Random Thoughts

Improve Your Fitness by Limiting Your Choices

August 26, 2011 By JC Deen 34 Comments

As I write this, I’m sitting in the living room of my friend’s home about 2 blocks from the famous Hollywood Boulevard. I’ve been here since the 9^th and won’t be home until the 30^th. The plan was to come here for 2 weeks and then return to the south, but I’ve been having too much fun, and actually swapped out my tickets for an even cheaper flight, so I figured I’d stay another week.

My birthday is August 4^th, but I always celebrate the entire month (in my house, we call it birthday month). It’s been the best birthday month yet and a great vacation gift to myself.

Being my first time in Los Angeles, I’m a bit overwhelmed as I’ve never been to such a big place in my life (other than flight layovers). I’ve had the chance to meet some interesting people, and experience a slightly different culture than the southern living I’m accustomed to.

Regardless of the differences, I’ve fallen in love with the place thus far. I’ve made some new friends, had some interesting experiences and conversations along the way.

In fact, this article is inspired from a conversation I’ve had most recently with a lady I met through my friend who’s hosting me. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Build Muscle, Clients, Random Thoughts Tagged With: Diet, Muscle Building, Strength Training

A Good Example of Bad Advice

June 25, 2011 By JC Deen 49 Comments

Image Credit: angel.a.acevedo

Terribly awful, no-good, very bad advice seems to be rampant in the fitness industry. In all honesty, it makes my job of an educator, trainer and consultant much harder than it needs to be due to the amount of unsound advice being given in magazines, online articles and even from trainer to client.

The problem is the amount of information we have at our disposal, and the differing viewpoints of various authorities. And even then, the sheer amount of information is not the worst part. We often have zealots of certain methods who proclaim their methods as gospel.

Ever met a devout Paleo advocate or a hardcore crossfitter? Ever met someone who deemed gluten to be the cause of all physical ailments known to man? Or how about the trainer stuck on old research that’s since been debunked and replaced with newer, more relevant research?

This article is not to bash any such beliefs or zealots. I frankly don’t care if you’re into the Paleo thing or if you’re a HIT advocate. Most roads often lead to the same destination and that’s great.

My approach is simple. Find what is most congruent with your life and goals. Then build upon what works for you to hit your mark and enjoy the road to success.

In other words, make it as easy and fun as possible.

Today, I want to bring light to an article I came across early this morning about 3 a.m. as I rolled in from an awesome night out with my friends. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Random Thoughts, Rants

JCDFitness T-Shirts Have Arrived

May 11, 2011 By JC Deen 8 Comments

Self portrait of JC courtesy of my beloved iMac

Greetings my fellow JCDFitness readers. The last month has been incredibly busy with work, finishing up the spring semester at MTSU, and getting ready for summer fun and travels. Speaking of fun, I’ll be at the Fitness Summit with my bros Alan Aragon and Roger Lawson come this weekend in Kansas City – so if you can make it out, I will personally buy you drinks until you forget your name Saturday night. Promise.

Now that the summer is here, I don’t expect anything to slow down too much, but I’m happy to be able to focus more so on the site, writing, and doing more and more for all of you.

As the title suggests, the t-shirts are finally ready for order. Thanks to all of you who voted on the designs and for being patient as we got everything sorted out!

As of now, they are on pre-sale and we plan to start shipping within a few weeks. I’m glad they’re finally ready and I have my awesome friend June to thank for coming up with the idea for these tees. So if you’re on twitter, go harass her for me.

Here are the two final designs you can choose from:

The fabric is American Apparel, which I really like. They’re soft, light and feel great. I should say they do run a tad small. I will be sporting a large most likely (I’m 5’8″ and around 190lbs).

For the first 20 orders, you’ll get a free FitMarker wristband ($4.49 value) to go with your new gear!

T-shirts are $20 with free shipping in the US and an extra $10 for shipping internationally. Originally, we thought it would be free shipping everywhere, but due to rising fuel costs, there was nothing I could do in this regard.

I will create a more detailed sales page here soon, you know, the fancy ones with photos and page-long testimonials so I can hard-sell you on all the reasons you need one of these tees. I will use all the slimy marketing tactics the fitness gurus use to swindle you out of your money!

Okay, I am kidding. I won’t use all of them as you can see I didn’t end the t-shirt price with a ’7′ so no need to worry about regretting your purchase later on.

As for the votes, I did promise that two JCDFitness readers would get a free shirt.

The lucky winners are

Marcie – this comment

Stephon – this comment

I’ve gone ahead and emailed you both for your mailing address, size and shirt preference.

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**On another note, I was contacted by a GNC rep because they’re coming out with a new product called Phenom which is a coconut water supposedly infused with all types of goodness (vitamins, minerals, etc) to aid in recovery. While I have not tried it out yet(I’m waiting for some samples in the mail), the branding is cool and it looks like it might be a decent product.

Again, I cannot comment on the taste right now because I haven’t received mine. If you’d like to get a free sample, just go to one of their blog posts and place a comment as you normally might do here at JCDFitness. They have some rules though, so make sure you adhere to them if you want the goods.

Go ahead and pick up a shirt today – they’ll be in the mail shortly.

**I’m in no way affiliated or making any money through GNC.

Filed Under: Random Thoughts Tagged With: t-shirts