Sugar detox: supplement plan

Been off my eating program for a week now. boo. bad me. Amazing how being hurt and not working out made me feel crappy. So I turned to my friend sugar to make me feel better. Going back to the gym Monday morning so need to detox the sugar I've been in taking!

If you have a serious craving for sugar you may have to support your body with nutritional supplements to restore the nutrients that you are lacking. The B vitamins, chromium, zinc and Vitamin C can help with sugar withdrawal symptoms. L-glutamine, an amino acid can help reduce sugar cravings.  Try 500mg 30 minutes before meals 3 times a day. Increase dose to 1000mg three times a day if you still get cravings after 1 week. Combine with  Chromium 200 mcg three times a day with meals.
Following this sugar detox plan will help you will break any sugar addiction and consume much less of it. As a result you should have more energy, lose weight more easily and improve your health

So,
L-glutamine - in my pre-workout mix
2x multivitamin  - optimum nutrition - opti men
Chromium 200 mcg with lunch and dinner
L-glutamine - 50mg before lunch and dinner

two weeks program to detox with no processed sugar and few fruits and lots of vegetables, and meat (lean and fatty)

High Intensity Interval Training and Nutrition = RESULTS! 60lbs and 22% body fat - GONE!

Any kind of results! Lose Weight! Gain Weight! Increase Aerobic and Anaerobic Conditioning! Maintain Weight!

A good foundation to any nutrition program is a good workout program. I have found that I am short on time due to family, friends, work, and life in general. Which leaves an hour a day to get my workouts in and done. This includes warm up, stretching, calisthenics, and the actual workout. With that in mind I have to concentrate my workouts revolving around HIIT workouts. (High Intensity Interval Training) When combined with strength training and alternating your routines it is highly effective.  I am proof positive. Since starting my journey I have lost 60lbs and 22% body fat! If I can do it, So can you! Its only and hour and day and you can do it!

Nutrition (you find no matter what workout training program you are on this is the key to success) below I will list out three nutrition programs to follow whether you want to lose weight, gain weight, or maintain weight (or increase aerobic/anaerobic endurance) all these nutrition programs are based on a maintenance calorie intake of 2500 calories. Get yourself a good calorie counting program. I recommend and use Lose it. It has a web application, Ipod application, and android application. So no excuses!

http://www.loseit.com/ - calorie and nutrient counting
http://www.ufcgym.com/ - My gym and training provided by the best trainers I have every seen or been with! come join us at the gym, get the ultimate membership and sign up for DUT (Daily Ultimate Training)

Lose Weight (mostly fat loss)

• 500 Calories under maintenance daily (approx. 1800-2000 calories a day)
• High Protein (40% of total calories)
• Low Carbs (20% of total calories)
• High Fat (40% of total calories)

Nutrient goals per day:

• 200 Grams of Protein
• 100 Grams of Carbs
• 90 Grams of Fat

Gain Weight (muscle gains)

• 500-1000 Calories over maintenance daily (approx. 3500-4000 calories a day)
• High Protein (30-35% of total calories)
• High Carbs (45-50% of total calories)
• Low-Medium Fat (15-25% of total calories)

Nutrient goals per day:

• 300-350 Grams of Protein
• 450-500 Grams of Carbs
• 70-110 Grams of Fats

Maintain weight (increase aerobic and anaerobic endurance)

• Maintenance Calories daily (approx. 2500 calories a day)
• High Protein (35% of total calories)
• Medium Carbs (40% of total calories)
• Medium Fat (25% of total calories)

Nutrient goals per day:

• 215-220 Grams of Protein
• 250-275 Grams of Carbs
• 70 Grams of Fat

HIIT should be done in combination of wieght lifting or strength training. alternate your HIIT training into your workout routines and you will see amazing results.

Supplements:

To reach some of these nutrient goals you will need to supplement your food with a protein shake once, twice, and maybe even three times a day to reach the recommended protein intakes above. I recommend Isopure no carb powder. I mix it using soy milk, this adds to my carb and protein goals every day.

Consider supplementing an amino acid (BCAA+Glutamine) supplement after and/or before any workout. I recommend Optimum Nutrition 2:1:1 recovery mix

A good multi vitamin is always a good idea. I recommend Optimum Nutrition. Opti-men and Opti-woman

Thats it folks! With some planning and dedication you can be in the best shape of your life and maintain it year round, eat the things you love, and enjoy being off the couch, away from that computer screen, and away from your TV!

