Everybody likes to have some sort of confirmation that what they are doing is right. The scale, the fat calipers, the way the clothes fit are all good, but they don't always tell the whole story. I've been doing this primal way of eating now for about six months, which does involve a lot of eggs. Before that, I was following more of a body builder diet which also included a bunch of eggs. My mother-in-law in her visits would often shake her head at the vast amount of cholesterol that I was eating. I read some studies that said eggs were good, but I'm sure there are just as many studies, probably funded by Egg Beaters, that say the opposite. The same goes for grains. Personally, I'm not getting my 7 recommended helpings daily, as the government's experts recommend based on a General Mills funded report. Actually, if I have one, I feel guilty.
So two weeks ago, I had my 5yr, checkup. The last one was at age 40 and I don't think I was really in that bad of shape ....yet. Here are the results, and I'll let them speak for themselves:
..........................Now........2004..........Excellent Range
Triglycerides:...49.............44.................<150
Cholesterol:......159...........183................120-200
HDL(good):.......58.............52..................40-60
LDL(bad):.........91..............122................0-130
Risk Factor:......2.74...........3.52...............0-4.98
As the Doctor said, "Keep doing what you're doing". I'll take that and run with it!
Friday, December 11, 2009
Friday, October 30, 2009
I'm Doing Everything Right - Why am I Still Not Losing Weight?
As a fitness coach, I get asked asked this question every once in awhile, usually by women (okay, always), so I thought it might be good to share my latest response to a friend that has been doing the P90X program 4 days a week, plus one day of running:
Tough question and I'll try to cover it properly, but there's a lot of variables that go into each individual's weight. Maybe we'll get lucky and hit the solution that works for you:
1. Measuring your results by the scale is flawed, yes, I know it is how we all do it, but the tape measure and fat caliper provide the most accurate results.....especially for women. Women's bodies adjust as a natural survival instinct, the harder you work, the more the body fights to retain the weight. This is a child bearing side effect. I'm sure you've heard of the 100 stranded pioneer story, 50 men and 50 women trapped by a snow storm without food, all the men die and 40 women survive (or something like that). So, have you seen results in the way your clothes fit? Did you take before pictures so you can see the actual change?
2. How hard are you pushing yourself in your workouts? Have you been writing everything down? Are you making improvements? I know I sometimes go through the motions and just do what I did the week before without pushing myself an inch farther. Goal setting helps. If you're able to get all 25 reps in on each of the AbRipper moves (lucky you!), try for 30. 4 days a week may not be enough, sorry, it isn't for me. If you were doing 6 and now you're doing 4, you may just be maintaining. Running distance, treadmilling, spinning, etc. all have very short term results because the body once again plateaus. Try doing interval or tabata instead, since you like running - full out sprint for 30 secs, jog for 30 secs, walk for 30 secs over the same distance that you were running and you'll get twice the workout in the same amount of time.
3. Diet - this is the tough one and the most difficult to master. Personally, I like a bowl of ice cream or a few beers every once in awhile, but I can feel the affect and it doesn't like me. Maybe you are eating clean, following a low fat diet, maybe even starving yourself. That alone could be the problem, the body will do everything in it's power to hold onto the weight. I highly recommend 5 smaller meals a day, and I'm personally following the Primal Diet ( www.marksdailyapple.com ) or Caveman Diet which works great for me - and I feel a lot better as well. It is based on the theory, or fact, that our bodies stopped evolving before the agricultural revolution when grain was introduced to us. It involves eating all of the fruit, veggies (except white potatoes or corn, which is a grain), nuts, eggs, and meat, but avoiding all grain and sugar. I cook everything in butter or olive oil. I still make the side of rice or pasta for the family, but I don't eat it myself. I use romaine lettuce for bread on my sandwiches and sweet-n-low in my mojitos. It does take some discipline and a few weeks to adjust but it works for me. It could also be that you are just not eating enough to fuel your metabolism, add some fresh fruit if that is the case.
Sorry for the long answer, but those are my thoughts, and I believe that the answer is probably in there somewhere, if not all over the place.
