This is one of the hardest obstacles to weight loss that I can think of. I love my family, and I love to do things together with them. But I am the only one in my immediate family that needs to lose weight. So no matter what diet I pick I have to deal with the fact that my family will not need to be a strict as I will need to be and there is likely going to a lot of food that they will eat that I cannot, and food that I should eat that they will likely not enjoy at all (they are pretty picky eaters).

This is where so may people get killed in their diet and weight loss goals because they simply cannot integrate life into their weight loss needs.

And this is where Isagenix comes in really handy. The weight loss plan is very simple and very easy to add to any life style that you and your family might have.

I’m not sure what your mornings are like, but in my house they are insane. There is barely time for any breakfast, let a lone a sit down one. So there is mot much temptation here. I just do a shake while they are going out the door. They get their Eggo Waffles and I get a great tasting shake.

Then sometime in the morning I will workout. I usually go fairly intensely for 30-60 minutes, and intersperse that with a 1.5-2 hour long walk about once as week.

After the workout I will take a few of the IsaSnacks to help tide me over until lunch.

Now at lunch Janille and I will eat together. There are several meals that I like to take out of the Eating for Life book, that my whole family does enjoy and are still nutritious. I put it in a small bowl and/or plate so my portions stay small. Typically this will put me in the 250-300 calorie range.

Then I will do a shake for a mid afternoon snack.

And for dinner another meal the whole family will enjoy.

And then before bed I will take a few more of the snacks to help curb the appetite so I do not eat too late in the day.

2x Meal

2x Snack

2x Shakes

Not too hard to follow at all. The Isagenix supplements really help control the appetite and the addition of real food with the family in small portions helps me live a regular life while losing weight at the same time.

That is something that I can live with!

One of the things that I have noticed about my own weight gain problems is that my whole life is working against me. I mean it is not like I have a “real” job with “real” work. I mean when was the last time you saw a fat farmer or rancher. All the ones that I know are rail thin and so wiry strong that you could break a bat over them and they wouldn’t notice.They can pack away the food too. They all eat bacon and eggs for breakfast, a whole side of beef for dinner and they still couldn’t gain weight to save their lives. Their whole existence is burning calories. That is “real” work to me.

As for me I sit on my but and stare at a computer screen all day. Now, don’t get me wrong, what I do is worthwhile – but its not really work:) Not in the way described above.

Now, despite the fact that I do not need that much food to survive each day, I still feel like eating like the farmer. If I could have bacon each morning I’d do it. If I could eat 3-4 eggs each morning – fried in the bacon grease  – I’d do that too. Add some biscuits and country gravy and I’d be in heaven – literally. I’d be flat out dead if I ate that every morning. But that does not change that fact that I crave it. I guess that is what being born and raised in farm country will do to you. I’m just a rural Illinois farm boy I guess.

So to counter act my reality I have to come up with some creative ways to keep the blood flowing throughout the day. Intensity will still be the key. Always has and always will be.

In a previous post I talked about intensity. It has been shown that if you will work out intensely for shorter periods that your body’s metabolism will stay elevated for several hours after the actual work out. Here is a downloadable document of a great article on the subject Download Now.

Now I like that. Less work – more calories burned.

So here is a basic workout that just about anyone can do with great effect.

First, you’ll need a space of about 100 yards that you can run on.

Second, you’ll need a timer on your computer or watch to remind you to get off your butt

That is it.

I have a park outside my back yard. It has a soccer field that is marked off. Now, at the beginning of the day, before taking a shower I often get out and do 10 wind sprints. I sprint down the long side of the field. Then I walk the short side, then run the long side back. Even walking slow this will only take about 10 minutes. I usually do 2 laps around the field as a warm up and then I do the sprinting. And then 2 laps to cool down.

10 minutes of running will only burn off a few hundred calories at the time BUT according to the research your metabolism will then stay elevated and burn off even more calories after you have stopped running. By comparison if you ran slowly for an hour you would burn more calories during the initial workout, but as soon as you stopped you’re metabolism would drop right back to normal.

Now to keep my heart going through out the day I will do push-ups. There are several different types of push-ups that can be done – that will be part of a different post – but the bottom line is to do about 75%  of your total capacity every hour so your body gets a hit of adrenalin and keeps the metabolism up higher.

Can you see where this is going?

Most of the work that the farmer does is just long and slow. It is not intense per se, but they are going at it all day. But since I do not have that option in my job I can add shorter intense workouts throughout the day that will help keep the metabolism revved up. Now, I might not be able to consume eggs and bacon for breakfast every morning. But you can bet I will be doing it at least once a week!

In a future post I’m going to talk about the rest of my weekday workouts. This style of workout has some really good strengths. But is also has weaknesses. The main on being just the total number of calories burned is lower than you may need it to be in order to lose weight. So high intensity for as long as you can go it where the best possible result will be (reference).

And I’m still losing weight.