How many times have you found yourself telling people, "Do as I say, not as I do." Most likely plenty of times. Being a Fitness Professional I constantly get asked questions concerning eating and exercise. My motto is, "work hard and play harder!" This means I love to run, lift weights and stay active, but on the flip side, I love to drink wine, eat pizza and smoke the occasional cigar. As you can see, opposite ends of the spectrum. But hey, I'm an extremist.

This has been all fine and dandy until lately. Sometimes life passes us by and we just go with the flow. It's easy to get caught up and then tell yourself, "well I'm not that bad." Compared to what or who? In 2000 I broke a Guinness World Record and followed it up with some other crazy events like the Raid Gauloises, the Badwater 135, the Marathon des Sables, the Tough Guy Challenge and other fun stuff. But even extreme and challenging stuff has started to fade.

I know I'm getting older and I will slow down, but wait, not yet. A couple weeks ago I got on the scales and the dial screamed - 203lbs?! What the ....?! Ok, I'm not a big believer in the scales. But 203?! I tell myself, "We need to start thinking about this." That same day I'm out for a jog and a guy probably 10 years older and 10 lbs heavier than I am passes me on MY running trail. Ok, gotta catch him and show him who's boss. Ok, faster legs. Uh-oh, can't catch him. Feel like I'm going pass out. What the ....?!

Time for the wake up call buddy! My little speech of, "Do as I say, not as I do" has finally caught up with me. Too much wine, pizza and cigars. Ok pal, time cowboy up. But where to begin?

And then it hit me or at least I noticed it on my bookshelf. Five years ago I published a book with Penguin Publishing Company called "The World's Fittest You." It's about a fat out-of-shape guy, which is me, that turns his life around to become a Guinness World Record Holder. An amazing story, if I do say so myself!;-)

I grabbed it from the shelf, copied down the shopping list, and looked over the workout program. Time to get the party started as they say and follow my own advice.

I've now been following the eating and exercise program that I wrote five years ago and feel great! I've lost 10 lbs in 2 weeks and my strength and endurance have increased. If only it could tell me how to grow more hair!;-)

Remember next time you tell someone, "Do as I say, not as I do" that maybe some day you may have to step and actually "Do as you do" yourself! And it's actually not that bad. Try it!

Have a great day!

The Barkley 100 Miler has come and gone. Just like that it's over. Still, I find myself sitting here some what dazed and confused, trying to figure out what exactly happened to me.

December 26th, 2007, I send my application in for Barkley 2008. I'm doubtful that I'll even get in due to the popularity. A couple weeks later I get an email from Gary Cantrell with this very memorable line, "Hi Joe, be careful of what you wish for." Being a young strapping man I let this comment slide. How tough can it be?

I put together what I consider to be a pretty comprehensive training program for the upcoming race. I spend weekend after weekend running local hills and trails. Many of the hills aren't that tall but really, how tough can Barkley be? I've been to Himalayas for crying out loud.

The weeks roll by and Barkley is almost here. Nicole organizes a surprise Barkley fundraiser event and invites many of my friends. Great people, good times and it's time to go.

Saturday, March 22, I land in Nashville, rent a car and off to Wartburg TN I go. Roll into Frozen Head State Park about 5pm in the evening. Set up my tent, organize race gear and I'm ready to go. Uh-oh, need a map of the park. Ranger Michael pulls up and we chat. Great guy. He has an extra map at the station and goes to get it for me. Very cool. Now I'm ready to go scout come first light.

Sunday morning, I awake to temps in the 40's. Yikes, this is cold for a So Cal boy. Takes me a couple hours to get things organized and ready to go. Gotta have my coffee, eggs and bacon first. Necessary gear - check, compass - check, map - check, I'm ready to go or so I think. I know how to navigate using a map and compass. Used to do it all the time when I was with the 10th Mountain Light Infantry Division. Should be no problem even though that was 15 years ago. I head out on the trail and find Book 1 no problem. This is going to be easy. The next portion is unmarked trail meaning no orange blazes or road signs. Now the real navigating test begins. Within an hour I find myself terribly lost. Use the map dummy. Uh, I can't even find myself on the map. This could be a problem. It's getting cold, don't have much food or the necessary warm clothing. Now I think, great some Girl Scout troop is going to find your frozen carcass out here come spring. Survival mode takes over. Using my compass I shoot an azimuth in the direction I think I need to go to return to camp. Unfortunately this means wading streams, busting through briers and climbing impossible inclines. Onward I stumble for a couple hours only to eventually come across the trail that I needed 4 hours ago. Nice job stud. Hurriedly I make it back to camp to lick my wounds and get ready for day two. It's got to be better.

