26/05/09 – It’s all crap!

Alright well today I finally admitted it to myself. Everything I’ve done in the last 6 months has now been undone with 4 weeks or so of bad eating. I’m afraid my mindset of late has probably slipped back to my fat self. Rather than the 10ish BF% I’m probably sitting around 19 or 20%. Not horrible but I’m still extremely disappointed in myself.

But enough feeling sorry for myself. My plan is just to eat healthy and try to get my mind in control of my stomach, instead of the other way around. Paleo? No. I’m afraid paleo eating requires a level of discipline that I’m not really confident I have at the moment. Will I return to it? I definitely intend to, but for the next month or more I really want to prove to myself that I do still have some self discipline. On top of that, it’s actually very expensive to eat paleo, so once Megan and I have a decent budget worked out, and once I’m happy with where my mind is at, then I will look at returning to a paleo diet.

Training wise, I’ll be sticking with resistance work. It’s hard work, I can pick up some weights any time and I just really enjoy it. My gumdo training is certainly more than enough to give me a good cardio hit at the moment.

I won’t be taking any progress pictures or anything of that kind because I really just need to do this for myself. I’m not doing it to prove any particular diet works, or to track muscle gain, or anything like that so sorry if you’re interested in seeing pictures but I won’t be doing them.

Anyway, on to today’s workout:

• Bench press – 5×5 @ 90lbs
• Bent over row – 5×5 @ 90lbs
• Deadlift – 5×5 @ 110lbs
• High pull – 5×5 @ 110lbs
• 10 minutes meditation

Felt pretty good afterwards. 110lbs isn’t really enough to push myself for a deadlift, but that’s all I have so there’s not much option there. Don’t think I enjoy the high pull with dumbells, it’s not quite the same as with a barbell, but it still worked everything pretty well so it doesn’t matter too much.

21/5/09 – Still fit

I have to admit with the distinct lack of resistence work I’ve been doing lately I thought my fitness would have dropped quite a lot. Deciding to kick it back in to gear, I hit the kettlebell swings for 12 minutes of pain. Ahhh it took me back. All the way back to January.

Anyway, it seems I was wrong:

•  Kettlebell swings x 12 minutes @ 20kg
• 10 minutes meditation

Proud to say, I beat my personal record of 242 swings. Smashed it infact. Total count was 364 swings in 12 minutes. By the end of the 12 minutes I just plain couldn’t hold on to the bell any more, so I’m happy with that number for now.

It was tempting to do some presses instead of the meditation, but I really need to practice so I stuck to my guns instead. Felt great afterwards I have to admit!

2/04/09

It was a fantastic morning this morning. No workout last night, but today I hit the iron for workout #3 in supersets.

• Kettlebell clean + press – 5×5
• Kettlebell snatch – 5×5

5×5 felt pretty good, I felt like the last rep was well and truly the last rep I could possibly squeeze out. Maybe another week or two and I will need to move up weight.
I also swung by dads place today and picked up his old dumbbells and about 150kg worth of weights which should open up some new possibilities. Heavy squats, dead lifts and the like.
I also wanted to mention a good friend of mine has started a blog recently. He’s recently lost a ton of weight pretty much unassisted (except a few guiding words from me :D) and is now working hard on bulking up. His reasons for fitness are slightly different from my own, but he’s motivated and dedicated so I hope you’ll all check out his blog at http://www.groupfit.com.au.

I’m alive!

Seriously, I swear…

Last week was a b#$^h of a week. Work was busy as hell, and I’ve also been doing some work on a website for somebody – some custom programming – which has eaten up most of my time lately.

I did get in a workout on Sunday though, just clean+presses really. 5 ladders, 5 rungs for the first 3, 3 rungs for the last 2. I think the strength is coming. Slowly, but it’s getting there.

I also went for a run on Saturday which was great – I haven’t been out running in ages, and I thought it’d be a good time to get to know the pavement around the new house. I strode out 5km (3.1 miles) in about 18 minutes which is just under a 6 minute mile. Pretty damned happy with that, seeing as I haven’t been training for running at all!

That’s really all I have to say right now… I’ll do my best to catch up on everyone’s blogs very soon!

Paleo update

Quick update folks. Paleo diet kicked in again last week and I had some trouble getting back in to it. The body really craved sugar and I had some wicked headaches through till Wednesday as a result. On Tuesday I was completely out of energy, I just couldn’t focus on anything really.

