Hawaii Honeymoon | Jordan & Brad's Excellent Adventure

Married 7:15pm Saturday September 6, 2008.
In Flight by 11:42am on Sunday morning September 7.

Night 1 Big Island
Initial thoughts: Flying into Hawaii is beautiful! This is the first time I had been to any tropical island. Pictures in magazines don't do justice the the crystal clear aqua water hitting the beaches. It was amazing!


By the time we got our rental car and found Jordan's luggage it was about 7pm and DARK already. My pre-conceived thought process was we are going to be on islands where it is warm and sunny most of the day. My awakening was there is max only 13 hours of daylight at the peak of the seasons there. Crazy. Driving to the resort at dusk was still pretty cool. To think that the entire island was formed by lava is unreal. There was hardly any vegetation on the big island to the South of the airport. Everything was lava rock. Once we found the resort (NOTHING is marked in Hawaii...tourist central and signage is almost non-existent) we decided that we had nothing planned for the next day and are afraid of being bored. We booked a helicopter ride immediately. Then we ended up having dinner at a restaurant right next to the ocean which was very relaxing.

Monday Day 1 Big Island
Let the non-stop action begin!
Sunshine Helicoptor Tours on the Black Beauty. You meet some interesting people in life, especially on vacation. 10 minutes into flight and the lady in front was re-visiting breakfast again and again. Jordan then became a little nauseaus for the remainder of the 3 hour flight. What a great way to start the morning! We got to see the 4 rare main animals of the island: wild donkeys, wild pigs, cattle, and cats! Anyway...highlights were the lava tubes (which you obviously can't walk out to due

to volcanic activity) out in the lava fields and also the HUGE waterfalls on the back side of the island.

After returning from the Heli Tour, we attempted to hang out at the pool which lasted about 30 minutes before we both got bored. So off to check out the rest of the resort.

Tuesday Day 2 Big Island AM
7am Captain Zodiac's Adventure
We had barely checked in, when Jordan asked me "what do you want to do this afternoon?" I mean it's already 7:45am, we just signed up for a 4 hour tour, and we already worried about what were doing at 12:30pm? I guess I opted in to this whole thing so here we go. She asked the guides about Deep Sea Fishing. They called the people across the parking lot and we booked a boat immediately (more about this later).

Chad and Leslie were our guides for this excellent adventure. You meet some cool people when you are doing these outfitter tours. Behind Jordan you can see Spinner Dolphins which were so dang fast jumping out of the water we couldn't get a clean shot of them!


We also saw Pilot Whales on the way out to snorkel...they are about 1/10 of the size of Humpback Whales which start to migrate in November.

Here we are messing around snorkeling using the coolest digital camera by Olympus...it is awesome underwater!




Tuesday Day 2 Big Island PM
Bite Me Fishing Charter

Kevin and Chad were our lucky captain/fisherman for the 4 hour trip. The first 90 minutes might have been the most boring of the entire trip. Then we had a this little 4 pound wussy Tuna hit the line and ended up using it as live bait. Little did I know that I was about to experience one of the best adrenaline rushes of my life: 225lb Marlin!



Catching this marlin was one of the HARDEST things I have ever done...the forearm pump was unbelievable from the endurance that it takes to reel!


20 minutes later (after my wife calls me a Sissy)...here it is up close a personal.


Definitely one of THE major highlights of my life thus far!

Wednesday Day 3 Travel to Kauai
Outdoor Airports. Traveling island to island. Super Ferry.
Arrival on Kauai. Chickens and a lot of Roosters EVERYWHERE (more on this later).

Thursday Day 4 Kauai Am
Wailua River Kayak Tours. Had trouble finding this place cuz it had moved and we had an old brochure. Upon arrival we were greeted by Cole (Bob Marley's son for sure). Cole told us there would be "organic" snacks offered at the waterfall. He did come through though with fresh papaya, mango and ginger!

Graham (from Kansas) as our Tour Guide...he told us 'feel free to call me Graham Cracker' I gained a new appreciation of "Rain Forest" where it drizzled A LOT even though the sun was shining. Am I a lucky guy or what?


