Ensight - Jeremy Wright’s Personal Blog

This is a sponsored post brought to you by Coca-Cola Zero and IZEA. The opinions are my own.

As I mentioned last week, I’ve decided to do a promotion with IZEA. But before I jump into why this was fun, why I chose to do it and what’s in it for you (and your favourite charity!), I felt it appropriate to disclose what was received for this. Because while I would have considered writing about this anyways, and everything contained in this post is my honest opinion (feel free to call me on it if you think it isn’t!), it’s important for the audience to be able to judge objectively.

So, what was sent to me was 2 Coke mini-fridges containing Coke swag (the fridge, 2 pairs of boxers, funky coke pajamas, etc). To be honest, both the b5media crew and my family are coveting these, so I want to give them away quick! In addition, I will be receiving $500 for my part in this promotion, though roughly half of that will go to charity.

Coke Zero vs Diet Coke

As I’ve advocated multiple times in the past, drinking diet drinks is a great way to improve your lifestyle as part of weight loss (it’s a key reason I’ve lost 30 pounds in the last 4 months). Granted, eventually you want to move away from carbonated products, but even then the occasional pop sure is nice - and Diet Coke is definitely my favourite.

That said, as part of this promotion I went and bought a six-pack of Coke Zero to try it out and I have to say I actually prefer it. It’s not that there’s anything wrong with Diet Coke (I prefer it to regular Coke), it just has a slightly better aftertaste.

Seeing Eye to Tongue

I first saw the new Coke Zero promotions in a movie theatre (of course) and immediately fell in love. I’ve visited iCoke.ca once or twice a month ever since, to check out the Happiness Factory movie, play the games, etc. I’ve been  very, very impressed with this series of campaigns. I’m not sure if it’s won awards or not, but it is one of the most memorable campaigns of 2008 for me.

The weird thing? I cheer for the french eye. Maybe it’s cause I’m french Canadian? Maybe it’s cause I prefer the underdog? Maybe it’s because the tongues are brutish english brawlers with no real appreciation for the culinary arts? Whatever the reason, the eye is my guy.

So when Ted informed me there was an iCoke promotion coming down the pipe, I quickly found the new dance game and threw down an easy score of 55,000 points, which put Ted to shame

Shaking What Yo Mama Gave Ya!

The new iCoke dance game is fast, easy and fun. Plus, I’ve posted the highest score I’ve seen around, a rawking 76,000 points!

Here are some pics to help you experience the iCoke Dance Hero game via the wonder of the intarwebs!

So Here’s Where You Come In  (prizes for you & your favourite charity!)

So there is one main prize, and one secondary prize I’m giving away. The main prize is the Coke swag mentioned above, as well as $100 that I will donate, from the IZEA cash, to your favourite charity.

In order to qualify for this prize, you can get one entry for commenting with a link to a screenshot of your score, an additional entry for blogging about this promotion and linking back and a third entry for twittering about this:

@jeremywright I spanked you at the #Coke Zero Dance Hero game with a score of [insert scorezosity]. Beat me @ http://urlbrief.com/e30708

The second prize is the second Coke swag fridge, along with $50 that I will donate to your favourite charity. The only way to qualify for this second prize is to beat my score and post your screenshot.

So What Are You Waiting For?

At least $150 is up for grabs for  your favourite charity, just for beating a dancing eyeball! And I mean, come on, if geeks can’t dance, who can?!!!

Some pictures from Christmas at Grandma’s.

Much like Aaron did a couple of weeks ago, I’m putting my audience on notice that I intend to test an upcoming IZEA promotion.

As Aaron mentioned in his post, over the last few years I’ve gotten to know Ted Murphy (even in the middle of all  of the brew ha ha over paid post made during PayPerPost’s inception) and have always found him to be a completely standup guy.

I’ve hung out with Ted, had dinner with Ted, even (I think) done a panel with Ted. I’ve met with Ted’s investors, his team, his PR folk and given and received recommendations that have improved both of our companies and personal lives.

Given that I was one of the first folk in the blogging world to do sponsored posts in 2003/2004, my early issues with PayPerPost were basically twofold. The first was that disclosure wasn’t required (that changed long ago). The second was that when companies could buy links and stories, you fundamentally changed the structure of The Conversation by allowing corporations to insert themselves into it in an inauthentic way.

