My Supplements

Greetings!

In 2009, I was at my all time heaviest at 234 pounds and was eating poorly as well as not exercising at all.  I could barely walk up a flight of stairs without sitting down to catch my breath.  To make matters worse, I was on two separate blood pressure medications, one to reduce my BP, and the other to regulate my heart rate.  My doctor had told me that I was pre-diabetic and that I would soon have to go on diabetes medication along with the BP meds.  The two heart attacks I suffered at 40 and 42 had taken it's toll on my lifestyle and overall health and I knew I was on that slippery slope to a shortened life.  That was the turning point for me.  I guess everyone has to go through some self-evaluation before they get to a place that they decide they have to make some sort of change in their lives.  Until then, they will continue to decline in their health and lifestyle to a point when they are hospitalized and/or reach their final demise.  We are all going in that direction I guess.  The question you need to ask yourself is, "Do I want to just sit down and give up, or do I want to live my life to its fullest?"

I chose the latter and have not looked back since.  I started doing a program called Power 90, or P90, produced by a company called Beachbody in Jan 09 and have literally changed my whole life from the privacy of my spare bedroom.  That sounds so simple and too easy, but that is what I have done for the past 2 years to regain my health, fitness and a better lifestyle.  It was always, and continues to be challenging every day but I am on my fourth round of P90X, the extreme version of P90 and have never felt better.

As I have progressed in my journey to better health and fitness, I have come to realize that exercise is only part of the equation if you want to be really healthy.  Your nutrition is just as important and without proper nutrition, you can never maximize your exercise results and will spend a lot more time getting into shape.  You can see that every day as you watch people go into and come out of your local gym.  A lot of them have spent years going to the gym and working out with either weight machines, stair masters, free weights, tread mills, and so forth only to look about the same as they did the day they started.  They are doing part of what they need to do, but they don't have the whole picture clearly in focus.

There are three legs to the health and fitness stool.  Exercise being one, nutrition another, and a community of support have been shown to have the best impact on helping people change their lifestyles and live a better quality of life.  This is why I like Beachbody so much.  I live a busy life and don't have that much time to be spending on exercise.  Most people are in that same boat these days.  But, Beachbody has developed a comprehensive program that addresses all three legs of the health stool and you can do it all from your home.

Beachbody produces world class in home fitness programs and provides you with a wide range of nutrition guidance as well as a on-line community of people just like you who are fighting the obesity epidemic by transforming their bodies and their health together.  It is a wonderful experience being around others who support you on your journey to better health and fitness.  They know what you are going through and are there to support you and encourage you to continue on your journey.  Before you know it, your whole life will be changed and you will wonder why you ever lived the way you did in the past.  Then you almost feel a sense of obligation to "pay it forward" and help your family and friends improve their lives.  As we do this, one body at a time, eventually, we will reverse the trend of obesity in the US and beyond.

I wanted to post about my supplementation and why I take supplements.  It has become an integral part of my nutrition plan and I think you almost have to supplement your nutrition because of what Big Food has done to our food supply over the past 30+ years.  I recently read a article about the nutrition in a apple of all things and according to the article, if you eat a medium apple today, you are only getting 25% of the nutrition you would get by eating a apple 50 years ago!  That astonished me when I read it.  I eat apples all the time and thought I was getting good nutrition from it.  However, the soil is no longer as fertile as it was in the past and seeds have been altered through genetics so the nutritional value of foods we eat have continued to decrease over time.

No longer can we get the nutrition our bodies need without eating 4 times as many calories resulting in the unused calories being stored as fat.  Have you noticed that 2/3 of the adult population in the US is overweight or clinically obese according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC)?  People are not getting the right level of nutrition in the fast, processed foods our society is eating these days.  The big food industry, like Monsanto, McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, etc. are feeding us low nutrition and high fat food, all for the sake of cheap convenience the American population has embraced over the past few decades.  This has resulted in our country being the fattest nation in the world, and one of the most unhealthy.

This is why you almost have to supplement your nutrition if you want to get the right nutrition without all the calories and fat you don't need.  If you are like me, you have a very busy life and it is hard to eat "clean" all the time.  If you could eat the perfect diet every day at every meal, you wouldn't need to supplement your nutrition with supplements.  Unfortunately, very few of us are able to do that consistently over time so our waistlines continue to increase and our overall health continues to decline.  That is, unless we make a commitment to fight back.  Since I know I am not always able to eat properly, I want to make sure I get enough nutrition to provide my body what it needs to function at the best level possible.

The first supplement I use is Shakeology.  I use it because over the years I have researched and studies about many of the ingredients that have been consolidated into what I think is a delicious meal replacement drink.  It comes in two flavors, Chocolate and Greenberry.  Since I am a chocoholic, I love the chocolate.  It gets rid of my cravings and I love the taste and I know I am getting some of the best food nature has to offer into my body every day.  I drink it first thing in the morning when my body is most ready to absorb nutrients after a 10-12 hour fast overnight from dinner to the morning.  I get a burst of sustained energy from about 6 am in the morning until around 9 am when I feed myself again with a more traditional breakfast that consist of a protein, assorted fruits and berrys and some sort of fat such as walnuts or flax seed.

