Ack! Wednesday already!

Having some trouble getting back into the swing of things. Today's workout SUCKED, I felt really weak. In the lockerroom my hams starting shaking just from leaning over to put stuff in my gym bag. I also discovered that I am now supposed to be lifting 4 days a week. I will lift M,T, Th, Fr and do HIIT on non-taekwondo days and once on the weekend.

Went to see "Eastern Promises" at the 2nd run. Everyone else was eating tasty bar food and I did not. Anyway - it was really good, I won't make any comparisons and give away the plot twists. It was also really graphic. My guess is that there has been some technological breakthrough in fake bodyparts which allows huge gruesome closeups of violence being wreaked upon them (like when the guy in the vampire movie gets his head axed off), and this movie has plenty! Also, Viggo nekkid. Is this the worst movie description ever? If you can stomach the gore it's a really good movie. Someone thinks they saw him last summer, she was standing in line at the grocery store and said to the guy next to her that he looked like Viggo Mortenson. He just grinned and said that he 'gets that alot'. Later, someone else read that he was riding his motorcycle across the state. I'm not sure what that means because there aren't really roads that go across the state and you'd be foolhardy to take anything smaller than an 18-wheeler up the haul road. Of course driving from one city to the other is about the same distance as driving from Massachusetts to Maryland, so whatever.

4:30 wake
5:30 Syntrax + powerade, Afterburn, Phase III, day 1
7:30 wild rice, beef in tomato/spinach sauce
10:00 protein bar, orange, green tea
12:00 beef in tomato/spinach sauce, 2 oatmeal coconut chocochip cookies
4:00 kale, pineapple/berry/lime/MD smoothie. Felt nauseous for hours
7:30 white rice

Movie Report

You'd think that when one was prostrate upon the couch that it would be a good time to watch movies, but actually there was nothing on, it was painful to get up and root thru the DVD collection, and I was not going out to the mailbox to get my Netflix. But I managed to see a few

"Yojimbo" (the Bodyguard) awesome classic Kurosawa flick, I think "Fistful of Dollars' copied it nearly scene for scene
"Curse of the Were-Rabbit" - cheeeeese, Gromit!
"Resident Evil II" - I thought it was interesting that she went into the surplus store and came out in a belly-baring camisole, matching mesh tank with picot edging and stretchy boot-cut pants. Army must've had a lot of those left over--don't ask, don't tell! My other favorite thing (aside from my beloved zombies) was the name "Raccoon City". The Japanese are so bizarre, what self-respecting American town would name itself "Raccoon City"? I could see a tiny place named "Coonville" or something, but an entire metropolis for bandit masked, bandy tailed varmits?
"Children of Men" - I really liked this and enjoyed wallowing in the atmospheric dystopia of a species with no hope facing down it's own extinction
"The Station Agent" - what is a friend and what is not? Why do we want them? Why do we need them? I am only 5" taller than Peter Dinklage.

Progress Report

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I guess I did lose some weight while I was sick, now that the bloat from eating Saltines and Gatorade for a few days is gone. It kind of sucks because last week was supposed to be the final week of Afterburn Phase 2 and I was going to do all this HIIT.

My body is still a bit wimpy and poops out and needs a break after 6 weeks so this is what happens when I push it to 8. And I need to eat more, but that’s for next year when I get back from vacation.

ANYWAY – I woke up this morning and my muscles said “We’re hungry.” My stomach never talks to me except to say that barfing is imminent so it’s unusual to feel hungry and more so to hear it from the muscles so today is a refeed day which is fine because I work out twice.

4:30 wake
5:30 whey + waxy maize, HIIT, heavy bag work (about 45 min total)
7:00 wild rice, salmon burger, salad
9:00 cranberry oatmeal bars, Metabolic Drive
11:30 beef nachos (asked for extra veg and fewer chips)
4:30 wild rice, organic beef in tomato spinach sauce
6:30 taekwondo 1 hour
8:00 metabolic drive, greens powder

Here is the progress so far…I’m using the Omron to measure bodyfat and I don’t think I’m nearly as fat as it says, but I’m just looking at them as numbers that are going down. I’m not going to list my measurements (unless someone really cares) and those are pretty much all going down.

Date_____Weight___BF___Lean Mass___Fat Mass
Sep 1_____131.6___31.1___90.7________40.9
Oct 28____129.6___28.7___92.4________37.2
Nov 24____125.4___28.1___90.2________35.2

Still not slacking

Nope, haven't written anything down because I can't keep anything down! Hooray, it's the stomach flu which came on really suddenly on Monday.

