Sacrifice and commitment to ones diet leads to many blessings. Including better health, a cleaner body more freedom to do the things you are inspired to do and greater longevity.  As 2012 approaches commit to be more conscious of the foods you choose to fuel your body. Give thanks for every bite.

 God Bless  

Goal hijacking and Fitness

Eight weeks ago I decided to do a more traditional type of workout. I went back to a progressive weight lifting protocol that I really enjoyed before finding P90X.  I did make some improvements but I feel like I went backwards from my goal of total health and freedom of movement. I did P90X today for the 1^st time in 8 weeks and felt like crap I was back at square 1 one with my conditioning and felt like puking during the entire workout I was gasping for air and I had to take numerous breaks throughout the entire thing, a few times I had to lay down on the floor to rest. I am disappointed in my level of conditioning as it stands especially with P90X2 shipping in a couple of days and my plan to start January 1^st So my plan is to hit P90X as hard as I can between now and the 1^st so I can be ready to tackle P90X2. There are things that are becoming clear to me that over the next few weeks I’ll be writing about that go along with this is a qote from Carl Daikeler’s Blog

“I believe that in over a century of declining health, we have found the way to get people healthy again: Real Fitness+Real Nutrition+ Peer Support+Financial Rewards.

It’s not an easy sell, because it takes work. It takes the realization that the least expensive way to stay healthy is to make sure we are feeding our body TRULY substantial nutrition. And it means that we can no longer expect anyone to exercise, eat better, and understand the difference between quality nutrition and pretend nutrition without the courage of someone standing up for it. Those who do put that together deserve to be well paid for it. And I see that formula getting people healthy every single day.”

In the coming weeks I’ll let you in on what I’m up to and what I’m thinking. It’s really getting back to basics diet wise and my plan for 2012 is to regenerate my body and my health.

Yours in Health

The more things stay the same the less they change

I noticed something the other day while working out. I’ve been going to the same gym for 3 years now and I see the same people everyday on the cardio equipment some of them are really pushing hard and others are reading books or engrossed in a television show not paying attrition to what is going on.

The thing I noticed is Most of these folks look the same as they did three years ago. They are doing the same workouts lifting the same weight or running just as far as they did last week.

In order to make a change we need to progress in our work loads. It needs to be done in a way that makes sense and is in line with our goals. If last week you ran a mile on the treadmill at 3 miles per hour this week something has to be different ether faster or longer. The same goes with weight training, more reps or more weight.

What I love about Beachbody programs is the progression is taken care of for you all you have to do is show up and press play and do your best every day. 

Whats Next

I can’t wait to start P90X2 in January. I have been waiting so impatiently for months now and I’m getting antsy waiting for it to come out. I love Beachbody products and know that P90X2 will live up to the high standards of the rest of the products.  

Do what YOU Love

A few years ago, I decided to start coaching people to “pay it forward.” It was one of the BEST decisions I have ever made.

Now I was able to help others and to keep myself in check with my own goals. And have fun along the way.

I didn’t realize when I started coaching that there would be so much more. Not only was it benefiting my fitness goals it was changing who I was.

I honestly don’t coach people for the money; I do it because I care I enjoy what I do and the BIGGEST reward I get is when someone says “Thank you, You changed my life.”

The reason I’m writing this post is to encourage you to find what you love to do and make it work for you. Lots of people go to work every day without any satisfaction. I cant say that about being a Team Beachbody Coach, It’s not really my JOB it’s my passion. I’ve found what works for me. I hope you do the same.

The Insanity is over.... Kind of

My time with Insanity is officially over 60 days and lots of sweat later I feel great and my conditioning had definitely improved from where I had started.

Would I do it again? I don’t know. I’m a big proponent of staying true to your goals and right now Insanity doesn’t line up with what I want to achieve with my workouts. It was great to do something else for a bit and Shaun T is a great motivator and I always felt he was directly motivating me, a hard thing to accomplish over a DVD and I’m glad I did it. I like pushing myself to new levels and doing workouts that are truly intense and that I know will take me to a new level of what I can accomplish.

Working out is a fantastic tool for personal growth. You can’t cheat your way to being ripped or pulling a 500 lbs dead lift you have to put in the work if you want it. Success in your fitness goals spills over into other areas of your life. The skills learned in the gym (where ever your gym is) are so valuable to the rest of your life.

