About The Fitness Buddy
The Fitness Buddy = A New Lifestyle
The Fitness Buddy is proof that ANYONE and I mean ANYONE can change his or her life for the better if you want it bad enough. Little did I know seeing me in one little picture would spawn a whole new career and place me on a journey that I am still going through today.
So are you a Fitness Buddy?
- Have you reached a stage where you are wondering “Is this as good as my life is going to be?”
- Have you looked at yourself in the mirror and wondered what happened?
- Are you lost, miserable and just watching life pass by?
- Do have that career you always wanted, but somehow it seems empty and unfulfilled?
If you answer “yes” to any of these questions then you are a perfect candidate for The Fitness Buddy. Why? There was a time where I answered “yes” to all four of these statements.
Jim Ristow is The Fitness Buddy and becoming The Fitness Buddy has been one of the most enjoyable parts of my life. If you are interested, please read on and maybe some of my experiences might ring true in your life.
OK, when was THAT MOMENT?
THAT MOMENT happened in Aruba. My wife and I were walking back to our hotel after a very good meal and we saw a big hammock in front of a hotel. We decided it would be a good idea to get in the hammock to let our dinner settle. As we sat into the hammock there were a lot of creeks coming from the hammock and I took out the camera and snapped a picture.
That’s when THAT MOMENT happened! As I turned the camera around to look at the picture and two things unknowingly set the whole Fitness Buddy in motion.
- The third chin.
- My eyes, I didn’t recognize who that person was anymore.
Here I was sitting in one of the most beautiful islands in the world, most of the trip was free and I just realized I was LOST!
I was already a Marathon runner, so in my head I was healthy and fit. So why did I have this third chin? I did notice that running Marathons was getting harder, but I thought it was because Marathons are hard, and it was something everyone went through. The real problem was that I weighed 250lbs. Marathons at any weight are difficult at best, but at 250 lbs. they are really hard.
I was doing everything wrong and I finally had THAT MOMENT! IT was time to find myself.
The CHANGES and RESULTS:
CHANGES – Eating. Not only the amount of what I was eating, but also what I was eating. Just because I am a runner didn’t give me the freedom to put anything and everything in my mouth.
- I made the commitment to measure what I ate.
- I read the serving sizes on the packages.
- I stopped drinking soda and drank mostly water.
- Eating out became a luxury.
- I purchased a few cookbooks with healthier recipes.
RESULTS – Over the next 6 months, it seemed like everything I did was working and was well on my way to losing 70lbs.
Then I hit the wall! Who has been there? Raise your hand.
CHANGES – Exercise. Remember, I was already a runner and I figured out just hitting the pavement was not enough to keep this weight loss going. Just like in eating, the body adapts and needs to be challenged. Running for the sake of running is good up to a certain point, but the body adapts and needs to be challenged. I started to look into other forms of exercise.
- I started spin classes
- I took up swimming
- I found the stairmaster
- I started lifting weights
RESULTS – Over the following 12 months I reached a goal weight loss of 70lbs. I went from 250 lbs. to 180 in under 24 months.
Ah, the obligatory Before & After photo. I'd like to note that The Fitness Buddy itself didn't help me reach my goals (since I hadn't created it yet!), but the structure and solid foundation of fitness and nutrition found on this website and in The Fitness Buddy binder played a major role.
The birth of “The Fitness Buddy”
It all started by putting the cart in front of the horse…
As I started to pick up the weights I noticed there wasn’t a lot of useful books for the “normal” guy to help educate on lifting weights. I really had no desire in becoming the next “Arnold” and most of the books and magazines I picked up had these guys with a 24 pack in the front, and muscles bulging from every direction. Again that might be fine for some, but it wasn’t what I wanted to become. I liked the idea of being stronger, but leaner, not bulkier. So I turned to the books and magazines for women and IT WAS WORSE! Don’t get me wrong, maybe some women want to be these little blonde things with the 24 pack and arms bigger than me, but I started to think most of us just want a resource that gives some real world expectation to being healthier and fitter.
The idea of The Fitness Buddy book was born, but the book needed to be different and usable when someone brought it to the gym. The research began…
So I wanted to build a book that helped people along on that journey, but where to turn to?
People at the gym?
- Well no offense, the people at the gym were just as clueless as me.
- Plus, how did I know they had the same goals as me?
Personal Trainers?
- They helped, but when I watch them I noticed most had the same routine for most of their clients.
- There are good Personal Trainers out there, but I really needed someone who wasn’t in their early 20’s just out of college.
Books / Magazines?
- Each one has a different opinion; so which was right?
- Plus the models in the pictures, male or female, don’t really dictate what most of want to be or can be.
Internet / Apps?
- Don’t even get me started!
As I watched the people at the gym, I was amazed at the lengths people went to get health and fitness information.
The Health magazines
- Just using these magazines once or twice and the pages where pretty trashed.
Print out a workout from the Internet
- Same as the magazines or worse they ended up at the bottom of the gym bag never to be seen again.
Books
- You better bring a bookmark; because we both know as soon as you put it down it closes.
