Real Life Fitness – Getting Fit With Brent

So when I started out on this goal called Operation 20, my goal was only one cheat meal a week. However, this week already through me a curveball.

Date nights!

So yesterday, my wife and I took a golf date night. We headed to the course and she ordered something for us to snack on while we played (I had just come from therapy): Cheese Fries.

And I ate. And yes, they were good, but I paid for it later. I did have quesadillas later too, but those where not nearly as bad. But, this all was way off my plan.

First, I did nit sweat it too much. I have been way under my calorie needs all week. I should be eating 2200-2400 but in all reality I may be getting 1800 at most. So the extra calories did not scare me.

Second, I knew I had to get back on track today. And I did. On our date night, I got a salad with grilled chicken,

My goal has got to be eating more with the level of activity I have. Insanity, physical therapy, and golf all keep me moving a lot. 1800 calories will send me to starvation mode soon if I do not get a grasp on how much to eat.

So the goal nest week: Eat more (healthy) food!

Brent insanity, Nutrition And Diet

Operation 20 day 3 was a decisive moment early.

First, I did not eat enough on Monday. I did not get quite enough sleep. I was tired and lacked energy. Overall, this morning sucked. Bad!

So after the first round of circuit one in Cardio Power and Resistance, I almost stopped. As in, I really wanted to quit. The thought of jumping one more time, or one more V push-up, or hearing Shaun T’s voice anymore was not something I wanted.

And I almost did.

But I knew if I did, I would be upset with myself for giving up so easily later. And it would deprive the benefit of the recovery drink!

So I sucked it up, put on my big boy pants, and got to work. And I finished.

And I was happy I did! I was rewarded with a lot of energy later on during the day.

I’ll write about this more later, but I am not eating enough. I have got to squeeze in more calories. If not, suck age will ensue.

Brent insanity, Nutrition And Diet Insanity weight loss Shakeology

I hope to blog daily, but…well, summer is a busy time of year.  This week is probably the worst.

Operation 20 (20 pounds lost by August 1st) is in full effect.  Day 1 was Insanity Plyo Cardio Circuit and day 2 was Insanity Pure Cardio and physical therapy.  So far the diet has been good.  I need to eat more in days I have PT.  But I’m staying fairly clean.  The worst thing I had last night was some corn.  But considering I was short on carbs, a bit of a grain was not going to kill me.

I’m focused on making it through week 3.  That seems to be an issue with me post surgery.  I can go a week.  I may even go 2 weeks.  I get past that, I fall apart.  I need to focus on nutrition for all 3 weeks.  When I let nutrition slip, even a little, I will pay the price.  It’s a quick downhill spiral.

Starting weight was 201.8.

After day 1:  200.8

After day 2:  199.4

Most of my initial weight loss is going to be extra sugars, salts, and junk in the system.  I could see myself in the 197′s by the end of this week just based on that loss alone.

No rest day this week.  On my Wednesday “recovery” day I will do Core Cardio and Balance.  I hope in the not too distant future to add back in some yoga instead.  We’ll see how the shoulders hold out.

Brent insanity, Nutrition And Diet

I’m going to write something that may be a bit controversial.  In fact, it may seem contradictory to my association with Beachbody, considering they sell supplements.  But it’s the truth, and everyone knows it whether they want to admit it or not (and most times, they will not admit it due to the financial gain they lose…more on that later).

So here it is:

It is NOT the supplement you are taking, drinking, whatever that is causing you to lose weight!

No, it’s not.

Supplements are named “supplements” for that very reason:  They are there to supplement some other change you are making in order to reach the desired effect.

To make my point:  If you started taking a supplement that promises weight loss, but you continue to eat like a pig, you may lose a couple of pounds (depending on what the supplement does), but you will not have any real long term success.

However, if you “supplement” a good diet, healthy habits like exercise, rest, etc, then the supplement MAY help.

No supplement is a miracle, though.  You will not magically lose weight unless you have already made drastic changes away from the standard American diet (SAD) and are eating how your body needs to be fed for the results you are wanting to do.

Yes, Shakeology is a supplement.  It is also usable as a meal replacement.  It is a GREAT product, but it is not a miracle product.  If you want long term results, use it to supplement a otherwise healthy diet.  You cannot drink a shake each day and then eat tons of other calories, sugars, bad fats, junk food, etc, and expect to look like Tony Horton or Shaun T.  It’s not happening.

So what brings this rant on?

There are so many companies out there in the direct sales industry that believe their supplements are miracles.  They truly believe that by just adding that supplement to their life that they have magically lost all of this weight.  And for a majority of them, that is simply NOT true.