For various reasons (my sissyness mostly) I didn’t really follow the whole diet all that strictly. I was drinking diet coke/diet pepsi all week, had a few coffees (with milk no less), a few barley sugars (do you have those in America? I love ’em), so on and so forth.

But I do still feel the diet has merit, and I really would like to stick to it. Making it past 2 weeks at this stage would be a big thing I think 😀 Maybe I need to re-analyse why I want to stick to it, and actually come up with some solid reasons to be dedicated to the cause.

Anyway, one way I aim to hold myself a bit more accountable is to post each day’s meals here, so to start with, here’s breakfast:

• 2 fried eggs
• 2 slices of bacon
• 1 carrot

I really love being able to have bacon and eggs for breakfast and still be “on a diet” – it’s just great 😀

Thanks Jason!

I didn’t get around to my workout last night; my shoulders and legs were still exhausted from moving on the weekend. So instead, I bring you this.

I’ve noticed a bit of a spike in hits on my blog over the last week. The culprit: Jason Statham. For some reason all of a sudden everyone’s searching for info on Jason Statham’s diet and workout. I thought I’d dedicate a post to this worthy topic and hopefully answer everyone’s questions.

 

Why Jason?

A bit of background: Jason Statham was an Olympic diver in a past life, so he obviously knows how to stay fit and healthy, but recently he employed the services of Logan Hood to help him get in shape for Transporter 3 and Crank 2 – both movies that I expect called for him to be shirtless for no apparent reason.

As you can see from the shot below, the magic Logan worked on Statham definitely did the trick. Apparently he lost 17 pounds in 6 weeks. For a man that wasn’t exactly fat to begin with, you’ll agree that’s impressive.

 

The diet

The exact diet regime Jason followed is called the ‘paleolithic diet’ – also known as the paleo diet, or caveman diet. I won’t cover the specifics here – there’s a ton of info about it around if you look.

The paleo diet is neither low carb, nor is it low fat, it simply requires you to eat the natural, unprocessed foods that were available to man in paleolithic times. This means tons of vegetables, fruit, nuts and meat. No grains, wheat or other agricultural products.

Now, when I say it’s not low carb, that is not entirely true. It is lower carb than a typical western diet in today’s society, however it is not ‘low carb’. The carbs are simply lower than you would expect because carbohydrates are simply not plentiful in natural foods, honey and maple syrup aside. Real maple syrup is 100% natural and unprocessed by the way.

The effect this diet has is to force your body to burn fat rather than sugar. When you consume food high in carbohydrates, the resulting insulin instructs your body to store fat, rather than burn it. For those of you familiar with weight loss, the effect is similar to consuming alcohol – your body ignores its natural energy sources and burns sugar instead. So without the sugar getting in the way, bodyfat will burn off quickly.

So if you’re interested in this diet, what do you need to know?

Firstly, I would consider this diet pretty hardcore. Expect cravings, and expect them to be powerful. You can’t eat candy, you can’t eat pizza, you can’t drink coffee and you can’t drink soda.

Secondly, don’t count calories. Only eat when you are hungry, and eat until you aren’t hungry then stop.

Thirdly, don’t be afraid to eat fatty foods. You don’t have sugar to burn anymore, so you need plenty of fat (not trans fat) to use for energy. When I say fatty foods I mean red meat, nuts and so on, not deep fried chicken.

Enough about diet.

 

The workouts

No, you don’t need to spend 2 hours, 7 days a week in the gym. Expect 40 minutes to be a ‘long’ workout. The type of exercise you should be doing is high intensity sprints, and resistance training.

Why high intensity sprints? Think about this – what reason would our ancestors (the ones who shaped our DNA through survival of the fittest) have had to run at a steady pace for 20 miles? How often do you think they spent 40 miuntes on a stair climber at their local gym?

A far more likely scenario is our caveman friend running away from the lion he just chucked a spear at. Sounds funny, but it’s true. You don’t run away from a lion at a half-arsed pace – you run like s**t and climb the nearest tree possible. So, start sprinting. Following tabata intervals is a good way to start – 20 second sprints followed by 10 second rests, repeated 8 times.

Why resistance training? Once again, thought is involved. Once our caveman friend has escaped the lion, what’s he going to do? He’s going to spear himself a chicken, cow or whatever else is handy, and then he’s going to carry it back to his cave to share. So, the best kind of exercise for building a strong, powerful body is lifting something heavy – preferably over the head.

Obviously you shouldn’t run outside and try and lift a 200kg concrete block over your head – start at a comfortable level and work your way up accordingly, but everybody should try and include weight lifting in their programs.

