Day 31 of 90

Day 31 already?

Time goes by so quickly! Before you know it, it will be summertime… Then Christmas… Then next year!

What have I learned in the last 30 days?

Weight loss is not about food.  Weight loss is about your mental state. It is all in your mind. You determine your weight, family, job success and everything in life. If you want something bad enough, you will make it happen! If you really do not desire it, you will never get it.

My success is coming from the fact that I do not want my current job anymore. I want so much more in life. The thought of being at my job for another two months is more painful than working out, eating correctly, free time, and I am willing to sacrifice everything to GTFO. 

My success is strictly by thought of moving myself to a better position in life.

Losing body fat and gaining muscle is just one key, in my mind, to achieving a goal to make me happy.  

 Over the holiday, I gained a lot of body fat and scale weights because I was happy enough but yet not unhappy enough to change by eating pattern.

My thoughts were, I am with my family therefore I can't eat what I want because they make me happy. It is really easy to make an excuse to over eat when the main goal is to be happy with your family.

My main goal now is to have a body sexy enough that someone is is willing to follow my work out and eating plan and know that it works.  I want to write a book that people will enjoy. I want to make a workout DVD where I can help millions of people become fit and healthy.

No one cares if I achieve my goals by eating celery and working out five hours a day. My plan has to be realistic.

It is time to go to the gym and pump some iron for 30 minutes. Have an amazing day

My breakfast. Chicken omelette with cheddar cheese and topped with broccoli and black walnut oil.  

I also learned to make time.  Like now... On lunch break.  At the gym.  

Gym pact done for today

Day 30 of 90

Day 1                        Day 30

Here is my 30 day roll up video.

In 30 days, I lost over 20 pounds, lost almost 6 inches from around my waist, gained strength and lost body fat.

My method was low carbohydrates-high-fat high-protein foods. I also used vanilla shakeology. 

For the next 30 days, I will continue what I am doing but also add in raspberry Ketone, Probiotics including fermented foods as and sauerkraut and pickles. And also a B vitamin complex.

I am also implementing a intermittent fasting. That means every day, I will eat from 12 noon until 8 PM. I will only have an eight hour window per day to eat.

It is difficult getting eight hours of sleep per night, however I will continue to schedule in eight hours of sleep per night. Obviously, other obligations may hinder this schedule.

My gym time will be between 30 minutes and 60 minutes this month allowing me more time at the gym if I wish.

I expect to be stronger, more lean, and have better digestive enzymes.

Tonight is dance class. Yay! 

Day 29 of 90

Day 29 of 90. Even though it seems like I consistently been losing weight and body fat, it has been a constant struggle to stay on track.

My biggest obstacles this last month were running out of energy and eating when I was tired.

Sometimes, I would get to the gym and be so exhausted that my workout routine completely sucked.

Truthfully, I believe I failed more than I succeeded. Some nights, I would binge, but I binged on chicken, broccoli, eggs, sauerkraut and pickles. 

I would binge on peanut butter and bananas and apples and choke down Greek yogurt.

That may not seem like such a bad thing when I could have been binging on ice cream and snack cakes.

This has been extremely difficult to stay on track. Today, I'm 218 pounds.  I am embarrassed to even publish that number. Why? It is a higher number on the scale than before. I failed correct?

The numbers say I failed however my pictures show an amazing transformation.

Am I losing more body fat that I thought? Is eating a low carbohydrate and high-fat diet really working? My body seems to be burning more body fat than ever before.

Today is freezing. I walked up Pinnacle Mountain in about 30 minutes.

I stopped to check my heart rate and it was about 144 beats per minute. 

The sunrise was amazing. What should I do until 3 PM when I have to work?

How about another hike?

I'm tired now.  How about a meal?

Ketone? What's that?  

Dr Oz said it shreds fat.  Humm. Let's try this for February. 

Day 28 of 90

By day, I have complete control over my body. And mind. At night when I am exhausted, my gut flora has complete control over my mind.

