P90X3: Day 1 of 90. Boy, Did I Screw Up

How did I screw up?  I will answer that one in a minute.  Today is Day One.  Think of it this way, if you commit to the next 90 days, this is the worst you will look for the next three months.  That is the only way you will survive doing your Day One metrics, to include the pics.  Just remember, it's all uphill from here.

So, I got up this morning and weighed myself, took my measurements and took my pictures.  Here are the shots to the left.  I know, most of you will keep these private.  Anyone who knows me well, knows that when it comes to this, I have no shame to speak of.  So you can see how I improve from here.

Here is the other reason I post them.  It helps me follow through.  When I motivate myself, I always make my starting point public.  When everyone else knows your stats and your commitment, you feel an added amount of pride in going the distance and a little more trepidation to let that promise go.  It's like a little more glue, holding you to the process.

I went through a very strict, medically supervised weight-loss program in 2008.  I had to do a liquid diet.  Why?  I was dying.  You can read my blog called "The Tipping Point" by clicking on the link above to read the detail.  The point is, I was SO physically unfit that I could not safely exercise rigorously.  It was causing other medical conditions that were shortening my life.  In that program, most of the people never discussed their weight, or their progress.  They kept it secret.  Those people who never discussed it, well, they either quit the program or failed to lose weight over a long period of time.  Doing the measurements and making them public makes you accountable to yourself in a way that you can't just silently slip away and quit.  It does make a difference.

Okay, how did I screw up?  Take a look at the pics to the left.  I am in worse shape now than when I started P90X in 2012.  I knew I was...deep down.  But, now I REALLY know it.  And so do you.

This is the journey for me in the next 90 days.  It's not some pipe dream, I know I can do it.

Screwing up?  I haven't been this heavy or out of shape since I lost my 85 lbs in 2008.  I let things in my life derail a ton of progress that I had made.  When I look at that 90 day picture, I know that I want THAT back.  I also know that I need a plan to NEVER let it get away again.  Over 50 years old, you lose your 'fitness gains' at an incredible speed if you just plain stop.  You need to make the programs a part of your normal life and you need to make it something achievable.  We will all have the moments when life derails us.  It's not the obstacle, it's how fast you get back up.  I didn't get back up.  Now, here I am, facing the big work one more time.

I do have one advantage that many of you don't have.  I know I can do it.  I've climbed this mountain before.  I also know something about you...you can do it too.  If you just follow along, you will make progress and achieve things you didn't know you could do.  Trust me.

Here is my "gym".  Check out the mat.  It's all measured up and waiting for me.  Notice something on it though, I measured it for Novice, Expert, and a spot in between.  I may have to start at Novice.  We'll see.  If I do, it's not failure, it's just Week One.  That last line is my goal by Day 90.  The line is already drawn.  Just like the photos, it's real and looking me in the face every workout.  So are my weights.  There are weights heavy enough that I may not use them...but they are STILL waiting for the day I can...staring at me.

I also did my measurements.



Day 30, 60, and 90 are waiting.  March 31st is not that far away.  90 seems like a lot.  It's not.  Okay, enough typing.  Time to warm up and get to "Total Synergistics."  Follow along and let me know how YOUR journey is going.  I'll be following you all too!  You are not alone.  Don't stop.

P90X3: Commitment! One week away!

One week away.  That's what I think as I look in the mirror.  It's not procrastination, it's preparation.  I am putting myself in the mindset of commitment.  You have to commit, one hundred percent.

What's my commitment?  Ninety days.  Ninety days of eating right...of sleeping right...of watching my progress...of not letting people and situations stop me...of doing every workout, every day.

This workout is thirty minutes long each day.  Seriously, if you can't find 30 minutes in each day, you don't want this...you WISH this.  If you can't put aside 30 minutes, you aren't trying.  My daughter SHOWERS for almost 30 minutes...I have the hot water oil bills to prove it.  A TV sitcom is 30 minutes long!  COMMIT.  That comes first.

How have I committed this week?  I have watched almost all of the videos I will be using in the first 30 days of the 90 day period.  They are the same DVD's for three weeks.  I have gotten my pullup bar back out and checked it out for support and band issues (I use pullup bands off of the bar due to shoulder issues).

What else?  I have modified my eating,  more fruit and slowly eliminating sugary type items.  I have started drinking more water and less caffeine.  Hydration is key.  I am breaking out my mat this weekend and mark it according to the DVD workouts.  There is an agility set that calls for floor tape...I just use a Sharpie on my rubber mat.

