I’ve never seen weight loss explained like this. Fascinating.
Tag: health
Factor 75 Prepared Meals
A few weeks ago I signed up for Factor 75 and I’m loving it!
What is Factor 75?
It’s a prepared meal delivery service. Each week you get to pick your meals for the following week.
Why Get Delivered Meals?
I get extremely lazy when it comes to cooking and I end up getting fast food or take-out for nearly every meal, especially during the summer. Not very healthy! After hiring a housekeeper a couple of years ago I’m a firm believer in paying for the things you don’t want to do. I’d rather spend my time and effort doing other things I enjoy.
Why Choose Factor 75?
When I compared a bunch of these services there were 3 things that made me try Factor 75 first.
- Tuesday delivery. Several of the other services delivered on Friday, which seems pretty dumb. Anytime you’re going away for a weekend you basically have to skip an entire shipment.
- Pricing and meal counts. Most of these services are about the same price, but Factor 75 was slightly cheaper. They also offer a bigger selection of the # of meals per week you select. I started out with 8/per week and have already increased to 12 for next week.
- Flexibility and control. On their website you get full control of your account. You get to select exactly which meals you want next week and you can plan out several weeks ahead. You can pause for a week (or more) if you’ll be away. You can change the number of meals every week.
A few years ago I was getting a monthly shipment from Pre-Made Paleo (which is True Fare now). Each part of every meal was individually frozen in bags and you’d get 4 or 5 of the same meal with each shipment. The meals weren’t very exciting and the lack of flexibility was a big negative of their service.
After eating Factor 75 for almost 3 weeks, every single meal has been great. Nothing is frozen. Think of them as fancy TV dinners made with fresh, healthy, and quality ingredients. When I’m hungry, I pop a meal in the microwave and it’s ready in 2-3 minutes.
If you want $20 off your first order, use my Factor 75 referral link.
Active Life
I’ve posted before about the low back issues I’ve been dealing with for the last few years. Unfortunately I didn’t keep up with the exercises recommended by the PT. I also realized I was wasting my time and money going to the chiropractor every 4-5 weeks because they weren’t doing anything to correct my problem. After getting a bunch of adjustments over a 2-3 week period in August to use up some FSA funds, I tweaked my back the next day. Go figure. I’ve always been skeptical of the chiropractor; I don’t see how 5-10 minutes of work every month can have an impact.
At the end of November I saw Active Life was running a special on their Athlete Membership, which gives you access to all of their programs. $100 for a full year seemed like a steal, so I signed up.
After explaining my back problems, they told me they see similar issues with a lot of athletes, usually caused by an imbalance on one side of the body. Their recommendation was to follow the Single Leg Bias and Back Max programs. I’m over 2.5 months in and just finished the 40 workout SLB program and am over half way through the 80 workout BM program. Tomorrow I’ll be starting the Hips program to replace the SLB workouts.
I like the programs and there is enough variety in the movements to keep my interest. Since I’ve been a member I’ve experienced what felt like a few tweaks while performing my other CrossFit workouts. Only one affected me a bit for a few days, so it seems like the programs are improving things.
If you’re dealing with any CrossFit injuries, check out what Active Life has to offer.
Unboxing HackerBox #0026: BioSense
The first HackerBox of 2018 arrived and it might be my favorite since I subscribed with #0018.
As suggested in the video, I’m not going to do pricing anymore. I proved the value in these boxes is there for the $$. It’s really hard to estimate prices on these custom kits, so it’s not worth the time. Here is a list of the contents copied from the Instructable for box #0026.
- HackerBoxes #0026 Collectable Reference Card
- Exclusive HackerBoxes BioSense PCB
- OpAmp and Component Kit for BioSense PCB
- Arduino Nano V3: 5V, 16MHz, MicroUSB
- OLED Module 0.96 inch, 128×64, SSD1306
- Pulse Sensor Module
- Snap-Style Leads for Physiological Sensors
- Adhesive Gel, Snap-Style Electrode Pads
- OpenEEG Electrode Strap Kit
- Shrink Tubing – 50 Piece Variety
- MicroUSB Cable
- Exclusive WiredMind Decal
Might be cool to turn this into something for use in my garage gym.
I am preparing a post with a bunch of stuff from the previous boxes I’ve been catching up on. Maybe I’ll wait to post that until I complete this build so I can be all caught up before #0027.
CrossFit Programing: Are We Doing Too Much?
Following up on my post about Online CrossFit Programming, I wanted to write some thoughts about how affiliates program classes for the general population, like you or I.
CrossFit is meant to be a conditioning-biased exercise program. Look to this pyramind illustrating a theoretical hierarchy for the development of an athlete. It comes from Greg Glassman’s “What is Fitness”, which was published 15 years ago in the CrossFit Journal.
Nutrition is the most important and then it’s conditioning. Somewhere about 5 years ago CrossFit affiliates started to shift the importance and focus of their programming to be strength-biased. This probably had something to do with the rise in popularity of the CrossFit Games; people wanted to train like the elite Games athletes.
