Sleep and Supplements

Ok, so I have not been sleeping well for weeks now! I can't understand why, although I have a suspicion that it's due to the dairy I have been eating to try to wean myself back on dairy.

Let me back up - I became lactose intolerant after doing the low-iodine diet for my cancer treatment where I couldn't eat any dairy. That means I probably was lactose intolerant or had a mild allergy to lactose all along, I had just gotten used to it. And since I ate dairy before, I figured if I could reintroduce small portions, I could get used to it again. It's not been so bad. I have some gastro-intestinal issues, but I really love yogurt and cottage cheese so I am willing to live with it to some extent.

But I am beginning to suspect that it is keeping me awake at night. I am not eating any dairy today to see if I am able to sleep better tonight. For the last few weeks, I haven't been able to sleep more than about 5 hours M-F and then catch up on the weekends because I am not able to fall and stay asleep! It's the weirdest thing, I am tired at the appropriate time, I get in bed and feel sleepy, then as soon as I get relaxed, I feel restless. I toss and turn for hours. Then when I finally fall asleep I wake again easily. The footsteps of a flea could wake me. And of course that starts the whole evil process over again.

In case it's not the dairy, I'm also doing a couple of things to try to manage my stress better. I'm committed to limiting TV and computer time in the evenings, as those have stimulant effects. I'm going to try it out and see if it has any effect on the sleep disturbance - it hasn't so far.

I'm also adding two herbs to my supplement regime - rhodiola and ashwagandha. These are adatogens that help the body deal with stress. Given my job and living in an urban environment and trying to keep up with my workouts, I figure I have a fair amount of stress even if I don't necessarily feel overly stressed. I'm also going to add ZMA (Zinc and Magnesium supplement) before bed, but I haven't ordered it yet from bodybuilding.com - it's supposed to help with the sleep issues. In fact, it's supposed to knock you out! From what I've read, most athletes are deficient in magnesium.

I used to scoff at supplements, but now I'm really on the bandwagon! My current supplements are:

• Whey protein (I'm hooked right now on Dymatize Elite Dark Chocolate)
• Greens+ (Berry flavor)
• Fish oil (Kirkland's brand from Costco, 6 caps per day)
• Probiotic (Vitamin Shoppe brand)
• Multivitamin
• Calcium
• Flax oil and Udo's Choice (rotating between them)
• Rhodiola in the morning
• Ashwagandha in the evening as it has a calming effect
• ZMA coming soon...

Every man, woman and child should be taking fish oil, at a minimum, but I'm reading more about the importance of probiotics too. That's for another post, maybe when I write about detox.....

Hope everyone is having a great week! Mine would be better if I could get some zzzzz's!!

New Rules of Lifting for Women

I went for a run on the trails this morning. Didn't want to go, but I am so glad I made myself cause it felt SO GOOD. The temperature was right around 55, cool breeze - perfect weather. I really want to get some more running in this spring and maybe train for another 10-miler or half marathon. I've been off the trails out of paranoia because there have been a bunch of attacks on female joggers in Arlington lately. There was another one a couple weeks ago. Guess I'll just have to remember to bring my pepper spray and some whoop-ass hehe. It's not funny, though!

Weather yesterday was beautiful too. I walked down to the Lincoln Memorial and walked around the reflecting pool. Days like yesterday when I still feel like it's cool that I live and work in DC. Most of the time lately I'm just anxious and frustrated and wanting to leave here. I think that's one of the reasons why I haven't been sleeping that well lately. I lay awake and worry and feel anxious.

On New Rules for Women -- Laurie, I don't think it's a man/woman thing like the BFL for Women book which was a total SUCK. In fact, I think much of the front matter of the book is much better written than the original and provides more information. I think EVERYONE could benefit from reading it. I think the workouts feel less challenging because the program is written to appeal to all kinds of exercisers, especially women who have been working out for a long time, even using weights, but haven't moved past "doing the machines." For someone who's never touched an Olympic barbell, you can't just throw them into a program with all kinds of crazy supersets like in NROL!! I'm just enjoying it right now, I'm trying to be better about not needing to go balls out 100% of the time. Sometimes it's ok to chill out a bit in the gym, work on your form and enjoy not feeling so trashed after a workout that you could get a nap!! Anyway, it looks like the program is about to pick up a bit as I'm done with the first phase after tomorrow. Then I move on to a 3x6 rep scheme, which I'm really looking forward to!

