Advocare - "White Box"

This post is in progress.... my aim is to cover one product a day :)....

The reason for writing this particular post is that I thought I had supplementation down. I used jarrow's alpha lipoic, Primal Defense from Garden of Life, Bio-K, Juice Plus, Jay Robb's egg protien powder etc etc...

So when you switch all your products to a different suppplement line and then see MASSIVE results, you have to wonder why. So I started to investigate....

When I first tried Advocare I was skeptical. I dilly dallied with the products for while and thought they were so so, I still had my "old" supplements to use up. Then I started to like how I felt and began to do more research. The turning point was when I saw that one my Olympic weightlifting coaches was an endorser for the product (can anyone say burpee!!! LOL). So I emailed him and he told me that his kids and athletes are on it and that he loves the company and the products. Bam... I was sold and ordered a bunch of products for me and my family.

When the results started to appear, I started investigating the products more deeply to figure out why they were working. Below I'll outline the products that have had the most noticable and measurable impact on me and why. Then I'll talk about the results from combining multiple products and how they work synergistically and complement each other.


Meal Replacement Shake:

- Holy crap what an awesome awesome awesome product. This one makes the "Top Five" in terms of impact
- I first didn't like the stats on it since I've been so anti-carb, but it has a brilliant blend of complex and simple carbs so that your blood sugar stays stable.
- Theres also 5-6 grams of Fiber in each shake which is awesome for digestive health
- There's no Soy, just whey protien concentrate, milk protien isolate and Calcium Caseinate
- There's a bunch of BCAAs and L-Glutamine built in.
- 500mg of calcium!!!
- Here's the kicker though..... they freakin put freakin' put acidopholus, bifidus and Bromelain and Papaim into the mix. So not only are you getting high quality protien, you're taking it in with pro-biotics and digestive enzymes so that you absorb more of it.
- The first day I tried it, I felt "runbly" in the stomach since I was dding in the acidopholus and fiber, that's great because it means my digestive system was NOT in top shape.
- Start your day with this shake and your blood sugar will stay stable for a very very long time. All this for 220 calories.... that's just freakin' amazing.


Catalyst:
- I'm not going to go too deep into the science of BCAA's here, you can search MSN for it :)
- what I will say is that this product does an absoulutely awesome job of preserving lean muscle mass WHILE cutting fat due to a calorie deficit. This product is what will prevent you from yo-yo dieting, since you won't lose lean muscle.
- When I'm in my leaning cycle, if I'm not too hungy, I'll have a couple of catalysts and a spark and miss a meal or two.. or three.... the spark revs up the metabolism and suppresses the appetite, the water you take with it hydrates you, the Catalyst keeps aminos floating around in your blood stream in case your body decides it wants to burn protien. It also keeps a positive, anabolic nitrogen balance so that you're building muscle while starving.
- This one defintely hits the "Top five"

- it's funny I go through a bottle a of this stuff about every 8-10 days. I finances actually even out and I sometimes end up saving more money. Think about it, 3 catalysts and spark cost a little under $2 whereas a meal would be costing me anywhere from $5 - $10 easy.

- Alright, moral of the stroy, you wanna get lean, reduce your calories, skip some meals and up the catalyst.. comprende?

Spark:
- The best energy drink I have had.
- it has L-carnitine that transports fatty acids across the mitochondrial membrane so that fat is more easliy used as an energy store.
- It has a Co-enzyme Q10 for energy production and cellular anti-oxidation. I could write a book on the positive virtues of Co-Q10 - it has so many positive effects on the body.
- GABA, L-Tyrosine, L-Phenylalanine --> all pre-cursors for neuro transmitters, they help with mental focus and clarity (honestly, I get so much more work done, uncle Bill should send Advocare a thank you letter....)
- B complex - all used for energy production at the cellular level.
- Vit C (180mg), Vit E (30IU), Vit A(1000 IU) --> anti-oxidants
- Chromium -> helps with insulin sensitivity
- Caffeine (120mg) and Taurine (200 mg) -> synergyistic stimulants
- basically, this energy drink is the bomb because unlike red bull, coffee, etc it has the regular stimulants, but without the high doses of sugar and it's packed with all these vitamins and co-factors. So what? so that means that you aren't going to experience the all too familiar caffeine crash that I always get from drinking too much coffee or other stimulants.
- My workouts are better on Spark, I take one every morning when I wake up, on an emtpy stomach with my Thermo and catalyst, then I wait 30 mins before eating. I also have another one in the afternoon as a pick me up instead of coffee.
- If you are a coffee addict or energy drink addict, try switching to spark for a couple of days and see how you FEEL. You'll have more energy that lasts for longer, with vitamins and a mild appetite surpressant. So your blood sugar will be stable and you'll make better choices all day in terms of activities and nutrition. As you can see I'm a fan :).
- oh yeah, this makes the "Top 5"