Obviously the first problem has been  long since solved. But not only was it solved, nearly 2 years ago Ted and I came to see eye to eye on a very core principle we both hold: helping bloggers get as much profile, value and $ out of their blogging as possible.

Over the 2 years that followed I basically put the IZEA thing on hold, just hanging with Ted occasionally. b5 has done a few low-level things with IZEA (none involving paid posting), but really I’ve always intended to try something out.

Not only that, but over the last 2 years the blogging world has changed. There is now a “media blogosphere” made up of folk actively trying to make money without losing their authority made up of at least half a million bloggers. Corporations are now buying ads, buying links, flying bloggers out and so forth. Not only that, but most consumer companies now give tens of millions of dollars in free product to bloggers per year, most of which bloggers write about. The only difference with IZEA is that bloggers also get cash.

So the world has changed, how corporations interact with the blogging world has changed and lets face it - there is no longer a single “Conversation” taking place. For better or for worse, advertorials, paid posts, paid reviews, solicited reviews, etc are here to stay. And since they are here to stay the most responsible thing we can hope for is a company to step in the middle and actually ensure companies do their part and stay ethical, bloggers do their part and stay ethical and that the entire thing is conducted in a transparent and professional manner.

This Christmas Ted sent me a quick email on a promotion for Coke Zero that actually resonated with me. I’m a Diet Coke/Coke Zero drinker, the promotion involved a flash game (which is decent), and I blog about both the health side of the equation and the gaming side of the equation often enough that Coke wasn’t really buying a post - and the guidelines are such that all they’re really getting is my unbiased opinion.

So this week (sometime, not entirely sure when), I’ll be writing up at least one post on the promotion, the program, and doing a giveaway of a bunch of Coke/DietCoke/CokeZero swag that the b5crew have been coveting for the last week.

The post will be clearly labelled as sponsored, you’ll (as when I used to do sponsored posts pre-IZEA) get my honest opinion, and I’ll fully disclose what I receive for doing the post.

Realistically, though, the reality is that what IZEA is doing is what is soon going to be absolutely needed: a group guiding corporations through the process so they do things in an ethical and professional manner, a group guiding bloggers through the process in an ethical and professional manner and a group that ultimately matches the right bloggers with the right corporations.

The notion that bloggers will somehow trust each other is now dead, given that even when bloggers DO disclose they are being called into question, so an outside entity is required in some way/shape/form, and for now I’m good with giving IZEA a chance since they’ve been at this for so long - which means they’ve learned a tonne if for no other reason than they’ve had the time to make the mistakes.

So I’m testing this for 2 reasons. The first and easiest is to see if there is any backlash from my audience to this. The second is to try and find a way to make this work in the blog world, and generically to get first-hand knowledge of something I’m often asked about while speaking.

Your opinions are of course more than welcome (positive and negative).

FYI: I’m also testing Zemanta, hence the images

If you’re reading this, you hopefully completed the entire first week of the program! If you have, I’d love your feedback in the comments!

Before we get into Week 2’s goals, thoughts, tips, etc, I wanted to share some thoughts and tips from readers

Linda wrote a handful of great tips to help you along your way:

I once read a comment by Joan Collins. Her diet tip was always leave the table feeling that you could eat more. Apparently that’s what the Victorians used to do.

I recommend you always take a packed lunch to work. It only takes a couple of minutes the night before. It saves money and stops you grabbing calorie laden sandwhiches from shops.

I’m a great soup maker and in the winter I make big batches of soup which I use over a few days for lunch times. It’s easy to take some with your in a thermos. Coupled with a wholemeal roll a nice healthy alternative

Colin Smillie wrote some tips on tracking (personally I use FitDay, but tracking by any means is the key!):

I’ve been using MyFoodDiary.com to track my food & exercise. I find its a great tool for understanding the impact of different foods on your goals. There a few of these types of sites but I found the food database to be the best and its dead easy to use. The only down side is the $10/month fee but I think its worth it compared with all the search I’d need to find equivalent information. There is also a good goal tracking component.

Jim reminded us that you should rest for 2 minutes between each of your sets of crunches for maximum effect

Stephanie added to my tips on breakfasts by suggesting pre-packaged egg whites (a huge tip if you can stomach it!):

I am all about the egg whites for bfast. I mostly use the ones that come in the container - like egg beaters. It’s great if you can mix in a few veggies or low fat turkey and swiss for a very special egg white omelette.

