Meal Plan & WODs for Week of April 23

Behind schedule planning for this week, but still able to stay on track by creating some quick meals using leftovers, such as the pork in the stir fry below and the chicken for the Cobb salad, with lots of fresh vegetables that we had on hand. 

This weekend will be a challenge due to reunion events I will be attending, but following the 80/20 Principle I learned from Mark's Daily Apple, I will enjoy without allowing it to derail me as has often happened in the past.

Meal Plan:

Monday: Pork stir fry with broccoli, snow peas, mushrooms, carrots, tomatoes, garlic, and gluten free soy sauce--no rice!

Tuesday: Chicken Cobb salad with uncured bacon and blue cheese crumbles.

Wednesday: Brats with Brussel sprouts and salad.

Thursday: Gyro plate from Daphnes with double salad, no rice!

Fri-Sat: Dining out at reunion events.

Sunday: Slow-smoked chicken leg quarters and grilled asparagus.

Monday WOD: Mountain biking on local trails

Tuesday WOD--Crossfit:

At each 1 minute station, you have 1 minute to complete:
3 Tire Flips
9 Wallball
12 Russian Swings
15 Box Jumps
1 minute rest.
Repeat for a total of 5 Rounds.

WODs, Meals, & Taxes

Nothing could derail my best laid diet plans like a stressful situation. And tax week is among the most stressful experiences many of us face. Last year at this time, I was likely seeking solace from my tax-anxiety at any one of the dozens of fast food drive thrus that have sprouted up on seemingly every corner in our community (I remember when there were only a handful of such restaurants when we first moved to Southwest Riverside County 20 years ag0). Whether I found any comfort, even fleetingly, from these binges is debatable, but the stress was certainly a convenient excuse for stuffing my face.
So how do I combat this tendency? What's working right now is careful planning. The combination of scheduling in my exercise and outlining all of my meals for the week has proven to be a powerful preventative measure. And keeping the meals simple and easy to prepare has been essential. For example, the breakfast scramble you see to the left was a quick and delicious meal this morning that kept me fueled and on track throughout the day. It's simply some gluten-free chicken breakfast sausage, peppers, which I had chopped up the night before while preparing some chili, and eggs. Took no time at all to prepare, but the key was having those ingredients ready because I knew ahead of time that this would be the breakfast meal for today.

Planning dinner is equally important. If nothing firm is set, then it is all-too-easy to go off the rails and head to the drive thru. But again, if the plans call for something too complicated to prepare, then it is also easy to put off that home cooked meal and to instead go out for something quick, easy, and less healthy. The dinner pictured to the right is a great example. Shrimp and tilapia, pan fried in a healthy oil and seasoned simply with Cajun spice, with a side of steamed organic asparagus (frozen). We even garnished with some Paleo cocktail sauce--a simple mixture of Paleo ketchup and horse radish. Took maybe 15 minutes to prepare (and served with a flourish on our finest paper plates). However, if it wasn't planned out ahead of time with all ingredients ready, it would have been easy to skip this meal, especially at the end of a busy, stressful day.

So planning has been the biggest lesson. That's why I'm posting my meal plan for the week each Sunday along with my shopping list to share with you and hopefully contribute to your success. Until I started doing that, it was far too easy for me to be lured in by that Siren call: "Hello, may I take your order?"

WODs this week:
Mon--

Press
3-3-3-3-3-3

8 Alternating Tabata cycles each movement (16 total intervals):
Russian Kettlebell Swings
Pushups

Tabata cycles mean you do as many reps in 20 seconds of the first drill, rest 10 seconds, do 20 seconds of as many of the 2nd one, and so on, until you've done 8 of each drill. You count only the lowest number of reps, which is the big challenge. For example, my lowest number on the KB swings was 11, and on the pushups 6. As you can imagine, it gets tougher and tougher with each cycle.

Wed--

Back Squat
3-3-3-1-1-1

30 Dumbbell Walking Lunges
15 V-Ups
125 Meter Run
30 Dumbbell Walking Lunges
20 Knees To Elbow
125 Meter Run
30 Dumbbell Walking Lunges
30 Sit-Ups
125 Meter Run

Meal Plan for 4-16-12

Meal Plan Week of 4-16-12

Mon: Grilled shrimp and tilapia with Paleo cocktail sauce and salad

Tues: Smokey bacon chili over sweet potatoes--recipe from Paleomg

Wed: Southwest meatloaf--recipe from Paleomg--with bacon-blue cheese Brussel Sprouts

Thur: Crockpot hot wings--recipe from Civilized Caveman

Fri: Smoked avocado lime pork chops--recipe from Civilized Caveman

Sat: Fundraiser dinner party

Sun: Grilled chicken and asparagus

Shopping list:

Eggs
4 lbs Ground beef
Shrimp
Pork chops

Chicken wings
15 oz can fire roasted tomatoes
Justin's almond butter
85% cacao dark chocolate
Sweet potatoes
Green peppers
Red peppers
Yellow peppers
Yellow onions
Spaghetti squash
Romaine
Brussel sprouts

WOD and Workout Approach

So you may be wondering why I'm only posting my WOD, or Workout of the Day, about 3-4 times per week. Most of us our conditioned (no pun intended) when it comes to fitness to think that more is better. But my current approach, influenced heavily by Mark Sisson's book The Primal Blueprint and his website Mark's Daily Apple, has a definite less-is-more focus.