Next, I take a good quality multi-vitamin that is natural based.  The brand I use is called Nutrivit and is a all around great vitamin to ensure I am getting at least 100% of my daily recommended allowance of essential vitamins and minerals.

Along with the multi-vitamin and Shakeology I also take a Calcium and Omega 3 supplement, which rounds out my daily supplementation.  I know by taking these supplements every day, my body is able to function at optimal levels for my age and current physical condition.  As you probably already know, calcium is great for protecting your bones, joints and different organs in your body.  The Omega 3 fish oils help your cardiovascular system work at higher levels.  Most people suffer from a deficiency of omega 3's and usually get too many omega 6s in the standard American diet.  The Omega 3 supplement helps me keep the balance of Omega 6 and Omega 3 in place.

If you decide to supplement with Omega 3s, make sure you look carefully at the pill.  If it is dark, it is probably old or not good quality so don't buy it.  Good, clean omega 3 will seem light and bright when you look at the pills.  Those are a good indication of the purity of the oils used to make the supplement.  As with anything else, it may cost a little more to get a better quality supplement.  I recommend you don't short change your supplements by buying cheap ones.  Some of them will do more harm than good so do your research to find the best you can afford.  The investment will result in better overall health and a longer, better quality of life.

I used to get my supplements from GNC and I paid for what I wanted.  For example, I took the GNC Men's Sports Formula multi-vitamin for years.  I think the cost was $49.95 for a month supply that I took daily.  Once I found Beachbody, I researched their products and found I could get what is called their "Core Nutrition Pack", which includes the multi, Calcium and Omega 3 supplements together.  The multi-vitamin is better in my opinion because of the natural ingredients used to manufacture the vitamin vs the synthetic way GNC produced the Men's Health Formula.  Also, I get all three supplements as a Team Beachbody Coach for about the same price as the GNC multi-vitamin alone.  For me it was a "no-brainer."  I have been taking these supplements for almost 2 years and have had no adverse reaction to anything I have used from Beachbody. 

During this round of P90X, I decided to give the Beachbody creatine supplement a try for 8 weeks and cycle off of it in the last 4 weeks of my program.  So far, I have gained strength and am able to do my workouts with more intensity, but I feel bloated a lot since I have been taking it.  I have heard that is normal when taking creatine, so I will have to see over time what kind of gains I get and how lean I get once I cycle off the supplement.

And finally, I use Beachbody's Recovery Formula as my recovery drink after my workouts.  It taste like orange sherbet ice cream and has the 4 to 1 ratio of carbs to protein recommended for optimal recovery and muscle repair after doing intense workouts.  It helps me reduce the soreness in my muscles after doing my strength workouts and I can tell the difference if I don't have the recovery drink the next day.

So far, these supplements and especially Shakeology have helped me lose 41 pounds and keep it off for almost 2 years now.  I have seen many different opinions posted over the Internet by so called "nutrition experts" who claim supplements are worthless.  On the other hand, I have done my own research and study about the need for supplementation including sources like the Center's for Disease Control (CDC), FDA, numerous books by Registered Dietitians and PhD and overall believe the prevailing wind is that you are better off taking them.  Personally, I know how I feel when I take them on a regular basis, and how different I feel when I don't take them of a while.  I have decided I feel better and live a better quality of life by taking them.  It may not be for everyone so I guess each individual will have to do the research and decide for themselves if they will be better off with or without supplements.

I say make sure you are eating as clean as you can, eat a balanced diet of lean protein, complex carbs, and essential fatty acids and supplement if you feel the need.  This is the path to long term health and a better quality of life.

If you would like to find out more about these supplements just click this LINK and feel free to look around.

Also, if you want to see what Doctor's are saying about Shakeology, just click this LINK and then click the tab at the top right of the page and see the doctor comments.

To your health and fitness!

jw          

My First Week Eating Paleo

Greetings,

Today is the end of my first week eating Paleo.  I weighed in this morning and went from 196.4 pounds last week to 197.8 pounds this week for a gain of 1.4 pounds.  I tried to eat my regular daily calorie intake but I believe since my energy was down so low I didn't get the calorie burn I normally do with my workouts.

I'm not too disappointed and my energy seems to be coming back so I guess it just takes a few days for your body to get used to the paleo diet.  I have always included dairy and a wide assortment of grains in my diet so that may be why my energy was so low all week.  My assumption is that it takes your body time to adjust to a new routine and getting the energy from fruits and vegetables instead of dairy and grains may have something to do with it.  I will see as I enter Phase 2 of P90X starting tomorrow.

