Health

One of my daily internet habits is to check the Yahoo homepage to get a brief glimpse of what’s going on around the world before moving onto the Yahoo Finance page. One day I noticed an article on how Alex Smith does intermittent fasting and drinks Bulletproof Coffee daily to help him stay in shape. Knowing I had Alex Smith as one of my QB’s for a fantasy league I was in I clicked on it.

I already knew what intermittent fasting was so that did not interest me. But what was this Bulletproof Coffee?

Turns out that its quite simply some really fancy coffee beans, grass-fed butter (ghee), and MCT oil (coconut oil). The CEO of Bulletproof Coffee is a guy named Dave Asprey. He went on some adventure through the Himalayas and on his trek he stopped at a hut and was served coffee with oil and butter in it. He felt a rush of energy and clarity from that cup of coffee which propelled him onwards.

Or something like that.

When he got back from his journey he founded Bulletproof Coffee and got to work on trying to make the worlds best cup of coffee. Appears he’s doing quite well with this.

But what interested me was when I heard athletes were having this one cup of coffee as their “breakfast”. So I went and bought the starter kit.

Well that’s new

What makes the Bulletproof method different than a regular cup of coffee is that you need to brew the coffee and then transport it to the blender. From there you put a tablespoon of their “Brain Octane Oil” and some ghee into the blender with the hot coffee and blend away.

It might have been the prettiest cup of coffee I’ve ever made. All frothy and caramel looking.

I’ll tell you this. I’ve been drinking coffee daily for about six years now but do not consider myself a coffee drinker. Add a little bit of cream and that’s good for me.

But the cup of Bulletproof Coffee I had might have been the best tasting cup of coffee I’ve ever had. Something about the butter and oil made for a delicious combination. Plus, there seemed to be something a bit more “premium” about the beans. Bulletproof talks a lot about what makes their beans better and there might be something to that claim.

Here’s the thing

Its not so much about the premium coffee beans, oil, and butter. Its more about the “Bulletproof Method”. Which is you drink this cup of coffee and it unlocks energy due to your body burning the fats from the oil and butter putting you into “ketosis”. Throw in some intermittent fasting and your body turns into a calorie burning machine. Its very “Paleo” or “Primal” and “Keto”.

I didn’t experience any of the energy, focus, or clarity gains I was supposed to. And I followed the method to a T for two weeks.

I continued following the “Bulletproof Method” for about two months as I bought a second kit. I’ll admit to being a little lazy and not blending it every day. Somedays I just put the ghee and Brain Octane Oil in my cup and stirred with a spoon. Not as pretty but it worked.

In the end

I just don’t think drinking Bulletproof Coffee is going to make that much of a difference for me. And when I read about pro athletes using it I’m also reading how they changed their diet. Plus, they’re like pro athletes and they’re running around burning thousands of calories a day. One slight change to what they put into their body might make a noticeable difference.

For shlubs like myself I don’t think so.

I could kind of say I was doing a similar method with my morning Shakeology. For those two months I moved Shakeology to the afternoon to give the Bulletproof Coffee and “method” a chance to work. For the past six years I typically have Shakeology and a regular cup of coffee in the morning.

I’ve stopped buying Bulletproof Coffee and doing the “method”. We’re still going through some ghee which I’ll put in my regular boring cup of coffee from time to time. But I’m not buying the Brain Octane Oil or ground beans anymore.

All of it was rather expensive too.

We typically buy whatever bag of ground coffee beans that are on sale at Kroger for $8 or something and it lasts us a week or two. The Bulletproof Coffee Starter Kit was over $50 and lasted two weeks. That’s kind of a lot of money for coffee beans, oil, and fancy butter.

I’m not saying I wouldn’t buy it again as it was a delicious cup of coffee. It would be more of a treat instead of an everyday sort of thing mostly due to me not experiencing any of the benefits of drinking Bulletproof Coffee.

It was worth a try but its back to boring coffee and Shakeology in the morning for me. I get that subtle caffeine kick from the boring coffee, a boat load of vitamins, and a similar amount of calories you’d get from the Bulletproof Coffee in Shakeology.

From time to time I will update a post to bring it up to date. This 3 Day Refresh review post was originally posted in 2014 and a couple of things have changed.

