Bill Romanowski | Romo

“Dear Mr. Romanowski,

We received your donation of an autographed Bronco’s jersey for the Loyola Catholic School Silent Auction.  The value of this item is placed at priceless.  Thank you for remembering Loyola School in such a special way.  Your kind support will allow us to continue our Mission in the Loyola community. May God bless you in a very SPECIAL way.”

Sister Mary Ellen Roach, Principal of Loyola Catholic School

Nutrition53 is proud to support the Loyola School Mission and the Loyola School’s quest to serve the community.

Five years ago, I learned how to do something called “Stand Up Paddle Surfing” with surfing’s greatest, Laird Hamilton.  At the time, I was working on “Longest Yard” with Adam Sandler.  I would literally get off from the movie set in LA, then hustle down to Malibu just to get an hour in on the water.  The first time I tried it, I was hooked. Think about it.  You don’t have to lay down like you do on a surf board.  You get to stand up and look out, watch the fish, watch the waves coming.  But it’s not all easy - paddle surfing takes balance, core strength, and coordination.

I was lucky enough to spend some time on the water this weekend and get in a chance to paddle surf.  If you ever have the opportunity near the ocean, you have got to try it.

Now I am back at the Nutrition53 headquarters and working hard on a new project to bring my favorite N53 product, Neuro1, to a ready-to-drink format.  It’s alot of work and I am getting to learn so much about the bottling industry, but we are making strides and I think soon you will see it on the shelves. 

I guess all challenges bring an opportunity to learn something new, which in the end, makes us more balanced, stronger, and coordinated people.  It’s lot like paddle surfing.

The other day I wrote about how meditation has helped me feel more balanced in my life.  I think it can help many others too, even if you don’t think it’s the type of thing for you.  Here is my guide for beginners who want to give meditation a try:

1. Find a Quiet Place - Just someplace where there aren’t a ton of distractions, traffic, people talking.  It may just be a peaceful corner in your office or home.

2. Get Comfortable in Your Surroundings - If there are distractions, try to eliminate them.  Make sure you feel comfortable and stable so that you can really focus during your meditation.

3. Your Position - Sit crossed legged on the floor, with both sit-bones square and on the ground.  Relax your muscles but make sure your spine is straight, starting from your neck all the way down.  Place your hands on top of your knees, palms facing upwards and allow your fingers to naturally curve upwards.  Gently close your eyes.

4. Focus On Your Breathing - Start breathing with a pattern of 5 seconds inhalation through your nose followed by 5 seconds exhalation through your mouth.  Bring your breath all the way down to your tummy.  Allow yourself to let go of other thoughts and focus on this breathing pattern.

5. Nurture Your Body and Your Brain - I like to visualize on how amazing the human body is, visualizing different functions, joints, muscles, and how my brain works with the rest of my body. 

6. Focus on You - Think about the person you are and the person you want to be throughout the rest of your day.  When I do this, I try to take myself through my day and goals, or my intentions for the day.  I try to make my energy real and set a precedent for being positive throughout the day. 

7. Give Thanks - Finally, I give thanks for the world, for my life, and the people in my life. 

8. Focus on Your Breathing - Once again, return your focus to your breathing pattern of 5 seconds inhalation through your nose followed by 5 seconds exhalation through your mouth.  Do this for a few minutes until you are ready to open your eyes.

I wish I had found meditation while I was playing football.  I think it could have really helped me focus my energy and add balance to my life.  It could have helped me be a better player than I was and I think it can really help other developing atheltes. I hope you give meditation a try and please leave a comment if you have any questions.

I started meditating about a year ago.  It was something that I always had an interest in and heard different people talk about it, but I didn’t know how to do it.  Well, that’s what I thought.  Then somebody gave me a book called “Ask And It Is Given” about meditation, I read it and decided to give meditation a try. 

At the time, I didn’t realize the impact it would have on my life but now when I don’t meditate, I feel a little off during the day.  The first time I tried meditation, my entire body went completely numb.  When I meditate now, I feel like I am waking up from a refreshing night of sleep or a great nap.  Just that very peaceful feeling you get when everything is in perfect balance.  From that day forward, I tried to make meditation a part of my day.  I try to meditate for about 15 to 30 minutes a day, ideally twice a day but at least once a day just to stay balanced.

