"Home Exercise or the Gym?" Insanity: Day 17 of 60

Things have been kind of hectic lately.  When that happens, you have to work around certain priorities.  It isn’t easy.  What suffers?  A lot of time, it is the stuff you are doing for ‘you.’  Like Exercise.  It happens very easily.  When your day has been a little too long, and you’re tired and mopey, you can very easily rationalize that you can’t work out because you’re exhausted.  I was at that point last night.  Just too damn much running around etc. had finally caught up with me.

There was a time, when I would have listened to that inner voice and just cracked open a beer and sat down to watch television.  I would have good reason, too.  Not only would I have been tired, but to work out, I would have had to go to the gym.  Let’s see how that used to play out…

Thirty minutes to get my workout stuff together, hop in the car, get to the gym and get the treadmill warmed up.  Almost an hour on the treadmill, (forty-five minutes on light days), and then cool down and towel off.  Twenty minutes to drive home with Air Conditioner blasting in my face to cool off.  Ten to fifteen minutes to shower and fully dry out.  Let’s count it up…two hours.  Two hours had to be allocated to working out.  The treadmill did get old too.  It could be boring.

Back then, at 8 O’clock or even 8:30, no workout was going to be contemplated.  If I didn’t get out of the house by 7:30PM or so, it was really easy to convince myself that tomorrow would be better.  That happened a little too often.  Also, I was only running three to four days a week!  So you miss a day and the week goes from four days of exercise to three.  What was the culprit here?  My busy life.

Last night was different.  Why?

Yes, things had been hectic and I was tired.  It was 8:50PM.  My wife was already laying in bed reading.  The kids had finished homework.  All household signs and indications were that this day was over.  A year ago, this was an easy decision.  Not a great decision, but an easy one.  So, last night, what happened?

First I asked myself, how much time do I need?  Typically, with Insanity in the first month, it’s about 40 minutes.  If they throw in Cardio Abs, it’s another twenty, but let’s shoot for normal here.  I need about 45 to get my workout clothes on, push play, and do the routine.  In fact, I get dressed faster because I just throw on any old workout clothes.  Number one, no one on the DVD cares what I look like and they never judge.  Number two, these Beachbody workouts make you sweat so much that your clothes will have to be wrung out anyway, so they might as well not be your snazzy cute workout sweatpants.

So, by 9PM, there I was in front of the DVD player with Shaun T. saying, “Yo what’s up, this is Insanity!”  By 9:40PM, I was drenched in sweat and feeling pretty damn good that I had made the time and checked off another box on the wall calendar.  By 10PM, I was back on the couch with my Recovery drink and a mango (my new favorite fruit of choice).  A little over an hour was burned.

The second factor here is that, because I need to carve out less time for my workout, I do it more.  Doing it more (six days per week) actually gets your body in a cycle.  It becomes a rhythm where you get used to that flow of endorphins that comes with a rigorous workout.   In the back of your mind, with repetition, your brain begins to instinctively respond to thoughts of exercise with pleasure, not pain.

Home exercise versus the gym?  Seriously, it’s a slam dunk…home.  The reason most people don’t like home exercise is that they either don’t have a disciplined program or don’t have the equipment.  What if you had a disciplined program and didn’t need equipment?  That would work.  Know what?  It does work.

The other reason that people don’t like working out at home is that they get lonely and there is no encouragement.  I understand this, but I think it’s an excuse.  You either want to be in better shape or you don’t.  When I am at the gym, I don’t talk to anyone.  I’m not there to socialize, I’m about to run five to six miles on a treadmill.  I won’t even have enough breath to talk and run.  I do ‘people watch,’ but only when the bank of televisions has nothing of interest on.  With the home exercise programs that I have been using since February, there are enough people on the DVD’s to keep my eyes occupied.  You can count on them too…they are ALWAYS there!  Not to be rotten here, but they are all in great shape and easy on the eyes.  That is not always the case at the gym.  I am laughing as I write this.  I’m no Prince Charming either!  It’s just an observation.

Home exercise programs can be cheaper as well!  Some gym’s cost thirty to forty dollars per month.  That’s $360-$480 per year.  A Beachbody workout program (like P90X or Insanity, that I use) costs about $120 retail…but once you spend the money, you can use the DVD as often as you like.  When you take that cost and divide it by the number of times you use it, the cost efficiency is much lower than a gym membership.  Not to mention the online advice and support you get.  If you want to socialize about working out, do it online!  It’s what we do now anyway…why do you think they call it social media?

