Tired--but still knocked out the workout.

Here's yesterday's blog; I meant to post it, well, yesterday, but had Internet connectivity issues:

Today, I was tired--all throughout the work day. Last night, I went to a "happy hour" for my grad program's alumni group. I successfully stared down a heaping plate of nachos, even a more healthful ahi tuna salad, and ceremoniously enjoyed my apple and decaf coffee. After that, I took the subway over to Chinatown to hit up a sporting goods store to buy a lighter resistance band for the shoulder exercises, and a heavier one for the rows. Not that I'm afraid of the burn, but it's been difficult to work up to the required reps--with proper form, no pausing, and no use of outside "helper" muscles, as Patrick has warned against--to really work my deltoids. I've noticed that it's tough to gauge the actual resistance that these suckers will actual throw at you during a workout, if you only try them out in the store. A 5-lb band doesn't seem like it should fry your muscles almost to the point of tears, but after you've already gone lethal on your lats, pummeled your pecs, and beat down your biceps, that scrawny-looking little piece of hose can give your shoulders some serious attitude.

The diet is good. Today:

Breakfast--scrambled egg with fried onion & peppers, oatmeal;

Lunch--baked mahi-mahi with Cajun spices, rice, and "big steam" carrots, broccoli, & asparagus;

Dinner--more mahi-mahi (eating it now before it starts to turn), quinoa, and spinach salad with tomatoes and cucumber.

Despite being tired--and hungry--I knocked out my workout after work (the shopping trip last night, on top of the happy hour, really pushed dinner back, and put me in bed past my PCP bedtime.)

Speaking of which...

A little off course...

I veered a little off-course last night; an old friend from undergrad was in DC, and had been recommended an Ethiopian place. So I went, figuring it was better than fasting until I got home, and since Ethiopian food is, by the Pollan definition, certainly real "food." I ate as close to PCP as I could without the scale, ordering a veggie combo and meat combo to share. I stopped short of what I might usually consume, since many of the dishes are made with a clarified butter and salt, and you actually use the "injera" (a spongy, sour Ethiopian pancake-like bread) to eat, making it easy to load up on too many carbs. Still, the dinner was likely a bit higher-calorie than the recent norm.

Today, breakfast, lunch, and tonight's dinner were back "on":

-2 hard-boiled eggs, oatmeal, avocado and spinach, with milk;
-quinoa with baked tilapia, mixed veggies;
-banana and apple for morning and afternoon tea, respectively;
-lean ground beef w/rice, "big steam" veggies (carrots, broccoli, and asparagus);
-2 kiwi fruits and a date, washed down with some nice, cold 1 percent.

(Sorry, no photos, I'm already cutting into my beauty rest).

Still, I may try to pre-cook and pre-weigh dinners, in addition to lunches; if I know I'm heading out for a long day, next time I'll be prepared.

Days 8, 9, and 10

It's been a few days since the last post, but I'm still "on the wagon." And the "wagon"--and the fridge, and the freezer, and the pantry, and, well, me--are completely brimming with food. My shelf of the fridge has now become a 3-D Tetris game of Pyrex-ware containers, egg cartons, and random pieces of fruit.

As mentioned in the last post, gone are the days of slicing everything, such as my last non-PCP meal, in half like John Belushi's Samurai Delicatessen:



(Full disclosure--since it was my last day, I did in fact go to Five Guys. I also got my occasional dessert: Italian gellato. Downsized, of course, for the 1/2 diet:


)

Now it's down to business:



Yes, that is a FULL-sized plate.

Honestly, the biggest challenge has been finding and managing time--to shop, cook, do dishes, eat, shop again (out of eggs!), work out, and, last but not least, eat. And eat. And eat. (I'm quoting Patrick here). And starting the new diet--and the new, longer, more intense workouts--in the middle of the work-week was definitely a shock. Like someone fired the starting gun while you are still lacing up your track shoes. On the bench.

It's been great having Saturday to just play catch up, especially on sleep and cooking. (As the latest e-mail from Patrick details, sleep is important. My roommate, who is much more of a natural athlete than I, also reminded me that staying up too late would deprive me of the fruits of all this labor).

Now that I've got a few days worth of lunches and dinners waiting in the fridge--and a new blog post--I feel "caught-up." Which is awesome, because Week 2 got off to a rough start. Thursday morning, my jump rope broke after 80 jumps. (If I ever attempt to taking my roping skills pro, I'm definitely thinking twice before accepting any endorsements from GoFit. They've got only one more chance with me, with their resistance bands.) There's a fitness store 1 block from work, so I was able to find a replacement--and a back-up--the same day. But my work-outs ended up rotating to evenings, which I was really hoping to dedicate to creating works of art like the one in the photo above.

