Renegade Diet

I recently purchased the Renegade Diet as it very closely resembles my current style of eating but with a few added twists that I am hoping will help me to get over my plateau. I am willing to give it a good run through for the next 30 days and then I will do a  full review at the end of the cycle. I am also going to try and post everyday, my eating habits and workouts so that everyone can see my progress or critique my choices. I really think this could be a lifestyle change for everyone and I cannot wait to prove that to the masses.

My starting weight is 181lbs. Remember that number. I will also post my workout benchmarks as I go through them. My workout strength has gone done  a bit from a few months back but I credit that to a very sore elbow that just will not heal.  I also have a Day 1 progress photo but I am not quite ready to post that on here. 

Update Week Ending 05-11-2012

It's been a little while since I have thrown an update out here. My wife and I recently purchased a home and we have been pretty busy painting, cleaning, and doing all of the little things that come with moving. Because of the move, I took about 2 weeks off from the gym and my diet took a dive. I found it hard to prepare good and healthy meals while moving between two houses. I know some people will say where there is a will there is a way but I just didnt have the will to do that. :)

To make up for the bad eating I continued to do my daily 16 hour fasts. I also tried to make sure that the first meal I ate was very low carb.  Then for dinner, I pretty much ate whatever I wanted to (pizza, hot dogs, etc). The next day I started over with the 16 hour fast and "reset" my body. The first week of doing this saw my body weight go down a few pounds. The second week, I feel like my night time "cheats" increased a bit more and my weight stayed the same.

Now that this week is just about over and we are getting settled into our new home, I will be able to get back to the way things should be. I am going to continue to experiment with carb back loading though. I really like the freedom it has given me with the ability to eat the wonderful things my wife prepares. Going really low carb at lunch allow me some wiggle room with dinner and as long as I don't go over my allotted carbs for the day, I see nothing wrong with this approach.  If it fits your macros, eat it!

Like I stated earlier, this is an experiment and time will tell how my body reacts. So far so good though. I challenge you to find what works for you and then let me know in the comments!

Program Switch

It's been exactly a month since I have posted. Time sure flies when you are busy doesn't it and boy I have been busy!  My wife and I are in the process of buying a house and packing up our townhouse.  In addition to that, we are looking for renters, attended my brother's wedding, enjoying my daughter's first communion and waited on my sister to have her first baby!  All that in the last month and coming up in the next few weeks.  Phew, that makes me exhausted all over again just thinking about it.

My workouts and diet have suffered a bit over the last few weeks. I can't say with any certainty that my weight has changed because I have not weighed myself but I do know that my clothes still fit like always so that is good. My progress in the gym has come to a bit of a halt though. I seem to have plateaued and my eagerness to go to the gym is started to wane. Looking back, I have been doing reverse pyramid for close a year now and have had really good progress doing it.  But now I need a change for a few weeks. Something simple. Something that I have already done in the past and that I have all the notes on. No, its not P90x. It's Visual Impact and more specifically, Visual Impact Phase II and III. In fact, I started with it today and the change is exactly what my body needed. My excitement is starting to increase and I am getting eager to hit the new few days to see if my enthusiasm returns.  Heck, I might even take a few progress pics. :)

My diet has waned a bit the last few weeks but overall its still pretty good. I have had a few too many cheat days and although they have not caused my waistline to increase, I often think about how great I "could" look if I just had a little bit of self control. I always say this but I am going to try and really reign my diet in over the new 30 days along with the Visual Impact and some HIIT and see what kind of results I can get.

Weekly Wrap Up 2.17.12

I had a pretty awesome week so far and I thought I would share. Monday's gym time didn't happen because of the weather. I ended up working from home and as much as I would love it, I don't have the weight needed to really pull off a good workout. So I skipped it and instead worked out on Tuesday.

