Six weeks in

Well, since the TYT book's subtitle is "6 Weeks to a Leaner Younger-Looking You" I guess we should assess things after following the program for six weeks. Actually, today marks six weeks and three days to be exact, but what's a few days here or there when I know I'm going to be following this program for a while yet. In terms of being a leaner "me" there is no doubt, I am. All my clothes fit better and I'm sure I've dropped close to 3-4 inches off my waist. I'm almost two pant sizes smaller in six weeks! My entire body has strengthened, especially  my arms and shoulders. But my legs have also benefited and I am walking with a more confident stride and my slight limp (due to my right hip) is becoming less and less noticeable. There is definitely some shape-shifting going on and some fat weight being traded for muscle. In terms of pure weight loss I'm now at 220lbs, which is about 10lbs less since I "officially" started the program, but it is 14lbs less since I "unofficially" started eating healthier, which was about 10 weeks ago. I guess that's pretty good, but the weight loss has definitely slowed down the past 2 weeks. Whereas I was losing almost a .5lb every 2 days or so, it's now more like a .5lb every week. And while I've missed the odd workout here and there, I haven't done much cheating at all. In fact there is little that tempts me anymore. I have no problem with cravings or saying no to sweets when they are offered to me. I keep telling myself that there's no going back to the way I was. So would I have liked to have lost a bit more weight by now? Sure, who wouldn't. But I'm not discouraged and I'm going to keep with the program for at least another six weeks and see what the results are. I can always add the few optional exercises of the week 3-6 routine if I want to ramp it up some more. I was hoping to hold off on that for a while longer yet though. I'll keep you posted.

Taking it up a notch

Well, this past Saturday I decided it was time to move on to the Week 3-6 fitness routine. As I mentioned in an earlier post I was trying to milk the Week 1-2 routine for as long as possible but I had hit a plateau in my weight loss the past week and a bit so I decided it was time to move on to the more challenging routine. The main difference between the two routines is the addition of the Horse Curls exercise and the extra reps for the exercises you've already been doing. I have to say it certainly is more challenging. I was huffing and puffing in no time and perspiring more than before. And for some reason the 12 lb. dumbbells I had been moving fairly easily with the Week 1-2 routine now felt like 50 lbs. It's amazing how the mind works in these situations. The moment you think the weight might be too heavy it's like your muscles just want to stop working. You really have to will yourself to complete all the reps for some of the exercises. In some cases I had to split up the exercise into three mini-sets of 10 reps with a 15 second break between each set just to get through them. I can certainly feel my muscles being challenged and growing but I'm mildly disappointed that after three sessions my weight is still the same at 222 lbs. I was hoping to start seeing a .5 lb drop after every session or two. I'm not cheating on my eating so I can only hope it's muscle being traded for fat at this point and the weight loss will start to kick in again soon. I'll keep you posted.

Dr. Dukan agrees

I just opened my e-mail and found a message from "Diet Dr. Dukan". I had checked out his site and signed up for his newsletter back when I was researching weight loss sites and books. One of the links (Slimming Secrets) on his site made me curious so I checked it out. It's basically confirms everything that Christine talks about in her book and I thought it was worthwhile sharing it with you. Here is what he had to say. 

slimming secret of Dr Pierre Dukan 

Work hard at developing your muscles and create a whole team of fat burning muscles!

"Your muscles and your brain are your only organs that you can use deliberately to lose weight, the only ones used to burn up calories. A muscle that you get working flat out against maximum resistance uses up an enormous amount of calories. When it stops working, it continues to burn up fuel and calories. Less, much less then when exercising but even so throughout the day and then while you are sleeping. This activity goes on in the background for 60 hours, i.e. two and a half days. Then it comes to a halt and nothing more happens. Conclusion: so that you don't let it come to a halt, take exercise for 10 minutes, just 3 times a week but make it intense. Moreover, get as many muscles and muscular areas involved as possible, by encouraging those that never do any work to become part of your arsenal of calorie burners. Shoulders, arms, legs, buttocks, abdominals, back muscles, calves and the vertebrae extensor muscles that make you tall. You only need a minute per muscle but with maximum intensity so that you get them working for another 60 hours. The benefit is disproportionate, so go on indulge yourself."

Back to losing again

Rather than move to the week two fitness routine I thought I'd try upping the weight of my hex dumbbells first and sticking with the week one routine. It worked! I'm down another pound and a half over the weekend and that included a bacon cheeseburger cheat meal with a beer on Saturday night at Cactus Club Yaletown! I was doing the first two weeks of the routine using 5 lb. dumbbells. While slightly heavier than a can of soup as suggested in the book for beginners, it was still a pretty sad statement for how low I had dropped strength wise. After two weeks I moved on to the 10 lb. set. You could feel the increased resistance immediately and the related after burn was more pronounced. This is what you REALLY need to keep an eye on. As soon as you are able to do all the reps of any exercise comfortably it's time to up the resistance.

