NevBlog

Neville's Digital Surrogate Brain

Uncategorized

Exercises for the Six Pack Experiment

by

For the Getting A Six Pack Experiment there were two requirements for me to achieve washboard abs:

  1. Lose fat
  2. Gain ab muscle

Losing fat was most important so I could SEE the muscles underneath.  No matter how big your ab muscles are, even a small amount of fat covering them will still hide them.

So MyBodyTutor set out an ab exercise routine for me….nothing crazy, and it didn’t require a gym or extra equipment (which is good because I could do them a home if needed).

At first they said I should be doing 10-15 repetitions for each set, but ideal was 20 repetitions….it took me about 1 1/2 weeks to work up to that level.

The first week I would go through the paces, and my abs would literally give out on the 10th or 15th repetition of each exercise.  It was nearly impossible to get through the whole thing without hunching over in pain (the good kind of I-Feel-Good-Because-I-Exercised pain).

After doing this nearly every day (I was told to do this routing 4-5 times per week) I started getting “immune” to the exercises and increased my repetitions.  Within no time I was doing 20 of each repetition, and 3 of each set…for a total of 180 situp variations per session. My abs would get nice and sore from this (once again, the GOOD kind of sore).

Adam told me my abs should ALWAYS be sore after each session or I’m not working them hard enough.

After a while of doing these diligently (and doing random ab exercises throughout the work day), 20 of each got me tired, but not sore. I thought I’d add weight or more repetitions (which gets a little boring), but Adam told me something that REALLY helped:

Simply hold each one for 2 seconds!

So instead of going up, then down…I’d go up, pause for 2 seconds, go down.  THIS KICKED MY ASS!!

It was actually unbelievable what a difference this made.  Usually by repetition number 5 or 10 I was hunched over groaning from this extra load….and it didn’t require any extra equipment or much more time.

So what are these magical exercises that transformed the strength of my abs?  Let’s take a gander:

Bicycle Situps:

Each set: 20
Number of sets: 3
Instructions:

  • Pull your opposing elbow and knee together (try to hold it there for a second or two)
  • Go back down (both elbow and knee)
  • Repeat with other elbow and knee

Knee Bends:

Each set: 20
Number of sets: 3
Instructions:

  • Support yourself with your hands behind you
  • Lift legs and chest towards each other
  • Stretch back out
  • Slowly let legs down
  • *Note* This one is even better if you do it off a bench

Foot Reaches:

Each set: 20
Number of sets: 3
Instructions:

  • Hold legs up in air (I can’t physically stretch my legs straight up)
  • With one hand reach up and touch your toe
  • Pause for a second or two while touching your toe
  • Go back down
  • Repeat with other hand

After doing this routine about 5 times per week, I could already feel the size increase of my abs.  The top part of my abs (near the bottom of my rib cage) had grown in….and I had previously never even SEEN those muscles before!

These exercises worked great for me and my particular purpose, but if you’re a big ole fatty looking to lose weight, these exercises alone probably won’t work for you becaaaauusseee….(click play to listen):
[audio:because-fat.mp3]

Vodka Salad for Healthy Drinking

by

Oh crap, this is a tricky situation….
…My friends are going out tonight and most likely we’ll all be drinking…
…I love doing that…
…it’s tons of fun!…
…but I’ve been eating SO WELL  these last few days and I don’t want to blow it!

Those are typical thoughts I had during this Getting A Six-Pack Experiment….what’s worse is I live Downtown now, so 6th Street and literally 200+ bars are all within a two minute walk (or stumble) from here.

To Drink?

or…

Not To Drink?