Since it's been roughly 6 weeks since I got back from the holidays, I decided I needed a break from the RPT setup that I have been doing. I, instead, made this week a deload week and went with the P90x lifting schedule (minus the moves that I feel no human being should ever do).  Needless to say, the high reps/low weight routines were a good change up from my usual low rep/high weight routine and I felt pretty spent after all three days of lifting.  Next cycle will have me doing a load workout for 4 weeks with the 5th week being a deload. If you don't currently do a deload and you feel like you have hit a plateue with your routine or if you just want a quick change of pace, I highly suggest doing one. It doesnt have to be time spent in the gym. It can be anything from a new routine to no workouts at all.  I enjoy the gym so I opted for a new routine for the week.

This last week also found me altering my eating habits a bit.  I am still doing my modified leangains approach but I have reduced my carb intake quite a bit.  I am now doing less than 50/grams on non-workout days and around 100/grams on lifting days.  This weekend will find me doing a "slight" carb load while I enjoy my son's first birthday along with my family being in from out of town.  I hope to restrict this load to health(ier) type foods and on Saturday only. Sunday I should be back to my 50/grams a day schedule.

I decided to go back to restricted low carb because I know it works for me. I think I happen to be one of those people that suffers from extreme insulin sensitivity and low carb seems to be the only way that I have been able to achieve leanness.  I have tried other things but LC seems to be tried and true for me. I am sticking to the Primal eating plan as close as I can but I find myself a bit more lenient with dairy. that is something I am working on reducing though.

This week I was invited by a co-worker to join his team on our work sponsored weight loss challenge. I hesitated because I haven't been on a scale in months and I really don't care to know what I weigh but I eventually caved and signed up.  Yesterday found me on an official proctored weigh in scale sitting at 190.5lbs.  That is 21lbs heavier than I was here while sponsoring my own P90x Primal challenge. All my clothes still fit the same (if not better) so I can only assume that most of it is muscle.  Since my p90x challenge ended, I have started back on training my legs which before were pretty skinny. My wife has also commented that my "guns" are huge.  Still, 21lbs isnt exactly where I want to be and I know in my mind, that it wasnt a 21lb muscle gain. That is part of the reason why I am back to LC Primal.  That and May 1st is the Kansas City WBFF deadline should I choose to compete this year. That gives me roughly 8 weeks to shed the excess fat.  It's going to be tough.

Not a lot of new gym antics to report this week. I did see a guy doing tricep extensions and shoulder presses while riding the recumbent bike.  Saw another guy trying as hard as he could to do the same Crossfit workouts that he must see on the website.  Try as he might, doing Crossfit in a 24 Hour Fitness just doesn't seem to be the same!

So there you have it. This has been my week in review. I am looking forward to getting back to some heavy RPT next week and to see if I cannot drop a few pounds by then. My weight at the home scale is 187 and that is the scale that I will be using to report my weekly weigh in for my blog.

Peace out and have a great weekend.

Tyson

Manly Lifting Stats

According to Martin Berkhan, as an advanced lifter I should be able to do the following lifts:

•  Bench press: body weight x 1.5 = 285lbs


•  Chin-ups or pull-ups: body weight x 1.5 = 285lbs


•  Squat: body weight x 2 = 360lbs


•  Deadlift: body weight x 2.5 = 475lbs

These are all for a 1RM

Even though I cannot do these amounts (yet) I still consider myself advanced because I have been lifting for so long. I have been lifting incorrectly but that is a whole other post.

As of right now, here are my starting stats. They are not my 1RM but rather my starting set of my reverse pyramid sets.

My stats:

•  Current weight of 190


•  Bench press = 205x8


•  Pull-ups = 235x6


•  Chin-Ups = 245x5


•  Squat = 275x4


•  Deadlift = 225x6


•  Standing Military Press = 95x6 (threw this one in on my own)

Here is how far I am away from hitting those goals

• Bench = 80lbs


• Pull-ups = 40lbs


• Chin-ups = 10lbs


• Squat = 85lbs


• Deadlift = 250lbs

As you can see, with the exception of deadlifts I am not that far from hitting my goals. My goal is to hit all of them within 6 months.

Carb Nite Wrap Up

I officially finished my carb nite protocol experiment last Friday, 2 days short of a month.  My overall experience with the protocol was mediocre at best.  I stuck to the plan 100% but overall lost nearly no weight. My appearance did seem to change a bit which makes me think I was doing more of a body re-composition than weight loss.  But that wasnt my goal. My goal was weight loss, pure and simple.

