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.

3500 Calories To Lose A Pound – Is This Formula All Wrong?

By Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS
www.BurnTheFat.com
Most fitness conscious people have heard that there are 3,500 calories in a pound of fat, so if you create a deficit of 3500 calories in a week, you lose a pound of weight. If you create a deficit of 7000 calories in a week, you lose two pounds, and so on. Right? Well, not so fast…

Dr. Kevin Hall, an investigator at the National Institute of Health in Bethesda has done some interesting research about the mechanisms regulating human body weight. He recently published a new paper in the International Journal of Obesity that throws a wrench in works of the “3500 calories to lose a pound” idea.

Some of the equations in his paper made my head hurt, but despite the complex math he used to come to his conclusions, his article clearly prompts the question, “3500 calories to lose a pound of WHAT?” His paper also contained a lot of simple and practical tips you can use to properly balance your caloric intake with output, fine tune your calorie deficit and help you retain more muscle when you diet.

Below, I’ve distilled some of the information into a simple bullet-point summary that any non-scientist can understand. Then I wrap up with my interpretation of how you can apply this data in your own fat loss program:

Calculating the calories required to lose a pound and fine-tuning your caloric deficit

• 3500 calories to lose a pound has always been the rule of thumb. However, this 3500 calories figure goes back to research which assumed that all the weight lost would be adipose tissue (which would be ideal, of course).
• But as we all know (unfortunately), lean body mass is lost along with body fat, which would indicate that the 3500 calorie figure could be an oversimplification.
• The amount of lean body mass lost is based on initial body fat level and size of the calorie deficit
• Lean people tend to lose more lean body mass and retain more fat.
• Fat people tend to lose more body fat and retain more lean tissue (revealing why obese people can tolerate aggressive low calorie diets better than already lean people)
• Very aggressive low calorie diets tend to erode lean body mass to a greater degree than more conservative diets.
• whether the weight loss is lean or fat gives you the real answer of what is the required energy deficit per unit of weight loss
• The metabolizable energy in fat is different than the metabolizable energy in muscle tissue. A pound of muscle is not 3500 calories. A pound of muscle yields about 600 calories.
• If you lose lean body mass, then you lose more weight than if you lose fat.
• If you create a 3500 calorie deficit in one week and you lose 100% body fat, you will lose one pound.
• But if you create a 3500 calorie weekly deficit and as a result of that deficit, lose 100% muscle, you would lose almost 6 pounds of body weight! (of course, if you manage to lose 100% muscle, you will be forced to wear the Dieter’s Dunce cap)
• If you have a high initial body fat percentage, then you are going to lose more fat relative to lean, so you may need a larger deficit to lose the same amount of weight as compared to a lean person
• Creating a calorie deficit once at the beginning of a diet and maintaining that same caloric intake for the duration of the diet and after major weight loss fails to account for how your body decreases energy expenditure with reduced body weight
• Weight loss typically slows down over time for a prescribed constant diet (the “plateau”). This is either due to the decreased metabolism mentioned above, or a relaxing of the diet compliance, or both (most people just can’t hack aggressive calorie reductions for long)
• Progressive resistance training and or high protein diets can modify the proportion of weight lost from body fat versus lean tissue (which is why weight training and sufficient protein while on calorie restricted diets are absolute musts!)

So, based on this info, should you throw out the old calorie formulas?

Well, not necessarily. You can still use the standard calorie formulas to figure out how much you should eat, and you can use a 500-1000 calorie per day deficit (below maintenance) as a generic guideline to figure where to set your calories to lose one or two pounds per week respectively (at least that works “on paper” anyway).

Even better however, you could use this info to fine tune your caloric deficit using a percentage method and also base your deficit on your starting body fat level, to get a much more personalized and effective approach:

15-20% below maintenance calories = conservative deficit
20-25% below maintenance calories = moderate deficit
25-30% below maintenance calories = aggressive deficit
31-40% below maintenance calories = very aggressive deficit (risky)
50%+ below maintenance calories = semi starvation/starvation (potentially dangerous and unhealthy)

(Note: According to exercise physiologists Katch & Mcardle, the average female between the ages of 23 and 50 has a maintenance level of about 2000-2100 calories per day and the average male about 2700-2900 calories per day)

Usually, we would suggest starting with a conservative deficit of around 15-20% below maintenance. Based on this research, however, we see that there can be a big difference between lean and overweight people in how many calories they can or should cut.