Meditation has been a positive activity in my life, I want to encourage you to try it if you haven’t done so already.  For anybody - athletes, busy parents, business leaders, artists, meditation is an incredibly powerful tool.  I know it’s hard with schedules and business, but sometimes don’t force your mind to focus all on work; try to make a balance and take a meditation break to relax your mind.  Use that 15 minutes to visualize your intentions for the day, to generate positive energy, and to find a balance between your body and your mind. 

Come back to my blog in the next day or so because I will be posting some steps for meditation that I have learned over the last year and would like to share them with you. 

Our trip to the BodyBuilding.com expo in Boise, Idaho was a whirlwind but we finally got all our photos from the event posted here!  If you were at the event, check out this link - we will send you a FREE copy of your photo autographed by Romo! 

We gave out Neuro1 to hundreds of people at the event and the response has been overwhelming.  If you haven’t tried it yet, now is your chance to get energized!  Click here to order a free sample of your choice (plus shipping and handling). 

Just got back from a long weekend in Boise, Idaho at the BodyBuilding.com convention.  What an event!  Tons of people, tons of products, and even a “Mr. Puny-verse” contest for the skinny guys - gotta hit the gym!

Two of our awesome Nutrition53 reps, Lisa and Erika, were at the show with me and they got to talk to alot of our customers and some football fans.  We took hundreds of photos and will have them uploaded on this site soon, so if you were at the show and are looking for your picture, please check back this week! 

My birthday was last week, and my good friend Lenny sent me this picture as a “present.” Thanks Lenny.  Everyone in the Nutrition53 office got a good laugh at this picture of me as an early teenager playing hoops.  I am not sure what I was thinking in terms of my training attire, but luckily now my wife Julie helps me avoid similar wardwrobe disasters. 

Anyway, my point in sharing this funny picture with you is to express that everyone has a starting point, wherever that might be.  And the route from point A to point B is simple: you figure out where you want to go, you determine your strategy to get there, and then you execute with hard work and determination.

So when you get done laughing at this picture, just remember that we all start somewhere.  And it’s where we end up that’s important.

“Dear Romo, I hope that this message finds you.  First, I am a huge fan who has nothing but respect for you.  I read your book and loved it.  I am captain of the wrestling team at my high school, wrestling is an extremely strenuous sport and I was hoping you could give me some advice on how best to approach the pain and inflammation.  I read about DMSO in your book but a prescription is necessary to purchase that, if there were any other products, exercises, or other great little tricks you know of I would love to hear about them.  Thank you so much for all of the information.”

-Chris

First of all, Chris, thank you very much for your comment and question here on this site.  It’s awesome to hear from a young athlete who is taking care of his body and striving to be better.  I can tell you have the right attitude to reach your goals, both in sports and other avenues of life.

On to tackling the issues of pain and inflammation.  There are many tricks and some strategies will have various levels of effectiveness for each person.  Since Chris is a young, high-school aged athlete, I want to stress a pain and inflammation management strategy that is simple yet very effective on minor injuries.  It’s easy to remember since it’s an acronym: R.I.C.E.  That stands for Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation.  Here’s more details on how you can maximize your recovery and minimize your pain and inflammation by following these simple guidelines:

Rest- Your body actually makes fitness and strength gains AFTER your workout, when your body rests, recovers, and repairs from the damage inflicted during a hard workout.  For developing athletes, make sure you give yourself at least one full day of rest and recovery from your training or competition per week so that you can actually gain the benefits of your hard work.  Also, be sure to get some good nutrition with a mix of healthy carbohydrates for energy, lean protein for building muscle, and heart conscious fats to stay balanced - healthy oils are an important part of complete nutrition as well.  Let your body rest immediately after your work and be sure to always get a good night of sleep. This will also prevent over-training injuries and help keep your energy levels up, which is equally important as being strong.  If you are injured or sick, give your body the rest it needs to repair itself so you can get back to training in top form as opposed to training through injuries and never reaching 100%.

Ice- If you have any injuries or pain during or after a workout, it is important to ice the injured area.  It’s best to apply ice with thin towel between you and the ice pack to protect your skin.  Apply ice for 15 minutes, then remove ice for 15 minutes, and re-apply ice.  This helps to reduce inflammation in the injured area and also stimulate circulation and repair.

