Good afternoon from Baghdad. Things are going really well over here. We are working hard at the office and in the gym here.

Since arriving to Iraq at the end of May, I have really cleaned up my diet, focusing heavily on reducing the amount of carbohydrates that I consume and ensuring that I eat a lot of fruits and vegetables.

I feel great - better than I have in a couple of years - as a result of changing my diet.

I have also been running a lot of intervals. 200s, 400s, 800s...lots and lots of interval training.

One of the primary reasons that I began to focus on interval training here in Iraq is because I have readily available access to a treadmill each morning as the gym is only a 30 second walk from my room, definitely convenient. It's rough to run outside over here so early on I decided that I would focus heavily on running shorter distances faster, as well as interval training. I have seen a lot of improvement over the last 6 weeks and really enjoyed pushing myself during my interval training.

As I shifted my focus to primarily interval training for cardio, I have also noticed an increase in my appetite as I believe I am burning much more fat than I was before. While I have only weighed myself a couple of times over here, my waist is getting smaller and smaller - a key indicator of fat loss. (I'm also getting faster...which may be a result of hauling around less fat!)

One of the lessons for me from this deployment is to focus on what you can focus on wherever you're at - be it because of location, time, or equipment. Are you going to be at an austere location for the next 30 days with little room for running? Focus on your body weight strength and short sprints. Are you on the go all the time for work with little time to train? Focus on all-out, intense exercise every time you can train.

Or is it the winter? It's freezing cold, you don't want to run outside...focus on building your strength for next year's running season.

In addition to my interval running over here, I have also had some fun and focused on lifting my arms and some other strength training in the evenings. It's been fun to see some strength gains in my total body strength, as well as my core.

One area where I have started to take PerfectAmino, when I did not before, is before running. I have noticed a marked difference in performance when I take Perfect Amino before interval training or a threshold run.

PerfectAmino continues to help me recover quickly. It's awesome.

Big thanks as always to Dr. Minkoff and the team at BodyHealth.

Talk to you next month from Texas!