Really quick post

Had a pretty long day so I don't have a lot of time to make a post. I just wanted to say I played some frisbee today and hurt my hand, the frisbee repeatedly hit the same spot and now I have a swollen bruise. I hope it doesn't make gripping the resistance bands and push up bars hurt too much.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

I'll post more tomorrow

New Workout and Progress

So everybody without further ado here is my Week 3 (That's right Week 3!) workout. I'm gonna post the minimum-maximum (which isn't rally a max since we can work to failure) and after in parentheses  what I plan to be able to do, since some workout I cannot do to the max yet.

Workout 1

Jump-rope - 1500 (max)

Squats - 4x10-15 (max)

Incline Pull-up - 5x4-8 (8-8-8-8-5)

Push-up - 5x8-12 (12-12-12-10-10)

Curl - 4x10 (max)

Side Shoulder-fly - 4x10-15 (12-12-12-12)

Sit-up - 4x15-20 (max)

Workout 2

Lunge - 4x10-15 (max)

Lawnmower - 4x5-8 (don't know yet but I think max)

Chest-fly - 4x10-15  (max)

Ski Jumper - 3x8-10 (max)

Shoulder Press - 4x10-15 (don;t know yet probably in the middle my shoulders need work)

Leg-up - 4x10-15 (max, barely)

So I mentioned that I was gonna keep track of my measurements over the weeks. I wish I had the resources and time to also eep track of body fat percentage and measurements of muscles  when flexed but I have myself to measure myself so here are my updated measurements so far on Day 15!

Weight - 144lbs (down 4lbs)
Waist - 31.5" (down .5")
Stomach - 32.25" (down .75")

Chest - 36" (down .5")
Thighs - 20" (up 1")
Calves - 13.5" (same)
Biceps - 12.5" (same)
Forearms - 10.5" (same)

Results: It seems our intentional quad building has worked! Also places that had fat have shrunk! And my smaller muscles groups and always lean parts of my body (arms and claves) have not changed, understandably since we have only had one week to work on them and they should not shrink since I had very little fat there. My sister and I joke it's a Belle-Isle curse to put all fat on your stomach. It's true, trust me.

Alright I'm off to clean up after my workout. 

PCP advice of the day: Don't jump at night when it humid, reason = mosquitos 

Have a nice night world!

Just a quick post

Hey guys. Just wanted to say I am really feeling good and can't believe 2 weeks are now over! The mind is really funny, when we are busy time goes really fast in the moment, but in retrospect seems to have been forever. And when we have little to do in the moment time seems to drag but in retrospect went very fast. 

I look back on this week with pride at how much I have already accomplished. I am so grateful to be here and to have all of you sharing in this experience. Amy, Adrian, Emiko, Tim, and Patrick it's so great to have each other to make a fitness based community around here on our blogs. Thanks so much for the encouragement. That also goes for my family and friends who are reading this blog. Thank you.

So anyway my diet changes as of tomorrow. Our last week of "Stuff our face" diets were to get our metabolisms up to light-speed, and used to burning healthy amounts of healthy food. We are now trimming portions of our diets down so that our body can burn it's excess fat (which as Patrick said in his closing PCP post, even skinny people have, but it's in the muscle tissue). He also emphasized that we "eat our snacks" as naturally these will keep our metabolisms burning from dawn till dusk without stopping to "store" fat.

So here is the new diet

Breakfast  100g carb 100g veg 1egg 150ml yogurt (down 50g carb)

Morning snack  100g fruit

Lunch  150g carb 150g veg 150g meat

Afternoon tea 100g fruit

Dinner 100g meat 100g veg 100g fruit (down 50g veg & meat)

Night tea 1egg white 150ml milk (down 50ml milk & 1 banana)

There you have it!

Have a nice night everyone!

Some PCP Observations.

So I have been noticing some things and I thought to post them here in a little interesting list. So here goes!

1. Reflexes - I thought it was a coincidence at first but there are multiple times a day that I realize I have sharper reflexes than usual. I manage to catch something I drop or react to something out of the corner of my eye better than usual. I think it is definitely a PCP side-effect and I hope it improves more!

2. Contentment - I have been a lot more content. I think this is due to lack of boredom. I'm getting a lot of exercise, eating a lot of good food, and resting well. Nothing could be better. I wish I had a way to work at home so I could have even less stress and be more self-sufficient. I haven't watched TV or done something pointless on the computer since the project started and you know what? I don't miss it. My recreation is c=solely reading, studying,  having a good time with friends. I hope that after the project I will have more time for my art I barely get to pick up a brush once a month now it's terrible! But I will remedy that in time.