So, from my experience, home exercise with a great program that can’t be beat.  It takes less time, is enjoyable, will be repeated, and will bring you better results (if for no other reason than that you will use it more).  It also is cheaper than a gym and can be reused.

The best reason of all though is that it keeps your excuses to a minimum and the increased usage will bring you better health and fitness.

Isn’t that the real goal?  You do have a goal…right?

I’m smiling.  Now go work out!

Have a great day.

THE WORKOUT

The workout today was actually not a workout.  Okay, that’s not completely true because I was sweating when I was done.  Today was Fit Test Number Two.  You take the fit test before you begin Insanity and then you take it along the way to gauge your performance.  Last night was the first retake since starting Insanity.  My results were actually pretty good.  Keep in mind, I started Insanity on the heels of P90X and considered myself to be in the best shape of my life.  That said, in only two weeks, my results were somewhat startling.

Switch Kicks: 116 Kicks to 122
Power Jacks: 63 to 70
Power Knees: 86 to 118 (I was not using the right form on Day 0, so you can toss those numbers)
Power Jumps: 44 to 54
Globe Jumps: 12 to 13
Suicide Jumps: 17 to 19
PushUp Jacks: 39 to 48
Low Plank Oblique: 61 to 73

I was happy I beat all the people on the DVD. Except the suicide jumps. I still don't believe the girl beat me. Not cause she's a girl, but because I was keeping pace with her...I might just go back to the DVD and count her reps!

Where will I be on Day 60???

So, Insanity, like P90X, actually does what they say on TV and does get you in very good (okay, excellent) shape!

"Call Me When You're Serious" Day 16 of 60

It always amazes me that, after four years of being thinner (not skinny, thinner than I used to be), some people still wonder how the weight stays off.  I end up in the most curious conversations.  I truly believe that people think that some people are normally thin and some people aren’t.  It is always funny with me because, forever, I was fat.  Also, some of the people that I end up talking to, for the longest time, were thin.  I wasn't always this way...and neither were they.  But the conversation always takes a turn that makes it seem like that is the rationalization that works best at the time.  I had a dialog this past weekend that kind of sums it up.  Just as a side note, it was not my wife.  I always have to put in that old disclaimer.  It went something like this.

She glanced at me sitting on the couch and said, “So, you’re still keeping all that weight off.”  (it wasn’t a question, it was an observation)

“Yep…plan to for the rest of my life.”

“Yeah, I should do that.  It’s not easy.  What are you eating these days?”

“Oatmeal for breakfast, fruit as a mid-morning snack, salad at lunch with veggies and no starchy junk, protein bar mid-day, Shakeology for dinner, and nuts/fruit mix before bed.  If I get hungry during the day I might grab a fistful of nuts or eat two halves of a Klaussen dill pickle…only 20 calories in the whole massive pickle.  What are YOU eating?”

“It’s kind of like that. (said, to the snickering of her son) Do you use regular dressing on your salad? (it amazes me the things people focus on)”

“Yeah, I don’t worry too much about that, given that I’m exercising from 40 minutes  to 90 minutes on any given day with this new exercise program.  So if YOU eat like that, what kinds of snacking are you doing in between?  Because if you eat like that, it shouldn’t be really hard to stay at a good healthy weight.”

Nervous laughter.  “Oh, that might be a little of the problem.”

“How about alcohol?  Even a drink a night can lower your will-power and make you crave sugary things you know.”

“Oh, I really only have a few drinks on the weekend (to more snickering from her son).  Well, here and there.”

“I’m not your doctor,” I laughed, “I don’t care, it just makes it harder to not snack…not to mention that you don’t feel like exercising.  What kind of activity or exercise do you get?”

“Well…I walk.”  (Again, not my wife, but I know this person and the walking is basically making sure the dog moves it’s little legs enough to poop)

I chuckled, “No…exercise.  Exertion.  As in walking fast enough or exercising enough to break a sweat and know that your body is working a little bit.  Do you do that?”

More snickers from the son, and she responds, “Well, no.  I probably should.”

