Since becoming a Team Beachbody Coach, a lot of my friends and people I meet are curious about what I do as a coach and why I decided to become one. After answering this question hundreds of times, I decided I would write a short note to explain the basic premise of the Beachbody Coaching opportunity and why I became a coach.
Many are surprised to find that I actually stumbled into the business opportunity and wasn’t “recruited” by one of the coaches in the network. I was doing a few of the workout programs and was getting better results from home than I had in years of going to the gym. I was also using some of the supplements, including the Core Nutrition Pack, the P90X recovery formula and the protein bars. I also started drinking Shakeology every day and I hate paying retail if I can get it for less. Since I was on “home direct” for my core nutrition pack and the Shakeology, I get a 25% discount on those products as a coach. Being on “home direct” also gets me free shipping so I am saving about $50-60 dollars a month with the discount and the free shipping. To me, that was a no-brainer. I also knew I was going to be buying other workout programs in the future, so I wanted to get them at the discounted price. Over the past couple of years, I have purchased a number of the Beachbody workout programs as well as tried most of their supplements and there is no telling how much money being a coach has saved me.
In hind sight, just randomly signing up as a “coach” could have been disastrous because I was assigned to a random coach in the network. Fortunately, I got assigned to a group of active leaders in the coaching network and they have all been great helping me build my business without being a pain in the butt. I do my coaching part-time and have grown my business more slowly than a lot of people on my team or in the overall network. The great thing about it is that you can do it at your own pace. There are many who just sign up as a coach just to get the discount like I did and there are others who have signed up as a coach and really worked their business to the point where they have retired from their careers and are doing the coaching business full-time. A number have already grown their businesses to becoming millionaires. Others do it full time and make a good living, and others do it part-time and make a good part-time income.
Every Thursday, I get a check directly from the company deposited into my savings account. Since I don’t rely on that income for my livelihood, it is like a bonus every week. I have used that additional income to pay off a new car and a truck in 8 months and 14 months respectively. My wife and I have also used that money to help fund our vacations every May, which reduced our overall expenses significantly. All for just a few hours a week telling others what I am doing and how they can do the same. I don’t even try to sell anything. I am not a salesman. I am a facility manager by profession. The coaching is a way for me to help other people realize their potential and get themselves healthy and fit just like I have done.
Since becoming a part of the coaching network and Beachbody community, I have been fortunate to meet a lot of great people from all over the country. These people are like me in that they want to help others and love the lifestyle of being a Beachbody coach. Everyone I have met has been very gracious and helped me anyway they can. I am not even in their group, yet they still reach out to help. It is an awesome company with great people, and I am very happy I decided to join. Here are some of the most common questions I have been asked about the business.
What is the Beachbody Business? The company Beachbody was founded by the Carl Daikeler and Jon Congdon in Los Angeles and their company was growing and successful. They specialize in in-home workout programs like Power 90, Slim in 6, P90X, TurboFire, Insanity and many other programs to help people improve their health and fitness from the privacy of their homes. Along the way, they noticed people were helping others on the community message boards and recommending the products to others. They realized that this organic network was a great way to share the products and wanted to give back to those who were having success and sharing. Carl and Jon decided to create a unique network marketing system to support the customers and community members. In 2007, they invited a number of customers to become founding coaches in the network. Since these customers were already achieving success with the programs and sharing with others, it was easy to start getting paid to do what they already were doing. Thus, the Team Beachbody Coaching opportunity was created.
What do the coaches do? We do several things. First, we all use the products ourselves to get healthy and stay healthy. We also recommend products we have used and we provide support to others who are doing the programs and also provide an opportunity for those who are interested in changing their lives financially with the business opportunity. We focus on helping others to build their physical and financial future for the better of the community. As a result, the company rewards us with compensation.
How do coaches get paid? There are a number of ways to earn income with the Beachbody coach’s compensation plan. But basically we earn a 25% commission on any Beachbody product we recommend and someone purchases from our coach websites. We also earn bonuses for the effort of our teams as we grow our business. As you move up in rank in the network, there are a number of other ways to make money.
Do I have to be an expert or a certified fitness professional? No, you don’t have to be an expert or certified. You don’t have to be a registered dietitian, fitness expert, personal coach, or anything of the sort. The only requirement is to be willing to reach out and help people live a better lifestyle through Beachbody workout programs, supplements and nutrition. You can also lead them into the business opportunity if they are interested in getting paid to help others.
So, what do I have to do to become a Beachbody Coach? First, you need to find a group of active coaches in the network so you get on a good team. You also want to make sure you join up with a success partner who will be supportive, available, and able to help you get the training necessary to build your business to the level you want to achieve. The team I am fortunate enough to be on is called Team Genesis, a very successful team with several leaders who have already achieved great wealth and who reach out to train everyone in their down line on how to be successful and achieve any level in the business you are willing to work for. Team Genesis is one of the largest and most successful teams in the organization and continues to grow rapidly. Our team provides a balance of corporate training as well as team training from the most successful and experienced coaches in the company. By following the simple steps taught by our leaders, you can achieve any level of success you are willing to work for. Remember, this is a real business where you will only get out of it what you put into it.
Before you sign up with our team, we need to have a phone interview to see if you are a good fit with the team. If you are interested, and would like to schedule a call, contact me at jimwyatt556@gmail.com.
To your health and fitness,
Jim
Monday, September 19, 2011
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Ready for P90X2? Pre-order NOW if you want it before 2012!!
Click HERE then click on the Shop Tab in the middle of the page to pre-order your copy of Tony Horton's next Extreme workout! Warning!!! This is not for the faint of heart. You must be in good physical condition to attempt this workout.
Steve Edwards 8-Week Transition Diet
The 8-Week Transition Diet
By Steve Edwards
The 6-Week Transition Diet was one of the first things I ever wrote for Beachbody®, way back in 2001. It's remained popular ever since; in fact, in 2005, I gave it a facelift and increased it from 6 weeks to 8. Five years on, it's time to dust it off and spruce it up for the modern age. We've found over the years that this transitional eating plan is one of the easiest ways to change your eating habits for the better.
