Category: Dr Marks Blog

Putting Off Health

Written by: Dr. Mark A few weeks ago I wanted to write about all the excuses we use to NOT pursue our health. Excuses to avoid the gym, to not eat healthy, or more likely to eat the UN-healthy. It was on my mind because I have “started” the Straight 60 plan a number of times, but didn’t have the commitment needed to stay with it. Then found myself in a place of saying “I’ll start after …..” The truth is I could come up with all sorts of reasons to wait to start the Straight 60. For me it […]

Eat to Live or Live to Eat?

Written by Dr. Mark The other day I was on day 3 of my Suero Cleanse,  drinking one of the bottles in front of a friend. So naturally the conversation as to what that is comes up. As I’m explaining it’s a 3 day cleanse where you eat nothing but just drink these, his response was “no way, never, life is too short, if you gave me the option to not eat for 3 days or die, I’d choose death!” I didn’t think much of the comment at the time, I knew he was part exaggerating, part teasing, and I’ve […]

Changing palate on the Straight 60

Written by Dr. Mark One of the cool things that happens when you’re on this path is that you will start to appreciate foods you typically don’t. At least this happens for me each time. I’ve never really enjoyed salads all that much, but find myself craving them at times when on this diet. Especially after a hard workout, I love viewing my food as a replenisher, when my body feels beaten down, and nothing gives me that satisfaction like some fresh lettuce, kale, and spinach. Last night was a great example of this new appreciation for foods. Before we […]

Straight 60 food is Awesome!

Written by Dr. Mark This is one of our favorite meals on the Straight 60. Taco salad! Its pretty simple, take all your favorite taco ingredients and put them over a big bed of lettuce. Just be careful to make sure the salsa you use doesn’t have sugar added, and use it sparingly. For me this will take the place of my apple or berries for the day but its worth it. We’ve been back at this for a little over a week now, and we’ve already brought back a few recipes that Amanda (my wife) and I had really loved […]

The Straight 60 – Again

  Written by Dr. Mark I’m excited to be doing this again. I need to do this again, everyone should do this at some point. I’m doing it again for a few reasons. First of all because I think its wise for anyone, no matter what their current health situation is, to challenge themselves on a regular basis. The Straight 60 is a great way to do that. Test your will power, your ability to commit to something and see it through. Accomplishing this alone, not even considering the health benefits, is a great thing for anyone, and it will […]

The Pursuit

Today’s workout was pretty cool. It showed me a few things. The workout was a 20 minute AMRAP (as many rounds as possible). You try to complete as much work as possible in the 20 minutes. The movements were handstand push-ups (which I had to scale because I can’t do them yet), pistols (which are one-legged squats, that I also had to scale since I can’t do those), and pull-ups. The pull-ups were the thing that first made me think to write about this. I figured it out after that I did 90 pull-ups in the 20 minutes. When I […]

Here We Go Again

By Dr. Mark Richards Round 3 here we come. This will be my 3rd time doing the 60 Day Turnaround. I’m excited about this, not necessarily the process, but the outcomes I KNOW that are coming. As I’ve said before I had great success the first time through, loosing about 30 lbs. The second time through wasn’t as great, only dropping about 5-7 lbs overall. Getting myself so close to my initial goal of below 200, which unfortunately I haven’t hit yet. So what was the big difference from the first time to the second? My commitment to being strict. […]

Optimism = A Healthier Heart

 By Dr. Mark Richards Heart disease is the number one killer disease in our country, if you recall from the doctor’s report, every 1 out of 2.5 deaths in our country is from heart disease. Its a serious problem! A recent study out of the University of Illinois looked at peoples mental health and compared it to their heart heath. “Individuals with the highest levels of optimism have twice the odds of being in ideal cardiovascular health compared to their more pessimistic counterparts.” In other words, the people that were optimistic had healthier hearts. This really shouldn’t come as much of […]

More Frustration

By Dr. Mark Richards My last post I talked about going back to NY, and how it was fun and was a great time, but I left some of the story out. Amanda and I both got sick while we were there along with my son Eli. Besides being sick we pretty much felt like garbage the entire time we were there, from what we were eating. We completely dropped the straight 60 rules and basically ate cookies and pizza for a week. So, you can imagine how awful we were feeling and I think that lead to us getting […]

Choose Joy

By Dr. Mark Richrds I hope you had a great Christmas and new years. A lot has changed for me and my family this year. The biggest change, moving here. But there were some other major changes as well, me going from a full time student to working full time, and for my wife Amanda, the opposite, going from working to being a stay at home mom. When we first moved here, it was initially difficult, we were home sick, missed our friends and family back in New York, but we adjusted quickly. We were very busy with unpacking, getting […]