Today is my rest day and I feel pretty good.  My energy seems to be stable and I have been getting a good amount of sleep over the past week.  I will say that I have slept better this week than in the past.  I'm not sure that has to do with the paleo diet but I would be willing to bet it does somehow.  I will continue on the diet for at least 3 more weeks and see what effects it has on my body fat percentage and overall weight.  I hope to be down to 190 pounds by the end of this round with about 15% body fat.

My diet is not perfect paleo.  I have been drinking my Shakeology every day and feel like I need those nutrients to keep my body supplied with the best nutrition I can get.  I just read a pretty comprehensive article in the May issue of Oprah Winfrey's magazine, "O", which goes into great depth about the superfoods provided in Shakeology.  If you want to read a detailed review of the ingredients provided in Shakeology, I recommend picking up a copy of the May issue.  If you want to find out more about Shakeology and see what doctors are saying about it, check out this link and go through the tabs at the top of the page.  Not only is it chock full of the superfoods outlined in Oprah's article, the best thing about the drink is the taste.  I think I will do some posts about the individual ingredients in Shakeology in the near future.

Overall, I am glad I started the Paleo diet on my Phase 1 recovery week of P90X because I don't think I would have had the energy to get through the workouts.  Hopefully, I will have the energy to push myself through Phase 2.  The first week is another "adaptive" week so I will lighten up the weights and lower the reps somewhat and see how well I can get through the week.  My daily calorie burn target is 700 calories.  I usually don't have a problem burning 700 calories in the P90X workouts except for Kenpo X.  My body has adapted to Kenpo better than any of the other workouts so I have to push myself really hard to get 700 in that workout.  When I did my first round, I was easily burning over 800 calories in that workout.  It is still a good workout to build up a sweat, but I have to push hard and my recovery is really fast at the end of the workout.  It is a sign that my overall health and stamina has improved greatly since I started using Beachbody workouts.

I will post again soon and let you know how my week goes doing P90X and eating paleo!  In the meantime, keep bringing it!

To your health and fitness,

jw 

My Paleo Food List

As this week comes to a close, I wanted to pass on my thoughts about eating a paleo diet.  I have never tried to eat paleo and even through I have been researching and studying the diet for some time, I didn't realize how eliminating dairy and grains from my diet would impact my energy levels.

I work out 6 days a week doing Tony Horton's P90X workout program that is produced and distributed by Beachbody.  The workouts are advanced and I have a goal of burning at least 700 calories per workout.  This is generally pretty easy if you keep up the pace and intensity you see on the screen as you go through the routine.  I usually burn between 700 and up to over 1000 calories in a single workout so I have no problem meeting my goal.

However, this week, my energy levels have been really low.  I cut out all dairy except for about 3 eggs this week, which is allowed based on the book I am using called "The Paleo Diet" by Loren Cordain, Ph.D, who is suppose to be an expert on how our Paleolithic ancestry ate before organized cultivation and domestication of animals as a food source.  The Paleo diet primarily consists of eating lean meat, fish, fruits, vegetables and nuts and berrys.  Dairy and grains are excluded from the diet because they come from modern food processes and are not in line with the "hunter/gatherer" concept of the Paleolithic era.

Since I have been eating dairy and grains all of my life, my body is rebelling against me and my energy has really bottomed out over the course of the week.  It has made my workouts very difficult and I have bonked every day and not been able to complete them each day due to just plain giving out.

Fortunately, this is a recovery week for me in my round of P90X so I am not too worried about the workouts but next week, I have to up my intensity going into Phase 2 of the program.  I am not sure how long it will take for my body to adjust to eating Paleo but I hope my energy levels come up soon.

I will say I have enjoyed all the food I have ate this week.  The Paleo Diet book has a lot of recipes and everything we prepared was very tasty and filling.  I will start posting some of the recipes and menus for breakfast, lunch and dinner in the future so you can see what is included in the diet if you want to give it  a try.  The food is really good and it is a great way to add variety even if you don't go completely paleo with your eating.

My goal is to eat paleo for 4 weeks and see how it affects my body and fat loss.  If my body is able to adjust to the diet and my energy levels come back, I may have to stay on it for the rest of the round so I don't have to go through this again.  I don't really like the way I feel now.  On the other hand, I have been sleeping very well at night because I am so exhausted by the end of the day.

So, here is a general guide of the foods I selected from the book as my basic eating strategy.  There are more foods you can choose from, but I selected food I already like to eat to make it easier for me to stick to the plan.  Here are the foods I chose to eat over the next 4 weeks.

Today's lunch consists of 8 oz Grilled chicken breast, 1 cup Kim chi, 1/2 cup raw broccoli. 1/2 cup raw mushrooms and cucumber, green bell pepper and celery.  For dessert and afternoon snack I will have 1 cup cantaloupe, 1/2 cup watermelon, 4 oz raw walnuts and about a tablespoon of dried cranberries.