It's often said that no one diet works for every individual. While this is true, you may have noticed that all Beachbody eating plans target a similar goal: eating more natural whole foods and less junk. That's because there are no secrets to healthy eating. There are strategies that can lead to various performance benefits, but 99 percent of diet is cutting junk and eating real food. With this in mind, our Beachbody nutrition guides use various strategies, all designed to lead you to the same place.
While those nutrition guides tend to be detailed and filled with recipes, the 8-Week Transition Diet is for those of you who are less detail oriented. Conceptually based diets like this can be easier to follow, because they focus on providing you with a short list of "no-nos," leaving you with a fairly wide array of foods that you are allowed to eat. Of course, that isn't the approach you want to have for long-term success. Any diet, no matter how easy it seems, will take some willpower on your part if you want to see results. Your long-range goal should be to eat well, period. If you can accomplish this, your physical transformation will become a natural extension of your lifestyle, instead of something you need to pursue.
As healthy eating becomes a habit, you will find the other intangibles (weight loss, increased energy, etc.) falling into place. For many people, the easiest way to accomplish the healthy-eating habit is to make a gradual transition from food choices that hinder human performance to ones that help you perform better. By making this transition gradually, you'll find that it isn't as difficult as you expected.
Week 1
No junk. Eliminate junk food from your diet. That's it, just junk. Other than this, you can eat whatever and whenever you like. Now, how hard can that be? Guess this depends on what I mean by "junk." But all I'm concerned with this week is the obvious stuff like potato chips, candy, ice cream, cake, etc. You may be stricter if you'd like, but for Week 1, don't be too hard on yourself. For many of you, this step alone will reap huge benefits.
Cheat Days: 2
Since no one's perfect, you get 2 days to cheat. That's right, 2 days where you can eat anything you want! A trick on these days (and, yes, this means there will be more) is to listen to your body. At first, it'll probably tell you it wants whatever you've been denying it. However, over time, it'll start to crave nutrients you're deficient in. Learn to read your body's subtleties. If you're craving ice cream, you may be short on essential fatty acids. If you crave a hamburger, your diet may lack protein. This way, you can make better food substitutions. It's a way of getting in tune with yourself that will benefit you for your entire lifetime.
Weekly focus: Water. Not swimming in it, though that's good too, but staying hydrated with it. You should drink at least 6 to 8 glasses of water per day. Diet sodas and such are no substitute, because they contain a passel of ingredients that live right at the bottom of the junk heap. Drinking a glass of water when you feel hunger pangs coming on will not only keep you hydrated, but will help stave off your hunger to some degree.
As for other drinks, juices and sugary sodas also (obviously) fall into the junk category. And alcohol should be kept to a minimum. We tend to forget (purposely or not) that alcohol has calories. A lot of them: 7 calories per gram. Mixers can be even worse—not only can they add calories, but sugary calories influence the way alcohol reacts with your body. When you do drink, red wine is the alcohol of choice, with natural beer running second.
Week 2
Each week's rules are cumulative, so the "no junk" rule from Week 1 will apply until the end, as will each subsequent week's rule. Remember that this is a learning and conditioning process. It's like you're in school and the subject is your own body.
Eat small, eat often. Eat four to six small meals a day, and don't eat anything for about 3 hours before you go to sleep. Following these rules will keep your blood sugar levels more static and your energy level will stay consistent. Try to keep each snack or meal balanced. Keep a 30 percent protein, 40 percent carbohydrate, and 30 percent fat scale in mind, though you don't need to worry too much about it. Just realize that you need a bit from each macronutrient group. Eat based on what you'll be doing for the next few hours (if you're working out, eat a little more; sitting at a desk, eat a little less). The 3-hours-before-bed rule is important, especially for fats and carbohydrates. By allowing time for all the carbs you eat to get into your bloodstream, your body will sleep in fat-burning mode, rather than in calorie-storing mode. This is important because undigested carbs in your stomach at night are stored as adipose tissue (fat).
Cheat Days: 2
Weekly focus: Carbs are not the enemy. Your body needs them, just like it needs proteins and fats. The trick is to choose the right carbs. As a society, we eat too much refined sugar. Complex carbs, like whole-grain breads, whole-grain rice, sweet potatoes, and legumes are outstanding foods. Even fruits, which have simple carbohydrates wrapped in fiber, are very good for you and hard to overconsume. While you don't want a diet based on nothing but carbs, making the right carb choices will maximize your body's potential. Try to avoid white rice and flours. Read labels, and try to avoid ones that use the word "enriched," because this means these products have been stripped of their natural nutrients, overprocessed, and then fortified with a few random nutrients.
Week 3
Eat some colorful, low-density food at every meal. These are foods that take up a lot of space without a lot of calories. Veggies are the most obvious example. You can eat a salad bowl overflowing with lettuce and veggies and you most likely won't exceed 100 calories. By eating low-density foods like veggies and fruits, you'll keep your portions under control naturally, because they have very few calories for their size. Conversely, high-density foods, like chocolate and butter, are loaded with calories in even the smallest amounts. So beware of salad dressings and other things you add to salads and veggies. Only add enough for flavor; don't fill up on them. When it comes to live foods, the richer the colors, the fresher the products tend to be. Try to eat a variety of colors in your diet. This simple and somewhat random act will help ensure that you're covering your bases, nutrient-wise.
Cheat Days: 1
Weekly focus: Protein at every meal. This becomes even more important as you eat more low-density food, because protein tends to be high-density. Many veggies have a lot of protein, but the quantity you must consume starts to become prohibitive. Try to get some protein—meat, dairy products, nuts, seeds, or legumes—each time you eat, especially when you're working out hard, because you need to repair broken-down muscle tissue. Frequency of protein consumption is even more vital for women, who aren't able to digest as much protein at one time as men are. It's almost impossible to get all your necessary protein at one or two meals, so try to get 10 to 20 grams of protein each time you eat. Reading labels is a simple way to learn how to estimate your protein intake, but if you eat natural foods, most of which don't have labels, you can look at online nutritional information guides to determine the amount of protein each serving contains.
