Day two of the Shakeology experiment. The goal is to lose those last seven pounds in 30 days by replacing one meal with a Shakeology replacement shake. I'll list each day the supplements I take, my workouts and the food I eat and beverages I drink.
Tuesday, March 31st
Supplements:
1 Equate Complete Multivitamin
2 Rexall fish oil softgels (2400 mg)
1 Origin CO Q-10 softgel (100 mg)
1 Nature Made Vitamin E softgel (400 I.U.)
1 Spring Valley High Potency B-Complex vitamin tablet
2 tsps Bragg Organic Apple Cider Vinegar mixed with 1 teaspoon of raw and unfiltered honey and 8 ounces of water. (Twice a day)
Workouts:
P90X+ InvervalX+
Food:
P90X Results and Recovery Drink (in place of breakfast) 9:30 am
Shakeology Greenberry Shake with 1 cup of almond milk and four strawberries 12:30 pm
1 small banana separate from shake 12:30 pm
Almonds, dried cranberries and an apple 3:30 pm
1/4 cup of dried prunes 6:00 pm
Salmon, brown rice and steamed vegetables 7:30 pm
1 square of Dove dark chocolate 9:30 pm
Beverages:
500 ml bottled water during workout
Hot chai tea with stevia 10:30 am
Hot chai tea with stevia 5:00 pm
1 5 oz. glass of red wine 7:30 pm
Notes:
I wondered if the strawberries would make the shake taste differently. They didn't. I couldn't taste the strawberries at all. The shake tastes Green. I'm not sure how else to describe it. It tastes kind of like green tea ice cream. It isn't an unpleasant flavor by any means, but I can't quite put my finger on it.
The goal is to be more Primal with my eating today. Made a grocery list and will make sure the pantry is well stocked with primal food items. No Life cereal or spaghetti today!
I did have a P90X Results and Recovery drink for breakfast again this morning. I didn't intend to but I wanted to workout in a fasted state and the workout seemed harder than usual. The intervals workout has you doing 15 moves and each one lasts a minute. You go at a moderate pace for 20 seconds, a faster pace for the next 20 seconds and then all out for the last 20 seconds. After the first round you have a one minute break and then you repeat the exercises in reverse order for another 15 minutes. It's a great workout!
Tomorrow will have a standard breakfast (eggs, lean ham).
Here are the stats:
Weight: 182 lbs.
Waist: 32"
Body fat %: 13%
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Monday, March 30, 2009
Shakeology Experiment - Day 1
Day one of the Shakeology experiment. The goal is to lose those last seven pounds in 30 days by replacing one meal with a Shakeology replacement shake.
I'll list each day the supplements I take, my workouts and the food I eat.
Monday, March 30th
Supplements:
1 Equate Complete Multivitamin
2 Rexall fish oil softgels (2400 mg)
1 Origin CO Q-10 softgel (100 mg)
1 Nature Made Vitamin E softgel (400 I.U.)
1 Spring Valley High Potency B-Complex vitamin tablet
2 tsps Bragg Organic Apple Cider Vinegar mixed with 1 teaspoon of raw and unfiltered honey and 8 ounces of water. (Twice a day)
Workouts:
P90X Ab Ripper X
P90X Chest, Shoulders & Triceps
Food:
P90X Results and Recovery Drink (in place of breakfast) 9:30 am
Shakeology Greenberry Shake with 1 cup of almond milk and 1 small banana 12:30 pm
Almonds and dried cranberries 3:30 pm
Life cereal with 2% milk 4:30 pm (can I make it until dinner?)
Spinach salad with slivered almonds and balsamic vinaigrette dressing 7:00 pm
Whole wheat spaghetti with bolognese sauce
1 small corn bread muffin
Beverages:
500 ml bottled water during workout
Hot chai tea with stevia 10:30 am
Hot chai tea with stevia 4:30 pm
1 5 oz. glass of red wine 7:00 pm
Notes:
Some days I do my workout in a fasted state and then have a recovery drink in place of breakfast. I had my recovery drink at 9:30 am and my Shakeology meal replacement shake at 12:30 pm. I was extremely hungry between 11 am and 12:30 pm. After finishing the shake I'm no longer feeling hungry. We will see how long that lasts. I hope to make it until 3:30 pm before having an afternoon snack.