In order to keep it simple for me, I selected what I could eat instead of focusing on what I am not allowed to eat during the paleo diet.  There are a lot more foods you can eat but this is the list I chose and will pretty much stick to only this food for the rest of the month -

Lean Meats -
Flank steak
Top sirloin steak
Extra-lean hamburger (no more than 7% fat, extra fat drained off)
London Broil
Turkey hamburger

Lean pork -
Pork loin
Pork chops

Lean Poultry -
Chicken breast
Turkey breast

Eggs - (this is the only dairy and limited to 6 per week, enriched with omega 3)
Chicken eggs

Fish - 
Cod
Grouper
Haddock
Halibut
Rockfish (in season here in Maryland)
Salmon
Striped bass
Tilapia
Tuna

Shellfish -
Crab
Lobster
Shrimp

Fruits and Vegetables -

Fruits -

Apple
Avocado
Banana
Blackberries
Blueberries
Cantaloupe
Figs
Grapefruit
Grapes
Kiwi
Lemon
Lime
Mango
Nectarine
Orange
Peach
Pear
Pineapple
Plum
Strawberries
Watermelon

Vegetables -
Asparagus
Beet greens
Beets
Bell peppers
Broccoli
Brussels sprouts
Cabbage
Carrots
Cauliflower
Celery
Collards
Cucumber
Green onions
Kale
Lettuce
Mushrooms
Mustard greens
Onions
Peppers
Radish
Spinach
Squash
Tomatoes
Turnip greens
Turnips
Watercress

Nuts and Seeds -
Almonds
Brazil nuts
Hazelnuts
Macadamia nuts
Pistachios (unsalted)
Pumpkin seeds
Sesame seeds
Sunflower seeds
Walnuts

Oils -
Olive
Flaxseed oil
Canola oil

I don't really snack any more because I eat 5 to 6 meals a day but according to the paleo diet you can eat the following for snacks -

Fresh fruit of any kind
Homemade beef jerky (without salt)
Homemade dried salmon strips
Raw vegetables
cold skinless, broiled chicken breast
Nuts
Dried Fruit (limit to 2 oz per day)
Hard-boiled egg
Cold slices of lean beef
Peal-and-eat shrimp
Unsalted seeds (limit to 4 oz per day if trying to lose weight)

This is basically the food list I will be eating over the next 3 weeks or beyond. 

The one thing I am absolutely not willing to give up regardless of what diet experiment I am using, is my Shakeology.  Not going to get into a long discussion about it on this post but it provides me with so many super nutrients, I am not going to give it up, period.  Plus, I am a chocoholic and it takes my chocolate cravings away.  Nuff said! :)

If you are interested in finding out more about eating a paleo diet, I do recommend the book by Dr. Loren Cordain.  It gives a lot of in-depth information about problems with eating grains and dairy and how it affects your overall health and modern disease that has resulted from it.

There is also a ton of information on-line if you want to find out more.

To your health and fitness,

jw

Steve Edwards 8-Week Transition Diet

The 8-Week Transition Diet

By Steve Edwards

The 6-Week Transition Diet was one of the first things I ever wrote for Beachbody^®, way back in 2001. It's remained popular ever since; in fact, in 2005, I gave it a facelift and increased it from 6 weeks to 8. Five years on, it's time to dust it off and spruce it up for the modern age. We've found over the years that this transitional eating plan is one of the easiest ways to change your eating habits for the better.
It's often said that no one diet works for every individual. While this is true, you may have noticed that all Beachbody eating plans target a similar goal: eating more natural whole foods and less junk. That's because there are no secrets to healthy eating. There are strategies that can lead to various performance benefits, but 99 percent of diet is cutting junk and eating real food. With this in mind, our Beachbody nutrition guides use various strategies, all designed to lead you to the same place.
While those nutrition guides tend to be detailed and filled with recipes, the 8-Week Transition Diet is for those of you who are less detail oriented. Conceptually based diets like this can be easier to follow, because they focus on providing you with a short list of "no-nos," leaving you with a fairly wide array of foods that you are allowed to eat. Of course, that isn't the approach you want to have for long-term success. Any diet, no matter how easy it seems, will take some willpower on your part if you want to see results. Your long-range goal should be to eat well, period. If you can accomplish this, your physical transformation will become a natural extension of your lifestyle, instead of something you need to pursue.
As healthy eating becomes a habit, you will find the other intangibles (weight loss, increased energy, etc.) falling into place. For many people, the easiest way to accomplish the healthy-eating habit is to make a gradual transition from food choices that hinder human performance to ones that help you perform better. By making this transition gradually, you'll find that it isn't as difficult as you expected.

