The 59 mile challenge

I am stupid. Plain and simple.

I have this incredible friend on Facebook who has lost over 100 LBs. She has been one of my inspirations as is to many. She posts at the beginning of every month "Like this status and I'll bike 2 miles for every like". Easy enough right? She got 121 likes on her status. That is 242 miles. Yes 242 miles. That is further than driving from Round Rock, Texas all the way into the ocean. So I got the bright idea well hell I want to do that too. I'll do .5 miles of walking/jogging or running. I thought ok, i'll get 50-60 likes and have to do 25-30 miles which is easily done and i'll kick start myself back into losing weight etc. Well holy crap.....

Yep 118 likes as of the time of this blog entry. I tried to say well I'll cut this off at 80 likes but as my friend Mark pointed out, I never put any clause or time limit on this. So there it is. My goal is 59 miles this month. I may not make that goal but I am sure going to try!


I'll post the result from Endomondo at the end of the month to see how close I came to this. Thanks for everyone who liked the status!

Honey I'm in labor....

This is part 1 of the "birthing series" and my perspective of having our newest member to the family, Magnolia Joy. I want to preface this by saying that this is not my typical posts about diet health and fitness and this may have a little more detail than most people would generally be comfortable with. I guess this my little disclaimer.


            So a little background on the birth my wife and I chose. We wanted a natural  birth. After doing a lot of research we decided that the hospitals are very quick to intervene in the birthing process. We learned that c-section births are about 40 percent  and most of those are not due to a medical necessity. My wife had a c-section with our first child and I can honestly say it was one of the hardest things that I have ever seen anyone go through. It is major surgery. They cut through several layers of your body and pull the baby out. This also causes a lot of unnecessary hormonal changes in the woman because it stops the natural process of birth and the way the body handles it. Now our first one "MAY" have been medically necessary but that's up for debate because our first child was breach (head up instead of down).

             Another part of the decision was the cost. Having it at home would cost a total of $3000 all together! This included all of the pregnancy appointments, postpartum visits, supplies and birth.  With our first child all together the cost was upward in the $10,000 range which included all of the same things and that was with insurance mind you. Plus we read about the care and the midwife becomes a part of your life during this period of time. They spend time with you and get to know you. The doctor process takes about 2 hours of waiting and them to see you for around 15 minutes and then send you on your way. Big difference.

             So home it was, that's what we decided and we got some crazy looks and comments about it, but we knew this was the right decision.We will now fast forward to Monday June 10th.

           I woke up around 7:30am  like I usually do and was getting ready for work. I had already not slept well because I had a HUGE interview scheduled at work for me, so I was focused on that. As I woke up my wife looked at me and said "I have been up since 5am, I think something happened". I perk up immediately and ask what happened, as I thought something was wrong. She told me that she had some water like stuff leak out. My first thought was " HAHAHAHA She peed per pants!" but she explained to me that she thought it was an issue and the fluid around the baby was leaking out which is a bad thing. I was concerned but dismissed it as she felt fine, although she had a few stomach cramps here and there, hell I had an interview to worry about. Luckily that day she had her final midwife checkup appointment and could check it out.

            From that point on I was at work and was preparing as much as I could for my interview. Around 11am, my wife went to her appointment and I was left in my own thoughts to stew on the interview. I get an email saying my interview was postponed until Thursday, which kind of left me disappointed but relieved that I didn't have anything high stress to worry about, or so I thought. I get a call from Sum, and she was kind of excited. She exclaimed " Honey, I am in labor!!" Oh that's fine honey....wait what?!" She told me she was in labor, and that leak she had was her water breaking. So much for not being stressed right? At this point I went into super husband mode. I was overly attentive and wanted to help her out. I had gotten visions of movie births where someone's water breaks and then they are flocking to the hospital and going nuts and have a baby within 10 minutes of screen time. Well I quickly learned that for the most part, this isn't the case.

             She got home from her appointment and I was all over the place, we had a place lined up for our 1st child and she went over there for our birth, we figured that the birth process would probably go into the night and i'd be able to get her in the morning or so. So she said she was having contractions but they weren't very intense so we could go eat and pick up a few last minute things that we needed. Yes you heard me right, we went to eat and to go shopping. First thing we did was go to a chinese place and have a full meal, then to Hobby Lobby and old Navy. Not your typical birth process right? She was starting to tire out so we went home and rested. The Doula and midwife were to show up later in the evening and so this point was to take it easy.

The next part of this series I'll continue the story and explain what a midwife and doula are. 

It's been a while.....

So it's been a good long while since I've posted anything on here. I wanted to give an update as to what I was doing currently and how I was doing.

First off, I gained weight....on purpose...well kind of......

I wanted to build some strength, and just get strong again. To do this I decided to forget dieting for the most part and go with the flow and just lift. I have been getting stronger but haven't been able to hit the gym as often as I'd like due to having our second child. I went from doing 225 on bench press 6 times for 3 sets to 300 3 times. I feel great with the progress. However I ran into an issue with my form. I have an online coach who took a look at my form and it was garbage. So having to re-learn how to squat and bench have been fun and I notice a big difference already.


