Drop six Jean Sizes in Two Months?

That is the plan, to drop from size 22 on day one, May 4th to size 16 by day 57.  Progress so far, at day 34 I am wearing size 18 jeans.  Only have two sizes and a few inches to go.  Here are the pictures:

Trying on size 16 jeans June 5th

Size 22 P jeans May 4th

Wearing size 18 Jeans May 31

How to Reverse Aging

Like a butterfly, I have always flitted from one thing to another. So what makes me think that I will stick to my commitment to shredding my excess pounds and to my health and well-being?

Because this is my life. This is the rest of my life. This transformation is something I have been contemplating and planning for more years than I want to admit.

It has been my vision of the future since before I was over weight and out of shape. This is a true story. Years ago I envisioned that I would let myself go, and get out of shape and then around this age, make an incredible transformation, not only to a thinner healthier body but one that looks 20 or 30 years younger.

For the past few years I have been attempting to begin that transformation, body mind and soul, but all the pieces were not in place yet. In the mean while I researched things that cause aging, and things that might help to reverse aging.

I had a friend who was in his 40’s who had a massive heart attack. He survived it but it gave him such a scare that he changed his whole lifestyle. I saw him six months later and he looked 20 or more years younger. I was fascinated. I asked him what he was doing. He was eating clean and exercising. He had lost weight yes, but he also looked younger and felt younger.

This is when I realized that so-called aging can be reversed and you can extend your life through proper diet and exercise. But that is just part of it.

As Tom Venuto and Adam Waters teaches in this  shredder  course,  you have to get your head on right.

Its not just about loosing fat and eating better, but about everything in your life.   It is about your thinking and your lifestyle.

In my search, I discovered five things that contribute most to aging. I am going to reveal these five things here for you shredders. They are, in order of their importance:

1. The thoughts that you think.

2. The air that your breathe.

3. The water that you drink.

4. The food that you eat.

5. Exercise.

Given these five things, over the years I have taken steps to follow this guideline.

Think good thoughts and think about what you want, not about what you don’t want. Think Love, compassion, kindness, joy, gratitude.

Live deliberately and be conscious of the consequences of your choices.

Air you breathe: It goes without saying, don’t smoke. Do deep breathing exercises and cardio for moving your breath.

If you read the book “Unlimited Power” by Anthony Robbins one of the things he pushes most is deep breathing. The breath moves nutrition to your cells, and your body will feel less hungry.

You can loose weight just by deep breathing.

The water that you drink:  Drink enough water. Pure water is best, but if it has no minerals at all you can sprinkle a bit of sea salt in it to get electrolytes.

Eat real food.  Unprocessed food, healthy food. We all know what that is thanks to people like Tom Venuto who tell people the truth.

Exercise:  If you don’t use it, well you will loose it. Cardio exercises burn fat because it gets you to breathe.

This is the basic outline for reverse aging and staying young. Do you still plague your body with stinking negative thinking and your lungs with smoke? Do you drink enough water? Do you eat good foods? Do you get enough exercise? If you are work on living consciously and deliberately, keeping your goal in mind, you will make the right choices every moment of your day.

Make a Promise to Your Body

Do you have a plan?  Are you willing to make a promise to your body?

Looking back at the last ten years I have been carrying around an extra 50 or 60 pounds holding pretty steady at 175 to 190. I was thinking that if I had just lost and kept off five pounds per year I would be at a pretty decent place today.

To add to that,  if I had been exercising and strength training and eating clean… there is no telling what the results would look like.  Time zooms by so fast in the complicated and busy realities that we create for ourselves and we indulge in things like laying in a recliner and watching reruns on television while snacking on Twinkies or corn chips in a total state of unconscious.

We procrastinate. We indulge. We get lazy. We joke about our love handles. And we whine and complain and want to be accepted for “who we are” and not judged by others who discriminated against us because we are fat, lazy or overweight.

Well who were we then? We were people who took our life for granted and disrespected the amazing body we live in. We were people who don’t use the power of our will to turn off the television and put down the Twinkies and go for a walk in the fresh air. We were victims of our own ignorance of what to eat and how to stay in shape. We tried and failed. We gave up.

And we want people to respect us for that?

My future life depends on the decisions I make today. I made a commitment, that no matter how long it takes, I am going to treat my beautiful perfect body with the respect it deserves.

Just five measly pounds per year was all it would have taken. Ten years spent trashing my body.  I am ashamed.

So now I  ask my body for forgiveness.  Now I promise that I will treat you with respect and give you the nourishment and exercise you need. You have served me so well, all of my life. I have taken that for granted.  I now promise to serve, pamper and nourish you. You are the temple where my heart and soul resides. I am grateful for you. You are a marvel!