I guess if it were an easy answer, we'd have a much larger unemployment rate! Everybody is different and what works for one person, doesn't necessarily work for everyone. I am a big big believer that dieting by itself is flawed, having lived that yoyo myself for the first 40 yrs. You lose weight, stop dieting and get fatter that you were before the diet in half the time it took you to lose the weight in the first place. Dieting eats fat and muscle which lowers your daily caloric burn, so when the diet ends the body needs less fuel! A permanent lifestyle change is in order!
Tough question and I'll try to cover it properly, but there's a lot of variables that go into each individual's weight. Maybe we'll get lucky and hit the solution that works for you:
1. Measuring your results by the scale is flawed, yes, I know it is how we all do it, but the tape measure and fat caliper provide the most accurate results.....especially for women. Women's bodies adjust as a natural survival instinct, the harder you work, the more the body fights to retain the weight. This is a child bearing side effect. I'm sure you've heard of the 100 stranded pioneer story, 50 men and 50 women trapped by a snow storm without food, all the men die and 40 women survive (or something like that). So, have you seen results in the way your clothes fit? Did you take before pictures so you can see the actual change?
2. How hard are you pushing yourself in your workouts? Have you been writing everything down? Are you making improvements? I know I sometimes go through the motions and just do what I did the week before without pushing myself an inch farther. Goal setting helps. If you're able to get all 25 reps in on each of the AbRipper moves (lucky you!), try for 30. 4 days a week may not be enough, sorry, it isn't for me. If you were doing 6 and now you're doing 4, you may just be maintaining. Running distance, treadmilling, spinning, etc. all have very short term results because the body once again plateaus. Try doing interval or tabata instead, since you like running - full out sprint for 30 secs, jog for 30 secs, walk for 30 secs over the same distance that you were running and you'll get twice the workout in the same amount of time.
3. Diet - this is the tough one and the most difficult to master. Personally, I like a bowl of ice cream or a few beers every once in awhile, but I can feel the affect and it doesn't like me. Maybe you are eating clean, following a low fat diet, maybe even starving yourself. That alone could be the problem, the body will do everything in it's power to hold onto the weight. I highly recommend 5 smaller meals a day, and I'm personally following the Primal Diet ( www.marksdailyapple.com ) or Caveman Diet which works great for me - and I feel a lot better as well. It is based on the theory, or fact, that our bodies stopped evolving before the agricultural revolution when grain was introduced to us. It involves eating all of the fruit, veggies (except white potatoes or corn, which is a grain), nuts, eggs, and meat, but avoiding all grain and sugar. I cook everything in butter or olive oil. I still make the side of rice or pasta for the family, but I don't eat it myself. I use romaine lettuce for bread on my sandwiches and sweet-n-low in my mojitos. It does take some discipline and a few weeks to adjust but it works for me. It could also be that you are just not eating enough to fuel your metabolism, add some fresh fruit if that is the case.
Sorry for the long answer, but those are my thoughts, and I believe that the answer is probably in there somewhere, if not all over the place.
I guess if it were an easy answer, we'd have a much larger unemployment rate! Everybody is different and what works for one person, doesn't necessarily work for everyone. I am a big big believer that dieting by itself is flawed, having lived that yoyo myself for the first 40 yrs. You lose weight, stop dieting and get fatter that you were before the diet in half the time it took you to lose the weight in the first place. Dieting eats fat and muscle which lowers your daily caloric burn, so when the diet ends the body needs less fuel! A permanent lifestyle change is in order!
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Insanity!
I had done a few rounds of P90X and X+, okay, 6 in total, and I'm thinking I'm in the best shape of my life and this Insanity thing is just going to be some easy workout that's meant for those that aren't really in that great of shape......wrong!!
Guess again! Completing a 67 day Round of INSANITY is very humbling experience. It is by far the toughest workout system ever put to DVD. A gift of extreme fitness.
I just completed my first Round of INSANITY a week ago Sunday (September 20, 2009). It was by far the toughest workout program that I have done and produced literally buckets of sweat throughout. I originally received the trial Plyo workout with my order of Tony Horton's One on One Diamond Delts. The trial itself was enough to get me to order the program, figuring it was the hardest workout in the program and targeted towards us hardcore fitness types. Seriously, the warm-up alone was too extreme for me the first time.
