I really cranked it up starting on October 9th. In 7 days I went from 164lbs to 158lbs. I also went from a body fat percentage over 19 to 18.2. The attached photo shows the physical results. I’ve gotten a number of congrats followed by inquiries as to how I made such a rapid change. So much so, that I thought I would share it here. Simply put, I ate less food, I ate better food, and I exercised more.

Diet

I tracked my diet online for about a week. Unfortunately, now that my free trial has expired, I can’t log in and get actual samples of exactly what I consumed. Generally speaking, I did the following:

• consumed around 1000 calories a day
• ate a lot of veggies – and a wide variety of them
• consumed as little fat as possible
• ate only enough carbs to maintain my energy levels
• drank a lot of water and only water, I even cut coffee out (don’t know if it affected anything)
• reduced my meat portions a little
• took a time release multi vitamin every day and a calcium supplement almost every day

That said, a typical day’s meal might look something like this:

• Breakfast: Either Kashi cereal, Bare Naked cereal, or a granola bar. I would eat about a cup of cereal with just a splash of soy milk. Note: after the 7 day rush, I started to include a splash of orange juice. Vitamin C is a great metabolism booster.
• Lunch: Sometimes nothing but raw veggies. Broccoli was common. I would also eat celery and carrots. Beware of carrots, they contain some sugar. I would continue to eat on a couple of cups of veggies through the day while drinking lots of water. This would easily sustain me through work. Other days I would have small meals such as fish tacos with lard free tortillas or a small helping of noodles. Still, I would eat them slowly over the course of a couple of hours.
• Dinner: I usually grilled my dinners on the George Foreman grill. I would include a small portion of lean meat such as bison (very low in fat), salmon (good fats), or chicken breast. I would grill a wide variety of vegetables including zucchini squash, asparagus, onion, red bell pepper, broccoli, and egg plant. Finally, I would include a small helping carbs such as a half piece of pita bread or small helping of rice. A few nights I replaced the carbohydrtes with a salad consisting mostly of leafy plants with a light misting of sesame seed oil and balsamic vinegar.
• Snacks: For the most part, I didn’t snack. My lunches felt like snacking all day. I went to bed early because I was getting up early for the gym. I did eat a few nuts and some beef jerky from time to time. Keep in mind, I was also drinking large amounts of water on a regular basis.

Exercise

I signed up at my nearest gym, which worked out well because I had an old membership on freeze. I got a special deal on 5 personal trainer sessions for $50. This wasn’t crucial, but the support and advice did help. During the rapid development phase, I hit the gym every day. On a couple of days, I went both in the morning and the evening. After the phase, I dropped down to about 3 times a week. A typical session at the gym would include:

• Stretches: Some basic startup stretches to loosen my leg muscles. This was less than 5 minutes worth.
• Cardio: I usually would run an average of 15 minutes on the tread mill to get my cardio up. When I started, 10 minutes was enough. Near the end of the week, I would run 25 minutes. If it was my second visit to the gym for the day, I would do about 10 minutes on the stair machine instead – just to mix things up.
• Original Floor Routine: With my heart rate up, I would hit the floor routine for around 15 to 20 minutes. My original floor routine included:
  • 20 straight crunches plus 10 crunches to each side
  • 10 straight leg lifts plus 10 leg lifts to each side
  • 15 per side of these crunch like things propped up on my elbow (works your side, no idea what they’re called)
  • a fast count of 100 while holding myself up on my elbow and toes
  • the same fast count of 100 while resting on my hips and belly and keeping my feet and shoulders up off the floor
  • a 30 second back bend and 30 second side twists to stretch out my ab muscles
• New Floor Routine: My trainer gave me a whole new and improved set of routines that included the use of a yoga ball. I integrated these new exercises into my routine – trying to change it up each day. These new routines included a mix of:
  • Holding the yoga ball between my feet for the leg lifts.
  • Placing my back on the floor, feet on the yoga ball and lifting my hips.
  • Lifting light free weights above my chest while laying with the back of my shoulders on the ball, knees bent, hips up, and my feet close together.
  • Squats while standing on a half ball (hard to balance) and holding light weights out in front of me.
  • Torso twists with those strechy elastic rubber things for resistance.
  • Most painful of all, holding myself up on my elbows and toes for 45 seconds – while squeezing my abs as hard as I could.
• Weight Training: After my floor routine, I would hit weight machines for another 10 to 15 minutes. I generally picked 2 or 3 machines and did 20 to 60 reps at various weight levels. I focused on my core, but did spent time on my shoulders, arms, and legs.

