Hovering and Learning No

I’m still at 240 and I know exactly why. My dieting skills stink. Let me rephrase that, my dieting skills are non-existent. Even though I have put together the most solid month yet of working out, I am more or less stuck, and I only have my inability to tell myself no to blame. So, I am going to try to change. That is what this entire documentary thing is about, right? I am still 35 pounds down but I need to at least lose another 40 and the only way I can do that is by dieting, while continuing the workout regimen. Beginning Monday this is what most days will taste like.

Breakfast: Smoothie consisting of fresh kale, spinach, banana, orange juice, mixed frozen berries and ice

Morning Snack: raw almonds and cheese stick

Lunch: tuna and granola bar

Afternoon Snack: yogurt and apple

Dinner: something grilled and appropriately sized (sorry T-Bones and New Yorks) veggies and salad

I will blog next week about how the meals worked Monday-Friday, and why am I starting on Monday and not today. That is what I do, procrastinate.

The video below is me throwing a 50 yard pass because my boy Jeff Maynick said I couldn’t. While dunking a basketball is not remotely the same as throwing a 50 yard pass, it’s still super difficult. Not a lot of people think I will dunk, but I do.

Guest Speaker Time

Below is Frank Davis’ story, just like mine, just like millions of others who were once athletes and then life or their bellies got in their way. Frank is the first person to reach out to me and over the last month or so we have sent many emails and texts back and forth about where we are on this journey towards a healthier lifestyle and what we are doing to stay motivated. After Frank’s story I have a request. And, just like the pictures in Esquire of me in my high school uni’s, check out Frank’s pictures above, slim, fit, ready to ball.

It was matter of timing and opportunity that my new Esquire subscription came in the mail when it did. I usually throw away these subscription offers. What a waste of money, right? But a couple of months ago the offer did not reach the trash bin only because the cheap two-year subscription met my price point.

Extreme Health was the theme of the first issue I received. The first
article I read: The Regimen by Charles Spannagel. Seeing some guy’s
old high school pictures intrigued me. I hoped the story would be
about some fat guy like me. A guy who wanted to, in some small way,
resemble the man he had the potential to be.

I googled Charles in hopes of finding some back-story. What I found
was a blog and a twitter page. I realized this guy wanted to produce a
documentary called “Dunk?” and I instantly felt it was a great idea. A
30 something year old, overweight, former athlete who wanted to dunk?
The question was: Could he do it? But more intriguing to me was
another question: Is this about dunking a basketball or is it about
something more? I was unexpectedly inspired to do something.

Charles’ article and blog inspired me to contact him. I wanted to give
him the encouragement to continue the great idea of Dunk? and to let
him know he as the power to inspire guys like us to get back to our
physical and mental potential and better our lives. His positive
response to my email was encouraging. His story and the potential of
his project inspired me, so why can’t he help to encourage millions
more?

My wife is encouraging. We both agreed to chase our dreams. I watched
her overcome challenges and accomplish her goals. She has grown
tremendously, but that hasn’t been the same story for me. I didn’t
keep up my end of our bargain. At some point within the past seven
years I forgot about continuing my aspirations. I got married, but
then I was hit with a bunch of serious health problems and was fearful
of what I would put my wife through. I can make excuses using personal
challenges, numerous surgeries and illnesses, or I could blame the
shame of not keeping it together under those pressures. Excuses are
most useful for me when I don’t step up to challenges when I
definitely should and I surely can.

This past week I joined a gym. I’m back at it and going hard. Everyday
is training day for me now. I’ve lost ten pounds. Hitting the breaks
on my old lifestyle of fast food burgers, a plethora of deliciously
fried quesadillas, tacos, burritos, frozen pizzas and not taking care
of my health is, even after just a few days, a distant memory. It
wasn’t instant of course. I’ve been mentally preparing myself for
years to regain something I’ve lost. I never seemed to quite get it
going. That was until I read about another 290 plus pound dude with
the same goals who was getting it done.

What inspired me most was Charles’ depiction of the physical weakness
he felt while holding his child. I’m not as brave as Charles. I’m too
afraid to become a father. I don’t want to have those feeling Charles
shared. I’m terrified of dying of a heart attack before a son or
daughter makes it to kindergarten. I am definitely terrified of
feeling weakness around my child because honestly, it would be more
terrifying to me than anything. I would never be able to share that
feeling as Charles did, certainly not in an internationally
distributed magazine. Charles and his idea are an inspiration. Who’s
he gonna inspire next?