I personally love the kettlebell, but you can use a barbell, dumbells, or even a heavy log if that’s what you prefer.

 

How long till I’m ripped like Jason?

Obviously that depends on where you’re starting. If you’re overweight and lack strength, quite a while. If you’re fit and just want to get that bit leaner, maybe only a month or two.

 

Ok, I’m ripped now – can I stop?

No. The paleo diet is not a “diet” in the modern terms, it’s a lifestyle change. Once you’re on it, you’re on it for life. If you stop, you’ll go straight back to where you were before.

Alright not necessarily, but many of the benefits will disappear and you’ll most likely put on at least some of your weight again.

Ahhh Sunday

No workout to post today guys, although I did have a good day nutrition wise. Bacon and eggs for breakfast (how many times have you gotten to say a good nutritional day started with bacon!!), a chicken wrap (ok the wrap was less desirable) for lunch and chicken laksa for dinner.

The laksa had noodles in it which wasn’t great, and the wrap wasn’t great either, but aside from that it was a good day. Weekends are always hard, because at work the only thing I have to eat is what I’ve taken, but on the weekend it’s easy to just pop up to the shops…

But Megan’s back now, and she says hi to everyone! Now she can get back to cooking my delcious meals 😀

Also, just for some entertainment, here’s a picture of my left forearm after last nights workout.

 

Still some work on correct form required here...

Some changes

It’s now been about 7 weeks (as of tomorrow) since I started blogging.

My original aim of the blog was to prove (mostly to myself) that it’s possible (infact easy) to stay fit, strong and healthy without having to fork out every month for an expensive gym membership.

I feel at this point that I’ve absolutely proved that to myself, if not others (if others disagree then that’s their business) and that at this point I can put down my pen and go do something else with my life…

 

HAH!

Yeah right. In fact, I’m just getting started. As of right now, my “Nutrition” category contains 4 posts, while my “Training” category contains 37.

The main reason for this is that I’ve always considered nutrition a bit of a no-brainer. You eat healthy (lets be honest, you all know what healthy is and so does everyone else, even if they don’t admit it), and you feel and look healthy.

This is most definitely going to change. Having seen how quickly I’ve shed off a few body fat %’age points after only minor tweaks to my diet over the last 7 weeks, I’m beginning to realise just how important eating correctly is. For this reason, the next 6 weeks will now focus mainly on diet.

No, this doesn’t mean I’m stopping my workouts. I won’t even be changing them dramatically, they’ll just be getting a little bit less focus here while I log down how I’m feeling, what I’m eating and so on.

The ‘Diet’

First and foremost, this is not a “diet” as the media would refer to it. I don’t intend to eat this way for a month, then go eat some chips. If the diet is sustainable and worthwhile, then it will be a lifestyle change for good.

Now, the diet I’m trying has several names: the paleolithic  or paleo diet, the caveman diet, the warrior diet and the hunter gatherer diet. There’s others, but there are better things to discuss.

The main theory behind the paleo diet is this: farming is a relatively new invention – estimated at roughly 10,000 years old.

Ok, that’s not that “new”, but consider the fact that it takes a few hundred thousand years at least for a species to evolve in any significant way. Also consider the fact that for at least several hundred years, science and medicine will have significantly reduced the effect of any kind of evolution – survival of the fitest no longer truely applies to us.

Taking both of these things in to account, it is logical to conclude that as a species, there is no way our bodies could possibly have evolved around our diet at this point. Our bodies are not prepared for the high intake of simple carbs, trans fats and “toxins” in general (I hate that word, but it’s appropriate here).

Believe it or not, included on this list are several foods which would otherwise be labelled healthy – grains, beans and potatoes!

All three of the above contain high levels of chemicals that are designed to stop animals eating them – this is their protection mechanism. You’ll notice that none of those foods are edible without being cooked (some people eat raw potatoes – they’ll die soon though, so I’m safe in saying that) – this is because the cooking process kills enough of those chemicals for them to be edible, however they’re still quite unhealthy.

 

So what CAN you eat?

Most people’s (and mine) first reaction to this diet is “Wow, so you can’t eat much of anything then?” – so wrong!

The formula for success is quite simple, and easily summarised by a website I found yesterday. Basically you ask yourself two questions:

• If you were trapped in a forrest with no (or limited) tools, would this food be readily available?
• Is the food edible without being cooked, regardess of whether you intend to cook it or not?