I love my body so now I am going to reshape it.  Here is the plan:

Create a Plan for your transformation

Day 17 – Tranformation Pictures

I am on day 17 of my body transformation with the Shredders and things are falling into place one day at a time.  I have a lot of organizing and reading to do;  not to mention perfecting and learning the art of strength training.

With blogs, posting, exercising, web site updating, I have not had time to do any oil painting or house cleaning. Time management is in order.  I have a book called Time management for idiots but I haven’t had time to read it yet. Well, I glanced at it and it seemed like a stupid waste of time.

Anyway, here is my progress picture for day 17.  Pounds lost: 6, Waist inches lost, 4.

Pounds lost: 6 Waist inches lost: 4

I’m Back Again and on Track With the Shredders

Who are the Shredders ?

They are a group of people who are doing amazing transformations with Tom Venuto’s knowledge and a real time accountability blogging community of people shredding pounds and inches and getting in shape.

Adam Waters started the Shredderspear  group and he is working with Tom Venuto and others.

The incentive to loose weight and transform you body in 90 days is a real time accountability with progress pictures posted on blogs every day!  You heard it, every day.  Not just before and after or once per weak.

I have joined the shredders on a mission to the finish which will take me to New York and an all out Shredder Summit where the contest winners will be honored.

In addition to posting my before and after pictures on the private shredderspear community, I will be posting them here on my personal “Build a Better Body” blog where you can watch me as I transform.

I have mapped out three transformation missions to be discussed later in this blog, but for now I am on mission #1, and 84 day program designed by Adam Waters, together with Tom Venuto and other body building super stars.

To begin this new on-line journal, here posted below is my  two week transformation picture.   This time I am in it for a lifetime commitment with the help of Adam Waters, Tom Venuto and the Shreddersphere real time progress blogging support group.

This is my first post since joining the Shreddersphere.  All posts before this are my attempts at creating accountability by blogging, but I did not keep up with it and got off track.  Well a I’m back and I plan to stay on track this time with at least a short journal and my progress pictures for all to see.

First 14 days: -I lost four inches and six pounds.

Before and After progress Pictures

The Guarantee

We all want to have a guarantee when we start a project and for me the guarantee is that if I eat less calories than I burn, I will loose weight.  From there you have to estimate how many calories you burn doing nothing.

If you want to loose one pound of body fat you need to cut your calories by 3500 from what you are currently consuming while maintaining your current weight.

I had no idea what I was consuming.  Obviously more than I should because I was not maintaining my current weight, I was putting on weight and I gained ten pounds.

To catch you up on what I have been doing this past year would take too long, but suffice it to say I was not getting lean or loosing weight and I managed to sluff off and gain ten extra pounds.

So I wanted a guarantee.  Lets get down to it.  I wanted to know how to loose weight even if I did no exercise.   I had to cut my calorie intake.  So for the past two weeks I have kept it around 1520 calories per day, and I have started some mild exercise.

Damn those squats.  They hurt my knees and everybody wants you to do them.  So I do them, but very slowly and very carefully and I don’t worry about my legs being parallel to the floor.  Who do they think I am?  Geeeze.

So I lost five pounds so far.  That is a victory.  A small one, since it is five pounds that I should not have even had in the first place, but I am determined not to back slide this time.

This is January 23 2009.  I am 205 lbs.  This will be my diary.  I don’t know if anyone will be reading it or not.

I am getting back on track with Tom Venuto’s new book called “The Body Fat Solution” which you can purchase on Amazon.com.  Thank you Tom.

This is my first post for 2009.  The previous posts were last year.  I have not been keeping up with my blog or website or my weight loss and body building project.

WELL I’M BACK!

Getting Over the Rough Spots

It seems like the start of anything involves a learning curve and a “getting over the rough spots” rocky road.

My first month on the Tom’s “Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle” program has been one of procrastination and I have not made much progress. The good news is that I have lost two inches from my waist, and went down a little in body fat just on the recommended food, and not too much exercise.

I put off the exercise for a number of reasons, which all boil down to excuses, but here they are for what they are worth. First, the pain in my left foot and heel caused from a case of Plantar Fasciiitis kept me from my walking and jogging routine. (Click on the link to find a treatment for this injury.)

In an effort to replace that idea I ordered an exercise tape that has combined exercises which include low impact aerobics, strength training and stretching and worked out with it only once and was sore for a week, which was discouraging. Then, I got so busy with my Internet Marketing Education, I spent most of the time at the computer.

