I was just thinking about the before and afters that Bonnie has been updating on the website and I am so moved by the changes, I get chills knowing that Longevity had a lot to do with the commitment and changes that these women have made. But sobering also is the thought at the few that did not get the results they drove their bodies so hard for. I want to divorce myself from the thought that I may not have pushed them hard enough or wasn't able to encourage them enough... or just somehow let them down. I don't believe I could have asked them to work out harder, and I feel pretty good that I unbiasly encouraged all the recruits... the answer I find time and time again is the diet journal. The hard work, the blood, bruises, sweat and tears amount to a bunch of "dung" if you erase your intense training by poor eating. Or not even eating poorly but by not being as conscious of your diet as you are your exercise. We must all count every god-forsaken calorie the same as we count every freakin repetition. The next six weeks will be very trying,... Trying because I am going to push you to the brink of wanting to quit... The next six weeks will be encouraging,... because every time you think you can't do more, I will be right next to you as you "do more... much more"... You are about to amaze yourself with what you can accomplish and you are about to amaze your friends and family at how good you are going to look... all of this in just six weeks. You bring 100%, "A" game every workout... and count every calorie... honestly count... you will be the envy of all those around you! They will beg you for your secret... shhhhh!

September 21, 2008 3:21 PM

This is Bonnie, Steve's wife.  Steve was asked to submit a workout video to www.ProjectBreakout.com. So we did it, but didn't know it was based on votes. Well, we don't really like asking people to "vote for us" so we just decided to can the whole idea. I went to pull it and Project Breakout asked us to stay on, so we did.

Well, to our surprise Steve ended up making it to the finals anyway and was asked to submit another sample of one of Steve's workouts. If you would like to vote for Steve just visit this link below and register to vote. You can vote 15 times a day. :)

http://www.projectbreakout.com/fitness1/mediapage/86

PS: We are in preproduction on another video, so one way or another you'll be able to workout with Steve before you know it. yay! As always, thanks for all of your support. You all are the best myspace friends ever!!!

You know when you meet someone and they have such a gentle spirit that you just know in some way they will be special to you whether or not you invest in a friendship?   Every time you run into them you light up and feel incredibly comfortable opening up to them.  I guess in a way you are just attracted to their humility or smile or energy or whatever...

I met a man like this and never thought anything of it.  I would see him where I work out from time to time.  He has the most beautiful daughter.  She must be 8 or 9 years old.  She is like a little princess following her father around the gym and sometimes shadowing me from time to time.  She was such a delight...  I had to leave for work for a couple of months and fell out of touch.  Because we were not close (for no other reason than my own selfishness), when I returned home I didn't realize that he was no longer there.  A couple of weeks ago I ran into him in the grocery and I lit up like I always did before when I would see him.  He is just that kind of guy.  He asked me where I had gone and we "bs'd" about my "important TV show" that I had been away taping, and then I asked him what he has been up to.  That is when his smile faded and he swallowed hard... with peace still on his face he began to tell me that his precious daughter had been in a diabetic coma for over a month and also suffered a severe stroke from complications.  My friend Tom knew I had a degree in Physical Therapy and also knew I didn't work with children but asked, if I was willing, if I would try to help her.  Willing?  I am completely overwhelmed and honored that he would even ask! That was at least three weeks ago.  Since then I have all the usual excuses.  A huge business project went south, 20 year high school reunion, more castings for other TV shows...  and this last one that has now changed everything...  My cousins' funeral.

Danielle was my age when just last week her precious husband Eric found her lifeless in their room.  They are the type of couple that invests everything into everyone else.  Even now I am guilt ridden writing with tears because I never thanked her for the beautiful Christmas gifts she handmade and the honey she shipped me.  And not just me...  Yesterday Eric told me about the little kids in their neighborhood that Danielle helped in school.  These kids being raised by single parents that couldn't invest time into them but her and Eric found the time to make a difference.  And my God, the animals that these people would rehab and find homes for.  No creature to small and no child to low... they gave of themselves and did it joyfully.