Rehydrate:
- what's the best way to test a a rehydration product?.......
- Fly to mexico, play in the sun for 8 hours, drink very little water, eat a light dinner, have 5-10 shots of tequila (or hard liqour of choice) until you cannot walk in a straight line, then go home and have a serving of the product before going to bed.
Wake up in the morning and check for any of the following:
- body aches
- head ache
- stomach pain
- joint pain
- low energy
- stiffness
- etc.....
--> I'm happy to report that Rehydrate passed with flying colours and became the staple late night, post party drink for me and my buddies... how else can you sustain 2 weeks of non-stop partying? haha :)
- Ok so moving on to science.....
- L- Argnine and L-Glutamine!!! yay aminos... find me a reydration product that has those?
- 1:1 sodium:potassium ration for optimal inter and intra cellular hydration.
- low glycemic carbs so that you don't drink it have have blood sugar spikes.
- Co-Q10 and L-Glutathione --> both potent anti-oxidants to stave of post exercise free radicals.
- btw, did I mention that this product just tastes amazing?
- If you're a parent, don't be buying your kids sugar laden juices and drinks, give them re-hyrdate, it's cheaper and much much more healthy for them
- I think it's the NFL or some other major league whereby the kegs on the sideline have re-hydrate on the inside, but a massive "gatorade" sign on the outside since Advocare does not Pay for any endorsements.
- I started playing around with rehydrate about 3 months ago and I have to say it does do an awesome job of keeping you hydrated. This in turn helps with appetite control, internal cleansing and weight loss, since if you are sufficiently hydrated, your body will be less reluctant to hold onto it's fat stores.
- Ok, so this is a great addition to your regimen for post workout electcrolyte replacement, which btw, will improve recovery, general drinking etc etc. it's miles ahead of gatorade, powerade and any of that crap - plus it's CHEAPER



Muscle Fuel:

Muscle Gain:

NightTime Recovery:

MNS Max Energy:

Herbal Cleanse, Probiotic Restore and Fiber Drink:

CorePlex and Omega Plex:

Protein Plus Bar:

Weight loss tools: Crave Check, Fibo Trim and Carb Ease


Product Synergy

Advocare - "Black Box"

In software Testing we have "white box" and "black box" testing.
In white box testing we figure out how a program works and and create tests appropriately
def: http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/W/White_Box_Testing.html
In black box testing we simply throw a bunch of inputs at a program and then see what happens :)
def: http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/B/Black_Box_Testing.html

I started using Advocare products in August 2006 and here are my black box results:
- I never crashed using Spark energy drink and my workouts got better
- My workouts got even better on adding in Muscle Fuel and Muscle Strength
- My Recovery improved on adding in Post workout recovery and Nighttime Recovery.
- I started the MNS Max Energy kit and dropped down to about 9% BF while maintaining muscle
- I went on Vacation and was intructed to take 12 catalyst a day. I did. I worked out 4 times in 2 weeks and came back from vacation in better shape than when I left.
- I then decided to "bulk up" and ate a lot of food, worked out less, took lots of CATALYST, post workout recovery and Muscle Gain --> I put on 15 lbs of new muscle.
- Now I'm leaning out again using the "Lean in 13 program" I've already lost a couple of pounds of fat, my perofrmance is getting better and I hit a 500# deadlift!! woo hoo!!!