With the arrival of spring, a new determination has got me started again, and the good weather is really a big help. I purchased ankle supports for my feet and have started doing stretching for my Plantar Fasciitis problem. I am determined to walk and climb stairs for my morning aerobics. I have been doing that every morning this week., in addition to doing my five rites and some mild power yoga at night before I go to bed. This is going to be a daily routine.

When I get that routine down good and start feeling stronger, I plan to add some strength training and some weight lifting at least three times per week as soon as I educate myself about that a little. Last night I attempted to do some push-ups and they were extremely difficult and I felt like I weighed a ton.

The upside is that with every day I stay with my exercise routine, it gets easier than the day before and I feel more energized. I feel like I am beginning to get a handle on both my exercise program and my Internet Marketing education.

If you are interested in my Internet Marketing blog you can find it at: http://webwitch.wordpress.com. I have been having a few really rough days, but now I feel I have learned a valuable lesson with Google adwords and am prepared to tweak my advertising campaigns to the max.

Foods That Burn Fat: The Top 10 Lists

By Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS
www.BurnTheFat.com
Anytime the topic of discussion in my blogs, articles or newsletters has turned to my own personal grocery shopping list, there has always been a spike in interest. It seems that many people are not only curious about what foods a natural bodybuilder eats to maintain single digit body fat, but they also want to be taken by the hand and told exactly what foods to eat themselves while on fat-burning or muscle building programs. That’s why I decided to put together four separate “top 10” lists of healthy foods that burn fat and build muscle.

Exact quantities and menus are not listed, just the individual foods, and of course my food intake does vary. I aim to get as many different varieties of fruits and vegetables as possible over the course of every week and there are a lot of substitutions made, so you are not seeing the full list of everything I eat, only what foods I eat most of the time.

I also want to point out that while I don’t believe that extreme low carbs are necessary or most effective when you look at the long term, research has shown that there are some definite advantages to a low to moderate carb and higher protein diet for fat loss purposes. These include reduced appetite, higher thermic effect of food and “automatic” calorie control.

Personally, I reduce my carb intake moderately and temporarily prior to bodybuilding competitions. Specifically, it’s the foods that are on the starchy carbs and grains list that go down during the brief pre-competition period when I’m working on that really “ripped” look. I keep the green and fibrous veggie intake very high however, along with large amounts of lean protein, small amounts of fruit, and adequate amounts of essential fats.

This list reflects my personal preferences, so this is not a prescription to all readers to eat as I do. It’s very important for compliance to choose foods you enjoy and to have the option for a wide variety of choices. In the past several years, nutrition and obesity research – in studying ALL types of diets – has continued to conclude that almost any hypocaloric diet that is not completely “moronic” can work, at least in the short term.

It’s not so much about the high carb – low carb argument or any other debate as much as it is about calorie control and compliance. The trouble is, restricted diets and staying in a calorie deficit is difficult, so most people can’t stick with any program and they fall off the wagon, whichever wagon that may be.

I believe that a lot of our attention needs to shift away from pointless debates (for example, low carb vs. high carb is getting really old… so like… get over it everyone, its a calorie deficit that makes you lose weight, not the amount of carbs).

Instead, our focus should shift towards these questions:

* How can we build an eating program that we can enjoy while still getting us leaner and healthier?

* How can we build an eating program that helps us control calories?

* How can we build an eating program that improves compliance?

Here’s one good answer: Eat a wide variety of high nutrient density, low calorie density foods that you enjoy which still fit within healthy, fat-burning, muscle-building guidelines!

Here are the lists of foods I choose to achieve these three outcomes. This eating plan is not difficult to stick with at all, by the way. I enjoy eating like this and it feels almost weird not to eat like this after doing it for so long.

Remember, habits work in both directions, and as motivational speaker Jim Rohn has said, “Bad habits are easy to form and hard to live with and good habits are hard to form but easy to live with.”

These are listed in the order I frequently consume them. So for example, if oatmeal is on the top of the list, it means that is the food I am most likely to eat every single day.

