The Most Important Thing You Can Have - A Plan

Today I want to talk about having a plan when it comes to your fitness and nutrition goals and why it is the most important thing to have for achieving them. I want to give an example from my life and it has to do with my personal Music Library.

For a long time I have been turned off by my personal selection of music. I had over 1500 songs and I probably only liked 500 of them. Everyday I would get mad at the music I was listening to and say "Tomorrow I am going to finally purge my music," and many tomorrows would come and go and I would never even glance at my music. The reason I never followed through is because listening to and deleting 1500 songs is a daunting task and not something that you can just "wing," you need to have a plan. Eventually I did get fed up and I made a plan that I would remove all my music from my iTunes so that I could never hit play and just fall into my routine. I then made 2 folders on my desktop called "Shit Music" where I put all my songs, and "Perfect Music" where I would put the songs that would make the cut. Eventually, because I made a plan and put it into action I was finally able to get rid of all the bad songs that I hated hearing and now my Music Library has 457 songs and I am happy again.

The point is that it is truly hard to commit yourself to such monumentous tasks as: Eating X calories a day, working out Y times a week, buying healthier foods, monitoring your sugar and fat intake, etc, if you don't have a solid plan to follow every day.

Now I am not perfect and will say that for the past couple of weeks after my surgery I have very loosely followed my eating plan. I have managed to stick to my plan of working out 6x a week, and fasting for at least 16 hours a day, but my nutrition has gotten sloppy and I find myself screwing up my calories and macros by eating out at restaurants, or throwing all the rules out the window on days like yesterday (4/20). Its time to construct a rigid plan for myself because sometimes I can't behave right when I am holding myself up by "guidelines" instead of "rules." 

I am going to construct my plan that I want to follow for the rest of April through out May, because by June I want to stop eating in a caloric deficit and start eating for maintenance. 

GOAL: Eat in a caloric deficit till June. Work Out 6x a week. Remain Intermittent Fasting at least 16 hour fast and 8 hour feed.

Now that I know my goal lets list out the things that I need to accomplish every day and week:

PLAN:

1. Consume 2000 calories a day (-900 of maintenance)

• Minimum 150g (30%+) Protein a day
• Maximum 45g (20%) Fat a day
• Low Sugar
• Carb ReFeed* (2500 calorie day) 1x a week (Day before Rest day)

2. Intermittent Fasting

• Fast 20 Hours
• Feed 4 Hours: 2 Big Meals. No Snacking.
• One 24 hour fast into Rest day

3. Work Out 6x a week, Rest 1 day.

• Every Muscle Group 2x a week (Chest, Shoulders, Arms, Back, Legs, Abs)
• 30 minutes Cardio following each workout (15 mins on day with Abs)

Ok I think these are good rules to follow and which I would feel bad if I broke. So my typical week will start on a Monday and look like this:

1. Monday - Workout Chest, Arms, Shoulders + 30m Cardio. Feed for 4 hours 2k calories.
2. Tuesday - Workout Back + 30m Cardio. Feed for 4 hours 2k calories.
3. Wednesday - Workout Legs + 15m Cardio + Abs. Feed for 4 hours 2k calories.
4. Thursday - Workout Chest, Arms, Shoulders + 30m Cardio. Feed for 4 hours 2k calories.
5. Friday - Workout Back + 30m Cardio. Feed for 4 hours 2k calories.
6. Saturday - Workout Legs + 15m Cardio + Abs. Carb ReFeed* for 2 hours 2.5k calories.
7. Sunday - Rest. End 24 hour fast. Feed for 2 hours 2k calories.

Rinse  and Repeat. Ok so that looks like a good schedule and I know I can follow it. I am not being rigid with times of the day because I go to sleep and wake up at different times but ideally I want to break my fast 2 hours after my workout. If I finish feeding at 6pm on Monday I want to be done with the gym by 12 noon on Tuesday so I can have a consistent window of 2-6pm. I will then adjust my sleeping habits accordingly.

On the Carb ReFeed* day I want to consume all my calories in a smaller window so I can end my 24 hour fast somewhat consistently with the rest of the week. On Saturday I will probably feed from 2-4pm that way I can fast for 24 hours to 4pm on Sunday and then feed from 4-6pm to keep the feeding window consistent for the next week. 

*The purpose of the Carb ReFeed is to replenish your body with some extra carbs at the end of the week due to the fasting. The idea is a lot more intricate and scientific than that but I don't want to take the time to go into it and that's the general idea. Has something to do with Leptin, Google it.

Now I think the final step in our Plan, and to really take away the stress and uncertainty of everything, is to develop the 2 meals I will be eating every day. This way I will add more routine and structure to my days and not have to spend time thinking and worrying about how different meals will yield different nutritional values and constantly having to calculate what I can and can't eat today, etc. So lets make our meal plan for the week:

Perfect! So this is what I will eat everyday. Yes it seems boring but I suggest just having it figured out so you don't have to think everyday. It also makes grocery shopping easier. If you want you can even change it up every week so that what you eat changes every 7 days. The important thing though is to have it planned out so you can stick to it. Also the protein Shake is something I will drink with the first meal, the fact it is "meal 2" has no significance.

