My original motivation was knowing I was probably seriously outmatched, I persevered to train hard for over a year and attempt to “win” anyway. After hearing my older daughter bow out of a swim race because she was convinced she’d lose so didn’t even want to try only galvanized it for me. As a father, it was my responsibility to show you do NOT give up, nor fear failure, regardless of the odds. You work hard and try. That’s it, no negotiation.

I thought I’d write how it went, what my training was like leading up to it the past 18 months, and fitness plans for the future.

Glossary:

Rep: Short for “repetition”. If you pick up a 10 lb dumbbell and then put it back on the floor, that’s 1 rep. If you do this 5 times, that’s 5 reps.

Set: If you do 5 reps then stop to rest, that’s 1 set. If you do 5 reps, rest, then 5 reps, then rest, that’s 2 sets.

x format: If you document that set, it’d be written as 2x5x10 which means “2 sets of 5 reps with 10 lbs”.

What is Powerlifting?

I’ve been doing Powerlifting for about 2 years and didn’t know it was called that until 1 month before the event. Basically, Powerlifting is lifting weights using only barbells doing 3 specific moves: The Squat, Bench Press, and Deadlift. The goal is to lift as much weight as possible, and barbells are the most efficient way for the body to do that in an exercise context. At a competition, you lift the weight for 1 max rep (as heavy as you can go one time), and have 3 tries to see how much you can lift. Most lifts are generally slow.

Starting Strength, the beginner’s book and program to get into Powerlifting, incorporates 2 optional additional lifts: the Overhead Press and the Power Clean as well as various accessory exercises and variations if you’re mature enough to use them.

Is that Weightlifting?

No. It’s actually a horrible name because Weightlifting (also called Olympic Lifts), which does the Snatch and the Clean and Jerk, actually generates more power than Powerlifts. They’re also a lot trickier to do, and you can screw up lifts more often, called a miss, since it requires a lot more coordination than Powerlifting lifts. That’s why they’re performed in the Olympics.

Is It Like Bodybuilding?

No. Body Building is similar about strength gains, but the goal is muscle hypertrophy: get bigger muscles with low body fat to show them off. There isn’t a huge incentive to lower your body fat too much in Powerlifting because you want enough nutrients and calories to build muscle to grow strong and recover. At a Powerlifting competition, we’re judged on how much we lift, not what we look like or how we pose.

In fact, Powerlifters have a reputation as either having too much body fat, or just not looking strong because you can’t easily see their muscles. Most of us make any excuse to bulk year round.  That’s one of the reasons why I looked much better during Body Beast than I do now despite the fact I’m much stronger now. Her majesty and my mom were quite shocked at the 30 or so women of all ages at the competition not looking “jacked”, yet capable of great strength. They looked like normal women.

Bodybuilding is typically isolation exercises at higher volume with lighter weight, whereas Powerlifting is compound exercises at lower volume with heavier weight. Meaning, you do a bunch of reps that only use 1 muscle or group of muscles like bicep curls to really work that muscle/group hard, then give it a break to heal and grow bigger while you focus on another group. While you’re technically getting stronger because bigger muscles equal a stronger muscle, you’re also gaining endurance doing that many reps.

In Powerlifting, you’re doing less reps on a move that targets all muscle groups, with a lot more weight often with longer rest times between sets. Different factors like neurological connections better recruiting what you have, stronger bone and tendon connections, and overall stiffer tissue are what is developed more in Powerlifting exercises.

For programmers, think Bodybuilding as upgrading 70% of the hardware, 30% of the software whereas Powerlifting is 70% software, 30% hardware.

Competition Rules

The Starting Strength competition is slightly different in that they do the Overhead Press, often called just the Press, instead of the Bench Press. They’re also less strict about certain clothes and gear. No lifting straps, though, for deadlifting I found out last minute, heh. MOAR CHALK. While you’re encouraged to wear shin covering socks for deadlifts in case you scrape your shins as they prevent bleeding all over the bar, I got away with wearing my Vibrams with no socks.

Aside from those 2 things, everything Jordan Syatt talks about in his Beginner’s Guide to Powerlifting was accurate. I followed what he outlines and I was glad I did.

Supporting Equipment

There are 2 camps: gear and raw. If you’re raw, you believe that being basically naked, you should lift weight with nothing more than what you were born with.

Gearheads like me believe you should be allowed to use whatever equipment necessary to lift more weight, and thus get and be stronger. While I don’t have shoes yet, compression shirts, nor knee straps, I do use a belt and wrist wraps. When at the gym, I alternate between gym chalk for better grip and wrist straps (these are different than wraps) for deadlifts.

I saw both camps at the competition, and it was impossible to tell if it made any difference for the competitors.

Competition Opener

At a competition, you do the 3 lifts. You get 3 tries for each lift. It depends on the event, but I got about 2 minutes rest between each attempt. I’m used to taking a 4 to 5 minutes rest. You have to calculate your opener for each lift: what weight will you start at. Typically this is supposed to be lower because you’re probably nervous or stressed out and the gym plus equipment there are different than you’re used to. You’re put into a group called a “flight” that’s near your weight and gender. Age doesn’t matter but is taken into account for scoring I think.

My openers were 300 lb / 136 kg for Squat, 135 lb / 61 kg for Press, and originally 365 lb / 166 kg for Deadlift. However, once I found out I couldn’t use straps, I lowered it to 300 lb / 136 kg.

I was extremely nervous and shy and slightly embarrassed many days before and while at the meet. I originally was going to go as a Super Saiyan with gelled up, dyed blonde hair to compensate since at least everyone would want selfies with me even if I couldn’t lift as much as they could. I opted to look like Goku instead with blue and orange singlet and shirtthanks to her majesty’s idea. Gave up spiking my hair like Goku’s since I was so tired from the drive the night before & morning. I also found out you’re supposed to wear your shirt under the singlet, not over. I deftly fixed it once I noticed everyone else while warming up.

Final Results

As someone who speaks a lot at user groups and conferences, I get jazzed up in front of crowds. I think that positive energy allowed me to perform well. Despite not working out 2 weeks prior, traveling overseas, then to 2 different places at the east coast, all over 8 days with crappy sleep the night before… I felt pretty good that morning. However, like what usually happens during a heavy lift, my mind leaves the present so I didn’t hear any of the yells of encouragement nor clapping of the crowd… but apparently it was there as I watched videos of myself later.

You can view all the results in the Men Open sheet.

While I’ve squatted more, my final Squat was 322.5 lb / 146 kg.

My Press was 140 lb / 63.5 kg as I failed my 3rd 145 lb / 65.8 kg attempt because my grip was too wide.

My Deadlift with only chalk was 370 lb / 168 kg, a new record (also called PR or PB for personal best) for me.

Learnings

Nine things I learned, beyond Jordan’s article being extremely helpful.

You Are the Most Challenging Competitor

First, no one there, myself included, seemed to be competing with each other. Like Jordan said, you’re competing with yourself, seeing if your training paid off. Your either curious about last year’s competition, or your training goals to prepare for next years competition. This was VERY clear from watching the bigger vets. They were quiet, focused, and clearly in the zone, even during warmups.

What You Weigh Doesn’t Matter

Second, weight doesn’t matter. This nice guy, Nickola “Nick” Crnjanski, weighed almost 20 lb / 9 kg less than me, yet killed me on his ratios. Some of the big boys who came in later in the day weren’t that much larger, but boy did they lift some heavy weights without breaking a sweat. It’s clear practice and hard work, over YEARS, pays off.

Years, Even Decades of Work

Third, again, it’s clear that to get really strong, you have to invest years into the sport. While I’ve done a lot of exercise programs and diets, it appears regardless of which one I choose, I’ll get the best results if I do it for years vs. “90 days” or “6 months”. Starting Strength was the only one that clearly mentioned that: “You can do this for the rest of your life and continue to get strong if you want to.”

Body Builder to Strength Builder

Fourth, once I reached the 6 month mark of Starting Strength, I stopped caring a lot about how I looked. While I still played around with macros and intermittent fasting I was more concerned with strength gains. I found that, at least for me, intermittent fasting caused me to not eat enough calories for the day. I’d either get starving at night, or just not be able to fit enough food in during 1 meal.

