Beyond overdue blog post. Let's try and give some sort of rambling update and let folks know where I am.
Nutrition: I stopped ETP back in June of 2018. I wanted to experiment with Intermittent Fasting a little bit. In addition to kind of find my way to more quality food.
Intermittent Fasting: I went with the 16/8 rule. Fasting for 16hrs and eat all your calories in 8hrs. What I had read was that people use I.F. for calorie reduction. Essentially they skip a meal a day to insure that they eat under their daily caloric intake. It was interesting. In the beginning it was a little challenging, but then, like everything else - it became quite easy. To the point where I could fast for 18 to 20hrs. Again, it was an interesting experiment. I didn't hate it, but at the same time it did make some things more challenging. Such as if there were planned lunch/dinner events with family and friends. During this time I got myself back down to somewhere between 167lbs and 170lbs. For the most part, felt lean. Not tracking any food.
Non-I.F.: Basically eating like I was back when doing ETP. I didn't eat the same amount I had been eating during that time. Certainly at times I felt like I was eating more than I probably needed. My lunches were typically a serving of spring salad mix with 4 or 5 oz of grilled steak tips and some cherub tomatoes. I've been eating oatmeal, banana, chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast for a long time now. Really really good stuff. Afternoon snack would be an apple with peanut butter or protein bar. Mornings I would have a protein shake with my pancakes. Dinner would be whatever the wife was making. Typically not unhealthy. Plenty of healthy carbs.
Whatever: Weight got up to almost 175lbs. WOW. That escalated quickly! What was I eating? I don't even know what my lunches were. Breakfast was steady. Afternoon snack I bypassed the apple and just ate whatever I wanted for peanut butter. Dinners were a bit heavier on pasta. Post dinner was a bit of cereal, etc...
More Veggies!: Feeling like my body isn't "regular" and I simply need more veggies I choose to introduce some recipes from Simnett Nutrition, who is a Vegan calisthenics guy I follow on YouTube. Not because I want to be a Vegan..... HELL NO. I have far too much love for burgers, bacon, all things steak. Breakfasts have been consistent... pancakes. I've ditched the protein shake. Morning snack is either an apple or banana. Lunch has been a dish from Derek Simnett called One Pot split red lentil curry. It has split red lentils, cauliflower, carrots, onion, frozen peas, red bell pepper, thai curry paste, garlic powder, cumin, chipotle powder. REALLY good. Afternoon snack typically a banana with peanut butter. Dinner, again pretty healthy. Post dinner, usually some granola (peanut butter with dark chocolate). Sometimes with Fairlife milk, sometimes without. Results after a week? back to 169lbs. Pretty crazy. Definitely not as lean as I had been or felt. Certainly felt some stomach bloat. On the positive though without question more regular. No longer going multiple days without a poop.
So.... what am I going to do? I've thought about going back to ETP. Why? One reason is between that and TRX I got down to 160lbs and felt pretty frigin lean. Not to mention strong. It is very appealing. At the same time I have ZERO interest in going back to tracking all my food. Weighing everything and logging it before I consume it. No question their methods work, but I don't see that as a long term solution for life.
That's all I've got for now.... I'll follow up later on my training.
Sunday, March 24, 2019
Friday, July 13, 2018
What's New?? ETP/Nutrition updates, Fitness, etc...
So my last post was over a year ago! WOW this blog is clearly not a priority in my life. lol Its all good.
Here is the low down:
ETP, currently not doing it. Doing my own "fat loss" phase and trying different foods. Trying to find what foods make me lethargic vs energetic. Some foods I were eating to hit macros were leaving me dragging (YES, I'm looking at you my beautiful 3PM PB & J sandwich!).
On ETP I went from 182lbs down to 159.9lbs while ramping up my calorie consumption to about 3500 calories per day. Insane right? What you couldn't see is my calorie consumption was so high and I had to eat so much food, I wasn't making great food choices. I would eat nearly 600g of carbs PER DAY (yes, almost 2400 calories of glorious carbs) yet you'd be hard pressed to find a damn vegetable in my food logs. Shame on me.
I hit 159.9lbs on July 4th 2017. I'm currently 172lbs'ish. Some would consider this a failure, however I do not. My goals aren't to see how low I can get the number on the scale. Actually I could care less what the scale says. ETP taught me a lot of good things and taught me how to look at food to fuel my body. It gave me nutritional targets and taught me how to seek out foods that make me feel better. Food that give me energy to do the things I enjoy doing. I'll always be grateful for that. As a lifetime member of ETP I can go back at any time, but right now I just needed a bit of a break from the process. I'm working on finding my foods for me, keeping my protein up and applying what I've learned. I'm not shying away from fat. I'm certainly not shying away from carbs - but trying to keep my calories between 2100 - 2400 daily. Consider this my "cleansing" period. hahaha
Fitness:
Well when I got down to that really low weight and probably 15 - 18% body fat, I had been doing a program called TRX Force. Obviously all TRX based and workouts were between 30 - 75min. It was tough, but I enjoyed it. My goal for sometime has been to make sure my workouts and strength training are bodyweight only. TRX checked that box. When I completed the TRX program I kind of wandered aimlessly a bit. I had signed up for an app from a site called "Calisthenics Academy". The app was eventually released and called "The Movement Athlete". The creators have some fantastic ideas about how they envision the app working. It will work your mobility. It will give you strength training. Everything. The problem? The app is very buggy. I very much wanted to love that app, but the workout timers weren't working. The algorithm used to generate the workouts based upon your skill level sometimes worked, but there would be days you wouldn't even get exercises for half your body. Buggy. I havne't revisited it.
From there I started my first fat loss phase (cutting calories back to about 2700 - 3000). To try and minimize and recover my body from the stress level I switched to yoga for 3 months. Some yoga strength training, but mostly flexibility training. It was absolutely challenging, just not in the ways I was accustomed to. Flexibility has always been an area I could greatly improve on. The workouts were short and I'd only commit to 30min per day and maybe 5 days per week. I enjoyed it, I truly did. It was peaceful, you worked, but I needed more... so back searching I went. That led me to this program that I had visited before I went Yoga, called Roamstrong Progressive Bodyweight Workout (PBW). Good program and you work on whatever progression of the different movements you can only perform 4 reps of and you build off of that. Never performing more than 3 sets of 8 reps. Once you can do that for a certain progression, you move forward to the next hardest progression. The problem with the workout is I didn't get ANY sort of volume work at all. No high rep counts for "easier" exercises and to me, that made my joints weaker. I found knees hurting a lot more... then my traps were getting pinched and having trouble turning my head. It was a bit of a nightmare. lol
Where am I now? Well, I've switched to the Kavadlo brothers book/program "Get Strong" and liking that. So for 3 days per week I'm strength training with that. The workouts take anywhere from 40min to 1hr, depending upon how many "extra" sets I throw in. My "off" days I've been spending doing Mark Lauren's Mobility RX routine. Its about 40 - 45min. My last 15 - 20min I spend my time learning to jump rope. I still suck at it, but like anything... the more you focus on the basics and practice, the better you get. I'll get there.
Ninja Course:
I've made some changes to the Ninja course. Added a 12' 4x4 post and then used that and 3 existing posts to make parallel bars. I used 2 of those 4 posts to make a pull up bar I couldn't reach with my feet on the ground. Lastly I added a 13' climbing rope. My goal is before fall to have that course completed so it can become my outdoor workout space. Still left are applying the roofing tar to the bottom 1' sections of each post (16 I believe). Then stain the whole course. When that is done, dig up all the grass on the course. Level the ground a bit and put down horse stall mats. Its a lot of work. A lot of work that I don't want to make the time to do it. lol It'll hopefully get done by fall so I can protect this investment and use it this fall/winter. Its a great space for strength training. I've got plyo/jump boxes, gymnastic rings, peg board, pull up bars, parallel bars and lots of other fun things. Fitness should be fun! Yeah - it should challenge you and make you better. Anything that is worth doing should do that. Hey... I just realized my kids fit that description, they challenge me and make me better. ;)
Speaking of the kids, I've roped them into doing Get Strong workouts as well. They don't get up at 5 (or usually earlier than that) like dad. They do them after dinner and it typically takes about 45min with them. They are stronger though and enjoying it. I enjoy doing it with them.
For me, I'm going to continue to ride this out. Some components may change (likely the mobility routine if I get bored). The strength training routine has a clear progression to get me to strength moves I've always wanted to do, but couldn't. Those are handstands (free standing), handstand push ups and pistol squats. Oh and 1 armed push ups. I've done a couple before, but my body was all twisted. I'm looking to continue to get S.A.F. (strong as fuck) without touching weights. My opinion (which I know I should keep to myself, but never do). Folks that use weights are perhaps unaware of how they can make bodyweight movements more challenging. They mistakenly view bodyweight strength training as ineffective, let alone superior to other forms of training. Which obviously MY opinion, it is superior. Typically what I see with people working out with weights is their mobility isn't great and they are using weights to try to compensate for that poor mobility. Mobility is a big issue for them. I applaud them for doing something that they enjoy and I encourage them to keep doing that, if that is what they enjoy. That being said - mobility is HUGE HUGE HUGE deal for me. I want to be able to move, do cartwheels, round offs, handstands and all the cool shit my kids can do, run, play and do it pain free. I'm 46yrs old and have ZERO interest in slowing down or doing less.
That's it for tonight. Active recovery day tomorrow. Lots of littles here to play and have fun. I still need to get some mobility and jump rope in tomorrow morning. ETP taught me how important rest is, so off to sleep I go. Later.
Here is the low down:
ETP, currently not doing it. Doing my own "fat loss" phase and trying different foods. Trying to find what foods make me lethargic vs energetic. Some foods I were eating to hit macros were leaving me dragging (YES, I'm looking at you my beautiful 3PM PB & J sandwich!).
On ETP I went from 182lbs down to 159.9lbs while ramping up my calorie consumption to about 3500 calories per day. Insane right? What you couldn't see is my calorie consumption was so high and I had to eat so much food, I wasn't making great food choices. I would eat nearly 600g of carbs PER DAY (yes, almost 2400 calories of glorious carbs) yet you'd be hard pressed to find a damn vegetable in my food logs. Shame on me.
I hit 159.9lbs on July 4th 2017. I'm currently 172lbs'ish. Some would consider this a failure, however I do not. My goals aren't to see how low I can get the number on the scale. Actually I could care less what the scale says. ETP taught me a lot of good things and taught me how to look at food to fuel my body. It gave me nutritional targets and taught me how to seek out foods that make me feel better. Food that give me energy to do the things I enjoy doing. I'll always be grateful for that. As a lifetime member of ETP I can go back at any time, but right now I just needed a bit of a break from the process. I'm working on finding my foods for me, keeping my protein up and applying what I've learned. I'm not shying away from fat. I'm certainly not shying away from carbs - but trying to keep my calories between 2100 - 2400 daily. Consider this my "cleansing" period. hahaha
Fitness:
Well when I got down to that really low weight and probably 15 - 18% body fat, I had been doing a program called TRX Force. Obviously all TRX based and workouts were between 30 - 75min. It was tough, but I enjoyed it. My goal for sometime has been to make sure my workouts and strength training are bodyweight only. TRX checked that box. When I completed the TRX program I kind of wandered aimlessly a bit. I had signed up for an app from a site called "Calisthenics Academy". The app was eventually released and called "The Movement Athlete". The creators have some fantastic ideas about how they envision the app working. It will work your mobility. It will give you strength training. Everything. The problem? The app is very buggy. I very much wanted to love that app, but the workout timers weren't working. The algorithm used to generate the workouts based upon your skill level sometimes worked, but there would be days you wouldn't even get exercises for half your body. Buggy. I havne't revisited it.
From there I started my first fat loss phase (cutting calories back to about 2700 - 3000). To try and minimize and recover my body from the stress level I switched to yoga for 3 months. Some yoga strength training, but mostly flexibility training. It was absolutely challenging, just not in the ways I was accustomed to. Flexibility has always been an area I could greatly improve on. The workouts were short and I'd only commit to 30min per day and maybe 5 days per week. I enjoyed it, I truly did. It was peaceful, you worked, but I needed more... so back searching I went. That led me to this program that I had visited before I went Yoga, called Roamstrong Progressive Bodyweight Workout (PBW). Good program and you work on whatever progression of the different movements you can only perform 4 reps of and you build off of that. Never performing more than 3 sets of 8 reps. Once you can do that for a certain progression, you move forward to the next hardest progression. The problem with the workout is I didn't get ANY sort of volume work at all. No high rep counts for "easier" exercises and to me, that made my joints weaker. I found knees hurting a lot more... then my traps were getting pinched and having trouble turning my head. It was a bit of a nightmare. lol
Where am I now? Well, I've switched to the Kavadlo brothers book/program "Get Strong" and liking that. So for 3 days per week I'm strength training with that. The workouts take anywhere from 40min to 1hr, depending upon how many "extra" sets I throw in. My "off" days I've been spending doing Mark Lauren's Mobility RX routine. Its about 40 - 45min. My last 15 - 20min I spend my time learning to jump rope. I still suck at it, but like anything... the more you focus on the basics and practice, the better you get. I'll get there.
Ninja Course:
I've made some changes to the Ninja course. Added a 12' 4x4 post and then used that and 3 existing posts to make parallel bars. I used 2 of those 4 posts to make a pull up bar I couldn't reach with my feet on the ground. Lastly I added a 13' climbing rope. My goal is before fall to have that course completed so it can become my outdoor workout space. Still left are applying the roofing tar to the bottom 1' sections of each post (16 I believe). Then stain the whole course. When that is done, dig up all the grass on the course. Level the ground a bit and put down horse stall mats. Its a lot of work. A lot of work that I don't want to make the time to do it. lol It'll hopefully get done by fall so I can protect this investment and use it this fall/winter. Its a great space for strength training. I've got plyo/jump boxes, gymnastic rings, peg board, pull up bars, parallel bars and lots of other fun things. Fitness should be fun! Yeah - it should challenge you and make you better. Anything that is worth doing should do that. Hey... I just realized my kids fit that description, they challenge me and make me better. ;)
Speaking of the kids, I've roped them into doing Get Strong workouts as well. They don't get up at 5 (or usually earlier than that) like dad. They do them after dinner and it typically takes about 45min with them. They are stronger though and enjoying it. I enjoy doing it with them.
For me, I'm going to continue to ride this out. Some components may change (likely the mobility routine if I get bored). The strength training routine has a clear progression to get me to strength moves I've always wanted to do, but couldn't. Those are handstands (free standing), handstand push ups and pistol squats. Oh and 1 armed push ups. I've done a couple before, but my body was all twisted. I'm looking to continue to get S.A.F. (strong as fuck) without touching weights. My opinion (which I know I should keep to myself, but never do). Folks that use weights are perhaps unaware of how they can make bodyweight movements more challenging. They mistakenly view bodyweight strength training as ineffective, let alone superior to other forms of training. Which obviously MY opinion, it is superior. Typically what I see with people working out with weights is their mobility isn't great and they are using weights to try to compensate for that poor mobility. Mobility is a big issue for them. I applaud them for doing something that they enjoy and I encourage them to keep doing that, if that is what they enjoy. That being said - mobility is HUGE HUGE HUGE deal for me. I want to be able to move, do cartwheels, round offs, handstands and all the cool shit my kids can do, run, play and do it pain free. I'm 46yrs old and have ZERO interest in slowing down or doing less.
That's it for tonight. Active recovery day tomorrow. Lots of littles here to play and have fun. I still need to get some mobility and jump rope in tomorrow morning. ETP taught me how important rest is, so off to sleep I go. Later.
Saturday, April 29, 2017
April 29th Update. ETP Nutrition, Gymnastics Strength Training for exercise = WINNING
Obviously once again it has been a while since my last update. Why? Because life is busy and I don't make time for blogging. That's what it comes down to.
Since September I have been doing Eat To Perform for my nutrition. I had stepped away from this area for a while and "thought" I was doing it right. Yup, I wasn't. My weight had gotten up to 182lbs and my body fat percentage was around 30% if I were to guess. Pretty rough. When your goal is to get to 20% and you were already at 24%, you done fucked up. You fucked up really good.
Eat To Perform. Well I have nothing but good things to say. The coaches have been great. They review my macros every couple of weeks. I'm eating a good amount of food. Between 2200 - 2600 calories per day. When I visited my Dr back in February he was thrilled I was down to 171lbs. He asked how I was doing with my nutrition and I told him and he said "Nope, no way you are eating that many calories per day". Dude, look at my fucking MyFitnessPal diary. I've been logging for months now. Its all there.... well most of it. I do cheat and eat some chips and peanut butter filled pretzels at work. Whatever. I measure my food. I log my food (99% of it) and I see results. Not just on the scale, but body re-composition as well. More on that later...
Workouts. I stumbled upon a program called Mastering Gymnastic Strength Training (Mastering GST) from a website named Gymnastic Bodies. I found a PDF for it and it has been PDF GOLD! Seriously good stuff. All the workouts are bodyweight only, which is what I wanted. In addition there is mobility work built into the program. After every strength set, you do a mobility set until you complete all sets of your workout. BRILLIANT! As of this blog post, I have been doing this program for 15 weeks. The program has worked wonders for me and helped me to continue to build strength and muscle without getting hurt. HUGE benefit to me. Previously getting hurt or feeling hurt was a regular thing. A very regular thing. This program has me working my strength and mobility so I can learn to do things like the Pistol Squat and Hand Stand Push Ups, which are both goals. Do I possibly have the strength to do these things now? Maybe... mobility though is a whole other problem. I'm getting there though. Things are improving a little more each and every day.