If you have any of your own tips, leave a comment so everyone can benefit from what you’ve learned works for you. This program is really my tips that worked for me. They may not work for you, and in the same way by sharing what works for you, you could easily help someone else lose weight and get healthier!

How Was Week 1?

Now that you’re preparing for Week 2, ask yourself how Week 1 was. Did you get closer to a healthier lifestyle? Did you lose weight? Did you accomplish something you didn’t feel you’d be able to accomplish? Did you want more things you could do?

Week 1 was admittedly fairly light in terms of working out or food changes, but that’s because doing a crash course where you change your life isn’t our goal. Because those types of diets and exercise programs, for most people, are incredibly hard to implement. That’s why we’re focusing on 1 core new goal for each day. Last week was more water, better sleep and better breakfasts.

This week we’re going to focus on starting to build a workout regime (more on that later), better lunches and how to eat out in a slightly healthier manner.

My Secret for Success

But before we get into specifics, I want to talk about the core thing I believe is helping me succeed. As I said at the start, I’m still not “there” yet, but in the last month I’ve often hit the point where I would have given up. And I personally believe that’s because I adopted the philosophy I’m about to talk about - and the philosophy I want you to focus on for Week 2.

Week 1’s philosophy was to build great habits.

Week 2’s philosophy is, simply put, to diversify.

In the past when I tried to lose weight I looked at it as a 2-part system: good food and more exercise. “Eat right, exercise properly!” is what we hear over and over again. The problem is that these are binary solutions. You either eat right or you don’t and you either exercise properly or you don’t. And if you have a bad day you feel like a failure. Have a bad weekend and you want to give up. Have a bad week and you’re done for.

This is why for me, “eating” isn’t one goal. It’s 5 (we’ve covered 2 of those already: drink more water and eat better breakfasts). And working out is actually 5 as well. But the core is the same: diversify.

I am not an advocate of something like “go to the gym 3-4 times per week” as your only solution. Because it’s a huge, huge barrier if you don’t go regularly.

I’m a huge fan of building severall smaller exercise plans you can follow, and building more into your lifestyle as time goes on.

As an example, here are the exercise programs I currently try and follow. As you’ll see, if I don’t hit all of them, it’s okay because I’m working at so many:

• 2-3 cardio workouts in the gym per week (I didn’t start with this, my original goal was to get to the gym 10 times in a month)
• Joining the Hundred Pushup Challenge (3 times per week)
  
• Doing 2-3 ab workouts per week
• Doing 1-2 outdoor jogging workouts per week
• Doing 1-2 full weight workouts per week  (I do intervals of 2 mins on the bike followed by 3 groups of weights and back again)

For example this week I went to the gym twice, did my hundred pushup challenge all 3 times, did 2 ab workouts and did 1 full weight workout. So basically 8 workouts (some short, some long). Now obviously I didn’t start with that. What I started with is what you started with last week: regular walks, regular crunches.

This week we’re going to add a new part to that component: The Hundred Pushup Challenge.

The Hundred Pushup Challenge is notable for 3 key reasons: it’s easy to start, it’s easy for even the most unfit person to follow and it’s hard. In fact if you look at Week 3 at the start of the program, even the lowest level will probably seem close to impossible. But take it from someone who’s just finished Week 3 (only the highest tier), even if you can only 5-10 pushups consecutively, you can do this.

So let’s get to the specific goals for this week:

Eating & Diet

Last week you hopefully nailed down a handful of good habits, specifically drinking more, eating a better breakfast, eating less junk food and drinking less non-diet pop. This week we’re going to focus on 3 key areas:

• Eating less junk food
• Eating better lunches
• Drinking more water

Noticing a pattern here? Yeah, that’s right, we’re keeping it simple. The pushup challenge is going to be a significant milestone for you, so the core of what we’re trying to do is to build one more good habit, ie: better lunches. Because if you’re eating better breakfasts and eating better lunches, by definition you’ll be eating less junk food! Adding in your existing water habit and you’re well on your way to a solid diet (and next week we’ll take this to the next level!).

In addition this week you should start thinking about healthy snacks. Snacks in an unhealthy person’s life are evil. Snacks when you’re trying to lose weight are a tool to stop you from binging. But they must be used properly. We’ll cover this in Day 3.

