CoachBioArt

Here’s the deal… I like fast food.  There I said it.  And I don’t really like grilled chicken sandwiches that much so as to eat them every time I go out for a quick bite.  Besides, those sandwiches also have mayo or some other horrible-for-you sauce!  After looking at the caloric content of many of these sandwiches, it is pretty clear that the condiments add a lot of calories/fat.  Guess what? they are still tasty without them!  I used to think that I loved cheese so much I had to have it in everything, but there are so many flavors in fast-food sandwiches, that the cheese gets lost.  Therefore, lose it! (you won’t miss it).  The same is true for mayonnaise/tartar sauce/etc.  You don’t need them!

Butter? why? there’s enough fat in the meat already, skip it and you’ll still have a tasty meal.  If you must have some condiments, use mustard first… it’s pretty much free.  Ketchup is a good option, but watch the sugars… they can add up quickly.

Here’s an easy example that I use every time I go to a deli… Instead of a turkey/bacon sub, I order a Turkey sandwich with Mustard and hots (or hot peppers).  The sandwich tastes great and it isn’t half-bad for you (count the carbs and calories, of course)

I also love fried fish.  Either in a sandwich or by itself (haddock or catfish for me, they are the best!).  But I have no idea why it always comes with tartar sauce… that stuff is nasty!  Skip it and lose a significant amount of fat from your meal… Similarly, McDonald’s file-o-fish always comes with cheese, but to me, the fish tastes great by itself and you can go from 380 to 270 calories by skipping the sauce and the cheese.   (and go from 18 to 7 grams of fat!!).  For fried fish dinners, another option is to use ketchup or malt-vinegar (better).   Sure, it is still fried, so don’t eat it every day (though I’d love to ), but it can be a part of your menu, just be careful… oh!, and skip the fries and coleslaw, get double the veggies!

It’s insane in a good way… I’m doing a number of the P90X+ videos at the moment. The original P90X videos gave you time between exercises. The goal was to do some reps and you had extra time to do them (and write down your progress). It worked great.  I lost weight and got stronger.  I did get faster too, but the emphasis was clearly on strength.

P90X+ is something completely different.  There’s no time between exercises, and you are supposed to go for time and not reps (do something for 30 secs/etc). This is great.  You end up working out at a higher pace and are much more spent at the end of a shorter workout.  Similarly, both the Kenpo/Cardio+ and IntervalX+ workouts are all about intervals and moving non stop for around 40 mins.  These workouts certainly kick my butt (in a good way). I really like the contrast between P90X and P90X+. It’s amazing how hard these new workouts are and it is clear that you really should do P90X before attempting them (or be in great aerobic shape). I wish there were more videos, but it is a good complement to P90X. It’s not uncommon for my heart rate to be in the 160s for most of the cardio workouts…Adding these workouts to your routine will certainly give you more variety and better results.

On a related note, I received Shaun T’s Insanity Cardio/Plyo preview and I love it. The Insanity program is coming soon from Beachbody and it is all about cardio and body weight exercises. I love the preview workout and can’t wait ’till the program is released. I will order it on day one Stay tuned for the review! (and let me know if’d you’d like to try it too)

As I recovering overweight person, I have had my ups and down in terms of weight… I have lost lost significant amounts of weight in the past, but ended up gaining it back after some time.  The one big thing I did wrong those times was that I kept my old clothes… big mistake!  As I started gaining weight, I would just wear the bigger pants… (pants with elastic “comfort” waists are the worst, since you wont’ realize you’ve gone up a size until it is too late).  I ended up with a huge wardrobe, with pants ranging in sizes from 34 to 42+.  This annoyed my wife to no end, but she’s always been a good sport and supported me.

This time, I’ve taken a radical approach.  I’ve gone from a size 42+ to a size 36 and I’m on my way to a size 34.  Every time I go to a smaller size comfortably, I make a big pile of the bigger clothes and donate them.  This accomplishes two things:

1) Making the big pile feels great!  It’s a nice way to mark an in-between achievement and provides great positive-reinforcement (it makes the wife happy too)

2) Gaining weight after losing will cost you money… in many ways.

The moto will be: If I can’t fit in my pants, I’m going to the basement and put a video in to work out… I’m not buying a bigger size

Keep Pushing Play!

Here’s a nice reference guide to reading food labels.  Granted, they go a little over the top in saying that some of the artificial sweeteners are worse than they actually are, but overall it’s a pretty good read!

Food Labels… Do You Read Them Before You Buy?

Thanks @jjaruba for sharing this first!

