I am so excited to announce that my new site is set to launch on May 2, 2011. I am gearing up posts to share so that there will be plenty of new stuff for everyone to enjoy! It has been a long road but well worth the wait. I can’t wait to share all this new and exciting stuff with you all.

It has been awhile since my last blog post and I just wanted to keep everyone up to date with what is going on in the wonderful world of Jared Rey Photography. My new website is near completion and my new branding and collateral is looking amazing. I can’t wait to share all this new stuff with everyone, it will blow your minds! I have also restrained myself from showing any new work so that I will have plenty of stuff to share once everything is launched.

As I am preparing to launch new branding and a new site within the next month or so (hopefully), I am constantly thinking of how I want to represent myself to my audience (all of you). But instead of always relying on myself and telling you what I think you should feel, I would love the opportunity for you all to have a voice.

I have two exercises that I would love you to participate in to help me move in my exciting new direction for my business. I am going to share a few images that I feel best represent my style and what I want to communicate about my work. I am going to be sharing many wedding images, bridals, engagement sessions, and also some fun portrait sessions. Pretty much everything I enjoy shooting.

1) I want you to give me 3-4 adjectives/words that you feel describe my work. What types of emotions do they evoke?

2) Give me a new bio in one sentence or 140 characters (like a twitter post).

Even if you don’t know me personally just describe me and what appears to be my priorities based on what you have read online and on the blog.

To encourage & express gratitude for participation I will select one winner and offer you a complimentary portrait session and discount on select products. The winning entry may appear on my new site and/or twitter bio.

To participate make your way to my FB page and share your thoughts on my wall!

————–

RULES:
Just wanted to state two rules in order to be eligible:
1) Must ‘Like’ the Jared Rey Facebook Fan Page
2) Must live in the Dallas area or be willing to travel to Dallas for your portrait session.

——————-

I look forward to hearing your feedback!

Before I share the second part of my story, I just want to thank everyone who has been giving feedback via twitter and facebook, you have all been encouraging to me and I am glad to hear that I can encourage all of you as well, which was the point of these posts. I am telling this story to let people know how an unmotivated guy who never wanted to work out and was eating fast food 10 times a week lost weight. This isn’t the method for everyone, but hopefully it can encourage and give some ideas to some of you wanting to shed some pounds. I am going to be telling the story in a headline/Q&A type of fashion. I think this is the best way to keep everything as short as possible. Now onto the story…

How it all started
After I asked my brother Bullet to help me lose weight, he suggested that we go and train with a personal trainer he uses to lose weight and train for MMA fights. It sounded a bit extreme especially after seeing a picture of Tom, but I was highly motivated. Tom Rutherford was our personal trainer for a month before he had to close down his gym to pursue some other business goals. I haven’t spoken with him in a few months but I highly recommend using him if you want help losing some weight.

Why a personal trainer?
Without even knowing it having my own personal trainer was exactly what I needed. Tom helped rid me of my insecurities I had about the gym and the machines. He was patient with me and helped me gain confidence, strength, and endurance. I needed some motivation and needed to learn how to exercise correctly, I just wasn’t going to do this on my own. I was clueless to even know where to begin.

My first day there was hilarious, he tested me on my strength and endurance to see where I was physically. I did okay on the strength side of things but when it came to endurance I literally lasted 3 minutes before I had to sit out, Bullet had to go run and get me some Gatorade because I was about to pass out. It wasn’t pretty. My first work out lasted maybe 8 minutes.

Tom also helped me with my diet, he helped me figure out what foods I would actually enjoy eating and what was going to be good for me. I was very thankful for him taking the time to help me lose the weight. The first month I lost 10 pounds and it was the confidence boost I needed to help me want to continue.

Was it expensive to have a personal trainer? Sure. But Tom had a good deal since Bullet and I came together. It also wasn’t so bad once I stopped eating fast food, those meals easily began paying for my personal training sessions. For me it was worth every penny.

It was sad to stop going once the gym was closed, but Bullet ended up finding an amazing alternative.

Where did we end up?
Bullet signed us up for a fitness class at a MMA gym in Garland named Kingdom MMA. One of the things that first interested me about this place was that it was a Christian owned business, the two guys who run the place Isaac and Eddie use their gifts to train young men in a Christ centered environment. Every Sunday you will find them doing a bible study before their morning work out classes. How cool of a ministry is that?

I didn’t know much about this fitness class, all I really knew is that it was going to be much more cardio/endurance based. Eddie was our instructor and he worked around our schedule during the summer to help us train. He also had a plan called the Zone Diet that helped us continue to eat better, basically it is a plan that breaks down Carbs(40%), Fat (30%), and Protein (30%) into percentages and blocks to help you portion out your meals.

The fitness class had recently started at the gym and was developed/based from a training system called Cross Fit.

What is Cross Fit Training?
Cross Fit it is basically described as constantly varied high intensity work out. This simply means that everyday you are doing something different not giving your body the chance to adapt. Ever wonder why you haven’t lost weight but you go to the gym all the time and do the treadmill for an hour? Your body just adapts to that routine which won’t allow you to show any results. Cross Fit training is about 18-30 minutes in length, where each person is giving 90-100% of their energy the entire time, there is little to no breaks during the work out, and you are going from one exercise to another. Once you are completed those 18-30 minutes are equivalent to 1-2 hours of cardio work out. It is hard to believe just reading the words but try a work out and you will quickly see how that is possible.

It doesn’t matter how in shape you think you are, if you have not done this type of class/training during the first work out you could possibly give up, throw up, or be ready to pass out once you have completed the time. Everyone that I have invited to come has fallen into one of those categories.

What would be on example of a typical workout?
Name of Workout : Climber II
- 5 Wall Climbers (using your legs to climb up a wall until you are in a hand stand position and then make your way back down)
- 2 sets of frog jumps across the whole gym floor
- 10 chin ups
- 20 V-Situps
- 30 Squats
Goal : 7 rounds or 25 minute cut-off

Go ahead and try this exercise at home and see how you feel after 25 minutes. This one kicked our butt this week, I think I only completed 5 rounds in 25 minutes.

Is it for everyone?
Yes. The great thing about Cross Fit is that it is designed for people of all ages and fitness levels. Every exercise can be tailored to your physical capabilities and can be increased to make it more challenging. It is all about doing your personal best and giving all your energy in each class. You don’t have to worry about how everyone else is doing as long as you are challenging yourself. We even have a log book where we can write down the exercises and how much we completed, we will repeat this exercise in another 2-3 weeks with something added to it in order to make it more difficult and we can try to beat our last record. The great thing is that you always improve from the last time because you continue to grow in strength and endurance the longer you do the program.

The hardest part of this type of class is to get past the first month. Those first few weeks of doing this class is the worst because you can literally barely walk or move your arms. But once your body increases in strength you lose that original soreness you felt when you first started. The only semi-bad thing about this program is that you are always sore, but it ends up being a good kind of sore, not the kind that prevents you from working or moving, haha.

Why has it worked for me?
I think this class has kept me coming because it is always different and every day is a surprise. This keeps me interested and wanting to come back for more. It is hard to be motivated to go to the gym when you know you are going to sit on a bike for an hour or run on a treadmill for an hour. It just gets boring. I also enjoy that it is challenging and that I can have the opportunity to improve on past work outs since we have our log book. I love getting to look back on past exercises and see myself improve each time, it lets me know that I am doing something right.

Is this personal training?
Once the summer ended and the gym was back to its regular class schedule, Bullet and I had to choose to come to either their 6 a.m. class or 6 p.m. class. The classes range from 4-25 people depending on the time and the weekday. We started coming to the morning class because it seemed to be the less crowded time to come. So how is it personal training when you can have all these people taking the class with you? I don’t think I would call it personal training anymore, but rather group personal training. Eddie and Isaac are still able to keep track of our progress during the work out and correct any of us if we are doing something incorrectly. We also have our log book that tracks our work out progress and our diet so they are also able to give us that personal training aspect as well and make recommendations on how we can continue to grow and improve and meet our goals.

I have also enjoyed having a group to work out with, it adds another level of challenge to our work out. Although it is all about doing your personal best, if you have someone that is doing the same work out and keeping the same pace as you or going a little faster of course you are going to want to add that little level of competition and try to beat them if you can. You end up pushing yourself even harder than you thought you could. It ends up being just a big mind game every time you go because you can see the exercise and think there is no way you can do this many of that or there is no way you can go for that long, but you end up surprising yourself every time as long as you just keep moving.

My wife Jessica started coming with me and Bullet after about 3 months of me doing the class and she has loved it and has even been showing greater results than I have! She is a great motivator for me during the work out because I never want her to beat me, lol! When we do a work out with weights involved and I want to drop down a weight size and I see that she is using that same weight that also motivates me to keep the weight I am on because I don’t want to use the same weight a GIRL is using, lol. She keeps me on my toes which is why I love her, and I can proudly say that there are some days that she kicks my butt.

How has your diet been?
Well in the spirit of full disclosure my diet for the past 3 months now hasn’t been amazing. I have managed to quit eating fast food as much, I will have the occasional Chick-fil-a which has been my only Kryptonite. I also will still eat what I want when I go to a restaurant, but on the occasion I will choose to eat a healthier alternative if I can find it. Overall, it has improved a ton and I am happy that I can final stop depending on fast food. I also have an awesome wife and mother in law who have helped me eat healthier and find healthy stuff I will actually enjoy eating. I would probably have even better weight loss results if I could force myself to completely cut out unhealthy food, but I think I am doing okay for now.

What are the results after 7 months?
These numbers are what I am most proud of sharing with you, I have kept track of my weight, waist size, hip size, percentage body fat, and arm size since I began 7 months ago.

July 2010:
Weight: 198
Body Fat Percentage: 17%
Waist: 41 in
Chest: 39.5 in
Hips: 43 in
Arms: 11.5

February 2011:
Weight: 165
Body Fat Percentage: 10.2%
Waist: 35.5 in
Chest: 38
Hips: 39 in
Arms: 11.5 in

I don’t show the numbers to brag, but hopefully to encourage others of you who are struggling to be motivated. I am so proud of myself for achieving these results. I have almost lost 6 inches on my waist alone, my old pants literally look like clown pants on me now! Not to mention losing 7% of my body fat, holy cow that is just awesome to see. Working out has been such a great self-esteem booster and I now have much more confidence just in the way I present myself.

Thanks for reading this whole post, I figured I would end it now with some after photos. This first set was taken by my amazingly awesome friends Ben and Chrys Q. I think the most noticable difference in my appearance is in my face for sure!

This photo was taken yesterday after our workout. This is my brother Bullet on the left, me, and my wife Jessica. The shirt I am wearing used to cover my fat really well, now it is just a HUGE shirt on me.

Go Team Hernandez!

This picture was taken this morning. I did not want to take this photo because I feel like a 13 year old girl taking a photo of myself, but the other photos didn’t do a great job showing the weight that I have lost. I had one silly friend request another shirtless picture, I did not want to do that, but I decided this would be the closest you would get! Still have a little pudge to get rid of in the stomach region but you can also start to see some definition beginning to show. I’ll look the Situation in no time! Haha.

That is enough talking about me, I am not used to writing this much on one topic, and certainly not used to talking this much about myself. I would love to continue to hear your feedback, thoughts, encouragement, and your weight loss struggles and victories. I would love to encourage all of you as well. If you want more information on Cross Fit or wnat to start working out with us in the morning just let me know!

Back in July I finally came to the realization that I was becoming overweight, it was one of those things that I could obviously tell in the mirror, but still wasn’t motivated enough to do anything about it. I was the typical guy who had the gym membership but never used it, the most recent membership I had was to Gold’s Gym for 15 months and the only time I stepped into that place was when I originally signed up. What a waste of money! At this time in my life I was at 200 pounds and my diet was consisting of eating fast food up to two times a day! Jessica would try and get me to come with her to the gym but I would always say no, there wasn’t anything in that place that interested me. I think one of the main reasons was because I never went to the gym growing up and never really was anything that required me to use a gym in high school, so I had absolutely no clue how to use any of those machines correctly. I was intimidated, scared and just didn’t want to look silly trying to figure out how to use everything. Almost was feeling like less of a man for not having this type of knowledge.

I think the biggest wake up call I had was when Jessica and I got back from our Hawaii vacation this past summer and I was flipping through pictures and couldn’t believe how I looked. I couldn’t believe I had gotten to this point and that got me looking through other photos taken that same year and it was painfully clear that it was time to make a change. Here is a small collage of some of the pictures that stood out the most to me. Even the guy in the background in the bottom right image was disappointed in me (j/k I don’t even know that guy).

To drive the point further home, this was the final picture that made me decide that I needed to lose weight, and I needed to do it ASAP! Very disturbing and embarrassing image to share.

I can now happily say after 7 months of working out and eating better I have now lost 35 pounds to this day! I couldn’t have gotten to this point if it wasn’t for my older brother Jesse (who I call ‘Bullet’), I called him up as soon as I got back from Hawaii and asked if he would help me lose weight. He kept me accountable and made sure I  continued to work out, and now I have begun working out alongside my wife which is also a great accountability and motivator. I will make a blog post tomorrow on specifically what changed in my diet and the type of work out my brother, wife, and I started doing together. I’ll even share a few new photos of me so you can see the transformation for yourself. Thanks to all the friends and family members that have been so encouraging and have taken notice of what I have accomplished. I always thought in my head that it wasn’t that noticeable but I have more and more people who see me tell me they can see something different, so I guess it was more obvious than I lead myself to believe. Looking forward to sharing more tomorrow!

I wanted to make a quick post on the importance of hiring a wedding planner. I won’t keep this long, rather I will make it short and simple. Here is my top 3 reasons to hire a wedding planner for your wedding.

1) Less Stress For You!
I have been to weddings that have not had wedding planners and weddings that have, and the weddings where a wedding planner is present just has a completely different vibe. There is order in place, people are not wondering where they need to be, and most importantly the bride is stress free with anything regarding how the day plays out. No more worrying about time lines or annoying little details that you have no idea to even think about, the wedding planner has got it all under control!

2) Staying on budget
The headline speaks for itself. I know many brides can begin stressing out once they start flipping through their idea/inspiration folder/binder/book and start calculating everything up. It is quite a task to know where to begin to find the best vendors and vendors that can help you stay in your budget. Wedding planners are invaluable in this case because they know the industry, they know who to trust, and where to find the best deals to help you stay on track. Who knows maybe they even keep in contact with vendors who have special deals going on and you would have know idea how to find that out? (More on that later)

3) Making the vision of your wedding come alive
It can be easy to be inspired and gather materials and colors for your wedding, it is a different story trying to get all these ideas in your head to come together for your wedding. A wedding planner is there to take your vision and make it a reality, simply put. Trust them. They exist to make your life easier.

I could easily keep listing reasons to hire a wedding planner but I will stop right there for now.

Since we are on the topic of wedding planners I wanted to mention one wedding planner in particular who I have partnered up with for the next month. Dallas based Wedding Planner Elizabeth Gonzalez is the owner of After Yes, she has a beautiful website and blog that you should definitely check out for inspiration and ideas. She also has some of my favorite branding out of many of the local wedding planners in the area. We are teaming up this month and offering a free engagement session to potential brides interested in hiring a wedding planner for their special day. If you want more details please visit the After Yes blog for full details. Like I mentioned before, wedding planners can have the inside track for special deals that their brides need to know about, here is a great example! I hope you take advantage of this great offer. I look forward to hearing from you.