Getting Back on the Saddle

Wow, it has been a long time. The last time I updated here was in 2018, I had just started to workout with DDPY and I was pumped. But of course I didn't stick with it. That has been my problem since gaining all my weight back and then some. 

Since that last post a lot has happened and changed in the world and with my personal life. We had Covid-19, I got married, I got a house, built a home gym, gained a crap-ton of weight, was diagnosed with Sleep Apnea, Had eye surgery and found out I have fatty liver. When I started dating my wife I was 332 LBS, and by the end of 2023 I had hit 402 LBS. We tried dieting before we got married, and I was pretty successful with carnivore, then keto, but our friend fell off quickly, then my wife fell off, and I couldn't continue without the support. My wife also likes to show that she loves me by buying me snacks and food that I love. 

Over the last few years I have also realized that I am a binge eater. I guess I have always known that, but never really put two and two together. So I had to rehaul everything with food. Over the last year I have been mostly watching my portions, making sure when we go out to eat that I bring at least half of my food home. I stop eating now before I am full, which has helped out a ton with how I feel in the evenings.

Last year when I finally decided that I have to do  something to change, I was at 386 LBS. That was October 28, 2023. Since then I have been losing weight, just not as quickly as I had hoped. I hit my lowest last week at 338.6 LBS, but have since gained 3 LBS back. But where the old me would see that as a complete fail and go back to binge eating and forgetting about my health, the new me see's this as just a minor set back and just refocuses on my diet and exercise. Oh yeah, I am working out again. I have a home gym that isn't great, but it helps me get the job done. I would love to be able to upgrade it and have a full rack in there, a nice treadmill and stepmill, but right now those are not options due to budget. I am working out about 3 - 5 days a week for 30 - 60 minutes and I have been feeling great. 

I look forward to the next year to see where I go from here. I am hoping by my birthday in June that I am finally below 300 LBS for the first time in 10 years. I hope you will follow my journey and provide support in the way of cheering me on. 

Working out with DDP......Yoga

It was a few years ago that I picked up DDPYoga for the very first time. Why wouldn't I? Diamond Dallas Page was always one of my favorite professional wrestlers. He was the one that re-ignited my passion to want to be a professional wrestler. So when I heard he had a Yoga program, I had to jump on it! But I wasn't quite ready for it.

At the time my weight was already nearly all the way back from poor eating choices and just not caring. I was trying to date, and really just gave up on my health. I was also used to doing more body building style workouts. So when I did DDPYoga for the first time, I thought it was OK, but my back didn't really love it. Then the next workout was the same workout, and I wanted more variety. I did a total of two sessions with DDPY before dropping it out of my routine. I didn't give it a fair shake.

Flash forward to just a couple of weeks ago, and I decided to take the plunge and sign up for DDP Yoga Now! The online steaming version of DDP Yoga. Sure, it's the same workouts I already have, but come on, how many of us actually use DVD players any more? So I signed up and decided to give DDP another shot. Today I finished my 6th workout with DDP Yoga and I am feeling really good. I know what you are thinking, "Corey, you said you have been doing it for two weeks but have only done 6 sessions" true, but DDP Yoga isn't a 6 day a week program, it starts you off at just 3 days a week. I did skip ahead and do an extra workout, but I am doing the program as it is laid out right now.

Before I didn't give DDP Yoga a fair shake, but now I am following through. With my low back disorder, I have to be selective on what I do when I workout. The days of being able to do heavy squats and deadlifts are far behind me. But DDPY gives me the chance to get a good workout in, and get a good resistance workout in. The intensity is different than what I usually like, but it also keeps me safe. At the end of every workout, I am dripping sweat and feel that I have actually done something. I am working with the intermediate program which is 13 weeks long and will get progressively more difficult, and I cannot wait to see the full results. My back is already feeling better and different.

So stay tuned, something awesome is coming.

What was different before.

It was eight years ago that I was on my first part of my first weight loss journey. I had struggled for years with my weight, but for the first time I started actually seeing results. I had just come off 10 months of my back being out and barely able to walk, and I knew with me being point where I could move with limited pain, that it was time to start being serious. My first 30 days I lost 30 LBS, my body was feeling much better. Over the course of 10 months I continued dropping weight until I had gotten down to 197 LBS. But I was in my twenties then, things were different.