The real truth is this:  They were approached by a product that could help them lose weight (so they were told), and they were given a plan to take the product, change how they eat to a cleaner, more wholesome diet, do some exercise, and they lost weight.  They made a lifestyle change that was supplemented with a supplement.

Who knew that eating healthy foods and exercise would help you lose weight?  (no sarcasm at all, I know)

But these people will never, ever admit that is the case.  Doing so would hurt their paycheck.  It would hurt their credibility.

When I first started P90X in 2009, I took no supplements.  I ate according to the guide.  I did my workouts every day.  I lost a LOT of fat.  Eating well, exercising, getting results…a novel concept, I know!

I did not add Shakeology until sometime in 2010 after my second round of P90X.  At that point I was taking the P90X multivitamin.  But again, it was there to support my lifestyle change I had already made.

You’re probably asking yourself, just as I have asked myself:  Why do you still use Shakeology then, Brent?

Because Shakeology to me has nothing to do with weight loss and everything to do with solid nutrition.  I’m not taking it as a miracle drink to help me shed pounds.  I am taking it, though, to make good nutrition convenient.  I credit the shake with helping me eat healthy, not lose weight (although by adding it in as a lower calorie meal option, with all natural products, toxin flushing ingredients, etc, it may aide in weight loss).

So please…quit trying to convince me that your product made you lose weight.  No….making the decision to change your life by eating better, exercising, and then supplementing your lifestyle with your supplement is what caused you to lose weight, plain and simple.

Brent Nutrition And Diet, Shakeology diet, exercise, nutrition, Shakeology, supplements

Here I am, a week and a half into my paleo/primal style of eating, and I am considering moving away from it and back to something closer to a more traditional style diet.

Why would I do that?

No real good reason. I think the paleo/primal philosophy is fairly sound. However, I never had the issues with grains and beans that others did. In fact, I lost more over a long period of time on “The Abs Diet” style eating than I did on primal.

There are a lot of things I will carry forward with me, though.

For starters, I will still keep a decent fat intake (30-35% or so). I know a lot more about the types of fats that are good for me. I know the oils to use and the ones to avoid. And I still plan to start making my own condiments and dressings using paleo principles.

The other reason is this: I have already decided when I return to P90X that I will follow its nutrition plan. I had awesome results doing this. Why argue with results?

Finally, honestly, I miss certain grains. Wheat, not as much (although bread does make a great delivery device for meats, but that is about it). But I miss oatmeal and brown rice and the various things I can do with it. Oh yeah, beans. And peanut butter.

Plus, Shakeology is not super primal but I hate going without it.

Those are my reasons. No need to argue, no need to explain. I am simply doing what has worked the best for me in the past.

Brent Nutrition And Diet, P90X, Primal/Paleo Eating, Shoulder Surgery, The Abs Diet abs diet, P90X, paleo, primal

After spending my first week at my club’s gym, I now remember my attraction to P90X and why I miss it so much.  Let me review:

1.  Cardio sucks.  Well, at least typical “gym” cardio.  I’m limited on what I can do because of the shoulder surgery, so running is still out.  Exercise bike and elliptical are truly worse than running.

2.  Focus.  P90X lasers me into what I’m doing.  I’m 100% with my workout.  I”m in the moment, and I’m enjoying it (well, for most of the workouts at least.  Not a big fan of a couple of the routines, but whatever).

3.  Intensity.  No doubt when I’m going P90X I’m getting a heckava workout.  I can feel it same day, next day, day after.  In the gym, with as much cardio as I am doing, I’m simply not feeling it as much.

4.  Results.  Again, I can feel when my body got a good workout.  I felt a bit of soreness from leg curls last week, but that was about it.

Needless to say, I’m ready for rehab to be done, full use of my upper body, and back to some serious X time.

Brent P90X, Shoulder Surgery P90X, shoulder surgery, why i miss p90x

“If the upper is broken, work the lower.”

“If the lower is broken, work the upper.”

“If both are broken, work the middle.”

These words from Tony Horton ring out in my head everyday right now.  I remember being in Dallas in September of 2010 with him at a Beachbody event and hearing him state this.

And yet I SUCK at this.

To be honest, not being able to do what I want to do bums me out.  Not quite a clinical depression, but close enough to cause me to lose motivation.  All I want to do is push-ups and pull-ups, darn it!  But, with one surgery in the books (and in the middle of Physical Therapy to get it back up and going) and another one to come soon, I realize that upper body work is not going to be my friend.  For a while.  Possibly a LONG while….