Speaking of which, here's the funny thing--by the time of any given meal, I'm actually HUNGRY again. Working out has been the key; I feel like my body is actually burning off or using the mounds of food I keep shoveling into it. In fact, since last Thursday:

-I've slept like a baby--even last night, through the cacophony of my drunken roommates;
-My energy levels have been way up--I practically bounce up flights of stairs;
-Again, I apparently have no trouble putting away three times the amount of food I would "normally" eat, and six times the quantity of food that I ate just last week.

For example, normally, I would usually eat just one of these 2 Cup containers-full of food; now I'm doing 3 at a time:



As far as food strategies go, I'm planning on doing 2 big cooking sessions each week (most likely Saturday/Sunday and Wednesday), allowing me to heat-up pre-cooked lunches and most dinners. Since eggs don't do well as left-overs, breakfast will be from scratch.

Breakfast today (Day 10) was scrambled eggs with veggies, oatmeal, and milk. Lunch was smoked salmon, steamed veggies, and rice. Dinner tonight was ground bison with Moroccan spices, steamed broccoli and carrots, some avocado, and quinoa. Starting Day 11, Workouts will be rotating back to mornings.

And here... we... go!

Just got done preparing a LOT of food for tomorrow, and I'm off to bed for a few hours sleep. I'll post a little later on my "last" 1/2 Five Guys burger, and my thoughts on our reading.

For now, I think this clip beautifully reflects my initial reaction to the "PCP Proper" diet:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gciFoEbOA8

...though instead of "boat," substitute "pyrex-ware." And "stomach"...

Days 5 & 6

Two more successful days--and 3 full meals--down. I was able to bring lunch to jury duty, so it was relatively easy to stick with only what I brought. (High-fives--I didn't get selected to be on a panel! Or even to attend a panel selection!) The only time I came close to slipping off the wagon was when I purchased this, after eating tuna and veggies for lunch:



Sugar-filled gum. And yes, I chewed a whole stick.

Otherwise, the meals have been pretty consistent (not pictured: 1/2 salad and the turkey & spinach salad I consumed at a reception this evening):







Tomorrow, however, is the last day before "PCP Proper" begins, which includes some pretty strict limitations on what we can stick in our gobs. Just for kicks, I may head to Five Guys Burgers and Fries and indulge just a little--but only half:



...and I may hold the fries:

http://www.nbcwashington.com/around-town/food-drink/Five-Guys-Fries-Hate-Your-Arteries-78681172.html

...hmm... on second thought, perhaps Ethiopian...

The work-outs have definitely given my energy a boost; I've knocked out all of the sets so far at, at least, the middle of the range of reps, and often (including for push-ups) at the high end. Tomorrow is all rope--and a short break from the resistance work.

All right, time to stop salivating and head to bed...

Day 4

First of all, a big welcome to any of my Facebook crew who is checking this out, including the majority of my family and friends! For more background on The Project, start here:

http://thepeakconditionproject.com/

and then check out my introductory post on this blog.

Now, Day 4:

Another successful day on the "Half Diet"

Breakfast:


(This is actually the same photo as Day 3; I basically at the same things. And Sunday brunch will have to get the smack-down another weekend).

Lunch/Dinner:



And, pre- and post-hike, a couple handfuls of nuts (crudely humorous comments will be greatly appreciated--and, because I'm trying to keep things somewhat family-friendly, quickly deleted):



The same muscles were sore today--nevertheless, as mentioned above, I decided to go through with my regular weekend hike at Rock Creek Park, along with one of my roommates. Given the soreness, we did a somewhat less ambitious route than I might have otherwise attempted; the total was about 3 miles. (And no, we didn't find any dead bodies.) The hunger on the way back was pretty intense, and we passed quite a few food establishments (I think at one point I was actually counting). Fortunately, I didn't fall off the wagon and hit any "drive-thrus."

The Day 4 workout following the hike was more of a challenge for my current chest strength--which is good, since that's one of my weak spots, and an area I've targeted for some serious progress.

I'm finding that the work-outs are a definite departure from my typical weekly, gym-oriented schedule, which consisted of 2-3 hour-long, all-out assaults on my muscles--at least for a few weeks at a time, until I get busy with work, classes, and/or social life, and take a "break." Similarly, they are lower-impact yet more frequent than my runs (1-3 times per week, 3-5 miles at a time).

Day-to-day, I'm starting to feel more like I've been bailing hay, and a lot less like I've just been "hitting the gym."

Day 3

As I head into Day 4, I've noticed that the muscles are getting a little sore, especially the gluts, pecs, and abs, probably because they are not used to getting worked on consecutive days. But I am still able to knock out the exercises with little difficulty--at least so far. And I'm actually enjoying the wake-up kick from the jump rope.