3. Creativity - The fact I am accomplishing what feels like a TON right now has given me so much creative inspiration. I can see why "lazy" Patrick has found the need to start more projects I already have been formulating some post-PCP projects in my head and I hope I really get to tackle at least a few of them.

So that's a couple things I have for now. More (many more) to come in the future.

Oh and one side-note. In our e-mail form Patrick today he said that if possible we should do or last sets to muscle failure. Crazy right!? The PCP1 group did not do this until their last month or so. I'm gonna do it and hope it for the best.

Mainly because I loathe the inch or so of fat left on  my stomach and want it to be gone! ASAP!

Thanks for reading everyone! Have a wonderful night's rest

A Couple Random Thoughts

So my Dad and I were driving around the other day and we noticed many more people running/biking/jogging/walking/hobbling along the road than usual. We came to the conclusion that they are "Olympians." Many people have been encouraged by the feats of athleticism at the recent Olympic events and are in turn motivated to give getting in shape another go. This of course is a great side-effect. I just wish more people stopped "forcing" themselves to be healthy and actually enjoyed it. The faces people make when they run border between hilarious and pitiful. But I can sympathize I have never been a runner, but now I'm a jumper!

Also on the topic of Olympians it really upsets me that any one of them would take any amount of money to be in an ad for McDonald's. All the good they do for the world by being a fitness example is shot down when they make people think they not only eat McDonald's but that they enjoy it and it is food of "Olympians." Gimme a break they should be ashamed.

And finally Usain Bolt is crazy. They man could chase down a gazelle, seriously.

He could.

So I tried the "official" boxing jump today, It's when you basically run in place and for every step of a foot the rope passes under. I tell you what, it is WAY easier to get winded like that. Your arms have to go twice as fast to keep up but once you get the rhythm it's much harder to trip over the rope and you can do many in a row no problem. The problem is I don't have the cardio skills to do sets of 100 I start to get winded around 50. It's a goal of mine to work up to that slowly though.

Anyway I'm off for my night tea. Have a good night everyone.

Seriously though, he could catch a Gazelle and kill it, with his teeth. 

Like a cheetah.

Bees!

So I was doing my jumps this morning outside and I had the great pleasure of snapping some shots of some bees (Honey Bees and Bumble-bees I think) I hope you enjoy the shots down at the bottom!

So anyway I am totally surprised at how fast my cardio-abilities are improving. I did all 1000 jumps today in sets of 200 and I didn't get winded in the least I think I hit the perfect pace all the way through. 

So a little update on how my workouts are doing. I am doing really good with most thing but cant hit the max range of the reps we were given on 4 exercises. I'm not to worried because I can hit any where in the range we are allowed OK so I'm not falling behind. But the 3 I am having the most difficulty with are the pull-ups (first time I did them I had my hand the wrong way and they were a lot easier that way) the curls I can get max reps on 2 sets, and both shoulder-flys (forward and side) I can only get max on the first set. So it seems my shoulders biceps and back need the most work right now.

Hopefully I will see just as much progress there as I have with my Jump-roping.

So Have a great day everyone enjoy these little creatures as much as I did!

David Belle

So as everyone know (or maybe you don't) my Hero for the PCP is David Belle. I thought I would take a little time to tell show you some things about him so you can respect the discipline he follows as much as I do. The work he does is incredible and I feel he is someone who has the PCP mindset and body. So enjoy a couple of these vids!

This one is some highlight's of his work. Gives me chills.

This is an interview with David. It's translated with subtitles but the fact he can talk at all while doing this stuff is . . . insane.

So enjoy the vids. Have a nice day everyone I hope the sun is shining where you are. If not make it shine!

Eye of the Tiger!

So I'm going to start off by describing our new work-out routines. Patrick unveiled for us our exclusive PCP2 privilege and that's that we not only get a sneak-peak at his book but are following the new and improved methods that Patrick and Chen are much more confident in wielding results in 90 days. Sorry guys we can't share with you the pages form the book but we can share our routine, but I must say the color-coordinated informational picture diagrams are very helpful! 

So the way it works is we have a Workout 1 & 2 and a day of muscle rest with just jump-roping to use on any day of the week we choose. So every week you should do 3 of Workout 1, 3of Workout 2, and 1 day of just skipping.

