The Road to Ultra

I have been attending a weekly meeting for the Body By God program our family is participating in. My daughter has been cooking and providing healthy meals for the event and posting the recipes over on her site.

After being in the fitness industry for a decade, I still am amazed at how much I learn every day. I’ve always looked into coffee, for example, as a “lesser evil” vice, which I still believe it is, but never really understood just what impact it had on energy systems. I’ve read the literature and reviewed the diagrams of cAMP and other energy cycles but it was the talk by Dr. Eric of Healthsprout that helped drive the message home.

I had actually first heard about concerns with coffee almost 7 years ago when I had the opportunity to spend several days with Dr. John Berardi at a seminar in Canada. His argument was not just that caffeine can impact energy systems, but specifically it has a negative impact on the way your body processes sugars. I respect his opinion but didn’t know enough and had already lost a ton of fat myself while drinking copious amounts of coffee, so I sort of dismissed it.

Dr. Eric brought it back into focus because now that I am no longer a card-carrying member of the “Not Much Club” (hint: if you ask me what’s new, it’s highly unlikely you’ll hear me say, “Not much”) energy and time are important. So when he started talking again about coffee and how it robs your body of it’s God-given ability to replenish its own energy reserves (caffeine likes to sneak in and take over) I sat up and listened.

First, I knew then and there I needed to write an article to explain the process in “layman’s terms” to help educate others, and second, I decided I would stop drinking coffee. Understand I had progressed from someone who drank several pots a day throughout the day to limiting my intake to before lunch, but it was still rampant. So, I quit.

Today is the third day. I feel fine. I’m not 100% caffeine free - the alternative I have is two cups of green tea which has far less caffeine and more healthy properties. I’ll slowly cut back. Right now my focus isn’t “caffeine free” but more “coffee free” and getting my fluids in. Yes, fluids.

That leads me to the second epiphany. I’ve long known about BIA (bioelectric impedance analysis) but only from the traditional “bodybuilding trainer” perspective. Sure, it’s those expensive devices that you have people squeeze onto or those scales you step on and it passes a current through your body and gives you a body fat reading. The reading is highly erratic and women wonder why their body “cycles up and down” over the months and trainers like to charge to have people grab that device but does it REALLY give you body fat? I pretty much dismissed this in Measure Your Success.

Then I found out what BIA is REALLY about. It’s far, far more than just “body fat.” A true BIA test does more than have you grab a contraption. They take the current from your ankle to your wrist so it passes through one of the most important areas of your body - your midsection! They also extrapolate far more than estimated body fat. There is resistance, reactance, and an important reading known as “phase angle.” Heard of phase angle? Did you know it is one of the best predictors of overall health around, far more valuable than cholesterol readings or even blood pressure? That’s okay, neither did I (which will result in, of course, another article).

So I was intrigued and had my BIA done … the right way. It was exciting to receive the results. I suspected that I was not hydrating enough but the read out gave me an indication that my body contains about 50 liters of water. The advice is to replace water about every 10 days so that’s 5 liters per day … whew! Fortunately, my healthy living has paid off …my phase angle was high, in the “optimal health” range, almost up at “extremely healthy” … unfortunately, as I have known and why I decided to change strategies from running distances to shedding fat … my body fat is right where I thought it was: too high. I need to shed about 20 pounds to get to a comfortable body fat. (Yes, it’s a bit of the cobbler with broken shoes syndrome).

At any rate, I take full responsibility even though the evidence was caught on tape. Yes, my wife and daughter cook very tasty, healthy foods, but their signature recipe is Espresso Chocolate Chip Cookies. These are the best cookies I’ve tasted and I’m not just saying that because they’re family … these things are darned good! So good, in fact, when I returned home from the office and found them wrapping up a demonstration video in the kitchen (yes, it really happened randomly this way), I was caught on camera biting into one of my favorite vices … check it out here!.

Take care and God bless,

Originally Posted: Conquered Coffee and Cookie Cameo

Well, it’s about time.

