Day 5 - Modest gains...or losses

Weight 204.6lb BF 18.1%

So, some more interesting news today. Down 0.2lb and 0.1%BF so that is the good news. Bad news is I would have to say I'm hungover today. My college rugby friends would be very disappointed with me as I went crazy and had 3 glasses of wine.

Yep, 3.

Be warned though, its like drinking on an empty stomach so take it easy on even small amounts of wine can make you feel rough. This diet is pretty hard so you don't want any more challenges than you already have!

730am - Breaky was eggs with ham and some coffee and AGG. Pretty easy and tasty.

1130am - Still feeling pretty bad, what a lightweight I am. Have to get some lunch soon.

12:15 - Having mixed nuts for lunch as I feel le yuk still. 1 cup per the photo. And you might be wondering what kind of nerd keeps measuring cups at their desk? Only enginerds keep measuring cups at their desk...


330pm - Had a snack of beans and more nuts which is way more than you are supposed to have but its about all I had appetite for. Tasted pretty good though.

630pm - Tonight for dinner, it was a very light meal, just has an artichoke with mayo and some tea. Not very thrilling but I'm going to save leftover chili for another day when I have more appetite.
Looking forward to cheat day tomorrow, been a very interesting week! I'll post measurements as well tomorrow. I'll take them 1st thing in the morning with weight and BF measure.

Week 1 in the books!

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Day 4 - Coming Back to Earth

Weight 204.8lb BF 18.4%

So my weight loss has hit a temporary snag but I'm not too worried and I'm not too surprised. Like I said, my weight fluctuates a lot so I'm not going to get too excited until we press under 203lb and closer to 200lb. BF is effectively steady with a slight increase of 0.2%.

Had leftover chili for breakfast 1st thing with AGG and coffee as well. Good start to the day! Feeling pretty good, I was very lethargic yesterday so I'm hoping I feel more energetic today. We'll see!

A note about my activity. I'm still laid up from any hard lifting and exercising because of my sprained MCL. I think I'll be back in action next week full time with a couple of days of yoga and a couple of days of jiu jitsu.

I want to stitch in the Occam's Protocol workout as well over lunchtime a couple of days a week and see how that goes. We train with kettle-bells at my MMA school occasionally I think they are great.

One thing I do that is a little different than most is I stand at work, all day, every day. Read up on it, its great for men and burns lots more calories throughout the day:

LiveStrong's Benefits of Standing Link

So my activity level should pick up in weeks 2 and 3 of the 4HB diet for sure.

12pm - Lunch was a spinach salad with egg, oil and vinegar and assorted veggies. That's my standard for lunch more often than not. I also added some Tillamook pepperoni as well, this is heavy on the salt but low on sugar, most jerkys have a lot of sugar in them so I passed on them.

Had dinner with a friend tonight and subjected her to my 4HB dieting ways and she was impressed! We had grilled chicken with Mexican flavored beans and steamed broccoli. She said it was great to eat a healthy meal and she said it tasted good too!

I took the AGG supplement before dinner but forgot to take it before lunch. Had a couple of glasses of wine too which substitute for my dessert basically.
Not as lethargic today as yesterday but still pretty slow going today. Eating more at lunch definitely helped matters.

1 more day until cheat day!

Day 3, Interesting Results...

Day 3
Weight - 204.8lb BF 18.2%

Interesting results! Down again to 204.8lb but my BF has remained the same. So I believe the majority of my weight loss has been water weight but how can I not be happy with the results so far!

Really though, my weight swings like crazy. I'll start getting excited when we get closer to the big 200lb mark. I would like to believe that I'm one of these freaky people that responds very well to this eating habit but I REALLY don't think I'm that lucky!

Breakfast, quick and easy, 2 fried eggs, big bottle of water, some pAGG supplement and a couple of slices of ham I put in the pan and cooked up. Made breakfast for wife and I in about 10min. All within 1/2hr of waking up. Then the twins woke up!


1030am - I got hungry so I went down to our work cafe and got a snack. All they had left out from breakfast were some sausage patties and links so I ate a sausage link and patty and felt much better.

11AM - Went for a quick walk and I must say that I feel like I'm going to have a blood sugar crash but I don't think that is going to happen, just feels that way.

12pm - had a nice spinach salad for lunch with egg, ham, tomatoes, peas, onion, oil and vinegar and pepper on it. Took pAGG as well before eating, feeling pretty good although today has been a harder day as far as feelings of fatigue go.


7pm - Tonight I had a great dinner of a mole chili my wife made with beans, ground beef, tomatoes, spices including unsweetened cocoa. I have been quite low energy all day and this is really a pick me up at the end of the day! Also took AGG as well. I had a snack of pistachios before dinner as well to tie me over while the chili finished up!


Couple of glasses of red wine to wrap up the night and I'll see you tomorrow!

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Day 2 Off to a Good Start!

