I hope those of you who have had the chance to make the coconut breakfast bars enjoyed them.  If I have any other great recipe moments I will be sure to share.

As I mentioned in a previous blog, I was about to start a 7 month experiment with myself as the guinea pig.  And it was funny it was starting at this time.  A few weeks ago I was back at home in Manitoba for my best friend’s wedding.  Now a wedding back at home means all the old gang will be there and the food and booze should be top notch.  Not just at the wedding but at each house you visit as well.  You have to understand that I am Ukrainian.  That means for every occasion we eat.  Wedding, we eat.  Funeral, we eat.  Baby born, we eat.  The sky is blue, we eat.  You get the picture.  Now I am going to say the food is amazing but not necessarily the healthiest of options.  Fried foods, butter, tones of processed carbs are abundant.  But damn does the food taste good, mostly due to the fact that it is comfort food.  So I can tell you I would be eating much differently.

Then I run into my old high school friends.  These are the friends you rarely talk to and you meet up and it is like you have not missed a beat.  These are the friend you have for life and I love every one of them.  I would fight Chuck Norris for any of them.  But something was asked that I had to laugh.  One of my buddies asked, “You heard of this P90X?” to which I replied, “yes.”  He goes, “That shit is hard, like it kicked my ass.  I had to fall to the toilet seat.”  I had a good laugh because you need the visual of seeing him demonstrate how he would sit on the toilet.  But I was proud of him.  This was a guy who did not work out and now, he is.  I had my other best friend drop something in the range of 30 lbs.  I and so proud that they are making these changes.  I got home from Manitoba, spending a week eating food I never eat at home in Calgary, and depleting the stock of Captain Morgan’s Rum in Manitoba, and I felt like crap.  I spent a week detoxing that all out of my body. And that lead me to get excited about my upcoming journey.

So last week I had the chance to strength test myself using a few toys we have at my disposal.  I have about 54 lbs to gain on my squat, 47 lbs to gain on my Deadlift and 55 to gain on my bench.  No small feat.  The movement assessment we perform at work, I failed miserably.  But hey, I have to start somewhere.  And no I know.  I still have to do the VO₂ max test but that will be in November when the running starts as well.  But looking at all of this I though back the question, “You heard of this P90X?”  Really I wouldn’t piss in Tony Horton’s (developer of P90X) ear if his brain was on fire.  Not because I hate the guy.  I am jealous to some extent that he takes a canned program, based on the simplest of training principles, lays out the program and sells it for a boat load of cash.  He probably sleeps on a pile of money.  I write programs day in and day out.  I just don’t get my product out to the masses, solely on principle of not selling out   By selling out I mean, most of these internet trainers just write all these programs, sell them and actually never train anyone.  And don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that Tony Horton isn’t a trainer, I am just pointing out a trend.  But really it is that easy.  This P90X is a program, based on simple training principles of periodization, progressive overload etc.  He pairs that up with a sound nutritional plan and there you have it.  People are making gains, loosing body fat, and/ or increasing muscle.  Who would have thought?  That is just it.  It does not have to be hard; you don’t have to shell out a bunch of cash for “P90X”.  You have to take a simple program of weights and cardiovascular exercise and stick to it.  Pair that up with eating well, and you have the recipe for success.  There are no magic pills or procedures.  It is just a simple process of setting a goal, and seeing it through.

Yours in Health and Performance,