Someone else gets up and begins to go to the kitchen, “Anyone else want another beer?”

Without a moment’s hesitation, the person I am speaking to says, “I will.”

And then I start laughing.  Then she sees me laugh and she starts laughing too.

I’m not judging here, this is real life.  This is how many weekends go for a lot of people.  This is NOT about the person I was talking to.  It’s a rhythm and a pattern that everyone gets used to and ends up comfortable with.  It is not easy to change that pattern.  It’s funny to me because I now go through my new pattern so effortlessly that many think it’s easy for me.

It is much easier than it used to be because habits have been formed that I don’t think about anymore.  That said, those habits were changed as a result of a lot of daily decisions being made very consciously over a period of a couple of years.  That sounds like a lot, but when you consider 46 years of really crappy decisions about eating and exercise, two years is a walk in the park.

The other thing is, I’m not casual about my health.  Many are.  To many, they will not get serious until something critical happens that puts them over the tipping point.  You don’t know how you will prioritize your health until you question it.  Someone may be overheard making a nasty remark at a party that truly embarrasses you.  A child might make a very public comment about your size.  You might have to be left behind on something physical because ‘you can’t keep up.’  A doctor may look at your cholesterol and say things like, “Lipitor” and “heart attack risk.”  You may find you are winded just moving around with the kids.  Your doctor might take your blood pressure and show that alarming look which you realize can’t betray what they are thinking.  You might just look at the mirror one day and have a glimpsing memory of the smaller ‘you’ and feel an inner sadness.  It might be affecting your marriage or relationships.

It could be any one of a hundred things.  The bottom line is, 95% of the people will not do anything about their health and fitness until the “lack of it” becomes an issue they want to move up the priority chain.  The motivation has to come from inside them.

When people ask me about my weight and fitness, I never fail to tell them how I did it.  I don’t judge.  I’m not pushy.  People have to want to do it.

So I tell my story.  I don’t judge.  I was there.  I can see that most of the world still is.  I can talk about why I changed.  I always hope the best for people and wish for them that they would be proactive about their health.  I hope that they do not have a life changing event that causes them to need to do this, one that damages them in such a way as it limits the quality of the remainder of their life.  Because I was close.  I just will keep the word out there in front of me and, when they are ready, I will be standing in front of the line to speak with them.

My thoughts until then?  And, I don't say this in a nasty way...

 “Call me when you’re serious.”

"Exercise Discipline" Days 14/15 of 60

It was a very busy weekend.  Weekends like this are a good exercise in discipline.  It's easy to get out of rhythm.  Last week was the three day weekend of parties and family and parades...this weekend feels like the one where you have to get 'stuff' done.  It's real easy to sidetrack your workout.  I got out of the groove...I always work out in the morning on the weekends.  Yesterday (Saturday) I worked on the new MetaMorpheSys website and got deep into it.  I didn't get to exercise until midday, Cardio Plyo Circuit.  It was odd.

Today, no morning workout, I waited until after dinner.  It was Pure Cardio and Cardio Abs.  I threw in the treadmill for kicks.

The key is making sure you find a way to do the exercise.  The diet is important, but somehow, the diet is easier to stick to...at least for me.  To exercise, you have to put the time aside and then the time to do it.  After that, you need the time to shower and clean up.  This time of year, when the heat gets turned up, it takes me longer to turn those sweat valves off.  I find that if I get it done in the AM, I am much better off.

My blogging took a hit this weekend too...I will have something more profound to write tomorrow!

Have a good night, hope the weekend was great, and I hope you found time to exercise.  I think of it as the time I selfishly keep for myself.

Good night!

"Walking Before You Run" Insanity: Day 13 of 60

I am known to be a pretty fearless person.  There is nothing that I think I cannot do.  The things that I will not try can probably be counted on one hand and are pretty much in the life and death category…like bungee jumping.  When it comes to a “Challenge” (like P90X or Insanity), all you need to do is say the word and I am there. 

“Am I as good as I think I am?” 

“Am I better than the kids?” 

“Can I make it through this?”  

I have an internal mechanism that makes me say "yes" when I hear "challenge."  Call it confidence, call it uber-optimism…hell, call it lunacy…it’s just there.  Growing up, I heard all the time that I was lazy.  I never believed it.  But that challenge looms in the back of my mind all the time and drives me.  It’s weird sometimes that the thing I hated hearing the most is probably the most responsible for my successes in life.

