Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Week One Complete - Recap!

Ok... I was going to try to do this daily, but... well sorry.
Anyway, the first week is complete and honestly, it wasn't as hard as I imagined it would be.  Actually it was pretty damn easy!  And, I feel fantastic!

Let me break down the days:

Day 1 - Monday - woke up and weighed myself:  144.0 lbs & 14.9% Body Fat.  I'm used to seeing those numbers so no shocker to me...I've been happy with them (I took a picture too, and yes I'm holding a newspaper in the picture as proof).  I followed the suggested eating plan for the day and started with the shake for breakfast around 6am.  I was pretty pleased as how satisfying it actually was because I didn't get an urge to eat anything again til around 9am and I had two of the snack wafers (I like those!).  Lunch, around noon, was a turkey sandwich on wheat with some grapes.  Around this time I started to get a headache...probably cause caffeine withdrawals.  Next snack was a mango around 2:30 while I was checking emails at my desk... so far so good.  Then, around 3:30 as I was driving home I munched on an apple.  Now all this fruit really isn't new to me, I love eating fruit; I just don't normally buy so much of it and have it readily available... just simply lazy.  But not for the next 30 days.

When I got home, headache was still there, so I layed down and napped for about 35 minutes.  I had a training session later that night so I was hoping to sleep it off... it didn't work.  I woke up and had some Want More Energy, that stuff just taste good.  It might replace my normal sports drink from hear on out.

Off to my workout.  I was only planning on swimming that night, but decided to get there early and run up Mt Soledad in La Jolla.  Ended up running around 3.25 miles and swimming about 1000 meters.  Felt great!

Got home, had another shake, showered... and off to bed!

By days end I ate approximately 1300 total calories and that's crazy low for me, but... I felt good.

Day 2 - Tuesday - So I woke and weighed myself (I plan on waking up and weighing myself first thing every morning); 140.0 lbs and 14.7% Body Fat.  I dropped 4 lbs in a day!  I think I've been eating approximately 3000 calories daily, so I guess halving my norm and still burning about 1000 with a run a swim... still crazy though, 4 lbs.

Nothing new today, followed the same routine and eating schedule.  This time around I had about 100 additional calories for a total of approximately 1380.  A couple of bananas, strawberries, blueberries and I bought some Cinnamon Sugar rice cakes to help with my sweet tooth (45 calories per and they are really good!).  My workout on this day was a interval track workout of about 4.5 miles total and a half mile swim afterwards.  I had the headache again today, but this time it wasn't nearly as bad and I could still tough it out.

Still feeling good!

Day 3 - Wednesday - Rise and shine and 139.0 lbs & 14.1% Body Fat!  Almost a whole percent down in two days, I'm liking this!  I must admit that that the constant weight loss is cool but I like to stay around 140 lbs during race season, and I still have Nations Triathlon on Sept 11th!  Which, <insert shameless plug here>

I'm racing with Team in Training, and we are raising awareness and money to help benefit the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society!  My personal goal is to raise over $3200 dollars.  If your feeling generous, please click on the following link and make a donation.  Anything helps!  Thanks.


Ok, back to it, I'm really behind on my fundraising so I had to through that in there... Like I was saying, I like to keep my weight around 140 so I decided I would up my calories alittle more the rest of this week to try to keep it in that range.  So today's routine was about the same except I enjoyed an extra banana, a ton of grapes, and two apples during the day.  Along with my rice cake, turkey sandwich and shakes.  Today's total was about 1400 calories and I swam about half a mile as my workout.

Oh, and crazy thing... I was ridiculously focused today!  Especially in the morning!  You know how when your driving to work and your kinda spaced out on autopilot where you don't really have to think about the turns or what exit to take your just do... this morning I was aware of everything!  I even started noticing business that have probably been there for years and I'm just now noticing... it was like everything was in slow motion!  Not sure if Isagenix has anything to do with that, but it was a cool feeling.

Day 4 - Thursday - 139.6 lbs and 14.3 % Body Fat.  Ok, the extra calories helped, and I didn't workout too hard yesterday so I pressed pause on my weight loss.  That got me thinking, "Well, maybe I'll just adjust my calories depending on my upcoming workout..." Genius!  I like to fuel for races about two days in advance, and I have a nice training session today (so I missed that boat), but the upcoming Saturday will be a good one, so I'll up my calories alittle more today. 