It got better when INSANITY arrived at my door. The packaging was AWESOME! Beachbody really outdid themselves with this program. Absolutely 1st class all the way! Its as gorgeous to look at as it is difficult to complete!
Shaun T accomplished something truely special in creating INSANITY. It is as much of a mental challenge as it is a physical one. INSANITY is VERY HARD. You cannot have an "Off day" and skate through the workouts. It doesn't work that way. It is so difficult that I think it makes some people shy away from it. This is EXACTLY what attracted me to it!
Some people started INSANITY when it first came out and then switched back to P90X or ChaLEAN Extreme. That is perfectly OK. INSANITY is not for everyone. The beauty of Beachbody is that there is a workout system for everyone. The people in the workout program itself, mostly 20 somethings, are usually stopping on and off thoroughout the routines to catch their breath, and there's no shame in that!
I fell in love with INSANITY from the first Fit Test. It was HARD, it hurt, and it set the stage for the next 66 days. My body started to adapt to the new exercises and routines and I fell into a groove pretty quickly. Which after 20 months of pushing myself, I found hard to believe, was it really possible to push this old body farther, and would it hold up?
The better you get at INSANITY the harder you can work. The body is an amazing thing. One of the first things I noticed was that I was SORE all over. I am talking all over fatigue. EVERYTHING from my toes to my eyebrows got sore, bringing me back to why P90X worked for me in the first place. Surprisingly your back will get very sore from all the Plank work. There was such a sense of accomplishment with each workout completed. Why? Because you had to give 100% effort and focus to every exercise and rep. It demands allot but the rewards are SO AWESOME!
Here is what you get from working HARD at INSANITY for 67 days:
- Adamant Mental Toughness (You push harder than you ever though possible and then go beyond!)
- Incredible Muscular Endurance
- Out of this world Cardio
- Body fat is SHREDDED from your frame
- "Real World" functional Fitness (No fluff exercises that look good but don't translate to real life)
You become the Athlete that you never thought you could become. Because of INSANITY, I am in the absolute best shape of my life. I am stronger, faster, in better cardio shape, and have more muscular endurance than I have ever had at any stage of my life. My body fat is roughly 9% right now at 205 pounds. All at nearly 45 years old.
For those of you out there that think INSANITY is only a cardio program, nothing could be further from the truth. Its total body blasting with the best cardio routines ever put together in one workout System.
If you work hard your physical progression is incredible. I expected to lose some strength, thinking this was just some ShaunT aerobic dancing program. There's no weights involved, no pull ups, but an incredible amount of push ups. A week after the program, and following a week of my old serious circuit weight training I'm very happy to report major increases in all of my weight lifting - which seems almost impossible to believe after two months away from the weights and kettle bells. The only downside is that I lost the calluses on my hands. I'm not claiming an increase in strength or muscle, but I am stating that my muscle endurance increased drastically. My old sets of kettle bell swings or dumb bell curls got so much easier. At the end of the set with the same weight that I was struggling to lift at rep 8 is so easy now. Plain and simple the muscles just aren't fatigued!!
If you are planning on doing INSANITY here are some tips:
1.) Wear some decent cross trainer shoes (Essential as 90% of your work is on your feet)
2.) Workout in an area that can handle getting wet from your sweat (You will SWEAT during INSANITY like never in your life!). As a side note, I did yell at our new puppy one day after working out, only to discover it was really a puddle caused by my sweat dripping off the the shirt that was hanging on the chair.
3.) Workout on a surface that is non slip and forgiving on your joints.
4.) Get enough Beachbody Results & Recovery Formula to have a post workout drink 6 days a week)
5.) Wear something on your head that wil keep the sweat out of your eyes (Bandana, headband, hat)
6.) Get a Heart Rate Monitor (Best is a wrist watch type that calculates calories burned)
7.) Follow the INSANITY ELite Nutrition Guide (Shaun says to subtract 300-400 extra cals to lose weight)
8.) Drink ALLOT of water. (You will sweat so much you MUST keep well hydrated to recover)
9.) Get enough Sleep (Again Recovery is most important)
10.) Realize that you will "suffer" and struggle during all of the 67 days of INSANITY. That is GOOD!