Monday morning I awake to about an inch of snow on the ground and frigid temps. Ok, this is officially no fun. Be tough ya big wimp. Ok, yesterday was a disaster but it'll be better today. Right? Let's hope so. Out I go to pick up the trail I stumbled upon towards the end. Got it. Onward I go. Ok, not so bad. Orienteering skills are coming back. I find Books 2 - 7. It's a great navigating day. But wow, is this trail brutal. Are we really supposed to run this?

Tuesday morning comes, still cold and now I have a sinus and lung infection. Thanks irony, just what I need while climbing mountains is to be out of breath. Ok, only 3 more books to go. Off I go and have no problem finding them. My map reading is back. It's about time. Feeling confident. No problem.

Wednesday. It's taken me 3 days to locate and cover the 20 mile loop that is supposed to take me less than 12 hours. This could be an issue. I decide to wake at 0430 hours and attempt the entire 20 mile loop in the reverse direction. A little voice asks, might this be just a little too many miles on your body this close to the race? Let's see, 13 miles on Sun, 20 miles on Mon, 10 miles on Tues and now another 20 miles today. Hmmm, 63 miles less than a week before the race. Yes, this could be an issue. Do I risk over training or the possibility of getting lost during the run? I decide to risk the over training. I've put in lots of hill training before hand and should be fine. Unfortunately I make the wrong decision. The climbs along the way are no problem, but the insanely steep descents start to make my knees sing. And it's not a very pleasant tune. I've never had patellar tendinitis but have read about it in books. Lucky me, I feel all the symptoms that I've read about in my own knees as I stagger back into camp. I'm worried but what can I do. Ok, two days to go, get plenty of rest and you'll be fine by race start on Sat.

Thursday I pick-up Jeff Martini at the Nashville airport. Luckily Jeff has volunteered to come and crew for me during the race. Thanks Jeff. We head to Darnelles to buy more supplies. We're ready to go. I've got plenty of coffee, pb & jelly, POP Tarts, Snickers bars and everything else. Jeff has plenty of beer and lighter fluid to play with the fire while I'm gone. We're set.

Saturday morning comes. The big day is here. We awake around 6am to a cold thunderstorm that has continued throughout the night. Great. This is Barkley for ya. Expect the worst weather. Now I know what they mean. Jeff makes a hot breakfast. I get all my gear ready to go. Nerves are on edge. They blow the ceremonial conch shell to signal one hour until race start. It's almost here. What to wear? I decide to wear my Army pants that I trained in rather than shorts. This will turn out to be a bad call. Food is packed, water bottles filled and we line up at the start.

8:41 AM and Gary lights the official race starting cigarette. And we're off. Loop 1 goes smoothly. I find all the books and am back in camp in around 9 1/2 hours. Way ahead of schedule. Unfortunately it's now much hotter than the previous days and my clothes are soaked with sweat. I know that I have to change into dry clothes or I'll freeze during the colder night temps. No more pants but shorts should be fine now. Wrong. This will turn out to be a very painful lesson. I also decide to leave my jacket behind thinking that a lightweight long sleeve shirt is enough. Wrong again. Off I go. The sun sets quickly, the temperatures drop and it begins to rain. Uh-oh, it's getting real cold all of a sudden. Just move faster I think. This should work. It does for awhile. I get out my new REI flashlight. Time to test you out. Another HUGE mistake. You don't test out new gear during a race. Batteries go dead in about an hour. I change them. These go dead. I change them. Last set, they go dead in about 15 minutes. Oh ****, it's cold, rainy, very foggy, extremely dark and I'm under dressed. Nice job Einstein. I've got 10 miles to go and only have a very crappy headlamp that can penetrate about a foot into the thick fog. I stumble on. Through brier bush after brier bush I go. My body eventually shuts out the pain inflicted from each cut. They begin to feel like being emerged in warm water. Ok, this is probably not good. I'm up, I'm back down, I fall sideways, I fall forward and I fall backward. This is ridiculous. It's virtually impossible to stay on my feet in the rough terrain without light. This is what ya get for pulling such a moronic move. I want to strangle the salesperson that sold the light. Luckily for me I'm able to hook up with Blake that has done the race before. He has a good light and let's me follow along. Half way down Zip Line ridge I slip off a wet rock, fall about five feet and feel my already sore right knee twist painfully. I knew it right then that my Barkley race was over. You're done buddy. No, this can't be. Try to shake it off. I stumble on and am able to cover about 5 miles in 6 hours.

