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.

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

Introduction
P90X is a strength training & cardio exercise routine through guided DVD’s that lasts 90 days. I finished my first go around last week. I learned a lot the last 3 months, so wanted to report on what I learned, what I still don’t know, and some tips for anyone else attempting P90X for their first time.

Keep in mind I’m still learning, and still don’t know what I don’t know. Also, I’m not a qualified instructor, nor doctor, so seek out professional advice before attempting any workout routine.

Before And After Pictures

Part of the progress tracking from P90X, a lot of the marketing allure, is the before and after pictures. They alone are what a lot of times sell P90X. You take a bunch of pictures in various poses before or on Day 1, and then pictures again in the same poses on Day 90 to show how your body has changed. Below I’ve linked to mine with a larger version plus a second one posted on Flickr.

What Positives Came About From P90X?

Beyond the above before and after pictures, the following:

• I lost 10 lbs / 4.5 kilos (no clue how much I gained in muscle)
• 3 weeks in, I dropped 2 pant sizes
• I can wear a small t-shirt now vs. a medium. #metro
• I have more energy throughout the day
• I can do strenuous things and not be tired after doing them. I can do this multiple times a day. This is helpful with software programming.
• I don’t get as cold anymore
• my legs don’t fall asleep anymore when coding for long hours. If they do, it’s easy to wake ’em up vs that 10 minutes of limb asleep pain. I no longer get the prickly feeling.
• I haven’t gotten sore from “sleeping wrong” in a long time.
• I don’t look bloated #lolBoomer
• because I work so hard at P90X, it’s easier to NOT eat bad food because I feel guilty
• I don’t feel “bleh” after I eat. I feel good.
• I’ve never looked so fit in my life, and apparently I can look even better if I keep at it. WITHOUT a personal trainer & a gym membership.
• I have to cook more. Cooking allows me to spend more time with my girls since they can help me, and I get them to like good food earlier. Her majesty doesn’t like everything I cook because I usually ignore recipes and experiment. SOMETIMES I get it right and she digs it. I have fond memories of spending time with my grandma helping her cook. Not sure how I haven’t accidentally chopped off one of my toddlers fingers the way she ignores me near the cutting board. Course, I’d rather her risk her fingers stealing carrots than stealing jelly beans.
• I significantly improved my nutrition and am on my way to learning how to be healthy vs. leaving that to CNN.com to figure out for me. Maybe both.
• I have a positive outlet for all the stupid insanity I have to deal with in my business. “Man, I’m tired… I don’t want to work out tonight.” “Hey man, just to let you know, we put Parsley, Cairngorm, and Swiz in your PureMVC code base.” “WHAT!?! TIME TO BRING IT! ME NO TIRED~!!!!!1111oneone”

What Did P90X Not Fix?

• I still have insomnia, no matter how hard I work out. Lack of sleep is a cause of multiple health problems, lack of P90X progress, lack of energy, lack of brain power, etc… so I was really hoping for a fix. #lamesauce
• I still get “disappointed” in some clients, negative software developers, or politicians. Yoga didn’t make the “disappointment” go away. #inb4ragequit
• my gut. At the 6 week mark, it was very clear I made some serious progress attacking what beer had done to me. However, rather than do extra cardio and risk catabolism all for the sake of washboard abs, and cutting down further on my alcohol intake (I’m in software, eff that, impossible), I decided to up the protein and calories. I knew if I hit Ab Ripper hardcore, it’d actually push out the gut more based on what I read because of the increased stomach muscle size. Who cares; I do billions of modified sit-ups and v-ups, etc. #RAWR
• While I learned a ton of new moves and advice from Tony Horton & crew + at the forums and other sites… it’s very clear I’m still ignorant as all get out and have a lot to learn about cardio, strength training, and nutrition.
• strengths and weaknesses. I’ve learned that genetics play a huge role in what you excel in and have challenges in exercise & growth wise. I’ve had to learn to work harder in certain areas than others. My legs, for example, are wonderful at endurance stuff, and my calves are strong… but showing bulk would require gobs of creatine, hah! So, I just have to work at it. Her majesty’s better at some moves and stretches I am, and vice versa. I’m still learning my strengths and weaknesses.
• P90X scheduling. Even 3 months in I still haven’t figured out the best time of day to do it. I fee great doing it around 2pm. However, I can only do this when I work from home AND I don’t have build or some major client milestone due on the same day; usually it’s when the 2 year old naps which helps when her majesty wants to join in (she’s on Power 90). While night is always convenient, when the kids are in bed is when I want me or her majesty and me time. I am not a morning person. I realize this works great for people because they get it “out of the way” and have energy throughout the day because they worked out. Not this guy. When I travel, same thing.