Catch y'all later...

UFC and Sextuplets

I'm watching UFC fight night on Spike! Love it! I have no idea why I'm addicted to UFC, I just love this shit! These guys are animals. I especially like UFC All Access where they show their training - they are hard core, y'all!! One episode showed Wanderlei Silva doing his training with his nostrils taped shut, breathing through a SNORKEL!! OMFG! He was doing hard core tabata-type intervals, weights, sprints, drills, and THEN, he got in the POOL! Still with the snorkel on and started doing drills in the water! Bring it, yo! Here, I found a youtube, the snorkel training starts about minute 7:



Last night I was watching marathon episodes of Jon & Kate Plus 8. Have you ever seen this? They have two sets of multiples - twins and SEXTUPLETS! When I first saw this show a couple years ago, I thought, oh, that poor woman. Ugh! But now that the little ones are older - they're 3 - and they all have their own personalities, it actually seems kind of cool. I know, I sound insane. Maybe not having six babies At. One. Time. But having a big family - they just have so much love. More people = more love!

I'm still doing the New Rules of Lifting for Women workouts. I can't say they are the most challenging or engaging workouts I've ever done. I suffered through the original NROL workouts, and Afterburn, both of which kind of blow these workouts out of the water. It looks like they get better as time goes on, but in the beginning maybe just a bit too tame for me. I'm not giving up just yet! Maybe I'll add another set to make it 3x10 instead of 2x10.

Happy Tuesday, y'all. Hey, when is it Springtime??? So much for global warming..... LOL!

Farty McStench

Oh. My. GAWD. I have to figure that Gold's Gym in Ballston actually pumps farts through the air conditioning because that is the stinkiest fucking gym I have ever been to in my LIFE. Christ. I think my eyelashes got singed this morning. Unbelievable.

Except... you know what just occurred to me? Just now as I was typing this?? See, I've been working out there for three years now, and I see the same faces every morning. The same buggers trolling away on the recumbant bike or shuffling along on the treadmill, never really getting anywhere but bored.... and I feel like I smell farts every fucking time I'm in there, usually when I'm in the middle of a sprint, gasping for air as it is. So unless Gold's really is a fart-mine, one of those louts is responsible! IT'S PROBABLY THE SAME PERSON. If you feel entitled to fart in the cardio room, you probably do it on a regular basis...

Fucking hell. I could probably narrow it down to 6 or 7 people over in the bike area. If I ever figure out who it is, I'm gonna... I'm gonna run over and stand next to him (oh, it HAS to be a dude) and jump up and down flailing my arms and pointing and yelling out, "It's this guy, he KEEPS FARTING!!!!!"

Gag me.

On the Exploding Oven and other randomness...

Did I ever tell you guys about the day my oven exploded? Yeah. I shit you not. I wasn't there when it happened, thank god because I guess I could have gotten hurt? Although the glass was shatterproof and exploded into about a thousand little chunks instead of sharp shards. I came home from being out of town for a few days and discovered it. Behold:



I still don't really know what caused the explosion. I went online and found many stories of this happening to other people. A lot seemed to be GE appliances (which mine is), but there were other brands too. Apparently because the glass is tempered, any slight imperfection will eventually cause the glass to shatter. This happens to microwaves too, which you can imagine is far more dangerous than the oven because many people have their microwaves above their ovens at head level. There was a woman a few years ago who was injured when a microwave door exploded in her face while she was shopping in Sears. This could happen to you! Craziness.

+++++++++++++++++++

Adam and I hung out together on the webcam for about 2 hours yesterday. It was so good to see his face, I almost burst into tears. I miss him so much and the prospect of being separated for the next two years while he is stationed in Hawaii just seems so daunting and overwhelming. Sometimes I really want to just throw in the towel, quit my job and move out there. But I know I would regret that in the long run. And I would be really sad when he goes back to Durka-durka-stan again and I'm stuck at home alone all day with nothing to do except lay on the beach (hmmmm.... considering....) -- NO, it would get sad and lonely after only a few days of that. I need a job there or I can't go!

