Zoned Out

I can't recall sweating more than I did on July 28, 2012. In case you're wondering, that was the last time I fought.

It wasn't fighting that made me the most nervous (but it did contribute), rather, stepping on the scale terrified me. Months leading up to the SuperFights, I struggled with my weight. Generally, I walk around at 185LBS; in training, I drop 3-4 lbs. When the weight limit is 185, 182LBS scares me...leading up to fight time, I was around 190LBS (give or take).

So day of, I step on the scale and I'm 3LBS over. "Shit...", was the first thing that came to mind. My head raised and I saw the slightly nervous look on a few faces, then the shocked look on Hu-Kaicho's face. Luckily for me, I was within 5LBS of my opponent...and he didn't have a problem with that. Fact is, I got lucky...reeeeeeeally lucky.

Something had to change. I'd officially reached the point where everything I did in the kitchen or at the table overrode what I was doing in the gym. I was faced with the fact that I now I had to get serious about diet or going to the gym was a waste of time.

I was kidding myself every time I ate. I had the following discussion with my wife one day a few months ago:

C: "I eat healthy..."
L: "You do not. You really don't eat as healthy as you think you do"
C: "You're on crack...I eat healthy!"

Problem with the above conversation is, I was eating a big pile of bacon at the time...which had been a daily ritual. Along with cheeseburgers and fries. At least there was no "pink goo" in my burgers.

Fast forward to two weeks ago. While checking out the Crossfit mainsite, I found a video with a title just compelling enough to make me want to take a look: "Preppin' for the week" by Chris Martirano. I wasn't sure what I would find in those videos; not sure if it was about stretching/body prep, program design...I seriously didn't know. I was slightly surprised (pleasantly) that it was regarding diet. I watched both part 1 and part 2.

As I watched the video, I was intriguied by what Chris referred to as "blocks" (in my defense, I didn't see not read the article linked above before hand). I took to research (read: I googled it). What I found was the concept of "blocks" relates to the Zone Diet, popularized in the 1990's by Dr. Barry Sears.

"The Zone Diet is a way of life that helps you lose fat and increases wellness by reducing cellular inflammation."

...that's all well, fine and good, BUT, in essence, the Zone Diet is a manner to achieve 40-30-30 protein-carb-fat balance in a meal and regulating insulin. Zone Diet measures success by the ability to feel satisfied for 4-5 hours after eating.

From this point forward, I'm going to refer to it as Zone Eating. It's not really dieting, rather, it is being smart about what you eat and how much of it you consume.

What is a block:
A block is essentially a measure of food. 7 grams of protein = 1 protein block; 9 grams of carbohydrates = 1 carb block. 1.5 grams of fat = 1 fat block (HEALTHY fats...).

When designing a meal, you want to combine equal parts of protein, carb and fat blocks. How many blocks one needs is determined by weight, body fat percentage and activity level. For example, @ 190LBS, ~11% body fat and a high activity level, I should eat 21 blocks of food per day. That's a lot more food than I realized!

As of this writing, I've been Zone Eating for almost 2 weeks. Below I'll lay out the good, the bad and the ugly.

The Ugly:
The single biggest change I've noticed is that I was not eating nearly enough. For my body type and activity level, I measure out to 21 blocks a day; I wasn't sniffing 12, or worse, I would get a majority of that in one meal. In order to meet this requirement, I've started eating a snack before working out...yes, I would workout on an empty stomach...I'm not a big breakfast person. Speaking of, this snack is not breakfast.

On a workout day, eating looks something like this:
Pre workout - 3 blocks
Breakfast - 5 blocks
Lunch - 5 blocks
Dinner - 5 blocks
Bedtime snack - 3 blocks

Non workout days are a little tougher:

Breakfast - 5 blocks
Lunch - 5 blocks
Snack - 3 blocks
Dinner - 5 blocks
Bedtime snack - 3 blocks


The Bad:
This isn't really a bad, as much as it is a tedious: everything needs to be measured...at least in the beginning. In reading more recent material on Zone and Dr. Sears, I've read Dr. Sears isn't really big on exact measuring, though, I will say eventually one can develop the eyeball method very close to exact. I do measure, and I measure for a few meals out...this is time consuming.