Well like any normal human being I like to have my cake and eat it too….so I’ve found a pleasing compromise by doing a little research:

BEFORE WHEN I WAS DUMB AND IGNORANT:

….a big night of drinking starting at 10PM and going till 3AM could involve:

  1. Eating a decent sized (but not too big) meal to make sure I don’t get hit by the liquor too quickly.
  2. One Blue Moon beer
  3. A mixed shot from bar with all sorts of sweeteners
  4. One Dos Equis beer
  5. One rum and Coke
  6. One vodka and Red Bull
  7. One vodka and Red Bull
  8. One Irish Car Bomb (Guiness beer + a shot of Bailey’s Irish Cream and quick chug)
  9. One vodka and Red Bull
  10. One Rum and Coke
  11. One Blue Moon beer
  12. After all the drinking naturally most of crave REALLY HEAVY FOOD, and I’m no different.  I’ll usually go out for street food and get two giant slices of pizza or a giant bratwurst sausage loaded with sauerkraut and all the condiments.

Now this seems excessive, but over a 5 hour span this is probably LESS than most people drink on a crazy night….technically that’s only 2 drinks per hour which doesn’t seem like much.  This would just keep a person in a relatively buzzed but not-overly-drunk state (depending on who you are).

Now let’s do some quick math with this same night:

  1. Eating a decent sized (but not too big) meal to make sure I don’t get hit by the liquor too quickly. (Chips + queso + quesedilla) 800 calories (and I’m being conservative on that one)
  2. One Blue Moon beer (171 calories)
  3. A mixed shot from bar with all sorts of sweeteners (120 calories)
  4. One Dos Equis beer (130 calories)
  5. One rum and Coke (182 calories)
  6. One vodka and Red Bull (177 calories)
  7. One vodka and Red Bull (177 calories)
  8. One Irish Car Bomb (Guinness beer + a shot of Bailey’s Irish Cream and quick chug) (237 calories)
  9. One vodka and Red Bull (177 calories)
  10. One Rum and Coke (182 calories)
  11. One Blue Moon beer (171 calories)
  12. After all the drinking naturally most of crave REALLY HEAVY FOOD, and I’m no different.  I’ll usually go out for street food and get two giant slices of pizza or a giant bratwurst sausage loaded with sauerkraut and all the condiments. (I’d say each slice is 400-500 calories…for a VERY CONSERVATIVE total of 850 calories).

Oh…my….god.  I don’t even want to do the math because I’m scared.

Calories from drinks: 1,724
Calories from drinking-related foods:  1,650
Total Calories from a night out: 3,374

HOLY…FREAKIN’….CRAP.

That figure doesn’t even include what you ate before that night out, or what fatty-ass foods you’ll eat when you wake up hungry for heavy foods (which alcohol tends to do).

To give you some perspective, a person like me is supposed to eat 2,000 calories per day at MOST unless there’s some insane amount of working out you do.

Currently during this experiment I’m only taking in 800 to 1,300 calories PER DAY….but on a drinking  night out I might take in 3,000+ calories in a few hours!!! Is this blowing your mind yet!?!?!

No wonder people get so damn fat from years of drinking!  It loads you up with empty calories that DON’T make you full or give you any nutritional value, plus it ALSO makes you hungry for super heavy foods. Double whammy.

NOW THAT I’M EDUCATED AND ENLIGHTENED:

….I’ve found a cure to get rid of all those calories:

Don’t drink.  Simple.

..

….

…….

……….

…………..

HAHAHAHAHA!! Yea right!  We’re trying to have our cake and drink it too!

So after my research I’ve come upon the drinks that have the fewest calories:

  • Unflavored and clear vodka’s, rums, gins etc.  If it’s clear and unflavored, it’s in the 90 to 110 calorie range.  Each shot is considered (1.5 oz)
  • Bud Light, Coors Light, Miller Light….anything “Light” has around 110 calories.
  • Club soda.  If you NEED a mixer for that vodka, either get water or club soda….NOT tonic water (it’s the same amount of calories as a soft drink).

Well…those are the lowest calorie things I could find.  Anything with flavoring or color in it has other additives that add calories and sugar or other crap.  So I decided for this experiment that if I was going to drink, it’d be either straight vodka or rum (possibly with club soda) or “Light” beers.