Today I had another BodPod test, just to see what type of progress I've made since I did one back in December. I went from 182lbs to 172lbs in 3 months thanks to ETP and P90x. Now it was time to see what results I could see while actually increasing my caloric intake and switching to a 100% bodyweight workout routine. The results were FAR greater than anything I had expected. I'm down another 6lbs. Actually at the appointment I weighed in at 165.7lbs, which is the lightest weight I've been in 15 or so years. I gained 4lbs of muscle and lost 9lbs of fat. BOOM!!!! Carbs are evil?? Tell that to my results!
This was Dec 10, 2016. After I had lost 10lbs doing ETP and P90x.
That is no joke to me. Could not be happier with my progress! Want to make fun of me for weighing and measuring my food? Sure. Go right ahead. Want to talk smack about me logging my food? I'm good with that too. I'm following a plan from people who are in a lot better shape/condition than I am. They are showing me the way to FUEL my body. While at the same time not deprive myself from anything I may want. I want cake? OK, have it. I want pop tarts, OK enjoy... (seems like a lot of desserts make it here, you get the point though). There are no "off limits" foods. It's "here's your macros and find foods that fit that". Obviously more nutrient dense foods will fill you up better than crap, but I can still enjoy some crap completely guilt free. :) It is working. It is a lifestyle I am comfortable with and really enjoying. In the end that is what its about. Finding the lifestyle you want to live and live it to the max.
Now all these paper results look good, but what about the real product? How does the body look? For me, its not there yet. It is not where I want it to be, but no question it has come a LONG way.
Here is a link to my day 1 P90x pictures:
Before Pics
Here are a couple of progress pictures I took a couple of weeks ago:
April 14th Progress Pics
I'm going to keep pushing and my next goal is to get below 20% body fat. It is going to be hard. It is going to require me to continue to work hard with my workouts. I'll need to continue to pay attention to my nutrition and work with the coaches to dial in what is and isn't working for my body. I've got another BodPod test planned for around September. I'm hopeful a very active summer can help get me to where I want to be. Until then....
Since September I have been doing Eat To Perform for my nutrition. I had stepped away from this area for a while and "thought" I was doing it right. Yup, I wasn't. My weight had gotten up to 182lbs and my body fat percentage was around 30% if I were to guess. Pretty rough. When your goal is to get to 20% and you were already at 24%, you done fucked up. You fucked up really good.
Eat To Perform. Well I have nothing but good things to say. The coaches have been great. They review my macros every couple of weeks. I'm eating a good amount of food. Between 2200 - 2600 calories per day. When I visited my Dr back in February he was thrilled I was down to 171lbs. He asked how I was doing with my nutrition and I told him and he said "Nope, no way you are eating that many calories per day". Dude, look at my fucking MyFitnessPal diary. I've been logging for months now. Its all there.... well most of it. I do cheat and eat some chips and peanut butter filled pretzels at work. Whatever. I measure my food. I log my food (99% of it) and I see results. Not just on the scale, but body re-composition as well. More on that later...
Workouts. I stumbled upon a program called Mastering Gymnastic Strength Training (Mastering GST) from a website named Gymnastic Bodies. I found a PDF for it and it has been PDF GOLD! Seriously good stuff. All the workouts are bodyweight only, which is what I wanted. In addition there is mobility work built into the program. After every strength set, you do a mobility set until you complete all sets of your workout. BRILLIANT! As of this blog post, I have been doing this program for 15 weeks. The program has worked wonders for me and helped me to continue to build strength and muscle without getting hurt. HUGE benefit to me. Previously getting hurt or feeling hurt was a regular thing. A very regular thing. This program has me working my strength and mobility so I can learn to do things like the Pistol Squat and Hand Stand Push Ups, which are both goals. Do I possibly have the strength to do these things now? Maybe... mobility though is a whole other problem. I'm getting there though. Things are improving a little more each and every day.
Today I had another BodPod test, just to see what type of progress I've made since I did one back in December. I went from 182lbs to 172lbs in 3 months thanks to ETP and P90x. Now it was time to see what results I could see while actually increasing my caloric intake and switching to a 100% bodyweight workout routine. The results were FAR greater than anything I had expected. I'm down another 6lbs. Actually at the appointment I weighed in at 165.7lbs, which is the lightest weight I've been in 15 or so years. I gained 4lbs of muscle and lost 9lbs of fat. BOOM!!!! Carbs are evil?? Tell that to my results!
This was Dec 10, 2016. After I had lost 10lbs doing ETP and P90x.
This is today, April 29, 2017. Another 6lbs lost doing ETP and Mastering GST, with my caloric intake actually going up!
Now all these paper results look good, but what about the real product? How does the body look? For me, its not there yet. It is not where I want it to be, but no question it has come a LONG way.
Here is a link to my day 1 P90x pictures:
Before Pics
Here are a couple of progress pictures I took a couple of weeks ago:
April 14th Progress Pics
I'm going to keep pushing and my next goal is to get below 20% body fat. It is going to be hard. It is going to require me to continue to work hard with my workouts. I'll need to continue to pay attention to my nutrition and work with the coaches to dial in what is and isn't working for my body. I've got another BodPod test planned for around September. I'm hopeful a very active summer can help get me to where I want to be. Until then....
Saturday, December 10, 2016
Results are in!
Well I went and had the BF test. How did I do? Simply put - not as good as I was last year.
2015 results:
172lbs body weight. 130.3lbs (75.5%) lean body mass. 41.7lbs of FAT. 24.3% Body Fat
2016 results:
171.9lbs body weight. 127.5lbs (74.2%) lean body mass. 44.4lbs of FAT. 25.8% Body Fat
I would be lying if I didn't say I was a little disappointed. But, hey - it is what it is. A point in time reference as to where my body is from a physical composition standpoint. It doesn't represent where I am from a physically capable point. I will try not to beat myself up too much over it. After all - I did ignore my nutrition for the better part of a year before I tried to tighten it up for P90x.
Going back to what's next.... Still not sure. I'm still leaning towards Convict Conditioning. I really want to do calisthenics work and work towards a handstand push up and pistol squat. Those are fitness goals, that are skill goals. I want to work on my mobility/flexibility. At the same time - I know I need to work cardio as well. Not having something mapped out for me does kind of suck. It does bother me a bit, but like anything else. Do the research. Do the work. Figure it out.
I plan to schedule another BF% test for March around when I turn 45. So it will likely be done on March 11, right before I turn 45. 3 months from now. I don't expect the scale to move much if I stick with my macros and nutrition, but I just don't know. I don't know if the calisthenics work will bring enough intensity or not - but it will definitely bring strength work to push my muscles. The nutrition, which is the biggest key, will be up to me.
Overall I'm happy I got my head out of my ass and did P90X. Those 90 days got me focused enough to lose 10lbs of what was obviously pure fat. My body feels good. It feels strong. I don't feel I have any weak or painful joints any longer. That isn't necessarily the result of doing P90X, more so of finding a balance between pushing my body with hard workouts and rewarding it with things like Yoga, stretching and foam rolling. The rest is up to me. Keeping my nutrition on track and keeping the balance with my body. Until next time.
2015 results:
172lbs body weight. 130.3lbs (75.5%) lean body mass. 41.7lbs of FAT. 24.3% Body Fat
2016 results:
171.9lbs body weight. 127.5lbs (74.2%) lean body mass. 44.4lbs of FAT. 25.8% Body Fat
I would be lying if I didn't say I was a little disappointed. But, hey - it is what it is. A point in time reference as to where my body is from a physical composition standpoint. It doesn't represent where I am from a physically capable point. I will try not to beat myself up too much over it. After all - I did ignore my nutrition for the better part of a year before I tried to tighten it up for P90x.
Going back to what's next.... Still not sure. I'm still leaning towards Convict Conditioning. I really want to do calisthenics work and work towards a handstand push up and pistol squat. Those are fitness goals, that are skill goals. I want to work on my mobility/flexibility. At the same time - I know I need to work cardio as well. Not having something mapped out for me does kind of suck. It does bother me a bit, but like anything else. Do the research. Do the work. Figure it out.
I plan to schedule another BF% test for March around when I turn 45. So it will likely be done on March 11, right before I turn 45. 3 months from now. I don't expect the scale to move much if I stick with my macros and nutrition, but I just don't know. I don't know if the calisthenics work will bring enough intensity or not - but it will definitely bring strength work to push my muscles. The nutrition, which is the biggest key, will be up to me.
Overall I'm happy I got my head out of my ass and did P90X. Those 90 days got me focused enough to lose 10lbs of what was obviously pure fat. My body feels good. It feels strong. I don't feel I have any weak or painful joints any longer. That isn't necessarily the result of doing P90X, more so of finding a balance between pushing my body with hard workouts and rewarding it with things like Yoga, stretching and foam rolling. The rest is up to me. Keeping my nutrition on track and keeping the balance with my body. Until next time.
Friday, December 9, 2016
P90x - COMPLETE!!
Whoa whoa whoa.... not so fast. Actually today I completed day 89. Tomorrow is Yoga. I love me some yoga, but not Tony Horton Yoga. He moves really fast and doesn't take the time to enjoy the movement. Or, we spend 30 minutes doing fucking vinyasas. Yeah - I'm good.
So let's recap. I started P90x back on September 11, 2016. I have faithfully gotten up and done my workout every single day. Did I miss anything? Well, yes... I did. Anytime there was Yoga on the schedule, I did a YouTube workout from the channel Yoga with Adriene. She is funny, quirky and encourages you to explore how you are feeling when doing your practice. I really enjoy it. I missed about 6 or 7 Ab Ripper X workouts, but I'm OK with it. At least 4 or 5 of them are because I woke up, looked at my phone and got sucked into Facebook and when it came time to actually do my workout.... well, I was pressed to get the hour in and couldn't fit another 15min in. Also, my last (2) recovery weeks I substituted P90x2 - Mobility and Recovery in place of X-Stretch. You can do either one, but if you have ANY experience at all with a foam roller and usually use one to take care of yourself then you will possibly be like me. Angry that they again rush through the workout. Yes, its recovery.... take your time, find your spots, roll them out. No need to flipping rush!!! 20min is not enough time to foam roll my whole body.
Where did I land on nutrition? Well, I did stick to macros - but only the P90x macros for maybe 2 weeks. After that I was in "fat loss" mode using Eat To Perform macros. You know why? I felt it gave me WAY more flexibility in my eating/nutrition and I enjoyed that more. Plus, I got to participate in the Eat To Perform FB groups which helped keep me accountable. My caloric consumption ranges for "fat loss" mode were anywhere from 2000 - 2600 calories on a given day (no, not every day is a 2600 calorie day). You know what? It worked for me. I did not feel deprived. I enjoyed eating lots of food. Also I learned how to better track my food and my macros. Also - I lost a little bit of weight.
How is my weight? Well, when I started P90x, I weighed in at 182lbs. As of today, I'm down to 173lbs. A 9lb loss. Not too bad.
How about the food? As I said, I eat at a minimum of 2000 calories a day. Its pretty good. Not complaining about that quantity of food. I would always eat 175g of protein per day (some days I'd be a little over or under, but the target was always the same). I'd enjoy burgers, steaks, chicken, tuna, dairy, turkey.... you name it... I've pretty much consumed it. It has been nice. I'm going to try and continue to follow the Eat to Perform nutrition way as I enjoy it. On my SUPER day (more macros for carbs & fats) I typically end my day eating a pint of Halo Top ice cream. Yeah, that doesn't suck. :)
Am I rocking a 6pk or what? Nope. I'm not, but I'm totally OK with it. This was about me getting back into a 6 day routine. Being committed to something. Finding what worked for me and what didn't. Learning a bit about nutrition too.
Sleep - how did that go? Well in the beginning I was taking a sleep supplement to try and help with sleep, staying asleep and recovery. It worked more often than not. I tried melatonin but that just didn't seem to work for me. Also what I learned during this process is that when I consumed alcohol, my sleep really, really sucked. Not to mention the next morning when it came time for my workout, that typically wasn't a very good workout. This bothered me a little bit in the beginning, but not too much at the end of the day. It taught me to be more selective of when I drink. When I do drink, I enjoy it for the taste - not the waste. Clearly I haven't given up alcohol, but I've only had 4 or 5 beers in the past 3 months. Typically that would be 4 or 5 beers on a Saturday night.
Finally - What is next?!?! Well... Saturday (day 90 of P90x) I have a BodPod scan scheduled in Plymouth to determine if I've lost any body fat since last year. I really really neglected my nutrition for the better part of the year, so if I didn't then its shame on me. If I did, no matter how little the progress - it would still be forward progress. Either way - it will be a point in time reference.
Next routine? Well, I'm leaning towards going back to Convict Conditioning. At least for the next 30 days. I want to see how my body feels and how my nutrition is with it. Does my weight skyrocket? Can I break some of these plateaus I had previously doing Convict Conditioning?
My goal is to continue to dedicate 6 days per week and 1 hour per day for just workouts. I can continue to use nights when the kids are watching TV to stretch and foam roll. (Foam rolling is far more enjoyable than stretching, even if it hurts).
Concerns? Yup. Am I getting enough work capacity to build muscle and burn fat? Am I going to gain a shit ton of weight and get caught in the "caloric deficit" trap out of fear? Will I stay healthy while doing this? So far I have, no injuries at all while doing P90x (thanks to stretching & foam rolling). Will I get closer to doing some of the cool skill work that I want to learn how to do (pistol squats, shrimp squats, handstand push ups, one arm push ups, one arm pull ups, etc...)? Will my mobility continue to improve? I really don't want to take a step back. My body feels good. I'd like to improve my range of motion throughout my whole body. Specifically shoulders, wrists, hips, glutes & hamstrings. I can however get a standing squat with my ass to my calves and that feels really good. No weight on my shoulders, just body weight, but still good example of mobility.
I may or may not update my blog tomorrow with what my BF% comes back at. Either way, I'm healthier than I have been in some time from many perspectives. All my joints feel good. My body is strong. It is lean again. My knees don't hurt. My traps don't hurt. All good things. Amazing what happens when you listen to your body and stick with a PLAN.
So let's recap. I started P90x back on September 11, 2016. I have faithfully gotten up and done my workout every single day. Did I miss anything? Well, yes... I did. Anytime there was Yoga on the schedule, I did a YouTube workout from the channel Yoga with Adriene. She is funny, quirky and encourages you to explore how you are feeling when doing your practice. I really enjoy it. I missed about 6 or 7 Ab Ripper X workouts, but I'm OK with it. At least 4 or 5 of them are because I woke up, looked at my phone and got sucked into Facebook and when it came time to actually do my workout.... well, I was pressed to get the hour in and couldn't fit another 15min in. Also, my last (2) recovery weeks I substituted P90x2 - Mobility and Recovery in place of X-Stretch. You can do either one, but if you have ANY experience at all with a foam roller and usually use one to take care of yourself then you will possibly be like me. Angry that they again rush through the workout. Yes, its recovery.... take your time, find your spots, roll them out. No need to flipping rush!!! 20min is not enough time to foam roll my whole body.
Where did I land on nutrition? Well, I did stick to macros - but only the P90x macros for maybe 2 weeks. After that I was in "fat loss" mode using Eat To Perform macros. You know why? I felt it gave me WAY more flexibility in my eating/nutrition and I enjoyed that more. Plus, I got to participate in the Eat To Perform FB groups which helped keep me accountable. My caloric consumption ranges for "fat loss" mode were anywhere from 2000 - 2600 calories on a given day (no, not every day is a 2600 calorie day). You know what? It worked for me. I did not feel deprived. I enjoyed eating lots of food. Also I learned how to better track my food and my macros. Also - I lost a little bit of weight.
How is my weight? Well, when I started P90x, I weighed in at 182lbs. As of today, I'm down to 173lbs. A 9lb loss. Not too bad.
How about the food? As I said, I eat at a minimum of 2000 calories a day. Its pretty good. Not complaining about that quantity of food. I would always eat 175g of protein per day (some days I'd be a little over or under, but the target was always the same). I'd enjoy burgers, steaks, chicken, tuna, dairy, turkey.... you name it... I've pretty much consumed it. It has been nice. I'm going to try and continue to follow the Eat to Perform nutrition way as I enjoy it. On my SUPER day (more macros for carbs & fats) I typically end my day eating a pint of Halo Top ice cream. Yeah, that doesn't suck. :)
Am I rocking a 6pk or what? Nope. I'm not, but I'm totally OK with it. This was about me getting back into a 6 day routine. Being committed to something. Finding what worked for me and what didn't. Learning a bit about nutrition too.
Sleep - how did that go? Well in the beginning I was taking a sleep supplement to try and help with sleep, staying asleep and recovery. It worked more often than not. I tried melatonin but that just didn't seem to work for me. Also what I learned during this process is that when I consumed alcohol, my sleep really, really sucked. Not to mention the next morning when it came time for my workout, that typically wasn't a very good workout. This bothered me a little bit in the beginning, but not too much at the end of the day. It taught me to be more selective of when I drink. When I do drink, I enjoy it for the taste - not the waste. Clearly I haven't given up alcohol, but I've only had 4 or 5 beers in the past 3 months. Typically that would be 4 or 5 beers on a Saturday night.
Finally - What is next?!?! Well... Saturday (day 90 of P90x) I have a BodPod scan scheduled in Plymouth to determine if I've lost any body fat since last year. I really really neglected my nutrition for the better part of the year, so if I didn't then its shame on me. If I did, no matter how little the progress - it would still be forward progress. Either way - it will be a point in time reference.
Next routine? Well, I'm leaning towards going back to Convict Conditioning. At least for the next 30 days. I want to see how my body feels and how my nutrition is with it. Does my weight skyrocket? Can I break some of these plateaus I had previously doing Convict Conditioning?