Today I can sit up and check my email so I guess I'm getting better... Otherwise, my workout was that I lay on the couch and watched "Yojimbo" and "Curse of the Were-Rabbit" and drank about 300 cals worth of Gatorade =P

double vision

OK, I haven't been slacking, I've been posting my meals at the Precision Nutrition member's log area in the forum and I don't have enough interesting stuff going on in my life to do TWO daily updates so I think I'll just double post here.

But: 30% more non-fitness related randomosity at MPAG, guaranteed!

Planet Wonderful

I usually like Roger Ebert because he really enjoys movies and can appreciate a fun, stupid movie as well as classics. Some movie reviewers clearly hate their lives and take out their frustrations in their weekly column. Either that or they hope we'll think they're really smart if they hate EVERYTHING except the most abstruse, obscure, foreign art-house flick.

But Roger hated "Planet Terror"! I guess everyone else did too, the ones who actually went and watched it. The trailers and posters were pretty misleading because you think it's about a chick with a gun for a leg, but that's only at the very end, it's really a Zombie Movie!! Well, really it's about four movies squeezed uncomfortably into the cab of a speeding monster truck, bleeding, armed and headed off a cliff.... But it's action enough for an action movie, icky enough for a horror movie, *rong* enough to be grindhouse and funny enough to be a parody evocative of the genre. I thought it was good. I, apparently, am a 15 yo boy.
[edit: so is steve!]
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Saturday
4:45 Meow meow? Huh,whaa -- Aaaah! Late late late… hey, it’s Saturday, silly cat-alarm
7:00 boiled egg, sm grapefruit, coffee
9:00 experimental protein bar
12:30 calzone w/ tomatoes mushrooms and onions, 2 cookies
1-3:00 lie around napping and reading
3:30 ½ pkg tofu, orange
6:00 healthy dinner
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Sunday:
7:00 wake
8:00 orange, microwave muffin (I don’t care, I need starch, 2T of oatmeal is better than a real muffin or a bagel or something)
12:00 peanut salsa chicken w/ spinach
4:00 crackers, green tea
6:00 oyster, cod, napa cabbage, wild mushroom stew, rice, spinach
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Monday:
4:30 wake
5:30 whey + waxy maize, Afterburn PII Day 1 (4 sets), LISS
7:00 microwave muffin, mango
9:30 mango chicken
12:00 peanut salsa chicken w/ spinach
3:00 orange, boiled egg
6:00 chicken w/ experimental sweet & sour sauce, cauliflower
8:00 decaf

Cals: 1183
Carb: 108g tot (29% net)
Fiber 21g
Fat: 32g (27%)
Prot: 42% (42%)
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Tuesday 11/13/07
4:30 wake
6:00 whey + waxy maize, HIIT, LISS
7:00 microwave muffin, swamp thing, pineapple
9:00 lab meeting: pumpkin cupcake, mini muffin, oatmeal cookie
12:00 sweet/sour chicken
3:00 orange, carrot, boiled egg
5:30 cauliflower, meatloaf ranch burger
6:30 no class =(

Daydreams

So I actually went to the weekly friday grad seminar. I've gotten really good at looking attentive and thoughtful, but really I'm thinking about sparring. I pick an opponent and picture their particular style and how I'd like to respond to it. This time it was the Juggernaut. Her favorite thing to do is stand there with her arms down and as soon as you launch an attack, because she's so tall, she just reaches out, punches you in the face and knocks you on your back. I had been responding with a spinning backfist because her attack relies on your cowering and backing up. So what if I just charged her? What if I just charged her and the moment she starts to react, pull off a flying 360 hook kick to the stomach. The trick would be to make sure I was spinning in the correct direction otherwise I'll just end up kicking her in the butt.

