Has anyone else noticed...

...that the more you get into shape, the harder it is to sit in a chair for 8-10 hours, and the worse you feel afterwards? I don't think I'm just imagining this...

Day 76: Update

The inferno has ended, both inside and outside. New exhaust motor for the AC unit is in place and seems to be working.

Morning rope was followed up by the Kung-Fus I wussed out on earlier. (Jason, I tried for 800 jumps on the last two sets, but was bested by some phenomenal tripping. Next time...)

Still deciding on Indulgence: Part Trois, but I'm thinking Moroccan (Bastilla! Sugary mint tea! Salty tagine!)

Off to burn it up, PCP-style...

Inferno

These past few days, I've been feeling the burn, and it's not just during that fourth set of 90-second planks. (That still sounds intimidating, even after I just finished my last, and quite ugly, set a few minutes ago. I probably looked like I was trying out for a final death scene in a B-movie).

DC is currently undergoing its hottest June on record, with highs in the mid-to-upper 90s, heat index in the triple digits, and...

...wait for it...

...our air-conditioning just gave out over the weekend.

Needless to say, since Friday, the workouts have not been pretty. I didn't make it all the way to the Kung-Fu sit-ups. And again, I am not pleased with myself--I actually LIKE doing them (or, rather, attempting them); I just couldn't keep plugging without risking passing out. (I know we shouldn't chug too much water prior to doing abs, but at the rate I was sweating, I had to). And at the time of my workout, it was pretty late--too late to go jogging around the hood hanging from fences in a half-exhausted state. All the same, these are probably just excuses--better planning could have saved the ab-work. I'll have to work in an extra a.m. set tomorrow, after the rope.

Last night my room weighed in at around, oh, 92 degrees, and today's workout was again completed in a swamp of my own sweat; I was practically drowning in it. Honestly, the heat's not the worst--it's working out in the heat on top of only clocking four hours of sleep.

The diet goes well, despite two recent hurdles: an alumni dinner for my grad program (fixed menu!) and dinner before a concert. The former was invite only, all paid for by the program, with options only for vegetarians. There's no way I was going to be able to whip out the scale, and it felt weird making specific demands when the arrangements had already been made--and when I wasn't paying. So I did my best with the options, choosing the fish over the pork and lamb dishes, and forgoing dessert in favor of a small bowl of fresh fruit (which I used for that evening's snack). The Friday dinner before the live band gave me a little more control, so I went with a veggie paninni and salad. Later, at the concert (a great Lybian Berber/Tuareg band at the 9:30 Club), I stuck with coffee. (9:30 actually had a coffee bar inside the venue. Definitely the most PCP-friendly place to catch a live band that I've seen so far). Still, I definitely fared better the previous weekend, while out at the ball game. It wasn't hard; there was, quite simply, absolutely NOTHING I could eat:



Today it was back to basics: For breakfast, steel-cut Irish porridge (oats), steamed veggies, and lean ground bison/beef mix--along with the usual tall 300 o'milk. Lunch was baked salmon, fresh tossed green salad with tomatoes, onions, cucumber, and squash, with a bag-full of salt-free (or low-salt) tortilla chips. Unfortunately, no pics--I devoured everything before I could grab my camera.

The farmer's market has become a regular Sunday habit; I love heading in early (the eggs go FAST!) and grabbing an iced coffee at Big Bear Cafe and doing some reading or catching up on the news before the opening bell.

All right, all this food-blogging is making me hungry--back downstairs for some bison-burger & salad...

Day 70: New pics are up

...check'em out!

On day 68, I hit a new "low": morning weight of 142.

Again, the goal is to to look & feel good--still, it's good to know that the extra jumping paid off.

Speaking of which, I need to get today's in before bed (had to be sure to get to work at a decent hour, and I had cooking to catch up on).

Quickly, work-out wise, the planks have gotten less ugly--I finished all four sets, though on the fourth my back was definitely starting to bow at around 60 seconds.

Looking forward to filling up on more protein--I realized only recently that I've probably been over-boiling my eggs, and this may have affected their quality. Hope I didn't short-change myself too much...

Off to jump, then off to bed...

Easy Rider

I was watching an infomercial for one of those combo ab-aerobic machines the other day, and I noticed something interesting: whenever they made a claim or showed a testimonial that referred to any sort of measured loss of fat or specific results, they never referred to just the product by itself. They always either stated "program"along with the claim, or threw up some fine print for 0.05 seconds that read something like "Results not typical. Individual followed a prescribed low-calorie diet and used X-abinator on a regular basis over Y-weeks."

