Join my journey in becoming "Little Riddick" as I provide a daily review of my body development progress and challenges.....

JOURNEY 1 COMPLETE - RESULTS SHOWN HERE (BEFORE & AFTER PICTURE)

Join my journey in my 2nd mission as I provide a daily review of how I will achieve six pack of beer abs, increase overall muscle(upper and lower body) and to reach 9% body fat .

JOURNEY 2 COMPLETE - RESULTS SHOWN HERE (BEFORE & AFTER PICTURE)

Join my journey in my 3rd mission as I provide a daily review of how I will achieve a leaner figure and reach 5% total body fat in 2 months time(before heading to a Caribbean beach @ the end of March).

JOURNEY 3 COMPLETE - RESULTS SHOWN HERE (BEFORE & AFTER PICTURE)

Join my journey in my 4th and last mission as I provide a daily review of how I will try to get ripped as much as possible till my last daily post on June 15th, 2010 (1 Full Year since I started (b)logging my workouts).

JOURNEY 4 COMPLETE - RESULTS SHOWN HERE (BEFORE & AFTER PICTURE)

Monday, October 25, 2010

The CN Tower Climb for the United Way : Mission Complete!

So today marks a great milestone of finally having the courage of climbing the CN Tower. I'm not afraid of the height, just the work involved to get to the top. :)



Even with all the dodging of kids and elderly people, I still managed to break my personal goal of 20 min. :) My final time was 18min and 23sec and the $120 I raised went straight to the United Way of Canada. If you are interested in making a donation yourself - click here.  It's never to late to give.

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

10 Key Strategies for Weight-Loss Success

Ready to lose some weight and make a change? Read this before starting and keep these strategies with you for the full duration of your journey. 

1. Create a Goal and make it visible

The most effective strategy to start a weight loss journey, is to create a destination or goal. Write down how much weight you would you would like to lose(or desired fat percentage), a reason why you want to lose the weight and a person/picture of someone who you would like to look like. Keep your goal easily visible for you to see everyday by placing it on your phone(iphone/blackberry pda), desktop, bathroom mirror or any place that you know you will see everyday. Sounds silly, but it's not. You need to work the mind before you work the body - plain and simple. 

2. Lower your expectations, start small and be patient

We all seen the misleading advertisements on TV and the internet saying that you can lose 20 pounds in a week(as an example). One of the biggest mistakes is to believe that a person can lose 20 pounds in a week, only to get disappointed a week later and then quit right away. Losing weight takes time. The average amount of weight a person can lose 'safely' (no pills, drugs, etc) is 1 to 3 lbs per week. If you are hitting this range, you are doing well. So, be patient - there will be times when you think you havn't lost a single pound or see that the waist line hasn't decreased for all the hard work you put in for the week.  Again, be patient and continue to work hard as you cannot reach your destination overnight - it will take time. Have faith in yourself - your rewards of change are soon to come.

Words to live by: "Every small step forward are giant leaps over time." 

3. If you fail to plan, you plan to fail

Before you can start a journey and reach your destination(goal) you will need a map to get there. Right? In this day and age, there is no need to reinvent the wheel. There are many exercise/nutritional programs out there that will either place you on a 'diet' to restrict food groups (e.g Atkins) w/ limited weight training or plans that focus on all food groups and work the whole body effectively. To be blunt, if you plan to change your life with healthy eating for the long run, the better choice is not to restrict any food groups. Also, try to choose a plan that incorporates weight training as well as cardio. Very important. 

From what I believe(and after much searching around the net), the best program I found and tried myself was the RTP Transformation System. I will never regret the day I started and will always remind myself that if I stop living the healthy lifestyle(eating right and exercise) I can be looking at 'ground 0' once again.  The before and after pictures speak for themselves. If you are interested in the RTP System(sorry, no longer avail), I would strongly recommend checking out Tom Venuto's "Burn The Fat, Feed the Muscle" system that RTP was based from. I truly believe that most diet/exercise plans will indeed provide results, but it will all depend on 'you' to action on every item that it promotes. Good Luck with whatever plan you choose, but please do not skip this crucial step. Pickup a plan today.