Why P90X?

I know enough to work out on my own, but unlike 10 years ago, I have a lot less time nowadays: I run a business, have 2 kids and a wife I like to spend time with, and spend a lot of my other time researching/learning/playing with new technologies.

One of my partners in my company is a jock I really trust. Anybody who tries to sell anything has an agenda to make money, so I immediately don’t trust their intentions to make you healthier or to look physically better. However, Brian’s word was good enough for me.

I also am still currently searching for a new technology stack to call home. I’m not a jack of all trades; I want to pick something and be the best at it or die trying. While the choices nowadays are better, more prevalent, and easier to learn the industry is in major flux as far as Enterprises are concerned in crossing over to mobile compared to the consumer market. That + there is a lot of misinformation being thrown around as well as insecurity which makes (very intelligent) people forget core software development concepts. This coupled with investment money without a clear ROI countered by statistics that show insane growth and opportunity in the consumer sector… it’s a very confusing time to do what I do at the level I do it.

I wanted to feel better. I wanted more energy. I wanted to look better. Part of my positive attitude towards things is one part will power. The other part is my insane metabolism… which has slowed down a bit since hitting 26. I knew if I could get that back, I could better handle crazy clients, email threads on technology where people have gone nuts, and continuing to further my career by milking every free minute I can get my hands on.

What do you need to do P90X?

The only things you really “need” are:

1. the P90X DVD’s
2. a pull up bar
3. bands or free weights
4. commitment to showing up everyday for 90 days

Everything else is a “nice to have”, some more nice than others. For example:

• bands AND free weights
• a yoga mat
• a yoga block
• heart rate monitor
• blood pressure monitor
• sleep monitor
• Fitbit or Digifit
• supplements
• ch00ns (small, portable, and durable headphones + music player)

Pull Up Bar

My pull up bar was great. While the grip is crap, I use gardening gloves to protect my hands. I had to get the larger one I linked to for my kitchen’s door frame which is 36″ where as most normal door frames are 32 1/4″ or so. It was even nice to take apart when we rented a house in Florida for a week; just required a screwdriver. Yes, I lost the assembly instructions, so it’s pretty simple to re-assemble #5.

Bands vs. Free Weights

I liked the bands for some exercises, but within 3 weeks, outgrew them and needed heavier bands. They were hard at first to get used too, and the grips apparently make a huge difference if you like them or not. If you go on Craigslist/eBay to get cheaper ones than Amazon, ensure you like the grips. Also, if you’re a guy, don’t listen to the weight values; they’re crap. The tension you can increase on them gives each some flexibility, but I find that the weights were over estimated when you compare ’em, even at maximum tautness, to dumbbells of equivalent weight. I even broke one by accident so if you want to ensure you don’t get a welt on your stomach, ensure you get quality and/or read the reviews and/or don’t over do the band.

For other exercises, I like the free weights. Just what it is… but maybe it’ll change. The bands for some exercises just provide continuous tension whereas the dumbbells don’t.

As a frequent business traveler, the bands were a lot easier travel with. They fit well, are light, and durable. Later in the program, instead of buying new bands, I just ensured whatever hotel I stayed at had a gym; most of the non-podunk hotels had a gym with enough free weights in it. The chest/rowing machine is a decent make-shift pull up bar if you’re not over 200lbs. If you are, then you can just use the machine.

Yoga Mat

A yoga mat is helpful for 3 reasons. First, a lot of the stretches and Yoga moves are done on the floor. You want something clean, and easy to clean, on the floor. Second, you want to protect your feet and knee’s. Doing Yoga, or even Plyo (jumping moves) on a soft surface makes a huge difference on the knees and helps prevent injury. Third, some provide grip. For example, in the beginning, I just used our camping tent mats. They provide a ton more cushion than most yoga mats and I don’t need to roll them up for my knees. However, they have zero grip on my hardwood floor whereas the yoga mat does, so downward dog and other moves are impossible, and dangerous, using it.

Yoga Block

A yoga block is just that… a block that can support heavy weight. You use it to make your stretches better if you aren’t very flexible in some moves, mostly in yoga. I used my kids cardboard building blocks. As long as you press on the edges, it doesn’t break and I don’t come tumbling to the floor. If I do, there 40 replacements right under the TV. And another 80 in the garage.

Keep in mind a lot of guys hate the Yoga, and just do the Cardio X option instead, so… keep that in mind if you invest a ton of bling into Yoga equipment.