I am self-aware enough to know that fact about myself.  I am also aware that others know that about me.  As a friend once said, “You reek of confidence.”  That’s me.  That’s not the rest of the world.  I have to accept that because it’s reality.

When it comes to these intense Beachbody workouts like P90X or Insanity, there are many who believe they cannot do it.  I can point to my own success with the programs but, while I am very credible, my known personality works against me.  Many think there is something about my personality that they do not have…and they think that will sabotage their success with the same program.

Then there are the infomercials on TV.  I love them.  I love them because they challenge me.  Inside, I look at the people on the infomercial and say, “I can do that.  I can probably do it better.”  But, and this is a big "but", they are intimidating.  They are meant to challenge people, and they do that.  Many people, however, will not accept the challenge.  In fact, more than most will forgo the challenge.  Many look at those commercials and say, “I think I need something easier,” or “I could never do that.”  Could they do it?  Yes, they could.  But, is it hard?  Yes, it’s hard.  But, you know, it’s not that hard.  What’s hard is doing it daily and making sure your schedule can accommodate the plan.

Here is the big secret…

It’s not the program that gets you to lose weight and be fit.  It’s your dedication to the program.  Any program.

To me, knowing that one secret is the key to overcoming the real barrier to entry for health and fitness.  Everyone thinks there is a magic formula.  If Dick St.Jacques is fit, it must be the P90X.  It must be the Insanity.  He must be special.  That’s not true at all.  It’s the dedication to deciding to exercise six days a week for at least 40 minutes.  It’s making the right choices when I eat.  That’s the secret.

The program is important, don’t get me wrong.  The program you pick is important for only two reasons.   The first big one is that the program is motivating enough that you WANT to do it.  The instructors have to be fun and engaging.  The workouts have to be energizing.  The second is that the program has to be designed in such a way as to actually be achievable six days per week and it has to have that discipline of executing the exercises.  There is a reason that the programs from Beachbody come with a calendar to plan the workouts for you.  You don’t have to think, the discipline is built in.  The achievability factor is also a part of the programs.  They have been designed so the parts of you that you work on Day One are not hampering the Day Two workout.  Your body has time, within the calendar, to rest and heal.

The most important thing to getting anyone to embrace a health and fitness mindset is to encourage that first step.  Walk before you run.  Most of the people who will reject a challenge on P90X or Insanity, would maybe try Slim In 6, TurboJam or Hip-Hop-Abs.  They may try other programs as well.  You have to know the person you are talking to.  The most important thing is to do anything you can to encourage that first step.  The first step is the discipline of execution.

I love the Beachbody products.  Every single one I have tried has helped me succeed.  My ultimate goal, however, is to be an example to my peers on how modifying to a more healthy lifestyle of exercise and eating properly can improve their health, increase their longevity, and sustain the best quality of life possible.

What is the best exercise program?  The one that the person you are talking to will do every day.  Even if it is just walking daily at a brisk pace for 40 minutes…that might be the best program.  If they like the program, they will be motivated to "push play."  The discipline will be right behind the motivation after a couple weeks.  Once the discipline is there, the results will follow.  After results, you get confidence.  Big results follow the consistent execution which accelerates motivation and then, yes then, you have someone making a permanent change.

Happy Friday!  It’s my ‘off’ day again.  You know what that means.  I did AbRipperX this morning.

Enjoy your day!    

"Shouting into the Noise" Insanity, Day 12 of 60

Has there ever been a time in our culture when Health and Nutrition guidance needed so desperately to be listened to?  If you look at the statistics on overweight and obesity, you would have to say, “No.”  As a nation, 60% of us are overweight while 30% of the total is classified as obese.  Child obesity statistics are mortifying.  We are eating more manufactured “food” than ever before.  Nutrient deficient foods, refined sugar, and toxic sweeteners/additives are in 85% of what you see in a grocery store.  Our daily lives, over the age of eighteen, are sedentary with fewer and fewer jobs requiring physical effort to perform.  Medical costs to the “over forty” group of adults are skyrocketing due to chronic illnesses caused by these extremely poor eating and exercise choices.  Heart conditions, cancer, blood issues, edema, acid reflux, sleep apnea…the list is endless.  All of these conditions are avoidable with the right life choices.  That’s a fact.

