P90X Newsletter -INSANITY® AND THE X! - Fitness, Nutrition, Diet, Weight Loss Official Web site

INSANITY® and the X


By Steve Edwards

Today we'll discuss Beachbody's new INSANITY program and how to approach it if you've already done P90X. The INSANITY guidebook is written for first-time Beachbody® customers. If you've already completed one or more of our programs, especially P90X, you're going to want to take a different approach. We'll also look at how to schedule INSANITY post-X and how to use it to improve your P90X results.

All of our entry-level programs' diet guidebooks are written assuming weight loss is a primary concern. The P90X diet guidebook is not. Instead, its focus is on athletic performance, because the key to getting results with P90X is to improve your physical fitness as much as possible over the course of the program. While INSANITY is definitely a graduate-level program—meaning you need a fitness base prior to beginning—it is not structured periodizationally the way P90X is. It's shorter and more straightforward. Its results are based more on progressive overload than Muscle Confusion™. Similarly, the diet is based simply on eating clean, then ramping up the calories along with your workouts. Those coming off the X will want to amend the INSANITY diet guidelines or ignore them totally.

The INSANITY diet is very calorically restrictive. It was designed for weight loss, since that's what most of our customers are interested in. If you're coming off P90X or something similar, you should alter the diet to suit your needs, because your body composition will be far more athletic at the beginning. We've left the "additional food" section of the INSANITY diet open-ended for just this reason. However, once you've gone through several rounds of the X or something equivalent, you're generally at a point where you should do your own dietary calculations.



When you look at the X diet, you see a plan that's designed to teach you how to eat for athletics. It varies over time, attempting to follow the changes in your body composition. Once you graduate from the X, there shouldn't be much need for outside diet plans except for variety's sake. You could use the INSANITY diet for this, but you'll want to alter your calories to meet your own goals using what you've already learned. It's almost a certainty that a post-X body will have a composition that requires more calories than what the INSANITY diet recommends.



Keep in mind that no matter what diet you choose, at the highest level of performance you always have to do your own trial and error. There's no one diet that's right for everyone. Nowhere is this as apparent as during athletic endeavors. By making tweaks to our diets, we will always find individual differences in the ways certain foods affect us. No two athletes eat exactly the same way. There are some large-scale brushstrokes that are nutritionally similar, after which what works best becomes more individualized.

Now let's look at how to cycle INSANITY into your Beachbody library. The most common question we get is how INSANITY will affect the muscle mass gained during X. The answer is that if you do it right, INSANITY can improve your muscle mass. This is because of basic physiology, primarily the periodization principle. Once you grasp this, it should be fairly easy to figure out how to schedule INSANITY.

Let's begin with recovery. The time between doing different workout programs becomes very important as your fitness improves. We always recommend a break after our workout programs, but P90X and especially INSANITY require more calculation. These programs are designed to break you down, let you recover, then increase the breakdown and finish with a bang. The goal is to put your body into a growth (sometimes referred to as mastery) phase over the final few weeks of the program. During this phase, results come rapidly, but stay in it too long and you overtrain, which forces your body into a plateau, or worse, a decline. This is why we recommend that your final P90X fit test be done after a week of recovery.


When transitioning from P90X to INSANITY, it's important to consider that you're moving from a mastery phase of one program into an entry phase of another. Sure, INSANITY's entry phase is very hard, but over the course of P90X, your workload capacity has been improving. Because INSANITY doesn't have a true resistance component, its first week can function similarly to the transition/recovery weeks of P90X. Post-X, your body's ability to adapt to hard exercise is greatly increased. This means you can start INSANITY on the heels of P90X, and its first week will function as your recovery week. Even though INSANITY will also break you down in some new areas, your fitter body will adapt quickly to the change.

Conversely, post-INSANITY, you'll want a longer recovery period. This is because you've essentially extended the adaptive and growth phases of P90X for an extra 6 to 8 weeks. No matter how fit you are, your body will always need a break after taking such a pounding. One to 3 weeks of easy to moderate exercise should have you recovered and ready to move into your next round of training, no matter what it is.


Speaking of adaptive and growth phases, we should also address how you may want to shorten the first block (or month) of INSANITY. Similar to the diet phases of P90X, you'll only want to continue in the first block of INSANITY as long as your body is adapting to it. Once it feels "easy," it's time to move into the second block. You'll still want to take the designated INSANITY recovery week because you want to be rested for your next block of training. This will accelerate your time in the adaptive phase of the training block and help you maximize the growth phase.

Finally, we need to discuss how this can improve your muscle mass. The 6 to 8 weeks of INSANITY will have improved various energy systems of your body, increasing its potential for hard training. INSANITY will improve your aerobic and anaerobic capacities. Your VO2/max and anaerobic threshold will both improve, as will your body's glycolytic efficiency, which is your ability to recharge your anaerobic system during intense bouts of exercise. The result is that in your next round of P90X (or any muscle-building program), you'll have more energy to burn at the end of each set. This will result in increased reps per set or more weight per set, both of which lead to increased hypertrophy (muscle growth) if that is your target.

These are the basic principles you should understand about P90X and INSANITY. As with all high-level training programs, there are plenty more variables that can be discussed. Since these are more personal in nature, they should be addressed on the Message Boards, where we can discuss them on a case-by-case basis


If you'd like to ask a question or comment on this newsletter article, click here to add a comment in the newsletter review section or you can email us at mailbag@beachbody.com.
Check out our Fitness Advisor's responses to your comments in Steve Edwards' Mailbag on the Message Boards. If you'd like to receive Steve Edwards' Mailbag by email, click here to subscribe to Steve's Health and Fitness Newsletter. And if you'd like to know more about Steve's views on fitness, nutrition, and outdoor sports, read his blog, The Straight Dope.

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To Bean Or Not To Bean, That Is The Question (Legumes, Lectins, and Human Health)

To Bean Or Not To Bean, That Is The Question (Legumes, Lectins, and Human Health)

Posted on February 15, 2011

by J.D. Moyer




With apologies to Shakespeare.

These days, many people across the world are wondering if they should eat beans, or not.

Right now, this very minute, there are two powerful, but opposing, dietary trends speeding towards a potentially explosive head-on collision.


On the one side the paleolithic (or “Stone Age“) style of eating, a dietary/lifestyle system that eschews grains, legumes, sugar, and all processed foods in favor of quality meats, poultry, fish, vegetables, fruit, and healthful fats. This is the anti-bean side.

                                                                  Scanned beans.




On the other side is the fad-diet du jour, Tim Ferriss’s “slow-carb diet” as described in the bestselling The 4-Hour Body. Ferriss unabashedly recommends legumes. Indeed, he suggests eating beans or lentils with every meal (but forbids grains, fruit, and dairy products — except on the once-per-week “binge day,” during which all foods are allowed).


Ferriss must be acknowledged as a cultural force in his own right; he is a master marketer with legions of supportive blog readers (myself among them). His efforts have propelled both of his books to the #1 spot of the New York Times nonfiction bestsellers list. He has recently appeared on both The View and Dr. Oz pushing his slow-carb diet, sleep gadgets, and anatomically precise better-sex tips.


Especially among the California/Silicon Valley/San Francisco/young techy professional set, 4-Hour Body is extremely influential. Just the other night at Ignite SF, a friend mentioned she was “going home to eat some beans.” When Ferriss says eat beans, people eat beans. Ferriss constitutes the current vanguard of the pro-bean side.


Before we evaluate the evidence for and against legumes, let’s see who all is taking sides:

Pro-bean Anti-bean

Tim Ferriss (4-Hour Body)

Dan Buettner (Blue Zone)

Andrew Weil (drweil.com) Pythagoras (Ionian philosopher)

Loren Cordain (The Paleo Diet)

Robb Wolf (The Paleo Solution)



Each link goes to a discussion of the health advocate’s recommendation for or against legumes.


Other health gurus take a more nuanced stance. Mark Sisson, from whom I take my own dietary cues, is generally against eating beans and legumes, but acknowledges possible health benefits from eating nattō (a fermented soybean paste with is extremely high in vitamin K2). PāNu blogger Kurt Harris, M.D., another advocate of the paleolithic diet, suggests eliminating beans but gives it a low priority (#11) on his 12 steps to improving health.



The Evidence Against Beans



Contrary to conventional dietary wisdom, paleo diet advocates say you should NOT eat beans. Why not?


