Image Courtesy "hmcotterill" via Flickr Creative Commons

It’s time again for the annual John P. Health Challenge. Over the last couple of years I’ve managed to get into far worse shape than I’ve ever been. I’m off a few pounds from my all time high but not far enough at a robust 208 so it’s time to get serious about getting fit. On top of that I’ve found out I’m allergic to gluten so there’s yet another reason for the need to make a change.

I won’t bother with excuses.

John P. will have Lt. Col. Joe Martin tweeting workout instructions to him, and while I’ll be watching and exercising along as much as I can there are going to be times when it’s just not practical like when I’m on a plane or while in client meeting because that would just be awkward. On top of that I’m starting week 1 while at the RIM conference in Orlando. Eating well is manageable on the road but it is far more difficult. Which leads me to the mos importnat  part of all of this…

I’ll be exercising regularly but ask anyone that’s in good shape and they’ll all tell you in one form or another that diet is 90% of the battle.

Reaching Goals

The health challenge is 8 weeks long starting today, May 1st. My target weight is about 170 – 175, that’s 33 – 38 lbs or 4 – 5 lbs  week. Doable but not easy.

Here’s the plan:

1. Diet: I’ll be adopting the Tim Ferriss “Slow Carb Diet” for all of this largely because it works, it’s simple and it will help me eliminiate all products with gluten as a part of the process (where it might not I’ll be addressing it myself). I will however make 2 modifications:

• No “cheat” day for the 1st month. I really need to flush things out.
• Extremely limited alcohol. Slow carb allows for a glass or two of red wine each day, that’ll be my weekly intake for the first month.

2. Exercise: Keeping it very simple, do it 7 days a week..

• Cardio will be about 30 minutes daily of high-intensity interval training (run all out, and I do me ALL OUT, for about 10 – 15 sec if I can last that long, then walk to full recovery. Repeat for 30 min.
• Planks every day
• Once a day rotating between the following 4 exercises:
  • Push-Ups
  • Chin-Ups
  • Lunges
  • Dead-lifts

The road part will be the hardest and I’ll report back here in the comments on a weekly basis, updating this post with tips/weight/… as I go. I’ll have before/after pics as well (once there is an after .