Headshot Crew is here and we need this crew in shape!

Hmmm...I'll have to think about it. Great community-spirited incentive. Yes health is super important and I'm only just figuring that out. The problem for me is cardio fitness more than weight. And managing alcohol - we Aussies like to drink and the culture of it is pervasive. I write this as I sip my wine. Good luck everyone! Can I jump on board a bit late if I want to? x

My wife suggest pilates and I agreed. Then I found out it is some sort of exercise and not a diet of Pie and Lattes.

I'm in, and may have found a new motivation. I'll be at the AIBP retreat in November 2015, and my wife and I will be posing for boudoir at that time for some poor hapless photographer. Stats and photos to come.

Hello everyone, Happy New Year and lots of success for all of you!!
I´ll be joining you guys, I need to gain some weight and this is the perfect group to join in !! :-)
I´ll be sending some pics.
By the way, make your goals MASSIVE! So big that when you awake in the morning, you are ready to go and workout!!
Good workout to all of you!! :-)

I'm in! I'm with Daniel... I need to gain some weight and redistribute what years of gravity have done!!!
Am off for a few weeks to Cambodia and Laos, though, first. Photo gig for a non profit....LOTS of lifestyle portraits and hopefully shebangs in my near further.

I've been doing P90X for 70 days! But I have a bit further to go. Come on ladies! Don't be shy! Send in that pic to Peter. I will get mine to you Peter this week ;)

Il do it too. Ive been on leave from work, been eating Gluten again out of laziness. Currently 205lbs.

I’m jump on board and look forward to the camaraderie and accountability. I just hit 51 years and although I could probably lose about 15 lbs I need to reclaim my physical health. Quitting smoking, building muscle mass and getting my water intake up are my goals. I saw an interesting article come across my FB feed that suggest 16-24 oz of water immediately upon waking up every morning – this jump starts your body for the day and I have been doing this for about 1 month. Next step, quitting the smoking this week and two fitness classes per week. Thanks Peter for fitness challenge! I will try and get a before pic to Peter this week :)

Also there is merit in adding a little lemon juice to that water Laurie, or lemon, grapefruit, or orange essential oil, just a couple drops, a little goes a long way. This was just a quick google and the first article I found about it, so research a bit more about it. http://www.fitday.com/fitness-articles/fitness/we…

It's tough to maintain a healthy lifestyle when you've been injured, Peter. Over the years I've had to rehab myself back into shape after a couple of back surgeries. Up until 2012 I ran the Vancouver Marathon 13 years in a row, but my streak came to an end when I re-herniated a disc in a work accident and it didn't take long for the weight to start piling on when i wasn't running fifty miles a week! In the wise words of my Doctor, you have to be careful not to eat your pain. When we're suffering in life, it's only human nature to look for solace, comfort and some small measure of pleasure where we can find it. Meet my good friend, Ms. Mars Bar.... :). My racing weight was around 180, but I've been flirting with 230 this past year. yikes! I'm getting another procedure in a week's time, and my old running crew wants me to get back on the trails, so this post is rather amazing synchronicity. I'd like to think I have one more Boston Marathon in me. And when you see my Buddha belly you will bask in the inner glow of knowing that yes, there is always somebody in worse shape than you! :).

Ahoy Captain!

I boarded the PH2Pro ship 2 years ago the day after I was released from ER room on my 3rd day of vacation… since then back to ER and, finally, surgery while I was taking the Headshot Intensive…
On that day I gave up coffee (let's say I was an espresso afficionado) cold-turkey and have never ever touched it again.
The past 18 months have been very challenging on my body and also my psyche. I felt fatigued and did not enjoy sports anymore as I did prior (some of you know that I am the Director of the best known yogastudio in town). I was not even enjoying my beloved yoga classes anymore.
Finally, my wife pushed me taking up some running again, and I splurged on an expensive running vest and some tights for colder months. Best investment in months…four times weekly , after dropping my daughter off at school, I go for a 30-40 minute fun run (including pushups as well as handstands). The cardio boost changes my energy for the day. I started to enjoy my yoga practice again and combined with both exercise routines, it enhances a positive outlook.
This being said, I need to shed some weight, too and am looking forward to 2015.

