Two-Day Cleanse: Complete!

I know I said I'd update regularly throughout the cleanse, but here's the thing: there was not much exciting to report! This cleanse was really a breeze. I was nervous about it, but I was not miserably hungry, I had plenty of energy -- so much so that yesterday morning we took a mile jog around the block, took down the Christmas decorations, and in the afternoon took a short bike ride.

I ate the optional fruit snacks and green tea in between meals -- if I hadn't, I probably would have been miserably hungry. I didn't wake up in the night hungry, either.

I lost about two pounds in two days, as did Zach. This wasn't about losing weight, though, and I actually didn't expect to lose a whole lot. We're both pretty lean right now, and I feel like my body is exactly where it should be weight-wise. In Zach's last cleanse he did quite a lot of pooping (if I may be so graphic), but that wasn't the case for either of us this time. That makes me think that we're doing pretty well as far as getting enough fiber in our diets.

Here is the best thing I got out of this cleanse: drinking a lot of water. As I mentioned, Beachbody suggests drinking two to four liters per day while on the cleanse. I drank two liters both days, and in that short time I have seen a couple things that made me think that I am definitely not getting enough water ordinarily. First, when I woke up in the morning I did not have froggy morning voice like normal. Second, my hands are not dry and cracked like they usually are. I have such a hard time with dry hands in the winter; the palms of my hands look like an 85-year-old lady. But this morning they look and feel so much better. I have to think that water has something to do with that.

So one of my goals for this year is to drink two liters of water every day. The way I am going to accomplish this is to keep a pitcher on my counter at all times. Every morning, I'll fill it up with two liters of water, and it had better be gone by nighttime. I'm so bad about drinking water that I really need a visual to remind me to get it done. Otherwise it ain't happening!

And oh yeah. The other thing this cleanse did was make regular old food taste like a million bucks! We fixed some scrambled egg whites and a whole wheat English muffin with almond butter this morning for breakfast, and it was as if Wolfgang Puck had come to my house to fix breakfast. Delicious!

Happy New Year, everybody!

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Workout of the Day
P90X Plus Total Body

Total Body is a great workout, but I'd be lying if I said it wasn't tough to do coming off the cleanse. I didn't have as much energy as usual, but I did complete the whole workout.

Shakeology Cleanse Day 1: So Far, So Good

We're into the eighth hour of the cleanse, and things are going surprisingly well!

Zach and I woke up as per usual for our workout, which was yoga. We didn't want to choose a high-impact workout like Plyometrics or something that would cause us to burn a whole bunch of calories.

After the workout we weighed in, and then for breakfast we had a greenberry Shakeology.

For a snack at 9am we split one banana and had a cup of green tea.

For lunch: chocolate Shakeology.

Snack at 3pm: we split one apple, and had a cup of green tea.

So far I have...drank? drunk? drunken? Let's just say consumed 1 of the 2-4 liters they recommend that you drink while on the cleanse.

My stomach got a little grumbly before the 3:00 snack, but other than that I have felt fine. I had a little headache this morning, but that is on the list of things to expect. For dinner we'll have a spinach salad and 4 ounces of grilled chicken. We plan on using the third shake as a snack after dinner at about 8:00 so that I don't wake up hungry in the night. Well, that's the plan, at least.

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Workout of the Day:
P90X One on One, Volume 3: Yoga

As I mentioned on Facebook earlier today, I plan on creating a new type of yoga that is called "Screaming Toddler Yoga." If you can stay calm and collected the whole time, you are considered a master.

We're Starting a Cleanse Tomorrow, and I'm Kinda Scared

Zach and I have decided to use the week between Christmas and the New Year as a "rest" week on the exercise front and a "clean up" week on the nutrition front. That means that Wednesday and Thursday are going to be Shakeology cleanse days. I'm scared.

I'm really fond of my food. I eat like clockwork at 7, 9, 12, 3, and 6. Here's what we'll be doing instead for the next two days:

 § 3 Shakeology shakes per day

§ 2 cups of green tea per day

§ 1 or 2 pieces of fruit per day (optional)

§ 1 salad for dinner—can include fish or poultry 

§ No dairy or extra sugars (this includes almond and soy milk)!

§ Drink 2 to 4 liters of water every day

§ Only use low-fat dressings, and go easy on the salt and/or pepper to taste

§ 2 snacks before/after any of the major meals (breakfast, lunch, and dinner)

§  Fruit is optional, and it is discouraged 

§ Power-workout participants (those who are already super conditioned) are recommended the

                      higher numbers of calories

§ For maximum results, do NOT use additives

§ Dinner salad may include WHITE GRILLED PROTEIN—poultry or fish only 

I watched Zach do the cleanse a few months ago, and he did fine. But he's a better man than me.