Week 4
Cook at home. One of the best ways to control your eating is to prepare all your meals yourself. Eliminate all fast food (which should have been gone in Week 1) and most other restaurant food. You may still eat food from certain restaurants where you can be sure of the ingredients (most will be savvy enough to make a point of how healthy their food is). But avoid all fast food chains, even ones that claim to be "healthy." Restaurants need their food to taste good, so they'll often use compromised ingredients, even when they list low numbers on fats and/or calories. Fast food can contain many hidden evils in addition to calories. For example, next time you see one of those nutrition charts, check the sodium levels; most fast foods use ridiculously high amounts of salt. Avoiding fast food alone will often bring your body closer to homeostasis (its desired state of balance). This can be hard for many of us because we now have to plan our meals and prepare ahead of time, but try and treat it like vocational school—you don't learn a new "job" without a little retraining.
Cheat Days: 1
Weekly focus: Fat is essential. Remember that fat is a vital part of your diet, not just something that makes you fat. What is not vital is a lot of saturated or trans fats. Trans fats are mainly those that are artificial, and hopefully they've been eliminated from your diet by this point, since they're generally only found in junk. Saturated fats are found in dairy products and meats, and you don't need too much. For cooking, try to use olive oil when possible. Also, the addition of either flaxseed or hempseed can have a pronounced effect on your health. These seeds are loaded with essential fatty acids (omegas 3 and 6). Be careful about that amount of fat. It is dense and has 9 calories per gram, as opposed to 4 for both carbs and protein. A tablespoon goes a long way!
Week 5
Reduce starchy carbohydrates. Starches include rice, bread, potatoes, corn, beans, and other legumes. While many of these are in no way bad foods, most people tend to consume far too many of them. So what you want to do this week is cut way down on them, if not cutting them out completely. Then add them back in when your body feels like it needs energy, which it will at some point if you're exercising (and why wouldn't you be?). But don't add a huge plate or bowl of pasta; instead, add a small single serving. Starches are great energy food, but if you eat too many, they turn the tables and make you sluggish!
Cheat Days: 1
Weekly focus: Sugar is only beneficial after a hard workout. Your body doesn't need processed sugar. But if you really enjoy it and can't avoid letting some sneak into your daily diet, the 1-hour period after you exercise is the best time to indulge. During this window, your blood sugar is low, because you've used it up to finish your workout (assuming you pushed yourself), and sugar during this time will help you recover faster because it speeds into your system and initiates the recovery process. Adding a little protein, but not too much, will enhance your recovery even further. The best ratio is 1 part protein to 4 parts carbs, as in Results and Recovery Formula®. You should avoid fats during this immediate post-workout period, because they slow absorption—a good thing most of the time, just not during and immediately after working out.
Week 6
If man makes it, don't eat it. This is likely to be the hardest week of your diet. You want to eat only whole foods and eliminate all processed foods, even good ones, for the week. This includes breads, most salad dressings, all cereal, luncheon meats, cheese, dried fruits, anything with preservatives, and alcoholic beverages. What you can eat are whole foods such as fruit, raw or steamed vegetables, meat (sans any type of sauce), natural whole-grain rice, poached eggs, etc. Since your eating habits have been slowly changing, this shouldn't be that big a shock to your system, but keeping in focus that you only have to do this for 7 days will make it easier. (Although each week's rules are cumulative in the plan, Week 6 is more of a "cleanse" or "reset" week where you avoid all processed food; after Week 6, you can go back to the occasional processed food, but chances are you'll take what you learned this week and tend to make healthier, smarter choices.)
Cheat Days: 1
The "cheat day" mentality isn't a bad one. Rewards like decadent desserts, a night at the buffet, or drinking with friends are good for you as long as you keep them in perspective. These are rewards for a life well lived and you should be able to feel good about doing them. Plus, there's some method to this madness as well, in that you still tend to crave nutrients you lack. So if you're cutting down on the calories to lose weight, allowing yourself a cheat day will give your body a chance to take in what it needs to avoid being malnourished.
Weekly focus: Nuts make great snacks. A handful of raw almonds or cashews is a quick and easy snack that goes a long way. Don't be put off by the high fat count of nuts, because this means it takes fewer of them to satiate you. Nuts are loaded with important phytonutrients, as well as good fats, proteins, and fiber.
Week 7
Be yourself. No rules—just try and eat as healthily as you can and do it by feel. Trusting yourself might seem like a lot of responsibility, but by now you'll be up to it. Learning to eat by feeling what your body needs is an important step in your transformation. Consider the way you've been eating over the last 6 weeks, but don't worry about what you should and shouldn't do. Just fuel yourself. The point is to take a mental break. Relax and allow yourself to eat in a way that feels normal. You may be surprised to find yourself craving something healthy instead of a candy bar or soda. You'll be better at listening to your body because it'll tell you what it needs to eat, as opposed to what you're used to eating. Your body should feel somewhat transformed. Does it?
"Reward for a Life Well Lived" Days: 1
Weekly focus: If you're so hungry at night that you can't sleep, try a protein shake (like Beachbody's Whey Protein Powder) before bed. When it's real, and not habitual, hunger means you lack nutrients your body needs to repair itself as you sleep. You want nothing but protein powder and water. No carbs or superfluous calories. But protein at night, especially whey, will help the body repair damaged tissue and enhance the natural growth-hormone spike that you get while you sleep.
Week 8
Eat a perfect diet. Now it's time for a real challenge—are you ready? The perfect diet is strictly individual, as there's no one diet that suits everybody. So who better to choose the perfect diet for you than you? Our bodies are all different, and the key to your own perfect diet is learning about how your body reacts to different foods under different circumstances. Your journey over the last 7 weeks should have brought you to a new understanding of how food affects your body, both for good and for bad. Now it's up to you to put it to the test. See how well you can eat for a week. In fact, see how well you can eat for the rest of your life. Live and enjoy.
Reward Days: 1, of course!
Weekly Focus: Don't bonk. Bonking is a state where your body runs out of stored blood sugar for energy. If you feel like your workouts are going backward instead of forward, this is a likely culprit. Use your energy level as your gauge. As soon as it starts to drop, start adding carbs back into your diet until you feel energized all day long. When you feel energized during your workouts and not sluggish throughout the rest of the day, you'll know you've found the right balance between carbs and other nutrients. Also, remember that as your body puts on more muscle, you will need to eat more. Muscle weighs much more than fat so as you gain muscle and lose fat, you will shrink at the same weight. You will also require more calories in order to maintain your muscle. So when you're working out hard, don't be afraid to eat more carbs than you do otherwise.
