Every summer during college, John & I would have one goal. Become jacked and tan. It never happened, ever. With the start of the 2018, I come with the same mission, become jacked and tan. Minus the tan part and more of just get back in shape instead of jacked, but you get the point. Now before we start, be sure to check out the Vlog from January!
After our Snowy New Year, Rachel and I headed back to Chicago with some new years goals. Rachel somehow convinced me to do the Whole30 diet again with her this year. This time we are going all in. No alcohol for January, and only healthy, all natural foods.
Before we dive into it, I would like to add to my jacked and tan story from late high school/college. I'll have it known that John and I were working out two, sometimes three times a day. And we were tanning in between those workout sessions. So despite consistently working out, we never seemed to have a lot of muscle growth. I am going to say that we failed our mission because of one thing, our diet. I now realize the root of the issue was our food intake. I would slam candy (as I was the king of candy) and not eating all that healthy. My diet was made up of burgers, pasta, fried chicken patties, pizza, ramen, pretzels, chips, candy and other foods relatively low in protein, high in sugar, fat, and carbohydrates.
Fast forward 10ish years and here we are, January 2018. I am working out about 500% less, but my diet is 500% better. So what is the Whole30 diet all about you ask? Let me quickly go over what we can and cannot have. The quickest and simplest rule is that we can pretty much eat anything that is real and natural. Read up:
Things we CAN eat
Meats (unprocessed of course)
Fruits (in moderation, watch yo natural sugars)
Veggies (includes potatoes, yum)
Nuts & Seeds (no peanuts tho)
Eggs (lots of eggs)
Seafood (still not a huge fan, but gotta dive in)
Coffee (black with no additives, luckily I don't personally drink coffee anyway)
Things we CANNOT eat
Dairy (no milk, butter, or cheese)
Grains (no rice, quinoa, corn, or wheat)
Alcohol (ya booze ya lose)
Legumes (can't eat beans unfortunately)
Added Sugar (no honey, maple syrup, stevia, etc)
Processed foods (check the label, don't recognize it? don't have it)
Junk foods (don't recreate bad foods out of good foods, ex: cauliflour pizza)
On top of this healthy diet which has really turned me around, we have started to workout. Every Friday after work, Rachel and I have been attending Orange Theory Fitness. These hour long classes involve 25 minutes of treadmill (cardio) and 25 minutes of free weights combined with rowing. Plus 10 minutes of warmup/stretching. I usually try to push myself pretty hard in these classes and enjoy the set up of the workout. If you are not motivated or capable of making your own circuit workout plan, these classes are great! And if you care about tracking your heart rate, they do a fantastic job as well. I'm not too concerned about knowing if I am in the "orange zone" by working hard. I either am going hard or I am not. One of my complaints about Orange Theory is their lockers are at the main entrance, so you can't really change unless you go into the bathrooms which are just bathrooms. Kind of a weird setup. My only other complaint is the price, but it is pretty standard for a group type of class I guess. Depending on your plan it is either $25 or $20 per class. Great workouts that really get me working out my legs more than ever before. Good start to the January weekends.
The next morning on Saturdays, we have been getting beat down at Alana's Sculpt class at Corepower Yoga with Torie. (I have been doing these classes since late 2015 in prep for the Wedding). This is by far the hardest workout I have ever done. I think mostly because of the heat. It is so hot in the room, must be 90+, pushing 100 degrees I'll say, that sometimes my lungs feel restricted and it is super hard to breathe. This along with the constant movements and no "breaks" that Alana "gives" is a recipe for a beatdown. I sweat an insane amount, soaked through my shirt & dripping from my arms, often shaking in my boots from the exercises (updogs, downdogs, squats, pushups, curls, shoulder press, kickbacks, lunges, abs & more!). Rachel, Torie & I usually post up at the front of the class, which is nice because I get to look directly at myself in the mirror, but also a pressure since everyone can watch me. I am one of the few males in the class, which can often be embarrassing when I am laying on the ground in pain as everyone else continues to workout (this only happened a few times I swear). Again my complaint is the price, depending on your plan it is either $25 or $20 per class. After class I often bond with the other males in the locker room since there are only a few of us and we talk about how grueling the class is. I've run into other lax bros too many times.