Exercise

The entire focus for this week really is the hundred pushup challenge, but we also want to continue building on what we did last week, so here’s our full set of exercise goals:

• If you didn’t do 3 sets of good form half-crunches last week, that’s your goal for this week. The easiest way to think of this is that you should do the crunches on the day following when you read this post. So if you read the post on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, do the crunches on Tuesday, Thursday and sometime during the weekend.
• Your walks. Walking is key if for no other reason than it gets you outside or on the treadmill or to the gym. You’ll only be burning 5-7 calories per minute, but the point isn’t the calorie burn. It’s building the habit and getting your heart pumping. If you’re anything like me you had medium to high blood pressure, caused by (among other things) an unfit heart with fat around it. By getting your heart rate up (ie: working til you sweat) 1-2 times per week, you are starting to get your heart healthier!
• Your Hundred Pushup Challenge. Do this the same day you read these posts, so probably Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Now this might seem like a lot, which is why it’s okay if you don’t do everything. As I said above, the purpose of all  of this is to start building habits and to diversify so that if you don’t accomplish everything you are still getting healthier. So if you’re like me you might only do your hundred pushup challenge, 2 crunches and 1 walk. But that’s fantastic because 2 weeks ago you weren’t doing any of that!

Plus, if you count up the time you’re spending, even if you only accomplished half of the above, you still got in 2-3 solid workouts for where you’re at and probably worked out for more than  an hour!

Metrics and Milestones

As with last week, keep taking your measurements, but now you should start to set goals for your walks and crunches. My recommendation is to set 3 goals for each of the areas you’re trying to improve on. Try something like this:

1. Get to the point where you do all 3 groups of crunches each week / complete all 3 sets of 10 crunches for your workouts / get to 15 crunches per set
2. Eat breakfast every day / eat a healthy breakfast every day / add fruit to your breakfasts
3. Cut your fast food intake to once per week for lunch / when you do eat out, choose a healthier option / pack your lunch and bring it to work

These are examples of 3 goals for 3 different areas. The last one is a significant improvement over where you are now, where the first 2 build to the point where the last one is achievable. By having lists like this for each area you’re trying to improve on, you are able to start checking off a lot of milestones this week!

Conclusion

Week 2 and Week 3 are always the hardest in any workout or exercise routing. Mostly because anytime you make the decision to live healthier you generally have 1-2 weeks of energy and enthusiasm. After that it’s all discipline and persistence.

This week is significantly harder than last week in some ways (the hundred pushup challenge specifically) but significantly easier in others (less things to focus on).

Anytime you feel down or depressed or unmotivated, talk to someone. Feel free to email/comment/twitter me and I’ll do my best to help. But talk to someone.

And my biggest tip of all for this week: if you feel like you didn’t get everything out of this week that you could have, start the week again. There is absolutely no shame in redoing a week to nail a bunch of the goals, feel better, improve your quality of life, etc.

As an example, next week I’m going to start Week 4 of the Hundred Pushup Challenge. A lot of my friends have said this is the hardest week and they barely get through it. As a result they repeat it, so that Week 5 and 6 are more doable. I’m expecting to do the same thing, but I view that as continuing on my path to success vs failing.

So do what you need to to succeed. You only fail if you give up, give in or stop trying. Even if you stop all the habits and start again, you still didn’t fail. You started again. So keep it up!

By now you should have completed Week 1! If so, give yourself a huge pat on the back! Week 1 was really about starting to build good habits that lay the foundation for a healthier lifestyle. As I siad at hte start of all this, when I started losing weight I was lazy,  fat, completely unfit and had built a lot of bad habits.

Over the last year I dropped a lot of those, but I was still far from living a healthy life. When I got onto my newest health kick 4 months ago (give or take), I realized that the core thing I had to do was to build healthy habits. If I didn’t build habits, and didn’t diversify my “portfolio” of good eating, healthy living and exercise, I’d only have 2 options: I’d either be “on” the bandwagon or “off” it - and for me that’s a recipe for disaster.

Week 1 was, at its core, about building 3 core habits: drink more water, eat better breakfasts and sleep better. If you were able to do those 3 things consistently, you succeeded!

In addition, I made some minor suggestions to help you improve your quality of life. I’ll put these in a list format so you can check off how much better you’re doing on each of those. Your goal here is to have hit at least 7 of them. If you do, you’ve rocked the house. If you hit 5 you’re doing great and if you hit 3 you’re doing better than you were a week ago and still deserve to celebrate!