It started after the 2014 Beachbody Coach Summit where the 3 Day Refresh was released. I could not attend due to me about to be a dad for the first time.

The month leading up to starting the 3 Day Refresh was stressful. The thoughts of becoming a new dad along with nearing the end of what turned out to be a six-week kitchen remodel didn’t help.

We either had to BBQ outside or microwave food in our basement. This made it easy to decide to go out to eat three times as much as we normally do. Workouts became sporadic dealing with all of this as the house was not functioning like normal. Needless to say I was due for a pick me up. A refresh if you will.

I prefer to share my results at the beginning instead of at the end because if you’re here you probably already have an idea of what the 3 Day Refresh is all about. I’ll go over the details below my before and after photos.

Results

(Blue shorts are before. Yellow shorts are after)

Beginning Weight – 194.4 lbs

Finishing Weight –  188.6 lbs

Total Weight Loss = 5.8 pounds

Not bad for 3 days.

Didn’t feel tired like I did at times when doing the Ultimate Reset. The 900 calorie a day restriction with the 3 Day Refresh did not bother me. Maybe it was because I had eaten more than I probably should have the previous two weeks and had some “reserves” to work with. I felt a lot less bloated when done.

What Is It?

The 3 Day Refresh is simply that. A three-day program designed to help you feel cleaner, lighter, and healthier without starving yourself. During the three days you take specific shakes and follow a super simple meal plan.

The goal of the 3 Day Refresh is more about getting you back into a good routine of eating quickly without having to give up food.

I lost almost 6 pounds in 3 days without really even having to think about it.

What You Get

There are two 3 Day Refresh kits available to buy. One comes with 3 Shakeology packets to take in the morning and the other does not. I bought the one that does not as I have had Shakeology sent to my house every month since 2010.

Regardless of what 3 Day Refresh kit you buy you will receive:

• 6 Packets of Vanilla Fresh
• 3 Packets of Fiber Sweep
• 3 Day Refresh Program Guide

Vanilla Fresh tasted very good. Didn’t realize it was both a dairy and soy free protein shake until I flipped the packet over on the last day and read the ingredients. The Fiber Sweep tasted similar but a bit smoother to the detox packet in the Ultimate Reset.

The 3 Day Refresh Program Guide is 25 pages long and includes what you are supposed to do on every day along with recipes.

Every question you could possibly have about the 3 Day Refresh has an answer for you inside of the program guide.

Typical Day

1. Wake-up: Drink 8-12 ounces of water.
2. Breakfast: Shakeology plus fruit if you have it or just fruit.
3. Mid-Morning: Fiber Sweep
4. Lunch: Vanilla Fresh plus options from the Fruit, Vegetable, and Fats snack list.
5. Afternoon Snack: From Fruit, Vegetable, or Juice Options list.
6. Dinner: Vanilla Fresh plus a meal from the Dinner Recipes list.

In the 3 Day Refresh Program Guide there are pages dedicated to Fruit, Vegetable, and Fats to snack on options along with Juicing recipes. There is even a blurb about Flavorings.

The lists are long but don’t be shocked to see things like “Apple”, “Carrots”, or “Avocados” on them. I never tried the Juicing recipes so I can’t tell you if they were good or not.

Dinner Recipes

• Coconut Steamed Veggies
• Roasted Asparagus with Almonds
• Spinach Salad
• Veggie Stir-Fry
• Lemony Green Beans
• Carrot-Seaweed Medley
• Kale with Pine Nuts
• Cucumber And Tomato Salad
• Moroccan Carrot Salad

The way it works with the dinners is you pick whichever one you want to make. It’s not an “On Day 1 you eat ____ and on Day 2 you eat ____” sort of thing. You could pick one and eat it for all three dinners.

What stuck out to me after reading the dinners is they are all in the Ultimate Reset. This was good news for me since I was comfortable making them already. Big fan of the Cucumber and Tomato Salad.

Maybe some day I’ll get around to posting how to make the recipes. Maybe not. You could always just buy the 3 Day Refresh like I did so you’ll have the program guide at your house showing you what to do. Which leads me into…

Buy

You have a couple of different options when buying the 3 Day Refresh. You will save on cost if you buy it without Shakeology. If you would like to buy the 3 Day Refresh for cheap than you can always sign up as a Beachbody Coach like I did and you will save 25% off the prices below.