If you have very high body fat to begin with, the typical rule of thumb on calorie deficits may underestimate the deficit required to lose a pound. It may also be too conservative, and you can probably use a more aggressive deficit safely without as much worry about muscle loss or metabolic slowdown.

If you are extremely lean, like a bodybuilder trying to get ready for competition, you would want to be very cautious about using aggressive calorie deficits. You’d be better off keeping the deficit conservative and starting your diet/cutting phase earlier to allow for a slow, but safe rate of fat loss, with maximum retention of muscle tissue.

The bottom line is that it’s not quite so simple as 3,500 calories being the deficit to lose a pound. Like lots of other things in nutrition that vary from person to person, the ideal amount of calories to cut “depends”…

Note: The Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle program not only has an entire chapter dedicated to helping you calculate your exact calorie needs, it was designed very specifically to keep a fairly conservative approach to caloric deficits and to maximize the amount of lean tissue you retain and minimize the amount of metabolic adaptation that occurs when you’re dieting. The approach may be more conservative, and the fat loss may be slower, but it has a better long term track record… You can either lose weight fast, sacrifice muscle and gain the fat back like 95% of people do, or lose fat slow and keep it off forever like the 5% of the people who know the secrets. The choice is yours. For more information, visit: http://www.burnthefat.com

References:

Forbes GB. Body fat content influences the body composition response to nutrition and exercise. Ann NY Acad Sci. 904: 359-365. 2000

Hall, KD., What is the required energy deficit per unit of weight loss? Int J Obesity. 2007 Epub ahead of print.

McArdle WD. Exercise physiology: Energy, Nutrition, and Human performance. 4td ed. Williams & Wilkins. 1996.

Wishnofsky M. Caloric equivalents of gained or lost weight. Am J Clin Nutr. 6: 542-546.

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

What is The best Water to Drink For Optimum Health?

By Gloria Jean

In my formula for good health and anti-aging I listed “The water that you drink” as one of the things that affect our health. The obvious solution given was to drink “pure” water. The question then arises is what exactly is “pure water?”

The controversy still rages about water and experts disagree on what water is the best to drink for optimum health. Not only that, they disagree on how much to drink.

What is “Pure” Water?

Stephen Lower, a retired member of the Department of Chemistry,
Simon Fraser University, Burnaby/Vancouver Canada writes this about pure water:

“To a chemist, the term “pure” has meaning only in the context of a particular application or process. The distilled or de-ionized water we use in the laboratory contains dissolved atmospheric gases and occasionally some silica, but their small amounts and relative inertness make these impurities insignificant for most purposes. When water of the highest obtainable purity is required for certain types of exacting measurements, it is commonly filtered, de-ionized, and triple-vacuum distilled. But even this “chemically pure” water is a mixture of isotopic species: there are two stable isotopes of both hydrogen (H1 and H2, often denoted by D) and oxygen (O16 and O18) which give rise to combinations such as H2O18, HDO16, etc., all of which are readily identifiable in the infrared spectra of water vapor. (Interestingly, the amount of the rare isotopes of oxygen and hydrogen in water varies enough from place to place that it is now possible to determine the age and source of a particular water sample with some precision.) And to top this off, the two hydrogen atoms in water contain protons whose magnetic moments can be parallel or antiparallel, giving rise to ortho- and para-water, respectively. The two forms are normally present in a o/p ratio of 3:1.

It has recently been found (Langmuir 2003, 19, 6851-6856) that freshly distilled water takes a surprisingly long time to equilibrate with the atmosphere, that it undergoes large fluctuations in pH and redox potential, and that these effects are greater when the water is exposed to a magnetic field. The reasons for this behavior are not clear, but one possibility is that dissolved O2 molecles, which are paramagnetic, might be involved.”

What kind of water is most healthy to drink?

Stephen goes on to say, “I am not aware of any evidence indicating that any one type of water (including highly “pure” water) is more beneficial to health than any other, as long as the water is pathogen-free and meets accepted standards such as those mentioned above. For those who are sensitive to residual chlorine or still have concerns, a good activated-carbon filter is usually satisfactory. More extreme measures such as reverse-osmosis or distillation are only justified in demonstrably extreme situations.”

You can read a very extensive and scientific article about water from a chemist’s point of view at Steve’s website, http://www.chem1.com/acad/sci/aboutwater.html.

Expert in water distillation Joe Letorney Jr has an interesting article called “Blowing The Lid Off Distilled Water Myths” that I liked very much at http://durastill.com/myths.html.

Other people, selling expensive water products would have you believe that water needs to be “ionized.” This notion is not based on science and is called “Pseudoscience” by Steven Lower.

