CommonSense Fitness

Fitness without Hype

My Before/After Pictures

Nov 18

Posted by Scott in P90-X | No Comments

A few questions I get alot are:

  • Does it work?
  • Is it a real workout?
  • Show me proof! (Well, not a question, but!)

Question 1 – Yes.

Question 2 – Oh, yes it is.

Question 3 – If it’s pics you want here you go (yes I chop my head off. At some point, I’ll drop some photos with my head still attached!)

Yes, these are my actual pictures.

Some Progress shots for everyone:

Day 1

Day 1

Day 1

Day 90

Day 90

Day 90

Day 170

Day 170

Day 170

Day 1

Day 1

Day 1

Day 90

Day 90

Day 90

Day 170

Day 170

Day 170

Day 1

Day 1

Day 1

Day 90

Day 90

Day 90

Day 170

Day 170

Day 170

Day 90

Day 90

Day 90

Day 170

Day 170

Day 170





My Overall Thoughts About P90-X

Nov 18

Posted by Scott in Fitness, P90-X | No Comments

I’ve been asked what I like so much about P90-X. What makes it so special? What makes it different?

To me there are very important things that any sort of fitness/lifestyle program must include:

  1. Diet - and not just a ‘diet’ you do for a given period of time, but real lifestyle choices to echo a common sense approach to simply eating well. A lot of folks that do eat correctly call it, “Eating clean.”
  2. Strength Training – the basis. You must work the muscles to develop muscles. I am more a fan of ‘big’ complex moves that involve the entire body than focused on ’small’ moves that isolate certain muscle groups only to the exclusion of others. Our bodies were designed to function as machines as a unit; not a collection of parts.
  3. Cardio Training – utterly indispensable. Your heart and lungs are the basis of what you can do, how long you can do it and without them, your life, let alone your fitness, is in danger. I am a tremendous proponent of ‘High Intensity Interval Training’ (aka HIIT) as opposed to low intensity aerobic work. I’ll expound on this further later (and in other posts).
  4. Flexibility -  as we age, beyond losing other aspects of fitness, we lose our flexibility. And that lost flexibility is precisely what makes us feel ‘old’ and raises our chances of getting injured from even seemingly mundane daily tasks.

So that’s my basic exercise related ‘pillars’ along with diet. There are a lot of other aspects to pay serious attention to (sleep, recovery, breathing, stretching (ballistic vs. static), posture, drinking water, etc..) but we will approach those separately and in other posts in depth.

Other logistical considerations for me before committing to an all-inclusive program are as follows:

  1. At Home – I like gyms, enjoy working out in them and they have tremendous resources to offer. But I have a family with children, a wife and run a few companies. I simply do not have time to get to a gym. What happens is that no matter how dedicated I am to it, going to the gym becomes a major roadblock to actually working out over time. I need a program that I can do – in it’s entirety – at home.
  2. Equipment - because I need/want to workout at home, the equipment I need to have to do the program can’t be extensive, expensive or expansive. I want little to no ‘gear’ needed, I do not want to break the bank to have what I need to do it correctly and the equipment I have can’t take up lots of space.
  3. Support - I’m pretty smart about working out. I’ve done it for large parts of my life and read/researched a lot about it. I have scoured the web and found fantastic resources that have helped me to shape my own ‘custom’ programs in the past that did work fairly well. But what lacked and one of the most overlooked aspects to training at home is a lack of support. And I’m not talking about your significant other. I mean a support group for motivation, for accountability and for asking/sharing advice.

How does P90-X lineup with what I look for? Let’s breakdown what it is and what it isn’t.

If you have looked at P90-X at all, you’ve seen the infomercial. You’ve seen the website, you might have caught the videos on the making of P90-X on YouTube.

Beachbody is the parent company that works with different trainers. One of them is Tony Horton. He’s 50 as I type this, but was 45 at the time P90-X was done. He’s in better shape than 99.5% of 20 year olds. He’s been a trainer for a long time and developed this program as an extension or ‘extreme’ version of his P90 program (which is also still sold).

The P90-X program is a collection of 12 DVD’s, a diet plan and online resources to support you through the program. Let’s look at them in order.

The term they pitch in the infomercial is “muscle confusion”; and basically that’s what the workout side of the program is based on.  There are six strengthening/resistance based workout DVD’s. Each is a different workout: Chest & Back; Shoulders & Arms; Legs & Back; Chest, Shoulders & Triceps, Back & Biceps and Ab Ripper X. There are three cardio based workout DVD’s: Plyometrics, Kenpo X, Cardio X. There is one core workout, Core Synergistics. And two workouts centered around flexibility, Yoga-X and X-Stretch.

