On July 19th...my back rehab was going well, I was just starting to be able to work out conventionally again wanted to find out how much I lost and how much I needed to gain back.
Then came my Body Composition Test with Zach Weston at the AIM Institute of Lifestyle Medicine. The results were worse than I thought and told me I needed to make a change ASAP. I wasn't being who I knew I was with my fitness.
So it was time to get serious:
Zach's testing determined two things: My body composition in terms of what I was composed of and where exactly I best burned body fat when I was doing cardiovascular activities. If my heart rate exceeded 131 bpm to 140 bpm I began to burn sugar instead of fat which wouldn't help me. That was key to understand.
Zach recommended I add approximately 2 hours of cardio activity in this specific heart target range a week, on top of my regular Crossfit workouts.
I knew from my experience with low glycemic meal plans that I was having a hard time with some carbohydrate cravings and needed to get rid of those to make progress.
Step 1: Reduce Carbohydrate Cravings so I could eat a 100% Healthy Diet
Solution: USANA's 5 DAY RESET PROGRAM
Result: That took off 6 lbs my first week and more importantly reduced any sugar cravings or those bad carbohydrate cravings.
Step 2: Find a cardio activity that I enjoyed & increasing my intensity at Crossfit Division.
Solution: SLED PULLING
Result: I'm not a person who can just go out and run. I'd rather stop being an entrepeneur and go get a job then run (well not really, just saying that for effect). Pulling a sled weighted with 110 lbs put my heart rate at 140 bpm. I pulled the sled with a hard walk in intervals of 400 metres x 4 for a total of 1.6 km. I did this 4 times per week. That gave me my missing cardio.
Step 3: EATING A LOW GLYCEMIC LIFESTYLE
Solution: I replaced my breakfast (typically) with USANA's Nutrimeal and made sure that my diet consisted of lots of fresh vegetables, chicken, fish, lean turkey, olive oil, etc. I stopped drinking milk, eating bread, rice, cereal and any other high glycemic food to keep my blood sugars stable.
Result: My body began to change rapidly. I lost 15 lbs of body fat in my first 30 days. Then I reduced my body fat a further 2.5% in the next 6 weeks.
Now I'm on what I call - Phase 3. My final goals are to add 15 lbs of lean mass and further reduce my body fat by 14 lbs. I really appreciate the kind comments that people are saying to me recently and you've kept me ultra focused on reaching my next set of goals.