Week 1

No junk. Eliminate junk food from your diet. That's it, just junk. Other than this, you can eat whatever and whenever you like. Now, how hard can that be? Guess this depends on what I mean by "junk." But all I'm concerned with this week is the obvious stuff like potato chips, candy, ice cream, cake, etc. You may be stricter if you'd like, but for Week 1, don't be too hard on yourself. For many of you, this step alone will reap huge benefits.

Cheat Days: 2

Since no one's perfect, you get 2 days to cheat. That's right, 2 days where you can eat anything you want! A trick on these days (and, yes, this means there will be more) is to listen to your body. At first, it'll probably tell you it wants whatever you've been denying it. However, over time, it'll start to crave nutrients you're deficient in. Learn to read your body's subtleties. If you're craving ice cream, you may be short on essential fatty acids. If you crave a hamburger, your diet may lack protein. This way, you can make better food substitutions. It's a way of getting in tune with yourself that will benefit you for your entire lifetime.
Weekly focus: Water. Not swimming in it, though that's good too, but staying hydrated with it. You should drink at least 6 to 8 glasses of water per day. Diet sodas and such are no substitute, because they contain a passel of ingredients that live right at the bottom of the junk heap. Drinking a glass of water when you feel hunger pangs coming on will not only keep you hydrated, but will help stave off your hunger to some degree.
As for other drinks, juices and sugary sodas also (obviously) fall into the junk category. And alcohol should be kept to a minimum. We tend to forget (purposely or not) that alcohol has calories. A lot of them: 7 calories per gram. Mixers can be even worse—not only can they add calories, but sugary calories influence the way alcohol reacts with your body. When you do drink, red wine is the alcohol of choice, with natural beer running second.

Week 2

Each week's rules are cumulative, so the "no junk" rule from Week 1 will apply until the end, as will each subsequent week's rule. Remember that this is a learning and conditioning process. It's like you're in school and the subject is your own body.
Eat small, eat often. Eat four to six small meals a day, and don't eat anything for about 3 hours before you go to sleep. Following these rules will keep your blood sugar levels more static and your energy level will stay consistent. Try to keep each snack or meal balanced. Keep a 30 percent protein, 40 percent carbohydrate, and 30 percent fat scale in mind, though you don't need to worry too much about it. Just realize that you need a bit from each macronutrient group. Eat based on what you'll be doing for the next few hours (if you're working out, eat a little more; sitting at a desk, eat a little less). The 3-hours-before-bed rule is important, especially for fats and carbohydrates. By allowing time for all the carbs you eat to get into your bloodstream, your body will sleep in fat-burning mode, rather than in calorie-storing mode. This is important because undigested carbs in your stomach at night are stored as adipose tissue (fat).

Cheat Days: 2

Weekly focus: Carbs are not the enemy. Your body needs them, just like it needs proteins and fats. The trick is to choose the right carbs. As a society, we eat too much refined sugar. Complex carbs, like whole-grain breads, whole-grain rice, sweet potatoes, and legumes are outstanding foods. Even fruits, which have simple carbohydrates wrapped in fiber, are very good for you and hard to overconsume. While you don't want a diet based on nothing but carbs, making the right carb choices will maximize your body's potential. Try to avoid white rice and flours. Read labels, and try to avoid ones that use the word "enriched," because this means these products have been stripped of their natural nutrients, overprocessed, and then fortified with a few random nutrients.

Week 3

Eat some colorful, low-density food at every meal. These are foods that take up a lot of space without a lot of calories. Veggies are the most obvious example. You can eat a salad bowl overflowing with lettuce and veggies and you most likely won't exceed 100 calories. By eating low-density foods like veggies and fruits, you'll keep your portions under control naturally, because they have very few calories for their size. Conversely, high-density foods, like chocolate and butter, are loaded with calories in even the smallest amounts. So beware of salad dressings and other things you add to salads and veggies. Only add enough for flavor; don't fill up on them. When it comes to live foods, the richer the colors, the fresher the products tend to be. Try to eat a variety of colors in your diet. This simple and somewhat random act will help ensure that you're covering your bases, nutrient-wise.

Cheat Days: 1

Weekly focus: Protein at every meal. This becomes even more important as you eat more low-density food, because protein tends to be high-density. Many veggies have a lot of protein, but the quantity you must consume starts to become prohibitive. Try to get some protein—meat, dairy products, nuts, seeds, or legumes—each time you eat, especially when you're working out hard, because you need to repair broken-down muscle tissue. Frequency of protein consumption is even more vital for women, who aren't able to digest as much protein at one time as men are. It's almost impossible to get all your necessary protein at one or two meals, so try to get 10 to 20 grams of protein each time you eat. Reading labels is a simple way to learn how to estimate your protein intake, but if you eat natural foods, most of which don't have labels, you can look at online nutritional information guides to determine the amount of protein each serving contains.