As a business traveller, even though I pack my own food, it’s hard to fit it into my hectic work and sleep schedule. I still think I’ll switch to high protein, low carb cut diet next summer again… or maybe not. Either way, taking selfies to see progress of the diet and workout routine is less of a priority. All I care about now is constantly improving my form and tracking my numbers so I know if I’m improving or not. Cutting calories and stressing about food doesn’t help those goals.

Do It Right, Growth Will Occur

Fifth, once I got my form right BY NOVEMBER (yes, 7 months of trial and error… stupid attention span), growth happened a lot. My chest and especially my shoulders a little bit as you can see from the measurements I did grow a lot in just 4 months… but my thighs… MY THIGHS. 1 inch. Now, I’m a small guy, but suddenly NONE of my jeans except for an insanely bagger pair fit. All my work slacks were tight around the thighs. While I can survive in my work clothes, my casual outfits no longer work.

While my belt will shrink a notch in the summer, and grow a notch during the winter months, my waste has remained a steady 33 to 34 size since completing my 1st round of P90X. It’s clear I’ll have to buy either “loose fit” jeans from now on, or 35/36 sizes. I should also point out NOT fitting into my clothes by getting “not-fat” in P90X was an awesome feeling. Now, not fitting because my muscles are getting bigger is also a good feeling… just… different.

Big Bootay

Six, and yes… this is separate from fifth, I got a lot more junk in the trunk. Her majesty reminds me often. While it’s cliche in social media image memes talking about how “she squats” apparently that doesn’t happen to women much since they don’t have the growth guys have because of testosterone. Thankfully the pants adjust here.

The boxers, sadly, do not. I average 1 pair that splits every 2 months now. When it first happened I thought I hurt myself so bad because the rip was so loud… and then realized it was my pants and was so embarrassed I had to abort the lift. Thankfully my workout pants were fine, but now when it happens I just power through and lament the loss because they can’t take the butt power.

Lumberjack

Seven, in my young 20’s I was never able to grow a beard. Now it takes less than 2 weeks. It’s clear working out like this increases it. I keep telling myself it’s that and not a natural occurrence of getting older.

Document Your Progress, Keep A Journal

Eight, keeping a journal beyond just your numbers, or even just writing comments about how certain workouts or exercises went is extremely helpful both short and long term. Week to week I remind myself what to practice on. Months and years later, I can get UBER inspired by overcoming what I thought were insanely hard, near impossible challenges. For example, here’s a comment from last year, November 26th:

275 and up is hard? HARD!? I did 370 last Saturday. Isn’t that comment ADORABLE!?!!11oneone

Women Who Lift

Nine, it was rad watching the women lift. They’re all nice & happy, and then suddenly get all mad and red in the face with everyone cheering them on. One of the women running the event, a former runner and gym teacher, was helping me to try and convince my mom to compete next year. For context, my mom is 64 running her 2nd half marathon next week. She swore she’d never run another one, hah!

Training

Random Progression

I’ve been doing Starting Strength like exercises MOSTLY correct since March 23rd, 2014. So 19 months. After Body Beast I kind of just made up my own routine for a few months. It felt good, but progress was slow and I wasn’t really sure if my plan was good or not for body building maintenance.

The Big 3

After that I started Andy Morgan’s Big 3 routine at the behest of my jacked friend Leonard Souza who’s also a Science Fiction writer. However, I was doing 5 sets instead of 3 with a curl bar instead of a barbell because I couldn’t afford to buy new equipment again. For safety reasons, I was using dumbbells for bench press. For un-safe reasons for squats, I was using 2 chairs anchored by heavy dumbbells, cushioned by yoga matts as a make-shift squat rack. Ghetto, but it got me from 120 lb to 180 lb. For bench, some of my data actually shows single dumbbell usage vs. double what it should be (i.e. 5x5x35 instead of 5x5x70). I also didn’t start to do warmups for anything until 6 months in (whoops).

Starting Strength

Leonard had me read a few books, and one of them was Starting Strength 3rd edition. I only read part of it, but unlike P90X which had a very clear schedule laid out, it was hard to understand what to do when. By the third time I re-read “most” of the book + online resources that talk about it, I had a steady, 3 day a week routine down. The only cardio I do now is playing with my kids on bikes, the pool, or short runs with the new dog. I never stretch anymore. I only get sore if I’ve taken longer than a week break, start nearing the 290 lb squat barrier, or do >310 lb deadlifts consecutively. Even if not sore, the # increases prove you can get stronger without feeling uber sore.

I now follow the book to the letter schedule wise, and later this winter hope to play around with some of the modification exercises because some of my lifts are stuck. Crazy it took me 18 months, but I bet if I had a better attention span and read the whole book through slowly, it would of only taken 8, heh! That and this is a hobby that’s NOT on the computer. I’m obsessed with programming so it’s hard to share my attention.

Current schedule is Squat, Bench, Clean, weighted Chin Ups, then 1 day later Squat, Press, Deadlift, weighted Pull Ups. Typically Wednesday, Friday, Sunday, then Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday are rest days. You just do that for months until you plateau and either take a week or 2 to rest, or try something new.

Future Goals

For example, after about a year, I wanted to see if I could break through my squat plateau AND boredom, so tried a few of Alan Thrall’s suggestions for when you stall on a 3×5/5×5 plan. They didn’t work, but they didn’t weaken me either according to my numbers. What they DID do was give me something new and fun to try that was a lot more volume than I was used to. I’ll probably try them again as well as some of his other suggestions since I’ve noticed it takes me a few tries to do some of these complicated things correctly. Ensuring you do SOMETHING instead of quitting is important so it’s better to pause your training if you’re burnt out, just like programming. You can take a break without sacrificing progress.

I seriously want to give Smolov a try mainly because everyone says not to. Hard to do with my travel schedule at that level of intensity. That’s why Starting Strength is so appealing with my schedule; just 3 days a week in about an hour.

I really need to re-read Greg Nuckols’ complete strength guide as well. That guy can nerd out pretty hard, but like Andy, he’ll sometimes surface diamonds of knowledge. You sometimes just have to dig.

After 1 more year of training, I’m going to CRUSH my numbers at the next meet. Hell, I may even start running again. I feel less and less guilty each day about not trying P90X3. Maybe that’ll be a break for me, hah!

Patience & Persistence

One thing I learned from plateauing a bunch is patience. It’s been so wonderful to know if I just do my best, consistently work hard, and sleep enough… the plateau just “goes away” one day. It’s harder for me because I haven’t bought the 1 lb, 1/2 lb, and 1/4 lb plates like the book says I should, but if you don’t have those, I’m here to tell you patience and persistence DOES pay off. It’d be faster if I used the tiny plates.

Progress Chart

Although you can see my numbers from last year and my 4th round, I’ve created a chart below from a sample of data that show’s total progress on all lifts. Considering I’m a stressed, traveling workaholic that doesn’t always sleep well, I’ve done pretty good. I DO make sure to eat right and have willpower so I think that’s where its helped.

• Squat
• Bench
• Deadlift
• Press
• Clean

Conclusions

It was a well run event. It was wonderful to have my parents, wife, and daughters watch and support me. Overall a great experience. I can’t wait to be stronger next year, hopefully with my stronger mom competing with me.

As you can see from the charts I lost a ton of fat and weight through P90X, but P90X2 really pushed me to the lowest body fat and weight I’ve ever been since in my teen years (I’m 34).

Sadly, the caloric deficit, which consists of eating 500 to 300 calories less per day then you need was devastating to my muscle growth. The math isn’t perfect, since measuring body fat by averaging what the body fat scale and the fat calipers isn’t an exact science. That said, you can see on the spreadsheet I basically lost all the muscle in 3 months that took me 10 months to build by basically starving myself. So while the chart makes it look like a victory, 60% of the 15 lb weight loss was muscle vs. fat. It took me 6 hard months to slowly earn it back.

So, while I like the way a vegetarian diet made me feel, I don’t think I want to go back to a caloric deficit as my body is quite sensitive to get into a catabolic state (burning muscle vs. fat).

Halfway through P90X2, during a 4 hour Minecraft session I damaged a nerve in my foot by sitting on it on a wooden chair. I got drop foot; basically I could press my right foot down on the ground, but not lift it up. This means I walked like a zombie by either dragging my foot or throwing my knee, but at least I could jump in PAP Lower… just landing became insanely dangerous. I head to wear a leg brace so I could walk. This lasted for 4 months and just magically got better one day. This forced me to do P90X2 using 1 foot. Erik Stolhanske of P90X1 Plyometrics and Broken Lizard fame, who completed P90X with 1 leg, gave me inspiration to go on.

