...it's THE BEAST!!

Remember that line in "Poltergeist" where Tangina tells the Freeling family what's responsible for all the chaos in their house?  She talks about the force that's holding little Carol Anne captive in another plane of consciousness and explains what it is, ending it all cryptically with, "To us, it is The Beast!!" 

Flash forward thirty years later, and it could very well be Sagi Kalev busting out of that bedroom closet, scolding those pot-smoking hippie parents and telling them to get with the program and do some "Body Beast" to get into shape and get their household back in order! 

In fact, in 1982, everyone in the Freeling family probably would have benefitted from some Kalev tough love, including the older teenage daughter who ate Lays potato chips while in bed.

All joking aside, after months of making up my own workouts and following some of Muscle Pharm's (which I still highly recommend and plan to use again, by the way) on its Facebook page, I decided to order "Body Beast" from Beachbody.  They're the company responsible for "P90X" and "Insanity."  You may have seen the infomercials featuring Tony Horton and Shaun T, respectively. 

Yes, this post will also be part commercial... sorry!

As far as "Body Beast" goes, I had seen the demo videos, and that it was the newest Beachbody program.  Since it was devoted to gaining muscle mass, and not losing weight, it especially caught my attention.  After weeks of mulling it over, I finally ordered it.  Part of the program involves downloading worksheets for the workouts.  I decided to watch the DVDs at home and take the worksheets to the gym and do the workouts there.

Nearly three weeks later, all I can say is WOW.  The workouts are tough, but I enjoy them.  Check out the demo videos in the link up above, and you will see.

I can also feel my body changing in a good way.  I've put on a little too much "bad weight" with the bulking, but I've started to add in more cardio--and slightly cut the calories--to try and keep the muscle but lose the fat.  My body fat percentage went from 8.7% in September to 10.2% as of last week, so I freaked out and got a little paranoid.  I won't get too worried though, unless it actually goes to 11- and 12%.  That's another blog post though.

I also have other Beachbody plans that I will talk about in later posts.  I'm also about to start using Shakeology, which is on the way in the mail.  I've read a lot about it and its health benefits, so I can't wait to get started.