Ok, so that sounds pretty boring, and like my get a cool plate post, I want to encourage you to make a cool drink!

So I started making these vodka and fruit concoctions I’ve affectionately termed as “Vodka Salad”.

I simply start by taking a fun glass and filling it with 1 shot (1.5 oz) of vodka:

Then I do what seems gross but actually tastes great and tear up a clementine and dump it inside the vodka:

I even squeeze some of the clementine pieces so they leak their juices into the vodka for taste.  You can add ice or water as filler.  You end up getting a great tasting, low calorie, nutritious, and cool-looking drink!

What’s even more cool is you get “Vodka Candy Pieces” when you eat the fruit!

I add all sorts of things into the drinks when I’m at home, one of my favorite fillers is grapes:

So far these Vodka Salad’s are what I’ve been drinking at home if we have a party.  At first people are like, “Ummm, WHAT are you doing?”  Then pretty soon they’re saying, “Ummm, can I have some of that fruit…please?” as they pick vodka-infused fruit from my glass like candy.

If you’re going to drink while trying to lose weight, I’d suggest follow these few quick tips:

  • Compensate for drinking at night by eating very low calorie through the day.
  • For liquor: Drink clear and unflavored vodka, rum or gin.
  • For beer: Stick to anything with “Light” in the name.
  • Skip that late night meal.
  • Load your drinks with fruit if possible.

Bottoms up!
-Neville

6-Pack Experiment – What I eat for a day

by

The Getting A Six Pack Experiment has been in effect for about 2 weeks now, and I have purposely not been posting what I eat everyday for the first two weeks….I wanted to first get some good, solid meals that fill me up, have extraordinarily low calories, provide tons of nutrition…and mainly, leave me feeling energetic.

I didn’t want to post stuff that left me feeling terrible.

The way I’m tracking what I eat is through Adam’s company MyBodyTutor.  Not only do I track what I eat, but I get professional feedback on each and every meal.

Now the biggest problem I personally face when reading about “eating well” is I STILL DON’T KNOW WHAT THE FUCK TO EAT!

Why don’t these people just TELL me exactly what to eat for breakfast/lunch/dinner?  Oh wait, they do….they tell me to eat THEIR food which they provide you for $399/month.   Thanks guys.

Well that’s not sustainable (although it is a FANTASTIC business model though)!

If something DOES tell you what to eat, it says, “Eat a healthy dose of foods with nuts, grains, fruits and vegetables.”  Umm….ok….such as???

Anyhow, I figured if people could learn something, it’s just a simple picture documentary of what I eat on a typical day….BEGIN:

11:30 AM:

4 spring rolls made out of:

  • 4 rice wraps
  • 1 tablespoon soy sauce
  • 1 cup spinach
  • 1/2 avocado
  • 1/2 cup cashews
  • 2 clementines

I basically dump and the stuff in a bowl, mix it up, then wrap them in the rice wraps (I’ll do a full tutorial later). They taste amazing and average to about 50 calories a piece…so I get completely full from 200 calories….in comparison a Snickers has 440 calories and doesn’t fill you up.

So many of my friends see me making these, taste them, now THEY make them all the time!  It’s an incredibly healthy and tasty meal.

3:50 PM:

1/2 cup of grapes (somewhere around a handful)

5:20 PM:

1 apple
1 handful of raw cashews

6:50 PM:

A salad with:

  • 1/2 cup spinach
  • 1/2 cup strawberries
  • 1/2 cup cashews
  • 1 cup grapes
  • 1 tablespoon soy sauce


(Ok, I admit, that’s the wrong picture, but it’s not that far off).

This is easy stuff to eat, and it tastes great! I barely consumed any calories, I got a TON of nutrition, I felt satisfied and I felt nice and light afterwards.

