Real Life Fitness – Getting Fit With Brent

It happens to people, and it has happened to me:  You stop losing weight/fat, you plateau (a common name for this), and you get frustrated.  You’re exercising, you’re eating right, you’re sleeping well, you seem to be doing all the right things, and yet the scale hasn’t budged in 2-4 weeks, you’re clothes are not getting looser, and you’re thinking about grabbing that gallon of Ben and Jerry’s and just saying “Screw it!”.

Been there.  There currently, minus the Ben and Jerry’s.

Plateaus happen.  They suck.  They are frustrating.  I’ve personally been stuck at the same weight for 3 weeks now and can relate.  With my shoulder issues my exercise has been scaled back, but I’m still eating on my chosen nutrition plan.

When plateaus happen, it’s time to shock the body.  You’ve got to try something different, right?  So here are a few things that may help, may not, and cannot hurt to try (just don’t go overboard here).

1.  A cleanse, detox, or something similar – I’ll talk about what I plan on doing a bit later in this post, but try a cleanse.  Sometimes our body needs to reset.

2.  Over-eat one meal – Similar to a cheat meal.  In fact, you can take this as a cheat meal if you want.  But if you’ve been on calorie restriction for a period of time (or severe calorie restriction), eat at-or-above maintenance one day, or eat one really big meal.  One big meal won’t kill you and very well may reset your body to need to burn more.

3.  Take a slight break from exercise.  Yes, I said it:  Stop exercising!  But only for a short time, such as a week.

4.  Up your intensity of exercise.  The opposite of #3.  Lift heavier, do a HITT, something different.

Try one of these four.  Can’t hurt, right?  Eating one meal isn’t going to cause you to gain 5 pounds of fat back, and one week of not exercising is not going to turn you into a soft body.

As for me….

With going through shoulder PT, I’m limited on upper body work.  I plan on using my body as a human lab.  I’m experimenting with two different things:

1.  I plan a Shakeology Cleanse.  I need to reset my body nutritionally.  Honestly, I’m not a huge fan of doing a cleanse, but it has always helped me when I need to move my metabolism into overdrive.

2.  I am going to do a Leptin Reset.  I have a slight feeling that I may have a bit of leptin resistance which causes my body to burn more sugar than fat (hence why last year I was 159 lbs, approx 13% body fat, and still did not look slim).

I have nothing to lose doing either of these.  I will not be blogging daily about how it is working but will hit on it every now and then throughout the week.  My goals is to bust through this plateau through nutrition and moderate exercise while the shoulders are healing.  I will take before/after pictures of the cleanse, and will also take weight measurements during the reset with full measurements every two weeks as well as pictures.  The Leptin Reset is only a 4-6 week cycle, so I should finish up by end of March, maybe into the first bit of April.

Note:  This is fairly extreme.  Not that it is extreme as in extremely difficult, but rather just a big change for most.  If you have been eating Paleo/Primal, it cannot hurt to try, which is why I want todo it.

By the way, what are some of the advantages I’ve read about doing a Leptin Reset?

-  Fat Loss
-  Better hair/nails
-  Better sleep (a big reason I want to do this)
-  Increased sex drive
-  Better recovery from intense exercise
-  Decreased cravings

I’ll write more on how I plan on doing the reset (yes, it will include Shakeology, since I’ll be taking reduced carbs I want maximum nutrition).

If you’ve busted through a plateau, I’d love to know what you did and see if anyone else here could benefit from it as well.

Brent Nutrition And Diet, Primal/Paleo Eating fat loss plateau, leptin, not losing fat, Shakeology, weight loss plateau

P90X Chest and Back today, along with Ab Ripper X.  My bicep tendon was a bit of an issue at time today.  I’ve actually learned that part of the problem is that my arm is internally rotated (when your arms are relaxed to your side, your hands should face each other…my left arm faces straight back).  So working on that through stretching and strengthening in place.

To help towards the end, I pulled out my medicine balls to work stability and gave myself a bit more of an incline from my knees.  This actually helped relieve the pressure on my shoulders.

I did take Beachbody’s Energy and Endurance pre-workout drink this morning.  I’ll be writing a full review of it later this week.

I’m tracking what all I eat on my diet for the next few days.  My main concern is getting enough calorie and carbs.  Not that I’m eating a lot of carbs, but I want to keep in that 50-100 range the best I can.  Today, I just barely squeaked in.

My macros for today look like this:

Calories:  1608 (-392 from my goal)
Carbs:  53g (within range)
Fat:  100g
Protein:  145g (within range, possibly a tad high)

So I need to get calories up around 400 without increasing carbs.  Carbs were okay (would be a bit higher and be okay) and fat can go higher, protein was near where it needed to be.