So if you walked into an Emergency Room in a hospital loaded with these people…the overweight, the chronically ill, the overmedicated…how many do you think would hear you when you said, “If you make a few changes, eat right and exercise, I can show you how to avoid all of this.  I even have a few items that are proven to help you, and I can show you how to use them.”  How many?  Few?  I bet a couple would listen.  How many would listen if you said it in a medical office?  Fewer.  How many if you said it at a grocery store or mall?  None?

Why is that?  How could it be that a horse dying of thirst, when a bucket of water is put under them, would refuse to drink?  The main way is that the horse doesn’t know it’s dying.

With people, it’s a little bit different.  People are a lot more complex.  They refuse to drink because they are hoping that the lifestyle they have been living, the one they are very used to and think is bringing them pleasure, can somehow continue without consequence.  It’s maddening…believe me, I know it.

It’s strange how even the medical issues these people are facing or enduring are not enough to make them decide to change.  The not so funny part is that I get it.  I took two ambulance rides that were caused by my physical condition and job stress.  The job stress was bad but the real condition was that I was so physically broken that my body couldn’t handle the effects of that stress.  Many think that stress is psychological but in reality, the physical effects of stress are far worse.  The over stimulation of cortisol and the other metabolic changes that happen in the body due to stress can kill you.  I know that.  But that’s not what made me change.

For me, it was an ‘aha’ moment when I was simply turning a screw on a July day and I was sweating a puddle under my face.  I am dead serious.  That snapped me.  That’s the day I decided I was changing and not going back.

So here we stand with all this information and we wonder why there is so much resistance to the message.

I have spent the last ten years selling bank products on the internet.  Getting someone to open a checking or savings account online is very difficult.  To be successful, you have to be patient and understand why people decide to buy things.  “Buy” means that they decide they want to invest time and/or money in a product or service.

The first three things you need to be successful are you need to have expertise, honesty, and likability.  Expertise has to be complemented with credibility.  People have to believe that you actually believe the message.  You can’t fake that.  Honesty and likeability are things we all have come to appreciate and try to aspire to, but you also need to complement those two things with sincerity.  Absent sincerity, looking honest and likeable is hollow and sniffed out very quickly.

You would think that once you get over this hurdle that your job is done.  Oh no.  Not at all.  That just takes care of your side of the selling equation.  Selling any concept, service or product requires the other person to do something too.  The next question is, “What would this product have to do for them to inspire them to change?”  That’s really the issue here.  Change.  We live today in a culture where we have so much that there are very few products that are needed that we don’t already own.  So the trick is getting people with too much and very busy lives to see your product as so essential that they need to have it.

So, if your product is health and fitness, what would trigger someone to decide to embrace the message?

Does the service fulfill a basic need?  Health and fitness?  Oh , yes…it does.  Do THEY think it’s needed?  Maybe not.  They may think they are healthy enough and have moved on to satisfying other needs in their life.

Does the service offer a benefit of convenience?  Nothing is more appreciated than a solution to something that is fast and effective.  Ever wonder why more diet pills are sold than exercise DVD’s?  Perceived convenience.

There are many other reasons that people buy things…scarcity, replacing something they already have that either broke or requires a significant upgrade, low price, great value, fills an emotional void.  But with Health and Fitness…it is obvious.  THEY NEED IT.

So what need is it fulfilling?  Is it a basic need?  Maybe they have had a health crisis.  Maybe they have been warned that things are so bad that a health crisis is imminent.  So maybe it would fulfill a basic safety need.  Is their health affecting their relationships?  Better health could improve their need for love and affinity.  Do they want desperately to be held in regard by others (an esteem need) ?  The closer the need is to the basic needs, the more they are likely to be receptive.

Regardless, I have been pushing a pro-health message for four years now.  I have been living it, so I have some credibility.  After that, people will only move on becoming more fit when THEY are ready.  Don’t get frustrated and just keep pushing the message.  It is desperately needed.

THE WORKOUT:

Last night’s workout was great.  I finally figured out why my thighs were getting ripped up in the routines.  I was not squatting properly.  My knees were out over my toes and, when I dropped my butt into the squat, I was bending my knees at an angle less than 90 degrees, which is really tight.  My poor form was actually killing my legs.  I made and adjustment last night and it was great.

