Sandro Torres
Mar 5, 202213 min
Updated: Oct 17, 2023
Here I am interviewing my friend, Frank. He has very good tips to give you if you are looking for weight loss and body toning. He is self employed and works as a construction contractor. He just like you has a busy life and has figured out a way to stay healthy and in shape. This interview may help you take the first step towards a better life and will motivate you to continue with it. Here is the interview
Welcome everybody to another interview here at Custom Body Fitness with one of our great members. He has seen great results and I have seen him workout here in our facility and he pushes. He started very weak and right now he's lifting a lot of weight. It's impressive. I'm very impressed with his progress, not only his physical progress, but his mental progress.
Sandro, “Frank, welcome.”
Frank, “Thank you.”
Sandro, “It is an honor to interview you and tell our members your story. I would love them to get motivated by listening to your story and understand that changing their lives it's not something simple and requires a lot of effort. Even though you make it seem like it's easy.”
I know there could be results...
Frank, “It's actually a lot easier than I thought it is going to be. Maybe it’s the right time in my life to do it. I've been wanting to lose weight and gain muscle for quite some time, but it just never happened. I don't know why that was. I was never ready for it. But I've seen your advertisements on the internet and I've seen the progress, the comparisons of your students, so I know there could be results, so that's why I approached you.”
Sandro, “That's why you started with us. Tell me your story. I understand why you didn't do it before, but tell me what was the tipping point when you said, ‘You know what? it's enough.’ Tell me a little bit about your past and then the moment that you said I need to change.”
Frank, “I've always been what I thought was strong with my legs, you know skiing and biking, but that was pretty much the only exercise. I have never done any upper body work before and you know I'm getting old. I'm 66 years old and I just found out I am getting weaker.”
Sandro, “How do you find out that you are getting weaker?”
Frank, “At work. I do tile installation and certain things just showed me that I need to get stronger or at least where I'm at and hopefully get stronger and it's the one thing I know I'm doing now, but also the fat, the belly. I've never been really fat, but just tired of it. You know. I am not getting anywhere with trying certain diets.”
Sandro, “Not getting the results you want.”
Frank, “Not getting any results.”
Sandro, “You were saying you were getting weaker.”
Frank, “A list of things you know and I'm sure age is a factor. So last summer I was actually going through minor knee operation. I had the time, so I just said after talking with you, ‘It is time.’ And I decided to give it a try and right away it is just a pleasant place to be, a lot of good people here and seeing results keep me motivated.”
Sandro, “Tell me a little bit about your results. How much fat you lost and how much muscle have you gained?”
Frank, “Well, I believe I've lost 12 lbs [23 lbs] overall. Last time we did measurements was after 6 months and I've lost about 12 percent body fat. Then I lost inches on my waist. My pants are all loose now.”
Sandro “That's good, right?”
Frank, “I got to buy the next size of pants.”
Sandro, “Tell me now the difference between how you used to feel before you started exercising and now after changing your habits?”
Frank “Well by doing the exercising, I am motivated to get up in the morning which means that I am motivated to go to bed at a decent time and get sleep.”
Sandro “Which it was not happening before. I'm guessing.”
Frank, “Well also not sleeping well and always waking up in the middle of the night. I am sleeping better now. For whatever reason, I am drinking less alcohol so that helps with the sleep, overall more relaxed I think. I am getting more exercise everyday.”
Sandro, “So you're telling me that by exercising you are sleeping better, you are drinking less and you go to bed earlier, wake up earlier, your day is more productive and less stressed.”
Frank, “Yes. Exercising definitely helps with stress. I've been able to do some spin classes at the rec center twice a week, so you know I'm exercising five to six mornings a week which is a big difference than any other time of my life.”
Sandro, “Tell me about the things that have given you the results? What are the things that have changed? Talk about your eating first.”
Frank, “Well I haven't been to a fast-food restaurant since the day I met you. You said no more fast food. That was not a big part of my eating but once a week. So none of that. I am trying to stay regulated with dinners, 50% vegetables with dinner.”
Sandro, “So you are eating more veggies than before?”
Frank, “Yes. When I go to work, I used to grab a pastry or something with my coffee and I don't do that anymore. So little things like that add up. Breakfast probably be more conscious about having a good breakfast instead of leaving the house without anything and then being hungry.”
Sandro, “What's good for breakfast.”
Frank, “I do eggs in the morning, eggs with a little bit of spinach, feta cheese. If I don't have the time I might do just just a shake with blueberries and bananas, sometimes cereal with fruit on top. And for lunch, I always have a sandwich, apple, orange. For dinner, either I cook or Kathleen cooks, we try to have a piece of fish, chicken and then the vegetables. I am trying to stay good about that. Not junk food, absolutely.”
Sandro, “I think that helps a lot, getting rid of the junk food.”
Frank, “Yea, it really does. Before I told myself going to have fish a fillet at Mcdonalds it is not going to hurt me. Having a donut in the morning it won’t hurt me because I am going to go biking or skiing, but it does. It shows in the belly.”