8:25 PM:

1/2 cup carrots
2 clementines

10:20 PM

1/4 cup almonds
1 clementine

I NEVER feel guilty about snacking on raw fruits and vegetables.  Eat your freakin heart out of those.  That was the whole day’s worth of food.

Exercise:

-Ran 25 minutes on the elliptical machine (very hard resistance).
-Did all the ab exercises given to me by MBT.
-Went for a quick swim in the pool.
-Did ab exercises throughout the day during breaks.

This is a pretty typical day of eating and exercise (not even that much exercise).  This food actually fills me up, and I don’t go around hungry all day.  I HAVE learned how to eat less over time, and your body adapts to it just fine.  Eating like this took some practice, but now it’s a perfect amount.

Just look at all that stuff, you can’t POSSIBLY feel sluggish after any of those meals!

Back in college I would’ve though this kind of eating was insane, but that’s because I was so used to loading up on really heavy foods every single day.

I’ll do these daily posts a few more days, and try to include the calories too (this day was very low as you can see). One value meal at a McDonald’s will have far more calories than this entire days worth of eating, AND it’ll make you sluggish.

Oops I Did It Again

by

I first got an iphone, then I sort of cracked the screen a little, now I completely shattered another screen!

….yet it somehow still works perfectly.

Even though I’ve cracked two…I’ve never used a case or screen protector and I don’t treat it special…so considering the abuse this thing goes through it has held up amazingly well.

How did I break it?  It involved running and texting at the same time.

Well, luckily it still works perfectly and screen replacements are only $99!

—————————-

UPDATE: 4-15-2010
I express shipped myself an iPhone 3GS glass and digitizer kit from eBay to replace the screen myself….mistake.

My shattered screen made the whole removal process take a long time, plus I ALSO cracked the LCD screen behind the glass in the process!  I had to get it repaired for $120 at a cell repair place (simply replacing the glass in the first place would’ve only cost $89).

Throw In A Monkey Wrench for Six-Pack Experiment

by

For most of the year I live in a house about 5 miles away from Downtown Austin.  This house is nice, spacious and a drive away from everything, so controlling what I eat in that area is easy.

However nearly every summer I get a place smack in the middle of Downtown (like the 4,000 sq. ft. 6th Street loft I had for a few months) just for fun.  This year I have a place on 9th Street for a few months, just walking distance to everything I need and everything fun!  I also have a car and scooter in case I need to go further.

Now when a person lives Downtown, it automatically opens you up to having parties, hosting guests and going downtown more often….and eating crappier more often….plus Austin is considered the “Hardest Drinking City In America“!

There’s late-night junk food places a-plenty around this area…and I do love me some junk food.  However at the same time I’ll be living in this area, I’ll ALSO be doing this six pack experiment.  So this will be a definite experiment with self control.

It also STOPS people from saying, “Ohh, it’s easy to eat like that where YOU live”…because that’s definitely not the case anymore.

I’ve already been out to several family friends house where there was good-food-galore, but I’ve found it very easy to abstain from eating junk….mainly because of what I’ve learned from Adam.

Anyhow, here’s a quick tour of the Downtown place…two things to keep in mind:

  • I say “you won’t find soda in this fridge” but there’s clearly a Coke in there…that was from the previous guy who lived here…must remember to throw that out.
  • I have this place for about 2 months, and still have my other place 5 miles from Downtown

Starting Off “The Getting A Six-Pack” Experiment

by

For the upcoming Six-Pack Experiment I have planned for the whole month of April I’ve got one goal: Get a six-pack in roughly one month.

I’m not fat, but I’m not lean enough for abs to show through.

(I think that’s what a six pack looks like)

There will be three main things I need to do during this experiment on a level I’ve never done before:

  • Go into a calorie deficiency for several weeks to lose weight
  • Do a bunch of ab exercises
  • Consistent cardio exercises

The HARDEST part of this is eating properly, thankfully I’ve been practicing doing that for the last month or two and have been successful at it….in fact preferring it.

