Enjoying a little retaliation

Sitting at the end of a long day I am honestly aghast at some of my own decisions and their repercussions. Last night I had some friends over for the UFC fights (yes they were a delayed recording but still fun). One of the challenges from this was that I drank a 20 oz Dr. Pepper. There went my no Dr Pepper or soda goal. Repercussion? Yeah, I couldn't sleep. DOH!  I also ended up going out and getting ice cream with one of my buddies. So guess who ate a cup of ice cream to top off the night. Yeah, my buddy did. Oh, and so did I. How did that feel, so so good! But today I got to deal with the late night belly processing that also aided to my sleeplessness.

Today Didn't go much better than the prior evening. 1) I ate a Cannoli, swirled brownie and eclair at lunch. HA HA HA HA Idiot decisions right? oh and 2) I I finished the other 15 oz of my giant Dr Pepper from yesterday. Sheesh Scott! What's going on? Well, I turned it into a cheat day. I didn't keep falling short, I stopped eating bad and lunch and have moved forward.  Here's how I recovered from further health retaliation.

1. Hit the gym hard! I spent an hour on legs today burning at least 300 extra calories over my daily burn.
2. Starting drinking tons of water. Okay, so maybe not 2,000 lbs of water, but hey, I've been drinking water all afternoon and evening.
3. Put only healthy foods in for the rest of the day.
4. Plan my meals for tomorrow.

• Breakfast: Fruit and Spinnach Smoothie with a 2 scoops of Vi-shape.
• Snack: 24 almonds
• Lunch: Chipotle burrito bowl.
• Workout: upper body and some cardio.
• Snack: chocolate protein for my post workout
• Dinner: tilapia and super sized salad.

Yeah, it's gonna be a good day tomorrow. I love it when a recovery comes together.

How do you recover from a bad meal, decision, or blown day?

Measuring Change…

Hey Readers!!!

Sunday I realized two things happened during the last week, one, I forgot to update my blog regularly and two, my wife got me a bodymedia fit, formlerly known as the “bodybug.” So she’s been wearing one for a month now and I went from curious, to jealous in a matter of a few days. So while she tracked her food intake, her caloric burn and even her sleep patterns and efficiency. I’ve been watching her log her food intake and increase her daily burn through various activities such as riding the stationary bike, doing p90x and various workouts we’ve found on pinterest.  All the while, I became increasingly anxious to get my own and start tracking my daily activities and their subsequent results.

 241 lbs Hulking out at Disney Land.

We had planned that after my next closing (I’m a realtor) I could buy one. I’m scheduled to close my next property on Feb 28^th (two properties actually, YAY!). So needless to say, I was more than shocked and excited to her surprise gift of my very own bodymedia fit. She had it delivered last Tuesday and I’ve been gleeful addicted to it every day since I received it. I started tracking everything! Prior to this wonderful little device I was trying to keep my daily calories around 1830 hoping to lose some weight. Guess what, it wasn’t working! Apparently it’s not a good idea to drastically cut your caloric intake. I’ve been in starvation mode for over a month! That’s definitely not a good thing. So basically my daily burn is anywhere from 3400-4600 depending on my activities. With that being the case, I was shorting myself over 2,000 calories per day.

Now that I have a clear indication of my daily burn I should see improved energy levels (something that’s been lacking lately) as well as dropping the lbs. So here’s for accountability. I’m at 20.4% bodyfat today as well as weighing 241 lbs. Its game time! I am now on my way to reaching 12% bodyfat for the first time since I was 21. Oh, but HOW will I be accomplishing such a great feat?

My Goal: 210-215#, 8-10% BF

Here’s the strategy:

1.     Body by Vi shakes for breakfast and mid afternoon snacks as well as healthy lunches and dinners.

2.     Cut out soda. I am no longer drinking my beloved Dr. Pepper for the next 90 days. I’m also cutting out Mountain Dew, which is the backup to my Dr. Pepper drink addiction.

3.     Four intense and fun workout/week. That’s right. I’m committed to at least four workouts per week. This month its’ all about Crossfit. I recently joined Crossfit NRG in SLC. It’s been two weeks and 1 belt size of awesome heart pounding muscle flexing fun!

Let it begin! It’s time to make the change. No more chubby hubby, time for this monkey to be a little more hunky than before. That’s right, I’m pledging to burn fat, get fit, and drive my cute wife crazy. 

Until my next post, stay happy, stay healthy, and get your groove on!

Crossfit Day 1 - A whole new world!

Booyah! Okay, so I kept hearing about Crossfit. I kept hearing about the "well rounded nature" of this type of training. 