The combo of eating healthy (Whole30) and working out on Friday (Orange Theory) and Saturday (Core Power) has resulted in some amazing changes and advantages in my life throughout the month of January.
Josh's Benefits of Eating Healthy & Working Out
Better overall health (immune system)
Woke up feeling good with plenty of energy
Able to focus and get more stuff done throughout the day
Better poops. You heard that right. Poop!
Lost 10 lbs somehow
Tighter muscles and body with less fat
Strongest leg muscles since college
Saved dat $$ by not drinking or going out to eat (Hundreds of $)
Rach's Key Benefits from Eating Healthy
Handled stress better
Less tired, more consistent energy levels
Never feeling bloated
Now I am not going to lie and say this diet (lifestyle change) wasn't hard at times. Whether it was wanting to eat some pizza, having to spend a ton more time on grocery shopping and cooking, or feeling tired and weak by being deprived of sugar throughout the first two weeks. We battled through the challenges and made it the entire 30 days without cheating once. Winners! My final tip is that you need to eat A LOT more than you think you do when doing this diet. You'll eat more than you normally do, and more often during the day because all this healthy food does not fill you up as quickly as the junk food we normally eat. If you don't eat enough (which I didn't plenty of times) you will lack energy and feel tired. You need to eat fat and a good amount of it for energy. Bacon was key for me on this diet. Mmm bacon. We hope to continue this lifestyle for a majority of our weeks ahead. Let's say maybe 5/7 days to start?
Meanwhile, here are some other notable events that took place in January.
Wednesday January 3rd, 2018 I went to Mariano's for the first time ever with Beth. It was an alright grocery.
Saturday January 6 - Yoga and Ashley's bday in Lockport (we managed to not drink at a bar!)
Sunday January 7th - Lunch with Grandpa Bob, Mom, Dad, & Beth at Lou Malnatis in Chicago (we managed to not eat pizza at a pizza place!)
Wednesday January 10th - Company Holiday lunch at Capri Sogno in Plainfield (I managed not to get pasta at an Italian pasta place!)
Saturday January 13th - Play settlers of catan at Torie and Tim’s with Rachel, Torie, Tim, Brian, & Megan (Torie was sweet enough to get us berries & grapes for dessert!)
Friday January 19th - I attended a concert at Lincoln Hall and saw Ron Gallo, Yoko and Oh Noes, & Dianne Coffee (managed not to drink)
Monday January 22nd - Orange Theory on my own, I walked to and from, checking out Rach's old apartment in Old Town on the walk home
Wednesday January 24th - The iconic Rock and Roll McDoanld's on Ontario is being torn down! A symbolism of McDonalds in my life? I haven't had McDonald's in all of January and February in 2018. Go ahead and see the Last time I was at this McDonalds it was a stop on a Trolley
Friday January 26th - My last Orange theory fitness class - Beth comes over and we watch Lonely island videos all night.
Saturday January 27th - Core power Sculpt with Rach & Torie again. Did a face mask thing. That night Rachel and I go out to eat at Prime Bar. Then see Beautiful: Carole King the Musical at the Cadillac Palace. Fantastic show about an amazing woman who wrote so many famous songs like The Loco-Motion and Some Kind of Wonderful.
On Wednesday January 31st I wokeup at 530a to photograph the Super Blue Blood Moon and Lunar Eclipse. This was the first time this has happened since 1866. Unfortunately we didn't get the blood part since it’s too bright out in Chicago. I was able to see the blood moon part via NASA satellite. See the mornings events in photos below.
Thursday February 1st was the last day of the diet. The Whole 30 diet is over and Rachel was sweet enough to get me some whisky and we celebrated with tacos. Basically Whole30 compliant still!
TV Show of the Month: Black Mirror Season 4 (available on Netflix). Quality show that requires no previous episodes to be seen.
Song of the Month: Vince Staples, Big Fish - Great beat with some poppin' lyrics - It's rap
Before I head out I want to let everyone know I watched 16 of Emma Stone's movies in January and wrote a blog about it. I think everyone should go read that blog and attempt to eat healthy at some point this year. Even if it just for the week days, anything will help with your overall health. I am excited for the upcoming months and lacrosse season. See ya there!
Josh
