I need to preface this by saying that I LOVE FOOD.
I love talking about it and sharing recipes.
I love learning (and surprising myself every day) with how food fuels your body. How the low fat/high carb/vegetarian/vegan way I fed myself for years is not optimum fuel. How a beer and a piece of cake is not going to ruin my pullups and deadlifts and cause me to gain 20 pounds, but doing that every single night is NOT optimal. How sleep and fish oil can save your life. How sitting all day can ruin it. I love this crazy Internet that lets me be friends with people around the world, that I've never met, but are willing to pour out their souls and their habits and their successes and failures.
I love farmer's markets. I love advocating for local food. I love cooking delicious things. I will never say that bacon is a bad thing. I strive to be the best I can be. I know that meat and vegetables are better than grains and sugar, and local/pastured/grassfed meat and organic vegetables are better than conventional. Sometimes I have to buy conventional. That's been happening a lot lately.
I believe that what you put in your body is your NUMBER ONE PRIORITY. We only get one and it's priceless! Michael Pollan pointed out that Americans spend less of our disposable income on food than, I don't know, a dozen other first world countries. This has changed over the years as more "stuff" has cluttered up our societal psyche. Magazines everywhere advocate eating on a budget by purchasing crappy food from big chain superstores, when the rest of our hard earned cash is going to cable bills, internet bills, big new cars, tons of clothes and shoes, and expensive toys. I think that if you generally eat whole foods and avoid processed crap you are halfway there. If you eat a ton of different veggies every day you're 3/4 of the way. If you get lots of protein and fruit is your dessert you've pretty much got it. If you see ice cream as a treat and not a requirement, you've got it.
However, I have this annoying character flaw (I KNOW RIGHT, one exists!) in which I set a goal for myself - these days they are chasing both performance and body composition - I figure out a plan of action to get me to that goal, and then one of two things happen. I either do great for a couple of weeks and then decide that since I've been doing so well, I deserve to slack off in some way. Hah. As if I am SO BUSY ALL THE TIME that I deserve the rest, or the missed workout, or the unnecessary scaling, or the Ben&Jerry's. Not really the case. OR I do it for a couple of days and get lazy. Laziness being the absolute key here.
I know that 80% of both body composition and performance are born in the kitchen. I know what GOOD FOOD IS. I'm not coming here thinking that a morning waffle followed by a grilled cheese sandwich finished off with a plate of spaghetti constitutes a good diet. I'm getting caught up in the prep, the timing, and the ratios. Basically because all those things involve work and planning to be completely honest. Whenever I'm running back and forth between two homes and two kitchens and realizing that my tupperware is at my fiance's, and half of my ingredients are in one kitchen and the other half is at Angel's, and then we forget to take the chicken out of the freezer because we get caught up in the city and don't make it out to the burbs, well, this is a beacon of trouble. But waah waah, right? These are not real problems.
Anyway, I talk a lot of talk and I had big plans when I started
www.ironandspice.com to use it to educate, share, inform, but it was also meant to keep me focused and accountable on my training and nutrition. I realize many people don't give a flying you-know-what about my deadlift 3 rep max and whether the sweet potato is better before or after said max. Hence this log, which will be separate and focused on what I eat. The good, the bad, and the ugly. Eek.
PERFORMANCE: Some of my currents.
Deadlift 195x3, 215x1
Press 75x5
Clean 95x1
Jerk 105x3
Back Squat 145x1 (pre-injury)
Front Squat 85x5
Pullups: 1 deadhang, 1-5 kipping (depending on bar thickness)
Pushups: Strict, 10 or so without breaking.
400m run: Estimated (never done on a real track) 1:36
500m row: 1:52
2K row: 8:35
Ring Dip: None
Handstand Hold: 2-3 mins? Haven't clocked it lately.
Where I lack: Strength is progressing slowly but surely, especially now that I'm coming back from my adductor injury. I know I'm strong but could be stronger especially for my weight. My sprinting capabilities are good, but I lose it if I have to keep it up. I'm awful at running, simply awful. Muscular endurance could be better.
Current Body Comp Stats: Measurements to follow. I have some weird body dysmorphic stuff going on, but it's opposite what most people have. I feel like I'm lean in some places but then I see pics of myself and blech. .
