Fitness Is Not a Look, It's a Lifestyle

I regret to inform all of you who were hoping to track my photo shoot adventure from start to finish and find me ranting and raving about the process may be sorely disappointed by my next sentence. I am done with that process and I am cutting it short for me. Why, you ask? It comes down to one principle: It just isn't Who I Am.

At first, I viewed the opportunity for a photo shoot to be a great little experiment. After all, I do train out of a facility owned by one of the leading cosmetic trainers in the business and it is a path I have never really explored. The prospect of hitting a diet I had never attempted and sculpting my body sounded kind of exciting at first. After a short week and a half of some hardcore dieting and turning my exercise routine upside down I've already had it...I'm done with it. The issue: My abs are looking better and my body is four pounds lighter but I feel like absolute CRAP.

Any of you who train with me, follow my blogs and interact with me know that I don't do this job to create magazine cover models. I do this job to help people live a healthier lifestyle. I emphasize positive, balanced eating choices, non-sedentary activities and challenging exercise routines that will push your fitness to new levels. My preparation for this photo shoot has been: One, complete insanity and two, complete hypocrisy. To throw out my well-balanced and effective nutrition plan for one that nearly cuts out an entire macro-nutrient group on a daily basis is just stupid and my body and mind feel it. Typically I feel pretty great every day because I keep myself well-fueled! Trading in my metabolism boosting and heart pumping exercise routines for isolated movements and poses completely go against why I workout. I workout for improved human function and the long term benefits!

I don't want to take photos and have them appear on my website, in a magazine or in my DVD ads that are a false representation of Who I Am. How can I feel good about taking photos that say, "Look like me if you train like me!" when nothing in my preparation for those images had anything to do with the real approach I take to fitness. This is because I don't train to look a certain way. I train, eat and live the way I do because I have chosen a fitter lifestyle. How I look is a by product of positive food choices and functional workouts. Now that my photo shoot has been pushed back a few weeks, I am going to train the way I do to get ready for it. If an average body fat of between 9-12%, a resting heart rate below 60 bpm and healthy blood pressure doesn't look fit enough to sell me and inspire others, well then I guess I am going to have to just live with it.