Heart Rate Monitor

I got a heart rate monitor 3 weeks in. It helped me identify when I was slacking off as well  as seeing progress over time. I could also tell if I just had a bad attitude for the day or was in fact really working hard. It also provided a surprising result for her majesty who briefly started the first 6 weeks with me: she was actually working too hard. At first I was trying to push her, but after the getting her the monitor, we realized she was working uber hard and needed to slow down. For males, you can find your “zone”, or heart rate in which you can build up better endurance… or the best place to lose fat. Same for females, although the cliche for them is the fat burn zone, aerobic. If you read the Wikipedia and other blog articles on aerobic vs. anaerobic, it gets complex quickly and your eyes may glaze over.

Fitbit or Digifit

A got an Ant+ connector for my iPhone and used it with my Garmin heart rate monitor. Put on the heart rate monitor on my chest, plug in the Ant+ to my iPhone, and open the Digifit app. Once it detects my heart rate, I’d start my P90X routine for that day. Digifit is cool in that you can see your heart rate in “mostly” real time. It also tracks the data over time, both in the app and on their website. It factors in all kinds of physical factors like your weight, age, fitness level, etc. The Digifit app itself also integrates with a lot of other tools like Fitbit. It can theoretically track your entire fitness and health.

If you supplement your routine (most chicks do) with extra cardio (sometimes guys have to follow), it has a GPS part that’ll show how far you went, the rate at which calories are burnt per hour, etc. It’s pretty rad. It appears to be lacking a lot of social features that other fitness apps have (what trails are nearby, who run them, who’s burning moooarrr calories near me, etc), but if you just want the data (and as I’ve learned, it’s ALL about the data), then it’s a great extra.

Time For P90X

P90X is 1 hour a day, minimum. Yoga is an hour and a half, but you can do Cardio X instead. If you do Ab Ripper X, it’s an extra 15 minutes on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. You can optionally do X Stretch on Sundays, or just chill.

I didn’t do Ab Ripper the first 2 weeks as I was trying not to die. I only started doing X Stretch on Sundays when I started “feeling” the need for it after 6 weeks in.

With interruptions from kids, getting setup (cleaning up the mess the 2 & 4 year old make every 5 minutes or walking down to the hotel’s Gym), and sometimes trying to learn different moves, it’d often take me 1 hour and 30 minutes to 1 hour 45 minutes total, per day.

Any programmer knows that is precious time to learn and play with new toys to keep abreast in the industry as well as contribute back both in open source, blogging, answering questions, etc.

Any business owner knows that is precious time to… well, continue working.

Any business traveller knows that is precious time to unwind from the day in your hotel room and catch up on other work… or grab some expensive per diem grub.

That time is now gone. It’s devoted to your health and well being. You don’t “find” this time during your day, nor do you “make” it, you simple DON’T do those other things you usually do. It gets easier over time as you start to realize those other things were taking priority over you not staying healthily physically. As you start to feel better, you get a little protective and want continue to feel good. This coming from a guy who sucks at task & priority time planning.

This has nothing to do with the diet portion which can add a significant amount of food purchasing, preparation, and cooking time. While spending cooking time with my girls cooking vs. playing Wii has been rewarding, it is definitely time taken away from other things when cooking was fast & convenient.

While the best thing for my career the past 3 months should have been spent learning more Java & Android programming, I don’t regret for a minute I spent that time instead on my physical and dietary well being. I’d rather try to tackle that whack technology stack feeling the way I do now vs. 3 months ago.

I mean, Hungarian notation? Seriously? In 2012? From the brainiacs at Google? #wtf At least now I have the ability to beat down whoever thought that was a good idea, not to provide some modicum of MVC/MVP/MVVM inside, promote it, AND enough energy to spend the weekend fixing it.

… Not really, but I certainly FEEL like I can, and that is my point here.

Modifications

Before you start P90X, you’re supposed to take a fitness test to validate if you should even start P90X. I didn’t because I knew I wouldn’t pass. Even doing 15 minutes a day vs 1 hour, every day, already makes you a lot better than a large group of Americans who don’t get enough exercise per day. That in itself is awesome and you should be proud of that.

What people forget is that the body is an amazing machine of adaptability. Daily, it gets better at handling it, and you in turn can last longer and do the moves better. While the first 6 weeks was learning all the moves, I’m STILL learning every time I do it to focus on doing the moves right with heavier/specific weight. Control and quality movement is everything vs. throwing yourself and/or weights around.

That said, there is good pain and bad pain. Every exercise I was continually making progress in except for 3 which I outline below.

Plyometrics / Jump Training

On week 2, my knees were annihilated. I could stand, but my knees were in pain. I wasn’t clear if it was bad sore or good sore. 10 years ago when I was 23, I never had knee pain after working out. Plyo ensured I did. Here are some things I did that removed the pain.

