Friday, August 31, 2007

"Marketing" Health & 180

So I was flying home to Atlanta the other day working on my new Child Obesity Prevention Workshop I'm doing this fall in California. And of course, there was an obese guy sitting next to me. Now...I could have NOT pulled up my CDC Obesity Trends slide show and my presentation as to not offend him, but instead, I pulled it and made sure he saw it. Yo! It's called marketing HEALTH, and I do it anyway that I can!!! You can bet the people behind me were watching those slides too--absolutely incredible visuals if you haven't seen them. I just posted my Obesity Update slides on my website...you can see them under my Handout section. I've got a really different way of thinking about things--THANK GOD! Because otherwise I'd be joining a whole generation of obesity and inactivity problems! Example: My lower back was really bothering me last week. My driving schedule was very intense in August. I felt like my back was hurting for two reasons. 1) I was driving a lot which is horrible for your back. 2) I have not been doing enough multi-planar strength training. I've been training--and hard. I'm doing my Dynamic Warm-Ups, bridging, heavy strength sets, and more bicycling, but I realized (thanks to my back pain) that I pulled too much of the twisting and turning out of my program. Now, most people do less when their backs hurt--WRONG! That's one of the worst things you can do for a back ache! Spinning 180 degrees from the herd, I attacked the multi-planar in my gym last night ripping on some tubing chops, medicine ball throws, bike crunches, etc. to jump start my rotational back strength again...and guess what?! My back hardly hurts at all today! DAAA! Want less pain in your back? MOVE! Going diagonal and fighting child obesity in Atlanta this week, Coach RJ!

Sunday, August 26, 2007

Culture of Crap! What Legacy?

I was eating the best veggie omelet on the planet at the historic Paso Robles Inn amidst the Central California wine country getting ready to head back to LA when a father walked through the parking lot this morning smoking a cigarette in front of his little boy. They came inside and he ordered a coffee to go. He put SEVEN half & half creamers into one medium cup of Joe. In comparison, I would have used about 1/3 of the creamer just to add a slight flavor without getting carried away on fat calories. I couldn't help but think what a shitty example this is to the kid. If you want your kids to have a fighting chance in life with health, you can't teach them the Culture of Crap i.e. The American Way I'm ashamed to say. Soaring obesity, plummeting health, and adults still don't get it. And the worst part is that their kids are being given a death sentence of ILLness instead of a legacy of WELLness. Simply amazing...I hope the little kid makes it out alive. Health is all good. Try it. You might like it! Namaste'...Coach RJ

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

XXXXXXXXXXCess!

Well, I've got horrible news y'all. I've been getting some quotes on custom shirts and found out the major shirt manufactors will begin making 10x size shirts next year! They already have 6x which I was not even aware of. I saw a 6x at the shirt shop--IT WAS HUGE! I swear to God at times I feel like this is the beginning of the end for this country! And to follow the blog theme of the day, I was sitting at a bar eating my seafood salad last week before heading back to LA, and the bartender was telling everyone how his teen daughter had 35,000 text messages on her phone account in ONE MONTH! Then! I got back to LA and was watching the local news and they were talking about a new $70,000 TV that requires partial dismantling of the house in order to make room for the screen and crane required to set it inside. Gee...do you think there is a coorelation here?!!! 10x shirts, tens of thousands of text messages a month while sitting on one's fat ass, and TVs so big they require a crane! As I write this message, the LA news is reporting behind me about high blood pressure problems with today's American teenagers. So you tell me...is it the beginning or the end? I'm afraid to know the answer. From Supersized LA this week, Coach RJ

Monday, August 13, 2007

RUUUU READY!!!

Just saw KoRn's Family Values Tour in Atlanta Sunday. This was one of the rare occasions when it was actually cool to be from my hometown of Bakersfield. It's hard to believe that a band from Bako can become one of the world's super groups of hard rock. I love going to concerts. It's one of few times I can totally (well almost) get my mind off the business of wellness and health and just let go. I've always been a HARD rocker...and always will be. I think keeping up on music helps a person stay young at heart. Good times...the crowd was into it, the ATL provided maximum heat index, and the venue was an easy in and out compared to big shows out in California I've been to this year. It's all good though. In "Hard Rock" Health, Coach RJ

Thursday, August 9, 2007

Heat and Comfort

Whew! The heat index in Atlanta is around 105-115 this week! Last night we went out for a veggie pizza. The restaurant's air conditioning was broken! I think I lost half the calories of the pizza before leaving in sweat! Interestingly, and a nice comment on Southern Culture, not one person seemed to be complaining about the broken AC. In California, people would have been bitching, griping, stomping out, not paying! Here, people just deal without being rude. I like that. It was hot. So what. Sweating is good for your health anyway! The universe provided a small lesson last night...we seem so "addicted to comfort" as my friend Steve Ilg would say...on the grand scheme of things, not having AC at dinner is not a big deal and not worth stressing out over. In sweat, Coach RJ

Wednesday, August 8, 2007

Yo! Back in the Saddle!

Skidding back into my blog at the speed of sound! I switched my blog address recently. I originally had two blogs. One was supposed to be more corporate--Coach RJ. The other was more me with the more direct approach--Ragin' RJ. I like the Coach RJ title better and never used the corporate blog site because it was too boring, so I just went to the Coach RJ as the only and primary blog. The Ragin' RJ stuff is still there though @ http://raginrj.blogspot.com/
So much to say! Every single day I make an observation about wellness, fitness, and health. I need to write these up more! Yesterday, I was cleaning my gym in Atlanta getting ready for a meeting with some Georgia Wellcoaches. Under one of my weights was a large lizard. I was chasing the lizard around the gym trying to get it to run out the door back outside. Have you ever herded a lizard before? It was an interesting experience! I kept thinking this thing must be a mosquito eating machine! I thought about leaving it in the gym for eco-friendly pest control, but decided to herd it outside since the family might not appreciate the lizard as much as I did. Cool lizard though...really smooth skin with stripes all the way down. It looked FAST even thought it was not moving faster than I could herd.
It's been HOT in Atlanta! Punching about 100 degrees with high humidity. I rode at Stone Mountain Park two days ago for about 1:15. It drained me. I didn't even start riding until 7:00 PM! I like it though. Sweat is good. The air has not been good, but even on a "bad" air day in my part of Atlanta, it's way better than what I have been used to in California.
From the ATL in Southern Sweat...Coach RJ