Now on my ReFeed Days I will need to get more Carbs so I will up some of the values that day or even add some more interesting food choices:

I added all my extra carbs to "meal 2" so you can see them easier. Basically on this day I will have an extra bowl of Granola with some Peanut Butter and Apple. Then later I will have a second sweet potato with my Salmon. Boom! We are done. This is our new plan going forward to the end of May.

I want to reiterate that the whole point of this blog entry is that having a plan makes it easier to follow through on changes you are trying to make in life. Imagine if tomorrow I woke up and read that list of rules I made for myself without having constructed a meal plan. I would just say, "oh.... fuck..." and have no idea what to do and time would just be slipping away. Instead I sat down today for no more than an hour and wrote up my rules and made a structured plan that will be easy to follow for the rest of the week. It's like a coloring book. It's easy to open a book to a picture with no color and just add color, as opposed to opening a book with blank pages, having to draw something, and then having to color it in all at once. Make life easy and it will be easy.

I am not perfect and I make mistakes like everyone else. When it comes time to get serious though I don't like to leave anything up to chance. Be hard on yourself so that you can see things through to the end and get the results you want. If you act with mediocrity you will only see mediocre results. Instead act with greatness and you will see great results!

Love, Dcgreen

Holy Crap - Update Time

Ok so I haven't updated this blog in a month. I am sure I have disappointed my many followers and I apologize to all 3 of you. At the beginning of March I had surgery on my foot and as you can imagine I wasn't as physically active as normal. I milked the excuse to be lazy and not write anything since I pretty much had to stay in bed for the most part of every day. I continued to procrastinate writing even after my recovery but I am finally back to continue the blog.

Things you can hopefully look forward to in the future are some videos I am going to be making on how to cook certain dishes that are healthy but still fun to eat and do not necessarily feel like "diet" food. I tried doing this already but the production really suffered from the lack of a tripod and me trying to cook while also holding the camera. As soon as I get a new tripod I will begin filming and start editing videos to try and have one every week. That is the goal.

Love, Dcgreen.

Favorite Low Fat Foods

I wanted to compile a list of some of my favorite foods I incorporate into my diet every day that are low in fat and high in protein and carbs. Knowing some of these foods can help you keep your fat intake to 20% or less of your total calorie intake.

9 of My Favorite Low-Fat Foods!

#1.  PB2 Powdered Peanut Butter

This is by far my favorite low-fat food I have discovered in my journey. For the first month and a half I did not touch peanut butter because it has REALLY high fat percentages; 1 serving of PB is ~200 calories and ~140 calories of that is fat. That is A LOT of fat, about 16g which is 40% of your fat if you aim for ~40g a day.

PB2 is powdered peanuts. They take regular peanuts and press them which squeezes out a lot of the oil and fat. 1 serving of PB2 is 45 total calories and 13 of those is fat, which is 1.5g of fat. 1.5g vs 16g you do the math. You can add this to your protein shakes for some extra flavor, or mix with a little water (or milk) to make some really tasty peanut butter spread. Its especially good if you really like the taste of peanuts because it's basically peanut concentrate. This is a god send if you are a peanut butter lover and on a diet.

#2.  Beef Jerky

Beef Jerky is probably one of the last things you would think of when making healthy choices but the nutrition of it is actual amazing. 1 ounce of beef jerky can have 11+g of protein, as little as 1g of fat, and a few good carbs thrown in. Unfortunately 1 ounce is only about 3 pieces of jerky, and at $5 a bag it can be a little pricey if you get carried away and eat too much. I recommend only buying this is you have a food scale so that you can properly monitor your portions, otherwise it could get expensive buying so much jerky every week. My mom said that most jerky brands add a lot of nitrates to them so be aware if that's something that concerns you.

#3.  Baked Beans

I don't know if all Baked Beans are Fat Free but the ones that I buy are so I encourage you to look for those  kinds (I get mine at Trader Joe's). I absolutely love baked beans so the fact these are healthy and delicious make me a happy dieter. The only thing I would be weary about is that baked beans can have a high amount of sugar per serving (~10g). To try and reduce this I strain the beans after I cook them. I imagine that all the sugar comes from the sauce the beans are stewing in as I don't think beans have any natural sugar to them. I don't know how much this reduces their overall sugar by but I feel like it helps. Anyways, sugar aside, the nutrition of beans is really incredible and they are actually very cheap money-wise. Each serving is full of good slow-digesting carbs, ~7g of protein, and tons of fiber! Beans beans the magical fruit, the more you eat the less likely you will go insane eating bland health food!

