Day 26 - Planners

So yesterday I ended up being stuck at work until 6:30. After 45 minute drive home, I ended up doing my workout until a bit after eight. I have to hold my arms out on the floorjumps and it makes me feel like some kind of movie shaman doing a bird dance. Then I ate a very simple exhausted-chef chicken on lettuce salad with some rice on the side and worked on homework. Next thing I knew it was 10:30. I'm going on vacation tonight, leaving for the beach as soon as class ends, and like a dolt I have did not pack or put the bikes on the rack or anything. So after I finish that draft of my paper and get ready for my trip and it was creeping up on midnight.

We have various elements to the PCP, the food, the exercise, getting enough sleep, etc. Last night when I set my alarm for 5:30 I failed at all three. I had no time to exercise or cook, and I was still not getting eight hours of sleep. So today is a bit of a wash. I'll cobble together something PCP from the deli, which will be less than optimal.

Unlike E, I am not a rules stickler. And if I don't become one I will not reach my goal of Peak Condition. This is the dilemma. I have no doubt that I can adapt, I have adapted to some pretty strange circumstances, to the point where sleeping on airport floors felt normal or riding my bike for 8 hours a day was just what I did. I have gotten (mentally) fat and lazy living the (really wonderful) good life these past years and now I have to reset some patterns. That conflict will inevitably lead to days like today.

Just as reaching muscle failure makes us stronger, reaching habit failure is the only way for me to build stronger systems.

That got rambly, have a good weekend kids, see y'all Monday.

Day 25 - Monkey Mind

Yesterday I did nearly 600 jumps without catching my foot once. This is, for me, a sort of miracle. So I started mentally writing a post about how I was able to do all of my jumps without a single trip because of my new just-socks-no-shoes style. And, you guessed it, my foot caught.

So, a little deflated, I started again to jump, paying strict attention to the spot on the wall I stare at and counting away. And in the mid-900s I start thinking about how if I don't pay attention to my jumps it causes me to trip. So I start composing a post in my head about how I trip if I don't pay attention to my jumps and...

thawk

I trip.

The moral of the story? Forget the blog, pay attention to the jumps. As they say in the Hagakure (via Ghost Dog), "this understanding extends to all things."

Day 24 - Monday Motivational

His name is Lance. He came back from cancer to win what most people consider the hardest race in his sport. Over and over again, breaking records as he went. No, not that guy. I'm talking about Lance Mackey, and the man is a true badass. This means nothing to most people, but he twice won the Yukon Quest and the Iditarod in the same year. Twice. No one had ever done that before and he comes along and does it back to back. Hardly anyone even tries to enter both races, for crying out loud!

He also lives in what most people would consider abject poverty so he can do his sport, not living the high life courtesy of Nike, Trek and whatever that "tired of being tired" drink the other Lance is selling me on every webpage.

But, I digress, both Lances are awesome.

Here are a couple videos about Mackey:





In other news, I just sat through a meeting for over an hour with everyone else eating pepperoni pizza and just drank water.

UPDATE: Even better video with angry Lance about to win his second Iditarod here.

Day 23 - I got so many grams to get through I feel like a coke dealer

Woah, weekends are killer. I have zero routine on the weekends, which will kick my but in exactly three days when class starts. We have homework due on the first day of class. I'm going to repeat that, because it bears repeating. We have a (short) paper due on the first day of class. If I don't figure out a way to spend the weekend not sleeping late and being lazy that will be a problem for sure.

Anyway, this sleeping in has jacked my food all around today, I am sitting down with my list of foods for the day trying to figure out how to eat 2/3rds of them in two hours. I'm sure that is way bad, but skipping the meals is worse. Anshuman, you got to not worry about the weight. I'm losing weight, but also losing power. The shoulder exercises were harder today than so far, I think because I was sloppy about my grams yesterday. I guess I need the kcals to build this muscle, it's just hard to stay on top of. People react to stress differently, most it seems choose to eat. I'm the opposite. Without the routine of the workday I can easily look at a clock and realize I haven't eating anything in 8 hours.

On the plus side I avoided a dozen temptations while shopping today. I had cravings for everything. Mozzerella sticks, salami, soda, pizza rolls. If it was crap I wanted it. I will confess I had a Milky Way on the belt for about 20 seconds thinking no one would know but me. Then, shaking my head, I thought "What the [bloopity bloop] am I doing here?" and put the candy bar back. I'm sure I must of looked like a health nut scolding myself over one candy bar and having a belt full of organic veg and fruit. Whatever, there's worse things to look like.