I chose to end it on Friday because that was the day I did my weigh out for my company's weight loss competition. Leading up to that day, I did a water cut in which I drank 2 gallons of water a day starting on Monday and continuing that through Thursday at noon. Then I cut the water off completely until my weigh in Friday at noon. Over the week, I dropped 9lbs of water weight which put me 2lbs below my starting weight 1 year ago.

I mention the water cut because I was hoping that, it, combined with the carb nite protocol would have helped me cut about 15lbs in that last month.  Heck, I even stopped lifting serious amount of weights in order to cut weight. Nothing seemed to work.

I think the carb nite protocol might work great for someone that's quite overweight and wants to lose weight fast. But for someone like me who has at best 10lbs of excess fat, it might not have been the best way to go. I am starting to get frustrated with my quest to be a lean mean fighting machine.

 

Reverse Pyramid Setup

Spent a few days tweaking this and I think its just about ready. I am pondering this setup for my new “Reverse Pyramid” scheme.

Time For Density

2 weeks ago I decided that I had reached the peak of my mass building objective.  My wife noticed a difference and so did I. However, we noticed it in two somewhat different areas. She commented that my shoulders, arms, and chest looked bigger. I noticed that as well but I also noticed a 25lb gain on the old scale. That scared me….alot.  So I decided that I didn’t want to gain anymore mass and instead, transition to a hardening/strength phase.  Something that is called Myofibrillar Hypertrophy.  My end goal to all of this is the Hollywood look: lean and muscular.

I decided that I want people to look at me and see someone that is in great shape. I don’t want them to look at me and see a guy that walks like he spends all of his time in the gym. That is the direction I feel like I was headed.

I have been on Phase II of Visual Impact for 2 weeks now and am really starting to notice a difference in not only my strength but also my muscle definition.   Along with the standard weight training outlined in the VI book, I am also doing the recommended 15 minutes of H.I.I.T cardio immediately following each weight session. The only thing I am not following in its entirety is the recommended 2on/1off schedule. I don’t have access to a gym on the weekends so I lift Monday/Tuesday and Thursday /Friday.

My diet really suffered the last year while I experimented with the Leangains approach.  I'd scour the internet for people that where doing Leangains and I would see the crap they would shovel into their mouths on their workout days and I assumed I could do the same thing.  However, I never saw the same ab ripping results that so many others achieved. I didn’t put on a lot of fat but I did put on a pretty decent layer over my muscle.  All my clothes still fit, just not as good as they once did.

So now I am back to living the Primal lifestyle outlined on MarksDailyApple.com and in the Primal Blueprint.  In the last 2 weeks, I am down 6lbs and my lifts have gone up every week. Something about this diet just works for me. I am starting to look good and I am feeling great.

The picture below is one that I took yesterday. Upon close inspection, I can really start to see the individual muscles popping in my shoulder and through my arms.  Now if I could get that same definition through my abdomen area,  I might start to really consider the dream I have of competing on stage.

 



Here is my starting lift weight as of 2 weeks ago. At the end of the 2 month Phase II program I will be posting my end lift weight.

Time for a Rewind

Last year around this time I was doing a little program called P90x and eating a strict primal diet.  I felt great, looked great, and my weight was the lowest it had ever been.  But for me, that wasn't enough. I started a search for a new program that would take me to the level of leaness that I so badly desired. The program that I found was Leangains and at the time I thought it was the best program I had ever heard of; cycle carbs, fast daily, lift heavy and enjoy all the foods I so badly loved and missed but only eat them on my heavy weight training days.  I remember having a conversation with my wife about the program and she thought I should reconsider and continue to stay on the strict Primal style that I had been so successful on.  But I thought Leangains was my missing golden ticket and I gave it a try. I wish I would have listened to her.

A few months passed on the program and I gained weight.  In desperation and because I thought it was my weight lifting routine, I searched for a new program and ran across Visual Impact. I started this weight lifting program but continued to eat Leangains style. Months later and still not getting the results I wanted, I stopped doing Visual Impact and started doing a reverse pyramid routine.  But I continued to eat Leangains style. The muscle was starting to pile on but so was that unwanted fat.

