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.

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.

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.

First, I’m going to say this:  Sugar is addicting.  REFINED sugar is horribly addicting.  I don’t know the true chemical reactions of sugar conversion, but I swear it hits a major pleasure center (not quite like sex does, but some people claim they ‘d rather have sugar).

Sometime around last May, it hit me.  My daughter had a birthday party and we put together a “candy store” for her friends.  There were a lot of different types candies.  None of them really attracted me except the M&M’s.  YUM (or so my brain said).  I had been on a paleo diet all year with low carbs, and when my body tasted M&M’s, and ice cream, it went into overdrive.

Yes, I ate it.  A lot.  And often.

Fast forward to the holidays, where I had already gained a decent amount of weight back.  I weighed in on my surgery day at 186.  That’s 12 pounds heavier than where I had been averaging all year.  After my surgery, the holidays hit and we ate a LOT of sugary treats.  Oreos and milk?  Yep.  Christmas “trash”?  Oh yeah.  And then we went on a cruise.

Now, I’ll say this:  I’m not going to say I’ll never eat sugary treats again, and I’m never going to tell anyone that they’ll kill themselves over one treat.  But what I am going to say is this….its ADDICTING.

The problem is stopping the cravings.  I took the approach of cleansing the system via very low carb (VLC) paleo approach.  I’m not a big fan of being this low carb (under 50g), but I did it anyways.  The cravings are subsiding.

So how do you beat sugar addiction?  Beats me.  Sugar is a weakness.  Just like hamburgers.  And pizza.  But, I care about my health long term, so learning to control things is my #1 priority.

Here are the things I plan to combat it this year:

1.  Eat more fruit.  Sure, sugar in fruit.  But it is natural, not refined, or processed like high fructose corn syrup.

2.  Don’t deprive.  That’s what got me.  I cut myself off from anything until the party.  It’s okay to have something every now and then, just make it a treat and not a habit.

3.  When not depriving, control portions.  Small piece of cake?  Sure,  Half of the full sheet cake?  Not good.  Learn control, Brent!  (just kidding, never ate that much.  Not really a big cake fan. )

4.  Jump back on the bandwagon by referring back to #1.  Fruit does a great job of calming the urge of a sweet tooth.

5.  Ultimate Reset.  I hope to do this by August/September, just before the cravings hit.  And then go back to remembering #1.

6.  Shakeology.  With almond milk.  And peanut butter (or if still paleo, almond butter).  Good stuff, plenty of “sweetness” to it.

7.  Combat seasonal depression.  This year will be easier since my first time to really exercise won’t be until the fall.

Ok.  Game plan in place.  What is your plan or strategies for avoiding sugar?

“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.

The biggest thing I have learned from my weight loss journey is the more prepared I am, the better I do. I am starting to use part of my Sundays to get setup for my entire week.

Trust me, when I am unprepared, then junk comes. And it usually comes in the form of fast food.

So here is what I am doiing this week:

Breakfast: Paleo muffins. See picture above.

1 pound breakfast sausage
onion
bell pepper
baby spinach
eggs
coconut oil

Coat silicone muffin cups with coconut oil. Brown sausage. Fill cups with sausage, leaving grease in pan. Cut onion, bell pepper, and baby spinach into small pieces and sauté in rest of grease. Spoon into cups. Then whisk as many eggs as needed to fill all the cups.

Makes approx 20

Lunch: Roasted chicken and veggies in coconut oil

All of these are prepped and ready to go for the entire week. This will take all of the guesswork out.

After this week I will start adding back in Shakeology. I want to spend this week riding my body of excess carbs. But even then I will use no additional fruit, just coconut milk and almond butter….because it is yum.

2 days in, almost 4 pounds down.

2012 never really got going for me with exercise. Starting the year with shoulder pain and ending it with shoulder surgery made upper body resistance impossible. I managed a round of Insanity, attempted to start another round, hit burn out, had to quit P90X2 due to shoulders, and things went downhill from there.

I did learn a bit about myself and something I need to work on. I obviously suffer from a seasonal depression called S.A.D. It is nothing that I think I will need major intervention but something that I am going to have to adjust around. It affects how I eat, how I feel, motivation to exercise, and other things that have typically caused weight gain in the fall.

So I start 2013 like this:

I’m back to a state with my body that is not pretty. I have a lot of fat to lose. I feel bloated from around 2 weeks of extremely poor eating

I am rehabbing from a labrum repair. This has kept me from doing much exercise

I am having another surgery sometime in the next 1-2 months.

I have a lot of obstacles to overcome to get to where I want to go. I am in a very positive mental state to get there though. I am restarting a paleo/primal diet. I am going to use a local facility for cardio and and leg training. My goal is to quickly de-bloat and start the fat burning process.

My goal is to be back down in the 160′s as quickly as possible. Last year when I did this I got down to 175 (from 190) in a matter of 2 weeks. I have a bit more to lose this year but know I can do it.

When fall rolls around I have to be prepared to fight the depression. I hope by then to be back into P90X workouts and be fully rehabbed on both shoulders.

I also plan to use a few of Beachbody’s supplements. I am starting out with not using Shakeology everyday. I will go the first 3-5 days without it to allow my body to start coming off of the large amounts of sugar I have consumed. My first 3-5 days will be hard. I will be focusing on LISS cardio. I will incorporate strength training in once I feel I am past the sugar detox phase.

