I'm BACK!

Ok so I took a little time off. Stayed about the same weight, but I am sure I lost some muscle.  I am re-booting on Thursday as I am in a % loss competition from now until Christmas.  Numbers to follow soon!

Starting Over with the Slow Carb Diet and Occam's Protocol

Today I am starting over. I had a 2 week hiatus for celebratory reasons, and now it's time to get back to work.  I did not hit my goal of 205 by graduation - missed it by 1lbs - but I will take it as a victory since I was starting 230 in the face in January. 


Here are my measurements that I will be starting from.  Weighed in at 213.5 - a gain of 7 lbs from my last weigh in 2 weeks ago.  Yes it's a lot to gain in a short period of time, but, I ate and drank about as terribly as I could and only worked out once. If I were to stop this diet all together, I wouldn't typically have the schedule I had. 


AGG stack has started up again as well.  I found a "Natures Made" garlic tab at Costco and am going to give it a shot.  I took 2 a day during the last week of dieting and I did not stink up the place, so we shall see. 


And what would a re-start be without the cold showers?! Yes, I will begin those as well.  If you go back and look at my weight loss, I lost the most in February by far, and that's when I was doing the more aggressive approach to the cold therapy. 

2 weeks off

I am taking 2 weeks off from the 4HB diet due to celebratory and familial events.  I will resume my stacks, diet and cold showers on Monday May 9 2011.  I will post my initial measurements for all to see. 

Lucky or Smart

Just finished "Lucky or Smart" by Bo Peabody.  It was ok. I liked his opening chapters message: Lucky things happen to entrepreneurs who start fundamentally innovative, morally compelling, and philosophically positive companies. He contends that lucky entrepreneurs are those that understand that often times things fall together not because of a strategy, but because the entrepreneur formed the right team and allowed them to lead.  This I agree with.  Many times entrepreneurs stand in the way of creative people because they cannot give up control of their baby.


I did not really agree with his selection process. He contends that great entrepreneurs are B students, and great managers are A students - the entrepreneurs are good at a lot of things and master of none and the managers are excellent at one or two things. Considering I have been an entrepreneur in the past and am an A student, I disagree with this completely. Additionally, I have been given advice that being a "jack of all trades" and "master of none" was a terrible position sell to potential employers.  I would far prefer an A student over a B student - if I could afford them!


In all, its a very quick read and there are some interesting anecdotes, but it's probably not really worth your time if you are a well rounded business person. 

4 Hour Body Blood Test Results

I had a lipid panel done on 1/21/2011 just as I was starting to diet, and the results were scary.  I hadnt started the 4HB stuff until 1/31/2011.


For those of you that are searching for PAGG results, the diet slow carb diet results or the cold shower results, stop looking and view my blood test results. They speak for themselves.  I've stopped 2 medications I was on and have cut my risk of heart disease in half and now am considered normal and even below normal for most metrics.  My doctor said he has NEVER had a patient turn around as fast as I have.  And the truth is, it wasnt that hard.  Just daily choices that began to compound. 


Click the image below to see the results. I have the 4.21 on the left, the 1.21 results next, and the percentage change.  Notice his comment too about my AG stack - I asked about these earlier in the year to make sure they were ok with my meds. 

Week 10 - Tale of the tape using Occam's Protocol and The Slow Carb Diet

Week 9 tale of the tape using cold therapy and Occam's Protocol

Not as big of a change as last weeks, but that was crazy.  This week I can definately notice the difference in my legs.  And after my brutal leg workout, I really wasnt too sore. Not like in the beginning when I couldnt walk the next day. 

Still skeptical? Cold therapy, slow carb diet, and Occam's Protocol results after 60 days

For those of you who are still skeptical about if these approaches work, look at my weekly "Tale of the Tape" updates.  It's not that difficult of a diet and workout program, and I haven't felt this good in YEARS.  I bought size LARGE shirts for the first time in a decade. Stop dipping your toes in the water and jump in. What do you really have to lose?  If you are like me, you've been messing around with dieting and exercise for a long time with limited success.  This works and it works well.  


Things have been extra busy with wrapping up my masters program, but soon I will do another video update, and I think you will be able to see the results. 

Lots to update...2 workouts plus week 8's tale of the tape!

I've been incredibly busy - too busy to update this blog!


Occam A from 3/24/2011

Occam B from 3/28/2011

Tale of the tape week 8 results. Take notice of total body inches now - all the way to the right - and the total body inches at the start. It's quite impressive! 

Occam B workout results

Made some changes again.  Why? Because I am getting stronger and want to move over to free weights.  I added the leg press and it was much easier to do with some actual leg strength! I could really feel all my muscles working.  I got off the machine for incline bench and moved to dumbbell press for that.  Bring it. 


I will be going to the free weight preacher curl next week.

Tale of the tape - week 7 results

Below are today's tape measurements.  It's pretty clear that I am all over the map with how to accurately measure bodyfat, and am ok with assuming I still have A LOT of it.  I weighed in at 210 today, which is just .5 lb down from last week.  I would like to note that I had "spring break" last week from school and treated myself to a few non-diet meals to some unforeseen circumstances and just plain fun. I will be having a mid week "binge" day next week to celebrate Kim's defense, so that's another piece coming up. 


