Day 22: Spicing Up Your Cottage Cheese

January 30, 2012 by

Many nights in the evening as my last meal, I’ll eat 1/2 cup of cottage cheese and some fruit (grapes, cherries, raspberries, etc). The cottage cheese is the protein and the fruit goes for the carb. I like cottage cheese, but it can get a tad bit monotonous after eating it routinely. I’ve found that if you add a little cayenne pepper to your cottage cheese it creates a nice little spice to it and changes things up.
Spicing up Cottage Cheese
Spicing up Cottage CheeseIt adds a nice little zip to the cottage cheese. If it were my dad, he would add some Tony Chachere’s Cajun Seasoning.
My Dad's favoriteI’m on day 2 of week 4 now and still going strong. I hit the gym today for a solid upper body workout. Instead of doing the free-weight bench press I did the machine fly this time for the chest. I’m trying to start mixing things up so I’m not doing the exact same routine for each muscle group every time.

The Body For Life website recommends that you’re not supposed to eat for at least 30 minutes before a workout. After a workout you should immediately consume protein. I consumed two of the 8 oz Muscle Milk Light containers when I got home. The two together were a total of 300 calories and 40g of protein. I usually don’t have that much protein after a workout, but for the upper body workout it gets pretty intense. Maybe the extra protein will help the muscles grow faster. Honestly, I’m not sure if the extra protein will do that much. I think your body can only consume so much at a time…I should probably go read up on that.

I’m still a little guy, but I can see and feel the muscles starting to grow – and that’s a nice feeling.

Filed Under: Body For Life, Nutrition, Recipes, Workouts Tagged With: ,

Day 16-17: Interval Running

January 26, 2012 by

Interval running is an excellent way to train your heart and burn calories. The plan on Body For life is quite simple. When I do my running routine I do it on the treadmill. It only takes 21 minutes to do around 2 miles. The first 2 minutes are warm up and the last 2 are cool down, so it’s really only 17 minutes of running. The 17 minutes are compromised of 4 interval reps. Start low for a minute, increase for minute two, increase again for minute three, then again for minute four. Then you go back to the low and repeat 3 more times for a total of 4 reps. That makes 16 minutes – for the 17th you go up one a little more to a fast sprint for a minute, then back down for 2 minutes to cool off.

Right now I am doing 5,6,7,8 for each group, then 9 on the 17th running minute for the high burn. Years ago when I first tried this running routine I was not a “runner” and had to start at much lower and work my way up. For example, if you are not a strong runner, start with something low like 4,4.5,5,5.5 (burn at 6). Then once you are comfortable with that, increase it by just .1 each time, for example 4, 4.6, 5.2, 5.8. You can gradually increase the speeds as you become more conditioned. Here is a chart I created using my mad Excel skillz depicting my routine:

Sometimes after the burn on 9 instead of going straight down to 3.5 I’ll go down to 5 and light jog for 30 seconds, then go down to 3.5 for the last minute and a half. I did this yesterday and this is what my final stats were:
An excellent 21 minute run

Filed Under: Body For Life, Workouts Tagged With:

Day 8: Keeping it up while on the road

January 16, 2012 by

I have to travel for business this week. It can be difficult to keep up on Body For Life when traveling through airports and going out to dinner on the road. I’ll keep you up to date on my travels this week and my attempts to stick to the Body For Life eating plan and exercises while out of town.

I only ate 5 meals today instead of 6, but I think I was still able to follow it pretty well considering my circumstances. I had a Chobani Greek Yogurt for breakfast before heading to the airport.
Greek Yogurt
At the airport I had my 2nd meal which consisted of a Naked Juice Protein Zone.
yumminess in a bottle
It is a little high in calories (440 for the whole thing) as well as carbs (68), but it is all natural from fruit and super yummy. It also contains 30g of protein.
The good stuff...
I have these every once in a while as a treat when on Body For Life, but not every day. It’s a great alternative to grabbing McDonalds or Wendy’s when on the run in an airport.

Then during my layover I found a Subway. Many airports have a Subway, which is another healthy alternative (depending on what you tell them to put on your sandwich). A 6″ turkey breast with veggies, yellow or spicy mustard and no cheese is only 280 calories. Skip the chips and soda and go with water. The entire meal comes in under 300 calories.
Only 280 Calories

After arriving at my final destination I went over to a co-worker’s house for dinner. On the menu was New York Strip Steak and vegetables (cauliflower/broccoli mix). I explained to them that I was on a healthy eating/working out plan and that I was eating 6 times a day, with smaller portions. I cut the steak in half so that the meat portion was a little bit smaller than the palm of my hand. Along with the veggies and a few grapes it was a great meal. It is a little high in fat, but also quite high in protein — which is why on the sample Body For Life weekly menu it only has steak listed once.

After finish dinner I checked in at the hotel, called the family to see how they’re doing, and headed down to the gym on floor 2. I’m staying at a Westin, which has a very nice gym thankfully. Today was upper body. I did 6 muscle groups and was there just under an hour – biceps, triceps, chest, shoulders, upper back, lower back.

After finishing my working I headed back to my room and ate an EAS Myoplex Carb Control Cookies & Cream protein bar for my last meal. After finishing this blog post I’ll be hitting the sack, followed by the treadmill first thing in the morning before heading to meetings all day. Stay tuned for more udpates this week as I strive to stick to Body For Life while on the road.

Filed Under: Body For Life, Nutrition, Workouts Tagged With:
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