Week 4

Cook at home. One of the best ways to control your eating is to prepare all your meals yourself. Eliminate all fast food (which should have been gone in Week 1) and most other restaurant food. You may still eat food from certain restaurants where you can be sure of the ingredients (most will be savvy enough to make a point of how healthy their food is). But avoid all fast food chains, even ones that claim to be "healthy." Restaurants need their food to taste good, so they'll often use compromised ingredients, even when they list low numbers on fats and/or calories. Fast food can contain many hidden evils in addition to calories. For example, next time you see one of those nutrition charts, check the sodium levels; most fast foods use ridiculously high amounts of salt. Avoiding fast food alone will often bring your body closer to homeostasis (its desired state of balance). This can be hard for many of us because we now have to plan our meals and prepare ahead of time, but try and treat it like vocational school—you don't learn a new "job" without a little retraining.

Cheat Days: 1

Weekly focus: Fat is essential. Remember that fat is a vital part of your diet, not just something that makes you fat. What is not vital is a lot of saturated or trans fats. Trans fats are mainly those that are artificial, and hopefully they've been eliminated from your diet by this point, since they're generally only found in junk. Saturated fats are found in dairy products and meats, and you don't need too much. For cooking, try to use olive oil when possible. Also, the addition of either flaxseed or hempseed can have a pronounced effect on your health. These seeds are loaded with essential fatty acids (omegas 3 and 6). Be careful about that amount of fat. It is dense and has 9 calories per gram, as opposed to 4 for both carbs and protein. A tablespoon goes a long way!

Week 5

Reduce starchy carbohydrates. Starches include rice, bread, potatoes, corn, beans, and other legumes. While many of these are in no way bad foods, most people tend to consume far too many of them. So what you want to do this week is cut way down on them, if not cutting them out completely. Then add them back in when your body feels like it needs energy, which it will at some point if you're exercising (and why wouldn't you be?). But don't add a huge plate or bowl of pasta; instead, add a small single serving. Starches are great energy food, but if you eat too many, they turn the tables and make you sluggish!

Cheat Days: 1

Weekly focus: Sugar is only beneficial after a hard workout. Your body doesn't need processed sugar. But if you really enjoy it and can't avoid letting some sneak into your daily diet, the 1-hour period after you exercise is the best time to indulge. During this window, your blood sugar is low, because you've used it up to finish your workout (assuming you pushed yourself), and sugar during this time will help you recover faster because it speeds into your system and initiates the recovery process. Adding a little protein, but not too much, will enhance your recovery even further. The best ratio is 1 part protein to 4 parts carbs, as in Results and Recovery Formula^®. You should avoid fats during this immediate post-workout period, because they slow absorption—a good thing most of the time, just not during and immediately after working out.

Week 6

If man makes it, don't eat it. This is likely to be the hardest week of your diet. You want to eat only whole foods and eliminate all processed foods, even good ones, for the week. This includes breads, most salad dressings, all cereal, luncheon meats, cheese, dried fruits, anything with preservatives, and alcoholic beverages. What you can eat are whole foods such as fruit, raw or steamed vegetables, meat (sans any type of sauce), natural whole-grain rice, poached eggs, etc. Since your eating habits have been slowly changing, this shouldn't be that big a shock to your system, but keeping in focus that you only have to do this for 7 days will make it easier. (Although each week's rules are cumulative in the plan, Week 6 is more of a "cleanse" or "reset" week where you avoid all processed food; after Week 6, you can go back to the occasional processed food, but chances are you'll take what you learned this week and tend to make healthier, smarter choices.)

Cheat Days: 1

The "cheat day" mentality isn't a bad one. Rewards like decadent desserts, a night at the buffet, or drinking with friends are good for you as long as you keep them in perspective. These are rewards for a life well lived and you should be able to feel good about doing them. Plus, there's some method to this madness as well, in that you still tend to crave nutrients you lack. So if you're cutting down on the calories to lose weight, allowing yourself a cheat day will give your body a chance to take in what it needs to avoid being malnourished.
Weekly focus: Nuts make great snacks. A handful of raw almonds or cashews is a quick and easy snack that goes a long way. Don't be put off by the high fat count of nuts, because this means it takes fewer of them to satiate you. Nuts are loaded with important phytonutrients, as well as good fats, proteins, and fiber.

Week 7

Be yourself. No rules—just try and eat as healthily as you can and do it by feel. Trusting yourself might seem like a lot of responsibility, but by now you'll be up to it. Learning to eat by feeling what your body needs is an important step in your transformation. Consider the way you've been eating over the last 6 weeks, but don't worry about what you should and shouldn't do. Just fuel yourself. The point is to take a mental break. Relax and allow yourself to eat in a way that feels normal. You may be surprised to find yourself craving something healthy instead of a candy bar or soda. You'll be better at listening to your body because it'll tell you what it needs to eat, as opposed to what you're used to eating. Your body should feel somewhat transformed. Does it?