Now that I saw how low I could go, I decided to go the other way and see how big I could get through body building.

Body Beast just wore me out. I couldn’t do my own cardio or yoga on the side; my entire energy was devoted to just doing my best the entire 30 to 50 minutes. They have many high rep progressive sets, and even her majesty could see the physical change in just my face on the 1 week I rested. It clearly exhausted me, but I DID manage to gain almost 6 pounds of muscle so that was awesome. I also learned better form for a lot of moves I sucked at.

However, everything I read said lower reps, compound movements, and more rest. So I built a custom routine, borrowing some moves from Body Beast, some from P90X1 and 2, some from pictures/blogs/YouTube videos I found online, and some in the books I read. I did my own build, bulk, and cut phases over the course of 90 days. I ate till I was about to puke during the bulk phase. The 2 weeks I tracked it on myfitnesspal.com I was getting nearly 3,700 calories a day.

Doing my own cut phase was rough. I didn’t really plan for a reduced routine with increased cardio so basically just worked out for 1 hour and 30 minutes 3 days of the week, and then 1 hour for the rest of the shorter routines. I managed to shed some fat while maintaining my weight which was awesome, but challenging. I failed to do the 50% protein diet merely because I just don’t know enough recipes and got bored eating chicken, beans, brown rice, quinoa, salmon, and yogurt all the time.

Muscle wise, though, I came out on top, undoing the damage my caloric deficit created. I hope to try intermittent fasting and a heavy protein diet this year to see what they do.

Exercise and diet are just like programming: Tons to learn, tons to try and experiment with, and the more I do it the easier it gets to learn more. I’m happy with my results. Breaking my chest plateau this year proved I can break my bicep plateau as well if I just work hard.

I’m happy with the results of my hard work. I hope you reach your diet and fitness goals for 2014. Happy New Year, y’all!

It’s been 1 year since I was sick & tired of being sick & tired and decided to make a change. I also completed P90X2 which is the 2nd version of P90X (sort of). I wanted to share the challenges I had (only 1 of my feet worked), the changes in my life, and what I’ve learned as well as visual progress.

Before & After

First, the before and after shot’s from 1 year ago, after completing my 1st round of P90X, my second round, and my first round of P90X2; a transformation consisting of 365 days of hard work. I’ve lost 28 pounds, stabilized at 140 pounds, my cholesterol is like 58, and blood pressure is 110.

P90X2

I have a short attention span and get bored easily. I wanted to try something new. A friend on Google+ suggested I try P90X because they focus on more core work and it could help me with my running goals. One of my running goals is to significantly reduce my running times, beyond improving my horrible stride, and 2 of the ways to do that are variety in fitness and losing weight. P90X2 provides the variety, and the stricter version 2 diet combined with the exercise provides the extra weight loss.

Overall it was really fun and I’m glad I purchased the DVD’s. I plan to do a hybrid version of it + P90X once I find a combination that others can already vouch for.

Cons

There are a few things I didn’t like about P90X2.

Not Enough Lifting

There are arm, back, leg, and bicep focusing exercises as well as total body that involve them, but nothing like amount v1 had. For someone who struggled with pull ups and push ups to really bulk up the lats and pec muscles, this was a downer for me. There seemed to be a level of expectations that I clearly wasn’t meeting for some of the chest & back exercises. Phase 2’s focus on arms, shoulders, and biceps was barely enough focus.

Phase 1 Confusion

Maybe this was intentional, but I really felt confused in Phase 1 on “what we’re doing here”. Every day seemed just like a different variation of core. Maybe it wasn’t and I was just feeling the muscle confusion early. In P90X1, you do Core 6 times in the entire 9 days. In P90X2, it felt like I was doing a variation of it everyday for a month. Maybe it was structured and I’m just not knowledgeable about fitness to get it.

D.I.Y. Stretching

Upon getting injured a few times running, 2 different Ortho’s I saw criticized me for being extremely inflexible, and that being the main cause for my multiple running related injuries. I felt really bad suddenly for skipping all those X Stretch Sunday’s in P90X1, so started not skipping them. I also ensured I’d stretch more if I needed to before/after working out.

P90X2 doesn’t have a designated stretch DVD; it’s now foam rolling. That DOES reduce the pain, but does not increase your flexibility. You then have to supplement with your own stretching. I wasn’t prepared for having to find the extra time to stretch. Obviously I have to, and again, it’s clear P90X2 is for those who have “graduated”. Being flexible, and knowing how to maintain it, are a requirement of that graduation.

Pros

There are a variety of things I liked and loved about P90X2.

PAP Upper and Lower

PAP Lower basically justifies your DVD’s purchase. That 1 routine of hell alone basically erased any negativity and frustrations I had with P90X2. I was pretty convinced my 2nd round I wouldn’t be doing P90X2 again and would return to v1, but PAP Lower changed my mind… I found out what it was all leading up to.

Same feelings about PAP Upper, although, Lower’s still my fave because it’s the worst.

Shoulders & Arms with Jason Scheff

For a more challenging version of the first, I loved it. Jason is a goof ball and made Tony look like a serious gent, so this routine really helped distract you from the insanity you’re attempting by adding more weight each week and the pain that’s there. #TwentyPiePounds #BadgerlyWentToOrange #TurkeyBurger #HellInAHandBasket

Plyocide

I actually found the former harder, but I did struggle to keep the intensity up since Plyocide is harder and faster than Plyometrics so… different kind of challenge? Either way, it was fun to have a new version.

Phase 2 Overall

I struggled to see progress in Phase 1 because it’s hard to gauge progress with some of the exercises until you actually get good at them and know the form. Phase 2, however, was very familiar with additional challenges. I liked all the new versions or added modifications to make them harder. “Curls on 1 leg? Why not?”. Phase 2, I think, was a small part of what I envisioned P90X version 2 to be. It was nice to have something familiar since I was really confused in Phase 1.

Ab Ripper X2

Easier than version 1. Thank God. P90X2 really ups the intensity, so after a harder 1 hour workout, it’s nice to have to magically conjure more “bring it” for an extra insane 15 minutes.

Yoga

It’s 1 hour instead of 1 hour 30 minutes. w00t! And don’t give me that “67 minutes” crap. Tony talks for like 3 at the beginning, and if you skip the ending corpse pose and single Om, boom, 1 hour. The other cool thing is instead of Core Synergistics  you do it Yoga 3 times during recovery week. This allowed me to actually better gauge progress I was making at some of the moves. I know I’ve made progress over a year of doing, but even just being able to see progress in 3 days, WHILE recovering was awesome.

I also liked how they had Melissa doing the easy versions with Ted doing the insane things I can someday attempt. As others have noted the queues are a lot easier to follow as well. If I ever do P90X again, I’ll most definitely be using this version of Yoga moving forward instead of v1.

Diet Guide

It was… just way easier to follow. I know the first version had fast food options if you were in a hurry, but… well, I don’t think I was learned enough in general diet to even be able to handle both the diet changes in my lifestyle and P90X to even contemplate that. After going through P90X a few times while working on improving my diet, by the time I got to P90X2 I was ready, AND I did not need a fast food option which meant the P90X2 option just fit. More importantly, it had the Grain Free and Vegan options which I’ll talk about.

Challenges: Flu and Drop Foot

I had 2 horrible things happen during my first attempt P90X2. At the end of of my first week of Phase 2, I got the flu. I managed to power through my 2nd week, but it was very clear my performance was being adversely affected by being sick. So, I took 1 week off. I ended up extending Phase 2 to 6 weeks to compensate because I did notice week to week improvement in form and amount of weight.

During the 1 week off, we had my nephews over and had a Minecraft LAN party. My downstairs table has wooden chairs. I must of sat with my right food under my right leg for a couple of hours with those kids + my kids on Saturday, all day. It caused me to have drop foot the next day. I later found out was caused by a compressed nerve. It took 2 1/2 months before I could dorsiflex my right foot again.