7am weight 207lb BF 18.2%

This is an amazing diet! I dropped 4lbs in 1 day! At this pace I should be at my stretch goal of 185lb in about 5 days, BRILLIANT! Haha!

So my weight did exactly like I thought and came right back to 207lb. So no, not too amazing YET. Although at 20lbs in 30 days, I should expect a weight loss of about 0.67lb/day. For me, I'll call my baseline weight 208lb, so by the end of the week, if tracking correctly I would be at about
204lb.

For breakfast this morning I started 1st thing with 1/2L of cold water then 2 eggs with ham scrambled in with coffee and a bit of cinnamon. Nothing fancy but took all of about 10min to whip up.

Found another great 4HB blog from ANOTHER Nick, Nick Momrik, who is 7 weeks into the 4HB diet and is showing impressive results from the graph below I took from his blog. Great stuff!

http://nickmomrik.com/2011/03/06/4-hour-body-week-7/

12pm - For lunch I went to Qdoba and had a burrito bowl with shredded beef, black beans, guacamole and fajita veggies. Really tasty and something to get when the gang wants to go out for lunch.
5pm
A can of diet coke for the drive home, ahh... Small reward for making through the work day.

6pm
Tonight had a dinner of leftovers, had a nice steak salad with pinto beans and some red wine.
Also received the pAGG supplement in the mail and I'll start that tonight as well. I think it is early enough in the month that I can add it in and not worry about changing the results.

Good night everyone!

Day 1 of 4HB!

7am Weight 211lb BF 18.2%

Day 1

Hey All,

Woke up this morning and it is so much easier to get up early and cook versus work out. Haha! I had everything set up to make breakfast for my wife and I so in about 10min before the twins woke up, I fired up 2 fried eggs for us and some re fried beans with black coffee too.

My weight is way up to 211lb but again, this is normal as I went on a beer and salty peanut bender yesterday watching my beloved Seahawks squeak out a win over the hated Zonie Cardinals. I'd be very surprised if my weight didn't come right back down to 207lb in 2-3 days, like it always does!

We ate this within 1/2hr of waking up per Tim's instructions and I also had 1/2L of cold water to start as well. If you read the book, he talks a bit about how cold water early in the morning can kick start your metabolism more.

Below you will also see an quite flattering photo of me sans tan at 7am this morning. For the record, I'm not unhappy with how I look at all, I'm quite satisfied but I'm very interested in if this 4HB diet will work.




1130am

Lunch today consisted of a nice spinach salad (0.7lb on the cafe's scale) that has hard boiled egg, peas, ham and broccoli with oil and vinegar dressing.

145pm
I got hungry, I don't think I ate enough lunch so I went on search for a snack. I went and got some water and a small bag of salted peanuts (15g protein). Tomorrow I will definitely up the size of lunch I think. Tim calls peanuts a domino food which people will over-snack on them. I'll be very aware of this but I want to be as straight forward as I can regarding how I feel while on the 4HB diet so you can know what to expect.

Well I have a buddy now, my friend Matt is on board on this adventure and will be starting up directly. We are splitting a 30-day supply of Athletic Greens noted in the 4HB. If it is good stuff, we will order another supply but in the mean time, its a great way to keep the costs low. That should help keep things on-track for sure.

By the way, don't add too much cinnamon to your coffee, it turns into nasty congealed mess at the bottom of your cup. Nasty like a honey badger.

4pm

Looking forward to my can of diet coke. Feeling pretty good other than that, going to grill up some nice steak with some kidney beans or something like that and eat a salad for dinner. Should be pretty good eatin'.

8pm

Dinner was great and we're winding down day 1. All good so far, don't feel any weirdness in my blood sugar so that is very nice. I'm full but it's very clear that my body is lacking carbs and is curious where they all went! Till tomorrow, good night!

Tomorrow we start 4HB!

8amPST Weight 208.6lb bf 18.0%

Tomorrow I get started, I'm really looking forward to this and I'm going to prepare by getting breakfast and lunch all set up tonight so I'm ready to go tomorrow. Any of you our there with kids know that if you don't plan ahead, you just don't have time to get anything done. I'll also be doing pics and measurements as well either tonight or tomorrow to have that as a baseline along with weight and BF taken using consistent weight and BF measurement tools.

I try to take my weight and BF 1st thing in the morning before I eat or drink anything. Not sure if it is the best time to do that but if I do it at the same time everyday, I dial out one more element that can introduce variability in the results.

Giving up splenda will be a bitch.

Also, someone voted that I wouldn't lose anything, extra motivation to prove them wrong. Someone voted that I would hit my goal weight, extra encouragement for me too. All win-win so far!

9pmPST

Here are my measurements, I'll list each individually then the total.
Upper arms 14" & 14"
Around the waist at the navel 39.5"
Hips 41.5"
Upper legs 25" & 25"
Total - 159"

I'll take these measurements again on each Saturday morning of the diet to see the results.

