Freaking out about Food

Don't worry, *I* am not freaking out about food. But I read this article about kids and their fear of "bad" foods with some interest. You see, on the heels of every "major story" like childhood obesity, there's always a subset of people that get so worked up about the topic they swing to the other extreme, teaching their kids blind fear of entire subsets of food, rather than how to eat healthy, whole food in moderation.

True, most kids and their parents could use a dose of "orthorexia" (IE, fixated with right or healthy eating). But I've been musing for months about how we're a nation of fatties, and yet, most of our 'beautiful people' (especially women) clearly have unhealthy low body weights and unsustainably low levels of body fat. I'm sure some celebrities are naturally thin, and that's great for them. But there's no way you can tell me girls like Beyonce aren't constantly hounded by their people to eat as little as possible and spend as many hours as possible doing cardio to shave down that pesky pear shape.

Anyway, like most things, I guess the truth lies somewhere in the middle. Like Michael Pollan said - eat food, not too much, mostly plants. It sounds so easy but people screw up all three. Eat food means eat real food, whole food. Most people eat a lot of processed stuff, and on the other end are the raw foodists. Either eat thousands of calories too many in a day, or see how long you can go without food. Eat with fatty pork and beef byproducts as the base of your food pyramid or become a vegan.

They're all attachments in one sense or another, and by not grasping at them you kind of naturally end up in the middle. I for one have been working this week with my attachment to sugar and sweet-tasting things. I recently watched "The Lost Weekend", which is a classic movie about alcoholism. The main character spends most of his time either 1) passed out drunk or 2) scheming to get alcohol.

Thank goodness, I'm not an alcoholic (I like my drinks but I can go months without a drink and one or two is plenty) but I live with a pretty solid experience of my brain scheming to get me to eat sugar. And, like a good little zen practitioner I sit with this feeling of "sugar!!!", poking it and prodding it and rolling it over and over. I'm attached to really specific things, like Coke Zero, Cadbury Creme Eggs, Jelly Belly Sours, Mike and Ike Lemonade Blend, and Wild Berry Skittles. And furthermore I'm attached to the idea of myself as a person who enjoys Jelly Belly Sours! But even realizing this isn't making my desire for sugar much less strong. I want to have a life that's somewhere between the ascetic and the aesthete, and I used to hope there was some room in there for a few Skittles or a Creme Egg, but I'm becoming less and less sure of that. Sigh. I'm sure I've got more important things to worry about.

LVL UP!

So today I leveled up (ding) my workout, moving on up to Phase 3 in New Rules of Lifting for Women. That first workout is all about finding a good weight that's challenging but not impossible for the prescribed number of reps. This is scaled back a bit to three sets of six reps each. I really enjoy doing dumbbell snatches because if you do them right, you really do feel like you're developing some useful power and strength. If you do them wrong, a dumbbell goes flying out the window.

Anyway, I'm sure I'll be sore tomorrow, as AFTER the workout there is a body-weight matrix that is strikingly similar to the initial PCP-type workouts: squats, lunges, lunge-jumps, squat jumps, oy. My lower body was totally exhausted by the time I got through that. Since I had already done a great high-intensity interval training (HIIT) workout yesterday, I decided to mix it up and do some incline work at a medium-fast walking pace.

After yoga last night I really was glad that we started going again. I get kind of irritated getting into class because people are REALLY AFRAID that they can't get their favorite spot and it will, like, fuck up their chi or something. So everyone is practically pushing up to the end of the hall and runs in the room as soon as the previous class is over. It is kind of like that scene in "Far and Away" where Tom Cruise rides his horse really fast to claim his homestead using a stick with a piece of cloth tied to it. Except these bitches use yoga mats.

I don't really begrudge the people who have been going to that class a long time. But it seems like some people have a voice in their head saying "Yoga will totally make me hot and sexy and thin! I really need to try that." So they show up and they try to do what I call "sexy yoga". I have a hunch that the worst "sexy yoga" practitioners are former dancers, but it's just a hunch. I probably look at my least sexy when doing yoga.

Hey Mom! What's for Dinner?