I am so grateful that I found my way into this lifestyle and I can honestly say if it weren’t for the lessons learned in the middle of working out I wouldn’t be where I am today, pushing myself to be better in every area of my life and to be so passionate about helping others that have that burning inside them to change their lives for the better.  

Intermittent Fasting and Insanity.

My weekend was a food-for-all. On Friday we celebrated my son’s7th birthday with way too much pizza and too many cupcakes. Saturday was homemade chili which again I had way too much of. With the weekend culminating Sunday night with yet another party with too much food and good company. All told I woke up this morning to 191lbs on the scale. I started the weekend at 183lbs. I don’t regret the weekend one bit I enjoyed good food and being surrounded by family and friends celebrating milestones. Had I been following a strict calorie restriction diet I’d be kicking myself in the butt for not having the willpower to resist all the food and deserts that were available to me this weekend. Enter Intermittent Fasting, last night after my slice of cake around 8pm I took a break from eating until 7pm tonight when I sat down to dinner with Jen. I did all my normal activities except eat any food. I had a cup of coffee this morning black, and a diet Coke later in the day around 4pm other than that the only thing I drank was water. My Insanity workout was great I had tons of energy to get through the entire workout in fact I had more energy today than on regular days even though I worked out later in the day than normal. I was 18 hours into my fast. Most days because of my schedule and how I normally eat I have a 14 hour window that I do not eat during. It goes from 10pm until noon the next day which is my usual workout time so I don’t eat till around 2-3 pm for my first meal.

I’ve been following IF since the fall of 2008 when I found Brad Pilon’s Eat stop Eat. It has been the cornerstone of my diet plan that has helped me loose 60+ pounds and to stop obsessive compulsive eating. The information Brad puts out is well thought out and backed by tons of research. I highly recommend his blog if you have any questions about IF that I can’t answer I’m sure Brad can. After all he did do his graduate work on fasting and its effects on the human body.

If you have questions about how you can use IF with your current workout program or how it might tie into one of the many Beachbody workout programs let me know how I can help.

Cold weather Insanity

I usually look forward to every one of my workouts, today was different. My gym sits in an unheated part of my house. It’s really a patio that has been turned into a “sun-room”.  The outside temperature when I started my workout was 47 degrees it felt a lot colder out there than that must have been the slight drizzle coming from the sky. I dressed for the occasion by wearing a beanie and a tee shirt, neither which I normally wear. The warm up was brutal my body just couldn’t get warm I hadn’t even broken a sweat till the 3^rd and last time through it. After the first circuit I stripped off the shirt because the sweat was finally starting to roll and I was starting to cool down from it. But I was finally starting to enjoy the workout and really had a good time with it. By the end for the 55 minutes all the window were covered and I had managed to warm up my little gym. I think it’s time to find a space heater for out there so I can at least have a little bit of comfort for when I start P90X2 in January.

Insanity the half way mark

So today I was day 36 of Insanity. I did my fit test along with the Max Cardio circuit workout. Man it kicked my butt. At the end I was totally gassed. I was very happy with the results of the fit test every number went up and I’m feeling better every day. Here are my results after 36 days. My day one fit test .

Switch Kicks: 50/120    +70

Power Jacks: 45/54    +9

Power Knees: 81/92    +11

Power Jumps: 30/47   +17

Globe Jumps: 8/10    +2

Suicide Jumps: 17/21   +4

Push-up Jacks: 26/33    +7

Low Plank Oblique: 30/50    +20

This is a huge improvement from where I started. Plus I was in good shape to begin with.

I had a few thoughts today about conditioning that I don’t know the answers to that I want to explore. Is there a maximum genetic expression for human conditioning? Or will your body keep adapting to the stresses of conditioning work? Will you ever reach a point of being over-conditioned? I don’t mean over trained. I know first hand that not only is it possible but it sucks too. Is there such a thing as optimum conditioning? I’ll be exploring this concept as I work through my training protocol from now through the next several months. Over the next year I’ll be doing P90X, P90X2, and a weight lifting protocol As well as a hybrid P90X/ Insanity program. Stick around its gunna be a good year.

