Real Life Fitness – Getting Fit With Brent

Goodbye 2012! You were a fun, yet difficult year for me when it comes to fitness.

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!

Brent Nutrition And Diet, Primal/Paleo Eating, Shoulder Surgery diet, paleo diet, primal diet, reflections, weight loss

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

Anyone who knows me and my philosophy on fitness and body composition knows that I believe weight to be a “high level watermark” only and not something to pay a lot of attention to.  My opinion is that your body fat measurement is the key indicator of your health along with your measurements, in particular the waistline in males.

But, I do track my weight.  I use it to get  a quick gauge of progress.  If I stop losing, then I go to body fat and inches measurements to make sure I’m still progressing.  And I do this for one simple reason:  It takes more time (and another person) to measure my body fat and inches.

With that being said, I’ve been paying attention to my weight after this first week of primal eating and P90X.  And in the first week, I’ve dropped a tad over 9 pounds.

9 pounds!  Are you kidding me?

Of course, disclaimer:  I’m the first to realize that most of that is holiday bloat.  After all, I went on a cruise where I ate (a lot), came back to Christmas where I ate (a lot), and basically sugar binged for nearly two weeks.  By the way, I love sugary foods, which does make keeping accountable to plans like this tough(er).

But, I have noticed less bloat in my stomach.  I am going to wait until next week to measure inches and body fat, and then will measure at week 4 of P90X and take a set of one month pictures.  Well, technically day 28 pictures, but whatever…

After eating like this for just over a week now, I’ve learned a lot about eating primally:

1.  It is easier than it looks.  Giving up grains/carbs is not that difficult.

2.  Giving up sugar is harder.  In fact, I’m looking for primal diet friend recipes to satisfy the “sweet tooth” but keep me within my goals of primal eating.

3.  But even giving up sugars, I have not had any major cravings.

4.  Energy level dips at time.

5.  It is nice not counting calories, but sometimes tough keeping an eye on carbs (in particular, making sure I’m getting enough most days).

I’ve kept this plan fairly simple:  Eat when I’m hungry, don’t when I’m not.  If I get hungry and I do not have anything on hand to eat, I just do not eat and deal with the hunger (after all, would Grok have done the same?).  Only once have I felt hungry, and I simply ignored it and just drank more water.  Once the hunger has subsided, my energy level actually increased somewhat.

Now, I have also learned a few things about doing this plan with P90X, even as altered as my round is so far.

For starters, keep sweet potatoes on hand.  You’ll need them for post workout nutrition.  I usually use mine for breakfast.  It’s not that I’m trying to quickly replenish muscle glycogen, but rather just get some good carbs into me so that process can begin (even if it is slower because I’m taking in fats and protein…the body will work it all out).

Also be aware on days you need more carbs/less carbs.  If I had my choice, I’d take more carbs in on the lifting days, if I were lifting heavy.  Instead, I take in slightly more carbs on Plyo days and my Legs and Back day, since these are the hardest two workouts I’m doing as far as force and power.  I try to hit right around 100g on these days, and keep a bit above 50 on my other days.

What is my overall impression after a week?  This diet is easily maintainable while doing P90X.  If you are doing a full round, you may take your carb intake higher than mine (I suggest either sweet potatoes or Shakeology…preferably the Shake, but some Primal types want to lean towards chewable foods only).  But in a week or two, I should see a significant reduction in body fat, and I’ll post my results then.

On another note, I miss P90X Chest and Back and Shoulders and Arms routine….very much!

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

I’ve been asked this a couple of times now:

Are you watching your cholesterol with this new diet?

It’s a fair question.  In fact, I’m glad that people are concerned about me enough to ask if this is going to hurt me or not.  But I’ve done a lot of reading from Mark’s Daily Apple and other sites and have come to this conclusion:

Fatty foods do not raise cholesterol.  Carbs do and high levels of Omega 6′s do.

The SAD (Standard American Diet) would have you believe that fat from most sources is bad for you, especially animal sources.  They also want you to believe oils like Canola oil are good for you. They have it backwards.  Animal fats are good for you, and even better for you if they are raised in a natural way (grass fed and grass finished, and not in large feed yards where they eat nothing but grains and stand in their own feces).