As I look in the mirror, I can see the person I did not want to become again.  Months of sedate living has put me right back where I worked very hard NOT to be.  I'm not obese, but there is a much larger person in that mirror staring back at me than I am used to.  I don't want to be him.  I also know that the person in the mirror has only a short amount of time left.  Because I have done this successfully before.  How did I do it?  I committed 100% to the program.  The person in the mirror is slowly dying...he is on life support.  The person in my mind, the one I always see when I think about me, is ready to return.

I begin next Saturday, January 4th.  The rest of the group is starting on January 6th, but I always start on Saturday so that Friday is my break day.

Put this word in the top five of words you think of for the next 90 days.  COMMIT!!

Diet Infomercials Suck

I want to try to sound educated, I really do.  But I was at the gym yesterday morning, a Saturday, and as I did my 10K run on the treadmill in front of 12 ceiling TV panels, the infomercials marched on before my eyes.  Saturday morning must be prime sales time for these companies, and weight loss must account for 25% of them.  As I worked myself into a massive sweat burning over 1100 calories and watched these TV spots, there was the only way I could express myself..."Diet Infomercials Suck."



I was stuck watching this one called "Zumba!"  I pick on this one not because I hate it in particular, it just happened to be the one I had in front of my face.  "Zumba" (pronounced Zoomba) is weight loss by dance.  It is a cardiovascular exercise that will miraculously have you effortlessly losing massive amounts of weight.  You will look sexy, fit into your clothes, burn fat and sculpt your abs into 'model looking' shape.  By the sales pitch, this infomercial is targeting women.

At this point in my life, after 38 years of yo-yo dieting and two years after losing 85 pounds and keeping it off, I think I know something about weight loss.  I know about the discipline of developing a meal plan and making good choices, the rigor of exercise that it takes to lose weight and the lifestyle of exercise to keep it off, and I know the emotional triggers that will get you to make the right choices.  That said, this infomercial was so full of crap it had my complete attention.  I will never buy their product, but if their intent was to get me to watch, it at least did that.

The first thing that struck me was that there was not one overweight or obese woman (and again, not being sexist, that was their target audience) dancing on the infomercial.  These women had toned dancer bodies and probably half or more of them have never been overweight in their life from my observation.  I know what an obese woman looks like after weight loss and THAT was not it.  After they have lost 50-100 lbs, large women look like you just took the air out of a basketball.  They do NOT look like Julianne Hough of 'Dancing with the Stars.'  The goal of this commercial monstrosity is that YOU will do Zumba and untimately look like THEM.  That was the first big lie because to look like these people on the infomercial takes a concious diet plan and a life that centers around 'how you look.'  These women work out at gyms in Beverly Hills with trainers and eat salads all day long looking to get a modeling gig or, gasp! a spot on an infomercial!  Most of the people who are overweight today do not have that type of mentality...but they do have the desire to look like those ladies on the TV.

The second thing that struck me was that no one was sweating.  This is exercise right?  No one is sweating and every person is smiling?  Remember Mr. Roark from that 70's TV show?  "Smiles everyone...Welcome to Fantasy Island!"  The infomercial said you could burn up to 1000 calories per hour doing Zumba.  Sure you can.  If you do it with effort and if you do it for an hour.  Let me tell you something about exercising enough to burn 1000 calories per hour.  Back in the real world, as the infomercial played, I looked over at a woman who had got onto the treadmill the same time as I did.  I was running at 7.5 mph and had been going for 25 minutes straight.  I had burned about 550 calories.  She was walking at 3 mph and had been walking for 25 minutes too.  She had burned just under 100 calories.  You can wipe out that 100 calories by eating 1.5 apples.  Why had she only burned 100 calories?  Because 3mph is pretty much an easy stroll.  Because EXERcise takes EXERtion...and EXERtion equals SWEAT.  The woman next to me, while showing a very admirable desire to exercise, was not working hard.  To Zumba enough to burn 1000 calories would mean that these pretty, eye-lined, body make-up laden models with their designer exercise clothes would be moving their fannies long after this 30 minute infomercial was over and their make-up would be running into the audience.  Which makes one think...who the hell works out to an audience?  No one cheers me on at Planet Fitness!...and practically no one is smiling.

This brings me to my third observation.  Time.  This infomercial did show some overweight women...in their before and after shots.  Here is the sequence I watched.  Overweight Mabel, followed by trim Mabel, followed by sexy girl doing Zumba.  Where did Mabel go?  Did she have a heart attack doing Zumba?  My point here is that they show examples of people with 50-100 lbs of weight loss and they do it by showing you picture A, picture B and then the dancer.  First of all, the time it takes to get from Picture A to Picture B, especially to a dieter losing over 50 lbs is like an eternity.  I was on a 900 calorie per day (medically supervised) diet and exercised for 45 minutes every day.  50 lbs took me two and a half months.  It wasn't instant and it wasn't easy.  This presentation took you from fat to thin in an instant.  And it's easy.  And fun.  And miraculous.  These dancers on the video are moving, at most, for about 45 seconds.  That burns about 30 calories at maximum intensity.  Can you Zumba for 20 seconds if you are overweight?  Sure.  Can you for 45 seconds?  How about 45 minutes?  Per day?  For 4-6 months?

