Real Life Fitness – Getting Fit With Brent

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

I’m going to be a bit vulnerable with this post.  It involves me, weight gain, and sugar.

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?

Brent Nutrition And Diet, Primal/Paleo Eating Beachbody Ultimate Reset, fitness, paleo, Shakeology, sugar addiction, weight gain, weight loss

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.

Brent Nutrition And Diet, Primal/Paleo Eating diet, food prep, nutrition, paleo, primal

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

Today was X2 Core. I have not been updating the blog as much as I have intended but hope to change all of that in the next little bit.

Core is one of those workouts that is much harder than what you think it should be, I am getting better at it but still have a lot to improve on.

I have made it a point to recommit myself to a diet plan that is strict and geared towards results. I have been too lax over the last three weeks and decided it was time to get back to getting results. I am doing the grain free version of the X2 nutrition plan, starting with the fat shredder. This plan does take a lot out of me after a few weeks. I am debating on whether I want to go back to a straight Paleo plan, including going back to a higher fat plan. But I am a big fan of systems and want to see what I can achieve out of what Beachbody has put together for X2.

I hope to do some videos soon, too. Keep tuned in to see!

Brent P90X2 p90x2, paleo, X2

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

Ok, I’m going to admit it:

In the last week, I’ve taken 2 cheats.  One was just desert (albeit a LOT of it), and the other was a full cheat meal.  I wasn’t thrilled that I did it, but I did.

Let me tell you why I cheated:  I was not prepared.  One night I should have just had fruit, but instead I had a variety of sweets.  And last night, I ate WAY in left field.  Both of these nights I was not prepared nutritionally or mentally to avoid caving.

Now….I can sit here and beat myself up over it, or I can just face the fact that I did it, no way to undo it, and get back to focus.  This is what I do.  If I take a single cheat (or a couple of cheats), the last thing I want to do is beat myself up over it.  Usually my body feels crappy enough to not have to worry about mental anguish.  In fact, after the dessert incident last weekend, I spent quite a bit of time on Easter Sunday feeling like the crap I ate.

Yes, if you are not prepared, most likely you will fall away from your diet.  It happens.  It is not what you want to have happen, but it happens.  Pick yourself up off the floor, get moving in the right direction, and realize that it’s not going to kill your results or make you feel bad forever.

In my case, both times, I went back to intense focus on my diet.  After last night’s “binge” I immediately went back to my paleo ways.  After all, I’m getting results, and the only way to derail that would be to return to eating junk all the time instead of just once (or twice).

So when you veer off your clean eating plan, what do you do to regain focus?  I’d love to hear!

Brent Nutrition And Diet cheat meals, fitness, nutrition and diet, paleo, primal

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.

Brent insanity, Nutrition And Diet insanity, P90X, p90x2, paleo, primal, Shakeology