By Steve Edwards
The 6-Week Transition Diet was one of the first things I ever wrote for Beachbody®, way back in 2001. It's remained popular ever since; in fact, in 2005, I gave it a facelift and increased it from 6 weeks to 8. Five years on, it's time to dust it off and spruce it up for the modern age. We've found over the years that this transitional eating plan is one of the easiest ways to change your eating habits for the better.
It's often said that no one diet works for every individual. While this is true, you may have noticed that all Beachbody eating plans target a similar goal: eating more natural whole foods and less junk. That's because there are no secrets to healthy eating. There are strategies that can lead to various performance benefits, but 99 percent of diet is cutting junk and eating real food. With this in mind, our Beachbody nutrition guides use various strategies, all designed to lead you to the same place.
While those nutrition guides tend to be detailed and filled with recipes, the 8-Week Transition Diet is for those of you who are less detail oriented. Conceptually based diets like this can be easier to follow, because they focus on providing you with a short list of "no-nos," leaving you with a fairly wide array of foods that you are allowed to eat. Of course, that isn't the approach you want to have for long-term success. Any diet, no matter how easy it seems, will take some willpower on your part if you want to see results. Your long-range goal should be to eat well, period. If you can accomplish this, your physical transformation will become a natural extension of your lifestyle, instead of something you need to pursue.
As healthy eating becomes a habit, you will find the other intangibles (weight loss, increased energy, etc.) falling into place. For many people, the easiest way to accomplish the healthy-eating habit is to make a gradual transition from food choices that hinder human performance to ones that help you perform better. By making this transition gradually, you'll find that it isn't as difficult as you expected.
Week 1
No junk. Eliminate junk food from your diet. That's it, just junk. Other than this, you can eat whatever and whenever you like. Now, how hard can that be? Guess this depends on what I mean by "junk." But all I'm concerned with this week is the obvious stuff like potato chips, candy, ice cream, cake, etc. You may be stricter if you'd like, but for Week 1, don't be too hard on yourself. For many of you, this step alone will reap huge benefits.
Cheat Days: 2
Since no one's perfect, you get 2 days to cheat. That's right, 2 days where you can eat anything you want! A trick on these days (and, yes, this means there will be more) is to listen to your body. At first, it'll probably tell you it wants whatever you've been denying it. However, over time, it'll start to crave nutrients you're deficient in. Learn to read your body's subtleties. If you're craving ice cream, you may be short on essential fatty acids. If you crave a hamburger, your diet may lack protein. This way, you can make better food substitutions. It's a way of getting in tune with yourself that will benefit you for your entire lifetime.
Weekly focus: Water. Not swimming in it, though that's good too, but staying hydrated with it. You should drink at least 6 to 8 glasses of water per day. Diet sodas and such are no substitute, because they contain a passel of ingredients that live right at the bottom of the junk heap. Drinking a glass of water when you feel hunger pangs coming on will not only keep you hydrated, but will help stave off your hunger to some degree.
As for other drinks, juices and sugary sodas also (obviously) fall into the junk category. And alcohol should be kept to a minimum. We tend to forget (purposely or not) that alcohol has calories. A lot of them: 7 calories per gram. Mixers can be even worse—not only can they add calories, but sugary calories influence the way alcohol reacts with your body. When you do drink, red wine is the alcohol of choice, with natural beer running second.
Week 2
Each week's rules are cumulative, so the "no junk" rule from Week 1 will apply until the end, as will each subsequent week's rule. Remember that this is a learning and conditioning process. It's like you're in school and the subject is your own body.
Eat small, eat often. Eat four to six small meals a day, and don't eat anything for about 3 hours before you go to sleep. Following these rules will keep your blood sugar levels more static and your energy level will stay consistent. Try to keep each snack or meal balanced. Keep a 30 percent protein, 40 percent carbohydrate, and 30 percent fat scale in mind, though you don't need to worry too much about it. Just realize that you need a bit from each macronutrient group. Eat based on what you'll be doing for the next few hours (if you're working out, eat a little more; sitting at a desk, eat a little less). The 3-hours-before-bed rule is important, especially for fats and carbohydrates. By allowing time for all the carbs you eat to get into your bloodstream, your body will sleep in fat-burning mode, rather than in calorie-storing mode. This is important because undigested carbs in your stomach at night are stored as adipose tissue (fat).
Cheat Days: 2
Weekly focus: Carbs are not the enemy. Your body needs them, just like it needs proteins and fats. The trick is to choose the right carbs. As a society, we eat too much refined sugar. Complex carbs, like whole-grain breads, whole-grain rice, sweet potatoes, and legumes are outstanding foods. Even fruits, which have simple carbohydrates wrapped in fiber, are very good for you and hard to overconsume. While you don't want a diet based on nothing but carbs, making the right carb choices will maximize your body's potential. Try to avoid white rice and flours. Read labels, and try to avoid ones that use the word "enriched," because this means these products have been stripped of their natural nutrients, overprocessed, and then fortified with a few random nutrients.
Week 3
Eat some colorful, low-density food at every meal. These are foods that take up a lot of space without a lot of calories. Veggies are the most obvious example. You can eat a salad bowl overflowing with lettuce and veggies and you most likely won't exceed 100 calories. By eating low-density foods like veggies and fruits, you'll keep your portions under control naturally, because they have very few calories for their size. Conversely, high-density foods, like chocolate and butter, are loaded with calories in even the smallest amounts. So beware of salad dressings and other things you add to salads and veggies. Only add enough for flavor; don't fill up on them. When it comes to live foods, the richer the colors, the fresher the products tend to be. Try to eat a variety of colors in your diet. This simple and somewhat random act will help ensure that you're covering your bases, nutrient-wise.