This is the waterfall. I definitely have a fall back career in modeling :)


Jordan decided that we needed to workout at least one day while we were in Hawaii to we 'raced' back to the boat launch. About 2 miles of kayaking up stream will do a back reeeeaaaal good

Friday Day 5 Kauai AM
Kipu Ranch ATV Tours
Tom and Mark were our guides.

Jordan continually attempted to spin mud all over me but as you can see in the picture only succeeded into mudding herself.


This tour included areas where scenes from Jurassic Park and Indiana Jones were filmed. The rope swing was in the first Indiana Jones.

...of course I had to indulge!

Friday Day 5 Kauai PM
Zipline Tour with Nate (from the great state of Minnesota!) and his hyper-active assistant (whose name I can't remember)

Check out our cool gear!


This me rising to a dare to trust fall backwards...


Of course the guides challenge the newlyweds to a contest (which we couldn't pass up)...who could stay upside down the longest


This zipline tour was the closest real-life thing I have seen to the Swiss Family Robinson house out back in the woods!


The zip tour ended with a stop at this 'secret' waterfalls where the rope got a little larger than the last one. Of course, once again I couldn't resist descending from the largest/highest rock possible and attempting a cannonball proceeded to bruise my entire left ass cheek!


Saturday Day 6 Hanging at the hotel and back to MN
We had a late breakfast, each grabbed a book and sat back and relaxed before the flight home.

We had a blast!

Married | Brad Nelson | Jordan Hansen

I am now officially hitched. I know a lot of you questioned if this day would ever come (I did myself :). It was quite the event. Here are some pics of my bride and I taken in the photo booth at our wedding.





Over the next few days I will also document our honeymoon day by day with some cool pics of our quite eventful week.

Michael Phelps | Calorie Consumption & Your Fitness

Michael Phelps and you're eating habits...

As you know by now, Michael Phelps has won a record-breaking 8 gold medals. The significance of this feat is unparalleled in any sport. Let's face it...



Michael Phelps intensity freak!

How many coincidences can there be with the number 8? In China, the number 8 is a lucky number.

The Olympics started on 8/8/08 at 8:08pm. Michael Phelps went 8 for 8 in both gold medals and records...one of the records was 'only' an Olympic record while the other 7 were World Records.

He also eats 10,000-12,000 calories per day to fuel his body. Here's an example of
breakfast:
3 fried-egg and cheese sandwiches garnished with lettuce, tomatoes, and onions.
1 5-egg omelet
1 bowl of oatmeal or grits
3 slices of French Toast
3 Choclate-chip pancakes.

That's just for breakfast! This is an insane amount of calories that very few elite athletes could sustain without gaining weight.

Now think about what you consume. Are you even eating breakfast? He balances his massive carb loading with protein (with 8 eggs). He eats A TON of carbs. He needs it for fuel (5.8 miles per day swimming on average). You probably don't. Take note of how many carbs to protein you are eating. For healthy fat loss it should be a 1:1 ratio. If you are overeating carbs and not burning them off, then they are converting to fat. Carbs just sit there waiting to do something: either be burned off by activity (swimming in Phelps case) or going up and down the stairs at work. Either way, they are meant to be consumed and then burned.

How much are you eating the rest of the day? Are you over-eating? I would venture to say that you aren't training as hard or long as Michael Phelps. Therefore, he is the only guy to have the "Brad Nelson pass Go on the Buffet" Card. Everyone else must pass through the gatekeeper :)

If nothing else, hopefully his performance inspired YOU to get off your butt and go do something even if it's in your back yard!

By the way, someone I am very close to is a young Michael Phelps in the calorie consumption department...
Stats:
15 weeks old
38.5 pounds
eating around 5 cups of food per day.
Goes by the name 'Diesel'

Accountability & Discipline...

Meet Diesel. The new face of Kinetic Edge.

Diesel is a African Boerboel Mastiff.

He is 10 weeks old today. He is a handful and then some.
He is has grown from 14 lbs last week to 19lbs today. 5lbs in one week. He will be a big boy fully grown (165-180lbs) as you can see by his dad below...