We always look for the most salient, novel, or unusual feature to explain a phenomenon, and then ascribe much more weight as a causal factor to that one thing--that 'smoking gun.' We rarely read the fine print, even though, in reality, it's the boring, mundane factor--eating right and eating less--that probably explains as much, if not more, of the variation in results among a "control" and "experimental"--or regime-following--group than that shiny piece of equipment being ridden by a busty, tanned, unitard-clad model who probably got her figure doing 98% of her exercises with something OTHER than the contraption she's panting over.

If you're the manufacturer of said gizmos, you know there's *zero* profit in just telling people to eat better & use portion-control, even though that alone would produce solid results, far beyond what using the gear but continuing to eat poorly will ever accomplish. So people lay down their credit card and put all of their hopes on a multi-jointed piece of moving metal and plastic that folds neatly under their bed, when what would really help them progress is that little supplemental diet program booklet folded neatly in the bottom of the box.

And that's the reason that the results you see are almost never "typical." The sad part is, as we've been learning, simply by opening that booklet and strictly adhering to diet, they could be.

What the disclaimer should really read is, "Results Not EASY."

Update: Fistfull of PCP

A quick summary of the last few days on the PCP, Western Style:




The Good

I am relatively caught up on sleep; the wall I thought I had hit has been knocked down, at least for now.

I *finally* discovered the wonders of the blender:



Banana-cherry-egg-white smoothie

I found a decent location for Kung-Fu sit-ups, and though it means more than a 20-second break between sets to jog down there, it's probably worth the extra time. Though I have to say, I'm inspired by Mikhael's carpentry work, I may have to make (or purchase) my own set-up. (There are, literally, NO doors in this house that are remotely suitable for a door-frame bar).

I've started doing daily 8-minute abs--it's now officially the only 'favorite' I have saved on the Youtube ap on my iPhone.




The Bad

I had Moroccan at a dinner reception (for a good cause--the High Atlas Foundation). Unfortunately, I had to 'guestimate' protein & carbs. Since the event was at the Moroccan Ambassador's residence, I thought it would be weird to try to sneak in food. I aimed low, & believe I didn't do too badly, though I could definitely taste the usual added salt, butter & sugar.

I didn't survive--and barely finished--the bicycle kicks. I'd gone for a quick 20-minute run for a little extra cardio before the work-out, and that really cashed out my legs. I literally couldn't lift them after the second set, so the third & fourth were finished by me pathetically bouncing my heels off the ground. (So no more extra runs on bicycle day; I'll stick with the rope.)




The Ugly

I survived 90-second planks. The first set was OK; the second, brutal; the third, I had to take a knee for a couple seconds; and the fourth, I collapsed at 60 seconds, rested for 10, then finished off the last 30. (So yes, Patrick, I definitely reached failure on the last set!)

Dips are still with assistance from my toes; I'm on my knees by the second set of push-ups; and I can only finish 1-2 full sets of any shoulder exercise before the deltoids burn out.

Oh, and, as always, my last 2 sets of V-sits--though now the first THREE sets aren't too ugly.

Strangling that whiney little voice inside your head

This was my first full week back to work this month since my vacation, and it reminded me a lot of the first "real" week of PCP, or "PCP Proper"--zero to sixty in 5 seconds, seemingly no time for anything, and late for everything else. Including sleep.

So, around Tuesday night, I started hearing that whiny, needy little voice in my head: "You're too tired to do a full work-out!"; "Don't you know you need SLEEP to keep going?! DIAL IT DOWN A NOTCH!!!"; "You've 'hit the wall,' and you're just going to over-exercise & lose muscle!";"Skip the Kung-Fu Sit-ups, then write some clever blog entry about the 'Valley' really being a 'Canyon' to cover your tracks!"; "Blah, blah, blah..."

But you know what? This time, that voice was MUCH easier to ignore. Because it was telling me to NOT do something that I HAVE successfully been doing over the past 2 months.

We humans are terrific at reasoning and rationalizing. The problem is, much of our reasoning, at least as it applies to ourselves, is backward rationalization. We accept the status-quo, then go off looking for perfectly-argued, logical reasons to justify not getting off of our butts to change things for the better. We repeat these arguments to ourselves until they become all but a law of nature; we don't realize that they're simply a repeated series of conscious choices that we allow to become our personal nature.

