My 12 Week Workout and Nutrition Plan

Hi everyone! Hope you are doing your part to help reverse and end the trend of obesity in the US! This past Monday I started a new 12-week program for my personal health and fitness and have made several changes to reduce my body fat and improve my overall health.

First, I have to admit that I slacked off my program for about 10 weeks starting with our dive vacation to the Bahamas in late May. That is where my plan and routine went awry. Just to show you a good example of how easy it is to get off your program, no matter how long you have been exercising and eating better, I want to use myself as an example of what NOT to do.

We had our vacation all set up and I took my workouts with me to stay on track. However, once we got to the resort, I quickly fell off my program. Here is why. Since I was scheduling 2 or 3 dives per day, I rationalized that I really didn’t need to do my workouts because I would be burning an average of 900-1100 calories per dive. Therefore, I would be burning about 2000-3000 extra calories per day diving so why workout? Sounds pretty good, huh? Then, since I was burning all those calories, I decided I could eat more, and add a little junk to keep my energy levels up so I could power through those dives, including diving with Sharks (I have pics on my Facebook page if you want to see them.) So this is how my week went. Throw in a few beers and drinks every day and I was completely off program.

OK, it’s just a week, right? I have been good for over a year and been sticking with my plan and getting good results and still had a few weeks before the Beachbody Summit to slim down and be at my peak when I showed up at the conference. Life has a way of changing your circumstances without warning. Once I got back from vacation, I found myself in the middle of a family emergency that resulted in a lot of travel to hospitals, lack of sleep, eating fast food, and got getting any exercise for almost 4 weeks going to the Summit. The result of those bad choices was a weight gain from 195 before leaving for vacation up to 207.4 pounds in about 8 weeks! Yikes. It was just a bunch of circumstances, and my own rationalization that ended up packing on the pounds in just a short period of time. I managed to wipe out about 10 months of effort in just a matter of weeks by not sticking to my exercise routine and nutrition plan. It is just that simple.

To make matters worse, my energy levels went down, I started feeling sluggish again, my stress levels are up, I looked terrible at Summit with all my Beachbody friends and I am just disappointed in myself for my lack of discipline. And, I only have myself to blame. I am not going to beat myself up too much over it because in the end, I know what I need to do to get myself back on track and I already have all the tools I need to get out of the mess I have gotten myself into.

I have a number of Beachbody workout programs I have successfully used to get in shape and live a better lifestyle. I’m not a Gym Rat so the at home workout programs fit my lifestyle better. I guess they are not for everyone, but millions of people around the country and world are literally changing their lives with Beachbody workout programs. My personal preference are Tony Horton’s workouts. I have several of his workouts, but I also have Insanity, Turbo Fire, Slim in 6, Turbo Jam, Hip Hop Abs and other programs I can use in the privacy of my home. With my busy schedule, they are a great way to keep myself in shape and improve my lifestyle.

I don’t have to fight traffic home, grab my gym bag and go back out into traffic to get to the gym and then fight other people to use the machines and all that is included in that environment. I get home, change my clothes, go into my spare bedroom, put in my workout disc and press play. Then it is a matter of me “doing my best and forgetting the rest” as Tony Horton would say. I just do the best I can on any given day. I may not feel like doing the workout, but I find that once I push play, I get pumped up and start kicking it into high gear and pushing myself. I don’t spend any time waiting for some machine to open up or hanging out BSing. I just follow the workout on the TV and move through it at a good pace and level of intensity. Before I know it, I am soaked with sweat and have blown through a hour workout and can get in the shower, and enjoy the rest of my evening.

Doing workouts from home don’t require any more discipline than schlepping to a gym every day. It is just more convenient to most people. I also like the idea of the Team Beachbody community where thousands of people are logging on and helping each other stay motivated and accountable. I have made friends with people all over the country who are trying to get and stay health and fit using Beachbody workouts. Celebrities, professional sports figures, and even Michelle Obama and her staff use Beachbody programs to get, and stay fit. How cool is that?

So this round I am doing a hybrid program to get myself back on track over the next 12 weeks. I will be doing the Power 90 boot camp for the first 4 weeks for phase 1, then I will do 4 weeks of the P90 Master Series videos for phase 2 and finally I will finish this round with P90X Phase 3 of the Classic version. This should have me right back on track with my functional strength, fat loss, and stamina improvement. This is where I need to be to feel better and know I am on the right path.

My goal is to lose 15 pounds this round and I know from past experience this is easily doable. I also want to reduce my body fat percentage to 12-15 percent. This is more challenging than the weight and diet becomes a important factor to achieving the fat loss.

I am going to use Michi’s Ladder and a balanced approach to lose the weight and fat over time. My macro-nutrients will be 50% Protein, 30% Carbs and 20% fat. This ratio seems to work best for me personally. The standard guideline is 30% protein, 40% carbs, and 30% fats if you are interested. This should be where you start and then tweak your ratios to find what works best for you. Remember, everyone is different but the above ratio covers about 80% of the people to get results. Next, I will try to adjust my calories up or down to find the zone that will help me keep my energy up and reduce body fat. Ironically, sometimes you have to eat more to lose weight. My starting calorie target is 2600 calories per day. I will only make minor changes in my intake about every 2 weeks or so.

