J.Brown Fall Log--in the zone

[J.Brown]

so started the zone diet today to go along with my other w.o. stuff which i will post here to keep me totally on track.

zone was a 2 part decision.
1. crossfit cert. really stressed it.
2. weight loss bet with a friend for 2k, but i don't really want to burn any muscle up so zone seemed best.

i will update basic food stuff, my w.o.'s, supplements, and weight updates. any questions fire away.

day 1--i am 5'8 and 175 but that is coming off a week or so of hellacious eating and drinking so a bit inflated. my target weight is 160 or so, but only have to get to 164 to win the bet. my bf % is prob. in the mid teens.

i ate a zone bar upon waking then did 45 min. of yoga and 25 min of cardio on bike. it is crossfit rest day so this is my active rest.

made up my food for the week (weighing and measuring everything into zone blocks) omg can you eat a ton of broccoli and cauliflower if you want, have drank about a gallon of water and took my supplements.

here is the list.
multi vit, cla, chromium, fish oil, flaxseed, juice plus, vitamin c, e, b, glucosamine, and i just started atro-phex for this diet we will see how it works.

will probably have protein shake and one protein bar a day to go along with 3 4 block zone meals a day and 1 1 block snack for 17 blocks a day and try to limit myself to 1 diet soda a day and drink 1 to 1.5 gallons of the h2o. give me all the advice you want. i am always wanting to learn more.


thanks the continued inspiration. J.

[AZK]

Why are you on all those supplements? Assuming you are eating zone with paleoish tendencies you probably don't need that many vitamins... I'm just using fish oil... Which reminds me, I've been doing the carlsons for a bit, both fish and CLO, but it's been getting a bit rough and the last 1/4 of the bottle each time turns murky instead of clear...does that mean it's going bad? I'm thinking about just switching to biotest's flameout, but I always feel like I'm taking something unsafe when I buy from t-nation, I don't know if it's the way they market their products or the total lack (or what it seems like) of oversight, makes me uneasy...I'm being retarded right? What I am saying is I don't want to take their products and then get some weird cancer 5 years down the road...sorry for the hijack...

As for zone, how many blocks are you consuming a day? What is your activity factor? You should probably be around 18 blocks, less if you are cutting?

I'd scrap the zone bars, I haven't heard good things? Try larabars and supplement with protein...

[cbloom]

[ QUOTE ]
I don't know if it's the way they market their products or the total lack (or what it seems like) of oversight, makes me uneasy...I'm being retarded right?

[/ QUOTE ]

The US government basically doesn't examine "dietary supplements" at all, which is pretty retarded IMHO. Aside from the issue of whether they're safe it would be nice to know that they actually contain what they claim to contain. In any case, I imagine the T-Nation supps are some of the safer ones. A brand-name company doesn't want to get a bad rep. The off-brand cheapo foreign supps are the dangerous ones, since they may well be substituting.

I read that the supps that supposedly contain "mahuang" pretty much never do (less than 5% of them) and the others just have caffeine or something.

[J.Brown]

AZK,

you aren't hijacking at all.

some of the supplements i am "finishing" off. lol
i won't re up them, but i for some reason don't want to throw them out. i feel that most are really safe and sort of insurance, but totally not necessary.

i will stick with the multi, the fish oil, the e and c and that is probably it long term.

the bsn atro-phex is something the was recommended for the cutting phase and seems to be a good mood enhancer and a bit of a stimulant so i am sticking with it for the duration of the box and then done with that as well.

i am actually not eating the zone bars, but a power crunch bar that is pretty zone friendly. they taste great too.

17 blocks for me and after day one i am really happy with the amount of food i get to eat. if i stick to low gi veggies (which you pretty much have to) the volume if more than enough to fill me up.

thanks for the input.
will do the crosssfit wod and a late night session of cardio tonight.

weight 170.6. shed the bloated bad food/drinking water weight in 2 days. 160 here i come. J.

[J.Brown]

Day 3

zone is great so far.

a bit of a pain to weigh and measure everything, but only for the first two weeks so i can do it.

energy is good, food volume is plenty.
wife wants to start on it, she is a marathoner and i don't think she eats enough, so hopefully this will help.

felt a bit sluggish in the gym yesterday, but the w.o.d was brutal, but i still forced myself to do a small cardio session and it made me feel better.

running 5k for time today......want to break 21 minutes, but it might be a bit tough (my legs are super sore)

staying in the zone baby. J.

[AZK]

you can draw lines on tupperware for common measurements, like most veggie measurements are in cups... Also after a week of zoning you will be able to eye most things. Intersted to see if you will stay on zone after this bet or move on to something else?

[J.Brown]

AZK,
i think i will stick with this (a bit early to really know, but it fits me pretty well) what i will probably do is become a 90% zoner and enjoy a free meal or day once a week and a few beers now and again after the bet is over.

Update:
5K was ok at best. went out too fast, faded a bit, then kicked too late for a disappointing 23:02. i really want to break 21 minutes this year (20 min. was intial goal, but i am saving that for early 2008) actually great for never really running that much except CF w.o.d.s.

i have the fight gone bad II fund raiser this saturday for prostate cancer research (thanks again El D. for your generous donation) so i will be doing "nicole" today and then working on overhead squats and handstand pushups, then light cardio/yoga as an active rest day tommorrow.

diet is going well. is drinking muscle milk very zone?
that stuff tastes pretty good!

thanks for the input. J.

[J.Brown]

so i ended up totally taking friday off, which i think was great for my beat up body.

if i have a negative thing to say about crossfit is that i have had a continued string of small injuries forever.

did the "fight gone bad" workout on saturday morning for prostate cancer research and did ok, but was disappointed in losing to a local cf trainer (we beat everyone else though). could have beat him, it was very close, but i had a bad second round and lost some focus and didn't push myself to the max [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]. this is my favorite thing about these workouts is that you can compete and have to be mentally tough, but i didn't suck it up.

doing "cindy" today. (i am a day behind the site)
20 minutes--as many rounds as possible of 5 pullups/10 pushups/15 air squats.

will probably pair it with a separate low intensity cardio session later in the day. more for the weight loss bet than for fitness reasons. i will be trying to do these about 4 times a week, mixed in with some HIIT if CF doesn't cover it enough with their metcon stuff.

i challenge anyone who reads this to try this simple, yet very very effective workout. post how many rounds you got in this log if you try it. you will be amazed at how taxing it is.

diet--i have been drinking at least a gallon of water a day and it has been very helpful in keeping my hunger at bay a bit and keeping my diet pop consumption to a minimum.

staying "in the zone" has been easy as far as what i eat, but volume and portion control is not my stong suit. if i don't weigh and measure everything (i had to eat out a couple of meals) it is much tougher for me, but i have been staying strong and feeling very enegized.

looking leaner, but not sure of weight exactly.
limiting my time on the scale to once a week.

probably not going to get a cindy pr, but will report back and i am very interested if anyone new will try this one w/me. later. J.

[Efourdee]

Do you do dead hang pullups? and what is a good score?

[J.Brown]

[ QUOTE ]
Do you do dead hang pullups? and what is a good score?

[/ QUOTE ]

you can do the pullups however you want. any grip. just get your chin over the bar. completely.

pushups are same. any hand position. just whole body in one straight line to the ground and up.

squats are below parallel and up to full hip extension.

but.....that isn't totally the point. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]
total exhaustion is, lol.

a good score, hmmm, pm me. i don't want people scared off from trying. the first time i did it 20 minutes seemed like a month. later. J.