Happy Eaters food fun fitness

Craig Ballantyne has a special right now where you can get his 31 Intervals Program for only $7. It comes with two other interval / body weight cardio programs - Body Weight Cardio 1000 and Body Weight Cardio 3, which are complete 4 week workout programs using only body weight. 

Since that's super cheap and I haven't bought anything lately (good skwigg!), I had to have it. The first part is treadmill and machine interval training. Then there are hill sprints, shuttles, body weight circuits, kettlebell swing ladders, kettlebell and body weight intervals. It's a lot of good ideas for mixing up my cardio, which is currently just 10 minutes of kettlebell swings twice a week.

Of course as you're checking out, there are offers to buy other goodies at a big discount. I clicked "no thanks" a couple of times on ab workouts and things that. Then I got to the offer for TT Simple Nutrition for $9. I hadn't seen that before and didn't know what Craig's nutrition recommendations are these days, so I bought that too. Am I a sheep? LOL

TT Simple Nutrition is actually not bad! It's pretty much what I do. It talks about eating real food, avoiding processed stuff, choosing the highest quality ("pay your grocer not your doctor"), intermittent fasting, all good things. Calorie counting is not recommended or necessary, but it includes Alan Aragon's calorie calculator if you must have numbers. I tried it and it seemed to be pretty close. The protein recommendations are higher than what I eat but not as crazily high as some I've seen. It includes a grocery list, a sample day, and a good summary. It also comes with 31 Amazing Blender Drink Recipes, which is handy since I'm sure I'll tire of my Mega Salads at some point and my plan B is to throw all of those green things in the blender. 

If you're looking for interval training and body weight workouts, the 31 Intervals Program is a steal right now at $7, and the Simple Nutrition is not a bad add-on. I am a TT affiliate and that's my link. I don't know how much commission I earn when the program is only $7 but it might buy me a song on iTunes or a toy out of a vending machine, so by all means, use my link! :-)

You crack me up skwigg. Sounds tempting (and of course I will use your link if I buy).

Question: what's Alan's carb recommendation and does he recommend timing (ala PN)?

There is no carb timing recommendation. This is SIMPLE nutrition after all, not the usual drivel. :-) If you're eating good, natural, whole food carbs it doesn't matter how many or what time. It's your call. I love that! 

The overall message of the TT Simple Nutrition book is that complex nutrition programs with lots of rules don't work and only appeal to someone who is obsessive-compulsive. I about nodded my head off.

I was perusing this program again tonight and thought I'd share one of the workouts from 31 Intervals. This one is #21, DBC - Depletion Bodyweight Circuit. He says that depletion training uses fewer exercises repeated more times. The purpose is to deplete more muscle glycogen by using the same muscle fibers over and over again.

Do up to 5 circuits. Rest 1 minute between each full circuit. Do not rest between exercises.

- Bodyweight Squat (20 reps)

- Pushup (20 reps)

- Inverted Row (60 seconds)

- Plank (60 seconds)

- Bulgarian Split Squats (15 reps each side)

- Run in Place (30 seconds)

Yep! That would certainly get your heart rate up and burn some calories. I don't think I'll be repeating all of that 5 times! This will be the first of these workouts I try. Thursday is my next  cardio day. Friday is an off day so if it wrecks me I'll have a couple of days to recover. :-)

These are all cardio workouts? I'm trying to talk myself out of it, because I am just starting with System Six, but it's such a good deal and I'm also pretty curious about the nutrition packet for $9...

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"If there's hilarity, I charge extra." ~ Veronica Mars

My blog

Yes, all cardio, although "metabolic" would probably be a slightly better description because obviously there is some strength involved in knocking out reps of squats, lunges, push-ups and whatnot, but for cardio you're doing easier variations and/or not adding any weight. It's mainly about heart rate. The 31 Intervals are definitely meant to be done as stand-alone cardio and they include machine, body weight, and kettlebell options. The other two programs are complete 4 week workouts, or could be. Most of the days say they can be used as a stand alone workout or as interval training.

The workouts are similar to but a lot more variety than the System Six Cardio (the body weight option that uses push-ups and lunges) and System Six Body Weight Fat Loss. I can see using them on cardio days, or just wanting them for future use because that price is so tempting. The price is the only reason I bought it. $7 is a great deal whether I use it on some of my System Six cardio days or save it for later.

Because I'm a sucker, I bought both the 31 Interval program and the Simple Nutrition guide. It's late here and I'm tired so I'll look at them tomorrow.  

That's an excellent point, skwigg. Great to have in the arsenal, at that price. Thanks!

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"If there's hilarity, I charge extra." ~ Veronica Mars

My blog

I grabbed it and am perusing the Simple Nutrition guide first. Pretty nice info! Thanks again for passing this along, skwigg.

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"If there's hilarity, I charge extra." ~ Veronica Mars

My blog

I just did the #21 Depletion Bodyweight Circuit I posted above. I ran through it 3 times in 16 minutes. I am depleted. And sweaty. It only took a couple of minutes longer than my usual kettlebell swings and was a nice change-up.