I’ve had to remind myself of Tony’s words.

“Work the lower, Brent….work the lower!”  So I have been this week.  I have a pretty good routine setup, and now I just have to follow it.

Sundays is cardio.  Monday is legs.  Tuesday is cardio.  Wednesday will be a rest/stretch day.  Thursday will be tabatas on the bike.  Friday is is cardio.  Lot of cardio in there, but with the limited nature of how I can do resistance with the legs, I’m on machine weights only.  Don’t want to overdo it on the legs.

And I’ve been reintroduced to my old friend DOMS.  DOMS delayed his visit longer than normal on legs workouts, showing up more than 24 hours after I completed.  I have not done leg curls in years.  My muscles are reminding me of that right now.

I’m a realist and know that this work will pay off, but I must follow good dietary measures first.  Paleo has been good to me, minus the intense headaches so far.  5 days of VLC, and now transitioning into a period of slightly larger carb intakes.  I will still take a cheat meal once a week as long as I’ve held to 80/20 or better on my nutrition.  So far this week I’m hitting around 90/10 or better.

Today I reintroduced Shakeology.  I needed that stuff.  Over the next 2 weeks I’ll keep using it to see how it detoxifies the system while maintaining a relatively clean diet.

In the meantime, I’m going to keep working the lower and looking forward to getting surgery #2 scheduled, over with, and begin rehab on it.

Brent Fitness Tips, Nutrition And Diet, Primal/Paleo Eating, Shakeology, Shoulder Surgery exercise, exercise after surgery, fitness, fitness when injured, shoulder surgery, slap tear repair

Yesterday I finished my first phase of P90X2. I have to be honest here: I am a bit disappointed in my results. I lost weight, lost inches, but body fat did not move much. My big focus is body fat, so it barely moving is a bit frustrating.

My last 2-3 weeks I did a mainly Paleo style diet. While I absolutely love eating a Paleo style diet, I think I have to make a move mainly away from it in order to get the results I want.

So I am returning to more of how the X2 guideline is. When I did that for the first 2 weeks I felt I was losing at a solid pace. Going back to a higher fat version of Paleo seemed to slow my results to a halt.

I feel I have learned a lot about my body eating primal. The biggest thing I have learned is the I do not need wheat products. As I move forward I may allow some grains but a majority of my carbs will come from fruits and vegetables. Of all the things I know I have learned it is that I can always eat more fruits and veggies and be okay.

And like my previous post, I still plan to have a fiber focus it avoiding grains a majority of the time to meet this goal. I will also go back to focusing more on lean meat, limiting red meats, and cutting fats back to around 25-30% of my intake, with a majority being monounsaturated fats.

So, what about to my results?

I lose 4 pounds, but this fluctuated quite a. It.

I lost an inch of waistline.

I lost 1.25″ off my chest.

I actually gained size in one bicep.

So that’s that. Time to get serious and get down to business!

Brent Nutrition And Diet, P90X2, Primal/Paleo Eating p90x2, p90x2 results, paleo, primal

Wow, so here I am into week 3 of clean eating and P90X2 (although this is my 4th week of X2, but the first week was an “eat anything” week).  I’m seeing results.  I can tell I’m slimming up, my core is better, my shoulders hurt less, and all the other good things that come with getting into a routine that just doesn’t beat you senseless.

And on top of it, in my physical therapy, we’re are doing less strengthening and more work to challenge the body and the shoulders in the form of Tough Mudder training (more on this later).

This week is an odd week for me with some traveling coming up (heading out to Las Vegas for the Team Beachbody Summit).  So not a full X2 week on tap, but with 2 scheduled workouts with Tony Horton, I’m sure I’ll get plenty of X-style workouts in.

So I’m pleased, but….

I’ve been doing some research into how men (and women, but mainly men, since I am one) on why we store fat differently and what may be the cause behind it.  I’ve also read a lot about leptin, another hormone involved in weight loss, and am coming to a few conclusions about an experiment I plan on running with my body.

First, I want to refer to this diagram (taken from http://www.healthhabits.ca/2009/08/12/hormones-problem-areas-and-your-body-fat-map-part-2/):

The theory here is that hormone imbalance lead to men storing fat in different areas.  The chart is fairly self-explanatory, but the reasons behind may not be all too obvious.  The link has a lot of great information behind what may cause things such as low T levels, high E levels, and Insulin levels that cause the fat storage.

So I started thinking about my trouble spots and decided that its time to make some changes to my diet.  So here we go:

1.  My Chest

I don’t have large man boobs, but I do seem to store a decent amount of fat in my chest.  This is very annoying, and while I’m losing the fat, I cannot help but to wonder if high E levels may have something to do with it.