I'll keep you posted on my progress. Since Zach is involved, you can bet there will be spreadsheets. 

Workout of the Day:

P90X One on One Volume 2: 100/30/20

Monday Nutrition Tip of the Week

After the weekend I just had, I hardly feel qualified to be dishing out nutrition advice. Dishing out cinnamon raisin French toast casserole, or maybe some leftover prime rib? Yes, I could dish that out. I have lots of practice dishing that out.

Let's just say there was some overeating, to put it mildly. I'm sure you can relate.

There are bound to be days throughout the year where we overeat -- holidays in particular. But herein lies the tip: don't let your day off the wagon become a week off the wagon -- or worse, a month off the wagon.

I read in Oxygen magazine this weekend that eating food high in saturated fat can impair your judgement for up to three days.

"The study published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation found that short-term exposure to foods like beef, butter, full-fat cheese and milk, which all contain a type of saturated fat called palmitic acid, turns off the pathways in your brain that make you feel full. Your brain essentially gets hit with a cascade of fatty acids that causes resistance to your appetite-suppressing hormones, leptin and insulin."  - Eat Fat to Lose Fat by Linda Melone, Jan. 2011 Oxygen Magazine

Sheesh. That's scary. So pull yourself up by the bootstraps and get back to your regularly scheduled diet of lean meat, vegetables, and whole grains as soon as possible. And also? Don't beat yourself up. One day is not going to prevent you from reaching your goals.

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Workout of the Day:
Brazil Butt Lift: Bum Bum (extra brownie points for getting up by myself to do this at 5:30 this morning. Actually, who am I kidding...it was about burning off the brownies I ate this weekend, not about the points.)

A Funny Thing Happened at the Grocery Store Today...

I did my regularly-scheduled grocery shopping this morning, coupled with a little stocking shopping and last-minute "Ooh I totally need that" Christmas shopping.

There were a few more checkers working this morning due to the holiday rush, and I happened to choose one I didn't know. (And I do know them, usually, and I am selective. I've been known to be halfway pulled in a lane and see Delores*, and then back my cart right back out again. Delores has some issues with the cloth grocery bags I use. Is that cranky of me? Probably so.)

Anyway, I didn't know this lady. But I sure do now! Cause I spent (no exaggeration) 25 minutes in her line. At first I thought it wasn't her fault, but by the time I was in no-man's land (you know, half your items up on the belt and half still in your cart), I found out the truth: Carla was new. Carla was slow.

I told the lady behind me to save herself.

No, not really, but I'm sure she could see it in my eyes.

I've already told you that the Wal-mart checkers hate me, and today was no different. I had a pile of produce, and checking out was more painful than ever because Carla: a) does not know her produce and b) does not know her produce codes. She had to look up every single thing.

Now here's the funny part.

When she got to the beets (I'm making roasted root veggies again on Saturday with Christmas dinner), she looked up at me with a puzzled look and said, "What are these? Radishes?"

"Nope, beets," I said. "Hmm," she said, scanning her produce cheat sheet again. After a few seconds, she turns to her fellow checker behind her and says, "Do you know the code for beets?" The other girl thought for a second and said, "No. Nobody buys beets." As the words were coming out of her mouth she looked at me and gave me a laugh that said, "um, please don't be offended! I don't mean that you're weird or anything! Promise! And also? Enjoy your beets." A few of the other customers nearby heard the exchange and laughed about it, too.

At that point I craned my neck over the counter, scanned the produce cheat sheet, found the beets and pointed them out to Cindy. "See?" I said. "I have great vision 'cause I eat my beets!"

* Names have been changed to protect the incompetence innocence of the checkers.




Workout of the Day:
P90X One on One Yoga

One Year. Exercise. And Shakeology.

Zach is not someone who goes to the doctor willingly. But in order to maintain his Class-C driver's license for bus driving, he has to have an annual physical.

Last year he scheduled an appointment during Christmas break. He was told that a cholesterol test would be part of the physical, so he needed to fast the night before to get an accurate reading.

The appointment went well, and the doctor gave him a clean bill of health -- with one exception. His cholesterol level was 214 -- borderline high.

"What should I do?" he asked the doctor. "Well, I recommend diet and exercise," was the doctor's Captain Obvious response. "Um, doc? I already exercise five times a week," Zach said. "Hmm. Well, just do what you can and you'll probably just have to go on medication when you're older. Don't worry about it, a lot of it has to do with genetics," the doctor said.