Insanity Month 1 Review

I’ve been trying to come up with a post for this week. It’s been hard to get my thoughts in order though. So I’m going to tell you my experiences during my first month of Insanity.

I started my Insanity journey rather cocky. I’ve done several rounds of P90X as well as being relativity active outside of my workouts many days I’d do double workouts just because I had time to do an extra workout.

Day 1 of Insanity in the fit test which I thought I’d be able to handle quite well after all I’ve been working out 5-6 days a week for over 4 years. While I think my numbers were pretty good I thought they’d be better than where I landed.

Switch Kicks: 50

Power Jacks: 45

Power Knees: 81

Power Jumps: 30

Globe Jumps: 8

Suicide Jumps: 17

Push-up Jacks: 26

Low Plank Oblique: 30

This workout is no joke when it comes to conditioning it is by far the best workout I’ve done. Every day I was in a flop-sweat half way through the program by the end I was standing in a lake of my own DNA. The workout times are perfect just when I was thinking “Why the hell am I doing this? I can’t do anymore.” The workout would be over and it would be time to cool down. . One word of caution however make sure you have good shoes and are not slipping in your own sweat you could seriously blow a knee. For me I’ve done all but 2 workouts in my vibrim Five fingers The only problems I’ve had is some swelling in my left knee and my ankle from slipping in a puddle of sweat. A second warning do not do this work out on carpet! The amount of sweat produced will have your house smelling funky in no time at all. If you have no choice but to work out on carpet get a good mat to put down so you won’t upset your significant other because the place smells like a locker room.

Beachbody has done an incredible job putting together the best At-Home workouts on the market. 

Flexibility is the key to consistency

My kids came up over the weekend it was my Daughter’s birthday and we had a party planned for Saturday. We woke up early to get everything ready for her party. The two of us went to the store to pick up her cake and get a couple of other things and the other three kids stayed home to clean the house. (The two oldest wound up playing HALO instead) My daughter and I got back from the store and everything was going great until 1pm I went downstairs to check on some stuff in my office and my carpet was wet not just wet but like stepping on a sponge wet. I opened the water heater closet and found the water heater was leaking and leaking bad. I called my Landlord who also in my Dad told him what I had found and he said he’d be by in a while to look at it. So I turned off the hot water and waited till he came with the shop vac. I moved all the furniture out of the area and when my dad arrived I began to pull the water out of the carpet. It turned out that the water heater needed to be replaced and he couldn’t get on till Monday. No big deal I thought we can go that long without hot water  besides I take contrast showers all the time anyway I’m used to cold showers, and we can just live off of paper plates and all that. So my dad left I finished up pulling the water out of the carpet and came upstairs to get a drink and my phone rang. While I’m on the phone my oldest son yells up the stairs that his little brother is throwing up all over the downstairs bathroom.” Great just what I need” I thought I hung up on who I was talking to rushed downstairs to survey the damage and to make sure he’s ok. Luckily he didn’t get anything on him…. Yet… I get him all cleaned up and carry him up to his room and get him tucked into bed and resting comfortably.  Two hours I think to myself I haven’t even done my workout yet and I have so much to do. I have to pick up my Fiancée from work still order the pizza and finish cleaning the house. Two hours later everything is done and my family is over to the house for the party we had a good time and my son rested comfortably in his room until the party was over. He again started to throw up and continued until around 3am when he finally started to feel better which was a good thing we were running out of towels and blankets and had no way to wash anything (remember the water heater from earlier?) Sunday morning 9am. My son comes in and wakes me up asking if there is any pizza left from the party he hadn’t thrown up in several hours so I figured it’d be ok for him to have a slice. He ate that and then wanted a leftover piece of cake and some milk which he did great with so he was feeling better finally and we could finish the weekend on a good note. Anyway the kids went home on Sunday night my new water heater was installed on Monday and I finally have all the dishes and all of the laundry caught up from the weekend.

How does any of this relate to a fitness blog? (I can read minds as well) even though I missed my scheduled workout on Saturday I was able to push things around and took Saturday as my rest day and did my workout on Sunday after the kids went back to their mothers house. If you are determined to get healthy and improve your health you won’t let anything stand in your way. The key is to be consistent even if it means pushing things around on your schedule and working out at odd times of the day or in odd places. Don’t be afraid to be flexible with your workout schedule or you will start missing workouts when life gets in the way.