1. Beans are hard to digest (the musical fruit).

Beans that are not properly soaked, drained, boiled, drained-again, and slow-cooked can result in severe digestive stress. Even under the best of circumstances, beans can you make fart more.


2. Beans can aggravate auto-immune diseases.

All legumes (beans, but also tofu, soy-milk, peas, lentils, and peanuts) contain lectins. Some of these lectins are implicated in IBS, Crohn’s disease, arthritis, multiple sclerosis, peptic ulcers, allergies, and Type 2 diabetes.


3. Beans are high in starch and carbohydrates.

Beans are a starchy food, high in carbohydrates. Eating significant amounts of beans may interfere with weight loss.


4. Beans contain estrogen mimics, which can be harmful to health.

Beans, especially soybeans but also fava beans and other beans, contain phytoestrogens — weak estrogen mimics that can interfere with hormone function. Phytoestrogens evolved in plants as a defense mechanism, a way to disrupt the reproductive success of predators. Red clover (a legume) has been shown to disrupt reproduction in animals.


Male infants and toddlers are probably the most vulnerable to the negative effects of a high legume diet, as is discussed in this article by Kaayla Daniel of the Weston Price Foundation. From the article:


Every week I get agonized letters from parents who fed their sons soy infant formula and who report estrogenized boys who are flabby, lethargic, high strung and/or embarrassed by breasts and underdeveloped genitals. These parents want to know, “What can we do now?”


Disturbing. Do not feed your infant soy formula.


5. Beans can shrink your brain.

An even more heinous side-effect of eating soybean products frequently may be brain shrinkage.


Tofu turns your brain to jello.

I kid you not. One study looked at autopsies of nearly 4000 Hawaiian men, and compared brain weight results with dietary habits. The men who had eaten the most tofu and soy had smaller brain sizes and a higher chance (more than double) of developing Alzheimer’s disease. The linked article mentions a possible mechanism; phytic acid in soybeans interferes with vitamin B12 absorption (which is independently associated with brain shrinkage and dementia). In most beans, phytic acid can be greatly reduced by soaking, draining, and boiling, but soybeans retain high amounts even when cooked.


6. Lentils might make you fat.

Tim Ferriss recommends eating generous portions of legumes as a part of his “slow carb” weight loss diet. In The 4-Hour Body he mentions lentils as being one of his favorite legumes.



But can lentils make you fat? There is some evidence that the lentil lectin binds weakly to the insulin receptor, setting cells to “always on” for fat production. That’s Peter J. D’Adamo’s hypothesis in Eat Right For Your Type. Though many of D’Adamo’s ideas are speculative and not supported by the evidence, he should at least be credited with bringing lectins into the public consciousness.



7. Many brands of canned beans have bisphenol A in the can lining.

People who eat beans don’t necessarily have the time or inclination to properly soak them, drain them, boil them, drain them again, and then slow-cook them. Canned beans are the logical alternative to time-consuming preparation.



The problem with canned foods is that the plastic can linings often contain bisphenol A (BPA), a powerful endocrine disruptor. BPA is strongly associated with heart disease, prostate cancer, breast cancer, miscarriage, erectile dysfunction, and abnormal reproductive development in children. We should all be staying away from the stuff. For most people, canned food, soda, and plastic bottles/cups are the main sources of BPA.



Trader Joe’s states that their canned beans are BPA-free (though their canned tomatoes and soups do contain BPA). Eden Organic beans are also BPA-free.

Tim Ferriss's "freak to geek" snapshots from his (pro-bean) book The 4-Hour Body.

The Evidence in Support of Beans


1. Beans are high in protein and fiber.

Not everyone enjoys a high-meat diet. For people who prefer to not consume animal protein at every meal, beans provide a decent amount of protein. Because they’re high in fiber, they’re also quite filling.


2. Beans provide a steady source of glucose for energy.

Consuming high amounts of fructose (the sugar found in fruit, corn syrup, and agave nectar) is associated with gaining belly fat, poor insulin sensitivity, increased risk of heart disease, and higher LDL levels. Table sugar is not exempt — sucrose is half glucose and half fructose.



Ferriss recommends eliminating fructose entirely (except on cheat days), and using legumes as a carbohydrate source. The starch in beans breaks down into glucose. Too much glucose can still make you fat, but the fat will be subcutaneous (under the skin) fat, which isn’t associated with disease as much as abdominal fat.


Ferriss claims his “slow-carb” diet has a high rate of compliance, and that one reason for this is the steady energy provided by legumes. It’s true that switching too quickly to a low-carb diet can result in energy crashes; the body needs a few weeks to adjust to using different kinds of fuel (including dietary fat, stored body fat, glycogen, and even lactic acid).


However, most “carb withdrawal” has nothing to do with blood sugar levels. Except in cases of diabetes, the body regulates blood sugar within a tight range, via insulin and glucagon. Most “carb withdrawal” symptoms are in fact exorphin withdrawal symptoms. Beans, which do not contain food opioids, will not protect you from the aches, fatigue, and flu-like symptoms some people get when giving up wheat and dairy.


3. Beans are high in folate and iron, and have appreciable amounts of magnesium, manganese, copper, selenium, molybdenum, and antioxidants.

Beans are not nutritionally empty. Depending on the legume, beans can provide decent amounts of a few vitamins and many minerals.


Bento with beans -- how could something this cute be bad for you?

As for the anti-nutrients, phytic acid and lectins, most can be soaked/drained and cooked out. If you don’t mind having a frothing bowl of beans on your counter (I do), then you can effectively remove most of the anti-nutrients. Soaking is most effective for getting rid of phytic acid, and boiling is most effective for reducing lectin levels. Do not slow-cook beans without boiling first. Slow cooked kidney beans and red beans (often in the form of chili) lead to dozens of cases of lectin poisoning in the U.S. every year.


4. Beans are associated with reduced risk of colon cancer.

If the evidence holds up, this is a pretty big win for beans. Colorectal cancer is a relatively common, very serious disease (second only to lung cancer in lethality).



One clinical trial that looked at over 2,000 adults with precancerous colon polyps found that those people who ate more beans over a four year period had fewer “advanced” polyps and less cancer. Those that increased fruit and vegetables in their diets, but not beans, did not enjoy the same protective effects.



If eating beans actually does reduce the chance of colorectal cancer, what’s the mechanism? One theory is that the nondigestible carbs in beans are broken down (by gut flora) into the short-chain fatty acid butyrate, which has anti-inflammatory and anticancer properties. Various phytonutrients in beans may act synergystically to prevent cancer in other ways.



One interesting possibility, for which there is strong evidence, is that a lectin in broad beans forces colon cancer cells to differentiate. Could it be that not all lectins are bad?


Beans vs. Meat


I think some members of the “paleo community” are guilty of unsophisticated categorical thinking (meat is GOOD — grains & beans are BAD). Instead of looking at the evidence regarding specific foods and the possible benefits of drawbacks of those foods (from all perspectives, including health effects, ease of preparation, taste and culinary possibilities), they eliminate entire food groups and exalt others.





Bacon bias -- wishing something to be health food does not make it so.

Take bacon, for example. Love for bacon has reached fetishistic heights among paleo bloggers. Mark Sisson and Kurt Harris are both on the pro-bacon bandwagon (otherwise, I agree with 90+% of what both these guys recommend). This salt and nitrite-laden meat-product is delicious, but please don’t try to claim that it’s good for you. Processed meats (including bacon) are implicated in colon cancer and other diseases. While saturated fats are not to be feared, nitrites, and to a lesser extent salt, should be.



Unprocessed red meat may also slightly raise the chance of colon cancer, but the risks are less than those incurred by obesity or lack of exercise. And before you smack me in the face with your copy of The China Study, please read this detailed critique by nutrition blogger Denise Minger.



Maybe the solution is to eat some beans with your bacon.


Beans vs. Fruit


Back to fructose for a minute — Ferriss’s book recommends cutting out all fruit. While it makes sense to limit fructose, let’s consider how many blueberries a person would have to eat to get the same amount of fructose delivered by a regular 12oz can of Coke (36g carbs mostly from HFCS). By my rough calculations, that’s about the same as two cups of blueberries. Three whole grapefruit would also do it. I really don’t see a good reason for not eating half a cup of blueberries or a half grapefruit with breakfast — it’s just not that much fructose, and both fruits are high in vitamins and other phytonutrients. On the other hand, a large banana, or 12oz of orange juice, delivers about as much fructose as the can of soda.


