CoachBioArt

Warning, if you are uncomfortable looking at pictures of overweight people without a shirt on, stop reading… in order to show you the “after” pictures, I have to show you the “before” ones…

Anyways, as I was saying… I started P90X on January 1st of this year (2009).  90 days later, I had lost 35 pounds.  I then started P90X+ and did a modified workout for the next 3 months (with some Tony Horton 1-on-1) while in the middle of the Rugby season (I’m a referee).

As you’ll be able to tell by the pictures below, P90X works great! and you can lose a significant amount of weight.  As a follow-up, P90X+ gives you wings! I got much faster while doing P90X+ and really enjoyed the change of pace to more intervals.

I’ve just started INSANITY to get to the next level of fitness. INSANITY is more about interval training than about weight lifting, so it keeps with the concept of muscle confusion and changing of pace.

My % Body Fat went from >25% to less than 14% and is now at around 12-13% after just over a week of INSANITY.  So far, I’ve lost >48 pounds in about six and a half months.  Yes, it was hard, but no, it wasn’t impossible! and I actually enjoyed it…

Please don’t make fun of the poses… BeachBody suggests that you take pictures flexing and side views/etc… yes, I know I look goofy… at least I’m wearing the same shorts on each picture… The same can’t be said for the socks!

First Picture:  Front Flex – Days 1, 90, 150 & 180

Second Picture: Side view – Days 1, 30, 60, 90, 150, 180

I can already tell a difference past the 180 days after doing INSANITY for just over a week… stay tuned for the 210 and 240 day pictures!

There’s an interesting article over at bloomberg that describes some recent analysis suggesting that there is a higher mortality rate in swine flu patients with who had a body mass index (BMI) over 40.  Although BMI is a grossly skewed scale (does not take into account % body fat, so many athletes classify as overweight or obese), it is a good measure of height/weight ratio.

The observation still needs to be validated with more cases, but if the link is real, it makes for a very compelling reason to loose weight now that the swine flu is becoming a pandemic problem.  Obviously, morbidly obese people have many problems that either cause or are caused by their weights (diabetes, respiratory issues, etc), so the actual reason for the increased mortality isn’t clear, but there’s no denying that fit people seem to be healthier anyways.

In looking for an explanation, the article goes on to explore some real biological reasons for this correlation:

Scientists don’t yet know whether extremely overweight people get sicker because of associated conditions like heart disease and asthma, or whether the excess fat itself makes them more vulnerable. Both may be to blame.

Fat cells secrete chemicals that cause chronic, low-level inflammation that can hamper the body’s immune response and narrow the airways, says Tim Armstrong, a doctor working in the WHO’s chronic diseases department in Geneva.

What’s more, excess fatty tissue compresses the chest, and the fatty infiltration of the chest wall causes a decrease in lung function and an increase in the pulmonary blood volume, Armstrong said. “If you are obese, you tend to be less physically active and have an associated shallower breathing pattern. All these compound, leading to breathing difficulties.”

The morbidly obese are also more likely to experience insulin resistance, a condition that makes it harder for doctors to lower the level of sugar in the blood of critically ill patients, said Greet Van den Berghe, head of acute medical sciences at Belgium’s Catholic University of Leuven.

So what does that tell us? It could be the respiratory issues, it could be the diabetes or it could be some biochemistry.  The bottom line is that it seems like being overweight isn’t an asset in this case (If only I had known that 30 years ago to tell my grandmother that it was ok for me not to finish my meal!)

The article also mentions that studies in mice fed a high fat diet seem to confirm the higher mortality, so at least there is some extra supporting evidence for it.  That being said, it’s probably too early to tell (unfortunately) and it will take some time and many more illnesses for a clear link to be established.  In the meantime, if you needed another reason losing weight and getting in shape… you have it now!

Guess what? some of these 10-minute workout programs may not be as crazy as they sound… There’s an article in the Well Blog from the NY Times that talks about new research that seems to indicate that working hard (really hard) for a few minutes three days a week may be as effective as long workouts.  The key is that you have to bust your butt during that time.  In other words, Intervals!

I’m a firm believe in interval training.  Before P90X, I would work out 30-60 minutes 4-5 times a week at a heart rate of 120-130bpm, and it didn’t do squat… It wasn’t until I started bringing my HR to >160 that I started seeing real results.  Both P90X and Insanity achieve this through different approaches, but they both work… check them out!

After P90X & P90X+, I was really looking forward to a more intense cardio program. Sure, P90X+ is more cardio and it’s great, but Insanity is something different, so I was looking for a break after 6 months of the other workouts.  I also was looking forward to a workout that used only your own body weight for a change.

I finally got the videos yesterday. I’ve been waiting for this program since I first heard about it a few months back and was as excited as a kid in a candy store… wait, that’s a bad analogy on a fitness blog .  Let’s just say instead that I was as excited as a runner making the final turn on a 400M run!.

Beachbody was smart enough to send everyone doing Tony Horton’s 1-on-1 a preview of the program (the full cardio/plyo workout) and I’ve been doing it once a week as part of my post P90X regimen. It has certainly helped my fitness and speed on the Rugby pitch.

Insanity is here, click to buy!

I will admit that I was a little hesitant at first, since I’m a big Tony Horton fan and wasn’t sure I would like Shaun T, given that I’m not a dancer and his other programs have more dancing/hip-hop moves in them.  Well, I learned that don’t have to worry about that, since there is absolutely no time for dancing in Insanity!