Rich Froning II (Crossfit Champ)

It's also been referred to as a family, or by some a CULT. lol. Really? Come on people! ha ha. So yeah, I decided to try it. I have badmouthed it in the past, but for the last few years there's been a growing ember of curiosity. I have seen more and more reviews of the sport aspect as well as the attention to detail, form, and self improvement. One of my friends is a Crossfit trainer and she's been a personal trainer and fitness enthusiast for years. She's been posting on Facebook and after a while that kind of excitement increases that spark of curiosity inside me. Here's a little about why she chose crossfit from the traditional gym.

"It has been brought to my attention that my fb posts are all about CrossFit. Let me try to explain why. I have always loved the fitness and coaching industry. I taught 5 classes and at multiple locations for LA Fitness. I ran a bootcamp 5 nights per week. Received my NASM certification and took a variety of classes including hot yoga and boxing. Nothing has changed my life like CrossFit. It has given me a platform for everything I love. Personal bests, competition, community, people working toward a common goal and something that resinates with every ounce of me. I'm proud of my accomplishments and cheering on others. This is my sport, my passion, and I am committed to it. Come try it with me and you'll see why."

Turkish Get Up

So with her influence and the input of many others I finally jumped in. I saw a Groupon for a month of unlimited crossfit for only $39.00 Oh yeah I am totally on this! I bought it over a month ago with the intent to start in February after all the one month wonders who made some kind of resolution and would simply fall out after a month. Last month I spent my time in the traditional gym and did plenty of weights and cardio to help prep myself, but nothing could really do that.

Day 1:  Jump rope for 3 minutes, rowing machine 3 min, jumprope 3 minutes, 5 rounds of 10 crunch thingy's and 10 superman, then the warmup was over... The WOD (Workout Of the Day) 8 Turkish Get ups followed by 15 second pullup hangs. repeated 5 times. It was a foundational class to help us learn the Turkish Get up. Cool down was 3 min jumprope with pushups to failure repeated twice.

So when it was all over...
...I was sweating like a pig, I was exhausted, and I wanted more! For about 8 seconds I was like,
"holy crap I'm tired," then all of a sudden my mind and body felt rejuvenated. I'm completely dead, but I want to do it again! I'm excited to go back on Thursday and keep this going all month. I'm hoping to find another groupon to feed my need for crossfit and keep my costs down. So if you find a local SLC, UT groupon, or coupon or just a sweet deal, LET ME KNOW!

I've been infected and am very excited to keep this going. It's fun, challenging and intense!

What kind of workout are you a fanatic for?

Snowbody Snows the trouble...

It's been an interesting transition from sunny Orange County to the wonderful four seasons of Murray UT.  The biggest wake up call has been this white sometimes fluffy, sometimes slushy and everything in between snow stuff. We had 18 inches two weeks ago, and then it let up a bit, followed by a crazy slush/ice storm that you can read about clicking on this link.  Then last week has given me more snow, more cold and more snow. I've shoveled snow three out of the last 5 days. Talk about a great core workout!!!  ha ha.

Today there was about 4 inches on the driveway when I got home around 4pm. It was fluffy on top with ice underneath.  Not the worst as of late, but still plenty of work. According to myfitnesspal.com I burned about 281 calories in 25 minutes. I took some extra time to shovel my neighbors walkways so I could say hi and make small talk. I really appreciate how friendly my neighbors are and haven't had much of a chance to catch up over the last few months.

So with all this snow, I've found great fitness benefits, mostly calorie burning and core strengthening, but best of all I finally got a chance to catch up with some neighbors and do a little service.  If you don't live in a snowy wonderland you may not understand the fun involved in playtime in the snow, but aside from all that shoveling, there's skiing, snowboarding (my fav) sledding and a whole bunch of slip sliding around on four wheels. I've missed winters and am honestly thankful that I'm actually experiencing one for a change.

Ice-storm in Utah, say what!?

So if you heard the news today, Utah had a crazy ice storm. I've never experienced anything like this. Yes you East Coasters can now mock me as well as all my fellow Utahn's. We just don't know how to deal with this stuff. So sadly today there were accidents all over Salt Lake, Utah and Davis Counties. Not sure if there are any other counties that got so blasted, but that's because I haven't done enough research. I wonder if after reading this, you'll do some research and be kind enough to leave a comment below.

It was nuts! My poor brother in law totalled his car due to the crazy storm and the sad thing is that the shop is so backed up from the storm that his car wont get looked at until Monday to determine if it's completely totalled out or fixable. I wish I had a pic to post, but the one to the left will have to work for now.




Scary as the whole fiasco was today, there are some funny happenings that have been delightfully uploaded to the web. So for your viewing pleasure, away with go with some slip sliding good times!