Brent P90X, Primal/Paleo Eating P90X, p90x chest and back, p90x primal eating, primal blueprint

I’m three weeks into my transformation into eating via The Primal Blueprint and using P90X (modified) for my workouts.  It’s been a great three weeks and the transition has been easier than what I anticipated.  Although I’m not able to “bring it” like I want with P90X due to the shoulders, I still feel like I’m getting a lot out of going through the routine of daily exercise.

As far as Primal eating, here are my thoughts on the first three weeks:

1.  I should have detoxed some before I started.  I spent part of November and most of December eating tons of sweets.  Yummy, tasty sweets yes, but when you make a change to a low carb lifestyle (i.e. Primal), the first few days can be/will be pretty rough.

2.  This is by far the best tasting diet I’ve been on.  Let’s face it:  Grains are not really all that tasty.  In order for them to have real flavor you add fat or you add carbs.  So why not just cut out the grains and add more fats?  That’s the mental approach I’ve taken with this.  Now…there are some things I miss:  Garlic bread, for instance (tonight we had Italian, I had spaghetti squash noodles instead of pasta).  But, the things I miss about the bread are the butter, the garlic, and the cheese.  Pizza too.  I have not had a hamburger either, although I think I’d do fine without the bun there.  Just being real here…

3.  I still notice myself short and grumpy, even 3 weeks in.  It’s not nearly as bad as I expected, but I still notice it.

4.  I don’t think I take in enough carbs, even trying to hang in the 50-100g range for fat loss.  So I’m going to start tracking everything I eat, including measuring it out.  It’s going to suck doing it, but at least I’ll know where I am.

5.  I weigh myself more often than what I ever suggest others to do.  I usually tell people to throw away the scale initially and focus on inches.  I weigh myself daily.  I don’t really care a lot about the number, but I do use it to help me track salt as well as a guide on whether to review what I am doing or not.  With that said, I’ve only lost a little over 11 pounds, but I can notice a big difference in my clothes already.

6.  I’ve learned a lot about nutrition.  Not just “eat this, not that” type nutrition, but really the nuts and bolts of micro-nutrients as well as the real purpose behind the macros.  I knew a lot already, and now I just know more.

7.  This is a long haul diet.  I could see this being something where for some people, possibly myself included, it could take 2-3 months to really see the effects physically, even if I am feeling great.

So what is the plan for the next 3 weeks?

For starters, keep my dairy intake low.  I’m limiting myself for the next little bit to butter only.  After 3 more weeks, I’m going to add dairy back in just to see if I notice a difference or not.  And by dairy, I mean just a bit of cheese, maybe some sour cream here and there.

Also, the Super Bowl is coming up.  So my goal is to plan Primal friendly foods for the big game (I’m thinking buffalo wings, maybe some cream cheese and sausage dip with sweet potato chips, and meatballs with a better primal bbq sauce.

Since I’m back into a full P90X routine, the goal is to focus on form, and rehab weights instead of all out muscle blast (although I know part of why I am having some of my problems, which I’ll be focusing on in therapy).

I’ll take another set of partial measurements next week and then a full set after the official phase 1 4 weeks of P90X.  I was already down over an inch in waistline in the first 2 weeks, and my goal is to drop another inch or so by the end of this phase.

Brent P90X, Primal/Paleo Eating P90X, primal blueprint

Today was just P90X day 3, Shoulders and Arms.  This was heavily modified to not do anything against the therapist’s orders.  So, no overhead work (i.e. no shoulder presses of any time) and made sure to take lighter weights.

Unfortunately, most of it was a bit too light.  It did not feel like much of a workout.

I did notice some unusual feelings in my right shoulder that I’m going to have to be mindful of (and see if I can tell what is going on).

As far as diet goes, a pretty good Primal eating day.

Breakfast – Shakeology and 4 slices of bacon

Lunch – Salad with leftover pork roast

Supper – Country style ribs grilled on the Foreman with some veggies

I’m really needing more red meat in my diet…in particular, I need grass fed red meat.  Once a week we are doing steaks.  Those are my most favorite nights!

Brent P90X, Primal/Paleo Eating P90X, primal blueprint diet

P90X Plyo was a challenge today.

Yesterday was a two workout day (Chest and Back in the morning, and the PT in the afternoon).  To compound things, I got to bed late last night.  I had a cramp in my leg overnight which woke me up.  And then, I woke up ahead of my alarm clock.

Yeah, I know….woe is me.  It was just a rough night after a fairly tough day exercise wise.

So when I got into P90X Plyo X today, I was a bit (understatement) tired.  A lo w carb diet, not great sleep, etc, just makes it a bit harder.  It was a challenge from the start.  But I completed the main workout (skipped the bonus workout due to running behind), and felt exhausted by the time all was said and done.