How does their product sound now?

Here is what the infomercial isn't telling you.

1) Weight loss for an overweight or obese person is difficult and takes a long time.  It requires a lifestyle change and commitment.  You can't lose that weight by dancing for three minutes.

2) To look like those dancers requires a life that has, as it's goal, to look like those dancers.  Their lives revolove around how they look.  Not their families, their jobs or their problems.  Those dancers' biggest problem is how to lose that last ounce of cellulite.  Does that feel like YOUR life?

3) As fun as dancing is, it is not a lifestyle change that will be long lasting.  Figure out an exercise plan and an eating plan that fits you and commit to it.

Losing big weight and keeping it off is not easy.  It is not a lot of fun.  It requires choices, concious ones.  It requires owning your life.  You can do it.  If you do, you will feel better than you ever have in your life.  You will have better self-esteem, better health and you will live longer than your current timetable is predicting.  I promise.

I found this on YouTube...the real Zumba for the overweight.  This won't sell their product like their infomercial but it is real.  If you are fighting and winning the weight-loss battle, my best to you.  Don't let these infomercials get you down.  I applaud your hard work and dedication.

Thin Living

By October of 2008, I hit the end of my diet. I weighed between 204 and 207, depending on the day. Keeping the weight off is now the battle. I live on the scale, constantly keeping myself between the numbers. My decision is to be no higher than 207. It isn’t an easy thing, particularly in the summer when the family get-togethers seem to increase geometrically. Vacations are tough. Hot days make exercise a chore. But you have to push through.

I had an interesting dilemma and it has impacted the diet the last couple of weeks. I was kayaking on a river in New Hampshire and the kayak capsized. As I was body surfing the rapids in 50 degree water, I must have hit my knee hard on a rock. I was ok for about a day, until the pain kicked in. The cold (or the beer we were drinking all weekend) kept me from truly understanding the extent of the damage. Suffice it to say I have not been able to walk well or run at all. If you have been following this blog, you know that I have stressed that diet and exercise have to go hand-in-hand with a life that is going to include ‘thinness.’ Going two weeks without exercise was worse than the soreness in my leg.

I cut down on my food intake. I was hoping the injury would be short lived. I was real conscious of the number on the scale. It hovered around 206-207 for the whole time. Then at the end of the two weeks…disaster.

My boss decided that we needed a morale boost and we threw a barbeque at work during Friday lunch for about 2 hours. I ate a lot more than I should have. Lots of carbs. Carbs go in easy, taste great, and absorb water in your body. This makes the weight go on and if you don’t exercise, it stays on. Normally, I would have gone home and exercised. I couldn’t and didn’t. Also, because I hadn’t exercised in two weeks, my metabolism had to be going real slow. Those calories just got absorbed right into my system. I had a salad on Friday night, and a few beers.

The next day, worse than a barbeque, my brother-in-law and sister-in-law invited me to go to the Jimmy Buffet concert in Mansfield, MA. Ever been to one of these? It is not so much a concert as it is a food and alcohol driven block-party with a tiny concert jammed in at the end. Food. Drink. Food. Drink. Food. Food. Drink. Drink. Drink. 12 noon to 10:30PM at night. Sunday morning around noon I hopped on the scale.

213. Ouch. Big Ouch. I haven’t been North of 209 since last October.

So. What to do? No cheating. No booze. Exercise. Daily. Get the weight back to where it is supposed to be.

Sunday night, 3 miles on the treadmill on the bad knee. It actually didn't feel bad. Apparently if I don't twist on it and stay in a forward motion, I am OK. Monday morning, 211. Monday night, 4 miles on the treadmill. Again, the knee is fine. Tuesday morning, 209. Tonight, mowed the lawn with push mower, 3 miles on the treadmill. Scale says 207 tonight...it WILL be less tomorrow.

I am going to keep going this way for the rest of the week. I have to get back to the range...there is no other option. Wish me luck...will keep you updated.

Next: Your new life...don't let vacation mess you up.

Do I Have to Exercise?

On day one of this diet, I exercised. That was the key right there. If you are on this diet, or any diet for that matter, and are not exercising, do not expect any long term results. That's a fact.