I cannot comment on what might be “Pseudoscience” because I am not a chemist or scientist. I can only caution you to beware of people selling expensive water treatment devices with no scientific basis for how they really work.

I believe that the body is electric at the quantum level and while there might be something to the idea of positive and negative ions, I can’t recommend products that have no real scientific basis.

I do like to keep an open mind about new science and alternative treatments. I have a strong feeling that the power of belief has a lot to do with the placebo effect in medicine and has been proven to be a fact, even on the operating table.

Based on the science proving the Placebo effect and the evidence we find in hypnotism, it is my opinion that what effects your health and aging the most is still my point number one: the thoughts that you think. The power of belief, thought and intention is paramount in achieving your goals, realizing your dreams and staying healthy. Focus on health, not illness.

I drink reverse osmosis water and sometimes distilled. I feel that the absence of pathogens is more important that worrying about the absence of minerals. I suggest eating the right foods for mineral content and/or taking mineral supplements if you are worried about that.

Joe Letorney Jr says, “Whether the minerals in water are beneficial or useless has been an ongoing debate. All of our minerals are derived from our food: fresh fruits, vegetables, meat, poultry, grains, nuts, and dairy products. The minerals in water are so scant that in Boston, MA for example, one would have to drink 676 8-ounce glasses of tap water to obtain the Recommended Daily Allowance ( RDA) of calcium. That person would have to drink 1,848 8-ounce glasses to get RDA of magnesium, 848 8-ounce glasses to get RDA of iron, and 168,960 8-ounce glasses to obtain the RDA of phosphorus. It seems insane to even think about drinking that much water. Most people can’t even drink the recommended 8 glasses of water a day that is widely touted by health experts.”

In conclusion, I would suggest you avoid polluted water with harmful pathogens, and if you like the taste of soft water, then drink reverse osmosis, take your minerals and don’t worry about it. Drink at least a cup of water when you wake up in the morning. Don’t guzzle water. Sip it throughout the day. If you are feeling slightly hungry, drink a glass of water first before reaching for a snack.

Are You Buying Pure Water For Your Iron and Drinking Tap?

Water. This morning I drank about a pint of water. I had read that water first thing in the morning is like a wonder drug. It tasted good. I drink pure reverse osmosis water…. always. For health, and for staying young water is of utmost importance.

I saw my aunt spending her money on distilled bottled water and asked her what she needed it for. She said she was using it for her humidifier. “Why do you use distilled water in your humidifier?” I asked. She said, “Because is cloggs it all up with hard water deposits if I don’t.” I said, “And you still drink tap water? What do you think that tap water does to your body?”

People will treat their irons and their humidifiers better than they treat themselves. Get a distiller a reverse osmosis water treatment for drinking. Do yourself a favor.

I woke up early today with a new determination to achieve my weight loss goals. I don’t usually wake up early. My heel is still giving me pain, but I got on the mat and did my “fountain of youth” exercises with a couple of yoga postures, a few wall push-ups and toe raises. It felt good to be up early.

I resolved to drink pure water every morning, and all day long.

59 and Feeling Fine

Today seems fitting to begin day one of my twelve week program because it is my 59th birthday. The current state of affairs is chaotic. My house is cluttered and disorganized. I am 59 and feeling fine!

I started eating Tom’s recommended fat burning foods last week and it has given me new energy.  I was not counting calories, just eating these foods and eating more often.  I tried walking and slow jogging for my exercise but that did not work out because of pain in my foot.  I begin this week with the intention to dig my bike out of the garage and air up the tires and start riding it everyday.  I used to have some garage sale indoor exercise bikes around here but they were thrown out two years ago.

My two cats are driving me crazy climbing all over my computer desk while I work. I just threw them outside so I could write this entry. I am printing David Grisaffi’s book on Firming and Flattening your abs so I can bind it. I see that I am going to have to get a large exercise ball to add to my exercise corner.

Last night it was warm outside but today it is cloudy with a cold wind. I did not even want to go out there.

My first thoughts are to read Tom Venuto’s first Chapter again on brain training and that I need to get my head out of the computer and into my surroundings. I have been working on several web sites including my Build a Better Body in 90 days site at www.a-better-body.net .

I have put a lot of pressure on myself to achieve my goals of getting fit and loosing 50 pounds. In addition to joining the Inner Circle, and putting up my better body site, I created this blog to chart my progress. Maybe nobody is watching, but the whole world of the Internet could be, so the pressure is on.

Today I will take my official “before” pictures. Check back tomorrow for the beginning measurements and pictures.