The workout program is setup in three phases, each phase is 4 weeks. Each phase consists of three weeks of six workouts; then a rest day. The fourth week is a ‘recovery week’ where you do no strength resistance workouts. The ‘muscle confusion’ factor comes into play by switching up the workouts you do each phase. The idea is to increase your reps/weight used in each move over the progression of the phases and the variety of the workouts each week and than in each phase keeps you interested and forces your body to not plateau like in so many other workout programs. I’ll review each of these workouts in other posts. Suffice to say, they are all real deal. The focus is on basic moves like push ups, pull ups and adding a tremendous (and VERY challenging) spin on such moves. Tony ties each of the workouts in with a warm up and a cool down. The moves he does are closer to circuit training, combining aspects of giant sets and super sets. There is little ‘downtime’ between exercises. They are all about one hour each. Yoga is an hour and a half. You do not stand around much in that time. It’s intense. Yoga will get it’s own post for sure; that one is perhaps the most challenging IMHO. But that’s another topic. These are REAL workouts. I’ve heard other folks call it “Cross-fit Lite” but I’d call it practical fitness. You will burn fat. You will gain muscle. You will gain flexibility. You will get more speed (Plyometrics is brilliant). You will learn moves you’ve never imagined.

What I particularly like about the workouts is that they translate into real world. The workouts you do will help you in sports, hiking, living life at any level. I can do things with ease that I struggled with before this program, even though I was in decent shape.

The diet program is divided up into three phases too. They go along with the workout and are as important or even more so than the workouts IMHO. In essence it’s a Phase 1 (low carb); Phase 2 (medium carb), Phase 3 (higher carb) diet strong in protein and focused on dividing up your meals into 5-6 smaller meals throughout the day. They give you lots of ways to customize it for where you are in your fitness journey; but since P90-X is stressed for folks that come into the program with some degree of fitness the diet isn’t anything revolutionary, just… common sense. It can seem overly complicated at first; but the key is using it as a learning guide to illustrate ratios between carbs/proteins/fats through the phases and observe how your body reacts to them with the workouts. I feel they overload you with calories in the third phase; but frankly by the time you get there, you already know what works for you.

There are other tools not in the P90-X program that work perfectly hand-in-hand with it. One is The Daily Plate and it’s free. A fantastic guide if you simply need a road map is from Beachbody, it’s called Michi’s Ladder. It’s far from perfect, but it’s a fantastic guide. The thing that these tools all start you at is ‘40-30-30.’ “40-30-30″ means a healthy, balanced diet made up of 40% carbs, 30% protein and 30% fat. It’s a good starting place. Using something like Fitday and tracking your actual diet for a week gives you some idea of what you are actually eating now.  That’s an eye opener for most folks. It was for me. Note we all need carbs; the issue with them is what sort of carbs. I actually prefer to follow a 50-30-20 diet; which works for me. Once you get hip to this sort of thinking and simple portion control… well, then it’s easy to do.

So the workouts fit my three pillars of working out perfectly. And the exercises you do all make you stronger, faster, flexible and last longer in the real world. What about the logistical aspects?

The program is designed to be done in your home. On your timeframe, at your discretion. The secret is simply committing to do it. When I bought it, it sat for a few weeks as I familiarized myself with the workouts, the diet program and tried to get myself to finally give in and commit to it. One hour a day is a lot of time. I made a promise to myself to do it to the best of my ability for 90 days come hell or high water. And made the time, if you look for time that you can ‘find’ to do things… you’ll never ‘find’ the time. If you instead ‘make’ the time, it’s there for you to use. Just use it wisely.

What equipment do you need? Well, you NEED a pull up bar, some floor space (more on this), a yoga mat and block, and either some dumbbells or resistance bands. Pull ups are essential, and Tony has more in this program than I’ve ever seen before in any program my entire life. I already had a door frame pullup bar; so no big deal for me. (Beachbody sells a very nice one at a good price – click on the link for their store on my site here and check it out). I bought a Yoga mat and black at Target for about $25. I have owned dumbbells for years and years; but ended up with every resistance band that Beachbody sells (they call them B-Lines) in addition. They are VERY nice quality equipment. I think using both dumbbells and resistance bands is a great mix. They are very different in use and the variety is good.