Because of I see so many people at the studio breaking good resolutions, here are a couple of easy tips to follow. I would not go too radical

Food:
- Reduce your calorie intake: enjoy your pasta, but put half of it on your plate. Add extra salad and greens of all sorts.
- Experiment with fresh food and find out what you like.
- Cut the alcohol. Alcohol makes you slow.
- Discover alcohol-free beers, I like Beck's alcoholfree which is nicely bitter and very tasty. Careful - while it doesn't contain alcohol, it still has unwanted calories.
- Drink plenty of water, ideally still water. Sparkling bloats your belly. Start with a full glass (approx 4-5dl, 18oz.) in the morning, add several throughout the day. I would be careful with loading up water before going to sleep - you'll have to get up during the night…
- Cut any sodas, even the “diet version”. All of those do not satisfy your thirst and create craving for sugar.
- Cut anything sugar, even those no calorie alternatives.
- Cut anything fried or too creamy.
- Experiment with new food. I guess you all are visual and aware: observe the texture of the food, the way it cuts, smells, tastes in its raw form, slightly steamed or cooked.
Indulge to the best food available, the food that satisfies you so deeply that basically one spoonful is sufficient. I have found wonderful icecreams at Wholefoods on my trips to California where I stop eating them beause they tastes so effing good.

Sports:
- Start slow. Make decisions that your body can cope with. If you have many pounds to shed, chances are your cardiovascular system is not trained anymore. Worst thing you could do is starting the year in a spinning class or a hot yoga class, as this could provoke to a collapse…
Find a class that suits your level, something that you can see yourself going on along the year.
When I picked up running again, I managed to run less than half a mile and had to walk for some time. I was devasted having not managed to do my 5K run as I used to. I kept repeating it several times a week and after maybe 3 weeks I went full distance.
- On the iphone 6 there is a cool app included which tells me the distance I have run&walked, how many floors I have climbed. And it is a hell of a motivator when you slouch off.
- When you start physical activity, fat is transformed into muscle mass. Muscles are heavier, so don't get demotivated if you don't loose weight as fast as you'd wish.
- Create your special time for your routine. Maybe before work in the morning, where there is no excuse not to do it.
- Vary the activities, running, cycling, snow-shoveling, pilates, yoga, weight-lifting, rollerblading…
-Persist. It doesn't matter what you do, as long as you do it regularly. A habit is developed after 30 day.

Personally I find running boring, not fun. I make it fun by making snapshots along the way with my iPhone (is there a way to post them here?), high-five “my” street-cleaners and varying the routes.

My goal is to shed 8 kilos.
I should also go swimming (not in the lake, brrr) to prepare for this summer's waves…

Ship ahoy, Headshot Crew - let's rock this in 2015!
Thanks for launching this Captain Hurley

Just a thought but does anyone use any trackers such as MyFitnessPal.com, etc. In the past I've found them helpful if for nothing else then simply keeping me honest. I restarted my old one so if anyone does use it feel free to add me at: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/anonyChris

Or if there is another more popular one maybe post the link here?

I use Lose It on my iPhone and I love it. The new version allows you to "scan" your food in so you don't have to do the tedious thing of entering the nutritional info for the stuff you are eating. You enter your current weight and then you state how much you want to lose and in what time and it helps you keep focused!

Been making a conscious effort to watch my weight and health for the last year and a half already so will vow to continue doing the same :) ... could stand to lose another 15lbs, but no photos :P