As for my food intake, I haven't been completely paleo as of lately but 99% gluten free and I don't feel bad at all. The only bad thing is that I have put on a little too much weight. I am going to cut a little bit and try to stick more to a paleo style diet to get healthier and shed just a tad bit of weight. I wanted to warn people that my next blog posts will be about my childs birth. One thing that has pushed a lot of my training and dieting to the back seat is having a 2nd child. My wife and I went through a crazy journey and I am going to use this blog to post about it. After that I will go more into details about my workouts and diets etc.

Patience is a Virtue?

I actually googled this phrase, not because I didn't know what it meant, but because I wanted to see what people actually thought about it. It's pretty simple right? Being patient is good and being impatient is bad right? To many (like myself) having patience is actually a vice. It's hard to be patient in this world due to how the world runs. We want things and we want them NOW. Patience is something that can be misinterpreted though. This doesn't mean that if you want something, you sit there on your butt and patiently wait for it to fall into your lap. Most of us have to persevere through a lot of trial and error before things come together. As I stood on the scale last week, I weighed 253.5. Almost the same as I did last week. I got very discouraged and wanted to quit. How could I be eating so little, and feel like I am killing myself on some days and not make any progress? I watch youtube videos of all of these people who are absolutely jacked and look amazing and eat way more than I do. Am I incapable of losing weight or looking like them?

Well the answer is No and Yes. I am definitely capable of losing weight, but everyone is different. I learned the hard way that my body does not process carbs correctly yet. It can be in the genes or body type that some people do not burn carbs well. Even with the slight increase that I had (150g of carbs a day) it kept putting the weight on me. Also my cheat meals contribute to this. It's the one step forward, one step back cycle that is easy to get into. I had to realize that I am not Chris Jones and I cannot eat 250 grams of carbs a day and lose weight. It just isn't going to happen. Yet. Since then I've tried something new and am down 3 pounds in 4 days. Yep that may be water weight but my measurements have been awesome. I'll get to that in a moment.


Now am I incapable of looking like one of these bodybuilders? Absolutely not. Sometime with all of the media and videos and articles that we have access to we can get hung up on the top of the line. If you read about having six pack abs every day and see workout videos of people who have six pack abs, you will start to think you have six pack abs after 3 workouts. This will never happen. It's just like the joke a comedian said. If you're on a plane and read about a disease on that flight, you will think you have the disease by the end of the flight. The mind is a crazy thing especially when you dwell on a certain thing day in and day out. Well after some research you will find that bodybuilders have worked out for YEARS. Not get ripped in 2 months, but get ripped in 3-5 years! Some people have crazy genetics and can get six pack abs in 6 months, but us normal folks? Years. That's years of consistent training and eating properly. Straight losing weight can be different depending on how you started out, but even that takes several months. When I lost my big chunk of weight, it took 6 months on a strict diet.


My point is anyone can look like anything, but it takes time. I encourage everyone to read the articles and watch the videos but don't get caught into it. You aren't them, but you can use them for the knowledge they are offering so you can become who you want to become. Make a long term goal, but make smaller goals to track the progress. If you aren't progressing then change what you're doing, but give it at least 4 weeks before changing as sometimes the body has to heal or adapt to doing something different.

 UPDATE
So as I mentioned above I am still weighing around the same. I have been around 253-256 in the past two weeks. I changed my diet with the advice of Phillip Stevens (a pro powerlifter on iron radio podcast)  to cycle carbs. I was also hearing from some of the top professionals that some people cannot burn carbs properly if they have been or are overweight. I had to face the facts. Although I lost 60 pounds I am still overweight. With my parents both having type 2 diabetes, I may not be able to process carbs as well due to my gene pool. Thirdly I sit down a lot of the day due to my job, I may not be able to expend enough energy to burn off carbs like normal folks. So now, I eat 100-125 grams of carbs on days that I lift. I carb cycle, which means I focus on taking in the bulk of those carbs before my training. After those meals, I switch back to a keto style meal plan in which I eat mostly fat, protein and minimal carbs. So far I've been doing this 4 days and my weight is going down. Today I weight 251.3, the lowest since before Christmas.

My measurements were:
Chest 45.5 (went up .5 inches)
Belly 39 (went down 1 inch!!)
Hips 43.5 (went down .5 inches)
Arms 16 and 17.5 flexed (.5 up in flexion)
Thigh 28 inches (went up 1 again)


This is absolutely crazy to me. I am going up in my main areas. My chest I went up, which means I am putting on some mass in my back and chest. My legs are still growing which doesn't surprise me and my stomach and belly are getting smaller. Right where I want to be. I am going to continue this carb cycling and see where I am on March 1st. If I am in the 240s I wont purchase a coach.

Hey I know this is crazy, I just saw your youtube video, be my coach maybe?

 Update

       It's been a couple of weeks and since I have the luxury of sitting in front of a computer all day long, I am on information overload. I read about diet and nutrition all day long. I listen to podcasts, and I try different things. I have stuck with pretty much the same thing for a while and am not dropping weight. My family and friends all tell me I look great and getting more muscular, but if I am eating at a caloric deficit, I should be dropping the weight. So I am trying a few things differently for a couple of weeks and I have made a deal with myself.