As anyone who has done the PCP or has read any of the blogs, at the beginning of the PCP you eat what seems like a TON of food. Yesterday was my first day back on the PCP diet. I just looked back to see what the difference is between my first week's PCP diet and the PCC diet that I started yesterday. Not a lot of difference in the total amount of food but there are less carbs and more dairy.

Yesterday Patrick and I had a chat about why my body fat is still relatively high when I've been on such a clean diet and worked out so consistently. Today I am finally getting the message from my body that I just wasn't eating enough. Last time, we went through a week of half-portions of our "normal" diets, and then moved on to the PCP diets. This time no messing around with halfsies, it's straight to the clean food.

Last time it took me a week to adjust to the diet and feel like my metabolism had sped up to compensate. Even though it can feel like a pain in the ass to be eating or preparing food, like, all the time, it's really, really important. After just one day on the diet this time, I could definitely tell a difference: I wasn't nearly as cold as usual, I wasn't so tired, and I actually had an appetite and found it easy to pack in every gram of food. Back then I was basically freaked out that I'd gain a bunch of weight on the increased diet, and my girl Emiko was as well. Of course that didn't happen, and I'm not very worried about it this time.

75% of the weight I lost was in the first six weeks of the PCP. I was already pretty sure that my metabolism had taken a mighty beating while I was in graduate school, what with the insane stress level, poor eating (I counted calories sometimes and probably didn't exceed 1200 most days, but it was highly processed crap-type food) and so on. I think I got to a better place seeing as how I didn't get that much rebound weight gain after going off the structured diet, which also included a healthy amount of home cooking and baking over the holidays.

So. Onward, upward, just hopefully not outward. I had a better workout tonight than last, no doubt in some small part thanks to an hour of yoga class.

Oh, also if you are interested in doing something like the Peak Condition Project, be ready to go to the grocery store at least every 3-4 days. That's IF you can remember to get everything you need. Sometimes I went every day or every other day before I got a good shopping list down. I also have to pack my lunches the night before, no more grabbing a frozen lunch on the way out the door. Sigh.

Ta Da! The Peak Condition Community!

So, like I mentioned, the big secret is out: Today marks the beginning of the Peak Condition Community. This has been put together, comprised of Peak Condition Project graduates, to demonstrate how the PCP can be a sustainable lifestyle. I got on the PCP initially thinking "I can do anything for 90 days" but, sucker that I am, signed up for another hitch. I'm sitting here cramming in my final bits of food and thinking about how sustainability is such a buzzword these days (especially in my career field). But as far as buzzwords go, it's actually more meaningful than some.

The good news is I feel like I've sustained my peak condition quite well despite traveling for the holidays and the requisite food it involved. I'm actually a few pounds lighter than when we left off, still feeling strong and fit but of course we can always work towards something better.

So go poke around the PCC blog and see what everyone has to say. Each one of us will be blogging on our given day of the week (my day is Sunday) so it will be chock full of insights and so forth.

Word Up!

Hello all my peoples. Or person. I have some exciting news, but I don't want to spoil the secret just yet, so all I can say is...come back Monday!

In other news...things are going well on the weight training and cardio fronts. I'll be done with stage 2 of the New Rules of Lifting program and moving on to stage 3 in the next week. It got shockingly easier, even upping the weights considerably on some moves, so that's a plus. I'm looking forward to the next challenge!

Although I've felt strong jumping rope, the aftermath in my ankles and lower legs is still very troubling. Joint pain is a totally different animal than DOMS/muscle pain from working out. So instead of (or really, in addition to) this I'm going to focus, for now, on the treadmill-based high intensity interval training program that runs along with NROL. I had a great workout tonight and followed it up with some tasty, steak-based protein.

I'm hoping that re-starting yoga will also make some improvements in my ankles and etc. I didn't really feel like I was getting much out of it, and I was under some time constraints, but now I realize what I am missing once I stopped going. So, also come Monday, I'll be back there. Probably with all the other gym newbies (lord, they keep coming!) like the sucker that I am.

Phew!

Today was the first time I went through Workout 2B in NROL4W. It was a darn sight more involved and exhausting than 2A. Are each of the phases like that, with a hard day and a 'recovery' day? Dumbbell Prone Cuban Snatch (try saying that with a straight face) is a killer. And there are 3 sets of 10 reps instead of 2. Needless to say even after just the five or six exercises (plus the ab work, which in my brain is separate since I do it after cardio or during jump rope sessions) my legs felt pretty beat. Lifting heavy also makes me hungry, which I guess is a good sign that I'm revving up my metabolism, or so I keep telling myself.