Even though I still have enough time to continue on for the 3rd loop and a possible 60 Mile Fun Run finish, I know that it's not worth it. I might have considered it at an ordinary 100 miler but not at Barkley. Quit. Drop out. I've never had to do this before. But this is what I now must do. Wow, what a hard pill to swallow. I feel completely fine and know that I could go on if only my knee wasn't throbbing. Gary comes by and I give him the news. I'm pretty sure that I'm not the first nor will I be the last. I head up to the race HQ and let the bugler play Taps for me. Ok, this really sucks.

So, what exactly happened the last couple weeks? It seems like a whirlwind. What just occurred? Still trying to sort things out. What an absolutely incredible, wonderful, powerful, painful, discouraging, enlightening experience. Am I depressed or upset that I didn't finish Barkley? I don't think so. I actually feel a little giddy maybe even happy. Why you might ask? Even though I didn't complete the 5 loops that I so desired, I did learn a considerable amount about myself out there on the trail. They say adversity creates character. If that's true, my character just doubled. Also, I now have something to look forward to next year. Barkley is my personal mountain to climb or ocean to cross. I told Gary that I'll continue to come back year after year until I complete the 100 mile course. It might happen next year or possibly never. Regardless, I have a goal, a challenge, a dream. I think that this famous line from the movie Fight Club sums it up best, "I ran. I ran until my muscles burned and my veins pumped battery acid, then I ran some more!"

A special thanks to Nicole for holding down the fort while I was gone, to Jeff Martini for hanging out in the woods with me, to all the people that supported me with this crazy endeavor and to Laz for making this friggin' insane event known as The Barkley possible. Thank you all!

Isn't it funny how when things are starting to go well that life throws you a curve ball? It never seems to fail. For instance, you're saving money for something cool and bam, your transmission goes out on your car causing it to catch fire. Or you start dating someone cool and hot only to find out that they're on 5 kinds of anti-depression and bipolar regulating medications! Can you say R-E-D-R-U-M?!

That brings me to my dilemma. I recently got invited to the Barkley 100 http://blog.washingtonpost.com/why-we-compete/2007/04/curiosity_1.html Put together a killer training program and kicked it off like a champ. Things are going great and then bam, I throw my back out during a routine lifting session. Ok, can't walk for a couple days and I'm bed ridden in a fetal position. Finally better and I jump back in. Step it up, things are going awesome, bam, I crack a couple of ribs playing capture the flag with kids. Don't even ask.

So today is a big training day. I had planned to leave my place around 8 PM tonight and take off to the woods. My goal was to drive to seven peaks around San Diego and run them all. Start with Cuyamaca Peak, then Viejas Mtn, El Capitan, Cowles Mtn, Iron Mtn, Woodson Mtn and finally Black Mtn. All this continually with no sleep. Sounds like a good time, right?

It did, but that's where the cracked ribs come into play and there's my dilemma. Ok, it hurt's to breath, sleep and bend over. I'm thinking I should probably wait until I feel better. Then it hits me. What would John Wayne do? Actually I ask that all the time. He would drive on. No whining or crying. Plus I've now decided, I can't think of a better way to train for the world's toughest running event that breaks the world's best runner's bones each year than to do it all ready broken. I'm starting to realize that my cracked ribs may actually give me a training advantage. Anyone can train healthy, now do it when you're broken.

Maybe life is actually fair. Maybe it throws these curve balls at us not to keep us down but to pick us up. Wow, in just a short amount of time I was able to turn what looked to be an excruciatingly painful experience into an incredible opportunity. I just hope my ribs are as understanding.

Life is short. Play hard.

As a kid, growing up on a farm in the Midwest, every year my Dad would tell us that he was going to start his eating and exercise program come January 1st. As you can imagine, another year would roll around and eventually Dad would postpone his resolution until it was the following year.

Well, it's 25 years later and Dad still hasn't started that program yet! Like most of us though, he does have good intentions. Resolutions and truly changing your life can be difficult. You've had years to develop bad habits and let them spiral out of control. How do we then keep that promise that we've made to ourselves to take control or our eating, exercise and our life?

Many times, just like Dad, we only half-way commit. We know in the back of our mind that we're not seriously ready to make the change. Change only comes with serious commitment. You've got to take a good long look in the mirror and decide that you are 100% ready to make that change.