So here are some milestones you may have accomplished:

1. Did 2-3 ab workouts via good form half-crunches
2. Completed 1-2 light walks (where you broke a sweat but didn’t kill yourself)
3. Cut your junk food / fast food intake
4. Stopped eating when you were no longer hungry instead of going back until you were full (not everytime, but you started to build the habit)
5. If you drink pop, you switched to diet
6. Began thinking about what you were eating in terms of calories or “cost” (of working it off) instead of how much you liked the food
7. Told somebody you were trying to lose weight. The shame of starting can be intense. The support of others knowing is significant. Personally, I use Twitter and this blog to communicate how well I”m doing. Others setup dedicated blogs to share successes, failures, tips, dreams, realizations, etc. No matter how you do it, sharing the experience creates a support network, which is critical for success.
8. Set goals for yourself, set milestones and realized that it’s possible for you to hit them. The sense of hopelessness that accompanies trying to lose weight can be incredibly significant. Hope is your biggest weapon against depression. And the easiest ways to build hope are through your support network but also through setting goals that you can achieve. Everytime you feel like giving up, set a goal you can hit in the next week (or less!) and hit it! Show yourself how wrong you are that it’s hopeless!
9. Took your measurements at least once, building the habit of taking it every week to show yourself your progress.
10. Started taking this program (yes it’s a freebie, but it’s a milestone and deserves to be celebrated)!

For tomorrow (Sunday) I’ll have the notes up for Week 2’s program. Week 2 will start to build in some significant milestones and tools, so hopefully you’re ready to start working!

Over the first part of this week you should have begun developing core habits for living a healthier life. You might have experienced some weight loss, but more realistically you’ve simply experienced a bit more energy, a bit better sleep and a bit less depression about your weight.

This first week really was about setting yourself up for success, instead of most diet and exercise programs which are designed to set you up for failure by requiring too much of you at the start (which is why most folk only last about 2 weeks).

During the first couple of days we focused on drinking more water. During the next couple we focused on eating better breakfasts. Over the next couple we’re going to focus on something that’s just as core but just as simple: getting a better sleep.

There’s a very simple truth to weightloss: if you aren’t sleeping properly you aren’t setting your day up for success. Read through this article on weightloss and sleep. While sleeping won’t cause you to burn a tonne of calories (400-800 depending on your weight and sleep habits), a solid 7-8 hours will setup your metabolism, keep your hormones in balance and ultimately keep you happier (which will result in less binging, more balance and more weightloss overall).

So your goal for the next 2 days is very simple: make sleep a priority. Given that this should be your Friday, basically try and catchup on lost sleep this weekend. If you haven’t been sleeping 7-8 hours, you may need a couple of 10 hour days to reset your system. Don’t be afraid of that, or of any lost work time, because in a couple of weeks your body will be rocking and you’ll be quite happy at 6-7 hours once you’re working out more, eating better, etc.

In addition, if you haven’t already done 2-3 sets of crunches (here’s a video on how) and haven’t yet taken 1-2 light walks (break a sweat but don’t come home panting), you’ll want to try and catchup on those things this weekend.

And if you haven’t yet taken your measurements, suck it up and get them done now. The biggest reason for doing this is so that you know exactly how well you’re doing. The longer you wait, the less dramatic your results will be, so get it done

If you have taken your measurements, feel free to update them this weekend. You probably won’t notice a significant difference, but as with everything in this program: building the habit is key!

So have a great weekend, don’t eat junk food at the theatre, stay away from fast food altogether, try and eat soup instead of steak (you’ll be surprised how filling it can be), sleep well, drink lots of water, eat your breakfasts and have fun. The weekend is the time to recharge. If you’re going to eat poorly, keep it to one “free day” (I use Sundays). Don’t spread it over the weekend.

And if you’ve completed your first week, celebrate! It wasn’t the hardest, but this is the first step in a very successful journey to weight loss, a healthier life and better eating!

Hopefully for the past 2 days you’ve been focussing on the basics: more water, less junk, healthier snacks and a touch of exercise.

