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.

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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

It has been a LONG time since I’ve blogged about my nutrition, exercise, etc, so I thought I would catch everyone up on what is going on.

First, I’m on my last week of Insanity.  I’m glad, too!  I love the workout, but month 2 really starts to get to me after a while.  I think what I’ve learned about month 2 is what it really takes, nutritionally, to survive.  Remember, I’ve been eating Paleo, which is a higher fat, lower carb style of eating if you eat traditional Paleo.

The problem I’ve hit is in month 2 the carb cravings have been intense!  Even with taking the Results and Recovery formula (not Paleo, but I needed a recovery drink in a desperate way) and Shakeology, I still found that 100g of carbs and 80-100g of fat did not give me the energy I needed to strive in the days.  I found myself with INTENSE cravings at night.  And I cheated some because of it.

What I think I’ve discovered is that you really need carbs.  Mark Sisson talks about “chronic cardio” and its affect on the carb cravings in the body, and I believe it now.  While Insanity is more than just cardio, it still pushes your heart rate up in a high zone and pushes your body through your anabolic threshold as well as you aerobic thresholds.

My thought is if I ever do Insanity + Paleo again, month 1 I will not change, but month 2 I will need to carb cycle or simply go to a “zone” style 40/30/30 plan.

I’ve also learned that with Paleo, it is really hard for me to eat enough.  I needed to be getting 2100-2400 calories/day in, and I simply could not hit near that most days.  Another reason for intense carb cravings (when I get depleted, my body craves sugars as a quick and easy energy source)

With this knowledge, and the fact that month 2 was starting to beat on me, I had to make a decision:  To continue, or do something else.

I’ve decided that I’m going to move on to P90X2 (finally) instead of repeating Insanity.

And what that means is a transition off of Paleo/Primal eating….somewhat.

P90X2 does include a “grain free” option meant to help the caveman eaters, but it is not the high fat, low carb plan (just simply grain free).  Since this is my first time through the program, I plan on following the nutrition plan as it is laid out.  I think this is important for my Beachbody business as well as seeing how I feel and learning a bit more about my body.

June 3rd (Sunday) will be my official start date.  After I finish this round of Insanity, I am taking a week off to do nothing but stretch and recovery and get ready to push hard with X2.

And, of course, I’ll be forming a P90X/X2 Challenge Group.

Brent insanity, Nutrition And Diet, P90X2, Primal/Paleo Eating insanity, P90X, p90x2, paleo, primal, results and recovery, Shakeology

I’m 12 days into my Insanity + Shakeology + Paleo Diet challenge and I’ve got to share a bit of my results and tell you why this happened:

In my first 10 days, I dropped just under 10 pounds.  That’s right, an average of one pound a day.

Even better than the weight loss is the changing of my body.  Things are fitting a lot looser now than what they did just 2 weeks ago.  Needless to say, I’m thrilled.

But, while Insanity is my chosen path for exercise, it’s not really Insanity that I believe is making the difference, but rather the consistent focus I am putting on my nutrition.  I am not cheating.  I’m eating strict paleo, which also means no butter or cheese (two things that I would incorporate into my more Primal Blueprint style diet).

In my opinion, Insanity is just the catalyst for my nutrition.  I could be doing anything with a level of intensity, be it P90X, X2, Crossfit, whatever, and probably get the same results.  The reason why is this:  You can exercise all you want, but if you do not keep aware of what you put into your mouth, you may be defeating the purpose of exercise.

Just from my personal experience, and maybe you can relate:  When I exercise, especially lifting heavy weights, I get a lot hungrier over the day.  It’s easy to go into the panty and find junk and put it into your body just to satisfy the hunger.  But what did you just do?  Most likely, you took in empty calories.  You just put something into your body that will provide no real nutritional benefit.

Change that around to having things planned and knowing exactly what you’ll eat:  If you have a nutrient rich snack on hand, such as almonds, you know what you are eating.  You know the calories.  You know the nutritional detail.  You know whether that fits into your plan or not.

The great thing about the paleo/primal way of eating is knowing what you put into your body.  Instead of purchasing products that have a lot of additives, chemicals, preservatives, etc, you eat something that is usually a single ingredient or just a few.  But you know they are whole food sources, good for you, nutrient rich for the calories, and will keep you on track with your goals.

Now you could any reasonable whole food diet and produce results.  Maybe you cannot break free of starches, so you decide to do a lower fat, higher carb diet.  If you are focusing on good carb sources, you could get results.  Any diet that provides single ingredient, non-processed foods or foods that are good for you will produce results.

Now, I can already hear people saying:  “But Brent, Shakeology is NOT a single ingredient food!”

You’re right, and the strict paleo’s would denounce me as not eating true paleo for drinking it.  And that’s fine.  So be it.  I’m pseudo-paleo, and fine with that.

But this is (as I’ve mentioned before) a situation of not throwing the baby out with the bathwater.  Shakeology is a collection of whole food ingredients.  Similar to making a big salad with lots of little things, Shakeology is the same.  It is good for me, and that’s why I drink it.

But it fits into my overall diet.  It is my main carb source when mixed the way I like.

It’s part of my focused nutrition plan.

So let’s do this:  What are you currently eating?  Tell me:  Does it fit into your plan, or does it detract from it?  Use the comments section below to answer.

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Ever start something and then could not continue (for a reason you may or may not control), and feel bad and wish you could just start over?  I’m sure you have, and I know I have…many, many times!

And that’s exactly what I’m doing!

