George Rausch

Sky Fit Challenge Blog #1

I am sitting here writing this post at the end of week one, which means that I survived. I did three days of cardio workouts on my own and three days of personal trainer workouts with Rob (rotating days). “George, who’s Rob?” Rob Dionne runs (along with his wife Devon) a program called Open Sky Fitness in LA. Rob is my personal trainer three days a week and Devon is my nutritional adviser on this 3 month journey to the mystical land of Ripped Abs, a small island in the Hard Body Sea.

This week was exhausting, insightful, and hopeful. It has been and continues to be a slightly overwhelming with discoveries in every aspect of my life from fitness, to diet, to my consumer behaviors. Here are some of my findings from WEEK 1:

1. After my meeting with Devon regarding nutrition, I discovered that I live in a quasi state of fear when thinking about my next meal. I have the money to buy food, good food, but I’m paralyzed by figuring out what to eat and as a result spend most of my day feeling very hungry.
2. If I am in pain from running, just run slower the next time as the pain will lessen with time. You can’t stop. You must keep going (serious injuries excluded).
3. My lack of cardio training makes regular workouts very difficult because I can’t breath and cramp easily. With time I now realize that cardio will boost my ability to be able to train harder.
4. I eat [on average] very few vegetables a day (a little lettuce in a sandwich doesn’t count). Now, I actively have to say to myself, “Ok. You have your protein and/or carbohydrate. What vegetable are you going to put with this?”
5. Buying raw ingredients, even at Whole Foods, is cheaper than buying a lot of processed or prepared foods.
6. Peanut butter, chocolate [with milk solids] and Subway sandwiches do not agree with my stomach. I will be cutting these things out of my diet until further notice.
7. Foods that are advertised heavily are most likely not good for you. There are always some good ones out there, but be aware that there are probably better, lesser known options. It’s the organic stuff or smaller brands that have better quality and are more healthy.
8. One of the weakest parts on my body is my neck. I’ve strained my neck doing very basic exercises.
9. I MUST eat something before going to work out, otherwise I will pass out.

Now that I’ve started a workout schedule of getting up every morning at 6:20AM (Monday through Friday), I am really tired by 10PM. Tired as if it was 3AM after a night of hard partying. The other day I was washing dishes and wanted to fall face forward into the sink at 9:54PM.

Working out with Rob is a completely different experience from anything I’ve had before. His approach at Open Sky Fitness is very personal in a way that was missing when I worked out with other personal trainers. This in no way means it is easy. I literally almost passed out several times because he had me working so hard. I just don’t dread going in for my training. It is something I look forward to.

All in all, I’m already feeling different. I think I’ve lost some weight and I’m very excited for the weeks to come. This is going to be interesting. G