Michel Fortin's Lifestream

I'm down to 192 and holding it steady. I haven't lost weight in two weeks (I once went down to 188 last week but went back up the next day), likely because I'm gaining muscle mass now.

Again, a huge thanks goes out to Anthony Alayon at University of Abs.

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Average Daily Regimen (Individualized For Me)

Here's my daily regimen. "A day in the life," so to speak.

First off, I eat clean foods five to six times a day — yes, up to six times! — consisting of mostly low-fat lean meats with a side of slow, complex carbs like fibrous vegetables and greens.

(When I'm on the run, a meal replacement shake or protein bar helps.)

But there are many alternatives and ways to prepare the foods, and the university's meal plan shows you how to mix it up. (In my case, it also helps when your wife is an amazing cook!)

Above all, I avoid anything white. No white breads, white pastas, white rice, etc. Also, I avoid sugars, salts (sodium), and starches as much as possible.

For sugars, I use Xylitol or Stevia. For salts, I use a lot of spices or natural ingredients. For starches (carbs), I replace them with colored starches (brown rice, whole grain pastas and bread, yams instead of potatoes, etc).

(I've become a big fan of whole and ancient grains, by the way.)

Mayo or sour cream is now replaced with greek yogurt. Salad dressings are mostly vinaigrettes and not creams. And butter has been replaced by olive oil — olive oil is my new best friend. ;)

A caveat.

My meal plan is based on the University of Abs online dietician software, which is a software that analyzes your stats and goals, and gives you a personalized meal plan each day.

Everyone is different so yours may (and likely will) vary.

Only supplements I take are chromium picolinate, ALA (alpha lipoic acid), and omega-3 oils (like fish oil or flaxseed oil). I occasionally take a multivitamin, but not regularly.

Again, supplements vary depending on the individual. For me, diabetes was a factor so these supplements help regulate blood sugar levels.

My workouts are in the morning. I work out four days a week, with a variety of exercises done in what are called "splits" (I focus on my core one day, then arms the next, then legs, etc).

This is based on the University of Abs training program. The home-exercise routine is easy, and all you need is a pair of dumbbells and an economical weight bench. (There's also a gym plan for those who prefer going to a gym.)

Each workout is immediately followed by light- to medium-intensity cardio for a few minutes. Nothing strenous. (I use a stationary cycle for 20 minutes at an easy, steady pace.)

There are various ones to choose from, too.

That's about it.

Yup, nothing more, nothing less. I spend maybe 45 minutes a day weight training, followed by cardio. I've been losing 1-2 pounds a week, steady, until last week where I can see some muscle gains.

Everything is according to the University of Abs program, and each person will have a different plan. Of course, there's a lot more in the program (details such as specific exercises, nutrition tips, and mindset training).

But this is the gist, in a nutshell.

Hope this answers your questions! (If you got more, ask in the comment section below.)

(There I am at nearly 260 pounds last year, and next is me, today, at 195.)

So I'm officially under 200 pounds all day. Last night before going to bed (at my heaviest) I'm 198. In the morning, it's 192. So I'm officially under 200 pounds all day. Yeah, baby!

That picture might look funny to you, but it's not. The heaviest thing back then I could lift was my iPhone. Seriously. Look at the picture and you will see my cane hanging on my forearm. That's because of my herniated discs and arthritis.

A year later, I no longer take any meds for my back, I don't use a cane at all (I haven't for months!), and I'm lifting 25-pound dumbbells in each hand. (I'm increasing the weight almost every week now.)

Now time to pack on some serious muscle and, fingers crossed, possibly some toning and abs.

I'll keep you all posted!

Here's a visual update. On the left, that's me weighing around 256 pounds (my weight at the end of 2011). On the right, April 3rd, 2012, 193 pounds.

At the beginning of the year, I weighed less, around 240-245 lbs, simply because I was scared after the largest and most painful gallstone attack. So I stopped eating as often as I used to. I barely ate for 2-3 weeks so it was easy to drop 10-15 pounds.

When I visited my doctor at the end of January, I was already down to 236. But that's when I made the radical "switch" and got off all my meds, including the heartburn-inducing anti-inflammatories.

By mid-February, I started eating normally, and by the end of February, I ate more than I did before, under the advice of my personal trainer.

Now, 193 is still morning weight. I still gain about 3-5 pounds throughout the day as it's a normal daily fluctuation. But once I'm at 190, officially, and stay under 200 for the entire day, I have reached my goal!

My guess? Another 3-4 weeks. So say Mother's Day, 2012.

Here's the irony (or not so ironic coincidence).

That picture on the left, above, was taken at Mother's Day brunch in 2011. And it was my mother, on her deathbed, who told me I was getting too fat. ;)

If I reach my goal by Mother's Day, 2012, it will be exactly a year since the picture above but also a nice "Mother's Day" present in memory of my mother.

I hope she'd be proud of me.

Onwards!

Top of the morning to you.

This morning is a non-weight training day, so I did about 7km on the upright exercise bike (for an hour). Tomorrow is Saturday, that means it's a sabbatical. Literally. It's my cheat day, with no weight training or cardio. I do exercise on Sunday, but Sunday night is family night and so that's my "cheat meal".

Weighed 198 this morning!

Still not 100% there. I want to be under 200 all day. Last night I weighed 203.3. So my weight fluctuates by about 4-5 pounds from morning to night. This is completely natural as we eat throughout the day and "expunge" later in the morning. (You know what I mean!)