What this meant was, I could “jump” for example in Plyocide, but I had insane balance issues. I had to use step modifications a lot. I couldn’t heel walk in PAP Upper and Lower. In Shoulders & Arms I struggled on the right foot balancing, but tried anyway. I tripped a lot, and had to be laser focused on ensuring I didn’t twist my ankle on certain movements.

Worse, my left leg would get really sore over time because I favored it to help compensate for the right. I did my best to ensure the right did his fair share within reason. I did NOT want to injure myself. I felt like it was extremely important that I complete P90X2 WITHOUT getting any injuries WITH an injury caused by playing video games basically sitting around doing nothing. This would really help me in arguments about “working out being dangerous” or people using my running injuries as ammo against me.

The 1 legged Erik Stolhanske of Broken Lizard fame from P90X1 who completed one of the most brutal workouts with a prosthetic leg was a major inspiration to me not giving up. If he could do it on 1 leg, I could do it with 1 working foot.

1 week after I completed P90X2, I started to be able to get 80% mobility back in my foot within a 3 day period. Nerves are strange… and heal waaaayyyy to slowly compared to muscles, ligaments, and bone.

Going Vegan

About 1 week into P90X2, I decided to try the Vegan diet. I’m not sure exactly what the catalyst was. I think the wording in the guide book that went something like “even if it’s not your thing, hey, it’s something new to try”. That struck a chord with me. It also sounded hard. That struck another positive chord with me. Some of the zealotry you read online makes you think Vegan makes you “feel” better… I knew Vegetarian made me feel better than I have in my entire life, so why not? Also “it’s near impossible for vegans to get fat” gave me hope that it’d help me lose more weight so I could decrease my running times.

I was actually really thinking about doing the Grain Free option first, mainly because I had read some literature about it. I even tried to do both for 1 week before I quickly realized that limited my diet way too much. The avenue of Vegan trying new types of food vs. Grain which is limiting a specific set of types of food just wasn’t as appealing, regardless of the possible weight loss and feeling better.

The validation I wanted to do it was the backlash from telling people on social networks I was trying it, and some of the negative reactions from my friends. At that point, I was going to survive without dairy, eggs, meat, chicken, pork, and fish for 3 months or die trying. Every comment about “you’re nuts” or “try X diet instead” just fueled my motivation to stick with it.

For the record, it had nothing to do with ethical/moral issues around animal treatment.

Naturally I became obsessed with protein. Apparently Vegan’s have “problems” getting enough protein. You no problems if you know what to eat, although, there are health ramifications for some people who get too much soy. That, and it doesn’t absorb as fast as whey. That said, it works and you can still get “enough”, even if you’re body building. I was getting, using shakes to help, my daily requirement of 1 gram per lb of body weight to double that; within that range, every day, eating + drinking nothing but plants.

Another thing I started to learn is TONS of food have dairy and/or eggs in it, even the gluten free, organic, and worse “vegatarian” options. I struggled many times to learn about what the contents of what I was ordering/making were and was insanely surprised.

I also learned most people don’t know the difference between vegetarian and vegan. A lot of vegetarian options still have chicken/fish/pork, or dairy/eggs in some capacity that I had to struggle to watch out for.

I made many mistakes in eating things I thought were vegan but weren’t.

The biggest mistake I made was not reading the entire paragraph in the diet book. It clearly stated you need to take supplements to compensate for the lack of nutrients you get from not eating meat & dairy. I was not calorie restricting myself in Phase 1, but did feel pretty tired and dizzy many times. I returned to some normalcy once I started getting on a daily routine of B12, D, Iodine, and Iron supplements.

After going back to a regular diet I can tell you with 100% assurance that supplements do NOT compare to the real thing with regards to feeling good.

That said, I’m only beginning to realize the life changes that going on that diet did to me (ex desiring a higher ratio of vegetables on my plate than whatever else, still liking tempeh related dishes, etc). I’ve fallen in love with Quinoa and Tempeh because of that diet, and a variety of other foods that have made it easier to have a broader set of choices… because I was forced to learn when I was starving and couldn’t eat the easy stuff.

If you want to ensure you “like vegetables” if you currently don’t, want to guarantee fat loss even if you don’t work out, and/or want to learn about additional diet choices I highly recommend it. It’s changed my life for the better. That said, talk to your Doctor first. Also, if you can hire a nutritionist, do so as they’ll be more qualified to give you proper dosage requirements for supplements. No, you cannot eat vegan and be healthy without supplements. Anyone who says otherwise thinks science is optional in life. Ensure you get a blood test beforehand to compare with the end. Guarantee your cholesterol flatlines.

Additional Notes on Supplements

For programmers, think about adding a Vitamin D supplement as most of never go outside, and hang in dark rooms for months on end. Once you quit dairy, your Vitamin D can plummet dangerously low.

Be aware when purchasing supplements most supplement makers know that the measurements they use are new to a lot of people, and especially for the multivitamins, they have a variety of dosages. Thus, they’ll sell you supplements that either have too little, or too much. Either way, it’s wasting your money all at the expense of your wallet and health. Not cool. Ensure before you go into one of those stores, like the Vitamin Shoppe or Whole Foods you document what you need ahead of time WITH the dosage requirements.

Also be wary of multivitamins or shakes. They’ll often put crap in there you don’t need, namely sugar or other chemicals that have little to no science. Some are fine and natural, some are not.

Vegan Smell

The downside to being vegan, beyond the supplements not helping me feel optimal as real iron/B12, is the “vegan smell”. Her majesty would always say while laying in bed together after the kids finally went to sleep, “you smell like vegetables”. I personally couldn’t tell, but she could. This hasn’t gone away since switching back to a vegetarian diet since I still err on the side of tons of vegetables and the same kind. I compensate with more showers and extra Old Spice deodorant.

Calorie Restriction & Macronutrients

In Phase 2, I started calorie restricting myself by 500 a day (so about 1700 a day). You can see the spreadsheet here. I was amazed at how little calories vegetables had, yet how much more nutrients they had. I bought a food weighing scale from Amazon to measure the amounts, and learned all about macronutrients (Protein, Carbs, and Fat), their default calorie amounts (4, 4, 9) which made the math a lot simpler. This knowledge, coupled with doing the measurements of different types of food, looking up their calorie amounts and comparing calories vs. nutrients vs. type of nutrients really taught me a lot.

It was interesting to attempt to balance my fat, carb, and protein needs with the capped calories. “What can I eat today that’ll give me enough protein, but not be the same thing I had yesterday?” It got even more complex when I tried to balance certain vitamins and minerals. It gave me a new appreciation for the diet guide’s food choices as I started to “get” the amount the work that went into it, and the further work that went into simplifying it into the serving point system.

Additionally, it was neat to learn that calorie restriction is the ONLY way to effectively lose weight once you’re already fit. It suddenly made a lot of fitness information utter lies used to prey upon ignorant consumers.

I’m continuing to read and learn.

Foam Roller

One of the 3 new gadgets P90X2 wants you to get, the foam roller, had 2 things I think it’s important for n00bs to know.

First off, using both on your neck is great. They don’t do that in the videos, I guess maybe because it’s not a major muscle group or perhaps its dangerous, but for me, it was awesome, especially with the Rumble Roller.

Secondly, you graduate to the Rumble Roller, you do not start with that mofo. Additionally, there are some days when you want to use the foam roller instead since things are just really tight or painful. It still works and isn’t as brutal as the Rumble Roller is. I’m not saying you should buy both, but I still use both; I don’t just favor the black cactus.

What if I want to work out?

You do NOT have dive headlong into something like P90X. If you like the guided methodology, though, combined with good ole’ hard work, Beach Body has a variety of programs targeted at a variety of demographics. You could start with 10 Minute Trainer, then Power 90, then P90X or Insanity. P90X2 actually has a hybrid of the 2 programs in the back of the manual that’s kind of cool looking.

Regarding diet, I get that it’s hard. Tony has a weekly food delivery service that, while not work out specific, is life changing for some folks. I’ve heard some have had success with Weight Watchers as well. Still others just cut out the processed foods, sugar, cut down or switch to wheat bread/pasta, and just keep their calories in check via My Fitness Pal.

Conclusions

As someone who’s completed P90X 2 times, I really liked P90X2. There is no denying my expectations colored my initial perception of it, and I struggled to keep an open mind. I’m glad I did for Phase 3 was really fun and challenging.

I’m looking forward to finding a hybrid program that blends P90X 1 and 2 exercises together in a 90 day program.