This little guy is into everything. We have to be accountable to picking up all things "chewable" which is EVERYTHING. He also still has accidents inside and this is right after we have let him out! This is very frustrating at times, but he is making great progress.

Discipline. It requires A LOT of discipline on our part to watch him like a hawk. We also cannot be away from the house as long as we used to. D is also learning the meaning of discipline...here are some recent outtakes.

1 biting is not appropriate especially in the Achilles Tendon
2 pooping on the carpet and then stepping in it leaves a small present for Brad to clean up upon discovery...and all of this is improving my agility :)
3 'playing' with Penelope does not mean pouncing on her and then taking a bite out of her hip...she will learn to fight back sooner or later.
4 facing off with Trigg (our cat fully-equipped with claws) is not one of his better decisions
5 Climbing stairs is easy. Descending stairs requires eliminating the sissy inside.

What does Accountability and Discipline with Diesel have to do with your fitness results? EVERYTHING. Are you getting the results you want? Are you accountable to someone...a training partner or trainer? A friend usually does not work in this situation. Why? Because they won't get in your face and tell you the truth. They would rather 'be nice' and stay your friend by telling you what you want to hear. No. Not on my planet.

Discipline. Are you disciplined about doing what you need to do around exercise and diet in order to get the results you want? This includes some pie-hole shrinking. A small "bite" of chocolate cake after dinner turns into a whole piece.



When you are in slim down mode, for all practical purposes, that cake just went straight to your ass. In fact you might as well duct tape it to your thigh.

Get disciplined away from the gym. I am not saying you can't have sweets or splurge once in a while. Keep it to 1 to 2 meals per WEEK. Any more than that and your habit creeps into every day and then all day every day.

Take home is this...
Accountability and discipline are your receipt to smaller jeans. If Diesel is gaining 4-5 lbs per week, you can surely lose 1-2 lbs per week.

Know you need more help? Kinetic Edge kettlebell/cross-training classes are perfect for accountability. KE is an ever-growing family of people discovering the anti-gym foofoo machines and hamster-wheel cardio. Come get some.

A huge props is in order for Clara James of www.minneapolis.about.com who braved my class last Monday with 16 other virgin Kettlebellers. Little did I know she would leverage her time into a classic piece of prose. Read on...


Kettlebell Classes and Instructors in Minneapolis, St. Paul and the Twin Cities
By Clara James, About.com
Filed In: Health, Sports & Recreation

Kettlebell Class at Kinetic Edge Performance in Woodbury, Minnesota
Brad Nelson

Kettlebells? You'll either be thinking that yes, a cup of tea would be nice, or recalling the pain in your thigh muscles caused from the first time you tried the latest workout that gyms across the Twin Cities are adding to their schedules, and in one case, devoting themselves to.

A kettlebell is a cast iron weight that resembles a cannonball with a handle. The smallest kettlebells weigh around 10 pounds, and the experienced can use kettlebells of 100 pounds or more. A kettlebell class involves fluid yet powerful momentum-based movements holding one or two kettlebells. The workout improves strength, flexibility, and balance together with cardio-vascular fitness, all in one session.

The CIA, octogenarians, horse riders, moms and professional wrestlers use kettlebells to help them beat the bad guys, improve balance and flexibility, and fit into skinny jeans.

Someone who believes passionately in the benefits of kettlebells is Brad Nelson, who opened his own self-described "torture chamber" of kettlebells in Woodbury, east of St. Paul. You'll find Brad at Kinetic Edge Performance. He's the one wearing a "Cast Iron Balls" shirt.

Brad discovered kettlebells in 2003 from an obscure advert run by a Russian kettlebell master in a fitness magazine. Kettlebells turned out to be salvation from his previous run-of-the-treadmill exercise routine, and intense but physically ruinous weight-lifting. He completed a grueling certification course and is a certified Russian Kettlebell Challenge Instructor.

Dripping with scorn for those as-seen-on-TV fitness machines and believing that anything that involves resting your behind in a padded chair while you lift weights is a pathetic excuse for exercise, Brad's attitude is sure to antagonize many weight lifters. But there's certainly something appealing and more rewarding about doing it all by yourself, rather than having a machine kindly lining it up and catching the weight if you let go.