So today's routine, same, but this time I had a yummy Black Bean and Lime Soup I found at Vons.  340 cal, 2g fat, 60g carbs, 20g protein.  My kind of meal!  Also the usual bananas, apples, and berries.  I also blended a shake for the first time today and added a banana to that AND mixed the shake with Zico's Coconut Water instead of just plain water... that was BOMB!  You don't taste the coconut water for you non fans, but it just makes it a little more frothy and creamier!  Will be mixing it with coconut water from here on out... and 8oz of coconut water is only 43 calories and lot's of yummy potassium!

Total calories today, about 1600 and my workout was a 22+ mile bike ride along the coast with 3 hill repeats up Torrey Pines (for those of you that aren't familiar with Torrey Pines hill repeats, it's about a 1.25 mile climb of pure heavenly torture!) 

Day 5 - Friday - Couldn't really sleep last night, think I was up til about 1am... but when I did sleep, I slept!  Woke up around 6am and jumped on the scale!  140.0 lbs and 13.5% Body Fat!  Stoked!  So I might have figured out the weight thing and still losing body fat!  A whole 1.5% is pretty impressive in 5 days!  And I must admit, I'm feeling really good.  Haven't had any caffeine all week, and only napped the first day because of the headache!  I'm liking this.

Friday's are usually off days from training so I decided I would cut back on the calories a little today and set a limit of 1400ish.  I mixed my shake this morning with a banana and organic fat free milk.  It was good, but I think I prefer the coconut water instead.  Also enjoyed a roast beef sandwich, a grapefruit, and even made a chicken, reduced fat cheddar cheese and egg white omelet after work.  Spent the evening watching a movie and had some Orville Redenbachers Natural Simply Salted popcorn (good stuff!).

Grand total today, about 1475 and no workout.

Day 6 - Saturday - Woke up around 5am cause have to be in Coronado by 6:30.  140.6 lbs & 13.1% Body Fat.  Weight good and body fat still dropping, nice!  Today was a crazy day, basically doing a full triathlon and then volunteering at the Del Mar Race Track to raise some money towards my fundraising.  Also, tomorrow will be my first Deep Cleanse Day, so I told myself I would allow a few extra calories to help rebuild and refuel my muscles after the days events.  Had my shake and an apple before the workout started.  Swam about 3/4 of a mile, biked 15 miles pretty hard, then immediately ran 2 miles at about a 6:40 per mile pace, then back on the bike for another hard 15 miles.  Workout complete.  On the way home had a IsaLean Chocolate Peanut Crunch Bar.  It was good, but not my favorite and maybe I'm saying that because the entire time I was eating it I was really wanting some milk to go with it!  Anyway, it's definitely a good post workout snack at 270 calories and 18g protein.

After the workout, poured beer at Del Mar for 8 hours, but raised over $200 towards my fundraising!  Good day!

Anyway, grand total today about 1750 calories  Wanna know what the scale said the following morning?

Day 7 - Sunday - Deep Cleanse Day - I slept like a baby!  No alarm set today and was up by 7.  Jumped on the scale and 140.0 lbs and 13.0% Body Fat.  I'm pretty proud of how I'm adjusting my calories to minimize weight loss but still burn fat!  While my calories are a little higher than recommended by the Isagenix program, I'm making a conscious effort to keep them low fat and clean and natural since after all this is a detox program. 

Anyway, today is supposed to be only Cleanse for Life juice every 4 hours and snacks if needed.  Started with my 4oz of the Cleanse juice and some water and sat down and read.  Four hours later, same deal.  Considering I've been up for over 4 hours and have only had juice, I felt pretty good.  No crazy hunger pains.  Decided to go to the gym.  Hit the weight room for a quick circuit then swam about half a mile.  Felt pretty good throughout.  Got home and wasn't really hungry, but still had two hours until my next Cleanse juicing, so I boiled some eggs.  Had one, plain, no salt, no pepper just a hard boiled egg.  Then Cleanse again.  Starting to feel a little uncomfortable at this point.  Lots of water, Cleanse, and one egg... probably shouldn't have worked out.  Had another egg to help fight the growls.  It helped.  Also thought, the additional protein will help from yesterdays and todays' workouts, no harm no foul.  Final Cleanse time and I still had one hard boiled egg in the fridge, so I ate that too.

Total calories on Deep Cleanse Day number 1 - 240.  That's low!  Wonder what the scale will say on the start of Week 2 and Day 8?!





Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Isagenix - 30 Day Detox

Ok... so I'm on a detox diet.  I wouldn't really say it's a diet, other than the my calories are dramatically reduced, but more like a nutritional awakening.  It's called Isagenix.  Here's how it came to be:

My girlfriend did the 30 day program back in May and I was skeptical at first but shocked and amazed at the transformation during the 30 days.  Now why this isn't necessarily a weight loss program, weight loss is an added bonus for those looking to drop a few pounds.  Anyway, she ended up losing about 14 pounds and not sure exactly how many inches, but lets just say she needs new jeans!  The craziest thing to me wasn't her weight loss or inches, but was her energy levels!  I mean, it was night and day!  We were kinda the coffee, Rockstar, Monster, and Red Bull couple!  That's how we got through our average days.  Long days it was two or three of those things!  No more... at least for her.  I remember watching the documentary Food Matters a while back and a guy saying that the reason people "crash" in the afternoon is because of malnourishment.  Well, she was living proof.  That's what turned me onto to this program.  I was pretty tired of being tired.  And for those of you that know me, I'm an active individual who for the most part eats relatively "healthy," but I must admit a majority of my foods have ingredients that I can barely pronounce and are ready in 30 seconds to a minute in the microwave.

Anyway, I was so fascinated and inspired that I am giving it a try and documenting the entire process.

Here's a description from the website:

The 30-day supply of the Cleansing and Fat Burning System helps you create a cleansing and nutrient infusion routine to optimize health, help you feel younger and more energetic. Each pack is a full 30-day supply. Stimulant-free.

You may experience:
  • Energy boost
  • Consistent weight loss over time
  • Reduced cravings for unhealthy food
  • Improved muscle tone
  • Balanced digestion
Now I don't really need or care to lose any weight, but improved muscle tone is always nice.  And hey, I'm not getting any younger so I could afford to start taking a little better care of myself.

Here are the components to the program:
1qty - Ionix® Supreme
2 qty - Cleanse for Life™
4 qty - IsaLean® Shake
1 qty - Natural Accelerator™
1 qty- Isagenix Snacks!™
1 qty - IsaFlush!®
4 individual qty - Want More Energy?® Sticks

I won't go into great detail about each component (that's what the hyperlink is for), but I'll comment a little on the taste as I break down the recommended Daily Cleanse Schedule.

Day One - August 1st
First thing in the morning calls for 2oz of Cleanse for Life and 8oz of water.  I can do that!  I've always heard that one should drink a full glass of water first thing in the morning anyway.  The Cleanse for Life doesn't taste too bad, kinda like a thicker healthier cough syrup.

Recommended to wait 15-20 before breakfast.

Breakfast:  1oz of Ionix Supreme, 1 Isalean Shake, and 1 Natural Accelerator.  Another shot, ok.  This one I can only describe as similar to Cleanse for Life, except a little "Herbier" and "Spicier."  It was only an ounce shot, I can live with that.  The shake; you had a choice between Chocolate, Vanilla, or both during the ordering process and I chose Chocolate.  I was pleasantly surprised.  It was actually pretty good.  Now it's not In and Out or Wendy's Frosty good, but hey its actually good for you.  Can't really say that about In and Out and Wendy's.  And finally a Natural Accelerator.  A small pill capsule that's filled with natural thermogenic ingredients such as cayenne, green tea, cinnamon, ginseng and...no caffeine.  I've heard about the fat burning properties of green tea, cayenne, and cinnamon before... ok I'm still game.


Healthy AM Snack:  They suggest either the Isagenix Snack Wafers, Fruit, Veggies, Almonds, Hard Boiled Eggs, or 2-3 oz of a lean protein.  The Isagenix Snack Wafers I find to be quite tasty.  You can eat up to two as a snack and they kinda taste like Nestle Quick powder packed into a tiny cookie.  It's dry but I like it. 


Healthy Lunch (400-600 calories) & Natural Accelerator:  Now this is totally open to whatever you like.  They suggest a lean protein and some green veggies.

Healthy PM Snack:  Same options as AM Snack.

Dinner:  Isalean Shake

Bed Time:  2oz of Cleanse for Life and 1-2 IsaFlush capsules.  Another shot and some pills, ok.  Now I know what IsaFlush sounds like, but I can assure you that it's not a laxative!  It's another product that you can actually read the ingredients label and it's said to aid in your digestion as you sleep.

So that's a Daily Cleanse Schedule.  Tomorrow I'll post how I approached Day 1 and even Day 2 since I've now completed 2 days of the program.

To be continued...