It’s crazy to look at pictures of myself from 2010 – 2012, especially my face. I could see the beer, lack of exercise, and stress about work & the industry piling up into un-healthly-ness in my face in the form of… well, fat face. I was 1% body fat away from overweight. For someone high strung like me, that was pretty irritating and made me angry. I don’t ever want to feel like that again. I like not having to wear white t-shirts under my t-shirts in the summer to “smooth out” my figure to cover my body. I like feeling lighter… and basically not like crap every day.

What’s next? Body Beast. Since my running goals were sabotaged by my non-working foot, I’ll get too bored running and doing maintenance exercises  so… time to gain some weight!

Once again, massive thanks to my business partner Brian Riley for getting me started last year to change my life for the better, and his wife Dee for getting me on the right nutrition & supplement track. And of course her majesty for supporting me. #tagTeamBackAgain

I just completed another round of P90X. It’s a 90 day exercise program for getting “in the best shape of your life”. I’ve now done it twice. I’ve posted about my first 90 days and the resulting positives. I’ve made a lot of positive changes in my life since, and learned a lot, so thought I would share the pro’s and con’s as well as what I’ve learned.

Also, new before / after pictures.

Like my first post, keep in mind Iâ€m still learning, and still donâ€t know what I donâ€t know. Also, Iâ€m not a qualified instructor, nor doctor, so seek out professional advice before attempting any workout routine & diets.

While the changes haven’t been as drastic as Round 1, the lifestyle changes continue to have a profound impact on how I live, and change, my life. And what I focus my time on.

Time & Cooking

I spend an hour in the kitchen, just about every day. Sometimes 2. I used to make fun of the hippie friends I had in Cali who I heard did that… now I do it. Ask any professional programmer to take 1 hour out of their day so they can focus on exercise and another 1 so they can cook: they’ll most likely balk. 2 hours of coding is precious.

If you don’t know how programming works, you basically are learning, practicing, or just building things for fun all the time even when not working. This is part of the many reasons Google has a free day for employee’s on Friday to build stuff. While it’s certainly not required (most programmers I know are like ‘What recession?’) a lot of programmers do it for personal gain, satisfaction, or both. You constantly want to know the latest language, tools to build things, and places to build them such as mobile and TV to be valued high in the market.

For those who are independent contractors or run a business like I do and you already work 60 hour weeks, that’s a costly 6 hours to lose every week.

In my first 90 days, that 1 hour was easier to let go of than I thought. Challenging, yes, but once I started feeling better, seeing results, and realizing I was getting healthy it started to get easier. That, and it became the focal point of my day, unlike work.

Now, I lose an additional hour to food. Whether that’s preparing or storing, I was not prepared for that. However, I feel it was the more important hour to lose for a couple reasons.

Stress Reducer

First, I found out a few years ago that I somehow relax when I cook. I don’t have any formal training, nor influences, I just got bored with my regular food one day and started trying new things and ways to make them. Like blogging, books, or video games, cooking was a way for me to unwind. Now, I ensure I spend at least 5 to 6 hours a week, 1 hour every day, devoting that time to myself to ensure I can release the stress of my day. The more I’ve learned about stress, and how too much is horrible for you, this is just one positive impact on my life. I used to drive to work and assuming light traffic, that was my alone time to process my day alone, and reflect (similar to that mindfulness stuff you keep hearing about). Yes, some days I treat it like a chore.

Dietary Changes: Positives

Second, my diet has drastically changed in the past 6 months. I was originally hoping I could change it in 1 week after reading the P90X diet guide, but even without that, you need to know a lot about nutrition & food preparation before you can just change your diet to something totally different that’s good for you and maintain it without getting frustrated. Thus, as I learn, it’s gradual and continues to be so as I learn more. While it’s not perfect, nor exactly where I want to be, that 1 hour a day spent making food for myself and my family has been probably the single greatest change I’ve made to my life in the past 6 months.

Here’s some real world examples.

No More Stomach Pains

I used to get stomach aches after eating. No more. The ONLY thing that makes me feel sick to my stomach or achy is alcohol or dairy. That’s it. For someone who was a common statistic in northern Georgia to get their gall bladder removed for dietary reasons, and at such a young age (I was 28 at the time, step father was 58 or so and had his out the same week), this to me is pretty eye opening. I ate so much greasy, oil rich, hard to digest foods that I worked that organ to death. The scars on my stomach, wrought not from glorious battle with worthy foes, but with digesting frozen dinners, continually remind me of the dangers of prolonged bad food choices.

(Mostly) No Crashes

I used to get major metabolic crashes throughout the day. I’d feel nauseous before lunch, or get a “food coma” after lunch around 2 where I’d just feel really tired even though my food tasted good. I’d often have mild heartburn around 5 pm some days, or wake up feeling “gross”. I’d often compensate with Dr. Pepper, and when I quit soda’s and smoking at 21, Red Bull, or 5 Hour Energy drinks. Now, I don’t have any of those problems. I ensure have fruit in the morning since it’s easy to digest and full of good carbs/sugars for energy, and snack on healthy things throughout the day to have more “meals”. I’m still working on the “it’s a meal” vs. “it’s a snack” part, heh.

I Learned What “Being Regular” Means

I used to be “not regular”. In fact, I felt quite ashamed about it. My dad used to get confused when I was younger and lecture me about “I have a coffee and got Number 2 every morning, son. It’s awesome!” This never happened to me and into adult hood I just assumed this was how it was for me. I used to get so irritated at those old people commercials talking about Metamucil and such, further making me feel weird and different.

Turns out it was diet related. Antonio Holguin had a similar experience. Part of it was related to the copious amounts of dairy I’d consume which can make you constipated, and other part was just bad food choices that are hard for your body to digest. Some parts are related to stress as well, but that’s normal now vs. an additional problem.

Energy

I now have energy throughout the day. Part of this is cardio related, but also diet as well. I noticed when I attempted to cut down on my coffee intake a couple of years ago I had a more stable, consistent energy supply throughout the day. While I still hate mornings, I just find it’s easier to tackle the day because I now have energy throughout, including when I’m technically “done” at 5 pm or so and start resuming fatherly duties. For a workaholic, this is a major perk for me.

It does NOT solve writers block, nor magically make software bugs easier to solve. Sometimes you just need to step away, even if you feel great.

Dietary Specific Changes

This list changes all the time, but here are some of the line item changes I’ve made, and why.

Remember, my goals are to make dietary changes over time that I understand and agree with and help me feel better, have the energy I need for cardio, and the protein I need for strength training. I need to be able to actually make whatever it is I’m supposed to eat and I need to understand why I’m actually choosing that. Your goals & dietary requirements may differ. Specifically, I want to eat healthier, gain muscle mass, and help my cardio inflicted wear & tear to heal faster.

Red Meat (including pork)

What: I don’t eat red meat if possible. If I get BBQ, I’ll get chicken BBQ instead.

Why: It’s hard to eat red meat in a healthy way. You have to get lean cuts that aren’t high in fat, raised in healthy conditions, and you’re not supposed to eat more than a certain amount a week. Young women and child bearing women, or those with iron deficiencies need it. While I do strength training and need the amino acids and proteins more so than most people because I’m constantly rough on my muscles and joints, I can get it from either chicken, fish, or beans & rice.

Additionally, there are enough studies done that DO show you’re increased in risk for certain diseases such as heart disease. The studies I’ve read on cancer seem pretty bogus (por que ‘control group’?). Either way. Why take the risk when you don’t have to? And you do NOT have to give up meat. If someone fixed steak, I’d totally eat it. Just not every day or twice a week anymore, heh!

If I do eat meat on purpose, meaning, I cook it, I prefer grass fed, free range. I prefer turkey for chili or spaghetti. Same goes for chicken; free range, grass fed, and no growth hormones. The fact that many young girls and boys are going through puberty sooner because of growth horomones in their milk and meat is one reason I’m like, “Uh… yeah, don’t put that shiz in my, or my kids, food, yo!”. Fish is fair game as well, love it.

Dairy

What: Anyone who knew me at a younger age knows I’m a huge cheese and milk fan. I’d put cheese on EVERYTHING, and buy new cheeses at the store to try every week. I’d also heavily dose my coffee with Whole/Vitamin D milk, none of that pansy 2% crap. Sometimes I’d use it with scrambled eggs in the morning as well. No more.