My 10 top natural starchy carb and whole grains

1. Oatmeal (old fashioned)
2. Yams
3. Brown rice (a favorite is basmati, a long grain aromatic rice)
4. Sweet potatoes (almost same as yams)
5. Multi grain hot cereal (mix or barley, oats, rye. titricale and a few others)
6. White potatoes
7. 100% whole wheat bread
8. 100% whole wheat pasta
9. Beans (great for healthy chili recipes)
10. Cream of rice hot cereal

My Top 10 top vegetables

1. Broccoli
2. Asparagus
3. Spinach
4. Salad greens
5. Tomatoes
6. Peppers (green, red or yellow)
7. Onions
8. Mushrooms
9. Cucumbers
10. Zucchini

My top 10 lean proteins

1. Egg whites (whole eggs in limited quantities)
2. Whey or Casein protein (protein powder supplements)
3. Chicken Breast
4. Salmon (wild Alaskan)
5. Turkey Breast
6. Top round steak (grass fed beef)
7. Flank Steak (grass fed beef)
8. Lean Ground Turkey
9. Bison/Buffalo
10. Trout

My top 10 fruits

1. Grapefruit
2. Apples
3. Blueberries
4. Canteloupe
5. Oranges
6. Bananas
7. Peaches
8. Grapes
9. Strawberries
10. Pineapple

Note: I DO include healthy fats as well, such as walnuts, almonds, extra virgin olive oil, flaxseeds, flaxseed oil (supplement – not to cook with), avocado and a few others.

Also, I do eat dairy products and have nothing against them, nor am I lactose intolerant. I simply don’t eat as much dairy as the rest of the stuff on my lists. When I eat dairy, its usually skim milk, low or non fat cottage cheese, low or non fat yogurt and low or non fat cheese (great for omelettes).

Last but not least, I usually follow a compliance rate of about 95%, which means I take two or three meals per week of whatever I want (stuff that is NOT on these lists – like pizza, sushi, big fatty restaurant steaks, etc)

I hope you found this helpful and interesting. Keep in mind, this is MY food list, and although you probably couldn’t go wrong to emulate it, you need to choose natural foods you enjoy in order to develop habits you can stick with long term. In the fruits and vegetables categories alone, there are hundreds of other choices out there, so enjoy them all!

About the Author:

Tom Venuto is a natural bodybuilder, certified strength and conditioning specialist (CSCS) and a certified personal trainer (CPT). Tom is the author of “Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle,” which teaches you how to get lean without drugs or supplements using methods of the world’s best bodybuilders and fitness models. Learn how to get rid of stubborn fat and increase your metabolism by visiting: www.burnthefat.com

Exercise is part of the Program, so get to it!

I was anxious to get back to my exercise tape but my inner thigh muscles were so sore from the first try at it I had a problem for about three days even sitting down and getting up from a chair or bending over to pick something up off the floor.  At least I know that the tape will do the job, but I could not bring myself to even look at it.  I did, however, do some five rites exercises and they are going well.

Then I tripped and fell down a few porch steps trying to dodge some newly fallen snow and twisted my ankle a little.  Luckily, I had an ankle brace on that foot for support as suggested for my Plantar Faciliis problem.   I think if I had not had that brace on, I may have been on crutches for a week, but the pain only lasted a day or two with the help of some Advil.

I am pretty sure I have lost a pound, but I am not all that excited about that, but it is certainly better than gaining one.  I have not been doing enough exercise, and I have not been counting calories good enough.  I have been eating the right foods and feeling much stronger and more flexible.  I always feel more flexible when I stay away from sugar. Sugar tends to make me feel real old and stiff.

The new bathroom scale I bought is accurate but it is a little difficult to read as it is not a digital scale and I can’t see where the needle is exactly, so unless I loose two or three pounds, it is hard to tell if anything is changing in that department.

I have lost an inch around my waist and I do feel slimmer.  I need to really buckle down and get back to the physical exercise, and make sure to count every calorie.  That is the hard part.  … the damn paperwork.

The nagging voice in my head just tells me to stop being lazy and start moving more.  I spend too much time at the computer.  Nag Nag Nag.

Work out Video was not as easy as it looked.

My first week has not seen much weight loss as I have been dealing with my plantar fasciitis injury and I have not been counting calories although I have been eating the foods recommended by Tom Venuto for burning fat.

BFmom from the inner circle gave me a link to some excellent work out videos at www.collagevideo.com and I went there and ordered one called “The Studio” by Ellen Barrett. It looked the easiest.

HA! Did I say easy? I put the video on and began following the moves until she got to going a little too fast for me or until I got winded, then I would sit for a few minutes. Then I would get up and do some more. I was not even half through the first warm-up when I was interrupted by something else.

The next two days I could feel the sore muscles in my upper legs and had a painful time just sitting down and getting up out of a chair. Wow, I thought, I am really out of shape. For the little amount of exercise I did, today I am sore. At least I know that the tape I bought is going to do its job and it is sure not as easy as it had looked.

Yesterday I began counting calories, and that is going to take some getting used to. I went to look at my bike and found the seat all torn up and the bike itself was covered with spider webs. I may need a new seat or some duck tape. I also bought a scale because the one I was using was not reliable.

That is my report for this week. It is March 1, 2008.