The case for sound nutritional supplementation

It's a busy and hectic world out there, we wake up early in the morning for work, then are up late at night socializing or working and somewhere in the middle of that we need to fit in time to execrcise, vacation and eat. In a perfect world we would all be shopping at an organic market buying wholesome organic produce and meat on a regular basis and using it as a mainstay of our diet on a regular basis.
Unfortunately very few of us live in this "perfect world".
Is it doable - yes. Does it take a bunch of planning and preparation? yes.

Sadly, the majority of people out there knowingly or unknowingly subject themselves to sub par nutrition, either from making poor food choices in general or from shopping at stores that don't ensure a high quality in the produce and meat.
To make matters worse, people will hit up the closest Bartells/CVS and buy some random "one-a-day" multi-vitamin to remain healthy.
The result is that they generally have low energy throughout the day, have the tendency to put on weight, often have mood swings, get sick more frequently and recover from illness more slowly.

I only eat organic grass fed beef, free range chicken and pastured eggs. I buy my produce only from whole foods or from independent farmers. I don't drink milk and I don't eat bread, rice and pasta. Despite all this I still feel like I fall short on a micro-nutrient level.

I haven't found a convenient way to get 5000IU of vitamin A, 30mg of Co-enzyme Q10, 300mg of Alpha lipoic acid etc etc only through "sound nutrition".

Enter supplements......

Think of Diet as "building material" for a house.
Exercise as the actual action of putting the material together.
Supplements as the screws, nuts and bolts that hold everything together.

There are times when my diet goes to hell, but my supplement regime is always consistent. The net result is that my performance and body composition does not take that big of a hit.
if I miss a couple of meals or eat a couple of really bad meals, my energy levels don't suffer too much.

The problem is that all supplements are not created equal. Let me reiterate that. ALL SUPPLEMENTS ARE NOT CREATED EQUAL.

The supplement industry is not regulated, there is no way to actually be sure what is in a bottle is in a bottle!

Do not buy supplements over the counter at a pharmacy. one step better is to go to a supplement store such as vitamin life, seattle super supplements or whole foods and ask about this brands are the best.

One step even better is to choose a line that is endorsed (preferably voluntarily) by world class athletes and doctors and has peer-reviewed literature to back it up. I can forward you on to a couple of great companies.... eg. Juice Plus, advocare, melaleuca. (btw, I thinkAdvocare is by far the best).

it's surprising though that even "reputed" companies put sub par ingredients into their product line.

Here's an example some of you will be able to relate to. The Pro Club in Bellevue, WA has a program called the 20/20 lifestyles program. It's very expensive, but does produce good results.

The supplementation program of 20/20 consists of a multi-vitamin, Fish oil and calcium.
I tried to research the supplements, but could not find out who the manufacturer was.
The calcium supplement has calcium in the form of carbonate/citrate which probably has bioavailability of around 30% (please correct me if I am wrong). Furthermore it doesn't have any magnesium in it! how the hell are you going to absorb the darn calcium?
Adequate calcium intake is integral to fat loss.
in the Multi-vit, none of the minerals are chelated and so again the bioavailibility and absorption will be less than optimal. Lastly there is no Co-enzyme Q10, no Inositol or a bunch of other important co factors.

Here's another shocker, there are no probiotics or digestive enzymes as part of the supplementation program. So even if the vits were high potency and bioavailable, they will porbably not absorb very well since the persons digestive system will likely be a mess.

Ok so here's the deal.
1. start with a good pro-biotic supplement
2. ensure your multi-vit is super high quality
3. ensure your Omega 3 supplement is super high quality (put the softgels in the freezer, if they cloud up, they contain impurities - swtich brand to something better)
4. BCAAs and L-glutamine
5. all other performance supplements:
- protein powders
- pre and post workout mixes
- Night time recovery formulas (ZMA, Gaba, L-Theanine etc)
- Energy drinks and Thermogenics.