Why: There are 2 reasons I’m no longer doing dairy. The first reason, and only one that really matters to me, is allergies. Even moving up to Virginia from Georgia, I still get congestion. I’ve found not drinking milk with my coffee in the morning, and not eating cheese for lunch/dinner helps me breathe better. If you’ve done P90X or a lot of running, you know that breathing is key.

The second reason is scientists can’t agree if it’s good for you.

That said, I still love and to continue to take whey protein in shakes, I just ensure I keep the vats out of reach of my 2 little girls. For my coffee, if I’m not at Starbucks working, I use almond milk. I don’t like the taste of soy milk.

No White Bread / Enriched Flour

Why: Enriched flour is just a bunch of carbs/sugar/crap you shouldn’t eat a lot of. Worse, compared to non-processed flour, a lot of the nutrients are taken out during processing. They call it enriched because they put some back on. Ghetto fab. If you know anything about American’ food, it’s nothing but carbs. Try not eating white bread for 1 day in any American restaurant; nigh impossible.

Remember, I’m losing 2 hours of my day, 1 to exercise and 1 to food preparation, the last thing I want to do is waste my time eating something that isn’t high in nutrients. Also, my extra carb allotement goes to beer, and beer takes priority, so… no more bread, no more pasta that isn’t wheat, breaded chicken, etc. Additionally, if I’m about to buy something and I see “enriched flour” on the back, I don’t buy it. Same goes for white rice; no more. I try to avoid potatoes, but will eat it plain if someone serves it. I try to hit all of those things (rice, pasta, wheat bread, etc) in the evening.

What: I now eat brown rice and wheat bread. Some BBQ places will have a wheat bun option. At Subway, I’ll get the wheat bread only. At Chipotle I’ll get the brown rice. At noodle places, I’ll get the wheat noodles. If I’m cooking at home, I’ll use whole wheat penne. I’ve tried in vain to find wheat tortilla’s at various grocery stores for making soft tacos; they are brown and have wheat but are mixed with enriched flour to ensure longer shelf life. NICE TRY, SUCKA!

I should also note, this has probably been the most drastic, and challenging part of my diet desires. Everything has enriched flour. It’s insane. I didn’t know until I tried to find things without enriched flour… and then just any flour. I’m still not sure how the French get away with it. My favorite are the organic breaded chicken… w… t… f… I call those “transition” foods. If you can hit that vs. the processed stuff, you’re slowly on your way, and that’s great. Just don’t stay there.

Someday, I may no longer eat wheat. But not today.

Processed Sugar

Why: White sugar. Hard for your body to digest, gives you a sugar high, and for males goes right to your stomach. Sugar gets a bad rap. If you eat a little, you’re fine; it’s the mass quantities are that bad. Considering it’s in a ton of things, that’s where it’s hard NOT to have too much, hence the negative attitude towards it to ensure you don’t get too much if you can help it.

What: I use unprocessed brown (not that maple cooking stuff) for my coffee. My increased fruit intake also has sugar in it. My vanilla almond milk has sugar in it. My beer has sugar in it.

Someday, I may no longer drink coffee. But not today.

Beer vs. Wine

Why: This one has been tough. With the craft beer craze still in full swing in America, there are always many new beers to try. Alcohol is hard on your liver, and most beers are pure sugar that goes right to your belly if you’re a guy.

What: I try to keep wine around, though, since I can drink less of it than beer. Argentina Malbecs and Cabernets are my preference.

Crap

Why: Just to be thorough, I no longer eat crap / junk food. Not all foods are created equal; you can eat one meal the exact same size as another meal, and one can be insanely more nutritious for you. I don’t mean nutritious in the sense that “tons of protein”, I mean everything you need. Thus, eating junk food is bad for 2 reasons:

First, you have to eat more of it to get the same nutritional value. If you don’t, you feel like crap and have health issues. If you do, you get fat and have moar health issues. Lose lose situation. No more Doritos, no more sugary lemonade’s from Burger King, no more french fries, no more gummy bears/twizzlers, no more Sunny D.

Second, you eat more of it to feel full, and thus eat too much of non-nutritious food.

What: I’m still figuring this out. The truth is hard to find on the internet, and some books give conflicting information. For example, everyone agree’s Kale is the best thing in the universe. You can’t eat Kale every day unless you’re a Spartan with no taste buds. Additionally, if you just DON’T eat junk and you were formerly eating junk, you’ve still made a huge, positive impact on your life. Yet, most of those nutritionists I’ve seen who are not Doctors will give you shit for “living a delusion you’re not eating healthy”. So, it’s also hard to get a decent support network from people without agendas. If they mention Mansanto in a blog entry, I know I can usually stop reading if I don’t have the patience, or just have to wade through their agenda to find the good stuff.

Picking healthy food choices is wrought with misinformation, conflicting science, and tons of math. For example, let’s assume everyone is the same gender, has the same fitness goals, and is the same age. There are a certain amount of calories per day you need. Of those calories, a certain  percentage of them should come from monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats. You need a certain amount of specific types of vitamins per day. You need a certain amount of carbs per day, as well as the different types of fiber. Don’t forget Potassium. Now, take in the fact that different foods have different types of the above things, and combine them together, and you can see how it gets complex really quick.

Worse, some foods are 90% good, 10% bad… if taken alone, else the math gets hard again. It’s kind of like eating in Fallout 3. In the game you need to regain the health… but all the food had varying degree’s of radiation vs. how much health you regained. You were glad you ate it, you needed it, but eventually you had so much radiation debt you eventually had to pay off. Or you could just not eat radioactive food which was hard to find in a post apocalyptic world. I feel Fallout 3’s food system is a great metaphor the American food system. A pimp economy has been built around selling you RadAway.

It’s been easier than I thought, though to keep at it. For example, when I quit smoking 13 years ago, on week 6, I went to the dentist. I was still marveling at the changes quitting smoking gave me (regained my taste buds, could breathe a little better, etc) so was still pretty excited about it and kept telling people. I was still using gum at the time to help control my nervous energy, which is one of the reasons I smoked. My dentist didn’t congratulate me, nor thank for my teeth in 2nd person. Instead, I was berated for chewing gum. Like presidential elections, I get that voting for the the lesser of 2 evils doesn’t make you not evil.

However, I’m pretty sure that:

• 1 of 5 deaths a year in the USA caused by smoking suddenly stopping
• a single person gaining $4,000 back in their wallets from cigarette purchases per year as opposed to $104 for a yearly gum usage. That’s a $200,000 savings over 30 years. Curious how this would impact Social Security in the USA if people put this in their Roth and regular IRA’s?
• removing that 40% increase in health care costs for smokers in the USA might help the healthcare problem (not solve it, duh)
• increase in used car sales revenue since there is an average 9% lower return on smokers’ used cars
• the $10,000 or more of house cleaning / repainting for houses that smell like smoke that can’t easily be sold goes away

Blah blah blah. Every agrees that quitting smoking is good. Replacing it with a gum chewing habit that’s horrible for your teeth and jaw is the lesser of 2 evils. However, in terms of life impact, and economy impact, it’s HUGE! Negative dentist was negative.

Same for eating healthy. I don’t see it as a “doorway” to a new way of life, but more of a path that I’m continually walking and learning about. I see every positive change as positive. I don’t have to make 30 changes to feel better; I feel better already with just a few changes. My feeling good is all the proof I need. Obviously I want to continue to feel better, and stave off any long term health effects that I don’t “currently feel” since I’d love to see my great grand kids… assuming they aren’t part of the android army come to end the human race.

Dietary Changes: The Negatives

Lose of Valuable Time

Yes, there are some negatives. As a business owner and programmer who sells “expertise”, not just experience, I have to be at the top of my field. Writing good prose and speaking at conferences is great, but you have to actually deliver as well. You can only do that through experience and actually knowing how to execute. This requires constant research and practice, and relearning since things change all the time. I used to have 24 hours in a day to do that. Now I have 22.

My kids are older now and require time. All the positive male role models I had would work hard all day, and come home and “take the kids” from the wife to give her a break. It’s hard for me to do that because I’m making dinners for everyone. This doesn’t count making the kids lunches where, if I get suckered into it, I make an attempt to inject healthy items like my mom used to do for me when I was a kid.