Friday:
12:30, 4:30 wake. Terrible night of sleep, but I need to be functional so I went back to bed
6:00 wake
8:00 aaah! Late late late: Swamp-Thing, part of a can of smoked oysters
11:30 Chicken Caesar salad from café, pick out most of croutons
4:00 ½ pack of tofu, orange, some soybean cracker mix
7:00 whey + waxy maize, #$%@!! Gym is closed for some reason
7:15 Afterburn PII Day 2 at home, 4x15 on both supersets; use wimpier weights, but cut rest period to 60s
8:00 ww beer bread muffin w/ smart balance, salmon, brussel sprouts

Thurs:
6:00 wake
8:00 meatloaf ranch burger, peas, coffee
10:30 egg, orange
12:00 spinach salad, coconut chicken
3:00 orange, beef jerky (bleeeecchh, couldn’t eat it)
5:30 salmon in BCS, brussel sprouts
6:30 1h taekwondo class
8:00 pineapple/berry/lime smoothie, jello

Cals: 1156
Carb: 97g
Fiber: 23g
Fat: 44g (%)
Prot: 99.9g (%)


Wednesday:
4:30 wake
5:30 whey + waxy maize, Afterburn PII day 1 (4 xA, 3xB), LISS
7:00 turkey cacciatore, quinoa, coffee
9:30 ½ protein bar (I really wanted something sweet =( ), orange
12:00 big salad, turkey apple sausage burger
3:00 egg, orange
6:00 salmon in BCS, broccoli, sf jello

Cals: 1349
Carb: 113g tot (28% net)
Fiber: 19g
Fat: 54g (39.9%)
Prot: 118g (35%)

Tuesday:
4:30 wake
5:30 whey + waxy maize, alternate swinging 25# plate and heavy bag intervals
7:00 shake (2T oats, pb, cocoa, rice prot), coffee
9:00 Lab Meeting: banana cake square, slice of beer bread
11:00 ostrim, orange
12:00 turkey cacciatore
3:00 boiled egg, carrot
5:00 (PN) salmon in basil cream sauce
5:30 1H tkd
8:00 1T pumpkin seeds, sf-jello

The worst thing I've ever eaten

I'm about in the middle of taste-adventurousness. At one end would be my friend Tracy's husband who picks out all the spinach ravioli from the blend because 'they are green'. At the other end would be an ex-boyfriend who did a lot of business travel in Asia and reported back that deep-fried bamboo worms looked and tasted like crinkle fries.

Anyway - it was in Tokyo at a place called "Tofuro" with my brother, his fiance, V, my parents, and some other people. It was one of those places that you order and receive a constant stream of little tidbits while the main event (tofu) is boiling in the middle of the table. We were chuckling over one menu item, translated as "chicken rump". I mean, what could they possibly have meant? Birds don't have rumps, per se, they just kind of end in a point with no muscular rounded 'tocks like you might see on Monica Brant, or say, Instructor Foxy were you to sneak an ogle at him in the mirrors while you're supposed to be stretching and he's kicking the heavy bag. Ultimately, we decided that they had MEANT chicken 'lump', like a McNugget or something. Aside: you do actually see 'L' and 'R' switched on occasion, my grandfather once gave me an English version of the daily paper which happened to have an article about the Scorpions who I was partial to at the time. I could not figure out who "Ludarf" was supposed to be and puzzled over it for a bit.... Oh, Rudolf! duh....

Chicken Lump, right. So V and I ordered the chicken lumps and sure enough were presented with some fried lumps and I bit into it and at the first taste of fatty globularity all polite modest Japanese female dining behavior abandoned me and I shouted, "it's a chicken butt!" and spat it out. Yes, folks, it was the globby blobby fat part around the anal sphincter that you'll see hanging off the skin of a raw chicken right at the mouth of the body cavity. I did not even realize this was a dining option for my people. So I guess it's not really the worst thing I ever *ate* since all I really did was scream, "Chicken butt!" and spit it out again.

4:30 wake
5:30 whey + waxy maize, Afterburn PII, day 2 (4 x superset A, 3x superset B)
7:00 egg whites and omega egg scrambled with spinach/tomato sauce, quinoa, coffee
10:00 meatloaf ranch burger, orange, coffee
12:00 turkey cacciatore
3:00 pineapple/berry/lime smoothie w/ rice protein
5:00 beer bread, smart balance
5:30 1H tkd
7:30 buffalo burger in spinach/tomato sauce, romaine lettuce, light dressing

Sunday Dish

And the cooking for today is Turkey Cacciatore!

I rushed off to the grocery store EARLY before all the slackers and their aisle-blocking offspring could get there, so early they hadn't even put out fresh broccoli yet which makes you wonder, when you go to the grocery store just before they close and they start acting like they're restocking are they in fact restocking or just trying to block off all the food so you get discouraged and go home? Anyway - I was looking at Epicurious and thought cacciatore might be a nice way to disguise icky rubbery boingy turkey breast and there was a recipe for roast veg cacciatore and I read the reviews but did not read the recipe carefully and made it anyway even tho I forgot to get another can of diced tomatoes.