First thing is I am going to carb cycle. I am going to eat the majority of my carb intake centered around weight training. This will give me the energy and recovery I need, but in the meals after that I will not be ingesting very many carbs. I will split this basically to 75 grams of carbs in the morning before workout and 75 grams after workout. Then at night very little. This seems to already be working as the scale is moving downward. I will not check my weight again until next week. I was down to 252 today.

Second thing that I am going to try is a different workout plan. I want to hit every muscle TWICE a week now. I have read and heard some research stating that those who work out body parts more often have better gains than those who don't. Frequency over quantity. Back in high school there were times where we would bench press three times in a week. Looking back on it, this seemed really stupid and unsafe. HOWEVER, that is when I was at my strongest. I could bench 300+ pounds, Squat 500+ and deadlift 400 pretty easily. So maybe they were onto something.  So here is the plan I worked out.



Upper A (Heavy) (Tuesday)
Bench Press 3 x 6
Dips until failure
Bentover barbell rows 3 x 6
Lat pull downs 3 x 6
Shoulder Press 3 x 6
Standing Curls 4 x 8
Rope Pull downs 4 x 8


Upper B (Light) (Thursday)
Incline dumbbells 3 x 10
Machine Fly 3 x 10
1 armed dumbbel rows 3 x 10
seated cable rows 3 x10
Shoulder Press Dumbbells 3x10
Side Laterals 3 x10
1 arm hammer curls 4 x 8
1 arm tricep kick backs 4 x 8


Lower A (Heavy) (Wednesday)
Leg press 5 x 5
Straight leg deadlift 4 x 8
Donkey Calf machine 3 x 12

Lower B(Light) (Saturday)
Back Squats 3 x 12
Lunges 3 x 12
Leg Extensions 3 x 12
leg curls 3 x 12
Calf Raises on Leg press machine 3 x 12


I basically took my normal workouts, split them all in half and combined them into upper and lower workouts with the first of the week being heavy and the end of the week being light.


The deal I made with myself

      I made a deal with myself. I watch a lot of fitness and bodybuilder youtube channels.Some of those guys  offer coaching. I have never had a coach or a personal trainer or anything. If I am not back in the 240s by March 1st, I am going to hire a coach to get a different prospective on things to try to get my goal of 230 by April 28th. If I am in the 240s I will go ahead and keep doing what I am doing and probably lower carbs. I may be doing just fine right now, but I am such a scale junky that I want to see that lower number on the scale before I focus on physique and getting bigger. Lose fat first, then build muscle. It'll get done one way or the other. 

Caffeine Sucks, The Scale Sucks, and I'm Weird

Decided to toss out another update since it's been a while.


Caffeine Sucks

So here is an update on how I have been doing without caffeine...BLAHHHHHHHH...OK it's not that bad but man it was a rough first week. I went from drinking 18 oz of french pressed coffee to drinking 1 coffee mug of green tea. The first few days I switched to a blend of decaf and regular coffee and then switched to just green tea. I haven't really had issues with energy during my workouts. I take A B12 or vitamins (orange triad) on those days and seem to do just fine. I don't have any energy throughout the day but it has gotten better. I did go without the green tea one day and it was awful, I felt like I was a zombie. I do seem to have sustainable energy, but nothing great thus far, but the main thing is I haven't been sleeping better like I thought I would. I did for a few nights but the same waking up in the middle of the night business is still happening. I hope that gets better.


The Scale Sucks

Well my wife did a good thing. She hid the scale from me last week, and she and I agreed that I would weigh first thing in the mornings on Wednesdays. Well I did this morning and....Didn't lose a friggin pound. I was very distraught and wondered what the heck I could be doing wrong. I had her check my measurements and then I saw what happened. I lost an inch on my chest and stomach again. Yes a full inch, so I am almost back to the size I was before my Christmas massacre of calories. The kicker is I haven't lost weight? So what has been happening? Well I been hitting the gym HARD, especially on leg days. I had her check those measurements and BAM. 1 inch gained in my legs and hips. I can definitely tell that some muscles are starting to come out and that I look a bit better, but my legs are growing and they will always be the first to grow. I'm happy with that progress. As long as I am building muscle, the fat will fall off right after, but that doesn't necessarily translate to weight loss.

IM WEIRD

My wife was talking to someone about going to a party. She was asked if she was on that weird diet that I was on. She politely stated that eating real food is hardly weird. She was told that because it had so many restrictions, that it was weird and she stood by her comments. This kind of bothered me at first, but to be honest this is how the world views people who want to be in shape and healthy. It's weird to get up and go to the gym 4 days a week. It's weird to be able to push 850 LBs with your legs. It's weird to eat unprocessed food and watch your calories. If it was easy, everyone would have great physiques and no one would have diabetes or health issues. Folks, don't pay attention to the masses. Everything that you do is going to be weird to people. It takes hard work and dedication to make your fitness goals. It also takes sacrifice. It may be weird to your friend that you don't go out on Fridays and eat like crap and drink all night, but you know what? Saturday morning when you're running and got through a work out. You've accomplished something. You're one step closer to your goals and physique while they're sleeping until noon recovering. If that's weird, then I am all for it. I'd rather be weird and healthy, than "normal" and out of shape.

