Ryan’s First Guest Post

Welcome blog readers! With Julie partying in Chicago, Sadie and I are home alone. When Julie leaves us, Sadie and I hang out 24/7. We eat together, we sit on the couch together, and we get bored together. Very bored. Julie is the light of my life and it’s just not the same without her. So I was searching for something fun to do and it hit me, it’s time for my first guest post! Then I realized I needed something of substance to blog about…crap! After staring at a blank blog post for 30 minutes I did two highly effective things:

1. I ate a whole frozen pizza and drank 2 beers. Inspiration!

2. I made up my own ‘ask me anything’ questions to answer. Bingo! Instant substance!

So here we go! But first, a quick disclaimer.

Disclaimer: Julie has NO knowledge of this post. These are Ryan’s opinions. Not Julie’s. Please don’t judge the blog. If I get a whole bunch of negative comments the wedding might get called off, so…smile and enjoy!

Question 1, Sarah, New Jersey:

I’ve heard that Julie is the best person ever, is it true?

Answer:

Yes. It’s true. (sorry, had to throw that out there. now on to the good stuff!)

Question 3, Ariel, Mermaid Land:

Now, how do i get results in the gym?!?

Answer:

Sweat, discomfort, and more sweat. Finding results in the gym is not easy, but the formula is simple. Ask yourself this question when you leave the gym. Did you push yourself as hard as you could? If the answer is no then results will be slow to arrive. There isn’t an ideal workout for everyone, as each person has their own physical limits. But everyone can push themselves to get results. Here are three suggestions to get the results you desire:

1. Make time to train. Are you too tired to go to the gym after work? Do you have too many commitments to workout this weekend? it happens to everyone. try to find a training schedule that fits your life schedule. when Julie first started working out at 5am i thought she was crazy. who can get up that early? i continued to try to go to the gym after work. but, as the days went on Julie was making it to the gym and i wasn’t. either i had a late meeting to stay for, or a friend scheduled a get together, or i was just too tired. so, i switched to 5 am. was the transition easy? no. but now i get to the gym consistently, because guess what? nobody has anything scheduled that early. nobody else is awake 😉

2. Do the difficult things in the gym – Do the things that you don’t see other people doing. People look at me like I’m crazy in the gym. Who does jump squats? Clean and presses? Or supersets every exercise with abs and no rest breaks? Nobody. I look like a sweaty fool, but these things have worked for me. Those were more guy example, but for girls: how many people do you see on ellipticals? how about stair steppers (julie does)? who’s more fit? Or: How many people do you see jogging on treadmills? How about doing sprint intervals (julie does these too)? who’s breathing harder? I have 0 scientific evidence, but my experience has been that harder exercises yield greater results.

3. Flex – flex? huh? what? i know what you are thinking, flexing is only for meatheads and those kids on the jersey shore. but here’s a tip, flexing is the single component that could change your fitness life. how many crunches can you do? 50? 100? I do 20. but i make my 20 count. each repetition i constrict my abs as hard as i can on the way up. i feel the entire rep. by rep 20 i’m done. try it. don’t just go through the motion. make the muscle work. it will change the way you train. i try to flex the muscle i’m working on each rep of every exercise. squats? flex your quads. arms? flex those bi’s and tri’s each rep. flexing forces you to focus on getting the most out of each repetition. give it a try!

(Did you notice I skipped question two? Just keepin’ you on your toes.)

Question 4, Sadie, (Your Couch) Orlando:

I want more walks and treats. No more baths. woof.

Answer:

That was not a question. I refuse to answer, but how did you learn to type?

Questions 5, Princess Sofia, one of Julie’s favorite movies:

Do you and Julie have pet names for each other?

Answer:

Yes. we have lots. they’ve changed through our almost 7 years together. at one point we were “Beef and Cheese”, “Rocco and Taco”, “little squirt and big squirt”, or for those special times 😉 “little stink and big stank”

Question 6, Oprah, Oprah-ville”:

How do you and Julie make each other happy?

Answer:

Wow, didn’t know Oprah was a fan. that’s amazing! anyhow, Julie and I aren’t perfect. Actually, we disagree on lots of stuff. And (PBF Secret) Julie is pretty stubborn (I am too). But we both have made each other’s happiness our top priority and this leads to compromise. In my opinion (sorry, metadiscourse for all of you that went to grade school with nuns) if you want a successful relationship you need an overall desire to make someone else happy plus three things: Communication, Trust, and Entertainment. I could probably write a book on these three things, but of the three communication is the most important. Not happy with something your partner did? tell them. if you don’t, then they won’t know it upset you. and if they don’t know, they can’t make the situation better. Both Julie and I find it easy to bottle up emotion, but we’ve found that leads to a bigger fight later on. Talk to your partner. Better yet, find a moment to give them a complement. Either way tell them how you feel. Good or bad. Both of you will get enjoyment from understanding each other better.

OK. That’s it. I want to thank all of the question askers. Very thought provoking! I hope you all enjoyed the guest post. Posting gave me a true appreciation for all you fellow bloggers as this took a lot more time and effort than i thought it would. I know I can’t match Julie’s style, but hopefully she’ll like it too!