle building away… I am very excited to get back to Ottawa for the start of September to help in the promotion of our school’s next XBT program which starts on October 4th. I will be taking part in much of the training and teaching which will be a nice change compared to the last few programs which I have not had a chance to be involved in.We will be training between 50-70 West Ottawa residents into the greatest BODY TRANSFORMATION they have ever experienced. I have learned so much in fitness/flexibility/core training/nutrition this month training with the Professionals at Athletes Performance that I’m sure I can explode our contestants results with the help of my amazing instructor staff.ONE WEEK TO GO!!!! In a week you will get the after pictures and the before and after stats…. I will try not to disappoint… LOL!
Well as my final year for a while in city route management, I figured I’d go out with a bang. My 8 teams of West GTA were the underdogs coming into the competition. The Heavy Favorites from Ottawa have been experiencing a simply amazing season hitting records and milestones never before seen in the company let alone for the Ottawa operation. Josh Lombardo’s Hamilton Team had only 6 teams but most of all his workers represented had between 2-4 years sealing experience. With special weekend sales scripts and massive motivation Karen and I with the help of Pete St-Jean we able to win the weekend championships by over $7000 in sales and our team promoted and sold 60 copies of my new book as well as donated $1600 to the Toronto Sick Kids Hospital. I feel it’s very important when doing well financially to do something for people who are in need. This Summer the team winning both All-Star Weekends were able to raise over $3000 with portions of their commissions. The current greatest sealing team in history… We will have to see if the boys of West can hold onto that title under new leadership next year…
Well I’m down to my final 2 weeks of my journey to XBT greatness. It has been a rocky road and I know you haven’t heard from me in a while with results but I assure you this summer has had it’s highs and lows with my training and schedule but I am in the final stretch now and more motivated and focussed than ever before. Last week I traveled to Phoenix, Arizona to spend the final 3 weeks of my XBT training with the PRO’s. YES, I AM THAT COMPETITIVE…lol… I have had a very tough time breaking under 230lbs and as my body fat has been progressively been dropping, I have been doing my best to keep as much muscle as possible while losing the body fat. The result has been an much improved physique however not the low end fighting weight I was searching for.The final 3 weeks of this extreme program I am training 5 hours a day/ 6 days a week at www.AthletesPerformance.com and at night training with Rick Roufus (Greatest American Kick Boxer) at the LIONS DEN in Scottsdale. The weather up here has been 105 degrees daily and I’m double dipping working on my tan for my after pictures as well. I appreciate all the calls/emails of encouragement during this program, as it has been very tough this time to balance my other commitments while making the surge and improvement I was looking to accomplish. I am learning a huge amount of new training techniques and philosophies on nutrition/stretching/lifting. I am excited to get back to Canada to start implementing many new skills in my teaching and training of personal students.Well I guess until I can get back I’ll just enjoy the sun/heat and of course TRAINING!!! Keep up the good work guy’s and keep kicking…
One of my main goals as I grow my Sales and Landscaping Company “Spring Masters Canada” was to help my staff with their school Tuitions. I know how hard it was for my brother and sister to save enough in their summer’s to afford University Tuitions and living expenses without crawling into massive debt. My staff at Spring Masters Canada work incredible hours each summer and earn up to 10 times what they could earn at any other job in the summer. The young men and woman help promote high quality outdoor property services and display incredible work ethic and loyalty to our business. When I was writing my first book “Millionaire in 90 Days, Working Out at the Gym” the intent was not to make a fortune in writing but to use my books as an educational bridge to help the youth of Canada to increase their knowledge of increasing their personal Health-Wealth-LifeStyle. As my staff was promoting my book as well as our driveways sealing service this summer my commitment was to put the first few dollars of each book and sealing towards the HWL Scholarship Fund.My staff were asked if they were interested in applying for the scholarship to fill out the application on the site and to follow certain guidelines finishing with a written test this week. I am very proud of all the development my staff underwent this summer, working, preparing, and learning in order to win this scholarship. I am proud to announce my 2008 HWL Success Scholarship Winners:1. Gregg Ross $2500 (Ottawa)2. Yakov Sobolev $1500 (Toronto)3. Matthew Kent $1500 (Toronto)4. Matt McDonald $1000 (London)5. Roland Eksteins $1000 (Halifax)6. Brian Hoa $1000 (London)7. Kaleb Prinzen $1000 (Ottawa)8. David Heisel $1000 (Ottawa)Congratulations to all Spring Masters Canada Staff on a great Summer Season!!!