#4.  Sweet Potato

Sweet Potatoes are another awesome food to make part of your meal when dieting. Like beans they are fat-free and give you the illusion that you are cheating your diet because they are actually sweet. They are another slow-digesting carb with some protein to spare and are really easy to cook. All you do is wash them, prick them with a fork a few times, and bake them for an hour at 350 degrees. The best thing is you can usually cook all of them at once, even in something as small as a toaster over, so in the middle of the week all you have to do is pop them in the microwave for about 60 seconds whenever you want to get your sweet potato on! Just don't add butter! It's a sweet potato, it does NOT need butter, enjoy it for what it is! :)

#5.  Chicken Tenders

My best friend would flip out to see Chicken Tenders make the list of low-fat foods, but I am not talking chicken tenders like you get at McDonalds or Chiles. Its actually crazy how hard it was to find a picture on google of unbreaded Chicken Tenders. DO NOT BREAD THEM! Just cook or grill these with some salt/pepper or your favorite seasoning and add them to meals you make through out the week. 4 ounces of chicken has 26g of protein and only 1g of fat! Preserve the awesomeness of that nutrition by keeping them clean. I like to eat my chicken in an omelette or in a salad. You can basically add grilled chicken to anything and get a clean, low-fat source of protein.

#6. Egg Whites

Egg whites are awesome because they are PURE protein. They have no carbs and no fats! You could always just have a regular egg but the yolk of the egg is basically pure fat. I think egg yolks have good sources of cholesterol or something in them but if you are young in your 20's like me cholesterol shouldn't be a concern. If the runny white liquid is too much of a turn-off for you they also make egg whites that are yellow in color so when you cook or scramble them it looks like regular eggs. I usually make an omelette with 1 cup of egg whites which is 20g of protein. Mixed with my chicken tenders and some low-fat cheddar cheese I get an awesome meal that has over 50g of protein and 6g of fat!

#7.  Sauces and Spices

Hot Sauces are mainly sodium and have none to very minimal calories. Spices like Pepper, Oregano, Chili Powder, Garlic Powder, etc also have no negative nutritional values and can be wisely utilized to add some much needed flavor to your diet. Just be careful you don't go overboard esepcially with the sauces because if you consume a lot of sodium (salt) you will bloat up from all the water you drink through out the day.

#8.  Non-Fat Milk (Skim Milk)

Skim Milk has no fat in it and is a great slow-digesting protein. It's loaded with carbs and protein and is a fantastic alternative to regular milk if you want to cut some fat from your diet. I have heard some people complain about the taste compared to regular milk but I honestly don't really notice it. Just don't drink too much of it a day, milk actually has a lot of sugar in it (~12g).

#9. Non-Fat Greek Yogurt

Let's first debunk the idea that Yogurt is a healthy food, it's more of a trap. Regular flavored yogurts are packed with sugar (~10g) which is terrible and only yield about 5g of protein for your trouble. 1 cup of non-fat greek yogurt has 6g of sugar but 22g of protein per serving which is better reward for your risk. It does taste like crap though. It taste like sour creme so I suggest combining it with other ingredients to make the taste bearable. This is one of my favorite recipes to use Greek Yogurt in: Banana Cocoa Refrigerator Oatmeal. You don't need the Chia seeds, and I replace the Cocoa powder with my Chocolate Whey Protein Powder to create an incredibly nutritious breakfast. Add some PB2 and baby you got a stew goin!

As I mentioned this tastes exactly like sour creme, so as you would imagine it makes a great healthy substitute for sour creme. Throw some on top of your Mexican Omelette and cover with some Tapatio sauce; you won't even taste the difference and you will spare your diet a ton of fat calories!

Conclusion

These are some of the staple foods in my diet to help me meet my low fat threshold every day (~35g). Some of them are hidden gems like PB2 and other are just obvious choices you might not think of like Egg Whites, Baked Beans, and Sweet Potatoes. Either way if you start incorporating some of these healthy foods into your diet you should see your nutrition improve without sacrificing too much taste and flavor. A lot of this stuff is also incredibly inexpensive for how many servings you get, with some exceptions like Beef Jerky. I hope this helps and makes it easy to stay on track and achieve your goals.

Love, Dcgreen

First 24 Hour Fast!

Hi Everyone,

I just wanted to make an entry documenting my first 24 hour fast. I wouldn't recommend fasting for 24 hours, especially if you are trying to gain muscle, it is really only good for weight loss. The other night though, I wen't out to dinner and definitely ate over my calorie needs for the day as well as eating really unhealthy food like Fried Chicken and Pancakes. I wanted to counter-balance this by doing a 24 hour fast.

The way I wen't about doing this was I stopped eating the night before at 9pm, so I wen't all the way to 2pm the next day (17 hours) fasted. Then from 2pm to 3pm I managed to eat my 1800 calories for the day. Yes all in 1 hour. It wasn't easy but protein shakes helped a bit. I managed to keep it pretty healthy without overloading on any single macronutrient; getting under 40g of fat, still getting my 160g of protein for the day, and about 180g of carbs. Overall very balanced.