My goal is to continue to dedicate 6 days per week and 1 hour per day for just workouts. I can continue to use nights when the kids are watching TV to stretch and foam roll. (Foam rolling is far more enjoyable than stretching, even if it hurts).
Concerns? Yup. Am I getting enough work capacity to build muscle and burn fat? Am I going to gain a shit ton of weight and get caught in the "caloric deficit" trap out of fear? Will I stay healthy while doing this? So far I have, no injuries at all while doing P90x (thanks to stretching & foam rolling). Will I get closer to doing some of the cool skill work that I want to learn how to do (pistol squats, shrimp squats, handstand push ups, one arm push ups, one arm pull ups, etc...)? Will my mobility continue to improve? I really don't want to take a step back. My body feels good. I'd like to improve my range of motion throughout my whole body. Specifically shoulders, wrists, hips, glutes & hamstrings. I can however get a standing squat with my ass to my calves and that feels really good. No weight on my shoulders, just body weight, but still good example of mobility.
I may or may not update my blog tomorrow with what my BF% comes back at. Either way, I'm healthier than I have been in some time from many perspectives. All my joints feel good. My body is strong. It is lean again. My knees don't hurt. My traps don't hurt. All good things. Amazing what happens when you listen to your body and stick with a PLAN.
Thursday, September 8, 2016
Where have I been? What's next?
Well for the past 8 months I've been keeping my body strong and healing it at the same time. Continuing to exercise, but taking some of the strain off my body from all the weighted workouts. Focusing primarily on Calisthenics, more functional fitness. I had tried some programs from GMB and I enjoyed the first one. Not so much the one I was really looking forward to trying (Integral Strength). Whatever. Lately it has been all TRX with a mish-mosh of cardio. Some running, some T25, some P90X cardio stuff. It is all good.
Nutrition - well to say I have pretty much ignored macros would be an understatement. I haven't tracked any food at all in months. Bummer for sure. As a result, I've lost whatever abs I had and put on some additional weight. May 2015 I weighed 167lbs, but still had love handles. September 2016 I weigh 180lbs, but no love handles. A little overhang in the front though. Bummer for sure. I know I've built more muscle, that much is clear. I can see it in my legs, arms, back, shoulders - but the gut don't lie. Work on your nutrition. Gaining 1lb per month isn't the goal here.
What next? Why bothering with the blog post now? I've given it some thought and thought...hmmmm.... why not P90X? I'm in FAR better shape than the last time I tried it (pre-40). However the workouts are over an hour long a few days a week. That's a lot of time to commit. Especially when you have a hard enough time getting your ass moving in the morning. I generally don't sleep very well. Falling asleep - piece of cake. Staying asleep through the whole night, feeling rested, etc... not the easy part. That does have me a bit wary with the longer workouts. All you can do is try though.
That's great Chris - but what about your real issue.... nutrition? Well, I'm going to try and stick to the P90X Nutrition guidelines. For someone my weight, they recommend a 2400 cal/per day diet (YES!!). I've learned a thing or two about macros over the past year so that will certainly help me. Much like an addict, I'm going to take it one day at a time... one week at a time... one cycle at a time. The first cycle is going to be tough though. Macros 50% protein, 30% carbs & 20% fat. That means 1200 calories of protein a day. YEAH! 300g of protein a day. 800 calories of carbs (200grams of healthy carbs... jerk) and just a mere mere 53g of fat. Serious challenges here.
So why P90X? Why bother going back to weights? Honestly - I haven't found a great bodyweight program that can generate the volume of work capacity needed to support the food volume I like to consume. :) Yes - I like to fucking eat! Especially something with the variety that I crave. I still LOVE bodyweight stuff. There is so much you can do with it and get a really good workout. I've learned so much more about proper form, range, mobility, all things that definitely impacted me in past programs. Hey - you spend time just trying to "keep up" with the speed they are doing it on the DVD vs. concentrating on what YOU are doing and making sure your form is perfect, you are going to suffer. I did try to just keep up and I paid the price. As they say, you need to walk before you can run. I took a step back, so now I can move forward.
Stay tuned for updates. Here's to getting this body stronger, leaner and simply put - more powerful and healthy. I go back for another body fat testing in December and my goal is to improve upon the 24.1% BF (131lbs of lean muscle) I got as results in December 2015.
Nutrition - well to say I have pretty much ignored macros would be an understatement. I haven't tracked any food at all in months. Bummer for sure. As a result, I've lost whatever abs I had and put on some additional weight. May 2015 I weighed 167lbs, but still had love handles. September 2016 I weigh 180lbs, but no love handles. A little overhang in the front though. Bummer for sure. I know I've built more muscle, that much is clear. I can see it in my legs, arms, back, shoulders - but the gut don't lie. Work on your nutrition. Gaining 1lb per month isn't the goal here.
What next? Why bothering with the blog post now? I've given it some thought and thought...hmmmm.... why not P90X? I'm in FAR better shape than the last time I tried it (pre-40). However the workouts are over an hour long a few days a week. That's a lot of time to commit. Especially when you have a hard enough time getting your ass moving in the morning. I generally don't sleep very well. Falling asleep - piece of cake. Staying asleep through the whole night, feeling rested, etc... not the easy part. That does have me a bit wary with the longer workouts. All you can do is try though.
That's great Chris - but what about your real issue.... nutrition? Well, I'm going to try and stick to the P90X Nutrition guidelines. For someone my weight, they recommend a 2400 cal/per day diet (YES!!). I've learned a thing or two about macros over the past year so that will certainly help me. Much like an addict, I'm going to take it one day at a time... one week at a time... one cycle at a time. The first cycle is going to be tough though. Macros 50% protein, 30% carbs & 20% fat. That means 1200 calories of protein a day. YEAH! 300g of protein a day. 800 calories of carbs (200grams of healthy carbs... jerk) and just a mere mere 53g of fat. Serious challenges here.
So why P90X? Why bother going back to weights? Honestly - I haven't found a great bodyweight program that can generate the volume of work capacity needed to support the food volume I like to consume. :) Yes - I like to fucking eat! Especially something with the variety that I crave. I still LOVE bodyweight stuff. There is so much you can do with it and get a really good workout. I've learned so much more about proper form, range, mobility, all things that definitely impacted me in past programs. Hey - you spend time just trying to "keep up" with the speed they are doing it on the DVD vs. concentrating on what YOU are doing and making sure your form is perfect, you are going to suffer. I did try to just keep up and I paid the price. As they say, you need to walk before you can run. I took a step back, so now I can move forward.
Stay tuned for updates. Here's to getting this body stronger, leaner and simply put - more powerful and healthy. I go back for another body fat testing in December and my goal is to improve upon the 24.1% BF (131lbs of lean muscle) I got as results in December 2015.
Tuesday, May 17, 2016
When is "Enough... enough?".
That is the question of the day. When is enough just enough? This question can apply to almost anything, but lets focus it on some different areas where people measure their health.
First - weight loss. When is enough lost weight enough? Is it when you've gotten to the range of what someone in the American Health Association determined is the "ideal" weight? Is it close to that? Is it what you see someone else weighs that has a body image that you would like to have for yourself? (insert 6 pack abs here) How do you define "this is good enough"? Or do you keep chasing things that may not be all that important to the bigger, underlying goal?
For me - I am on the high end of my range for what is considered my "ideal" weight for my height. This time last year I was 8 or 9lbs lighter. My Dr said to me during my physical in January that he would like to see me about 5lbs lighter. To that I respond with... why? How did you determine that I should be 5lbs lighter? Sure I'm 175/176lbs on a 5' 11" frame. You know what though? I also have over 130lbs of muscle on this frame.... so... since muscle weighs more than fat, is it that important that I hit your range you have on a piece of paper? Or is it good enough for me at this time? I'm comfortable in my own skin. I'm healthy. Physically, mentally I'm healthy. I practice healthy habits. Exercising regularly, eating healthy, not smoking or taking drugs and not consuming alcohol in excess. Everything in moderation. Who's to say that enough is enough? ME - that's who. I am not trying to hit a particular weight. I'm being driven by my capabilities and how I feel.
How about strength? When is enough just enough on that end? For that I would say it depends on your goals. What is it that you want to do that you aren't strong enough to do now?
Again - FOR ME, I believe I am strong enough. Strong enough to be able to live a healthy, active life. Am I going to try to increase my strength at any time? Yes - probably. As I get interested in doing new and different things. See things that I want to do or learn how to do, if my body isn't quite strong enough in all areas to achieve that then yes, I will absolutely focus on improving my general strength.
What I won't do anymore is this.... I won't go back to a gym and just start lifting weights kind of mindlessly. Re-reading this sentence I can totally see someone reading that and saying "What a dick. I lift weights and does that make me mindless? Does that make what I'm doing mindless?" No - absolutely not. If that is your thing then by all means, go ahead and do it. If you are training for the sake of just being stronger then go for it. That isn't my goal. When is strong enough enough? For me that is right now.
OK then smart ass, then what is your goal? My goal was to stop beating up my body and instead increase the capabilities of my body. Learn how to use my body to do some really cool shit. I guess you could label it as "gymnastics" type stuff with handstands, handstand push ups, walking on your hands, cartwheels, jumping with precision, pistol squats, bridges, etc...
What I've learned though is for the past couple of years, all the various workout routines I've worked my way through - my body was taking a beating. T25, increased my lung capacity. Helped me lose a decent amount of weight. Made my knees hurt like hell. P90x3 got me stronger in a lot of different areas however I kept injuring my traps. Body Beast - DOMS. Muscle soreness forever. lol Running - back to the hurt knees.
Why was I getting hurt? Well, not being in shape hurt. Perhaps not keeping perfect form all the time can definitely get you hurt. Rushing to keep up with the folks on the video you are following, well - yup, you can get hurt that way too. Picking up weights and trying to move them and your joints not being strong enough to handle it, well, that would hurt too. Trying to push my body beyond what it is currently capable of doing. "Increasing work capacity" as they call it. I've been injured quite a bit over the years (IMO) and it makes you talk to yourself. Ask yourself why. Ask yourself what are you doing wrong? Ask, what can you do better? I've done all this.
Back in January 2016 (roughly 4 months ago) I started to change my mentality. Focus more on bodyweight and calisthenics workouts for my strength and conditioning. This started with Convict Conditioning. Then I moved onto YAYOG (You Are Your Own Gym) and Yoga. Convict Conditioning was great, but you were still stuck in that sets/reps mentality and it gave you ZERO cardio. YAYOG also stuck in the sets/reps mentality but it was at such a pace that you got your heart pumping and definitely sweating. Yoga - well, I never sweat, but it had some really tough days. My flexibility and mobility was not what it needed to be. I pushed through it and saw improvements in my flexibility and mobility, which is fantastic - but I felt like from a strength perspective, the routine itself wasn't challenging me enough. Then I set my sites on GMB.
Why GMB? Well I had been following them for a couple of months as they preached about mobility, flexibility and finding what your body can do for you. Moving in ways that allows you to do different and fun things. Things like the gymnastics things I had mentioned before. Exercises like bench presses, while can help to make your chest stronger and help with your triceps, forearms, I didn't feel were helping me "move better". I was still waking up with aches, pains, etc... and I was honestly past that. Tired of it. I know that stretching can improve performance and help your body get past some of these nagging injuries, but honestly I simply didn't want to spend 30 - 60 min a day stretching. I wanted it to be part of my routine, whatever the hell I did. SO I dove into the starting point for GMB - Elements. I've started week 5 and have done everything that has been laid out for me to this point.
How do I feel? Honestly I feel really frigin good. I don't have the normal aches and pains that I've had. The debilitating shoulder/neck pain from doing too many push ups or pull ups. The knee pain from all the jumping in a plyometric routine. No back pain. My quad injury that I had which would prevent me from even going into Child's pose? Gone. My strength is still there. I haven't lost it. I feel just as strong as I did back when I was lifting weights. What has been returning though is my flexibility and mobility. Running and chasing my kids without knee pain. Practicing cartwheels with no ill effects. Do you ever just sit there and watch your children play? Watch what they do and how happy they are doing it? I do. They are happiest when they are running around. Practicing handstands, doing cartwheels... performing for their parents. Trying to do splits. They are learning what their bodies can do and how to get them to do more. Exceeding their own expectations and surprising themselves. Being someone that they look up to, that is what I wanted. I wanted to be able to be active with them. Doing the things they like to do. Challenging myself and in turn challenging them to be better too. Having fun together, without pain and discomfort. So far so good.
After all... what good is it all if you can't enjoy it? What good is being at the "healthy weight" the Dr says you need to be, if you can't still enjoy the foods that you enjoy? What good is it to just keep working out and lifting weights, if you don't move better. Moving freely and without pain and having fun like you were a kid again. To me - it isn't worth shit. Hence why I changed my mentality and changed my exercise routine. Right now, honestly - it doesn't seem like a chore at all to get up and do this. It is fun. It is mindful practice. I'm enjoying it. Having fun while challenging myself. Isn't that the point of it all?
First - weight loss. When is enough lost weight enough? Is it when you've gotten to the range of what someone in the American Health Association determined is the "ideal" weight? Is it close to that? Is it what you see someone else weighs that has a body image that you would like to have for yourself? (insert 6 pack abs here) How do you define "this is good enough"? Or do you keep chasing things that may not be all that important to the bigger, underlying goal?
For me - I am on the high end of my range for what is considered my "ideal" weight for my height. This time last year I was 8 or 9lbs lighter. My Dr said to me during my physical in January that he would like to see me about 5lbs lighter. To that I respond with... why? How did you determine that I should be 5lbs lighter? Sure I'm 175/176lbs on a 5' 11" frame. You know what though? I also have over 130lbs of muscle on this frame.... so... since muscle weighs more than fat, is it that important that I hit your range you have on a piece of paper? Or is it good enough for me at this time? I'm comfortable in my own skin. I'm healthy. Physically, mentally I'm healthy. I practice healthy habits. Exercising regularly, eating healthy, not smoking or taking drugs and not consuming alcohol in excess. Everything in moderation. Who's to say that enough is enough? ME - that's who. I am not trying to hit a particular weight. I'm being driven by my capabilities and how I feel.
How about strength? When is enough just enough on that end? For that I would say it depends on your goals. What is it that you want to do that you aren't strong enough to do now?
Again - FOR ME, I believe I am strong enough. Strong enough to be able to live a healthy, active life. Am I going to try to increase my strength at any time? Yes - probably. As I get interested in doing new and different things. See things that I want to do or learn how to do, if my body isn't quite strong enough in all areas to achieve that then yes, I will absolutely focus on improving my general strength.
What I won't do anymore is this.... I won't go back to a gym and just start lifting weights kind of mindlessly. Re-reading this sentence I can totally see someone reading that and saying "What a dick. I lift weights and does that make me mindless? Does that make what I'm doing mindless?" No - absolutely not. If that is your thing then by all means, go ahead and do it. If you are training for the sake of just being stronger then go for it. That isn't my goal. When is strong enough enough? For me that is right now.
OK then smart ass, then what is your goal? My goal was to stop beating up my body and instead increase the capabilities of my body. Learn how to use my body to do some really cool shit. I guess you could label it as "gymnastics" type stuff with handstands, handstand push ups, walking on your hands, cartwheels, jumping with precision, pistol squats, bridges, etc...
What I've learned though is for the past couple of years, all the various workout routines I've worked my way through - my body was taking a beating. T25, increased my lung capacity. Helped me lose a decent amount of weight. Made my knees hurt like hell. P90x3 got me stronger in a lot of different areas however I kept injuring my traps. Body Beast - DOMS. Muscle soreness forever. lol Running - back to the hurt knees.
Why was I getting hurt? Well, not being in shape hurt. Perhaps not keeping perfect form all the time can definitely get you hurt. Rushing to keep up with the folks on the video you are following, well - yup, you can get hurt that way too. Picking up weights and trying to move them and your joints not being strong enough to handle it, well, that would hurt too. Trying to push my body beyond what it is currently capable of doing. "Increasing work capacity" as they call it. I've been injured quite a bit over the years (IMO) and it makes you talk to yourself. Ask yourself why. Ask yourself what are you doing wrong? Ask, what can you do better? I've done all this.
Back in January 2016 (roughly 4 months ago) I started to change my mentality. Focus more on bodyweight and calisthenics workouts for my strength and conditioning. This started with Convict Conditioning. Then I moved onto YAYOG (You Are Your Own Gym) and Yoga. Convict Conditioning was great, but you were still stuck in that sets/reps mentality and it gave you ZERO cardio. YAYOG also stuck in the sets/reps mentality but it was at such a pace that you got your heart pumping and definitely sweating. Yoga - well, I never sweat, but it had some really tough days. My flexibility and mobility was not what it needed to be. I pushed through it and saw improvements in my flexibility and mobility, which is fantastic - but I felt like from a strength perspective, the routine itself wasn't challenging me enough. Then I set my sites on GMB.
Why GMB? Well I had been following them for a couple of months as they preached about mobility, flexibility and finding what your body can do for you. Moving in ways that allows you to do different and fun things. Things like the gymnastics things I had mentioned before. Exercises like bench presses, while can help to make your chest stronger and help with your triceps, forearms, I didn't feel were helping me "move better". I was still waking up with aches, pains, etc... and I was honestly past that. Tired of it. I know that stretching can improve performance and help your body get past some of these nagging injuries, but honestly I simply didn't want to spend 30 - 60 min a day stretching. I wanted it to be part of my routine, whatever the hell I did. SO I dove into the starting point for GMB - Elements. I've started week 5 and have done everything that has been laid out for me to this point.