Complete an introduction class at Kinetic Edge Performance, and then move on to hardcore workouts with names like Inferno and Incinerator that have more than a touch of boot camp to them. In the winter you'll burn up such a sweat you'll be able to defrost your own car post-workout just by sitting in it.

Kettlebell beginners will need to be prepared to endure two or three sessions to get comfortable with the weights, especially if you are used to pumping iron with a machine. But if testimonials from kettlebell fanatics are anything to go by, it's worth the investment.

Kinetic Edge Performance
683 Bielenberg Drive Suite 203
Woodbury, MN 55125
Telephone 651-330-9319
More Kettlebell Classes in the Twin Cities

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The following is Clara's blog about her own experience with kettlebells...EXACTLY what is accomplished in a REAL kettlebell class... ANTI-Kettlenetics.


Clara's Minneapolis / St. Paul Blog
By Clara James, About.com Guide to Minneapolis / St. Paul
More Kettlebell! At Kinetic Edge Performance
Sunday July 6, 2008

There's a lot of people across the metro who have a fever for kettlebell classes. The workout, which involves you, a cannonball with a handle, and a fearsome instructor, is gathering devotees at a startling pace.

A session with a kettlebell - an cast iron weight - is aerobics, strength, and flexibility training, all in one. People who exercise and train with kettlebells are as diverse as moms, the FBI, octogenarians, and professional wrestlers.
I tried out a sample class last week at Kinetic Edge Performance in Woodbury, and thanks to instructor Brad Nelson, I hurt the day after. That's the good kind of hurt - the kind that your muscles feel like they did you proud. I'd go back for more.

Kinetic Edge Performance is devoted exclusively to training with kettlebells. Gyms across the Metro area are also adding kettlebell classes to their schedules.

Bastardization of Kettlebells is here...what took them so long?

I'm back in blog mode. Caution: this may stir up anxiety.

It's here. 4.5 years of the 'underground-in-the-know' trenches for me. It happened this past Monday. The grossly anticipated bastardization of kettlebells that has already spawned (at least in my world) the much dreaded red-headed-stepchild phenomenon. What am I talking about? Kettlenetics and Kbells with some supposed expert who doesn't have the first clue about kettlebells and real kettlebell training actually makes you sweat. I have had 6 people ask me about Kettlenetics and Kbells in the last 72 hours. Apparently the infomercial started airing this past weekend on local cable. So it's time to PAY ATTENTION!

A 5-pound weight moved through motions duplicating a bad Richard-Simmons aerobics class. I thought I'd seen it all. But it was bound to happen. As with all great things there has to be some moron who goes and creates this 'FLUFFY' version of a hard-core workout so everyone can feel all warm and fuzzy inside about their 'fitness' program which is really a figment of their imagination.

When I put a clock to what the general public calls working out, they would die in exactly 10 minutes...or 5. Absolutely pathetic. And Kettlenetics are contributing to reducing the fat population? NNNNNRRRRRTTTTT. Wrong answer.

What's next? A support group for people who can't shut their pie-hole, sitting around singing Kum-ba-ya 'attracting' their way to thinness? Nope. Nada. Don't think so.

When you're ready to get off your lazy ass, shut your pie hole and get in the best shape of your life, come to one of my classes. Looking the way you want takes W-O-R-K. Anyone who tells you any different is telling you a bold-faced lie so detrimental that I fear for your future fitness.

You come to my class, one of two things will happen:
1 You'll never come back because you're not disgusted enough with the way you look in the mirror to work hard on a regular basis...face it, you're lazy and you don't want it bad enough.

2 you'll be a RAVING FAN of this type of ass-kicking and add it to your regular masochistic routine.

Kinetic Edge Performance
Delivering Beatdowns Without Apology.
Woodbury, MN

Back to leaving rants without apology.

Out.
Brad

P.S. My mistake, it's a 4 pound weight. Are you kiddin' me?

Twin Cities Live interviews Brad of Kinetic Edge

Twin Cities Live hosts John and Rebecca taste a morsel of the kettlebell beatdown regularly delivered at Kinetic Edge Fitness in Woodbury Minnesota.