Same result for tonight’s workout.  Better form and all went really well.  I am still sweating like crazy but my endurance is building.  One observation though…and this is how I know that I am in week two…some observations on the other participants.

I am jogging my butt off in the Pure Cardio.  WHAT are some of the people in the back doing?  Their feet aren’t even leaving the floor!!  They are ‘flashdancing’ as the legs barely move and the arms pump. It’s all I can do to not hum ‘Maniac.’  Also, there is a guy that gets caught huffing and puffing with a painful look on his face and when the camera cuts to him, he turns on the gas.  The surprise look makes me laugh every time.

Okay, signing off.  AbRipper X in the AM.  KEEP IT GOING!!  

"The Diet That Changed Me" Insanity: Day 11 of 60

I am reading a book on nutrition called “Eat to Live” by Joel Fuhrman, M.D.  As I read it, it occurred to me how the diet of food that I eat today is so radically different than four years ago and how similar it is to what is being prescribed in the book.  The strange part is that, after you make a change, and after you literally ‘make it you’, you forget what you used to have as a routine.  When I begin to tweak my memory and note it, the contrast literally spells out how my physical appearance and overall health has seen its dramatic change.

I have been very open about needing to do a liquid diet called Optifast to originally lose the weight.  LOSING the weight is not the challenge we all face.  In fact, the Optifast diet has an 80% recidivism rate (they gain the weight back.)  The real diet is the one that has kept the weight off for almost four years now!

Breakfast

THEN: My breakfast over four years ago used to be that I would grab coffee in the morning and make myself toast with peanut butter and jelly on most mornings.  When I got to work, if I hadn’t stopped to grab a donut on the way in to work, I would hit the cafeteria around 10AM to get more coffee and a muffin. 

NOW: Oatmeal with all natural applesauce and cinnamon.  Coffee.  My mid-morning snack is usually a piece of fruit or nothing.

Lunch

THEN: At lunch, I would generally eat a sandwich wrap of some type, but if there was a hot meal (like ziti and meatballs or fried chicken or steak) I would have that.  Around 3PM, I would be hungry again and might grab a pack of pop-tarts from the vending machine.

NOW: Salad in healthy portions with lots of vegetables in it.  3-4 oz of lean chicken or fish.  At about 3PM, my mid-day snack is usually a protein bar.

As a side note here, at this point in my day I probably would have consumed about 1800-2000 calories on the old ‘meal plan.’  If there were an office birthday celebration or if someone had brought in snacks, all bets were off.  Today, at this point in the day, I am probably somewhere in the 1300 calorie range.  When it comes to dinner though, that’s where the real game changer happens.

Dinner

THEN: Whatever was cooked for the family in one big portion, sometimes two.  If it was spaghetti night, two portions easy.  If it was steak, the steak was a pretty big one.  Hamburgers?  Always two.  In the summer, many meals were complemented with macaroni salad (a starch and mayonnaise combo) and a vegetable.  At about 9PM, my stomach would be looking for something else, which three to four times a week would be ice cream from the refrigerator.  On the other nights, I would grab whatever was there.

If we ate out, I usually ate something very tasty…prime rib or some other meat portion, big seafood combo, etc.   Dessert was hard to pass up…that usually happened only if I had been such a glutton at dinner that I couldn’t physically put more in the tank.  Beer with the restaurant meals…usually two and not Coors Light…usually a hearty brown ale.

The weekends were also sprinkled with family gatherings that would bring on many more snacks, desserts and beer.

On the old “eating plan”, the calorie count from about 1800 at noontime could skyrocket easily to 3200-3500 on a weekday and probably 4000 plus on a weekend.

NOW: Shakeology at dinner with fruit blended in.  4-6 oz of nut and raisin trail mix.   At 9PM, after my recovery drink, usually another piece of fruit and one more nut and raisin trail mix serving.

If we eat out, I generally stick to chicken or salmon grilled on top of a large salad.  The same goes for family gatherings.  Grilled meat and salad is the choice 95% of the time.  Dessert is in play only when I am on vacation and even then, very infrequent.  On birthdays I will have a small piece of cake with a scoop of ice cream.  I may have a seafood menu item but it is usually some type of fish and double vegetables…never potatoes or French fries.  No alcohol…ice water and maybe a diet-coke here and there.  I am trying to completely avoid all the diet drinks these days due to the toxic sweeteners in them.