This is another bad that is moving to a good: Finding foods that are fresh and healthy that can be eaten before going bad. Week one, I bought foods I wouldn't ordinarily eat, which ended up being a waste. Then, I started buying foods that I do eat, but after a few days didn't taste as good. So, as I enter week three, I'm preparing some foods in advance, leaving most to be cooked when I need them or day of; meats are measured and frozen and I will thaw them as I need them.

The Good:
I feel pretty damn good. Through week one, I'd dropped almost 5LBS (a long weekend at work and lack of planning for that caused a slight fall off, but I'm close to reclaiming those loses). There is a noticeable performance increase in my workouts. My stomach is flat again. And best of all, I'm eating healthy! I haven't had a burger in a few weeks, BUT, I can have one if I chose --I just need to be smart about it.

I haven't eliminated much of anything while Zone Eating, I'm just being smart (and meticulous) about what I consume.

Conclusion:
By no means is this a comprehensive, end-all-be-all on the Zone Diet, but I hope my outline of the first two weeks is encouraging enough for you to at least take a second thought about what you eat day to day. One thing I forgot to mention ---Zone Eating (Zoning? Channel your inner Charlie Sheen - ZONING!), can be tweaked. Lower body fat percentages may need to adjust the fat intake; I am actually consuming 2x the recommendation (either olives, peanuts, almond or EVOO).

Into Paleo? Paleo can be done within the Zone Diet - Paleo foods in Zone portions. It can be done. All in all,  the amount of work involved is TOTALLY worth it. And honestly, if you look at the recommended portions for most food, it falls within the Zone recommendations.


Hope this helps. Remember --bodies are not built in the gym, they're built in the kitchen.
OSU!
-Hangtime

4/4/2012 Early AM Session

Warm up:
Circuit x 3
10 x 10LB DB Windmills
10 x 10LB DB External rotations
10 x 10LB DB Romanian Deadlifts

Dynamic stretches

Today's workout was Crossfit Helen:
400m Run
21 KB Swings @ 1.5 pood
12 pullups

I used a 55LB DB instead of KB; I tried to do as many kipping pullups as possible; progress is being made, but my KP is still pretty pathetic. I tried to push the pace on the runs, but they still were not blazing fast.

I had a little time, so I "played" with the clean and jerk. Once this cycle with the cards is complete, I may add some workouts that highlight the Olympic lifts or add more Crossfit workouts that contain Olympic lifts. Nothing to particularly write home about with these sets, I didn't lift over 75LBS and didn't do more than 3-4 per set.

Abs:
10 x 110LBS Side Standing Cable Crunches

Circuit x 3:
10 x 150LBS Standing Cable Crunches
10 x 45LB Side Bends

Quick stretch and called it a day.
OSU!

3/22/2012 Early AM Session

Today's torture: MS 5 1-10-1 swings and snatches...on very little sleep. The little guy had some trouble breathing last night and spent a good bit of the night agitated & pissed off.

----
I want to learn a little more about some of the Olympic lifts; before I started, I thought, "You know...I should do barbell snatches instead of dumbbell snatches..." And that I did.

Warm up:
A mix of hanging snatch, snatch balance, and ground up snatch @ 45LBS...

These were fun...kinda. I knew this workout would be a bear.

Workout:
1-10
2 hand DB Swing @ 60LBS
BB Snatch smorgasbord @ 75LBS

Most of the snatches were snatch balance, especially once I got over 5. Total sucktitude. I don't see how people do this with heavy weight (yet...I will...trust me, someday, I will understand)...