How do I feel? Honestly I feel really frigin good. I don't have the normal aches and pains that I've had. The debilitating shoulder/neck pain from doing too many push ups or pull ups. The knee pain from all the jumping in a plyometric routine. No back pain. My quad injury that I had which would prevent me from even going into Child's pose? Gone. My strength is still there. I haven't lost it. I feel just as strong as I did back when I was lifting weights. What has been returning though is my flexibility and mobility. Running and chasing my kids without knee pain. Practicing cartwheels with no ill effects. Do you ever just sit there and watch your children play? Watch what they do and how happy they are doing it? I do. They are happiest when they are running around. Practicing handstands, doing cartwheels... performing for their parents. Trying to do splits. They are learning what their bodies can do and how to get them to do more. Exceeding their own expectations and surprising themselves. Being someone that they look up to, that is what I wanted. I wanted to be able to be active with them. Doing the things they like to do. Challenging myself and in turn challenging them to be better too. Having fun together, without pain and discomfort. So far so good.
After all... what good is it all if you can't enjoy it? What good is being at the "healthy weight" the Dr says you need to be, if you can't still enjoy the foods that you enjoy? What good is it to just keep working out and lifting weights, if you don't move better. Moving freely and without pain and having fun like you were a kid again. To me - it isn't worth shit. Hence why I changed my mentality and changed my exercise routine. Right now, honestly - it doesn't seem like a chore at all to get up and do this. It is fun. It is mindful practice. I'm enjoying it. Having fun while challenging myself. Isn't that the point of it all?
Tuesday, May 3, 2016
Injuries..GMB...Mobility
So what's new here? Where do I start? I should probably start with re-reading my last blog post so I know what I've said and what I haven't. lol Not going to happen though.
What is new? Not a hell of a lot. I had been battling a lot of injuries. I had a quad/knee injury with my left leg that was really prohibiting my range of motion. I wasn't able to get into Child's pose as an example. I could no longer just sit on my knees with my butt on my heels. The shooting pain through my left knee just wouldn't allow it. I had shoulder/neck nerve type pinch that would 1) cause pain 2) seriously impact sleep 3) prohibit me from turning me head much. As I researched it more it turned out the injury was related to my "trap" muscles in the back. Muscle relaxers and aggressive massages took care of that.
What have I been doing to resolve these issues? At first I had switched to YAYOG - You Are Your Own Gym, which is a total bodyweight routine. Unfortunately though that was just a 3 day program and I prefer to workout 5 or 6 days a week. To mix it up and give my body more stretching that it so desperately needed to progress I started Yoga with Adriene - 30 Days of Yoga, which is available via YouTube. FANTASTIC! I can't say enough good things about her and her instructional methods. I really liked it. The routine was working pretty good and it was helping me continue building strength and also improve my flexibility... heal my body a bit. I did this for about a month but wasn't really loving the combination. I did really like it, but I didn't like going to one place for one workout and then YouTube for the other and keeping track of it all. Really really minor thing, but it wasn't my ideal situation.
Fast forward - I've just started week 3 of GMB Elements (http://gmb.io/e) and I love it. COMPLETELY different from any other thing I've tried. I start my workout by stretching for warmups and I do that for anywhere between 30 - 60 minutes. Then I'll spend maybe 5 - 10 minutes practicing a certain movement, whatever movement is for that day. It could be a bear walk, monkey or frogger. Let me tell you something. These moves are not easy. It challenges me. Each move challenges me and that doesn't even touch on when they throw in variations to each of these moves.
Has it helped at all? YES! A resounding YES! My mobility, flexibility have improved significantly. I feel my balance is improving. Strength... it's funny, I'm not sure if it is improving in a traditional sense as if you were doing push ups or pull ups, but yes, I don't think my strength has decreased at all. My body feels really good. My shoulders, traps feel great. Left knee? Also great. 100%? Nope, but I can rock a child's pose again. Getting to the point where I can almost sit with my butt on my heels again. My squats? Pretty good! I can sit into the squat to the point where my butt is less than 10" from the ground. Something I definitely couldn't do before, even before my quad injury. It is a good thing. A really good thing.
I've been so impressed with the changes I went ahead and bought 3 more programs of theirs. Focused Flexibility, Vitamin and Integral Strength. While I'm very excited to see what those other programs can offer me the reality is today was day 1 of week 3 for a 7 week program. Meaning I still have almost a full 5 weeks left. Not a bad thing. I'm not complaining, especially if I can continue to improve these areas where I'm focusing. The flexibility, mobility and strength. It is pretty interesting stuff. Unorthodox compared to the other more traditional training methods I've tried. The thought has always been if you want to be stronger you either lift weights or figure out bodyweight routines. If you want flexibility you do Yoga or Pilates. You want to improve your lung capacity you do Cardio or start running.
Weight? I'm still hanging around 175 - 176lbs, which is about 8 or 9lbs above where I was a year ago. I have a lot more muscle than I did back then. As usual the biggest problem area is belly, but I'm comfortable with where I am right now. I'm no longer pushing to have this magical 6 pack and saying that defines my fitness level. It doesn't. It doesn't at all. My ability to adapt and do new/different active things and not feel limited or crippled after doing them. So far that is working for me. I'm looking forward to a summer of practicing cartwheels and handstands in the backyard with the kids. Learning how to jump rope. Doing awesome things.
Words of wisdom here? Listen to your body. Explore. Find new things, don't just judge them and rule them out without trying. Practice mindfully. Not just trying to keep up with a video, but mindfully paying attention to your body and how it is reacting. How it is feeling..... That's all I've got. Until next time.
What is new? Not a hell of a lot. I had been battling a lot of injuries. I had a quad/knee injury with my left leg that was really prohibiting my range of motion. I wasn't able to get into Child's pose as an example. I could no longer just sit on my knees with my butt on my heels. The shooting pain through my left knee just wouldn't allow it. I had shoulder/neck nerve type pinch that would 1) cause pain 2) seriously impact sleep 3) prohibit me from turning me head much. As I researched it more it turned out the injury was related to my "trap" muscles in the back. Muscle relaxers and aggressive massages took care of that.
What have I been doing to resolve these issues? At first I had switched to YAYOG - You Are Your Own Gym, which is a total bodyweight routine. Unfortunately though that was just a 3 day program and I prefer to workout 5 or 6 days a week. To mix it up and give my body more stretching that it so desperately needed to progress I started Yoga with Adriene - 30 Days of Yoga, which is available via YouTube. FANTASTIC! I can't say enough good things about her and her instructional methods. I really liked it. The routine was working pretty good and it was helping me continue building strength and also improve my flexibility... heal my body a bit. I did this for about a month but wasn't really loving the combination. I did really like it, but I didn't like going to one place for one workout and then YouTube for the other and keeping track of it all. Really really minor thing, but it wasn't my ideal situation.
Fast forward - I've just started week 3 of GMB Elements (http://gmb.io/e) and I love it. COMPLETELY different from any other thing I've tried. I start my workout by stretching for warmups and I do that for anywhere between 30 - 60 minutes. Then I'll spend maybe 5 - 10 minutes practicing a certain movement, whatever movement is for that day. It could be a bear walk, monkey or frogger. Let me tell you something. These moves are not easy. It challenges me. Each move challenges me and that doesn't even touch on when they throw in variations to each of these moves.
Has it helped at all? YES! A resounding YES! My mobility, flexibility have improved significantly. I feel my balance is improving. Strength... it's funny, I'm not sure if it is improving in a traditional sense as if you were doing push ups or pull ups, but yes, I don't think my strength has decreased at all. My body feels really good. My shoulders, traps feel great. Left knee? Also great. 100%? Nope, but I can rock a child's pose again. Getting to the point where I can almost sit with my butt on my heels again. My squats? Pretty good! I can sit into the squat to the point where my butt is less than 10" from the ground. Something I definitely couldn't do before, even before my quad injury. It is a good thing. A really good thing.
I've been so impressed with the changes I went ahead and bought 3 more programs of theirs. Focused Flexibility, Vitamin and Integral Strength. While I'm very excited to see what those other programs can offer me the reality is today was day 1 of week 3 for a 7 week program. Meaning I still have almost a full 5 weeks left. Not a bad thing. I'm not complaining, especially if I can continue to improve these areas where I'm focusing. The flexibility, mobility and strength. It is pretty interesting stuff. Unorthodox compared to the other more traditional training methods I've tried. The thought has always been if you want to be stronger you either lift weights or figure out bodyweight routines. If you want flexibility you do Yoga or Pilates. You want to improve your lung capacity you do Cardio or start running.
Weight? I'm still hanging around 175 - 176lbs, which is about 8 or 9lbs above where I was a year ago. I have a lot more muscle than I did back then. As usual the biggest problem area is belly, but I'm comfortable with where I am right now. I'm no longer pushing to have this magical 6 pack and saying that defines my fitness level. It doesn't. It doesn't at all. My ability to adapt and do new/different active things and not feel limited or crippled after doing them. So far that is working for me. I'm looking forward to a summer of practicing cartwheels and handstands in the backyard with the kids. Learning how to jump rope. Doing awesome things.
Words of wisdom here? Listen to your body. Explore. Find new things, don't just judge them and rule them out without trying. Practice mindfully. Not just trying to keep up with a video, but mindfully paying attention to your body and how it is reacting. How it is feeling..... That's all I've got. Until next time.
Saturday, April 2, 2016
44 and still going....strong? Self reflection.
Well I turned 44 last month and I'm still going forward and trying to be the healthiest version of me I can. Life is a really busy thing and if you don't stop to take a look around every once in a while, it will pass you by. I know it is an old saying, but hey - by some people's standards, I'm old.
Over the past few years I've done a decent amount of strength training, cardio training, workout videos/programs and hell, I even joined a gym for a few months. Where am I now? I'm still sitting at about 175lbs (which is about 25lbs lower than when I started). I'm stronger, but my body feels a bit beat up in all honesty. Also - at my physical my Dr told me he noticed I have a heart murmur. Well now, how about that? Not something I need to address now, but obviously something to keep an eye on. Shock like that can overwhelm you if you let it. In this crazy go go go world, it can make you stop and pause too. Which is what I'm starting to do.
When I started exercising it was to lose weight and look good. I thought that if I looked good I would feel good too. To a certain extent that is true. The little bit of vanity in me does recognize the hard earned muscle I've gained thus far through this journey. I've never "felt great" though. I wanted to be able to run around and chase my kids. Not be limited by anything in my body or by my body's limitations and at times - this journey has allowed me to do just that. Unfortunately though, it hasn't been consistent enough for me, despite what I consider pretty consistent efforts. In short, my "strength training" has made me feel broken down. Movement has now taken priority for me over strength. What good is being able to bench press 200lbs if your shoulder hurts so much you can't pick your own kids up to hug them? What good is being able to squat or deadlift 225lbs if when it comes time to chase your kids and play "sea monster" (Dad always seems to be the sea monster) and your knees won't allow it? To me - it means nothing. To me, although I can't go back in time and change anything, I've messed up. I've sat here and trained for a few years doing the wrong things for me and the life I want to live.
The past few months I've shifted my focus in my training. I've stopped lifting weights. I've stopped putting that burden on my body and my joints. I have instead utilized body weight training. It challenges me not just from a strength perspective, but from a flexibility and mobility perspective. More than I was ever challenged lifting weights. Yeah you could say, well if you weren't challenged enough doing weights then you weren't using enough weight. Wrong mentality here. WAY wrong. I'm not trying to "man up". This isn't a pissing contest. This is life. This is MY life.
Most recently a friend introduced me to a Yoga series they had started doing from YouTube and I've kind of made up a schedule of 3 days of strength training (sometimes 4) and 2 to 3 days of Yoga per week. Although I've been doing the body weight training for a few months here, the Yoga has just been in the last month. Trying to stick with a physical therapist point of view on things. Stretch and Strengthen. It is helping. It is helping me not only physically by allowing me to continue to strengthen my body, but it is helping me heal it as well. Today I was actually able to get into child's pose and sit with my butt on my heals in that position. Something I haven't been able to do in months. It is also giving me things to think about. With the continued focus of "do what you feel is right for YOU and YOUR body". In other words, don't just jump on the next workout routine because it is the newest, latest thing. Learn about YOU. Learn what you like and what you don't like. What are you hoping to accomplish? Is it that elusive 6 pack that you see all these folks have in the fitness videos? If so - yeah, the workouts can help get you there but you better shift your focus to nutrition. Or is it something else that you are chasing? Did you always dream of running and maybe running a marathon, well good for you! Figure out what is going to get you there. Chances are that new strength workout routine that just came out isn't going to get you there, so why buy it? Research how others have gotten there and create a plan and go full steam ahead. MAKE the time to step back every once in a while and look around. If you think there is a better way to do something for YOU, then don't be afraid to do it. Have the courage to do what you feel is best for you.
For the first time in a few years I can honestly say I'm not chasing a 6 pack. I am no longer chasing an image of what others view as being "healthy" or even what I viewed as healthy. My views have changed. My mindset has changed. My goals have changed. My desire to succeed and the reason why I get up and do this every single day though has not. This family, although I can be a frigin bear to be around, is what I live for. I want to have the most amazing experiences ever with each and every one of them. I want to inspire them to find better versions of themselves and desire to be even better than they ever dreamed possible. Regardless of if I may agree with all their choices, I want them to be the best they can be and most importantly - happy while doing it. For that, I continue digging deeper, pealing back the layers of me in an effort to make me better. At the same time, challenging those I love to be a better version of themselves.
Until next time...
Over the past few years I've done a decent amount of strength training, cardio training, workout videos/programs and hell, I even joined a gym for a few months. Where am I now? I'm still sitting at about 175lbs (which is about 25lbs lower than when I started). I'm stronger, but my body feels a bit beat up in all honesty. Also - at my physical my Dr told me he noticed I have a heart murmur. Well now, how about that? Not something I need to address now, but obviously something to keep an eye on. Shock like that can overwhelm you if you let it. In this crazy go go go world, it can make you stop and pause too. Which is what I'm starting to do.
When I started exercising it was to lose weight and look good. I thought that if I looked good I would feel good too. To a certain extent that is true. The little bit of vanity in me does recognize the hard earned muscle I've gained thus far through this journey. I've never "felt great" though. I wanted to be able to run around and chase my kids. Not be limited by anything in my body or by my body's limitations and at times - this journey has allowed me to do just that. Unfortunately though, it hasn't been consistent enough for me, despite what I consider pretty consistent efforts. In short, my "strength training" has made me feel broken down. Movement has now taken priority for me over strength. What good is being able to bench press 200lbs if your shoulder hurts so much you can't pick your own kids up to hug them? What good is being able to squat or deadlift 225lbs if when it comes time to chase your kids and play "sea monster" (Dad always seems to be the sea monster) and your knees won't allow it? To me - it means nothing. To me, although I can't go back in time and change anything, I've messed up. I've sat here and trained for a few years doing the wrong things for me and the life I want to live.
The past few months I've shifted my focus in my training. I've stopped lifting weights. I've stopped putting that burden on my body and my joints. I have instead utilized body weight training. It challenges me not just from a strength perspective, but from a flexibility and mobility perspective. More than I was ever challenged lifting weights. Yeah you could say, well if you weren't challenged enough doing weights then you weren't using enough weight. Wrong mentality here. WAY wrong. I'm not trying to "man up". This isn't a pissing contest. This is life. This is MY life.
Most recently a friend introduced me to a Yoga series they had started doing from YouTube and I've kind of made up a schedule of 3 days of strength training (sometimes 4) and 2 to 3 days of Yoga per week. Although I've been doing the body weight training for a few months here, the Yoga has just been in the last month. Trying to stick with a physical therapist point of view on things. Stretch and Strengthen. It is helping. It is helping me not only physically by allowing me to continue to strengthen my body, but it is helping me heal it as well. Today I was actually able to get into child's pose and sit with my butt on my heals in that position. Something I haven't been able to do in months. It is also giving me things to think about. With the continued focus of "do what you feel is right for YOU and YOUR body". In other words, don't just jump on the next workout routine because it is the newest, latest thing. Learn about YOU. Learn what you like and what you don't like. What are you hoping to accomplish? Is it that elusive 6 pack that you see all these folks have in the fitness videos? If so - yeah, the workouts can help get you there but you better shift your focus to nutrition. Or is it something else that you are chasing? Did you always dream of running and maybe running a marathon, well good for you! Figure out what is going to get you there. Chances are that new strength workout routine that just came out isn't going to get you there, so why buy it? Research how others have gotten there and create a plan and go full steam ahead. MAKE the time to step back every once in a while and look around. If you think there is a better way to do something for YOU, then don't be afraid to do it. Have the courage to do what you feel is best for you.
For the first time in a few years I can honestly say I'm not chasing a 6 pack. I am no longer chasing an image of what others view as being "healthy" or even what I viewed as healthy. My views have changed. My mindset has changed. My goals have changed. My desire to succeed and the reason why I get up and do this every single day though has not. This family, although I can be a frigin bear to be around, is what I live for. I want to have the most amazing experiences ever with each and every one of them. I want to inspire them to find better versions of themselves and desire to be even better than they ever dreamed possible. Regardless of if I may agree with all their choices, I want them to be the best they can be and most importantly - happy while doing it. For that, I continue digging deeper, pealing back the layers of me in an effort to make me better. At the same time, challenging those I love to be a better version of themselves.
Until next time...
Thursday, February 11, 2016
Convict Conditioning, ETP, 2016 Yearly Physical
Lets start with my yearly physical. My blood pressure was a little high. 132/90, but not horrible. Logging my food has definitely made me much more aware of the sodium issue. SO much sodium in prepared foods, even salads. So frustrating.
My weight was 176lbs, which is 4lbs over last year. I told my Dr that my weight is + or - 5lbs and I'm not worried about it, but he said I should probably look to try and lose that "extra weight". Yeah - thanks for the help?