Today’s focus is very simple: eating a bit healthier. As you should know by now, it’s easier to not put calories in your mouth than it is to work them off. So you should (slowly, it takes time, I’m still working on this) learn to eat better vs learning to exercise more. Both are important, but to save yourself hours in the gym (and lots of frustration), eating better is key.

For most people, the easiest meal of the day to fix is breakfast. You’re (generally) at home. You have (most of) the things you need at home (hopefully). And you have total control. The hardest meal is generally lunch because it requires eating at the right time, not overeating, planning your meals, not “upsizing” when you eat out, not buying dessert when you eat out, etc. It’s a minefield.

But breakfast is easy.

Now you’re likely in one of 3 camps for breakfast:

1. You eat chocolate frosted mini wheat flakes with marshmallows
2. You eat some kind of cereal, with milk and sugar
3. You don’t eat breakfast

If you aren’t eating, start. It kicks off your metabolic process. What we want to work towards is to having your body constantly digesting food all day long. It’ll burn calories, but more importantly it’ll supply a constant amount of energy, vs the peaks and valleys you’re probably used to now. And, contrary to popular early weight loss program belief, eating less doesn’t mean losing more.

Eat your breakfast. It’s the best way to start things up.

Some healthy choices for breakfast:

1. Oatmeal, skim’d milk. Fruit on top (I find frozen fruit the easiest, you can buy 2 week’s worth of breakfast fruit for 5-10$). No sugar.
2. Kashiik cereals (specifically the Go Lean variety). They taste quite decent and have a metric tonne of the vitamins you need early in the morning. They’re more expensive though. Eat with skim’d milk (noticing a pattern here? Heh). Some blueberries will round this meal out.
3. One piece of whole wheat/brown toast. One poached egg. A bunch of fruit. This is my favourite because it gets me protein early which staves off all kinds of cravings, it’s fast and easy and it tastes really, really good.
4. Have other suggestions? Let me know in the comments!

Your other goal is to continue exercising. During the last 2 days you should have done at least one ab/crunch routine. If you’re able to, do another round of 3 sets of 10 crunches again. It’s not a huge amount of exercise, but getting your muscles moving the right way is the hardest part of crunches and pushups, so the practice really does help and you’ll see rapid improvements by doing these simple exercises every couple of days for 5 minutes at a time.

In addition, try and take a medium-paced 20 minute walk. A treadmill is fine if you want to go to the gym, but outside is best if it isn’t too cold where you are. Your goal is to basically break a light sweat. So whatever pace has you hot and bothered about 20 minutes in. Feel free to bring music, a book (if it’s early enough) or better yet a book on tape you can play from your iPod. Whatever it takes so you don’t get bored and think about the time passing or how much work it is.

And again, that’s about it. A bit more explanation this time, but the goal for your next 2 days is pretty simple: drink more water just like before, eat a better breakfast and try and get 1-2 very light workouts in, just to get your body used to the idea.

During Day 3 we’ll deal with eating out, whether it’s lunches or dinners, and start to prep for the beginnings of an exercise routine in Week 2. At this point, you probably aren’t noticing any specific changes in your body, so to stay motivated focus on the changes in what you’re able to do. Are the crunches easier the second or third time around? Do you feel more energy due to starting a better breakfast and more water? Are you drinking less pop and eating less junk food?

Celebrate these milestones. Once the weight starts coming off it’ll be easier to focus on that, but the first few weeks your weight loss won’t be huge. Your goal here is to build habits that will last, will give you more energy and will make you feel better about yourself. The actual weight loss is always secondary to personal fulfillment. And when it isn’t, the weight always comes back on.

Good luck, and have a great week!

As always, any comments, questions, suggestions or tips let me know in the comments!

As I noted in my Week 1 notes, our first few days together will be fairly low key. Focus on basics and building good habits. Don’t overload yourself. Start nice and slow.

Your goals for today/tomorrow are:

1. Buy your water bottle, and get through at least 1L of water per day while at work.
2. DON’T EAT JUNK FOOD
3. Buy some nuts (unsalted) for the office, cause if you’re hungry, a handful will keep you going until your next meal and will ensure you don’t binge.
4. Take your measurements
5. If you’re going shopping, don’t buy chocolate/ice cream/desserts/cookies/etc. Buy protein bars instead, they’re yummy, and give you gobs of energy.
6. Do one group of 3 sets of 10 half-crunches (ie: 30 crunches, with 2 minute rests in between).