In any case, Insanity is designed to be a 60 day program, with workouts 6 days a week, including a weekly cardio recovery workout.  The workouts are about 30-40 minutes long at first (they get longer in the second month), but that’s plenty.  Your heart rate is >150 for most of that time

The first day is somewhat easy, since  it involved a warmup and a fit test that is taken every 2 weeks, but it is a good intro to the kinds of excercises you will do in the program.

Finally, I know the important part of the program is the content, but I have to say that BeachBody went above and beyond on the packaging.  Pretty impressive!

I will post my progress here, so keep checking in to see how it works!

Go check out The Healthy and Fit Algorithm, written by Adam Gilber of mybodytutor.com
It is a very good collection of hints for eating well and staying fit.   Yes, you’ve heard most of the points somewhere else, but here, they are nicely put together…

In particular, I love the first three dealing with exercise:

Do it 4 times per week for at least 30 minutes. Seriously, doesn’t matter. Basketball, jogging, weights, push ups, etc. Unless you have a specific goal just make sure to get it done!

The two day rule! You can’t miss 2 days of working out in a row. You can skip one day. But not the next!

Don’t let the “Exercise Monster” build up. When I don’t do laundry for a while it becomes what I like to call the ‘Laundry Monster’. It builds up in my mind and I avoid doing it at all costs. Until finally, I have to. And it’s never as bad as I think it’ll be! Don’t let it happen to you. Follow the two day rule!

My old rugby coach used to say: “For every 2 days you skip, you lose a day of work”   This means, that if you only work out three days a week (skipping 4) it means that you really once worked out once a week.

Similarly, one of my favorite Tony Horton’s quotes is: “If you are going to only work out 3 days a week, you might as well throw yourself down the stairs… you’ll be just as sore and no more fit”

As you can see… these things are all telling you the same thing.  Work out 5-6 days a week (even if you don’t kill yourself at it).  The benefts of doing some physical exercise almost every day are bigger than what you get from any single day.  In other words, the sum is greater than the parts.

Here’s a site that is difficult to look at… some of the most decadent dishes ever imagined… sad thing is that I’ve seen a few on real-life menus:

http://thisiswhyyourefat.com/

On my previous post, I talked about condiments on sandwiches, and the fact that many times, you didn’t really need them and they just added extra calories and fat.  Specifically, things like Mayo and Butter just add a minor amount of flavour, but significant amounts of fat and calories.  I wanted to extend the idea to every day foods, not just fast food.  There are some very easy switches that save you calories and fat, but have a minor impact on flavour or the enjoyment of any dish.

For example, 1 or 2% milk is a no-brainer to most people.  Sure, whole milk is creamy, but 2% is too… switching to 1% isn’t that much of a change once you get used to 2%.  In addition, skim milk has enough milk taste that it is a great substitute.  Have cereal in the morning? use skim milk… there’s no reason to use regular or even 2%.  Most of the flavour comes from the cereal anyways! Soy milk is a good option too (but, do soybeans have nipples?), though it sometimes has as much fat as 2% milk.

Sometimes it is also easy to save many calories by just going for a different flavor.  BBQ sauces taste great, but why don’t you use Tabasco instead? it will still taste great and the amount of fat goes down significantly.  And BTW, skip the blue cheese, or just use a small dab.  Salads are a great example of this… always ask for dressing on the side and add the minimum amount to get a flavor.  Aim to use 1/3 to 1/2 of whatever dressing they give you.  You will feel better and save some extraneous fat and calories that you won’t miss.

Another potential for disaster is peanut butter.  I *LOVE* peanut butter… really.  I could eat a jar with a spoon if I didn’t think it would kill me .  If you are going to use some in a sandwich, use the smallest amount possible, those are extra calories and fat that are really hard to control. If you really want to have peanut butter, my recommendation is that you really measure the serving size… take a spoon and weigh it out before you put the peanut butter in it and then weigh it afterwards.  You will be surprised at what the serving size is really like.  In the past, I would make a peanut butter, banana and cheese sandwich that is to die for, but unfortunately, that’s probably the end result.  There were probably over 1000 calories in a sandwich that I could devour in less than one minute… what a waste!

Other easy things that can be replaced:

• “Butter” -> “I can’t believe it’s not butter”
• Peanut butter -> Soynut butter (this is a great switch!)
• American Singles -> fat free singles (works great on sandwiches, not that great by itself)
• Potatoes -> Sweet potatoes (more fiber, better taste)
• Chicken -> Turkey (usually a good choice and it tastes very similar)
• Bacon -> No Bacon (sure, it’s tasty, but do you really need it?)

Finally, back to butter… do you really need to put any butter/oil in rice or pasta? try it without next time.  The consistency may change a little, but it will be an enjoyable dish nonetheless.  Also, do you really need butter in mash potatoes? use milk, or use nothing!

A great place to look at substitutions is the “Eat This, Not That” set of books and website… you’ll be amazed at what you could accomplish by doing some minor changes in your food choices!

Do you have any other suggestions? I’d love to hear about other extraneous ingredients!

I’ll admit it, I never did Yoga before P90X.  I thought it was somewhat silly and didn’t really think it would help my strength/fitness.  Boy was I wrong.  YogaX is an integral part of P90X and it has made me stronger and much more flexible.  Sure, there are a few poses I can’t do yet… but I’m working on them.  I hated downward dog at first.  My wrists would hurt like hell and I was close to tears a few times.  With time, however, I’ve gotten much better at it, and it has significantly helped my push-ups (and many other moves).

Here’s a short post from www.fitsugar.com that shows you 5 very good poses.  I can’t do the last two properly, but I really like the first 3