Sometimes they want me to play wii games with them, or read a book, or they start fighting… it’s hard to focus on them when I’m cooking. It’s hard for me to divide myself between fixing healthy food for everyone to eat or other meals for myself, and giving the kids attention.

I’ve made eating healthy an important part of my life and eventually my family’s, but holy fish does it have a cost. I can see why most people don’t pay it.

The Price of Organic and Drawing My Own Conclusions

While the science is on going, and organic foods are by no means a silver bullet, there are certain things are seemingly obvious. Again, I try to constantly keep an open mind, and not “look for conclusions” while reading/researching. Examples include certain pesticides that cause cancer in farm hands. While you can wash your fruit off, why take the chance? I’ll just buy organic and hope the natural toxins/pesticides used are safer. I’m aware nature can kill, but there’s more research that says these chemicals are bad whereas the natural ones aren’t.

For example there is currently a spray bottle used for “washing fruits and vegetables before consumption”. A company is specifically profitting on fruits and vegatables having toxins on them that need to be washed off to have the perception they’re safer to eat. As a capitalist, that’s awesome. As someone who likes science, it seems I’ll just logically not buy fruits that have that problem. Meaning, those #’s they have on them, I buy the ones that start with “9” on them meaning they are organic, not the 4 (conventional) or 8 (GMO). Buying organic fruits & vegetables, almond milk, and grass fed/non-hormoned infused chicken is expensive, sometimes twice as much. 60 years ago, 18% of a family’s budget went to food. Now, it’s 9% (half the cost!), yet most American’s are unhealthy. Bad math is bad.

The same goes for growth hormones in the milk I feed to my daughters; that’s a negative Ghostrider.

My Family is Not Me

The price and time issues are exacerbated because family doesn’t eat like I do, yet. Take healthy diets out of it, if you know anything about kids, or people in general, its that they have different tastes. This is NOT just behavioral; it’s genetic. Some bodies have different needs for different types of foods. Just like the 13% of Scotts those with lighter skin evolved from being in more overcast climates for increased Vitamin D absorption, different bodies have different nutritional needs, even if they’re from the same parents. My oldest is carb girl w/a tad of fiber desire in small portions, whereas my 2nd eats a lot of anything… mostly.

Her majesty eats some of the things I make, and sometimes not. She’ll sometimes drink some of the things I get, and other times not. The kids will often not eat what I make. My youngest will try anything, and will eat some of the things I make… but not all the time.

Thus, I make 2 dinners every night. Sometimes 3 ish because the older eats differently than her younger sister. When we go out to eat, I only go to Subway or Chipotle, and sometimes Moe’s, so often I’ll make 2 trips; 1 to their food place of choice, and then 1 of mine. It’s rough and inconvenient. It’s slightly easier now since I know the way that food makes me feel, and I don’t like the taste of it anymore. Still, sucks.

I’m sssllllooowwwwwlllly changing their diet as their exposed to me eating certain things, and see the choices I make, and my disgust for what they eat.

What DO I eat?

My diet usually consists of the following.

1. organic banana every morning
2. coffee with almond milk, brown/raw sugar
3. brown rice (usually), chicken or beans (usually pinto or black), with avocado and vegetables
4. split pea soup or lentil soup
5. I’ll wash and chop the vegetables for #4 and #5. These include:
   1. kale
   2. celery (I try to eat this everyday to help digestion)
   3. carrots (I’m a geek, protect t3h eyes)
   4. red or white onions
   5. green or red peppers
   6. parsnips
6. Sometimes instead of #4 or #3, I’ll just saute things in a small bit of olive oil.
7. organic peanut butter on wheat bread
8. tuna fish on wheat bread (sometimes w/ onions, celery, or kale)
9. Snacks: dried cranberries (f’ing crack), raisins, 1 apple a day with skin, oranges or glass of organic orange juice, almonds, walnuts, or cashews (while the cashews aren’t as healthy as almonds, I read they help in serotonin production). I’ve also fallen in love with shakes. I either make my own using banana’s + blueberries or strawberries + whey protein powder and either almond milk or whole milk (depends on what’s in the fridge at the time) after I work out. Those Naked smoothies are insanely dope too; the Green Machine looks gross, but tastes like fruit; it’s awesome. I have a feeling I should cut down on these things since they taste so good so try to only have 2 a week. I’ve tried the others too, like Odwalla, etc. I’m sure the ones I make are healthier, but omg I love some of these. Muscle Milk is gross.
10. Heavy Snack: I’ll also make avocado dip a lot to get my daily good fat supplement, usually putting celery + avocado + a pinch of organic olive oil, or that + onions with organic (usually unsalted) blue chips. Lot’s of carbs and corn, and sodium/bad cholesterol if I get the salted ones… but so far I don’t feel bad afterwards. When I learn more I may supplement the chips out for something.
11. When travelling to client sites, I’ll get salads with no dressing, and soups from small operations, and usually an apple or orange with the snacks I mentioned above that I bring with me.

That’s it. I’m pretty boring, I know; still learning what else I can make that doesn’t want to kill me. When eating out:

1. Subway: Foot long Wheat + oven chicken + lettuce + spinach + onions + green pepers.
2. Chipotle: Brown rice + chicken + tomatoes + black beans + medium sauce.
3. Moe’s: (no brown rice yet) black beans + chicken + lettuce + gaucomole + tomatoes + hot sauce.
4. Chik-fil-A: grilled nuggets (they’re not breaded), fruit cup, water. The girls love this place, and I used to, but now I just try to supplement with Subway if possible, or use the nuggets on my vegtable concoctions.

Drinks:

1. Water (I constantly need to remind myself to drink more water)
2. Organic Orange Juice
3. Naked Green Machine
4. Protein Shakes (usually whey, but working on mixing soy in in the future)
5. Coffee (<– too much. Yes, not good, BUT caffeine is good for you, so… #justify)
6. organic grape juice (cut way down… used to be 5 days a week, now like once every month)

Supplements. I’m not a big fan merely because the FDA ruled that supplement makers are responsible for the medical research which ensures I won’t believe 99% of what’s written. That said, some of the science they’re based on makes sense, and as long as those I trust recommend them without sounding like zealots, I’m willing to give it a try. The only ones I’ve tried beyond whey protein in my shakes is creatine. When working out, I’ll try to have a protein shake afterwards, and 5 grams of creatine a day.

I found this young kid named Michael Kory on YouTube, recommended by Jason Bustamante, who posts some recipes he has which has given me ideas so things aren’t so boring. His old channel is moving to his new one, so subscribe to both (new – old).

P90X Round 2 Exercise Benefits

That’s enough about diet, let’s talk about physical exercise results. First, my before and after pictures.

A few things to point out. My abdominal muscles (the six pack) feel amazing, yet you can’t really see them in the pictures. The reason is my body fat percentage is around 13 to 17% on my stomach. That’s the last place fat has to hide for guys and every time I drink beer, put coffee in my sugar, and go crazy with the dried cranberries it fortifies its position. If my knee gets better, and I increase my running, it’s so over at the end of round 3.

I was insanely impressed how much larger my upper body felt in Round 2. I’m not sure if the pictures do it justice, but my biceps (my arms), lats (mid back), deltoids (my shoulders), and upper traps just feel… bigger. I swear some didn’t even exist before; like, I never even knew they existed and suddenly these “growths” appear, and I’m like, “holy crap, muscles!”. Her majesty can see it too. While I certainly felt like I had a different body after Round 1, Round 2 I can totally feel different up top. My legs… not so much. A bit, but not a lot.

A slideshow of more before and after pictures. (Click here if you’re on mobile).

Weight

I lost an additional 5 lb / 2.3 kg during my rest week and the week after. For a week I just ate, sat all day, and lost weight. I’ve since stayed steady at 155 lb for about 4 months; I’ll fluctuate, but not widely. My Body Fat Percentage has fluctuated as well based on my diet, but has stayed in the fitness / athletic zones.

Physique

My jeans are loose; too loose. I go all the to the beginning of my belt loop whereas before I started, I was using the last one and it’d still be tight. Shopping for clothes continues to be weird. I’m still not used to being the shape I am now. My upper body gained a lot of size, especially my back and shoulders. Some clothes fit great, others too tight. My legs, too, gained a little bit more size so some jeans are too tight now, which is cool and uncool. More cool. I like having this problem.