But Zach did worry about it. Considering he's the valedictorian of pretty much anything he does, "failing" his cholesterol test was alarming. Here was a guy who had been doing P90X five days a week for more than a year, hardly ever ate at restaurants, didn't drink soda, and tried to eat his vegetables. How could it be that a fit, health-conscious 33-year-old already had cholesterol in the danger zone?

In the weeks after the doctor appointment, Zach was trying to get me to do a P90X workout in the morning and a slow 25- to 30-minute jog in the evenings. I was pooped, but did my best to be supportive. We'd load up Kate in the stroller, put Drew on his bike, and schlep around the neighborhood a couple times.

He started doing research about healthy fats (which you can get from avocados, olive oil, and nuts), and worked those into his diet. I stopped serving bread with dinner as I usually did, and instead added an extra vegetable. He doubled his dose of Omega-3 caplets each morning.

In September Zach started drinking Shakeology. He started with the Shakeology cleanse, and then started drinking a shake as his lunch every day. In three months he has maintained a 10-pound weight loss, 7 of which were lost during the cleanse.

On Monday Zach went back for his annual physical. Once again, he fasted the night before to get an accurate cholesterol test.

On Tuesday the doctor called. His results? Cholesterol went from 214 to 164 -- about a 25% drop. His LDL (bad cholesterol) also decreased from 125 to 93 -- about a 25% drop.

Oh, wait -- I just checked the spreadsheet...that's a 23.36% drop in cholesterol and a 25.60% drop in LDL. Valedictorians are nothing if not exact.

Workout of the Day:
P90X Core Synergistics

Monday Nutrition Tip of the Week

It's time for another produce aisle challenge!

This week, try to pick up a vegetable you've never tried before and fix it for dinner. I fixed two new things in the past week -- one was great, the other not so much.

First, the "not so much." I made Roasted Root Vegetables from Missy Costello, Tony Horton's personal chef. This recipe was great! One of the ingredients I chose to use, however, was kinda gross. Before I explain any further, here's the recipe:

Roasted Root Vegetables

1 large yam, peeled and cut into 1” cubes
2 parsnips, peeled and cut into 1” chunks
1 new potato, peeled and cut into 1" chunks
3 beets, peeled and cut into 1” cubes
3 carrots, peeled and cut into 1” chunks
7 whole cloves of garlic, peeled
Fresh herbs of your choice (e.g., rosemary, thyme, or marjoram)
2 Tbsp. olive oil
Sea salt to taste

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Place all cut vegetables in a bowl with fresh herbs and sea salt and drizzle with olive oil. Stir well or mix with hands to coat evenly. Place in glass casserole dish and cover tightly with foil. Bake for 30 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Remove foil and let brown in oven for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Instead of a yam, I used a sweet potato. (Is there a difference there? I feel like there is, but I'm not sure what.) I could not find parsnips, so I decided to substitute another root vegetable, turnips.

Ever had one of these babies? I peeled a couple, cut them into one-inch pieces and added them to my other veggies. They're kind of yellow when cooked, and they looked a lot like the new potato. But sheesh! They were bitter and stringy. I ended up picking them out and not eating them. 

For my second new vegetable of the week, I tried rutabaga. It's a root vegetable, too, and is described as a cross between a wild cabbage and a turnip. But don't let that put you off -- these were really good!

I fixed them as a side to venison hamburger steaks. You fix rutabaga much like mashed potatoes; just peel, cube, boil, and then mash. I mashed them with some water, olive oil, a little butter, salt, and pepper. They looked like chunky yellow mashed potatoes, and had a mild taste that mixed really well with the hamburger steak. Rutabaga can be cooked and prepared many different ways, and it's one I'll try again!

With so much information out there on the Internet about how to prepare all kinds of different vegetables, there's no excuse not to branch out! You might find a new favorite.

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Workout of the Day:

A friend of mine let us borrow her "Brazil Butt Lift." We did the 35-minute "Bum Bum" (that's pronounced Boom Boom, for the uninitiated) workout. Yes, Zach had to check his Man Card at the door to do this workout. Yes, my Bum Bum hurts now. Product review forthcoming...

"I can't die. It would be bad for my image!"

Here's an article reprinted from the Share Guide Publisher with an interview of Jack LaLanne, 91-year-old dyanmo. I own his juicer, and have to say it's one of the more remarkable tools in my kitchen. 

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Interview by Dennis Hughes, Share Guide Publisher

Share Guide: You were born in September of 1914, therefore you are now 91. You are a great inspiration to those of us who hope to age well.

