New Challenge

Overview

After a weekend of peanut butter popcorn balls (6), chocolate chip cookies (who knows how many), dairy, carbs, and very little sleep (about 3 hours at a time), I am ready to begin anew. Today marks day 1 of a challenge put on by members of my team at work. The rules are simple. Lose the most weight out of everyone in the 30 days and beat any one of the three managers and win $25 for each one you beat. Seems simple enough right?  There are currently about 12 people signed up for the contest so it could be a challenge. Oh yeah, this is challenge number 1 of three. The opportunity to win some money is great.  I like winning money.

In honor of this challenge and as a way to help me win this thing (to help pay for my new ipad) I have decided to start a somewhat strict paleo diet. I thought about doing the Whole30 challenge again but there are some items I just do not want to give up this time (protein shakes for one). Since I couldn't do the whole30 challenge in its entirety I decided to just call this one a Paleo challenge. It's simpler that way and I don't have to worry about copyright infringement.  Here is what I will try not to eat over the next 30 days:

Diet

• Sugar of any kind, real or artificial. (I am going to allow myself to add some sugar free coffee creamer to my morning coffee. With a newborn at home and very limited sleep, I am in need of some coffee in the morning and try as I might, I just cannot drink the crap straight up black.)


• Processed foods. (I will allow myself to drink protein shakes on this challenge. With my lack of time right now, I need to be able to grab something quick to fuel my workouts.)


• Alcohol, in any form. (I don't even know the last time I had alcohol so I don't think this one is going to be a problem.)


• Grains.(Already had some rice tonight. Whoops. It looked good and I was hungry)


• Legumes.


• Dairy. (Dairy hurts my stomach anyway so I have been trying to cut this out as much as possible.)


• White potatoes. (It's cool. I am a sweet potato fan anyway.)

I am also trying something new calorie wise this time around.  I have been doing the Leangains approach to intermittent fasting the last few months but with very limited success. I am going to attempt to do that same approach this time but may limit the capacity on it a bit. I am also going to reduce my calorie intake to around 15oo calories a day. When I try and do the recommended daily intake based on my fitness levels, I never seem to lose weight. In fact, I usually feel like I gain some. So I am hoping that by cutting my calories down, if even just for the next 30 days, I can really shed some of the fat that has built up around my midsection. I will also do carb cycling. Lifting days will see a higher amount of carbs while cardio days will see a lower amount of carbs. Today I consumed just about 150grams so I was right on track of where I want to be.

Workouts

This week my workouts are going to be a bit different. Next week I might start my Visual Impact workout again or I may try to find something new. For this week though, I am doing some density training. Basically I work a set of muscles in a push/pull fashion for 7 minutes straight with limited rest. This weeks workouts are as follows.

• Monday - Biceps/Triceps/Abs


• Tuesday - Cardio (5k combined with some hill sprints)


• Wednesday - Legs/Shoulders/Abs


• Thursday - Cardio (not sure what its going to be yet)


• Friday - Chest/Back


• Saturday - Cardio (again, not sure)

I like this format for now. It works for me, doesn't take a lot of my lunch break and I don't feel the burnout from going everyday that I was feeling a few months back. I am hoping the next workout program that I find will allow me to weight train on 3 days a week with light to no cardio on the other days. Any suggestions out there on what I could do?  I have heard great things about the Adonis Index and I listen to their pod-casts quite a bit. If anyone knows them and would be willing to put a good word in for me so I could obtain some free training or be a case study on new programs, that would be swell!

That is all I have for now. Later.

Failing

Some of you may have noticed that I did not do a post yesterday. The reason it didn't happen was because our son finally came home from the hospital after being there for 2 1/2 weeks. After we got settled in, I was just too exhausted to try to get a post up. The good news is that he continues to do very well and is adapting very well to the new environment.

So why did I call this post "Failing"?  I don't often get on this blog and post all the times I have failed in my diet and exercise programs. I guess it's because I want everyone to think I am perfect in everything I do. I don't ever want to admit failure and therefore, I never post any of it. The truth is though, I do fail at times. As much as a hate to admit it, I am human. The last few weeks have been a mix of emotions for me and my diet and fitness have felt the consequences of that. I have gone from worry for my wife and son to excitement to have them home. The mix of emotions have caused me to deviate big time from my usual diet and workout routines.

I have shoveled food down my throat that I haven't eaten in well over a year. I downed soda's one after the other for the caffeine and sugar rush as I desperately tried to stay awake and alert to what was happening around me.  I have spent probably a total of 15 minutes in the gym during the last 3 weeks and none of the workouts were anything to applaud.

The time has now come to put all of that behind me. My son has come home and he is very healthy and doing great. My wife is doing awesome and we are very excited to start this new chapter in our lives.  My diet and workouts may fluctuate a bit as I learn to juggle a newborn and the sleepless nights but I am not going to let it get to me. I am going to learn to adapt and good things will come of it. Failing will happen at times but I am ok with that.

Tomorrow starts a new day and renewed energy. I have a new diet plan that I am going to unveil soon so come to make sure you keep an eye out for that.

1700 Calorie Lunch

I had a nice 1700 calorie post-workout lunch today. How do you sit down and eat 1700 calories of whole healthy foods in one sitting? Glad you asked! Here is what I ate

• 4 - 1/4lb burgers grilled on a George Foreman type grill. (Sorry Paleo people but I was going for carbs this meal and not fat)


• 4 cups of cubed sweet potatoes


• 1 cup yellow onion


• 1 cup red pepper


• 1/2 cup beef broth


• 2 tablespoons of tomato paste


• seasoning


• Can of tuna in spring water

For desert I mashed up two bananas and mixed it with some cocoa powder. Now that was good!

For supper I kept it light and had a chicken breast and another can of tuna fish. For those that are wondering, I only eat like this on the days that I lift heavy. Tomorrow will be a little similar but with less carbs (was at about 300 carbs today). This weekend I will really cut back and just eat high protein, high fat and very low carb. I will also continue my daily 16 hour fasting schedule that I do. Questions about my diet? Drop me an email. I would love to answer them.

Whole30 Challenge

On January 1st, some co-workers and I started a 30 day whole foods challenge based on the Whole30.  To make it a bit easier and in an attempt to make sure that everyone put forth their best effort, I gave everybody 100 points to start off with.  Whenever a mistake was made, they had to deduct 1 point for each incident. The person that had the most points at the end of the month will be awarded a $25 gift card to VitaminShoppe.

To make it even easier on everyone (because ease of use is what its all about), I found a great website called The 100 Point Challenge.  You setup an account (or use your Facebook account), create a challenge, and then invite people to join your challenge. Every day you log on and deduct a point based on how many "mistakes" you made in your diet for the day.  We started out with about 10 people and so far there are 3 of us that still have 100 points and no one has completely fallen off of the radar yet.

I look forward to the results of the people that joined and really hope that some of them come out with a new respect for clean eating.

**Update - January 7th. I spoke with two people today about their progress. One is down 8lbs since the 1st and the other is down 3lbs. The one that is down 3lbs has also seen his sleep improve and has pretty much eliminated his issues with heartburn. I would say that is some good progress! **