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.