4. Get a partner or simply ask for help

Got a spouse or really good friend? Get her/him involved as well. It's much easier to reach goals when you have someone else reaching for the same goal. Don't have a friend to help out? Ask....Get into a social environment (such as Twitter, Facebook or any Weight Loss Forums) to help you out. We live in a great time where information is readily available and very knowledgeable people who are more than willing to help an online hand. =) 

5. Set your mind to change your old habits to new healthy habits

As part of your new Healthy Lifestyle, you'll soon notice that the smallest of actions you take will make a huge impact over time. An example would be grabbing the apple instead of a donut, or taking the stairs instead of the elevator. All these actions add up within your day and will become as natural as brushing your teeth, taking off the AC when not in use or something as simple as locking the front door. 

6. Believe in Yourself and Reward Yourself - All the time. 

You've already started on your wight loss plan and consistently thinking about your destination/goal. You must believe in yourself that you are going to reach your goal and understand that  after your days/weeks of hard work, there will be a reward at the end. Always make an excuse to celebrate - just try not to celebrate with high calorie foods unless it's your weekly 'reward meal'. Another good idea is to save $50.00 / week to purchase something nice for yourself. As an example, if you are on 12 week weight loss program and saving $50.00 per week, you'll have $600 to spend on new clothes! =) 


7. If you Fall Down, Get Back Up

Remember learning to ride a bike for the 1st time? When you fell off - you got back on right?  You continuously motivated yourself to get back on, because quitting was not an option and you really liked that new bike. =) Always keep your goal in mind and visually think of how your life will be once you reach your destination. Create that 'happy place' and refer back to it every-time you think you are slipping away from your journey. Many people think that if they miss a workout day, you have to make up for the day and therefore the whole week is a failure. Not true..Just pickup where you left off and continue the journey. Just do not quit.

You will succeed if you do not quit. 

8. Write your actions down


Studies have shown that you are more likely to stick with your weight loss plan if you write down your healthy actions for the day. Whether it's tracking your daily progress, placing in a personal occurrence of the day where you were weak or to expose a fear that you may not been aware of. You can learn from it with each passing day going forward. There are many online forums that offer areas to post a daily workout journal, or if you want to keep it private write in a spiral book or use Microsoft Word and document each day. Highly recommended as this will help you identify your bad habits and create good habits.

9. Prepare your meals and workout the night before 


You probably heard this many times from personal trainers, "Preparation is Key" - and it's true....Preparation will be the key factor to your body transformation success. The night before you go to bed, make sure you know what time you are going to the gym as well what you will be doing. Have your gym clothes ready, bag packed and running shoes near the door. As for food, cook the night before and have everything packed in containers for the next day or for the next few days. Veggie Soup is a great example of you can make that will last for days and is quite good for you.

By preparing the previous day, you will :
  • Keep on track with your calorie count
  • Avoid fast food(save money too)
  • Guarantee that you receive your 5 to 6 small meals a day
  • Know in advance of your exercises for that day, so your mind is prepared of what you will be doing
  • Know what to wear in advance to avoid any delay or cancellation of getting into the gym

Having everything prepared for you in advance will be one less thing to worry about when dealing with your daily activities. For an example of how I prepared during my journey, see here.


10. Fun, Fun and more Fun!

Now that you're on your journey, you have to enjoy it and make the best of it. If you look outside, there are many people getting their exercise by either rollerblading, jogging, cycling or walking the paths. If you are not into those options, try picking up a sport you've always wanted to play - hockey, tennis, soccer, baseball, basketball and etc...Get you friends together and start a league. Or on a nice warm evening, take your significant other and go for a walk. How about that new workout outfit or shoes you always wanted to buy - go buy it to make yourself feel good and motivated. Always look for ways to enjoy the ride and have fun. =)

- Little Riddick


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Thursday, July 29, 2010

Good to be Back : A Quick Update

I'm Back! - It's been over 6 weeks since my last post and I haven't changed a bit (good thing). =) Prior to writing this post, I had a quick flashback as soon as I saw how I looked over a year ago...yikes!...

