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 it ain't how hard you hit; it's about how hard you can get hit, and keep moving forward. How much you can take, and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done - Rocky Balboa 
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Most Recent Photo of Rob |
How to lose stubborn body fat - natural bodybuilding champion reveals all the secrets...  Proudly Canadian!
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Summer 2004 West Coast TrailI’ve had a goal to hike Canada’s West Coast Trail for a few years and this spring planned the trip with a few friends I had arranged the year prior. ALL those friends jammed out and I had to find some new people to go with. Two friends agreed to hike it and we all paid our park fees. Then one was injured in a freak hammock accident so it was down to just two of us. An amazing experience that you can read all about. But lets cover the year start to finish shall we? The year started out with a cruise to Mexico and finished with an awesome Christmas Eve Party at my Massage Therapist’s house. It was a pretty amazing year for me filled with lots of growth, both as a person and physically. Some intentions I set at T. Harv Eker’s Wizard camp came to fruition and I was able to achieve some long time goals I had set for myself. Many new friends were made and some great personal relationships with lots of great people. In January I was on my very first cruise. We started in Long Beach and headed down to Mexico. First stop was Puerto Vallarta where I did a hike and toured a Tequila factory. Very interesting on both counts. I got to see a part of Mexico that I had not really though existed and learned what “Mas Tequila” really means. Second port was Mazatlan where I took the country side tour. We stopped at a few churches and then an old town called Copala with lots of history. The tour was about 6 hours long and I highly recommend it.
Cabo San Lucas CruiseLast port was Cabo San Lucas where I did my own thing. Went out to “lands end”, got dropped off by the water taxi and hiked up and over the little mountain there. Little mountain for sure. Met some people at the top who took my picture and then hiked back down the other side into town. Funny story here… I got to the bottom and I was on the back side of a fenced in compound with barbed wire all along the top. There was one spot where there was no barbed wire and it was directly opposite the Mexican Navy port where there were two armed guards. I had to climb over this fence but they had machine guns. Hmmmm….. I took it piece by piece and they didn’t object so I just climbed over and then walked back into town. Went to Sammy Hagar’s “Cabo Wabo Canteen” just to say I’d been there. Had the most amazing Buffalo Chicken sandwich and then just hung out in the sun. I will be doing a cruise every spring now as part of the company I’m involved with. It’s a free cruise, so they make you go. Tough one. This year is the Western Caribbean including Belize, Costa Rica and Panama.
Myself and a couple of Cruise StaffSpring brought me knowledge of personal training and I hired one. I have been self training for 14 years and getting great results. I figured I could tweak my program with advice from a professional. My goals were simple: to increase my endurance and fitness for my mountain climbing and backpacking. My trainer put me on a very unique training program based on functional muscle. Her training is all core based, meaning to strengthen the core muscles, not the abs specifically. The abs get worked along with all the supportive muscles. The idea is to strengthen the core and all your lifts improve because the core stabilizers can handle an increased load. My abs improved, my strength has improved and I’ve eliminated all lower back pain I had from overtraining my abs. I have found a program of “firm and flatten your abs” by David Grisaffi that incorporates all the training my personal trainer recommends and then some. Another 5 or 6 tools for my fitness toolbox. I highly recommend Davids Ab Training book. The core strength proved valuable when I loaded myself with an 80 pound pack for 8 days of hiking the west coast trail (see below). The summer months had me volunteering at a bunch of Harv Eker’s personal development courses again. Two Wizard camps and three Enlightened Warrior Camps held in the Canadian Rockies near Canmore. Some friends and I went up a few days early to take advantage of the area and climbed Mount Yamnuska again. This is a really great scramble and I do it almost every year. Great view, great people, great company and great exercise.
Coop the ThinkerTaken about 1/2 way up Yamnuska
Me at the top of YamnuskaMet my massage therapist Melanie at the Warrior Camp which she was attending and now treat myself to a massage every month. Oh, and she’s hot man! Trust me.. check it out for yourself below in the Christmas party section. While working at the wizard camp, I set some intentions. One being to get to 6% body fat at 230 pounds and the other to have my own affiliate program up and running selling an ebook on Improving and Maximizing digestion sharing all the knowledge I have on the subject. Both intentions have brought me people and information that I’ve needed to reach them. The affiliate program is about 95% complete, but on a totally different topic. I have turned my Fitness Talk Radio show into a Fat Loss Insider Secrets site and am actively seeking and recruiting affiliates. The body fat intention lead me to “Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle” program by Tom Venuto which I’ve been following since Dec 30th. I have dropped over 8 pounds of fat and put on over 5 pounds of lean muscle in the first month. I can see the fat melting off me weekly. I got 5 tools out of the book that are serving myself and my weight management coaching clients and I’m very happy. You can read my review of Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle here. This is some of the best money you could ever invest in yourself. In late August, my hiking partner and I headed off to the west coast of Vancouver island and spent 8 days doing the west coast trail.