New Gym, New Ideas, New Goals

Been a bit of time since my last post, So this one may be long.  Middle of March 2011, I went on a bit of a free for all, was not logging calories every day and was not working out. I maintained around 215-220 lbs. So I learned I can maintain weight. I was not satisfied with my overall weight loss. End of April was fast approaching and was not losing any weight, My calorie intake a day was about 1500 calories which should have been enough to lose some weight. Still nothing. So I convinced my wife to join our one of our local gyms. The one the talked to me the most was UFC Gym.  For those that have been living in the 80's this is the octagon cage fighting group that has been very popular in the last 10 years. The gym has all the standard gym equipment; free weights, elliptical, resistance machines, cable weights, treadmills, fitness/aerobics classes. It offers the additional benefit of different marital arts styles like Muey Thai, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Hakido, Wrestling, and several Boxing Courses. While all of these things are awesome it is a class they give called DUT which is short for Daily Ultimate Training that caught my interest. The thought, is to take what a UFC fighter goes through to prepare and train for a fight and put you through it.  The first week was extremely tough, I am currently on week 5 and loving it.  I have lost another 15 lbs and maintaining 205-210 lbs.  I found the routines to be fun, creative, and exhausting.  The trainer puts together some of the best routines I have ever seen.  Great cardio, great strength training, and some MMA mixed in. LOVE IT!  Still on a pretty good supplement program, continue to mix my creatine up (4 weeks on 2 weeks off), multi-vitamins every day, Tribulous, CLA, and added Nitric Boost.  High energy levels every day.  I have lost 5% body fat in five weeks.  Had my blood drawn this week. All my tests came back low in the right areas. Note: My triglycerides went down almost 200 points! since starting this and I am no longer  a prediabetic.  While I have lost over 6 inch's to my waistline and almost 17% body fat I have to realize that muscle is going to start to build on this new workout program.  So I am adjusting my calorie intake to shoot for a pound a week, keeping the concept that its about how I look and feel that's important not the number on the scale.  I also signed up for the Tough Mudder competition in September 2011,  goal is to complete it, and then do it again next year beating the previous years times.  I am looking forward to making a more well rounded fit me then I've seen in over 18 years. I am off to a solid start and still forging ahead.

Time to change the routine.

I have been maintaining 215 to 220 lbs for weeks. I have switched up my exercise routines. rested. worked out hard. Done my fasting. I am of the opinion its time for another shock to my body to get going again. Until now I have been eating my exercise calories. I'm no longer going to that. I am also adjusting my calorie intake to 1250 calories a day. This seems to be the lowest any one person can sustain a day and still be considered healthy and stay out of the starvation mode our bodies would go into if you eat 500 or so calories a day. This will also be hard to maintain with the 150 to 200 grams of protein I'm supposed to be taking in a day. So my meal plan for the next few weeks is going to be: Protein shake morning, after noon, and night. snacks will be limited to canned chicken and vegetables. I figure a couple of weeks of this to get the needle moving in the right direction. Also going to change up my exercise routine. Still struggling to get anything consistent in since I had the flu back in February. This is frustrating and prob a good part of why my weight loss has plateaued.

New Exercise routine
AM Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri, and sat =  45 Min Vigorous Elliptical
AM Wed and Sunday - Yoga

PM The return of POWER 90! Sweat and Strength training 3 and 4. I'm going to concentrate on the strength training portion this go around more weight and reps. Going a little lighter on cardio days since I will be on the elliptical as well.

I'm giving this three weeks in this routine and then reevaluate.

Coming up on 40 lbs.

I went out and bought new clothes today. Holy crap I fit an a size 34! A tight 34 but a 34 none the less. I got back to the office and tried on my new clothes, the ladies in the office had asked me to model, I did not even make it out of the office before I was being complimented by one of our customers on how great the jeans and shirt looked. It felt so good to have a woman I didn't know mentioning that I look good.

I have found a need to up my workout routine a bit. I am doing less power 90 these days and more lifting and elliptical training.  I mix in some kickboxing and begging my wife to let me join the UFC Gym here where I live.

I had an adjustment to make being on Tribulus. It sent my hormone levels through the roof.  While that was great for losing weight, as I lost 9 lbs in 10 days. It was bad for my emotions until I figured out what was going on. In the end the new supplement program is a keeper. The only adjustment I have had to make so far is adjusting to feeling like a teenager again. So much testosterone is very hard to handle.

Looking forward I have these mental images of what I looked like just a few months ago. How I felt. Where my self esteem was. All my insecurities - GONE, my self esteem is higher than its been in years. Its almost back to being overly cocky even. Will have to work on keeping that in check. Don't want that effecting work or home life.  This image that I have in my head kept me on the elliptical today when I was cramping and wanted to stop short of my goals this morning.  Instead I told my self that I never wanted to be that man again.  I pushed through it. Made it to the end of my workout, the longest and most intense one yet. I realized that I could have done more, I could have pushed more, I felt euphoric after my cool down and went clothes shopping. How wonderful it was to see a negative calories balance until the end of the day.

This weeks goals = Stay away from sugar, drink more water, stay on new supplement program, and workout every morning and evening until the 28th. Wish me luck!

