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  • Obamas & Fitness

    Good articles, I love the fact the Obama’s make health and fitness a passion! Maybe they'll seek to make advances in the ailing health of the nation. It is borderline ridiculous how lazy America has gotten, I truly feel empathetic for the generations below me, as they've been born, raised, and accustomed to having TVs everywhere, laptops with internet everywhere, all kinds of video games, and the likes (at least I can remember a time when there wasn't much of the stuff, and good old fashioned horse play and socializing was required).


    Though America’s obesity epidemic has been beginning to receive national (and international) attention, I feel the issue has just begun to push the seal and will continue to spiral out of control in the future! With all the crazy marketing of diets and fitness products, it just creates an even further sense of dissonance for those with no understanding of how simple and easy it is to live healthy through lifestyle habits such as proper nutrition and exercise patterns. It almost boils down to everybody wants results, be it in their health or careers, but nobody wants to really sit down and work hard for them, they want the magic fix, to more or less be handed what they believe should be theirs. Simply ridiculous.









    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28384633/

    As duties pile up, Obama's faith in fitness grows
    President-elect cuts back on novels, watching TV but seldom skips the gym
    By Eli Saslow
    updated 4:18 a.m. PT, Thurs., Dec. 25, 2008

    WASHINGTON - Being elected president forces a man to take inventory of his life, so Barack Obama has trimmed his schedule to the bare essentials. He's not in the White House yet, but gone are the hours he once spent reading novels, watching television and obsessing over the daily transactions of Chicago's sports teams. He eats out only once every few weeks. He visits friends rarely, if at all.

    But one habit endures: Obama has gone to the gym, for about 90 minutes a day, for at least 48 days in a row. He always has treated exercise less as recreation than requirement, but his devotion has intensified during the past few months. Between workouts during his Hawaii vacation this week, he was photographed looking like the paradigm of a new kind of presidential fitness, one geared less toward preventing heart attacks than winning swimsuit competitions. The sun glinted off chiseled pectorals sculpted during four weightlifting sessions each week, and a body toned by regular treadmill runs and basketball games.

    The more Obama's life intensifies, friends said, the more he relies on the gym — which is why he might be taking office in the best shape of his life. The gym is where he releases stress, maintains a routine and thinks without interruption. He sometimes wears headphones and barricades the outside world.

    "He does it every day like clockwork," said Marty Nesbitt, one of Obama's closest friends from Chicago. "He doesn't think of it as something he has to do — it's his time for himself, a chance for him to reflect. It's his break. He feels better and more revved up after he gets in his workout."

    To accommodate Obama during the 18-month presidential campaign, aides arranged workouts for him in several dozen states. The staff called gyms a few days before his arrival and persuaded them to close late or open early to oblige the candidate's schedule. Once, on July 17, Obama visited a gym three times within 16 hours. Other days — often before primary election nights — he flew in half a dozen friends to play a few hours of pickup basketball.

    "That's one of the first things you learn working for him: You better make sure he gets his workout," said Jim Cauley, who managed Obama's 2004 U.S. Senate campaign. "If there isn't any time, he's not going to feel his best that day. If he only gets 30 or 40 minutes, he's still not really happy.

    "You have to make time for him to exercise, at least an hour or so. You block it out and put it on the schedule, because that's what makes him happy."

    Intense focus
    Since the election, Obama's daily schedule has revealed an intense focus. Until he went to Hawaii for the holidays, his routine in Chicago was unchanging: breakfast at home with his family before heading to his downtown transition office, where he puts in as many as 10 hours a day. At night, dinner at his Hyde Park home, and more talking to advisers and reading preparatory documents. On some days, he spent as little as five or 10 minutes outdoors.

    But every morning around 7:30 he traveled by motorcade to the gym at Regents Park, a luxury apartment complex where his friend Michael Signator owns a condominium on the 18th floor, and where he usually worked out with Reggie Love, a personal aide and a former Duke University basketball player, or with Marvin Nicholson, his travel coordinator.

    The members-only gym features a sauna, a whirlpool and a row of machines pressed against a bay of windows overlooking Lake Michigan. Obama, 47, devotes half of his workout to weight lifting and the other half to a cardiovascular rotation that includes a stationary bicycle, elliptical machine and treadmill. Between his warm-up and cool down, he sometimes moves through a dozen different exercises in an hour.