Then from 3pm yesterday to 3pm today I did not eat. That's how you 24 hour fast. Ideally you want to go a bit over your calories the day before the 24 hour fast, but I didn't want to go 9pm to 9pm because then even if I get all my calories for the day in a 3 hour eating window that brings me to 12am which is a really awful time to start your fast. Instead I just took into account my overeating for the previous day, condensed my window for the following day, and today I will eat from 3pm to 6pm and be back on track for the rest of the week.

In the first article I wrote I mentioned how I took pictures of myself on a full stomach, so today I took some new pics after my 24 hour fast because being on an empty stomach does make a difference how thin you look, and this is the basis I like to use to judge myself. You wouldn't weigh yourself on a full stomach and consider that your regular weight would you? Of course not! You get butt ass naked right after waking up, or maybe taking a dump, and you weigh yourself as accurately as possible lol.

         Left Side - Not Flexing                                                  Right Side - Flexing

The front pic is pretty much the same. I like this side pic better because it shows that my lower abs don't bulge out as much as they used to, and follow a more natural curve to my abdomen. Then when I flex and my abs go completely straight you can see by the curvature that I actually have a very small amount of fat left on my abs to lose before that area is completely flat. Another thing to look at is in the Front facing picture how flat the line of my waistband is. Back in January that would curve more because of the fat I was storing below my bellybutton/above my crotch.

I know this post does not have a ton of information. Its main purpose is to serve as a progress indicator because of the pictures, and also document the thought process behind my first 24 hour fast. I will have an entry with some actual substance soon.

Love, Dcgreen

Helpful Fitness Resources + Setting Your Fitness Goals

Today I want to share with everyone some of the websites and tools that I have used to make achieving my fitness goals easier. Then I will walk you through some of the steps you should take when trying to determine what you want to get out of your fitness lifestyle and the mindset you need to adopt.

Helpful Fitness Resources and Tools
It is important to realize that when trying to eat healthier and maintain a diet it is actually a very hard and daunting task. It takes a lot of will power, determination, and the appropriate tools and guidance. It's safe to say that you probably have no idea what the hell you are doing when it comes to switching from your lax life style of eating whatever you want, whenever you want, to being on a strict diet where you monitor your calorie intake and how many of each of the important macronutrients you are getting. Here is where I will share with you the things that I learned trying to create the most optimal diet and nutrition.

1. Calorie Calculator - This is the first place you should start. You need to be able to determine your caloric intake for the day so you know how much you should eat to lose, maintain, or gain(muscle) weight. Below are a few sites you can use to try and find how many calories you need a day. I listed multiples because they all use slightly different formulas so use at least 3 sites to get the best "ballpark" idea of how many calories you need a day.

• http://www.calculator.net/calorie-calculator.html - 2900
• http://caloriecount.about.com/cc/calories-goal.php - 2900
• http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/calorie-calculator/NU00598 - 2950

At the end of each link I put my results for maintenance for each link. As you can see they are all pretty close so any of them should be accurate for you. BE SURE TO TRACK YOUR WEIGHT EVERY 1-2 WEEKS SO THAT YOU CAN MONITOR GAINS OR LOSSES! To lose weight most calculators will recommend cutting 500 calories a week minimum. When I ate 2400 calories a week I still gained weight so be sure you track your results so you know if you should be eating more or less to achieve your goals. Everyone is different and it is important to remember to try lots of things till you find what actually works for you.

2. Calorie Counter - A Calorie Counter is something you can input all the food that you eat so that you can accurately track the amount of calories you eat a day, as well as monitor how much protein, carbs, and fats you get.

• http://www.eatthismuch.com/

This is by far my favorite Calorie Counter website. It has a very simple interface to use, provides a lot of useful information in terms of calories and nutrients, and has a lot of personal customization. You can use the website as is and have it generate meals for you, or you can click the "Add Dish" button on the side and in the side menu you can go to "Custom Foods" and enter your own food labels nutrition's so that you can 100% accurately track your food stats. Now beware it is not going to whip up a ton of intricate and desirable dishes for you (i.e. Fish Chowder) but basically a lot of simple things to fit the nutrition perimeters that you set. Although sometimes it comes up with some pretty tasty and fun ideas (i.e. Breakfast Pita Pizza). Personally I recommend using the generator to come up with some ideas and then try adding some of your own favorite foods and snacks into the custom foods and trying to make things fit for you. You want to try and be happy when you are dieting so you don't go crazy or get tempted to cheat too often. Once you get an idea of what you like to eat that you can really micro manage everything and start optimizing to get closer and closer to your favorite diet and food combinations. Remember that this website does not track values for common fast food restaurants like McDonals so it is best to just cut fast food from your diet all together or it will be literally impossible to track your nutrition accurately. And yes I know you can look up fast food nutrition on McDonald's website, but do you really think its trustworthy and accurate? Its better to just not risk it.