For steady weight-loss, Ferriss may be on to something when he recommends beans over fruit. But you’ll probably get the same benefits if you eat some beans and some less-sweet fruit (tart apples, berries, grapefruit, kiwis, etc.).
The Bottom Line — Who Should Eat Beans

The way I see it, there’s no reason to fear properly cooked beans. There is also no reason to force yourself to eat them.


If you don’t like beans, but still want to avoid colon cancer (who doesn’t?), there are many ways to reduce risk. Stay lean, exercise regularly, don’t eat processed and cured meats, keep your vitamin D levels high, and eat broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage. Raw sauerkraut may be especially beneficial.


Nobody should eat large amounts of soy, in any form, though tiny cubes of tofu in miso soup won’t hurt you. Red beans and kidney beans are risky unless you know how they’ve been prepared. Canned beans may come with an unwelcome dose of BPA.


Anybody who has Crohn’s, ulcerative colitis, IBS, multiple sclerosis, or arthritis should avoid beans. Lectins can tear up the intestinal lining, causing “leaky gut.” Leaky gut, in turn, leads to autoimmune problems. In terms of lectins, dairy products, grains, peanuts and nightshade vegetables (tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant, peppers), are potentially as problematic as beans.

Beans and lentils aren’t an ideal fat-loss food unless you get lots of exercise, both because of starch content and possible lectin-insulin problems (at least with lentils). But properly prepared (soaked, drained, boiled, and slow-cooked) beans are probably a better choice than bread or bananas.


For many people, one of the joys of the paleo diet is that they don’t have to eat beans (or oatmeal, or any of a long list of bland, boring foods). Conventional wisdom (and Tim Ferriss), push beans as a kind of wonder food, but that’s just not the case. You don’t have to eat beans to achieve vibrant health. Many people, like this woman, respond very well to cutting out both grains and beans, but keeping some fruit in the diet (Mark Sisson’s “primal” diet).

Food Avoidance and The Great Carb Debate

I’m fascinated by how food affects health, but I also just enjoy eating. I hope to never get cancer or heart disease, but chances are very good that something will kill me eventually (ideally it will be something exciting, like a genetically engineered dinosaur, or a falling disco ball, or lightning, or an orgy). Dying from complications due to eating too many lectins, gluten, nitrites, or fructose does not strike me as a good way to go out, so I try to limit my intake of those substances.

I do eat beans once in awhile, usually canned pinto or black beans from Trader Joes, or white butter beans in a salad. If I go out to Mexican food I’ll usually eat some meat and refried beans but skip the tortillas and rice.


Dr. Kurt Harris writes the popular PāNu blog.

I agree with Kurt Harris that consuming some carbs is easier on the body than consuming zero carbs or lots of carbs. Going into ketosis now and then won’t hurt you, but long-term ketosis can deplete calcium and selenium, give you bad breath, cause a metallic taste in the mouth, and lead to mental dullness and sluggishness. It’s easy to stay out of ketosis by consuming some carbs. Wheat products, syrups, desserts, and sweet fruits are not ideal choices. Vegetables, berries, properly cooked beans, and even dark chocolate are good choices. Some rice is probably also fine for people who exercise a great deal.


I find the whole notion of avoiding carbohydrates altogether to be faintly ridiculous … somewhat akin to avoiding nitrogen or carbon. Avoiding a specific class of chemicals, like lectins, makes more sense, but even then you may be throwing out the baby with the bathwater. Some lectins may be good for us.

On the whole, I agree with the premises of the paleolithic diet — we’ll be healthier if we eat high quality meats, poultry, fish, eggs, vegetables, and nuts than if we eat “neolithic” foods (processed foods, sugary desserts, grains and legumes, fruit juice, etc.). What I’m skeptical of is the idea that observing any set of dietary rules strictly will make us healthier. We did, after all, evolve to be adaptable creatures, with a robustly flexible digestive system. We’re more like rats than we are like panda bears (who eat only bamboo), koala bears (who pretty much just eat eucalyptus), or lions (who just eat meat).


On the other hand, I’ve noticed that my enjoyment of food has only increased with a slightly more restrictive diet. The less sugar and fruit I eat, the sweeter all food tastes. Same thing goes for salt. Our palate can quickly adjust to a new “normal.” And since I’ve cut out grains for the most part, I eat a much wider variety of meats and vegetables, mostly cooked in pastured butter. It all tastes damn good. A more restrictive diet doesn’t necessarily correspond to less enjoyment of food.

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Sugar

How much Sugar should we consume?
Sugar intake should be monitored as it affects your liver and turns to fat ( when consumed in excess).,
Naturally occuring sugar from fruit and produce should not be counted for your RDA.
The figure you see out there for RDA is 40 grams, I ve heard for elite athletes it should be 5% of your diet.
I found this formula that works well:
Take 10 % of your targeted calories and divide by 4(the number of grams of sugar in a tsb of sugar)
So for an example:
1800 calories X 10 % equals 180 divide by 4  equals 45 grams of sugar /day!

In other words we should not get more than 150 - 180 calories per day from pure sugars in our foods.

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Inspiration-The longer I live

"The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, the education, the money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company... a church... a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you... we are in charge of our Attitudes.”




-Charles R. Swindoll

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Plyometrics X -from P90 X

" Leap like a cat "

In Video
Tony Horton
Eric (on one leg)
Pam the blam
Dominic

Time of Video 58:36
Warmup & stretch 10 minutes
Routine
Jump Squats
Run stance
Air Born Heisman
Swing kick
Repeat
Break

Squat reach jumps
Squat switch pickups
Double Heisman
Circle runs
Repeat
Water break
Jump knee tucks
Mary Katherines
Leap frog quats
Twist combo
Repeat & break
Rockstar
Gap Jump
Squat jacks
Soldier
Repeat & Break
Run Squat
180Jumps
Lateral leap frogs
Monster truck tires
Repeat
Pitch and catch
Jump shot
FB run
Stretch

Done !!

This is a good cardio workout for your leg strength, agility and balance.
Eric on one leg is quite impressive !
Watch Dominic go crazy in this video!!
Some people burn  700-900 calories on this workout. I burn sub 700 .
I never found it to be as intense as the Max Insanity workouts

Mike

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PALEO NUTRITION IMPROVED

Some more info to chew on.....

If you start the article...Make sure to finish it for the pay off!

PALEO NUTRITION IMPROVED


by Nate Miyaki – 3/25/2011

"If it doesn't swim, run, or fly, or isn't green and grow in the ground, don't eat it."

You are likely familiar with the above nutrition quote, popularized by coaches like Charles Poliquin, Christian Thibaudeau, and John Berardi, just to name a few.

Or maybe you've heard the late, great Jack Lalanne's simple dietary prescription: "If man made it, don't eat it." Cumulatively, that basically sums up the practical application side of "traditional" caveman eating.

My nutritional approach has been accurately described as a "Paleo-meets-sports nutrition" hybrid, so let's start by addressing the Paleo side first. The practical application strategy above is simple, but it's a worthy endeavor to dive a little deeper, and learn some of the details behind why the "eat what your ancestors ate" philosophy can be so effective.

Otherwise, after a day of exposure to internet health blurbs and the infinite amount of misinformation spread through various mainstream channels, you may come back asking, "But wait, aren't fruit juices, wheat breads, low-fat mayo, and cardboard, fiber-twig cereals good for you?"

Not unless you're Tony the Tiger and sponsored by Kellogg's.

Paleo in a Nutshell

Animal-based Diets are Superior to Grain or Vegetarian-based Diets Animal proteins are considered of higher quality than grain or vegetable proteins because all the essential amino acids are present, they're present in higher qualities, and along with essential fatty acids, they're present in the proper proportions and ratios that mother-nature intended. That last point is key.

They're called essential fatty acids and essential amino acids for a reason. If we weren't meant to eat animals, these essential nutrients wouldn't be required for normal metabolic and hormonal functioning. They'd be optional, and instead we'd have essential cellulose and soy-paste requirements.

Just look at a 4 oz. piece of wild sockeye salmon:

• 24 g of protein, including all essential amino acids • 2 g of saturated fat • 5 g of monounsaturated fat • 1500 mg of omega-3 fatty acids • 425 mg of omega-6 fatty acids

Dude, you can't beat nature.