++++++++++++++++++++

I had a pretty good workout yesterday. I'm waiting on my New Rules of Lifting book to arrive in the mail so I can get some new routines. I've been on a "fat loss" type routine since basically this time last year trying to lose the 5 lbs I gained after cancer plus the 5 lbs I gained being a nincompoop with the vending machine (which equals just enough weight that most of my clothes don't fit anymore, which is why this is kinda bothering me because I really don't want to spend $1,000 buying new suits). Which just proves that if you don't dial in nutrition, no amount of exercise is going to make you skinny. Anyway, my point in telling you this is only to say that I'm changing things up at the moment to more of a bodybuilding-style split - 4 days of lifting, alternating upper and lower body with optional cardio. Last week I did no cardio, this week I'm shooting for two 15 minute HIIT sessions after my leg workouts and two 30 minute moderate intensity cardio sessions on my off days. So it looks like this:

Sun: 30 minutes on the arc trainer + kundalini yoga
Mon: upper body, chest focus
Tues: 30 minutes on the stepmill + yoga
Wed: legs, quad focus + 15 minutes of HIIT
Thurs: upper body, back focus
Friday: yoga
Sat: legs, hip and hamstrings focus + 15 minutes of HIIT

These workouts are heavier lifts with fewer reps. I figure I should focus on building some strength and muscle before I might have to lose a bunch of it going hypo again for my scans.

Here was yesterday:

warmup - squats, lunges, back extensions

deadlift (4x6) superset with dumbbell split squats (static lunge) (4x8)
DL: .........................SS:
10 x 65#....... ........10 x 25 # db's
8 x 75# ...................10 x 25's
6 x 80#....................8 x 30's
6 x 95# ...................8 x 30's
6 x 115# .................8 x 30s
6 x 125# .................8 x 30's

good morning (3x8) superset with calf press on the hip sled (3 x 20)
GM: .......................Calf press:
8 x 65#................... 20 x 180#
8 x 75# ...................20 x 180 #
8 x 85# ...................20 x 180 #

HIIT on the bike (I wanted to puke a lung!)

I should credit this routine to Jen Heath, whose physique I covet:

OK time to get up and get this party started!

Things I did not miss about Gold's in Ballston...

1. No one re-racks their weights. There are weights strewn around everywhere and you sometimes can’t find one or both of a set, especially 15-30 lb DB’s and 5 lb weight plates. Seriously, why is this so hard for people? I just can’t believe it half the time. When you leave plates on the bar, the next person who comes along is going to have to rack them in order to start their workout. It is so inconsiderate!

2. People who raid your bar when you walk off to do a superset. Because they can’t tell if you’re done. Because no one re-racks their weights. Especially if you sat there and watched me hunt for a 5# plate and you didn’t see me do a set yet. Yeah, you were sitting RIGHT NEXT TO ME, don’t tell me you didn’t notice.

3. Punk ass trainers who wear waaay to much frickin cologne/aftershave (it’s a gym for chrissakes) and work their clients with the 7 # db’s on flat chest presses… or the bosu ball. Give me a break. Piss off already.

4. People who bring their coffee and the paper to the weight room in the morning and roost on a bench doing bicep curls. And speaking of bicep curls….

5. … wannabe’s who do bicep curls (aka Frat Curls) in the gadammed squat rack. For the love of god, get a clue. And get out of my way! I should not have to wait in line to squat because you’re in there doing curls. By the way, when IS leg day anyway?!

Working out at a military gym was soooo nice because none of these shenanigans goes on there. Sigh. I pay actual money to deal with that shit. Some day I'm going to have a home gym - Bliss!

DB Swings Rock!

I was doing 25# dumbbell swings this morning at the gym and man am I going to be sore! Those things are a killer total body exercise. I feel like I'm going to pass out. I would have used a 20# db, but they were all missing from the rack?? Stupid Gold's - that place is so trashed out all the time. What is up with people?? Why can't you just put your shit back where you got it from instead of leaving it strewn all over the damn weight room? Seriously, people drag db's all over the weight room and just leave them there when they are done. Same thing for O-plates, they leave them on the floor! Gah! The trainers are some of the worst, too.

Anyway, here was my workout (exercises are bodyweight unless otherwise noted):

Warmup:
2x10 - squat, pushup, wall stick-up, mountain climbers, lunge, spiderman lunge

Supersets - 3 sets of each

squat x 15
offset pushup x 8 each side

split squat with front foot elevated x 12 (10# db's)
inverted row x 12

stability ball side knee tucks x 6 each side
stability ball hamstring curls x 15

spiderman pushups (on knees) x 8 each
hip extension x 15 each

25# db swings 6 sets of 15 with 30 seconds trying not to puke...I mean rest in between

One of my colleagues is sick today with something ghastly. He looks like the living dead. People should not come to work when they are wheezing and oozing like that!!