I was exhausted last night but I stayed up with my family. I barely remember all the foods I ate. It was the invasion of the bodysnatchers.

It is another ah ha moment.  When I am fully rested, I have complete control over my mind and body. However, when I am tired and exhausted, I find myself over eating. It is like another mind has taken over my brain and is eating everything in sight.

Do you find yourself almost in a zombie like state eating foods you know you are trying to avoid because you are trying to lose weight?

It is not your fault. Let me say that one more time, it is not your fault!

Your intestines, I will call your gut. In your guts you have good and bad bacteria. All these bacteria I will call Flora.  Your gut flora is about 70% of your immune system. When your gut flora has good bacteria, your immune system is amazing!

Scientists have proven that your gut flora has a direct link to your brain.  The largest colony of bacteria holds this direct connection to your Brain and influences the foods you eat. The food you eat is what feeds the colony of bacteria.

High sugar concentration and refined dense carbohydrates feed the bad bacteria in your gut. The more sugar and refined carbohydrates help this colony of bad bacteria to overrun your good gut flora. Your good gut Flora is 70% of your immune system.

This means that it is extremely difficult to lose weight and stay healthy when your body does not have the good gut Flora. 

If you feel that your mind is being taken over and you have very little self-control when it comes to eating sweets, drinking sugary sodas and eating high refined carbohydrates, it may not be your fault.

So what can you do to jumpstart your good gut Flora and kill out all of the bad gut bacteria?

First and foremost, we need to change the environment of your gut. Your good got Flora needs a less acidic environment.  We need to change the pH balance.  We need to bring in more good gut flora.

How do we do such a thing? Easy as sugar-free pie LOL

We need to stop the sugar that is feeding your bad gut bacteria.

We need to stop the carbohydrate load.

Re populate good gut Flora with fermented foods and yogurt.

Yep.  That easy.  

Low carb - high quality good fats - high protein

Eat high quality, lean meats.

Very green vegetables

Coconut oil, black walnut oil, and other hold pressed oil.

Low carb as in less than 30 g per day. 

Eat fermented sauerkraut, fermented pickles, fermented kimchi and other fermented foods.

High quality yogurt as in Greek yogurt with live cultures. Usually five good strains of bacteria.

Stay away from high sugary yogurt. The kinds that taste good enough to eat a whole pound at one sitting. Too much sugar feeds the bad bacteria.

The plain Greek yogurt tastes and has the consistency of sour cream. The vanilla is quite similar with a hint of vanilla. Be prepared to only be able to eat a few spoonfuls at a time. 

How can this be accomplished?

The first 30 days, prepare your own foods/meals at home.

If you are used to eating out for all of your meals… This may be difficult.  But after 30 days, you will not have these crazy cravings for donuts, sodas and snack cakes. And if you are drooling now and have a craving for a fresh donut and a cold soda, you are being brainwashed by a small bacteria. Don't let these small things take over your body. It is your body!

Find a high-quality, refrigerated probiotic at your nearest health food store.

Find some lean meats that you enjoy. Get a bag of frozen broccoli. Eat meat, green vegetables in till you are full. Don't worry about calories, enjoy being full of good foods. Find fermented foods at your nearest whole food store also. This new diet will change your life forever.

Day 27 of 90

Since I am on the Internet show "the wall", I feel it is necessary for me to step up my game. This week I must lose 2.1 pounds to stay in the game.

The only way I can continue to lose body fat, is for me to change up my exercise and possibly go for a short jog every day. Just something new to cause my body to pull more body fat as energy. I do not want to dehydrate myself A scale weight loss.

Last night I slept quite well. For the last two days I did not have to work nor did I go to the gym. I did however, go walking with my wife for 30 minutes each day.

I am happy to get back into a routine this week.

