Abdominal Reclamation Project; Week 1

Beach season is only a few months away, and this year as I prepare myself to soak up the vitamin-D offered by our friend the sun, I've decided to document the process in pictures. It's been two summers since I've had what some would call a chiseled 6-pack, with delineation all the way down to the lower ab region. My goal is to work towards that look again this year.

I haven't decided if this is to be a weekly or bi-weekly procedure; I'll figure out the best method along the way. At first, I do think pictures will be less frequent as changes won't be as noticeable until body fat down is brought down to 'acceptable' levels (i.e., acceptable for ME to take my shirt off compared to previous years). There will be no stepping on any scales, nor the taking of any further measurement or data collection (e.g., body composition testing). I'm simply using my abdominal appearance as a guide. The process will end around the last week of June.

These first pictures were taken on Sunday 4/15/12 after two weeks of cleaner eating. As seen below, some delineation is visible, but only in the upper abdominal region; this area always holds less body fat than the lower region.

Starting April 2nd, all junk was removed and will remain out of my diet except for special events. As unhappy as I am with my abdominal appearance (it's much worse in pictures than in mirror), it's actually down 1/2 inch since late-March, to which I can credit no more pizza, chili, beer, etc. My ideal appearance will probably require my belly button measurement to lie somewhere between 31 and 32" (33.5 currently).

Clearly, there is plenty to pinch. Eventually, there won't be.

My weekday meal plan will consist of the following through April:

• Raw Milk; up to a quart per day
• Raw Beef; up to a pound per day
• Raw Eggs; up to a dozen per day
• Raw Honey; approximately a tablespoon along with beef meals
• Raw Coconut Butter; approximately a tablespoon along with beef meals

For meals that are not raw, I'll stick with a mainly starch-less selection of foods. These will mainly occur on weekends:

• Bacon & Eggs (COOKED); eaten once or twice on weekends
• Cheeseburgers (COOKED); no buns eaten once or twice on weekends
• Other beef/poultry/pork
• Once per week include carbs in form of sweet potato along with cooked dinner (I need carbs to maintain muscular fullness, particularly when not ingesting large quantities of raw milk)

I'm not counting calories, I'm simply keeping food choices to those that won't negatively affect blood sugar. Eventually, depending on how things progress, I'll reduce the amount of food eaten. But I'd rather wait for that and see what I can accomplish based solely on the above guidelines.

Finally, regarding exercise application, I WILL NOT BE PERFORMING ANY CARDIO. If I happen to stumble upon some recreation with friends, then so be it; but it will not be for body fat loss. Resistance training workouts will continue as usual (3-4 sessions per week, each body part targeted once per week, no more than about 2 hours of exercise per week).

Misleading Advertising Part 1

I literally laughed out loud the other night when an ad for 'Kashi GOLEAN' cereal came on during a commercial break. The company makes quite a big deal out of the 'fact' that a bowl of GOLEAN has as much protein as an egg. And, if we don't investigate any further than general measurements, it does: 9 grams of protein vs. 7-8 grams for a large egg.

However, the protein in this cereal - in any cereal - is not native to it. Grains, besides being very problematic to humans when consumed, have minimal amounts of what are very poor sources of protein. So to get as much protein as advertised in a bowl of cereal, something must be added to the recipe. And that something is soy.

Soy is one of the worst forms of proteins for human consumption. For a quick review of why, check this out:

http://www.whale.to/a/soy2.html

Meanwhile, an egg is one of the most perfect foods in nature. High in fat and protein, with many micronutrients and no sugar, eggs should be a staple of every human being's diet. And they used to be...back when we were much, much healthier. (There is a connection there, but it's not as simple as just associating egg consumption with health exclusively.)

So Kashi is essentially trying to sell a product that is very bad for humans, by making a comparison to one of the very best foods on earth for humans. Wonderful ethics, right?

Here's how I'd advertise the TRUTH:

Kashi GOLEAN = Diabetes; Eggs = NO Diabetes

...sounds just as 'sensational', but this time it's actually accurate.