First, I stopped doing Plyo on hard surfaces. At my house, I have hardwood floors. I simply got my thick office carpet out and House of Pain’d on that mofo instead. MASSIVE difference the next day. At the hotels, I’d either use soft mats in the gym, tons of stacked towels on the floor in my room (they’ll give you moar if you ask), or even the the bed (I’m short) for rock star hops.

Second, each move can be modified, and many I still do modify. Instead of jumping, just step. They show you how on the DVD. It’s still uber tiring, works out the parts you need to work out, yet doesn’t hurt your knees. This also allowed me to finish the entire workout even if my knees hurt without hurting them further. Also, my landings are more dramatic than others. I really ensure my landings are soft, and I use my whole legs vs. just my toes + feet to land softly.

Third, swap out Plyo with Cardio X. Plyo, to me, is the hardest routine out of all the P90X exercises. While Legs & Back is the ONLY one that makes me nauseous, and I burn the most calories in Kenpo, Plyo crushes me. In the beginning, or even if you don’t feel it, just swap out with Cardio X. Or skip it entirely and just go running/hiking/biking/swimming. Swimming’s a nice change too because it’s low impact.

That said, if you truly are injured, every single piece of advice I’ve read, both form qualified instructors and non, is to take a break, sometimes 2 weeks depending on how fast you heal. Better safe than sorry. Besides, it’s not time wasted at all. Learning the moves, and getting your body’s cardiovascular systems engaged == the hotness. The key is to listen to your body. Sometimes learning to listen actually takes a few weeks of exercise. Therefore, take it slow and easy in the beginning and do NOT think less of yourself; you’ll have plenty of time to up the intensity.

If you’re a guy, I get the hardcore attitude… hence why I came close to getting injured. Let your muscles get stronger and wait for week 6. THEN you can go at that shiz full bore.

Pull Ups

You use workout sheets with P90X to track your progress. There are apps too if you’re racist against pens and paper and killing t3h trees, or just like living in 2012. I really needed these to verify I was making progress. I’d feel like death, be mad at myself for faltering… only to see I was in fact making progress, every day, every week… sometimes a lot of progress. This really helped my self-esteem and made me want to work even harder to see how far I could go.

Except for pull ups.

I’m a small guy. I’m 5′ 8″ and weigh (now) around 155. Back in high school pull ups were easy for me. For whatever reason, back in March I could do 1 reverse chin up, and 0 wide front/close front.

I searched the forums, both Beachbody’s and unofficial, and it’s clear it’s just harder. I started using the bands at first. Over time I did in fact see progress, it was just insanely slower than every other exercise. Getting corroboration online made me feel better that they’re are just harder to get better at compared to everything else. For some people.

Week 3 I started using the bands + chair. I stuck with the chair till the last 3 weeks. Yes, that long. I finally started doing at least 4, 5, 6 and more on my own. On down days, I’d supplement with the chair to keep my reps up.

If you see improvement everywhere except for there, don’t get discouraged. A lot of people have challenges here. It may not be a 90 degree line of improvement… maybe 10 degrees. That’s still improvement over time.

1 Arm Pushups

Yeah, screw that mess. They’re dangerous. Just use 2 arms, and put a lot of weight on 1 arm or the other, using your knees vs. your feet if you have to. Over time you’ll get up. Brian told me this after I busted my face a couple times. I wonder if he did that on purpose? Considering they aren’t done much in the routine either, they’ll take time to get better at.

Nutrition / Food

I did not do the P90X meal plan. The first 6 weeks, my diet didn’t really change except for the following:

• I drank less beer.
• I drank more Cabernet.
• When hitting Subway, I never got chips.
• I stopped eating Gummy Bears.
• I stopped easting Twizzlers (shut up, Mani & Bill)

6 weeks in, I was at a cross roads. I started seeing results 3 weeks in, and didn’t know if I wanted to continue losing fat, or to build up bulk. When I had my gall bladder taken out about 4 years ago, whatever meal plan they had me on afterwards was amazing. 1 week after wards, I stood up, walked to the kitchen, and told her majesty, “I’ve never felt better in my entire life!”. It was very clear that diet alone had a massive impact on my emotional & physical well being.

I was curious if I could start to learn what I could do positively on the diet end, even if just tiny changes. The more I read, the more it seemed diet played a larger role in P90X, and any workout routine, than the actual working out. While it was clear you needed to do both, it was also clear I was ignoring the most important part of it if I wanted to get the most out of my hard work.

Disappointingly, even with the wonders of the internet, there is a TON of misinformation and crap out there. You really have to sort through a lot, verify credentials of those writing, and ensure corroboration is simply not an echo chamber. And even then, you don’t know 100%.

