So my current “fitness” program includes three main goals to achieve the dream of leanness.
1. Do the Focus T-25 workouts to the best of my ability.
2. Drink Shakeology everyday to see if it helps with cravings and digestion.
3. Eat clean.

I have already talked a little bit about the workouts, so on this post I will focus on the nutrition part of my program. I call it my program because I am doing what I think will work best for me. The first part of the nutrition plan is drinking Shakeology everyday. Shakeology is billed as the healthiest meal of the day. It is a protein shake made up of many nutrient dense super foods. I add frozen fruit to mine, like blueberries or strawberries. It is supposed to cleanse the body from toxins and help promote weight loss, curb cravings, increase energy, and improve digestion. So, I will put it to the test and see how it works for me. For more info on this product visit http://myshakeology.com/esuite/home/johnmccann

The second part of the nutrition plan is to eat clean, which means trying to avoid processed foods and junk food and eat veggies like it is my job. My plan is basically a high protein, high veggie, low starch diet. But it is not really a diet, it is a lifestyle. And I wouldn’t call it a low carb diet either because veggies are carbs. When I refer to processed foods, I mean foods that have a huge list of ingredients and contain artificial colors and flavors, dyes, chemicals, words ending in “ose”, high frutcose corn syrup, and words I can not pronounce. So most foods that come in a box or fancy package is off limits. In addition to limiting processed foods, I also want to eliminate starches and sweets such as candy, chips, pretzels, potatoes, rice, pasta, bread, cereal, cakes and other sweets. This will be hard for me, as anyone who knows me knows how much I love sugar! So what will I be eating? My goal is to eat a diet that consists mainly of the following: lean meat such as seafood, chicken, turkey, and beef (although some fatty meats will be okay once in a while like pork, bacon, and steak), eggs, greek yogurt, cottage cheese, veggies, fruit (mostly berries and citrus), nuts and seeds, raw cacao, green tea, and coconut oil/olive oil. Thats right, no grains if possible and no dairy other than the greek yogurt and cottage cheese. I will likely avoid high sugar fruits like apples, bananas, and grapes as well. Even though these fruits have good stuff in them, they also have lots of sugar, which is something I am trying to avoid like the plague for this program aka the experiment. I have also gone to drinking coffee black now, which was a HUGE change for me as I do like a lot of cream and sugar in my coffee. I also drink a ton of green tea, like 8-10 packets per day. I am kind of addicted to it.

So how am I doing on the program so far? Well it has been two weeks and I have been doing great with items 1 and 2, but 3 has been lacking, particularly on the weekends. I have drank shakeology everyday, and I love it and so far I feel great after drinking it. I have done mostly okay with the meals and snacks during the week, but I have slipped up a few times with the goodies on the weekend. For some reason I can not stay clean on the weekends, why is that? For example on Friday night I went off the deep end and ate a ton of candy, like as soon as I walked in the door. And today, went to a birthday party with the kids and ate a cupcake. Just could not resist the cupcake, although I did resist the pizza. And then this evening, I ate a bunch of candy again. Its like I almost blackout and don’t even realize what I am doing. It is a daily struggle resisting the candy! So for the two weeks I have been on this program, I have eaten cleanly for 10 of the 14 days. Not bad but I want to do better. My goal is the 90/10 rule, eat clean 90% of the time. So far I am at 71%. So it is time to rededicate myself to this journey and program, lets see if I can do it.

After two weeks I am down one pound in weight and I am down 1/4 inch in waist.

To be continued……

So today was a great day, managed to get my work out in at 5:30 am this morning and had a clean day of eating. Managed to be craving-free today. My food for the day is posted at the bottom of the post. So what is this Focus T-25 program? Well I am in the process of finding out as I have completed two days of it so far. Here is what I know:

The workouts are 5 days per week for 25 minutes per day, it is 25 minutes of intensity with no rests. Apparently studies have shown that 30 minutes of exercise can be just as effective at burning fat and more efficient than 60 minutes of exercise. And let’s face it, I am all about burning fat! So far I like the quick workouts. I have been doing other programs (P90X, P90X2) that are an hour or longer and some days it is bit long. So far the first two workouts haven’t been too bad, I actually hope they get harder, otherwise I may need to add some other things in. So this is an all new program from the company Beachbody (for which I am a coach and can help you with your goals) So the program is 10 weeks long broken into two phases, the Alpha Cycle, which focuses on the foundations, and secondly the Beta Cycle, which focuses on the core. The Alpha cycle is made up of 5 workouts that include, Cardio, Speed 1.0, total body, ab intervals, and lower body. The Beta cyccle is also made of up 5 work outs that include core cardio, speed 2.0, rip’t circuit, dynamic core, and upper body. According to the website, I will get ripped and shredded, haha we’ll see about that. I think my eating will play into this a little, actually a lot. The clean eating is the hardest part for me because I like the sweets so much. Seems like every week I do very good Monday-Thursday, then for some reason on the weekend, its like I forget how to eat and turn into a goodie hog. I am hoping to improve on that for sure.

Todays eats:
7am Breakfast – Shakeology shake with strawberries, green tea, flax, protein powder, ice, and spinach
10am snack – Cup of steamed broccoli, 5oz shredded chicken with salsa
1pm lunch – 6oz shredded chicken with salsa, 4 celery stalks, 5 radishes, 1 bell pepper, about 1/2 of a cucumber
4pm snack – Salad with, spinach, kale, tomatoes, onions, avocado, chia seed, red wine vinagrette, 2 hard boiled eggs, fresh basil
6:30 dinner – 6oz turkey burger (turkey, mushroons, onions, egg, panko) cooked in coconut oil, 1 bell pepper, cup of green beens
drank 110 oz of water/tea

total calories – 1,574 (43% protein, 31% carb, 27% fat)

If you want to learn more check me out http://www.beachbodycoach.com/johnmccann

This is my first blog post under my new Lean Pipe Dream site. This blog is an experiment in many respects. The goal of this blog is to be centered around the promotion of health and fitness because this is a topic that is fascinating to me. And of course my goal is to get lean, which seems to be difficult when you have a busy life and massive sweet tooth. So I will try to entertain you all with my struggles to get fit and quit eating my weight in sugar. I plan to post about the challenges of eating clean, exercise programs, and general rants about health and fitness. The website is a work in progress and I plan to improve it as I go.

I am starting a new workout and eating program. The workout program is called Focus T25 from Beachbody. It is 5 days a week, 25 minutes a day, for 10 weeks. It includes a mix of intense exercises, cardio, plyometerics, abs, and total body work outs. This workout program is from the same developers of the Insanity workout. I will describe the workouts in more detail in future posts. I did the first one this morning and it was straight cardio.

I am also going to try to start eating better and as part of that, I am going to try a product called Shakeology. I will drink a “shake” every morning for breakfast. I’ll provide more information about this product in future posts, but it is advertised as the healthiest meal of the day. I had one today with blueberries and it was pretty good. My goal is to post what I am eating for accountability purposes.

So today is day one of the program. I plan to weigh in and do some measurements once per week and report the results here. When the 10 weeks are up I will post before and after pictures. So my starting stats are as follows:

Weight – 179 lbs
Waist – 34.5 in
Thighs – 21.75 in
Arms – 13.25 in

Lastly I recently just signed up to be a beachbody coach. More to come on that later as well.