Also, the weather turned cold and nasty today. The temperature is supposed to drop abou 20 degrees from this morning and it is windy and raining.

I'm looking forward to going home on Saturday! A whole week off - this is the first real vacation I have taken this year.

Fitness Links!

Craig Ballantyne has some great new fitness content on his blog. Check it out!

Ballantyne's Hotel Room Wokout

Barbell Squat Exercise Form Demonstration

Six Minute Circuit Workout Free Sample - from GrrlAthlete - includes exercise descriptions (Mom! :P)

good stuff!

The good old days are now, now, now. What I think about is now. This is the moment I have waited for. This is it. These are the good old days.

Aging Well With a Fitness Icon
92-year-old muscle man Jack LaLanne shares his wisdom about aging gracefully.
(You can see LaLanne in action in a short video here.)

Check out this article, photos and video of Jack LaLanne, who won a Lifetime Achievement Award in May. To celebrate his 65th birthday, he swam pulling 65 boats filled with 6,500 pounds of wood pulp in Lake Ashi, near Tokyo. For his 70th birthday, he towed 70 boats with 70 people 1.5 miles against the current in the Long Beach, Calif. harbor. For his 95th birthday, he'd like to swim from the coast of California to Santa Catalina Island, more than 20 miles offshore. But Elaine says, somewhat in jest, that she'll divorce him if he tries.

Out of the box progress

I have not blogged because I do not think anyone reads here! That and I have some things running through my head that I don't feel like I can talk about here. That and I am boring and have no life besides the gym and my job!!

I am doing 4 lifting circuits and 4 HIIT sessions per week in this phase of my workout. It is hard. If I want to have a whole day off, which I think I need, I have to double up two of those days with lifting/cardio... and after I lift, I just feel too wasted to get anything out of a HIIT session!

I did not get my HIIT session done yesterday after lifting. Once again, I just felt too tweaked, even with a serving of breakfast oats in me before my workout.

Today's workout
I did a treadmill session today: 25 mins, 5 one-minute interval rounds w/ 2 minute recovery.

My speeds were:
6.0/8.5, 8.6, 8.7, 8.8, 8.9!! Which is officially the fastest I've ever gone on the treadmill. And to be honest, this felt a little too easy so I think next time I will try all my intervals at the higher speed, and go up to 6.1 for the recovery.

I walked for a bit after this and did some stretching and some work with the foam roller (calves are knotty!).

Reflections on progress
As I was cooling down, I was thinking about how much progress I have made since January. I tried to keep up with physical activity while I was going through my cancer treatments, but I had to back off the intensity of everything. I still went in the weight room when I could and "lifted" really light weights, just to keep my body moving and my muscles remembering what they are supposed to do. I tried to keep running, then eventually had to stop that too and just walk or pedal on the bike. Before my surgery I was running about 30 miles a week. It was sad to watch myself detrain. I'll never forget going on a walk and my HR being like 175 just walking uphill and my HR monitor was beeping like crazy and I had to stop at the top and bend over to catch my breath and stop myself from passing out.

Before my radiation, I had to stop taking my thyroid hormone altogether and become severely hypothyroid. I won't go into what that was like, but it was not fun. It was hard to get off the couch. I couldn't remember whether I'd cracked one egg or three. Without any thyroid hormone, your body just starts to shut down because your cells can't get any energy! Once pedaling on the bike, I remember looking down at the display and I was pedaling at level 2 and barely like 50 rpm's or something and I felt like I was climbing Mt. Everest. I got off the bike and just cried.

When I started to get better, the first time I tried to do an "interval" on the step machine, I went for 1 minute at a moderate level 7 and then had to get off the machine because my HR just would not come down under 170 and it freaked me out! Of course, I almost passed out b/c all the blood drained out of my head once I abruptly stopped.

Aaannyyway. I don't want to belabor the unpleasants, I just wrote all that so y'all can get a sense of why I'm feeling proud of how far I've come!! It's been almost 5 months and I'm feeling really healthy, and I ran at 8.9 today!

Legs are sore! I'm progressing in my lifts and the single-leg exercises Cosgrove has me doing right now are getting "easier" - LOL.

Gym Faux Pas?!
Oh, I know gym people will appreciate this story...