That voice still hasn't gone away. And it did talk me--at least temporarily--into skipping one of the more inconvenient exercises. But the more I ignore it and go after what I want, despite all of the effort and pain, the easier it becomes.

Don't get me wrong--our environment, especially our culinary/nutritional environment and our physical and social infrastructure--do their part to try to choke us with plate-fulls of unhealthy food-like substances and strangle opportunities for physical activity. But ultimately, we bear the responsibility--to strangle that whiny little voice, and do what it takes to get the bodies--and lives--that we really want.

The Canyon?

Didn't sleep much last night, and *barely* eked out the exercises before crashing. And I skipped the Kung-fu sit-ups; since I normally try to do these (well, a knee-only version) on a bar wedged in the corner of our fence with our neighbor, but thought, in my sleep-deprived derangement, that I'd have the cops called on me.

Tonight is playing "catch-up"--on SLEEEP! The far wall of the "valley" is steep...

Update: my roommate located a gate to a schoolyard fence a block from our house, and the full set of Kung-Fu sit-ups has been pounded out, though a day late. Starting tomorrow I'm going to put my new I-phone to good use: as a viewing screen for "8-minute Abs". Thanks, Patrick, for the kick in the ass!

Day 60!

Aw, yah!

Congrats to the 'Rats for making it 2/3 of the way!

New pics & stats are up. Since the start of this little adventure two months ago, I've officially now lost just over 20 lbs.

Also:

I went from being able to barely finish one pull-up to knocking out a set of eight (plus a few more after a rest);

I can easily crank out several thousand jumps with the rope;

I can do far more push-ups than I've been able to manage for years (I still need to test this out some time, before maxing out on sets of dips);

I can finish multiple sets of 1-legged squats.

To celebrate, I decided to pass on my size 34s to their next owner:



(They were also taking up too much space in my room.)

All that being said, my body is definitely starting to rebel a little--today I've got a stiff neck. (I probably pulled something while doing back exercises yesterday, & I'm just feeling it now.) And I'm definitely more tired and a little crankier than usual. I'll see how I'm doing after a visit to the coffee shop for my fix, but I'm guessing that I'm starting to enter the PCP Valley.

So, despite all of the progress, I once again remind myself that this is not the goal--the six-pack has yet to be uncovered, and there's a lot more muscle I want to pack onto my frame in the next four weeks--and beyond.

Indulgence, part-deux

My mother and step-father are in town, so I decided this would be a great time for indulgence #2. Of course, it was my favorite: Ethiopian!



I treated this meal as a sub for my veggie-unlimited lunch (my schedule had been shifted back to much later nights, due to the late-evening work-outs, and the fact that I'm on vacation and can sleep in). I probably went a *little* overboard (see photo #1--beer), but not too much. Ethiopian is, compared to standard American fare, generally healthier. And the plate above was shared with my folks. Sadly, it's not just the fresh veggies that make it taste so good; it's also the salt and butter (in the berbere sauce) and the carbs (in the injera or sour, spongy bread).




So, as evidenced by the devastation wreaked upon my third of the plate, I was definitely not in "black-belt" form. But I noticed that afterwards, though I felt a little more bloated, I was otherwise no more or less satisfied than I would after any PCP meal. One happy side-effect of the PCP, then, is that my palate and gut have evolved a more Zen-like ambivalence towards salts, sugars, and carbs. They're nice to taste, but far less important to my ultimate dietary fulfillment.

Otherwise, the diet is on-track. Here's the snack the evening before--Pac Choi with diced ginger vinegrette and egg white (yogurt not pictured, but readily consumed):



And breakfast--tortillas with garlic scapes, sorrel, avocado, egg, and milk:

The Food Desert

That's "desert" as in sparse, barren wasteland devoid of the necessities of life, and not the final tray in a seven-course meal.

And that's what I recently traveled through to and from my family reunion. Like a traditional Bedouin nomad, the only way I was able to survive (while sticking to the PCP diet, anyway) was to bring almost all of my provision with me in a very large cooler, and stop to replenish supplies at several "oases" on the way--i.e., progressive-minded communities, almost always in college towns, with organic grocery stores. Not that I couldn't have managed in many smaller towns at the local grocery store; it was simply orders of magnitude more inconvenient to do so.