11.) Harden yourself mentally to the workouts as quickly as possible. Your mind fails first.
12.) NEVER lose focus on your goals. INSANITY will help you achieve them.
I dropped 10 pounds during the 67 days of my 1st Round of INSANITY. I went from 215 pounds at 10% BF to 205 pounds at sub 9% BF. I didn't lose an ounce of visible muscle. I leaned out like crazy.
So there it is my friends. Think you want to take on INSANITY? Be prepared to work harder than you ever have in your life. When you find yourself standing tall and proud on Day 67, in the absolute shape of your life, you can call yourself an "Insanity Graduate", and that is somehting you can be VERY proud of!
Guess again! Completing a 67 day Round of INSANITY is very humbling experience. It is by far the toughest workout system ever put to DVD. A gift of extreme fitness.
I just completed my first Round of INSANITY a week ago Sunday (September 20, 2009). It was by far the toughest workout program that I have done and produced literally buckets of sweat throughout. I originally received the trial Plyo workout with my order of Tony Horton's One on One Diamond Delts. The trial itself was enough to get me to order the program, figuring it was the hardest workout in the program and targeted towards us hardcore fitness types. Seriously, the warm-up alone was too extreme for me the first time.
It got better when INSANITY arrived at my door. The packaging was AWESOME! Beachbody really outdid themselves with this program. Absolutely 1st class all the way! Its as gorgeous to look at as it is difficult to complete!
Shaun T accomplished something truely special in creating INSANITY. It is as much of a mental challenge as it is a physical one. INSANITY is VERY HARD. You cannot have an "Off day" and skate through the workouts. It doesn't work that way. It is so difficult that I think it makes some people shy away from it. This is EXACTLY what attracted me to it!
Some people started INSANITY when it first came out and then switched back to P90X or ChaLEAN Extreme. That is perfectly OK. INSANITY is not for everyone. The beauty of Beachbody is that there is a workout system for everyone. The people in the workout program itself, mostly 20 somethings, are usually stopping on and off thoroughout the routines to catch their breath, and there's no shame in that!
I fell in love with INSANITY from the first Fit Test. It was HARD, it hurt, and it set the stage for the next 66 days. My body started to adapt to the new exercises and routines and I fell into a groove pretty quickly. Which after 20 months of pushing myself, I found hard to believe, was it really possible to push this old body farther, and would it hold up?
The better you get at INSANITY the harder you can work. The body is an amazing thing. One of the first things I noticed was that I was SORE all over. I am talking all over fatigue. EVERYTHING from my toes to my eyebrows got sore, bringing me back to why P90X worked for me in the first place. Surprisingly your back will get very sore from all the Plank work. There was such a sense of accomplishment with each workout completed. Why? Because you had to give 100% effort and focus to every exercise and rep. It demands allot but the rewards are SO AWESOME!
Here is what you get from working HARD at INSANITY for 67 days:
- Adamant Mental Toughness (You push harder than you ever though possible and then go beyond!)
- Incredible Muscular Endurance
- Out of this world Cardio
- Body fat is SHREDDED from your frame
- "Real World" functional Fitness (No fluff exercises that look good but don't translate to real life)
You become the Athlete that you never thought you could become. Because of INSANITY, I am in the absolute best shape of my life. I am stronger, faster, in better cardio shape, and have more muscular endurance than I have ever had at any stage of my life. My body fat is roughly 9% right now at 205 pounds. All at nearly 45 years old.
For those of you out there that think INSANITY is only a cardio program, nothing could be further from the truth. Its total body blasting with the best cardio routines ever put together in one workout System.
If you work hard your physical progression is incredible. I expected to lose some strength, thinking this was just some ShaunT aerobic dancing program. There's no weights involved, no pull ups, but an incredible amount of push ups. A week after the program, and following a week of my old serious circuit weight training I'm very happy to report major increases in all of my weight lifting - which seems almost impossible to believe after two months away from the weights and kettle bells. The only downside is that I lost the calluses on my hands. I'm not claiming an increase in strength or muscle, but I am stating that my muscle endurance increased drastically. My old sets of kettle bell swings or dumb bell curls got so much easier. At the end of the set with the same weight that I was struggling to lift at rep 8 is so easy now. Plain and simple the muscles just aren't fatigued!!
