Friday, March 23, 2012
Sunday, January 29, 2012
90 Day Ultimate Challenge
I took three months off from the gym and boy oh boy did it show when I went back. Not only was I pathetic during my workouts but, I also went up to 25% body fat! Ouch. Luckily for me, AST (All Strength Training) was starting a 90 day challenge. I just finished the first two weeks and am down to 24.1% body fat.
I thought it might be fun to document my 90 day experience and results. During the 90 days you have to complete a 14 day diet bootcamp. This entails eating lean meat, low carb veggies, nuts, seeds and that's it. Basically, you are teaching your body to use fat for energy instead of carbs. Not going to misslead you, the first week was tough. Thank God we can drink coffee because I would have fallen asleep at my desk. The second week gets better and cravings subside.
Here's the low down:
Workouts: 3-4x a week (lifting weights) no cardio during the 14 day boot camp
Food: Strict Paleo eating with the exclusion of fruit in the 14 day boot camp
Beverages: water, water, water, tea, coffee
Supplements: Protein powder with glycine and glutamine, fish oil (1g per % body fat), multi-vitamin, vitamin D, magnesium
During those 14 days I really wanted a diet coke and chocolate almost everyday. I didn't crave alcohol or bread. Instead, I wanted a bowl of blueberries and a banana. By the end of the two weeks I didn't really crave anything which was rather unfortunate because on day 15 you get to eat whatever you want. I went out with a work out buddy and had a hamburger with pancetta, cheese, and an egg on top. When the burger arrived, I took one look at it and thought 'I really don't want that bun' and I took it off and ate the hamburger with a fork and knife. It was delicious but the stunning part to me was that on the one day I could have eaten the bun and stayed withing the rules of the program, I didn't eat it. I didn't want it. I did have two beers though!
Now that I'm done with the bootcamp I can add fruit back into my diet. Next Saturday I'll have another biosig to measure my progress and hopefully I can report success.
To help me stay on track, I cook a lot of food on Sundays so I can make up lunches and snacks for the week. Another aspect of the eating component is eating protein and veggies together. Well, guess what? After 20 years of vegetarianism, the last thing I want is a vegetable. Funny thing I discovered after I started eating meat again, I don't really like vegetables. ha! Zach, my coach, told me that I have to eat veggies with each meal/snack. So, I'm going to try. Today I had 1/2 a cucumber with my chicken burger. And I ate 3 stalks of celery with nut butter and turkey slices wrapped around avocado. It might not be perfect yet but I did pack a lot of veggies to take to work the next two days. Salad, cucumber slices, celery, and carrots. Dinner is still in the works, bacon wrapped scallops and I haven't figured out the veggie maybe I'll just eat some carrots and call it a day.
I thought it might be fun to document my 90 day experience and results. During the 90 days you have to complete a 14 day diet bootcamp. This entails eating lean meat, low carb veggies, nuts, seeds and that's it. Basically, you are teaching your body to use fat for energy instead of carbs. Not going to misslead you, the first week was tough. Thank God we can drink coffee because I would have fallen asleep at my desk. The second week gets better and cravings subside.
Here's the low down:
Workouts: 3-4x a week (lifting weights) no cardio during the 14 day boot camp
Food: Strict Paleo eating with the exclusion of fruit in the 14 day boot camp
Beverages: water, water, water, tea, coffee
Supplements: Protein powder with glycine and glutamine, fish oil (1g per % body fat), multi-vitamin, vitamin D, magnesium
During those 14 days I really wanted a diet coke and chocolate almost everyday. I didn't crave alcohol or bread. Instead, I wanted a bowl of blueberries and a banana. By the end of the two weeks I didn't really crave anything which was rather unfortunate because on day 15 you get to eat whatever you want. I went out with a work out buddy and had a hamburger with pancetta, cheese, and an egg on top. When the burger arrived, I took one look at it and thought 'I really don't want that bun' and I took it off and ate the hamburger with a fork and knife. It was delicious but the stunning part to me was that on the one day I could have eaten the bun and stayed withing the rules of the program, I didn't eat it. I didn't want it. I did have two beers though!
Now that I'm done with the bootcamp I can add fruit back into my diet. Next Saturday I'll have another biosig to measure my progress and hopefully I can report success.
To help me stay on track, I cook a lot of food on Sundays so I can make up lunches and snacks for the week. Another aspect of the eating component is eating protein and veggies together. Well, guess what? After 20 years of vegetarianism, the last thing I want is a vegetable. Funny thing I discovered after I started eating meat again, I don't really like vegetables. ha! Zach, my coach, told me that I have to eat veggies with each meal/snack. So, I'm going to try. Today I had 1/2 a cucumber with my chicken burger. And I ate 3 stalks of celery with nut butter and turkey slices wrapped around avocado. It might not be perfect yet but I did pack a lot of veggies to take to work the next two days. Salad, cucumber slices, celery, and carrots. Dinner is still in the works, bacon wrapped scallops and I haven't figured out the veggie maybe I'll just eat some carrots and call it a day.
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