The Night Before

So it's the night before I am to start my new health and fitness regimen, and I'm a little nervous about it. In fact, I can't figure out if the tummy troubles I'm having right now are because of nerves caused by my "gym phobia" or from that leftover chicken and rice dish that my cater-waitor neighbor Art brought up to me. It's all so stressful! :)

Since the whole thing's not starting until tomorrow, my trainer, Ronn Burns, told me that I should enjoy myself while I still could. So I went out and had "one last hurrah" and essentially ate all the foods that I love but won't be eating for at least the next three months. That's right. I enjoyed a hearty plate of pad thai noodles from the Thai restaurant down the street, and also feasted on a turkey burger and onion rings from Fatburger after being in the bars last night. And don't even get me started on alcohol. I guess I've just had my last Rum and Coke for a while. I'm sure going to miss those foods. They're comfort foods. Stuff that makes me feel good. Sadly, those foods don't make me look any better, and seriously, there's nothing sexy about being a man who looks like he's got a bun in the oven. I'm not pregnant, OK!?

When I decided to pitch this story to Frontiers magazine as a six-month health and fitness project, I knew I’d have to find a way to keep myself motivated throughout the entire period. Because I’m the type of person who excels when working with others, I knew that hooking up with a personal trainer would be the best route for me. And when I met Ronn Burns, who’d been referred to Frontiers by a friend, I knew instantly that I’d found the right guy for the job—and not just because his eyes got big upon his first look at me and he said, “I have to tell you that, honestly, I was expecting someone out of shape.” (Damn, he’s good.) Sure, he’s charming and sexy and all that (why do you think Frontiers featured him on the cover of the new issue instead of me?), but he also speaks about fitness in no-nonsense terms that I can grasp, and he instantly understood where I was coming from in terms of my fears and insecurities. So when he started laying out his plan for whipping me into shape, I let him take the lead.

He asked me all sorts of questions about my diet (mostly chicken, tofu and veggies, but peppered with far too many snacks and deliveries from Asian eateries), my exercise habits (apart from the occasional hike in Runyon Canyon and the aborted attempts at working out at home, virtually none), and my overall goals. I told him that I wanted to drop some weight from my tummy and firm and tone my upper body. "I'm looking for a naturally athletic look," I told him. "I don't want to look like a muscle-head. I just want to have a more defined and toned look." Eventually, he came up with a plan:

* Four days of weight resistance training and cardio, with one additional day of just cardio.

* Heavy emphasis on abdominals during weight training.

* A balanced diet on a time schedule.

* A resistance regimen catered to my inexperience.

Perhaps because he sensed my growing apprehension, Ronn was quick to add, “Ken, I promise you’re going to enjoy working out with me. Right now, you’re, like, ‘Five days a week?’ But you’re going to like it. It’s really important that you not get distracted. You can go in there and pick up a 30-pound weight and feel like a weakling, but nobody in that gym is monitoring what you’re lifting. It’s all in your head.

“Our biggest fear in life is fear of the unknown,” he continues, his practicality and his gentleness comforting my growing concerns. “Everybody had to drive into the pool for the first time at some point. And once all of that unknown is gone, the gym is a great place to meet people and feel good about yourself.” Consider me convinced. See you at the gym.

(Pic by Kevin Cazares)