The Half Diet marches on--despite being out for a buddy's 30th B-day celebration at a bar, with basket-fulls of tortilla chips, and plate-fulls of casedillas, pork tacos, and salad, I managed to limit myself to the following:

1 small hors d'oeuvres plate of salad;
1 pork taco, with salsa
4 tortilla chips, with salsa
3 diet Cokes

On a non-PCP night, I would have easily demolished three times that amount of Mexican food. Or, rather, three times that amount of Mexican food would have demolished me.

My only "half" violation was probably the diet Cokes--I usually don't drink six of them. I did three mainly because because the bar didn't serve coffee, and I was tired--and since I was serving as one of the DDs, I didn't want to fall asleep at the wheel.

Breakfast today was the usual:










For dinner (which also doubled as lunch--I sort of slept in a little), I successfully stared down one half of a damn-tasty Mediterranean burger at Busboys & Poets and said, "see you tomorrow":




The next restaurant challenge: Sunday brunch.

Here are a few items I've managed to pick up for the next phase of the Project:













If anyone is interested, here's a link for the kitchen scale:

http://www.amazon.com/Escali-Primo-Food-Scale/dp/B0028SJARQ

And if anyone knows where to find a decent, free-standing chin-up bar, I'm open to suggestions.

Half the food...

Day 1--a brief photo summary

Just as one takes many pictures at the start of a long vacation or road trip, here are a few from the start of this journey. This week's mission, in addition to the exercise (not pictured), is to eat what we usually eat, but only HALF the amount. Sounds simple? Deceptively so.

For example, just where is the 1/2 way point on this bad boy? I haven't used calculus since college, and they don't exactly provide any kind of plastic divider that says "STOP and save for tomorrow's lunch." In fact, they probably want you to come back for another bucket:



But I did stop, right around the middle of that carrot in the foreground. The rest awaits in the work fridge.

And not only does "half" apply to food:


"Down-sizing" to the "Short" (get it?!) only gets you part of the way from 12 oz to 6; the last 2, sadly, go down the drain:



By the third meal, I decided to use a simpler approach, with much less thinking involved--small plate:




And then there's the snacks, especially tempting while crashed out in front of the TV. Luckily, our cable company decided that it was time to upgrade their remaining channels to digital, and in so doing wipe out the free signal my roommates and I had been enjoying for the past 18 months. And they did this on, literally, the first day of the PCP. Problem solved, temptation removed. Good-bye, John Stewart...

...hello, jump-rope.

Introduction

Greetings, all, and welcome to my PCP blog. My name is Brett Kuhnert, and I shouldn't really be here. Actually, I should be dead.

Just over 36 years ago, I was born with a set of near-fatal birth defects, including a small, pin-sized hole in the wall of my heart; an esophagus that was in two pieces, one of them wrapped around my trachea; a partially-formed left thumb; and a pretty screwed-up lower digestive system. Severe brain damage was also, so my parents were told, highly likely. The only pediatric hospital in the region that could treat what I had didn't want to take me--because they thought I was a lost cause. Luckily, my parents and, more importantly, my very stubborn pediatrician, disagreed--strongly. I got in, I got fixed, I got out--surprisingly healthy. Except, possibly, for the brain damage, depending on who you ask...
(Just kidding).

Since then, I've done my best to pretty much ignore the cautious advice of most of my doctors: "No strenuous work in extreme heat" (I bailed hay each summer as a teenager). "Don't overdo the cardiovascular work" (I ran cross country in high school). Several years after college, I took a leap of faith and applied to become a Peace Corps Volunteer, never really expecting to make it past my physical, given my medical history. Once again, I made it in, and served for almost three years in a rural mountain village in Morocco, North Africa.

I joined the PCP because, as I learned very early on, half-measures often just won't cut it. And that's pretty much what I've been doing fitness-wise since high-school, aside from a few months here and there when I would remain faithful to a gym routine or running regime. As I also learned early on, you can't survive, much less thrive, alone. And so I'm going to be counting on the support of my fellow PCPers; Patrick; my family, friends, and colleagues; and you, dear readers, to keep me honest, and help keep me on the path. For my PCP team members, I promise to do the same, and more. And I promise to keep this blog as engaging--and entertaining--as I can.

My goal is to slim down, lose the fat that has slowly crept onto my frame since I left the hay fields, the mountains, and the gym, and put the muscle back on--to stay. To get into the best possible physical condition I can achieve.

"Do not surround yourself with all manner of comforts. Instead, learn to be comfortable in all manner of surroundings." --Unknown.