Now, a diet with a lot of vegetables is healthy – I'm not that far off my rocker – but that does NOT make vegetarian diets the healthiest. As vegetarians try to do the whole food-combining thing to make up for the essential nutrients they could just be getting from animal foods, they can end up with a diet that's a metabolic disaster: inadequate protein intake, incomplete amino acid profiles, essential fatty acid imbalances, too much sugar and refined flour, too many carbs combined with too much dietary fat, too many phytoestrogenic compounds from soy substitutes...I could go on.

And when the rubber hits the road, if "veggie-ism" is so damn awesome, why are such a large percentage of vegetarians overweight and/or sickly looking?

Granted, most of us aren't pining to eat a vegetarian diet, but now you have a logical argument for that crackpot relative who religiously swears vegetarian-based diets are the healthiest approach on the planet, and that eating meat will kill you.

Eliminate Sugar / Concentrated Sources of Fructose Given the choice, I'd put the championship belt around concentrated sources of fructose as the worst compound in modern diets. If you did nothing other than cut out sugar and high fructose corn syrup from your diet, you'd likely end up with a decent physique. But that crap is everywhere, and in everything.

According to numerous studies, fructose is the main culprit in table sugar that causes insulin resistance – fructose y'all, not my poor glucose/starch compounds that get unfairly lumped into the same category by way of the "All Carbs Are Evil Campaign."

In an article from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, the metabolism of fructose was further investigated. The report indicated that fructose, compared with glucose, is preferentially metabolized to fat in your liver. In animal models, fructose produced the following responses: insulin resistance, impaired glucose tolerance, high insulin levels, high triglycerides, and hypertension.

Eliminate Trans-fats

If fructose is the "Worst Modern Food Champ" then trans fats are the undisputed number one contender. These compounds are essentially vegetable oils that have had a hydrogen molecule added to their chemical structure through a process called hydrogenation. This makes them more solid in structure and extends shelf life – both great things if you're a processed snack food manufacturer.

However, this chemical alteration is what also makes them so problematic if you're a health-enthusiast. Because trans fats are basically unnatural, mutated fats, they raise total and bad cholesterol (LDL), elevate C-reactive protein, lower good cholesterol (HDL), and as such, are a major risk factor for coronary artery disease.

And for the "I just want to get shredded" crowd? Well, trans fats have been shown to inhibit glucose disposal, promote insulin resistance, and induce abdominal obesity.(1) So if you see trans fats or hydrogenated oils, do as Iron Maiden said to do, "Run to the hills, run for your lives."

Improve Your Omega-6: Omega-3 Balance

The optimum omega-6 to omega-3 ratios for health generally ranges between 1:1 to 4:1. This is the ratio likely present before modern food processing, when the bulk of dietary fats came from wild animal meats and fish.

With the addition of highly processed vegetable oils as a dietary staple, the average American dietary profile has skyrocketed to a ratio of 10/15:1, with numbers as high as 40:1. This unnaturally high ratio can lead to whole body inflammation, aggravate autoimmune diseases, and increase risk for heart disease and certain forms of cancer.

At the same time that vegetable oils and processed foods have been increased, average omega-3 intake has decreased. Wild meats and fish are naturally high in omega-3's but have been replaced in most people's modern diets by domesticated, corn and grain-fed versions that are higher in omega-6.

Omega-3's have anti-inflammatory properties, improve insulin sensitivity, reduce blood triglycerides, dilate blood vessels, and reduce overall disease risk factors.

I realize this takes some faith, but it's not the natural saturated or monounsaturated fats in animal meats that are killing us, it's the abnormally high omega-6 fatty acids from vegetables oils (including the trans fat mutation varieties).

Think about it – natural fats that we evolved on versus modern fats that we process. If I'm in Vegas, I'm putting money down on the natural fats, even with the poor odds influenced by the dominant-yet-archaic, so-called health authorities.

Problem is, medical advice and modern nutrition curriculum are highly influenced by the food processing industries; thus what you normally hear is that saturated fats from animals are bad and polyunsaturated fats from vegetable oils are good. It's a joke, except the joke's on us. Eat animals not processed oils.

Eliminate Gluten-containing Foods, Cereal Grains, and Legumes Most of the problems associated with cereal grains have nothing to do with the actual starch content of the grain. Glucose is one of our oldest evolutionary fuels; unless you've made yourself insulin resistant by being fat, eating too much fructose, eating too many omega 6's, not eating enough omega 3's, or not strength training on a consistent basis, your body can handle glucose polymers from starch. In a properly functioning active and athletic body, your body stores normal amounts of glucose as muscle glycogen.

The main problem with modern cereal grains is the compounds that come along with the actual starch. For example, gluten is not a carbohydrate – it's a protein found in cereal grains such as wheat, rye, and barley, and it's a highly problematic food for many people.

Now, we all might not have full-blown gluten allergies where we're toppled over with Celiac's disease, a debilitating condition linked to wheat/gluten consumption where the immune system attacks and destroys cells in the intestine, but many of us may have gluten sensitivity. One new study even questions whether it's safe for anyone to eat wheat.(2) Unfortunately, gluten-free has now become a marketing tool associated with the holier-than-thou holistic crowds, but removing gluten can be a beneficial step for overall digestive health, physical performance (reduced symptoms of lethargy), and appearance (reduced abdominal bloating).

My suggestion is to cut out gluten for a few weeks and see how you respond. It may do wonders for you, it may do nothing, but you'll never know until you try.

Other detrimental compounds in modern cereal grains are what are collectively referred to in Paleo nutrition as "anti-nutrients."

Phytic acid is the storage form of phosphorous in plants, and is typically located in the bran or seeds. Humans can't digest phytic acid because we lack the necessary digestive enzyme phytase.

Strike one against phytase is that it can cause digestive abnormalities. Strike two is that it acts as a chelator of minerals, which impairs proper absorption of those minerals such as zinc and iron. Strike three is that the foods generally containing phytic acid have the consistency and taste of cardboard. As Loren Cordain said, "Cereal grains are literally best left for the birds."

Legumes and cereal grains also contain a compound called lectin. Lectins are sugar-binding proteins that plants have evolved to ward off insect predators – I'd say that's a good clue that they're not meant to be consumed in large quantities by humans.

What are some problems associated with lectins? How about irritation and damage to intestines, over-secretion of mucus in the intestines, reduced absorption of nutrients, diarrhea, nausea, and bloating?(3) However, you might recall that rice – technically a cereal grain – is a mainstay in my dietary recommendations. Here's the deal, rice has always been gluten-free, and phytic acid and lectin are removed in the rice milling and cooking processes. What you're left with is a mixture of pure amylopectin and amylose starches – compounds your body can handle just fine if you're not insulin resistant.

Cut Dairy in Cutting Phases

Arnold said, "Milk is for babies."

To be quite honest, dairy is such a controversial topic (among nutritional researchers, coaches, athletes, bodybuilders, and physique enthusiasts alike) and there are so many issues to discuss (acid-alkaline balance, insulin index, isolated milk proteins versus dairy foods, inclusion in bulking phases versus exclusion in cutting phases, etc.), it warrants a completely separate article. But I don't want to keep you hanging.

I'm a fat loss guy, and that's been 99% of my clientele over the last 10 years. Bulking may be a different story, but my short answer is that whole dairy foods (milk, cheese, cream, yogurt, etc.) should be eliminated during a cutting phase.

Practical Paleo

• Take that grass-fed cow, cut its frickin' head off, and eat it – and don't feel bad about it either. That's what we're meant to do. Our mouths have incisors for an evolutionary reason, which is to tear flesh from the bone, not to separate the marshmallows from the cereal bits in Lucky Charms. Nature is savage – we're savage creatures. The further we move away from that, and eat fake factory foods to try to compensate, the sicker and fatter we become.



• Eliminate almost all processed foods. Most processed foods are just a random combination of the following six ingredients: (1) Sugar (and/or high fructose corn syrup), (2) Trans-fats/hydrogenated oil, (3) High omega-6 vegetable oils, (4) wheat or flour-based starch, (5) refined salt, (6) artificial ingredients/sweeteners. None of which are good for you.