Well just now I have dug around in my office to find the phone number Tom gave me a month ago.  It took me about a half hour to dig through hundreds of little scrap sheets of paper that I have pulled from my wallet over the past month,  but here I sit with his number in my hand.  I feel like Danielle and Eric are saying here is a second chance.  Don't leave this undone...  Her death has challenged me to reach out where I can.  To finish or even begin the things that we have left undone.

Next time you feel that easiness with someone.  You can look in their eyes and you know you feel compassion for the kind of person they are...  Why not invest in a cup of coffee.  Next time it might not be them needing you... perhaps it will be you needing them...

Here's some video footage from our Boot Camp Kickoff this past Saturday at our club. The crazy thing is people actually pay for this torture. ha

Truth Chair.... Ready?  Lately I have been on hiatus from the TV world.  This, for me, means backing off a little on the cardio and losing a tad of momentum in my training.  Oh yah, then there is the damn diet.  Who cares, it may be a month before I am back on camera.  I mean, what could it hurt?   WRONG.... DANGER WILL ROBINSON!!!

Even though the thought of being on TV does give an added push to stay motivated in your diet and exercise, it isn’t the only reason to live to a higher standard of training.  I love to hear compliments from people who understand the struggle, and see me as someone beating the "URGE".  Ok... the "naked truth". 

Lately I have looked for any excuse to avoid being hungry.  I look for appetite satisfaction at every meal.  I have been seeking out every tasty morsel I can find through out my day,  And it only gets worse towards the end of the day.  Just last week someone came to me and said, "what can I do when I get hungry after dinner and before I go to bed.  I don’t like to feel hungry... "   Well crap...Me neither!  But it isn’t gonna kill me.  What ever happened to a little will power.  What ever happened to embracing a little hunger.  Why do we look for anyway out when it comes to even the smallest uncomfortable emotion. I hear myself saying "Suck it up and be hungry.  What... do you have a case of  ’Acute Inflammatory Whoositis’ "?   (just came up with that one)   

We need to quit looking for what to eat to avoid being hungry.  I just ate for goodness sake.  I know I am not going to starve, but here I am, standing in front of the fridge, door wide open, searching for the one thing that is "low in calories" that will "fill me up" so I wont have to "feel hungry".  I just freakin ate an hour ago.  I AM NOT HUNGRY!!!!  I AM A WHOOSE!!!!  I am wanting to eat for the sake of either boredom or taste, or I don’t know... I’m just screwed in the noggin. 

My new Belief system:  They call it being hungry for a reason.  People at church fast for a reason.  It is a reminder that we are seeking something.  It is a reminder that we should stay hungry for something.  Not STARVE...  But STAY HUNGRY.  That emotion or "phsyco-intellectual" (just invented that word too) feeling of hunger is not coming from your body.  You have satisfied that nutritional need.  Now you seek to fulfill that desire, that craving, that emptiness... and you are looking to food.  DON’T!  Food does not love you back!  Food is that ex-lover that wants to abuse you and leave you feeling used, guilty and ashamed.  What is so wrong with associating a little hunger with "Accomplishing our goals".  That feeling of hunger should encourage us.  It should say, "we are on the right track",  and allow us to stay hungry for more of life, hungry for more passion, more love, more education, more friendships...

Please listen... that hunger is there to drive you.  It is there to remind you that you can do better...  Dont extinguish it with a dingdong!  Just "be still, and Be hungry"!!!! 

"BEING FIT FEELS BETTER THAN FOOD TASTE"...

I am currently on the set for CMT's newest weight loss reality TV show called Bridal Boot Camp coming out this summer. The offiial press release will be out very soon to give you much more information. I am very excited - there is a ton of energy on the set and producers have been really great to me!!  ...plus I GET TO WORKOUT EVERYDAY!!   (unlike Fat March)

I did bring a laptop with me, but I can't get online much. Feel free to drop by - I have been checking my comments on my iPhone. I just can't always write back.