Sandro, “Now tell me about what else have you changed, not only in your eating, but in your whole life that is giving results?”
Frank, “Being regimented about my workout; that is the big thing, coming here three to four times in the morning, getting the exercise in the morning. It makes me feel better, the head gets a little clearer, maybe, instead of sleeping late. That is really the big thing in my life and I’m enjoying it.”
Sandro, “Do you think that is a correlation between exercise, eating and everything else that you are doing?”
Finding somebody who understands and has a program...
Frank, “Absolutely, it has to be. Just the energy factor is a noticeable thing. Like I said before why I came to do this, what made me do it now in my life is hard to say other than tired of not doing it, always wanting to do something like this and never doing it and just said, ‘It is time.’ Finding somebody who understands and has a program. And I am someone who needs someone to tell me what to do. I had the opportunity to go do it myself, workout DVD at home I had, but to stay strict with that never happened. So I needed guidance.”
Sandro “If something has been difficult in your weight loss Journey, what is it?”
Frank, “The alcohol factor probably still a factor where I have to consciously say don’t have the drink once I get home from work. That is an ongoing thing. I don’t think I am an alcoholic, but I look forward to having a beer or wine at night.”
Sandro, “Your relaxing time. That probably was your relaxing time and it is difficult to say no.”
Frank, “I feel like I can have some wine at night, but cut out the tequila and don’t just keep having one after another after another. I can’t say it’s that difficult, but it is an on going mental process.”
Sandro, “It is your fight. We all have a fight.”
Frank “It is a fight. And I know if i don’t have it, I will feel better. I have not stopped exercising and I have been doing this 7 months now. And I only missed, maybe, 3 days in my workout schedule. I have not given up for two weeks to see how I feel. I don’t want to do that because I feel better.”
Sandro, “Let me add to that. I think, for me, it is difficult because it is like the analogy when you push a car. It takes a lot of energy in the beginning and when it has momentum, it needs energy but does not take a lot of energy. So it is the same thing with this. In the beginning it takes a lot of energy, but when you are on it, it still takes energy but not at lo.Tell me if I am wrong, okay? So I think subconsciously we are afraid to stop because we need to put all the energy to come back and start over again. And you feel so good right now that does not make sense. It requires energy to come here and exercise, and like your internal fights, and make the decisions about drinking, it takes energy. It is not something just simple. It takes energy. But to drop it and start doing it again and all the good you have done and how you feel, It is like a relapse and start over again. You know you are going to have to start over again. Otherwise, you go back where you used to be.
Frank, “There are things like skiing and some exercising. In the beginning of the ski season you have to workout to a certain point to feel like you used to in the last year. I like coming here. I like doing what I am doing”
Sandro, “Talking about that, Talk to me about your weight lifting. We all tell stories in our heads and sometimes I record videos of me exercising and I see myself and it's like ‘I'm doing nothing. It seems pretty easy. And I know, because I have been there, how difficult it is. I know how I'm feeling when exercising. People will see me exercise and they think I am not hurting. They think things are easy for me. They don't know what I'm going through. Because of that, I know it is hard for all of our members. However, there are the members who complain and members who don't complain. The only difference between these members and the others, is that these complain and the other ones don't complain, but both feel the same.
Going back to the question. What do you tell yourself? I don’t usually have to tell you to increase your weights. You do it on your own and I know when you start increasing your weights is because you know it is getting easier. But to go to the next level, even though you know you are progressing, it is not that simple ‘I just go to the next’ It is going to hurt again.
It's kind of like starting over because you go into the next steps (so what we do here at Custom Body Fitness is to increase your weights to increase your metabolism so that's actually helps decrease your body weight). Tell me what do you tell yourself when you are lifting those weights and sometimes it is easy and sometimes it gets harder and you still lift the same weights? What goes through your head? How do you defeat that moment?”
Frank, “Good questions. Well, I guess the big picture is that I'm getting results. If I wasn't, if I haven't lost inches and the fat, then I would tell myself why I'm doing this. I know it is working, and I know I want to get stronger. I'm not reached the point. I have not reached my goal yet and maybe I never will. Maybe I'm going, going, going. I have a ways to go, but I am seeing results. So if I lifted 30 pounds last week, let's try 35 and see how easy it is. it comes down to why I am doing this. I am getting results. I am not doing it for somebody else. I'm doing this for me and you know let’s not joke around.”
Sandro, “Let's not waste your time.”
Frank, “Let's not waste my time. I am paying good money for this and I want to see what I can do. It's time in my life to do that.”
Sandro, “Thank you for sharing that. It is a good tip for people to understand why they are paying, why they're here and why they're pushing.”
Frank, “So, I guess I could come and nobody would say anything if I did less weight. Okay, it's easy, but I want to feel what it's like to do the heavier weights.”
Sandro, “Let’s go back to your eating. Give me one recipe for our people, so they can use it."
Frank, “Well one of my favorite recipes does have a sauce, Chicken Marsala.”
Sandro, “Give me that recipe.”