• Make lean animal protein the foundation of your diet. A range for strength training athletes is 0.8g-2.0g/lb of lean body mass, depending on the composition of the rest of the diet.



• Eliminate concentrated sources of fructose from the diet. Ditch the high fructose corn syrup, any processed food with fructose as a sweetener, sugar (which is 1 molecule of fructose + 1 molecule of glucose), fruit juice/smoothies, and dried fruit. I'm personally not a huge fan of fruit, but 1-2 pieces of whole, unaltered fruit a day shouldn't be problematic. Just don't start inhaling bananas by the bushel. At that point, fructose adds up.

• Eliminate transfats/hydrogenated oils.


• Reduce omega-6 consumption by eliminating vegetable oils.


• Increase omega-3 consumption through wild fish, grass-fed and finishd beef.


• Eliminate gluten-containing grains such as wheat, rye, and barley.


• While you're at it, eliminate most other cereal grains, including those damn, overrated whole grain products (breads and cereals).


• Eliminate dairy foods while cutting (milk, cream, cheese, yogurt). Isolated milk proteins are cool.

Don't Just Call Me a Paleo Guy!

As you can see, I think there are many great principles a muscle-head, strength-seeker, or mirror-gazer can take from Paleo-style diets. But I don't want to leave you with the false impression that I'm a true "Paleo-guy." I definitely recommend applying certain Paleo principles, but my overall recommendations are drastically different.

Starches like rice and potatoes are certainly not Paleo foods, but along with lean protein they make up the foundation of my plan for athletes as anaerobic fuel and for creating anabolism.

You'll never convince me that a 300-pound, obese, insulin resistant, sedentary office worker who just wants to be able to see his wee-wee again should be eating the same thing as a 185-pound, ripped, insulin sensitive, athletic alpha male trying to reach peak athletic or physical conditioning,

Yet that's what you have to believe if you buy into the dogmatic adherence to a one-size-fits-all "system." That may be fine for the programs geared towards the commercial masses, but because you're exposed to some of the greatest strength training minds on a daily basis – you're way more informed and smarter than that.

To me, the true value of a Paleo diet for an anaerobic athlete is more about what the diet removes from an average person's plan, rather than the overall structure or macronutrient ratios of the plan itself. Why? Because 100% Paleo eating just doesn't account for variances in activity levels, individual metabolic factors, and the differences between average and elite/extreme physique or performance goals.

Physician and nutrition researcher Kurt G. Harris refers to certain modern food compounds as the Neolithic agents of disease, which I think is a very accurate description. As discussed earlier, modern foods like concentrated fructose/sugar, high omega-6 vegetable oils, trans-fats, and gluten wreak havoc on our systems, body composition, and disease risk factors. Removing those agents is a valuable health step for everyone – overweight, lean, sedentary, athlete, office worker, iron warrior,  and everyone in between.

But, and I mean a big ol' beautiful Kardashian Butt...

To quote Kurt G. Harris again, "Glucose is a necessary internal fuel source and metabolite and it's also a food and the building block of foods that have the longest evolutionary history of any food that mammals use."

(Confused yet? Stay with me. Remember, you're in good hands – I'm half-Japanese, so I'm all about efficiency.) Glucose is one of the oldest evolutionary fuels and a healthy body knows how to process and use it, and an active athlete should be treated differently than a sick diabetic.

Due to a lack of nutrition and physiology knowledge, always rushing to extremes, a cultural tendencies to categorize and demonize (think back to the low-fat era where beneficial fish oils, EFA's, and natural monounsaturated fats were lumped into the same category as trans-fats and hydrogenated oils), and simple ignorance, but several valuable bodybuilding/physique enhancing foods – namely non-fructose, non-gluten containing starchy carbs – have been washed away in the Paleo maelstrom.

I don't recommend pure Paleo eating just like I'm not recommending pure sports nutrition eating – I'm recommending a well-researched and informed blend.

I want you to understand why I think glucose polymers can be beneficial whereas concentrated sources of fructose can be disastrous, why saturated fats from natural animal sources can be better than polyunsaturated fats from processed vegetable sources, why pure amylopectin starch is less problematic than starch containing gluten or lectins, and why a Y2K landing strip is better than a 70's Wolf Bush.
Typical Fat Guy Transformation

Lets examine a typical scenario why all carbs have been lumped into one category and demonized within our industry.

Fat guy is following a typical American diet, 50% sugar, tons of trans-fats, omega-6's, and gluten. When he does eat "healthy," it's usually a wheat bread sandwich with low fat mayo and cheese. Fat guy is tired of being fat, sick, and feeling like crap, and is finally motivated enough to make some changes. Somehow he comes across Paleo/caveman-style dietary recommendations.

Fat guy implements the plan to the letter, loses a ton of weight, gets healthier, etc., all-in-all he does a great job. Awesome. But now fat guy has a religious-like devotion to the "system." He can't see anything, even scientifically researched and anecdotally proven principles, outside of the system. All carbs, regardless of the source, are the enemy. Pure glucose polymers from rice or potatoes are no different from sugar, or gluten-containing wheat. After all, HE lost a ton of weight on a low-carb/Paleo diet.

What fat guy doesn't realize is that commercialized diet plans and "systems" can't go into the subtleties of why dietary recommendations for fat, sedentary guys should be different from active athletes because:

• Programs that are going to be a commercial success generally have to be a one-size-fits all plan. This works for everyone, everywhere system dramatically expands your potential market.


• The average reader doesn't want, or can't comprehend the detailed science necessary to individualize plans.


• Many lab rats and writers just don't know, don't show, or don't care what's going on in the REAL training hood, G.

But deep down, fat guy still knows he's not exactly where he wants to be. He's way better off than he was, but he's still soft, lacks shape/definition, maybe still has that layer of belly flab. He knows he wants to make improvements, but he's rigidly stuck in a system, a system that may very well be inhibiting his progress.

Never mind that he's in a completely different space now. He's no longer fat guy, he's active athletic guy, and targeted sports nutrition principles may actually be relevant and beneficial to him now. By losing weight and consistently strength training, he's dramatically improved his insulin sensitivity. A few carbs may help him build muscle, tighten up, boost metabolism, raise thyroid/leptin output, improve the free Testosterone/cortisol ratio, improve his body, and even LOSE body fat.

But he still has fat guy psychology. He has that fear, the "I don't want to go back to being a fat guy because of carbs" fear.

Hey, I've been there. Along with researching this stuff, I've followed the plans myself. I've followed the typical American diet, the strict Paleo diet, my current dietary recommendations, and everything in between. I've lived the practical side of it too, and the most important lesson is this – you can't get caught up in a formalized, one-size-fits-all system if you expect to find what works best for you, your current athletic state, and your current goals.


References

1. Kavanagh et al, Trans fat diet induces abdominal obesity and changes in insulin sensitivity in monkeys. Obesity 2007 Jul;15(7):1675-84.

2. Bernardo D et al, Is gliadin really safe for non-coeliac individuals? Production of interleukin 15 in biopsy culture from non-coeliac individuals challenged with gliadin peptides. Gut 56 (6): 889-90.

3. Miyake K et al, Lectin-Based Food Poisoning: A New Mechanism of Protein Toxicity. PLoS ONE 2 (1): e687.


Posted by: mcpushup

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P90X MC2- Its a Wrap!

Monday, March 21, 2011It’s A Wrap!

The next great home training program is in the can, as they say in Hollywood even though it’s more like “on the hard drive” these days. So I’ll be shutting down my P90X mc2 preview while the editors do their magic turning a bunch of sweaty workouts into a TV show. Even without our usual advanced rehearsal time that a test group provides I can say, with some certainty, that we got the shots we need. It’s going to be a sequel worthy of the original.

It wasn’t without its challenges, which is true of almost any shoot. Most coaches, trainers, and exercise scientists have no idea about what’s behind making good TV—nor do they care. But as we raise the bar of our target audience, now to include more discerning groups such as athletes and scientists, it becomes trickier to keep it all in balance because our programs are successful, primarily, because they are good entertainment; brining me to my first anecdote of the day.

Up at P3 one day Marcus and I are yappin’ about how to create and evolution to P90X when Utah Jazz big man Al Jefferson says, “You guys going to make a video?” We look at each other, simultaneously thinking about what that would look like, and both break out laughing. I answer something along the lines of “no one would want to watch that,” leading to my second anecdote.