Now here I am a year later and I have gained 24lbs over my lowest weight.  Could some of it be muscle? Well I suppose so. After all, my clothes are still fitting although a little snug at times.  But I notice a significant layer of fat as well. Gone is the defined area of my stomach that I had last year.

There is no doubt in my mind that Leangains works. I just know that it hasn't work for me like I had hoped it would. My biggest issue with food is that if you give me an inch,  I will take a mile. Leangains gave me that inch. It allowed me to eat carbs after a workout. Lots of them. In my mind, this transformed into chips, rice, granola bars, etc.  Deep in my mind I knew that I shouldn't eat this stuff but I did anyway. After all muscle building needs carbs right!? I would gorge on lifting days and low carb on non-lifting days. This may work for some people but it does not work for me. I need to be strict or I fall off of the wagon way too easily. I would fall off of the wagon several times a week.

I am not happy with the way I look or feel. Therefore I am doing an intervention on myself. A rewind of sorts. Starting today I am back to 100% primal with one relaxed "cheat" day a week.  No more counting carbs, calories, or fat. I will just eat what is on the allowed foods list and go with that. On days that I lift, I may up the amount of carbs a bit but nothing crazy like I have been doing.

I will continue to lift using the Reverse Pyramid routine. I have been very happy with the muscle and strength I have received from that program. I am also going to add in some more heavy HIIT days.

My goal is to lose 25lbs in the next 2 months. It's an aggressive approach but obtainable if I stick to the plan.

Reverse Pyramid HIT

On Friday I decided to switch up my usual (one set to failure) HIT workout with a technique called Reverse Pyramid's that I had been reading about on leangains.com.  I headed to the gym with the same exercises planned that I was going to do before,  but now I was going to do them Reverse Pyramid style.

What is Reverse Pyramid?

One of the most conventional types of lifting is the pyramid. Most of the guys you see at the gym are going to be doing this. You start out with a light weight and lift it for about 12 reps. You then add weight to the stack and pump out 10 reps. Add a little bit more weight and do 8 reps. The last set is usually the hardest and peaks out around 6 reps.

The reverse pyramid is the complete opposite. Your first set should be your hardest and you should complete somewhere in the neighborhood of 6-8 reps to failure. From there you would actually decrease weight by about 10% and pump out 10 reps. Decrease the weight by another 10% and pump out 12 reps.  That's it. You are done and you can move onto the next exercise. The idea is that you should be lifting the hardest weight in the beginning while your muscles are still fresh. Not at the end where you are already fatigued.

So I set out to the gym to do just that. Reverse Pyramid. My intent was to do Chest and Back. Same exercises I have done the last few weeks but with a little bit different of an approach.

Chest

• Incline Press


• Fly's


• Push-Ups

Back

• Dumbbell pullover with one arm


• Bent Over Rows


• Pull-Ups

It was a little hard at first to try to pick a weight that I knew I could only lift 6-8 times. After a bit of trial and error I got it though. I went through my usual routine and felt fantastic afterwards. And by fantastic I mean that I was shaking and felt like I was going to vomit. I left the gym and headed back to the office completely worn out but thrilled with this new type of workout.

Fast forward to Saturday morning. I wake up with the intent that I am going to go do some sprints at the park. It didn't happen. My chest and back where so sore from the workout that I could barely move.  Sprints postponed.

Fast forward to Sunday morning. I wake up with the intent that I am going to go do some sprints at the park. It again didn't happen. Although not as sore as I was on Saturday, I was still feeling the effects of Friday's workout. The sprints will have to wait until tomorrow.

I am going to play around with this technique a bit more in the coming weeks and see if there is anything to it or it my soreness was a fluke. I figure if it works for Martin at leangains along with all of his clients, it might work for me as well.

 

Program Jumping

Admitting you have a problem is usually the first step towards recovery. I hope that is true because I am about to admit something big.

I have a problem sticking with a workout program for any extended period of time. Phew! I said it.