3. Food Scale and Measuring Cups -Do you know what 4 ounces of Chicken, Salmon, or Ground Beef looks like? Did you know that a serving size of Gold Fish crackers is 1 ounce, and do you know how much that is exactly or what it looks like? Did you know the average serving size of breakfast cereal is 1/2 a cup and is 200+ calories and that the average bowl is designed to hold 2+ cups of food? Do you know what 1/2 a cup of Cheerios looks like? If you answered no to any of these questions, or even if you didn't you still need the proper measuring tools to accurately track how much you are eating every day. Dieting is a numbers game and accuracy is everything. Imagine if you are trying to eat 1800 calories a day and you start everyday how you normally do with a bowl of cereal. You never actually measure it so you pour yourself 2 cups worth. That's 800 calories for breakfast (not including milk). You have already limited your calories for the rest of the day to 1000.

• Taylor Digital Food Scale
• Measuring Cups
• Liquid Measuring Cup
• Units of Measurement Converter

That is the food scale I use. You don't need anything crazy because you aren't using it to measure your own fat ass, just the food you put in your mouth. The most you need to spend is $25, anything more is unnecessary. You can buy the measuring cups that best fit your personality (they have some pretty zaney ones), I am just including them so you realize how important it is to be able to measure all sizes of solids and liquids. The last thing I recommend is getting a measurement converter app on your phone or finding one online (preferably whatever is going to be most convenient when cooking) so that you can find ounces to grams, etc conversions. You can get everything at Target as you can see, for pretty cheap. So if you are reading this and thinking about starting today you have no good reason not to just take an hour to go there and buy them.

4. Supplements - Supplements in my opinion are a HUGE waste of money. When I first started Insanity I dropped over $500 on Protein powder and a bunch of other bogus pills like L-Argenine, Fish Oil, and BCAA's. I can honestly say that none of them made me feel stronger, more energized, or like I was losing more weight. The FDA does not regulate any of the supplements on the market so you are basically buying Snake Oil that is vouched for by Snake Oil Vendors. Pro Body Builders endorse supplements because it pays well not because they use them (they are all on steroids anyways). So I say save your money. I think the only supplements worth investing in if you are going to take them are:

• Pre-Workout like Jack3d 
• Whey Protein Powder 
• Creatine (for building muscle only). 
• Testosterone Booster -  ONLY if you are older or know you have low Testosterone. 

ALSO DO NOT DRINK A PROTEIN SHAKE IMMEDIATELY AFTER YOUR WORKOUT! In the future I will write an article with video references that back up this claim but in short, your body produces Human Growth Hormone(HGH) after you workout which it sends to your muscles and if you drink protein to fuel your muscles it cuts off the HGH. For those of you that do not know HGH > Protein.

Protein Powder should optimally be used as a convenient and alternative whey(lol) to add protein to your diet. For example you can add a scoop to your cereal or oatmeal to increase the nutrition. Or if you are 30g of protein short for the day you can just drink a shake.

Determining and Achieving Your Fitness Goals

Ok so now that you know everything you need to get started and help you succeed in your healthy life style, it is time to determine the fitness goals you want to achieve.

1. Are you trying to GAIN weight or LOSE weight? - This is the first question you need to ask yourself and it is not always as black and white as it sounds. There are lots of variations of both gaining and losing weight. If you are trying to put on muscle are you looking to make lean muscle gains only or bulk up? Do you know what the difference is? If you are looking to lose weight is it because you are obese and so you are looking for just general weight loss or are you trying to lean out and cut in which you are only looking for fat loss while preserving your muscle? Figure out what you want to do and do some research before, during, and after you make changes to your life. It is important to be well educated on the type of weight gain/loss you are trying to do as well as being able to adapt to new information you learn.

2. Determine Your Diet and Nutrition - This is again something you are going to have to put some research into to better optimize your results but I will try and provide some tips if I have them. After you determine if you are trying to lose weight, gain muscle, eat healthier, or some combination of the 3. you then need to adapt your diet to meet your goals. If you want to just generally lose some weight all you need to do is cut your calories. If you are looking to lean out(cut) you will want to eat some healthy foods and make your nutrition intake something like 40% protein/40% carbs/20% fat, all while being in your calorie deficit. If you are looking to build muscle you may want to do something like 30% protein/50% carbs/20% fat, all while being in your caloric surplus. This is where the website EatThisMuch will really shine!

3. Do Research - As I have mentioned in almost every section YOU NEED TO DO RESEARCH to meet your goals! You are an average person. I am an average person. We both need to admit right now we DO NOT KNOW SHIT about health. I was actually thinking the other day that Nutrition should be taught in schools instead of History, but that is neither here nor there. Human beings do not know shit about basic nutrition. If you want to be healthier then you need to do research on how to be healthier! Also read between the lines because there is a lot of misinformation out there. Maybe you heard that Almonds are a healthy snack but did you know that 1 serving of almonds has about 150 calories of fat? Technically its "good" fat because it comes from nuts but too much "good" fat is still too much fat. So take tips like that with a grain of salt. It doesn't mean snack all day on nuts cuz they are "healthy." You can really mess up your calories by being ignorant of nutrition.