I planned  my week as follows:

Saturday - Off day

Sunday  - Workout 1

Monday - Workout 2

Tuesday - Workout 1

Wednesday - Workout 2

Thursday - Workout 1

Friday - Workout 2

So you get the picture. I won't post that every week I'll just let you know what day I choose to rest. I'm not going to regret having to rest today, I had a lot going on. I had a friends funeral to go to and then after one of my buddy's and I worked on our project of turning an old zenith wood box TV into a fish tank to get our minds off of everything. I was at the point of almost not doing anything I was so wiped out but I checked my e-mail read some comments and knew I had to do it.

I killed those 1000 skips.

I never attacked the jumps so hard and felt so good I did sets like this 200-100-100-100-100-100-100-200 I rested about 20 seconds in between.

At 300 I wanted to punch something in the face it was awesome.

From jump 400-700 I didn't trip once.

And at 800-1000 I couldn't feel my legs.

I tell you what nothing so far has given me more courage in the PCP if it wasn't for the fact I would get to bed to late and throw off tomorrow's schedule I would do my strength training now but I wanted to be able to blog and share that one great thing is the PCP gets you in the zone and helps you work through tough times.

So my workout is as follows.

Workout 1

1000 Jumps

Squats - 3x15

Incline pull-up - 4x8

Push-up - 4x10

Curl - 3x10

Side shoulder fly - 4x12

Sit-up - 4x15

Workout 2

1000 Jumps

Lunge - 3x10

Incline pull-up - 4x8

Chest Fly - 4x12

Triceps dip - 3x8

Forward shoulder fly - 4x12

Leg-up - 4x15

So there you have it!

Have a nice night everyone. And if you're stressed do yourself some good, don't turn to comfort food and the TV, your body doesn't know what's best for you but your brain does, so tell yourself to go move, walk, run, jump, do some squats, anything and trust me you will reap the benefits.

New diet. aka more food then ever!

So we got our new diet plans. 

I have to say this, I have never been a breakfast guy, wasn't serious about even eating anything in the mornings till I read Patrick's PCP blog. And even then It was a banana or a cup of yogurt with some granola, maybe some fresh fruit like berries. And in the case of having a morning off I would make eggs and toast around 10am. Not really breakfast. 

So without further ado Here is my Week 2 diet plan. After I blog here I'm off to make that smoothie (If I don't feel like the clean-up I'll just eat them separate. The first time I do make the smoothie I will be sure to share the experience).

Breakfast  150g carb 100g veg 1egg  150ml yogurt

Morning snack 100g fruit

Lunch 150g carb 150g meat 150g veg

Afternoon snack 100g fruit

Dinner  150g meat 150g veg 100g fruit

Night tea 1 banana 1egg white 200ml milk (blended together in a smoothie if you like)

I have to admit I didn't eat everything to the max today. That's more carbs than I'm used to, and much more vegetables so I will have to focus on really following the diet plan to the full. This is going to be the biggest challenge I think. Everyone has been talking a lot about "routine" I say bring it on! If I can get into the habit of eating the food and preparing it and getting up early to do it so be it!

So we all got the most interesting e-mail from Patrick yet. It is about our exercise plans starting tomorrow. More on the tomorrow. But trust me it's cool. Can't wait!

PCP2 team we are really in it now! Lets rock the PCP!

Have a nice night everyone.

Week 1 Comes to a Finish!

Well Week 1 I will be sad to see you go. But, at the same time I am totally stoked to see what week 2 holds!

Patrick suggested maybe taking some picture of us enjoying out last 1/2 meal of whatever we want. Well last week before the PCP began I had my last splurge (on chocolate cake) and was fighting the temptation ever since so I wasn't about to set myself up to fail this week by eating something with addictive properties like chocolate and sugar!

So I had a tasty dish of Shanghai Shrimp and a fortune cookie! 

And of course a silly picture of me enjoying it's tasty goodness!

And the little piece of wisdom my cookie provided!

So I also went out today and bought everything else I need for the project that I didn't already have. 

The scale for food. Push-up bars (which are very interesting. I find the push-up a new experience, I like how there is little straining on my wrists and also how it seems to work the shoulders more. But they are more difficult) and also some great little dishes to separate my food for the day to bring with me to work. 

I'm going to do a weekly pose I think to give a different angle than the flickr stream so here's for week 1! 

Thanks for reading and the support. Have a peaceful evening everyone.

No way!

Is it the 20th of August already! It's crazy I don't know what happened to this month. 

So I'm just gonna post a few points briefly because I am very busy today. 