Energy

Beyond the diet stuff mentioned above, I generally have more energy throughout the day, both for physical activity, and for any time of day. I’m still tired on days I “sit at a desk all day” and work as well as chasing the kids, but even that is easier. It’s weird, too; I don’t just sit there going “omg, I have tons of energy!”. It’s more of a “I feel good and calm”. Then suddenly, if I have to exert myself, like say unload a moving truck, or move furniture, or just anything physical… I breathe heavy, but I’m not tired; I could do it all day. That’s really cool. It REALLY helped with all the recent moving/removing recently; I could of moved all day!

Running

Towards my 2nd week into Round 2, I was finding that it just… wasn’t enough. I felt like doing more cardio. I started getting a lot of energy and wasn’t sure what to do with it. So I donned my running shoes and figured I’d see how far I could run. Typically I could barely do a mile or so before passing out. I found out I could do 3 miles / 4.8 km jog no problem even after doing an hour workout before hand. A week later I did 6 miles / 9.7 km jog no problem. Even after that 6, I realized I could of kept going long into the night.

Then, one of my clients approved temporary housing in New York, specifically the West Village in Manhattan. I didn’t see the point of getting a gym membership to continue my P90X since I had my family in town and… well, if you’ve ever worked in Manhattan, all you typically do there is work. Therefore, I instead decided to at the recommendation of one of my business partners, Brian, to just do Core week for 3 weeks, putting my P90X on pause (I started over just to ensure I was being fair).

I was only 2 avenues from the Hudson river which has a wonderful bike & running path all along the west side / 1st avenue. Starting from the south, you grit your teeth towards the Intrepid, and then you smile at the Freedom Tower on the way back. I’d basically do Core Synergistics, Kenpo, or Yoga and go running after the girls were in bed; quite challenging in a 1 bed room, small (albeit insanely nice) NYC apartment.

After the first week, though, while I started reading online that while my distances were good, my times weren’t that great. As someone who’s competitive, I ignore my short size as a factor in the long times. I read up on interval training since I heard it helps improve your times, downloaded Interval Running, and made 21 minutes, 42 seconds my new goal based off of my age group and the minimum passing score in the Army Physical Fitness Test. Within 4 days, I beat it, so I then set my next goal at 100. I beat that.

My new goal is getting a 100 on the Marine Corps Physical Fitness Test, not just for running. That’s 3 miles / 4.8 km in 18:00 minutes. That’s 3, 6 minute miles. So far, I haven’t hit it, even with working out + interval training + regular running. I WILL hit it eventually.

Vibram Five Fingers

In my research, I’ve learned about a few ways to improve my run times, such as stride length, cadence, where your body leans, etc. One is foot strike, specifically fore foot or mid foot striking. There aren’t enough studies, sadly, about as much as programming. The concepts make sense, and a few notable people corroborate it, though, so I figured it was worth a try. No, I haven’t read the Born To Run book yet that spawned this whole crazy thing. Steven Sacks suggested I get myself some Bikula’s. Keith Peters told me to check out this guy’s blog.

Even though I’m working my legs out a lot in both cardio and strength training, my calves were dying the first week. You’re only supposed to run 10% of your distance until your body gets used to changing your stride, such as the one I’ve had for 30+ years. I ignored the advice and did 50%, which I shouldn’t have done, but oh well; now I’m totally fine. My knees hurt less, and I love to use them for general working out.

For walking and Plyometrics they hurt my knees big time. In fact, I’m going back to some [shoes] for the time being in hopes to help my knees feel better as well as seeing if I can correct my foot pronation easier (I land on the inside of my foot too much). For running, though, I love ’em. They’re not that fun on concrete, but softer asphalt, grass, dirt, etc. are uber fun. Overall, wearing them for Kenpo, Yoga, and various other excercises where you need foot stability I believe has strengthened my feet and ankle muscles a bit which is awesome.

Mantra Meditation

I also briefly gave Mantra Meditation a try. There has been a lot of studies (1, 2, 3) that have corroborated each other about the benefits of meditation, and the 3 minute stint at the end of P90X Yoga isn’t really enough. There is an app, Simply Being, that you can use as well for guided which is easier to do + schedule if you have a busy day like me. Given all the insane stuff that has happened this year, even with P90X + diet making me healthy, I found I still wasn’t 100% stress/frustration free and I wanted to fix that.

I’ve also found a ton of YouTube videos that I can use as well in the middle of the work day, usually after lunch. It’s been uber challenging to fit meditation time in amongst working out + cooking. I can feel it’s benefits for AT LEAST 1 hour; I’m just… calmer. Not calmer like BDNF / Endorphin runner’s high, but… almost like a buffer for the stress of the day. Then the kids come home and sap most of it away so I’ve been curious if I made it a regular part of my 6 day schedule, if those benefits could last all day.

I’ve found it’s easier to do on the YouTube videos if I play the ones that have a mantra in them, like Om or some other repeated word. It’s easier to focus. The drone ones are great, but I tend to travel more and not really follow the whole mindfulness thing as much. However, like dreaming, it’s good to de-frag your brain like that, so alternating is good too. I’ve got a general Meditation playlist that has 1 hour+ Om’s, nature sounds, and white noise. They also help for sleep and white noise for younger kids. I’ve also got a Tibetan Singing Bowl playlist which has been tweaked and lasts for hours; I’ll work to this somedays as it helps me focus.  If music and/or melodic drone is more your thing, I’ve got a general Meditations (notice the plural) playlist as well which includes ambient/psy/chill music and drone soundscapes. If you use the YouTube app on your iPhone, you have to keep it running (you can’t lock your phone). I haven’t found a good set on SoundCloud yet which has better app/music support.

Injuries

I’ve been somewhat careful. I’ve ensured I avoid all “bad pain”, and ignore the “good pain”. If something doesn’t feel right, I trust my body and don’t do it. 1 arm push ups on concrete for example; I just use 2 arms and put 95% of the weight on each arm alternatively. I ensure I land the best I can, ensure my workout area is safe, and I only push the exhaustion barrier, not the physical barrier. If my legs hurt in a good way, I grit my teeth through it. If my back starts to hurt in a bad way, I immediately back off. I do push myself, though, as much as possible.

One day I did a jog of 3 miles at 5 am with my sister in-law and a friend of hers down the street, did 1 hour and 30 minutes of yoga over lunch, and felt so good by dinner I asked my brother in-law if I could edge his yard since he was going to mow. I twisted wrong, hurting my knee. I’m still doing the doctor trips to figure out what I did (I suspect a 2nd degree Lateral Collateral Ligament injury), but suffice to say, I barely finished P90X for 2 weeks there, and basically had to stop running. Once I went up stairs, the pain was excruciating. For 6 weeks while waiting for my new house to close, we lived on the 3rd floor, so… it sucked. I looked ridiculous going up and down the stairs, and the pain negatively affected my mood, but we got through it.

I was really impressed that I was able to overcome that much pain, continue my P90X while modifying some of the Kenpo and Plyo moves, and focusing on work. I learned a lot about how you can modify, and with advice online + creative thinking, you can still burn calories, work out, and not make the injury worse. I also learned, and had corroborated, that a lot of injuries can happen for benign things such as using a ladder,  picking up a piece of paper on the ground, or even weed whacking your brother in-law’s lawn. #fightComplacency

I’ve taken 2 weeks off before I start up Round 3, we’ll see what the ortho says.

My First 5K

I also managed to run my first 5k race even with the above injury. If the boy in my daughters Kindergarten class can get through cancer treatment at his age, then I can survive a knee issue whilst running 3.2 miles for a great cause.

What’s Next?

Assuming the doc says I’m legit I hope to start and finish P90X2, hit my running time goal (yes, along with the sit ups + pull ups), and hopefully sign up for Wing Chun here in town (Ip Man 1 and 2 got me hooooooked). … and continually read more about nutrition, it’s all so complex and hard to get facts.

I’m still reading 2 books; when I validate they aren’t crap, I’ll recommend. If you’re looking for some online resources in the meantime, WebMD will sometimes link sources that look legit, and Live Strong tends to have some sources + new food ideas which is helpful.

If you want to get into shape, I highly recommend P90X. Some friends rave about Insanity as well if you just want cardio + losing weight. If you want to look like Thor, do Body Beast like Jason.