By Frank L Davis
Follow at: twitter.com/frankldavis & twitter.com/frankldavismma

So far this project has brought me closer to my wife, closer to my children, and now I have a friend in San Fran who is on the same journey. My request is that you send this blog out to everyone. I want as much pressure as I can get on myself from here on out. I need it. Please forward on to your family, friends, colleagues, enemies, who ever. Let’s get as many people involved in this production as possible.

Down to 240, 50 pounds to go before 12-18-2011.

244 and a Guest Speaker

I am down to 244, not a lot of weight lost, but enough to keep my spirits high and me moving forward. I peaked last year at 238, so the fact that I am only six pounds away gets me pretty pumped up. I have not been able to train with Bernie or the Shifter team for almost two weeks though, which I don’t like, but I am trying to focus on eating better. I am not eating great yet, but definitely going in the right direction. Working out at home, climbing the local mountains, lifting Kohen, it all helps.

I will be out of town next week for work which will also be a good test of dedication to the diet and working out. Currently when I am not able to rock climb or train with the shifter team, I am supposed to hike, run, play tennis or basketball (anything to test the stability of my weak ankle) and do pushups. However, not normal pushups you think of. These are pushups with my toes on top of a yoga ball, which is crazy hard. When I first started two weeks ago, I could do three sets of ten normal military style pushups. Then I moved to the yoga ball and I could do three sets of three. That was it, and by the end of the third set I was shaking and dripping sweat. Now, I can do three sets of ten before I absolutely feel like my arms will fall off.

I need to be climbing five nights a week and I am currently speaking with a couple different climbing gyms throughout the valley to be part of the production in exchange for a discounted rate. When you have no money to put into your project, you have to bring people into the fold. And this is exactly what I have done or what I am attempting to do. Everyone on the project right now (Bernie Darcy and the Shifter Team, Mike Notrica-Camera Guy, Jeff Maynick-Web, IT, and Video Editor) are all working for free. If we make it into the film festivals and some production company wants to purchase the true, yet funny, heart-warming story of how a father of three re-dedicated his life to fitness and health while slamming home a basketball happens, then everyone will get some dough. Until then we are all on this ride together.

Speaking of the ride and or journey, the next blog will be from a former athlete, who found the article in Esquire (here just in case you missed it Esquire Piece) wrote me, and we have now started a friendship. This is the first person to contact me whom I have never known and is not connected to my circle at all. If we can just get a million more people like him, production companies will be knocking down the door and Abby will finally be able to pay someone to color her hair instead of her having to do it on her own.

I will also send a couple of updates next week from Wisconsin, home of the cheese curd and boots filled with beer. Lord help me.

Esquire, the Shifter Team, 3 Solids

For those of you that follow this blog, you are likely my friend or a fan of Dunk? on Facebook (and if you are not you can follow me on Twitter at cspann85, but friend me, all the cool kids are doing it). It should have come as no surprise that my article appeared in Esquire about the genesis of the Dunk? I talked about it enough. Esquire is an established and contemporary publication and working with their editorial team was humbling, exciting, and exhausting at the same time. I received my BA in English Literature from University of San Diego and my MFA from Falmouth College in Cornwall, United Kingdom, so actually writing something and having it published in a non-student run publication is as good as it gets. What started out as a 2,000 word saga of redemption and retribution was transformed into a chiseled 700 word clear cut message. Essentially what was once a bloated, over thought and stagnant existence would become a trimmer and better version of myself. You’ve heard all of this before. Esquire legitimizes what we are doing with Dunk?. My hope is that Esquire readers need to read installment after installment. If you haven’t had the chance, you can read it here Esquire Piece.

There has been one major change to the production and what I hinted at in the last blog. I am now and will be until the end of the documentary, trained by the entire Shifter Team (Bernie Darcy and Jase Graber). I can’t thank Heather Lehman enough for getting me started, and if the truth be told I didn’t give her a 100%. I am sure if Heather heard me say that she would say something like “I didn’t give myself a 100%”. However, if I lament on the past anymore my editor (Mom) will quit so onward we go.