I workout all the time and eat (relatively) correctly, but not to the extent I should…and I feel it’s because I’m not sure what to do.

So one thing I wanted for this experiment was PROFESSIONAL ADVICE. Originally I was going to get a personal trainer here in Austin, but that alienates everyone who wants to join me in this experiment (I know a couple of you out there have asked). “Oh, he had a personal trainer…no fair.”

Well I found a workaround. A fellow blogger Adam Gilbert.  That link is his personal blog, but what I’m interested in is the successful business he runs called MyBodyTutor.

Adam runs an online business that’s kind of like a “virtual personal trainer”…..but more than just dishing out some simple advice, he actually keeps you on track to hit your goals.  I signed up for his monthly service roughly a week ago, and told him “My goal is to get an awesome six-pack.”

With that said, he went ahead and gave me certain exercises to do and tips on eating yadda yadda…BUT THE BEST THING is the daily tracking you must do.  I didn’t realize this at first, but they have a whole back end to the website that members sign into daily….THIS is why I signed up…to be held accountable for everything I eat and how much I work out.

I signed up for the service about one week ago, and have eaten the best in my life these past 7 days thanks to Adam.  I’ll explain more about the process later in the experiment.

So in addition to being accountable by posting this experiment on my blog, I’ll be getting professional help, advice and accountability from Adam (thanks man)!

Currently, this is what we’re working with:


So obviously I’m not a big lard here, but if you look closer…you can see the problem:

We’ve got to get rid of that bit of chub.

———————————-

Amidst all the semi-lame April Fool’s Jokes other bloggers will be playing on their readers today, I will be starting something that’s less funny, but more useful (To me…but hopefully others too).

This is called the Getting a Six-Pack Experiment, so I want to make it pseudo scientific….and by pseudo I mean “scientific in a sense that even a dumb guy like me can understand”.

The Scientific Method:

  • Define the question – Can I get a six pack in one month?
  • Gather information and resources (observe) – I will be basing this experiment on past experiences with losing weight, what I learned recently about calories and professional advice from MBT.
  • Form hypothesis – I believe by April 31st I will be able to see my abdominal muscles MUCH better, creating a “six-pack” on my stomach WITHOUT starving myself at all.
  • Perform experiment and collect data – Starting today I’ll be documenting everything I eat and do for exercise.
  • Analyze data – Hold on fool…I haven’t started yet!
  • Interpret data and draw conclusions that serve as a starting point for new hypothesis – Hold on…let me start first!
  • Publish results – Wait till after April.

———————————-

On that note, I definitely think others out there should TRY THIS EXPERIMENT WITH ME! …and maybe not just trying to get a six pack, but maybe to start eating “just a little” better, or get just a “little” slimmer, or workout more…

It would make it more interesting and motivating to have others follow along to some extent.

LET THE SIX-PACK EXPERIMENT BEGIN!!

Effort

by

I write this for two reasons:

1.) I am starting that 6-pack experiment in April and have begun preparing for it by eating ultra-clean and ultra-lean. Pretty much all day I’m eating 100% raw foods only…that’s not the plan for the whole month, but it’s been my diet for the last week.  It’s not hard as I expected (because I’ve been eating well for a few months now), but keeping this up for a full month and resisting the urge to pig out at social events gets HARD.

However for the month of April I want to see a dramatic change in the way my stomach looks…and for that I need to be calorie deficient for weeks at a time.  I can easily keep my current physique with the way I’m eating now, but my diet must be extra-ordinarily good to see those extraordinary results.

2.) As you know I own a business called House Of Rave which is all online.  Over the last year I made a lot of small tweaks which cut down on the number of customer support inquires and time spent getting orders out.  At a bare minimum I need to spend less than 30 minutes every weekday administering the site…the rest runs on it’s own.  That alone can pay all my bills and still save money.

Pretty cool eh! 30 minutes of work per day!