Since day 1 and still today, the WOD posted on CrossFit.com is only one workout. They don’t suggest performing a strength piece, a skill piece, and a conditioning piece every day like you see in almost every CrossFit affiliate around the world. If you attend a Level 1 seminar, during the programming lecture they don’t teach you how to jam pack an hour with as much exercising as you can. Sure some of the Main Site WODs are strength focused, as they should be, but the majority of days the workout is a conditioning based one. Are we causing ourselves to get injured more and limiting our potential as human beings by doing too much?
Here’s a great podcast episode with Ben Bergeron, who is one of the top coaches in the sport. He explains a lot on the topic and makes a lot of great points for conditioning-biased programming.
What do you think?
Once I finish up this Push Only program I’m following (about 4 more weeks), I might experiment with some conditioning-biased programming like CrossFit teaches us.
Now I’m Thirsty
via xkcd: Soda Sugar Comparisons
Over the last couple of years, CrossFit has joined in the fight against Big Soda (search for “soda” in the Journal for many other articles), trying to get better warning labels and educate people about the effects of sugar on our bodies.
My love for pop (especially Mountain Dew) is no secret. I also know I shouldn’t be drinking it. Sooner or later the sugar is going to catch up to me. But, damn, it’s so yummy; I can’t resist!
Obesity by the Numbers
Obesity in the U.S.
- 178 lbs – Average weight, 40 lbs higher than the worldwide average.
- 35 – Percent of adults over the age of 20 who are obese.
- 20.6% – Percent of health expenses related to obesity (managing, health problems).
- 1/5 – Americans between the ages of 6 and 19 who are overweight.
- 42 – Percent of adults estimated to be obese by 2030.
- 11 – Percent of adults who will be at least 100 pounds overweight by 2030.
via Obesity by the Numbers: Shocking New Stats | Core Performance.
As an American this is embarrassing. Get off the couch people!
Less of Me
My weight and body fat % over the last year and a half.
A Week of Strict Paleo
We’re doing a 30 day Paleo challenge at Survival Fitness. If you aren’t sure what Paleo is, check out the beginner’s guide. It officially started last Wednesday, but I starting eating strict on Monday to get myself going. In the first week, I’ve lost 5 pounds and dropped about 1% body fat (according to my Withings scale). I think this is the first time I’ve been under 175 pounds in a decade. I don’t want to go any lower though, because 175-180 is a good range for me. I do want to lose more body fat and put on muscle to replace it. It’s extremely difficult to do both at the same time though, especially with where I’m at. It’s going to be interesting to see how the numbers shake out over the next few weeks.
I was asked to post about what I ate during the week, so here goes. I starting logging my food on Wednesday because that’s when the official challenge started. Monday and Tuesday meals would have been very similar.
Wednesday
- Breakfast: Eggs, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, and coffee
- Lunch: Beef roast and broccoli
- Snack: Sweet potato
- Dinner: Chicken breasts and broccoli
Thursday
- Breakfast: Eggs, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, and coffee
- Lunch: Beef roast, broccoli, and coffee
- Snack: Raw almond butter
- Snack: Sweet potatoes
- Dinner: Chicken breasts, beef roast, and green beans with slivered almonds
Friday
- Breakfast: Eggs, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, and coffee
- Snack: Raw almond butter
- Lunch: Salmon and broccoli
- Snack: Raw almond butter
- Dinner: Salad (it had some croutons and cheese), grilled white fish, and broccoli
Saturday
- Breakfast: Eggs, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, and coffee
- Lunch: Salmon, green beans, and blueberries
- Snack: Almond milk
- Dinner: Pork chops and broccoli
Sunday
- Breakfast: Eggs, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, and coffee
- Snack: Sweet potatoes and almond milk
- Lunch: Pork chops and green beans
- Dinner: Beef roast, green beans, coffee, and an egg-turkey burger-spinach muffin
Notes
- I do CrossFit about 5 times a week, but that’s nothing new.
- I’m drinking 90+ ounces of water each day.
- I don’t weight or measure my portions. I generally keep my meat, chicken, and fish portions to the size of a fist, but it’s not something I watch closely.
- When I eat eggs I usually have 4.
- Wherever you see sweet potatoes as a snack, that’s what I eat as soon as I get home from a CrossFit workout.
- The almond milk I buy is unsweetened. I also put some of it in my coffee, which isn’t mentioned above.
- I’m a big fan of frozen steamable vegetables because of the convenience. I frequently eat an entire 12oz package with a meal.
- For the week, the only thing I ate off-plan was some croutons and shredded cheese that came on my salad Friday night at dinner. The amount was so small it’s hard for me to even call it a cheat.
If you have any questions, leave a comment.
The 3 Month Hump
I started doing CrossFit and eating Paleo on October 31, 2011. Today puts me over the 3 month mark, which has been a brick wall for me when I did programs like P90X and 4HB. I’d get close to 3 months and switch off the program for whatever reason. With CrossFit and Paleo I’ve found the magic combination. I love each workout (even when my body hates it) and look forward to going to the gym.
Now that I’ve passed the hump I don’t see an end. I plan to do this for a very long time. Today at the gym I did 3 reps of 260 pounds in the deadlift and it was a great feeling. I’ve never moved that much weight in my life. It was almost easy.
If you want to know more about my story starting CrossFit, read CrossFit: Open Source Fitness. If you want to learn about the Paleo diet, check out The Beginner’s Guide. If you want to check out my progress head over to my CrossFit WOD blog where I keep track of everything.
Nick Momrik 