"What's Left to Say...Except that Chemicals Really Stink!" Insanity: Days 48-50 of 60

First thing left to say is that there is only 10 days left.  Just like P90X, this program went fast.  It really flew.  Of course, it’s 30 days shorter than P90X…and the routines are shorter for the most part until the second phase.  It more than makes up for shorter routines with routines that just don’t stop for 45 to 58 minutes, depending on the day.

The program is definitely working.  I have seen great improvement in my FitTest performance.  I have also experienced more endurance through the various circuits.  That’s pretty cool.  I would love to be more excited except, I expected it!  This is, after all, Beachbody.  The products are pretty tested at this point.

I have stopped my criticism of the people on the DVD’s, especially Akeel and Frankie.  Akeel seems to have gotten a little more energy and Frankie got a better haircut so they are easier to take in Phase II.  Still is tough watching Shaun T’s fascination with pulling up shirts and touching people’s abs though.

I also have actually figured out the form (which could have used much better explanation somewhere in the program) for many exercises.  Like, when you do the squats, make sure you concentrate on keeping your heels on the floor.  It ensures that your knees don’t swing out over your toes.  The squatting form came in the first couple of weeks but it took a lot of weeks to figure out some of them.  I will give you some examples.

The High Knees.  Anna is a great example of how to do them.  The key is, make sure your chest is up and your chin is high.  Why?  It elongates your abs and makes the exercise more comfortable.  She hops right into that exercise for a reason…she is one of the few doing it right.  Her form looks awkward…but try it.   

You’ll see.

 The 1-2-3 Heisman.  I learned how to do these in P90X.  In Insanity, they’re not the same.  If you try to do them the P90X way, you are way off step and there is NO WAY you are going to do them at a high speed.  It took me a while to get the steps down…I kept falling back on my P90X which I could do in my sleep.

Some of the things I still don’t like is that I don’t know if one person can do the circuits all the way through.  Shaun T doesn’t, because he stops to instruct.  Everyone in the DVD, when the camera is off of them, seems to be taking shortcuts.  Just some examples on this.

The Suicide Squats.  There is a leap in the middle of it.  A LEAP!  Look at the DVD…too funny.  NO ONE in the back is doing them the right way.  The Jump-Punch and Squat, some are squatting and some have lightly bent knees.  The Jab and Squat?  I laugh every time I do it.  No one does it the same way.  It looks like an exercise you make up for kindergarten kids.

The last thing I will say about form is that I wish there was more emphasis on this during the exercises and less on the speed.  Everyone is so focused on the rhythm and tempo that the form on most of them is really terrible.  I wouldn’t care except that I watch the people on the DVD so that I can have proper form…and their form isn’t right.  Oh, and we haven’t been completely told the proper form either.  So that makes it tough.

This weekend was fine.  I had to exercise on my off day…Friday.  I had to go at night and then do Saturday at noontime (only about 15 hrs later).  So…I did AbRipperX and Insanity Fast and Furious on Friday night.  Then I did Max Interval Plyo on Saturday, followed by Max Interval Circuit last night.  I tossed in 25 minutes on the treadmill for kicks.

CHEMICALS REALLY STINK.  I got nabbed once again by the food industry when I assumed a company like Gatorade actually cared about my health.  I have been drinking these G2 Low Calorie drinks with my Protein and Creatine now for a couple of weeks.  I noticed that my fat loss around my mid-section had slowed down.  Fat is processed in the liver and when you are taking in the chemical additives, your body spends a lot of time breaking that down…and less time on fat.  So just for yucks, I looked at the label. There it was, Sucralose!!  Crap.  You know, G2 has only 40 calories in a 20 ounce bottle.  So, to make it taste like the other G2 and still be low-cal, they crapped it up with chemicals.  Thanks a lot.  Now I have a case of it in my fridge that I won’t be drinking.

You know, if it had NO sweet taste, I would drink it.  I just want to drink what’s good for me.  Is that asking too much?

See you tomorrow.

"Forming Positive Habits" Insanity: Day 19 of 60

My work group went to lunch in Boston the other day.  We went to a restaurant that was noted as, “very good and high profile.”  So I sit down to look at the menu.  Soups…loaded with cheese and what must be other dairy like milk or cream.  No salads.  Bowls of pasta coated in cream sauce…many with red meat that looked like it had been cooked in lard.  No chicken or fish to speak of.  Every sandwich was on heavy white bread and loaded with, yes, cheese again.  I looked at this menu and just laughed.

My work buddy, Rick, looked over at me and laughed himself and said, “You won’t be eating much here!”