Case in point: Saturday night I planned to hit the grocery store after hanging out on my aunt and uncle's one-horse ranch North of town:



(I asked if I could take the goat with me for a "snack," but alas, it's really more of a family pet at this point.)

However, the sole grocery store in town closes at 9 p.m. on Saturdays. I admit I could have done a little more advanced planning. But still, that left me with only convenience stores and fast-food restaurants to restock the night before my return trip. I tried two of the former (and none of the latter) in an effort to find what should have been a fairly standard, non-processed food purchase: eggs. No luck; one store didn't carry them, and the other had run out. (On a positive note, at least one place was carrying them, and they apparently were in demand).

My family tried to be helpful, but almost everything they had prepared for the reunion or had available in their refrigerators involved processed food. (In an interesting side note, which probably merits further discussion, the occupations of my aunts and uncles include: cake-mix factory worker; butcher; and grave-digger/cemetery custodian.)

So the Sunday trip back I had to "wing it" without eggs, by eating some jerky and the remainder of some smoked salmon that had survived the initial leg of the journey. Luckily, I still had enough broccoli, tortillas, and yogurt to meet quotas for veggies, carbs, and milk.

Basically, without these prepared meals, I was dead meat. Our current food market structure simply doesn't offer the traveler to the Midwest many healthy choices beyond the "salad" bar at Wendy's. The irony is that I had to drive to urban centers of significant size to find fresh veggies and fruits and lean meats--all of which could easily have been cultivated and offered from the hundreds of miles of incredibly fertile farmland in between. This is essentially the type of "fast food" offered to travelers in many developing countries. In Morocco, my ONLY option would have been a traditional meal with butcher's shop cuts of meat and farmer's-market-fresh veggies and fruits. In fact, because truck stops do so much business, their inventory turns over rapidly, and you always know you are getting nice, freshly-butchered, lean goat, beef, and lamb.

So thank-you, Bloomington, Indiana, Carbondale, Illinois (remember, East-Coasters, the "s" is silent!"), and Columbus, Ohio. You literally saved my ass--from becoming fatter.

The PCP Road Show

I've been on the road for the past 4 days, with somewhat limited internet access, hence the relative silence. After a brief stop-over in Bloomington, Indiana (my grad program alma mater), I arrived yesterday afternoon in southern Illinois.

The most challenging aspect of traveling long distances over many hours is being away from home and the dietary "mother-ship" of my refrigerator and known, healthy shopping locales. The solution?

Deploy the cooler:



So far, almost all of the meals have been from the cooler's stock of pre-cooked and precisely weighed deliciousness. Except today's lunch, which was:

3 tortillas with avocado;
(From the local organic food store here in Carbondale:)
Pre-made cucumber and tomato salad with a vinegar-based dressing;
Hummus & cucumber pita sandwich;
and for protein, an 80-gram bag of bison jerky (not ideal due to the excess salt & fruit sugars, but at this point, probably safer than the pre-cooked goat meat that had gotten uncomfortably warm in the cooler).

And one dinner (i.e., evening snack) out with friends, which involved a single, small seaweed & cucumber salad with sesame dressing. (Sorry, no pics--both 160-g portions have already been happily consumed).

The work-outs continue, I didn't need to cut out or skip any portion on my trip thus far, though I've once again rotated to evenings. I needed to catch up on sleep today, and I have to work out outside (my aunt & unlce's place is a little too small for me to tackle most of the exercises indoors). Given the temps in the lower 90s and the ridiculous levels of humidity, the only real choices are EARLY mornings, or after the sun goes down.

I finished all of the leg sets, and know why we are now taking the 2-day breaks. Man, are my thighs sore. But I'm amazed that I actually was able to knock out FOUR SETS of pistols, and ALL 6 REPS. (Full disclosure--the last few weren't pretty...) I once again reached failure on the Da Vincis and the shoulder press, before getting in all the reps. On the plus side, I managed to do 2 respectable sets of V-Sit-ups before my form started to fall apart (versus just 1 during recent sessions).

There's a lot more to report, especially about family dietary habits, local food culture, and health issues; I'm probably going to wait until after tomorrow's reunion, however. For now, I'll just note that my family has expressed both support for the PCP diet and concern that I may "waste away to nothing." Yes, tomorrow is going to be interesting...