Compression- Reduce pain and inflammation by gently wrapping an injury with an sports bandage or using a compression brace, if applicable.  Your coach or sports trainer may help you apply the sports bandage and also gauge the tightness for you.  The sports bandage should be tight enough to offer support and reduce inflammation, while still allowing sufficient circulation to the injured area. 

Elevation- Elevate injured areas (or even taxed muscle groups) above your heart to reduce inflammation.  I have found this greatly reduces the pain in my legs after a hard day of lifting with my legs or a track workout.  You can elevate while you ice or compress as well.  Elevation is extremely important if you have any noticeable swelling.

R.I.C.E. is a simple strategy that anyone can do at home or in a modest training facility.  However, I can’t over-stress its effectiveness at reducing pain and inflammation, and also preventing injuries.  If you have a specific pain or injury that persists despite the R.I.C.E. strategy, be sure to communicate with your coach and talk to a doctor.  Minor injuries can develop into larger problems if they are not addressed early on. 

Chris, good luck in with your wrestling season!

Romo here.  I want to tell you about a time in my football career when I had to stretch myself far beyond my limits to reach my own personal goals and the goals of a Denver Bronco.  It’s a story about looking within and then going the extra step to make your goals happen.

In an AFC Championship game between the Broncos and the NY Jets, Vinny Testaverdi of the Jets threw a screen pass away from me to Curtis Martin.  I reacted to the screen and started flying towards him.  With the game close and running at full speed, I launched my body into him like a human missile.  I hit him so hard that he did a 360 spin, and went down to the ground.  I did a 180 spin, and came down as well, reeling and dizzy.

Not only did I hurt him, but I also hurt myself.  I needed help off the ground and I wobbled to the sideline, out of the game and right during crunch time.  I went to the bench and sat in John Elway’s lap!  I didn’t even know where I was for a few plays.  As I was recuperating from the impact, I realized that this game was on the line and the outcome would determine if we went to the Super Bowl or not that season.  This game determined if I would reach my goals, or not.

Despite my self-inflicted physical state at the time, I had to get back into the game.  Team doctors came over and asked me easy questions regarding the game and my birthday to test my mental state, but those silly questions were hard for me to answer.  My only response was “I’m fine, stop asking me these stupid questions.”

Medical professionals would call it foolish, but the warrior in me had to be out on the battlefield to help my team get to the Super Bowl.  Winning the Super Bowl.  Whatever it took, I would do it. 

When you have goals and adversity, you have to be willing to do whatever it takes to get there.  That day, it meant playing even when I was injured, even when it wasn’t the smartest thing for my health.  It meant sacrificing whatever was demanded for the success of the team.  We won the game and went on to win Super Bowl XXXII that year, and I knew I had made the right decision.

When you make the decision to sacrifice whatever it takes to help carry your team, it means stretching yourself beyond your limits.  There are days when you feel you have done everything you can, given everything you have.  On those days, you have to breathe and stretch yourself even more, beyond where you have gone and go one step further.  That’s how you reach your goals.

No matter what you are doing, it always takes hard work to get the results you want.

Last week I got to spend some extra time with my son because my wife Julie and our daughter were out of town skiing. He is really into La Crosse right now and it appears he is just starting to understand the relationship of hard work and results. You work hard, you get results. For me, it’s exciting to watch his eyes opening up to this relationship and when we train together, I can tell he is putting in the effort it takes to get where he wants to go with the sport.

I have to remind him that everyone at the top puts in their fair share of time and hard work. NFL players, movie stars, artists, business owners . . . it all takes time, energy, and attention to detail. And at my own business at Nutrition53, I have to remind myself that Rome wasn’t built in a day (check out the N53 Team above unloading the truck). My football career wasn’t built in a day - it was 20 years of hard work on the field and in the weight room, and it also took the support of my family and friends. Small steps everyday ends in big results over time, no matter what game you are playing.

When you look at your goal and the road you need to travel to get there, I want you to remember that Rome wasn’t built in day. Anything worth accomplishing doesn’t just happen in a day. It takes time, it takes committment everyday - and eventually you will get where you want to be.