My current total calorie count probably goes to about 2000 during the week and a little more than that on the weekend.  If you are wondering how I keep the calorie count that low, the real leverage is the Shakeology meal replacement shake.  It has all the nutrients of a complete meal plus nutrients you would NEVER get in a meal.  When I blend in a banana and/or blueberries, it comes to about 220 calories and fills you for hours.  No kidding.  On the weekend, I usually don’t have a morning or afternoon snack.   

Epilogue

So the diet contrast is from about 3200-3500 per day then to about 2000 during the week and about 4000 plus to about 2200 on a weekend day.  With all these numbers, consider too that my diet now is almost completely made up of natural foods and vegetables instead of breaded items loaded with refined sugar and white flour.  The sugar content of my food has been cut by about 80% and is now limited to sugar in the form of solid fruit.

I had calculated, some time ago, that when I was eating this I was also not exercising.  I was probably burning about 2800 calories a day and consuming 3500 to 4500 calories on any given day.  I may have been burning less calories for the exceptionally sedentary life I was living, but it took some energy to push around 285 pounds of girth…so let’s say 2800.  The extra 800 to 1800 calories per day…where did that go?  3500 calories is equal to one pound of weight gain.  You can do the math or go and look at my ‘before’ pictures.

I now exercise every day and burn about 800 to 1000 calories during exercise (maybe more on the weekend).  That is on top of my 2200 calories that I expend on a daily basis just moving around.  So I am burning 3000 to 3200 calories per day and taking in about 2200.  Where is the 1000 calorie per day deficit going?  3500 calories is one pound.  Again, the math is the same!

There is no doubt that the exercise gives my diet extra leverage in terms of staying lean and in shape.  It also allows a few indiscretions here and there, like pizza for dinner on Friday night.  But, without the exercise, the weight would be stable.  My conditioning would be pathetic, but I would still be a healthy weight.

This change has also resulted in my cholesterol going from close to 270 to 163.  So I have gone from a solid diagnosis of "You need Lipitor" (for the cholesterol) to, "You did all this without drugs?"  All my blood test markers were optimal for a man of fifty.  My resting blood pressure is 100/80.  I am leaner and in better shape than when I was 25 yrs old.   

So there you have it.  This is how I changed from one person to another.  I enjoy eating what I eat, I just make very deliberate healthy choices.

Which of my two eating plans are you on?  That’s a question everyone should ask themselves in private.

Have a great day!

WORKOUT:

Last night was Cardio Recovery night so I did 35 minutes of Insanity and 35 minutes of P90X Triceps, Chest and Shoulders and then did 25 minutes on the treadmill.  The recovery night is kind of bland.  On the plus side, the P90X TCS workout went real and I was able to really push it hard since I only planned to do half the workout.

Have a great day!!

Insanity: "Pharmaceutical Health" Day 10 of 60

As I did my treadmill last night (after Insanity Plyometric Circuit), I finished watching the movie I had started last week.  When I do the treadmill to stretch my legs, I do it in about 25 minute per day increments.  I can usually finish the average movie in about four to five days.  Last week, as an ode to our Utah trip last month, I took down an old favorite of mine, The Electric Horseman.  It stars Robert Redford and Jane Fonda.  Redford plays an aging rodeo star named Sonny Steele who steals (pun intended?) a prize racehorse named Rising Star from a corporate entity that had been using it for marketing, abusing the horse in the process.  All summaries aside, there is a scene at the end where Jane Fonda, a news reporter, responds to Sonny Steele calling her ‘clever.’  She says, “You say that word like it’s a bad thing.”  To which Sonny responds, “No, I don’t mind you bein’ smart.  It’s just sometimes you are too busy being clever.”

Sonny Steele is a simple man who cuts straight to the heart of all matters.  This stunning racehorse, with all the magnificent attributes that God gave it, was being pumped full of drugs and steroids to make it ‘look better,’ all in the name of selling the corporation’s breakfast cereal.  His statement is as much a commentary on the state of the nation at that point in time as it is of Jane Fonda’s character, Hallie Martin. 