Jack LaLanne: You have to work at living, period. You’ve got to train like you are training for an athletic event. Most older people just give up. They think, “I’m too old for that,” because they have an ache here or a pain there. Life is a pain in the butt; you’ve got to work at it. 

Share Guide: Are you still exercising daily yourself?

Jack LaLanne: Yes, two hours every day.

Share Guide: And you eat only natural foods?

Jack LaLanne: If man makes it, I don’t eat it! You need to make good health a hobby. Would you get your dog up in the morning and give him a cup of coffee, a cigarette, and a doughnut? Well, how about  human beings? They get up in the morning with a cup of coffee and a doughnut and they wonder why they are sick and tired and fat. Just ten seconds on the lips and a lifetime on the hips!

Share Guide: In our last interview, you stated that nutrition is Queen and exercise is King. Do you still feel this way?

Jack LaLanne: More than ever. You can exercise vigorously and eat junk and get by. But you can’t eat perfectly and not exercise. Look at many athletes today; they are human garbage cans. They eat anything, but they exercise so hard they burn it up. But why not exercise and put the right fuel in too?

Share Guide: Have you modified your exercise program since you were younger?

Jack LaLanne: Nope, zero. It’s harder now; I can’t do things that I did when I was 20, but I do the best I can with the equipment I have.  I work out two hours every day and exercise until muscle failure. And I change my program every 30 days as always.

Share Guide: Do you exercise mostly with free weights?

Jack LaLanne: I do everything. I do chin ups and push ups and my pulling machines; I do the weights and I swim in the pool. 

Share Guide: Is your family long lived? Do you think heredity plays a part in it at all?

Jack LaLanne: Well, my Dad died at age 50. I can’t control heredity, so I don’t think about it. Why do people die early? Because they break nature’s laws. The only thing you inherit is the darn appetite from your folks. Americans eat all this junk, all this fast food, and most eat more calories between meals than they do at mealtime.

Share Guide: Haven’t you said that you never snack?

Jack LaLanne: Never. Only water between meals. 

Share Guide: Do you take supplements regularly?

Jack LaLanne: I take 40 or 50 supplements a day. I’ve been doing it for years and years. And I don’t eat processed foods. You ever read the labels on that stuff? You can’t read it, because they’ve got so many preservatives, and artificial coloring, artificial flavoring, all of that junk, it’s incredible. And people put that junk in their bodies. It’s like my new Corvette; would I put water in the gas tank? No!

Share Guide: Are there any specific supplements you’ve added on as you got older?

Jack LaLanne: Nope. I take everything from A to Z. What’s the difference if you’re five years old or if you are a 100 years old? You’re body is like an automobile; it needs certain fuel. You’re a human machine which needs certain vitamins and minerals and enzymes. People say there should be certain things for older people, but that’s a bunch of bull.

Share Guide: So you’re saying it’s more about being ageless rather than aging well?

Jack LaLanne: God helps those that help themselves.

Share Guide: You wrote in your book Revitalize Your Life that posture reveals as much about you as your face. Can you explain this?

Jack LaLanne: Posture has to do with how you feel. If you are feeling lousy, you tend to slump. You’ve got to have pride. Keep your waist in, your chest up, and look straight ahead. Be happy you are alive! Get up in the morning and say, “Thank God I’m here again.”

Share Guide: So part of posture comes from mental attitude?

Jack LaLanne: Right, it comes from how you feel. There are two things that people have in their lives that will never fail: pride and discipline. That’s what we’ve got to teach kids in school.  This is what my buddy Arnold Schwarzenegger is working on. He’s going to make it mandatory for physical education to be taught in the schools, and he is going to take all the junk out of the cafeterias, and put in some good healthy food.

Share Guide: Have you been in touch with him since he became governor?

Jack LaLanne: Oh, absolutely. I’m on the Governor’s Council for Physical Fitness.

Share Guide: What do you think about the current low-carb craze?

Jack LaLanne: It’s a bunch of bull! If God, or nature, or whatever you want to call it didn’t want you to mix carbohydrates, starches and fats, you’d never have a grain, you’d never have a vegetable or a fruit, would you? What’s in a grain? It’s got carbohydrates, starches, fats, sugar. It’s got everything in it. Why does nature do that? One guy says don’t mix carbohydrates, and the other guy says don’t mix protein with it; it’s all a bunch of lard, something to sell a book. And the poor public is so confused, they don’t know what  to do. That’s why I give my lectures.

Share Guide: Some people say that if you walk regularly for 30 minutes every day, that’s a good enough amount of exercise. What do you think?