The problem is, so many of our fats contain a higher ratio of Omega 6′s and not the heart healthy Omega 3′s.  The more this ratio is out of line, the more likely things will go wrong (such as a higher cholesterol profile, bigger risk of inflammation, heart issues, etc).  Thank you conventional livestock raising!

But grass fed meats and pastured, free range eggs contain a roughly 2:1 ratio of Omega 6/3.  With some basic fish oil supplements, you could easily achieve a nearly 1:1 ratio of Omega 6/3 which would be near optimal and pretty darn good for you.

Ok, so you’re probably wanting my sources.  I’m going to link some articles from Mark’s Daily Apple, and he has a lot of other references there.  Do the research, do the digging, and you’ll see that I’m not crazy for doing this diet.

The Definitive Guide To Cholesterol

Mark Sisson Is Not Afraid of Fat

Rethinking Diabetes and Cholesterol

The Definitive Guide to Saturated Fat

You can do your own digging from these sources.  But go back and also review some of the success stories from his website and see people’s physical reports.  You’ll be shocked how a diet like this can actually improve your numbers.

Brent Nutrition And Diet, Primal/Paleo Eating cholesterol, paleo diet, primal blueprint, primal diet

So I’m settling into this diet more and more and starting to feel less of the effects of low carbs already.  I’m not completely over the hump yet, but compared to day 2, I’m much more awake overall, feel less crabby, and generally feel happier.

No, I’m not perfect yet, mainly because I’m still struggling with variety of food choices and figuring our what is best.  Lunch will always be the hardest meal for me since I prep my meals and take them to work with me (the disadvantage of where I live is it is too far to drive home to cook lunch).  Breakfast variety must get better.  I cannot eat eggs everyday and expect to stay sane!

And today was definitely an exception-to-the-rule type of day.  I overslept.  As in, my alarm was set for 5:30am, I don’t think I heard it, and slept until after 7am.  That’s never a good way to start the morning, much less when you have food prep to do.  Needless to say, my P90X yoga session had to get put on hold until the afternoon.

But I survived and got things pull together well.

After yoga this evening, it was time to do something I’m trying not to do:  Track calories.  But more than tracking calories, I needed to see where my carb in take was.  The Primal Blueprint calls for 50-100 for “effortless weight loss” and 0-50 for faster weight loss on a limited basis.  I figure I’ve been playing near the 50 mark and possibly below, but wanted to make sure.  So I tracked.  Here is what all I had today:

Breakfast
4 slices bacon, crumbled in a 3 egg omelet with onion, bell pepper, fresh chopped cilantro, some cheese, topped with salsa.  Had about 1/2 cup of strawberries to go with it.

Lunch:  Around 3 cups of homemade chili with 1/8th cup of cheese, and somewhere between 1-2 servings of pork rinds.

Snack:  1 gala apple with around 1 tbsp almond butter

Supper – 9 oz ribeye with a cajun butter sauce on top, with some veggies cooked in a bit of butter (pictured at the top of this post)

My totals look like this:

January 4th Food Diary

So, 59g of carbs falls well into the range.  I was shocked at the protein intake of 176g.  My goal for protein should be much lower (.7-1g per pound of lean body mass, which means 152g should be my max).  I guess 24g over is not too bad.

There is still one major obstacle I’m going to have to face:  Kicking my workouts up a notch.  Sure, Plyo X was tough, and it took a toll on my with my second day of low-carb.  But I’m going to have to work harder overall on getting more workout in (with the blessing of my therapist, of course).  Tomorrow is a therapy day, and then Friday will be a doubles of sorts (Legs and Back, Ab Ripper X in the morning, therapy in the afternoon).  I’ll up my carbs slightly that day, and probably increase my overall intake as well.  I may need around 2,300 calories that day to make it.

Until tomorrow…

Got a question about Primal eating and/or P90X?  Ask in the comments sections below!

Brent P90X, Primal/Paleo Eating P90X, p90x yoga, paleo diet, paleo eating, primal blueprint