If the answer to both questions is yes, then you can eat it! Generally speaking, this will include the following:

• Lean meats
• Most vegitables
• Fruit
• Nuts (not including peanuts which are legumes, or cashews for some reason)

Generally speaking, the following should be avoided:

• Grains (the occasional grain is ok, but not in large quantities)
• Pasta, rice etc
• Potatoes (even sweet potatoes :()
• Beans and legumes
• Processed foods or foods containing lots of preservatives
• Food with added salt
• Simple sugars

 

One thing that’s immediately obvious – this diet is very low in carbs. Why? Because simple carbs are pretty hard to come by naturally. Probably the only two simple sugary carbs I can think of that are naturally obtainable would be honey and maple syrup, both of which would generally be a rare treat.

Will this affect my workouts? No.

The body is fueled by calories, not carbohydrates. While carbs are a great source of calories, they’re high gi and burn very quickly, whereas calories obtained via fat and protein are both low gi, thus I should have more energy throughout the day, rather than having energy spikes around meal times, and the lows in between.

Better yet, a low carb, high protein diet stimulates muscle growth! Who doesn’t want that, right?

Prove it then!

Alright…

Thinking about a group of people that would adhere to this diet now, African tribes come to mind.

How many overweight African tribes have you seen getting around? (Alright smartass, I know they don’t walk around local streets :D)

What about Kenyans? We all know Kenyans are skinny, muscular and fit, and no the reason isn’t just because they’re Kenyans – it’s because their diet rocks! I don’t think they’re sitting around eating mars bars and chocolate donuts.

Another example, has anyone seen any pictures recently of Jason Statham (the star of Transporter 1, 2 and 3)? When training for transporter 3, Statham’s trainer put him on the paleo diet.

 

Jason Statham in Transporter 3

As you can see, he’s looking pretty good. Obviously this will involve some pretty hardcore resistance training as well, but that’s doable…

 

The workouts

My workouts will more or less stay unchanged. The exercises that a paleo man would have faced would be pretty simple: occasional short bursts of sprinting, combined with lifting heavy shit over his head.

Essentially my workout looks a lot like that anyway, so the one thing I plan to change will be including sprints, either running or skipping, in as many workouts as possible.

 

 

So there we have it – the outline of my new diet. There are still a lot of things I’m unclear about – particularly whether I can or can’t eat specific foods. Onions are a great example. People often eat onions raw, but I don’t know whether that’s specifically good or bad for you. More reading should clear some of this stuff up though!

Initially I’ll try this diet for 6 weeks.  I want to give it a good chance to see any changes. Some things will be hard – giving up coffee for example – but I’m sure after 6 weeks I’ll be feeling pretty good.

If anybody is still awake, I’d love to hear what your take is on the paleo diet, so please post some comments!

04/02/09 – Better late then never, right?

Just realised I forgot to post yesterdays workout! Once again I got up at 5.10am to do a workout, then left for work at 6.30am… Not all that pleasant to be honest. Technically I did 3 workouts yesterday:

• 7 minutes of Turkish Getups with Yuri the 20kg/44lbs kettlebell
• KB High-pull ladders – 4 rungs, 3 ladders

I discovered on Tuesday that I’ve been doing my cleans incorrectly, so I’ll be working on high-pulls for a week or two to help my technique a bit.

Then at lunch I went out with my “sword” (read: wooden stick :D) and did a half hour session in a nearby park.

Then after dinner I went off to my 2nd Gumdo class for the week.

Towards the end of the class my shoulders were dddeeeeaaaaddddd! Although the kettlebelling doesn’t directly require the shoulders to do a whole lot, they are obviously very important in stabilising (and stopping your arms from falling out), so lots of swings and getups, combined with heaps of sword practice has really taken it’s toll.

I’ll be doing a workout tonight, but I might have a rest tomorrow and on Saturday to let the shoulders recover, so they’re ready for another week of punishment!

01/02/09 – Death by Rob

Thanks for that Rob, that was an awesome workout. Little bit warm, on account of some cricketers hogging all the shade, but still satisfying.

• 20 KB swings @ 20kg/44lbs
• Throw 10kg/22lbs medicine ball
• Sprint with KB to medicine ball
• 15 pushups
• Repeat 10 times

Finished in about 20-25 minutes.

Damn those last few swings were hard. And anyone wanting to improve their sprints, try holding a 44lbs kettlebell during take-off – ouch.

That’s a pretty effective workout though – really has the ability to just destroy your whole body in no time at all, especially with the sun beating down on you! I think I might keep this one up my sleeve for another time!

Take care folks, and keep working hard.