I've got meals prepared for breakfast and dinner and I'll be eating at our salad bar at work for lunch tomorrow. I'll photo the meals as well and post them.

Good night and see you tomorrow!

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2 days before liftoff

Hey All!

745am Weight 207.4 BF 18.1%

Short post today, giving up diet coke will be a bitch, per 4BH you can do about 16oz per day, I think I'll limit that to about 1 can (12oz) to be on the safe side.

I might take this up as a hobby full time, analyzing the real work practicality of some of these diets that come along, things on the covers of magazines that just don't seem to be real life. I think 4HB is pretty solid fundamentally but really, if you look around at some of the claims health magazines print these days, it really is tough to get a read on what will work and what won't. No wonder people get confused a little when trying to figure out what will work for them...

Got my Orbitape today, seems to work just right. I'll also post before shots and measurements to further embrace public scrutiny and pressure to stick to this program.

T-minus 3 days to start 4HB

9-23-11 Weight 207.2lb, BF 18.6.% at 645amPST

Hey All!

Still not formally started yet, I'm gearing up to go on Monday. Think of it like stretching before a marathon and making sure you have all your gear in order. I'll be doing some shopping today to get some food etc. for the coming week so I'll note the financials below.

The weight and BF numbers are very consistent with the ups and downs I'll see in any given week. My weight can range from 205 to 210 and BF from 17.5% to 18.5% typically so these are not surprising in the least. I'll start paying attention when my weight drops below about 203lb and BF dips below 16.5%

So to baseline my physical activity, I'm pretty active. Right now I'm laid up because I sprained my MCL but I should be back in action in a week or two. Per Tim, I probably over train. I do yoga 1-2 times per week for 1hr, Jiu-Jitsu typically 2 times per week for 90min and plyometrics 2 times a week for between 30 and 60min. For the diet, I think I'll pare it down to just jiu-jitsu and yoga and maybe some of the kettlebell work he recommends.

I purchased a 30-day pAGG stack for $67 from New Health Solutions, this is where I start feeling like a sucker so I probably wont plug much more money into this thing other than groceries as I'm into it about $140 now.

1230pm

I just went to the grocery store and bought loads of cans of beans and frozen veggies for the week ahead. I spent about $35 and that should get me through the week. I already have frozen chicken, beef and salmon so we're good on meat.

I'm a little concerned about the beans as some of them seem to have sugar in the syrups they are canned in. Sugar, is of course, stuff of villains and demons so I plan to wash the beans before serving. I bought about 7 small to medium bags of frozen veggies and about 16 cans of various types of beans including, black, kidney, re-fried (no sugar), pinto, etc. I'm sure the nanny will feed the twins some of this food so I might have to restock earlier than most folks but I think this is a good start.

So far I like the ideas of meals, I think that some grilled steak or chicken with a side of vegetables and beans is a pretty solid meal that is 'close to the farm' without a load of processed food. I'm thinking eggs with salsa and re-fried beans for breakfast is pretty do-able as well.

650pm

Test drove dinner tonight, grilled chicken with Costco steak rub, carrots and re-fried beans. I have a photo I'll post, not fancy but very quick, took about 15min to grill defrosted chicken, break open the beans and heat and steam the carrots. Doable with twins!

T-minus 4 Days to Start 4HB

Hey All!

1st blog post from my 4-hour body (4HB) blog. I have 4 days until I start this crazy thing and I'm getting all primed up for it. The sidebar has a little more information about me but in a nutshell, I'm trying to see if I can follow the 4HB diet and get down to ~195lb and 12%bf in 30 days. I'm starting at 208lb and 18%bf as of this morning.

As you read through this, I'm going to make the general assumption that you've read the 4HB book and/or you are familiar with the basic premise, if I note something that is unfamiliar, leave me a comment and I'll make sure to clarify. If Tim Ferriss leaves a comment, I will eat a bear claw, not a doughnut one, a real bear claw...

The fundies of Tim's diet are very easy at first glance:

1. Avoid 'white' carbohydrates
2. Eat the same few meals over and over again
3. Don't drink calories
4. Don't eat fruit
5. Take 1 day off per week and go nuts

He says if followed to the letter he has never seen it fail so I'm cautiously optimistic!

So here is what I have spent to get started so far:

• '4-hour Body' book - $12.99 Kindle edition for my iPad and iPhone, quick and easy reference
• OrbiTape Body Mass Tape $5.77 Amazon.com
• Omron Athlete BF Analyzer $31.99 Amazon.com (I bought this years ago but I thought I would put it in as an expense as I will reference its readings throughout the blog post)
• Taylor Digital Scale - about $25 (have had it for years, don't know what I spent on it)
• Total - $76 (without shipping/tax, order it all together and get Amazon free shipping!)

I hope you enjoy my experience and feel free to join along and let me know your thoughts!

Nick