Calories in vs Calories out + Update

Back again for another blog post here. Today I was just thinking how hard all of this can be, and for anyone starting out, but in the end it'll be all worth it. Right now I cook most of my meals, log everything, write about it, research and help other people as much as I can. It can be a daunting task and even tedious in some cases. However this week I saw the weight that I had put on during Christmas start to come off and it gave me a sense of accomplishment and renewed my motivation. Just remember stick to it and you will reap your gains.

A person recently asked me on facebook "Hey how much do i need to do at the gym to lose 10 lb's" My response was to not worry about what you burn rather what you eat. It's easy to think that if we go run for hours or ride a bike that the weight falls right off. I used to think this as well. I'd work out for an hour, do 30 mins of cardio and feel great, only to follow that by going to eat some crazy fast food meal. Lets look at something here:

Estimate calories burned during a 1 hour (yes 1 full hour) of cardio at the speed of 5 without stopping is 600 calories.

A big mac value meal, not even super sized is 1000-1100 calories. So even if you ran/jogged for a full hour you would still be in a caloric surplus! (I know there are other caloric losses after the exercise, this is for simplicities sake) This doesn't even take into account that your meal you just consumed has 200 grams of carbs and only 30 grams of protein. This will leave you hungry in a few hours.

What is all boils down to is calories in vs calories out. This is something I had to learn, and yes Paleo helped me lose weight due to the caloric deficit but it was those foods that helped me feel full and satisfied. A lot of the chemicals and by products in processed food clog up your body's sensors in thinking that it isn't full. Real food does not do this. That is why I stick with paleo(ish) foods. So next time you think about jumping into a gym and doing all of that work, make sure you know what you're eating and that it doesn't sabotage all of your hard work!


Now my hypocritical ass will give an update of how I am doing. It took two weeks for me to start shedding weight. My body either had to get used to me eating normal again or maybe it was the increased carb intake then what I was used to, but it's finally coming out. My two week weight is back down to 254.2. I started out at 261. I could not believe I put on 15 pounds over the holidays, but I can't dwell on the past and just need to focus on the future. My measurements are all the same as they were when I finished the challenge, except my arms are getting slightly bigger (woot!). There are two things that I have decided on and i'll share those in their own paragraphs.

First I am tapering down my caffeine in take and may even cut it out completely (for a while). I have had sleeping problems like no other, and I super caffeine sensitive. SO I have put two and two together and gotten that I may need to cut down or even cut out the caffeine to get to where I want to be. I have already started halfing my caffeine intake  from 18 oz of coffee a morning to 9. This already is giving me slight headaches and withdrawal symptoms. Tomorrow I will do even less coffee and by sunday, I am only going to be doing green tea. Wish me luck on this one.

 Once I hit my normal weight of 240-245, I am going to start an intermittent fasting protocol. I am going to follow this website's guidelines: http://www.leangains.com/2010/04/leangains-guide.html Basically the premise of it goes against everything anyone was ever told ever in the fitness world but it has some incredible data. My ultimate goal is to be 220-230 and hopefully this will catapult me into that by my 30th birthday.  


As for the Ocean Avenue stuff, I am completely out of the smoothie protein. This stuff was absolutely fantastic. It tasted so good. THe only thing is 1 serving is 13 grams, so I was having to use 2-3 scoops post workout of even for a snack. I still take the empower but I do not see any result or noticeable results from it. I do not take the empower or focus any longer as they were giving me weird headaches. I do have the berry protein and it is good but a little too tart for me. My wife loves it though. All in all the products are very good and if you would like to try them I can put you into contact with the right people for samples!

Weekly Update

This was a good week. I went to the gym 4 times and have been getting off of my ass more. I changed my workout splits and don't know why I didn't do this previously. My new splits look like this:

Day 1 : Chest & Shoulders

Day 2: Back  & Traps

Day 3: Legs (Quads & Hams)

Day 4: Calves/Bi's/Tri's/Sprints


This helped me get through a full arm workout for the first time in a while. When I was done with the major muscles, my tri's or bi's would be so worn out that I could barely get through anything, and not get sore at all.

This week of eating hasn't gone exactly that great. There was a lot of things that happened that I ended up saying eff it and eating more calories than I was supposed to. I think this was a result of me trying to lower calories too much. I had planned on doing 2200 cals per day for the week and this is just not feasible. Although I make good choices when eating out, I over ate because I was so hungry at the end. This goes back to the low carb thing, but I am not going to go into that right now. On Fridays, my wife and I have date night. This week we ended up going to a local bar/pub type of place. I ate some chicken nuggets that aren't breaded, but wrapped in bacon and fried, then dipped in buffalo sauce. I am sure the 6 wings I ate were in the 750-1000 calorie range, which would've been fine but I ate chips & queso and some french fries. This wouldn't have been a big deal had I not gone over calories the next two days. Ohwell live and learn. I decided this week that I am going to weigh and track everything, but I am also going to listen to myself. If I am starving at the end of the day I need to eat regardless of calories. Being hungry is what causes me and others to fail at any diet change and this was no exception. I have been eating things like rice, beans and oatmeal which are generally not recommended with a paleo style approach. I am going to cut those things out this week and see how I fair in terms of dieting.

