Hey I am not fat

So this is about one of my “team members”, Dr Phil. I say “team members” sort of in jest, but i do have a few people that i depend on to help me keep my training/health on track, and Dr Phil is one of my main guys.

My wife (another “team member”) started working with Phil last year and started to really enjoy it, as well as trim up. Phil works out of an office in Santa Monica so my wife ride her bike there, i started riding with as it was a nice ride and gave us a chance to spend some time together. And hell, i was sorted of interested to what this Phil guy had going on.

So, once i decided that i was going to do the hour attempt I though it would be fun to jump on board with Phil for a bit and see if he could help me out, though i was a bit tentative as, well, uh, i am pretty damn thin!

Let me tell you though, working with Phil has been one of the best parts of this journey. I have learned more and will take away more from this part of my journey than any other part, literally i will carry on this knowledge of  “how to eat” forever, a lifestyle change in reality.

So this is basically how it works. Once every 2 weeks we (my wife and I) ride up to see Phil. Phil weights us in on his scale, runs a fat caliper all over us and occasionally pricks a finger and does some blood work. I bring with a food journal (I actualy created a spreadsheet and email it to him as i can’t read my own hand writing) that has a record of everything i have eaten for the past few weeks. We then analyze the numbers (weight/fat) and go over the food i have eaten, then chat about what goals (long and short term) I have coming up.

If you gain a lot of weight or completely fall off the wagon and start eating fast food, then you have to “pull the pig” around the office courtyard…

After we go over all of this, Phil writes out an eating plan for the next 2 weeks, I end up having a schedule for rest days, days where i train in the morning and one for days i train in the afternoon. Thank the lord that my wife is on the program as well, so she preps and shops for all the food we need. We have different food schedules, but basically the same ingredients in different proportions with different timing.

This makes my life easy! I love just looking at a piece of paper and knowing what to eat, no decisions to make. Look at paper, open fridge and pull out the correct Tupperware and assemble a meal and eat. Done, back to work.

Luckily we have a great vegetable garden right in our front yard.  You can see that we have Brussel sprouts, artichokes, tomatoes, green beans, lettuce, beats, carrots, zucchini, squash, blueberries and more!  It get’s even better though, I don’t actually have to even maintain it.  My good buddy and next door neighbor manages the garden (he owns a landscaping business) in exchange for a share of the proceeds and a high-speed internet connection (and occasional tech support).

When i started with Phil i made it clear i was NOT looking to loose weight, though if I did it was fine.  The priority was to gain power (for the hour) and if that meant gaining weight, it was fine. I mean i figured after 25 years i would not change much in weight anyway right?

So when I started I weighed in at 161 lb’s and had 11.1 % body fat, pretty standard for a thin/fit bike rider.

After 10 weeks i still weighed 161 lb’s, but was at 5.1% body fat! No joke, i could see some real muscle and LOTS of veins, kind of gross actually. But, i felt GREAT.

Some thin pictures below, that is a crazy vein on the front of my hip bone!

So i weigh all my meat for each meal, but not to make sure i am not eating to much. I am doing it to make sure i eat ENOUGH! Damn, i am eating more than i have ever eaten in my life, hands down. It is almost a chore to stuff my face enough, amazing.

So most my life i would decide once a year it was time to loose weight, generally a big road race goal or stage race goal coming up. Simple, ride some more and eat less. Then after a few weeks i would weigh less, pretty simple right?

This chronic under eating causes my body to continually store calories, for fear of not getting enough in the next meal, sort of paleo era survival instinct. So instead of using all my calories to restore destroyed cells my body I was banking them away as a sort of survival instinct, due to the chronic under caloric intake.  Here is a pretty good article on how to lose weigh by eating more.

So my new diet had me eating a TON of protein (lean meat), we are talking 16 oz for dinner each night, that is a LOT of meat, especially for a guy that has never eaten that much. The diet is pretty simple, just a combination of lots of green leafy vegetables (no starch/white stuff..), lean meat (fish & chicken/steak/pork), eggs (entire thing), fruits, nuts (almonds) and LOTS of water (160 oz a day). No bread (almost gluten free), no dairy and no processed sugary junk food.  Basically a standard healthy diet, in a specific order and quantity based on my needs for the day.

Additionally Phil has help me come up with some pre-workout meals, some supplements for pre/post ride recovery and some tips on staying healthy. Been a good journey!

You can listen to a nice podcast with Phil at Jim and the other Guy.  You can also see Phil’s website and more information on his business PCF Nutrition.