P90X+ Upper Body Plus

Holy Cow! I've done this workout before but it has been a while and it showed. Liberal use of the Pause button.

So far so good with the no grains New Year's resolution. I did allow myself a bit of peppermint bark yesterday (left over from Christmas, gotta get it out of the house) but otherwise eating has been very primal.

Scale weight: 180.6, a three pound drop from Friday's weigh-in. Didn't do any exercise this weekend.

Off to find Kombucha today. Want to give that a try. Otherwise just sticking with primal eating, supplements (fish oil, multivitamin, CoQ10, Milk Thistle, and North American Ginseng), and Apple Cider Vinegar in water.

2010 - New Year, New Fitness Goals

January 1, 2010. OK, I didn't actually finish the year in a strong and primal fashion. Too many goodies and not enough workouts. The month of December began with a trip to Peru, followed closely by a trip to Japan and southeast Asia. My eating habits in Japan were actually pretty good, I stuck mainly to Japanese dishes and, with the exception of the white rice, the food there is very healthy. Peru and southeast Asia were a different story. Still I managed to do some workouts even if it was just push ups and pull ups in my hotel room.

So January 2010 is a Primal reboot. I started the day with a good workout (see below). I'm also doing some intermittent fasting (IF) from 8 pm New Year's eve until Noon today. Then the plan is low carb to no carb eating. For the first two weeks of January my plan is to only consume carbohydrates in the form of vegetables and perhaps a little fruit. I want to limit my carb intake to 50 grams or less per day.

Basically I gained 5.5 lbs during December, going from 178 to 183.6. I'm sure some of that is retained water and it will quickly be shed. I'm not one to fuss too much over a number on a scale but I'll be happy if I can get down to 172 lbs by the end of February.

Here are the workout statistics:

Ab Ripper X (from the P90X program) - 350 total reps from 11 exercises

Push ups

Standard - 50

Decline - 30

Alt. Hand - 20

Stack legs - 15

Military - 15

Clap - 10

Dive Bomb - 10

Total: 150

Pull ups

Chin ups - 12

Pull ups - 08

Close grip - 06

Corn Cob - 04

Alt grip - lft - 05

Alt grip - rgt -05

Total: 50

Kettlebell Swings

Two handed - 40

Left handed - 20

Right handed - 20

Alt. hands - 20

Total: 100

Total reps: 650

Time: 1 hour

I definitely felt the effect of these exercises. I expect to get stronger once I get back to regular workouts and get the junk cleaned out of my system.

Tomorrow I plan to do some Tabata sprints (weather permitting).

Happy New Year!

Shakeology Experiment - Before Photos

Shakeology Experiment - Day 3

Day three 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.

Wednesday April 1st 2009

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 Back & Biceps

Food:
Two eggs, 3 slices of ham, ¼ cup of prunes, 2 slices of Ezekiel bread 8:30 am
1 small banana 11:30 am
P90X Results and Recovery Drink 1:30 pm
Shakeology Greenberry Shake with 1 cup of almond milk 2:30 pm
Mixed nuts and dried cranberries 4:30 pm
Pork loin baked with sweet potatoes and apples 7:30 pm
Fat free, sugar free chocolate pudding 9:00 pm

Beverages:
500 ml bottled water during workout
Hot chai tea with stevia 8:30 am
500 ml bottled water 7:30 pm

Notes:
I felt full longer after having my Shakeology shake today. Maybe because I had a real breakfast today and I had my shake one hour after having my recovery drink. I wish I could find some recipes for it though. The chocolate flavor is supposed to arrive tomorrow. Probably not in time for lunch but I’ll hold out hope.

Photos will be posted tomorrow.

Shakeology Experiment - Day 2

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%

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).

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!

Primal Energy Bars

I just love these bars! I was addicted to "protein bars" but realized I needed to kick the habit because while they were high in protein, they were also high in other ingredients that aren't so good for you.

These bars have no flour or grain and no sugar (other than what might be in the dried fruit you use).

They can get a little crumbly so I recommend baking them for 8 minutes instead of 10. Watch them carefully when you put them under the broiler. It doesn't take long to brown the coconut!

Another tip of the hat to MarksDailyApple.com and Mark Sisson for providing this delicious recipe.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup slivered almonds
1/2 cup pecans
1/4 cup almond meal (simply pulse a 1/4 cup of almonds until it creates a course flour)
1/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1/4 cup almond butter
1/4 cup coconut oil (check your local health food store)
1.5 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 tsp of raw honey
1/2 cup unsweetened whey protein powder (or 60g)
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 cup dried cranberries or blueberries
1/4 cup unsweetened coconut to sprinkle on

Method: On a cookie sheet, toast nuts and shredded coconut until golden brown. In order for them to cook evenly, you need to shake up the tray at least once during cooking.

Once toasted, pour mixture into a food processor and pulse until nuts are chopped and the mixture becomes coarsely ground (sort of the consistency of bread crumbs).

In a mixing bowl, melt coconut oil and almond butter (about 30 seconds). Remove from microwave and stir until smooth. Add vanilla extract, honey and sea salt. Mix thoroughly.

Fold in nut mixture, almond meal and protein powder until mixed thoroughly. Add whole egg and mix thoroughly.

Fold in blueberries/cranberries.

Press mixture into an 8 by 8 loaf pan.

Cook in a preheated oven at 325 degrees for 10 minutes. Remove from oven, sprinkle a ¼ cup of shredded coconut on top and place under broiler until top begins to brown. Let cool for 10-15 minutes.

Cut into 12 pieces/bars. Enjoy or stack on wax paper/parchment and store in an airtight container.

Nutrition for 1/12 of the batch:
Calories: 184
Fat: 15.4 grams
Carbohydrates: 6.4 grams
Protein: 7.5 grams

The Primal Experiment

What is The Primal Experiment? Well on January 1st, 2009 I took Mark Sisson's Primal Challenge. I've created this blog to talk about my ongoing experience.

The biggest step in the Primal Challenge (at least for me) was cutting out grains from my diet. I've always loved bread in just about any form. I've also loved cereal, rice, and starchy foods so this has been no small undertaking. I'm now nearly three weeks into the challenge and I have to say it hasn't been as bad as I thought it would be. I have stumbled a few times along the way (blueberry pancakes at IHOP!) but I figure following the Primal Blueprint 90% of the time is better than nothing.

I'll also be blogging about my exercise experience. In January of 2008 I started doing P90X. Its been over a year now and I've completed two full rounds and one partial round (interrupted by varicose vein surgery on my leg in August). I'm now in my third round of P90X and I've added some workouts from the P90X+ and Tony Horton One on One DVD series. I'm also working to incorporate some "primal" exercises into my routine and I'll be talking about my successes (and failures) with some of those.

So who am I? Well my name is Dave Fish. I'm 46 years old and am married with four children. I've had a longtime interest in strength training but like a lot of Americans I found myself overweight and lacking in energy. In the past year I have lost 37 pounds and nearly six inches off my waist using the P90X home exercise program. My progress started to stall in November and I started looking for ways to get it going again. A few months ago I came across Mark's website and his arguments for living a Primal Blueprint lifestyle made a lot of sense. I decided that I would shave my head and drink the Kool-Aid and give it a try in 2009. (I'll write more about the Primal Blueprint in an upcoming entry).

Finally I would like to share some of the knowledge I've gained in the areas of fitness and nutrition over the years. Please feel free to ask any questions in the comment section and I'll do my best to answer them or point you to a resource that can.

Thanks for reading and I hope you find it entertaining and informative.

Dave