Tony is affectionately called The Fitness Clown. Yeah, he’s a super fit dude who knows how to train but what really sets him apart is his personality and his ability to convey it on camera. During the shoot my two staff trainers on set were making notes about techniques and flaws, in both the cast and Tony, to help us edit and know when we absolutely have to re-shoot something. This is more tech advice than we’ve ever used—on 90x it was just me—and vital for us to deliver a solid program. But it also created a serious air on the set and very early on Mason—the director—had to step in and tell Tony to stop trying to be technical and focus on what he does best, entertainment. And the more Tony became Tony the smoother the workouts went and the better TV they made.


So back to P3 and anecdote #2: we’re up there working with Tony on some PAP training and he tells one of the trainers how much he envies his knowledge of exercise physiology. The trainer replies that he envies Tony’s ability in front of the camera, to which Tony lights up, changing from student to teacher.


“Every time I workout I pretend there’s a camera on me,” he begins before going into many of the subtleties of acting. Marcus and I again exchange a look because, for us, it’s absolutely the opposite of what we’re doing when we’re exercising, which is evaluating how everything works the body and how it may be useful if incorporated into a training program. But as I’m sitting in front of the A camera with a stack of cue cards and a note pad, watching Tony work, I think of this over and over. And each time I hold up a card I see his lessons from that day play out in front of me as he seamlessly works the tip into his repertoire as if he were about to say it anyway—a professional on the top of his game. And maybe he was going to say it. And we’ll never know. And that’s the magic of Hollywood.

Coming fall 2011: P90x: The Sequel.


Posted by Steve Edwards at 12:17 PM

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Added Sugar’ May Add to Weight Gain in U.S.

Added Sugar’ May Add to Weight Gain in U.S.

Study Sees Link Between Weight Gain and Eating Foods With Sugar Added to Ingredients

By Brenda Goodman

WebMD Health NewsReviewed by Laura J. Martin, MD March 24, 2011 -- Researchers taking nutritional snapshots of the population around a major metropolitan area for more than 30 years say they’ve noticed something interesting: as consumption of added sugars has increased, so too, have body weights.
Researchers parsing the myriad reasons for America’s collective growing girth have looked at the contributions of total calories and fat, experts say, but less is known about what role added sugars might play.

Added sugars are sugars in foods that aren’t naturally occurring. They’re mixed in as sugar or syrups during processing or preparation.


The sugar in fruit, fructose, for example, wouldn’t count as an added sugar. But the high-fructose corn syrup that’s added to some kinds of fruit cocktail would fall into that category. So would sugars added to sweeten yogurt, soft drinks, and processed snacks and desserts like cookies, cakes, and pies.

“We’re looking at trends,” says study researcher Lyn M. Steffen, PhD, MPH, an epidemiologist at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health. “We looked at them in women and men, and in both men and women, added sugar intake increased since 1980.”

“At the same time, BMI [body mass index] has also increased,” Steffen tells WebMD. Though the study isn’t designed to prove that one is causing the other, the closely parallel trends over 27 years of data collection may point to the need for closer investigation. “It looks suspicious,” she says.


The study was presented at the American Heart Association's Nutrition, Physical Activity and Metabolism/Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention 2011 Scientific Sessions.
Industry Perspective

An industry group that represents sugar producers says the evidence of a connection is lacking.

“A single study, performed by AHA [American Heart Association] or any other group, is inconclusive and needs further investigation,” says Andrew Briscoe, president and CEO of the Sugar Association. “When a major review occurs, the results always come back the same -- there is no scientific evidence to support a need to set an intake level for sugar.”
“It is necessary for consumers to understand the importance of practicing moderate consumption of all foods and beverages while maintaining a healthy lifestyle” Briscoe says. “Focusing on any one food takes away from the most important and more tangible goal of caloric balance.”
Looking at Added Sugars

Every five years since 1980, researchers have surveyed about 5,000 people around the Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn. area, asking questions about what they ate within the last 24 hours. They also collected information about body weight, age, socioeconomic status, and lifestyle.

Researchers ran the answers through a software program that has compiled nutritional analysis information on hundreds of thousands of food products. By doing that, they were able to tell how much sugar people ate was added or naturally occurring.


Looking at Added Sugars continued...

Over 27 years since 1980, consumption of added sugars increased for all ages and both sexes.

In the latest survey, which was conducted from 2007 to 2009, for example, men were getting about 15% of their total daily calories from added sugars, nearly 40% more than was reported in the study’s first survey, which ran from 1980 to 1982,

Among women, added sugar intake rose from about 10% to about 13% over that same time period.
When researchers organized their results by age, they saw that younger adults reported eating more sugar than older adults.

At the same time, BMIs climbed along with sugar consumption.


There was one bright spot, however: in the 2000 to 2002 survey, added sugar consumption appeared to level off in both men and women and actually decreased a bit over the next seven to nine years. The BMIs of women also went down.


“I think women do pay more attention to their diet, and I think women are also paying attention to the messages of overweight and obesity,” Steffen says.

Watching Extra Sugar

The American Heart Association recommends eating no more than 5% of total calories from sugar. In a 2,000-calorie a day diet, for example, that’s about 100 calories of extra sugar, or about 24 grams, which is how sugar is listed on nutrition labels.

“It’s difficult because the label lists total sugars. The label doesn’t list added sugar,” says Rachel K. Johnson, RD, PhD, a professor of nutrition at the University of Vermont who has studied added sugars, but was not involved in the current research.
“So a good rule of thumb is, if there’s no milk or dairy products, which would have the sugar lactose, or no fruit, which would have the sugar fructose, the total sugars is a good indication of the amount of added sugars,” says. “If you have something like a flavored yogurt or a cereal with dried fruit in it, it’s a little more difficult.”


One way to figure out how much sugar has been added, she suggests, with a product like yogurt is to try to find a plain product to compare.


“Take a plain, unsweetened yogurt, if you can find one of the same brand, and compare the amount of sugars in that and compare the amount in the sweetened yogurt you’re looking at and the difference will tell you what’s been added,” she says.

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View Article Sources

SOURCES:



American Heart Association's Nutrition, Physical Activity and Metabolism/Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention 2011 Scientific Sessions, Atlanta, March 24, 2011.
News Release, American Heart Association.
Lyn M. Steffen, PhD, MPH, University of Minnesota School of Public Health.

Andrew Briscoe, president and CEO, Sugar Association, Washington, D.C.

Rachel K. Johnson, RD, PhD, professor of nutrition, University of Vermont.
© 2011 WebMD, LLC. All rights reserved.

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WebMD does not provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.

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P90 X FOY Yoga review

Fountain of Youth ( FOY) Yoga
Tony Horton –Star Trainer

This is video is from the one on one series that was recorded in Tony Horton’s gym at his home in Santa Barbara California.
It is low key and very up close and personal. It is just him and Mason ( the videographer and director) in the room.
Tony does call a shout out to my up-line coach Lee Rotterman, yeah Lee!!

AS most people know Yoga X is 90 minutes which is hard for people to fit into busy Thursdays.



So this Video is supposed to be 40 minutes, but turns into 48 minutes not too bad…

• As usual he starts with breathing Flat back and Namases

• Then you go into Downward dogs and Vinyasas, keep off your knees!

• Chair Pose and prayer pose New poses and moves Envelop pose ( yikes , yeah right)

• He uses a huge yoga block to stretch legs

• Various stretching and baby poses.

• Done!!

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Tonys 30 Day Challenge (Rant)

All: Here is Tony's 30 day Challenge:

I, ____ hereby declare that I will follow the “Tony Horton food plan” for the next 30 days. The objective of this 30 day food plan is to create new and positive habits that expand beyond 30 days and carry these habits forward each and every day.

1. For the next 30 days I will no longer white bread or anything made with enriched flour or processed flour.
SNICKERS BARS.
DONE!
OUT!
GONE!
BYE BYE!
SEE YA LATER!
NO MAS!
SIANARA!
GOT IT?
GET IT?
DO IT!

2. I will greatly reduce my dairy intake.
GET IT?
DO IT!
NO MORE PIZZA WITH A TON OF CHEESE!
NO MORE MILK!
NO MORE ICE CREAM!
GONE!
OUT!
GO BUY SOME ALMOND MILK OR RICE MILK.
OR I'LL SMACK YA

3. No more carbonated beverages
NO MORE PEPSI.
NO MORE COKE.
NO MORE 7 UP.
NO MORE SPRITE.
NO MORE DR. PEPPER.
NO MORE DIET PEPSI.
NO MORE DIET COKE.
NO MORE ZERO COKE.
NO MORE MOUNTAIN DEW.
NONE!