Peter. Here's my two cents to support your new adventure. I have competed in many sport my whole life, specially diving. I did all the international competitions available at the time, Olympics, etc... you name it.That was during the years of Greg Louganis, if you remember his name. So the world of health and fitness is not new to me.
The most "Innocent and accepted drug" that kills the most people around the world is Sugar.
Loosing weight by cutting food does not work. If you are still eating sugar it will keep you hungry, the industry knows it and that is why it is in everything. Cut all wheat products, cookies, crackers, etc... Coke and softdrinks.
It is about stabilizing the amount of glucose in you blood that will help you not be hungry and feel even all through out the day.
Eating the right type of food will help you eat less.
Drinking vegetables juices would be one great way to loose weight and healthy.
Make your juices tasty, add ginger, lime, pears to have them taste great. Don't over do the fruit juice in it like apple and don't only make it out of carrots. The greener the better.
Drinking a vegetable juice in the morning doesn't do anything. Make enough to drink it all day. Every couple of hours drink 2/3 to a cup. You get the "Munchies" drink more juice. Use the App you have and drink your juice!!!
By the time lunch come around you will not be as hungry and your meal smaller. The same thing with dinner.
Enjoy your meals and keep them tasty. Don't even cut the fat!!! Eat a great stake two or three times a week, enjoy your potatos and yams and for dessert have an apple with some cheese.
The key is absolutely no sugar and wheat, but keep drinking you vegetable juices.
As of Jan 1st, my son and I are doing it. I know it will not be easy because you have kids around you also.
PS. A great juicer is the Omega 400. Very quite and slow RPM, only 80. You will not wake up anyone up in the morning making your juice.
The better in shape you get, the easier it will be.
You will make it. Good luck.
RV
PS. I have another idea for all of us, but lets see where this goes.

I'm in. This is just the perfect and positive start to the new year and to put closer to the personally draining, ups and downs blur we had the last two months of 2014. With two deaths in our family, my sister losing her job early November, my father having pneumonia and the overall blur of Christmas, etc. A new outlook on myself, positive changes, upping my drained energy can only make a better me! Just turned 53 in Dec. weight 180, I need to lose 35. My goal is to workout 3 days a week through March and then up the workouts to 5 days a week.

First post I came back to and it's a much welcomed kick in the ass as usual. I'M IN!!! Photos coming soon. I'll probably regret it, but WTH. Sorry to read about the losses in your family, Stacy.

Thank you Joel, not totally unexpected. Just ready to close out last year and start fresh!

Oh wow, just what I need! I've been stuck to a desk job for 8 years and not having enough exercise, I gained weight through the years. I need to lose at least 50 lbs to get back to my fighting form. I'm in!!! My wife and my knees will love me for doing this.

Hey it looks like the entire crew is onboard :)
Dont forget guys that a diet is not enough without sport.
Without it It will take decades to loose the same amount of weight than some months with sport.
Dont push yourself too much at the beginning (sport)
First you have to work your stomach and teach him that he is going to eat less.
Eat half the quantity you used to eat. You can ear what you want but half of it (at the beginning) because you dont want to be sad stopping all the good stuffs at the first day !
Eating half of usual, your stomach volume will decrease and the half quantity will be your full quantity in 15 days. This is the hardest part of the beginning so be strong !!
About sport do it 2 times per week minimum.
30-45 min each time and drink galons of water.
That is what worked for me.
Today it's been 2 years without any sport so i am in and its more converting 5 kilos into muscles :)
So dont forget :

- work you stomach
- sport 2 times by week Minimum!
- 45min each, Maximum
- drink water

Thanks for the tips Ricardo, looking into the Omega400 now.
We use the Vitamix… our neighbors must love us on the weekend ; )

I'm definitely on the wrong end of the scale. Been gluten free for a little over a week now and I've also been working out. My goals are a bit different, but hopefully weight will diminish as a byproduct of my life changes. Best of luck to everyone! Hope you all reach your goals! Sure you will!

HOLY CRAP PETER! That's one week!

Great job dude, instant results!

Wow, Peter. You look great!! Amazing change in just one week! Keep it up!

Hanns, there goes your Associate status buddy xD

Hey Chewbacca, get that stuff under control! :) :) :)
Here you go... http://www.beardpros.com/wp-content/uploads/Phill…

Wish you had started this earlier. A few days after we last saw each other in Seattle I went cold turkey on sugar, wheat, and dairy. I didn't take a before photo, but I'm down 25 lbs since then. Will see you at Imaging! In the meantime, I'll see if I can find an older photo to show where I was at.