Just some observations here.

This menu disgusted me.  Not after I thought about it, which is when these thoughts usually hit you.  It was while I looked at it.  As I scanned it, every food choice was bad.  Red meat, dairy, processed food…an endless menu of very beautifully prepared junk.  Even the soups had been ruined.  The plates came out and were very decoratively prepared…as though chef school must teach them how to make beautiful looking food using the worst possible material.  At first, when you start to eat well, you will be discouraged but still tempted to just pick something on the menu.  After you have eaten well for a while, it will occur to you how bad this menu is, after you give it thought.  Once clean eating has become your life, you move to where I am now.  You look at the menu and, without a thought, put it down.  I scoured it for something I could eat.  I had the one soup without cheese…mussel soup.  Basically, it was five mussels in a broth.  Then I ordered the asparagus appetizer.  Six sticks of asparagus and two halves of a boiled egg.  Needless to say, I had to stop on the way back to the office for a clean salad of nutrient rich vegetables.

The second observation I would make is that many around me not only know of my dietary discipline, but have seen its impact on me and accept it.  My eating habits have become so well known that people close to me just need to look at the menu and then say, “Dick won’t eat this at all.”  My dietary routine has become so ingrained in me that others accept it as gospel.  That’s kind of neat.

The third observation is that others around me are actually judging what they eat in comparison to me.  I am making others think about their food choices.  I’m not doing the judging.  I never say anything about what others eat (with the exception of my kids because I see that as an obligation and teaching opportunity).  I just will do everything in my power to eat right for myself.  Sometimes people will try to help by saying, “Why don’t you have the Blah-blah-blah?”  I will just smile and tell them, “No.”  When they persist (and some will) I will explain why it is a poor choice.  And then I won’t eat it.  I find a lot of people with me looking down at their plates.  Very soon, I expect that either the people around me will eat well or I will get no invitations to lunch!  

It has taken some time, but I have gotten to a point where my food choices are healthy or none at all.  There is no meal that I cannot wait to eat.  There is nothing so urgent that I have to “sacrifice” and “give in” and eat junk when it is offered.  My eating habits have become a discipline for me.

It has paid off.  After four years, I have managed to keep the weight off and I have learned that a diet of fruit, vegetables and some lean meats will allow me to live a healthful life for the remainder of the time I have left on this planet.

Let me say this about my eating habits.  When I describe them to folks, I hear a lot of people remark, “I could never do that.”  That bothers me a little bit.  I know that many would love to do what I have done.  I know that many think that it’s ‘hard.’  It is difficult, but there are many things waiting on the doorstep of your life that will make watching your food intake look like a walk in the park.  It’s simply not that hard.  The benefits far outweigh the work involved.

Over the past four years, with constant vigilance and thoughtful choices, I have managed to solidify a foundation of habit for my health.  I look forward to every meal, but not like many do.  I don’t romanticize it.  I simply enjoy it as the food that it is.

So remember…food as fuel.  It’s not entertainment.   It’s not a love affair.  You don’t have to become engrossed in it.

And…if you ARE going to treat your body like an amusement park, make sure you inspect and do maintenance on the rides daily.  With P90X and Insanity.

Have a great day!

THE WORKOUT

Tonight was simple.  Pure Cardio.  At this point in Insanity, it’s Pure Cardio and Cardio Abs.  I have been doing Ab Ripper X three days per week and some weight work…so I am leaving the Cardio Abs out for now.

I have been tired all week.  Every day it seems, I have had to do things after work and then have to work out late.  But, I have not missed a day.  Friday is my off day and I am looking forward to it.  I think my body is telling me I need a break.

That’s important.  Listen to your body.  But, make sure it isn’t just tired.  If it’s sore and broken, it needs a break.  If it’s ‘tired,’ you may have to really think about the break you are going to give it.  Is it real?

Have a great day!

"Is Your Toxic Body Poisoning You?" Insanity: Day 18 of 90

For over 65% of the people in this country, reserve stores of energy are being packed away in the form of fat on their bodies.  Calories not expended and poor food choices have turned our own bodies into “hoarders.”  Yes, just like those TV shows where people have piles and piles of useless junk in their house, we are stockpiling fat at a dizzying and obscene rate.  We must be worrying that some natural disaster or Armageddon will occur that will have us never see a stitch of food again.  If that is the case, then I applaud your insight.  Until that time though, those of us in the “fat hoarder” category are risking their lives on that bet.

Risking their lives?  How so?  It’s just fat cells right?

Wrong.