One of the mistakes that I think people do is to keep their goals secret… when I started P90X, I told everyone at work I was doing it. Sure they were somewhat supportive at first, but they were laughing inside… they all expected me to quit after some time. I found out they even talked about having a pool as to when I would quit. In fact, friends I’ve known forever (>15 years) said that they expected me to do it heavily for a while and then lose interest quickly…

The reason I was very public about it was that it made me be accountable. It would be easier to continue than to have people laugh at me or made funny comments if I quit. I updated my facebook status every time I worked out and even though it probably annoyed some, it added another level of accountability… When the 90 days were over, I put up random pictures of the new me and the response was great! Similarly, at work, people just kept doing double takes. I also got new glasses and changed my haircut just to make it even more obvious

The funny thing is that by telling everyone, I found out that many were willing to encourage me when I was being slow or lazy… I’d put up my facebook status saying that I was fighting inertia to get off the couch and I would get comments from friends telling me to go do it. It sounds silly, but it helps!

The lesson here is: be open about what you are doing! As soon as you lose some weight, change the way you dress and show your new confidence. People will encourage you and help you (directly or indirectly). Trust me, it’s easier to keep going than to try to explain why you quit

It’s funny… if I had seen the P90X infomercial before I started the program, I would not have bought it.  It’s not that the infomercial is bad (it’s actually pretty good), but as a rule, I don’t like/trust infomercials that much… Thankfully, a friend told me about P90X and after visiting beachbody.com I bought it as my Christmas gift.  My wife was skeptical, but supportive (she’s happy now though!)

What a great program!

I started Jan 1st, 2009 and stuck to the workout schedule as much as I could (a couple of recovery days here and there, but pretty good for the most part).  I tracked my workouts in the beachbody club tracker (WOWY or “Work Out With You”).  Because of family and work obligations (and not being a morning person), most of my workouts were at 10:30 or 11PM.  It was easy to get into a routine to go down the basement and work out late at night.  It was really something I started looking forward to doing… and seeing the change in my appearance (and comments from others) kept me coming back for more.

So… does it work? YES! 90 days after I started, I was down over 30 pounds, and in the best shape of my life!  I was running like a madman in the rugby fields and keeping up with college kids during their breakaways (I’m a rugby referee).  I have since started doing P90X+ and some of the Tony Horton one-on-one videos to add variety etc.  I’m down almost 40 pounds and over 7 inches of waist at the moment (size 36 pants from size 42+).  I’ll review P90X+ and the other videos later.

I really enjoyed working out in a group when I was an active rugby player.  These videos mimic some of the same experience.  If you get into them, they are fun. Tony Horton is a good instructor and his comments would often made me feel like he was watching me… things like “Get lower on the squat”, “keep it up, we’re almost at a break” were really well timed and in places I usually needed the encouragement.

Here’s my quick take on the different P90X videos (I’ll have detailed reviews in the future, this is meant as a brief summary):

Chest & Back:

A good place to start.  Hard to do too many pull-ups at first, but I had an assisted pull-up station, so I could subtract up to 80 lbs from my weight.  I stopped using the assisted by the end of the program and routinely do over 40-50 pull-ups during a session now.  Lot’s of push-ups too.  Fun workout

Plyometrics:

Scary at first, but lots of fun.  This workout is probably responsible for my increased speed and agility.  You are moving and sweating the entire time.  Love it!

Shoulders & Arms:

Good upper body workout.  Easier than Chest & Back, but I can feel it after I’m done

YogaX:

The first 45 minutes of this (all movement exercises) are intense.  This video is about 1.5 hours… when I first started I didn’t know the last half is mostly stretching, so I thought I was going to die.  I had never done Yoga before this video.  I didn’t bend the way they did at first… Now I do.  Enough Said! Great workout.

Legs & Back:

It’s a good thing this is only once a week.  Lots of Squats, but great for your legs.  Back exercises are good too.

KenpoX:

I had never done Kenpo before (or anything besides Judo).  It was great to learn the moves and it is a good workout.  It took a while to get good at many of the moves, but I enjoy it.  Highly recommended to get a full-body workout (if you get into the moves).

XStretch:

A really nice change of pace on the rest day.  You still get to sweat a little during some of the stretches, especially the warmup salutations.  Very good to do if you are sore from the previous day.  Relaxing.

Core Synergistics:

Good change of pace on recovery week, but it is hard.  I thought recovery week was supposed to be easier (it isn’t).  Some of the moves are hard, especially because you only do them once or twice every 4 weeks

Chest, Shoulders and Triceps:

Three muscle groups one after the other and then back to the first muscle group.  Different exercises every time.  Really like this one.

Back & Biceps:

Similar as above, but different muscle groups.  Lots of involment of the other muscles too.

CardioX:

Haven’t done this one, since I prefer Plyometrics or the P90X+ workouts… looks good though

AbRipperX:

339 sit-ups/reps in 11 exercises… hard to do the full thing.  I could do at most 10 of each at the beginning, probably up to 20 of each by now.  Good workout, though hard to do immediately following the resistance workouts as suggested.  Good set of exercises to do anytime you have 16 minutes to spare