These kids are at BYU. I guess you can learn there as well as goof around.

This next one is a friend of the family. So fun!

So if you find yourself in an ice storm and can't get any traction, stay home or break out the ice skates, because this stuff was ridiculous! 

Blending Vs. Juicing

Almost every time I tell someone I'm juicing for nutrition I'm told I am losing 40% or more of the nutrition and fiber. They don't know what juicer I use nor do they know what it is I'm juicing. Then they tell me to use a blender to save all the nutrition and keep the fiber. "YOU NEED THE FIBER," they keep professing to me. Well, I don't have a great blender so I tried an experiment. An experiment I would soon regret.

Step 1. Gather all my juicing ingredients  (yes, the usual suspects)
    Carrots, Kale, Spinach, Cucumber and 1 granny smith apple.

Step 2. Break out the Juiceman II Juicer and my Magic Bullet blender

Step 3. Prep veggies: Cut giant carrots and cucumber to smaller pieces that can fit in the juicer.
     I split the veggies 50/50 so we had the same exact ingredients in the blend group and juice only group.

Step 4. Juice half the ingredients remove the pulp and combine juice and pulp into magic bullet and blend.

Step 5. Juice remaining ingredients

Step 6. Try to enjoy both beverages.

So how'd it turn out? Well, The combined blend group turned out tasting almost the same, a little more bitter from the kale pulp. I'm sure I got more fiber and nutrients, but I also got the bitterness of kale more than ever.  The taste wasn't bad enough to make me stop but the texture was. I'm now fighting my way through it. It cost about 3 dollars for all the ingredients, so it's less than fast food, or other "quick" solutions.

Blended Version

Juiced Version

 Just by the looks of them, you can see that the Kale and Spinach didn't break down as much for the blended version as it did for the juiced version. So the fiber really shines through.

Here's a snapshot of the nutrition:

Disclaimer: I'm not sure what the actual nutrition loss was from juicing, so this shows the raw nutrition

All in all, I learned I like juicing way better. I also learned to not try this again until I get my blendtec  blender that I want. Maybe then I'll become a blend-maniac. For now I'm a Juicer for sure.  This plus my Visalus shakes is giving me a grip of nutrition. Much better than I had over the last 20 some years.  Having my stroke was probably the best thing imaginable at this phase in my life. Had I kept going on the path I was on, I probably would have enjoyed another 20 years of living maybe 30, but the quality couldn't be very good. Now I'm hoping to get another 50 years of quality living before this body goes to the grave. Nutrition is the key to longevity. My short term goals are to burn off enough fat and build up enough muscle to churn my body into a level of fitness I've never experienced before. But more importantly its the overall health and nutrition that will raise my quality of life.  I'm loving the Vi-Life.

Thoughts to Eat By.

Thoughts to eat by

Cruising down I-15 after a broker meeting and a client presentation I was starting to crave food as it was rapidly passing my lunch time. I looked around and found a nearly full bottle of water in my backpack so I started chugging. It was at this time that my mind started wandering.

Yes, my mind was wandering. It happens to everyone. Some of the most profound thoughts I know have come from people sitting on the toilet, driving down the road, or doing something completely unrelated to where their mind was and WHAM! Fantastic Ideas popped in. My thoughts started focusing on my fitness goals, my wife and her sister are about to embark on their own blog about their goals for weight loss and wellness. Everyone seems to be focusing on better fitness or healthier living lately. So it hit me. What's my motto? What's my focus and purpose?




While pondering all this I started thinking about juicing, blending eating more vegetables, and enjoying my Vi shakes. I freaking love my Vi shakes. I also LOVE my juicing. Its the only logical and palatable way to get Kale into my system. Then from nowhere but somewhere at the same time, WHAM! It hit me. Build, Burn and Churn. I need to focus on foods and a lifestyle that will help me build muscle, burn fat and churn myself into something better.

So for now, My focus is to Build muscle, Burn fat. I don't want to lose it anymore, everything lost is likely to be found. I don't want to find it. Nobody wants to find it. Why would we want to find it. That's just silly to lose fat. I want to burn it. Obliterate it. Destroy it. Make it nothing. The human body is amazingly capable of burning fat because fat is simply energy stores. Our bodies churn whatever we intake into energy output or fat stores. The lower quality foods we intake, the more fat stores we create. The higher quality foods we intake, the more efficient our body will churn it into energy.  It's all about boosting your metabolism.

What works best? I've found green foods and Vi Shakes do it for me. Best energy levels I've ever had. But I'm not hip to everything out there. What recipes and supplements have you found that help to make the best you possible.