Raw Update

Since last posting, my diet has been comprised of almost all raw foods. Social events make it hard to go 100%, but I can usually make it from Monday AM through Saturday afternoon without wavering. And it helps to be dating someone who likes sushi...

A sample day's menu would look like:

7AM - NanoGreens10 and 1 or 2 raw eggs
8AM - 2/3 lbs. raw beef, 2 raw eggs, tbsp. raw honey
11AM - 1 quart raw milk
2PM - 2/3 lbs. raw beef, 2 raw eggs, tbsp. raw honey
4PM - 1 or 2 raw eggs
530PM - 1 quart raw milk
8PM - 2/3 lbs. raw beef, 1-2 oz. raw cheese, 2 raw eggs, tbsp. raw honey

Occasionally I'll add some raw butter to the meat meals, and if I can't seem to fit a feeding in every 3 hours or so I'll pop another 1-2 raw eggs between meals. Same for late night, where I'll often pop 1 raw egg right before bed.

Additionally, I've attempted to include some sweet potato on workout days in a feeding all by itself about an hour after my last meat meal. However, due to work schedule, this can sometimes be as late as 10PM and I'm just not feeling like cooking and eating anything. So instead, I've been letting my 'social' eating on the weekends take care of the planned 'carb ups'.

How do I feel? In a word - AMAZING. I'm impressed with the increase in muscularity without too much added body fat, and it's quite a feeling to down up to a whole pound of raw meat and not even feel full. Raw food is so easily digested by our systems that it takes few resources to deal with large amounts of food. That means our system has the freedom to deal with other things, like recovery from exercise, etc.

At Back2Health, we promote efficient and effective exercise - and while few if any of our clients will follow a raw food diet, the same general philosophy for exercise applies with regard to eating: get the most out of the least.

During the last 3 weeks, I've eaten approximately 80% of my food from raw sources. This means:

• Raw Milk
• Raw Beef
• Raw Honey
• Raw Nuts
• Raw Milk Cheese
• Raw Eggs
  

Since I'm still eating pretty much whatever I want at least until April, the other 20% has been junk (pizza, Thai) along with 1-2 sweet potatoes with dinner on training days - which are clearly cooked. Interestingly, even though the food choices are mainly the same as what I was eating prior to making this move to raw foods, something feels different. I feel 'good'...subjective sounding, I know, but I can't put my finger on exactly what it is at this moment. I thought that by dropping oatmeal and a post-workout glycogen replenishment that I'd 'flatten out' rather quickly, but not so.

In a few weeks, I expect to have a consultation with 'Muscle Smoke & Mirrors' author Randy Roach regarding raw eating. My questions for him will focus on all aspects of this endeavor, but in particular I'm interested in the food groupings. From what I've read so far, it's very different from the typical bodybuilding paradigm of 'carbs with protein' or 'fat with protein' and timing things throughout the day.

One thing I have noticed is the price tag that comes with eating raw - it's expensive! I could easily spend $200/week on food just for myself.

More to follow...

Been a While...

Wow...about 6 mos. since last posting?

We've been pretty busy getting our Boot Camp program off the ground, which so far as been successful beyond our expectations. Between the last posting and early/mid-October 2009, I managed to get myself in perhaps the best shape of my life. Hardest, densest muscularity - to the point of almost hyper-tonus, where muscles were cramping after bouts of exercise - and very, very low body fat (4-5%?). As with any peak, however, it doesn't last forever - wouldn't be a peak if it did - and currently I'm probably 10 lbs. out from that level of conditioning/appearance.

Now, in mid-February, I'm beginning to look ahead to beach season - and the yearly process of shedding excess body fat. One thing I'm considering this year is a shift towards raw food. Last summer/fall, when reaching for the appearance 'peak' described above, I noted very good results w/ increased fat intake via natural/organic foods: cage-free eggs, grass-fed beef, butter, etc. A couple of times in the past few weeks I've eaten both raw red meat, and raw eggs - and with no issues.