Jack LaLanne: Walking is good, but that’s just one part of it. You’ve got 660 muscles in your body, so you’ve got to do a certain amount of strength exercise. The doctors say that if you are 80, 90 years old, you need to build muscle. How do you build muscle? Not by walking. You’ve got to work with the weights, and you’ve got to do bigger exercise, like swimming vigorously. Also, you’ve got to change your program every 30 days, and do something different.

Share Guide: Don’t you have a new cookbook coming out?

Jack LaLanne: Yes, I’m working on it right now. It will have tested and proven recipes, and  natural things you can do at home.

Share Guide: You believe that a little bit of red wine with dinner is okay, right?

Jack LaLanne: Yes. Doctors say that one or two glasses of wine a day is okay. But they don’t tell you drink a gallon! Look at the French people, one of the longest lived people on this earth. They have wine for lunch and for dinner, but they don’t get drunk. You know, if you can’t have something that gives you a little pleasure in life, then what the heck is the good of living?

Share Guide: But you don’t recommend beer?

Jack LaLanne: The trouble with beer is that people don’t drink it moderately. They’ll have five or six bottles of beer, and then you’ve got 500 or 600 extra calories. If you have one or two, that is fine, but most people don’t stop at that.

Share Guide: Do you take prescription medications?

Jack LaLanne: Nope. Zero!

Share Guide: No human growth hormone or any other stuff like that?

Jack LaLanne: No! Do you know how many people are in trouble with taking all these hormones? Look at some of the athletes, taking all those steroids. It’s terrible.

Share Guide: You never did that in your body building days, did you?

Jack LaLanne: No, never. When I was entering Mr. America and other contests, all that junk was just becoming available. I wouldn’t do that—no way.

Share Guide: Do you still avoid dairy products?

Jack LaLanne: I have zero. However, if you want to have a glass of skim milk once in a while, or a little yogurt, that’s fine. But people eat cream and butter and cheese…my God, there is all that FAT, which is big trouble. There are more people that die prematurely from fats than from anything else. That’s where you get your kidney trouble and your heart trouble, and your incapacity to be able to do things, which takes away your drive for living.

Share Guide: Do you do any juice fasts for detox?

Jack LaLanne: I do, but I only do it for a couple of days. I used to do it for 10 days.

Share Guide: You advocate holistic medicine, don’t you?

Jack LaLanne: Absolutely. Even doctors are accepting it more now. I say stick with Mother Nature as much as possible. Herbs are great. I will say that doctors are doing a lot of wonderful things with some of these medications, and they really help some terminally ill people, but too many rely on that. You know, people over eat and they don’t exercise and they get fat. Then they go to the doctor and they want a shot to make them healthy. It doesn’t work that way. Everybody wants a shortcut, but there are no shortcuts. I wish there were. You see some of these commercials, 3 minutes a day is all you need. Oh brother! I wish it was that simple.

Share Guide: What is the maximum that the human body is designed to live?

Jack LaLanne: At least 120, maybe up to 150. Every 10 or so years, the average life expectancy goes up 2–3 years. It’s up to around 76 now. In the past it was only 50 or even 40. Look at how many people are living to be 100 now; that’s nothing. You know, I can’t afford to die—it would be bad for my image!

Share Guide: Anything else you want to say to our readers?

Jack LaLanne: Anything in life is possible, if you make it happen. Help the most important person on this earth: YOU.

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Workout of the Day:

Nuthin. It's a rest day.

Where Do I Go From Here?

I've been home with my kids for nearly three and a half years now. When we left East Texas, I was able to work part-time from home for a couple of years. When that work dried up, I did some contract work as a copywriter. Just when that job dried up, this Beachbody Coaching thing came along.

"Well, I'll give it a shot," I thought. "I'll just see how it goes for awhile. I might hate it and it might turn out to be nothing. At least we'll get a discount."

Last night Zach and I had a conversation about if and when I should go back to work full time. There was an agreement that I will go back, but the undetermined questions were "When?" and "What will I do?" and "What will we do with the kids?"

I was still kicking those questions around in my head this morning, wondering how I could make it all work. Zach has a very demanding job that keeps him away from the house sometimes four nights a week. I love being able to keep things on track at home. Planning and cooking healthy meals for my family is important to me, and I really enjoy it. I like getting up in the morning and working out, then helping the kids get ready for school. Will I be able to keep all those things up if I'm in an 8-5 situation?

At the end of the year, it's natural to reflect on where we've been and where we want to go. Here's what I want in 2011: I want to make my Beachbody Coaching business a success. I believe in Beachbody's products and their mission to help people reach their goals. I think working out and eating well is fun. I like reading about it, I like researching it. There are so many people struggling with health and fitness, and I'd like to try to help them.

