In my 30’s and 40’s my passion was running and I accomplished a lot even with some challenging circumstances. That passion carried easily on into my 50’s and then Grace came along and I instantly had two passions – being the best father that I could be and fitting my running in around fatherhood. When Carly came along two years later, the balance shifted and shifted yet again another two years later when I became a full time work at home single dad.
December 30, 2008 marks yet another shift with the arrival of not another baby but rather another passion – the quest for longevity – and it is being facilitated by Chalene Johnson’s “ChaLEAN Extreme” workout DVD.
I anxiously awaited the package to arrive and was pleased to see the “green packaging” which is important in my value system. Opening the package revealed a highly polished, exceptionally professional set of DVD’s with the “Muscle Burns Fat Guidebook”, “Fat Burning Food Guide”, fat calipers and sculpting band – literally everything that I need to fulfill my passion and achieve my goal of living a very, very long time with great quality of life so that my girls can have a dad as long as I did.
Although it is hard to believe, I actually started following the plan of watching the Burn Basics DVD and reading the guidebook before I did the first workout last night. I not only want to do the program exactly as it was designed, but also savor this moment of knowing that I have a means to an end. Ironically, the fourth phase of ChaLEAN Extreme is “Lean For Life”.
As planned, I did the first workout last night, which is Burn Circuit 1. I preceded it with an up tempo 20:00 run so that I could get a little more out of a short run and it also served as my warm up. I accomplished the entire workout, which is about 35:00 and for someone who is quite challenged by having to do something that requires moving my legs and arms at the same time (other than running, which comes as naturally as breathing to me), found the exercises well explained and easy to follow. I also know that as a former personal trainer before I became a full time Team Beachbody Coach, these exercises can be done by literally anyone.
Today I am pleasantly sore and know that I had a great workout last night. Day Two is a rest day and that will be good because I know that my muscles need time to repair. I will do a longer run to satisfy that need in my life and then settle in and enjoy the evening with my beautiful little girls who are the loves of my life.
Have a wonderful New Year’s Eve everyone and if you would like some tips on goal setting for the New Year, check out my newest issue of the Howtobefit.com newsletter – “Goal Setters and Goal Getters” – by clicking here.