For years I’ve been writing that despite all of our fancy glycemic indexes, studies of blood sugar and new chemicals that claim to make it "taste good, sugar-free" … that natural is still the way to go (see Human Petroleum and The Sugar-Coated Truth). I’ve heard all of the claims about artificial sweeteners … they can cause cancer, harm health, cause you to gain fat, and everything else.

Rather than joining in that debate, I’ve always felt that you should ask a different, more important question. Not … is the sugar substitute bad for me, but rather, what about it is good for me? Does it add value? Nutrients? Vitamins? Minerals.

If you follow my journal you’ll see I’m no perfect saint when it comes to nutrition. However, when I’m “on plan” and “eating clean” that doesn’t mean it’s all sugar-free, fat-free, or any of the so-called “free” foods out there. Breakfast is quite often french toast (yes, with maple syrup - all-natural maple syrup, not the maple-flavor high fructose corn syrup most people drink). When I want my oatmeal sweet, I don’t reach for the blue, pink, or yellow packets. I just add a teaspoon of natural sugar. No, I don’t sweat it, either - it’s a whopping 4 grams or 16 calories and if that is going to make me fat then I don’t know if there’s hope for eating anything!

The bottom line is too many people are still stuck in the either/or approach - either I eliminate all sugar, OR I just go on a rampage and I’m “off plan.” The reality is that with time, you can slowly grow to appreciate the naturally sweet taste of fruit. Instead of grabbing a diet soda, you can embrace a glass with half sparkling water and half all natural cranberry juice.

Then there is always the, “I’m eating sugar-free and healthier choice so I can eat all I want” myth. People are being fooled. If you want to know what you’re eating, just look at where the surplus is. Dairy? Corn? Everything you touch in the packaged section of the store is going to be loaded with high fructose corn syrup, whey, and other additives. But those same packaged goods will offer the relief in the form of chemicals. Why people still want to “eat healthy” out of a can or from a package that is only 200 calories but loaded with sodium and so sorely lacking in nutrition that I still feel a Snickers bar would be a better choice (hey, I can pronounce the ingredients on the label) I have no idea.

Anyway, it seems more people are waking up and starting to take notice. Time magazine just published an article that asks … Can Sugar Substitutes Make You Fat?. It’s a good question. And the answer is that it appears when you eat normal, whole foods (those ones that God created for us … or, if you prefer, our bodies have spent millions of years of evolution adapting to, either way, the whole, natural foods are what our bodies were intended to eat), your body responds. You don’t have to worry about silly synergies or deficiencies caused by interactions (did you know that omega-3s work hand in hand with Vitamin E, for example? Oh, how interesting, things in nature rich with one also have the other, like egg yolks from chickens who have natural diets).

When you take in the stuff that mankind in our infinite wisdom decided to tamper with and “make better”, guess what? When fed to rats, and I’ll be the first to admit we aren’t rats, but its interesting to see that when they are fed the sugar free foods, not only do they tend to eat more, but their bodies don’t respond to the artificial sugar in the same way they respond to natural sugar … instead, their metabolism slows down! That’s right. Natural sugar - that teaspoon I put in my oatmeal or the tablespoon I pour over my french toast - seems to raise metabolism over time compared to artificial sweeteners.

Of course, is this really breaking news? I wrote Ten Fat Mistakes almost a decade ago and the intro still holds true. It’s a quote that’s older than Christianity, and it reads:

“If we could give every individual the right amount of nourishment and exercise, not too little and not too much, we would have found the safest way to health.”
— Hippocrates c. 460 - 377 B.C.

That’s a 2,000+ year old call to moderation. Couldn’t we stop stuffing ourselves with shake powers, wolfing down artificially sweetened sugars and munching on sugar-free cookies and instead enjoy a nice piece of free range flesh meat, drink some tea with some all natural cane sugar for a switch and wash it down with an all natural dessert like my daughter’s espresso chocolate chip cookies?

Hopefully we’ll learn that there’s really nothing new. Diet trends and fads will come and go. Scientists will continue to discover some new nutrient in some fruit or vegetable. While the supplement companies scramble to isolate and market this potent panacea of health, the rest of us with just laugh because we didn’t have to wait for the scientists to figure it out … instead, we just eat the natural foods and take advantage of everything that hasn’t been discovered yet.