The snatches started to be too much. No way I was going to make it back down the ladder, even @ 45LBS

10-1
2 hand DB Swing @ 60LBS
95LB Cleans (hanging & power)

Even the cleans were a challenge. I was whooped about half way down, but I pushed through and kept going Osu-EN1

Even with the (at the time) unwelcomed disruption to talk about the Peyton Manning deal this was a scorcher...win!

Abs:
Hanging knee raises: 10x20LBS, 10x30LBS, 8x50LBS, 5x50LBS (failure), 10x20LBS (alternating legs), 8x20 (alternating legs; failure)

Good stretch & tons of water.
OSU!

Home workouts

Someone recently asked me for workouts that could be done from home. The original request was two - ten minute workouts and four - twenty minute workouts; let's up the ante to five each, just to keep things interesting over time.

When I think of home workouts, first thing that comes to mind is little to no equipment --shouldn't be a problem. Some of the workouts may require a little space. When I say a little, I mean get your kids and go outside -neighbors be damned. Oh, yea, and feel free to bring a friend!

Be aware:
First, these aren't easy…they are not meant to be.

Second, I wouldn’t expect to blow the doors off of any of these workouts the first time out; they should leave some room for improvement (and the improvement should be obvious).

Now, for the main event:

10 minute sessions:
Workout #1: T-handle, dumbell or kettlebell swings. 10 per minute (rest for the remaining time)
Workout #2: 100 burpee challenge
Workout #3: Find an open field, mark of roughly 20 -30 yards & run as fast as you can; rinse, repeat as many times as you can for 10 miuntes
Workout #4: Find an open field, mark of roughly 20 -30 yards: high knee skips, carioca, side shuffle, broad jumps and sprint. Alternate each as many times as possible for 10 minutes. If you have a medicine ball, perform 10 ball slams after each set.
Are you worried about how to get the medicine ball to where you are after each set? Easy! Carry it with you!
Workout #5: Tabata high knee DB Press

20 minute sessions:
Workout #6: 10-1-10 Ladders -Start with 10, do each exercise, reduce by one, and start over. Once you get to one, add one back to 10

3-count mountain climbers or jump lunges or tuck jumps
Pushups
Pistols (single leg squats; despite the video example, progress to butt-to-calf!)
Glute-Ham Situps (an exercise ball, chair, bench or ottoman can be used in place of GHD machine)
Step up lunges

Workout #7: Using some sort of weight -dumbbells, frozen water jugs, kettlebells...kids, anything.
Perform as many as possible of each for one minute, then move onto the next one (4 minutes total) -rest a minute, then do it again. Rinse, repeat 4 times.

Hands overhead + lunge
Shoulder shrugs
Side bends
Curls

*Rest*

Workout #8: As many sets of 10 as possible
Full situp (weighted, if possible)
Feet up pushups
Thruster
Sumo deadlift high pulls


Workout #9: Crossfit Angie
100 Pushups
100 Situps
100 Body Weight Squats
100 Pullups

**Realizing that not everyone can do a pullup or has the means to do a pullup, another pulling exercise can be performed.

Workout 10: Ross' ICT Workout 10:
100 Burpees
(2 minute rest)
Tabata Squat (body weight)
Tabata pushups

Now, the hard part has been done; they layout has been established...the easy parts are what most tend to neglect. Remember this phrase... in fact, write it down and tape it to your mirror, your fridge and your toothbrush (and if you can manage, somewhere inside your shower):

"That which is measured, improves"

What does that mean, exactly? It means write it down. Go into detail --write down numbers, write down dates, write down goals and most importantly, write down RESULTS. If you stick with it, you will want to look back and compare performance now to performance then. Get a note pad and WRITE IT DOWN!

Tabata - I will likely cover this in depth in another post, but a Tabata is alternating rounds of 20 seconds of work, followed by 10 seconds of rest, 8 times for a total of 4 minutes. That doesn't sound like a lot, BUT that 20 seconds of work should be executed as if your life depends on it --all out effort!

Feel free to leave any comments or questions and certainly will address them as they come up. :-)

OSU!
-CM