6. Specific, therapeutic stuff
- Milk Thistle, Turmeric extract, Extra Alpha lipoic acid, resveratrols, adaptogens, fruit/vegetable extracts
- Co-enzyme A, CLA, cleanses, etc etc.

That's how you build your supplement foundation that will serve you.

hitting the 500 # barrier

At last.... the 500 lb deadlift.
Thanks to:
- everyone there that evening for the motivation
- Rachel for taking the pic
- Advocare, for helping me out perform my former self!!!

What exactly does a Crossfit workout FEEL like?

If you've never experienced crossfit then you might think i'm crazy, if you have, then you'll relate just fine. Many times I try to describe to friends and family what a crossfit workout is like, how it is structured, what kind of movements we do, how it feels and why it works.

I'm going to describe how I felt during my last crossfit workout, thanks to Scott Takenaga at Crossfit North.

Date: Tuesday 01/23/20007
Time: 6pm

I waltzed into the hangar kind of low on energy, it had been a long day at work and all I planned on doing today was some technique work on my O-lifts (haha Sam isn't here so I can call them that) but I happened to get there in time for Scott's 6pm crossfit class. I asked him what was on the "menu" for the day and he said, "thruster row, thruster run". It sounded like fun, but i really hadn't planned on doing anything "metabolic" today. Scott invited me to join the workout.... "give jackson a run for his money" he remarked... "i'm sore all over man" I whined as I made excuses why not to do the work out. "Jackson's sore too" Scott continued. He basically made me feel like a pansy if i didn't do the workout.... so I put on the cross trainers and started to get the blood flowing.

This was the workout:
15 thrusters, 500m row
15 thrusters, 400m run
15 thrusters, 500m row
15 thrusters, 400m run

for time. ie. do the work as fast as possible. The weight used for the thrusters was a 40kg barbell.

video of a thruster: http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/Barbell_Thruster.wmv

The clock started and the first round of thrusters was easy, i got all 15 no prob. I then started rowing, did the 500m, still just a little out of breath, but nothing major.
did the 2nd round of thrusters, still all good, i think i broke it up into 5's with very short rest periods then I started running. The run was manageable, I didn't push too hard, just made sure to keep it slow and steady all the way through. The 3rd round of thrusters seemed easier than the 2nd, i busted through them with 3 sets of 5 again and jumped on the rower. By this time, i was feeling some overall fatigue. The second round of rowing was slow and weak with a 2:20 split, I figured I'd not try to push much harder and just keep ploughing through. The last round of thrusters was hard, I had to break it up into sets of 3 and 4 with longer breaks.... then i started running... after about the first 100m I hit the wall, there was no localized fatigue, just total catastrophic systemic failure. I had a stitch in my belly, I was completely out of breath, my quads and calves were burning, i felt slightly dizzy and felt like throwing up, but i still had 300m to go... I stopped and started walking for about 10 seconds, then with the fear of someone behind me catching up, I started running again. i wanted to breathe more deeply and get more air in but deeper breaths surely would have made me throw up. the faster I ran the sooner it would all be over. The last 200m felt like it took ages and ages. I had to stop and walk for another 10 seconds to let some lactic acid wash out of the muscles so that i could keep running. My steps had gotten clumsy in the last 100m, I had to concentrate on actually stepping forward and not "leaving my foot behind me" and falling flat on my face !
i got to the end of the 400m and collapsed onto the gym floor.
This was indeed total systemic failure. I didn't want to drink water in case I threw up, I felt like I had to focus a to ensure that there were no other malfuntions in other excretatory bodily processes. My head was spinning and i was laying on the floor with my eyes closed thinking about nothing other than my next breath and remaining as still as possible to not agitate the dizzyness and nausea... about 5-7 mins passed and I finally sat up and had a splitting head ache. i started moving around, got some Spark energy drink and started to sip on some post workout recovery shake. It took about 20 mins for my body to completely stop freaking out. I was still sweating down the middle of my back, signalling that my nervous system was probably 'stimulated' :).

The workout took me 14 mins and 38 secs to complete and it took about 20 mins for me to feel back to normal again.
Crossfit is hard. Crossfit is as mental as it is physical... Get some!