Exercise is essential to any diet. You cannot reduce your calories, not exercise, and expect to lose weight over a period of time. Your body has a very efficient way of dealing with the calories you took away...it takes away your energy. That's right, it goes on strike. You take away the calories, your body's metabolic rate lowers. It learns to work with less calories. It burns your carbohydrates. Then it looks for proteins. A real nice source of protein is any muscle you have. This is something I bet you wanted to have a little more of when you started your diet. It will work on your fat last. One reason the fat burns last is that your body senses the deprivation and the caveman instinct built into our genetics over hundred of thousands of years feels that a long period of starvation may be afoot. So it holds onto the fat for future energy needs. You have officially scared your body into hanging onto the one thing you were hoping to get rid of. Fat.

As your metabolism decreases, you begin to feel exhausted. So you look for things that can give you energy. Most folks will turn to sugary products for that quick boost. You are then putting yourself in a nice glucose/insulin cycle that will have you craving sugar until you fall asleep or induce a glycemic coma, whichever comes first. That isn't a diet, that's self abuse. That is why most people hate diets.

Exercise is essential because if you restrict calories and work out, you keep your metabolic rate at a normal to normal/high level. Your body not only continues to burn calories at its normal rate, but it will burn more during exercise and continue burning more throughout the day. The deficit between the calories you are taking in and the calories you are burning will be much, much greater. You will definitely lose more weight. You will actually feel like you have MORE energy after exercising. When you get done exercising, have a good dose of water and, if you are hungry, have an apple.

This is really not complicated. Eat less, exercise more.

The Optifast Liquid Diet is unique in that it restricts calories severely to about 800-900 calories per day. When you walk at the rate that I was walking (about 2.6 miles per day in 45 minutes) you will burn approximately 350 calories in that 45 minutes. Add that plus a little more to your daily expenditure. I was using about 2000-2200 calories a day just walking around at my height and weight. That plus the 400 I got exercising and from post-exercise burn was about 2500 calories per day. I was taking in 900. I was running a 1600 calorie per day deficit. That is a deficit that will guarantee weight loss.

Take the same person on a 900 calorie per day diet and take away the exercise. Their metabolism slows down so they are burning about 1500 calories per day (about 1300 per day for women due to their smaller stature). Then to get energy they take in sugar. One pack of M&M's...six Oreo cookies...pick your poison here...250-400 calories easy. 1400 burned and 1300 taken in...100 calorie deficit per day. This is why just dieting doesn't work. I have exercised on every diet I have ever done and have lost weight without fail every single time.

Ok. So you need to exercise. What is exercise? This is not a trick question. It cracks me up what some people actually believe exercise is. Someone said to me, "I walk my dog." That was their exercise. Understand something here. Dragging a small furry animal with six inch legs fast enough to make it crap is not exercise. It might be for the dog. It is NOT exercise for you. If you go inside and YOU have to visit the bathroom, we can have a different conversation but for now, let's agree you have to do a little more. Walking is not exercise. It is the way we move about our day. It is natural, but (and I am not talking about the super-overweight and obese) it is not exercise. It is exercise if you are walking at a pace quick enough to make you sweat and if it is done over a long enough period, say 30 minutes at the sweaty pace. For the obese, walking at a natural pace may in fact classify as exercise.

Exercise is a word which can be broken into two parts. "Exer", the derivative of the word exertion, and "cise", uh...the latin form of "size" meaning your size is too damn big. Ok, I made the second part up, but exertion is the essential ingredient here. There is nothing wrong with sweating. You are going to take a shower when you are done exercising anyway, so tear it up! Sweat until it's rolling off you. Think of it as your body surrendering in the form of liquid fat.

So that is my opinion (somewhat educated) on exercise. I sat back during the course of this diet and went to my classes. I saw people struggle on the Optifast diet. I am convinced that one of two things kept them from success, either they cheated outright and never DID the diet, or they did not exercise and coped with the diet. In both cases, they did not achieve results that helped them reach their ultimate goal OR they reached the goal and were miserable doing it.

If you follow the Optifast diet and exercise daily the way that I did, you will lose weight. They have to, for legal reasons, say that my weight loss is not typical. I will say that if you do what I did, and it wasn't miraculous, you WILL lose weight. No one and I mean NO ONE runs a 1500 calorie per day deficit and does not lose weight. It is impossible. Bill, a friend of mine, started on the diet 6 weeks ago. He follows the diet. He walks every day. He emailed me yesterday that he is at 38 lbs lost. That is better than 6 lbs per week.

"Exertisize". You will feel better and your dieting will be a rewarding experience.

Next: What should I be drinking?