Also, a lot of the lifts involve things like a box or step (Bulgarian Split Squats, for example, have the rear leg elevated). This takes up a lot of space and in a crowded gym in January, space is at a premium. It actually seemed more crowded tonight than last week; more people getting "the tour" and more people who looked like they basically didn't know what they were doing. One lady picked up some 3 or 5 lb weights, and did some weird movement (not quite a curl, not quite a forward raise) for about 3 minutes, maybe 100 reps or more. Anyone could tell you that something you can curl 100 times is probably too light, but it was all I could do to keep my mouth shut and hope she goes to the free training sessions that come with a gym membership.

But even after all that lifting I managed about 25-28 minutes of jumping rope. During the original PCP I found a great spot in our gym, down a stairwell landing that leads to an unused part of the building and an emergency exit. It was where I took all my pictures when I was not on vacation, and pretty quiet. But now with people showing up 30 minutes early to exercise classes, new members getting the gym tour, and so on, there is pretty much a constant stream of folks walking by in the hallway at the top of the stairs. And since I'm making a god-awful *slapthumpslapthumpslap* racket of shoes and vinyl rope hitting linoleum floor, it's not like they don't realize I'm there. I used to be kind of embarrassed about it, but now I guess I'm used to it. One of my friends even stopped to talk to me from the top of the stairs, which was amusing. Mostly, I'm just really glad that I haven't lost all my jump-rope stamina. I still can't imagine doing it EVERY day like we used to, though. Especially not in this weather!

So, there. If my lats and delts aren't begging for mercy (and an ibuprofen) tomorrow, I'll be really surprised.

In which I throw the Neti Pot in the trash...

Dang. I had scheduled today as a sick day largely because I had to go get my allergy shots. Usually riding my bike to the doctor's, and then riding to work is no big deal, but it is cold and windy and I already am fighting some sort of cold (albeit a minor one).

But last night I picked up a neti pot to see if I could help rinse out some of the cold-related gunk from my nose. I followed the directions, and it felt really weird but it did seem to open my nasal passages. About half an hour later I had copious amounts of snot, and now I feel suspiciously like I have a sinus infection. Maybe I had it coming anyway. Today I talked to some folks and it turns out that it's better to use the Neti Pot as a preventative, not when you're already sick. Also, there is some interesting finesse to blowing the residual snot and water out of the nose and sinuses. I will spare you the details.

Despite all this (and with the help of about four Sudafed during the day) I made it to the gym tonight and started The New Rules of Lifting for Women. I skipped the first phase of workouts and went straight to Phase 2. It is similar to the PCP workouts in that there is an A and B workout, and if you do it three times a week, (ABA, BAB) each phase takes two weeks. Then the seventh and final phase has around six workouts that are the maintenance workouts. We'll see how I'm feeling come phase seven, but so far so good. About 2 sets of 10 reps, moderate to heavy weights.

After that, I figured I ought to get back to jumping rope. I was honestly not sure how it would go since I pretty much haven't wanted to look at a jump rope since day 90 of the PCP, but on the other hand with Body Attack and running, it's not like I'm any less fit. I told myself I'd do at least 1000 jumps but before I knew it I was just skipping along to the music on my headphones and did about 25 minutes in my usual style. My right ankle is feeling that same stiff way the left one did at the beginning of PCP, so I'm not sure what's going on there.

Finally, while I was waiting for my better half to finish up his workout, I noticed there was a new piece of equipment: an Adaptive Motion Trainer. It was, frankly, really weird. Imagine an elliptical, a stairmaster, and a glider smashed together, and you kind of get the idea. I only made it about 20 or 25 minutes, and as soon as I figured out how to use it my heart rate immediately went up to 199 and I was SWEATY. You can do lots of different movements and switch between them so you are going backward one moment and forward the next, or go from stair-stepping to full-out sprint striding. When I looked in the side mirror it really does look a lot more natural than the elliptical, like you're running but much, much easier on the knees.