This weekend I moved up to the 12 pound set and while it's only 2 lbs. more per arm you could feel the difference immediately. I am also trying to get to 30 reps for each exercise now, or at least to the point where my muscles start to tremble. You don't want to push yourself too far though and get an injury. One or two reps after you start to feel the tremble is enough I think. I am able to do 30 reps for most all of the exercises save for the bench dips (hard stuff, even at the novice level) and the squat raises. I can't remember if it's mentioned in the book or not, but another thing that is important to keep in mind is that you should not take too long a break between exercises. If possible just move from one to the next. I usually take about 10-15 seconds between each one just to wipe my face and have a small drink of water. You want to keep your heart rate up there for as much of the 20 min. (approx.) as possible.

I'm now on the lookout for an adjustable set of dumbbells as 12 lbs. is the largest I have. The hex set belongs to my wife but it's time for me to get a set you can add plates to in order to incrementally increase the resistance. I will be looking for a set comprised of 5 and 2.5 lb plates. The 10 lb. plates have too large a diameter for my liking. Plus I see myself topping out at around 25-30 lbs. per arm anyways. That's about four 5 lb. plates plus the weight of the dumbbell itself. The 2.5 lb plates allow you to gradually up the intensity rather than go a full 5 lbs at a time. Plus, you don't necessarily have to add equal amounts of weight to each end of the dumbbell either. Just go 2.5 lbs on one side first, then add another 2.5 lbs to the other end later. There are expensive dumbbell sets out there (i.e. Powerblock) but I don't want to spend $250 (shipped) on a 3-33 lb. dumbbell set. Rather I'll be looking for something like this from York Barbell. These are available through my Direct Buy shopping club so I'll have to price them out. Maybe I'll go with the regular steel ones instead of chrome. :-)

My first plateau

Well, it happened this week. I was wondering when I was going to hit a plateau while still following the first week exercise routine. I've lost 10 pounds so far and it's been holding at that for the last 5 or 6 days now. I had a few whole wheat pasta meals with lean ground beef during that time just to use up the penne that was sitting in the pantry. I hate penne, but my wife had bought it a while ago and I was tired of looking at it. I also had a couple of side dish servings of potato and rice this past week. But I doubt that's what is causing the plateau. It's time to up the intensity level to the week two routine. So I'll be reviewing that this weekend and starting on it. I'll keep you posted. Hopefully it'll get the metabolism fire going again. I'm not depressed or disappointed in any way though. I was curious to see how long one could go on the week one plan before hitting the plateau. For me it was about 3 weeks.

Supplements

Part of the TYT program includes taking supplements in addition to eating the healthy foods outlined in each step. The main two supplements are fish oil and a multivitamin. I also take a calcium and Glucosamine HCP supplement. Christine recommends a fish oil with a 2:1 ratio of EPA to DHA. I buy my supplements at Costco and I was able to find that ratio in a product from Ocean Nutrition Canada Ltd called Omega-3 and sold under the Health Balance banner. These are softgels and come 240 to the bottle. They claim to be ultra-purified and I believe them, as there is very little, if any, aftertaste with these. They go down fairly easy and stay down. There is ZERO fish oil taste at all for me. And I am old enough to recall the horrible liquid cod liver oil days. The combined content of the EPA and DHA is 600mg per softgel and Christine recommends 2400mg a day, so that would equal four softgels a day. Truth be told, I have only been taking three per day. Basically one with each meal.

The multivitamin I take is produced by Pharmetics Inc. for Costco's Kirkland banner and is called Formula Forte. It has a long list of ingredients and the levels seem to be right on track with what Christine recommends. It only has 200mg of calcium though so I supplement that with another Kirkland product called Calcium Plus. It is manufactured by WN Pharmaceuticals. Each of those tablets is 600mg so I cut them in half to get a total of 500mg a day which is closer to what one should be getting. I take these two together with a fish oil softgel during lunch.

The final supplement I take is Glucosamine HCP (Hydrochloride). Hydrochloride sounds like something you'd put into your swimming pool to keep it clean. Actually it's even grosser than that. It's made from shellfish exoskeletons. It claims to help build/maintain healthy joint cartilage but my doctor said there has been no definitive study to prove it. It's not that expensive so I decided to go with it. At least during the early stages of the program when I'm placing extra stress on my underused joints. The one I bought is also sold at Costco and is produced by Nature's Bounty and they come 175 per bottle. They are triple concentrated 1500mg caplets so you only need to take one per day. I take one of these in the morning along with a fish oil softgel and my tiny high blood pressure capsule. All four of the supplements are about equal in size and are on larger side as far as caplets go. They are about the size of a Mike & Ike candy piece if you know what that is. Not that I'm eating any of those any more :-)

If you are reading this in the United States then most of the brand names I mentioned probably won't mean much to you as all of these companies are located in Canada with the exception of Nature's Bounty which exports into Canada through a company called Vitaminol Inc. The important thing is to make sure you are taking high quality supplements, in the right dosage as outlined by Christine in the book. If you are unsure about anything then check out the forums on her web site. That is where I got a lot of my questions answered about these supplements. Of course you can also do your own web research too.