A bodybuilder/fitness business owner that both my partner Craig and I respect has recently put on quite a bit of muscle mass via raw food eating. It's important to note that this individual is not just some rookie, but instead a 20+ year veteran of the iron game, and as a result someone very much in tune with his body and it's response to exercise/dietary strategies. So for him to state that eating raw has resulted in quite a noticeable increase in muscle mass certainly legitimizes the idea in my eyes.

Additionally, via the Randy Roach book 'Muscle, Smoke & Mirrors', I learned that many of the old time bodybuilders ate mostly raw, with great results in particular coming from raw dairy: raw milk, raw cream, raw cheeses and butter. Many also included raw meat and eggs here, but the main similarity stood with the dairy aspect. These guys, while having phenomenal genes for sure, also didn't use drugs to attain these physiques - or at least used but did not abuse unlike the monsters of today's bodybuilding world.

Needless to say, reading things on this subject has got my wheels spinning. My goal is to give raw eating a solid chance for about 2 months, April-May, and note the results. Not everything will be raw, but most things. For social reasons, it's probably not possible to go 100% raw without turning into a hermit.

Steps to make this transition include acquiring the raw dairy contacts necessary for regular consumption, and pricing out various qualities of meat. I also have questions as to whether eating B+ grade meat raw (i.e., Trader Joe's no-hormone/no-antibiotics, but still vegetable or grain fed) is better than A+ grade meat cooked (i.e., Whole Foods grass fed beef). The latter is much more expensive, and would make living this lifestyle more difficult.

Hopefully I'll send out an update before 2012...

Better Boot Camp!

Boot camp exercise classes are popping up all over the place. All anyone needs to run one is space for x amount of people, and perhaps some exercise tools. At Back2Health, we've come up with the better boot camp.

Our clients are already used to training hard, and training safely (i.e., no ballistic movement, attention to breathing and posture during exercise, etc.). But what they aren't used to is performing in front of up to 4 other trainees, and moving between multiple stations with guidance from fitness professionals at each.

This supervision is not to be overlooked - it is impossible for one trainer to correct and teach more than one person at a time, and the risk of injury is too great for Craig and I to 'let things slide'. Additionally, training in front of more people, and with the feeling of them pushing you along can add a 'fun' element to things, without veering from 'productive'.

So while still early, we think we've stumbled upon something here with these boot camp circuit sessions. Additionally, we think the program has room to grow, with an additional and different session during the week. More to follow...

Damage Control?

So you were feeling pretty good heading into the holiday weekend with regard to appearance: Abs showing some or a lot of delineation, muscles feeling full and hard - in effect, you were looking 'tight' and proud of it. Now, after a long weekend of eating and (probably) drinking, you feel like a bloated cow and are scared to step on the scale or look at your midsection in the mirror.

Well, then don't step on the scale, and don't look in the mirror. Just by getting back on track this week with regularly scheduled workouts and eating habits, all of that 'damage' you think you did this weekend will be reversed. It's been discussed before both in this blog and within the Back2Health newsletter, but bears repeating: the body is very dynamic. It can swing seemingly in the wrong direction for a few hours or days, and then all of a sudden you'll feel and look great again. And, conversely, you can eat a huge 'junk' meal and then a few hours later look better than earlier in the day...but 2-3 of those meals either during the same day or over several leave you in bloat-world again.

So while I try not to give specific advice to anyone that I'm not directly working with, generally speaking the following steps will help bring you right back to where you were - if not improve on appearance due to the metabolic shock of a few days of excess calories:

1. Drink as much water as you can for a few days; this will flush out the system of excess sodium as a result of increased food/drink, which also means that excess water will be released. Hence, no more 'bloated' feeling.
2. Get right back onto your 'regular' eating; no need to diet super hard and deprave yourself of needed calories.
   
3. Get right back into your 'regular' workout schedule. If you train with us, that's 1-3 intense resistance training sessions per week.
   

By week's end, if you follow the above steps, I'll pretty much guarantee that you'll be back to where you stood before the holiday weekend took it's toll.