When your body starts hoarding the fat, it creates the fat cells like little receptacles and begins filling them up.  Yes, they fill up with the fatty material we stockpile for future energy needs.  But, they also stockpile other things.  All the toxins in your body that your liver can’t eliminate end up stored in your fat cells with the fat.  The more toxins you have taken in, the more poison it is that ends up there.  Toxins can be directly put in your body, like nicotine.  Toxins can be created or occur as byproducts of things you put in your body, like the saturated fat, cholesterol, and arachidonic acid you will have after a diet heavy in meat and dairy products.  Toxins are everywhere in our food, especially in the growth chemicals for natural foods and the artificial sweeteners in manufactured foods.  Most carcinogens we are exposed to in our environment or ingest (cancer causing, by the way), end up stored in the fat cells.

So, along with the fat we are hoarding (for which it could irrationally be argued that there is some disastrous dyer future need), we are also piling up toxins and wastes that sit it our bodies just waiting to poison us and cause long term medical issues.  The fat alone is bad enough.  The presence of all the fat cells, in addition to the severely bad habits around eating and the constant barrage of our digestive and metabolic systems, is crippling our bodies.  But, while we fight the effects of the excess fat cells, we leave our bodies dangerously exposed to the harmful effects of all the toxins being piled up in the fat cells.

If there was ever a good reason to improve your diet and to lose the fat, this is it. 

When you are obese, and I know this from personal experience, the first week or so that you begin a weight loss program, you feel strange.  It is not uncommon for there to be feelings of general malaise or even actual illness to occur.  When you stop taking in the excess calories, and if you also complement that with exercise, your body begins the process of glucogenesis and begins to convert the materials in your fat cells into energy for the body.  As your body processes the fatty materials, it also has to process the toxins in your fat cells.  That can make you feel ill.  It was fine when the junk was just sitting idle in your fat cells (like old asbestos in a building) slowly poisoning you, but now that you have disturbed it, like asbestos, there are the toxic effects of the dust as you remove it.  Your body is left to deal with the residual effects of ridding it of the toxic junk you have been hoarding.

Many people who begin a diet, at this point, say, “I feel like crap.  I can’t do this.  This diet is not right for me.”  They couldn’t be more wrong.  If you are feeling this way the first week, you are successfully ridding your body of waste.  Over time, your body actually gets used to this process of reverse engineering your fat cells and it becomes better at processing the toxins in the fat.  The human body has an amazing capacity to adapt to processes, both good and bad.

You have to go through this if you are going from severely overweight back to healthy.  You have to experience the feelings that go with ridding yourself of the toxins.  You could quit.  The net result to that decision is leaving the toxic time bomb sitting in your system just waiting to cause illnesses like cancer and dysfunction of your system (bringing on functional problems like high cholesterol, high blood pressure, nervous system disorders, etc.).

So, as I was saying, when you are considering the benefits of losing weight, nothing compares to this one.  If you are storing fat in large amounts, you are storing toxic byproducts of your environment as well.

Think about this very carefully.  Many who tell you that losing weight is important will tell you that you need to do it to (a) lower your cholesterol and blood pressure, (b) help physical structure damage caused by muscle and back issues associated with the extra mass, or (c) look better and more attractive.

The best reason that I can think of is that, for your own long term health, you need to do it because you are carrying around every toxic byproduct you ever came into contact with in your own fat cells.  As it sits there, it slowly and efficiently invades your body and poisons it.

Is that a good reason for you to consider fitness?  I am betting that it is.

Think about it, enjoy your day, and plan your next round of exercise! 

THE WORKOUT:

The workout last night was Cardio Plyometric Circuit.  I did AbRipper X before starting it, but as I got into the warmups, I was tighter than usual.  That’s when I started thinking about my day.  Very little hydration…in fact, I hadn’t had as much as a bottle of water all day.  Great time for that to occur to me.  I did the routine, of course.  I felt it though.  The calves and thighs were a little tighter.  The second circuit (Basketball jumps, Level 1 Pushups and Runs, Ski Abs, and In/Outs) was brutal.  I got through it, but I had to pause here and there.  I always know when it’s due to poor hydration because I am not tired from all the cardio, my muscles are sore from the exercise.

In order to get the most out of your cardio, the muscles have to be totally ready for the journey.  Mine weren’t last night, but I made a mental note for the future.  Insanity is the toughest thing I have done so far when it comes to nutritional and dietary discipline.  When you deviate, it shows up in spades in your routine.

Another thing, in Cardio Plyo…what’s up with Shaun T cutting short (or cutting out!) some of the stretches.  I know he thinks they are very “im-paw-tint” so, what the heck?  Just an observation.