No, I don't have a degree in nutrition or a license to be a trainer, but I'm coming to realize that that's okay. I am a testament to the fact that anyone who has the desire to learn about and commit to nutrition and fitness can do it. There are so many tools and resources available -- many of them from Beachbody -- that can help anyone turn their lives upside down and around -- for the better.

I have no delusions that making this business a success will be easy or quick. And I know that if I want to do this, it will push me out of my comfort zone. But that's probably a good thing. I suspect the only thing standing between me and success with Team Beachbody is...me.

If I'm able to do this, then the questions in my mind about "When," and "Where," and "How" I need to go back to work will all be answered for me. And any answer that allows me the flexibility to stay home with my kids, work on and think about the things that I love to do, and also make money -- is a pretty great answer.

If anybody knows someone who would benefit from Beachbody's products and wants someone they can talk to about health and fitness, I'd really appreciate if you gave them my information. Or if you want to be on my team and help me spread the word about fitness (and hopefully make a little money on the side), just give me a ring. My information is on my Beachbody page.

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Workout of the Day

P90X One on One, Volume 3: Yoga

Forbes Says My Snack is Better Than Your Snack

On Facebook yesterday someone posted this link to a Forbes article about "The Perfect Snack." (Why a business magazine was talking about snacking, I'm not sure. But we'll just go with it.)

I was smugly satisfied to learn that my afternoon snack, raw almonds and dried fruit, was the "perfect snack" that they were talking about! O.K., so they said dried cherries, but my dried fruit includes cherries, cranberries, and blueberries, so I figured I'd count it. Sometimes I'll add some Cheerios into the (trail) mix, too.

They also mention hummus and raw vegetables, which is becoming a staple in our household. If I could only get my local grocery stores to carry tahini (ground up sesame seed paste -- an essential ingredient in hummus), then I wouldn't have to hoof it to Dallas every time I need some.

Here's my favorite quote from the article:

“Snacking is good for you,” says Somer. “It helps you control your hunger, manage your weight, maintain blood sugar levels and battle fatigue. It’s fuel, and it’s also enjoyment.”

Nobody ought to be running around hungry all the time! So don't leave the house without a bottle of water and a little container of almonds and dried fruit.

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Workout of the Day:

P90X One on One Volume 3 - Shoulders and Arms

Spinach Nerd

Anything worth doing is worth overdoing, right?

When I finally got over my fear of fresh spinach and discovered that it's pretty much the same as any other lettuce, but much better for you -- I went hog wild with it. Did you know that you can work spinach into breakfast, lunch, and dinner if you want to?

Here's how you do it:

Breakfast:
4 egg whites
1 TB milk
salt
pepper
1/4 to 1/2 cup spinach, chopped

Mix ingredients in a bowl and scramble yourself some eggs! Add some cheese when it's mostly cooked

Lunch:
Add a nice handful of spinach to your sandwich. My favorite sandwich of late consists of whole wheat sandwich thins (otherwise known as "Special Bread" at our house), hummus, deli turkey, avocado, tomato slices and a handful of spinach. Yum.

Dinner:
Spinach salad on the side. If you want to be super fancy, get some walnuts, feta cheese and some raspberry vinaigrette dressing and toss them with your spinach. It'll be like a 4-star restaurant up in your house!

Spinach is a nutritional powerhouse. It's got calcium, folate, iron, magnesium, potassium, vitamin C, and vitamin A. And it's high in fiber. The list goes on and on!

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Zach and I wake up and do a workout most days of the week, but I don't talk about it much here. So I'm implementing a new feature, and it will be The Workout of the Day. On the days that I post, I'll offer a quick note to say what workout we did that morning. In honor of the first Workout of the Day note, I'm going to post the whole workout we did today. It's a gem. 

Most people I know who do P90X have a love/hate relationship with Plyometrics. We're no different. I'm still scared of that workout and we've been doing it for more than two years. It's terrible while you're doing the workout, but you feel fantastic afterward. 

Zach came up with an alternate Plyo workout just to mix things up. We still use the video for timing purposes (and to get a daily dose of Tony), but we do our own moves. 

Plyometrics consists of 5 sets of 4 exercises. You do each set of 4 exercises two times. The first three moves are 30 seconds long, and the fourth is one minute long. After those sets are completed, you do one bonus set of three exercises, each one minute long. Altogether, it's about an hour long.