Myself and Wanda Pendree on Day 2Met tons of great people from all over the world including Germany, Switzerland, Finland and the US. Got some great tips on the last day about hiking mount Rainier in Washington which I want to do as well. I’ve detailed the entire 8 days here so I won’t go into it anymore other than to share that it was the first time I was ever as close to a bear as I came on that trip. Following the hike, I enrolled in my fitness club’s “Fitness Boot Camp” which was loosely based on Navy Seals training. We were up at 5:00 am ever day and started at 6:00 am. An hour and a half of running, stair running and drills. I knew that the running would be a catalyst for me in my own training and it has been. I’m loving it now. I still run 3 days a week which includes a very intense set of stair running to get my heart rate up to 180 or more for a few minutes at a time. I will continue to run from now on. While at Warrior camp prior to the hike, I realized that I have not made any steps towards my goal of skydiving and I decided that, at all costs, I would at least take the ground school course and jump once (read the report from my blog with video). My goal had been to jump 10 times in a year. I decided that I would do it after my west coast trail hike which I had been planning for months now. Even if I didn’t reach my goal of 10 jumps in the year, at least I had taken a step. I’ve wanted to do it for years, but anyone I know that said they’d go with me all opted out when the time came. I figured I’d do it myself. I took enough money to jump a second time if the opportunity arose and it did. I jumped twice that first day, once from 3500 and the second from 5000 feet. It was a great experience. I was away the next weekend but the second weekend I bought a 5 pack of jumps and did them all over two days for a total of 7 jumps for the year. In 2005, my goal is to take the Accelerated Free Fall Course and start jumping from 11,000 feet with 45 seconds of free fall each time. Can’t wait.
My First Jump ExitThe skydiving club members are my kind of people. It’s a very social club with lots of great people. Every year a January Invasion of Arizona for two weeks is planned. While its cold and snowy here in Canada, they take off for two weeks of jumping in Arizona. I was not able to do it in 2005, but have planned every year from now on around that very two weeks of warmth and skydiving.
My First Landing (still from Video)While at a Halloween party held at the drop zone, I was asked by one of the female members to shave my mustache off. As soon as she said it, another agreed very quickly. Hmmmm.. I started taking a poll among various lady friends that I have and the consensus was to “get rid of it”. To put it like Donna said “Magnum PI went out with the 80’s”. I went ahead and did it knowing that I could always grow it back, but to tell the truth, I love it and it suits me. So, bye bye-bye moustache, I’m clean shaven from now on.
Shawn Ray and MyselfIn November I was out to a bodybuilding shop where I met pro bodybuilder Shawn Ray of Mr Olympia fame (not to mention many others). He’s a very large man, but I’m defiantly taller than him. Christmas it traditionally my least favorite time of the year, partly because I’m susceptible to Seasonal Defective Disorder (SAD) due to low light. My favorite day of this least favorite season is Dec 21 because that’s the day we start rotating back towards the sun and I couldn’t be happier with the days getting longer.
Melanie and II intended to spend the holidays alone, working on some personal projects, but I got invited out to a Christmas Eve party by my Massage Therapist Melanie. She had a get together planned for everyone who had nowhere to go, or didn’t want to spend the night with their families. It was a great party with a bunch of healthy people including one personal trainer. Mel cooked a vegetarian meal but offered some meat dishes as well. We exchanged gifts and played some cool games. See my whole blog post for more pics of Melanie. Thanks for the invite Mel. A few days later I came across this book Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle by Tom Venuto. I have read it and began applying the principles in it. I already knew a lot about weight management, fat loss and muscle building, but I got 5 new tools out of it and they’re working for me. You can read my review and follow my progress report here. My goals for 2005 include getting to 4% body fat before my 20 year high school reunion. I was 320 in December of my grad year and 240 when I actually graduated so I’m really looking forward to 4%. I’ve set a 3 year goal to enter a Canadian Masters Bodybuilding championship so I’ve got 3 years to gain some muscle. The plan is to put on at least 10 pounds a year until that time and remain at 6% body fat or lower. I also want to climb 5 mountains every year and before I’m 40, climb Canada’s highest peak, Mt Robson. This will take a lot of training including climbing skills, glacier traversing, mountain rescue skills and a lot of endurance. For 2005, I want to head to Peru to climb up and visit Machu Pichu (then head over to Brazil to check out the beaches) My skydiving goals include jumping at least 50 times per year and shooting for 100 times if I can. Taekwondo: After taking about three years off so that I could get my business running, I’ve started training again just recently. I’ve also started a Kickboxing course that my fitness club is putting on. Eight weeks of kickboxing lessons done by an Irish Kickboxing champion. I am totally committed to attaining my Black Belt in Taekwondo. Currently I hold the rank of Red Stripe and when I decided to take my time off, I was three weeks away from testing for Black Stripe. I love the structure of Taekwondo, the respect, the training and the people involved at the Family Taekwondo School that I attend here in Edmonton. Reading: a lot of what I’m reading right now is digital. Burn the fat, Feed the Muscle, Optimum Anabolics (how to increase muscle mass using food to manipulate hormones levels for maximum muscle gains and Firm and Flatten your Abs by David Grisaffi (you can read Tom Venuto's interview with David Grisaffi here and an article on Abs by Tom Venuto here). All awesome reading and all supportive of my goals. All three books are part of my current program to achieve my goals. I was blessed with an amazing book done by Chet Day on Tibetan Monks Exercise Routines. Five Rites performed by the Monks to slow aging and increase energy levels. Very simple way to incorporate simple exercise routines into your day to boost energy and live longer. The book comes with great nutritional info from Chet Day too. Non digital books include "Crossing the Rubicon" about the end of oil along with "Power Down" which dicsucces how to deal with the end of this age of power as we know it. Powerdown speaks frankly to these dilemmas. Avoiding cynicism and despair, it begins with an overview of the likely impacts of oil and natural gas depletion and then outlines four options for industrial societies during the next decades. And for fun, I’m reading the latest parts of Stephen King’s “the dark tower” series books 5 and 6.
The attacks of September 11, 2001 were accomplished through an amazing orchestration of logistics and personnel. Crossing the Rubicon discovers and identifies key suspects - finding some of them in the highest echelons of American government - by showing how they acted in concert to guarantee that the attacks produced the desired result.wooooo, spooky. Very informative book. Part of my "wake up" reading material. Take care everyone!, eat well, be well! See you at the top of the mountain!
Summer 2004, Backpacking and cruise |
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