I believe I am where I am, in the perspective of life, because of choices I have made.  Good or bad.  As a matter of fact it is some of the bad choices I have whole heartedly made that have created the most drive and success in my life.  In me is the ability to commit or decide or desire something and not know how to let go until it is finished.  The pain and confusion when all around me is pouring down only drives me harder.  Try to rip it out of my grasp and I will only fight with the intensity of life or death.  I would rather die for something passionaltley then live in complacency.  But what if what I am grapling to keep is hurtful, what if it is a desire born in the flesh?  I know no different when I am in the mentality of conquering.  My mind is made up and this "idea" must be obtained... at any cost!  But what will it cost the ones I love?  I cant pay their pain debt.  Not when I or my actions are the cause.  I believe I moraly check out and even my common sence is rendered useless.  I am in literal blinders...  can this ever be good? 

I think this could be one of the most powerful tools in my personality...  I am driven by insecurity and pride.  Left unchecked this could kill and wound so many loved ones around me.  But what if this powerful drive was somehow harnessed... being aware of the power behind this vehicle.  I dont have to let this rage drive.  I dont have to allow my decisions or choices to be born in pride and insecurity.  I dont have to let my flesh dictate my desires.  But once the choice is made... may I let the horses run free, and reach for that new thing with reckless abandon?  A fighter can't throw a timid punch.  Every "hurt bomb" must land vigorously, repeatedly, and violently, but with enough restraint to be able to persuade submision, not death. 

Am I wrong, for living with passion, allowing rage, fighting hard... even in the poor decisions?  What if I told you, I love the same way.  Once I call you a friend... there is little you can do to persuade me otherwise.  I have no middle ground.  I want to love or fight... and I want to do it passionately with no reservation.  I have fought and lost, I have loved and been victorious... but at the end of the day, win or lose... I feel like a champion... Because, right or wrong I did it with all my heart!!!!

This year has been the most trying year of my life, yet no one dear to me passed away, and I haven't dealt with illness.  In the same breath, this has been the most incredible year of my life.  I have learned to love deep to  a depth unamaginal.  And in the same breath, I have indured sorrow and lonesomeness that can only come from the same depths. 

I have been so blessed with Longevity this year.  If the club wasn't doing as well, and if Bonnie and Rich didn't support me, I would not have the freedom to persue fitness and wellness on a nattional level.  And even though the desire is there, how much more blessed am I that ABC gave me an oportunity to use them as a conduit to tell the world exercise and nurtition can change their lives.

I have now been casted for two more upcommng shows that are based on realtionship building and taking responsibility for our selves.  I can't say more than that.. but I can add that these two shows will be effortless for me as I am passionate about the message they will protray.  And the material I will teach is in every ounce of my being.  This gives me such an oportunity to teach millions of others practical and useful information that has made a huge change in my life and many others that I have been able to work with already.  Why me God?  But thank you so so much!!!

I have done nothing to deserve the blessing I am living in at this moment.  As a matter of fact... It is right now that I realize we are all living in grace.  But especially me.  I feel so undeserving for the oportunities I have gotton, I feel so unworthy of the love I recieved from friends and loves ones... as if I felt if I was a better person that I would deserve all of this.  Not so!  Everything I have, everything around me, every emotion I feel, love or hate... it is all overcome by grace.  What I mean is, I want to feel like I have done something to deserve this compliment, but I haven't.  I am only able to recieve it realizing I am living in the grace of God.  Left to myself, I am going to let you down.  I am no better a person than a thief or a murderer, and yet grace makes allowancs for us all.  So as I say goodbye to this year I reflect on it all.

I am so blessed to have met all of the great people on Fat March, I am overwhelmed with the beautiful souls I met with the "ROW" group.  I am overwhelmed with the love my wife and family have for me.  I am taken back by how much I care and love mynew family of friends.  I am thankfull that this year I learned how to love and hurt and overcome, I am dumbfounded at the oportunities that are presenting themselves this year,  I want to embrace them responsilby but whole heartedly.  I want to let go of so much and reach for so much more!!! 

Oh' 7... you were good to me.  And I will always hate you for it!!!

Here is a picture of the new look of Longevity Fitness Club & Spa. We are very excited about this project. It's under construction right now and should be finished by the new year.

Here was what it looked like before the hurricanes.