Finally, my nutrition is centered on Shakeology. Why? Because in all my research, Shakeology is hands down the most nutritious meal replacement you can get. I have been drinking a glass of Shakeology every day for nearly a year now and I know how it makes me feel. Plus, there is nowhere in the world that you can get more than 70 super food ingredients in a single serving. At only 140 calories, it is literally “The Healthiest Meal of the Day”. You can click HERE to read all about Shakeology. I am completely satisfied with the Chocolate. It satisfies my chocolate cravings, gives me an instant energy boost that lasts all morning and it has helped me stay regular and keep my body cleansed of the junk I put into it from time to time (no one is perfect.)

I will be posting my accountability pictures this weekend so you can see what I look like now and I will do 30-day updates so you can see what kind of results I get this round.

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you will follow me and watch my progress over the next 11.5 weeks. Feel free to comment on any of my posts. If you want to contact me for help on your personal health and fitness journey, please email me at jimwyatt556@gmail.com and I will be happy to help you any way I can.

To your health and fitness,
jw

Re-Starting with the $100,000 Beachbody Challenge!!

Hi everyone!

I have been "resting" my body for the past few weeks trying to recover from overtraining and a number of personal issues I have been dealing with over the past two months or so. Unfortunately, I should have stayed on my health program instead of letting life get in the way and distract me from one of the most important aspects of my healthy lifestyle, that is to stay focused and keep moving forward.

The result of my lack of discipline has caused me to go from 194 pounds back up to 207.4 pounds in about 10 weeks of sporadic exercise and slacking off on my nutrition. I can see how sudden events cause high levels of stress and you can lose focus on what is important to your personal health and fitness levels. I am a perfect example of what NOT to do! Eventhough I know better and have learned how to do the right things when it comes to my health, I allowed myself to fall right off the grid and back into a very unhealthy lifestyle.

Now, I don't have the energy I had only a few weeks ago and my my sleep pattern has been disrupted due to issues I really have no control over. This is having a negative impact on my overall health and well-being. I am tired all day long and end up falling asleep on the couch when I know I should be doing my daily workout routine. Then waking up and going to bed and not being able to fall asleep, resulting in less restfull sleep and lower energy levels during the day. This is a viscious cycle once you get in the pattern. I have to break that pattern and force myself to do my workouts and get in bed at a decent time.

To make matters worse, all the events in the past couple of months have resulted in me eating less nutritious and not as clean as I know I should. Instead of sticking to my plan, I made a bad decision for convenience to eat fast food to get me through all the hospital travel, court issues, and lawyer visits. The reality is that I needed to be eating especially clean and exercising consistently to cope better but I was doing the exact opposite. One thing I did manage to stick with was drinking my Shakeology almost every day. At least I was getting some healthy nutrition in spite of my lack of overall discipline. In the end, that probably kept me from gaining even more weight.

Over the past couple of weeks, I have let my body rest as much as possible and didn't do any of my workouts. I wanted to give my body complete rest as much as possible. I also refocused on my nutrition and have come up with a plan to eat better in the future. Now, all I need to do is add my workouts back into my daily routine and I will be back on track. And lastly, I have been getting more restful sleep by going to bed on time and getting up consistently to get my biological clock back on track. I have been averaging about 7 hours per night of restful sleep, which is on target for me personally.

As you know I have been using Beachbody workout programs since January of 2009 when I first "pushed play." The great thing is that I already own the solution to my fitness. I don't have to go out and buy anything else. All I need to do is get back on track and start using the programs again. With that in mind, I have decided to do a hybrid 12 week program that includes three of the workouts I used to lose 41 pounds of fat in 10 months and sustain that for over a year. I already know what to do, and how to do it, so my plan is simple.

Beachbody developes their programs over a 12 week "round" and for the most of their programs they are devided into 3 4-week blocks or phases. So to continue to recover, but get back to my workout routines, I have decided to do the Power 90 (P90) Boot camp for the first 4 weeks, then do the P90 Master Series workouts for the second 4 weeks and then finish this round with P90X Phase III as my closeout phase.

The reason I have decided to do a hybrid is that I already know how to do the programs and how they affect my body. Since I haven't been working out for a while, it will be like starting over so I don't want to risk further injury by over-doing it. Rather, I can use the different programs to quickly ramp up my fitness and get back on track in 12 weeks instead of several 36 months if I redo the programs individually.

I am confident that if I am consistent, and push myself to my personal limit and then just a little more, I will be right back where I need to be. So today is my Day 1 of my 12 week program. I plan to post at least once a week about my progress and let you know how it is going and what challenges I am facing. This will also help me be accountable and keep me on track.

I ask that you follow my blog and watch me to make sure I am posting regularily so I will be accountable. I would appreciate your support by helping me out. Make sure you bust on me if I slack off on my posts. I will post at least once a week and hopefully more if I have time.

Also, if you are interested in trying one of the programs and entering Beachbody's $100,000 challenge, let me know. I can be reached at jimwyatt556@gmail.com I will coach you for FREE and help you help us end the trend of obesity in the US.

To your health and fitness,

jw