So I'm at the gym yesterday doing OVERHEAD SQUATS (which I consider to be a pretty hard-core exercise!). I'm holding a bar OVER MY HEAD with my arms locked out, doing squats. And in the middle of my set, this scrawny guy comes up to me TO ASK ME IF I'M USING THE SMITH MACHINE.

Dude.

a) I'm doing overhead squats.
b) I'm doing overhead squats (no, I'm not using the smith machine, genius).
c) I'm doing overhead squats (are you CRAZY?! don't talk to me in the middle of my set! I could get HURT... or you might when I throw this bar at you!!!)

LOL!

Also, another fitness related rant? Can the sports store please employ SOMEONE who knows about lifting equipment??? I'm there looking to buy lifting straps (b/c I can deadlift more than my grip strength allows on some sets) and an employee comes up to see if I need help.

Me: "Sure, I'm trying to decide if I need these padded ones or if I'm fine without the padding... the padded ones seem a little big on my girly wrists."

Guy: "Um, when I used to lift," (ed note: he's maybe 18) "I just used gloves."

Me: blink blink... "Ok, thanks."

Eventually he went off to get his supervisor who didn't know anything either. Nice.

Ok, that's enough ranting for one day!!!

Bad Blogger....!

Despite what you may have surmised by this point, I did not fall and break both of my hands!! I've just had a busy couple of weeks. I flew in from Ottawa late last night where I was attending an intercessional of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and meeting all sorts of interesting new people from all over the world, plus seeing my French friends again who I met in Paris last month. Being a diplomat is so fun :) - but the downside is that my job takes up an extraordinary amount of my time and energy. Like all of it on some days. I work 9-10 hour days, plus the 1 hour commute (30 mins each way) and add on my 30-40 minute workouts each morning and 8 hours sleeping (I cannot survive on any less without a major meltdown, my body really wants more!) and that leaves only 4 hours each day to cram in the rest of existence. You know, like fixing and eating dinner and breakfast, making my lunch for the next day, showering and fluffing, and blogging, reading, tv watching, socializing, making phone calls, etc, etc. It's not enough. I cannot comprehend how people do this with children??? I don't know if I could manage it. Because after the work/commute/work-out, my energy for the day is pretty much depleted and I'm in my must-retreat-into-self-to-stay-normal-because-I'm-hopelessly-introverted mode.

Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining! I LOVE my job. Love. It. But my life does often seem unbalanced to me. I do worry about it sometimes and wonder if I'm missing out on something or if I should make a change? But I'm having too much fun at work to think about changing my job right now, even though I daydream about moving back to Arizona to lead hiking and rafting trips in the Grand Canyon or something like that - it's that part of my spirit that doesn't get enough stimulation these days pulling on my heart-strings. And part of the reason I run and lift daily to stay sane, even if it's not a hike in the woods, is because it's still the place where I can get totally unplugged from the "rat race" and just focus, just breathe. Ya know?! I don't think about a possible "other life" too much because it's just not time yet.

Last week I had my mom in town and I finally got confirmed as a real bona-fide Catholic. I was in my "anti-anything that seemed like authority phase" when I was supposed to get confirmed back in high school. Going through cancer treatment was such a deeply spiritual experience for me that this seemed like the right time to do it. I knew if I didn't go ahead and do it while the cancer experience was fresh in my mind, the inspiration would fade as life keeps getting back to "normal" and other things take up my attention. I still have lots of problems with religion and dogma, but confronted with my mortality, I really drew a lot of peace and grace from the Catholic faith I grew up with and I see it somewhat differently now.

I read something recently about how the Celts spoke of "thin times" when the space separating heaven and earth is "thin" (or the divine and mortal or however you want to conceptualize it). For me, that's what having cancer was like - from the moment I was diagnosed until pretty recently - my life was in that "thin place". Maybe that just sounds strange, but it felt like I was on another plane of life. I wonder if other cancer patients feel this way too?

I'm doing really well with being a survivor and the thyroid stuff too. I finally these last few weeks am starting to feel really healthy again -starting to wake back up to normal life. I still have complaints and issues - my hair falling out, still adjusting to the hormonal changes, the extra fat, the pain in my neck (literally!), the emotional/psychological issues - but mostly it's getting better all the time.

I devoured Lance Armstrong's cancer memoir in about two days. There is something so universal about cancer - even though what he went through was WAY worse than my experience. Mine was pretty mild compared to his!