Cholesterol, this is where my Dr was really concerned. He said my good cholesterol took a hit. Yeah, it went from 51 to 50. wow My bad cholesterol went from 118 to 159. He was far more concerned about it than I was. My liver functions were perfectly fine. My triglycerides were also perfectly fine. My cholesterol is still within a normal range. If it is still going up next year, then we start talking. Like everything else though, I want it controlled via nutrition.
ETP - well, I'm still doing it. I'm doing 2 days of "rest day" calories and 1 day "training day" calories. Then start over. Still ramping up to the 2700+ calories of a training day. I'll get there.
Convict Conditioning. I'm a few weeks into this. I'll say this, it is 100% harder than I expected it to be. I honestly expected to breeze through the first few steps of this program and it has been very humbling to see that I'm not. Actually there are some moves that I am stuck on "step 2". Push ups being one of them. 3 sets of 40 incline pushups (SLOW, 5 seconds per rep) is brutal. I haven't gotten it yet, but I will. Crow stand (aka Crow), I am supposed to hold for 1 minute. Yeah, I haven't even gotten 30 seconds yet. Need to focus and keep pushing. I'm trying not to get discouraged. I think it helps that I continue to move forward in other areas with other exercises, but I definitely still have some sticking points. I'm trying to respect where I am right now and trust the process. Earn my way to the fitness achievements that I want.
Nothing really else to mention here that I can think of. I have a few OCRs I want to do this year. F.I.T. Challenge in April. Tough Scrambler in April and Spartan Sprint in June. Just have to get this body ready. Doing some cardio might help. lol Zero cardio for a while now. :P
Until next time.....
My weight was 176lbs, which is 4lbs over last year. I told my Dr that my weight is + or - 5lbs and I'm not worried about it, but he said I should probably look to try and lose that "extra weight". Yeah - thanks for the help?
Cholesterol, this is where my Dr was really concerned. He said my good cholesterol took a hit. Yeah, it went from 51 to 50. wow My bad cholesterol went from 118 to 159. He was far more concerned about it than I was. My liver functions were perfectly fine. My triglycerides were also perfectly fine. My cholesterol is still within a normal range. If it is still going up next year, then we start talking. Like everything else though, I want it controlled via nutrition.
ETP - well, I'm still doing it. I'm doing 2 days of "rest day" calories and 1 day "training day" calories. Then start over. Still ramping up to the 2700+ calories of a training day. I'll get there.
Convict Conditioning. I'm a few weeks into this. I'll say this, it is 100% harder than I expected it to be. I honestly expected to breeze through the first few steps of this program and it has been very humbling to see that I'm not. Actually there are some moves that I am stuck on "step 2". Push ups being one of them. 3 sets of 40 incline pushups (SLOW, 5 seconds per rep) is brutal. I haven't gotten it yet, but I will. Crow stand (aka Crow), I am supposed to hold for 1 minute. Yeah, I haven't even gotten 30 seconds yet. Need to focus and keep pushing. I'm trying not to get discouraged. I think it helps that I continue to move forward in other areas with other exercises, but I definitely still have some sticking points. I'm trying to respect where I am right now and trust the process. Earn my way to the fitness achievements that I want.
Nothing really else to mention here that I can think of. I have a few OCRs I want to do this year. F.I.T. Challenge in April. Tough Scrambler in April and Spartan Sprint in June. Just have to get this body ready. Doing some cardio might help. lol Zero cardio for a while now. :P
Until next time.....
Sunday, January 31, 2016
Welcome to 2016!
Clearly time hasn't changed the fact that I still suck at blogging consistently. Honestly it is still a pain in my ass to have to log out of one account to log into another account to blog. I'll take time to figure out how to better handle that situation in the future, but for now - it just isn't a priority.
What have I been doing for my health? Let's start with the nutrition as it is a shorter update. Well, still sort of following ETP. They say on my "training days" I should be eating almost 2800 calories. On my "rest days" I should be eating about 2300 calories. With ETP, it is all about hitting your calories then your macros and then you worry about timing. I suppose this is common in things like the body building world as I compare my numbers of what I'm eating for macros to body builders and it is surprisingly quite similar. The difference is, I don't have a body builder body. lol
For nutrition on my "rest days" I should be hitting 2350 calories. 175g of protein, 85g of fat and just over 200g of carbs. Again - the primary target being - get your calories in. Then if you have to just pick one of the macros to it, hit your protein. In an ideal world you will get + or - 10g of the protein and carbs. + or - 5g of the fat. Regarding timing, well they say slow carbs before your workout to help you get energy and fast carbs after a workout. On my training days the only thing that changes is I get more carbs. Protein and fat stays the exact same.
What has this forced me to do? Something I said I couldn't ever see myself doing. Measuring food. Logging it into MyFitnessPal and pushing for some consistency. I've logged for over 60days straight and that alone is an accomplishment. It for the most part is pretty accurate. I may have had some days around xmas where I just stopped logging halfway through the day. Whatever. Like anything in life, its not about perfection, its about consistency and trying to be better.
Workouts - I had wavered a bit and finally decided I was going to go back to Body Beast. My big fear was leg day... ugh, fucking leg day. I reminded myself though that it was only 1 day of the week. I could suck it up for one day per week. Necessary evil. Body Beast lasted 2 whole weeks then I got hurt. The infamous neck/shoulder pinch so I couldn't turn my head. Good times... good times.
The injury pissed me off and caused me to re-evaluate what I was going for. At the same time I was dealing with a completely swollen left quad. I couldn't bend that leg very well, so it made stretching a struggle. I took a week off to rest up my neck/shoulder and keep stretching it out. Trying to work things out without dealing with another 6 weeks of physical therapy. That's always fun. It did work and for the most part I got past it on the right side.
What did I decide on? Well during my re-evaluation I started following Al Kavaldo who is all about body weight exercises. Which led me over to start reading the book Convict Conditioning. Which, no real surprise they have an app for that if you wanted to follow it and work at it. The app is free, it illustrates how to do the exercises. Also links to YouTube videos that show you how to do the exercises. It gives you progressions on how to get to the next level. The next level of the exercise. Its pretty awesome actually.
This is going to sound gay and girlie but the routine speaks to me. Bottom line it is about training for functional movement. Being more flexible. Being stronger. NOT getting hurt. All things that I wanted but kind of have half been able to get there. I've done various home workouts that have gotten me stronger, done one other one that got me flexible (Piyo) but none that did them both. Almost always - I ended up with a hurting body, which is never the goal.
Right now I'm re-learning. I'm learning proper form from the ground up. SLOW and controlled movements through each exercise and each progression. Learning how to do various bridge exercises so that I'll be able to do a full bridge, should I be able to progress to the end here. Or be able to do a one handed handstand, again, should I be able to progress through the end. I have done a 2min wall headstand, for whatever that is worth. Still learning, still progressing through it. I do like it though. It is a slow workout. Zero cardio. I don't sweat at all. My muscles work though. Boy do they work.
OK - now time for me to fuel up so I can go get at it.
What have I been doing for my health? Let's start with the nutrition as it is a shorter update. Well, still sort of following ETP. They say on my "training days" I should be eating almost 2800 calories. On my "rest days" I should be eating about 2300 calories. With ETP, it is all about hitting your calories then your macros and then you worry about timing. I suppose this is common in things like the body building world as I compare my numbers of what I'm eating for macros to body builders and it is surprisingly quite similar. The difference is, I don't have a body builder body. lol
For nutrition on my "rest days" I should be hitting 2350 calories. 175g of protein, 85g of fat and just over 200g of carbs. Again - the primary target being - get your calories in. Then if you have to just pick one of the macros to it, hit your protein. In an ideal world you will get + or - 10g of the protein and carbs. + or - 5g of the fat. Regarding timing, well they say slow carbs before your workout to help you get energy and fast carbs after a workout. On my training days the only thing that changes is I get more carbs. Protein and fat stays the exact same.
What has this forced me to do? Something I said I couldn't ever see myself doing. Measuring food. Logging it into MyFitnessPal and pushing for some consistency. I've logged for over 60days straight and that alone is an accomplishment. It for the most part is pretty accurate. I may have had some days around xmas where I just stopped logging halfway through the day. Whatever. Like anything in life, its not about perfection, its about consistency and trying to be better.
Workouts - I had wavered a bit and finally decided I was going to go back to Body Beast. My big fear was leg day... ugh, fucking leg day. I reminded myself though that it was only 1 day of the week. I could suck it up for one day per week. Necessary evil. Body Beast lasted 2 whole weeks then I got hurt. The infamous neck/shoulder pinch so I couldn't turn my head. Good times... good times.
The injury pissed me off and caused me to re-evaluate what I was going for. At the same time I was dealing with a completely swollen left quad. I couldn't bend that leg very well, so it made stretching a struggle. I took a week off to rest up my neck/shoulder and keep stretching it out. Trying to work things out without dealing with another 6 weeks of physical therapy. That's always fun. It did work and for the most part I got past it on the right side.
What did I decide on? Well during my re-evaluation I started following Al Kavaldo who is all about body weight exercises. Which led me over to start reading the book Convict Conditioning. Which, no real surprise they have an app for that if you wanted to follow it and work at it. The app is free, it illustrates how to do the exercises. Also links to YouTube videos that show you how to do the exercises. It gives you progressions on how to get to the next level. The next level of the exercise. Its pretty awesome actually.
This is going to sound gay and girlie but the routine speaks to me. Bottom line it is about training for functional movement. Being more flexible. Being stronger. NOT getting hurt. All things that I wanted but kind of have half been able to get there. I've done various home workouts that have gotten me stronger, done one other one that got me flexible (Piyo) but none that did them both. Almost always - I ended up with a hurting body, which is never the goal.
Right now I'm re-learning. I'm learning proper form from the ground up. SLOW and controlled movements through each exercise and each progression. Learning how to do various bridge exercises so that I'll be able to do a full bridge, should I be able to progress to the end here. Or be able to do a one handed handstand, again, should I be able to progress through the end. I have done a 2min wall headstand, for whatever that is worth. Still learning, still progressing through it. I do like it though. It is a slow workout. Zero cardio. I don't sweat at all. My muscles work though. Boy do they work.
OK - now time for me to fuel up so I can go get at it.
Saturday, December 12, 2015
Bod Pod test results and NUTRITION
Well this morning I went for a "Bod Pod" test to see where I'm at from a body fat/lean body mass stand point. For those that don't know, Bod Pod is considered the most accurate Body Fat test available at this time.
I've guesstimated for a while now I'm around 25%. Today's results confirmed I'm not far off. 24.3% and 172lbs. Considering I'm 5' 11" tall and 43yrs old, I'm not totally sad about that. Obviously room for improvement though.
One thing that I was very surprised they went over with me was, how to get better. They spoke nutrition to me. They didn't have to. I was there for a body fat test and nothing more. Yet they took the time to ask me about my nutrition. Inquire about the things I'm eating, when I'm eating them and how I can get closer to my goals. They even included how much I SHOULD be eating if I wanted to just maintain where I am or how much I should be eating if I wanted to get leaner. Much to my surprise (kind of) those numbers were very much in line with what I got from ETP. I should essentially be eating almost 2800 calories on "training" days. Considering I was eating maybe between 1400 - 1600 using the 21 Day Fix, this will be a drastic change to my body. A welcome change though for sure.
Next up - figure out how I can get there and hit my macros on a daily basis. Let the fun begin!!
I've guesstimated for a while now I'm around 25%. Today's results confirmed I'm not far off. 24.3% and 172lbs. Considering I'm 5' 11" tall and 43yrs old, I'm not totally sad about that. Obviously room for improvement though.
One thing that I was very surprised they went over with me was, how to get better. They spoke nutrition to me. They didn't have to. I was there for a body fat test and nothing more. Yet they took the time to ask me about my nutrition. Inquire about the things I'm eating, when I'm eating them and how I can get closer to my goals. They even included how much I SHOULD be eating if I wanted to just maintain where I am or how much I should be eating if I wanted to get leaner. Much to my surprise (kind of) those numbers were very much in line with what I got from ETP. I should essentially be eating almost 2800 calories on "training" days. Considering I was eating maybe between 1400 - 1600 using the 21 Day Fix, this will be a drastic change to my body. A welcome change though for sure.
Next up - figure out how I can get there and hit my macros on a daily basis. Let the fun begin!!
Wednesday, December 2, 2015
E.T.P. - Eat To Perform aka Nutrition
SO.... I had done the 21 Day Fix nutrition for a while and it is certainly great for meal plans and portion control, etc.... it definitely wasn't right for me. I found myself starving on multiple occasions, seeming like it was forever between snacks and meals, etc... I finally started tracking my food in My Fitness Pal and holy crap. I was only consuming like 1200 calories. No wonder I was fucking starving! The only time I would hit anything near where I really should be is if I was snacking and having beers.... not the best way to make up your nutritional deficit. Not to mention, I didn't really like being told "I can only have this, but can't have that". F-that noise.
Fast forward.... everyone is out there on Black Friday trying to find their next big toy purchase. New TV, vacation, computer, etc... I'm all searching for something to help me reach goals. Fitness goals. Where does ETP come into play on this?
Well, ETP had been recommended to me a while ago by multiple friends and I kind of just "liked" their FB page and casually followed it. Never really digging into it all the way to see what it was all about. To me, I've already had the (mis) conception that I needed to do more workouts and eat less. Seems like I was completely off base there. People are eating 4000 calories and 250g of carbs on a single day without issue. WOW!! What the hell am I doing wrong?
Here we are on Small Business Saturday, which apparently is a thing.... ETP had one of their books "on sale" for $20, regularly $50. To the naked eye this was a great deal... unless of course you've seen their ad where you can buy all 4 of their books and a year membership for $50. Either way... I bought the book. Read and read and read and read, all 101 pages in essentially a day, but still could not completely wrap my head around what I needed to do. This book did a great job of explaining the hows and the whys but not such a great job of just telling me what the hell I needed to do. That of course brought me to Google. Which is where I found what appeared to be a normal every day woman's experience with it.
http://killerfitgym.com/my-etp-experience-faq/
BOOM! Everything became so much clearer.
Now that I've got a clearer picture of what I need to be hitting for target nutrition AND I'm actually tracking it, I have to figure out how to get my numbers up.
This is what my nutrition looked like today and its definitely clean, but not even close to enough. Below it you can see my target numbers. Until next time!
Fast forward.... everyone is out there on Black Friday trying to find their next big toy purchase. New TV, vacation, computer, etc... I'm all searching for something to help me reach goals. Fitness goals. Where does ETP come into play on this?
Well, ETP had been recommended to me a while ago by multiple friends and I kind of just "liked" their FB page and casually followed it. Never really digging into it all the way to see what it was all about. To me, I've already had the (mis) conception that I needed to do more workouts and eat less. Seems like I was completely off base there. People are eating 4000 calories and 250g of carbs on a single day without issue. WOW!! What the hell am I doing wrong?
http://killerfitgym.com/my-etp-experience-faq/
BOOM! Everything became so much clearer.
Now that I've got a clearer picture of what I need to be hitting for target nutrition AND I'm actually tracking it, I have to figure out how to get my numbers up.
This is what my nutrition looked like today and its definitely clean, but not even close to enough. Below it you can see my target numbers. Until next time!
Sunday, November 22, 2015
F.I.T. EPIC OCR/Health Update
OK - so last week I did a new OCR. It was called the F.I.T. Epic Fifth Challenge. It was up in Diamond Hill State Park in RI.
I'll be honest, when that day started my body was shaky and I felt a little sick. Under the weather. I've been battling something for a few weeks now and it seems to come and go. I said to hell with it though and went ahead with the plan of conquering this OCR.
The course is a state park. Trail running, which should have been obvious to me but as usual I was oblivious. I had heard that there was over 900' of elevation on the course, but when all was said and done I guess there was actually over 1200' of elevation. It was crazy. I'm very happy I didn't wear running shoes for the event.
What were the obstacles? Well besides nature, the hills, the rocky trails, trees, etc... there were some obstacles you had to hop over, some you had to climb under. There was one random stop coming down the hill the first time where you had to grab a 45lb barbell and press it over your head 30 times. That was kind of easy. All the tougher obstacles were at the bottom of the hill. The hills were there to exhaust you and tax your legs and lungs, which it worked. At the bottom of the hill there were a couple of wooden barriers you had to climb over. Some of them were inverted so that was definitely challenging. There were ones you had to jump up, grab on, get your feet up there and swing your whole body up to grab the next piece of wood so you could go up and over. There were cargo nets. Oh, there was a peg board that was 12' in the air or so, I managed to climb all the way up that. There was rope right after that and I failed miserably on that. The atlas ball (65lb concrete ball) that you had to pick up and roll it over your shoulder down your back 5x. Then there was the Wreck Bag carry. Pick the weight of your bag (I went with 50lb, the heaviest was 1 size up, 70lb), put it on your shoulders and start running up hill. Yes, up the fucking hill again. There was this obstacle called "The Destroyer" that had a lot of people up in arms. In all honesty, if you had some good upper body strength you could conquer it. I was able to conquer it. I remember a woman behind me say "holy shit, he made that look easy". When I went over the top I heard them yell "BEAST". lol Kind of funny. There were some monkey bars, which honestly was my biggest fear going into this. My kid's playground monkey bars are tougher, probably because I can't swing my legs. These weren't bad at all though. There was no mud. It wasn't messy. I totally could have worn my headphones (bummer). It was tough though.