There are other very helpful additions to consider if you are going all out. I ended up buying the power stands that Tony designed from Beachbody; they are extremely heavy duty and work phenomenally well. I didn’t buy them until after my first 90 day cycle. They are essential to doing P90-X Plus, but are great for all the P90-X exercises too.

Space. The final frontier…. err, well, ahem. I do all my workouts in my home office. In my family room, there are kid’s toys and a lot of the time, when I want to do my workouts (weekends and during the summer) my kids or wife a) don’t want me to hog the TV; and b) don’t want me sweating and jumping around in front of them. My home office is not huge. I need to modify some of the bigger moves that cover ground. But that’s no big deal and I do it. I have a useable floor space of about 10′ x 20′. That’s not a lot of room, but it works for me.

Support. We all need it. There are days you don’t feel motivated. Days you want to back off. If you aren’t answering to anyone about your progress, aren’t getting positive reinforcement… it’s easy to back off. There are fantastic support threads on the Beachbody forum. Great ‘rah rah’ posts, folks offering advice and you always have access to a coach. I do coaching for P90-X; and to me it’s about answering questions, finding answers and keeping the motivation up. Some folks have dramatic before/after pictures and stories. It’s far more important than you might imagine.

As I type this, I’ve lived with one hour of my day – every day – dedicated to Tony and P90-X of one form or another six days a week over 7.5 months. I’m never bored, not sick of Tony, the music, the chatter in the DVD’s or the moves. I get into doing them, form is a big deal to me. I work very hard at it and get it done.

As you can see (I hope) from the pictures, this program transformed my fitness. It’s taught me how to enjoy working this hard and I’m at a point where I am mixing/matching other workouts (Tony’s extension to P90-X, P90-X Plus and Tony’s “One-on-One” workouts) to keep the variety up and the muscles from plateaus. It’s working. I’m faster on the soccer field, stronger, have better posture without effort, have control of my diet, have energy, feel good and sleep well. I get sick less. I get better faster.

It’s hard work. It takes dedication and focus. But the pay off is enormous. Aspects of my life that are not related to fitness at all are benefiting. I have more energy and focus to do my work, play with my kids and spend time with wife. I find my confidence levels are higher when I am working with new clients or vendors for my business affairs. I am calmer and stress doesn’t get to me as much as it has always done.

To me this program was the complete answer. Beyond the 90 days they focus on.





P90-X Promo Videos

Nov 14

Posted by Scott in P90-X | No Comments

Included for your reference (in case you’ve missed the infomercials!)

Team Beachbody Logo





P90-X

Nov 14

Posted by Scott in P90-X | No Comments

You’ve seen the infomercial. You’ve heard about it. Here’s my experience with it.

Team Beachbody Logo

In short, yes it works. Yes, it is VERY hard work. There are no shortcuts. You need to step up and bring it hard in the workouts (1 hour a day, 6 days a week) and in the kitchen (every day).

I can answer particular questions; I’m a Beachbody coach to help folks get and stay motivated to work through the program.

Here’s the no-BS straight-talk facts:

Who: the program was developed by Tony Horton with Beachbody products.
What: it’s a balanced three-phase workout (3 30-day phases) that incorporate ‘muscle confusion’. You do a variety of workouts; and those workouts change in each phase. You do 3 weeks resistance; and one 2 week ‘recovery’ in each phase. You can do the program at home. You need minimal equipment (pull up bar, dumb bells/resistance bands, enough floor space to move a bit and a DVD player). You keep a training journal (you can download them for free). You need to keep a food journal and spend some time/effort to clean up your diet.
Where: it’s best to do it at home; I’ve done it on the road in hotel rooms and workout rooms.
When: you need to really dedicate yourself to doing it for 90 days. I restructured my life, but found it gave me an entirely new way to live. It’s worth the effort.
How: Bring it. Everyday. Decide. Commit. Succeed.

The workouts are a mix of resistance workouts (lifting, push ups, pull ups), cardio (plyometrics, kenpo (karate cardio) and flexibility (yoga, stretching). They are not easy. You will sweat and work VERY hard. You will do and then get good at doing, things you may have never tried. Yoga, in particular, was something I never tried or thought to try. One thing that Tony preaches that is very true, I came to find out…. the key to staying young is flexibility. I thought the Yoga was silly and ridiculous the first few times I tried. Then I got into it and fought through it (I was not very flexible nor was my balance that great I learned). It’s now one of my favorite workouts. And the results speak for themselves. (That’s below).

Here’s a link to Beachbody’s support forum for P90X: Beachbody’s Forums

There is a support network forum and other online tools to get/keep you motivated on task. Check the communty forums on Beachbody’s site; and get your diet straight with Fit Day or My Plate .