"Reward for a Life Well Lived" Days: 1

Weekly focus: If you're so hungry at night that you can't sleep, try a protein shake (like Beachbody's Whey Protein Powder) before bed. When it's real, and not habitual, hunger means you lack nutrients your body needs to repair itself as you sleep. You want nothing but protein powder and water. No carbs or superfluous calories. But protein at night, especially whey, will help the body repair damaged tissue and enhance the natural growth-hormone spike that you get while you sleep.

Week 8

Eat a perfect diet. Now it's time for a real challenge—are you ready? The perfect diet is strictly individual, as there's no one diet that suits everybody. So who better to choose the perfect diet for you than you? Our bodies are all different, and the key to your own perfect diet is learning about how your body reacts to different foods under different circumstances. Your journey over the last 7 weeks should have brought you to a new understanding of how food affects your body, both for good and for bad. Now it's up to you to put it to the test. See how well you can eat for a week. In fact, see how well you can eat for the rest of your life. Live and enjoy.

Reward Days: 1, of course!

Weekly Focus: Don't bonk. Bonking is a state where your body runs out of stored blood sugar for energy. If you feel like your workouts are going backward instead of forward, this is a likely culprit. Use your energy level as your gauge. As soon as it starts to drop, start adding carbs back into your diet until you feel energized all day long. When you feel energized during your workouts and not sluggish throughout the rest of the day, you'll know you've found the right balance between carbs and other nutrients. Also, remember that as your body puts on more muscle, you will need to eat more. Muscle weighs much more than fat so as you gain muscle and lose fat, you will shrink at the same weight. You will also require more calories in order to maintain your muscle. So when you're working out hard, don't be afraid to eat more carbs than you do otherwise.

Going Paleo

After completing my last 4 weeks of P90X, I was able to lose 7.4 pounds and am very happy with my results so far.  This is my fourth round of P90X and I have literally changed my health and fitness since starting to use Beachbody workouts.  Basically, I was on a slippery slope to a early grave when I started.  I have had two heart attacks in my 40s and was at my all time weight gain of 234 pounds, and on 2 blood pressure medications along with a declaration from my doctor that I was pre-type2 diabetic when I started my journey to a more healthy lifestyle.

Throughout my fitness journey, I have used the meal plans provided in the Beachbody workout programs I have used and I also use the Meal Planner offered to club members of the Team Beachbody Community.  These meal plans have helped me change the way I eat gradually over time.  When I started my health journey, I was eating McDonald's at least twice a day on average.  I usually left home and stopped by McDonald's on my way to work and got a sausage, egg and cheese biscuit and a small Coke, which comes with the hash brown potato.  I would eat lunch in the cafeteria or local resturaunt and on my way home I would stop again at McDonald's and get a quarter pounder with cheese, large fries and a medium Coke.  This was all for the convenience of the fats, oops I mean fast food cycle I was in.

You can only imagine what eating at McDonald's was doing to my body, especially if you have ever seen the documentary "SuperSize Me" where the guy ate nothing but McDonald's for 30 days and became very unhealthy, gained about 20 pounds and took almost a year to recovery from it.  The bottom line is that eating habit and lifestyle was literally killing me and is ever so slowly killing you it you are caught in the fast food cycle.

Those eating habits, along with a stressful work environment produced obesity and high blood pressure in my life.  I would get winded walking up a single flight of steps, didn't sleep well, always felt tired, never had any energy, and my love life was waining more and more.  Then, my doctor informed me that I was pre-diabetic.  he also told me that if I didn't lose some weight and start exercising, I would most likely be on diabetic medication along with the two blood pressure medications for the rest of my ever shortening life.  That is the slippery slope I was on.  I had no one but myself to blame.  I made a lot of excuses, but that was my wake up call.  I HAD to take action.  There was not more choice.

So I have changed my lifestyle.  I have been using Beachbody workout programs for just over 2 years, I gave up fast food for healthier selections and I have regained my health.  Off all medications, Blood Pressure that of a 35 year old, more energy, low risk for diabetes, low risk for another heart attack.  My cholesterol is lower than my doctor can believe.  Every time I have it checked he makes the technicians run the test twice to make sure the numbers are right.

As I have leaned more about exercise and proper nutrition and the need for some supplementation, I have refined my daily diet and during this round I decided to try supplementing with Creatine to help increase my strength and lean muscle mass.  It is a lot easier for a younger person to build lean muscle than someone my age, so supplementation comes in handy.  This has been interesting to see the increase of my overall strength and ability to work out more intensely, but I have my reservations on using creatine long term, even if I do follow the cycling recommendation.  I would prefer to sustain my healthy lifestyle as naturally as possible.

I have been studying diet and looking at ways to be leaner and stronger by eating better.  I have reviewed many different nutrition plans and this month I will test the Paleo diet to see the effects eating paleo will have on my fat loss.  My goal this round of P90x is to reduce my body fat from 20% to 15%.  This is a achievable goal in 12 weeks.   One thing I find interesting is that I have increased my calorie intake from about 2400 calories a day to almost 300 calories a day and have lost weight!  That is counter intuitive to what most diet guides say, but I can't argue with my results.