But, I'm still on my game with healthy eating , with lots of cardio, less time in the gym(so I can enjoy the outdoors more) and lots of sleep. Average active days per week is about 4 times per week these days(instead of a solid 6 times per week).

To give a quick recap for the passed 6 weeks, Toronto had the world leaders in town for the G20 where I dodged a million cops while on the blades and unfortunately had our beautiful city ruined by 'out of town' anarchist by the time the G20 ended. It took a few weeks for our city to recover, but we're back in business and now I can enjoy my cup of java at Starbucks at Queen and John. hehehe...
Since my last update, I got a new pair of 'top of the line' Crossfire Pro Rollerblades (shown below) with 100mm wheels and now I'm zippin all over the place passing bikes and at times - even cars... Yaaa - these are very quick, very comfortable(using 360 wrap technology) and highly recommended.
To throw in a little more fun into my cardio routine, I joined the company baseball team and quite surprisingly, I have not hit a dinger as of yet....But I'm still working on that....
Another physical activity I got involved in was mountain biking, where I rented a $4000 'tricked out' Trek mountain bike and rode 25K in the forests of Hardwood Hills with a few good buds...Yes - that was tiring as hell but a wicked experience riding over logs, "skinny's", rocks, down steps and maneuvering sharp corners and trees!! (It's a good thing that I have good stamina these days - I wouldn't have survived this a year ago)...Again, highly recommended!!
Aside from the TFC games(Toronto soccer league), camping in Montreal Quebec, shirtless at Wasaga Beach, watching the Honda Indy and just hanging outside catching a ray or 2 from the hot a$$ sun, I have been just chillin and having a good time as usual.... =)

So looking at my last post, I think I have passed a good test to keeping healthy thus far without placing a post everyday and further proof that with a healthy lifestyle change, you can not only reach your goals, but sustain your goals for years to come(in my case, months thus far). But that won't stop me by placing a useful healthy living post to assist you in reaching YOUR own goals....so stay tuned for a new article with some useful healthy tips.... =)

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Reaching Riddick - Last Daily Post - End of the Road.

1 FULL YEAR from the day I started....Wow...how time flies. So, looking back at my 4 journeys, nothing came easy, but of what I see from my results(thus far), the continuous hard work, determination, persistence and patience has paid off in the end.


Putting aside modesty, it feels damn good to (finally) reach my goal and I am still in disbelief that it's only been a year!! Hehehe... But let's rewind back to day 1..... I was 25% fat, at a whopping 193 lbs, not much muscle, clothes shopping was considered a chore and I was hairy like a bear/sasquatch. ;) Ya, prior to my decision to change, I was careless with my health and did not care much about my physique(hence why I hit ground 0 - fearing that I would reach 200 lbs). The choice to change my current image is something that I will never, ever forget and can see myself using this path of success for other things going forward in my life.

Three months after reaching ground 0 and 'actioning' on my plans to lose the weight, I had reached a milestone I never thought in my wildest dreams of reaching. At this point I had lost 25 pounds and reached 14% fat. I could have stopped at this point, but this drove my motivation to reach even higher altitudes.



I then created another goal to reach 9% fat and to show some abs in another 3 months time. With so much momentum from the 3 months prior, there was no way this train was gonna stop! =) And there I was, mission accomplished, showing (somewhat) abs for the 1st time in my life. Again, very surreal.



The 3rd journey was to get even more leaner and to reach 5% fat. Three months later, I was on the beach of Punta Cana, Dominican Republic partying it up for reaching 5.9% fat and looking even more leaner.



Which now bring me to the final and 4th journey (2.5 months) of first sustaining for the 1st month, then later decided to change my goal to leaning up in the final weeks. So, I now sit at 164 lbs, and 5.83% fat. Looking at the numbers in comparison to journey 3 it's not much, but can see a slight difference.