Well…I also like the business to GROW….so to maintain AND grow the site takes about 2 hours per day (mainly spent adding product photo/video reviews).

I will admit…over these first few months of 2010 those small required amounts of time have spoiled me. I’ve stopped updating the site as much as I should.  The 1st quarter is never a FANTASTIC time for a business like mine (which sells party supplies) and is also enduring a bad economy, but I think I’ve been slipping quite a bit on my responsibilities to it.

Extraordinary effort doesn’t necessarily mean long hours (although that certainly helps)….because with this business a very consistent tweaking of small things every day can make a HUGE impact.  I’ve proved this many times, including one time I documented 30 small changes I made with very clear results (aka MO MONEY)!

I think what I’ll do in April is one day blog about a small HoR change, then the next day document the diet and steps I’ve taken to get a ripped-ass six pack.

Find merchant supplies and POS terminals at Moneris Solutions.

Point Down

by

A friend told me that an interesting (yet effective) marketing technique on
webpages is to make the text slowly start pointing downwards to
the place where you want the visitors to click. It kind of makes sense to
make the text itself form an “arrow” down to the button, plus it all seems to
lead down a path, and the click (or whatever action) is the final stage.  I
suppose this works well because of the naturally down pointing text.  It’s
probably some sort of human reaction to follow the path that’s marked out,
like a crowd of people walking through one door when the other doors are
all open.  They simply follow the crowd.  This seems like one of
those techniques that makes you say, “Why am I still
reading this” …but you keep reading all the way to
the bottom.  By the end you’re so invested in
reading that you’ll naturally be much more
inclined to click or fill out some form or
whatever the author wants you to
do.  I’m not exactly sure how
effective this is from hard
numbers…..but I bet it
works decently well.

Have Sales Gone Down In the Poor Economy?

by

Here’s a question I’ve been getting more and more geared towards my business House Of Rave:

Have your sales gone down in the poor economy?

It’s actually a fantastic question and relatively interesting to hear different answers from different business owners.

So, have your sales gone down in the poor economy?

MY ANSWER:
YES…..but not in the traditional sense. Let me explain:

Most people expect that sales simply stopped coming in after the economic downturn, this hasn’t been true even though House Of Rave sells things people buy only on disposable income.  In fact, if you never told me there was a “recession” going on, I probably wouldn’t have noticed too much….people still order all the time (although I’ve seen a very significant drop in big orders from large corporations).

The MAIN problem I’ve had which takes a DIRECT shot at lowering my sales is all the cool products are out of stock.  Almost all of my previous best sellers are no longer being manufactured.

HouseOfRave sells “hard to find” and “unique” products….which often means “they don’t sell it in big stores”.  This has been great so far, but a problem I’m seeing now is manufacturers are on tight budgets and don’t have the capital required to mass produce slower selling items.  I may be able to sell 10 per day of an item, but a manufacturer might need to sell 10,000 of them per day to keep cash flow moving.

….so unless an item can move HUGE quantities quick, the product might be discontinued.

This has been the predominate way that my business has been affected.  The cool part is, with more marketing and more effort I’ve been able to maintain and grow both the profit and sales of the business, but it’s required more effort than in the past (keep in mind I used to put NO effort into it at all).  Before, I would just slap products on the site and they sold….it doesn’t seem to be quite as easy anymore.

Many smaller manufacturers and product patent holders are going out of business now.  Think about it, to manufacture just ONE simple product you must spend hundreds of thousands of dollars for materials and labor, store them, then find people to buy them.  Before you make even one CENT from the product, you could blow through a half-million dollars on credit.  If the product is a flop (note the importance of beforehand PRODUCT RESEARCH) you’re screwed…..and I’m just using the example of small-scale manufacturing of novelty products.

While my business doesn’t have the extreme overhead of these manufacturers, I feel their pain indirectly when a cool product of theirs goes out of stock.