Loosing weight 2 fast sucks. It never last long before it comes back..
Every time i wanted to loose weight i "worked" my stomach for 15 days. I didnt say to eat half for all the diet period. I said eat half for this 15 first days (and yes, eat as usual, but half)
Then start learning to eat healthy

Way to go Peter!!!!!

INFORMATION, INFORMATION, INFORMATION.

Okay guys, some of you might know i have a medical background and have been through the training mill a few times. Here is some information tips and tricks that help when trying to get into shape and lose some weight.

I have a cookbook for training. It has 30 breakfast, 30 lunch and 30 dinners that are clean, gluten free and you can prep most in advance.

anyone who wants it, is welcome to it totally free. email me and i will forward it on. johnmurrayphotography@gmail.com

Calories: People often mistake Calories as the things that cause you to gain weight, often shying away from Calorie intake to try lose weight. the truth is, your body requires a minimum number of Calories per day (different for different people) Mine is 1200 per day, this is just to live. If you take in less than this, your body goes into a type of hibernation mode, and your body stores the energy (calories) as adipose tissue (Fat).

Low Cal or reduced fat foods. These are not the way to go, EVER.. they are treated with hormones etc to remove fat content and can over time be a catalyst for medical issues to flare up.
Not just this, your body NEEDS fatty acids, the best type are fatty acids that come from animal fats as they are quite close to human fat. You by ingesting levels of fatty acids from meats, oily fish, nuts etc, will promote your metabolism to search for Fats as the first line of energy.

Carbs are good. REFINED Sugars are bad. Carbs are essentially sugars. Your body breaks down carbohydrates and creates glucose. Insulin then takes these sugars to feed the muscles and cells with energy. (this is when your body has exhausted using fats)

Refined Sugars have NO NUTRITIONAL Value what so ever. They will provide you with a very short term energy source, but this causes an insulin spike which causes you to store adipose tissue. (inches) Along with insulin spiking, it causes energy spikes and dips. When you have energy, its a lot, when you don't, you crash.

Concentrated Juices WARNING!! Like a glass of juice with breakfast, each glass of juice has roughly the juice of 4 oranges. When is the last time you sat and at 4 oranges in one sitting? Your body neither wants or needs this level of sugar in the morning. Not just that, these juices go through a process where by the juice is extracted from the fruit, stripped of Fibrin which is your Fibre intake (For keeping the bowels regular), Also when they strip the juice, it creates a clear sugar syrup, essentially refined sugar, like straight from the bowl for your coffee. This has no nutritional value.

Gluten, I am totally gluten free, hard when you have a real Italian as father inlaw who was a Chef. Pizza pizza pizza. pasta pasta pasta.
Gluten is a protien, 50 years ago, levels of gluten in wheat products was pretty ok, then some genius decided to XRAY the ground to promote the growth of products and give extra yield annually. (MR. Profit). This helped to make grain cheaper.

Unfortunately what it did was increase the Gluten content in the grains by approx 5000%. I don't care who you are, Human Evolution doesn't go that fast in 50 years. This mutated gluten causes an inflammatory reaction which aggravates illness such as respiratory, neurogenic etc.

Gluten Free Foods, be careful with these, they can have a higher GI than Gluten based foods, not good when your trying to lose weight.

Protein. Every meal should have Protein in it. Roughly the size of the palm of your hand for meats etc.

Figure out your dietary needs, some people are Protein dependent, some are carb dependent. Its important to understand this to sort your diet.

So thats the food stuff out of the way. Exercise!!

3 Exertions a week is the rule. But before you do that. You need to be flexible. There is no sense in telling a man or woman to pick something up from the floor, if they can't bend to pick it up.

Stretching is very very very important. If you are to exercise upper body, stretch upper body, hips and legs (you will be using legs too as stability), lower body work out you can leave out upper stretches.

http://www.sportsinjuryclinic.net/rehabilitation-…

The way your anatomy works is, your joints starting at your toes are for stability, ankles mobility, knees, stability, pelvis mobility, spine, stability (until C1, C2 in the neck (Atlas/Axis) Mobility. Shoulders Mobility from spine- stability and down the arm.

so its stability mobility, stability, mobility. Anywhere that needs mobility, needs to be stretched. anywhere stability, needs strenghtening.