Nevertheless, mornings are the perfect times to workout. According to my personal trainer, Anthony, mornings are 1) burning more calories because your food from the night before is mostly digested, 2) your testosterone levels are higher in the mornings, and 3) your water and blood sugar levels are optimal.

I sometimes have one small cup of coffee before working out. I'm told it helps endurance. But that's rare. Maybe once every week or two.

Bottom line, I'm eating more, losing more, burning more, and getting stronger by the day. I'm really thinking about either running the Ottawa Marathon (the small 5k one, which is open for first-timers, not the big one), or the tour of Ottawa/Gatineau cyclathon.

Either way, results are amazing. And this poster says it all.

Time to celebrate. Well, somewhat. I weighed 197.5 pounds this morning! Wooohooooo! However, I fluctuate about 4-5 pounds each day (I am already 202 right now as I type this).

So I'm going to wait until I hit -199.9 lbs from dawn to dusk. ;) Then... as Kool and The Gang say... "Ceeeeee-lebration!"

It looks like I'm finally going back down. I was 201.7 this morning. My personal trainer, Anthony Alayon of University of Abs (site not live yet), says that it's because my previous diet was a starvation diet, and my body needed fuel.

Now that I'm eating 5-6 meals a day, my body wasn't used to it so it packed on the pounds (I gained about 4-5 pounds, and now going back down) out of fear I would starve it again. Not good.

My body needs food to fuel my metabolism. So I'm going back down now, but I just got to keep it consistent and doing the strength training and cardio in the morning.

Today I did 30 minutes of weights (focused on quads) and 60 minutes low-intensity cardio. This afternoon I went for a short bike ride around the block.

Now I'm eating a protein bar while typing this.

Talk to you soon! ;)

So last night I had brown rice with mushrooms, and chicken breast for dinner. Sylvie is an awesome cook, and I'm so glad she's supportive in this endeavor.

I weighed 205 this morning. A little disconcerting as weightloss seems to have halted somewhat, but my guess is it's because of the increase in food frequency and could very well be the increase in muscle mass.

Here's hoping!

This morning was targeting the abdominals. Ooof! My stomach is aching. Just had a bowl of whole grain cereal in almond milk with blackberries.

As you know, I recently posted about my health scare and my journey to health. I already lost 40 pounds in two months.

New Personal Trainer

But now I'm following a weight-training personal trainer, Anthony Alayon, and this is day #4. This morning I'm in pain. Yesterday's workout really burned. So I'm feeling it!

However, and I have to increase my protein and fibrous carb intake. I did so in the last two days and I gained two pounds. But it should regulate itself, according to Anthony, and go back down again.

This Morning

I had a bowl of whole grain cereal with almonds, almond milk, and agave syrup for sweetness, with a few blackberries and green grapes thrown in. For protein I had a hard-boiled egg. Pepper, no salt.

I also had a cup (a mug, which is 1.5 cups) of coffee with Xylitol and 2% milk.

I'll keep you posted. Next meal is in two hours. ;)

By "fan" I mean the person who loyally follows you, buys from you, and recommends you to their friends. Because that's what it feels like with some marketers who pretty much throw crap at them without thinking things through, and without any respect, courtesy, or decency for their customers.

Here's what I mean.

In the last few years, I'm seeing a lot of what my friend Jim Edwards calls "flavor-of-the-month marketing." I call them "serial drive-by marketers," but I think Jim's label is a lot more apt. Why? Because they switch loyalties and philosophies and morals, at the drop of a hat, to fit whatever is selling right now and makes them more money.

A marketer — a professional, respectable, customer-focused marketer — shouldn't switch so fast like that. Unless, of course, they need to keep the product-launch parade going to stay afloat. I don't know about you, but that doesn't seem like a sound, long-term business strategy to me.

Sounds more like a snake-oil salesman.

This post was precipitated by this one marketer who just recently launched a direct mail coaching program. His promotion tells people to "cancel their Google and Facebook accounts." In other words, forget SEO, forget PPC, and forget banner ads. Sure, that seems fair. And granted, this is copy meant to stir people up and get them to open their emails. I get that.

But here's the kicker.

Just a few weeks ago,  this same marketer promoted a Facebook ad program and a Google program. In his emails, he told people to advertise on Facebook and Google. Now he tells them to close their accounts? So what is it, then?

I love what my wife said when she heard this. She said...

"First, he says, 'I don't know anything about SEO', and a month or two after that publishes an SEO product. Now he puts out a Google and Facebook product, and a month or two later says 'Stop Bing, Yahoo, Facebook and any other type of traffic advertising. Don't even spend time with SEO'. He really needs to figure out what he stands for, or he will alienate all his customers. People are not stupid and he really needs to stop acting like they won't notice."

Sure, I get that he used a headline and an angle in his promotion to grab attention. Sure, I also get that someone can change opinion once in a while, and tell people to dump older advice for new information. But to do this perpetually? I mean, every month and seemingly with every single product launch?

Marketers who sell a four-figure product one month, only to sell a new one that supersedes it the next, is no different than those who give that same product away as a bonus in a subsequent product launch — or as a bonus in a affiliate promotion for one of their coalition allies.

As George Carlin used to say: "It's bullshit, it's all bullshit, and it's bad for ya."