In all,  am pretty psyched to be down around 210 considering the week I just had.  Here I come sub 200!

Rockin and rollin on the Occam protocol

Added upright rows into the mix. My workouts should be pretty static for the next four weeks. 

I will do a week 1 - week X comparison soon.

Vacation is an SOB

I've had the week off of school, and while that seems like a small added bonus, its pretty sweet. So, considering I hit below 210, I decided to give myself a small break from the diet grind and had a few non-diet sanctioned meals. I will be back on this Friday 3/18/2011.  For those wondering, I had more pizza on Wednesday (some friends ordered food and I had to be gracious and accept) and today I had an all day shopping situation with the fiancée and I said what the heck, it's vacation. 


So, I may weigh in on Tuesday the same, but, no more binge-esque days for me this week. Next "binge" day/meal will be  3/26/2011. 


Tomorrow (Friday 3/18/2011) is Occam A and I will be adding upright rows into the mix and lowering the weight on my two back exercises. It's not that I do not have the strength to do them, is that at a lighter weight the form and failure is more consistent. I seem to be working my hands more than anything. 


Also, interesting article about the impact 7 M&Ms a day can have on you.
http://hypothermics.com/2011/03/seven-mms/

Tale of the tape - week 6 results

Well... I think it's time to officially change my April 1 weigh in goal from 210 to 205 because I weighed in at 210.5 today! WOOT!  Results below....

Strong like bull

Here are my Occam B results. I decided to switch up to the leg press today. The squat rack with the guides just isnt doing it for me. Notice the nice gains in bench and preacher curl. I also added french press into the mix.  I think I have enough of a base where I can start adding. 

Stay tuned.. tomorrow is the tale of the tape!

Binge Meal

I cheated today and stepped on the scale.... I weighed in at 212lbs! WOOT!  Still keeping the strategy at one binge meal, not 2, and not anything I can shovel in.  It was really tough today because I went to a birthday party (3rd in 4 weeks) and had NO pizza, NO cake, NO ice cream and NO philipino food (which looked delicious!).  I had my fillet and broccoli. 

My binge meal was 3 pieces of pepperoni pizza with extra cheese + 1 snack bag of cool ranch doritos + 3 girl scout cookies.  

I am headed over to a friends house tomorrow and someone there will be making gourmet pizza. Might be too tough to pass up. I guess one extra meal wont kill me eh? 

Book Sale Results!

Went to the local library's book sale today and got some gems for a grand total of $13.50.
Here they are with Amazon links

Ugly Americans - Ben Mezrich
Who's Looking Out for You? - Bill O'Reilly
The New Realities - Peter Drucker
Ronald Reagan In Private - Jim Kuhn
Getting to Yes - Roger Fisher and William Ury
Real Money - Jim Kramer
The Age of Turbulence - Alan Greenspan
Rigged - Ben Mezrich - I already own this, got it so I could give it out as a gift
The Way Things Ought to Be - Rush Limbaugh
Next Man Up - John Feinstein - I listen to "The Tony Kornheiser" show and he's a constant guest. Figured I'd give him a shot. Possible gift for my step-brother
Leadership - Rudy Giuliani
7 Habits - Steve Covey - for my dad. He cant find his copy
A Good Walk Spoiled - John Feinstein - for my dad as a gift
The Majors - John Feinstein - for my dad as a gift

Occam A workout results from 3/10/2011

I had an extra day of rest this week because I was too busy with project work to get out to the gym for even the 20 minute workout. Here are my results from this week.  This is an exported report from the iFitness program I use on my ipod. I dont do them in this order - no idea why it does that.

Tale of the tape

Needless to say, it's been a busy week. I wanted to do a video update, but I just dont have the time for the back end processing.  So here you go. I decided to do a screen cap instead so you could see the changes for yourself. Now - the body fat data is still suspect because Kim and I are new to using the calipers.  Let's see what happens next week.  That should give a better picture of what's going on. 

Click the image to see the data better

Occam B workout and my new binge day strategy results

Occam B
Did the Occam B workout today. Still couldnt get to 10 on the squat, but I can definately tell my legs are getting stronger.  I am upping the weight on the bench next time around as I hit 9 reps this time around at 120.  Preacher curl was good at 7 but I will probably increase that as well.

Incline bench - 120lbs 9 reps
Squat - 185lbs 7reps
Preacher Curl - 50lbs 7 reps

My weight Saturday morning was 216.

New Binge Day Strategy
Instead of having an entire day (12ish hours) to eat whatever I want, I decided to make it just one meal.  I had a normal no carb  breakfast/lunch and then had mexican food for dinner and a piece of birthday cake.  This morning I weighed in at 215 Sunday morning so it was all good.  Still sticking to the AG (ALA + Green Tea) regimen and it seems to be working great.

My new weight in tactic just to drive home the point of not looking at the scale is to not look for an entire week. So, after my weigh in on Tuesday for measure day, I will stay away from the scale until the next one.
Stay tuned!