Cheat Days: 1
Weekly focus: Protein at every meal. This becomes even more important as you eat more low-density food, because protein tends to be high-density. Many veggies have a lot of protein, but the quantity you must consume starts to become prohibitive. Try to get some protein—meat, dairy products, nuts, seeds, or legumes—each time you eat, especially when you're working out hard, because you need to repair broken-down muscle tissue. Frequency of protein consumption is even more vital for women, who aren't able to digest as much protein at one time as men are. It's almost impossible to get all your necessary protein at one or two meals, so try to get 10 to 20 grams of protein each time you eat. Reading labels is a simple way to learn how to estimate your protein intake, but if you eat natural foods, most of which don't have labels, you can look at online nutritional information guides to determine the amount of protein each serving contains.
Week 4
Cook at home. One of the best ways to control your eating is to prepare all your meals yourself. Eliminate all fast food (which should have been gone in Week 1) and most other restaurant food. You may still eat food from certain restaurants where you can be sure of the ingredients (most will be savvy enough to make a point of how healthy their food is). But avoid all fast food chains, even ones that claim to be "healthy." Restaurants need their food to taste good, so they'll often use compromised ingredients, even when they list low numbers on fats and/or calories. Fast food can contain many hidden evils in addition to calories. For example, next time you see one of those nutrition charts, check the sodium levels; most fast foods use ridiculously high amounts of salt. Avoiding fast food alone will often bring your body closer to homeostasis (its desired state of balance). This can be hard for many of us because we now have to plan our meals and prepare ahead of time, but try and treat it like vocational school—you don't learn a new "job" without a little retraining.
Cheat Days: 1
Weekly focus: Fat is essential. Remember that fat is a vital part of your diet, not just something that makes you fat. What is not vital is a lot of saturated or trans fats. Trans fats are mainly those that are artificial, and hopefully they've been eliminated from your diet by this point, since they're generally only found in junk. Saturated fats are found in dairy products and meats, and you don't need too much. For cooking, try to use olive oil when possible. Also, the addition of either flaxseed or hempseed can have a pronounced effect on your health. These seeds are loaded with essential fatty acids (omegas 3 and 6). Be careful about that amount of fat. It is dense and has 9 calories per gram, as opposed to 4 for both carbs and protein. A tablespoon goes a long way!
Week 5
Reduce starchy carbohydrates. Starches include rice, bread, potatoes, corn, beans, and other legumes. While many of these are in no way bad foods, most people tend to consume far too many of them. So what you want to do this week is cut way down on them, if not cutting them out completely. Then add them back in when your body feels like it needs energy, which it will at some point if you're exercising (and why wouldn't you be?). But don't add a huge plate or bowl of pasta; instead, add a small single serving. Starches are great energy food, but if you eat too many, they turn the tables and make you sluggish!
Cheat Days: 1
Weekly focus: Sugar is only beneficial after a hard workout. Your body doesn't need processed sugar. But if you really enjoy it and can't avoid letting some sneak into your daily diet, the 1-hour period after you exercise is the best time to indulge. During this window, your blood sugar is low, because you've used it up to finish your workout (assuming you pushed yourself), and sugar during this time will help you recover faster because it speeds into your system and initiates the recovery process. Adding a little protein, but not too much, will enhance your recovery even further. The best ratio is 1 part protein to 4 parts carbs, as in Results and Recovery Formula®. You should avoid fats during this immediate post-workout period, because they slow absorption—a good thing most of the time, just not during and immediately after working out.
Week 6
If man makes it, don't eat it. This is likely to be the hardest week of your diet. You want to eat only whole foods and eliminate all processed foods, even good ones, for the week. This includes breads, most salad dressings, all cereal, luncheon meats, cheese, dried fruits, anything with preservatives, and alcoholic beverages. What you can eat are whole foods such as fruit, raw or steamed vegetables, meat (sans any type of sauce), natural whole-grain rice, poached eggs, etc. Since your eating habits have been slowly changing, this shouldn't be that big a shock to your system, but keeping in focus that you only have to do this for 7 days will make it easier. (Although each week's rules are cumulative in the plan, Week 6 is more of a "cleanse" or "reset" week where you avoid all processed food; after Week 6, you can go back to the occasional processed food, but chances are you'll take what you learned this week and tend to make healthier, smarter choices.)
Cheat Days: 1
The "cheat day" mentality isn't a bad one. Rewards like decadent desserts, a night at the buffet, or drinking with friends are good for you as long as you keep them in perspective. These are rewards for a life well lived and you should be able to feel good about doing them. Plus, there's some method to this madness as well, in that you still tend to crave nutrients you lack. So if you're cutting down on the calories to lose weight, allowing yourself a cheat day will give your body a chance to take in what it needs to avoid being malnourished.
Weekly focus: Nuts make great snacks. A handful of raw almonds or cashews is a quick and easy snack that goes a long way. Don't be put off by the high fat count of nuts, because this means it takes fewer of them to satiate you. Nuts are loaded with important phytonutrients, as well as good fats, proteins, and fiber.
Week 7
Be yourself. No rules—just try and eat as healthily as you can and do it by feel. Trusting yourself might seem like a lot of responsibility, but by now you'll be up to it. Learning to eat by feeling what your body needs is an important step in your transformation. Consider the way you've been eating over the last 6 weeks, but don't worry about what you should and shouldn't do. Just fuel yourself. The point is to take a mental break. Relax and allow yourself to eat in a way that feels normal. You may be surprised to find yourself craving something healthy instead of a candy bar or soda. You'll be better at listening to your body because it'll tell you what it needs to eat, as opposed to what you're used to eating. Your body should feel somewhat transformed. Does it?
"Reward for a Life Well Lived" Days: 1
Weekly focus: If you're so hungry at night that you can't sleep, try a protein shake (like Beachbody's Whey Protein Powder) before bed. When it's real, and not habitual, hunger means you lack nutrients your body needs to repair itself as you sleep. You want nothing but protein powder and water. No carbs or superfluous calories. But protein at night, especially whey, will help the body repair damaged tissue and enhance the natural growth-hormone spike that you get while you sleep.