If you are planning on doing INSANITY here are some tips:
1.) Wear some decent cross trainer shoes (Essential as 90% of your work is on your feet)
2.) Workout in an area that can handle getting wet from your sweat (You will SWEAT during INSANITY like never in your life!). As a side note, I did yell at our new puppy one day after working out, only to discover it was really a puddle caused by my sweat dripping off the the shirt that was hanging on the chair.
3.) Workout on a surface that is non slip and forgiving on your joints.
4.) Get enough Beachbody Results & Recovery Formula to have a post workout drink 6 days a week)
5.) Wear something on your head that wil keep the sweat out of your eyes (Bandana, headband, hat)
6.) Get a Heart Rate Monitor (Best is a wrist watch type that calculates calories burned)
7.) Follow the INSANITY ELite Nutrition Guide (Shaun says to subtract 300-400 extra cals to lose weight)
8.) Drink ALLOT of water. (You will sweat so much you MUST keep well hydrated to recover)
9.) Get enough Sleep (Again Recovery is most important)
10.) Realize that you will "suffer" and struggle during all of the 67 days of INSANITY. That is GOOD!
11.) Harden yourself mentally to the workouts as quickly as possible. Your mind fails first.
12.) NEVER lose focus on your goals. INSANITY will help you achieve them.
I dropped 10 pounds during the 67 days of my 1st Round of INSANITY. I went from 215 pounds at 10% BF to 205 pounds at sub 9% BF. I didn't lose an ounce of visible muscle. I leaned out like crazy.
So there it is my friends. Think you want to take on INSANITY? Be prepared to work harder than you ever have in your life. When you find yourself standing tall and proud on Day 67, in the absolute shape of your life, you can call yourself an "Insanity Graduate", and that is somehting you can be VERY proud of!
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
The Art of the Callus
Today's workout was the Kettle Bell 15:15 Protocol (15 secs of snatches followed by 15 secs of resting, then switching hands) followed by Tony Horton's 1 on 1 Killer Abs. And, let me say, it was a great work out. I owe the discovery of this one to the fitness king Mike French. Mike's about 10 years younger than me and a true specimen of the extreme. He eats right, pushes himself to the limit on every work out, and makes a living out of being a fitness coach along with his wife. They've both made cameo's in Beachbody's series of infomercials as well as won monthly awards for being pure case studies on what the program can do for you.I on the other hand, just want to push myself enough to keep moving forward. I've never been good at sitting still, so its up or down for me, and up feels so much better.
Mike sets the bar high, and I feebly try to keep up. His personal best after a few tries at this work out was 64 sets of 7 reps with a 44lb kettle bell....or 32 minutes to lift 2,816 lbs over his head. I've attempted to keep up before and realize that I'm not going to, but I still try. His thoughts on the program about the fear (paraphrasing here) that hits him prior to the work out and the nauseousness that follows had me more than a little intimidated. Plus, I had my 35lb kettle bell out on loan, which is where, as he advised, any sensible/smart person would start. Not me though, noooo, I had to go for the big 53lber. I figured I outweigh Mike by a good 40 lbs of muscle (okay I'm taller with bigger bones) so I may not be able to keep up on the cardio side, but it would be a real hit to my ego to go lighter. Proving someone wrong one has to be the one of the greatest pleasures in life, especially since I've cut ice cream and beer out of my diet (mostly).
So I started out with the help of my 7yr old daughter writing down each set. Now, I have absolutely no idea how Mike gets 7 reps in 15 secs, I instead quickly settled into 5 reps per set, which seemed like I was rushing to complete in 15 secs. Let me say that 15 secs of resting only seems long for the 1st two sets. Around the tenth set on each side or set 20, I got one of those side cramps that was annoying but not game ending. I was able to push though to set 40, and I truly believe I could have made it to 60, but the calluses started to tear. Actually, I think it is really blisters under the calluses. My daughter even said "what is that noise?" All is good, I didn't let the ego push me into a sidelining injury....and there are those that know me who are probably surprised at that. Yes, I am getting wiser in my old age.