Treating it like learning a new programming stack really helped. The first thing you do is learn the lingo of the community. The second is you find thought leaders in that community, and verify if they are stalwarts or if they have broad consensus. Third, you ask 10 billion questions. Multiple times to hear different answers.

I’m continually horrified at what I’ve learned, and continue to relearn. The re-learning is important, because again, like programming, summarizing scientific statements that fit in a tweet is actually harmful. For example, eating more protein ensures your muscles can rebuild better/faster. However, I could only find 2 actual peer reviewed and publicly available scientific studies on the subject. One was done back in the 40’s; it showed no difference in growth change for high protein diets vs. normal. None of those in the study were doing strength training. *face palm*

The second was for cancer patients going through chemo. Even to a non-doctor, reading through the results was obvious. What wasn’t obvious was what if I’m not going through chemo, am meeting my daily calorie requirements, and my cells are not over-compensating for rebuilding white blood cells, etc… then do I get the same effects? Queue Dinosaur Train hypothesis.

That above paragraph led me down many a blog and forum post, many contradicting each other, many have YouTube quality comments (ie low quality/useless/they be trollllllinnnnnnn), etc. We really need a Stackoverflow site for Nutrition. Worse was the anti-organic sites clearly setup by some unnamed food production/distribution companies in a PR smear campaign. They were on high profile sites, were written well, but did NOT cite any reputable sources. Those they did were not qualified, 404’d, or were completely made up with no supporting evidence of their own.

The opposing camp of fanboy/fangirl organic/vegan/anti-meat counterparts wasn’t any better. A lot of these intelligent, and well spoken blogs on natural/organic nutrition couldn’t help let their agenda come out in their writing, nor obvious bias. The nail in the coffin is when they make counter claims and don’t cite their sources, thus destroying their creditability. Very frustrating.

I get there is a lot of money to be made in unhealthy Americans. Our exploding health sector, our aging Baby Boomers, and all the billions thrown into R&D by pharmaceutical companies some of which could be prevented by “not eating crap” and walking 5 minutes a day. I get there is a lot of money to be made in organic food, non-FDA approved medicine, and spiritual exercise routines.

As a staunch capitalist, I get it. As a business owner, I get it. Our food industry is a razor thin margin industry. Healthier Americans doesn’t suddenly make our GNP rock the mic merely because Whole Foods shows a better quarterly profit. If you were a politician, citing China’s Opium past, and our recent Tobacco past, as examples of why the next step is a healthier America via massive productivity boosts in all sectors, you’d get ripped to shreds. The pharma/food lobbyists would annihilate you. Talk show hosts would discredit you by citing the millions of jobs, both public and private, that would disappear when Americans were suddenly a lot healthier. Opportunists in the health sector would jump on it and say stupid things, thus discrediting the whole movement, thus adding more fodder for those in the counter camps.

That said, even after just 1 hour of reading, there are some obvious things you CAN learn that ARE corroborated by real scientists via peer reviewed studies. I won’t write it all here, and yes it’s hard to find it all, but here some changes I’ve done which will hopefully lead by example.

What I Cut Out

Red Meat

I no longer eat meat. I love meat. If someone were to serve it to me, right now, I’d eat it. I do not, however, buy it to feed myself or her majesty, whether the grocery store or eating out. I currently don’t mind if my kids eat it. There have been enough studies to show that not eating meat makes you live longer. AND they’re hard to find & verify mind you. For example, do a Google search for eating meat live longer, and you’ll find gems like this. Even those in the opposing camp, out of like 16 responses, ONLY ONE actually cites sources vs. anecdotal/qualitative made up bullshit.

You read that, then you read stuff like this study. Great, a scientific published paper. An anecdote from a doctor on CNN, who apparently has rad credentials… or does he? This is the guy who was laughed at on 60 minutes for recommending meditation as a way to reduce stress. Even though it’s scientifically shown that it makes your brain faster, and can reduce stress and help anxiety disorders.

It’s extremely easy to make up a bunch of untruths about someone, publish it with good SEO (search engine optimization, easy to get it in Google Search results), and suddenly detract from someone’s creditability merely because you don’t like what they say. As seekers of truth… how are we supposed to sort through this kruft?

I only know to use corroboration from perceived reputable sources. Which sucks. Examples include here, published reports from the World Cancer Research Fund, and others which are harder to find; like if you’re a chick, you can halve your risk of depression by eating red meat.  Avoid crap like this even if you WANT to believe.

Anyway, I’m still gun ho on free range chicken and fish (both of which are a rabbit hole regarding raising as well, omg). When they aren’t available, I use beans as a protein supplement (black frijoles, pinto, and garbanzo’s). Sometimes I’ll share hummus & wheat flat bread with the kids or organic cashews as well.

