The Three Amigos of Good Health: Proper Diet, Exercise, and Sleep

The order doesn't matter, you need equal and consistent amounts of all three. Exercising has never been an issue for me, as you can read in my previous blogs.  A healthy diet and plenty of sleep, however, are my nemeses. 

I'm currently reading The Big Picture by Tony Horton (creator of P90X and P90X3 among other workouts).  As you may know, I completed the P90X workout 4 years ago and recently completed P90X3.  However, my results have been quite different between the two.  When I did P90X, I went all out.  I ate an extremely healthy diet, got plenty of sleep and worked out 6 days of week for 13 weeks.  I continued on that course for the 3 months that followed.  However, after that, although I did several other Beachbody.com workouts I wasn't as strict with my diet and or my sleep.

For P90X3, however, I did the 13 weeks, 6 days a week religiously (with the exception of a couple of days one week when I got sick and a few Saturdays when I just didn't feel like working out), but this time I didn't really watch what I ate nor did I get the proper amount of sleep. I averaged about 5 to 6 hours of sleep a night and you need at least 7 in order for your body to recoup and function properly.  Needless to say, the results were sub par.

In The Big Picture, Tony talks about how important sleep is and that it is just as important as eating right and exercising.  I've read that several times since then from other authors, exercise gurus and doctors. I've modified my sleeping habits accordingly by making sure I'm in bed by 10 most, if not every night, and sometimes even earlier (especially since I get up so early). However, my diet is still an issue.

In The Big Picture, Tony also discusses eating whole foods and from what I keep reading and hearing, the whole/real foods phenomenon seems to be all the rage now.  Get rid of processed foods they say, eat food as close to its natural state as possible, don't eat anything with more than 5 ingredients, CUT OUT SUGAR, etc...  I've been considering this for a while now and yesterday, I decided to give the whole/real foods diet thing a try. 

What's prompted this change is that despite my P90X3 effort, I didn't see much of an improvement...in my mid-section.  Although, I see improvement in my arms, legs, and butt, and my strength and endurance, I see no changes/improvements in my torso and in fact, I seem to have gained fat in that area.  I feel bloated, sluggish, tired and irritable (as well as gaining a little weight/fat).  I feel so blah that I started thinking something might actually be wrong with me internally (thyroid, hormonal imbalance, etc)  So, I did a little research.  First, I looked at the results from the blood work I had done in Feb and found that not only was my thyroid functioning just fine, according to my information, I have a slightly overactive thyroid.  So then, I read up on hormonal imbalances (given my age...turned 43 on July 16...this isn't a far fetched idea neither is suspecting thyroid problems) however, what I found is that diet can help regulate these as well as improve my not so great symptoms listed above. Everything I read seems to point to diet.  So, I finally admitted to myself that maybe I was trying to find an excuse for my issues instead of facing the cold hard facts that I am eating like crap and its making me feel that way.  You know what they say, you are what you eat. 

So, yesterday, I made a 10-day Real Foods Challenge Pledge with a start date of July 21, 2014.  (there is also a 100 day real food challenge pledge http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/, but I wanted to ease into it.)  I'm taking these three days beforehand to prepare. To be honest, the rules don't seem that difficult and I certainly should have no problems following them for 10 days.  If I like how I feel when I'm done, I plan to continue.  One thing is for sure, I can't feel any worse than I do now. 

  

You Can't Out Train a Bad Diet

I know that more than anyone and this statement holds even more water the older you get. 

Tomorrow, I will finish my 7th week of P90X3 and begin my transition week (week 8) on Monday.  I try to watch what I eat but haven't really stuck to a diet and even allowed myself some indulgences (It wasn't easy staying on a diet during the long hours of legislative session when not so healthy food was readily available and I was eating 3 meals a day in my office...plus snacks.) However, that is just an excuse.  I allowed myself too many indulgences that contained a lot of sugar. 

Luckily for me, Session is now over and I'm going to make more of an effort to eat healthier.  I will say this, even though you can't out train a bad diet, exercising will still effect your body in a good way.  For instance, my strength, endurance and flexibility have gotten better.  But for me, my fat likes to accumulate in my mid-section, so even though I see improvement in my arms, legs, and butt (my favorite improvement), my mid-section is still squishy.  However, it has gone through some changes as well... it is harder underneath the layer of fat that covers my "real" abs.  And, I feel great.  I love the workouts. 