Right now I am procrastinating about going over to the gym. Alwyn Cosgrove must have drank a whole cup of evil right before he wrote this workout he has me doing in this phase - it involves a giant set of jump squats, push presses and good morning's. With no rest in between. JUMP squats, people! I have never in my life been so close to hurling in the gym as the first day I did this workout. I cleaned one of the E-Z bars (already weighted) onto my back for the squats and GM's instead of using the longer regular squat bar so my center of gravity would be more compact and balanced. When I finished my last set, my arms were so baked that I just stood there like, oh shit, how am I going to get this bar off my back, I don't think I can do another overhead press!!! (I was not in a rack). You can always do more than you think you can - thank god so I didn't have to drop the bar on the ground off my shoulders!!!

Anywayyyyyy - wouldn't you be procrastinating if you had to go do those on Saturday morning?!! Alas, my workouts were all screwed up because of being in Ottawa for the week (although our hotel did have a little gym!) - I would normally not put this workout on SATUrDAy!!! :( Weekends are for R&R (mostly) or really FUN exercise like hiking or trail-running :) LOL. oh well.

Our hotel. No I am not kidding.

I'll post some pics tomorrow of Ottawa and the 7 foot tall bishop who confirmed me!!!

Is it April or November???

I was totally shocked to see snow covering the trees and cars when I stepped outside this morning. And it snowed a little bit on me just now when I came out of the grocery store! We are having some wacky weather in the East! I hope this means we are going to have a mild summer - that would be so nice. I only really like the weather here two or three months out of the year - April/May and Sept/Oct. The rest of the months are too humid and muggy or too cold!

I am so glad I don't have to run 8 or 9 miles this weekend like the last month or so!! In fact I haven't run at all since the race! Instead, I totally rocked my workouts in the gym this week. I'm feeling stronger and it's so nice to lift and not worry about having to be fresh for a long run coming up!

I've been doing Alwyn Cosgrove's total body workouts for the last couple months and I'm really enjoying them. The man is an evil genius. I spend half the workout cursing him and the other half feeling like She-Ra, Princess of Power, because I'm supersetting squats and weighted T-pushups and I'm dripping sweat and the lady (wasting her time) on the butt-blaster machine behind me is staring at me and I want to hurl and I want to quit, but I don't, I just keep on going... It's great!

I was a little skeptical when I started doing his programs because he doesn't schedule any isolation movements - it's all compound, multi-joint lifts and upper/lower supersets with varying rep schemes. You know, you kinda feel like the gym will implode or something if you quit doing bicep curls, but it turns out nothing much happened. I haven't done a bicep curl or a calf raise in 2 months! I wanted to see if I'd lost any strength, so at the end of my workout this morning, I picked up the 30# db's and banged out a few reps with no trouble. In fact, I feel like I'm developing a more balanced physique than I had before. And it's been a great way to rehab because I've been able to do lots of bodyweight and conditioning exercises that are just as challenging, but I think less stressful than high-volume intense lifting. It's a refreshing change of pace from the bodybuilding-style workouts I was doing before.

BTW, he's also a cancer survivor! :)

Everyone in my office seems to be on a fitness kick... Three of us ran in the Cherry Blossom Ten-Miler and there was much trash-talking before the race about who would beat whom (not from me, of course, I was expecting to run a 10:30 mile avg pace). I guess everyone wanted to join the fun, since now my office and our sister office are having a 5k challenge! At least 6 of us, possibly more, are going to run in the George Washington Parkway Classic 5k race on April 22, and we're going to compete in teams! We're even getting a trophy for the winning office.

That's not all... I've even got one guy following Berardi's nutritional guidelines and an integrated fitness program (weights, intervals, aerobics)!! I gave him Metabolism Advantage so he could try the workouts and he came in the next day with a cooler and 5 balanced meals and protein shakes! I think it's great. I also gave him Eating for Life because he seemed a little frustrated with all the meal planning - I told him not to try to make a bunch of huge changes all at once. I told him to focus on eating more frequently and eating protein every time, and to eat more fruits and veggies, and not worry about the rest right now. He told me yesterday he definitely feels better; he reports to me all the time, actually - telling me how his workouts go, how he tried suitcase deadlifts and now he's SO sore...! Haha... :)

Oh, I also have to tell you that yesterday evening I dropped a glass bottle of flax oil on the kitchen floor. Of course it broke and the oil spilled out everywhere, even under the fridge. Can I tell you how hard it is to clean OIL off lineoleum, especially when it's paired with broken glass?! Egads, it was awful. I finally used dishsoap. Cuts grease, right?! Ugh.