The Ocean Avenue products have been pretty good to me. I have been on a smoothie kick and the WheyBeyond smoothie protein mix is far superior to regular protein. It doesn't cause any bloating and it tastes 10x better than just a regular vanilla protein.

I have however decided to discontinue use of the Focus and Invigorate. These things gave me random headaches and the trade off wasn't much energy. Right now, I only have one large cup of coffee in the morning and that is it. I do have several packages left of the Focus energy supplement and if anyone wants to try it, I can send a couple to you to try it out.

New Year Resolution + Ocean Avenue Update

Hey everyone, yes I know I have been slacking on this blog thing and I don't really have a good excuse except the holidays attacked me and gave me the "I don't feel like it's". The holidays also gave me the "I don't need to eat clean" attitude as well haha. Well I managed to gain around 10 pounds, which some is no doubt water weight but my gut blew up a bit. That is perfectly fine. I enjoyed myself, I had a great time with family and friends and it's good to take a break from weighing, measuring and logging everything that I put into my gullet.

It is time to get back to work now, and like millions of people out there I do have some resolutions or goals that I have set for myself and i'd like to share them with you.

1) Blog more! Yes, I am horrible at following this thing sometime. I'll get to where I'll post sometimes twice a day, but then get into that mode where I won't post anything. Some of that is due to me slacking off on diet and exercise, some of it is just purely being busy.

2) Be consistent! Doing what I just did is not recommended. It is SUPER hard to go back to eating clean after eating whatever the FFFF I wanted to eat for 2 weeks. Plus the yo-yo in weight is probably not healthy. I need to learn that a cheat meal is ok, and not to go overboard.

3)GOAL WEIGHT = 230! Sometimes I feel like I won't ever make it there, but I don't give myself the chance due to wanting to cheat. It's tough for someone like myself who is a foodie, but when I follow something to a T, I make incredible strides, but this goes back to #2...cheat meals, not cheat weeks.

4) More Cardio! I tend to follow the weight training is king camp. However, I tend to neglect cardio. Even a little cadio goes a long way. Especially in the winter months. I love to walk and take my daughter on walks, but since it's too cold for her and it gets dark almost right after I get off of work, I need to step it up and do more cardio at the gym. Although I hate it and don't have the attention span to do more than 15-20 mins in one sitting, doing that will help a ton .


The plan that I have to implement these things is simple. I am going to follow a IIFYM (flexible dieting) plan with strict paleo undertones. (sounds like a wine!) I will be getting my carbs in, but MOSTLY from fruit and veggies. I am going to lay off the rice, corn tortillas and everything else I was eating because it fit into my macros. Although while my 3 week trial of that lead me to not gain any weight, I just didn't feel as well as I did when I was eating a strict paleo diet. I will from time to time incorporate those foods as I enjoy them, but they will not be everyday occurrences.

There ya have it. I have the knowledge, I just need to use will power to follow what I know to reach goals. Plain and simple.


As for the Ocean Avenue update, I did continue to take some of the products whilst on my 2 week vacation from dieting and have a few updates on the products. Toward the end, however, I decided to stop taking all of it and to restart once I am back at it which is today.

WheySmart: This is the tub that I have received that is the smoothie mix. I haven't used much of this because it makes my oatmea too thick and sweet. I did buy some frozen fruits yesterday (only 12g per cup!) and  will make a fruit smoothie with it, as a snack, post workout or to satisfy any sugar cravings that I have.

WheyBeyond: This is the packets of protein that taste like berries. I have tried this a variety of ways and still have not figured out the way I like it best. It does not mix well as I have stated previously, so I end up taking it with water and end up getting chunks at the bottom of tart and sweet protein. It tastes very good , but don't know that I'd use it regularly. One thing I can report, is if I take it on an empty stomach where I need a snack, I tend to feel like it gives me energy. I'll experiment with that soon.

Empower: I did not see any difference in the way I felt from taking it for a couple of weeks and stopping. I will re-add that in today and see if it helps with anything. My thought is this is most focused toward people who have systemic inflammation and are metabolically deranged. If you are a healthy individual who has their Omega 3 to Omega 6 ratio pretty much spot on, you will probably not need this product. I will give my final thoughts on it when I run out though.

Invigorate: This is my favorite of the bunch. It's a green tea extract with other things and supposed to promote weight loss. I do like it because it gives me non jittery energy and seems to help me sleep better when I take it. The only thing was, that I could not balance it and the focus energy packets and I ended up with weird headaches. This could also have been due to what I was eating, so thats why I stopped taking it. As I clean my diet up, I will see how this effects me.

Focus: These are the energy packets that look like a larger pixie stick. These are my least favorite as they do not give me an energy boost like I would imagine an energy shot would, and did not last as long as I'd hoped. Also I had some weird headaches after taking this. I willl give it another shot as I clean up my diet and see if it was indeed this giving me headaches or just the influx in crappy food. I can report that after a week of not taking this, I feel fine when it comes to the headaches, so we will see.