4. Water & Tea only, coffee drinkers only 1 cup (8 oz)
IF YOU'RE A COFFEE PSYCHO, 1 CUP A DAY.
SHUT UP AND DO IT

5. At least 2 meals a day there needs to be vegetables on the plate, 1 meal better include fruit.
DO IT

6. Here’s how you’re getting your protein, Nuts, Beans, Fish, turkey & chicken.
THAT'S IT!
SHUT UP AND DO IT!
GET OFF THE RED MEAT FOR A WHILE.
OFF!
I DON'T CARE ABOUT LEAN RED MEAT.
JUST GET OFF OF IT!

7. First 2 weeks write everything down and post it here for accountability. Everyday. Do it.
WRITE IT DOWN!
WRITE IT DOWN!
EVERY MORSEL!
"OH, BUT TONY, THAT'S SO HARD, IT TAKES TIME, WHAT IF I FORGET A PEN? WHAT IF I'VE LOST MY PAD OF PAPER TO WRITE DOWN WHAT I'VE EATEN? DOES THAT MEAN I HAVE TO WRITE DOWN EVERYTHING IN MY SALAD? WHAT IF THERE'S AVOCADO, PEPPERS, MUSHROOMS, NUTS, IN DIFFERENT KINDS OF SALAD, DO I HAVE TO WRITE IT ALL DOWN?"
SHUT UP YOU WHINY LITTLE BI*****!
IF YOU WANT TO LIVE LARGE AND YOU WANT THIS MICROSCOPICALLY SHORT LIFE OF YOURS TO BE WORTH SHOWING UP FOR
THEN YOU'LL MAKE A PLAN.

“We have to take control of our lives. The one that is happening, not the pretend one. We have to take control of our eating. We have to stop the fantasy version and start believing in the real one. We have to stop pretending that things are going to get better because we just bought a new crystal, or our palm reading went well, or somebody else will do it for us, or if you just hope or pray it’ll get better on its own. Good grief! F you’re not happy it’s because of you! It’s just you. You and no one else. Not you husband, not your wife, not God, not your parents, not your work not the weather, none of it. It you and the information or lack there of, inside your brain. The more you know, the more you can do.” – Tony Horton

Somewhere afterwards he added for the last week "if has Eyes or feet" don't eat it.

Enjoy People

Coach XMike

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P90X- Chest and Back Review

CHEST & BACK

Here is the review for Chest and Back, Number 1 in the original P90X series

Below is the list of Equipment required:

Chest and Back 52:49 Total running time
Warm-up 2:29
Stretch 6:30

Tip of the day;
Do your best and forget the rest
In Video:

Scotty Pfeiffer
Bobby Stevenson
Lorraine
Tony Horton

Workout 43:31

Standard Pull-ups
Wide Front Pull-ups
Military Pull-ups
Reverse Grip Chin-ups
Wide Fly Push-ups
Closed Grip Overhead Pull[ups
Decline Push-ups
Heavy Pants
Diamond Push-ups
Lawnmowers
Dive Bomber Push-ups
Back-Fly’s

Cool down 3:40
Done - Celebrate!!
I think this was the first workout recorded ( In P90X series) Tony is quite excited.
I typically do over 250 + pushups, over the course of the workout.
Some people get weighted vests as there strength improves so the rep counts don’t get too high.
One coach I know does 400 pushups per workout!

When I started it was probably 100 or so for me,

Have fun!!

Be sure to drink your Results and Recovery drink afterwards.

Click below  if you are ready for P90X!!



Mike

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Diet -3 Tricks for Faster Fat Loss

Thought I would pass along some info......

3 Tricks for Faster Fat Loss
by Clay Hyght, DC – 3/16/2011

You're doing everything right: Banishing junk food, training hard, adding in some cardio – but none of it seems to touch that spare tire around your waist.

Well, don't save up for lipo just yet.

When everything in your regimen says you should have visible abs and yet you don't, try these tricks to get you ready for the shirtless days of summer.

Trick 1: Dial-In Your Pre-Bed Meal

What did you eat before bed last night? What are you going to eat before bed tonight?

It's important, because what you eat in the two hours prior to bedtime has an enormous impact on your physique, especially when it comes to fat loss.
Here's the rule: Eat for what you're about to do.

Sure, some lucky bastards may go to bed and find a pair of scantily clad Playmates frolicking around between the sheets. But most of us mortals aren't about to engage in two hours of NEPA (non-exercise physical activity) when we head toward the bedroom.

For that reason, we don't need to eat a traditional meal at that time. Instead, we need to eat for what we're about to do: not move very much.

More specifically, your carbohydrate needs are dramatically diminished – arguably eliminated – when you're sleeping. Remember, carbs fuel high-intensity exercise like weight-training and sprinting, and there's no such thing as "high-intensity sleeping."

Fat, on the other hand, becomes the primary fuel source as the intensity of exercise goes down. In fact, when you're sleeping you're burning almost exclusively fat for fuel.

Therefore, feeding your body carbs prior to bed dramatically increases the chance that the carbs are stored as opposed to being burned. And if carbs aren't burned, they're either stored as glycogen or as fat.

If you happen to have weight-trained (cardio doesn't count) in the last three or four hours prior to retiring to your chamber, then there's very little chance that the carbs you eat at this time will be converted to fat. That's because glycogen stores are low and will hog all the carbs, leaving none needing to be converted to fat.

However, the majority of us don't train within three or four hours before bed, so we should eliminate carbs in our pre-bed meal. When I say eliminate I don't necessarily mean zero grams. Don't be afraid of low-starch veggies at this time.

As for pre-bed fat intake, I stand by my rule of "have fat when you don't have carbs." However, I do recommend cutting your normal portion of fat in half.

There's evidence that consuming a large amount of fat (a "fat load") suppresses hormone sensitive lipase (HSL), which is needed to break down fat. (1) Although the fat load in this study was more than a savvy trainee would normally consume in one meal (40g), I'd recommend being even more conservative. For the last meal of the day, limit yourself to 10 or 15 grams of fat.

Trick 2: Do Morning, No-Carb Cardio

No, not "fasted" cardio, but rather "no-carb" cardio. There's a big difference.

Let's say you just knocked back a bowl of Fruit Loops and you decide you want to go do some cardio to get leaner. Problem is, that cardio is going to primarily be fueled by your Fruit Loops, not your love handles.

That's because eating carbs blunts fat burning and promotes the body's use of carbs for fuel. Clearly, we don't want to burn carbs for fuel if we're doing cardio to lose fat.
So how do we burn fat for fuel?

Fasting – going without eating for a period of time, like during sleep – shifts the body toward burning fat for fuel. Why? Liver glycogen and blood sugar are lower after fasting, so the body is forced to burn fat for fuel in a fasted state.

Fasted cardio leads to significantly higher levels of the potent fat-burning hormone, norepinephrine, than non-fasted cardio. (2) That's why bodybuilders have been doing fasted cardio for years, with great results.

But this strategy isn't quite perfect.

In addition to burning fat for fuel, the body will also mobilize protein to help with meeting energy demands. And it will get this protein, specifically amino acids (leucine, isoleucine, and valine) from muscle tissue. Your muscles are parting with precious branched-chain amino acids. Not good.

Yep, your body will break down muscle tissue to fuel your treadmill walking, even without your permission. And this occurs more and more as the intensity of exercise goes up. But there's a way around this robbing-Peter-to-pay-Paul conundrum.

Consuming BCAAs prior to doing cardio reduces and even prevents the protein breakdown that would otherwise occur. (3) That means more muscle for you and a faster metabolic rate.

When doing high-intensity interval training (HIIT), research suggests it's probably not beneficial to do it fasted, since the fuel used for it isn't fat anyway. It's carbs. However, consuming BCAAs prior to HIIT is still crucial, maybe even more so. As the intensity of exercise goes up, so does the role BCAAs play in energy production.

Trick 3: Eat to Replenish Your Muscles, Not Your Liver

Fact: You need to eat carbs to replenish muscle glycogen for optimal performance and muscle growth. Trying to build muscle without carbs is like driving with four flat tires. It can be done, but it ain't fast, and it ain't fun!