Strange.

I don't feel any different.

Background

If you are new to this blog, you may not have a real good understanding of what I am talking about so let me enlighten you a bit. In the past year I have done P90x, Primal eating, Visual Impact, Whole30, Leangains, homebrew workouts, etc. Of all of those, I am currently only still doing the Primal eating.

Problem

It's really two-fold. First off. I get bored with workouts easily. By about the 3rd phase of P90x I am ready to call it quits. Even though P90x has you switch it up with their "muscle confusion" tactics, going back and doing old exercises in that third phase really bored me.

Second - I read too much. I have a blogroll of about 200 fitness blogs that I scroll through on a daily basis. Combine that with about 500 fitness "experts" that I follow on twitter and one can easily see how I get bombarded with the latest and greatest in workouts and nutritional advice. Combine boredom with new ideas on eating and workouts and you can easily see why I end up switching workouts so often. I always think what someone else is doing is better than what I am doing and I need to try it ASAP. At least my diet has stayed consistent!

The biggest problem with going through life this way is that I never really achieve the fitness goals that I originally set out for. I need to settle down and give a workout time to really develop. If I don't, I will continue to just stroll through life. I don't want to stroll...I want to sprint!

Resolution

I didn't start writing this post with a real resolution in mind. I have a few things that I am tossing around in my head that I will discuss in further detail later.  But as of right now, I am just sort of mulling along at the gym while I wait for that next big thing to come along. Hopefully that is soon because even mulling has me bored.

Comments?

I would love to hear from you on some of the workout programs that you are currently involved in. Who knows, I may join ya!

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.

Diet and Workout Programs

I recently emailed a co-worked with some advice on various workout programs and diets. After I finished it, I realized that it would also make a great post. So here you have it. Enjoy.

*********************

When I first started at my job 5 ½ years ago, I was tipping the scales at around 230lbs.  Being someone that has always had an interest in working out and eating “right”, that was a tough weight for me to swallow.  I knew I had to change.  What I started to do was pretty simple. I joined the 24 Hour Fitness up the street from my office and I would go workout 3 times a week before work. It took some dedication and a few hours of missed sleep but I knew that I had to do it. For the first month, I only did cardio (elliptical mainly). I then gradually added in some weight training and altered my diet by eating less food at each meal and adopting the philosophy of eating 6 small meals a day. I ate mainly fruits, vegetables, lean meats, and whole grains. I think portion control was my biggest benefactor and the weight slowly started to come off.  What I did back then may have worked for me, but I now have a lot more knowledge about different programs out there and I think I could have taken what then took me almost  year to accomplish and could now do it in months.  Below I have outlined some programs that I consider to be very effective. Some are hardcore and others, not so much. Just remember that the best diet is one that you can stick with long term. It needs to be more of a lifestyle change than a diet.

Leangains – this is the program I am doing right now. It involves fasting daily for 16 hours and then an 8 hour feed window. I work out fasted not including the ingestion of 10grams of BCAA. It allows some freedoms in eating habits to a certain extent but it does take some planning. On workout days (lifting), you would make carbs your primary macronutrient followed by protein and then fat. On non-workout days, you eat more protein, then fat, and then carbs. It’s a method of carb cycling. It works very well for a lot of people and is growing quite a bit in popularity.  This would be a great program if you plan on doing some heavy lifting and want to stay away from the intense cardio.

Primal/Paleo – All my Primal/Paleo peers would shoot me if I didn’t recommend this. I do this program along with Leangains.  This is about low carb eating  via all natural foods.  I have never felt better then when I eat like this. Some good reading material on this would be MarkDailyApple.com and a book called Primal BluePrint. Both are excellent resources and I highly recommend them both. Mark Sisson advocates eating like our primitive ancestors and doing basic exercises in moderation. You wont find any grueling 5 day a week workouts here. I think this is a great program for people that have busier lifestyles but it does take some commitment in the eating aspect.  Meat, fruit and vegetables are the primary staple of the Primal/Paleo diets. Can’t go wrong with that!  If you like carbs and sugar, it will be a hard one to follow but if you can stick with it, you will feel much better. I can attest to that.