So that brings us to now. Over the past couple of years, I have tried to restart my weight loss journey, but keep hitting roadblocks. The first road block came when my uncle had passed away. I had to come off of my workout schedule to attend the funeral and slowly started losing motivation. When I was able to start back up, my back went out again, causing me unbearable pain for months. After that got resolved, I moved. When I moved I thought that everything was going to change, that I was going to work out all the time and get back to where I was. But workouts were few and far between, and then my back went out again.

So I have been thinking recently why am I hitting so many hiccups in this weight loss journey? What is different now than back the first time? I know I'm older, and with age weight loss becomes for difficult, but I should still be losing some. Sure, my back is still bothering me, but that isn't stopping me much from doing light cardio and workouts. I've even been in the apartment fitness center a couple of times a week. But my halt in weight loss and motivation, I believe is from one thing. Distractions.

When I first embarked on initial weight loss in 2010, I had zero distractions. Sure, I had to have a job and work, but that job was a part time job and I had a ton of time to workout and prepare food every day. I also wasn't dating or trying to date, and I stopped hanging out with friends. I had zero distractions in my life. I was selfish, I did everything for myself. My food was for me, my choices were for me, I worked out every single day. Now my life seems full of distractions. While I am single, I have been trying to date more, I am trying to be more social, I work a full time job that has a much higher stress level, and when I come home from work I turn on the TV and get lost in YouTube.

Distractions are part of life, but I need to work on minimizing them as much as possible. I am getting older, and while some will say 36 isn't old, my body doesn't agree. I need to make choices for food for me. I need to not binge when there is food that I really want. I need to make healthy habits into permanent habits. It's time to put the distractions that I can control out of the my sight, and focus one me. Only with this focus, can I truly change.

It's time to take life back again.

It's been a while since I have posted anything on this blog. Last time I tried to keep up with posts was when I was starting my fitness journey over again. Well, obviously that didn't last long. Shortly after I started changing things in my life, my life started changing again. My uncle passed away, then I received a throat injury that kept me from working out, then my back hit issues again. So it seemed like I was back on the road to getting nothing done with my weight. In fact that was true. Over the last year I have tried to work out, but haven't had the best of luck as everything I work out, it caused my back to flare up again.

Last Summer when I got into my apartment, I got my weight down to 302 LBS. I was sure this time was going to be when I finally made it back into the 200's. However, like clockwork, my back started giving me issues. I look at the scale today and it reads 323 LBS. It's my fault, I currently have no self control over what I put in my body. When I lost weight the first time, my self control was one of the things that I prided myself in. Sure it was hard at first to change, but after a couple of weeks it was easy. But all that was in 2010, there were less convenient things online. We didn't have a ton of food delivery options. I was strict with my diet and only put food in that my body could use as fuel. Now however, that is not the case. Now I use DoorDash several times a week, I get Shakeology, but rarely drink it out of the convenience of my work cafeteria. But that is all going to change.

I've neglected my body for too long now. I remember when I got down to 197 LBS, I vowed to never get fat again. I let myself down. In the last few years I have been sick a lot (Something that my mom likes to point out). So now I am starting to workout again, starting with light workouts and hopefully easing back into serious workouts. I have to start retraining my back and strengthening my back. When I can I am going to walk more and do more cardio. I am starting back up on my supplement regimen to make sure I am getting all the nutrients that my body needs.

I am also working on being super transparent on my Instagram and IGTV page. I want people to see my successes, but I also want to show the real struggles and failures. There will be failures, and that is ok. I am looking for support too. When I lost weight the first time, I had the Brightkite community to cheer me on. We were a close community and I made several friends on there, but after Brightkite changed and ultimately sold off, that closeness diminished and spread out amongst the normal social media world.

I am going to work on posting updates here, but be sure to follow me on Instagram @LargetoinCharge for up to the minute updates, and feel free to DM me and have a conversation.  

Taking Ownership

How many times in your life have you made an excuse as to why you can't do something? Or putting the blame on someone or something else? Maybe this is at home, work or school. It's easy to do, I mean we all have things come up or get busy, or maybe don't even want to face the consequences of our decisions.

Honestly, taking ownership of something that you did or didn't do is difficult and nerve racking. But if you want to grow in your personal life and professional life, you have to learn to take ownership. But what is taking ownership? Let's think back to when you were just a child. Maybe when mom or dad wasn't watching you, you knocked a lamp off of the table. What did you do? How did your parents react? I don't want to assume anything, but I can bet your answer to your parents was "I didn't do it", or "it was the cat/dog".  We have all done it. You are there, there is a reaction to what you did, and you go into panic mode or you just don't want to get into trouble, so you blame someone or something else. I get it, who wants to get yelled at or disciplined. But what would have happened if you would have taken ownership of the situation? You will never know. Would you have been yelled at? Maybe, but maybe it would have been a learning experience for you.

How about another example. You are working your day to day job. You work requires you to juggle multiple tasks throughout your day. Things are getting crazy busy, maybe your team is short handed, so the burden has fallen on you and other team members. Now some of your normal job duties are starting to suffer because maybe time management isn't quite an area that you excel at. When you are approached about it, instead of telling your boss that you know that it has been suffering and you will work on it, you just say "well I just don't have time". What would have happened if you had taken ownership? Would you have been written up? Unlikely. Most likely your boss would work with you or make suggestions on how to improve your time management.

But let's take this into your fitness journey. So many people when they are on their journey, starting or have ended it and lost their way do not take ownership when they mess up. Maybe you start, and something comes up just one day. You miss one workout, and don't workout again until you decide to start over. Why did you stop in the first place? I often hear "well something came up". Yeah, something came up on a single day, that didn't stop you from working out the day after or eating healthy. What about the time issue? I have heard this so much, "I don't have time" but you have time for your shows? When you are on a journey, you have to take ownership for everything that happens. You make time, you get back on after a rough day or a day off due to whatever. Let's use me for an example. I went from 336 LBS down to 197 LBS in just 10 months. Things were pretty great. Then I started gaining the weight back and by August 2016 I was back to 326 LBS. Now I wanted to use every excuse in the book, from I was in a relationship for a time, I was comfortable with my life, I needed it for body building and the list goes on. It wasn't until August 2016 that I took ownership of what happened for me to get back where I was. I had gotten lazy, I didn't care as much any more. I wasn't watching my diet. Sure I was meal prepping, but I was over eating and way over snacking. But when I took ownership, I was able to start that ball rolling to change.

When you take ownership, you are empowering yourself to make changes. So think about that next time you are given the option to blame something/someone or to take ownership of the situation.

Double workout? well....

Time for a Challenge

I have been spending that last 7 weeks workout out with 22 Minute Hard Corps, and have had amazing success thus far. Now I want you to join me in boot camp and start making changes.

October 3^rd, 2016 my 22 Minute Hard Corps Challenge starts. All you have to do is head over to the challenge page and purchase the challenge pack. You will get everything you need to complete this challenge.

Each challenge pack comes with the 22 Minute Hard Corps DVD set, workout calendar, Meal guide and bonus Battle Buddy DVD. For a limited time you also receive the meal portion containers to make sure you are getting the exact nutrients that you need, and a PT Sandbag, which holds 20 LBS of sand! Also included in the challenge pack is your choice of Shakeology flavor and a 30 day trial to Beachbody on Demand.

All of this for the price of $140.00.

In just 7 weeks I am down 19 LBS and nearly 20 inches, so come join me and make a change. Plus, when you participate in the Challenge, you have the opportunity to win Cash Prizes. Honestly, who doesn’t like money. So what are you waiting for? Come on and get some!

How am I losing weight so fast?

The explanation is simple, you find your plan and you stick with it. You stick with the workout schedule, you do compound movements and you still to your diet. You don't under eat and you don't over eat. Always be prepared and don't make excuses as to why you can't eat right or workout. 

My Journey Starts over, and my return to Beachbody.

I always though after I lost over 200 LBS in just over 2 years that I would never get fat again. I thought with the determination that I had to lose 140 LBS of that in just 10 months that I had the tools to be healthy for the rest of my life. After all, I lost the weight, became a certified personal trainer started training for body building and was always studying.

Well after getting to an all time low, getting into a relationship, getting out of a relationship, leaving a career, starting a new career and trying to date, well, I gained everything back. Well, not everything, but most everything. You see as of just 4 weeks ago, I had returned to being 326 LBS. Yes, that's right, I went from being 197 LBS in 2011 back to 326 LBS in August of 2016. I had everything I needed to stay successful, but it wasn't enough. Along my journey(which I knew would be a lifetime) I completely lost myself. I go lazy and life got crazy. But that is just an excuse. Honestly, I just stopped caring. I never completely used my certification that I worked so hard to get. I couldn't land a job in a gym, and finally took another desk job. I reverted back to old habits of eating out for breakfast everyday, eating garbage for lunch every day, and pigging out for dinner. Pizza and just two slices? Are you kidding, lets just eat a whole large by myself.

Sadly, I saw what was happening to me, but I didn't do anything to stop it. I tired, well kind of tried. I would go to the gym still, but once a week and try to eat healthy, but it wasn't enough. Who was I fooling, I knew I wasn't doing enough to fix the problem. I knew that I needed to make a change and get back to being accountable for myself and get support.

So that brings to the next bit. I decided to return to Beachbody. For anyone who followed my first journey, they know that nearly my entire first transformation was at the hands of Beachbody products and me being a Beachbody Coach. Around 2013 I decided to drop Beachbody coaching though, I could do it on my own and my own way. But that's the thing, since I didn't have a job in the fitness industry besides writing a few plans out for people, I wasn't accountable for what I looked like and my diet. So in August 2016 I decided to get back into Beachbody. Sure I still had all my old workouts like Insanity, P90X, RevAbs, and so one, but I didn't have shakeology, I didn't have support and when you are selling or promoting a product, you are going to use it to be accountable and show people that it works. So I signed back up under my old coach, I trust her, she has been very supportive too during everything.

Now just 4 weeks in, I am down 14 LBS, and over 18 inches all around. It's hard work. I am working out everyday, I am drinking my Shakeology every day, I'm meal prepping every week(in fact that is today) But I have support. I have an awesome coach that isn't pushing me to make sales on product. I have people watching my new journey and following my progress, I am already receiving messages that I have inspired people to start changing now. I never thought I would go back to Beachbody, but here I am and it feels great.

So if you want to join me, if you want to change and become healthier, Send me a message or email me at corey@largetoincharge.com. You can also visit http://ltic.me and contact me via the site or place an order today.

I'm going to start posting more, it's been nearly two years since my last post, so here is to new beginnings and a new journey.

It's all about that Bro Diet!

That's right I said it. It's all about that "Bro" diet. Ok, well maybe not. Often times people look at others that are in the fitness industry and notice that many of them, if not 90% of them follow a very "Bro" diet though. It comes down to the simple fact that is works without fail though. Some people hate "Bro" food while others like myself actually enjoy eating chicken and broccoli at every meal and egg whites for breakfast. It's totally a preference though. and again, it works.

But recently the whole "Bro" lifestyle has come under fire online. People want to bash it or really push "flexible" dieting. I don't have anything against flexible dieting if it works for you. But it's not something that is guaranteed to work for everyone. Let's use myself as an example of that shall we? I love food, and obviously that is why I became morbidly obese at a young age. The concept of flexible dieting is not limiting the types of food you eat. So you can have junk food, fast food, processed food, candy, ice cream, etc. Nothing is off limits. The problem with this, is if you are someone like me, you can't stick to a serving size of ice cream  or just a handful of skittles. You eat the whole bag or fill up the bowl.

That's why I am a fan of the whole "Bro" diet. It's strict and I can only eat certain foods and amounts. The foods I eat fill me up. The other thing I enjoy is a weekly cheat meal. Again, some call this a refeed, but lets be honest, it's a cheat. This cheat meal or even cheat day is a day where nothing is off limits. This type of diet works best for me. And that is the thing about getting healthy, you have to find out what works best for you. If you are naturally a leaner person, or don't have problems with over eating, then flexible dieting and IIFYM(If it fits your Macros) may work great for you. Other people are perfectly fine with a lower calorie diet, and again others get the best results eating "Bro". Don't let someone just sell you on something though because it's the current trend in health. Find out what works best for you.

Also, if you go online and have a trainer write you a diet plan, Make sure you have choices on that plan. While I am "Bro" myself, I know many don't want to eat that way. I make mix and match meals for my clients where they have a variety. Sure, there are some "Bro" foods like chicken, broccoli, fish, rice and egg whites, but I am going to give you a variety of other foods as well. Just remember, this is your journey and if something doesn't work, re-evaluate and try something different.

One size fits all? Don't fall for it.

Now I know by the title, the first thing you are probably thinking about is t-shirts. You know the ones. You go to a show or event, and they have "one size fits all" give-a-way shirts. You get it and it's an XL. Sure it fits a lot of the people, but if you are bigger than an XL you are out of luck. Also, if you are one that doesn't like to swim in their shirts, you are out of luck too.

But that is not what this post is about. No, it's about cookie cutter/one size fits all exercise programs and diet programs. You see them everywhere. Heck just stay up late one night and watch paid programming. In 30 minutes you are bound to see infomercials advertising some kind of exercise program or new diet craze/supplement. But much like clothing, it may not really fit you!

Sure these programs work for some people. But everyone is different. Everyone has different needs when it comes to their diets and their exercise. Now some people that "work" for these program producers will talk about modifying to fit you, but that is BS. You can't take a person that suffers from extreme back pain and have them do HIIT and Plyometrics, it's going to cause more harm than good, even with modification of moves. The same with taking a vegan and putting them on a regular meat and potato diet. Or lets go even a step further, you can't put everyone on an IIFYM (if it fits your macros) diet. IIFYM is really popular right now. Sure, it works, but again only for some people. Are there studies that show that it works? Yes there are, but there are also studies to show that IIFYM is absolute garbage and is only popular because of one or two PHD's in the fitness industry boasting about it's the best way to diet.

The whole point of all of this, is if you buy a program from TV or the store, you may get results, but you probably wont get the results you want if you get any at all. You need to get something tailored for you. One final note, make sure to read the fine print on the infomercials you watch, it will state "results shown are not typical". Just some food for thought.

Do we want the FDA over the Supplement Industry?

So I have kept pretty quiet since the reaming of Dr. Oz a few weeks ago. If you have been living under a rock here is a quick overview of what has happened. Dr. Oz as you may know, often promotes weight supplements on his show as the "magic pill" this then promotes a massive amount of purchases to different supplement companies and a ton of different sites tend to pop up advertising "as seen on Dr. Oz Show". Most of the sites do a "free" trial, but you pay for shipping and then are enrolled in an auto-ship program (Read the fine print people). Well Oz gets angry because these sites state that he talked about the product, so he tells his viewers that he doesn't endorse any products. But really he does the moment he talks about them. Anyway, his loyal fans by the supplement be it Green Coffee Bean Extract, Raspberry Keytones, Garcinia Cambogia, etc, and then it doesn't work "magically". So congress called him to session about his claims. Now, I don't want to defend him in any way, but all the "magic" pills he talks about have been around for decades. Many have actually had several studies that prove their affect, that is, if taken with a proper diet. And that is the problem, Dr. Oz promotes these items and states you don't need to change your life.

But I digress. The point is, Oz got reamed because he is contributing to the public being "Scammed" when you do have to partially blame the consumer for not researching prior to purchase. But then again, they are listening to a "Dr". Ok, he is a Doctor, but he is a heart surgeon, that is his specialty. He is not a nutritionist or dietitian, yet here he is on national TV giving this advise. Which by the way is technically not allowed by many state laws, that's just an FYI for you readers. So what does congress want to do know? Well the supplement industry is not overseen by the FDA. Sure they have some rules that need to be followed, but it is rare that the FDA gets involved. In fact, supplements come with a warning stating the the claims on the bottles have not been approved by the FDA.

But would it be so bad if the FDA was involved. In my opinion, yes. Why? Well, you would start seeing a massive ban on many proven products out there. They have already banned food products for claiming they have healthy fats that lower chances of health risks. Oh yes, in fact, here is the link against Blue Diamond Walnuts Directly from the FDA. The FDA has also banned steroids, which by the way there has been no proven case of steroids causing any deaths, in fact they are safer than Tylenol. Steroids are also proven to effectively treat HIV. But that doesn't matter to the government. Now the media is talking about caffeine because these kids are supposedly overdosing on it. Well there goes the pre workout supplements. Fish Oil? It's been heavily studied to show that it helps with joints, nails, hair and heart health, Fish oil is also an anti-inflammatory. If the FDA was involved, it wouldn't be allowed on the market.

If the government were to get involved in the supplement industry, all supplements would end up being required as prescriptions. The days of going to a local Complete Nutrition or GNC would be gone. Heck they would probably even ban protein powder. Granted, this would open up an amazing black market like it has for steroids, but it would also open things up for crap product, like it has for steroids. We need to keep the FDA out of our supplement industry.    

Energy Drinks Killing Teens? Not really.

It's something that we here about from time to time. A teenager/young adult dies from cardiac arrest and the family or doctors want to blame energy drinks. Let's face it, energy drinks are the easy way out. But how much caffeine is really in these energy drinks that are supposedly killing our youth?

You would actually be surprised to find out that most of these energy drinks have less caffeine that a cup of coffee, but does coffee get blamed? Of course not, because why would we blame something as wholesome as Folders or Starbucks. Sure, we can blame Starbucks for making us fat, but not cardiac arrest.

The main energy drink that is called into question today is Red Bull. Why is it being called into question you ask? Well by now, you may have heard about a 16 year old girl that recently passed away in Mexico while away with friends. Well they have ruled her death due to cardiac arrest and the culprit is those darn energy drinks. But Red Bull only has 80 mg's of caffeine per serving. Coffee on the other hand has 85 mg's of caffeine per cup. Now, lets look at this. Let's say she had several cans through out the day, could this still contribute? Well, if she had 20 cans, then sure. But let's look at some facts, caffeine is a natural vitamin. Yes, it occurs in nature. Caffeine is also a diuretic, which means that it can dehydrate you.

So lets go back to this girl. It's close to summer, she's on the beach, she's in Mexico. Now it is probably also very warm, she has probably, even though she is only 16, had some alcohol, and hasn't really been hydrating with water. Now we are leading to an actual cause. But of course the media wants to blame energy drinks, there have been claims that I have seen that she only had four Red Bulls, some state more. Now I want you to think about this. Most athletes/fitness minded people drink Pre-workout supplements. These supplements on average contain 250 mg's of caffeine. Most people take 2 scoops of these supplements, but we keep ourselves hydrated, and in all honesty, if we drop dead because we took the supplement which is way more caffeinated than a Red Bull, we would know it was our fault. You know what you are putting in your body. If you aren't handling it responsible, that's on you.

Oh, and if you have read the posts from people that sell Verve from Vemma, Verve also has 80 mg's of caffeine, it's no different than Red Bull, they are just using this as an opportunity to push their product.

It doesn't get easier

I know, that isn't really a reassuring title for a post that should be motivating. But this isn't really a motivating post. This is about the cold hard facts of being on your journey to being healthy. This is about the obstacles that are out there when coming from the side of food addiction. If you are trying to lose weight, then you likely have a relationship with food other than just to live.

Just think about other addictions out there be it alcohol or nicotine. When you decide to quit, you can actually separate yourself from those temptations. Sure, you are still going to crave those things for a while, but you don't actually have to be around them. Well that is unless you like to torture yourself. But when it comes to food addiction, you can't not be around food. You have to have food to survive. Over the years you have probably used food for many purposes. I completely understand that too. Food can be used for comfort, celebration or just pure enjoyment. Somewhere in our history, we linked other things to food besides survival.

Sure, we still eat to survive, we don't have a choice there. But do we really need chocolate cake or cookies? What about pizza or gourmet hamburgers? Now I am not saying that you have to leave all those things behind. Heck, I like to enjoy some oreos, ice cream, pizza and burgers every single week. But those cheats make it very easy to fall off the wagon and re-link food to enjoyment and not survival. The link will never go away. We can't separate ourselves from it, and it's a constant struggle.

I really wish I could tell you that it gets easier as you go, but it doesn't. All I can recommend is for you not to completely deprive yourself of these foods, but limit them to just one time a week or every other week. Like stated above, even one cheat meal can throw you back into a downward spiral. Remember to eat to fuel your body. Plus, eating to fuel your body doesn't have to be gross bland food, you can make it taste good, and something that you might enjoy. You don't have to have chicken and rice everyday, change it up, use spices and seasoning. Don't be afraid of salt either. Often times when you remove all salt, your body starts to crave things, and then you will binge on different unhealthy items just to try and satisfy that craving. Keep you diet balanced and keep positive.

Thoughts on Biggest Loser Finale

Review: 6PackBags Innovator 500

If you are reading this, you are probably familiar in part of 6PackBags. These are the bags that you see being carried around by fitness competitors from the big bodybuilders to the bikini competitors. While on the outside these bags look just like coolers, the inside they pack much more punch. I've been a user of the 6packbag since early 2013 when the Durus series was on it's way out to make room for the 2013 line that includes the Innovator 300 and 500.

To start, there are two different models of the Innovator. There is the 300 and the 500. The difference really is the amount of food that each of these bags can hold. Today I will be making reference to the 500 model.

If you are not familiar with 6packbags, let me tell you a little about them. 6packbags is a meal management system for really everyone, but the majority of the market is the fitness industry where meal prep and timing is crucial to success. We refer to it as a meal management system because these bags are able to hold multiple meals. In the case of the Innovator 500, 5 meals to be exact. The bag is designed to keep your meals cool throughout the day and have plenty of storage for other items that you may need being it shaker bottles, fruit, supplements etc.

With the Innovator series, 6packbags made huge improvements from the Durus series. The insulator lining is much thicker making it more tear resistant. Also compared to the Durus, the bag seems much lighter. This is likely due to the removal of the "storage block" which was part of the Durus. The Durus line including a plastic block that held the meal containers and had a built in compartment for supplements and snack items. With the removal of the "storage block", this had made room for a more easily removable shelf system that snaps inside of the bag it self. They have also changed the way you can store your pills. This is now a separate container like a tray from a tackle box that can be removed and thrown in your gym bag if you would like. It also has removable parts so you can make more room for bars or utensils.  The Innovator line also switched from more traditional ice packs to gel packs. These new packs seem to stay frozen much longer than the old ice packs.

The changes made by 6packbags to the Innovator line have all been great improvements. The new rack for the containers is nice and light weight, however it does make it more difficult if you want to use larger containers, unless you pull the whole thing out. They also replaced the old meal containers that would securely lock, with a more traditional Tupperware style container. This I imagine was mostly done for costs as the overall construction of the bag is much more durable than previous bags. As always, these bags are backed by a 1 years limited warranty, and the company does very well at honoring this warranty. I use my bag pretty much daily during the week, and it holds up great.

When it comes to pricing, these bags can tend to be a bit pricey. You have to remember that you are paying for quality though. But it would be nice to see these bags come down a bit in pricing. The Innovator 300 is $69.99 and the Innovator 500 is $99.99 .

Overall, I would say if your meal prep and timing it important to you, you should invest in this bag. If you are a person that goes on road trips quite often, this bag is going to save you money in the long run. You can eat right, and as 6packbags would say, Travel Fit.

Modify for your Benefit

Sometimes you run into a workout that you just can't do. Maybe it's because of range of motion limitations or pain restrictions, but that doesn't mean you have to completely skip that body part or exercise. You can in fact still get the same benefits doing something completely different.

Modifications of an exercise/workout can help you do build muscles or lose weight with a lesser stress than the original exercise. Take my issues for example. I have a bad back, this makes it very difficult to squat and deadlift. With modifications of my leg and back workouts, I can still work my legs and low back. When it comes to leg day, while I still try and squat, I go very light weight with it. I modify by doing leg presses at a higher weight and higher volume. While on squats I'm lucky to hit 205 LBS, my average leg press is 748 LBS. That is a pretty substantial difference. By doing a Leg Press, I am able to put much less stress on my back, and also have the support on my back from the bench. I am also able to do more strength days of pushing over 1000 LBS every couple of months.

So many exercises can be modified, look at classic push ups. If you can't do them from your toes, you are taught to modify by doing them from your knees. This is taught to us all the way back in elementary school. Many modifiers like the push up from the knees are also used to assist in building that strength to be able to do them from the toes. If you are doing assisted pull -ups, you are building to do unassisted pull-ups. But just because you are modifying, doesn't mean to not make attempts at the classic movements you are building towards. Like I said, I still do squats and deadlifts, but a majority of this work is done with modifications.

Review: Ripped Cream Coffee Creamer

There are often times when you find a product that can completely change your life. Coffee creamer for many is that product. Personally I love coffee, but I can't drink it without creamer. Well coffee creamer obviously doesn't play well with the diet. That is, until now.

 

Recently I was introduced to Ripped Cream Coffee Creamer. I was browsing through Instagram and found a post from NPC Competitor Wendy Lee Govoni. In this post she had received Ripped Cream, and I was intrigued. After reading up on the product, I immediately knew that I had to get my hands on it. After a few failed attempts at trying to locate it at some stores in Kansas City, I went to their site and placed my order. I mean, honestly, what person that is into health and fitness and drinks coffee wouldn't want to try this stuff!

So right from the get go, the service with the order was great. There was an issue with Paypal attaching my shipping address and I got a personal email from Robin, the president of Ripped Cream. She actually looked up this very website because of my email address and read my story. How awesome is that? Shipping took place very quickly, and if it hadn't been for the holiday, I would have gotten my package a little earlier. But again, great customer service.

There are two flavors currently of Ripped Cream, Lean Vanilla Bean and Chizzled Chocolate. Some of you might be thinking that chocolate is a bit odd to add to coffee, but I actually know people that mix hot chocolate mix to their coffee. Think of it as a poor mans cappuccino. The first one I tried was the Chizzled Chocolate with 6g of protein. It provided a nice round flavor, and the coffee, like in cooking, really enhanced the chocolate flavor. If it had a little hazelnut flavor to it, I swear it would have tasted like a coffee Nutella!

Next up was the Lean Vanilla Bean. This was an excellent flavor. It didn't offer anything shocking, other than the fact that it tastes just like any regular vanilla coffee creamer. But the 5g of protein provided is a huge change.

With both flavors, I still had to add sweetener. This didn't surprise me much, as most creamers don't actually sweeten the coffee. I also like my coffee a bit sweet. Overall, I would say that these creamers are definite buys. I don't see myself using any other creamer in the near future, unless I run out of this and didn't reorder in time.

You can order your Ripped Cream Coffee Creamer from their website or their Indiegogo Campaign.

15 Minute Workout

Don't complain that you don't have time to workout. I am going to give you a 15* minute workout that is going to get you sweating and make you work for it! When I don't have time to put in a full workout, this is the route that I go, especially if I am looking to get my heart rate up. So go ahead and pick up some weights that you can use through this whole circuit. You want challenging, but the point in this is to keep the same weight through the whole workout.

To get a great workout in 15* minutes, we are going to stack several movements together. Form is not to be ignored though, so if it takes you longer, that is fine. We want to keep safe, but still get a good burn and workout in.

Grab your dumbbells and start with your hands at your side. I am going to break this down move for move, that way it doesn't get too confusing

• First we will do a burpee/squat thrust movement. Bending over with a straight back, keep your core engaged. Keep reaching until dumbbells touch the floor, it is ok if you bend your knees here to accomplish this movement. Kick your feet back and hold a straight plank position


• Now we are going to preform a push up as far down as you can go. Keep your body straight, and your core engaged. Remember, form is everything. If you need to do the pushup from your knees, that is ok. But you want to build up to doing a pushup from standard plank position.


• When you come up from your pushup, we are going to do the renegade row. This movement is preformed by taking one arm at a time and pulling it towards your back like you are rowing and returning to starting position. You will do a single row with each arm.


• Now back into a pushup.


• After the second pushup is completed, come back into standard plank and bring your feet back to your hands and we are going to stand up. Make sure to keep your back straight as this movement is going to be along the lines of a deadlift.


• When you reach the top of the movement of the deadlift, you want to supinate your hand position (Point palm of hands facing out in front of you) and we are now going to complete a single bicep curl with both arms at the same time. No alternating here. Hold this curl at the top of the movement.


• From here, we are going to rotate our arms out to our sides, if done correctly, you should look like a goal post. Now we press the weights over out heads, and return back down to that starting position.


• At this point bring both arms back in front of you at the position after the dumbbell curl, and complete the eccentric motion of the curl, bring your arms back down to your side.

Now repeat the above 10 - 12 times and that is one set. You will do a total of 3 sets of this workout. Allow about 1 - 2 minutes of rest between sets and stay hydrated. Go at your own pace, but keep that heart rate up. This should get more difficult with each rep and each set.

Full Body Circuit

This circuit will get your heart rate up, and have you sweating before you know it. As always, when starting a workout you should consult your physician first.

• Warm-up; This can be anything to warmup those muscles and stretch, try jogging in place for a minute or jumping jacks.


• Weighted Squat with overhead press - Use dumbbells that you are comfortable with, no need to go heavy - 20 count


• Burpee w/renegade row - use light weights, preform your burpee with your weights in hand. Hold plank position and one arm at a time, pull like you are rowing, focus on those lats - 15 count, each arm


• Chopper Lunge - using a light weight or no weight, you will go into a traditional lunge at the same time as making a chopping motion to the side of the front leg. Do each side 15 times. (Be very careful)


• Overhead Triceps Extension - Using a dumbbell you are comfortable with, hold tightly over head by one end, slowly bring dumbbell behind your head squeezing your elbows in toward each other and back up. - 20 count


• Russian Twist - Sit on your rear, legs in front slightly bent, heels on ground. Remain looking forward and twist your torso from side to side for 20 count on each side. For added difficulty you can raise your feet from the floor.

After you complete this round, repeat 2 more times. Listen to your body and use caution when doing these exercises. If you are unsure of the move you can look it up online or email me. Enjoy.