Monday, June 30, 2008

Cleanse Day, Day 3

Breakfast: Cleansing Liquid.
Lunch: Cleansing Liquid
Dinner: Cleansing liquid and a hard boiled egg
Night cap: Cleansing liquid.

Day 3 wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Though I did feel hungry I thought I would be very tired and weak. In actuality I have quite a bit of energy, the main problem with today was how delicious just about anything I smelled, smelled. I actually got excited making my lunch for tomorrow.

Today, while staving off my hungry I drank massive amounts of water, probably about the 4L mark, when it's the only thing you're allowed you tend to over do it.

In terms of how my body reacted, It was interesting to listen to the sounds coming from inside my body. Not the Stomach rumbling you would likely expect, but what felt like items moving through the digestive system. I can only assume this was the liquid breaking up some of the garbage inside my system. I also recall feeling very very warm at times during the day, which I suppose could be my body burning off fat and waste. I'm interested to see the scale results after the first week.

Sunday, June 29, 2008

Pre-Cleanse, Day 2

Breakfast: Shake
Lunch: Salad with Balsamic Vin. with piece of steak the size of a deck of playing cards
Dinner: Shake

Tomorrow I do my cleanse day, fighting off the craving of food should be interesting, I will likely make it an early night tomorrow based on recommendations.

So far the pre-cleanse has been tough, I'm only taking in about 1400 calories max at the moment, which is almost half of what I'm used to. The shakes are fine, but it will be nice to go back to 2 solid meals per day. I probably could have managed with only 1 pre-cleanse day. The program says pre-cleanse can be 1-4 days long.

The hard part about tomorrow I foresee is the non eating, of course, but also trying to do the exercise as I will likely be weaker than normal.

So far my sleeping patterns have not been alerted but I do get bursts of energy throughout the day unexpectedly. Other than a general want for a big bowl of pasta or some Spare ribs, everything else seems normal.

Saturday, June 28, 2008

Pre-Cleanse, Day 1

Day 1 in the bag.

Had a Shake for breakfast
Chicken, roast potato and cauliflower for lunch
and another shake for dinner.
Also had a granola bar as a snack mid day.

I assume this pre-cleanse technique is to slowly reduce your food intake before the cleanse day as you don't get much on that day. The water intake and exercise was no issue, I probably drink about 3L of water a day normally.

One observation; my urine was very bright after both shakes, I assume this is from the nutrients and toxins being expelled by my body.

I will redo my measurements on Day 7.

Friday, June 27, 2008

Measuring day

Got my fancy new scale today which breaks down a few measurements and helps me review my progress a little more scientifically, also had my blood taken at the lab, I should hear back about that in about 2 weeks. So here are the stats:

Weight: 157.8 Pounds
Body Fat: 12.1%
Water: 60.9%
Skeleton: 7 Pounds
Metabolic Age: 12
DCI (Daily Caloric Intake): 2847
BMI: 21.7
Blood Pressure 140/70
Standing heart rate: 60 BPM
Waist: 31inches at Navel

Just to explain some of those values:
Your DCI is the amount of calories you would need to consume to remain at the same weight
Your Metabolic age, is how fit you are compared to your age bracket, if your MA is below your Calendar Age you're in good health, if it's above, it means you probably need to exercise more.

Conclusions:
Aside from anything I don't know about in my blood I seem in excellent condition to start exercising regularly again and start this new diet. My goals are to start eating 3 consistent meals again, as well as take the initial steps toward building a more intense workout routine.

In terms of the values above, in the next 30 days I would like to see the following:

Weight: 150-160
Body Fat: 9-10%
BPM: 55-60
Waist: 30"

If I can manage this with the product and the very light exercise routine within a 30 day period, then I would claim success and move on to the next phase in training.

Tomorrow it begins.

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Pre Pre-Cleanse

Before one gets this going it is important to have some kind of markers to judge your progress. As with any type of Diet and Exercise change you should consult your Physician, so today I went to see the Doctor and asked if I was suitably fit to start exercising a little more regularly.