And those are your goals for the next 2 days.

A bit of changes to your eating. A couple of exercisy things. A few minor lifestyle changes. Doable? If not, this could be a hard road to losing 25 pounds

But your focus?

Drink more water and less pop. If that’s all you do, it’s the core habit you want to build.

Before I get to the daily workouts, diets, tips, etc, I wanted to supply some guiding principles for Week 1 and what we’re really looking to accomplish. In a nutshell Week 1 is about:

1. Dropping REALLY bad eating habits
2. Improving SOME dietary things
3. BEGINNING to build a regular exercise routine, but nothing too stressful
4. Setting a baseline for how you’re doing, because without metrics it’s hard to track progress

Remember, Week 1 starts on Monday, so read Week 1, Day 1’s Program beforehand so you know what to be ready for. Cause it’s soooooo hard

Bad Eating Habits

If you’re anything like me there are probably 2 parts to your diet that really suck: 1) you eat out/eat fast food too much (anything more than once a week is too much) and 2) you don’t prepare your own food ahead of time.

The core to losing weight due to food is very, very simple: eat 6 smaller meals per day (it takes getting used to, but it means your body is constantly metabolizing, which prevents those huge highs and lows before/after eating … like the post-lunch energy crash), prepare as much of it ahead of time as possible and don’t eat junk food.

For this week, our goals are very simple:

1. Get a decent water bottle (stainless steel is best, less toxins and bacteria) and drink more
2. Cut out the worst of your eating habits
3. Start exercising a little bit
4. Figure out where you’re starting and where you’re going so you can track your progress

Bad Diet Habits

Diet is at least 2 times as important as exercise. Most people in my condition (and maybe yours) consume 3000-4000 calories per day. Your body burns about 3000 calories per day. A pound of fat is 3500 calories. It also takes the average person 60-90 minutes of reasonably intense exercise to burn 1000 calories. So you can either cut 500 calories per day from your diet to lose 1 pound per week or you can work out for 4-5 hours per week. Which is easier?

1. Limit your “junk” fast food intake to once a week, no matter what (I walk by a McDonald’s and a burger king every day, so this was very hard for me)
2. If you are going to eat fast food, find the healthy option
3. STOP EATING WHEN YOU’RE FULL
4. Drink 1L of water per day (typically 2 of your water bottles)
5. Switch from regular to diet pop

Exercising

Exercise for weight loss is a cumulative thing. The better your body gets, the easier it is to burn fat. So your initial workouts won’t help a lot and they won’t hurt alot. This is compounded by the fact that the more you exercise the EASIER it is to exercise. So starting now, starting light, will make it easier farther down the road.

Your goal with exercising is very, very easy:

1. Take 1-2 light 20 minute walks
2. Do 3 sets of 10 half crunches (here’s a video if you don’t know how) 3 times during the week (ie: once a day Monday, Wednesday, Friday). I used to do these at work. They’re really easy to do, very quick, you don’t break a sweat. If you’re having problems, put your feet on the floor, put your hands on your legs and “crunch” up until your wrist goes to your knees.

And that’s it. Your walk can be while you’re checking your blackberry, listening to music, whatever. Preferably outside, but a stairmaster/elliptical/treadmill at home will work just fine too. Your goal is basically to develop a light sweat. So don’t job, but don’t dawdle either.

Metrics & Milestones

Alright, the goals for this week are to basically figure out where you are, and to develop milestones you can celebrate. So:

1. Open Notepad or Excel or Word or something, and take note of stuff
2. Get a measuring tape and measure your waist, stomach, chest, arms, neck, thighs, etc
3. If you belong to a gym or have a fancy electronic scale, get your bodyfat % and water % (ie: inverse of your Lean Body Mass), otherwise have your doctor do it or buy a cheap bodymass gadget for 20$.
4. Using your bodyfat and/or LBM, calculate how much you’d weigh if you were 10% lower than your current bodyfat. And also calculate how much you’d weigh at 15% bodyfat and 10%. 15% is a realistic goal (Vin Diesel is 15% give or take), 10% is a totally ripped goal.
5. Set milestones for weight (like “I was X pounds 2 years ago, when I left college, when I started gaining weight, etc) and write those down. Set milestones for your waist (ie: “I”d LOVE to be a size 36″) and write those down. Set milestones for your weight (for me it was 240 pounds, 230 pounds and 225 pounds). Set milestones for your workouts (what weight you’ll get to, how long you’ll be able to do cardio for, how LONG of a workout you’ll be able to do, how many calories you’ll be able to burn, etc).