4. Consistency is Key - No one achieves their fitness goals by dieting one day a week. You have to be consistent with whatever Diet and Fitness plan you make for yourself. If you vow to go to the gym 5 times a day (Always make a solid number, none of this 3-5x a week bull shit) then you need to make sure you get to the gym 5 times a week. If you have shitty hours at your job get a membership to 24 hour fitness and go work out at 2am. DO NOT MAKE EXCUSES! The more excuses you make and the more times you allow yourself to slip up the worse your chances of actually making a change in your life. YOU CAN NOT GET USED TO ALLOWING YOURSELF TO SLIP! BE STRICT!. If it is hard for you to cook healthy every night of the week, then set aside 1 day of the week where you cook ALL your meals. If you make excuses and decide maybe tonight I will get Subway, chances are you will start to slip and fail. How many calories are in the subway sandwich? How much protein/carbs/fat? Do you think they are reporting honest numbers in their nutrition information? Now your whole diet is screwed up because on your day off you decided to sit around the house and do nothing instead of cooking all your meals in advance.Not only that, how many other times this week are you gonna forget about cooking and crutch on fast food?(Subway is fast food!) Remember this lifestyle isn't easy especially if you have a busy life. You need to find time to make it work for you if you really want it. If you don't really want it then don't try because you will just disappoint yourself.

5. Be Realistic - Something I learned while doing Insanity is that you can not COMPLETELY TRANSFORM your body in such a short amount of time as 60 days. Be realistic when you are preparing to go on a diet and incorporate more exercise into your life. It is going to take a lot of time, patience, and hard work to achieve your goals. Do not set up arbitrary dates on when you want to/think you should reach your goals. I got some good results from Insanity but I still don't look like any of the athletes in the video and it is unrealistic to think that you will too. If everyone could get SHREDDED in 90, 60, 30 days! Then there would be a lot of buff shredded mother fuckers walking around instead of all these fat mother fuckers. Realistically you should just be happy that you have the drive and will-power to make a positive change in your life that more than 50% of people in the country don't; then try as best as you can to incorporate these healthy habits you will be developing into your regular lifestyle so that they last with you forever.

Conclusion

These are the things I would recommend to a beginner to get started. I know it looks like a lot but I am being thorough for you and telling you as much truth as I can. I have had personal trainers in the past that didn't tell me shit and I trusted them because, well because they are trainers and got hired at a gym. Who am I? I am just some dumb skinny kid who grew more and more naive standing in the shadow of this dude's muscles. My point is that I am looking out for you and telling you the truth, where as a personal trainer is not looking out for you they are just looking to make money. They will keep you in the gym trying to reach those goals as long as they can cuz you will pay them for more sessions. They will also push pills and powders on you because they make a commission if they sell something in the gym. I am not here to sell you anything. I am here telling you this because fitness and nutrition is hard and it sucks and you don't deserve to be lied to.

It is going to be hard. It is going to take a lot of determination. It is going to take a lot of will power. There are no magic pills, powders, supplements, gels, liquids, exercises, or inventions that will help you get results any faster than the amount of sweat and time you put in at the gym or at home to work out videos. Do the research, buy the tools, set your goals, be consistent, be realistic, and you can achieve your fitness goals.

Love, Dcgreen

Intermittent Fasting - The Best Kept Secret

Today I want to talk about Intermittent Fasting which I think is the best adjustment anyone can make to their lifestyle if they are looking to lose weight. I myself have been doing Intermittent Fasting (IF) for almost 2 weeks now and while I am not the top authority on it I can definitely say I am experiencing its results first hand and in this short amount of time. In this blog entry I will explain the theory behind IF as well as including a multitude of video and written references so you can better educate yourself on the subject and make an educated choice on whether or not it's something you want to try.

Intermittent Fasting Explained

Intermittent: coming and going at intervals : not continuous

Fast:  to abstain from food

Broken into simpler terms we can see the IF means to "Fast in intervals." The intervals take place over 24 hours, the maximum time in a day. The most common intervals of IF are 16/8 for men and 14/10 for women. In these examples the practitioner of IF would Fast for 16 or 14 hours and then Feed for 8 or 10 hours depending on gender; from here on I will use the 16/8 model as the primary example. This might sound like a pretty big task to take on but ideally you do most of the fasting while you are asleep. Let me explain a simple way someone would be able to acclimate themselves to IF for the first time:

Pretend today you are going to start IF today. Assume you want to adopt the 16/8 model and will go to sleep no later than 12am. You finish dinner at 8pm and go all the way to 12am without eating any food (because you shouldn't eat before bed anyways), you are now already 4 hours into your fast. If you sleep for 8 hours till 8am you are now 12 hours into your fast. Instead of eating breakfast right when you wake up you instead just wait out the remaining 4 hours till 12pm before you eat your first meal of the day. From here you are allowed to feed from 12pm to 8pm. IF IS NOT A DIET! There is no cutting calories or eating any less than you regularly would in a normal day. Instead you just concentrate all the calories you would normally get into an 8-hour "window" instead of over the entire 16 hour day.