Next, you've got to set realistic goals and develop a plan of action. There's a saying that goes, "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail!" You can do this. Yes, it will take hard work and dedication but many times the things that we value most in life are the things that we've worked the hardest to obtain. You are worth it.

I keep my weekly exercise and eating report on the refrigerator. It's one of the first things that I see in the morning. This helps to hold me accountable and keep me motivated. Here are the links for the very basic reports that I use.
Weekly Exercise Report -http://joe-decker.com/What%20to%20Do.htm
Weekly Eating Report -http://joe-decker.com/What%20to%20Eat.htm

Hope they help. Remember, you can do this! No one is more important than you. Take control now before you end up a habitual offender like my father. Still luv ya dad. Oh, and you're starting Monday, right?!

It's that time of year again. Time to make a life altering New Year's Resolution that odds are, most of us will not keep. Why is that? I have found over the years that most people do not put too much thought into these resolutions. Often they are made after too many cocktails or just a repeat of last years failed attempt. How do we stop the madness?

Of course there is no fail safe plan, it all depends on you, your motivation and dedication level. I recommend that you start thinking about some challenging, interesting and fun goal or event that you'd like to undertake. Come up with a doable goal but not an unrealistic one like looking like Brad Pitt or Angelina Jolie. Sorry guys, that ain't happening for any of us. Or the same old goal of losing weight.

Set a fun goal, like a race, strength contest or charity event, and work systematically towards achieving it. I tell people not to focus on weight loss, but to let it become a by-product of your training. That way you're not constantly obsessed with food, not eating and those evil scales.

For instance, I have a group of clients training for January races from a half marathon to a 50 miler. They're all getting in shape, having fun together and losing weight. Weight loss is a by-product of their training.

You don't have to choose a marathon. Your goal can be a 5k, 10k, Cancer March, Triathlon, Muddy Buddy, Strongman, Highland Game, Bodybuilding show or Ultramarathon. You pick it! Make it fun, adventuresome and exciting. Gather some family and friends to join ya. That's the best part.

For instance, here are some very cool goals that some of my friends and I have for 2008;

My friend & client, Michelle Ehda, is getting married in 2008. She wants to get in the best shape possible. You can follow her progress and support her at - http://community.active.com/blogs/Michelle_Wants_to_Get_Active

Another friend, Toby at Active.com, is getting ready for his first 100 miler and other crazy fun stuff. You can check him out at - http://community.active.com/people/Active%20Toby

These are just a few of the events I have on the radar.
-Chicago's Strongest Man competition, http://www.nastrongmaninc.com/pdf/entries/ChicagoStrongestMan08.pdf
-La Ruta de los Conquistadores,
http://www.adventurerace.com/eng/about-race.htm
-North American Wife Carrying championship, http://www.sundayriver.com/summer/wifecarry.html

Come join the fun. Life's too short. Work Hard and Play Harder!

Even though I have a Guinness World Record for fitness, I still find myself getting bored or becoming complacent from time to time like many of you. When this happens, I know that it's time to add some spice to my workouts or for a little kick in the rear. This usually comes in the form of a 'goofy personal fitness goal.'

There's a set of stairs at the park that I teach my 6 AM Gut Check Fitness Class that just keep going on and on. They are long and steep. You gotta love them. Needing a little fitness attitude adjustment, I decided to try to run 50 repeats in one hour on Tuesday. Was I in for a reality check.

It's 4 AM, alarm goes off. Who's idea was this anyway? Nicole and I get to the stairs at exactly 5 AM. We're off. I'm trying for 50 and Nik for whatever she can get. She keeps me motivated and helps me count. I still have a problem with numbers over ten.

First five stairs, I'm on fire. Five to ten, legs getting warmed up. Ten to fifteen, in the zone. Fifteen to twenty, who's idea was this! Now reality sinks in, I have 30 more to go. Yikes!

Ok, may not get 50 but let's see what we got in the tank. I buckle down, welcome the pain, fatigue and nausea. Now it's on. Mind over matter. "I don't mind 'cuz my body doens't matter!"

Clock strikes one hour. Not bad, was able to get 44 stairs. Nik got 35 and Megan, 20 in 25 minutes. Didn't get 50 but will definitely be back for more.

Even though I doubt the stairs are initimidated, it does and will continue to be one of those goofy fitness challenges that will keep me and others in my group motivated. "Watch out stairs, here we come." What's your fitness challenge?