Based on the cramp in the leg, I’m drinking more water tonight and, if I have more, will take in part of a banana tomorrow just to get the extra potassium in me to help with them.  I’ve had them fairly regularly over the last few weeks.

Today’s meals:

Breakfast – Shakeology + 2 eggs scrambled

Lunch – Chili and veggies

Supper – Fajitas on lettuce

My goal for the rest of the month is to cut down on dairy.  I’ll leave butter in as a cooking fat (and maybe some in a sweet potato), but going to cut out most of the cheese and use heavy cream as a occasional indulgence with my food.

P90X Shoulders and Arms tomorrow.  Hopefully this left bicep tendon doesn’t act up!

Brent P90X, Primal/Paleo Eating P90X, p90x plyo, paleo, paleo diet, primal diet

This week I’ve restarted P90X to incorporate the upper body workouts.  I still have a slightly modified schedule (doing Kenpo at the beginning of the week instead of the end, to keep my PT days lined up with my resistance days), but today brought Chest and Back back into my world.

A couple of rules I had to implement:

1.  No pull-ups going beyond 90 degrees.  Doing that fine with Legs and Back, so easy to do that here.

2.  Lighter weights on all row exercises.   May increase soon, but want to start light weight and focus on form.

3.  All push-ups from the knees.

4.  If I feel pain, back off.  Keep in pain free range of motion.

So a lot of it was an experiment at first.  I did notice my right shoulder bothering me some, so I had to cut the range of motion down quite a bit.  I had no problem doing that as the point of doing this is to keep strengthening and get some exercise outside of PT on MWF’s.

Overall though I’d rate today a success.  I completed the workout.  No, not nearly as hardcore as I used to be, but complete nonetheless.

And did so without aggrevating things, which is good.

Primal food today was good:

Breakfast:  Shakeology, 1 egg, 2 slices of bacon.

Lunch:  Lots of Romaine lettuce, some shredded carrots, some bell peppers, half a on the vine tomato, some green pepper, and left over pork roast.

Snack:  1oz macadamia nuts

Supper:  6oz filet mignon, 1 cup mixed veggies sauted in butter, and a sweet potato with some butter, small dollop of sour cream, and just a small amount of cheese (had to get the fat content of this meal up!)

This was probably one of the most satisfying meals I’ve had.  I’m not a big fan of taking that much carb at night, but based on how much training I did today I felt the extra little bit was warranted.

Brent P90X, Primal/Paleo Eating P90X, p90x chest and back, p90x paleo diet, p90x primal diet, paleo diet, primal diet

This weekend I was put to the test…

Friday night we decided to go out to eat.  With 3 kids, all young, we decided to hit a buffet place.  Now, you may be quick to judge and criticize our decision to visit such a place that contributes to the obesity problem in America, but just know that with kids like ours (age wise), it is best to go somewhere that we can get food in front of them ASAP.

But, like most places, it becomes a struggle to determine what to eat, portions, etc.  Lucky for me I do not “calorie count” on the Primal Blueprint.  Instead, I eat veggies and meat.  So, that’s what I did.  A salad to start with lots of greens and some meat, then some chicken and steak.  Instead of hitting the ice cream and cakes, I had some strawberries and pineapple for desert.

Then Saturday, we found ourselves at a Mexican restaurant.  I should mention here that I LOVE chips and cheese dip (and salsa, too).  But, chips are not on the blueprint.  So I waited for my food:  A steak topped baked potato.  It was too much potato, so I ate only half plus the skin of the other half.  Topped it with a good amount of salsa and pico de gallo, so plenty of carbs there.

The point is, you can eat out and survive.  If you go to a buffet place, find one that serves meat and has a good salad bar.  And at other places, it is just a matter of exercising some self control.

And it pays off:  My weight is down a total of 10 pounds.  I’ve lost 1.75″ from my chest and 1.25″ from waist in just 2 weeks, before the major fat burn really kicks in.

Tomorrow starts P90X over for me, as I can start adding in more stuff from home.  So will begin week 1 again and add in the upper body work with some modifications to protect my shoulders.  Should be interesting!

Brent P90X, Primal/Paleo Eating P90X, paleo diet, primal blueprint

If you look at The Primal Blueprint and think about the outline of fitness Mark Sisson gives in the book, yoga would probably fall under the rest/walk days.  Nothing too strenuous, some stretching, some light resistance work (body weight only), and some sweat, but nothing overboard.

Well, at least that’s how I view the yoga.

Decided to chicken out of doing P90X2′s yoga and stuck with Fountain Of Youth (48 minutes is big reason why).  I also wanted to do this one to test my shoulders.  Here is what I learned:

- Push-ups still bother me slightly at the bottom in the left arm.