White Bread & Rice

Holy fish did I not realize how much bread we Americans eat. A trip to Paris 5 years ago really made an impression on me about how much the French dig their bread as I’d always see the bakery lines in the afternoon, and no one in that line looking surprised the lines were long. Oddly, no one looked fat in those lines either.

When I started reading about what makes white bread white, and the difference between whole grains vs. others and their effects on your health, choosing a replacement became really challenging. Everywhere I looked, both in my house, and in restaurants and chains… had white bread. Additionally, many of the foods used white flour. Then @Talkmster started advertising Wheat Belly. My trips to New York had wonderful places to eat that provided low portions with good ingredients… but had white bread. RRAAAGGGEEE!

When I quite smoking cold turkey 10 days before my 21st birthday back in 2000, my diet drastically changed thereafter. Within 2 weeks I started to get my taste buds back. I didn’t know I had lost them. I started eating more vegatables (SOME, not full bore), salads… sometimes without dressing. All kinds of new stuff. I started to cut down on spicy foods, too, because I could actually taste my food, and spicy foods at the time were the only things that I really liked. At the time, wheat bread was something I started buying/eating more of.

The home wasn’t affected too much, but outside the house… wow. Subway’s easy. Chick-fil-a… not so much. A lot of restaurants are catching on, thankfully. For example, at Jim ‘N Nick’s, who I usually eat at everyday if I’m working at my local Starbucks vs. on-site with a client, I’d usually get a white bun BBQ sandwhich with fries and cornbread muffins on the side. Now, I get it with whole wheat, and get chicken instead.. and eye the muffins with malice. Both it + Chik-fil-A, I replace the fries with fruit.

I’ll still supplement meals with Peanut Butter sandwiches. Now, I just ensure the bread is whole wheat, and the Peanut Butter is organic. For soft tacos, it’s been hard to find whole wheat tortillas, at least at Publix. I don’t live near a Whole Foods, so I’ve debated making my own. For hard shells, they do offer wheat ones now.

For rice, I switched to brown rice. As we all love sushi at this house, it’s been rough dodging the white rice when eating out. Not all places offer brown rice. No, fried rice isn’t brown rice. I’ve really avoided a lot of potatoes and pasta too in fear of too much starch… which has been hard because it goes great with all the veggies I now have in my fridge and has a lot of fiber and carbs to compensate for the protein shakes.

Greens

I’ve committed to eating something green everyday. No, Avocados don’t count, but yes, their good fat gets mega-nom’d in this house daily. I won’t cite the studies, as I’m still trying to understand ’em myself, but apparently eating vegetables is good for you. Daily. With no dressing for salads. If you read the dressing, it’s full of High Fructose Corn Syrup which is good/not-good for you. Or maybe it’s not. Who the eff knows. Not me. Yet. If you read the studies, they’re completely left and right field… like our current useless Congress. Either way, sugar itself is dope for quick energy as most sugar we’re familiar with is pure carbs, but isn’t released slowly enough and you can crash; balance that shiz with fiber for slower release.

I also have been using green peppers & broccoli in a lot of my food when salad isn’t available. I keep meaning to try this kale stuff all the runners rave about. Every week there is some new super food to try… which is usually a plant of some kind. Rich Roll mentioned 10 whack ones I’ve never heard of, but naturally want to try.

Also, Lance Armstrong went all Vegan. Waaaah!?

Fruits

I’ve always eaten fruits, but now I eat more. Instead of snacking on saltine crackers or cheese or something bad, I just snag an apple, organe, or bananna, organic if possible. For the apples, I eat the skin after washing since I read it is good for you and provides more fiber. As a kid it was hard to do this, but now that I’m starving from all the working out, NO problem.

4 to 5 Meals vs. 3, Breakfast, and Snacks

I’ve read that you should eat more meals a day to both lose weight as well as increase your metabolism. It also helps you control portions of how you much eat. I don’t know if any of that is true, but it kept coming up in what I read so I figured I’d go back to it. I used to do that before kids, but once you have kids, you usually shove food in your mouth when you can; sometimes that’s only twice a day, sometimes more. Sometimes you forget, which in turn makes you tired, and more stupid, then you wonder why raising kids is so hard and tiring.

Also, since I was a kid, I’ve heard breakfast is the most important meal of the day. However, coffee has been my breakfast since I was 14. Yes, my mom would make me breakfast if I asked, and often did give me stuff even when I was 20 on the way to college at 5 am… but as an adult post-college, no… just coffee please. I used to do sausage biscuits every few mornings until I did the meat research. That was hard, though, because by lunch I wasn’t hungry, or I’d eat lunch late, sabotaging my dinners with the family, who like to eat early.