But, if I really want to get in great shape, especially for the summer, I'm going to have to get my sweet tooth under control.  I read an article today online featuring fitness experts revealing their secrets on how to lose weight.  The article has been shared on my facebook page but to pass on some of the advice (mainly from my favorite fitness expert Tony Horton and what I think to be the most important), to lose weight and especially fat you should do the following:

• Eat whole foods - lean proteins, vegetables, fruit, whole grains and healthy fats.
• Stay away from or greatly reduce sugary foods and artificial sweeteners.  Yes, that includes diet drinks...which I drink. Actually, Tony says to completely eliminate these but I'm a bit of a pansy and it takes awhile to eliminate my favs.
• Eat veggies first... helps fill you up.
• Stay away from processed foods - anything that comes in a box, a bag, or a can.  This one really sucks because my pantry is full of processed foods and I love my processed foods (mac & cheese as well as other pastas and everything else in there.)  Ugh, maybe a small fat roll isn't so bad. ; )
• Avoid white...flour, sugar, rice, milk & salt as much as possible. 

That is what I took from the article...common sense really, and if you do this consistently, you too can have washboard abs.  I'm starting to think that sugar is like a drug...the more you eat it, the more you want it, and the harder it is to stop eating it.  I'm not sure I'll ever get the great abs I fantasize about because eating right is a struggle every single day (as it is for most people).  However, I'm willing to fight for good abs and if I'm going to go through the training, I might as well have a healthy diet to make all that effort worth while.

Time to Get Fit...Again.

Four years ago, I completed P90X. And, for a few years, I worked out consistently after that...purchasing 4 additional beachbody.com workouts - RevAbs, Turbofire, Hip Hop Abs, and Focus T25 (one of my favorites).  However, over time all that working out wore me out and slowly I slacked off to the point that over the last 5 months I didn't workout consistently (or even worked out at all) and, I didn't really watch what I ate. Needless to say, I put on a few pounds and a couple of inches, but luckily, I didn't gain back everything that I had lost from P90X.  However, if I continued on this path, I knew that I would gain back everything (and maybe more) and I just couldn't let myself do that.

When you fall off the wagon, get back on.

At first, I contemplated combining my favorite videos from all my previously purchased workouts, but I knew that wouldn't keep me motivated and I wouldn't stick to it. So, for me, the only way to get back into living a healthy lifestyle would be to start a new workout program. Because I've had so much success with beachbody.com workouts in the past, I, once again, turned to beachbody.com for help.  Considering, I don't have much time to workout (especially now while session is in and I'm working 10 to 12 hour days), 30 minutes a day is all I can really do. And luckily for me a new P90X workout was recently released...P90X3, which is 6 days a week and only 30 minutes a day. That 30 minutes makes all the difference.  Studies have shown that you get the most from a work out in the first 30 minutes. 

No pain, no gain.  (Of course that's only true when you're trying to improve yourself.  Gaining weight and fat is easy.)

During my first week of P90X3(and especially the first 2 days), every muscle in my body ached every time I moved...and even when I didn't.  By the time Wednesday rolled around (I started on a Monday), I looked forward to the 30 minutes of yoga that I was scheduled to do that day.  Although me doing yoga isn't a pretty sight (and to be quite honest, it too was a bit painful), I felt so good when I was done because I had stretched all those terribly sore muscles. 

Some helpful hints: 

• Don't be afraid to modify.  In fact, I modified the entire first week of the workout (most of the time) and each week I try to improve, but I still modify.  These workouts are intense and you should never jump into an intense workout at full speed, you'll only be hurting yourself (I know people who have actually thrown up during and/or after a workout because they pushed too hard). That's not good for you. A 20 minute mile and a 10 minute mile is still a mile, regardless. So, you'll still get a great workout when you modify.
• Do take a few minutes after each workout to stretch.  Your muscles will thank you for it.
• Do the yoga. You won't burn as many calories but you will sweat and gain flexibility and stretch those overworked muscles.  And that is just as important as a hardcore cardio or weight training workout. 
• Do try to eat healthy.  You can't out train a bad diet. You don't have to cut out everything you love, but minimize the things that are not so good for you.  For the first week, I kept track of my calories every day with a calorie counter on my phone to help remind me how easy it is to add on the calories with just a few minor treats. 
• Do take before and after pictures, weight, and measurements.  It's the best way to see your results.  I did this before starting P90X and I did it again before starting P90X3.  However, after looking at my before pictures for P90X3, I've decided not to post them just yet.  Yikes!
• Don't get discouraged if you don't see results immediately.  When I did P90X 4 years ago, a good friend of mine who had done it before me told me it will take about 6 weeks before I'd start seeing results.  He was right and I keep that great piece of advice in mind to this day. 

Keep at it because it does gets better.

Nothing worthwhile comes easy or fast.  As of today, I am in the middle of my third week. I'm not nearly as sore as I was the first week.  As a matter of fact, I'm not really sore at all. Now, don't get me wrong, I get tired and sore during the workouts but my recovery time is much quicker so I'm not as sore the next day. However, next week is my transition week out of Block 1 (week 4) and my routine will be changing, which means I will be sore (probably very), once again, BUT, I'll have also completed the first 30 days of my 90 day workout and in two more weeks (3 from today) I'll start seeing some results.