Basically, data, data, data. Every datapoint you capture is one that will be able to encourage you when you’re feeling down and fat. Cause when you feel down and fat is when you’ll give up if the only thing you’re tracking is your weight and it’s going up and down.

As a bonus, if you’re able, take a weekly picture in your skimpiest clothes so you can SEE how your body changes. I haven’t been doing this, I really want to try, and I KNOW that SEEING the changes will help me stay motivated.

Notes

So these are our goals for Week 1. I’ll create 3 daily programs to help out with food ideas, exercise ideas, and to break you into these things slowly. The longest task is going to be the milestones one. The hardest will be food. Celebrate every single one of your wins, ignore your losses and find somebody to do whatever program you’re doing with. Doing it alone means guaranteed failure.

Hope this helps! If you have tips, thoughts, suggestions or complaints, either leave a comment or email me at jeremy@b5media.com so I can include them in future “episodes”

Every couple of days I post to my Twitter account (www.twitter.com/jeremywright) about how I’m doing workout/eating/fitness/weightloss-wise. Every time I get a couple of people (sometimes more) asking how I’m doing what I’m doing, what I’m eating, etc.

In the last 3 months, I’ve lost 25 pounds. I need to lose another 9 pounds to be at what I thought was my goal weight back when I weighed 255 pounds (I’m 234 as of this morning, but will settle back down to 230 quickly). For me it’s been a combination of baby steps, structured eating, public accountability and a program I can follow.

I’ll be really clear. 3 months ago, I was an out of shape, overweight, lazy geek. I could barely manage 5 pushups, I could squeeze out 30 half-crunches per day, I could barely do 1 minute of intense jogging on the treadmill and I could eke out 10 minutes of solid work on the bike. Now I’m hardly a pro athlete, but yesterday/today I did 60 pushups (including 25 or so consecutive), 500 crunches, I can do 5 minutes of jogging (I have asthma so this is the hardest) and I can do a solid 30 minutes on the bike.

So I thought it might be nice to share not just general stuff I’m doing, but the program I built for myself. This is designed for someone like me: slightly motivated, WANTS to lose the weight, doesn’t know where to start and who tends to be an “all or nothing” type of person; which ultimately means you burn out after a couple of weeks.

For me, the secret to most of this was to build habits. I’m FAR from perfect, but I get enough questions that I thought it might be useful to, instead of writing the occasional update post, actually start to publish some of my thoughts as a schedule.

If I manage to actually publish a full 6 weeks of food/workouts/stuff, I’ll probably create a full program based on starting abilities, etc. For now, I’ll just assume people are as out of shape, lazy, etc, as I was and sometimes still am.

Before We Get Started

Before we get started there are a few things I do recommend:

1. Set a realistic goal. My recommendation is 25 pounds. If you have more than 30% body fat, this is achievable within 2-3 months (faster if you don’t slip, but we might as well be realistic, right?).
2. Don’t buy stuff before you need it. Don’t sign up for the gym yet (if you already have a membership we’ll use it though). Don’t get expensive workout gear, diet pills, etc. You can load up on “stuff” once you’ve built your habits if you really want. Until you have, it’s just something to distract you. And what you really want out of this is the sense that you can do it. Not some random product.
3. Take baby steps. The temptation will be to start everything at once. The more you load up on new stuff, the more you drop the ball on stuff you’re already doing. Doing 1 new thing right per week will add up very quickly.
4. Buy a decent water bottle. Preferably stainless steel, as germs and toxins leak into the water less. It tastes weird at first, but you get used to it (note: wash it thoroughly, kthnxbai).
5. If you travel, you need to develop a travel PLAN before you travel.

Let’s Get Started

As with my workouts, I’ll take baby steps. Ideally I’d like to get to 3 (so you have Day 1, Day 2, Day 3 plans), but it might start out slower at first. So feel free to start with the early stuff, but feel free to wait a few weeks for me to find a rhythm too

If you have any tips or tricks or thoughts, PLEASE send them to me at jeremy@b5media.com and I’ll include them, along with credit for you, in my posts. The smaller and simpler, the better. But collective intelligence is a Good Thing.