Personally i train in Barefoot shoes or in my bare feet. I stretch my feet to create better stability. This is just a broom handle on the floor, and press your foot onto it, between big toe and second toe with the back end on the opposite side of heel.

This is the way your feet are supposed to be, when people were all cavemen and looked like Peter!!

Things like Mountain Climber Crawls and stretch walks, ( stand feet together, bend over and put hands on the ground, walk hands out as far as you can then walk your feet back into your hands with your feet flat on the floor.. gets easier after some time)

These will give you a good foundation for training and for better flexibility and mobility. You will see better results from training.

If you don't have a trainer and are in the gym. Work bigger muscles first. No sense in training biceps and triceps, then attempting bench press with fatigued muscles, ending up squashed under a barbell.

Work your core every session!!
You are trying to strengthen all of the muscles around your midriff, not just have great abs.

a great core workout is (Do this without a break then take a 60 second break and do 2 more times.

Ankle touches. On your back, knees bent 45% lift shoulders off floor and move from side to side touching your ankles 20 seconds
sit ups, knees in the same position as ankle touches, sit up and touch top of knees. 20 seconds
leg and arm raises. Lay flat arms above head outstretched, keep legs and arms straight and raise them to the sky at same time, up and down (don't touch feet on the floor) 20 seconds (when you have more strength, hold a weight in your hands)
Ab ball, kneel with your elbows on a gym ball hands locked and roll the ball out to your hands and back. 20 seconds (as you gain strength go to an ab roller
Plank 30 seconds. into press up position with Elbows on the floor hands together and legs out stretched and straight. On your toes and elbows. stay strong.
Left plank. On the side of your foot, and elbow. body straight right arm in the air
right plank same, opposite.

If you can't do all of these core exercises at the start, don't worry. try 4, then add more as you get stronger.

Fitness, nutrition and religion. The trinity of topics from which I try to stay away in a discussion.

Kevin add politics to that! lol

John VERY generous of you! I have sent you an email. :)

Kevin - I agree on those, you left out the second most contentious behind religion, politics. Don't want to offend any conservative liberal hippy right winged atheist agnostic types

John, thanks for the information - especially the mobility and stretching information. I'll also e-mail you for the 30 meals cookbook - my wife was looking for something just like this.

I am getting hungry from all those don'ts...

Don'ts reminds me of Donuts. ( the dunkin kind)

No pictures for me but still working it. I've gained 25 lbs. since I left corporate and opened my studio. Not enough time to exercise, too little sleep and eating too many meals at my desk. I have been on every diet known to man (some unknown). There is no magic bullet. So I'm sticking with what I know works, move more, eat less, eat right, reduce stress, make time and get enough sleep.

You know, I studied Peter's photo and the only wrong thing I see on it is, that he didn't get his head forward and chin down a little!!!! :)

Interesting to read the different dieting philosophies. I already know what works for me so I'm sticking to it but John Murray's post is a very helpful read - the facts about gluten are new to me but I'm going to incorporate reducing gluten intake as a result. Finally, managed to shift the flu/virus/cold that's been hanging over me so yesterday started out exercising with my first session of the year on the fluid rower! It all has to start somewhere. Also I realize that my initial post set out my goals but not the starting point which, in the absence of a photograph, was 209.8lbs.

Okay, so my official weigh in is at 264.5 lbs. The holiday stuff is over and I can focus on a healthy me. Pretty excited to have a crew of support folks to be on the journey with. Long term goal is an extremely healthy 180lbs, but short term is to be below 250lbs for WPPI. Focus will be small changes including tracking what I'm eating, drinking more water and getting active. Let's do this!

Try the mean green of Joe.
See his movie Fat Sick & Nearly Dead at his site Rebootwithjoe.com
Good luck.