Visual Impact – I am currently doing this workout program. It’s a great program to get that Hollywood look instead of the over bulked look of body builders. All though this program is mainly exercise based, Rusty does offer some solid advice on eating with his primary dietary focus being on calories consumed vs calories burned. He also just released a female version of his program that looks to be equally as promising.

Low Glycemic – Low Glycemic diets are what you see a lot of on TV where they ship you the food:  Medifast, South Beach, etc. The idea behind them is that certain foods have a great effect on blood sugar levels and thus insulin secretion. The more insulin that gets created and secreted, the more fat that will get stored. If you can eat foods that have low glycemic indexes, you can keep your insulin levels low and lose body fat.  I have never tried any of these (with the exception of a small stint with South Beach) but I am guessing they are a lot like low carb diets but with a little bit more freedom in some of the foods you can eat.  Go to the book store and you will find countless books on the GI diet as well as many recipe books. Might be the easiest one to follow. Something like this would work good with the Visual Impact program above or even P90x below.

Weight Watchers – Up until a few months ago, I didn’t know anyone that had tried Weight Watchers.  Recently, however, I have had a few family members try it and all have had great success with it. All three have lost double digit weights in a very short amount of time. From what I can tell, none of them had to really give up the foods that they enjoyed, just limit the quantities and frequencies a bit. The new Weight Watchers Plus allows zero point deductions for the consumption of fruits and vegetables. How awesome is that! Weight Watchers also has some great apps for the mobile market so you can always stay accountable regardless of where you are.

P90x – I have done this program about 6 times and its one of the best exercise programs out there in my opinion. One thing that many people don’t realize is that the workout program is only half of it. They also have a very extensive dietary program included and without it, the results you see on TV, would not have been achieved.  It’s pricey but if you can make it through the entire thing and follow the diet exactly, there is no reason why you wont be in the best shape of your life. This fall Tony Horton and Beachbody are releasing a follow up series called P90x MC2. You can bet that I will be purchasing that as soon as it comes out!

I hope some of this helps. If you have any questions about any of the stuff I listed above or if you have found other diets/programs that you want to ask me about or suggest for my list, please feel free to send me an email or leave a comment below.

Meal Frequency Myth's Exposed

Today I walked into a meeting that was scheduled before mine. I got lucky enough to hear the last 10 minutes of it and found out the topic was on meal frequency and the importance of eating 6 small meals a day and never more than a few hours apart. I used to follow that advice and, personally, it made me miserable. I was constantly planning, cooking, and preparing food.  Quickly trying to fit 4 of those meals into my work day soon became a huge burden. About a year ago I stumbled upon intermittent fasting, fasted training, and reduced meal frequency. The results since then have been fantastic. My energy levels are up, my body fat percentage is down,  my food intake is actually higher, and I no longer have the burden of needing to cook and prepare so many meals.

A few months ago I ran across an article by Martin Berkhan where he debunked the top 10 fasting myths. Walking into today's meeting reminded me of that and I thought I would post that link in here to share with everyone else.

Feel free to discuss and debate in the comments. I am curious what others thoughts are on the subject of meal frequency and/or fasting.

http://www.leangains.com/2010/10/top-ten-fasting-myths-debunked.html

Quick Update

I am exhausted and ready for bed but I have been wanting to get a good post up for awhile so here I am.  It will be a post but I cannot vouch for how good it will be.

As some know, I have been doing a combination of Visual Impact and Leangains for roughly 2 months now and I am really starting to see a difference. Just today I had to cinch my belt up to the very last (homemade) hole. The one usually reserved for when I wear tighter style dress pants. And for the first time ever, that last notch didn't feel uncomfortable!

Although I am losing body fat and weight on the scale, I am not quite ready to take new progress photo's quite yet. Maybe in another month or so.  I really want to go for the ab shot before I put up another picture. If not, I am afraid no one would be able to tell the difference.

Well that is about all I have for now. I am hoping to post about my Whole30 challenge that I have been doing at the office. Maybe by the end of the weekend I can get that up as well.

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.