30 Day Workout Challenge

The idea of not body shaming seems nice. Treat people, no matter their weight, in a polite and courteous manner. Every stranger should have equal treatment from other people. It's an extension of the golden rule; don't be a dickhead to others.

The problem is that the 'don't body shame' movement has morphed into an entirely different beast – if it ever even was the beast I thought it was when I first heard about it and thought it was a noble idea. Now it's not just enough to ask people to be polite to someone and not bully them for their weight.

Now it's an offense to ask for weight loss help.

That's right. Wanting to change for our own reasons are no longer acceptable.

I didn't actually ever plan to do a close look at for an exercise program. Mostly because there's really no scientific studies done on specific programs – nor do they usually really need it. Getting up and moving is the goal and unless the program fails to elevate heart rate, as “Wii Fit” did, it's probably an okay exercise program.

But P90X was studied by the American Counsel on Exercise in conjunction with the University of Wisconsin. ACE selected some of the P90X program videos to determine the energy cost and exercise intensity they provided.

Power 90 is a bit old, I know, but after getting myself accustomed to exercising daily, I wanted to move on to something that was still fairly easy but could push me. And “Power 90” offered exactly what I needed to step up from “EA Sports Active.”

I spent 3 weeks doing phase 1-2 before moving on to phase 2-3. So I will be reviewing 4 programs.

Power 90 Sweat phase 1-2 is about 35 minutes long, not including the ab routine.

Power 90 Sculpt phase 1-2 is about 28 minutes long.

Power 90 Sweat phase 3-4 is about 41 minutes long, not including the ab routine.

Power 90 Sculpt phase 3-4 is about 38 minutes long.

Peripheral equipment:

Resistance bands – I am pretty sure when I got Power 90 many years ago it was part of a set that came with the resistance bands, but now I cannot find such a set. Hardly surprising since it's old (VHS was still a thing people were using when I got this!) and has now been updated to P90 and all the offshoots of that. I definitely recommend the Beach Body resistance bands if you don't already have a set though; I've had these for years and they still work great.

Weight loss/Aerobics:

I lost about 6.5 pounds over the 30 days I was doing Power 90. The sweat day aerobics is pretty intense for just starting out without being murderous. 35 minutes is a nice, long length of time to get adjusted to working out for and my heart rate was consistently reaching and staying in my target heart rate zone.

When calorie counting goes awry, when we eat more than we realize, when we don't think about the extra condiments we put on our food, we can pack on the pounds. The British television show, “Secret Eaters” looks at people who can't figure out why they're gaining weight and monitors their eating habits both by having them track their calories on their own, and by watching them with cameras and private investigators.

Coleus forskolii is one of the newest 'wonder drugs' that TV personalities and websites are pushing to help with weight loss. The box claims it will boost metabolism, that it's a powerful fat burner and will increase NRG levels. As with almost all supplements, these statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.

The close look at LG 365 Forskolin is going to be short and sweet unlike some supplements which contain everything but the bathroom sink. There are only three ingredients.

The capsule itself is made of vegetable cellulose. These are good capsule options for people who want to keep vegetarian or vegan. A quick test in vinegar confirmed that the capsule will dissolve easily once it hits the stomach. The pH of vinegar is a bit weaker than stomach acids.

Now for the contents of the capsule.

Rice flour is the inactive ingredient filler. It's a gluten free filler; there's nothing good or bad about it.

Forskolin is what you're really paying for here as it's the only other ingredient. It's what's being pushed as a weight loss miracle by TV personalities like Dr. Oz. But is there any science to back up his touting of this 'miracle'? The short answer is no.

After going over and evaluating the usefulness of each of the ingredients in EvolutionSix Fat Loss Formula I took it for 30 days and am ready to evaluate its effectiveness in real world terms.

In case you needed another reason to get motivated to lose weight, a study by the Cambridge Centre for Aging and Neuroscience has discovered that being overweight causes decreased brain function. The study looked at 473 individuals between the ages of 20 and 87 and the full results are published in the journal 'Neurobiology of Aging.'

The study found that overweight individuals had a widespread reduction in white matter compared to their leaner counterparts of the same age. White matter is tissue that connects areas of the brain for information to be communicated between areas. A reduction in white matters means slower and less complete communication across the surface of the brain.

When age was brought into the equation, the brain of a 50 year old overweight person looked similar to the brain of a lean 60 year old person. As we age our brains naturally shrink in size, so the 60 year old's brain was normal, but that means the overweight individual had a decrease in brain function that shouldn't have happened for another 10 years. This was only visible in those who were middle-age and older.

While there were clear differences in the volume of white matter between lean and overweight individuals, there was seemingly no connection between being overweight or obese and an individual’s cognitive abilities, as measured using a standard test similar to an IQ test.

“We don’t yet know the implications of these changes in brain structure. Clearly, this must be a starting point for us to explore in more depth the effects of weight, diet and exercise on the brain and memory,” Professor Sadaf Farooqi, from the Wellcome Trust–Medical Research Council Institute of Metabolic Science at Cambridge said.  

LEAF is a really lovely metallic leaf-shaped piece of jewelry/technology from Bellabeat. It's like a Fitbit, except more fashionable and designed especially for women. It tracks a woman's health through her activity level, sleep and menstrual cycle.

Is it all complicated though? Syncing stuff and putting in numbers and blahblah, wearing tech is always a pain in the butt. According to Bellabeat, you just wear it. That's all. There are no buttons, no screens. LEAF is customizable and can be worn as a bracelet, necklace or clip. Bracelet and necklace accessories are included with purchase. The Silver LEAF comes with the beige bracelet and the Rose Gold LEAF comes with a brown bracelet.

LEAF works with an app that provides a simple visual snapshot of your daily activity, sleep, periods and meditation. With four tabs telling you everything you need to know about your daily progress, you can compare activities and learn what you need to improve in your life.

• activity and step tracking – You can also add custom activities in the app, because every activity counts.
• breathing and meditation tracking – It's not just about moving, it's about being still and breathing for a while.
• tracking movement during the night – With graphic visualizations in the app, sleep monitoring helps you understand what your body’s going through during the night.
• period tracking feature and fertility calendar – Never get caught by surprise by your period again and whether your trying to have a baby, or really don't want to have one, you can keep track of your likely ovulation schedule as well.