How did I do? I finished in 1 hr 33min, which put me at about the middle of the pack. 255th out of 530. Honestly I think I did very well for myself. I learned I need to get better with my cardio, specifically hills, if I want to improve upon my completion time. I loved the challenges. I DEFINITELY need to improve my grip strength and overall strength. Learning how to climb a rope wouldn't be a bad thing. lol I didn't incur any penalties (if there were any I didn't know what they were). I honestly conquered every single obstacle but that frigin rope climb. DAMN THAT ROPE!! Damn me for not being prepared.
How can I improve? Well, first off... I wasn't going for "time" as so many others were. I had never done a course like this. My only previous OCR was the Mudderella, which wasn't very hard (IMO). Now that I have a better understanding of what I would be up against, I would definitely push harder for a better time. At one particular obstacle I stood there for 5 or 10 minutes, letting other people go ahead of me, because I was unable to do it my first couple of tries. Well shit, there's 10 minutes I could shave off my time! There were other areas where I'd stop and let others go ahead of me while I tried to understand what the flipping challenge was that I was supposed to do. Again, more time to be shaved off. Then of course there was the trails, the hills. I need to be better with them and my cardio if I'm going to improve my overall time.
It was great to have it not be a cold, miserable day out there. Not just for me, but for my supporters. My wife and kids came out to cheer me on. In addition, my friend Jack who was originally scheduled to run the race with me, was there with his beautiful daughters. They were cold, they didn't have the "benefit" of running up a hill I guess. LOL Their support though was greatly appreciated.
Would I do it again? YES Actually I'm trying to figure out what my next races will be. There are a couple that happen in the dead of winter that I'm not too sure about. We shall see. There will be more races though, that's for sure. I'd like to get some of my more fit friends involved in them. One because I think that they would truly enjoy it and two, because it would give me more opportunities to share in healthy challenges with them.
How is my health? Actually after I finished that race I was tired! Not really surprising. My knees and shoulders have been hurting lately. Since I just finished up 2 months of frigin physical therapy to correct my knee issues it is clear they are hurting not from what I AM doing, but more because of what I am NOT doing. I've been really good with my form. Really really focused on it so I know that isn't the cause of my discomfort in the knees. It is stretching. Its been pretty tight lately and I've stretched here and there, but I need to get back to doing this 4x a week to get past the pain. The shoulders? I can only guess its due to the handstands. I'm working on yet more stretches to try and address the shoulder discomfort as well. Like with anything though, consistency is the key. You get nowhere fast if you aren't consistent.
What am I doing to stay active/healthy? I've been doing some Men's Health Anarchy program for the past couple of weeks and that has been the extent of my fitness. It's not a bad program. There is a lot of focus on cardio/HIIT style, even when you pick up the dumbbells. A lot of core stuff. I'm not complaining, because it is a change from the norm. One other thing I am kind of working on is learning how to do a handstand. I'm technically on level 3 with that. Level 1 was hold a plank with your feet on a wall for 60 seconds. Level 2 was hold a wall handstand for 60 seconds, again, body against the wall. Level 3 is learn to bail safely. Level 4 is hold a wall handstand for 90 seconds. Lots and lots of strain on your shoulders. I'm supposed to be practicing it daily, for like 5 minutes a day, but I've only be doing it a couple of days out of the week and a couple of 60 second wall handstands. Honestly the shoulder pains have been holding me back a bit. I'm probably going to try and stick with it and see both the Anarchy program and the handstand thing through. 1) The Anarchy program is only 6 weeks long and the workouts are only 30 min or less, which is awesome. 2) How fucking cool would it be to learn the skill of a handstand? Seriously, 43 and learning how to do a handstand. That just blows open doors for new fun fitness challenges like, walking on your hands, handstand push ups, etc... Very cool.
Longer term, what's on the horizon? I just don't know. I really don't. There are so many things I could be better at with my overall health and fitness. For one, I don't think you are supposed to wake up in pain or discomfort. Simple tasks like walking up hills or steps should not cause discomfort. Lifting things over your head, should not cause discomfort. I call myself healthy, but really I'm just strong and sometimes active. Healthy, well that means something else now doesn't it? It means something different to just about everyone. Everyone battles with something in their health. I am no exception. My version of healthy is waking up every day, without pain, being strong enough to conquer my training and still have energy in the tank to keep up with my family.
There are multiple directions I could go with my health/fitness challenges. Lots of different things I'm looking at. 1) There is a course a website Eat To Perform that intrigues me. There is no question to anyone who knows me that nutrition is an area I could improve upon. I've got 3 different books I'm currently reading (yes, that's right, I read now too). I'm at different stages for each one. The 1st one I'm on the chapter relevant to the phase I'm on right now. The 2nd one, I just started flipping through. The 3rd one, well, I'm getting ready to experiment with one of the first techniques.
1) Chris Salvato - Handstand Beginner's Guide
2) Steven Low - Overcoming Gravity: A Systematic Approach to Gymnastics and Bodyweight Strength
3) Kelly McGonigal - The Willpower Instinct
In addition to all this, there is a new Beachbody program that is coming out that definitely intrigues me. It is called Hammer & Chisel with Sagi Kalev & Autumn Calabrese. I have the discipline to do the workouts, its the nutrition that is the bigger challenge. That is going to be the challenge no matter what workout I choose. Hence why I'm reading the willpower book.
Until the next time.
I'll be honest, when that day started my body was shaky and I felt a little sick. Under the weather. I've been battling something for a few weeks now and it seems to come and go. I said to hell with it though and went ahead with the plan of conquering this OCR.
The course is a state park. Trail running, which should have been obvious to me but as usual I was oblivious. I had heard that there was over 900' of elevation on the course, but when all was said and done I guess there was actually over 1200' of elevation. It was crazy. I'm very happy I didn't wear running shoes for the event.
What were the obstacles? Well besides nature, the hills, the rocky trails, trees, etc... there were some obstacles you had to hop over, some you had to climb under. There was one random stop coming down the hill the first time where you had to grab a 45lb barbell and press it over your head 30 times. That was kind of easy. All the tougher obstacles were at the bottom of the hill. The hills were there to exhaust you and tax your legs and lungs, which it worked. At the bottom of the hill there were a couple of wooden barriers you had to climb over. Some of them were inverted so that was definitely challenging. There were ones you had to jump up, grab on, get your feet up there and swing your whole body up to grab the next piece of wood so you could go up and over. There were cargo nets. Oh, there was a peg board that was 12' in the air or so, I managed to climb all the way up that. There was rope right after that and I failed miserably on that. The atlas ball (65lb concrete ball) that you had to pick up and roll it over your shoulder down your back 5x. Then there was the Wreck Bag carry. Pick the weight of your bag (I went with 50lb, the heaviest was 1 size up, 70lb), put it on your shoulders and start running up hill. Yes, up the fucking hill again. There was this obstacle called "The Destroyer" that had a lot of people up in arms. In all honesty, if you had some good upper body strength you could conquer it. I was able to conquer it. I remember a woman behind me say "holy shit, he made that look easy". When I went over the top I heard them yell "BEAST". lol Kind of funny. There were some monkey bars, which honestly was my biggest fear going into this. My kid's playground monkey bars are tougher, probably because I can't swing my legs. These weren't bad at all though. There was no mud. It wasn't messy. I totally could have worn my headphones (bummer). It was tough though.
How did I do? I finished in 1 hr 33min, which put me at about the middle of the pack. 255th out of 530. Honestly I think I did very well for myself. I learned I need to get better with my cardio, specifically hills, if I want to improve upon my completion time. I loved the challenges. I DEFINITELY need to improve my grip strength and overall strength. Learning how to climb a rope wouldn't be a bad thing. lol I didn't incur any penalties (if there were any I didn't know what they were). I honestly conquered every single obstacle but that frigin rope climb. DAMN THAT ROPE!! Damn me for not being prepared.
How can I improve? Well, first off... I wasn't going for "time" as so many others were. I had never done a course like this. My only previous OCR was the Mudderella, which wasn't very hard (IMO). Now that I have a better understanding of what I would be up against, I would definitely push harder for a better time. At one particular obstacle I stood there for 5 or 10 minutes, letting other people go ahead of me, because I was unable to do it my first couple of tries. Well shit, there's 10 minutes I could shave off my time! There were other areas where I'd stop and let others go ahead of me while I tried to understand what the flipping challenge was that I was supposed to do. Again, more time to be shaved off. Then of course there was the trails, the hills. I need to be better with them and my cardio if I'm going to improve my overall time.
It was great to have it not be a cold, miserable day out there. Not just for me, but for my supporters. My wife and kids came out to cheer me on. In addition, my friend Jack who was originally scheduled to run the race with me, was there with his beautiful daughters. They were cold, they didn't have the "benefit" of running up a hill I guess. LOL Their support though was greatly appreciated.
Would I do it again? YES Actually I'm trying to figure out what my next races will be. There are a couple that happen in the dead of winter that I'm not too sure about. We shall see. There will be more races though, that's for sure. I'd like to get some of my more fit friends involved in them. One because I think that they would truly enjoy it and two, because it would give me more opportunities to share in healthy challenges with them.
How is my health? Actually after I finished that race I was tired! Not really surprising. My knees and shoulders have been hurting lately. Since I just finished up 2 months of frigin physical therapy to correct my knee issues it is clear they are hurting not from what I AM doing, but more because of what I am NOT doing. I've been really good with my form. Really really focused on it so I know that isn't the cause of my discomfort in the knees. It is stretching. Its been pretty tight lately and I've stretched here and there, but I need to get back to doing this 4x a week to get past the pain. The shoulders? I can only guess its due to the handstands. I'm working on yet more stretches to try and address the shoulder discomfort as well. Like with anything though, consistency is the key. You get nowhere fast if you aren't consistent.
What am I doing to stay active/healthy? I've been doing some Men's Health Anarchy program for the past couple of weeks and that has been the extent of my fitness. It's not a bad program. There is a lot of focus on cardio/HIIT style, even when you pick up the dumbbells. A lot of core stuff. I'm not complaining, because it is a change from the norm. One other thing I am kind of working on is learning how to do a handstand. I'm technically on level 3 with that. Level 1 was hold a plank with your feet on a wall for 60 seconds. Level 2 was hold a wall handstand for 60 seconds, again, body against the wall. Level 3 is learn to bail safely. Level 4 is hold a wall handstand for 90 seconds. Lots and lots of strain on your shoulders. I'm supposed to be practicing it daily, for like 5 minutes a day, but I've only be doing it a couple of days out of the week and a couple of 60 second wall handstands. Honestly the shoulder pains have been holding me back a bit. I'm probably going to try and stick with it and see both the Anarchy program and the handstand thing through. 1) The Anarchy program is only 6 weeks long and the workouts are only 30 min or less, which is awesome. 2) How fucking cool would it be to learn the skill of a handstand? Seriously, 43 and learning how to do a handstand. That just blows open doors for new fun fitness challenges like, walking on your hands, handstand push ups, etc... Very cool.
Longer term, what's on the horizon? I just don't know. I really don't. There are so many things I could be better at with my overall health and fitness. For one, I don't think you are supposed to wake up in pain or discomfort. Simple tasks like walking up hills or steps should not cause discomfort. Lifting things over your head, should not cause discomfort. I call myself healthy, but really I'm just strong and sometimes active. Healthy, well that means something else now doesn't it? It means something different to just about everyone. Everyone battles with something in their health. I am no exception. My version of healthy is waking up every day, without pain, being strong enough to conquer my training and still have energy in the tank to keep up with my family.
There are multiple directions I could go with my health/fitness challenges. Lots of different things I'm looking at. 1) There is a course a website Eat To Perform that intrigues me. There is no question to anyone who knows me that nutrition is an area I could improve upon. I've got 3 different books I'm currently reading (yes, that's right, I read now too). I'm at different stages for each one. The 1st one I'm on the chapter relevant to the phase I'm on right now. The 2nd one, I just started flipping through. The 3rd one, well, I'm getting ready to experiment with one of the first techniques.
1) Chris Salvato - Handstand Beginner's Guide
2) Steven Low - Overcoming Gravity: A Systematic Approach to Gymnastics and Bodyweight Strength
3) Kelly McGonigal - The Willpower Instinct
In addition to all this, there is a new Beachbody program that is coming out that definitely intrigues me. It is called Hammer & Chisel with Sagi Kalev & Autumn Calabrese. I have the discipline to do the workouts, its the nutrition that is the bigger challenge. That is going to be the challenge no matter what workout I choose. Hence why I'm reading the willpower book.
Until the next time.
Sunday, October 11, 2015
Onward and Upward
As usual, been forever since I posted. I'm OK with it.
This spring/summer I let my love for beer, pizza and snack type food (aka junk food) get the best of me and my weight went from 166lbs in May up to 180lbs in September. Sure I still worked out and still pushed hard to get stronger, but that wasn't helping my weight.
Additional contributors to my weight gain. 1) Inconsistent workout schedule 2) Bad knees
The workout schedule, I was accustomed to working out 5 to 6 days per week in the comfort of my own home, starting it at 5AM. For the past few months I've been struggling to find a consistent schedule with my buddy Kev at the gym. At a minimum I want to get 3 days per week at the gym with him. Again, its been a real struggle between his schedule, my schedule and everything else. In addition, the workouts are starting at 8PM at night, not y best time to workout, but it'll have to do. He pushes me hard and makes me move weights that I wouldn't otherwise feel comfortable with in my own home, so, its a positive thing.
The knees. I went to an orthopedic Dr and got them checked out. I was diagnosed with patellofemoral pain syndrome. The pain had reached the point where I couldn't walk up stairs or hills. It was far too uncomfortable to try and push off my feet. Make no mistake, the issue isn't my feet. I found myself holding onto railings and pulling myself up stairs to get up stairs and leaning on the railings to try and walk down them. Absurd for sure. I can run a mile in under 9 minutes but can't walk a flight of steps. Dr gave me physical therapy script as my solution and that has been working out quite well.
September came and reality was I needed to get things back under control. I couldn't keep drinking a beer or two every night or other night for that matter. Insert 21 Day Fix. We already own the program and honestly I've never, ever followed the nutrition portion of any Beachbody program. Why not give it a shot. We've just wrapped up week 2 of that and I'm down 6lbs, which I'm good with. It took me over 4 months to put on almost 14lbs, I'm not going to lose that in 2 weeks. Forward progress is forward progress.
I just completed my first OCR (Obstacle Course Race) last weekend. It was the Mudderella. It was definitely a fun event. The course was 5 miles long and it only had 13 to 14 obstacles. I was hoping for less running and more obstacles as I had not done any running since early April and was really worried about my knees. As it turned out my legs were stronger than I thought and my body as a whole held up really well. The obstacles I didn't find all too challenging, the biggest challenge was mental and the running I guess. It was awesome to have my family there to help support me. It was also awesome to be able to do this with a couple rock stars from my fit group. It proved to me that I could do this and that I also needed to push myself harder.
Next challenges are 1) to stay on track with nutrition 2) keep pushing for 3 nights at the gym and a couple mornings at home (cardio/stretching) 3) the F.I.T. Epic Challenge. Until next time.
This spring/summer I let my love for beer, pizza and snack type food (aka junk food) get the best of me and my weight went from 166lbs in May up to 180lbs in September. Sure I still worked out and still pushed hard to get stronger, but that wasn't helping my weight.
Additional contributors to my weight gain. 1) Inconsistent workout schedule 2) Bad knees
The workout schedule, I was accustomed to working out 5 to 6 days per week in the comfort of my own home, starting it at 5AM. For the past few months I've been struggling to find a consistent schedule with my buddy Kev at the gym. At a minimum I want to get 3 days per week at the gym with him. Again, its been a real struggle between his schedule, my schedule and everything else. In addition, the workouts are starting at 8PM at night, not y best time to workout, but it'll have to do. He pushes me hard and makes me move weights that I wouldn't otherwise feel comfortable with in my own home, so, its a positive thing.
The knees. I went to an orthopedic Dr and got them checked out. I was diagnosed with patellofemoral pain syndrome. The pain had reached the point where I couldn't walk up stairs or hills. It was far too uncomfortable to try and push off my feet. Make no mistake, the issue isn't my feet. I found myself holding onto railings and pulling myself up stairs to get up stairs and leaning on the railings to try and walk down them. Absurd for sure. I can run a mile in under 9 minutes but can't walk a flight of steps. Dr gave me physical therapy script as my solution and that has been working out quite well.
September came and reality was I needed to get things back under control. I couldn't keep drinking a beer or two every night or other night for that matter. Insert 21 Day Fix. We already own the program and honestly I've never, ever followed the nutrition portion of any Beachbody program. Why not give it a shot. We've just wrapped up week 2 of that and I'm down 6lbs, which I'm good with. It took me over 4 months to put on almost 14lbs, I'm not going to lose that in 2 weeks. Forward progress is forward progress.
I just completed my first OCR (Obstacle Course Race) last weekend. It was the Mudderella. It was definitely a fun event. The course was 5 miles long and it only had 13 to 14 obstacles. I was hoping for less running and more obstacles as I had not done any running since early April and was really worried about my knees. As it turned out my legs were stronger than I thought and my body as a whole held up really well. The obstacles I didn't find all too challenging, the biggest challenge was mental and the running I guess. It was awesome to have my family there to help support me. It was also awesome to be able to do this with a couple rock stars from my fit group. It proved to me that I could do this and that I also needed to push myself harder.
Next challenges are 1) to stay on track with nutrition 2) keep pushing for 3 nights at the gym and a couple mornings at home (cardio/stretching) 3) the F.I.T. Epic Challenge. Until next time.
Monday, April 20, 2015
Goals.... how do you measure success?
Here is something that I have wondered about. Especially since right now my workouts are primarily driven by "home workouts". How do set goals with these programs? How do you measure success?