Frank, “Comes from a cooking light magazine, are you familiar with that? They tend to do a lot of classic recipes but in a less caloric way. So it is basically a breast of chicken pounded down thin, lightly breaded, with bread crumbs and sautéed and then you add in a bit of a chicken stock, Marsala wine and reduce that down. So first you sautéed the chicken 3 minutes each side and then you add the stock and wine and then cook down for another 3 minutes, maybe add some mushrooms and that's pretty much it, very simple.”
Sandro, “I am going to try that.” You don’t sound like a tile worker, you sound like a chef more than anything.”
Frank, “I went to culinary school and I was in the restaurant business for 25 years.”
Sandro, “Tell me a little bit about your day, your whole day, not only about your eating? You don't have to be specific about everything but only a little bit from when you wake up until you go to bed.
Frank, “I wake up at 5:30 every morning. I like to read the news on the internet. Years ago was reading the newspaper. Now it's online. Then I come here at the 7 oclock class, session or like I mentioned, when I am not here and the spin class is available, I do that. I get home, have breakfast, get out of the house, probably around 9 oclock to work. I am self employed. I have the benefit of a relaxed schedule. In general, I do residential remodels, so if someone is living there, they don't want me in their house at 7 in the morning anyways. So, I go to work between 9 and 10 and, you know, tile installation is tough so at my age, 6 - 7 hour day I am done. My body itches a little bit, so I get home and try to definitely get in the hot tub and do some stretching to relax and then either cook dinner or Kathleen will cook dinner. She actually cooks a lot and that's the day.”
Sandro, “That is why you are not too sore, because you get in the hot tub everyday and stretch.”
Frank, “Yeah, I've noticed that since working here my back problems have gone away. My body still aches after work for sure, but not the same problems that it used to be.”
Sandro, “That's because of the strength. You are training your body to go out there and do the small things. Your job used to be difficult and now you do the difficult here to do the little things out there. Your job is still tough. I am not saying it is not. But you already came and lifted those heavy weights to have the strength.”
Frank, “I am anxious to see when the weather gets good, biking outside, because I always say core is the key, for claiming and why not, so I am anxious to see how I do on that. But skiing, I definitely noticed the difference. I only got 8 days in this year. Those 8 days are more productive. I am enjoying them more. I feel like I skied 20 days when in past years it would take me those days to get where I am feeling good; that is happening sooner now.”
Sandro, “That is telling you that you are getting stronger. You are getting in shape.
This is going to be the last question. Tell me your best tip for people who want to start, or who are already starting and don’t see results, for weight loss. What is your best tip?”
Frank, “To tell somebody that's trying this or hasn't done it?”
Sandro, “Somebody who hasn't done it yet or started yet. You can even give one tip to one person and another tip to another person, somebody who already started a program but they don’t see the results. For example, you already started with the DVD and did not see the results.”
Frank, “Right, well, I think the consistency is a big factor. Like I said, I do it 3 to 4 times a week.
Let me go back. I would have to say that seeing the results from your clients you posted, the before and after pictures, told me, I saw this 5 years ago, but I did not go, I didn't come here yet, but that just shows me that there are results. And these are normal people; these are not the people in advertising on TV with big muscles and why not. These are just regular people; that is a big key showing that somebody else has done it, so why can't I? So I would say that give it a try. But you have to be consistent with it. Don’t just do it every so often. And for somebody that's trying but has not gotten the results, I don't know what their problems are.”
Sandro, “So you're telling me that every person is different according to their problems? The advice will go according to their problems?”
Frank, “I don't know if anybody is coming and working out once a week. I can't imagine that would get many results by doing only that. I would say that anyone who has gotten results is because they have been consistent with their workout. It's good to see all the other people come here on a consistent basis. We are not great friends. We don’t hang out anywhere else, but it's nice to see the same people come like camaradees. Everybody is very pleasant and it's just nice. You and Javier and Rode are great people who are showing what to do.”
Sandro, “Thank you, Frank. You heard everybody. So you need to be constant with your workout. Remember, a lot of people have done it before and regular people have done it before. You should be able to do it as well. You heard the recipe for Chicken Marsala. I'm going to try that. If I do it and comes out good, I will make a video and I will post it for you. But if it does not come out good, do not expect that video. Thank you so much for continuing to follow us. Frank, that was a great interview. Thank you so much for doing it. You are going to help a lot of people. Anything else you want to tell them?"
Frank, "I just say give it a try if you want to lose weight and get stronger and you haven't done it, come talk to Sandro. He has good advice and advice that works.”
Sandro,”Thank you. Frank.”
Frank, “You are welcome. Thank you.”
Sandro, “And will see you in the next interview, everybody.”
I think Frank has figured out the key to weight loss and a better life. He knows that being constant with his new good habits is the key for his success. He taught me that looking forward to progress and being challenged will deliver results. He also reminded me that we all have those fights and negative talks that we need to defeat. I think this is the hardest battle we have and to win our own battle we need to know why we are doing what we are doing.
Seeing other people do it before is a good way to get motivated and understand that we can do it as well.