Week 8
Eat a perfect diet. Now it's time for a real challenge—are you ready? The perfect diet is strictly individual, as there's no one diet that suits everybody. So who better to choose the perfect diet for you than you? Our bodies are all different, and the key to your own perfect diet is learning about how your body reacts to different foods under different circumstances. Your journey over the last 7 weeks should have brought you to a new understanding of how food affects your body, both for good and for bad. Now it's up to you to put it to the test. See how well you can eat for a week. In fact, see how well you can eat for the rest of your life. Live and enjoy.
Reward Days: 1, of course!
Weekly Focus: Don't bonk. Bonking is a state where your body runs out of stored blood sugar for energy. If you feel like your workouts are going backward instead of forward, this is a likely culprit. Use your energy level as your gauge. As soon as it starts to drop, start adding carbs back into your diet until you feel energized all day long. When you feel energized during your workouts and not sluggish throughout the rest of the day, you'll know you've found the right balance between carbs and other nutrients. Also, remember that as your body puts on more muscle, you will need to eat more. Muscle weighs much more than fat so as you gain muscle and lose fat, you will shrink at the same weight. You will also require more calories in order to maintain your muscle. So when you're working out hard, don't be afraid to eat more carbs than you do otherwise.
My Supplements
Greetings!
In 2009, I was at my all time heaviest at 234 pounds and was eating poorly as well as not exercising at all. I could barely walk up a flight of stairs without sitting down to catch my breath. To make matters worse, I was on two separate blood pressure medications, one to reduce my BP, and the other to regulate my heart rate. My doctor had told me that I was pre-diabetic and that I would soon have to go on diabetes medication along with the BP meds. The two heart attacks I suffered at 40 and 42 had taken it's toll on my lifestyle and overall health and I knew I was on that slippery slope to a shortened life. That was the turning point for me. I guess everyone has to go through some self-evaluation before they get to a place that they decide they have to make some sort of change in their lives. Until then, they will continue to decline in their health and lifestyle to a point when they are hospitalized and/or reach their final demise. We are all going in that direction I guess. The question you need to ask yourself is, "Do I want to just sit down and give up, or do I want to live my life to its fullest?"
I chose the latter and have not looked back since. I started doing a program called Power 90, or P90, produced by a company called Beachbody in Jan 09 and have literally changed my life from the privacy of my spare bedroom. That sounds so simple and too easy, but that is what I have done for the past 2 years to regain my health, fitness and a better lifestyle. It was always, and continues to be, challenging every day but I am on my fourth round of P90X, the extreme version of P90 and have never felt better.
As I have progressed in my journey to better health and fitness, I have come to realize that exercise is only part of the equation if you want to be really healthy. Your nutrition is just as important and without proper nutrition, you can never maximize your exercise results and will spend a lot more time getting into shape. You can see that every day as you watch people go into and come out of your local gym. A lot of them have spent years going to the gym and working out with either weight machines, stair masters, free weights, tread mills, and so forth only to look about the same as they did the day they started. They are doing part of what they need to do, but they don't have the whole picture clearly in focus.
There are three legs to the health and fitness stool. Exercise being one, nutrition another, and a community of support have been shown to have the best impact on helping people change their lifestyles and live a better quality of life. This is why I like Beachbody so much. I live a busy life and don't have that much time to be spending on exercise. Most people are in that same boat these days. But, Beachbody has developed a comprehensive program that addresses all three legs of the health stool and you can do it all from your home.
Beachbody produces world class in-home fitness programs and provides you with a wide range of nutrition guidance as well as a on-line community of people just like you who are fighting the obesity epidemic by transforming their bodies and their health together. It is a wonderful experience being around others who support you on your journey to better health and fitness. They know what you are going through and are there to support you and encourage you to continue on your journey. Before you know it, your life will be changed and you will wonder why you ever lived the way you did in the past. Then you almost feel a sense of obligation to "pay it forward" and help your family and friends improve their lives. As we do this one body at a time, eventually, we will reverse the trend of obesity in the US and beyond.
I wanted to post about my supplementation and why I take supplements. It has become an integral part of my nutrition plan and I think you almost have to supplement your nutrition because of what Big Food has done to our food supply over the past 30+ years. I recently read an article about the nutrition in an apple of all things, and according to the article, if you eat a medium apple today, you are only getting 25% of the nutrition you would get by eating an apple 50 years ago! That astonished me when I read it. I eat apples all the time and thought I was getting good nutrition from it. However, the soil is no longer as fertile as it was in the past and seeds have been altered through genetics so the nutritional value of foods we eat have continued to decrease over time.
No longer can we get the nutrition our bodies need without eating 4 times as many calories resulting in the unused calories being stored as fat. Have you noticed that 2/3 of the adult population in the US are overweight or clinically obese according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC)? People are not getting the right level of nutrition in the fast, processed foods our society is eating these days. The big food industry, like Monsanto, McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, etc. are feeding us low nutrition and high fat food, all for the sake of cheap convenience the American population has embraced over the past few decades. This has resulted in our country being the fattest nation in the world, and one of the most unhealthy.
This is why you almost have to supplement your nutrition if you want to get the right nutrition without all the calories and fat you don't need. If you are like me, you have a very busy life and it is hard to eat "clean" all the time. If you could eat the perfect diet every day at every meal, you wouldn't need to supplement your nutrition. Unfortunately, very few of us are able to do that consistently over time so our waistlines continue to increase and our overall health continues to decline. That is, unless we make a commitment to fight back. Since I know I am not always able to eat properly, I want to make sure I get enough nutrition to provide my body what it needs to function at the best level possible.
The first supplement I use is Shakeology. I use it because over the years I have researched and studied many of the ingredients are consolidated into what I think is a delicious meal replacement drink. It comes in two flavors, Chocolate and Greenberry. Since I am a chocoholic, I love the chocolate. It gets rid of my cravings and I love the taste and I know I am getting some of the best food nature has to offer into my body every day. I drink it first thing in the morning when my body is most ready to absorb nutrients after a 10-12 hour fast overnight from dinner to the morning. I get a burst of sustained energy from about 6 am in the morning until around 9 am when I feed myself again with a more traditional breakfast that consist of a protein, assorted fruits and berrys and some sort of fat such as walnuts or flax seed.
Next, I take a good quality multi-vitamin that is natural based. The brand I use is called Nutrivit and is a all around great vitamin to ensure I am getting at least 100% of my daily recommended allowance of essential vitamins and minerals.