As I mentioned yesterday, the 2008 All-Star Weekend was a total blast with 9 teams from across Ontario represented. The photo represented here is a group shot of the Top 72 staff members of Aeration Season. These young adults spent the weekend competing against each other with hopes to win the Spring Masters Canada World Title (The Big Stanley Cup Looking Trophy). We started out Friday afternoon by having a short meeting to go over the rules of the weekend and teams, stretched, strategized, and loaded up to move on to their territories by 3:30pm. After Friday night my A-Team had a commanding lead as I brought my team to the lowest income portion of London for our first night. My mentality was with just a few hours to spend on these routes that if the guy’s were motivated enough and fresh enough in the mind they would have the greatest chance of educating and closing the highest percentage of not so typical clientele for our services. I saved my nicest areas for Sunday meaning it would take a miracle for any team to catch mine. Our West GTA A Team won the overall competition by 150 Equivalent ( A Code term we use in our business— sorry got to be a part of it to know…lol). More importantly for me we were the #1 team for all three days of the competition out of the 9 teams. The weekend is not only used to break into new markets and to compete, but more importantly to educated other cities on marketing/service strategies utilized in the other cities as well as giving the Stars the opportunity to show how good they are at Aerating. These young adults behaved incredibly well and we had no complaints from the Hotel we stayed in… (that’s a first) The workers got a chance to meet all the Stars from other cities and really experience fully that they are part of something much bigger than themselves and that they are part of something important. SPRING MASTERS CANADA truly is the #1 College and University Job Out there… Looking forward to seeing the Stars all again in just a few weeks..
The first weekend of June/2008 marked the date of Spring Masters Canada’s Annual All-Star Weekend! Last year 5 of my Ontario Teams competed in Scarborough, Ontario to become the #1 Aerating Team in the World. This year the All-Star Weekend invited 9 Teams of 8 Staff Members with their managers to London, Ontario for the event. The purpose of the event is to draw attention to new markets for our company to provide the experience of the Greatest Natural Cultural Practice you can perform on your lawn (CORE AERATION). With our company moving operations into London, Ontario in 2009 full time, we decided that this would be the best city to host the event. In 2007 the Winning Team of the All-Star Challenge was from Ottawa (coached by GM Jason Hubert). This was the first time I had ever lost at anything that is Spring Masters. I was on the hunt this year to regain my Championship Title and to bring the title for the first time to the GTA, and of course to my personal team in West GTA. On the way up to London my team and I discussed strategies on how we might win the competition. All of my teams members had gained so much from marketing/performing core aeration that they collectively decided that they would be willing to donate $100 each of their weekend earnings to a charity. The charity of choice was the Sick Kids of Toronto because the idea was originally thought of by one of our Teams Stars (Jeff Thorpe). Well it turns out our A TEAM from GTA WEST coached by (MOI) won the All-Star Championship by a landslide, and we all agreed that by implementing charity and the act of giving back allowed us to receive much more that weekend and in life itself. Karen and I were so impressed with these young guy’s work ethic and community that we decided to match the $800 they raised with $800 of our own for a total gift/donation of $1600 to the Toronto Sick Kids Foundation. We will be running our All-Star Championships for Driveway Sealing in a few weeks and will most likely add to the fund at that time as well… Team Members of GTA West: Captain Brian Hoa, Jeff Hicks, George Osei (left in the pic), Theo Ecksteins (centre in pic), Jeff Thorpe, Paul Valenti, Nathan Kenney, and Andrew Zavidovsky.