Why Challenges Are Powerful?
Happy April Everyone!
I have received tons of questions as to WHY I would be involved in this 90 day challenge. I have been met with a lot of the same reactions. The biggest one is:
"I mean REALLY RICK? Are you completely and totally obsessed?"
Well, I AM an actor in Los Angeles.......
And because of that, I have always kept myself in top physical condition. Recently,(in the past year) many of you may know that I have been in rehab for a shoulder injury that required surgery last June. At that point, I was trying to get a hold of what I saw to be a slow increase in my weight. A few cocktails every week. Mom's pasta and sauce on Sunday's. Nothing crazy. But, before I knew it I was in an area where I had never been. A number I had never been. Now, I could pass it off to my age, or my activity level, and yeah all those things are factors, but the greatest factor in any weight change involves diet.
Did you know that if you increase your calorie intake by a little over a 100 calories a day, you will be 10-15 pounds heavier in a year? YEAH, I DO NOW!
Who would have thought that having that over the course of a year could so radically change your body? And believe it or not, this is how it goes for many people that are overweight or even obese in our country. It starts slowly, and then gains momentum. Believe it or not, it took actual work to get where you are right now. Either positively or negatively. Everything compounds.
So, for me it was time to compound in the other direction. And as I am all about motivation and inspiration and victory and community, I joined this 90 day challenge. The thing that makes this more successful for most is the partnering aspect. We all know that the efforts of many far outweigh(pardon the pun) the efforts of one. Many hands make light work as they say. In this case, many hands make you lighter in other ways. :)
It's been a great experience so far with many people jumping in on the challenge to achieve a myriad of weight, fitness, and health goals of all kinds. I'm loving how engaged and accountable it's made me.
What I have realized about this challenge above anything is that it opens the door for anyone to set a goal for themselves. And if you can set the goal once and achieve it, you're body remembers, and you can do it again and again!
I am so grateful to have found something that is providing a path of victory for so many.
If you are looking to CHANGE WHERE YOU ARE , and see where you CAN go,
Join Us!
and Let's Create YOUR Story.
Blessings, Rick
Caution. When You Engage Your Passion, You Might Get What You Want.
For those of you who know me, this next statement will come as a shock and surprise.
I AM SPEECHLESS!
I know. I know. It's beyond belief. While I am a pretty big mush from time to time, there are no words to describe how incredibley moved I was by a recent testimonial by one woman that chose to engage in the Body By Vi 90 Day Challenge that I have been promoting. I know that most people are looking to me and saying, "whatever" with regards to why this is so different from any other weight loss plan.
I caution anyone reading this to beware. I feel very strongly that will you indeed be moved. That goes without saying. The part that may overtake you, is the overwhelming urge to join us. This woman took faith in hand, and faced a fear that is in many people's hearts. The inspiring part is that she made a dramatic move for herself.
Ivette Maymi
My Body By Vi "Why"...
5’10”, 138 lbs., lean, fit, and full of energy…that was me not so long ago. So what happened? How did I, who was used to walking hours on end in the hot sun and not break a sweat and then walking the fashion runways when I modeled, end up barely being able to catch my breath after going up a flight of stairs?!
Life. That’s what happened. Unexpected twists, turns and circumstances, as is the same for many of us. I never in a million years imagined struggling with my weight, yet here I was at 188 lbs. doing just that!
Not soon after I got married in 2005, I suffered a terrible miscarriage that left me depressed, angry, seeking comfort through food and thick around the middle. I wish I could say I snapped out of it quickly, but this lifestyle and depression followed me for about 4 years or so. See, women who have been through this experience can tell you that even though your baby is gone, your body is still shaped and functioning long after as if there were a child present. The recovery is a brutal one. Well, in late 2008, I grew more and more frustrated with my appearance. I had gone from a size 8 to a size 12 in jeans and couldn’t wear any shirts or blouses under an XL. I felt the only modeling I would do at this point would be plus sized modeling. I began to give up. I had made up my mind that 2009 was going to be different. That when the New Year rang in, so would my diet! Well, a month into it I was in a bad car accident where I was rear-ended while stopped at a light. I was rushed to the hospital and later found I had suffered a double herniation in my neck and back….that’s where the gym exited and physical therapy entered. As life would have it, my husband and I were blessed with the knowledge that we would be parents again (though we couldn’t understand God’s timing)! Being in physical therapy was hard enough without adding the pregnancy to it…but I smiled anyway because after our loss, we were given a son!