Though P90X is marketed as a 90 day program (and a lot of why it works is that focus and intensity over 90 days time); it is also a very good idea to have some perspective on it. If you take a day off, just add it on and push back your program to a 91 Day program. Obviously, you can’t continue to miss workouts get sloppy with your eating and then complain; but a ‘process’ instead of a ‘race’ focus is better.

I’m 41 and it’s taken longer for me to get where I originally wanted to be at the end. (Some guys in their 20’s can rip it up and look tremendous after the first 30 days!). We are all working with the genetics and age we are; there’s no way around it. We all progress and improve at different rates, no matter how hard we work at it.

That’s life. I achieved where I wanted to be slower then 90 days compared to my initial goal. But I got there.

I reset my goals and now want to push it even further and be in as good as shape as I was at age 23 when I was in the best shape of my life. I’m close now when I compare photos objectively. That to me, is unbelievable. No matter that I believed I could and worked hard enough to get there… it just didn’t seem possible in reality. I was bigger then (not much, but I was lifting pretty heavy): but my core was weaker and I wasn’t in as good fitness overall. I ate poorly back then and got away with it because I could.

Now I have to eat very well, I have to work on my flexibility (Yoga works; and I’ve actually grown to really (gulp) like Yoga. I hated it, really hated it for about the entire first round). And my cardio is as good now as it was then.

What I enjoy the most is playing soccer in a men’s Over 30 league. Last April I was feeling out of it, a step (or two) slower and was just hitting the wall with my conditioning and dying in the second half of games. Now after almost two full rounds of P90X? My explosiveness has improved in a MAJOR way. I am much faster from a standing start. The practical and complete fitness level has made me more durable; being more flexible is a tremendous advantage. It is the key, as Tony notes, to remaining young. And it takes much more focus and work to get it/keep it/develop it as we age. I can get extremely winded now on the field and recover in less than 30 seconds. Ready to go again. And I can play back-to-back games on one night and feel fine afterwards. It’s a very real and very honest experience.

So if you miss a workout, or need to work around an injury… don’t sweat it. Push back your entire program for a day and get back on track. Keep your diet on task and still have a little fun; but within reason.

Once you have become accustomed to it as a lifestyle, then you can guage where your body is and how hard to push or pull back on your workouts and diet as you get through life. I’m here to stay and in it to win it for the long haul.

Peace.

I went from 22% bodyfat to 11% over the series of the pictures from Day 1 to 170.





Is P90-X Right For Me?

Nov 14

Posted by Scott in P90-X | No Comments

You’ve seen the infomercials, is the Beachbody P90-X program right for you?

Below is a straight pull from the P90-X site, but includes the link to the P90-X Fit Test. It’s important to download and try it to see if you can get the most out of P90-X.

Is P90X For You?

If you are in decent shape, and you have the drive to get exceptionally fit while you scorch those stubborn last pounds of fat off your body, then yes . . . P90X is not just for you, P90X wants you!

Granted, this program is not for everyone—it’s for the rare breed that wants to see what’s possible with 90 days of real training. You don’t have to be an athlete or a bodybuilder. You just have to have the will to “Bring It” for 90 days.

Based on customer feedback, you’ll love this program even more than you think you will. And in 90 days—whether you want to show off your body at the beach, or improve your strength, stamina, and coordination to compete in your field of play—the results will absolutely blow you away (they always do, every time).

If you’re not sure you’re ready, click here to download the Fit Test and find out!
The Fit Test

Before starting an extreme fitness program like P90X, it’s important to know where you stand and if your current fitness level is adequate. Providing an honest assessment of your abilities and your mindset will allow you to take advantage of your strengths and overcome your weaknesses.

It’s in your best interest to have completed the equivalent of Power 90® or Slim in 6® (these are other Beach Body programs) before you begin. But if you’re unfamiliar with these programs, we’ve set some guidelines for you to follow. If you are unable to perform the minimum requirements (listed below each exercise), you’ll see better results by doing another fitness program before you take on P90X. So if you can’t finish the Fit Test, do Power 90. You’ll get great results, and then be able to come back and crush P90X!

The P90X Fit Test takes approximately 40 minutes to complete. Be sure to consecutively perform all the exercises in the order they appear. Keep up with the timing, and make a note if you do anything differently. Pay attention, and be honest with yourself.