1. Week 1 is almost over! Craziness

2. I know I promised pics of my vegetable garden and I will get those up soon. I'm just swamped today so expect them in the next couple days.

3. So far for the Salsa & Sauce Project I am going to do a green salsa (per patrick) and a spicy peach salsa (per amy). I think for sauces I am going to do a garlic habanero. And I am not sure what else quite yet.

4. The weather here has been perfect! 67-72 degrees every day with a nice breeze and some fluffy clouds. We have had a really rainy summer which is nice because everything is still green but sadly come this weekend it's supposed to get back up to 85-90 degrees and sunny for maybe 5 days and no rain! I hate that. I am definitely an autumn guy. I love the 55-75 degree range!

Thanks for all the support everyone and I will be back tomorrow! Have a nice day!

Revelations

So I realized a couple things today.

1. I will never do my jump-roping  right after dinner ever-ever again. It was a strange feeling. Instead of my muscles not being able to keep up with my breath, it was the opposite. I was getting winded way easier. 

2. Patrick's right, around day 4 or 5 is when you start getting hungry because of our 1/2 portions. I had to eat a hard boiled egg between lunch and dinner because I was STARVING! And I kinda hope Patrick lets us choose eggs or protein powder because I love eggs! But then again eating a ton every day could get old i guess.

3. I don't know who originally said it but "I would rather wear out than rust out." I love this phrase and it is so true. I work in a pharmacy and I tell you what, I get really tired of people, or even pity people who have become complacent. So many people blindly go day to day not taking care of their bodies, the #1 most prized possession we all have. I don't have anything against people who aren't "skinny" or "fit" it's people that would rather RUST out than WEAR out that get on my nerves. 

Patrick said in our last e-mail, "I will consider the PCP successful not only if you five get in shape, but if you get an education about how to take care of your most important asset, your one and only body!"

Amen.

So please start being more mindful and get on the path to taking care of yourself. Set your mind on wearing out not rusting out.

Be proud to be human.

Thanks for reading my serious post everyone! Have a great day!

I Still Can't Believe It

I feel like a little kid as I sit hear and sweat off my 650 jumps. I am still so excited for the PCP! I hope my enthusiasm stays strong. And I will tell you what helps the most. You guys! Thanks everyone for their comments and support and blogs and everything. The PCP stands out so far in one way in my mind. Fitness should be communal. But sadly it's something we don't get. Here on our PCP blogs we have the community support to keep going strong but as soon as you set foot in the "Real World" it's a different story. So thanks guys!

So anyway I have a number of little side projects I have wanted to do that are related to the PCP. First off I got an idea from the little side convo Patrick and I had on Frank's hot sauce last post. I want to make PCP safe hot sauces and salsas because I love spiciness! My family has a rather large vegetable garden and fruit trees so this time of year is perfect for making any sort of fresh-producy-goodness (Sean I think you are wearing off on me lol) .

So this is where you come in!

I want to make 2 Salsas and 2 sauces. So come up with some ideas and comment or e-mail me and about a week from now I will document the experimentation/creation and share the recipes here for all!

Go nuts! I'll take some pictures of my garden and the various hot-peps I grow tomorrow!

Also I did my first 194 jumps today all in a row! I was so happy.

Have a great one guys!

Back on Track

And on my Mac. I had to use my parents PC for a few days. Glad that's over! Whew!

So I realized today this whole eating half thing can be very deceiving. My brain automatically just wants to eat half of what I could eat, not have of what i usually eat. The problem being that if i ate half of what i could eat i would be eating about as much as i usually do! If that makes any sense, good.

So my Thai lunch was excellent. I ate half of what i usually would at a special occasion, however it was my biggest meal in days so I had a really small dinner. I even had to force myself to eat that, but when I started then I made it through dinner fine.

Other than that it was a pretty busy but less frantic than usual day. I got at least a dozen intense games of table tennis in the past 2 days and I tell you what, it can be cardio if you play against someone who really knows what they are doing and you are striving to keep up! Table tennis rocks so get out there and play some! Not to mention it's an Olympic sport.

Anyway goodnight everyone. I'll report back tomorrow. Maybe I will have something interesting and thought-provoking to share.

Have a great night!

Bonus PCP note: Frank's hot sauce has no calories! Woo-hoo! But if you are worried about sodium (as we are) it's fun and easy to make your own hot-sauce. More on this later . . .

Thai food . . .

is heaven sent.