-  Side arm balance is still not comfortable, but if I strengthen/tighten the arm muscles and push harder against the floor while doing this, I experience less pain.  Definitely something I’m going to discuss with my therapist as I think we may be able to correct the muscles to handle this.

But overall a good yoga session.  I need to work on my hips and hip flexors.  I was feeling it in the Warrior 3 series!

Today was an okay diet day.  Nothing off the diet (too far):

Breakfast – Primal smoothie (which I will not do again) with 2 eggs from free range chickens.

Lunch – Chef Salad with ham and salami and jack cheese, lettuce, sweet red peppers, some  tomato, and other veggies that I cannot remember.  House dressing (which I thought was made from EVOO, but after eating I’m doubting it was…bad Omega 6 day).

Supper – Chili.  Barely any pork rinds to go with it.

I’d say my carb and calorie count was low, but oh well.  It was one of those days where I was stressed enough to want to eat off the diet, but I refused to stray too far (the dressing being about the worse thing for me).

Brent P90X, Primal/Paleo Eating P90X, paleo diet, primal blueprint diet, primal diet

Plyo day.  I forget how week 2 can seem to be tougher.  You think week one is tough, but week 2 seems to exhaust you more.  Less pain, just more exhaustion.  Maybe is because we push harder because the pain is less.  Maybe we think we survived week one, we push harder week 2.

So I pushed harder.  And I actually stopped a bit early due to running behind.  But hey, I had already burned through almost 600 calories, even stopping early!

Yesterday my carb intake was moderation.  Shake for breakfast (only around 23g), salad at lunch (15g maybe?), veggies at dinner (another 20g maybe?), so I think I was between 60-70g.  But sleep last night was not good.  Well, slept fine, just did not get enough.  I did wake up on my own, but it was less than 7 hours of sleep.

So…with that, and knowing my body is still in the converting to fat burning instead of carb burning, and not getting sleep, Plyo felt that much more rough.

But contrary to my title, I don’t think Plyo made me grouchy…just thought it was catchy!  Rather, I think the sleep, the conversion process, and the exercise contributed to me being more tired.  So speaking of which, it’s almost bed time.

But here is my intake today:

Breakfast – 4 slices bacon, 3 eggs, sweet potato, some scallions, all cooked and put together in one big hash.

Lunch – Salad.  Some chicken.

Supper – New York Strip with Cajun butter, lots of veggies

Brent P90X, Primal/Paleo Eating p90x calories burned plyo, p90x plyo, paleo diet, primal blueprint diet, primal diet

Being 9 days into P90X and Primal eating, I’m learning a lot.

I’m learning that veggies are meant to be abundant, and that I’m probably not eating enough.  I read once where I should be aiming for 9 servings a day.  9 cups of veggies!  That’s a lot of stinkin’ salad!  Just kidding, but I know I have a lot of room to improve here.

I’m also learning that it is possible to function quite well on a limited carb intake.  I’ve kept mine successfully between 50 and 100 on average over these 9 days without suffering any major negative affects.  Sure, I’m still a bit edgy at times (my wife would say “most times”) but not nearly as bad as I expected.  I have plenty of energy to get through my day, do my workouts, spend time with my kids, help around the house, and not feel like I am going into a coma.

What else have I learned?  I’ve learned a lot about nutrition in general from the other end of the spectrum.  I’ve learned a lot about proper Omega 6:3 ratios.  I understand more the importance of fish in the diet, although I do not eat any.  I understand why grass fed/free range is healthier, even if not certified organic.

And I’ve learned that I LOVE eating like this, even if I’m not eating enough veggies.

What’s great about this diet is this:  I’m not counting my calories.  I’m not even measuring my portions.  I’m just eating until I’m full, eating when I’m hungry, and if I’m hungry and it is not time to eat, I don’t eat.  Pretty simple.

Combining that with my P90X workouts, I seem to be doing well.  Obviously right now I’m not doing all of P90X because of the pesky shoulder issue, but still doing abs, plyo, kenpo, legs and back (and I hope to add in shoulders and arms soon).  In one month the results will not lie.

Speaking of P90X….

I miss the heavy lifting.  I know I need to diligently rehab the shoulders, but I miss pumping out push-ups and pull-ups on Chest and Back day.  I miss the upper body work in Shoulders and Arms.  I love those two routines…they incorporate my favorite areas to work on overall.  And the shoulders are getting better, and the intensity of rehab is increasing (slowly), but I’m ready for the X again.

And then I’m ready for P90X2.

So those who are doing P90X currently, enjoy the upper body routines for me, will ya?

By the way, the picture above is from FitBomb.com.  I saw it some time back and though it was cleaver.

Brent P90X, Primal/Paleo Eating P90X, p90x chest and back, p90x2, paleo diet, primal blueprint