Here's a video of 2 YouTube Fitness Gurus who have been doing IF for almost a year now explaining IF:

Why IF? What are the Benefits?

Ok so why the hell would anyone decide to subject themselves to an eating model such as this? It seems very contradictory to the common/popular belief that eating multiple times during the day keeps your metabolism functioning at an accelerated rate, which leads to burning more calories right? What if I told you that there is no scientific evidence that suggests that the more you eat the faster your metabolism works? That's right it's all a bunch of bullshit being circulated by the health/fitness industry in efforts to make them more money. Now I won't get into conspiracies created by the fitness industry but I will instead tell you that the only thing that makes your metabolism work faster or slower is the amount of lean body mass you have. Basically the more lean you are the harder your metabolism works and the more fat you are the slower it works. It has nothing to do with how often you eat. With IF you can just eat 3 big meals in 8 hours instead of cooking every 2 hours 5 times a day. I don't know about you but I have always hated this "5+ meals a day model" because of how often I have to think about what and when I am going to eat next.

What about "Starvation Mode?" When you don't feed your body it ceases to burn calories and instead holds onto everything you give it and stores it as fat because it can't judge from how inconsistently you feed it when it will get its next source of energy, right? Starvation Mode is a real thing but it only kicks in when you starve your body for incredibly long periods of time (usually around 3 weeks) and we are only talking about not feeding your body for about 4 hours a day in all actuality. Contrary to popular belief Fasting actually decreases the levels of Insulin in your blood which is the hormone that regulates the storage of glucose as fat. Fasting also increases the amount of Glucagon in your blood which is a hormone that readies fat to be broken down into energy. So by fasting you actually store less fat and burn more stored fat, the best of both worlds. You get to have your cake and eat it too... just as long as it's within 8 hours.

If you want to hear an actual nutritionist explain the benefits of Fasting here is a great video on the subject, but I basically gave a pretty accurate summary of what he says.

In short by fasting for a small period every day instead of giving your body new energy via food, you force your body to resort to its stored energy (fat) to get you through the day which results in fat loss/weight loss. This method is also really great for losing fat in those common problem areas (lower abs/love handles) because that is where people tend to store a majority of their fat.

My Personal Experience with IF.

Unfortunately I did not discover IF till about Day 50 of Insanity. Unhappy with the progress of my results thus far with Insanity (I only lost about 2% body fat in 2 months; 14% to 12%) I decided to give IF a try for the last 10 days. Within 3 days (while still working out) I started to see results. I could see my waist get smaller, the skin on my abs get tighter, and that small bulge on my abs start to shrink. It was amazing! I was no longer cooking all day and instead was able to devote a lot of my free time to things I actually enjoyed (one of the reasons I wrote so many newsoflegends.com articles at the end of February/beginning of March). I only wish I had discovered IF at the same time I started Insanity because I think my results would have been truly Insane. This is why I am sharing this with you so early because this is by far the most revolutionary thing I have learned about in my fitness journey. Now since I have only been doing it for a short time I haven't gotten any recent measurements done, I want to do it about 30 days before I compare my IF lifestyle to my last measurements.

There are a lot of other benefits to IF, such as increased production of HGH, but I would rather not go to in depth on stuff like that since it gets very confusing with all the health jargon unless you are knowledgeable in that field. I would suggest that anyone who is skeptical to just try and do it for 1 week and see if you notice any results. It may not work for everyone but it is definitely worth trying because if it does work you will love the results. The first day is definitely the hardest but once you get through it it becomes pretty easy. JUST MAKE SURE YOU DRINK LOTS AND LOTS AND LOTS AND LOTS OF WATER!

Finally before I finish I would like to include the website of the person who first developed the IF eating Model.

http://www.leangains.com/

I also recommend you read this interview with him as it gives a pretty good in-depth look on how to start using IF and also goes over some of the other in-depth benefits:
http://www.leighpeele.com/martin-berkhan-and-intermittent-fasting-interview

Thanks for reading and I hope this helps everyong.

Love, Dcgreen

The Beginning - Insanity Before/After Pics & Results + Going Forward

Hello,

My name is Cody Anziano, but online I am usually known by Dcgreen. I started this blog to talk about Fitness and Nutrition. Being a "Gamer" we are constantly plagued with the stereotype that we are fat, unfit, and unhealthy people. While it may sometimes be true I prefer to be an exception to the rule and so have invested my time heavily into fitness and nutrition to better my self image. I don't think this is an area of expertise that comes easy and I want to share the things I have learned and am learning with the online community to help them stay motivated and succeed in their fitness goals.

