Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Week 1 with Carbs and Ocean Avenue

So week 1 of extra carbs and the IIFYM diet and so far so good. I have a ton more strength in the gym, and seem to have the same weight fluctuations. This is probably due to my body not being able to process the carbs well due to being on a low carb diet for so long. I haven't been able to sleep well however and don't really know why. I  drink 1 cup of coffee each morning and that is it for stimulants. As for weight, I check it every night and morning. It's kind of amazing to me that I can go to bed at 248 and wake up at 245.8. Body's metabolism is a cool thing. The lowest weight I was this week was 245.6, and the highest being 250.0. The plan said that I would need 18 weeks to get down to my goal weight, so if I am doing well at the half way point, I'll continue, otherwise I may go back to a lower carb diet.


So Ocean Avenue. If you're friends with me on Facebook, I am sure you see a few people posting about having the most amazing opportunity and how things are happening etc etc. It sounds downright cult-ish. It's almost as bad as people who sell Advocare. Well I was approached with this "opportunity" and was told how amazing the products were etc. However they couldn't tell me how the products were because they haven't tried it. This was essentially silly to me. How could I endorse something that I didn't try? Well I guess money talks but that isn't me. I said that I would try the product for 30 days and use as directed and give the results of how it made me feel and give a review. Only then I would give the endorsement to sell and offer it to friends, family and other people. I am definitely a proponent the paleo lifestyle and eating real food, but sometimes supplements can help. So with that one of my good friends over the years, Justin Duran, agreed to give me full products of everything below for me to try. 


Today was day 1 and here is what I tried.

WHEY BEYOND

The whey beyond comes in a pouch. It has a sweet fruity flavor with only 1.5 grams of carbs. The downside is that it only has 13 grams of protein, which is HALF of the general protein powders that you buy at the stores. However the ingredients in this are organic which include the flavoring. The main schtick to this protein powder is that it is glutathione rejuvenating. Glutathione is the most essential antioxidant in the body and helps regulate your health and prevent disease. There is a lot of information out there as to what MIGHT raise glutathione levels and different nutrients, which includes whey protein. However it has to be UN-DENATURED, which this is. Denaturing protein is basically making it easier to absorb and process quicker in the body. Which is good for post workout, but if you use it as a snack or supplement, it can cause an insulin response and gas or bloating.

I tried this two ways so far, in some cottage cheese and with raw milk. In the cottage cheese was very good. I noticed the sweetness which comes from organic stevia and the flavor of berry. It turned it almost into a dessert for me. I did not like it in the milk. I didn't like the taste and it left lumps in it that I could not shake out in a regular shaker. I will try it with water to see if I get a different response tomorrow.

WHEY SMART

This stuff is pretty good. This one comes in a small tub with about 1.28 pounds and 30 servings. I am eating this right as I type this with a 1.5 cups of low fat cottage cheese and a few strawberries and I have to say that it is delicious. Again the draw back to this stuff is 1 scoop is only 13g of protein. So to get a decent serving of protein you have to mix it with milk, cottage cheese or take 2 to 3 scoops. This stuff is also gluten free and uses un-denatured protein. This one has a little longer list of ingredients and is directed as a smoothie mix. The flavor is called Vanilla bean smoothie mix. Lol so there ya go, it's more for smoothies. The container says this is targeted for Nutritional weight management for the whole family. The directions state to drink one smoothie a day as a meal supplement. This is great for diabetics. Also, If you drink it with milk this is a perfect SMALL meal. However for someone like myself who takes in 200+ grams of protein a day, this probably isn't cost effective, but a nice treat.

ADDENDUM:

Summer wanted a small snack at night so I offered up some of this product. I blended it with 8 ounces of milk. I shook it up for 20 seconds and it came out smooth. Her take on it is that she believes that it would be a whole lot better with crushed ice and some fruit, however it did taste good and she was able to hold it down being pregnant and nauseous. It was very satisfying as a meal replacement.

EMPOWER

This one proclaims to be a powerful anti-inflammatory which is natural and has zero side effects. The supplement is full of curcuminoids. A quick search on the google-tron and I found that curcuminoids do help with management of metabolic disorders (diabetes, rheumatoid arthiritis etc). I don't see anything wrong with this stuff. I will take it and probably won't have much to report on it in 30 days but it seems legit after looking at the research.

INVIGORATE

This is touted as a weight loss formula. The supplement includes Green Tea Extract, Raspberry Ketone, Panax ginseng root extract and chromium and zinc. All things that generally are touted as stimulant free fat burners except for the green tea as it has caffeine.  The main deal is that this is supposed to make you feel good and help regulate a few things in the body. The Chromium helps with the blood sugar regulation. The Panax Ginseng has several things that it could help with. Some studies show it has anti-depressant like qualities like the upping of serotonin levels and other awesome stuff. The green tea is a slow energy release that does get the body flowing because it essentially has caffeine in it. I only took one today and I'll explain why below, but I may have made a mistake in doing so, which I will also explain below. This stuff looks pretty good.

FOCUS

When I take a pre workout supplement and it isn't often. I want a jolt of energy that makes me feel like I can bench press 400 lbs 20 times, and that I can run 3 miles without even thinking about it. Well this stuff did not do this for me. I took it 1 hour before I did some tire sprints. I noticed a bit more energy but I was not jittery pumped or nothing. That is good I suppose because that's what it says it does. 6 hours of jittery-less energy. I noticed a stiff decline in energy 1 hour after my sprints. I am very stimulant sensitive so this was very odd to me. Around 5 hours I began to get a major headache. I then noticed this stuff has Tyrosine in it. UGH. I am very tyrosine sensitive. In the past I have tried to find the correct balance of tyrosine. I feel  great when I take it, but feel like trash afterward. If you aren't deficient in tyrosine, you can have an imbalance of tyrosine to serotonin. Many herbal medicine or functional doctors will recommend taking tyrosine in the morning and 5-htp at night. This is where the invigorate comes in. If that indeed does generate serotonin, then it should balance this just right. I was scared of  over stimulating myself today that I drank hardly any coffee this morning and I chose to hold back on the invigorate. I will try to do what the bottle says tomorrow and see how it effects me. If I get the same bad headache again, I will discontinue the use of the focus product and send it back to Justin.


Well there you have it, I was lucky enough to get to try this product line and I look forward to writing about it for the next thirty days, and to see how it helps or deters me from reaching my ultimate goal of 220 lbs. I do want to thank Justin again for allowing me to do this and if you want to know more about the product, I can direct you to his facebook page or telephone number.