Take care,

Originally Posted: Sugar-free makes you fat?

So I’m a month into the new training and loving it.

In fact, my only complaint is that I’m ready to get into it more!

As fun as it has been to be able to read a book while walking on an incline, my short "warm-up" jog to the local fitness center is all it takes to remind me how much I truly love to run. I just don’t have the patience for the uphill walking. I’ll use it when it’s time to add more cardio to shed the fat but now it’s time to get interesting.

I always go back to my tried-and-true favorite, high intensity interval training. It’s fun, it’s quick, and it burns a lot of calories. So because I let myself get so far out of cardiovascular conditioning, I’m starting back at the basics.

When I began my weight loss journey, the only thing I could afford or had the time for was a jump rope. I quickly graduated from that to neighborhood runs and finally joined a gym. There, I made it my mission to conquer the cardio equipment, push my maximum mile speed, and so much more.

Sometimes I can absolutely relate to the phrase, “ignorance is bliss.” I feel some of my best training was when I didn’t know what I was doing! Honestly, sometimes it’s best to just get out there and push and not have a system or formula. I’ve got one here for this routine but its based on what I know I enjoy and is open-ended … after 6 weeks I’ll be cycling back to something new.

So my legs are where I want them to be. I’ve always had large, muscular legs, and I’m still gaining strength every workout with the current routine, so I’m going to keep it for now.

Cardio is getting a rework. I’m going back to intervals. Tuesdays and Thursdays (unless I shift days) will be for treadmill runs. I listed in my workout plan the starting speed, which will shift 1mph each minute in 4-minute cycles. So a workout that starts at 5mph will be 4mph x 2 minutes warm-up, 5mph x 1 minute, 6mph x 1 minute, 7mph x 1 minute, 8mph x 1 minute, then repeated, finally 9mph x 1 minute and then a cool down period. It’s short and sweet. I’ll start adding some uphill walking to the end, so that eventually it will be 20 minutes plus 15 minutes uphill for a total workout time of 35 minutes. Hardly something to balk at fitting into a schedule - most people spend 4 times that amount of time watching the television every day!

I’m also adding an outdoor run … starting slow again but working up to 4 miles. Just got to get back outside, it feel so great.

The upper body workout is what is going to experience the most changes. I’m going to use a set of workouts that I learned from strength coach Charles Poliquin. For 3 weeks the two big muscles (chest/back) are going to be worked with 5×5s. These are sets of 5 reps at a heavy weight. Goal is to knock out all 25 but of course since I’m using my 5-rep max I will fall short the first few weeks. Then I’ll move into 6×2, which is similar but the goal is to get what I can do 6×2 at and push that up to 6×4. Only a short three-week cycle so time will tell. I’ll be integrating these the same way I have been in the past, alternating with legs so Mon - Fri - Wed - Mon - Fri etc (plenty of rest between workouts).

The weights to start with were based on my one-rep max calculator which I used previous workouts to plug into and determine my 5-rep maxes.

For biceps and triceps I’ll be doing what’s called a “mechanical advantage” set. I’ll start with a weight and train to failure (my definition is unable to perform a rep with the right tempo and form) using the exercise with the least mechanical advantage, then switch to a better mechanical advantage and push out more reps, then the best advantage. For example, palms down curls (reverse curls) have gravity working against grip so these have the least mechanical advantage. Palms up, on the other hand, have the weight resting on your hand. Neutral grip (hammer) is in between. Same on the triceps push-down: bar with reverse grip, rope, then bar with palms down.

You’ll notice I did leave out two very important elements (or maybe you didn’t notice). In my article balancing act I explain why I believe balance is so important and often overlooked. So why would I be purposefully creating an imbalanced workout? I’m focusing on areas I feel I need to prioritize. The two elements I’m missing are rowing motion for the back (doing just lat pull-downs for now) and shoulders. I’ll work out a routine after this next six weeks to address those.

The workout plan is online here and I’ll track it in my journal.

Have a wonderful weekend … the new program starts on Monday!

Warmly,

Originally Posted: Workout Construction 101