Ab Ripper X is not a fun workout. You probably could have guessed that from the name. There are 11 moves in about 17 minutes. For most of the moves you do 25 reps and the last one, the Mason Twist, you do 50 reps.
OK dinner definitely was not Primal! We didn't plan ahead and had nothing else in the house to eat. Grok would have gone hungry but he also slept in a cave. I'll take my lumps and resolve to do better tomorrow. We are planning out a menu for the rest of the week.
Shakeology: Didn't really notice any difference after drinking my shake. In fact I needed a nap this afternoon but that was probably a vestige of my Saturday night poker game that went way too long.
Day 1 in the books. Not a stellar start to my experiment but then again I shouldn't game the system by eating that much different than usual. The whole idea is to see what this product does for me (and to me).
I'll list each day the supplements I take, my workouts and the food I eat.
Monday, March 30th
Supplements:
1 Equate Complete Multivitamin
2 Rexall fish oil softgels (2400 mg)
1 Origin CO Q-10 softgel (100 mg)
1 Nature Made Vitamin E softgel (400 I.U.)
1 Spring Valley High Potency B-Complex vitamin tablet
2 tsps Bragg Organic Apple Cider Vinegar mixed with 1 teaspoon of raw and unfiltered honey and 8 ounces of water. (Twice a day)
Workouts:
P90X Ab Ripper X
P90X Chest, Shoulders & Triceps
Food:
P90X Results and Recovery Drink (in place of breakfast) 9:30 am
Shakeology Greenberry Shake with 1 cup of almond milk and 1 small banana 12:30 pm
Almonds and dried cranberries 3:30 pm
Life cereal with 2% milk 4:30 pm (can I make it until dinner?)
Spinach salad with slivered almonds and balsamic vinaigrette dressing 7:00 pm
Whole wheat spaghetti with bolognese sauce
1 small corn bread muffin
Beverages:
500 ml bottled water during workout
Hot chai tea with stevia 10:30 am
Hot chai tea with stevia 4:30 pm
1 5 oz. glass of red wine 7:00 pm
Notes:
Some days I do my workout in a fasted state and then have a recovery drink in place of breakfast. I had my recovery drink at 9:30 am and my Shakeology meal replacement shake at 12:30 pm. I was extremely hungry between 11 am and 12:30 pm. After finishing the shake I'm no longer feeling hungry. We will see how long that lasts. I hope to make it until 3:30 pm before having an afternoon snack.
Ab Ripper X is not a fun workout. You probably could have guessed that from the name. There are 11 moves in about 17 minutes. For most of the moves you do 25 reps and the last one, the Mason Twist, you do 50 reps.
OK dinner definitely was not Primal! We didn't plan ahead and had nothing else in the house to eat. Grok would have gone hungry but he also slept in a cave. I'll take my lumps and resolve to do better tomorrow. We are planning out a menu for the rest of the week.
Shakeology: Didn't really notice any difference after drinking my shake. In fact I needed a nap this afternoon but that was probably a vestige of my Saturday night poker game that went way too long.
Day 1 in the books. Not a stellar start to my experiment but then again I shouldn't game the system by eating that much different than usual. The whole idea is to see what this product does for me (and to me).
Shakeology Experiment
Beachbody has just released a new nutritional supplement called Shakeology. You can learn more about it here.
I'm a fan of whole foods so I'm always skeptical about "wonder products" that are supposed to be a panacea for a multitude of ills. I recently became a Beachbody coach and they sent me a package of the Greenberry flavor of Shakeology. The past couple of weeks I've not been very good with my eating and I may have imbibed a bit too much when getting together with friends and relatives who had come out to Colorado for some skiing during their Spring Breaks. So this weekend I crafted an idea to do an experiment.
For the next 30 days I am going to replace one meal a day with a Shakeology shake. I am going to continue to do my workouts every day and I'm going to resume eating my healthy, mostly Primal meals and snacks the rest of the day. I will create a post each day that describes what I plan to eat (or have eaten), my workout, and any other relevant statistics. I want to see if Shakeology does indeed do all of the things it claims to do. My goal is to lose seven pounds in the next 30 days. Seven pounds! That doesn't sound like much but I have been stuck at 180-182 for a while now and of course those seven pounds are around my core, the most stubborn area of fat deposits for men.
