Exercise challenge for 2011

Since Jack always had a crazy exercise challenge every year we are going to as well. On Nov 12 we are going to run our first marathon. I had said I wanted to run a marathon before 40 so I guess here goes... The marathon is on a Saturday in columbus ga for anyone wants to join us.

In preparation we are training for a 15k in April. Go team...!

Challenges and deprivation

So I have had several challenges starting with finding time to post. I will try to do better. Cliff and I have had many conversations about our experiment and although there are times we may feel deprived it's also kinda nice to blame our whacky (to some) eating behaviors on someone else. Although cliff isn't eating the same meal plan as jack, he's still trying to follow his rules. Luckily Jillian does allow some goodies in her diet (like the yummy Newman O's! Believe it or not I can stop at one. It was a challenge at first but got remarkably easier. The less sugar I eat the less I crave it. The more in control I feel.

The energy is still good. Even during the days following little sleep. I've been off caffeine for so long that I see no reason to ever go back.

The other night we wanted to go to dinner & for the first time we were kinda at a loss about where to go. With our somewhat limited menu choices it seemed hard. We couldn't just say "so you feel like Italian tonight?". Well there's the pasta, the bread, the beef. So we chose Bonefish. Since we CAN eat fish. We skipped the rolls, asked for oil & vinegar on the side and enjoyed grilled fish and veggies. Very yummy! We felt so healthy that when we passed the "hot now" sign at Krispy Kreme I almost asked if he wanted to stop. That's when I realized that although I'm a weight watchers leader advocating that you shouldn't deprive yourself.. I was doing it. I wasn't sure how I felt about it but decided it wasn't so bad. I can do without the doughnuts. And who knows by the time we're done I may decide I don't really like them! Yeah who am I kidding?!

So yes there are times we feel deprived but there are also many times where we are pleasantly surprised that the black bean hummus and a roasted brussel sprout tastes really great!

Feedback, not failure (or Why I can't do it)

We've been pretty slow with the blog posts as of late. I blame The Boy. He's been cranking lately. (I'm sure that wins me father of the year for blaming stuff on my kid, but it's the truth. )
We are still plugging away at our experiment.
Denise is practicing yoga as I write this @ 9:15pm central time. I'm not sure what that proves, either she is embracing this lifestyle, going nuts or she's a little sore from all of her other workouts. Possibly all three. Mostly she still feels great. Energy, vitality, losing inches, stress relief, great bowel movements, the whole nine yards.
Me? I'm having trouble with my blood sugar dropping into uncomfortable levels. Only the low 80's, which is still within the realm of normal. Nowhere close to dangerous, just annoying. So far the worst times have been at work: hands shaking, room kind of black at the edges, sudden surges of gravity making me stumble. It's nice to work around nurses at times like that. It has only been that bad twice, but I feel "low" from time to time.
I had already been considering a change in my eating anyway. I found this interview from the Wall Street Journal where Jack Lalanne laid out exactly what he ate, everyday.
A highlight:

"The way people eat today is sick," laments Mr. LaLanne. "Would you even feed your dog a cup of coffee and a doughnut in the morning?" Mr. LaLanne has many favorite sayings when it comes to diet: "Everything nature's way.…If man makes it, don't eat it.…If it tastes good, spit it out.…The food you eat today you're wearing tomorrow." He lives by all of them. "Before I eat something I ask 'What is it doing for me, the most important person on Earth?' "

Mr. LaLanne only eats two meals per day: One at 11 a.m. after his workout and one at 7 p.m. at a restaurant with his wife.

His 11 a.m. meal consists of three to four hard-boiled egg whites, a cup of broth-type soup, oatmeal with soy milk, raisins and a plate of seasonal fruit.

"Every restaurant we frequent has the 'Jack LaLanne salad' which is ten raw vegetables and four egg whites hardboiled," he says. "I make them throw the fat and cholesterol in the yolk away and you're left with the best protein known to man. Four egg whites have the same amount of protein as one pound of steak but only 60 calories compared to 1,000 calories." Mr. LaLanne eats fish nearly every night at dinner. The only other meat he eats is roast turkey. He doesn't snack between meals.