So I just finished my work-out for the day. It went well. I did 115 jumps in-a-row! Immediately after I did I couldn't break 20 in-a-row but so it goes.

Anyway about Thai food. Tomorrow I am going to a Thai themed lunch and I myself am going to go make a red curry sauce to steam mussels in for the party appetizer. I absolutely love ethnic food. Cooking it, eating it, smelling it, eating it, and of course eating it. (the spicier the better) So thankfully we can eat whatever this first week but just half otherwise i would be screaming tomorrow as everyone else ate tasty sticky rice and mussels and curry.

I'll make sure to tell everyone how it goes though and maybe post my curry recipe sometime this week. The only thing that is really non-PCP about it is definitely the sodium.

Side thought. You know that annoying but handy word you have to type in to leave comments? Does anyone else verbalize it in your head every time and try to pronounce it? I do!

Have a great day everyone!

That was easy!

But it won't be for very long . . .

So yesterday we got our week one diet and exercise e-mail from the Boss-man (aka Patrick).

It was much easier to handle than i expected. Mainly because the last thing that stuck in my mind about PCP1's routines was squating jumpropes. SQUATTING JUMPROPES! That actually made me cringe. But thankfully Patrick isn't throwing us in the deep-end . . . yet.

Diet

Go about your regular diet. Except that you will eat only half of what you usually eat. Go ahead, have a beer or a glass of wine or piece of cake too, but only half of what you usually drink. Everything half. And start to cut your salt intake as much as possible.

Comments: Easy-peasy. I have already changed my diet a lot because of the PCP. I changed to being a pescetarian like Patrick and David, and have cut most all sugars, salts, and perservatives. So small portions is OK with me too. I did a 2 week juice fast this time last year and ever since my body has adapted to diet change much easier.

Training

500 to 1000 jumpropes. Aim to be just on the edge of winded. This is the zone when your body burns fat.

Squats - 5 sets of 20. Before we get to all the fancy muscles on the upper body, we need strong legs.

Push-ups - 4 sets of 8. Use push-up bars if you have them.

Crunches - 4 sets of 15. Go slowly, curl your body up as if you were rolling up a newspaper.

Comments: I'm going to try to build to 1000 jumps by the end of the week. But I tell you 500 is fun, but hard. I can get maybe 60 in a row, tops. I don't have push-up bars yet so I'm elevating my feet. This work-out is pretty low-key but I don't see it staying easy for long. I cower in fear of the though of squatting jump-ropes and 200 v-sits.

Till tommorow, Have great day everyone! Lets rock the PCP!

Launch time approaches!

Hello World!

It's so great to be typing this post. Day one is tomorrow! I can't even stop a smile from being on my face! I wanted to take a moment to introduce myself and share with everyone how I feel about the PCP and where I want it to lead.

My name is Nate Belle-Isle, (some of you may know me simply as "nate" since I've been around commenting on all the blogs for some months now) and I am 20 yrs old. I am really interested to see how the PCP changes my dimensions so I am going to post some measurements every 30 days. Maybe I'll make a graph!

Height - 5' 6.5"
Weight - 148lbs
Waist - 32"
Stomach - 33"
Chest - 36.5"
Thighs - 19"
Calves - 13.5"
Biceps - 12.5"
Forearms - 10.5"

So I am intrigued to see how my body changes over the next three months and want to provide concrete figures for that. I noticed something funny though, that my right arm is slightly bigger than my left. I think that by the end, a small goal of mine is to be more balanced. The PCP does not favor one side over the other so I hope by the end to be balanced in both size and flexibility. And for everyone else out there that hasn't had a chance to "officially" do the PCP, it doesn't mean it can't change your life. I have already lost 15 lbs just from being encouraged from the information on these blogs. So join in!

My most anticipated PCP side-effect? Setting the mindset!

My biggest fear about the PCP? All of my clothes not fitting! Again! (I wear dress clothes and suits 80% of the time, I do not want to have to get my suits altered again! ha ha)

So those of you that have seen my banner up top saw that my one goal of mine is for the PCP to improve my practice of Parkour. For those who aren't familiar, Parkour is (to put it simply) the art of moving fluidly through any obstacles, and the discipline of getting faster and more efficient in movement.

My Hero David Belle is the founder of the discipline and he has the physical abilities, physique, and vision I really admire and I hope he will help me make it through the low points. And for anyone who is interested in learning more about Parkour/Free-running, check out American Parkour and also Urban Freeflow.

So here we go on this adventure! See everyone tomorrow!