My Blood pressure was 140/70
I do no smoke
I very rarely drink alcohol(maybe 1 Beer a week)
I do not drink coffee, but have typically 1 cup of tea in the evenings

The Doctor has set me up for Blood testing tomorrow, those results will take some time to come back, so I will report them when they become available. Tomorrow I intend to measure my waist (at the naval), my weight, my Body Fat %, my body water %, muscle mass, and metabolic age, using a higher end scale... assuming I can figure it out and I will take my "before" picture. Saturday the program will begin with the Pre-cleanse.

My Doctor also brought up that because I have a high metabolism, my body fat % will likely drop off quickly initially due to the jogging and reduction of high fat content in my diet only time will tell

It Begins

A few years ago I started to suffer from chronic neck and back pain that were related to prior injury. As a result I was no longer able to enjoy any physical activities, even walking would cause severe migraines. Recently I have been seeing a Chiropractor to have this issue resolved, I had tried many other things and been consulted by many different Doctors in different specialties and nothing had worked until now.

Now that the problem is on the mend I was hoping to become more active again in jogging, tennis, golf and snowboarding. After not being able to work out properly for nearly a decade however, my energy levels are very low and I am eating poorly. Luckily I have a high metabolism and my BMI has stayed in the optimal range, and my blood pressure is 140/70.

The premise behind this "experiment" is not to lose weight, but to turn the weight I have into lean muscle weight, to increase my energy levels, and to clear my body of some of the garbage floating around my system.

I've been speaking with a friend who had mentioned a company called Isagenix. Isagenix develops nutritional cleansing products that assist your body in performing at its optimum level through valuable nutrients and meal supplements to control caloric intake. This was very important to me as some "Diets" will actually either flush out all of the water in your body or burn off your muscle, leaving you weaker than when you started. The advantage to this program seems to be the sensible requests on food intake, where 600 calories per meal would be the max. Depending on what you're eating, that could be a fair sized meal. A lot of the time when you are feeling hungry, it is actually your body telling you, you are either under hydrated or you do not have the adequate nutrients in your blood stream. This is the reason you should always drink a lot of water in your everyday lifestyle, and why all Food and health organizations suggest a balanced diet.

So that's the premise of Dieting in general and my situation, here's the plan:

Isagenix recommends you workout for at least 20 minutes a day, it also recommends you drink purified water equal to the amount of half your body weight in fluid ounces daily. For Example, a 160lb. man should drink 80oz (about 2.5Litres) of water daily. The program, which recycles on a 30 day period, also has some days you will be detoxifying your body and will be eating less. The 30-day product I'm using is called the Total Health and Wellness System which consists of Shake Powder, vitamins, antioxidant pills, and two liquids, one for cleansing, the other for energy. The program starts with 2 pre-cleanse days, 1 cleanse day, 13 shake days, 1 cleanse day and finishes with another 13 shake days. Wash, rinse, repeat.

Currently:
I walk with the dog for about 20minutes every evening.
I have a light breakfast, typically a granola bar during my commute.
For lunch, depending on the day I have either left overs or purchase lunch at a restaurant or fast food joint.
Dinner is typically either high carb or high protein, rarely the two together.
In terms of water consumption, I estimate I drink about 1.5 Litres of water/day

Since I am mid treatment for my neck, I do not want to exert myself to hard so my new routine will be:
10 minutes jogging with the Dog in the morning
Isagenix Shake for Breakfast, with the vitamins, antioxidants and energy liquid.
For Lunch A turkey/chicken breast sandwich and salad with Balsamic dressing, accompanied by some fruit.
For Dinner, i will keep it a little more open and say a protein source, a carb source, and vegetables. All in moderation.
In the evening I will go for another 10 minute jog with the Dog, and do 10 pushups and 10 situps.
I also intend to consume the recommended 2.5L of water daily.

This probably seems like extremely light exercising, which it is, however I want to see the effects of the program, over the effects of me working out intensively.