Not exactly the most exciting meal plan ever.
I also think his math is fuzzy with the protein-in-eggs-versus-steak thing.
Right now, I feel like I'm going to pass out if I go 4 hours without eating something. Could be a piece of fruit, but it's got to be something.
Plus, this is the 90-something version of Jack Lalanne. I'm assuming the 30-something version probably ate more than that. I assume.
So for now, I am abandoning trying to eat exactly like Jack. Maybe after I get used to having what essentially should be normal blood sugar I'll try again.
But this is feedback, not failure. Possibly my sugars where higher than I knew before we started our experiment. I have a large genetic predisposition towards diabetes, I may have been happily skipping towards it without knowing. Possibly.
Or I could be screwing myself up by not eating enough.

Winning and Not Winning

We had a great birthday weekend. The Boy turned 1 year old. Lots of noisy toys, noisy folks, it was great. The Boy didn't really enjoy his birthday cake the way everyone was hoping, but he was cute and that's really the important thing.
To answer the question everyone is asking: No, we had neither cake nor ice cream before, during or after the party. It was a bit of a temptation, but not a struggle. Having fruit instead is a viable alternative. Sweet, satisfying, and no crushing headache afterward.
Speaking of headaches, I'm having fewer and fewer. That's a very nice change. The scale is slowly changing, but I'll gladly exchange six-pack abs for no migraines.
Remember, the goal here is Radiant Health, not a Men's Health magazine photo shoot.
But now, it is time for true confessions:
I am not exercising two hours a day, every day. I do get at least 45 minutes a day of very intense training, sometimes I'll push it and go for a whole hour. I know two hours was the Lalanne Standard. But I am just not there yet physically. Besides not being able to keep up physically, I do not know where I would get the extra hour to train, have a job, see my wife and play with my kid, and sleep. I'm not saying it's impossible, just currently out of reach.
And I'm not sure two hours a day every day is really a worthy goal.
Maybe I'm selling myself short, maybe I'm compromising and taking the weenie way out. Something to think about.

Have fun,
Cliff

Me One Healthy Dude

WWJD?

No exercise for anyone today. Thanks to the blessing of Fatherhood, I was awake for over 22 hours yesterday. So we are taking the weekend off from strenuous exercise.
But it was a great day, so we took The Boy to the park, let him toddle around and fall outdoors and enjoy the fresh air. Like all good first time parents we took plenty of photographs and hovered over him. The other, more experienced, parents glanced at their kids every once in awhile and went back to chatting or reading. One lady didn't even get out of her car, just read People and waited, I suppose, for the sound of screaming.
With sunshine, families, and kiddie parks comes bags and bags of Fast Food. Yummy smelling fast food. Yummy smelling food in wrappers shiny with grease.
After we had spent a little over an hour we were hungry. I admit, it would have been nice to just go through a drive-thru on the way to the park or on the way home and inhale cheap food conveniently. Eating real food takes some planning, thinking, and well a bunch of effort.
What Would Jack Do? Jack wouldn't eat fast food. Jack would've reminded me that we enjoyed a smoothie with almond milk, strawberries, bananas and protein powder and that I really wasn't as hungry as I thought I was. And why would I want to waste calories and fat on crap in a wrapper just for convenience?
"A moment on the lips, a lifetime on the hips."
That's what Jack had been saying for decades, and would probably have told me today. And it's true. The folks eating the cheese off their wrappers with the paper still stuck to it did not look healthy. But they didn't seem to be bursting with energy. Merely bursting the buttons off their shirts or pants. Most did not look like Biggest Loser contestants, but a few did.
What price do we pay for convenient fast food?
What price do I pay for healthy food?
Which price is a better long term investment?

To "be rich like jack and jill"

So we went to Publix last night to get all of our organic fruits, veggies, fish and grass fed beef.  GOOD GRIEF it's expensive being healthy!  I had to forgo the organic apples because we buy so many.  We have got to find a cheaper way to eat like this or we are going to go broke!  If any of my blog friends feel my pain and have figured out how to fix it please let me know!

Overall things are going very well.  As I sat at Cracker Barrell (after ordering my spicy grilled catfish and veggies) feeding my child one of the tastiest biscuits ever made and NOT eating one, I decided either we are crazy or a glutton for punishment.  Maybe both.  And oddly enough we both left there feeling very satisfied and didn't get hungry again for the rest of the evening.  Maybe there's something to this.  In doing our research on Jack and Jill we found that both of them ate fish and veggies for one of their meals.  That seems to be the one meal they both go carb-free.  The only thing I could really find on Jillian's daily meal plan was from an interview with Self magazine: http://www.self.com/fooddiet/2009/07/jillian-michaels-diet-tips.  Not much to go on but it's something.