When is the best time to Workout

I love to workout in fact I’m obsessed with it so for me the best time to get my workout in is whenever I can. I usually get mine done first thing in the morning before I get distracted by the to do list of the day. I do this for two reasons 1. If I don’t get it done first thing it throws off my mojo and 2. If I don’t get it don’t right when I wake up I stress about it till I get it done. I’ve worked out as early as 4:30 in the morning and as late as 4:30 in the morning. So for me the best time is anytime I can.

Determine the best time

Here’s the short answer whatever works for you and your lifestyle. If you hate mornings and can’t open your eyes till your 2^nd cup of coffee and the thought of working out before the sun or the Milkman is up is just too much for you. You might not be a morning person and a later workout would be the best thing for you.

Or you might be one of those really annoying people who are bright eyed and bush tailed first thing in the morning if that’s the case morning workouts might just be your cup of tea.

Another thing to consider is work/family obligations. I’m a divorced father with 4 kids. My time with my kids is precious so my workout times will get moved around according to how I’m spending time with them. I’d rather workout at midnight or later because that’s what time I finally get everything wrapped up with my kids and get the little ones to bed.  or I’ll wake up super early to get my workouts done before they wake up I’d rather do one of those two things than to have my gym time interfere with what little time I have to spend with them during the week. The point is to find what works best for you and then don’t be afraid to modify your schedule accordingly.

Consistency

Consistency is the king. It doesn’t matter how well planned your workouts are or how advanced your training protocols are if you aren’t showing up every day  because you hate working out in the morning you won’t see any progress towards your goals. If on the other hand working out at 8-9 at night feels great for you and it relaxes you and you sleep really well after an evening workout you’re going to show up every day because you’re having fun and feel great during and after your workout. Listen to your body and figure out what time of day you have the most energy and arrange your workouts to happen it those high energy times. You might even find that you like different types of workouts at different times of the day. Maybe you like getting up and just moving first thing in the morning if so do light cardio or yoga workouts first thing in the morning and do your serious weight training workouts later in the day.

Performance needs

What are your goals? Do you play a sport?  You want to make sure your training doesn’t interfere with why you are training in the first place. It might not be a good idea to do a heavy back and bicep workout the day before a major bike ride with lots of hill climbs. Or leg day before a backpacking trip. You get the idea. So what’s the best time to workout? It depends on you.

Overweight is the new Normal

This is a sombering truth to what is happening around the world. Overweight is the ne normal And why I do what I do to help people that have a disire to change their life for the better. Give it a read and leave your comments.

Caffeine and Weight loss

Caffeine has been shown to have very modest effects on increasing metabolism, and is sometimes added as an ingredient to weight loss pills. These pills often make claims about speeding metabolism to 'effortlessly melt' excess fat, but in reality the amount of calories that slimming pills containing caffeine would actually burn is very small.

Caffeine may also suppress appetite, but without making other changes to your diet and lifestyle caffeine is unlikely to make a significant difference to your weight.

Week 2 Insanity Review

Yesterday I completed week 2 of Insanity. I can tell my conditioning is better than week 1 but still need a lot of work the other thing I noticed this week is I have REALLY slow legs. No matter how hard I tried to get them to move faster they just don’t go fast I hope that by the end of the 60 days that this will improve. I do enjoy the workouts and the timing of them is perfect I said this in a different post but its worth mentioning again. Sean T does a great job with the motivation even through the TV which is hard to do. Tomorrow I do the fit test I’ll post the results and let you know what has improved from my day 1 fit test.

Ron

Intermittent Fasting and Working out

I’ve been struggling with whether to blog about this topic or not. I’ll just start out by saying I’m not an expert in all of the science behind IF but I know a guy who made it his job to know it. In fact he received his PhD in nutrition by studying the effects fasting has on the body, his name Brad Pilon.

I started Flexible Intermittent Fasting over 3 years ago as a way to help reach and maintain my body composition goals it’s a great way to control calorie deficit while allowing you to enjoy good food with the people and events you care about.

