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.