Laptops
- Yes, I did see some people bring their laptops with a DVD in it. One drop on the floor became on expensive repair job.
Smart Phones
- Same problem as a laptop, but much easier to drop or get crushed by a dumbbell.
The goal of The Fitness Buddy book was to give helpful information, but make it practical to use in a gym setting and lastly, make it more durable. That is why The Fitness Buddy is a 2 ring binder, with water resistant pages and clear pictures of a “normal” person doing the exercises. It also provides simple instructions for each exercise and comes with a pouch and cover inserts so you can place you phone, pen, keys, gym card, drivers license and a few bucks in the book.
Cart before the horse?
Yes. Usually people that write fitness books, have some experience in the Personal Training field. What did I have? Well…real life experience, but I too knew this was not going to be enough.
To start the journey of becoming a Personal Trainer, I received two certifications (later adding a third) and found the desire to become a Personal Trainer grew. In my “real” job I had lost the passion for what I was doing and the industry was changing. I always knew there was a possibility of being laid off. I started to move past the Fitness Buddy book and thought of opening my own Personal Training Studio.
There was still one problem, I had never been a Personal Trainer for anyone. The fix was going to work at a “big box” gym for a year to find out a few things.
- Did I really want to be a Personal Trainer?
- Was I going to be good at it?
- What did other Personal Trainers do?
- Most importantly, I wanted to observe.
The things I learned in that short year are helping form what The Fitness Buddy is today. The Fitness Buddy is everything that a “big box” isn’t. It is not to say “big box” gyms don’t serve a purpose, but they don’t have much interest in you get healthier and fitter. I know what they say up front and until they get your money they focus on you like there is no tomorrow, but once they have your money, you blend into the crowd and become a number until the next time around they want your money.
I understand that sounds bad, but sometime the truth is what it is. In observing this, the foundation of The Fitness Buddy was formed and I call it the 3 R’s.
- Relationships
- Respect
- Results
Relationships – Personal Training is relationships. The good trainers have them. They know more about the client than their best friends. Yes, in some way we are a sounding board for that client. There is a trust between the Personal Trainer and their client, you literally have this client’s future in the palm of your hand and that should never be taken lightly.
In turn, the client also has responsibility in this relationship.
- Always be truthful. Not only to the Personal Trainer, but also to themselves.
- Professional. Be on time, it is your hour don’t waste it!
- Be an adult. If life gets in the way, call! Don’t text. Reschedule and stay focused on your goals.
At a “big box” gym there are a handful of good Personal Trainers, so I don’t want to make you think they are all bad people. In fact, many may have started out with the greatest of intentions, but over time they lost the passion and the client just became a number to them. Why? I am sure the reasons are many, but what I observed is the “big box” gym sees them more as Salespeople selling, not Personal Trainers helping people reach their health and fitness goals.
Respect – If a Personal Trainer doesn’t respect the client, how does the client respect the Personal Trainer? Even though the Personal Trainer may have many clients, when the Personal Trainer is with that client, their full attention should be on them.
- There are too many Personal Trainers sitting on a bench kind of watching their client do an exercise.
- There are too many Personal Trainers texting or searching Facebook while their client is doing an exercise.
- There are too many Personal Trainers even eating while working their client out.
That won’t happen at The Fitness Buddy.
- If the exercise requires you to be on the floor, guess where I will be.
- If my phone rings, there is always voicemail. If it is you trying to call, leave a message. The call will be returned when I am not with a client.
- Eating or even drinking will happen on my time not yours (except for water).
Results – As we form a partnership in your journey, results will be discussed. Without results why are you bothering? Now in most cases, results are in a form of weight loss. At least that is what you are thinking… (Remember I was there.) But through my own journey I found weight loss is a by-product, not THE RESULT. This is a journey of being healthier and fitter, not just about weight loss. In some other cases the simple act of having a workout or two during a week will make you feel better and more confident to reach other goals. Whatever the result is supposed to be, please don’t think that responsibility falls solely on your Personal Trainer. Here is another tidbit I found out during my journey. Unless you hold yourself accountable for your own actions, the journey will be a lot tougher. In fact, there is a pretty good chance you will quit and blame everyone but yourself.
What will happen at The Fitness Buddy?
- I will be with you every step of the way. If you need to call me for any reason you have someone in your corner and at your side.
- I will keep the workouts refreshing, but also never straying away from the things that work. I will not use the latest fad or gimmick to give you false hope.
- And once in a while, if the results are not happening, I will call you out! I hope you would do the same thing to me.
So you wrote a book, lost some weight, became a Personal Trainer. What makes you that much different than the rest of the Personal Trainers out there?
I look at it this way. As you approach or past your mid life crisis what did you do? This is what I did…
- Lost 70 lbs. without any help from anyone else.
- Continued to run marathons and in fact, found the sport of Triathlons.
- My passion for Triathlons reached a pinnacle on September 10, 2010 when I completed my first Ironman.
- I have been able to leave that “real job”, that “corporate job” where I was a number and reinvent myself into a new career that helps others discover their potential.