Insanity: "Control" Day 6 of 60

My energy this week has been at an all-time high.  It might be the Insanity…it might be the addition of AbRipper and two Muscle Routines from P90X in the AM…it might be the treadmill.  All I know is, I am bouncing off the walls.  My day job, and yes, I actually have a day job (many think with the amount of exercise and blogging that this is ALL I do!), is spent with a colleague that I have gotten close to over the past year.  I don’t think he reads my blog, and I don’t think my work colleagues read it, so I don’t think I am blowing any secrets.

Without going into too much detail, at my high energy frequency this week, he has been laughing at me when I come into the office.  He says I am nuts.  We were talking about exercise and eating right.  Like 65% of all Americans, he has his challenges with his weight.  He is far from alone, in fact, he is one of the vast majority.  In a nutshell, he said, “I know I have to do something, but I’m depressed.”

“I never had a weight problem my entire life.  I was always the one all my friends envied.  I actually modeled when I was thirty-five.  Then, I stopped smoking.  I started taking more vacations.  And here I am.  Now, every morning when I get up in the morning and look in the mirror, it depresses me.  When the job is stressful, I get more depressed.  Everything bothers me.  I’ve never been this big.  I actually have a gut.  A gut.”

This was not someone just making excuses.  This was from the heart.  I really connected and felt his pain.  I will be honest, I know I can help him.  I know what it feels like.  I could have just shook my head and walked away.  We are all very comfortable when people pretend to give you emotion and fake an honest response.  It’s like playacting a dialog.  But when someone is truly letting you inside their emotional wall, for many, the first response is to just shake your head and silently leave them to their pain.  That, however, is not ‘how I roll.’  So I spoke up.

“Listen, it’s all about control.  And you can do this.  Four years ago I was in that same place.  Not only did I see it in my mirror, I saw it in my clothes, in my medical statistics, and in people’s eyes.  It wasn’t just my weight either.  My whole life felt out of control.  My work.  My relationships.  My future.  It all seemed like I was on some rollercoaster going wherever I was taken.”

“Four years ago, when I decided not only to lose the weight but to change my life and keep it off, something else happened.  I took control.  I decided to drive.  It changed me.  But it started with controlling my own health.  So many of us feel out of control because the things we do every day are affected by other people.  Your fitness and health is your first step.  I knew when I was doing it that it was all me.  No one affected it.  It wasn’t like work, where organizational dynamics and professional relationships can keep your projects from succeeding.  I just had to eat right and exercise.  It was MY thing.  I didn’t need anyone to bless or approve this.  I also didn’t need anyone to help me succeed.  I was dependent on just me and me alone.  When I finally looked in the mirror one day and saw what I had done, I knew I could control many other things in my life that I had mistakenly thought controlled me.”

“When I looked in the mirror one year later, it reinforced my belief that my life was driven by me.  I chose the right food.  I chose the right exercise.  The weight remained off and I felt great.  Then I decided to make changes in the way I approached my day job.  I modified my point of view and improved some personal relationships.  I then decided to write a book, and did.  I then decided that my job had become toxic to me (and I was now in a state where I could recognize the symptoms) and I found a new job…in fact, a better job!”

Taking control, I explained to him, gave me the courage and, more importantly, the confidence to change many other aspects of my life.  When you’re depressed and your life seems out of control, the first and best place to regain it is by cleaning your personal house.  There is nothing more rewarding to all other facets of your life than changing your health and fitness.  It starts out physical but evolves to something deeper than that.  Once you conquer that, you feel like you can beat anything.

He truly seemed to embrace what I was saying.  I will continue to be the one pushing the message.  It helped me in so many ways that it is often difficult to list.

Control.  It starts with you as the hub and, when you begin to experience those small successes, it extends to all other aspects of your life.  Very soon, it becomes BIG successes.

The answer to a depressed state is knowing that you can do something to change your situation.  Doing it once and repeating it gives you the confidence.

As we go into the Memorial Day weekend, I need to say two things.  Happy Birthday to my son Nick, who turns 15 on Memorial Day and thanks to all the veterans out there, in particular the ones still serving, who have sacrificed their lives for our freedom and safety.

Maybe one last thing, lots of salad and fresh fruit and vegetables…with the barbequed meat cut up into bites and sprinkled on the salad.  Chew it a lot before you swallow and savor it.  Watch the nutrient shallow carbs like white bread and pasta.  And not too much booze!  Ha-ha.  It weakens the resolve and makes you crave more carbs…like dessert. 

All the best and Happy Memorial Day!

THE WORKOUT

Friday is my ‘break day!’  I love making the break day Friday.

Insanity: "Alone Again" Day 5 of 60

Challenge Groups are a great thing that we are encouraged to do as Beachbody coaches.  It helps a lot for those working out to know they are not going through it alone.  Many ask me that question, “Who do you work out with?”  The answer?  “Nobody.”