Week 48 & Final Stat Results
 
So with numbers aside, I'm quite proud of what I accomplished in this journey and can see myself getting even more leaner by the end of the summer. As you can probably gather, my lifestyle has taken a serious overhaul to include healthier eating choices and becoming more active in my days.  So the days going forward could only be easier as my old bad habits have evolved to healthier habits and I'm loving it. =)

Journey 4 Complete - Final Journey - 1 Year from Ground 0 
Pic 1

Journey 4 Complete - Final Journey - 1 Year from Ground 0 
Pic 2 - Front Flex

Journey 4 Complete - Final Journey - 1 Year from Ground 0 
Pic 3 - Back Flex

Journey 4 Complete - Final Journey - 1 Year from Ground 0 
Pic 4 - Back Flex
Journey 4 Complete - Final Journey - 1 Year from Ground 0 
Pic 5


Journey 4 Complete - Final Journey - 1 Year from Ground 0 
Pic 6


So where do I go from here? I continue to run from bounty hunters, escape captivity from any situation possible, kill any obstacle that get's in my path and save the universe.

Naahh..just kiddin.. =)..I live the same enjoyable healthy lifestyle as last summer, fall, winter and spring again. This time, I just won't be documenting my workouts 'every day', which in perspective can see it being a challenge. The whole blogging thing and keeping track is what really motivated me to work hard each day and would recommend anyone else who is starting up their own 'little journey', to do the same. It doesn't have to be created for the whole world to see (like what I have done here), but there are a lot of private online forums that offer and encourage workout blogs/progress updates or better yet you can always use your Blackberry, iPhone, or can go 'old school' and just use a notepad. Again, I highly recommend it.

Each day I looked forward to providing an update of what I did the previous day, while at the same time looking forward to what I was going to do that day. Plus, every-time I figured something out related to weight training or if there was a challenge, I would post it - hoping that if someone does read it, they will learn from my mistakes instead of making their own.

So from this day forward, the daily postings will unfortunately cease as the Road to Riddick has finally come to an end. But this won't stop me from placing a post every once an a while. To ensure I stay fit as well as educate others of how to battle the bulge or make some muscle gains, I will occasionally place in a post if either I learned something new(a tip) in regards to healthy living, a brief update of my progress of sustaining of what I have, or heck if I have a rant, I'll place it in here too...Hey, it's my playground right? My rules!! =) Muahahaahaa!!. ;-)

If anyone is interested in one-on-one weight training either via email, text or facebook, please let me know. I'd be more than happy to assist. It's the very least  I can do to pay back for all the positive and uplifting comments received from all of you on this blog as well as other websites. And this is my way of giving back.

Good Luck to you all and I thank all my fans who stuck with me during my journey through your words of encouragement providing me the will and strength to go even further. Thanks again! =)



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Monday, June 14, 2010

Workout log 347 - Toronto Sightseeing

With only one day left till my last daily I post, I used this day to blade around the city and the lakeshore.

With spending only an hour on the blades, my bud and I scoped a few things that were quite interesting...Namely the 2 gorgeous ladies in the windows of MissBehav'n, sportin' their sweet and sexy lingerie. Niiiicce...Ya...we spent a good 10-15 min 'hanging around' the window...hehehe.. :)
Also on the lakeshore, we also noticed a chinup machine in the middle of a park that uses your body weight(as you sit) as you try to push down on the bars. Pretty cool. I tried it a few times and it seems kinda effortless. But can see this being a cool toy for kids 10+.
Tomorrow is my last day of reporting my daily workouts, but will be planning to get into the gym in the evening if the morning is too cold for a blade. Lookin' forward to it. ;)
 
Mission 4 Commitments - Status of the Day


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Sunday, June 13, 2010

Workout Log 346 - Back in the Gym

Eventhough I was still recovering from Friday night's night out, I went to the gym and completed back, biceps, chest and calves.