So it's now time to repair those calluses. In the old days, I would just let the blisters underneath dry, and then peal away the skin. The best remedy is to now apply some high quality lotion like corn huskers or whatever my wife has in stock and then tomorrow morning take the bunion scraper that looks like a small cheese grater to them. Avoiding the dishonor of weight lifting gloves at all cost!
I'd also like to thank Mark Sisson for his work on the Primal Blueprint. I'm loving the diet high in fruits, vegatables, and meat. I'm not sure how far I go into the evolution theory behind the diet, but I will say it works!
Friday, April 17, 2009
Kettle Bell Goal Accomplished.
I hit my goal of 200 two handed swings today with my 70 lb. kettle bell, along with 3 sets of presses and flys at different angles, before my MRI for a pinched inguinal nerve (I hope).After failing to hit my goal of 200 on Wednesday I wasn't going to quit until I did it today. I thought I had mastered the breathing technique. After the 3rd set of 50 swings, I wasn't sure I'd make another set. I was doing as I had learned from watching you tube videos, exploding the air out and virtually pushing the Kettle Bell up. After each of the first three sets I was left gasping for air at 50, usually after I put the kb down. The 4th set today, I just relaxed and breathed almost normally but in tempo with the swings. At the end I was barely winded, almost disappointed. I'm sure you know what I mean. I had anticipated failure, almost expected it. So much so, that when the success was easy, I felt a sense of let down....of course, not so much that I needed to attempt another 50.
This week regime was focused on variation and explosive power:
Monday - Tony Horton's One on One - Just Arms
Tuesday - Tony Horton's One on One - Bun Shaper (still feeling this one when I sit down!)
Wednesday - Kettle Bells and Shoulders
Thursday - Tony Horton's One on One - Plyo Legs
Friday - Kettle Bells and Chest
Tomorrow - Tony Horton's One on One - Fountain of Youth Yoga
Friday, April 10, 2009
Just Breath!
Okay, it sounds easy and we do it without thinking, but sometimes it's not quite that simple. It really helps to relax us when we are stressed out; a few long slow ones will do wonders, as well as in yoga. But other times different methods are required.
Yesterday, I talked about the difficulties of the Kettle Bell Two Handed Swing - the chest pumping, full out assault on the cardio system that will push my pulse up to 200 and requires twice as long for it come back down. Well, guess what, I did a little research and learned a new way to breath. My normal 50 swings today were a breeze. I was scrambling to catch my breath all the way through 50 swings each time. The down swing was not allowing me enough time to inhale and the upswing was not allowing me enough time to exhale. It was similar to running a 800 meter (yeah right) sprint while hyperventilating! No wonder I was seeing pretty colors!
Now I explode the Kettle Bell up with my exhale, and get a full inhale on the downswing. 50 swings felt like a joke today, all 4 sets. I understand how my P90X coach's coach did 500+ swings now. Personally, that will never happen for me - I can't count that high ;)
The two pood arrives on Monday - I hope the UPS guy is a P90X graduate!
Happy Easter and stick to the real eggs!!
Yesterday, I talked about the difficulties of the Kettle Bell Two Handed Swing - the chest pumping, full out assault on the cardio system that will push my pulse up to 200 and requires twice as long for it come back down. Well, guess what, I did a little research and learned a new way to breath. My normal 50 swings today were a breeze. I was scrambling to catch my breath all the way through 50 swings each time. The down swing was not allowing me enough time to inhale and the upswing was not allowing me enough time to exhale. It was similar to running a 800 meter (yeah right) sprint while hyperventilating! No wonder I was seeing pretty colors!
Now I explode the Kettle Bell up with my exhale, and get a full inhale on the downswing. 50 swings felt like a joke today, all 4 sets. I understand how my P90X coach's coach did 500+ swings now. Personally, that will never happen for me - I can't count that high ;)
The two pood arrives on Monday - I hope the UPS guy is a P90X graduate!
Happy Easter and stick to the real eggs!!
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