If you work out alone, how does it affect you? 

I work out alone.  Even with the Challenge group format, you are a solo act because it is primarily social media driven.  There is no physical presence.  In spite of that, I probably push just as hard when it’s only me as I would if someone were with me.  I guess, for many, that’s not the case. 

Let me rationalize my perspective.  I have the DVD’s and there are plenty of people in them.  If I were at the gym, it would be the same.  People would be standing around me, sweating while I sweat.  When I work out, I don’t converse, I work out.  I do the same with the DVD’s.  Oh, sometimes I found myself talking back to Tony Horton in those P90X workouts.  Sometimes I mimicked him. 

“You’re lookin’ at me, I’m lookin’at you!” 

“They’re working hard, I know YOUUUU are!!” 

“That’s it, get a close up of my little calves.”

When I did P90X, I could be heard mocking Wesley Idol’s lack of energy in Kempo X, or making fun of Dom the bouncing frog in Plyometrics with his awful form and lack of thigh and butt power.  I would smirk at Dreya’s overly made up face while noticing that she bore a slight resemblance to Michael Jackson.  Sophia made me smile just because she did all her exercises with a pleasant grin and without weights as though she hadn’t a care in the world.

So was I alone?  Not really.  Certainly, no more alone than I was in the 70’s and 80’s when television kept me company.  Steve Austin and the Fonz were my buddies.  Charlie’s Angels were the women in my life.  Archie Bunker kept me laughing.  They don’t talk back to you…but they get a rise out of you.

So here I am, alone again.  Working out to the DVD.  For Insanity, I now have Shaun T.  There’s a whole new cast of players for me to warm up to…or not.  I already like some, and dislike others.  There are the ones that actually hide behind Shaun so their pokey effort isn’t caught on camera.  There are less stealthy ones who, after they know the camera is on them begin to pick up their effort.  The girls in front really give their all, while the guys in back kind of drag.  Then, there’s the guy from the fit test.  He looks like an accountant who got tossed in by accident and hasn’t worked out since he played racquetball in business school.  So I am not really alone.  I have all these people to watch critically.  It’s not that I dislike them…it gets me through the routines.

So tonight, its back to the mat, all alone again.  But I will get results.

THE WORKOUT

Plyometric Cardio Circuit.  Round 2.  I did this on Day One, so now I am going full circle.  I got through the warmups with no problem and the sweat started pouring out during the stretching.  When we went into the circuit, I was ready for it.  I made it through the first circuit fine, the second circuit was a different story.  The pushup, run it out…followed by the ab jumping thing…killed me.  I had to break.  It’s not the cardio mind you, my muscles are failing…I just have to stop because I can’t go anymore.  Everything else is fine, but those two in a row just break me.  So that’s my goal…to get through the third circuit without stopping.   

Everyone should put their goals in front of them.

I also owe Shaun T. an apology.  I was saying earlier in the week that he didn’t warm up the calves enough.  I may have been a little too harsh.  You DO have to stretch them a bit prior to the warm ups.  But if you stretch correctly with him during the stretching phase, and don’t bend the knees, you will stretch those calfs out…but you need to use proper form at all times.  I really focused on that tonight and it helped a lot.

Also, I have had success with the treadmill post workout, so I did another 20 minutes tonight.  Ab Ripper X tomorrow and I get tomorrow night off!  Good night!  

Insanity: "Clean Eating" Day 4 of 60

First, a quick fitness update.  I did AbRipperX from the P90X program this AM.  I got up, had breakfast and then did, as I recall Tony Horton saying, “Three hundred and fifty ab crunching exercises.”  I love AbRipper.  It takes 17 minutes.  Up at 6AM, make breakfast, post my blog, do the 17 minutes, hit the shower, and then out the door by 7:15AM for the 7:30AM train.  17 minutes.  We all have 17 minutes.  Right? (I am smiling right about now)

Okay!  Clean Eating.  What the heck is THAT?  That’s the thought that went through MY mind when I first heard it.  All lifestyle changes for health involve eating right and exercise.  In fact, when people say it, “Eat right” always comes first!  It is also the first thing we toss aside as we do the exercise.  I did it too.

When I got P90X, it came with an exercise guide and a nutrition guide.  There is nothing I hate more than the “Nutrition Guide.”  Generally, they are recipe books.  So I toss them.  The Beachbody book, I will fess up, is also very much a meal planner and recipe book of healthy alternatives.  I hate to cook.  I eat in ten minutes.  I don’t know how anyone can enjoy it.  So I tossed the book to the side and opened the DVD’s.

When I got Insanity…first thing I saw was a nutrition guide.  What? No exercise guide?  I think I got gypped!  Nope, insanity only has a flyer.  But, it does have a nutrition guide too.

