185.... but....

Good news, I reached 185 pounds. I actually just found out today on a different scale than I usually use. Unfortunately it was at the doctor's office. Yeah, this is where the whole "...but..." thing in the title comes in. Why was I at the doctor's office? Well I threw my back out again. For those of you who aren't aware of my back situation, I have a condition called Spondylolisthesis. Yeah, it's a mouthful. Google it, I'm currently at stage 1. How I threw it out was stupid. I was actually training a client when I did it. That's a first.
Anyways, this throws a bit of a wrench into my plans. Obviously not being able to train is going to affect my plan, but you know what... the more I think about it, the more I think this is maybe a good thing. By this I mean that LIFE happened. Hey, people get hurt. We get sick. We have deadlines to make. Vacations come along. The kids get ill. I could go on and on, but the point is that I'm not gonna make excuses here. I'm gonna hit my goal no matter what. It just might take a bit longer than what I wanted. And that's ok.
As for the whole Intermittent Fasting thing, I'm on the fence of whether or not I actually want to do it. I've had really great success in the past doing what I know works. I might just go back to that strategy and here's why:
1. I went on tv lately and my mom literally said "I noticed your belly was sticking out more than normal" (or something close to that). Thanks mom.
2. I don't like being hungry if I don't have to be
3. I'm skeptical of theories I don't fully believe in

So. Where does that leave us? Well I decided it was time to start on a "cutting" diet today. I developed a "pooch" on my gut and I don't like it. I need this to go away ASAP. At the same time, I'm really happy with the size and strength gains I got during this period. For example, my jeans and shirts don't fit well anymore. I actually ripped a fitted shirt (in the shoulder region, not the gut region). So although I'm laid up for a while, I'll adjust my diet and deal with it. Shit happens.

Oh, I'm also gonna do a before and after pic. As embarrassed as I'll be in my heavy pics, I think I'll be able to redeem myself in a few months. What do you guys think?

Intermittent Fasting

First off, I'm stuck at 181 lbs. More on that at another time. Today's post is about Intermittent Fasting, or IF because I don't want to type out Intermittent Fasting a hundred times. So you might already be asking yourself, what is IF? Well, what if I told you that we all IF? You just refer to it as something else... sleeping. IF isn't a new concept nor is it overly complicated or difficult. As a matter of fact it has been around since the dawn of time. As hunters and gatherers, food wasn't always available to eat every 3-4 hours as many of us do today. How ever did we survive?! Maybe the most famous IF'er, haha, I just laughed out loud after typing that... gonna start using that. Ok, let's try that again. Maybe the most famous IF'er would be Gandhi. My point is that we can get by ok without having food available 24/7. And as it turns out, it may actually be beneficial. Below are a few of the benefits according to the research out there:

• improved blood profile
• lower blood pressure
• reduction in markers of inflammation (chronic inflammation causes disease)
• decreased risk of developing cancer (see previous bullet point)
• better blood sugar control
• more fat burn due to increased metabolic rate (believed to be due to increases in adrenaline)
• better control over one's hunger

There are a few more, but I think you are starting to get the picture. So why aren't we all doing this? Well like I said earlier, we are when we sleep. Unless you're one of those crazy guys who set their alarm for 2:30 am to have a protein shake (yep, this actually happens). Now let's take the concept a bit farther. You see, IF isn't a specific number of hours in which you fast. It can be any really. Some folks will occasionally fast for 24 hours. Others, and this is more kind of the standard way of doing the fast, will have their last meal in the evening around 8 pm or so and then not eat again until 12 or 1 pm the next day. So basically, you don't eat breakfast. Ah ha, I just heard a few of you out there telling me "for shit sakes, pump your brakes!" That's right, the age old saying that breakfast is the most important meal of the day might not be? Who knows, this business is always changing and contradicting itself. As for me and what I advise my clients to do? Eat breakfast. There is far more research out there showing that eating breakfast leads to a slimmer waistline.
Now how does IF lead to a leaner physique? One side of me says it has to do with hormonal responses from the body reacting to the fast. The other side says, well, if you aren't eating breakfast, you aren't taking in as many calories, stupid. Of course you'll lose weight. My gut tells me it's a combination of the two. But maybe the thing I like most about IF is that it allows us to better to control our hunger. Hey, it's ok for your stomach to growl and be hungry. It can help us to distinguish between actual hunger and mental hunger (think eating out of boredom, stress, etc). I could really go on and on with this topic, but blogs should only be so long and if you're still reading this crap, pat yourself on the back. Thanks for hanging around!

Last tidbit here. My next experiment will be to do IF as part of my way to cut back to 175 from 185 (if I ever get there). Here's how it will play out: first meal of the day is 12 or 1 pm. Next meal is around 4 or so. Last meal is around 8 or so. This will be done where the first meal is the largest and the other 2 meals get subsequently smaller. I'm guessing this will take about 10 or 12 weeks. Depending on how it goes, I might have to wean myself into it and might start by IF'ing (haha, there's another one) a few times a week before going full bore. What do you guys think?

180

Update time! What's up everyone? Have a good New Years? I did. New Years Eve actually turned into an epic 3 a.m. snowball fight. Havent had a shoulder that sore in a LONG time...

This time of the year a lot of people assume that I receive a really high influx of new clients due to the whole resolution thing. But honestly I don't. Especially now with the new focus being working with athletes, it is actually pretty steady year-round because an athlete is either working with me mid-season or trying to make changes in the off season. And with the ever-rotating cycle of sports (soccer, football, hockey, wrestling, swimming, baseball, basketball, etc.) it stays interesting because their nutrition and exercise programs are all so different. That's what's going on from a business standpoint, but the title of this post is 180 for a reason.

I finally got my weight up to 180 lbs and am about 15% body fat. I'm carrying a bit of a pooch there around the old waistline, but am ok with it because I've seen some really good gains in size and strength in the gym. I don't think I'll get to 185 by January 15th (well, not healthily anyways) so I'm pushing back the deadline to "however long it takes to hit 185". Although I think I can hit it by early to mid February. Then the cutting will commence! So far it's been pretty fun really. I've never weighed this much in my life, but at the same time that's cool because its from the right stuff. I thought I'd miss the cardio more than I have (I've essentially gone to 0 on the cardio scale). I suppose it's because I'm research oriented that I enjoy experimenting on myself so much and I think I'll keep the experiments coming. I figure if anything, it gives me a personal perspective into what a lot of my clients are doing or are trying to do.

So with all of that being said, when this current experiment is all said and done what should I try next? I'm taking suggestions.

Also, I'm going to try to be more consistent on this whole blogging thing. I get caught up so much with life that I tend to forget about this on here. That and this blog doesn't get me any money so...