But it's not enough to just eat carbs and hope they'll make it to your muscles. You need to know they're going to your muscles. Ditch the wish-upon-a-star strategy and implement a scientific protocol of carb consumption.

Let's review some carb science. There are three types of monosaccharides of interest to us humans: glucose, fructose, and galactose. The latter comes from the breakdown of the disaccharide lactose, found in dairy products. I highly doubt a significant portion of your carbs come from lactose.

Regardless, it will be broken down into one part glucose and one part galactose. Subsequently, the galactose will soon be converted to your body's favorite monosaccharide – glucose.

Glucose is the body's preferred carb currency. Once in the body – whether ingested directly or from the breakdown of more complex carbs – glucose is used for energy, stored as glycogen, or converted to fat.

In The Insulin Advantage we discussed the importance of not overeating carbs so that the excess can't be converted to fat. We only want to eat enough carbs to supply our immediate energy needs and to replenish glycogen, specifically muscle glycogen.

The cool, physique-friendly thing about glucose is that it preferentially replenishes muscle glycogen as opposed to liver glycogen. It seems the skeletal muscles worked out some sort of deal with the body so that it gets first dibs on extra glucose before the liver gets a chance to lay its mitts on the fuel. That's great for us, because we desperately want our carbs to go to our muscles, not to our liver!

Enter fructose. This diabolical bastard evidently worked out a similar deal with the devil. Er, I mean the liver.

When we ingest fructose, it's quickly absorbed and shuttled off to the liver. It'll then be stored as liver glycogen and will be slowly broken down as needed by the blood.

The problem? Storing carbs in our liver does our muscles no good! The other problem is that once the liver is full of glycogen (and it only holds about 100 grams) it will convert any incoming fructose to triglycerides. That sucks. It sucks from an appearance standpoint and from a health standpoint.

What does that mean for us? It means that we certainly don't need to be too liberal with our fructose intake!

It also means that your pre-workout carbs should be glucose-containing carbs, NOT fructose-containing. Because, essentially, whatever carbs you eat from fructose are not going to your muscles, which so desperately want and need them post-workout. So, keep an eye on fructose, but also monitor your sucrose intake. Sucrose, which is table sugar, is a disaccharide made of one fructose molecule and one glucose molecule. In other words, sucrose is half fructose.

Soda is definitely not a good choice for post-workout carbs, but there's a much less obvious carb source we need to keep an eye on: fruit. For example, of the roughly 25 grams of carbs in an apple, about 15 grams are from fructose.

The point isn't to avoid fruit altogether. In fact, I typically recommend most people eat one or two servings a day because it's packed with a plethora of micronutrients. Rather, the point is to avoid having a couple pieces of fruit and thinking all 50 grams of carbs are going to your starving muscles. They're not.

A far better approach is to have no more than one piece of fruit at a time, even in the post-workout "window of opportunity." And if you're going to have fruit post-workout, consider making it a banana, which has more glucose, yet about half the fructose of an apple.

Basics Come Before Strategies

These three fat-loss strategies aren't going to get you lean if you superimpose them on otherwise piss-poor nutrition and training programs.

However, I can tell you from experience that if you try to get lean without using these tricks, your abs are going to stay hidden for a much longer time.

Cardio: Bike
Duration: 60 min. Change Exercise.

Guidelines
This week we target problem areas.

Before and after cardio, our goal is to work your problem areas with high repetition resistance exercise.

This will have the effect of increasing circulation to these problem areas while you are actively in fat burning mode.

To Target Belly Fat:

Seated abdominal machine: 3 sets, 15-25 repetitions before and immediately after cardio.

To target hip and thigh fat:

Leg press: 15-20 repetitions before AND after cardio. Pre-cardio
3 grams L-glutamine, 2 grams L-carnitine, 50mg Coq10, 3 grams branch chain aminos


During cardio
35 minutes at level 18
10 minutes at level 15
5 minutes at level 5


Post-cardio
Stretch legs
2 grams L-carnitine, 50 mg coq10


I always use L Carnitine and L Glutamine before my workouts, and they even recommend an extra shot after 45 minutes seems a little extreme, but I bet it helps. We also Highly recommend the Result and Recovery Formula within 1 hour after your workouts, especially intense lifting and extreme Cardio!

Happy Weight Loss

Mike

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Mountains

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Silhouette of Runner and Tree Photographic Print at AllPosters.com

Silhouette of Runner and Tree Photographic Print at AllPosters.com

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Our Highest Need

I loved George Sheehan as he took running very seriously for what he was able to recieve for his spitiuas sake. read his essays and books, they are incredible.
I always have tributed to him my favorite saying, "The race is not for the swiftest, but for those who keep on running" I have this picture on my wall, my sister Debbie bought it for me .

 I was one of those skinny guys many years ago until my knees went out.


Now I work at Muscular strength and Cardio endurance. It is the complete package!
 Remember we need stong muscular stuctures to hold those , knee and hip joints together.
Do you Plyo and your Legs and Back , as Tony Horton says " it works ".

"Heroism is always available. Through ordinary experiences

the ordinary man can become extraordinary."



George Sheehan, one critic has said, is a legend in his own mind. Of course I am. You should be too. Each one of us must be a hero. We are here to lead a heroic life. When we cease to do that we no longer truly exist. Alfred E. Housman described it well; "Runners whom fame outran/and the legend died before the man."

What fame? you ask. The only true fame, is the inner celebration of yourself. Nothing else lasts. Legends are perpetually dying. They must constantly be revived. We must always be searching for the grail, never ceasing in our labors, forever on trial for our gift of existence.

Susan Cheever writes of her father John Cheever's battle to escape this constant pressure. "To leave behind the torpid stability of the suburbs and the responsibilities of a house and a family and most of all to escape the pressure to continually surpass himself as a writer."

Each of us knows those urges. We look to a future where we are free to do as and with whom we please. We look to the time when work and effort, duty and obligation will cease. To a day where we can take our ease and enjoy the fruits of our labors, no longer in contention with the most difficult of rivals-our youthful self.

We should know better. The battle is never over. The war is never won. Today's bare landscape is always and ever the arena where I contend with myself. I say my prayers and go to combat.

No one else may be aware of this struggle. It does not matter. The hero needs no recognition. The deed is done. The audience of one is satisfied.

No matter how much we are aware of these truths, we put them aside. The heroic is too much for us. Perhaps the most searching question anyone can ask themselves is, "Why don't I feel heroic in this life." Few of us admit that what gnaws at our innards is this question of making some heroic contributions to our own or the general good.

A young artist who read these lines said, "These words stuck out a new strength in me. They revived resolutions, long fallen away and made me set my face like flint."

That strength is there. Those resolutions have substance. That flinty determination is part of our higher nature. We only need read William James to have these qualities renewed with us. "Mankind's common instinct for reality," he writes, "has always held the world to be essentially a theater for heroism."

That is the reason, wrote Ernest Becker, we still thrill to Ralph W. Emerson and Friedrich W. Nietzsche. "We like to be reminded that our central calling, our main task on this planet, is the heroic."

The universal human problem, says Becker, is the fear of death, and only through a superlative cosmic heroism can we overcome it. "What one is doing to earn his feeling of heroism is the main self-analytic problem in life."

"It begins to look as though modern man cannot find his heroism in everyday life any more", writes Beaker. Do not for a minute believe it. Heroism is always available. Through ordinary experiences the ordinary man can become extraordinary. The heroic, said Soren Kierkegaard, had no relation to the difference between one man and another. Heroism means being great in what every human can be great in.

So life does resolve down to finding the way we are best suited to be a hero. To find our arena, our event, what it is we do best. My legend will not be your legend. We are about the business of making a unique self. How we can best do that is next on the agenda.

The common man reaches excellence by making demands on himself.

Our highest need is to be a hero. From our childhood on we want to be number one. As adults we seek some assurance of immortality. We want those we leave behind to remember we were here.

The greatest psychiatrists, theologians and philosophers have given us their thoughts on this subject. That need not deter us from deciding for ourselves, coming to our own conclusions, living our own lives. Their words may stiffen our spines, gird our loins and stiffen our faces like flint-but what course we pursue then will be our very own. The hero, if nothing else, is his own man.



Copyright © The George Sheehan Trust

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