In addition to this, I’ve also been taking the occational yoga class. I believe I took 2 1-hour yoga classes during the 7 day push. Before and after the 7 day push I did a bit of outdoor activity including biking, hiking, running, and – of course – snowboarding.

The results were rapid and impressive. It took being in the right frame of mind, but it didn’t take a lot of time. After my 7 day push, I still continued to burn fat and build muscle while going to the gym less and eating more. I figure that’s probably because of a boosted metabolism. I suspect that if I don’t maintain regular physical activity, I could easily relapse and see rapid weight gain. Thus far, that has not been an issue.

Most importantly, I feel a lot better both mentally and physically. It is more than worth it.

Very nice. I wish I would have had this video last season.

1.) Begin taking off towards your intended hit/jump. Ride flat-based to pick up some speed…

read more….

Step 1: Preparation

The first thing you need to do is make sure you board is very dry. You don’t want to capture any moisture inside the board. My board was away from snow (and water) for about 9 months. You’re probably safe after a few days to a week. Once your board is dry, you want to clean up the scar a little. I considered ripping out all of the damaged pieces (to be replaced by epoxy) but I chose to try to glue the top layer back down instead. Unfortunately, my tear was such that it was easy to tear it further while cleaning out the scar. I used a c-clamp to help keep the top layer from peeling back any further.

Step 2: Epoxy

Once the scar is cleaned up, it’s time to glue it down. I used some ‘Extra Time’ epoxy from Walmart. I chose the extra time hoping it would be a stronger epoxy than the fast dry stuff. Even though I only needed a little bit, I had to buy a big tube of it. Anyway, I liberally applied the epoxy all over the scar. Then I mashed the top layer down and wiped off some of the excess that squished out around the scar. Had I not tried to put the top layer down, I would have tried ‘filling’ the scar with epoxy to be smoothed down after it dried.

Step 3: Clampage

I used that same c-clamp to hold the top layer in place while the epoxy set. Again, this wouldn’t be needed if I had filled the scar instead of trying to glue the surface back down. I avoided letting the c-clamp touch the board directly by using pieces of cardboard from the epoxy packaging. Hoping to avoid gluing the cardboard to the snowboard, I put the smooth printed side of the cardboard against the glue. This almost worked, but I still had a little paper stuck the board when I removed it later. Note: I’ve read that plastic (such as a plastic bag) is easier to peel off the apoxy.

Step 4: Cleaning and Smoothing

I let the epoxy set for about 12 hours. It takes 24 hours to completely harden, but it ‘sets’ in 90 minutes. Because I wiped away a lot of the excess, my repair came out fairly smooth. I used a razor blade to scrape away most of the excess dried epoxy and to scratch off little bits of paper left from the card board. The epoxy was still just a little pliable, making it easier to scrape. I think it was probably a good idea to do the scraping before the full 24 hour dry time. Unfortunately, the slivers of top layer didn’t tear just right, so there’s a bit of a ridge where the pieces laid back down. Still, I think it came out cleaner looking than having filled a big scar with epoxy. Had I done that method, I would have also needed to spend more time cleaning up the dried surface. I’m not sure what tools to recommend for that. I would have probably tried the razor first, then some sand paper. If that was too slow, I might have gotten the dremel out.

Conclusion

The repair looks fine to my eyes. I’ll find out how well it holds up soon. I think the most important thing is keeping moisture out of the core of the board. I’m concerned about how well this spot will hold up next time I get the edges of the board ground down. If anything of interest comes up in the future, I’ll make an update about it.