Tuesday, April 5, 2011

What The Hell Am I Doing?

Over the past few years (5 to be exact) I've struggled to get within 15 lbs of my glorious mid 20's weight of 180lbs. After 1821.25 days I've learned one thing...6 weeks is my breaking point. The past 2 years I've stopped and started p90x more times than I can count. The entire plan is great, but 90 days (3 months) is a long commitment, not to mention how tough it is to work out an hour and a half 6 days a week. Life and family tend to get in the way. In early 2010 I read "Born to Run" by Christopher McDougall and my views of modern shoe technology and the "fitness" world began to change. If I've know you for 10 minutes or 10 years, you've heard my 5 minute spiel of why modern shoes and heal striking are slowing killing your body. Maybe I'll start a new blog about the awesomeness of Pose Method running and Vibram Five Fingers. Or maybe you'll check the both out for yourself. Born to Run not only inspired me to learn how to run for the simple enjoyment of running, but it also made me take a good look at my diet. I had the asinine assumption my work outs and other activities were taking care of my shitty diet. I quickly learned that to be false and after hunting down various internet facts, red meat and pork were cut from my diet. For the first few months it was great, my intake of veggies and water was stellar. Just before the holiday I was down to 200lbs which was a great thing. Looking back I probably shouldn't have weighed myself, knowing I had lost 20 lbs gave me the excuse to gorge from Thanksgiving through January 2. The shitty diet was justified because I knew I was down all the weight. On top of that I stuck with not eating red meat or pork so I figured some of the weight came back, but not all. Well it's April 4th and all lbs are back.

My good friend Stevie B used his hard earned cash to purchased a copy of Timothy Ferriss's "The 4-Hour Body" for me. The 4 Hour Body (4HB) challenges modern diet and "health" methodologies along with modern "fitness" models. That's about as deep of a book report as your going to get. So back to the point of this blog, what the hell am I doing? I'm using 4HB as a guide to help me lose more than 20 lbs in 30 days. I say more because the book suggest you can easily lose 20 without any physical activity. Without the physical activity I'd go stir crazy. Within my experiment I plan to continue running 2 to 3 times a week, play soccer on Fridays, and kickball on Sundays. Long gone are the 250+ push ups and 100+ pull ups work outs courtesy of Tony H. and P90X.

The basic premise of the diet is pretty simple. Drink an ass ton of water and remove all white carbs, fruits, and wheat (including oats). Each Saturday I get to eat and drink as much "crap" my heart and stomach can take. Creating small obtainable goals is better than quiting tough ones (P90x). Another big point behind the 4HB is the 20 / 80 rule. Focus on the 20% of good that creates 80% of the results.

Below are some of the fundamental questions that need to be answered prior to starting the plan.

Do I really look like that in underwear?
Yes! Took three photos to track results, those will be posted next week. Please don't mind the white undies.

Do I really eat that?
I'll be posting pictures and descriptions of each meal.

Who can I get to do this with me?
Better question, who is already doing this. I’ll be tracking my results against Stevie B’s. With a weekly $1 bet.

How do I measure up?
I’ll find this out Wednesday with a 7 point Jackson-Pollock algorithm to measure my TI(total inches). Results will get posted every week.

With those questions answered it was time to focus on the diet. Each meal consists of three food groups, each of which I have free reign to eat as much as i wish. Items with noted with an * are suppose to produce the fastest loss.
Proteins
  • Egg whites or organic whole eggs*
  • Chicken*
  • Beef*
  • Fish*
  • Pork
Legumes
  • Lentils*
  • Black*, pinto or red beans
  • Soybeans
Vegetables
  • Spinach*
  • Mixed veggies (easy on tomatoes)
  • Broccoli
  • Cauliflower
  • Sauerkraut*
  • Kimchee*
  • Asparagus
  • Peas
  • Green beans
Over then next 30 days I'll post the following data: starting weight, pictures of each meal( hand is there for scale), water intake, and mental state. I'm excited to see where I end up May 4th.

To all my friends, family and aquentences that my read this, please please please feel free to post anything you want. Tell me how wrong or great I am. I'm open to any bets or challenges that come my way.

So without further ado I give you






8 comments:

  1. Sounds great to me. I've already started keeping track of my weight loss. So far...down 5 lbs from starting this thing 1.5 weeks ago. Throw in some "running", I'm hoping to be "high school skinny" by June.
    Maybe my fake titties will be more pronounced than my ass. :)

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  2. The elimination of wasteful processes is a recurring theme in the book. And I totally agree with it. Why spend hours and hours doing something with marginal benefit? We "cheat" our body into getting fat with unnatural compounds (trans-fat, refined sugar, enriched flour), why can't we cheat our way back to a leaner state?

    As for exercise, I'm not sure I buy the standard line that you have to spend hours and hours to get results. I'd rather capture that 80% benefit with 20% of the result and then do something else fun.

    This project may go longer than 30 days if we expand the scope to build muscle one the fat dump is concluded.

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  3. @Stevie B aka Worst Fishmerman Ever,
    That's the plan! Let's get rid of all this shit, then we make Greek Gods cry from envy!

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  4. I got that book too, good stuff. I started taking the Athletic Greens supplement in the morning. So far, so good. I'm not following the Slow Carb thing though because I found the beans to be too much carb for me. I guess I'm pretty sensitive to it. Well good luck, and I will be following your blog fo sho.

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  5. whoot whoot!!! maybe I'll be joining you all in this fat dump campaign.

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  6. Good stuff Rich. Before Presley was born, I did something similar (alot of the same foods with regular work-outs) with pretty good results. May be inspired to try it again...

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  7. Good luck bro! I'll be grabbing your handles every time I see you just to make sure you're sticking to the plan :)

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  8. Kevin, thank you for not saying I'll be grabbing your handles from behind. every time I see you just to make sure you're sticking to the plan :)

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