What you will need to take the Fit Test:

  • Heart rate monitor
  • Tape measure
  • Partner to help record data (optional)
  • Pull-up bar
  • Timer (stopwatch or watch with second hand)
  • Running shoes
  • Towel
  • Water
  • Your “Bring It” game face

Download
The Fit Test here.

(requires the Adobe Reader).
Get Adobe Acrobat Here





Bulging Waist Carries Risk

Nov 14

Posted by Scott in Health | No Comments

From the Wall Street Journal

Original Article here

* NOVEMBER 13, 2008

Bulging Waist Carries Risk
By ROBERT TOMSHO

A bulging waistline may be a stronger predictor of premature death than a person’s overall weight, according to a large-scale European study that bolsters the findings of earlier research.

For the study, published in this week’s New England Journal of Medicine, researchers tracked nearly 360,000 men and women in nine European countries for about a decade. Study participants ranged in age from 25 to 70.

At the outset, researchers calculated participants’ so-called body-mass index. The BMI has been the standard formula for assessing weight. It uses a person’s height and weight to come up with a score. A person with a BMI of between 25 and 29.9 points is considered overweight; those with higher scores are deemed obese.

The researchers also measured the circumference of participants’ waists as well as the ratio of their waist and hip measurements. In recent years, various studies have shown that the location of body fat — particularly if it is in the waist area — can be an important factor in assessing the risk of various diseases and death. Men with waists measuring over 40 inches are considered at a higher-risk; for women, the figure is 35 inches.

Current treatment guidelines call for physicians to measure patients’ waists but usually only when their BMI indicates they are overweight, said Tobias Pischon, the study’s lead author and a researcher at the German Institute of Human Nutrition, in Potsdam-Rehbruecke, Germany.

For the study, patients were divided into groups according to their BMI, waist circumference and waist-to-hips ratio. During the course of the research, more than 14,723 of them died from various causes.

Researchers found that even patients who would be considered at normal weight, according to their BMI, faced increased risk of death if they had a large waist.

Normal-weight male participants with waists measuring 102.7 centimeters (about 40 inches) or more were twice as likely to die as those with waists measuring 86 centimeters (34 inches) or less. Women who weighed in the normal BMI range but had waists that were 89 centimeters (35 inches) or more were 79% more likely to die than those with waists measuring 70.1 centimeters (28 inches) or less.

The researchers also calculated that, for a five-centimeter, or about two-inch, increase in waist size for patients with any given BMI score, the risk of death increased by 17% for men and by 13% for women. The researchers found similar trends when they compared waist-to-hips ratios.

Rob M. van Dam, a Harvard Medical School professor not involved with the research, said that while the European study doesn’t break new ground, its size and breadth make it a “very important” contribution to the field. “They really put it on the table in a very convincing way,” said Mr. van Dam, who has been involved in similar research.

Dr. Pischon, the study’s lead author, said in an email that the research didn’t focus on why larger waists mean a higher death rate, but added that the fat in the abdomen tends to be so-called visceral fat, which builds up around the organs and secretes certain hormones that contribute to the onset of various diseases.

He said future research should focus on whether treatment for weight problems should focus on preventing increases in waist size rather than holding down weight overall.

We need to move folks. Move and relearn to eat properly.





Exercise Can Overcome Obesity Gene

Nov 14

Posted by Scott in Health | No Comments

Obesity genes? Fighting a battle with the bulge you cannot win?

Original Article Here: Click Here

Exercise Can Overcome Obesity Gene
Study Shows Physical Activity Can Offset Genetic Predisposition for Obesity
By Caroline Wilbert
WebMD Health News
Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD

Sept. 8, 2008 — Though genetics do play a role in obesity, a new study shows regular physical activity can blunt the impact of a genetic predisposition to being overweight.

Variations of a particular gene, known as the fat mass and obesity associated (FTO) gene, are widely acknowledged to be linked with a high body mass index, according to background material in the study, which is published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Evadnie Rampersaud, MSPH, PhD, then of the University of Maryland School of Medicine and now of the University of Miami, and colleagues examined how lifestyle affected the weight of people with a genetic predisposition to being overweight.

Researchers studied DNA samples of 704 healthy Amish adults, collected between 2003 and 2007. Participants also underwent physiological tests, including a seven-day measurement of physical activity using an accelerometer, which participants wore on their body. The instrument measured activity level at 15-second intervals.

The participants had an average age of 44 years; 53% were men. Fifty-four percent of the men were overweight and 10% were obese. About 64% of the women were overweight and 31% were obese.