Sigh... I'm off to do more housework. Bah. Tonight we are going to the Easter Vigil at church and tomorrow Adam told me we could hike Sugarloaf if I want!! Happy Easter everyone!

Fitness and Intelligence

I had an interesting conversation with a colleague at work this evening. I was chatting with two male co-workers, giving advice to one about where to buy supplements. (I like Bodybuilding.com and WholesaleSupplementStore.com.) The other came back later and asked me how I got into all this "stuff" - meaning fitness, nutrition, etc. He was surprised to learn that the deadlift is actually in my repertoire of exercises. He was doing most of the talking, telling me about the gym he works out in and his routine and it seemed like he really enjoyed lifting weights - he seems reasonably fit, I might add. But he said he "doesn't want to get too big" so he tries not to lift too much.

I'm like, huh? First of all, he's probably a little misinformed if he thinks he's going to get huge without investing some significant energy into his weight training and diet. But even if he is a fast-gainer (which he told me he's not), why would he not want to "get too big"?

His explanation was something to the effect of not wanting to give people the impression that he was some muscle-head (I'm paraphrasing). He mentioned another colleague of ours, J, who he thought was "too big" (which I think is crazy, he's not that big). He says when he sees J, his first impression is "that guy's a big bodybuilder", not "that guy is smart, capable, competent, a hard worker..." He wants others' first impression of him to be more along the lines of "nerdy but brilliant", which is not served by having big muscles.

At first I was feeling confused, but as he kept talking, I realized he's right... (But not that he's right to bend to such pressures...) Most of the people in my line of work with fall well and solidly into the nerd category. They dress very conservatively and not necessarily well. Only a small handful could be considered reasonably fit and even the ambiguous ones are more euro-fit than athletic-fit (by that I mean trim from walking a lot around the city, or eating well, and/or due to a genetic propensity towards being an ectomorph). In other words most don't invest a lot of time in their appearances - it's as if they are somehow "above" caring about that because they are so busy focusing on some worthier cause.

I grew up in the military where the values are quite different from the average population. Being fit is important to military-folk and it's even looked down upon to be too out of shape, especially if you're male. In the military world, you can be muscular and fit and still be considered intelligent, capable and competent. But in the world I work in, and I think the general population, there is a perception that if you're really fit, really athletic, or care too much about your appearance/body, then you're less intelligent. I remember seeing an article in the Economist not too long ago about how many of the members of the Bush Administration are dedicated to some kind of exercise on a weekly basis - Bush's mile time was a decent 8-something, if I remember correctly, and Condi gets up at 5:00 every morning to do the elliptical, even when she's on the road. In the ironic British humor that I love the Economist for, the article was suggesting that they were too busy messing around in leg-warmers to worry about real foreign policy concerns.

I think this is a load of hogshit. Study after study confirms the benefits of exercise to mental performance, energy, and alertness. And I could get into a huge tangent here about what exactly intelligence is and how our concept of that is shaped by society. I'll save that for another time - I'm on my way to lift some heavy shit in the gym!!! Just kidding, I lifted this morning. I just think it's sad that not only is fitness not valued by the general population, but the fit among us get stereotyped as less intelligent or less competent. The two are not necessarily mutually exclusive! There are really "smart" fit people, and fit people who are not so "smart", just like there are really "smart" un-fit people and also people who are neither smart nor fit. Sigh.

Spring is on the way!

I'm not sure what happened to this post. I tried emailing it to blogger, but I guess it got lost in the cyberspace. Soooo ... this was from Tuesday.

There are still random melting chunks of ice everywhere, but it's in the 40's today -- halleleuja!! I cannot WAIT until spring is here. It's bittersweet because several weeks of lovely, brilliant weather are followed by brutish heat and humidity beyond what is humanly tolerable. Sadly, our nation's capital is built on humid lowlands unfit for human habitation. If you don't believe me, come here in August and walk in the stifling sauna for 15 minutes! I can't wait to run outside again. In the summer, even running before sunrise leaves you soaked from head to toe, but I don't care! Anything but the Dread'!!