Caleb was born October 2009 and I grew to a whopping 205 lbs. by the end of my pregnancy…oh but wait! There’s more! See, Caleb was a HUGE baby…I had to have an emergency C-section after 20 hours of labor because the umbilical cord was wrapped around his little neck. After a 5-day hospital stay for the both of us, I returned home knowing that after the accident, the pregnancy and the C-section, working out and losing weight (because I was breast feeding) would not be likely. Fast forward 6 months and tack on to all of this an emergency gallbladder surgery…yep! I was DONE!!!!!
So now with my son 16 months old, I got to that place where I said ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! There HAS to be something out there, someone who can help me! I could feel the anxiety and the depression mounting. I grew weary of going places and having people ask me how far along I was, and why I had chosen to have a baby so soon after my son!! Those comments through me into a tailspin! My fear was that my 13 year old daughter would see my unhappiness with the way I looked and mimic those feelings about her own body. I needed to be smarter than that….
(Enter Rick Herbst)…
This challenge was presented by someone I had grown to respect and admire and who had already given me over the past year some really solid advice. Emmy winner or not, this man was a dependable source, I felt. I struggled with doing this challenge for all the obvious reasons…didn’t want to spend money (when really I was actually saving money!), and I didn’t want to reach the end of it and be disappointed as I had been by all of these other diets I had tried in the past.
I am at Day 17 of my challenge. I lost 6 lbs. the first week alone, and now I’m at a 10 lb. loss in under 3 weeks! To me, this is unreal! It is beyond incredible! The other day, I noticed my size 12 jeans were sagging….I grabbed in desperation a pair of size 10 skinny jeans that had been collecting dust in my drawer and BEHOLD!!!! They fit!!!!!!!! That’s right….2 jeans sizes down and that’s all I needed to realize that this Challenge was for me! The energy I have is through the roof! The peace of mind I experience daily as I go through my regimen is beyond anything I have ever experienced! I thank God this Challenge crossed my path. I thank God he made a way when I felt there was none.
I am doing this! I am going to be the vibrant and sexy woman I was before circumstances took over! I am going to show others that a healthy lifestyle is as close to them as saying “YES, I WILL!”
So do it! Join me! The only thing you have to lose is weight.
Ivette's link is http://mrsmaymi.bodybyvi.com/
I Was The Chunky Kid
Hello Everyone!
I have had a lot of people that are wondering why I would even be on any "diet plan" or anything that would involve losing weight. I know it seems strange and for the most part if I didn't know what I know about nutrition and how your weight is in direct correlation to your health, I would probably keep on the way I am and chalk things up to my age or my activity level or my metabolism, or my "big bones" etc. Many people don't know this, but when I was a teenager I constantly battled with my weight. Growing up in an Italian household I was constantly surrounded by food. All fresh, delicious food, but A LOT of it all the same. And believe me I was not shy about going for seconds and thirds.
To this day, I can recall the first thing my Grandfather would say moments after coming into his house. "You wanna sandwich?" And frankly, he always had the best cold cuts(that's lunch meat for the non easteners). Nothing like a good salami, mortadella, capicola, and Virginia ham on Italian bread with a little mustard and mayo. That's right. We all have our favorites. The thing is, and I don't believe I am saying this, when I was a kid we were outside running around on our bikes, walking for blocks on end, playing ball, etc. And guess what? I STILL had a problem with weight!
Fast forward to where we are now. Kids spend hours in front of a computer or television detaching from the world and mostly from being ACTIVE in it. The same foods exist, in fact many of them are much worse. Childhood obesity strikes 1 in 3 kids today. In my day they had Husky sizes, and if you were in those, you felt horrible. I elected to instead where jeans that were waaaay too tight for me! That's what embarrassment of a label will do for you.
So, what did I do when I was a graduated Senior in High School? I went on a diet. Oh, not just ANY diet. I went down the road of the true obsessive compulsive and ate nothing but Escarole with garlic and oil, and bread. Everyday. That's all I would have for dinner. On top of that, I ran 6 miles a day in 108 degree Texas heat! Now, THAT'S healthy! Right? I lost 30 lbs. Funny thing is, I wasn't really doing any strength training or anything that would build lean muscle. Just dance and working in the theater carting stuff around the shop. That was "the gym" for me.