Go through the sign up process and you will see the discount during sign up. If the discount does not interest you than choose one of the options below.

3 Day Refresh	3 Day Refresh without Shakeology	3 Day Refresh Challenge Pack
$70	$60	$150

 

When I first finished the 3 Day Refresh in 2014 I said I would definitely do it again. And I still might. Its been 4 years since my first round and I have not done it again. I am not sure why but I haven’t felt the need to do so.

I see a purpose for the 3 Day Refresh and I believe it to be better than the 3 Day Shakeology Cleanse which was popular 5 years ago. You shouldn’t only be drinking three shakes a day. You need some food.

I guess since I’ve continued drinking Shakeology every day since 2010 that I don’t really see a need for the 3 Day Refresh. When I get a little off track with my eating or need a boost I’ll have Shakeology twice that day with a salad or something.

That seems to be a more feasible route since I always have Shakeology in my house and it appears to get the job done. I’m not knocking the 3 Day Refresh. It worked. I just don’t see me making a habit of doing it when I get similar results from doubling up on Shakeology.

Thanksgiving festivities have finally drawn to an end. Every year the routine is pretty much the same. I get huge. I’m not going to lie, but I like to eat. Very seldom do I ever turn away food and its even harder to do when all of the food that is cooked turns up on a plate. Thanksgiving day alone is a day full of eating. My family and I go to the Detroit Lions football game. I have been trying very hard to convince my dad to not buy season tickets anymore but he refuses because our seats are “too good to let go” (2nd row from the field). The morning starts off with a small tailgate with friends and family at 10am eating and having a few drinks. I wish we could just stay there and not watch the game because we all knew they were going to lose… and they did.

After the game its over to my aunt’s house for Thanksgiving dinner. She cooks up quite a feast. Turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, corn, ham, deviled eggs, rolls, and a bunch of other amazing recipes. This might have been the first year in quite some time where I only had one plate. I was probably still full from the morning tailgate and needed some space left over for banana cream pie. There was a point later in the night where I almost passed out from being too full. Thanksgiving ended with a day filled with a lot of fun with family and friends.

 

So what do you do with all of the leftovers? You eat those too. We had enough leftovers for the next two days to feed the family Thanksgiving dinner again. Not willing to turn down another offering of one of my favorite dinners I dove in on that dinner on Friday. I could feel the pounds being put on. We didn’t do anything friday night from being to worn out from visiting and fatting out too much.

When I woke up on saturday I felt like I just ate a whole turkey. Since I had not done any kind of P90X workout routine at all in a couple days the calories I knew all of the calories were not getting burned off. Later that night me and my girlfriend were scheduled to go out to dinner with 4 other couples we hang out with. I kept telling myself that I needed to do some sort of workout because if I did nothing I was going to eat a ton more and feel huge on Sunday. My motivation kept telling me to do something but my body was not reacting. What finally clicked was when I was watching TV and flipping through the channels I watched a commercial for Big Medicine on the Discovery Channel. It was a blip about a guy who ways over 500 pounds and can’t stop eating. Five minutes later I was out the door running. I ran 5 miles and felt a whole lot better when I got back to the house. The fresh air helped out a lot. I had been in a house for pretty much 3 days straight. We went out to dinner and had some food and a couple drinks. All in all a good night with some great friends.

Sunday came along and I was still full. I didn’teat that much that day because most of the Thanksgiving dinner left overs had been eaten and there was nothing left in the house. To finish off the weekend of fatting out it was determined to be a good idea to order a pizza. I only ate 4 slices this time and not my normal 6. Nothing I ate over the past 4 days was on the P90X Nutrition Plan for sure.

So what to do now? I only worked out once in 4 days and I feel like a blimp. I always do this to myself and sometimes I need to endulge a little bit. Its not like I was eating junk food the whole weekend just more of good food. It looks like its going to be a couple weeks of doing P90X Doubles. This is where I will be doing some form of cardio workout in the morning and a P90X DVD at night.