Inspiration

So I have completely lost focus over the last few weeks. gained 5 lbs before I turned that around and lost 3 back. Binge eating for a couple of weeks with a complete lack of counting calories. I realized that I started this journey looking to be here for my kids and my wife. That inspiration is just not enough.  I found I need to fight for myself, lose weight for myself, and mostly put my body in the best shape of my life for myself.  So as of  Monday the 14th my routine resets. No excuses. I know I had a flu in February and it laid me out for a couple of weeks but I can not let that keep me from working out once I am healthy like I let it do to me last month. Its amazing how after just a couple of days of not working out how fast we fall back into old patterns.  I really thought that the 21 day retrain the brain and habits would just carry me through. It does not, You still have to fight to get up and workout, fight to not eat the crap around you all day, and fight to stay focused. Thankfully for me it only cost me 4 weeks of training and hopefully by Monday I can be back at 221 lbs. 34lbs in three months still a big accomplishment, but it could have been more. I want those I care about to be proud of me, proud of who I am, who I am becoming, and mostly I want to be proud of myself.

UPDATE : 02/07/11

To those that our curious how my weekend with a net of 0 calories went, I made it thought Saturday with 0 net calories and almost through Sunday before I ate dinner worth about 600 calories. Three days later I lost three pounds. So I would call that a success.

Super Bowl Sunday, I thought for sure I would be in trouble. I believe I did well. Went 500 calories over the day including alcohol. for the week thou I was under by 2500 calories.

Power 90 - Circuit 3-4 - Much faster paced then 1-2, shorter breaks, more reps/rounds of each routine. Made it through the work out however towards the end was a bit out of gas. I think if I am going to workout this hard I am going to have to visit my calorie intake. Sore all over so far this morning.  Have not been this sore since week 1 Power 90.  I am on day 29, I still have 120 days to go with circuit 5-6 coming after day 90.  Well on my way to starting P90X! Can not wait for that day.

Supplements:  as of 02/12/11
Isopure shake with flax seed oil and vanilla soy milk
2x GNC multi vitamin for men. (taken at lunch)
3x creatine supplement (taken at lunch)
vitamin C 750 mg (taken before bed)
2x CLA 750milligrams ea (once with breakfast and once with lunch)
2x Tribulus 625 milligrams ea (once with lunch and once with dinner)
3x ZMA - 30milligrams zinc, 450 milligrams Magnesium, 10.5 milligrams b6. (taken at night before bed)

Have not been able to do the night workout routine yet but hopeful this will be the week I get it going.

Weight loss so far:
26 lbs. Average of 3 lbs a week.

Body Confusion. My weekend experiment.

I read a couple of articles about body confusion and how it can help you lose weight.  so this weekend I am doing a modified fasting of sorts.  High protein, no carbs and no fat. Two days. Burn every calorie consumed.  Net calories for saturday and sunday needs to be as close to zero as possible. The idea is to shock and clense the body.  Then on Monday I will be eating a high carb high fat diet for two days before going back to normal protein, carb, fat diet. This will continue till next weekend when I rinse and repeat next weekend.  Wish me luck. I dont think its going to be easy.

Saturday morning workouts completed. Almost 1000 calories burned away. Now time to work on the garage and burn some more calories today.

week 3 POWER 90

So, last week was hard. I had a hard time getting out of bed, I had a hard time doing the workouts, I had a hard time not eating. I ate to much crap Friday through Sunday.  Monday came and day 15 of Power 90 was to begin. However I had no trouble getting out of bed, no trouble doing the workouts, in fact thought I could start doing more!  Day 17 - I left it all on the mat this morning. Gave every routine everything I had. It hurt so much!  But about halfway through, I felt this almost euphoric overwhelming desire to push.  Push I did, gave it everything I had.  Two hours later I am feeling great! I can climb a mountain, get in the ring with a boxer, mma, whatever comes my way.  I am getting STRONGER!  I haven't felt this way in 17 years and remember now why I did it.  If I feel this way everyday the rest of my life its going to be the best life ever!

18 pounds and counting

Week 1 of doing Power 90 from Beachbody and loving it!  Started taking my supplements and now can really FEEL the difference.  Every day I seem to have more energy, more strength, and more drive to get outside and get things done.  No more mopeing around the house. No more being a couch potato.  No more watching life pass by.  Every day seems to bring a happier more vibrant me and I cant wait to see more results.  Its shocking to feel like this, So much energy and happiness is surreal. I have lost three inch's of my waistline and a full inch off my neck.  WOW what a difference in the clothes I am wearing.  Clothes that were getting tight are now loose.  Dress shirts that pulled at the neck are now loose at the neck.  I had someone comment the other day that it looked like I was wearing a parachute at work.  LOL.  This feels absolutely AMAZING!  I have to thank everyone that has been giving me daily support.  My wife Emily, my kids, my best friends, my coworkers, and all the friends I have made using Lose It!  My goal weight was supposed to be achieved by September 23 2011.  I have worked really hard and currently it says I should reach 180 lbs by August 8th 2011.  If I can make that day It will have been 17 years since I was that weight.  I am determined,  I am focused.  I got this.