I was, of course, skeptical, believing that weight loss success would require at least 6 days a week of heavy cardio. This was the approach I took when I started this journey almost two years ago as described in my Inaugural Blog, and even though I could not sustain it (lack of time/constant injury), I believed it was the correct approach. It wasn't until I started to do some research as I started out with Crossfit IV last November that I learned there was an approach to fitness that was not only more sustainable, it was more effective.

While I will get into more details in future posts, the basic workout philosophy I learned from The Primal Blueprint and have been using ever since is as follows:

• Lift heavy things 3 times per week
• Move frequently at a slow pace
• Sprint, all out effort, every 7-10 days

Of course, this workout plan is only one aspect--the diet is the most important component--and Sisson provides a nice overview of both the diet and workout basics on The Primal Blueprint Diagram page. The good news is, you can essentially follow this from home without any expensive equipment and do quite well--in fact, if you subscribe to Mark's Daily Apple, you will receive, for free, all the tools and resources you need, including videos of body-weight exercises that take care of the "lift heavy things" component. What it looks like for me is:

• Crossfit 3 times per week (I'll explain why this is the best way for me to get my lifting done in a future post) which provides a nice combination of functional drills that incorporate lifting and mobility workouts
  
• Walking, mostly my dogs, every day, 1-2 times per day, along with frequent leisurely bike rides, and at least one long hike or bike ride each week
  
• Windsprints or bike intervals ever 1-2 weeks

I have found this to be a perfect blend--easy to follow and fit in my busy schedule, varied enough to keep me interested, motivated and injury free, and, perhaps most important, fun. As a result, unlike past workout initiatives, I've been able to stick to this one much longer than a few weeks.

So here is today's WOD--and hopefully the above gives it some perspective:

WOD for 4-14-12

Warm Up:
400 M run
Samson Stretch
Air Squats
Abmat Sit Ups
Planks

WOD:
AMRAP 8 (As Many Rounds as Possible in 8 minutes)
5 Man Makers
10 Ball Slams

What's a Man Maker?

WOD for 4-11-12

Workout of the Day:
400 M Row and 2 Rounds of Crossfit Warm Up

30-20-10
Wallballs
Pull Ups

200 M Row

What's a Wallball?

WOD for 4-9-12

WOD: 12-mile ride along the coast, from Venice to Pacific Palisades, with my buddy Jon (pictured). Something about a beautiful view that makes a workout go by effortlessly.

Dinner: Mediterranean chicken salad from the Figtree Cafe, with a view of the eccentric Venice Beach locals. Great company and lively surroundings.

Weekly Meal Plan

My goal is to post my weekly meal plan on this blog every Sunday. My diet is probably the thing I'm asked about most often. And while I've explained how I've been eating and shared a lot of recipes, one thing I often hear from friends is "Just show me what to do." I'm hoping the meal plan can accomplish this.

Planning has been essential. If I don't have the meals planned out for the week and all of the ingredients stocked up, I know I will probably not eat well. I've been there before. It is far too easy to take the easy way out--to dine out, grab some fast food, or make some quick, processed meal. The main reason I've had success thus far is that by planning out my meals using the valuable resources I have discovered, I'm able to create highly satisfying and relatively easy-to-make meals. While I will share more in later posts about how I am trying to eat, for now, I'll just post the plan, often including links to the particular recipe that I will use, and a shopping list of the important things to stock up on.

As I mentioned above, I will explain the eating approach in future posts, but as you look at some of the meals below, you may find some of them counter-intuitive to a healthy approach to nutrition. Michelle, too, was a bit skeptical when we started, but she trusted the research I had done and chose to go along with me in this approach. In addition to the weight loss we've experienced, there have been other clear markers that this has been a healthy experience for us. You may also wonder about the time and money we put into this eating approach. I have many friends who say they don't have the time or ability to cook healthy meals. I basically have selected meals that are relatively quick and easy to prepare--if not, I probably wouldn't have the ability, or the will, to make them, either. And we've actually saved money since eating this way. We've found we waste a lot less food, we eat out far less often (though you may question that when you look at the plan below), and we don't spend money on a lot of processed snacks and desserts.

One more thing: my focus, as you can see, is on dinner. I will explain the 2-3 breakfast choices I basically repeat, for simplicity's sake, throughout the week in a later post. As for lunch, we always try to double the dinner recipes you'll see below so we can have leftovers as our lunch the following day--been working out very well.

So I hope you find this helpful. If nothing else, it will help me remain accountable in my own efforts. Here's this week's plan:

Monday: Dining out with my good friend Jon up in LA. I'll tackle dining out in later posts.