Along with the multi-vitamin and Shakeology I also take a Calcium and Omega 3 supplement, which rounds out my daily supplementation. I know by taking these supplements every day, my body is able to function at optimal levels for my age and current physical condition. As you probably already know, calcium is great for protecting your bones, joints and different organs in your body. The Omega 3 fish oils help your cardiovascular system work at higher levels. Most people suffer from a deficiency of omega 3's and usually get too many omega 6s in the standard American diet. The Omega 3 supplement helps me keep the balance of Omega 6 and Omega 3 in place.
If you decide to supplement with Omega 3s, make sure you look carefully at the pill. If it is dark, it is probably old or not good quality so don't buy it. Good, clean omega 3 will seem light and bright when you look at the pills. Those are a good indication of the purity of the oils used to make the supplement. As with anything else, it may cost a little more to get a better quality supplement. I recommend you don't short change your supplements by buying cheap ones. Some of them will do more harm than good so do your research to find the best you can afford. The investment will result in better overall health and a longer, better quality of life.
I used to get my supplements from GNC and I paid for what I wanted. For example, I took the GNC Men's Sports Formula multi-vitamin for years. I think the cost was $49.95 for a month supply that I took daily. Once I found Beachbody, I researched their products and found I could get what is called their "Core Nutrition Pack", which includes the multi, Calcium and Omega 3 supplements together. The multi-vitamin is better in my opinion because of the natural ingredients used to manufacture the vitamin vs the synthetic way GNC produced the Men's Health Formula. Also, I get all three supplements as a Team Beachbody Coach for about the same price as the GNC multi-vitamin alone. For me it was a "no-brainer." I have been taking these supplements for almost 2 years and have had no adverse reaction to anything I have used from Beachbody.
During this round of P90X, I decided to give the Beachbody creatine supplement a try for 8 weeks and cycle off of it in the last 4 weeks of my program. So far, I have gained strength and am able to do my workouts with more intensity, but I feel bloated a lot since I have been taking it. I have heard that is normal when taking creatine, so I will have to see over time what kind of gains I get and how lean I get once I cycle off the supplement.
And finally, I use Beachbody's Recovery Formula as my recovery drink after my workouts. It taste like orange sherbet ice cream and has the 4 to 1 ratio of carbs to protein recommended for optimal recovery and muscle repair after doing intense workouts. It helps me reduce the soreness in my muscles after doing my strength workouts and I can tell the difference if I don't have the recovery drink the next day.
So far, these supplements and especially Shakeology have helped me lose 41 pounds and keep it off for almost 2 years now. I have seen many different opinions posted over the Internet by so called "nutrition experts" who claim supplements are worthless. On the other hand, I have done my own research and study about the need for supplementation including sources like the Center's for Disease Control (CDC), FDA, numerous books by Registered Dietitians and PhDs and overall believe the prevailing wind is that you are better off taking them. Personally, I know how I feel when I take them on a regular basis, and how different I feel when I don't take them of a while. I have decided I feel better and live a better quality of life by taking them. It may not be for everyone so I guess each individual will have to do the research and decide for themselves if they will be better off with or without supplements.
I say make sure you are eating as clean as you can, eat a balanced diet of lean protein, complex carbs, and essential fatty acids and supplement if you feel the need. This is the path to long term health and a better quality of life.
If you would like to find out more about these supplements just click this LINK and feel free to look around.
Also, if you want to see what Doctor's are saying about Shakeology, just click this LINK and then click the tab at the top right of the page and see the doctor comments.
To your health and fitness!
jw
In 2009, I was at my all time heaviest at 234 pounds and was eating poorly as well as not exercising at all. I could barely walk up a flight of stairs without sitting down to catch my breath. To make matters worse, I was on two separate blood pressure medications, one to reduce my BP, and the other to regulate my heart rate. My doctor had told me that I was pre-diabetic and that I would soon have to go on diabetes medication along with the BP meds. The two heart attacks I suffered at 40 and 42 had taken it's toll on my lifestyle and overall health and I knew I was on that slippery slope to a shortened life. That was the turning point for me. I guess everyone has to go through some self-evaluation before they get to a place that they decide they have to make some sort of change in their lives. Until then, they will continue to decline in their health and lifestyle to a point when they are hospitalized and/or reach their final demise. We are all going in that direction I guess. The question you need to ask yourself is, "Do I want to just sit down and give up, or do I want to live my life to its fullest?"
I chose the latter and have not looked back since. I started doing a program called Power 90, or P90, produced by a company called Beachbody in Jan 09 and have literally changed my life from the privacy of my spare bedroom. That sounds so simple and too easy, but that is what I have done for the past 2 years to regain my health, fitness and a better lifestyle. It was always, and continues to be, challenging every day but I am on my fourth round of P90X, the extreme version of P90 and have never felt better.
As I have progressed in my journey to better health and fitness, I have come to realize that exercise is only part of the equation if you want to be really healthy. Your nutrition is just as important and without proper nutrition, you can never maximize your exercise results and will spend a lot more time getting into shape. You can see that every day as you watch people go into and come out of your local gym. A lot of them have spent years going to the gym and working out with either weight machines, stair masters, free weights, tread mills, and so forth only to look about the same as they did the day they started. They are doing part of what they need to do, but they don't have the whole picture clearly in focus.
There are three legs to the health and fitness stool. Exercise being one, nutrition another, and a community of support have been shown to have the best impact on helping people change their lifestyles and live a better quality of life. This is why I like Beachbody so much. I live a busy life and don't have that much time to be spending on exercise. Most people are in that same boat these days. But, Beachbody has developed a comprehensive program that addresses all three legs of the health stool and you can do it all from your home.
Beachbody produces world class in-home fitness programs and provides you with a wide range of nutrition guidance as well as a on-line community of people just like you who are fighting the obesity epidemic by transforming their bodies and their health together. It is a wonderful experience being around others who support you on your journey to better health and fitness. They know what you are going through and are there to support you and encourage you to continue on your journey. Before you know it, your life will be changed and you will wonder why you ever lived the way you did in the past. Then you almost feel a sense of obligation to "pay it forward" and help your family and friends improve their lives. As we do this one body at a time, eventually, we will reverse the trend of obesity in the US and beyond.
