So about a week ago a couple buddies of mine and myself instituted a new super-secret, awesome-only club: We call it the Sandbag Death March Club. We’ve only met once, but I’m thinking we’ll shoot for monthly meet-ups. If you’ve got an 80+ lb. sandbag, you’re welcome to join… But here are the rules:

The first rule of Sandbag Death March Club is-…What? No. No, you can talk about it all you want. That’s a stupid rule, why would we say that?… The first rule is don’t drop the sandbag.

Helms returning the sandbag to an eagerly expectant Drew

Second rule? Continue to not drop the sandbag

Drew breaking the first and second rule of Sandbag Death March Club

Third rule is… Well we haven’t made any more rules up yet, but it’s a work in progress.

I mentioned the stairs at Church Hill here in Richmond, VA (RVA, hollaaaa) a few weeks back when my buddy Drew and I did the stairs a couple times with a Sandbag climb to top it off… I’d liken that to the fight Ed Norton and Brad Pitt had in the parking lot when Brad said, “just hit me… Surprise me” (Sorry for all the Fight Club references, but I was Tyler Durden for Halloween and I’m still feeling it evidently)… It was a dry run.

Last week though, we put some parameters around it. So here’s what the deal was…

Each person does:
3 stair sprints
1 double stair sandbag climb
1 single stair sandbag climb

We do the above until we’ve all finished, or until someone pukes… See, there you go: third rule.

Drew puked. Three times in fact. Right after the double stair climb, he lost his breakfast… So luckily for all of us, we didn’t have to do the last single stair climb. Gotta’ give the man respect though, he pushed through the rest of the workout regardless of his moment of weakness.

After that, we worked in some heavy core:
sandbag get-ups
sandbag oblique raises

Drew taking it like a man. Despite puke, he pushed through and finished it off in style.... sorta.

So there you have the initial agenda of the Sandbag Death March Club. It may not look like much, but I can assure you it was grueling at times. I look forward to doing it again in a couple weeks! Hopefully as we get more badass, we can make the workouts more badass.

As always, I’ll keep you posted!

Yesterday marked roughly the halfway point of our Whole 30 journey, so I thought it’d be a good idea for us to weigh in and take vitals. I was pretty sure I’d be dropping weight, considering the way my body looked, and the fact that many of my clothes have been fitting strangely. Sure enough, we’ve both lost close to 5lbs over the course of the last 2 weeks!

Sarah – 155lbs @ 21.4% body fat
Luke – 175.5lbs @ 6.9% body fat

How have we been feeling? Not too bad. Some mood issues on both sides I’d say, but all in all good.

However, considering how fast I’ve been losing weight, I’ve put the possibility on the table of me not completing the rest of this Whole 30 with complete rigidity. Why? Because I don’t want to look like a pre-pubescent girl, that’s why! I feel that is my right.

I’m going to weigh in again this coming Monday before making the final decision on that. Even if I decide not to stick to the guidelines, I’m still going to be eating all my Whole 30 approved meals, but I’ll just add in other, more calorie dense, non-Paleo foods to bump up my total calorie intake. I’m all about being a lean machine, but I don’t like the idea of losing muscle. I worked too hard for it over the past 10-12 months to waste it all.

But don’t worry… Even if I don’t completely stick with the program, Sarah has assured me that as long as I still cook and eat what she’s eating, she’ll stick to it like a champ… The other law she set down was that I couldn’t talk to her about what it was that I was eating.

I can see this going something a little like this…

I let Sarah in the front door. She walks in with a smile, and a bag full of veggies for what we’re about to cook…

Cue tears and yelling…

But we’ll see. I don’t want to cut back on the lifting or cardio, because that kind of defeats the purpose I think. I’ll update you on that here shortly.

But in closing, how about some food porn from the previous couple weeks (with links to recipes where applicable. Just click the picture)…

So this quick post is to fulfill a request made by a couple of female readers (Jess & Sio) that my partner in crime for this go of the Whole 30 post her stats. Surprisingly enough, I didn’t have to twist her arm as much as I thought I would, and she was happy to share her numbers with me (and thus with you…don’t worry I told her I was going to put this on here).

But first a little bio…

Sarah is a 24-yr. old student working on receiving her doctorate at MCV… and she is a recovering P90x-aholic.

Or was.

I say was because, just as she was beginning to stop using some of the stupid, yet mildly entertaining, catch phrases of the cult leader Tony Horton, and speak and act like a normal human being… she relapsed. The sad truth of it is, not only did she relapse, but she fell into an even worse drug: the cardio-intensive spin-off from P90x known as “Insanity”.

All jokes aside, having seen some of the Insanity series, it looks 100% legit as a vehicle to making you a cardio-machine, and Sarah is currently a little over halfway through the 60-day program.

Previous to the Whole 30, Sarah has been eating relatively “healthy” by most standards. While she will sometimes eat Paleo-compliant meals, sugar, grain, and dairy have all been a large part of her diet up until this point.

Enter pure Paleo goodness from October 31st until Thanksgiving to rock her world. As I stated above, she was kind enough to agree to share her stats to let you know how the Paleo-ness affects a physically active female. So here you go:

At the beginning of the Whole 30: 160lbs @ 21.8% body fat (very healthy levels for a female)

I’m just as interested as you to see how her body reacts to the naturally low carb diet, and I know she’s super stoked. We’ll keep you posted as things progress.