Tuesday: Smoked Avocado Lime Pork Chops--recipe from The Civilized Caveman--with salad and grilled peppers

Wednesday: Fried chicken, using EVO and nut flour--recipe from Mark's Daily Apple--plus salad and steamed broccoli (if I don't have fresh, I used frozen organic broccoli)

Thursday: Late lunch, I hope, with my friend Karen and then late dinner out with another good friend, Ryan, from LA--using spring break to do some catch up

Friday: Grilled shrimp salad

Saturday: Meatballs in read sauce--recipe from Fast Paleo--over spaghetti squash with salad.

Sunday: Bacon Wrapped Beef Franks with Spicy "Relish"--recipe from The Civilized Caveman--plus salad and grilled asparagus

Shopping List:
*Note--I try to buy organic, cage-free, grassfed, etc., when possible and, honestly, affordable--more on this in later post

1 lb ground beef
1 lb ground pork
1 dz beef franks
2 lb large shrimp (I buy frozen from Costco)
8 chicken breasts
4 bone-in pork chops
2-3 lbs uncured bacon (I like to purchase from Fresh and Easy, their own brand, but I also sometimes splurge on uncured jalapeno bacon from Baron's)
1 package gluten free sausage links (I buy big package of these from meat section at Costco that lasts a whole month)
1-1/2 dozen organic, cage-free eggs (both Costco and Sam's Club sell these--well-worth the slightly higher price)
Unsalted macadamias, walnuts, and pecans
Parmesan, Asiago, Romano Shredded Cheese Blend
Avocado
Spaghetti squash
Lettuce
Tomatoes
Peppers
Asparagus

WOD for 4-7-12

One of the things I'll be doing on this blog is posting my WOD, or Workout of the Day. Hopefully, this will inspire you to get out there and get your own WOD done, whether following the same routine as I do or designing your own.

From my experience these past two years trying to find the ideal health and fitness plan (see Inaugural blog post), what I have found works best for sticking to regular workouts is variety. It's why I love doing Crossfit (which you'll hear more about in future posts) three days a week, and then sprinkling in on other days an nice variety of walking, hiking, road cycling, mountain biking, swimming, and other sports.

Today's WOD: 10-mile mountain bike at Lake Hodges. Also added 1.25 mile walk.

If you only know Lake Hodges from the brief glimpse you get as you speed over it on the 15 freeway in Escondido, I highly recommend you take the time to explore its trails, which are well maintained if a bit rocky. Tucked out of view of the freeway is a beautiful lake that rivals some of my favorite hiking spots in the Eastern Sierras.

We started at the trail head across from Hernandez' Hideaway (a great spot for a post- ride meal), and headed along the northeast side of the lake. Most of this trail is gently rolling with just a few technical challenges, but farther out, there are some single track spurs you can take . The hills on these give you a great endurance challenge going up and a true thrill ride going down.

Beautiful scenery, physical challenge, and fun--my idea of a great workout!

Inaugural Blog Post

This is the inaugural post for the Kegger 2 Six Pack blog, which is an offshoot of my wife's blog, The Flabby to Flabulous Files. Michelle's site is designed to share her journey toward a healthier lifestyle, and along the way, inspire others who are on the same road. I hope to do the same, with an emphasis on the male perspective, while sharing the tools and resources that are helping me along the way.

My wife and I have been on a parallel journey for the past two years, with some overlap, some differences, and some varying degrees of success. We started training for our first half marathon just under two years ago. I successfully completed three half marathons, along with other shorter distance races, over the course of the following 8 months. Michelle, on the other hand, has gone on to run...I can't even count how many half marathons and other races during the past two years. Running, clearly, is her thing. It is not my thing. Fortunately, I discovered cycling, both road and mountain, was my thing and have taken that up as my cardio workout of choice.

So we both found our niche when it came to a cardio-focused workout. However, we also both noticed, after some initial success, that our weight loss had stalled. We knew we had to look closely at our diet and add strength training in order to keep making progress. We dabbled here and there with various nutritional and weight programs, but nothing "stuck." Then in November, we discovered CrossFit Inland Valley--and this was the game changer. We not only found a program we loved doing, but an approach to nutrition that has made a huge difference. I will be sharing more about what we've learned at Crossfit IV in future posts, but for now, I will just tell you that we had something that we were able to do together while also being able to enjoy our individual exercise approaches. And thanks to what I have learned these past five months, I know feel that I, too, have something of value to share that I hope,will help and inspire others.

Why share? Well, I feel like I've found a great balance of diet and exercise that is fun, doable, and that has put me on the path that has inspired the title for this blog--getting rid of what I had long called "my kegger"--the huge belly I joked about publicly but suffered from physically and emotionally--constant back and knee pain, fatigue, frustration...even depression. Since November, I've drawn 40 pounds off that keg, and along the way alleviated a lot of the pain and exhaustion that was plaguing me. As others have noticed the changes, they've asked me about my diet and exercise, and I've explained a lot of what I do with them informally...and this has motivated me to share more formally on this site. Through this blog, I hope to not only provide a platform to illuminate the things that are helping me--meal plans, shopping lists, recipes, informational and inspirational resources--with others, but to also continue to keep myself accountable. While I have made progress, I'm no where near having that six pack, but I'm in it for the long haul, and hope others will join me for the ride.