Certainly I've completed my fair share of home workout programs. Power90, T25, P90x3 and Piyo (to some degree), Body Beast, etc... I guess I've always had the same goal. It all goes back to Power90. When I bought that, I saw Tony Horton on the cover. The dude was ripped. Ripped abs, pretty jacked. It was clear he was FIT. THAT is the body that I've always wanted. That, as the program/brand stated, was the "Beach Body". It is something I've never had.
When I first started doing these types of programs, the number 1 goal was to get to a healthy weight. Bottom line is that I was extremely out of shape and you need to start with a goal. For some people I guess a goal could be just to show up every day and do it. The results at the end of the program are whatever they are. That is certainly one approach. Every program offers similar visual results. Some offer more specific things, like Body Beast offers you the chance to gain mass muscle size. Some programs use weights, some don't. Some are purely cardio based (Insanity), some have little/no cardio (insert Piyo here).
When I started working out (again) back in July of 2013 I was 197lbs and I knew to get to a healthy BMI I needed to get to 176lbs. I had accomplished that by December of 2013. I was down to about 175lbs. Yet - I still had a pretty pudgy belly and I wasn't very muscular at all. Tony Horton and P90x3 came out and I jumped on it immediately. Fantastic program. I grabbed hold of that and ran with it to try and target those problem areas. I wanted bigger arms. A CHEST. A back with some width. Strong legs. Most importantly... I wanted the ripped core. I wanted a 6 pack. I'll spoil the surprise... I didn't get everything I wanted. LOL
As I've pushed ahead doing these assorted programs I've never had any clearly defined goals. NEVER. Just a vision of what I want my body to look like. I haven't gotten there yet. I've managed to continue to improve upon my nutrition and I feel pretty good about that. I need to work on those random binges that come up when it's date night. My weight right now is fluctuating between 167 - 170lbs, which isn't too bad. It is considered a healthy weight for someone of my height (5' 11"). I feel like I am continuing to shape my body more in line with how I envision it is supposed to look, albeit SLOWLY. Or, more accurately - more like I would prefer it to look. How I WANT it to look. Continuing to shed some fat and gain muscle. Yet despite this presumed forward progress, I can't help but feel like I'm a hamster on a wheel. Just getting up, getting on my wheel to do my exercise because "that's what I'm supposed to do". It's what healthy people do. That's great and all... but where am I going with this? What am I working towards exactly here? Abs? (Yes - definitely abs and hopefully so much more)
I spoke to this a little in my last post, but let me touch on it here a little more. I have a couple friends that do CrossFit and they are always speaking very highly of it. How goal driven things are. I couldn't help to wonder what this was like. Goals? What goals? Like, you want to be able to bench press more? Squat more? What? Inquiring minds want to know!! Like NOW!! I seriously don't know what it's like to have goals other than "to finish a program" in "hopes" to be in better shape than when I started. Those have always been my goals. Other than of course, getting that Tony Horton body that I saw on the cover of Power90 over 12 yrs ago. lol
For REFERENCE:
Certainly I've completed my fair share of home workout programs. Power90, T25, P90x3 and Piyo (to some degree), Body Beast, etc... I guess I've always had the same goal. It all goes back to Power90. When I bought that, I saw Tony Horton on the cover. The dude was ripped. Ripped abs, pretty jacked. It was clear he was FIT. THAT is the body that I've always wanted. That, as the program/brand stated, was the "Beach Body". It is something I've never had.
When I first started doing these types of programs, the number 1 goal was to get to a healthy weight. Bottom line is that I was extremely out of shape and you need to start with a goal. For some people I guess a goal could be just to show up every day and do it. The results at the end of the program are whatever they are. That is certainly one approach. Every program offers similar visual results. Some offer more specific things, like Body Beast offers you the chance to gain mass muscle size. Some programs use weights, some don't. Some are purely cardio based (Insanity), some have little/no cardio (insert Piyo here).
When I started working out (again) back in July of 2013 I was 197lbs and I knew to get to a healthy BMI I needed to get to 176lbs. I had accomplished that by December of 2013. I was down to about 175lbs. Yet - I still had a pretty pudgy belly and I wasn't very muscular at all. Tony Horton and P90x3 came out and I jumped on it immediately. Fantastic program. I grabbed hold of that and ran with it to try and target those problem areas. I wanted bigger arms. A CHEST. A back with some width. Strong legs. Most importantly... I wanted the ripped core. I wanted a 6 pack. I'll spoil the surprise... I didn't get everything I wanted. LOL
As I've pushed ahead doing these assorted programs I've never had any clearly defined goals. NEVER. Just a vision of what I want my body to look like. I haven't gotten there yet. I've managed to continue to improve upon my nutrition and I feel pretty good about that. I need to work on those random binges that come up when it's date night. My weight right now is fluctuating between 167 - 170lbs, which isn't too bad. It is considered a healthy weight for someone of my height (5' 11"). I feel like I am continuing to shape my body more in line with how I envision it is supposed to look, albeit SLOWLY. Or, more accurately - more like I would prefer it to look. How I WANT it to look. Continuing to shed some fat and gain muscle. Yet despite this presumed forward progress, I can't help but feel like I'm a hamster on a wheel. Just getting up, getting on my wheel to do my exercise because "that's what I'm supposed to do". It's what healthy people do. That's great and all... but where am I going with this? What am I working towards exactly here? Abs? (Yes - definitely abs and hopefully so much more)
I spoke to this a little in my last post, but let me touch on it here a little more. I have a couple friends that do CrossFit and they are always speaking very highly of it. How goal driven things are. I couldn't help to wonder what this was like. Goals? What goals? Like, you want to be able to bench press more? Squat more? What? Inquiring minds want to know!! Like NOW!! I seriously don't know what it's like to have goals other than "to finish a program" in "hopes" to be in better shape than when I started. Those have always been my goals. Other than of course, getting that Tony Horton body that I saw on the cover of Power90 over 12 yrs ago. lol
For REFERENCE:
Thursday, April 16, 2015
Fitness program updates, etc...
First - been forever since I last updated. I completed Body Beast which was awesome. If it weren't for the brutal leg day I'd probably still be doing it. I had a lot of fun with that one and saw some great results.
Once I completed that I set a new goal to take up running and try to run a 5K. I last ran one 12 yrs ago and I was in pretty good shape back then (at the time I thought it was the best shape of my life). My plan was to alternate the Couch to 5K app (3 days week) with Power90 Strength (3 days week). I did that for a month and it wasn't great. The Power90 stuff simply wasn't a challenging enough strength workout. I just came from Body Beast for fucks sake! There is one sequence in the program where they do a lunge/squat combo sequence and it is all without weights. I was using 20lb dumbbells with it just so I could push myself more. A lot of the exercises in Power90 are body weight exercises and they only do them for a certain length of time. So, if you do push ups as an example and they are only doing them for 1min and you've done that but not gotten the push you wanted... then what? It was time to find something else.
A friend from one of my fitness groups had been recommending a kettlebell program called "Kettleworx" as a solution for sometime (initially she thought it would be a great workout for my wife). I kept pushing it off as in all honesty I didn't want to buy more shit. I already had enough fitness crap to be fit, why do I need more? How much shit can you have? lol A LOT! The short of it is, I bought the program and have bought a bunch of kettlebells and the program is fantastic. Works really well. REALLY well.
Where am I on my running? My goal with the running was to complete the C25K program. Be able to run a 5K and have my pace be 10min miles. As my last run for the C25K program I ran my first 5K. I finished in 27min 56sec. I guess 9min miles. Pretty excited about it, but I want to improve upon that. More on that probably in a separate blog entry.... however, my thoughts on that brought up the thoughts about goals. I really need a separate post for that, because honestly every time I think about it my brain goes in 12 different directions and I want to just do a brain dump... at the same time though I want to make sure it makes sense to someone other than me and my random logic mind.
Back to workouts.... so right now, I'm running scarcely. lol Once or twice a week is probably the max my body can handle at this time. My knees just hurt from it and I HATE that a workout can make me feel so weak. That can, instead of empower me, it breaks me down. I try to think about the positives it also brings, like the cardio.... the decent amount of calories burned in less than 30min. It is just the pain the knees AFTER the run that kills me (mainly the right knee). The whole run not a single bit of leg/knee/shin/feet pain at all. NOTHING. Not until after my cool down. Then the right leg just kind of gets weak. It hurts to push off of anything (like when you are walking up steps) and the pain stems straight from the knee.
Other workouts, for strength it has been Kettleworx - Evolution. I can't say enough good things about the program. Cardio without doing HIIT? Good stuff. Strength/core training without dumbbells? Cool. Everything is all compound moves. Meaning, you work more than 1 body part at a time. One of the favorite moves is probably the squat-upright rows. Squat down with the kettlebell and when you come up from the squat do an upright row. Just always seems, no matter what the exercise, you are working more than 1 body part. The downside I guess would be cost. I spent $90 on the program and probably another $200 on kettlebells. Good thing my wife and I have good paying jobs. lol
Kind of a workout side note.... I have a couple of friends that do Crossfit and both speak so highly of it. Highly of how much the workouts push you. How varied the workouts are. How goal driven everything is. How tight knit the community is, how encouraging everyone is about you getting to your goals. Both of them have told me repeatedly that it is a place where they think I would thrive. Anywho, I investigated it a little. There is a new place not far from the house called Great Woods Crossfit. They offer 3 free sessions. My first one is May 4th. :) We shall see how it goes. I'm nervous about it. I don't think I'm in horrible shape, but I really think I could be better. I like the thought of the challenge. I like the thought of getting my body closer to the way I envision it. I feel I'm close and every time I think I'm right there, I seem to push myself away. Is that a workout issue thing? No. Accountability thing? Maybe... More of a discipline thing most likely. Either way I don't know what the hell I'm doing. I'm looking for answers and I'm hoping to find some there. We shall see.
Next post will be about goals. Until next time.
Once I completed that I set a new goal to take up running and try to run a 5K. I last ran one 12 yrs ago and I was in pretty good shape back then (at the time I thought it was the best shape of my life). My plan was to alternate the Couch to 5K app (3 days week) with Power90 Strength (3 days week). I did that for a month and it wasn't great. The Power90 stuff simply wasn't a challenging enough strength workout. I just came from Body Beast for fucks sake! There is one sequence in the program where they do a lunge/squat combo sequence and it is all without weights. I was using 20lb dumbbells with it just so I could push myself more. A lot of the exercises in Power90 are body weight exercises and they only do them for a certain length of time. So, if you do push ups as an example and they are only doing them for 1min and you've done that but not gotten the push you wanted... then what? It was time to find something else.
A friend from one of my fitness groups had been recommending a kettlebell program called "Kettleworx" as a solution for sometime (initially she thought it would be a great workout for my wife). I kept pushing it off as in all honesty I didn't want to buy more shit. I already had enough fitness crap to be fit, why do I need more? How much shit can you have? lol A LOT! The short of it is, I bought the program and have bought a bunch of kettlebells and the program is fantastic. Works really well. REALLY well.
Where am I on my running? My goal with the running was to complete the C25K program. Be able to run a 5K and have my pace be 10min miles. As my last run for the C25K program I ran my first 5K. I finished in 27min 56sec. I guess 9min miles. Pretty excited about it, but I want to improve upon that. More on that probably in a separate blog entry.... however, my thoughts on that brought up the thoughts about goals. I really need a separate post for that, because honestly every time I think about it my brain goes in 12 different directions and I want to just do a brain dump... at the same time though I want to make sure it makes sense to someone other than me and my random logic mind.
Back to workouts.... so right now, I'm running scarcely. lol Once or twice a week is probably the max my body can handle at this time. My knees just hurt from it and I HATE that a workout can make me feel so weak. That can, instead of empower me, it breaks me down. I try to think about the positives it also brings, like the cardio.... the decent amount of calories burned in less than 30min. It is just the pain the knees AFTER the run that kills me (mainly the right knee). The whole run not a single bit of leg/knee/shin/feet pain at all. NOTHING. Not until after my cool down. Then the right leg just kind of gets weak. It hurts to push off of anything (like when you are walking up steps) and the pain stems straight from the knee.
Other workouts, for strength it has been Kettleworx - Evolution. I can't say enough good things about the program. Cardio without doing HIIT? Good stuff. Strength/core training without dumbbells? Cool. Everything is all compound moves. Meaning, you work more than 1 body part at a time. One of the favorite moves is probably the squat-upright rows. Squat down with the kettlebell and when you come up from the squat do an upright row. Just always seems, no matter what the exercise, you are working more than 1 body part. The downside I guess would be cost. I spent $90 on the program and probably another $200 on kettlebells. Good thing my wife and I have good paying jobs. lol
Kind of a workout side note.... I have a couple of friends that do Crossfit and both speak so highly of it. Highly of how much the workouts push you. How varied the workouts are. How goal driven everything is. How tight knit the community is, how encouraging everyone is about you getting to your goals. Both of them have told me repeatedly that it is a place where they think I would thrive. Anywho, I investigated it a little. There is a new place not far from the house called Great Woods Crossfit. They offer 3 free sessions. My first one is May 4th. :) We shall see how it goes. I'm nervous about it. I don't think I'm in horrible shape, but I really think I could be better. I like the thought of the challenge. I like the thought of getting my body closer to the way I envision it. I feel I'm close and every time I think I'm right there, I seem to push myself away. Is that a workout issue thing? No. Accountability thing? Maybe... More of a discipline thing most likely. Either way I don't know what the hell I'm doing. I'm looking for answers and I'm hoping to find some there. We shall see.
Next post will be about goals. Until next time.
Sunday, February 1, 2015
Body Beast, Yearly Physical, Next fitness goals
So I seriously suck at blogging regularly. Its a problem, I recognize it. Like anything else I do, I work on it. lol
Today I completely Body Beast. Hell of a workout program. Really challenging and if you like lots of weights and little cardio, this is the program for you. My goals going into this program were simple.
1) Gain more muscle/size/definition
2) Shed more fat
I started this program at just under 174lbs. At 5' 11" I'm far from being considered overweight. I'd still like to see what I look like being fit at say 165, or even 160. A lot of people may argue with me that its just too low, but I don't agree. Personally I think its how much fat vs muscle you carry. I'm kind of tall I guess, but I have a small frame - if that makes sense.
I am now 169lbs after completing the program. Again it was a serious challenge. The workouts are MUCH longer than I'm used to. The first 5 weeks your workouts are between 50min and 1 hr. That's pretty tough when you are used to 30min workouts. They are intense. You need to move fast, switching weights quickly as you don't get much rest between sets. Some sets (progressive) you move from set, to set to set with only 10 seconds change over between sets. No screwing around. I definitely got more muscle out of the program. I had some challenges though.
2 months into the program I came down with a bacterial infection that started as a common cold. It built up to a sinus infection. Before I knew it I was onto a double ear infection. This put me down and out for a month, seriously. I couldn't do shit. Actually I'm still trying to get my hearing back to 100% and we are talking all the way back to the first week of December. RIDICULOUS. None the less I forged on and completed the program and I'm proud that I did.
Next up - health update. I had been on pills for high blood pressure and high cholesterol for years. At one point my cholesterol was at almost 400. Clearly not healthy and that was all a result of my choices. My decisions. My laziness. My Dr for the past few years has been monitoring me closely and I've essentially been doing 2 physicals a year. Fasting blood work done every time. Back in July I told him, hey, I'm done taking pills. I've lost almost 30lbs. All my habits are healthier than they've ever been and I challenge you to find other 40+ yr old men to be as healthy as I am. He didn't like me coming off the pills. I didn't care. I told him, I'll see you again in January and at that time you'll see. You'll see my cholesterol is regulated. My blood sugar is. My blood pressure is. Well, I proved it to him. My blood pressure was 124/88. My cholesterol was 182. My blood sugar (hemoglobins) level was 5.4 (I guess when you get to 6.0 they want to start talking to you about diabetes and treatment, but 5.1 - 5.6 is the normal range.)
Needless to say the Dr was very pleased with everything I have accomplished. He suggested I start exercising regularly AFTER he asked me if I was still doing crosstraining. LOL Uhm, yes, I exercise 6 days a week. We talked about my current health condition. Some concerns I had/have. My goals and my plan for my next 8 weeks of fitness. He saw no reason why I shouldn't just continue doing what I'm doing if I'm happy with it. He seemed generally pleased at the lifestyle changes I've made. We talked about how there are no such things as diets. There are healthy foods and less than healthy foods and its all about choices. I'm just making more healthy choices than less. I'm pretty good with my portion control and as a result my blood work results and my overall body are reflective of that.
What's next? Well I want to shed more fat!! I want to lose more of my belly. I know abs are made in the kitchen (mostly). I know you can't out exercise poor nutrition. Can you have less than perfect nutrition and still get abs? I don't know... but I certainly keep trying!! lol
My next 8 weeks will be fairly simple. 6 days a week working out and 1 day off. That's the goal. My routine will be days 1, 3 & 5 cardio. Days 2, 4 & 6 strength. The cardio days will be Couch25K. The strength days at first will be alternating between Power90 Level 3-4 Strength and Body Beast - Total Body Circuit. Both of these routines incorporate a lot of weights and are obviously all strength workouts. I'm looking to maintain the muscle I've gained and shed more fat. I'm not looking to lose anything.
Goals? My first goal is to complete the Couch25K and be able to run a 10min mile pace for 3 miles. I want to complete a few 5K races this spring/summer. In addition I'd like to join some of my fit friends and complete some OCRs (Obstacle Course Races). I think that would be a lot of fun. I guess some people consider it work to train for these things, but honestly - I don't think I'm really "training for it" so much as I'm just trying to find other ways to stay fit. Keeping it varied and adjusting to new things to keep my body working for me. Its working so far. July of 2013 I weight 197lbs. I was NOT carrying it well. LOL That is an understatement. I was not strong, not fit and not healthy. At 169lbs I am certainly much closer to where I want to be. I sound like a broken record when I say "I'm not there yet, but I'm still pushing", but its true. I'm not there yet. I have some ideas of what my body will look like when I get there, but its not there. I am my own worst critic and I'm OK with that. No one can judge me more than I judge myself.