So there you have it, I will update you guys on weight and workout plans etc, in the next few days (I hope) and get back to the grind. Hope everyone had a Happy New Year and as always if you have any questions, I can do my best to answer them or point you in the right direction.

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.

Oh the internet + New Plan

Oh man. It's been a while since I've posted last. I have been blowing and going. I was doing a cyclical Keto (paleo style) Diet and just going as I can. My wife gives me compliments daily on how my muscles are starting to come into place and how I look great. Then Thanksgiving happened and instead of trying to stay on a diet, I let loose. I stayed as gluten free as possible and put on a few pounds which is perfectly fine. The problem occurred when I started reading.....

I follow several fitness Youtubers and just got into their videos. It's very interesting to look into the lives of people who do professional bodybuilding. You find out A) they are generally like you, and B) they work really friggin hard! Some of my favorites are Matt Ogus (flexforall2), Chris Jones (physiquesofgreatness), The Hodge Twins (twinmuscleworkout), Marc Lobliner (thetigerfitness) and my personal favorite Elliot Hulse (strengthcamp). What I generally see in the competive guys (chris jones and Matt Ogus among others) is that they all eat a TON and look amazing. So I went out on a mission, I wanted to see if doing a paleo diet could translate into a bodybuilding diet, and I ended up researching for several hours into the night.

First thing I saw was that bodybuilders absolutely shun the Paleo lifestyle. Generally based on misconception or crossfit nerd's elitist attitudes. OK I definitely get it. However when most would talk about it, it wasn't backed by anything other than "The paleo diet is baseless because there is not scientific research to completely drop food groups." Wait what? All of this, that I had read was completely baseless? This is what lead to more research.

I came across someone who is very popular in the bodybuilding community. His name is Alan Aragon. He is the Robb Wolf of that community. When people get into an argument about something, his work generally comes up. HE is a nutritional genius and his work has been cited in more fitness magazines, websites and blogs than just about any other person that I could find. He completely refutes the Paleo diet and also says it's unnecessary.

So have I been wrong to follow the paleo diet? Was I one of those naive people who just followed the first book I read? I don't think so, and here is why.

Since beginning the Paleo diet, I noticed changes in not only my body, but my mind and well being. My energy levels were up and I felt a whole hell of a lot better. Now I didn't follow the traditional Paleo diet to a T, and I dont think anyone has to if certain things don't bother them. For example if you do well on dairy, don't get acne or stomach issues, then by all means do dairy. I do raw milk and cheeses on the daily. If you do ok on other grains then by all means partake! I think the paleo diet is a great GUIDELINE for anyone trying to lose weight or to be healthy, but to be honest, for someone trying to bodybuild it may not be the best solution. 

So here is what I am going to try. I have been low carbing for almost a year and want to try something different. I am going to give myself a 30 day challenge of some sorts. I read that Alan Aragon has a simple macronutrient ratio and falls into the IIFYM group (if it fits into your macros). His post here: http://www.livestrong.com/article/553149-healthy-eating-101-improve-your-fat-loss-and-muscle-gain/ states that all you need is a simple macronutrient ratio, and if you follow this you can either lose or gain weight.

Here is the formula: Daily calories = Goal weight x (workout hours per week + 9.5)

For me this would be 220 x (2 +9.5)  = 2530 Cals a day  (I generally workout in the gym around 2-3 hours a week with lots of walking so I tapered this down a bit)


1. Eat 1 gram of protein per GOAL body weight. Mine is 220 LBS, so 220 grams of protein (880 cals)
2. Eat .5 grams of fat per GOAL body Mine is 220 LBS so 110 grams of fat  (990 cals) (There is a caveat that says if you're not losing weight you may want to dial down the fat as it could be hindering your weight loss according to your body. Not because fat makes you fat, but because your body may not be able to handle that.I think I will be fine as I was taking in sometimes 150-200 grams of fat)

Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/article/553149-healthy-eating-101-improve-your-fat-loss-and-muscle-gain/#ixzz2DLcAfKFd

f you find that this is too much and you gain weight (reminder: fat does NOT make you fat), aim for .3 to .4 grams of fat per pound of goal body weight. Listen to your body and you will see changes.

Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/article/553149-healthy-eating-101-improve-your-fat-loss-and-muscle-gain/#ixzz2DLcAfKFd

f you find that this is too much and you gain weight (reminder: fat does NOT make you fat), aim for .3 to .4 grams of fat per pound of goal body weight. Listen to your body and you will see changes.

Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/article/553149-healthy-eating-101-improve-your-fat-loss-and-muscle-gain/#ixzz2DLcAfKFd)

3. Eat the rest of your calories in Carbohydrates. 2530 - 1870 = 660 cals left (660/4) = 165 Grams of Carbohydrates

So if it's this simple I should be able to lean out. I am going to try this for the next 30 days and see how it goes. This does not mean I am completely out of the paleo realm and will go out and eat a loaf of white bread a day, followed by pasta and everything else. I am still going to follow those guidelines. I can honestly tell you Gluten messes with me. It makes me feel like crap, less energy and depresses me. It also messes with my stomach as well. SO, I will add more sweet potatoes, regular potatoes and even rice. I will post along as I go through this to see if my new found knowledge works for me.