The problem is, this is the only symptom of high estrogen that I show.  All of the other things I have read about do not line up with how I feel.  But its worth the experiment.

So the correction:  Lower E, Raise T, manage insulin.  Back to the Primal Blueprint style diet, but with a slightly higher carb load (120-150) with some possible carb cycling, which I’ll talk about a bit later.

2.  My back

Of all the places that REALLY annoy me, its my back.  I have back muscles, but this big blob of goo covering them makes me look a lot bigger than what I really am.

The correction:  Again, Primal Blueprint diet, but increase fiber.  More on this too….later.

3.  My abs

This is common for all men.  I’m not stressing as much about this as the others, but the results should take care of themselves.  Our lower abs are usually the last place fat leaves.  And this one may be the trickiest due to cortisol.

The good thing is, cortisol can be corrected overall by a few steps:  Better rest days (P90X2 has 2, which is good), better sleep (7+ hours), and unwinding time away from the TV.  I personally am trying to read and listen to music more to help manage stress.

Outside of this, the other thing of note here is “Low Growth Hormone” levels.  I’m not sure if this is the issue, and I’m going to assume it is not (I get a decent amount of aminos).

Correction:  Primal Blueprint with more fiber.

The correction is just simply holding to the path I’m taking now.  I attempted the X2 diet, but just kept slipping back to a paleo/primal style diet.  I felt better on days I ate more fat with the lower carbs.

But I’m going to make some other adjustments and see how it works as well.

1.  Carb cycling – On days where I have an X2 routine and PT, I will opt to eat higher carb, lower fat.  My carbs will come mainly from sweet potatoes (1 or 2) and extra fruit.  I will aim for 30-40% of my intake from carbs that day, with 25% protein and the rest in fats.  The thought here is that doing this can help regulate leptin.  Regulating leptin should help keep the fat burn consistent.

2.  Cheat days – This is a bit controversial.  I am 16 days into my focused diet and have been eating well above the 90/10 I set out for myself.  The only day I did anything extra was on Father’s Day where I allowed myself to have some rice as well as a handful of popcorn chicken and (literally) 4 fries.

But, the last thing I want to do is burn out.  And I’ve had success following the 1 cheat meal a week plan.

I’m going to start out with 1 cheat meal every 2 weeks starting in phase 2.  When I do that, the 2 days after the cheat day, regardless of what is going on, will be normal lower carb intake primal eating days.  I will probably opt for only one cheat meal, as opposed to the full day.

3.  Fiber intake – Honestly, I do not eat nearly enough veggies.  I could eat fruit all day (have I ever mentioned how much of a sugar addiction I have?), but veggies are just harder to come by.  And with a primal/paleo style of eating (no beans, no whole grains, no oats, etc), fiber can be difficult to get.  So I did research and ran across this list of highest fiber fruits and veggies.  Seems like a complete enough list to give me some ideas of what to eat.

I like avocado on salad, so I will start incorporating it more.  And while not 100% primal compliant, I will probably opt to get the Shakeology Fiber boost.  This would give my shake a total of 10g of fiber, roughly 30% of what I’m going to aim for each day.  If I can reach 30g a day I may see the affect of the hormones correct themselves.

All of this I must do without risking performance.  I believe the carb cycling will actually help performance, and the cheat meals should keep me from hating life, so to speak.

After I return from Summit I’ll be blogging more with more details about how I’m trying to reach these goals.

Brent Nutrition And Diet, P90X2, Primal/Paleo Eating fat loss, fiber, hormones, p90x2, paleo, primal, primal blueprint, Shakeology

I am 3 days into my second week of P90X2 and three days into the fat shredder plan. First, I am way off on my macros. I am not getting enough protein to take advantage of the fat shredder. My carbs are okay but the rest of my ratios are really off.

Thinking about that, I am thinking of returning to Paleo and primal style eating. I felt happier eating that way, and I think I can get enough carbs in phase 3 through carb cycling to keep fat burn going and get a lot of performance. There is a book about Paleo eating for athletes that I may read before getting to that phase.

To catch you up on the exercises, Plyocide is a killer. I find myself at the top of my heart rate thresholds and sucking wind. I am having to work harder on getting all the reps n.

Today was a recovery day. Foam rolling rocks! I do think in future weeks I plan on foam rolling in the evenings and sleeping in on Tuesdays.

Tomorrow I have a full resistance routine which should push me.

Brent P90X2, Primal/Paleo Eating p90x2, paleo, primal