Great posts from everyone, and thanks for the comments when I was in the dumps last week everyone. E, glad to read the jumps are getting easier. I took my shoes off today and they were WAY easier, maybe something to try. Amy, keep going and we'll get through this, yesterday sounded wonderful for you. Jessica, could you suspend a bar with some rope? That's what I did in my basement and it worked great. Good luck on week three everyone, and now I need to eat and maybe read some.

Oh, real quick, here is a tip, I get tired of yogurt just on it's own. But I do love the tzatziki sauce they put on gyros. So I started making a halfway version by dumping dill in my greek yogurt servings. It's not bad at all. Maybe I'll chop up some cukes to make it more authentic.

Day 21 - horse lattitudes

I always thought the Horse Latitudes were named because when ships were becalmed and stuck there the sailors were forced to eat the horses. But wikipedia tells me that's not true.

Anyway, I finally took Patrick's Day 19 advice and took it easy last night. I did just the jump ropes and made sure to eat every single alloted gram in the diet. Today is jumprope Friday and hopefully a couple days of taking it easy will restart my system.

I'm eating my 9:30am snack now at noon, had a pile of stuff to do at work today. Don't you hate when you have to work at work? It is the worst.

So, I really am back on track and sorry that I wined about nothing yesterday. I wasn't knocking the program or anything like that. It was a little humbling to read about E's knees disintegrating and still making it through the workouts while I had to take a half-day.

Day 20 - the doldrums

I don't know how you guys and girls with kids manage this thing. After taking off work Tuesday to sleep my diet got all out of wack. I've been having trouble staying on schedule, and keep forgetting to drink milk with breakfast and eat my daily cheese. I also got lazy yesterday and bought a pre-cooked turkey breast at the fancy food store. This will provide me with protein for a couple days, but I don't really know how it was prepared. There are some herbs on top, but for all I know prior to roasting it could of been coated in salt. Tastes fine though. Anyway, after lazing about Tuesday I did my workout at about 4pm. Then I stayed up till midnight working on stuff for school. I've gotten myself in a bit of a pickle with paperwork and deadlines and just felt like I needed to get it taken care of. So for the past two days I've worked out at night. This morning I woke up intending to workout, but ended up sleeping in again. So I'll be jumping rope at night, which I don't like because then I'm not eating dinner until after 8pm and my snack soon after. Classes start next Tuesday and I'm at this point where my enthusiasm for the PCP has wavered but it isn't yet a natural routine to workout and cook everyday. Am I the only one with this frustration right now? I don't know if it is because I'm not following the diet 100% but I am not getting the energy boost I was expecting, instead I feel worn down a lot of days. Sorry to vent, just wondering if I'm the only one dragging.

Day 18 - sick of bread and pasta

Take just a little diced bell pepper, green onion and mushrooms from your mise en place and sautee them in just enough olive oil so they don't stick to your large high-sided pan. Celery is also good, but I didn't have any prepared. Liberally coat with hot pepper flakes and fresh ground pepper as they cook. Other spicy red powders might also be good here. (see E's post on spices) Let that all cook down a bit to soften them up, stirring frequently. Add 1 and 1/2 cups of water and bring to a boil over high heat. Once boiling add 1 cup of quinoa, I like the red, but don't really know if there is a difference. Turn the heat to low for a simmer and cover the pan. Cook away for 15 minutes, turn the stove off and let the pan stay covered on the cooling burner for 5 minutes or so. (can you tell I have an electric stove?)

While the quinoa is finishing, take your chicken breast you've just finished roasting and cut into smallish chunks. I like mine almost diced. Once the quinoa has absorbed all the water, measure it out into a bowl for that meals carbs. Zero the scale and mix with the chicken and you have a nice, simple, flavorful and lean carb & protein combo.

For my diet, this made enough protein for yesterday's dinner and today's lunch and enough carbs for last night's diner, breakfast and lunch. Roughly 460g carbs and 280g protein. After having 8 slices of rye at lunch yesterday, I was ready for a more dense carb.

Of course, while all this is going on you can also boil your eggs for the next couple days and you'll be set.

I had kind of a rough headache this morning so I'm playing hookie from work, after sleeping an extra five hours I feel much better. Off to do the workout now. Only annoying part is my meals will not be very spaced out.