Hi Travis! Please introduce yourself.

My name is Travis Milan, I was born 08/08/1988 in Anchorage, AK. Interesting fact, I’ve met 2 people who were born on the same exact day. One I went to high school with and the other I discovered while I was in Baltimore, MD. 

Growing up in Alaska was great, my dad was really into the outdoors and dragged me out with him, which I probably showed great resentment towards, but I really appreciated it later in life. 

My mom is an east coast transplant, that’s where I get a lot of my character from. I have an older sibling, Sean. He paved the way for me (shoutout to all my other younger siblings who know what I’m talking about). 

I’m a DJ (Desk Jockey) for a local company called GCI. You may have heard of them… I work in a tier II support department. Sometimes I question if I’m suppose to be providing support for my actual job or if I should be providing emotional support. Never a dull moment to say the least. 

I pretend I know what I’m doing with a 35mm camera. I like the authenticity and nostalgia of 35mm photos. 

IMG_3476I’ve been known to wear a few futbol (soccer) jerseys. Futbol usually catches my attention from Sunday to Sunday. I built a road bicycle piece by piece a few summers ago and I commute as much as possible. I’ve always had junkers or borrowed bicycles, I had a great opportunity to build one and make it my own, though at times I miss the junker bicycles.

Who or what inspires you?

I get inspired by the dudes in the gym maxing out with horrible form and grunting like they are in delivery. This inspires me to not be like that.

I get inspired by all the great personalities that walk through FF’s door. There is a common goal and boot campers are working together to get there. 

I appreciate the niche community I humbly get to be apart of and all the great things that are being done to give back. Positive people inspire me, that should be a given.

My wife is a huge inspiration. She has more strength and courage than I do and couldn’t be more thankful to have her in my life.

This recent Transformation Challenge was a ‘buddy Challenge’ where you worked closely with your wife, Ashley, for 8 weeks. What are a few ways you showed support to one another?

I try and show love and support and have her meals ready for her or almost up to completion, so when she got home from work her food was ready. During a challenge, typically you are in a caloric deficit (I am at least), and food is your livelihood. This can be a day changer. We also help each other out in the gym to remain safe. 

One of Ash’s goal was to back squat 200lbs. That’s a lot of weight, you just don’t walk up and grab that. Making sure her form is good and that we both stretch. It’s easy to forget the subtle things.

Any success tips you can offer to couples who want to get fit together?

You have to be empathetic and put yourself out there. Try not to be afraid to show your vulnerabilities. Everyone is wired differently, I get it. But, ego is the biggest setback. You can’t force someone to change if they don’t want to and that is okay to an extent. As long as you aren’t creating friction for the other half while they are aspire to something else. 

IMG_8813I’ll admit, I was hesitant at first. But, I warmed up to it really quickly. Ash had made amazing headway on her journey in a short amount of time. I could tell this wasn’t a short term gain, I could see her passion and enthusiasm for it. 

As a couple, I want a healthy mental and physical relationship with her. This allows us to spend more time together building, learning, and growing with each other.

Throw away your ego.

What were your three goals at the start of the Challenge, and why were they so important to you?

My first goal was to trim 1.5” off of the waist. Picked up a few extra LBS after the wedding and honey moon. Trying to build muscle and lose fat are very important to me! It’s hard to do, there is no such thing as easy when it comes to it. It takes focus and dedication. 

Second goal, originally, was 10 dead hang pull ups. But, I was convinced (thanks Steph) to bring it up to 12 reps. Dead hang pull ups are hard as shit. At the beginning I could only do 4 dead hang pull ups with good form. 

I felt that this would be a good challenge. This would require a lot of strength building. I was right, at the mid way point of the challenge, I kept thinking to myself “shit, I’m getting kinda nervous I may not make this goal.” 

Letting myself down, was okay, but, I couldn’t let my buddy down. You can only do so much practicing of the actual dead hang pull up because they are exhausting. It was such a bummer to knock out 10 and have no strength left. “Let me give it a break, let my body breathe for a few minutes and give it another whack,” thinking to myself. 

10 reps turned into 7 and this just piled on more “oh fucks.” But, I kept plugging away at it and finally it happened, it seemed surreal. Was that it? Did I miscount? Filled with joy, mainly because my buddy wasn’t going to be left hanging! The guilt I would have felt if I didn’t complete that goal would have sunk me.

I know Ash would forgive me … I think. The 3rd goal was a buddy goal and we wanted to try something new outside of the gym, like take a yoga class or a cycling class, stuff we wouldn’t normally do; rock climbing, swimming, etc. We even went for a jog around the neighborhood. 

We’re not ones to just go for a jog. You might see Bigfoot before you see us. Stuff that wasn’t all about throwing weights around. Our buddy goal was awesome.

You achieved all three of your goals. What kind of plan did you set up in order to be successful with each one?

Our plan was start strong and finish strong. The buddy aspect really enforces the idea of accountability. The guilt of letting someone else down is the worst! 

We have a pretty tight schedule, so any real hiccups could have thrown off the flow a bit, as we learned. We planned out our weeks ahead of time. That was really helpful. We knew we had to book things in advance. 

FullSizeRenderSleeping in one day because you didn’t want to get up or not preparing your food. Not stretching properly and hurting yourself. These would have been real game changers. We both had goals that required more strength than we had starting this. We both just tried to keep on top of each other and stay sharp from start to finish.

What accomplishment are you most proud of right now?

I wouldn’t really call it an accomplishment, but turning “working out” into an actual lifestyle. Going from a few times a month to feeling weird if I were to miss two times in a week. I’m my own worst enemy and critic. 

Sometimes I think to myself, “Shit, I should be seeing more results.” But, I’m really happy with where I’m at and how far I’ve come. I’m seeing progress and not regression. 

It’s a constant evolution with body and mind. I’m learning so much and this keeps the curiosity going.

What new goal(s) do you have in store for 2017?

I want to focus on mobility. I refer to it as “The Milan” curse. Ancient history shows we are the stiffest and least flexible people. Pair that with a 10 hour day in the office. 

I’m envious of Ash. Not trying to throw her under the bus, but we will workout and she will stretch for 60-90 secs, workout harder than me, no post-workout stretching and her mobility is far superior. I’m over here in serious distress feeling like my hips are going to break apart like a lucky wishbone on Thanksgiving. 

Don’t get me wrong, I stretch a lot. I just need to add some tools into my repertoire. 

It’s hard to name a specific goal because I don’t know what I want to achieve out of this besides mobility. I would like to educate myself on how to diagnosis issues within my body.

I’m bad at setting goals because I get into this mindset that goals need to be colossal and I’m scared of defeat, so it creates this monster. I need to set a goal to learn how to set goals? I forget that small goals are steps to the bigger picture.

I want to say thank you to the FF fam (Charlene, Steph, and Lela) y’all are the real MVP’s.