By eating Paleo, I will see how eating low glycemic foods and cutting dairy and grains out of my diet for the next 4 weeks will affect me.  It is supposed to help you reduce your body fat, so I will see how well it works.  I have a food list that includes Paleo food that I like.  I won't be eating everything on the Paleo food list, but I chose things I already like to eat with enough variety to have a 3 week meal plan with a lot of variety and choice.  I am looking forward to seeing what it can do for me.

Check back and I will post the food I will be eating over the next 4 weeks.

To your health and fitness journey,

Jim        

Phase 1 of P90X Complete

Greetings,

Today was my day 28 and end of the 4th week of my 4th round of P90X!  Wow!  I extended the phase by one week because I have been feeling strong.  I wanted to get the most out of this phase and lose a few pounds I gained over the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.

I started this round weighing in at 203.8 pounds.  I had maintained a weight around 195 pounds for about 14 months after completing my first round of P90X.  Where I went wrong is that after I finished my last round in November of 2010, I decided to take a break from my workout lifestyle and just enjoy the holidays.  That was my first big mistake.  Once I stopped working out, I quickly started slacking off on my nutrition and stopped eating clean and healthy foods.  I figured that I needed to reward myself for all the hard work I had put myself through and should let myself go for the holidays.  I soon found myself eating every ounce of saturated fat in site, including banana pudding, chocolate pie, chocolate cake, gravy, mashed potatoes, stuffing and everything else in front of me!  It was a glutton fest from Thanksgiving day though New Years.  Thus result was gaining almost 9 pounds of fat in only about 6 weeks.

Fortunately, I know now how to remedy my weight gain and I already have the right program at home that is guaranteed to correct the lapse in my health and fitness lifestyle.  I have P90X, my nutrition plan, and a community of support to help me reverse the trend I set myself on by slipping back into old habits.  I restarted my P90X workouts and now I am back on track to be in even better shape than before!  All from the privacy and comfort of my home.     

I am happy to report that this morning I weighed in at 196.4 pounds!  That is 7.4 pounds of body fat.  I have also gained some muscle mass because I have been lifting heavier weights over the last 4 weeks due to taking Creatine this round.  I have never used Creatine and want to see the effects on my body and so far, I am pleased with the results.  The one drawback is that it makes me feel bloated.  I am on a 6 week cycle and then will cycle off for 4 weeks.  I may change that to 8 weeks on and 4 weeks off but will wait and see how I feel in week 6 before deciding.

All in all, I am completely satisfied with my progress during this round and through my Beachbody fitness journey.  Keep bringin it!

Jim    

In my 4th round of P90X

Greetings...

I am in my 4th week of my 4th round of Beachbody's P90X workout program.  This week is supposed to be my phase 1 recovery week.  However, one of the advantages of doing in-home workouts is that you can make changes to your schedule and modify the program to meet your needs. 

I only make one basic change to the weekly schedule normally.  Since I work full-time and have a terrible commute out of Washington DC, I only have a limited time during the week to get my workout in.  Kenpo X is a workout that takes about 60 minutes to complete and is on the 6th day (Saturday for me) of the routine.  On Thursday, the P90X Classic schedule calls for me to do Yoga X.  Doing Yoga X on a weeknight is very difficult for me because it is 90 minutes long and a difficult workout, in and of, itself.  So I have always swapped Kenpo X and Yoga X to fit my schedule.

P90X is divided into 3 training blocks, or phases, each lasting 3 weeks long with a recovery week.  Since I've been doing P90X for a while now, I've developed more strength and stamina.  This round I've increased my daily calorie intake and taking a Beachbody Creatine supplement to see the effects of using Creatine during the program.  One thing I can say is I feel a lot stronger using the Creatine so I decided to extend my first phase of P90X by an additional week.

So, I am on day 23 and will be doing Shoulders and Arms and Ab Ripper X this evening.  It's one of my favorite workouts in the P90X program.  Since starting using the Creatine supplement I've noticed my strength increase and so added weight to every exercise.  One drawback (for lack of a better word) is the creatine makes me feel bloated and I have actually gained weight over the past 3 weeks.

I am not too concerned since my research has shown that once I cycle off the creatine, the excess water will go out of my muscle and I will "lean" out and have a better indicaton of what my creatine cycle has done for me.  I'm not ready to recommend Creatine at this point, but so far it looks promising.

I encourage you to move your body at least 30 minutes to an hour per day.  If you can consistently do this, you will soon start to realize how much better you will feel, how much more energy you will have, and how much better you will sleep at night.  It only small changed in your daily routine to make a significant impact in your health and fitness.

As Tony Horton always says, "Do your best, and forget the rest."

To your health and fitness,

Jim