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...