Team Beachbody ¡preestreno!Español Guest

My father is overweight and diabetic. My mother is struggling with high blood pressure and bad cholesterol. My life has been in the crosshairs of these dangerous medical conditions. What I didn’t know was that living a sedentary lifestyle and eating fast fatty foods put the trigger in my hands. A few years ago, I realized that I needed to make a change in my life to avoid getting taken down. I went to a gym, hired a trainer, started working out and made minor changes to my diet. After a while, after not seeing the kind of results I wanted, and after membership costs started biting too hard into my wallet, I quit and fell back into old habits.

Starting January 2010, with the help and encouragement of my cousin / coach Chritgo and our mutual friends in THAT TEAM, a group of Beachbody coaches based in Centreville, I took my first steps on the thousand mile journey towards better health. The best step I’ve taken is getting right with my nutrition by drinking Shakeology, reading “Eat This, Not That” by David Zinczenko, and following Tony Horton’s Food Plan that he posted Wednesday, October 22, 2008 on his blog http://tonyhorton.blogspot.com/2008/10/chat-room-throw-down.html.

Kinder, gentler, simplified version:
No white bread / rice or enriched / processed flour. Switch to whole grains and brown rice.
Reduce or abstain from dairy. Switch to Almond Breeze.
No carbonated drinks.
Water and tea only.
At least 2 meals with vegetables. At least 1 meal with fruit.
Protein from nuts, beans, fish, turkey, and chicken.

Personal modifications:
Shakeology + Isopure Zero Carb Protein = Breakfast.
P90X bars for snacks.

The next step was committing to working out more regularly using programs from Beachbody (Tony Horton’s 10 Minute Trainer and Ho’ Ala ke Kino) and www.Gaiam.com (David-Dorian Ross’ T’ai Chi Upper Body and Daily Practices; Cameron Shayne’s Budokon Beginning Practice). I also started working out with THAT TEAM doing P90X routines.

Another step was to incorporate Body Togs wearable weights into my daily activities (http://www.bodytogs.com/). These ergonomically designed weighted sleeves add light resistance to non-exercise activities to help burn more calories and tone muscle. They’re slim enough to fit under street clothes and comfortable enough to wear all day so that I can work out even when I’m not working out. And when I wear them for workouts, they help me push harder to get results.

As of this writing, I have lost about 20 pounds and 12% of my body fat. I’m looking and feeling better than I have before. I've been working with THAT TEAM on programs like ChaLEAN Extreme and TurboFire. You may have seen our HIIT 15 video on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nfkwm7K4ho). Even so, I still have a long way to go to reach my goals. Luckily I have plenty of tools at my disposal through Beachbody and support through THAT TEAM to help me reach them.