I’ve been through rounds of P90X while fasting and now I’m working through Insanity  the same way. Since beginning my journey to better health and fitness I have worked out in a fasted state right around the 12 -15 hour mark on a daily basis and I have a much better workout being fasted then when I’m fed.

There is a lot of Bro-science out there about starvation mode and muscle wasting if you don’t constantly feed your body every 3-4 hours I’m here to tell you it’s all well… Bro-science. Starvation mode (where your body starts breaking down muscle for fuel) doesn’t happen unless some specific things happen

1.           For men your bodyfat levels drop to 5% or less  and around 10% for women.

2.         You are in extreme caloric deficit for an extended period of time.

If these criteria are not met you will never enter into the dreaded starvation mode.  There is really no need to be an obsessive compulsive eater anymore Flexible Intermittent Fasting allows me to eat the food I want to enjoy and not worry as much about weight gain I can plan an overeating day like Thanksgiving or Birthday Parties ect. and still be within my weekly caloric intake. Give it a try and check out Brads Blog.

Just some Food for Thought…or Rather Fast for Thought

Ron

Insanity week 1 Review

This is a few days late I was planning on posting on Sunday but here is my week one review of Beachbody’s Insanity workout.

I’ve done P90X several times since 2008 and thought I was going to be able to breeze right through Insanity no problems. I felt my conditioning was spot on and there wasn’t anything I couldn’t do or a workout I couldn’t keep up with. Enter Shaun T. Insanity has kicked my ass every workout except the Cardio Recovery has left me in a pool of my own DNA sucking in gulps of air like its going out of style. I’m serious when I say this has been the hardest workout I’ve ever done, and I’m only a week into it. I have been told that the second month is even worse so being the glutton for punishment that I am I’m looking forward to month two with anticipation I love working hard and feeling the rush of feel good hormones flooding my brain after a intense workout.

One of the only issues I see with Insanity so far is I wish there were a few more back exercises I know it’s hard to work the back with strictly bodyweight workout. I’d like to see some sort of burpee pull up or something for some back work.

Going into week two I have noticed that I’m not taking as many breaks as I was in week one. The other thing I’ve noticed is I am SLOW my feet don’t move as fast as I’d like them to move I’m pushing as hard as I can and I feel like I’m in one of those dreams where you are trying to run and you can’t. Hopefully this workout will help me move faster and more agile keeping this old man light on his feet for years to come.

Ron

Fast food vs. Raw food

So my goal for the 60 days of Insanity was to eat a high raw vegan diet 80% or more just raw fruit and vegetables along with my Shakeology every day. Well for the last 6 days I’ve been spot on with my diet and feeling full and satisfied and enjoying the energy boot I have from all the whole food I’ve been eating.

Today I had a lapse in judgment while out taking care of some business and stopped by a fast food restaurant. I had justified to myself it was ok and couldn’t be too bad.  I knew right away I was in trouble with my first bite my stomach flinched and balked when the burger hit it. My stomach was distressed and asked me to stop but I pressed on and ate the burger and the fries washing it all down with two diet sodas. What was I thinking?  Six hours later I still hurt and my stomach is still complaining about what I put in it. Tomorrow it’s water melon and grapes.

Insanity C.P.R

Day 2 of Insanity done! What a workout half way through today I was asking myself what the hell I was doing. I also saw my life flash before my eyes more than once during some of the moves. It is brutal but I know it’ll be worth it at the end of the 60 days. After I finished and was lying in a pool of my own sweat I had a mix of emotions I was grateful it was over and I didn’t throw up and euphoric about completing the day’s workout. When I had the energy to move again I went to my kitchen and made a green juice, I know it as a Lemon Ginger Blast. Sitting in the sunshine enjoying my post workout “meal” I took stock of all the things in my life I am grateful for.

I’ve come a long way in the last few years I’ll share with you my journey in upcoming posts

Ron.

The start of Insanity.

Hey everyone,
So today was Day #1 for my Insanity challenge. All I can say is it is Insane the warm up is what most people would do as a workout. I did make it all the way through the workout. Stick with me as this blog grows and changes. I'll be sharing more about my journey to optimum health and the reasons why I do what I do. I look forward to talking to you tomorrow