I plan to weigh myself and take measurements once a week and post them in my Monday blog entry. Now there will be some challenges ahead of me over the next four weeks. First I am going to Augusta next week to see a practice round of the Masters. I'm not expecting sympathy from anyone, but I realize that this will present me with opportunities to eat "not so healthy" food and to possibly have a beer or two along the way. On the plus side I should get some good exercising hiking up and down the verdant but hilly fairways of Augusta.
I also have a couple of business trips coming up this month. But this is real life and I shouldn't try to set up ideal circumstances where I never have to leave the house for 30 days. So the goal is to drop my weight down to 175 and get the body fat percentage at or below 10% all without starving myself or feeling deprived. Here we go!
I'm a fan of whole foods so I'm always skeptical about "wonder products" that are supposed to be a panacea for a multitude of ills. I recently became a Beachbody coach and they sent me a package of the Greenberry flavor of Shakeology. The past couple of weeks I've not been very good with my eating and I may have imbibed a bit too much when getting together with friends and relatives who had come out to Colorado for some skiing during their Spring Breaks. So this weekend I crafted an idea to do an experiment.
For the next 30 days I am going to replace one meal a day with a Shakeology shake. I am going to continue to do my workouts every day and I'm going to resume eating my healthy, mostly Primal meals and snacks the rest of the day. I will create a post each day that describes what I plan to eat (or have eaten), my workout, and any other relevant statistics. I want to see if Shakeology does indeed do all of the things it claims to do. My goal is to lose seven pounds in the next 30 days. Seven pounds! That doesn't sound like much but I have been stuck at 180-182 for a while now and of course those seven pounds are around my core, the most stubborn area of fat deposits for men.
I plan to weigh myself and take measurements once a week and post them in my Monday blog entry. Now there will be some challenges ahead of me over the next four weeks. First I am going to Augusta next week to see a practice round of the Masters. I'm not expecting sympathy from anyone, but I realize that this will present me with opportunities to eat "not so healthy" food and to possibly have a beer or two along the way. On the plus side I should get some good exercising hiking up and down the verdant but hilly fairways of Augusta.
I also have a couple of business trips coming up this month. But this is real life and I shouldn't try to set up ideal circumstances where I never have to leave the house for 30 days. So the goal is to drop my weight down to 175 and get the body fat percentage at or below 10% all without starving myself or feeling deprived. Here we go!
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Habits
So yesterday's post talked about Tony Horton's advice for making a plan, sticking to it, and doing it, forever. Essentially forming a habit. Humans are creatures of habit, some more than others. My twenty year old son is very habitual and fortunately has mostly good habits. His eating, exercising, and studying habits would be the envy of anyone. Unfortunately a lot of Americans have bad habits that are holding them back and keeping them from realizing their full potential.
On our trip back from Jackson Hole on Monday we stopped in the town of Rawlins Wyoming for lunch. There weren't a lot of healthy food options (at least within a stone's throw of the Interstate) and our hunger got the best of us and we ended up choosing a KFC/Taco Bell restaurant. Upon further consideration I think McDonald's would have been a better option. Anyway we perused the menu and quickly determined that Taco Bell offered no food choices of redeeming value. The KFC menu wasn't much better but they did have a grilled chicken option that seemed like the least of all evils so we both went with that.
It is a rare occasion when I visit a fast food restaurant these days and I have to say I was appalled by the experience. The food was awful! Really devoid of taste. I was tempted to ask for my money back. I looked around me and saw nothing but sad, overweight (many obese) people shoveling this slop into their mouths. I could certainly tell that no one was actually enjoying their food. In a society where 20% of our meals are consumed in the car I can only assume that we eat this way out of habit.
Mark Sisson has a good post about creating good habits here. If you have some bad habits that you would like to break read this.
On our trip back from Jackson Hole on Monday we stopped in the town of Rawlins Wyoming for lunch. There weren't a lot of healthy food options (at least within a stone's throw of the Interstate) and our hunger got the best of us and we ended up choosing a KFC/Taco Bell restaurant. Upon further consideration I think McDonald's would have been a better option. Anyway we perused the menu and quickly determined that Taco Bell offered no food choices of redeeming value. The KFC menu wasn't much better but they did have a grilled chicken option that seemed like the least of all evils so we both went with that.