When I eat, I want simplicity.  I do not want to think about it.  I eat almost the same thing every day.  But, again, I don’t think about it.

As I was doing my Challenge Group in P90X, I was having some energy issues.  My diet was not giving me the energy and recuperative fuel that my body needed.  I sent my diet to my two Coaches, who came to the conclusion that it had enough calories but I wasn’t getting enough nutrients.  In the course of our conversations, Lisa Barker, my primary Beachbody Coach and sponsor, said, “Wow, Dick, you eat really clean.”  I did not know what that meant.  Embarrassingly enough, I knew a lot about fitness but not a lot about nutrition.  As people say, “I knew just enough about nutrition to be dangerous.”

From the time I lost all my weight on my liquid diet, I had a new meal plan for my life.  I have been modifying it over time.  Apparently, I created a meal plan for myself that typified something called “Clean Eating.” 

I have Oatmeal in the morning (not processed, the real oats that take five minutes to cook) with all natural Applesauce (not the stuff with high fructose corn syrup, the ingredients say ‘Apples, water’), a palmfull of raisins and natural ground cinnamon.  That’s my breakfast every morning for the last four years.  There isn’t one processed food in that breakfast.  No chemicals, no additives.  All of it is the way it arrived on this earth.

My lunch is a salad with about 3-4 ounces of grilled chicken or fish.  The salad is iceberg lettuce and spinach, broccoli, tomatoes, green peppers, olives, jalapeno’s and the meat.  The dressing is balsamic vinaigrette and is pretty much the only processed thing in the meal.

My dinner is Shakeology with fruit blended in.  I will grab some real meat protein if it was part of dinner that night but otherwise, a handful of nuts and raisins with maybe an apple round out dinner.

After exercise, I eat more trailmix and fruit.

All of my snacks during the day are natural foods except the Protein bar I have mid-afternoon.

My diet is pretty clean.  What is “Clean Eating?”  It is basically eliminating processed foods.  Foods with chemical additives.  Foods that have been manufactured (like Twinkees).  Foods that have been drastically altered with transfats and refined sugars and chemical sweeteners.  It’s actually the simplest thing in the world…if your food doesn’t come with a label (like chicken, fish, fruit and salad), it’s a pretty good rule that you can eat it in modest quantities.

If your food HAS a label…and reading that label brings back nightmares of High School Chemistry…don’t eat it.  You know what real food is.  There is stuff on a label that is NOT on the food pyramid…anywhere.  High Fructose Corn Syrup.  Hydrogenated anthing.  Aspartame?  Olestra?  All of these things are toxic to your body.  Not necessarily poisonous (although some actually are), toxic.  Toxic means that they do not belong in your body and your body naturally wants to eliminate them.  Toxic also means that prolonged ingestion of these things will imbalance your metabolism, weaken your immune system and leave you exposed to health issues.  While your body (and primarily your liver) is processing all the toxic junk from your food that you have eaten, it cannot do what comes naturally, which is turn the real fuel into energy and burn your fat.  So you are tired and you gain weight.

While the body chemistry is somewhat complicated, eating clean is not.  The only reason to get recipe books on Clean Eating is if you really love food.  If eating to you is some kind of passion (and it is NOT to me…not judging, that’s just me) maybe these books will help you create beautiful clean meals.

Bottom line here is, while exercise has changed my life, the change in my everyday diet to cleaner eating habits has probably influenced it even more.  My cholesterol of 163 (down from almost 270 in my really big days) is just one body marker that tells me the diet has been beneficial.  I will include more about Clean Eating as I educate myself further but for now, just read the labels.  Only eat foods that are delivered to you the way they were delivered to this earth!

Exercise later today!!

THE WORKOUT

Pure Cardio tonight!  It went really great.  The first two nights were hard (and I don’t count the Recovery Night).  I went into tonight really hydrated because I know how much the twitch muscles are going to be used.  They have to be hydrated or you will pay.  I also stretched before and after on the advice of a coach who answered something I put up on the Team Beachbody bulletin board.  I went into the exercise ready to kill it…and I did.

I felt so good afterwards that I went on my treadmill for about 25 minutes to burn another 200 calories and stretch out those calf muscles!

I was ready for the pace and rhythm of the routine tonight, and that helped a lot too.  Oh yeah, knowing how to DO the routines…that was valuable.  The first two nights, I had to look up and check and recheck my form.  I only screwed up one time tonight, the drop into push up position and then hop back up and jump.  Can’t remember the name, a true indication of ‘week one-itis’.  I was not just going to plank and hopping back up, I was doing Tony Horton prison pushups.  I burned out around 45 seconds.

So, all in all, a real great night.  Tomorrow we do the first repeat.  I love the first repeat night because there is ALWAYS improvement.

Okay, see you tomorrow.