I wanted to post about my supplementation and why I take supplements. It has become an integral part of my nutrition plan and I think you almost have to supplement your nutrition because of what Big Food has done to our food supply over the past 30+ years. I recently read an article about the nutrition in an apple of all things, and according to the article, if you eat a medium apple today, you are only getting 25% of the nutrition you would get by eating an apple 50 years ago! That astonished me when I read it. I eat apples all the time and thought I was getting good nutrition from it. However, the soil is no longer as fertile as it was in the past and seeds have been altered through genetics so the nutritional value of foods we eat have continued to decrease over time.
No longer can we get the nutrition our bodies need without eating 4 times as many calories resulting in the unused calories being stored as fat. Have you noticed that 2/3 of the adult population in the US are overweight or clinically obese according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC)? People are not getting the right level of nutrition in the fast, processed foods our society is eating these days. The big food industry, like Monsanto, McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, etc. are feeding us low nutrition and high fat food, all for the sake of cheap convenience the American population has embraced over the past few decades. This has resulted in our country being the fattest nation in the world, and one of the most unhealthy.
This is why you almost have to supplement your nutrition if you want to get the right nutrition without all the calories and fat you don't need. If you are like me, you have a very busy life and it is hard to eat "clean" all the time. If you could eat the perfect diet every day at every meal, you wouldn't need to supplement your nutrition. Unfortunately, very few of us are able to do that consistently over time so our waistlines continue to increase and our overall health continues to decline. That is, unless we make a commitment to fight back. Since I know I am not always able to eat properly, I want to make sure I get enough nutrition to provide my body what it needs to function at the best level possible.
The first supplement I use is Shakeology. I use it because over the years I have researched and studied many of the ingredients are consolidated into what I think is a delicious meal replacement drink. It comes in two flavors, Chocolate and Greenberry. Since I am a chocoholic, I love the chocolate. It gets rid of my cravings and I love the taste and I know I am getting some of the best food nature has to offer into my body every day. I drink it first thing in the morning when my body is most ready to absorb nutrients after a 10-12 hour fast overnight from dinner to the morning. I get a burst of sustained energy from about 6 am in the morning until around 9 am when I feed myself again with a more traditional breakfast that consist of a protein, assorted fruits and berrys and some sort of fat such as walnuts or flax seed.
Next, I take a good quality multi-vitamin that is natural based. The brand I use is called Nutrivit and is a all around great vitamin to ensure I am getting at least 100% of my daily recommended allowance of essential vitamins and minerals.
Along with the multi-vitamin and Shakeology I also take a Calcium and Omega 3 supplement, which rounds out my daily supplementation. I know by taking these supplements every day, my body is able to function at optimal levels for my age and current physical condition. As you probably already know, calcium is great for protecting your bones, joints and different organs in your body. The Omega 3 fish oils help your cardiovascular system work at higher levels. Most people suffer from a deficiency of omega 3's and usually get too many omega 6s in the standard American diet. The Omega 3 supplement helps me keep the balance of Omega 6 and Omega 3 in place.
If you decide to supplement with Omega 3s, make sure you look carefully at the pill. If it is dark, it is probably old or not good quality so don't buy it. Good, clean omega 3 will seem light and bright when you look at the pills. Those are a good indication of the purity of the oils used to make the supplement. As with anything else, it may cost a little more to get a better quality supplement. I recommend you don't short change your supplements by buying cheap ones. Some of them will do more harm than good so do your research to find the best you can afford. The investment will result in better overall health and a longer, better quality of life.
I used to get my supplements from GNC and I paid for what I wanted. For example, I took the GNC Men's Sports Formula multi-vitamin for years. I think the cost was $49.95 for a month supply that I took daily. Once I found Beachbody, I researched their products and found I could get what is called their "Core Nutrition Pack", which includes the multi, Calcium and Omega 3 supplements together. The multi-vitamin is better in my opinion because of the natural ingredients used to manufacture the vitamin vs the synthetic way GNC produced the Men's Health Formula. Also, I get all three supplements as a Team Beachbody Coach for about the same price as the GNC multi-vitamin alone. For me it was a "no-brainer." I have been taking these supplements for almost 2 years and have had no adverse reaction to anything I have used from Beachbody.
During this round of P90X, I decided to give the Beachbody creatine supplement a try for 8 weeks and cycle off of it in the last 4 weeks of my program. So far, I have gained strength and am able to do my workouts with more intensity, but I feel bloated a lot since I have been taking it. I have heard that is normal when taking creatine, so I will have to see over time what kind of gains I get and how lean I get once I cycle off the supplement.
And finally, I use Beachbody's Recovery Formula as my recovery drink after my workouts. It taste like orange sherbet ice cream and has the 4 to 1 ratio of carbs to protein recommended for optimal recovery and muscle repair after doing intense workouts. It helps me reduce the soreness in my muscles after doing my strength workouts and I can tell the difference if I don't have the recovery drink the next day.
So far, these supplements and especially Shakeology have helped me lose 41 pounds and keep it off for almost 2 years now. I have seen many different opinions posted over the Internet by so called "nutrition experts" who claim supplements are worthless. On the other hand, I have done my own research and study about the need for supplementation including sources like the Center's for Disease Control (CDC), FDA, numerous books by Registered Dietitians and PhDs and overall believe the prevailing wind is that you are better off taking them. Personally, I know how I feel when I take them on a regular basis, and how different I feel when I don't take them of a while. I have decided I feel better and live a better quality of life by taking them. It may not be for everyone so I guess each individual will have to do the research and decide for themselves if they will be better off with or without supplements.
I say make sure you are eating as clean as you can, eat a balanced diet of lean protein, complex carbs, and essential fatty acids and supplement if you feel the need. This is the path to long term health and a better quality of life.
If you would like to find out more about these supplements just click this LINK and feel free to look around.
Also, if you want to see what Doctor's are saying about Shakeology, just click this LINK and then click the tab at the top right of the page and see the doctor comments.
To your health and fitness!
jw
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