The group was divided into people with high activity levels and low activity levels. The highly active group burned about 900 more calories per day than the lower activity group. That equals about three to four hours of moderately intensive physical activity, such as brisk walking, house cleaning, or gardening, according to the researchers.

The study showed, as past research has, that people with certain variations of the FTO gene were more likely to be overweight. However, the researchers found that being genetically predisposed to obesity “had no effect on those with above average physical activity scores.”

As obesity increasingly becomes a global health concern, understanding all aspects of the FTO gene is important, the researchers say. Variants of the FTO gene are prevalent — about 30% of European populations have such variants, according to the study. The gene variants are associated with a greater than 20% risk for obesity, write the researchers.

Study authors conclude, “These findings emphasize the important role of physical activity in public health efforts to combat obesity, particularly in genetically susceptible individuals.”

Get up and move folks.





Lifestyle, fitness, diet – what is the key to all this?

Nov 14

Posted by Scott in Health | No Comments

Lifestyle, fitness, diet – what is the key to all this?

Uh oh, another rant.

Sorry, I can’t stop.

But this is different. (Honest). This isn’t a ‘be like me’ rant or anything. This is, IMHO, how to live a better lifestyle for everyone. A universal truth. (If that doesn’t make you afraid or laugh, well, here we go…)

What’s the key to all this diet, exercise, lifestyle? Right here: Common sense, moderation in all things and planning what you do instead of just acting on impulse are the keys.

That’s pretty simple, probably too simple, but it’s all there. I recognize most folks won’t work out as hard or frequently as I do. I recognize that there are VERY many factors that relate to one’s weight and diet lifestyle, many beyond their control.

But all the things I passionately push as keys – being active, eating right, etc – are in that one bold sentence.

Common sense is a bit scary because it assumes a certain knowledge. If you grew up not knowing how to eat or why, or have emotional issues that have manifested themselves in eating wrong, not exercising, or living healthy… that’s an issue. The goal of going to school isn’t to learn things taught to you. The goal is to learn to teach yourself. To me, that’s the mark of someone that’s matured into an adult; they don’t leave their knowledge and life to other’s choices and instead take charge of their life (and by extension ‘lifestyle’) through researching and learning on their own. With the Internet, this is easier than ever. You need a good BS filter with the Internet, but again, with maturity comes wisdom.

Moderation in all things. Portion control falls in here. Exercise falls in here. Most anything you do, anything, needs to be in balance with everything else you do. This goes far beyond just exercise and diet into your life, but I’ll stop there.

The last part is what trips up most folks. You need to plan what you do instead of just operating your life from impulse. For instance, if you have children and ask them what they want to do and eat everyday, they cannot and will not make good choices most of the time. They need guidance and direction to do so. As an adult, young or old, you don’t have that sort of guidance or direction coming at you from anyone… it’s up to you. The entire fast food, comfort food, ‘quickie’ food and everyone’s consistent ‘lack of time’ for anything (meal planning, exercise, quality time with others) is what happens. Like ships without rudders, we instead get so busy with daily life and ‘putting out fires’ that we lose sight of the important things in life. Like making time to plan meals, eat right, exercise, spend time with folks that matter, etc.. We pull up to the drive-thru at McDonalds, order a super size meal and eat it on the way to wherever we are late getting to. It’s just easier to do; we tell ourselves it’s okay and we are just being efficient with our time (“Just this once, it won’t kill me….”).

Not so.

I’ve found as I reinvented my life and ‘grew up’ in my late 30’s and got serious about how: I live my life, I allocate my time and efforts in all things, and I approached living… that some forethought and planning. That is how I ‘found the time’ and started living within my means, got my diet straight and ‘made’ that time for exercise. I also applied this to my work life and personal life beyond diet and exercise; but that’s not the aim of this rant.

What I’d say to those that have looked for ways to combat things that suck their life and energy away without giving you anything back is to step back, reassess and pre-plan some essential things so your entire life can much more positive on all levels.

Too many folks talk the talk, but cannot put good intentions to action. In the hyper world we all live in, it’s just so easy to get caught up and spun so many ways we can’t seemingly control it. You cannot plan for everything; and you have to allow for things to go wrong, days to be lost to emergencies and things beyond our control. But those are bumps in the road if we have an overall plan, goals we can achieve and use moderation, common sense and pre-planning in regards to our lifestyle and how we want to live our lives.