My 30 day mark is coming up, so this week will be more of a calorie restriction/fat loss week.  High-protein, low carbohydrate, high-fat, lots of water

Meal 1

Meal 2

Meal 3 

Day 26 of 90

I'm on an internet weight loss show. I'm part of the Yellow team.  Each week we have to lose 1% of our weight or one of our team gets kicked off the show. The show is called The Wall 2014.  

I slept well. 

This morning I felt quite lean and strong. 

This morning I get to volenteer at church in the AV room filming service.  

Day 25 of 90

Today is the day after my carbohydrate back loading. I used gluten-free carbs but still had a lot of sugar. Besides my heart rate racing a little bit faster than normal at bedtime, I felt amazing.

I slept over 10 hours last night and my heart rate was 49 beats per minute this morning.

The scale said 208 pounds and I feel like my body fat is evaporating off of me.

                   Day 1 and day 25

I have shown this picture and my friends said it looks like I am pushing my stomach out in the first picture and it looks like I am sucking my stomach in on the second picture.

So I will make a side-by-side picture showing me pushing my stomach out now and sucking my stomach in now.

I cannot even replicate having over 20 pounds of fat on my stomach. 

Probiotics I bought today.  30 billion with 10 strains. 

I grilled up a very yummy dinner consisting of a homemade beef patty, Un cured bacon, beer brat, sauerkraut and kosher pickles. 

Nice stroll with my wife and got my pact in today.  

And a kiss from the wife. 

Day 24 of 90

I stopped weighing myself every day since I did the carbohydrate back loading day when I ate the donuts and pizza. Since that day, I have not been myself. 

So I have been studying up on foods that may have caused me to fill strange and different.

How can donuts and pizza caused me to feel so ill for so long? I think it could be the nitrates and sulfates in the meat pizza combined with the fats used to fried donuts and possibly wheat gluten.

I also believe that my gut bacteria also known as gut Flora, has been compromised with a lot of bad gut bacteria.

So I have changed up my diet just a little bit to work on cleaning up my gut.

I have learned that your gut bacteria is 80% of your immune system. The things you directly eat, directly affect your immune system.  

The more I learn, the more intricate I realize our bodies really are.

I am looking into going back to college to be a nutritionist. I believe I can learn so much more in college than searching the Internet and listening to podcasts.

I stepped on the scale yesterday and I weighed 217 pounds. I stepped on the scale this morning and I still weighed 217 pounds. Another thing I noticed, since I took fruit out of my diet, my regular bowel movements have almost stopped.  I contribute this to less fiber in my diet and more cheese. So I am going to take care of that by eating a serving of prunes at night and cutting back on cheese for the next week.

Going back to the weight situation, I definitely feel like I have a lot less body fat. This scale says I am 21% body fat and when I started this the scale said I was 25% body fat.   I do not believe that I gained a lot of muscle. I do however believe I lost a lot more body fat than the scale says. I am not sure if my weight gain is because of the lack of regular bowel movement. I may have to go on a cleanse. I would like a natural cleanse that will not harm my good bacteria that I am trying to repopulate.

The way I am really populating my good flora, is high-quality yogurts, and fermented foods such as sauerkraut, pickles and kimchi.

Here are some of the gluten-free carbs I will be eating today.

 

The following is the plan of attack for my carbohydrate back loading as listed on MyFitnessPal

Yesterday I've been over 5700 cal.

I think this will still be okay

Gluten-free pasta and gluten-free garlic bread. Chicken and spaghetti sauce. Extremely delicious.

Now the question is, how will I look tomorrow morning :-)

Day 23 of 90

I really need to figure out a way of getting more sleep every night.

I am feeling more and more lean and my muscles feel more solid than ever before.

I was able to get to the gym today and did my 30 minutes at lunch.

I have been striving zero carbohydrates. Except for a small apple after I work out, I am doing quite well.

When I do my carbohydrates back loading, I will do it gluten-free because I think I may have intolerances to wheat and gluten that I did not know about before.

I noticed after i work out, an Apple makes me feel better. If I do not get an apple, I feel tired, lethargic and my mind is foggy.