The Shifter Team is training me for free and the training is much more than the actual Shifter machine. Here are some words from Bernie Darcy about what my training entails. “The basic outline is: Lots of rock climbing and some hiking uphill. Basically we're utilizing the SAID (Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demand) principle to get your body to adapt to you constantly raising your center of gravity (COG) above the ground. The more strenuous the activity used to raise the COG the faster your body increases your strength to weight ratio (and overall lightness) while you're getting a great dynamic functional workout.

Rock climbing will be the launching pad to getting you into a full functional training program designed to prevent injury while setting your body up with a strong foundation to help you train to jump. This program will put highest priority on balance, symmetry, stabilizing all joints, increasing accuracy, and heightening reflexes. The next priority level will be passive range of motion followed by active range of motion while continuing to build on the other priorities I listed above. After building that strong foundation we can start working on power (this is where plyometrics come into play).

At this point your body should be setup to perform very athletic movements with a minimal injury risk. This is where Jase and I will take our knowledge of jumping technique and coach you through the timing and strategy of a quick/powerful jump.

As far as a timeline, it all depends on how well you progress through the stages. Just like you're finding in the Shifter training, each level of progression is dependent on achieving the previous level. I'm very happy with the rate of your progression at this point, but each one of the progressions has the potential to expose dis-functions in your body. When we run across those it can take some extra time to get rid of it and move on to the next thing. You're really close to finishing the Shifter progressions so now your job is to climb your ass off. As you get better at climbing and the weight starts dropping, we'll be getting further into the functional training program.” You can see Jase demonstrating the Shifter Jase Shifting

Let me translate. I will be hiking, rock climbing, and dieting. For the past three weeks I have worked out a total of 18 days out of 21. Since I started Shifting, climbing and hiking I am down 8 pounds to 248. I plateaued at 238 last June and I need to get to 185-190ish in order to dunk. Diet is my Achilles Heal, but Jase assures me the more I get my weight off the ground the less I will feel like eating. God, I hope he’s right.

The Shifter

Raise your hand if the first thing you think of when you read the title was an adult toy? (Authors note: my editor put in adult toy, I originally had “sex toy”, my editor is my mom aka THE JANE, you can see the dilemma) If you raised your hand you are not alone. All of my friends and family members have asked the same question in a variety of different ways: “the shifter, what is that? Some kind of adult toy?” www.theshifter.com , is not an adult toy as far as I can tell, unless you are into being punished, wait a minute, what kind of audience am I looking for?

The Shifter was invented by Jase Graber, a former collegiate athlete and certified trainer through National Academy of Sports Medicine. The Shifter is a machine that essentially trains athletes how to not sprain their ankles. There is no way I can explain the machine the way Jase and Bernie Darcy (Head Trainer for The Shifter) can, so I suggest you visit the website linked above and read about the studies done at Colorado State University and Arizona State University.

This isn’t my first experience with the Shifter however. Back in 2005, when I graduated from grad school, I wanted to become a sports writer for my day job as I worked on novels and screen plays at night (anyone seen that first novel by the way?). The most important lesson I took from grad school was that if you have a story that no one else has, grab it, write it, and run with it. Someone will eventually want to publish it. And, that is what I tried to do with the “Shifter” piece which got wait listed by the staff at The Republic. Well, life sometimes gets in the way and instead of pursuing a career as a writer (and never trying to re-submit the Shifter piece) I took a job with a start up called Doclopedia and five years later I am still working in health care. Please feel free to read what I wrote about the Shifter back in the day The Shifter

So, all of this being said, you know my story (if you read the blog and thank you if you do) I got married, got extremely out of shape and fat (honestly well on the way to be uber fat before that but what evvs), had some babies, started a documentary, had another baby, couldn’t afford to work out at the gym anymore, so I racked my brain for ideas to work out at home and to not quit documentary, and I thought of Bernie and the Shifter. Then I wrote the longest sentence possible.

I am four hour long sessions into the Shifter training, and it is beyond hard. I will put up some video with the next blog, but imagine continually shifting your weight back and forth, while using your entire core to keep your balance. Your brain is telling your body to go one way and you are telling your body to go the opposite way. Sounds confusing, right, it is.

This machine, if it does what Bernie and Jase claim it will do, will train me to never sprain my ankle again. I always seem to sprain my ankles, so the idea of this is amazing. Time will tell. Dunk continues, and next week we will have our biggest announcement yet, and it’s definitely not another pregnancy .