It is a rare occasion when I visit a fast food restaurant these days and I have to say I was appalled by the experience. The food was awful! Really devoid of taste. I was tempted to ask for my money back. I looked around me and saw nothing but sad, overweight (many obese) people shoveling this slop into their mouths. I could certainly tell that no one was actually enjoying their food. In a society where 20% of our meals are consumed in the car I can only assume that we eat this way out of habit.
Mark Sisson has a good post about creating good habits here. If you have some bad habits that you would like to break read this.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Here's The Thing
Tony Horton (P90X guru) posted this today:
Life with exercise creates a completely different journey than a life without it. Making the time for exercise means that you're setting an intention to have a great life. Life without exercise means you're setting an intention to miss out on a better life. The quality of your life improves with exercise and it will get worse without it. Period! Your weight loss is a minute piece to the overall health and fitness puzzle. Every time you exercise you improve your fitness, health and quality of life. You always feel good afterward and you allow your mind and body to become less vulnerable to illness and injury. Every day you decide NOT to exercise your health, fitness and quality of life diminishes. You become more vulnerable to illness and injury and the energy and enthusiasm (feeling good) for a better life is not there. This is true for everyone. No exceptions.
Make a plan, stick to the plan and do it... forever!
I had the pleasure and privilege to hang out with Tony last weekend in Jackson Hole Wyoming. Tony led a group of us through four intense yoga workouts, each one lasting at least an hour. I have never sweated so much doing yoga as I did last weekend. The fact that there were about 15 other sweaty people in a fairly small room probably contributed to my sweatiness but there is also something about working out in front of "The Man" vs. on a video that makes you push yourself.
Getting up for an 8 am yoga class on a Saturday and Sunday morning isn't at the top of my list of pleasureable activities, but it was amazing how good I felt at the end of each class. The choices we make every day, big and small, have a much bigger impact on our lives than we realize. I have resolved to start every day with at least three Sun Salutations. When I get out of bed I can barely reach my shins when I bend over but after just 10 minutes of yoga I can reach the easily reach the floor and I feel invigorated and ready to face the day.
So I'm going to issue a two week challenge. Instead of crawling out of bed and heading for the coffee pot every morning, spend just 10 minutes (or 30 if you have the time) doing some yoga. If you've never done yoga you can learn how to do Sun Salutations here. Then have a cup of coffee if you so desire.
Life with exercise creates a completely different journey than a life without it. Making the time for exercise means that you're setting an intention to have a great life. Life without exercise means you're setting an intention to miss out on a better life. The quality of your life improves with exercise and it will get worse without it. Period! Your weight loss is a minute piece to the overall health and fitness puzzle. Every time you exercise you improve your fitness, health and quality of life. You always feel good afterward and you allow your mind and body to become less vulnerable to illness and injury. Every day you decide NOT to exercise your health, fitness and quality of life diminishes. You become more vulnerable to illness and injury and the energy and enthusiasm (feeling good) for a better life is not there. This is true for everyone. No exceptions.
Make a plan, stick to the plan and do it... forever!
I had the pleasure and privilege to hang out with Tony last weekend in Jackson Hole Wyoming. Tony led a group of us through four intense yoga workouts, each one lasting at least an hour. I have never sweated so much doing yoga as I did last weekend. The fact that there were about 15 other sweaty people in a fairly small room probably contributed to my sweatiness but there is also something about working out in front of "The Man" vs. on a video that makes you push yourself.
Getting up for an 8 am yoga class on a Saturday and Sunday morning isn't at the top of my list of pleasureable activities, but it was amazing how good I felt at the end of each class. The choices we make every day, big and small, have a much bigger impact on our lives than we realize. I have resolved to start every day with at least three Sun Salutations. When I get out of bed I can barely reach my shins when I bend over but after just 10 minutes of yoga I can reach the easily reach the floor and I feel invigorated and ready to face the day.
So I'm going to issue a two week challenge. Instead of crawling out of bed and heading for the coffee pot every morning, spend just 10 minutes (or 30 if you have the time) doing some yoga. If you've never done yoga you can learn how to do Sun Salutations here. Then have a cup of coffee if you so desire.
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