I wrote last week about starting Insanity while doing Primal eating.  Things were going great, I was digging being back into Insanity, and then IT hit:  Sinus infection!  Not just the runny nose type, the “my head is going to explode when I bend over” type.  I made it to the recovery day workout, got to the first point to when you bend to flat back and BOOM!….major throbbing pains.

Not pleasant.  I knew I was not feeling well that week and did not think anything of it until that day.  So, I immediately stopped.  I mean, half the workout involves my head being below my chest, and that simply would not work.

It actually worked out to my advantage.  I started off the week eating like complete glutton.  Processed foods, corn products, all things not paleo/primal.  And I was feeling it:  Sluggish, bloated, and blah!

Plus, a friend of mine is a Crossfit instructor and their box is starting an 8 week paleo challenge.  I thought, “Hey, great timimg…think I’ll follow along.”  So that is exactly what I’m doing.  Today was day 1 of Insanity + Paleo, but I did not retake the fit test.  Instead, I’ll pick up on day 2 tomorrow, get my sweat on, etc.  I already have lunch prepared for tomorrow (spaghetti squash + sauce, a salad, a sweet potato wedge) and a snack of almonds ready to go.

So if I can hit reset, so can you!  It is okay to just stop, realize that something is not right, or your not following your guidelines/diet well enough, and simply restart.  Sure, it may suck losing that amount of time/energy you’ve spent on whatever so far, but it is best to do things the right way to get results.

After, results ARE what we are seeking, correct?

Speaking of results, one thing I am aiming for is more sleep, so it is time to retire for the night!  I promise to post more, and hopefully will produce more videos soon.

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It’s been a while since I’ve blog, so thought I’d give a quick catch-up to what all I’ve been doing over the last 7-8 days on exercise, my Insanity results, etc.

First, my Insanity results:

-  Lost almsot no weight (around 1 pound final weigh-in, but I’ll say more on this in a minute)
-  Lost 1″ from waistline
-  Lost 1.4% body Fat

Although my weight did not change then, I did manage to drop down to 165 a bit later last week, so I think a lot of the weight on my final weigh in was just waist and sodium.

Here is a picture of my Insanity before/after:

Good progress, nothing “earth shattering” but very pleased with the overall fat burn I had.  I can tell the biggest difference in my upper abs and in my arms.

Since then, I attempted a start of another week of Insanity, but after being smart and listening to my body, I decided the best route to go was to rest my body and shoulders a bit before I started Asylum.

-  Last Sunday I did do Max Interval Plyo.
-  Last Monday I did 20 minutes of Max Cardio Conditioning but had to stop due to pains from a kidney stone (not pleasant, let me tell you…)

From that point, I did 2 days of Yoga and then got sick.  Yep, when it rains, it pours.  So I took 3 days off from exercise altogether:  Two to get to feel better, and one was  regular scheduled rest day.

Yesterday I did my Asylum assessment test.  I’ve got video and I’ll post results later tonight.  It wasn’t pretty, not at all!

So there it is in a fairly wordy nutshell.  This week I’ll be doing Yoga and then heading to Beachbody’s Coach Summit 2011 in Los Angeles.  I’ll post updates on new products, workouts, etc, throughout the weekend.  You can also follow me on twitter (@brentworley) to get up-to-date about what Beachbody is going to release.

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Wow, 62 days of Insanity down. And today was miserable. Late night last night, rough night with the kids, and a 5:30 alarm made this one difficult. I did manage to burn 850 calories between Max Cardio Conditioning and Insane Abs.

Today is day 3 of the 50/50/50 challenge. I actually took it a bit easy and kept it fairly simple. I wanted to rest my shoulders a bit more than crazy clap push-ups or anything like that. Still did all 200 reps of what I have been doing.

I plan on taking some measurements and pictures tomorrow but will take more after one more week of Insanity.

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Day 61.  Two days of Insanity left.  Cannot believe how quick this has gone…again.  Today was Max Interval Plyo.  I think this may be my least favorite month 2 routine, although I’m a bit undecided on it and Max Recovery.

Although I will say I’m ready to repeat this week next week.

28 more days of the 50/50/50 challenge.  Today I did:

50 push-ups (standard, military, wide, major declines, and claps)

50 Squats (15 lbs 30 times, 20 lbs 10 times, 25 lbs 10 times)

50 ab work moves of various flavors

50 pull-ups (20 wide, 10 reverse, 10 close grip, and 10 switch grips)

Brent insanity insanity

So I’m on day 60 of Insanity with only 3 short days to go…except, I’m going to repeat this week completely next week just for the added push.  Yeah, I’m nuts.  But, my nutrition hasn’t been great and I don’t feel like I’ve pushed as hard and performed as well as I could have this week because of how I ate.  So the only logical thing to do is repeat the week and push harder, right?

On top of that, a fellow Beachbody Coach posted the 50/50/50 challenge:  Each day in June, 50 push-ups, 50 squats, and 50 crunches.  I did 20/20/10 push-ups (20 regular, 20 military, and 10 declines with my feet up on my desk).  For crunches, I did a variety:  Normal crunches, crunchy frog, bicycles, etc.  And squats were squats.

But, I added 50 assisted pull-ups as well.  So I actually did a 50/50/50/50 and plan to do that everyday this month just as a bonus push.

So that’s my day, and my nutrition was 98% good today.  Goal is to keep it up, improve to 100% on tomorrow, and keep pressing play.

Brent insanity insanity