Here's our alternate Plyo workout. If you want to try this workout but are unfamiliar with the moves, shoot me an email or leave a comment and I'll try to explain them. We gathered these moves largely from other P90X, P90X Plus, or One on One workouts. Suicides are from the Insanity workouts.

1. Plyo Frog Squats    30 sec 

2. One Leg Pumpers   30 sec 

3. Side Long Jump     30 sec 

4. Side Speed Kicks   60 sec       

(Repeat)

5. Chair Jump Squats           30 sec 

6. Run Stance Squat Switch 30 sec 

7. Suicides                           30 sec 

8. Towel Hoppers               60 sec       

(Repeat)

9. Jack-in-the-box Knee Tucks 30 sec 

10. Press Jacks                         30 sec 

11. Step/Hop Overs                  30 sec 

12. Jump Rope                         60 sec       

(Repeat)

13. Plyo Runner Lunges   30 sec 

14. Speed Skaters          30 sec 

15. Wacky Jacks            30 sec 

16. March and Reach     60 sec       

(Repeat)

17. Spinning Fighter Squats 30 sec 

18. Deep Jack Seats           30 sec 

19. Side Lunge Reach        30 sec 

20. Eagen Brothers            60 sec       

(Repeat)

21. Pitch and Catch      30 sec left/right 

22. Jump Shot              30 sec left/right 

23. Football Hero         60 sec  

Get out your buckets! It's Plyo Day.

Monday Nutrition Tip of the Week

If you hang out on the Beachbody website or do any Beachbody programs, it won't be long before you come across Michi's Ladder. Michi isn't a who, but a what. Michi is a Japanese word for path or "The Way," and the nutrition experts at Beachbody came up with the ladder as a guide for people trying to lose weight.

The ladder has five tiers, with the top of the ladder being the best foods you can eat, while the bottom is the not-so-good stuff like fast-food hamburgers.

Here's what Beachbody fitness guru Steve Edwards says about Michi's Ladder:

"First, it's just a food substitution guide for people trying to LOSE WEIGHT. Depending upon your situation you may find it necessary to eat more on a lower tier, especially for athletics. Performance nutrition is different from weight loss nutrition. For performance, dense calories are often important. For weight loss, they almost always want to be avoided. So Michi's focuses on low-density foods from a caloric standpoint that have a high density nutrient ratio. Therefore, tier 1 is filled with many veggies, which are loaded with nutrients per calorie as well as no calorie fiber. For people trying to fill their stomachs with as many nutrients and as few calories as possible, this is the primary aim of your diet.

Secondly, it's not a diet! A diet consists of an eating plan. You still need to adhere to some sort of plan. You could eat out of nothing but tier 1 and still have a poor diet if you don't cover your basic nutritional needs, such as getting plenty of carbs, proteins, and fats. Michi's Ladder was never meant to address this. All it was designed for was to help you make substitutions of similar types of foods."

Zach and I have been contemplating Michi's Ladder pretty heavily in the past week or so, because after the first of the year we plan on doing a food challenge that uses Michi's Ladder as a guide. Our goal is to only eat foods that come out of the top two tiers for seven days.

I can tell right now that the tough things for me to give up will be crackers and cheese, especially since that's what I'm serving up for my daughter 80 percent of the time.

Here's a link to Michi's Ladder in case you want to print it out, and I've pasted it below for quick reference.

http://www.beachbody.com/category/michis_ladder.do

Eat to carve your physique!

Michi's Ladder is a guideline, but we leave it to you to decide. If you only ate from Tiers 1 & 2, you would have a near-perfect diet!