Turkey Cacciatore w/ Roast Vegetables

Zucchini
Mushrooms (cremini)
Dried porcini mushrooms (this was the whole point of making cacciatore and I just now realized that I had forgotten to put them in so I went and put them in)
bell pepper
red onion
--- cut into bite sized chunks and toss with olive oil. spread on cookie sheet and roast at 400, stirring occasionally. When they're done the onions will be carmelized and the whole thing will smell like pizza.... except that it's not pizza, no pizza for me
---- clean kitchen while roasting veg

In large (laaaarrge) skillet cook 1lb ground turkey breast
Add 14oz diced canned tomatoes and ~1c broth
Add the roast veg, some balsamic vinegar, a few red pepper flakes, ~1T crushed Herbes de Provence
Simmer.
It smells pretty good. I haven't tasted it yet and I have dinner with my parents on Sunday because I am so exciting. Someone try it and tell me if it's good.

6:00 wake
9:00 tomato/spinach sauce, buffalo burger, coffee
11:00 small grapefruit, chicken
2:00 coffee, almonds, orange
4:00 LISS 60m
6:00 healthy dinner

More snow, more photography

Yay! more snow! It's a lovely gray overcast day with lots of powder snow falling. I've seen people skiing already, but I'll wait a bit until the trails are covered up more so I don't scrape up my skiis.

The only annoying part is having to dig the car out every time you want to go somewhere. Then when the heater warms up it melts the snow on the windshield and then when you park it all freezes again. Ah well. When it starts to get a bit more chilly (-20 and below) you don't get any frost at all! no more scraping!

Looking back, I was a little low-energy and prone to malaise this week. I got plenty of sleep, but tended to get exhausted and feel crappy. But the times I cheated a bit (except for the pie, I thought that was going to kill me) I felt better right away so I'm not sure what I should do about the carbs.....

6:00 wake
7:00 pineapple/berry/lime/MD shake, coffee
9:00 feeling achy and jittery, eat some roasted cashews and an apple
11:00 boiled egg, carrot
2:00 buffalo burger, peas, cookies (bad!), coffee
4:30 1h LISS on treadmill
6:00 dinner @ parents’ (beef and 3 veg, tried to limit rice)
8:00 cookies, coffee

Update and... What has is gots in its pocketssesss?

Xmas gift idea #327
Swiss Army knife with every tool ever (this is real!) You may wish to throw in a new pair of pants as well.

Thursday
4:30 wake, it’s cardio day! Turn off alarm.
7:45 wake, huh? Wha?
8:00 coffee, pineapple berry lime supershake, bleah! Forgot lime! Didn’t finish
10:00 ½ protein bar, orange
12:00 salad w/ chicken, apple, green tea
2:00 powerbar Nut Natural
5:00 peanut salsa chicken, spinach
6:30 TKD
8:30 metabolic drive

Cals: 1472
Carb: 128g tot (27% net)
Fiber: 29g
Fat: 52g (35%)
Prot: 139g (38%)

So today turned out to be a rest day. I usually don’t have trouble staying awake once the alarm goes off so when my brain just checks out like it did this morning I just figure it is smarter than I am and it needed the sleep. So I try not to berate myself. I was pretty foggy-headed and grouchy for the early part of the day and I caved and ate the PowerBar (yum!) and felt better right away.

I did go to taekwondo class and it was pretty strenuous (for us). The head instructor has invited some godlike guest instructor to do a workshop in February and she doesn’t want us to be a bunch of middle-aged gasping flabby people when he gets here so we’ve been doing a lot of strength and conditioning.

Wednesday
I totally forgot it was Halloween and was really startled when a bunch of teenagers rang my bell at about 8:00. First I thought they were a day early, but either way, I didn’t have any candy-like substances on the premises. They seemed terribly disappointed, but my building is inhabited by some couples, me, and the “weird bachelors” most of who seem to work nights. I didn’t even have my light on. After I closed the door I thought about offering them some old Labrada protein bars, but figured that would be a good way to get egged.

4:30 wake
5:30 Afterburn Phase II, workout 1; round out hour w/ LISS
7:00 microwave muffin, carrots
9:30 Ostrim, carrots
12:00 salad w/ lettuce, kidney beans, lettuce wrap filling (didn’t finish)
3:30 apple, boiled egg
7:00 roast chicken
Cals: 787 (ARRRGGHH)
Carb: 67g tot (27% net)
Fiber: 14g
Fat: 20g (26%)
Prot: 89g (45%)