I am not better than anyone else. I am not some shining example of anything. I don’t know more than anyone else. I am not holding myself up as any sort of role model. I am sharing my experience, my thoughts as they relate to my life and hoping that it helps someone else out there to ‘turn on the light’ and take charge of their lifestyle and live a more healthy way. For your sake, for your loved one’s sake, for your children’s sake. Your children need an example and model of how to live life, not just exist and ‘get by’.

/rant





My Obesity Rant

Nov 14

Posted by Scott in Health | No Comments

My Obesity Rant

I posted this on The Gear Page (aka ‘TGP’)and it sparked a pretty interesting conversation. I present it here to again, spark conversation.

Disclaimer: this is not a hater post. I am not out to shame fat people or belittle them or make fun of them. I am an Administrator here and can and will shut down any nonsense on this discussion. That’s not my intent, not the direction of what I am trying to say.

My point, right up front was that I read an article today that strikes me personally. Here’s the article: Click Here

I got fat in the early 2000’s. I was in my mid to late 30’s and stopped working out, was eating fast food a lot and drinking Mt. Dew like it was from the fountain of youth (I discovered that it… was not.) I was 205 lbs. at 5′10″. I felt sluggish, got out of breath easily, had a bad back and hurt a lot from just daily living. I never went outside if I could help it. I felt terrible.

I’ve gotten my diet and my fitness in MUCH better control since age 37 and documented it well here on TGP. (I am 41 now). I have been back to 160lbs (where I was in college and my 20’s when I was a gym rat) since then and am in better all-around shape now than I’ve ever been. (I currently do the P90X program you’ve might have seen on infomercials and I’ve done threads along the way as I’ve done it and play competitive indoor soccer).

I live in Michigan, mid-west America. I see and know a lot of people, and have lived in this area my entire life. To paraphrase the kid from “The Sixth Sense”, “I see fat people.” Everywhere. Not just overweight, but dangerously and uncomfortably fat. At the beach, at the store, in restaurants, at my kid’s school, at church, everywhere.

According to that article, if current trends keep up, well, read the first few paragraphs yourself:

By Amy Norton

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – If the trends of the past three decades continue, it’s possible that every American adult could be overweight 40 years from now, a government-funded study projects.

The figure might sound alarming, or impossible, but researchers say that even if the actual rate never reaches the 100-percent mark, any upward movement is worrying; two-thirds of the population is already overweight.

“Genetically and physiologically, it should be impossible” for all U.S. adults to become overweight, said Dr. Lan Liang of the federal government’s Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, one of the researchers on the study.

However, she told Reuters Health, the data suggest that if the trends of the past 30 years persist, “that is the direction we’re going.”

Now that’s alarmist and the article is created to generate a buzz with hyperbole… sure.

But look around. I personally know three people that have had gastric bypass surgery. Two of them ended up 300+ lbs again after 3 years because they simply would not learn how to eat right or eat sensibly.

I have a theory about this. I am aware of the high fructose corn syrup theories and all the fast food insanity (“Fastfood Nation”); I think we have forgotten how to eat. At least properly. We’ve gotten so accustomed and used to and entrenched in ‘more, better, faster’ food that we’ve forgotten how to eat correctly. There is no such thing as portion control. Calorie intake? My 11 year old skinny as a rail son will go to Wendy’s and order a Baconator (and it’s disgusting, IMHO). Or a 10 piece McNuggets from McDonalds. When I was a kid and McDonald’s had McNuggests, you got six in an order. Now they have 10 as a ’standard’ order. Even past the evils of fast food, that’s a massive serving of fried whatever it is. (**Note, we allow the kids fast food every now and then, it is NOT a staple of what we allow our kids in my house to eat.) I grew up with the ‘finish your plate, there are starving children in….’ line. I never finished my plate anyway, I wasn’t hungry anymore. Sometime in my thirties, I started finishing my plate…. and eating more and more. ‘Comfort food’ became my norm and I forgot how to eat.

I don’t want laws to tell us how to eat. Don’t drop politics into this, please. As a species, the parents need to slow down for a few minutes of their work-a-day lives and actually learn about what to eat, when to eat, how to (cook) and eat, why you eat and how MUCH you eat at a time. It’s gotten insane. Figure out what you are doing to yourself and then what it’s doing to your kids. Help your kids to learn, so they can teach themselves.

A special pet peeve of mine is sit-down restaurants “Kid’s Menus”. Always the same things. Always some sort of chicken nuggets, cheeseburgers, mac-and-cheese, etc.. At ALL of them. Why not smaller portions of real food? My oldest (skinny as a rail) 11 year old son loves Salmon. But ordering that costs me $18.99 at a lot of restaurants and it’s such a waste of food and money. Why not a smaller portion for kids? Why? Ahahghghag!!

