tomb raider

Unleash the Beast!

A week and a half ago on Wednesday morning, Boston and I went to the airport and flew from relatively warm and sunny San Francisco to really cold and snowy Salt Lake City.

Our mission: to film a live action "Rise of the Tomb Raider" trailer for our YouTube channel Freakin Rad. Once we landed, we basically hit the ground running, I took off to go get my hair dyed from blonde to brown and Boston took off to go build a 360 camera rig. 

Feeling all chipper at the beginning of my 23 hour day.

Feeling all chipper at the beginning of my 23 hour day.

The next day I was up from 5 am until 4 am, yes, literally 23 hours. My day started with  of Judie (@judiemonster) from Red River Adventures who was my stunt and climbing coordinator, instructing me to "Unleash the Beast!" as I used an ice tool to haul myself up the side of a cliff.  I then, pretended to throw myself off said cliff (with a 50 foot drop below me), tumbled down the mountain, climbed back up the mountain to tumble some more, and then, tackled some bad guys . . . all in the freezing cold, snow and/or rain.

What you can't see in this pictures is the freezing rain that was coming down. Anything is better than freezing rain. . . . anything is better than freezing rain.

What you can't see in this pictures is the freezing rain that was coming down. Anything is better than freezing rain. . . . anything is better than freezing rain.

The next two days were pretty much the same with just a little bit more sleep. Basically, my body went through an amazing amount of physical stress . . . And, as I was working out today (back in sunny California), I watched a 79 year old trainer work out an 81 year old -- and my thought was, "YES. Fit for LIFE!" I was completely inspired by this really old guy simply trying to get some basic movements down so he could increase his quality of life.  Who knows!? Maybe he's got another 20 years left, he might as well make 'em better!

There have only been a couple periods of time in my life where I haven't worked out consistently, and I'm so grateful that for whatever reason, I make it a priority in my life. I don't always like it, sometimes I hate it, sometimes I'm bored with it, I'm not even that amazing at it (like I've never even run a half marathon for crying out loud), but I learned fairly young that I feel better when I do workout versus when I don't.

I'll confess, my diet was atrocious that weekend. I basically lived off of protein bars (and who knows what else, I was half asleep). But, I could not have coped physically with living my dream and my passion if I hadn't been consistent in eating well and working out especially in the last couple years. So, like my girl Judie says, "Unleash the Beast!" and get to it! And hopefully, we'll all be one of those 80 year olds, at the gym, because you know, that's just awesome.

My girl Judie with Red River Adventures, helping me live my dreams!

My girl Judie with Red River Adventures, helping me live my dreams!

Our Rise of the Tomb Raider live action trailer will be posted on our YouTube channel at the end of this month. Follow me @rennygrames or @freakinrad for updates!