Day 22 of 90

Gut Flora sending signals to our brain to eat donuts. Have you heard of this? It is a fact. Our gut Flora is a second brain. If you are a guy, I guess this is our third brain.

Scientific studies have shown that the dominant gut Flora has a main line to our brain to override our conscious thoughts and able to make us eat what it wants to eat.

If you are overweight, and you find yourself eating fast foods, high carbohydrate snacks and drinking sodas, your gut flora may be populated with bad bacteria.

I know this sounds crazy but have you ever told yourself that you are going to eat healthy and go on a diet and find yourself eating a doughnut or stopping at a fast food restaurant and halfway through the meal you ask yourself the question "what the hell am I doing eating this?"

If you find yourself subconsciously eating this stuff, I bet you have some bad bacteria that is requesting this material for its survival.

It is true, it is not your fault you are eating donuts and other snack cakes. It is very possible you are in a complete blackout when you eat these foods. Possibly periods of the day you do not remember eating these high fructose, high carbohydrate snacks.

How else can you honestly believe that you are eating 1500 cal a day and still maintain a weight of 400 and 500 pounds? It is physically impossible.

So what can you do to evict these bad bacteria and repopulate your good gut Flora?

High quality pro biotics. These can be found in fermented foods such as sauerkraut, pickles, kimchi and also high quality yogurt that has five or six different cultures listed on the labels.

Also Whole Foods and other health-conscious grocery stores should have high quality probiotics in their refrigerated section. 

Do not confuse high-quality yogurt with the very inexpensive high sugary sweet yogurt.  Do your research.

This is a very good high-quality yogurt. 

Make sure the list of probiotics is longer than the ingredients of the actual yogurt.

The consistency of plain Greek yogurt is like sour cream. Also taste a little like sour cream. So you can use it in place of sour cream. You will have to get used to the taste. It is difficult to eat more than a couple of spoonfuls at a time but that is all you need to start to repopulate your good bacteria.

I have also tried the vanilla. You can barely taste vanilla and you can stomach the taste a little bit better. But once again, this is to detox your gut flora. 

If you like pickles, have a big kosher dill pickle with your meals. I also found that staying away from sausage type meats is also helping. Sauerkraut is delicious. Kimchi, if you like the spice is amazing. Do more research on fermented foods.

Also, stop feeding your gut it's processed carbohydrates and high fructose corn syrup along with all the acid in your sodas. I hate to think that all of these years I have been commanded by a colony of bacteria. It is not your lack of self-control, it is trillions of bacteria that are controlling you. Let's do something about this.

So the next time you are grabbing for that doughnut or snack cakes subconsciously, just remember, little tiny bacteria are sending those signals to your brain. Now you have the knowledge and power to overcome such signals. Do not let little tiny bacteria's control your life!

Please comment below and let me know what you think.

Day 21 of 90

Day 21 totally rocks

 Can u believe it?  Day 1 vs day 21

So far this carb back loading has shown some amazing results. 

Only 30 minutes at the gym a day and eating 30 grams of carbs or less per day.  

Carb loading every few days after 4p -7p

That's it!   

Day 20 of 90

The scale is slightly moving up but my waistline is moving down.

I am not sure if the carbohydrate reloading day has caused the weight increase. Possibly water weight?

Giving eight hours of sleep per night has been a challenge. You would think that sleeping would be easy, but it is not. Why?

Perhaps I am stressed? So I checked my stress level with this app. Says that I am not stressed :-)

Headed to the gym today and a car along the side of the road car on fire. I stopped to help and the police showed up. The fire department are on their way and everyone is alright.

Day 19 of 90

The processed carbs helped pack on 5 pounds that I just can't lose. Not sure what happened last Wednesday but I sure felt bad for a few days afterwords.  

I'm still 214 today but feeling strong. 

I still want to get as lean as I can for the American Ninja Warrior tryouts. 

My wife and I got our Gympact in today :-)

Finished my gympacts for this week!!!

Another super day.