And my other very personal ‘beef’ with this issue is exercise. As a species, we’ve forgotten how to move. You see athletes who retire in fantastic shape turn up as big as houses just a few years later (Charles Barkley or Brett Hull anyone?) It’s like they have no control. They ‘let go’ because they feel they’ve ‘earned’ the right to indulge a little with their diet (and it ends up spiraling like mad) and stop training at any level. Now that’s just a microcasm of what happens to adults when they marry and get careers going… they just stop anything related to exercise and sensable diet and…. get overweight. Fast.

Now, some folks are big folks no matter what they eat, exercise or anything else. This is not some treatise on hating on fat people. It’s simply an opinion about the practice of using food as a means and not as an end. Food is fuel. If you over fuel your car or mower, it won’t run. You need to turn on the ‘choke’ to ‘lean’ it out. It’s my opinion that we need to turn on the choke and lean out society. If you don’t run the motor hard on a frequent basis, it stops working. Your body is a machine, the same principles apply.

My challenge is for you to focus, for one week, on what you actually are eating and how much. Keep a food diary. I dare you. Go to www.myplate.com or www.fitday.com (both are free) and figure out a) how much are eating and b) the balance of carbs/protein/fats. You’ll be stunned if you have never paid attention. What I’ve come to learn as a ’serving’ or ‘portion’ of a given dish would (and does) make a lot of folks chuckle and a LOT of folks peer pressure me that I’m not eating enough. I counter, politely, that I know exactly how much I am eating and that’s enough, thank you.

My other challenge is to go outside today and run a 100 yard dash. Full tilt. If it feels good, wonderful. If you feel like hell within 20 yards, look at the machine you call your body and think about what you’ve let it become. We’ve got to move people, we owe it to those that want to use their machines but can’t. My uncle (RIP) lost his legs in the Korean War. I owe it to him to get up and work out everyday; he’d have given anything to just walk on his own legs again. He spent the final 40+ years of his life in a wheelchair. My excuse for not exercising is pretty lame compared to that IMHO.

Failing that, try pull-ups. Many folks, even he-man bad-assed dudes, can hardly do one. Or two. It’s sad and it’s wrong.

That’s my tirade and rant of the day.

Discuss. (And I am serious about my challenges; it’d be fascinating for folks to chime in that tried them. I’d bet there would be a heck of a lot of surprised and alarmed folks).





What is CommonSense Fitness?

Nov 14

Posted by Scott in Fitness, Headline Article | No Comments

So what is common sense fitness?

It’s common sense applied to lifestyle. We all end up at some point having to come to a point where we *should* learn about how/what/why/when to eat and how some sort of exercise needs to fit into our life. It’s lifestyle, not just dropping some pounds and then going back to the same lifestyle that helped you gain the excess weight in the first place.

It’s a journey, not a destination. You have to make changes; you would be crazy to keep doing the same things and expect different results.

Make small changes over time and do it in a way that makes sense. Add one small good habit a week and drop one bad habit a week. Little changes at a time. Switch from whole milk to 2% one week; then from 2% to 1% another week and finally switch to 0% another week. Try organic milk, even at 0% it simply tastes better. Stop drinking soda by one week switching to diet and then down the line in another week, switch from soda to water.

Stop going to fast food by switching to Subway one week. Start walking for a spell every day one week, then start looking back into your past to find activities you enjoyed as a kid/teen that were athletic and find some exercise that you will enjoy. Add in something for resistance training one week and another week add in some cardio. (*Research HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) after you’ve established some cardio fitness). Find something for flexibility, ala Yoga or Pilates, to keep you young. Flexibility is a very essential key to staying healthy and feeling young for the rest of your life.

One week focus on your sleep and get 7-8 hours every night (or whatever your body needs, we are all different). Another week focus on adding enough water to your daily intake.

After a few months, you’ll find that even without turning into a ‘health nut’ or getting obsessed, if you follow my ‘change one small thing a week’ plan, aka putting common sense to work for you, that you’ll have met your goal.

Gradual change applied over time is the path to the journey of living healthier. It’s not a race and it’s not simply doing ’something’ over a period of time and dropping back into bad old habits.

My journey started that way after nearly 10 years of stop and go attempts to get fit again. Click the “About” section to read my story in-depth. It has led over time to me having done multiple rounds of P90-X and a lot of my focus here is on that program… I even coach people through the program now.

Small steps, applied over time. It’s not rocket science, it’s common sense.