Breaking Bad Happened

I know what you're thinking. Where the heck is all of the posts about food costs and cost per meal etc.  Well You see here is what happened:


My dad spawned a conversation with me. He said "Look watch epsiode 1 of this show called Breaking Bad. IF you don't like it then tell me to screw off and don't watch anymore." Well I took this challenge. Then I ended up marathoning each episode like I was on meth myself. This show is the best show on TV hands down and I watched 4 seasons of it in a week or so. Yes it is that good. So I slacked off of this but will have a new post tomorrow after the farmers market.

One thing I wanted to touch on today was my up coming blood work test. 6 months ago I was diagnosed with a fatty liver. Supposedly this is common with overweight people. I was 291 pounds so yeah it makes sense. I go to a normal doctor as of right now. I'd like to go to someone in the paleo network, but the closest one to me is 30 miles away. This seems a bit much just to go see a doctor, so instead I choose to stick to a corporate, pill pushing, do as I am told, doctor. The first one that I had tried to get me on anti-depressants again because I was upset one day. She has since left and this one takes the cake. I walked in and I had slightly high blood pressure. We are talking 140/90. It's not great but it isnt THAT bad if you're looking at things. I also had a bit of high cholesterol. Again not ridiculously high, just a bit high. She immediately tried to get me on blood pressure medicine and a statin. I told her about the risks and how I am too young to be taking these, and how the side effects outweigh the benefits. She flat out told me, and I am not even close to kidding when she said "You know that you could die if you do not take these." I laughed at her and said oh yeah sure. She then sent me to the ultrasound tech to get my liver looked at and it came back as a fatty liver. She told me I needed to lose 10 percent of my body weight (I was 280 then, I have far exceeded that) and I told her no problem, I'll follow my diet and iwll be fine. She kind of scoffed at me. So the date is coming August 22nd where I get my blood work done. I cannot wait to stick it to this lady. So that is operation blood work date. I'll be posting all of my numbers and see if I can't find my old numbers to compare. 

But I Can't Afford to Eat Healthy

Everyone in the paleo community can attest to this, they have heard someone come up with an excuse that they can't eat a healthy diet because they cannot afford to. It's one of the oldest excuses for eating the way they do, and it's not true. Now the Paleo diet does focus on better sources of meats and produce, but if you cannot afford to buy those things, it shouldn't deter you from eating better choices or even a fully paleofied diet.

What I am going to do for the next few blog post is post what I am eating and the average cost per person per meal, then compare that to the price of other things like fast food and other restaurants.

Tonight I made a fancy looking dinner for hardly any of the cost. I am just sad that no one took a picture of it lol. It was a dinner for my Mom before she went back to Lubbock. Here is how it breaks down.

2 packages of Thin sliced chicken breast $7 (approx)
1/3 of a can of parmesan cheese $1.30 (approx)
1 Spaghetti Squash $3.54
1 small bottle of pine nut less pesto $1.99
2 organic tomatoes $1.50
1/2 onion $.80
1 TBL of garlic powder $.08
1 TBL of onion powder $.08
Salt & pepper

Total:  $16.25
Servings: 5 
Cost per serving: $3.25

I made a paleo version of chicken parmesan with spaghetti squash tossed with the pesto and more parmesan cheese. This fed my mother, wife, my daughter and I, and left 1 serving to be eaten for breakfast or lunch (or a snack lol). This was a very nutrient dense versin of chicken parmesan and could've even been better had I added some sauteed squash and zuchinni which would've added .40 per serving.

Lets look at some other means of food.

Mcdonald's Big mac value meal: $4.37
Burger King Whopper Meal: $4.32


Now this is just two examples, but you could buy some less nutrient dense food for more price. You could even have saved more money by making a butter sauce for the spaghetti squash or a simple marinara sauce with a can or organic tomato sauce.

Tomorrow I will be cooking some paleo chocolate chili!

Be Careful When You Eat out!

Oh it's been nice, I took a couple of days off to rest a bit. I only did some walking yesterday and the day before. My back had been twinged so I gave it a rest. Today I am going to hit the gym  and do the dreaded leg day (dun dun dun)! My mother flew into town (her arms must be tired!) yesterday and so it has been nice having her around.

So naturally we went out to eat for dinner. We went to a cajun place so this meant LOTS of seafood. I decided on a parmesan encrusted flounder with steamed broccoli. In my mind, when you encrust something in parmesan, that's pretty much all you use. I know when I do it, I use the parmesan powder and grated cheese, just a foreshadow here. The usual comes out bread, and cornbread, I passed of course. I get my fish and it looks magnificent, a giant piece of fish covered in parmesan cheese. I start eating it and it was as awesome as it looked. I get just about done with it and notice what it's encrusted with. I look at it and it looks a batter of some sort. I thought to myself "no way there is flour on this, it says parmesan encrusted!" So I finish it and leave some of the coating. Well I ask the waiter and he comes back with "Oh it has parmesan cheese, italian bread crumbs, eggs and milk" DAMNIT. Well lesson learned! What you cook and have in your mind isn't always what a restaurant has in mind. It's better to be that annoying customer asking questions, than to be sorry about what you ate. Luckily this wasn't too bad of a thing and I just took it as a treat.