    'He could convince you he's half his age'
    "It's something he takes seriously, and that's why he's in great shape," said Alexi Giannoulias, a friend of Obama's and a former professional basketball player. "When people picture him running or whatever, they might think he's just going through the motions. But he goes hard. He's fit. He could convince you he's half his age."

    Even Obama's closest friends said they marvel at how he has maintained his commitment. He went to Regents Park at 9 a.m. the day after his victory rally in Grant Park, on Thanksgiving Day and hours before traveling to Washington for his first tour of the White House. On Friday, Obama rushed to the gym before boarding a plane for his 12-day stay in Hawaii. He woke up the next morning on vacation, went to a gym and exited 45 minutes later in a sweat-soaked gray shirt.

    For the small group of reporters tasked with following Obama's every move, his fitness has become a running joke repeated in the stories they file. They sit at McDonald's while he exercises in Hawaii. They eat calorie-rich scones while he sweats at Regents Park. One reporter for the Christian Science Monitor, filing his report about one of the president-elect's gym trips last month, noted: "While Mr. Obama worked at maintaining his lithe look, your pear-shaped pooler spent quality time at a local coffee shop."

    Obama still suffers from one vice — smoking — although he has worked hard to quit since he started the presidential campaign. He's down from three or four cigarettes each day to what he terms the occasional "slip."


    When Obama visited the White House in November, he toured the gym with President Bush and talked about exercise, said his wife, Michelle. It is one interest the two men share. Bush equipped Air Force One with a stationary bicycle, and he spends weekends biking with friends — with anyone and everyone, really — at Camp David. He has often said that exercise has helped him cope with the pressures of the job.

    Several presidents have found creative ways to stay in shape while in the White House. John Quincy Adams swam in the Potomac, Theodore Roosevelt boxed and Herbert Hoover invented his own sport — an awkward combination of volleyball and tennis — to play at 7 each morning. Harry S. Truman installed a horseshoe pit. Bill Clinton liked to jog and then head for breakfast at McDonald's.

    Obama, who favors a post-workout snack of a protein bar and organic iced tea, has already disclosed some of his own plans for his new home. He wants to build a full basketball court where he can hold games on the White House grounds, and to maintain his usual routine of exercising at least six days a week.

    It's a schedule he started as a 22-year-old student at Columbia University in New York, and it immediately transformed him. In his 1995 autobiography, "Dreams From My Father," Obama said he was a casual drug user and an underachiever until he decided to start running three miles each day. He stopped staying out late, fasted on Sundays and became a voracious reader, spending most of his time alone in his apartment reading classic literature and philosophical texts.

    Physical fitness yielded mental fitness, Obama decided, and the two concepts have been married in his mind ever since.

    "It's always been a priority in his daily routine," said Christopher Lu, a marathon runner who worked as Obama's legislative director in the Senate and was named Cabinet secretary last week. "I think it's an example of how disciplined he is. It's one of the things that really keeps him balanced."
















    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27804469/

    No sweat: Obamas work fitness into daily routine
    Future first lady used to join friend at gym at 4:30 a.m. workouts
    By DEANNA BELLANDI
    The Associated Press
    updated 9:21 a.m. PT, Wed., Nov. 19, 2008

    CHICAGO - Many women recoil at the thought of baring their arms in sleeveless dresses or blouses, but not Michelle Obama — half of the fabulously fit new first couple.

    Both President-elect Barack Obama and the future first lady have exercise routines that would put most people to shame. Michelle Obama used to join a friend for 4:30 a.m. workouts, and Barack Obama usually starts his day in the gym.

    Michelle Obama has been interviewed on television, graced the cover of Newsweek and hit the campaign trail, all with her buff arms bared.

    "One of the things I always talk about is got to exercise," the 44-year-old mother of two told an overwhelmingly female crowd at a campaign event last year in Chicago.

    That's sure to continue when the Obamas and their girls — 10-year-old Malia and 7-year-old Sasha — move into the White House, which has plenty of places for them to stay active.

    Fitness is a tradition for residents of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. President George W. Bush is an avid mountain biker, former President Bill Clinton jogged around Washington and former President George H.W. Bush liked to golf and jog, play tennis and pitch horseshoes.

    "Most of my workouts have to come before my day starts," Barack Obama, 47, told Men's Health magazine in an interview for its November issue. "There's always a trade-off between sleep and working out. Usually I get in about 45 minutes, six days a week. I'll lift one day, do cardio the next."

    His preference, he said, would be to work out for 90 minutes.

    On the campaign trail, even during the busiest periods, Obama made it a priority to start the day with a workout. That often meant a small motorcade of Secret Service agents and reporters following him to a local gym.

    A German newspaper took advantage of this habit by stationing a reporter at a gym Obama might use during his European trip during the summer. The reporter, posing as just another person working out, got her picture taken with Obama and wrote a breathless story about how fit and handsome he was.

    The president-elect has said his favorite fitness activity is basketball, and the game became a kind of campaign ritual. He got in the habit of shooting hoops with friends on the days of primary elections, and that carried over to such major events as his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention and Election Day.

    'He's in terrific shape'
    "He's very good, he knows how to play, he understands the game and he's in terrific shape," said Illinois State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, a friend who played professionally in Greece and frequently joins Obama on the court.

    At the White House, the president-elect can get his basketball fix by shooting hoops on its outdoor court, but he has joked about replacing the bowling alley with an indoor basketball court.

    Obama calls himself skinny, but he looks in top shape. A photo of him bare-chested at the beach — something he has called "embarrassing" — made the rounds of celebrity magazines last year.

    Michelle Obama is equally devoted to her fitness routine, telling People magazine this summer that she manages a 90-minute workout three times a week.

    Friend Sandy Matthews, who used to work out with her at 4:30 a.m., said the future first lady is a fan of cross-training, a mix of strength and cardio exercises usually involving weights, the treadmill, the stair-stepper or a spin bike.

    Obama is competitive in her workouts, pushing herself to get the most out of her time in the gym, Matthews said. But it's not only about keeping in shape.

    "It's your time. I think every woman has to find their space and their time during the course of a day, especially a working mom," Matthews said.

  • #2
    Nice post !

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    • #3
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      • #4
        happy inaguration day!

        (yipppy)

        once i take the cscs on thursday morning, and go to my class right after, i m going to sit down and watch his speech.am

        Comment


        • #5
          RE

          Wow Its beautiful and good posting..
          Last edited by andrewan; 01-04-2010, 10:33 PM.
          kort r4i

          Comment


          • #6
            Meh...i still am an avid Obama hater

            Comment


            • #7
              Originally posted by breathemetal View Post
              Meh...i still am an avid Obama hater
              Congrats ?

              Comment


              • #8
                Originally posted by breathemetal View Post
                Meh...i still am an avid Obama hater
                For awhile I thought i was alone!
                "Greater love hath no man, than to lay down his life for a friend" John 15:13
                CFD

                Comment


                • #9
                  i dislikepolitics in general, i just thought it was cool there is someone high up in that avenue that is fairly health orientated...

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Originally posted by farmerson12 View Post
                    For awhile I thought i was alone!
                    No way man, im right there with ya.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      At least he got one thing right.
                      Do or do not. There is no try!

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Originally posted by icetrauma View Post
                        At least he got one thing right.
                        "Greater love hath no man, than to lay down his life for a friend" John 15:13
                        CFD

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Originally posted by jdiritto View Post
                          i dislikepolitics in general, i just thought it was cool there is someone high up in that avenue that is fairly health orientated...
                          Hell... we got Arnold for Governor

                          Last edited by LilBG; 01-22-2010, 03:35 PM.

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                          • #14
                            and medical marijuana




                            plus, if you wanna go to hawaii, it isn't a 18 hour flight!! (pretty pissed abotu this for my honeymonn in the fall.. i struggle to sit down for 30minutes at my house, how am i gonna sit on a plane for a full day)
                            Last edited by jiritt0; 01-23-2010, 08:09 AM.

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                            • #15
                              remember doing the presidents physical fitness testing in grade school? that's when H.W. Bush was president.

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