Tier 1: The Pious Tier
Apples, with skin  Artichokes   Arugula  Asparagus  Avocados  Beans    Beets  Bok choy  Boysenberries  Bran  Broccoli   Broccoli sprouts   Brussels sprouts  Cabbage  Carrots  Cauliflower   Celery  Cereal, whole grain    Chard   Cherries  Citrus fruits	Collard greens   Cottage cheese, nonfat  Cucumbers  Egg whites  Endive  Fish, cold water (salmon, mackerel, sardines)   Fish, freshwater   Flaxseed  Garlic, fresh  Granola, raw, no sugar    Hemp seed  Kale   Lettuce, romaine, green or red leaf  Milk, nonfat   Milk, soy    Muesli, raw, no sugar    Mushrooms	Mustard  Nectarines  Oatmeal    Olive oil  Olives  Onions  Pears, with skin  Peas   Peppers  Plantains  Prunes  Radishes  Raspberries  Refried beans, nonfat   Rice, brown  Salsa, natural, no sugar  Seitan   Spinach   Squash   Strawberries  Sweet potatoes	Tea, green or black Tempeh   Tofu   Tomato sauce, no sugar  Tomatoes  Vinegar Water Yams  Yogurt, nonfat, no sugar
Tier 2: The Happy Tier
Apples, skinless  Bananas  Blueberries  Bread, whole grain  Cantaloupe  Cheese, nonfat  Chicken, skinless white meat  Coffee, black or cappuccino with nonfat milk   Corn  Cottage cheese, low-fat	Cream cheese, nonfat  Duck, free-range   Eggplant  Fish, farmed  Granola or energy bar  Grapes  Hummus    Juice, fresh-squeezed with pulp, no sugar  Kiwifruit  Mangoes  Meal replacement bar    Melon, honeydew	Milk, 1%    Nuts, raw    Ostrich   Pancakes, buckwheat   Papayas  Peaches  Pineapple  Plums  Raisins  Ricotta cheese, nonfat  Soy nuts    Soy sauce  Squid  String beans	Sunflower seeds    Tortillas, whole wheat    Turkey breast  Vegetable juice   Veggie burger    Venison, free-range   Watermelon  Yogurt, no sugar    Zucchini
Tier 3: The Swiss Tier
A1 Steak Sauce  Angel food cake  Applesauce  Bagels  Beef, eye of round   Beef, London   Beef, top round   Canola oil  Cheese, low-fat   Chicken, dark meat   Chicken sandwich, broiled    Chicken taco, baked    Clams	Coffee, cappuccino with whole milk   Crab  Cream cheese, low-fat   Eggs, whole   French fries, baked  Fruit, dried  Graham crackers  Granola   Honey  Jam or marmalade  Jerky, turkey  Juice, from concentrate  Ketchup	Lamb, lean   Lettuce, iceberg  Lobster  Mayonnaise  Milk, 2%    Muesli   Oatmeal, flavored  Oysters  Pancakes  Pasta, plain  Peanut butter, raw   Popcorn, plain  Pork tenderloin   Potatoes, baked or boiled	Pretzels  Refried beans, low-fat    Rice cakes  Rice, white  Sauerkraut  Soup, canned broth   Steak, lean   Sweet-and-sour sauce   Veal cutlet   Wine, red  Yogurt, frozen, nonfat
Tier 4: The Dodgy Tier
Animal crackers  Beef, filet mignon   Beef, lean ground   Beef, sirloin   Beef Stroganoff   Beer  Bread, refined flour  Buffalo   Butter  Caesar salad, with chicken    Canadian bacon   Cheese (including bleu and goat)  Chili    Chinese food    Chips, low-fat, baked  Coconut	Coffee, iced mocha latte with nonfat milk   Coffee, latte with whole milk    Coffee cake   Crackers  Grilled cheese sandwich   Ham   Hot dogs, turkey   Ice cream, sugar-free or fat-free  Jell-O  Juice, sweetened  Lamb chops   Lasagna, with meat   Macaroni and cheese   Margarine	Meat loaf   Mexican food    Milk, whole    Muffins   Nuts, salted or roasted  Peanut butter, not raw   Pepper, stuffed  Pizza, meatless or Hawaiian style    Popcorn, with salt and butter   Pork chop   Potato salad or macaroni salad   Pudding, with low-fat milk   Reuben sandwich	Sherbet  Shrimp  Sloppy Joe, lean beef or turkey   Soft drinks, diet Soup, canned creamy   Spaghetti, with meatballs    Sub sandwich    Taco salad, with chicken    Tortilla, refined flour or corn   Tuna salad or chicken salad   Vegetable oil  Wine, white  Yogurt, frozen
Tier 5: The Newburg Tier
Alcohol, hard liquor Bacon   Baked beans    Beef, ground, regular   Beef taco, fried   Breakfast sandwich, fast food   Cakes   Candy  Cereal, sugared  Chicken a la King   Chicken, buffalo wings or nuggets   Chicken or fish sandwich, fried	Chips, potato or corn   Chocolate   Cinnamon bun   Coffee, mocha, macchiato, ice blended, frappé, triple caramel vanilla buzz bomb, etc.   Cookies   Cream cheese  Creamed veggies   Creamer, nondairy  Doughnuts   French fries   Gravy  Hamburger, fast food	Hot dogs   Ice cream   Jerky, beef, pork, or venison  Juice, sugar added  Lobster Newburg   Nachos   Onion rings   Pastries   Pies   Potato skins, fried   Potatoes, fried   Potpie   Refried beans, with lard	Salad dressing, creamy  Sausage   Soft drinks, sugared  Tater tots   Toaster pastries