But hey! I knocked off the weight right? So, off I go to college and I am sooo proud of my new body that I won't risk going back. Mind you, at this point I am at 145 lbs., well under what was probably healthy for me. I am good at right around 165 lbs. for my body type and height. I remember this one girl catching me as I would rub my stomach to see if I gained weight or felt flabby. She asked me if I has been heavier before and I told her yes I had. It became something that was almost unconcious. Over the years, my weight rose. I'll never forget when I reached a wopping 155 lbs. At this point, I had discovered the gym having moved to California and gotten on Days of Our Lives. On up the scale I went until finally I settled around 162 lbs. At this point I was working on Guiding Light in New York. I was about to become a father and as it happens I started to put on baby weight(yes, the Dad's actually gain the weight along with their wives. If they know what's good for them :)I was also back in the land of my roots with all the pizza, bagels and cream cheese, and canoli I could get. Funny thing is, I still was super conscience of what I was eating, however I didn't enjoy it because I would always think, "I gotta work this off tomorrow."
I topped out at what was my heaviest in years of 170 lbs. That's when I actually found karate. I got in the best shape of my life. I was training 4 times a week, 3 hours each time. I had found a motivational place to invest myself physically and it paid off. However, even though I was super trim and fit, I still thought if I fluctuated 3-4 pounds of water, it meant that I was out of shape. I tried different diets bouncing back and forth from the Atkins to the pasta diet(don't ask) to the 1 meal a day diet, to the cigarette diet. On and on, looking for one that just gave me the results. I never quite found one until I moved back to LA. I was training in a dojo in Studio City with an awesome Master. I started working out with this one guy, a fellow actor who shall remain nameless because the guy was such a douche bag that I had to remove myself from any affiliation with him. The one thing he did do for me however, was shame me enough to commit to a plan. I always looked for "the quick fix" or the radical change to give me my results. I found this diet called the Zone Diet. The principle of it was to balance the amount of protein, carbs, and fat in your diet. I started to see when I followed a plan that this was what was missing for me. I stayed with the principle's of this diet and found it actually worked! It also stressed eating consistently every few hours, small meals with a proper balance of each protein, good carbs(meaning no bread), and good fats. So, here was something that was now a coupling of diet and exercise. Funny, it isn't some magical method. It really was just as we had learned when we were in school health class. Eat a well balanced meal. Problem was we weren't being given those "well balanced meals" in school. And they haven't gotten any better. Even with the first ladies efforts.
My food odyssey as I will call it, is not unlike many who are struggling right now. It's all just different degrees. We all are in a learning process with our health. However, one thing I do know is this. We are at critical mass in our nation with regards to our health and especially our nutrition. And if we do not get hold of it, we will be putting children in graves for obesity related diseases.
So, why this challenge?
You see my story. It is one that has taken me a lifetime to understand and accomplish. The times where I succeeded the most was when I was partnered with a person or a group. We are a pack driven society. When a group moves, we move. Positively or negatively, we feel and see the outcome.
This 90 day challenge with this company has given me the ability to serve in many different ways.
I have been given something that is "a plan" that is simple and easy for me to follow.
I am putting solid nutrition into my body that is balanced and is measured.
I am partnered with one or more people to hold me accountable and support me when I need it.
I am doing this without "adding" cost to my food budget. In fact, I am actually saving money on my meals.
This has opened a passion for me that I wish to share with everyone, so that maybe if you are someone who is out there wondering if or how you can finally get a hold of the struggle with your weight, you can get the benefit of what this company is doing for so many people.
They are calling to action the person you are looking to be from the inside out.
We are setting a pattern, a goal. When you commit to a goal once and follow through with it, trust me, you can do it again and again!
It is never too late.
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Join me and my group on this challenge.
Get 3 good friends and say, "let's do this together!"
Make this the time you win. You are worth it.
For your health.
For your life.
God Bless!
Rick
Kids Like It Too!
So, this was me the other morning when my son Cameron was running behind. We had to catch a train in 15 minutes but he still needed to eat breakfast because, well, we just don't let our kids go without eating a good breakfast. Habits are born very early in us and they can either help us later in life or make it that much harder to adjust when we get older. So, if you are the type of person who is ALWAYS running late and that becomes your excuse for not getting the nutrition you need to start your day. Better yet, if you are not feeding your KIDS what THEY should be having every morning, this definitely takes care of both of those challenges!
Stay tuned for more updates.
If you want to keep up with how myself, Derk Cheetwood and others are progressing with our Challenge and how you can begin yours as well click on this tab.