After the end of the wallowing, plus sleeping 10 hrs a day for THREE days in a row (yay for sleep!) I had really fantastic workouts two days in a row. I had a fully destructive leg workout involving squats, deadlifts, split squats and step ups. Then, despite sore legs, I completed my first HIIT workout! I've tried to do some intervals recently, to no avail. They've always left me hunched over behind the machine in a dizzy stupor. I finally realized -- duh -- I didn't START doing intervals at full throttle, and I can't expect to jump right back in and kick it like I did before the surgery. So I did a modified interval workout on the step machine - BFL style, where instead of level 5, 6, 7, 8, I hit level 5, 6, 7, then 7 again, four times. Not bad! Next time I will throw a couple of 8s in there and gradually work my way back up. I then jogged for 10 minutes at 6 mph, focusing on my form.

In the weight room, I've been doing a different workout each time I've been in. Mostly they've been high rep total body workouts with upper/lower supersets (like pairing squats with assisted pull ups). This week I'm going to do a leg day, and upper body day and a total body day, plus 3 days of some kind of cardio (not necessarily running unless it's nice enough outside cause the Dread' is making me batty). Leg day is done. Here's my upper body workout:

These are all 4 sets of 10 reps each, supersets with full rest...

Dumbell incline bench press (30's)
Seated cable row (number 5 on the machine, not sure of the lbs)

Standing shoulder press (15's)
Wide grip lat pull down (number 6 on the machine, not sure of lbs)

Close grip barbell bench press (55#)
High shoulder pull (30#)

Swiss Ball crunches - bodyweight - 3x15

I'm thinking moderate cardio tomorrow - maybe a 3-4 mile jog, then lift again Thursday. Friday is rest day. Saturday I may attempt the 6 miles I had planned but did not complete this past weekend - IF the weather cooperates. I will not run 6 on the Dread'. We went and saw Bridge to Terabithia yesterday, which was pretty good. Then we met friends for Vietnamese food. For the record (I'm sure I will probably offend someone here), I detest Vietnamese food. Especially pho (gak). And the person sitting across from me, of course, ordered a gigantic bowl of (you guessed it) pho. I spent the meal gagging privately to myself as that unmistakable odor of dirty laundry water wafted across the table into my face. Ew.

On the orchid, Chris, where do you come up with this stuff?! Since when do you cultivate orchids?! :) You're funny. I have determined that I have a phalaenopsis that looks like this. It is planted in bark in a container that allows draining. My main concern is that it is at work under the bright neon lights - is this a bad idea? Too much light? It will probably stay cooler in my office than at home, especially in the summer, but I'm worried about it getting too much light. I read that they like cool shady spots.

Fitness Conditioning

My boyfriend Adam is a Navy officer. Naval officers, like all other military officers, have to undergo periodic fitness tests to see that they are maintaining physical abilities. It's pretty simple, akin to what they made us do in junior high - run 1.5 miles for time, do as many sit ups as you can in 2 minutes, and do as many push ups as you can in 2 minutes. There are also bodyfat/weight measurements and requirements. There are minimum scores to reach or you fail your fitness test. Some people try to "max out" the fitness test by getting the highest possible score. For females age 20-29, max scores are: 105 sit ups, 48 push ups, and run 1.5 mi in 9:47.

Incidentally, that is why I was training to do 50 push ups in a row and 105 sit ups before my surgery!! I just wanted to see if I could theoretically max out the fitness test. I had gotten up to 50+ push ups and hadn't worked too much on the sit ups. I was about to start training for pull ups - I wanted to do at least 10 in a row from a dead hang (and going all the way back down in between). I could do 6. Now I can do one (or last Wednesday I did one... well, I did three, but one at a time!!)

If you fail the Navy fitness test - (for men that means fewer than 46 sit ups, 37 push ups and slower than 13:30 on the run; females it's fewer than 46 sit ups, 16 push ups and slower than 15:30 run) - you have to go to training sessions until you can pass. (Standards are here.)

This week, Adam will be leading one of these training sessions!! He always max-es out the test and his commander "volun-told" him to be a fitness coordinator for the fitness test. He says it's more a burden they stuck a junior officer with than an honor, but they wouldn't have given it to someone not in great shape, I told him!!

I was helping him come up with some functional training ideas to help with sit ups and push ups. Core strength is really important for both, so I recommended bodyweight squat variations like one-legged squats (no equipment will be available), the plank and variations, and burpees. As for any exercise, at the end of the day, you get good at the exercises you train for, so that just means doing a ton of push ups and sit ups!!! By the way, Alwyn Cosgrove has a great article on the Top 10 Tips for Athletic Conditioning.

Wish I could join in the fun, but I'll be radioactive!!