12-18-2011

I know I keep talking about the importance of engaging my audience and keeping them informed with my struggles to get back above the rim. It seems that every time I think I have a spare moment to write or video log, I end up doing something else, like eating a bean and cheese burro from America's Taco Shop, or taking a nap, or watching the "Social Network", which was phenomenal by the way (although the best movie I have seen in a long time is "The Town" but even then it might be because of my man crush on Affleck). I need to be writing more, and I need to be eating less. For the most part, I have been abiding by these rules, sometimes I slip, sometimes a hot woman (hi Mandy) visits from Oklahoma and you end up eating chips and queso. I am in the same spot, more or less, I was a year ago, physically and athletic wise. I am here and I think I am ready to try again.

Let me preface this last statement with a story about my friend Mike and I during our freshman summer of high school. That year we were members of the freshman basketball team who went undefeated (which at the time was the first team to do so at BCP). Mike was our starting power forward and I was a combo 1-2 guard who came off the bench. The season was a blast, and I worked harder than I ever had before, so when summer came around my dad and I built some homemade plyometric boxes to help improve my vertical leap. Mike and I painted a "PT" on each box, which stood for Psycho Training, and each day in the hot Arizona summer we were going to sweat it out towards greatness. Well, that lasted a week and I never made it to the Varsity team. Although, I did get a technical for dunking in warm ups the following year on the JV (which by the by is the premise for this little journey).

That summer I killed myself for about a week, maybe 10 days, and then I resumed a life of Nintendo, pizza, chasing girls, and being a lazy teenager. The reason I bring this up is because of how it correlates to me being a dad. I am in the early stages of being a father. I had a decent freshman year, and as I started my sophomore season with Henry I began to cruise. Cruising isn't going to cut it, and although I have a team mate I can rely on or who will even let me coast, it just wouldn't be fair to let her carry the load.

You see there is not a day that goes by where I don't regret choices I made in the name of laziness during high school and college. I will never know what could have been, but I am able to control what I will be. So check me out, keep me honest, keep me focused, and let's see what I can do today and tomorrow because yesterday is over. The real journey begins with this post, and I will try my hardest to get you every single detail of what Abby, Kohen, Chloe, Henry and I go through.

Charlie dunks on 12-18-2011, my 33rd birthday.

“No more excuses, I hope”

It seems I am always waiting for myself to get my act together, which drives my wife up the wall. When I first started kicking around the idea for Dunk, there wasn’t one person who didn’t absolutely love the idea of what Dunk was about. Granted most of the people who loved the idea, in fact loved me as well, (as they were all family and friends). But honestly, not one person didn’t love the idea of a documentary about a husband and father, getting back in shape, in pursuit of one amazing athletic accomplishment, dunking a basketball.

How many 270 pound portly men do you know that get sponsored by Converse(in the form of free gear) and have Esquire Magazine lined up to do a piece on them, not a heck of a lot. In fact the only portly white dude that was doing better than me in the beginning of 2010 was Kevin Smith. Ok, there are probably a lot more, but I really like Kevin Smith, and he is my only famous follower. Everything had fallen into place and all I had to do was lose 70+ pounds and dunk a basketball.

Obviously I didn’t do it, but I am still hoping I will. My entire life has been easier than most. I am not saying that my life is hard now, but I am saying it is a heck of a lot busier than it ever was with the arrival Henry Lyle, born 10-12, and starting a great new job. Abby and I have 3 kiddos, one four weeks old and the other two closing in on 18 months, which means I have to commit myself more than ever.

When we first started the documentary we had one amazing trainer (Heather at www.skyfitaz.com) two different camera men, one director, a production schedule, and two fine women lined up as producers. Now we have two camera people (Abby and I) with one Flip recorder and two other camera’s on my Droid X and her Iphone. Essentially, all we have is man power and yet to be seen determination.

I would quit, honestly I would, and I am sure there are people out there who think it would be much easier to quit when you don’t have a gym to go to, you don’t have a trainer and nutritionist guiding you, and you really don’t have any extra time. But I owe this to myself. I can hit the pavement and I know enough to lose the weight. Common sense says I should have probably never ordered anything with extra cheese. So, I am going to work out at night when I am super tired and just want to sleep, I am going to eat right, and I am going to spend every second I can get with my wife and kids. In this year Abby and I will spend more money than we ever have, and a tiny fraction of it will go to either her or me. Evidently that is how this parenting thing works, or at least that is what my mom keeps telling me.

Ps-Welcome to the world Henry, I am so excited to see what you are all about.