As I ate my oatmeal and watched the news this morning, it became obvious to me that his criticism stands the test of time.  Sadly though, it’s not a racehorse that is being abused.  We have gotten to the point where we are now willing to abuse ourselves in the same way.  Rather than acknowledge the beauty of the machine God gave us and work with it the way it was intended, we would rather pump ourselves full of drugs and pharmaceuticals, all in the name of ‘health’ or ‘beauty.’  We have forgotten what it is like to be smart because we are too busy being clever.

In spite of the reams of knowledge we have acquired about the human body and how it functions, we still are busy trying to find ways to cheat.  We live our lives stuffing ourselves with additive laced ‘food’ and, in spite of everything we are being told about obesity and health, we will not stop.  We have allowed corporate giants to manufacture, package, distribute and market to us some of the most physically damaging substances known to man, and we are willingly putting it directly into our bodies.  Obesity studies, mortality statistics, health care costs…you would think these things would have some kind of impact on us right?  We’re one of the most advanced cultures on the planet.  Surely we are ‘smart’ enough to see the writing on the wall.  Right?

Nope.  We are ‘too busy being clever.’  We can have our cake and eat it too.  This morning there was news of another drug.  A short cut to health.  It can help you lose weight.  It can solve your depression.  It can lower you cholesterol.  I didn’t even pay close enough attention to what the drug was.  I just know this, it was fixing something that, as usual, we voluntarily broke in our bodies.  It’s not fixing a broken leg, it’s fixing some form of damage we caused to ourselves because we just can’t see beyond our own willingness to sacrifice long-term health to the immediate desires of the palate.  The real attention getter, the thing that made me look up, was the list of side effects.  It always stuns me the side effects we are willing to risk.  Not to mention the physical and metabolically altering damage that the drugs cause.

How stupid do we have to be?  Really.  We damage our bodies because we refuse to acknowledge the limitation of putting garbage fuel into a finely tuned machine and then further risk physical damage in the name of fixing the ‘problem.’  Why take the drugs?  Because we refuse to simply use our bodies and fuel it in the way it was intended.

The morbidly funny part is that there are corporations lining up to sell us things disguised as food that will kill us…and then they sell us a ‘cure’ to something they are dedicated to causing.  And we are buying it.  We are buying their philosophy, we are buying their message, and we are buying their crap.  And we are killing ourselves in the process.

We accept this whole dynamic so willingly.  We accept it from strangers.  We accept it from people who will not look you in the face when you taste it or be there when you are being damaged by it.  Have you ever tried to talk to people who desperately need to know that there are alternatives?  Have you ever tried to show them ways to eat better and to exercise better?  Some of my new friends at Beachbody have.  I have been trying for years.  You can stand there and be a one hundred percent testament to the success of changing old habits but they will fight you tooth and nail.  You have credibility.  You have facts.  You have evidence and statistics.  You embody what you are saying!!  You may have known them for years.  But they will still buy the philosophy of the ones who put them in harms way, because they want to believe so badly that they can continue to live the way they 'want', not the way it was intended.

As I read the latest book I grabbed about nutrition, “Eat to Live”, it becomes obvious that the book is a working manual of how the body reacts to all of this pharmaceutical manipulation.  It also is a very simple primer for how to turn that around.  As I read it, many of the things it recommends are things I have changed in my diet over the past four years.

Natural foods.  Exercise.  Fruit and vegetables.  Food that is exceptionally high in nutrient density.  Exercise.  Very little meat and dairy.  Did I say exercise?

As I recalled this weekend how my diet has changed, it occurred to me that I haven’t had a cold or flu in four years.  My cholesterol (composite, HDL and LDL markers) has improved massively, with my composite cholesterol going from around 270 four years ago (when the doctor was going to put me on Lipitor) to the 163 it was measured at a few weeks ago.  I am 80 pounds lighter and my diet has allowed me to stay thin and not be in that ‘yo-yo’ diet mode.  My physical condition is optimal for my age.

Basically, I got smart and stopped being clever.

I am hoping, optimistically, that we as a culture get smarter too.  There are alternatives.  Slowly, over time, the lesson will have to be learned or the chickens will come home to roost. 

Hey, listen close, does anyone else hear that clucking sound?  Or is it just me?