In the Summer of 2012 I was working for Curse Inc. managing their Reign of Gaming website. I got to work from home and decided to put a lot of the free time I had in between major workloads to getting into better physical condition. I found a copy of Insanity online as I was more interested in becoming slim and lean rather than bulky and muscular (I really wanted a 6-pac). I changed my diet to be more healthy, incorporating more slow digesting carbs, lean meat like fish and chicken, eating 5-6x a day, and drinking only water. I completed the 60 days of Insanity and I looked and felt great. My results could have been better if I had been more strict about my diet (I wasn't counting calories or monitoring macronutrients), but I was in the best shape of my life I would say. Later down the road I lost my job with Curse and had to move back into my parents house.

Depressed about the loss of purpose, independence, and income I turned to eating whatever the hell I wanted because food made me happy. I had basically been depriving myself all summer of awesome junk food like Wingstop and 5 Guy Burgers so that I could shape my body and now it was time to overindulge! Needless to say I lost the body that I worked hard for in a very short period of time. I always thought about regaining my self control and trying to start over but who was I kidding when so many food-based holidays like Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas were all right around the corner. So I ate my way through the holidays unabashedly and did what any American in my situation would do and put all my weight loss expectations and goals on the shoulders of my New Years resolution.

I set my mind to it and decided that early January I would start Insanity again and go super strict with my diet because I had been such a pig during the holidays. I bought a bunch of protein powder and supplements online during a Black Friday/Cyber Monday Sale to really cement my decision. January came and I didn't start Insanity till Monday the 7th because I knew I would be hungover on the 1st, which was also a Tuesday, and Insanity you work out 6 days and rest 1 day and I didn't want my rest day to be on a Tuesday because it splits the week weird. Waiting till Monday allowed me to start every fresh week of Insanity on Monday, be done by Saturday, and rest on Sunday. These details aren't super important but I feel like being thorough.

The first day of Insanity was hell, just like it was last Summer. I actually managed to finish the whole Fit Test in 1 day this time, but I still almost threw up and it took me probably an entire hour to finish the 25 minute video because of how often I had to take massive breaks to catch my breath. My Fit Test results were as follows:

Switch Kicks: 90
Power Jacks: 42
Power Knees: 60
Power Jumps: 18
Globe Jumps: 7
Suicide Jumps: 8
Push-Up Jacks: 22
Low-Plank Obliques: 28

I don't have my results from last summer to compare, but these numbers are pretty pitiful. I basically shot my whole load trying to do as many switch kicks as possible and then from there every exercise just got exponentially harder. This really put into perspective how out of shape I had gotten and while it was disappointing it served as a good motivator to improve. I didn't take any "Before" pictures because I am an idiot but I did find a nude pic from the 9th that I sent to some girl I was trying to bang. I edited it so its safe lol.

I'm flexing pretty damn hard in this picture and sucking in my gut to make myself look more sexy and athletic but its pretty bad. My body is all soft and flabby as it should be after eating like shit for 3 straight months. I have no definition in my chest and I have a lot of fat on my lower abs which has always been a problem area for me. By sucking in and contracting my core I make it look like I have pseudo-abs but as soon as I let go of my breath it becomes quite unflattering.

Anyways so I made lots of changes this time around and I had much better results. I officially finished Insanity on March 12th and these were the results of my Final Fit Test:

Switch Kicks: 122 (Increase of +32 from 1st Fit Test)
Power Jacks: 60 (+18)
Power Knees: 93 (+33)
Power Jumps: 60 (+42)
Globe Jumps: 12 (+5)
Suicide Jumps: 21 (+13)
Push-Up Jacks: 47 (+25)
Low-Plank Obliques: 74 (+46)

Here are 2 pics of me "After" Not Flexing:

Annnnnnnnnd Flexing:

So as you can see I achieved some pretty good results for all the hard-work I put in. When I am not flexing I have a nicely defined mid-section with the makings of a 6-pac and some nice separation as you can see from the front and the side. The lower ab problem area is also almost completely gone (it may not look like it cuz I had something to eat like 60 mins before these pics, but I will upload something on an empty stomach to show my abs are pretty much flat. It make's a difference trust me). When I do flex, you can see the "ripped" version of my abs and obliques, the flatness and definite separation of my entire torso, and a very nice V-cut going into my pants. Success!

Now, while I used Insanity to help achieve these results I am not trying to talk up Insanity and say that it is the "go-to" program for fitness gains and weight loss. Anybody that has ever tried to lose weight or do any kind of physical transformation knows that exercise is about 20% of the battle and diet/nutrition is the other 80%. My ideal diet was not easy to figure out and I did a lot of experimenting over the 60 days I was doing Insanity to better lead to my results. I actually ended up gaining weight in the first month because of the Insanity recommended formula for calculating your daily calorie needs, so needless to say I faced some set-backs. I am not going to go in-depth about the best techniques I found in this entry because I want to keep this relatively concise to conveying my starting point/motivation and end results, just to show that it can be done. To find out my specifics/advice you will have to keep reading. I know that sounds gimmicky like the next blog is going to ask for your credit card so you can buy my $29.99 e-book on diet/nutrition but its all free I promise. I just want this entry to be primarily about my Before/After progress. See you again soon.

Love, Dcgreen