Well onward and upward as they say. New program with slightly modified goals starts tomorrow morning. :)
Today I completely Body Beast. Hell of a workout program. Really challenging and if you like lots of weights and little cardio, this is the program for you. My goals going into this program were simple.
1) Gain more muscle/size/definition
2) Shed more fat
I started this program at just under 174lbs. At 5' 11" I'm far from being considered overweight. I'd still like to see what I look like being fit at say 165, or even 160. A lot of people may argue with me that its just too low, but I don't agree. Personally I think its how much fat vs muscle you carry. I'm kind of tall I guess, but I have a small frame - if that makes sense.
I am now 169lbs after completing the program. Again it was a serious challenge. The workouts are MUCH longer than I'm used to. The first 5 weeks your workouts are between 50min and 1 hr. That's pretty tough when you are used to 30min workouts. They are intense. You need to move fast, switching weights quickly as you don't get much rest between sets. Some sets (progressive) you move from set, to set to set with only 10 seconds change over between sets. No screwing around. I definitely got more muscle out of the program. I had some challenges though.
2 months into the program I came down with a bacterial infection that started as a common cold. It built up to a sinus infection. Before I knew it I was onto a double ear infection. This put me down and out for a month, seriously. I couldn't do shit. Actually I'm still trying to get my hearing back to 100% and we are talking all the way back to the first week of December. RIDICULOUS. None the less I forged on and completed the program and I'm proud that I did.
Next up - health update. I had been on pills for high blood pressure and high cholesterol for years. At one point my cholesterol was at almost 400. Clearly not healthy and that was all a result of my choices. My decisions. My laziness. My Dr for the past few years has been monitoring me closely and I've essentially been doing 2 physicals a year. Fasting blood work done every time. Back in July I told him, hey, I'm done taking pills. I've lost almost 30lbs. All my habits are healthier than they've ever been and I challenge you to find other 40+ yr old men to be as healthy as I am. He didn't like me coming off the pills. I didn't care. I told him, I'll see you again in January and at that time you'll see. You'll see my cholesterol is regulated. My blood sugar is. My blood pressure is. Well, I proved it to him. My blood pressure was 124/88. My cholesterol was 182. My blood sugar (hemoglobins) level was 5.4 (I guess when you get to 6.0 they want to start talking to you about diabetes and treatment, but 5.1 - 5.6 is the normal range.)
Needless to say the Dr was very pleased with everything I have accomplished. He suggested I start exercising regularly AFTER he asked me if I was still doing crosstraining. LOL Uhm, yes, I exercise 6 days a week. We talked about my current health condition. Some concerns I had/have. My goals and my plan for my next 8 weeks of fitness. He saw no reason why I shouldn't just continue doing what I'm doing if I'm happy with it. He seemed generally pleased at the lifestyle changes I've made. We talked about how there are no such things as diets. There are healthy foods and less than healthy foods and its all about choices. I'm just making more healthy choices than less. I'm pretty good with my portion control and as a result my blood work results and my overall body are reflective of that.
What's next? Well I want to shed more fat!! I want to lose more of my belly. I know abs are made in the kitchen (mostly). I know you can't out exercise poor nutrition. Can you have less than perfect nutrition and still get abs? I don't know... but I certainly keep trying!! lol
My next 8 weeks will be fairly simple. 6 days a week working out and 1 day off. That's the goal. My routine will be days 1, 3 & 5 cardio. Days 2, 4 & 6 strength. The cardio days will be Couch25K. The strength days at first will be alternating between Power90 Level 3-4 Strength and Body Beast - Total Body Circuit. Both of these routines incorporate a lot of weights and are obviously all strength workouts. I'm looking to maintain the muscle I've gained and shed more fat. I'm not looking to lose anything.
Goals? My first goal is to complete the Couch25K and be able to run a 10min mile pace for 3 miles. I want to complete a few 5K races this spring/summer. In addition I'd like to join some of my fit friends and complete some OCRs (Obstacle Course Races). I think that would be a lot of fun. I guess some people consider it work to train for these things, but honestly - I don't think I'm really "training for it" so much as I'm just trying to find other ways to stay fit. Keeping it varied and adjusting to new things to keep my body working for me. Its working so far. July of 2013 I weight 197lbs. I was NOT carrying it well. LOL That is an understatement. I was not strong, not fit and not healthy. At 169lbs I am certainly much closer to where I want to be. I sound like a broken record when I say "I'm not there yet, but I'm still pushing", but its true. I'm not there yet. I have some ideas of what my body will look like when I get there, but its not there. I am my own worst critic and I'm OK with that. No one can judge me more than I judge myself.
Well onward and upward as they say. New program with slightly modified goals starts tomorrow morning. :)
Wednesday, November 12, 2014
Body Beast & Nutrition
Well I honestly don't even know what my last post was about. I haven't been very consistent posting. Life is busy enough and quite honestly I haven't made the time.
SO... I did PiYo for about 8 to 10 weeks with my wife. It pushed both of us. I really missed true cardio and strength training that required weights. Although PiYo really pushed both of us, it wasn't for us. Christie struggled with strength and flexibility, partly because of her hip replacement, partly because of her weight. Again - I struggled with it because mentally I couldn't get past the fact I wasn't being pushing my cardiovascular or moving any weights.
Moving forward - we both decided we really didn't care for the program and wanted something different. I chose Body Beast. A true strength program that was all about weights. Workouts range between 30 - 50 min each. Truly a challenge when you are accustomed to 30 min workouts. Either way.... onward and upward.
I'm currently about 7 or 8 weeks into the program. It challenges me every time I push play. No question about that. My first month I ate the see-food diet. I ate everything in front of me, good or bad. Lots of beer consumption, etc... I could see my muscles were growing, but unfortunately my mid-section was growing a little bit as well.
What happened? What are my goals? When I started Body Beast I told my wife my goal with this program is to just get a bit more muscular and shed fat. I didn't care what my weight was, but I did want to keep it under 175lbs. That was my primary focus. Once I got past 175lbs I risk going over the healthy BMI range and that is something I absolutely did not want. I've worked too hard to finally get in what the "health" world considers a "healthy" range. I've been down over 20lbs for over a year now. I started this journey back in July of 2013 at 197lbs of flubber.
The first phase of Body Beast is the "Build" phase (at about 174lbs) and that was the phase I was on the see-food diet. Diet. LOL I remember finishing that first phase and weighing myself and seeing I was pretty much the exact same weight as when I started. Was this for the better? Was it for the worse? Did I feel better? (No) Did I look better? (also a resounding NO). What were my obstacles? What was preventing me from getting to my goals? You have to look inside yourself to answer those questions. The answer though was really pretty simple. The issue was ME. I was preventing myself. I was stopping myself from getting to where I want to be. The next question was, what can I do to fix it? The simple answer is educate and act on it.
To simplify the issue I've had has been with food. Is it how much I consume or which foods I eat? Or both? Really its all of the above. I started watching Food documentaries on Netflix (Fat Sick and Nearly Dead, Farmageddon, Forks Over Knives, Food, Inc., Hungry For a Change, Killer At Large and shows like Ted Talks - Chew On This) Things about nutrition. I also started reading the book Eat To Live by Dr Joel Fuhrman. I stopped drinking alcohol. I seriously cut back/almost eliminated processed foods. The goal was to fuel my body better. Eat more cleanly. Consume less meat and more vegetables. I needed to eat at least twice as many vegetables as I did meat. I knew I did not want to count calories. I did not want to track my food at all. Under no circumstances do I think anyone should ever need to track their food when trying to get healthy. Eat healthy things 95% of the time and the rest will take care of itself. My snacks would no longer be whatever I brought (KIND bars, not as frequently). I am not really a snacker but I have been known to sit down and consume a family size bag of potato chips on date night with a few beers AFTER having a couple of frozen appetizer things (tacquitos anyone?). Healthy? Probably not.
What have I been doing and has it worked? Again - no alcohol now for over a month. Practically eliminating processed foods. Focusing more on clean nutrition with lots and lots of vegetables. Less meat. Even if the meat we consume is lean and grass fed. Just trying to be more cognizant of it. I keep my meat portions to 5oz or less. If I finish my dinner and am still hungry I go back for more vegetables, not more meat.
Has it worked? Well I weighed myself this morning and I'm down to 169lbs. That is a 5 or 6lb weight loss in the past month. My love handles? Pretty much gone at this point. My belly? FAR less bloated and shrinking more and more every day. Do I have 6pack abs yet? Nope - but I'm on my way. In addition to that I am continuing to see the muscle growth from the Body Beast workouts. Arms, back, chest, legs - nutrition has really brought those positive changes more to the forefront.
How has this change affected me? Am I happy? Actually I am. I gave up alcohol on my own terms. I have zero regrets about it. ZERO. Do I miss it? Surprisingly no. Same with potato chips and all the other stuff. Don't miss it. I have had a couple of chips here and there. If the kids are having some chips with sandwiches on the weekend, will I grab 2 or 3 chips? Yeah. That's the end of it though. My lunch is something else. I've become very fond of tuna mixed with mashed avocado on toasted whole wheat bread on the weekends. That works well for me. More vegetables than meat has been the real focus though. Snacks being baby carrots with homemade hummus or sliced peppers with homemade hummus. Fruit - mandarin oranges or an apple. Just good healthy choices. My wife does an awesome job of planning good, healthy meals for our dinner every day - which I am EXTREMELY thankful for. Typically during the week there are leftovers and if I think there aren't enough veggies for my lunch I do 1 of 2 things. 1) bring a bag of steam veggies with me that I can make in the microwave or 2) go to the cafe and get a nice, fresh salad with no animal protein, no dairy and no dressing. Is it bland or lack of flavor? No. The complete opposite. It is bursting with flavors. I'll typically add some grilled vegetables from the salad bar (brussel sprouts, peppers, onions) and I like to add chickpeas and seeds as well. YUMM!!!!!!!!!!
How have these changes impacted me elsewhere, besides the scale and my physical body image? Mentally I feel sharper. I typically always sleep good, except for my on call week. I've noticed what I can only term as resentment from Christie during this. She is not happy that I'm choosing not to drink beer with her when she decides she wants a beer. I'm choosing not to eat a less nutritional snacks/fatty snacks on our date night. She has let me know in no uncertain terms she feels kind of singled out by my choices and although I feel bad about it, I am not changing my decisions because of that. I'm just not. I've done enough damage to my body over the years and I'm doing my best to heal it and get healthy. Get stronger and be there long term for my family. Dying or becoming ill to the point where I become a burden on my family legitimately scares the shit out of me. It brings me to tears thinking of it. If I can do simple things like making the healthiest choice on the menu for a meal and getting up and dedicating less than 1 hr for exercise per day to try and avoid that, then I'm good with that. That I can do. For me and my loved ones. I only hope the others that I love in my life jump on board and try and do the best for THEM. I can't imagine my life without any of them.
That's about all I have for today folks. I'll hopefully get back to updating more frequently. I have about 5 weeks left on Body Beast. I'm looking forward to sharing my before and after pictures of my Body Beast adventure as well as my before I started working out, until now pictures. That should be quite the trip.
SO... I did PiYo for about 8 to 10 weeks with my wife. It pushed both of us. I really missed true cardio and strength training that required weights. Although PiYo really pushed both of us, it wasn't for us. Christie struggled with strength and flexibility, partly because of her hip replacement, partly because of her weight. Again - I struggled with it because mentally I couldn't get past the fact I wasn't being pushing my cardiovascular or moving any weights.
Moving forward - we both decided we really didn't care for the program and wanted something different. I chose Body Beast. A true strength program that was all about weights. Workouts range between 30 - 50 min each. Truly a challenge when you are accustomed to 30 min workouts. Either way.... onward and upward.
I'm currently about 7 or 8 weeks into the program. It challenges me every time I push play. No question about that. My first month I ate the see-food diet. I ate everything in front of me, good or bad. Lots of beer consumption, etc... I could see my muscles were growing, but unfortunately my mid-section was growing a little bit as well.
What happened? What are my goals? When I started Body Beast I told my wife my goal with this program is to just get a bit more muscular and shed fat. I didn't care what my weight was, but I did want to keep it under 175lbs. That was my primary focus. Once I got past 175lbs I risk going over the healthy BMI range and that is something I absolutely did not want. I've worked too hard to finally get in what the "health" world considers a "healthy" range. I've been down over 20lbs for over a year now. I started this journey back in July of 2013 at 197lbs of flubber.
The first phase of Body Beast is the "Build" phase (at about 174lbs) and that was the phase I was on the see-food diet. Diet. LOL I remember finishing that first phase and weighing myself and seeing I was pretty much the exact same weight as when I started. Was this for the better? Was it for the worse? Did I feel better? (No) Did I look better? (also a resounding NO). What were my obstacles? What was preventing me from getting to my goals? You have to look inside yourself to answer those questions. The answer though was really pretty simple. The issue was ME. I was preventing myself. I was stopping myself from getting to where I want to be. The next question was, what can I do to fix it? The simple answer is educate and act on it.
To simplify the issue I've had has been with food. Is it how much I consume or which foods I eat? Or both? Really its all of the above. I started watching Food documentaries on Netflix (Fat Sick and Nearly Dead, Farmageddon, Forks Over Knives, Food, Inc., Hungry For a Change, Killer At Large and shows like Ted Talks - Chew On This) Things about nutrition. I also started reading the book Eat To Live by Dr Joel Fuhrman. I stopped drinking alcohol. I seriously cut back/almost eliminated processed foods. The goal was to fuel my body better. Eat more cleanly. Consume less meat and more vegetables. I needed to eat at least twice as many vegetables as I did meat. I knew I did not want to count calories. I did not want to track my food at all. Under no circumstances do I think anyone should ever need to track their food when trying to get healthy. Eat healthy things 95% of the time and the rest will take care of itself. My snacks would no longer be whatever I brought (KIND bars, not as frequently). I am not really a snacker but I have been known to sit down and consume a family size bag of potato chips on date night with a few beers AFTER having a couple of frozen appetizer things (tacquitos anyone?). Healthy? Probably not.
What have I been doing and has it worked? Again - no alcohol now for over a month. Practically eliminating processed foods. Focusing more on clean nutrition with lots and lots of vegetables. Less meat. Even if the meat we consume is lean and grass fed. Just trying to be more cognizant of it. I keep my meat portions to 5oz or less. If I finish my dinner and am still hungry I go back for more vegetables, not more meat.
Has it worked? Well I weighed myself this morning and I'm down to 169lbs. That is a 5 or 6lb weight loss in the past month. My love handles? Pretty much gone at this point. My belly? FAR less bloated and shrinking more and more every day. Do I have 6pack abs yet? Nope - but I'm on my way. In addition to that I am continuing to see the muscle growth from the Body Beast workouts. Arms, back, chest, legs - nutrition has really brought those positive changes more to the forefront.
How has this change affected me? Am I happy? Actually I am. I gave up alcohol on my own terms. I have zero regrets about it. ZERO. Do I miss it? Surprisingly no. Same with potato chips and all the other stuff. Don't miss it. I have had a couple of chips here and there. If the kids are having some chips with sandwiches on the weekend, will I grab 2 or 3 chips? Yeah. That's the end of it though. My lunch is something else. I've become very fond of tuna mixed with mashed avocado on toasted whole wheat bread on the weekends. That works well for me. More vegetables than meat has been the real focus though. Snacks being baby carrots with homemade hummus or sliced peppers with homemade hummus. Fruit - mandarin oranges or an apple. Just good healthy choices. My wife does an awesome job of planning good, healthy meals for our dinner every day - which I am EXTREMELY thankful for. Typically during the week there are leftovers and if I think there aren't enough veggies for my lunch I do 1 of 2 things. 1) bring a bag of steam veggies with me that I can make in the microwave or 2) go to the cafe and get a nice, fresh salad with no animal protein, no dairy and no dressing. Is it bland or lack of flavor? No. The complete opposite. It is bursting with flavors. I'll typically add some grilled vegetables from the salad bar (brussel sprouts, peppers, onions) and I like to add chickpeas and seeds as well. YUMM!!!!!!!!!!
How have these changes impacted me elsewhere, besides the scale and my physical body image? Mentally I feel sharper. I typically always sleep good, except for my on call week. I've noticed what I can only term as resentment from Christie during this. She is not happy that I'm choosing not to drink beer with her when she decides she wants a beer. I'm choosing not to eat a less nutritional snacks/fatty snacks on our date night. She has let me know in no uncertain terms she feels kind of singled out by my choices and although I feel bad about it, I am not changing my decisions because of that. I'm just not. I've done enough damage to my body over the years and I'm doing my best to heal it and get healthy. Get stronger and be there long term for my family. Dying or becoming ill to the point where I become a burden on my family legitimately scares the shit out of me. It brings me to tears thinking of it. If I can do simple things like making the healthiest choice on the menu for a meal and getting up and dedicating less than 1 hr for exercise per day to try and avoid that, then I'm good with that. That I can do. For me and my loved ones. I only hope the others that I love in my life jump on board and try and do the best for THEM. I can't imagine my life without any of them.
That's about all I have for today folks. I'll hopefully get back to updating more frequently. I have about 5 weeks left on Body Beast. I'm looking forward to sharing my before and after pictures of my Body Beast adventure as well as my before I started working out, until now pictures. That should be quite the trip.
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