Here’s to 2013!

That’s pretty much my mantra right now.  Coming off of this shoulder surgery, I cannot run.  I cannot lift (except my right arm, which I’ll get to a bit later).  I’m fairly limited to walking and riding an exercise bike.  Considering I’m not driving, yet, and I wake up to sub-freezing temps, walking has been sporadic.  I can honestly say I’m not as hardcore as a lot of people, but then again, that is why I turned to P90X and the rest of Beachbody’s products:  Exercise indoors and get into great shape.

But obviously, coming off of SLAP repair, P90X is not in my immediate future.

So I’m taking three pieces of advice from various people, as much as I can.

My saying to others when they ask the best way to start losing weight, I tell them “Eat less, move more.”  It’s really simple.  Be active, eat to fuel your body, but eat under what you need each day in order to start dropping the fat.  In  my situation, this is the best goal.  I’ve made a major effort over the last week to not eat as much, including Thanksgiving.  Sure, I ate….but I only ate one decent size meal, and did not overeat.  I ate a limited amount shortly after that meal, and ate almost nothing that night.

Eat less, move more.  Check.

Tony Horton says, “If the top is broken, work the bottom.”  This is my next goal.  I’m not sure how well my balance is going be with an arm in a sling, but it is time I start figuring it out.  Doing legs workouts are a great way to accelerate my fat loss.  And since my cardio is limited to walking, sore glutes and quads may not bother me too much.  But it could make getting up hard.
Mark Sission’s Primal Fitness:  Move frequently at a slow pace, lifting heavy things 3x a week, do sprints.

Well, this is the basic premise of what he says.  Moving frequently at a slow pace:  That would be my walking.  Lift heavy things:  That will have to be physical therapy plus what I can do with my legs.  Do sprints?  Well, my goal there is to make it to an exercise bike once a week and do one set of tabata sprints on the bike.

As far as the lift heavy things, my next thing is to figure out what I can do with my good arm until it is no longer a good arm (yes, surgery #2 happening next year).  I’m sure I can do some bicep work, some minor shoulder work, lat work, etc.  Again, balance is my concern.  But I’ll do a split between legs and back and arm and back.  So while I will not be doing something 3x a week, 2x is going to be fine.

That’s the plan.  I start today or tomorrow with lifting.  Plus with a cruise coming soon, I want to be a bit better off than what I currently am (and prove that you can lose weight being injured).

What was meant to be a simple subacromial decompression ended up being a complete slap tear repair in my left shoulder. I was a bit distraught when the post operation recovery nurse told me what had happened, but I knew that I would be okay Mobile recovering just a few months. What I was most worried about was, “How are we going to manage with three girls and holidays coming up with me only having one arm?”

The good news is recovery is going a lot better than what I had anticipated. The pain is not nearly as bad as what I thought I would be. In fact I’m a bit surprised that I feel as good as I do. Don’t let me for you, it is not always easy having to rely on my wife to help me do certain things such as bathing washing my hair getting dressed et cetera. But she is helping me the best she can and doing a great job.

My goal is to get back to exercise routine right after Thanksgiving. Right now the pain is too much to be very active. As the pain goes down, though, I plan on getting back out and walking as well as riding an exercise bike.

Today is 72 hours postop and my goal is to manage the pain without hydrocodone. If I can make it until after my physical therapy appointment today, I plan on waiting until I go to bed to take more pain medicine.

24 hours post-op

48 hours post op

I have not done much of anything lately.

If you’ve followed my blog, you know I have had chronic inflammation in the shoulders for a while.  After 12 months of physical therapy, it was time to take further action.  I’ve been seeing a shoulder specialist and plan to have surgery in 3 weeks.

Honestly, this decision scares me a bit.  It’s common on the internet to read the bad and ugly, and that’s all I’ve seen.  I’m not saying I have not seen success stories, but the positive reviews said it took months (4-5) for a shoulder to completely recover after the type of surgery I’m having.  My therapist seems to think 3-4 weeks with as much work as we’ve done, but the uncertainty is not comforting.

My PT and I have been working on a few things to help, though, and thus I consider this phase 1.  The biggest thing we’ve worked on is endurance of the shoulder.   Simple high reps, low weight exercises to build up the muscles ability to thrive under long periods of stress.  I will be increasing the amount of work I do at home with this over the next few weeks.

In the meantime, I’ve limited other upper body work.  My wife and I have done a bit with RevAbs and I will continue to do some of those workout until time for the surgery.  I’ve also bee doing Couch To 5k (C25k) and am just about to complete that program.  I’m not a fan of running, although I’ll say that I am enjoying it more now (mainly because I am outdoors doing something).

Diet has been bad, but in the days heading into the surgery and post surgery I plan to move to a highly anti-inflammatory diet.  I’m hoping this will help swelling and inflammation as well as promote recovery and tissue repair.  I am trying to do some research on Shakeology to see how to be utilize it to promote healing while decreasing inflammation.

So starts road to recovery continues, but with a new, most likely more painful chapter.

My goal coming out of having both shoulders worked on:  Ultimate Reset and then Body Beast:  Cleanse the body, then build the muscles.  After that?  P90X2 and/or Crossfit.