I basically force myself every morning to eat a banana. It’s rough… I’m just not hungry, but do it anyway. Also, if I forget to go to lunch till 2 pm, at least I’m not dying like I usually am since I ate something.

I tend to eat a heavier lunch, and sometimes 2 small dinners. I’ve struggled to ensure I don’t eat 3 hours before bed. Often because of work & kids, I have to workout at night. That, and I’m a night owl anyway. This means I’m STARVING at 9:30 pm after a workout. I’ve done my best to force something down, even if just half my dinner 1 hour and a half before working out so I don’t over do it after working out. Sometimes more if the kids at at 5 or 6. However, by week 6 this was really hard; my body clearly was ready for “Phase 3” (basically increased calories of the P90X food plan). I was ravenous. I still struggle with this and do my best to keep a lot of food available in the fridge to easily make meals so I can control portion size as well as save left overs.

When I travel I ensure I have healthy food with me. Some airports are getting better at providing healthier options. Atlanta (not counting Terminal E), not so much, but LGA (New York) & SFO (San Francisco) are definitely tons better in the past 3 years. This includes bananas, apples, hummus & vegetable dips, travel mixes that those mountaineer  people eat, small water bottles that fit in my computer bag, nuts, and organic fruit bars if I can find ’em.

Almost every airport has at least a crappy chicken caesar salad without dressing, while not tasting as good as the chili dog counterparts, are still better for you. Also, some Delta flights (and thus I’d assume other airlines) have some pretty decent healthier box options as well that are only like 5 bucks if you’re dying. They’re all packaged food so if you don’t eat it all, it’s easy to carry with you.

Did I mention I cut down on beer? My god do I miss beer. I mean, Cabernet is ok… but… Merlot is NOT a Stout, know what I mean? Pinots are not IPA’s, etc.

Dairy

I still put milk into my coffee, usually mutha-grabbin-D. I’ve switched to brown sugar at Starbucks and organic brown sugar at home until I figure sugar out.

I no longer eat cheese, my favorite food since I was a kid. Since I’ve been more hyper-aware of how I feel, I can definitely feel my sinuses stress out and be harder to breath after milk and/or cheese. In pollen/ragweed infested in Georgia, this helps. Still, I love cheese. EVERY so often I’ll throw some asiago/parmesan on the pasta/rice + vegetable  concoctions I make up. Then I feel guilty afterwards.

Supplements

The only supplements I started taking 6 weeks in is a protein shake, usually after working  out.

• 1 organic banana
• 1 cup of Silk Vanilla
• 1 cup of spring water
• 2 cups of whey protein vanilla powder

I’ll sometimes I’ll use my kids’ milk (#nsfw) if I’m out of Silk. Sometimes I’ll halve this and have 1 hour before my workout. Her majesty is researching more supplement options. There is a ton of misinformation out there + lack of true information since the FDA thinks it’s THOSE companies selling the stuff to verify it actually works and fund the studies. GENIUS!

“Jesse, do a study to see if you’re a pimp.”

“Done.”

“Wow, that was fast. So what’d you find?”

“The study shows I’m straight pimpin’, man!”

I Want To Try P90X

“I’d like to try P90X, but it seems overwhelming…”

Dude, it’s not. Here’s all you need, just like I said up at the very top:

1. the P90X DVD’s
2. a pull up bar
3. bands or free weights
4. commitment to showing up everyday for 90 days

You do NOT have to finish every work out in the full hour. You do NOT have to do Ab Ripper. You do NOT have to do X Stretch. Even doing half, or less than half, of P90X every day will ensure you’ll pretty quickly get to the point of where you can do P90X every day. Anyone who is negative about it, don’t listen to ’em.

If you’re broke as a joke, you can find the DVD’s on Craigslist, eBay, and sometimes used on Amazon. You find used weights & pull up bars there as well. Additionally, if you have a Play It Again Sports, they’ll sometimes have that stuff there as well.

To ensure you keep #4, I recommend:

• ignoring anyone negative
• using the worksheets or a mobile app. You’ll be amazed through all the sweat and pain you ARE making progress.
• do it earlier in the day vs. later
• don’t do it while writing a book or have some other non-work related, yet non-negotiable deadlines in your daily/weekly life
• if you have young kids, ensure they won’t interrupt you too much, as well as them being safe if you have to work out and watch them. For example, our kids are too young to be left alone, thus, either her majesty or I watches her while the other works out.
• reach out online for support if you need it; it’s there. Many are going through the same thing you are, sometimes at the exact same times.
• some people like to do more than just paper track the #’s; some use journals, both written and with pictures to track their progress.
• Stay positive, you’re awesome.