Day 24 - Results are in!

Well today is weigh in and measurements day and I am pretty pleased with the results. Could they have been better? Of course, but did I live my life and still manage to lose weight and inches? Yep. My main goal of this whole challenge was to prove to everyone out there that you do not need a supplement to lose weight. You especially do not need the Advocare 24 day challenge gimmick either. When you get down to it, you still are eating better and you still are getting off of your ass. This will equal weight loss to anyone who is trying to lose weight. Now maybe it's a different story if you're in great shape and have hit a plateau, but anyone who is like me and trying to shed pounds, you don't need a damn thing.

So without further adieu here are my numbers:

Day 0 Numbers:

Chest (nipple line) 46 inches
Waist (above belly button, which i have no idea why they'd call it waist....) 43.5 inches
Thighs: 27 inches
 Arms: 16 inches
Hips (around the butt) 44 inches
Weight: 254.2

Day 24 numbers
Chest (nipple line): 45 inches (Loss of 1 inch)
Waist (above belly button, which i have no idea why they'd call it waist....) : 39.5 inches (Loss of 4 inches!!)
 Thighs: 26 inches (Same)
Arms: 16 inches (Same)
Hips (around the butt) 43 inches( loss of 1 inch)
Weight 246.4 (Loss of 7.8 pounds)


The weight loss wasn't very good. This is still the lightest that I have been since the 7th grade! However, there are a ton of attributing factors to this. For one, I deviated slightly on the diet a couple of times and this could've slowed me up a bit. Another thing is with weight training you can start to gain muscle over fat, and another factor could be that my body is slowing on the weight loss because well geez, I just dropped 40 LBs before this challenge. No excuses here, I like that number and am not discouraged by that at all. If anything it shows that you can live life 20% of the time and the 80% you work hard and you'll get to where you're going.

The waist measurement is absolutely correct. I couldn't believe this number. My wife has been telling me I am shrinking and I look great, heck I didn't believe her. One of my co-workers said I was melting the other day and I didn't believe him, but holy cow! 4 inches in the waist GONE. I had her re-measure 3 or 4 times because I didn't believe it myself and every time it was 39.5 inches.

As for the rest of the number, I wasn't too concerned about it. I am a genuine fat ass and most of my issues were in my stomach.  The other places look and feel better. You can definitely tell in my pictures that my back looks hell of a lot better and this is only 24 days. I will continue to progress until my ultimate goal of 220-230.

So what's next on this blog? Well I will keep going and focus on different aspects. So many questions about the paleo diet as I have been doing this. The first one I want to cover is food costs and how much each meal costs compared to others. I may also do a post on the 24 day challenge pack by Advocare that everyone is jumping on the band wagon about. I am also going to stop posting my food log. I have to admit, this made me bat Sh#@ crazy. I will also be working on my strength and workouts as I go along. Thanks for to everyone who supported me, I look forward to seeing what kind of body I can achieve!

Day 23 - Calories!

I have been eating  too little lately, so I tried to figure out a way to get some in today. My wife made me a different breakfast with the same things that I usually do, and added some cheese to it. It was not only delicious but upped my calories a little bit. For lunch, well I kind of failed at that point. Tried to eat as much as I could but just didn't have the time to do so.

So for dinner, I found this paleo type of sausage called Aidell's Andouille sausage. Here is what's in this sausage: INGREDIENTS: PORK, WATER, SALT, SPICES (INCLUDING RED,WHITE AND BLACK PEPPER), GARLIC, SUGAR, PAPRIKA, CELERY POWDER AND DEHYDRATED ONION. Winner!

So I made a whole bunch of vegetables and roasted it with the sausage. This turned out great! The only problem is, with 1 serving of this, I was only at 1700 calories again. So I did what anyone would do. Eat another serving 2 hours later. :) I rocked my calories today, as it was right around the mark it should.

This was day 2 without coffee. I have to admit, I am in a better mood, but today I wasn't as energized. I did have some energy from the Tea I drank, but other than that, I was a little flat. I still managed to get in a sprinting workout at the park, and took Natalie back to the same park at night. I ended up doing around 2.50 miles.

Tomorrow is weigh-in and measurement day and marks the end of the 24-day challenge. I feel like I did as well as I could have with the cheats and things that got in the way, and if I am in the 240s, I 'll be happy.

So what's after the 24 day challenge? Well  I don't really know fitness wise. I know my wife's birthday is coming up and I'll have family in town this weekend, so I may let loose just a little bit, but I am sticking to it. I will continue to blog about it and next week, I plan on starting a food cost series. My main question that I get is "Is this diet expensive?" Well I'll blog about it. I am going to take the total's from each meal and add that up and compare with things from restaurants and fast food places.

Here is my food log for the day: