The Bulletproof Coffee Kit arrived today

A few weeks ago, I was listening to The Gluten Summit on the Internet.  Dr. Tom O'Bryan was interviewing Dave Aspry, who authors a blog called the Bulletproof Executive.  Aspry claims to be a "biohacker" and has reportedly spent hundreds of thousands of dollars investigating the best, most efficient ways to eat and take care of your health.

His "signature" dish was his Bulletproof Coffee recipe which uses his proprietary Upgraded Coffee, grass-fed butter and Upgraded MCT oils to make a breakfast that is designed to "make you energized and alert all day", "melt body fat and increase muscle mass", and "taste great and provide important fatty acids."

His recommendations were to have this for breakfast, and then a large lunch and dinner consisting of proteins and vegetables.

I thought the claims seemed a little much, but Dr. O'Bryan reported having tried this and having seen great results.  My investment to try this:  $49 plus shipping for my kit with 2 bags of coffee and a bottle of the MCT oil.  Plus about $6 for some grass-fed butter from the health food store.  I've spent much more than that on crazier things, so Chuck and I decided to try this for a week and see if we noticed any effects.  I've been off coffee since March when I gave up cream and sugar (never could handle black coffee).  Tomorrow, we try our first batch of Bulletproof Coffee.  Results to follow.

Hormone Diet Exercise Prescription Day #7 - A Day of Rest and Celebration!

So, no workout today.  In the book, she states that you must take these rest days to let your body heal/adjust to the exercise days.  You are allowed to do "fun" activities, like walking or bike riding.  However, since it's 35 degrees and raining outdoors, I'm going with a day of rest.  Sort of.  I am doing 4 hours of massage today.

Today was weigh and measure day.  According to my scale and tape measure:

1.  I've lost 2.8 pounds this week.
2.  I've lost 1.5 inches off my waistline this week.
3.  I've lost 0.5 inches off my hips this week.
4.  I've lost 0.5 inches off my upper thigh this week.
5.  My fat % is down.
6.  My muscle % is up slightly.

I'm pretty excited for only one week.

According to the Hormone Diet Book, women should have a waist measurement of 35 inches or less and a waist to hip ratio of 0.8 or less.  I have 4 inches to lose on the waistline and a way to go on the ratio, too.  My hips and waist are both getting smaller, so the ratio's not improving!

Anyway, here is me after week 1:

Day #6 of the Hormone Diet Exercise Prescription

I got out of bed early again and did my 30 minutes of cardio before breakfast.  Anyone who know me knows how difficult that was.  Put in my Jimmy Buffett station on Pandora and closed my eyes and rode the exercise bike.  Tomorrow is Day #7 - a day of rest!

I am, amazingly, not too sore after yesterday's arm workout.  I'll re-do the weight and measurements tomorrow and see if one week has made any difference.  I sure feel good doing this.

The Hormone Diet Exercise Prescription - Day 5

Yes, I got up early to exercise today. No, it wasn't fun.  But, I did it!

Today, Day 5, is Strength Day for Arms and Core.  I don't know if it's weak arms or the early morning, but I struggled a bit with the exercises today.

The first exercise was with the exercise ball.  You were supposed to put your feet on the ball and your hands on the floor in a push-up position.  Then pull the ball in and do a push up.  I managed 4 before I felt like the next one would land me on the floor with a bloody nose.  That one could take some practice.

Then side jackknifes, where you put you legs up at a 90 degree angle then bring them down and back up to the side.  Those weren't too bad, but the floor hurt my tailbone area when I rocked side to side.

The third exercise was a side plank!  Much different muscles from a regular plank!  I will feel those tomorrow.

Then the arms began in earnest.  I did bicep curls, tricep "skull crushers", bicep curls into shoulder press, standing shoulder lateral and front dumbbell raise, bent over reverse dumbbell fly, and triceps dips.  Only managed 4 triceps dips, too. And I completely missed doing the lying triceps dumbbell extensions with alternating arms.

By the end of my workout, my arms were so worn out, it was hard to lift my coffee cup to my lips.

Anyway, tomorrow is a cardio day.  I'm working in the morning and also in the evening tomorrow, so I guess the alarm gets set for early so I can workout before work.

I was thinking while lying in bed last night (am I the only one who gets all sorts of interesting thoughts and ideas when you are supposed to be sleeping?) that this alternating cardio and strength workouts was something I did WAY back in my 20's before getting married.  It was the only time in my life I had a waistline.  So, that gives me incentive to keep it up.

Oh, I got notification in my emails this morning that my Bulletproof Coffee Kit shipped.  So, starting Saturday, I should be able to start blogging about THAT health experiment.  

Day 4 of the Hormone Diet Exercise Prescription

Today was Yoga Day.  30  minutes of yoga kind of felt like I was cheating.  It was too easy.

My scale says I'm down another 1/2 pound from yesterday.  My muscle % was up and my fat % down, but that's not overly accurate, so I'm just watching the trend right now.  My muscles aren't so sore today, although I did feel them while doing the yoga.  Tomorrow is strength again - arms.  We'll see how that goes.

The snow is finally melting off the roads, and my life is going back to being able to work again.  I'm going to have to make sure that I schedule my workouts now so that I don't "forget" to do them.  I may have to skip my morning Facebook session tomorrow to get my exercise in before work!

For anyone who might be interested in reading more about the Hormone Diet**, here is a link to the book:

And here is a link to a summary of her exercise philosophy and exercises for beginners.  They are pretty much the same as the exercises for non-beginners, except it starts with lower weights and lower reps.


I started right out with the regular workouts instead of the beginner ones.  So far, so good.

**I have a bit more to say about the rest of the book (which I will get to in a future blog) but the exercise part is the part I've been concentrating on so far, since I've been pretty happy with the food and supplement plan I'm already on**

Day 3 of The Hormone Diet Exercise Prescription-Strength Day #2

It was a struggle to get myself off the couch and to the fitness center this morning.  My muscles that weren't so sore yesterday are a bit more achy today.  But, I forced myself to go.  I figured I'd do it before work, so I couldn't complain I was too tired after work.  This, of course, has me worrying already about Thursday when I have early and late appointments.  I may have to get up very early if I want to work out before work.

Anyway....off I went to the gym.  It was Strength Day for the legs and core.   After walking on the treadmill for five minutes, I did two sets each of crunches, back extensions, and leg lifts with an exercise ball between the legs (this is pretty challenging, if you've never tried it).  Actually, the back extensions were supposed to be over the exercise ball, too, but after wobbling a bit on the first try, I decided to take it easy on myself and do them on the floor.

Then I did lunges with bicep curls, squats, bent-leg dead lift with toe raises, hamstring curls on the exercise ball (that one was pretty challenging, too), and some planking.  I'm not using very heavy weights, but I'm still feeling it.  I was a little shaky afterwards, so I'm guessing I worked those muscles pretty hard.

Tomorrow is a cardio or yoga day.  I'm thinking yoga would be good to stretch out all these muscles.

In total, it took me about 30 minutes.  I like the short workouts.  It makes you go ahead and push because you know it won't last that long.

Day 2 of the Hormone Diet Exercise Prescription

Yesterday's workout with weights didn't leave me as sore as I expected, considering I've not done a lot of strength work recently.  I was glad today wasn't a strength day, though.

My scale tells me I lost the 2 pounds I'd gained sitting around watching it snow.  Probably not due to the workout, but glad to see the numbers moving in the right direction.

Today's workout was cardio.  If you remember, the big change in the cardio routine is to go with interval training rather than longer workouts at a steady pace.  So, I skated across the icy parking lot to the fitness center and set the recumbent bike on interval mode.   Yep...it is definitely more work than a steady-state workout.  30 minutes and my clothes were soaked with sweat.   When it's 20 degrees out, that's a pretty good workout.

Tomorrow is Strength Day #2 -- I think it's legs and core, but it may be arms.  I'll check before the morning.

The one thing that is nice is that these workouts are only 30 minutes long.  I have a hard time making excuses that I don't have 30 free minutes (especially right now when there's not much else to do because of all the snow on the ground).  And, since the fitness center is open 24 hours, I can't make excuses if I work late, either.