Conclusions

I’m happy with my results, but not ecstatic. It was a lot of work and I sacrificed a lot of research & personal projects time to get here. Based on what I’ve heard from friends and read, you need to continually work at it fitness wise to get better, develop more, etc. Therefore I’ll probably start round 2 next week and have new pics in August to show… that better be better than what I have now.

I don’t mind being ignorant on the fitness front since P90X can guide me through everything, and supplemental cardio through running, hiking, and swimming is brainless. On the nutrition front, however, I realize I have a lot to learn. A lot of this stuff is often hand in hand with the other. Here’s a list of books I’m slowly reading on the subject:

• TNT Diet
• Starting Strength
• Build Muscle, Lose Fat, Look Great
• The Primal Blueprint
• Leangains
• Brawn

If you have any additional tips, whether fitness, nutrition, or P90X related, I’d love to hear ’em! For the rest of you, I hope the above helps and motivates you to try P90X… or even just Power 90.

Huge thanks go out to Huyen Tue Dao, Michelle Rueda, Joel Hooks, Matthew Fabb, Jim Anders, Steve AutomateYoHouse, and Leonard Souza for advice and support throughout the past 3 months. Also, massive thanks to my business partner Brian Riley for introducing & motivating me to get into P90X as well as letting me know about all the gadgets I’d want to use! Obviously none of this could of happened if not for her majesty doing some with me, helping watch the kids, and supporting me through it all.

Onto Round 2… OH LOOK A BEER!

Reason I had to leave Virginia in the middle of the week disrupting work was to drop the fam off in Atlanta, then drive early in the morning to make the morning funeral for my Uncle Doug Hodge. He passed away last week peacefully.

He’s a Green Beret who fought in Korea, Vietnam, and did a ton of training even when a civy. He had 50 billion medals that I only understand a few of them. 3 purple hearts; 1 from Korea where he refused to become an officier and instead returned to fight in Korea once they pulled the bullet out of his stomach and I think 2 in Vietnam. He had a couple bronze & silver stars. The first was when the Chinese/North Koreans sent in men, it was 3 riflemen and 1 machine gunner. Doug would kill 3 rifleman and after the 4th went down, take his machine gun, and repeat the process in hopes of keeping the ammo up. If you don’t know much about the Korean war, this was a huge problem; supplies were in short supply to our men & women on the ground, and guys would constantly run out of ammo, especially with the vastly superior numbers of the Chinese. I heard a variation of the story, which started to sound like a fish story, where he started throwing rocks once he ran out of ammo, and apparently the bluster ceased the firefight, lol! There are documented reports of “last seen” squads fighting with just their shovels when running out of ammo. Craziness.

The 2nd was a similar scenario when he got shot attempting to destroy an enemy position. Both of his squad commanders were killed almost immediately, he was ordered to retreat, and then he got shot in the stomach. He ensured all his men were moved to safety until they finally airlifted(?) him out.

He had a lot of crazy stories of training the Marines. They’d do a night jump into some Army base, unbeknownst to those on base, land in a lake full of snakes, and have to swim out to escape before getting caught. w…t…f….

He had like 1,500 or some insane number of jumps (basically 12+ hours spent in the air falling). I think his last one where it ripped part of his heart was the one that ’caused so many challenging health issues later in life; can’t remember.

I remember Uncle Doug teaching me to fire my first hand gun & rifle. He tried the composite bow, but at 11 or 13, I wasn’t strong enough to pull back the 30lb(?) test line. He also let me ride his asshole pony and allowed me to beat the shit out of, Aunt Barbara (his wife) and he both commenting on how proud they were how far I had made that damn horse go. I kind of felt bad. Not really.

Everyone at the funeral commented how harsh and unrelenting he was. Getting into bar fights even in casts with the 101st or 82nd (I forget which), and then later in life becoming a devout Christian, he clearly affected his 11 brothers and sisters (my mom being #12). I don’t remember that; he was like my grandfather; always patient and always positive.

When 9/11 happened, I guess he was 74 or so, he went up stairs to pack his bags. His wife asked what the heck he was doing. He said he was waiting for the Commander in Chief to call, haha.

One of his sons is currently fighting Somali pirates for a private org in Africa a few months out of the year, I think his 2nd son is Army retired, and his daughter gave a good eulogy.

While sad, there was a lot of cool things about it. He went peacefully, he had an awesome life, had a huge family that loves him & this country, and I got to talk to a bunch of old military guys and hear rad stories. We’ll never know ALL of what Uncle Doug did because some I’m sure was secret, but it’s obvious he fought for this rad country, and that’s all that matters.

SSgt Barry Sadler, Ballad of the green beret