 Ooooo..Ouch....

Since I missed out on yesturday's workout, I felt I should have done a bit of cardio, but I can tell that my body still hasn't fully recovered from Friday nights party (geeze...with losing the weight and all, I'm now a light weight!! wtf?).

Anyhow, scheduled for tomorrow is cardio and 2 more days till my last daily post and the end of my 4th journey. Cheeyyaaa! 

Mission 4 Commitments - Status of the Day


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Saturday, June 12, 2010

Workout Log 345 - Hangin over..

Uuhhhh ya...Didn't wake up till 12pm today. Since Captain Morgan kicked me in the head last night, I woke up with a splitting headache. Not too sure if it was his heel that hit me, or the alcohol content causing the hangover. I'm still trying to figure it out.... :-p

With that being said, I unfortunately had to skip out on today's scheduled workout and a few missed meals. Not exactly what I was expecting for today but definitely needed a day to recover. Yes, the unfortunate cost of having too good of a time...

Tomorrow will try to get some cardio or head to the gym. Will have to play it by ear. 


Mission 4 Commitments - Status of the Day

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Friday, June 11, 2010

Workout Log 344 - Chillin with Captain Morgan

Did make an attempt to go for a workout today, but was kidnapped by Captain Morgan and a few of my buds to hang out for the evening.

The drink of choice today was Captain Morgans Long Island Ice Tea. Prior to reaching our hangout spot, we took a trip into the LCBO where they were giving out free samples of Captain Morgan's Long Island Iced Tea. 2 min after taking the free shot, not only I but 3 of my other buddies got a good buzz off the 1 small little shot. Definitely sold me as well as the others and purchased 2 for the night (pretty cheap @ $14.95 CDN each for a 750ml bottle).
To give a little detail : each bottle contains rum, vodka, tequila, gin and triple sec. 34 proof (17% alcohol by vol.) One powerful punch, eh?! Directions? Add ice to cup, pour and down the hatch! No need to mix with anything, definitely a creeper and don't drink more than half the bottle...you - will - get - 'crunk'! So, I couldn't exactly find the amount of calories for this bottle, but can provide an estimate based upon the ingredients. See below for the calorie count.
It's a whopping 400 calories per drink. Not exactly a diet drink(as with any alcoholic drink) and therefore shall suffer the consequences for indulging in this delicious drink. If you have tasted a Long Island Iced Tea before, this will taste the same but IMO this is a little stronger than your average long island iced tea...If you are 'light weight' (apparently I fall in this category now), drink with lots of ice and sip away or just add a little tonic to it. I can seriously see this drink being a huge hit this summer as it packs a serious punch for the price you pay.

By the end of the night, we squeezed out every drop of the Captain's drink and will definitely buy again. 5 out of 5 in my books... Tomorrow, even-though the weather ain't lookin' too good, will try to get out and get a blade in and get some cardio - if I can wake up.

Mission 4 Commitments - Status of the Day

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Thursday, June 10, 2010

Workout Log 342 - Chinup Challenge

Since going to bed a little later than usual, I unfortunately slept in and missed the morning workout.

However in the evening(my 2nd chance to get in the gym), I was pretty pumped up and completed 45 min on the bike and did a 'few' chinups prior to the cycle to get the blood  flowing as a warm up.

For the 1st time, since last year I tried the reverse chinups and was able to complete 33 chinups..Yes 33!! A year ago, I could have done maybe 5 or 6....Nowadays, I'm just killin it!! Hehehe, to come to think of it, I was even getting cocky about it by having my legs out parellel to the ground - working the abs at the same time !! ;) So surreal, I tell ya.. (*shaking my head*)....I'm sure by months end, I could hit 40 chinups - easy...And that's my challenge.
Anyhow, for tomorrow I'm just gonna do about an hour of cardio in the evening with the blades seeing that the sun should be coming out later in the day...If not, back in the gym, on the bike and more chinups... ;)

Mission 4 Commitments - Status of the Day


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