Do you focus on your health and fitness? Like do you watch what you eat and drink, get out walk, hike, run, or workout 4+ times a week?
I’m telling you from my personal experience I know what it’s like to be overweight on hunts and get tired and wore out far too easy, and I know how I feel when I’m in good shape. I’m sure you know what you need to do to get or stay in better shape but like I did you tell yourself you don’t have any time to work out or eat clean because your too busy.
My first question to you is what do these future hunts or future activates mean to you? Do you want to enjoy hunts longer and go the extra mile if need be to get that buck, bull or ram of a life time? I’m sure you’re answering they mean a lot and yes being able to go that extra mile would be great.
For me I came to the realization that I needed to make a change and get my act together when on my Bongo hunt in the forest of Cameroon I weighed around 190 pounds and was completely out of shape, it was kicking my but crawling around in the forest. The most ironic part was I owned a gym at the time. I also was doing several other things business wise from oil and gas construction to marketing and promotions in the outdoor industry, so I told myself I’m too busy and I dint watch what I ate. Fast forward to getting back from Cameroon I said this life is going to break me both ways financial and my health, so I cut my losses shut one company down sold my gym to a employee to just get out of it and focused on construction I started hitting the gym 6 days a week and sort apayed attention to what I ate. During that summer I also got a call from my 42-year half-brother that had just had a heart attack. My dad has also had multiple heart attacks with triple bypass surgery and the works. They both are far from being men’s health magazine cover nominees, but with that I told my self I needed to get into better shape so I kept working out and still “sort of watched what I ate” by November 1st 2022 I had dropped down to 166 pounds. These two photos are taken in April of 2022 and in November of 2022 and you can see the difference
But I sort of stalled out over the winter got back up in the 168-170 range I would workout but again didn’t focus on what I ate, the saying “you can’t out work a bad diet” is very true. When May of 2023 rolled around I started getting into working out heavier and watching what I ate and so other life things happened mid-May that really made me say damn I don’t like the way I look or feel so I began running. I hadn’t run sine High School and I had never ran more than a mile sure I had hiked lots of miles hunting over the years but never ran. So May 25th I just laced my shoes up and went running I made it about a mile and had to stop and walk. I told my self every excuse in the book while I was walking. You cant run, this is going to be so much harder than I think, yada, yada, yada. But I kept going out each day running. June 10th I ran my firs half marathon in one hour and forty nine minutes. I really focused on what I ate dialed in my nutrition and got a running coach. July 8th and 9th I competed in my first Spartan trifecta weekend doing the Beast, Super, and sprint events. Come August 9th I was down to 157 pounds and in the best shape of my life. October 6thth I was entered to run the Antelope Island marathon and was on track to finish in the top 8 at the half marathon point but soon after started getting an excruciating pain in my left knee. That put me out of the race at mile 20 after everyone else that was still in the race had past me. I didn’t run again till April of this year 2024 I had put back on some weight getting up to 166 but I never felt as bad of out of shape as I did in the past. In April I ran 5+ miles a day for a total of 179.3 miles in the month of April. I took a few days off the 5 miles a day and ran 11.34 miles on May 4th but after that I proceeded to hurt my foot lifting weights at the gym only a few hours later and didn’t get back into logging miles constantly till this past week. If you have read until this point the moral of the story is its ok to have setbacks and failures in your health and fitness journey you don’t have to run marathons or do spartan races either. You just must get a plan that works for you and stick to it failure is inevitable what you must not do is quit. Re set and get back after it. Constantly remind yourself that you're working for your future you, your future hunts, and your future dreams.
This Sunday we lost one of the hunting industry Icons Mark Hampton. Mark was on Safari in Tanzania and had a heart attack and passed away. Mark was a great man and was always a joy to talk to at GSCO banquets and the SCI convention. Now mark was no way overweight and from the looks he looked like a healthy man now I don’t know his medical history so I cant speculate on anything but my point is you never know when its going to be your last safari or that last hunt.
Rest in peace Mark you will be greatly missed.
So think about taking care of yourself to the best of your abilities and think about the future rewards for the short term pain and suffering.
if you're looking for some supplements and tools to help you on your health and fitness journey here are links to the products I use on a daily bases.
If you use these links, it's supports these emails, the YouTube channel the website and everything that I'm trying to bring for you guys. I'd appreciate it if you used them if you're wanting to look into getting in better shape and focus on your health and fitness.
The 5 key supplements I take daily to make sure I’m getting the nutrition I need to keep me in the best shape possible for all up coming hunts!
meal replacement protein
the app I use to make sure I stay within my macros and what I use to learn about workouts and all things health! I want to be tracking Elephants and Cape buffalo when I'm 90.
My go to snacks.
These are perfect to take on a hunt with you to make sure you are hitting your protein goals while having a yummy snack.
Peanut butter lover is a winner it taste so good! I do love the salted Carmel bars and the seasonal peppermint bark and pumpkin spice bars.
These meat sticks are great the breakfast Sausage taste just like eating Sausage patty so is a great morning snack and I’m a huge fan of the sharp cheddar stick they are the bomb.
The ONLY energy drink you will ever need!
Great tasting with natural B12 without all the other Bull Shit like Cyanocobalamin
Orange Sunrise flavor is the goat! but haven’t had one I hate.