Thursday, April 14, 2011

Day 4.

Sleep:

Good news - I fell asleep at 9:30 and woke up at 7:15 without an alarm, so that's almost 10 hours of solid, dreamy, restful sleep.
Bad news - 6am training session is/was at 6am. Oops.
Good news - I woke up, and didn't sleep til forever.
Good news - I drank a cup of coffee because it tasted good, not because I needed the jolt.
Bad news - 6am training session is always at 6am. Bleh. 


7:30 AM 
Coffee, fasted through all morning.
*I am still pretty stiff in my calves, shins and ankles from Tuesday's workout. This is a problem because there's more running on the schedule for tonight. Furiously using the stick today and NOT sitting at my desk. Holler.

 1:30 PM 
Wasn't really starving but thought I should probably eat something, don't really want food sitting in my stomach during Nancy tonight. 
Leftover Italian sausage & kale + 2 hardboiled eggs. DELICIOUS.

3:30PM
Some tootsie rolls. This is embarrassing. But I'm posting it anyway. 

3:45 PM 

Read this article and then really, really regretted those Tootsie Rolls. So, sugar will kill you, probably. I already knew that.


5:30PM
*Forgot my BCAAs at work, so I had a scoop of KD's flavored ones before the workout
Worked up to 85x5 OHS (tough, my legs are still pretty shot - ice bath post run next time?)
Then did 115x5x3 front squat
Then did 33 OHS @ 65# in 2 minutes


7:30 PM
1.5 cup spinach w/ a tsp of EVOO and balsamic
1.5 burgers (about 6oz beef) with onions, diced green chilis, chili powder, cumin, and cilantro (Elana's Pantry recipe), with 1/2 avocado sliced on top


Took measurements tonight.
Weight: 169.6
Waist: 35 (at smallest point)
Navel: 38.75 
Hips: 43 (at widest point)


*I'd like to get back into the 150s if that's possible, I think losing 10-15 would really help my pullups. Also, and this is total vanity, but I've been carrying extra weight in my lower belly like, forever. I would like to see if there's a non-psychotic way to get rid of that and keep it off, like, how lean would I have to be overall to see that go away and is it worth what I'd have to do to stay there? We'll see what happens.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Day 3.

Sleep:
Not enough. Last looked at the clock at 11:24.
Alarm went off at 5:10am, and I woke up very, very tired and very very sore from yesterday, so decided to skip the 6am in favor of some mobility work today. Then Angel's alarm went off at 6:30. We are trying to figure out a solution to having multiple alarms going off, because technically I should feel rested today since I slept til 7:30, but I don't. My alarm went back off in the middle of a dream, and whenever that happens I feel groggy for a long time. My body did not want to wake up yet and I wish I could have let it sleep. Sorry, body.

*I am pretty stiff and sore from yesterday, notably in my hamstrings, core/obliques, upper back and triceps. I should have soaked in epsom salts last night/done more mobility work but didn't get to it yesterday. oops. Will do tonight.

*Oh, I thought I felt a little phlegmy this morning, maybe from the bit of goat cheese I ate last night? It wasn't anything bothersome but I'm trying to be more aware. I guess I should cut the cheese for now (hah, I'm 12). 

8am - about 3/4 cup of coffee (I was running a little late due to above grogginess)

9:30am - ate some breakfast so I could drink tea at work without getting queasy. Breakfast was leftover frittata from yesterday. It was still delicious today :)

12:30ish - starting to be hungry but not uncomfortably so. Brought my lunch to the grocery store to eat with a coworker and buy food for the next few days. Lunch was leftover roasted cauliflower from last night and leftover ground turkey in homemade marinara sauce + mushrooms, plus 1/2 an apple and a packet of almond butter. It was good. I felt full and passed the box jump test.

*32 oz water this morning, working on my second bottle now.
I feel kind of snacky right now (it's 3pm). But will not snack. Damn you coworker-drawer-of-candy.

6:45 Dinner
spicy Italian sausage over a bed of kale, onions, and 1/2 an apple (the produce was sauteed in a little bit of ghee). This. Was. Delicious.

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Day 2.

Sleep:
6-7 hours (work in progress)
Also, it was hot in my room. It was almost an air conditioning night last night. Still felt pretty alert when the alarm went off though. It helped that the birds were singing even though it was dark out. Since I've been reading Lights Out I've been kind of bummed at having to wake up in the dark, but otherwise I'll never make it to the gym. Hopefully the sun starts coming up earlier soon.

6am training session:
*10g BCAAs before and after, plus a swallow of coffee before
5/4/3/2/1 loops around the block
alternated with
10/8/6/4/2 split jerks @ 85# from the floor
=29:00 

Jerks = easy. Running = slow death.
Total distance - 4.5K

*Really want to repeat this one in about a month. I think/hope my running will improve a lot over the next few weeks. I'm also really curious about that 5K time now. 

Breakfast:
Fasted, coffee + two hits of BCAAs (10 grams total)
*Was pretty hungry this morning and am hungry now. Probably due to the long workout.

12:30pm lunch:
About 1 cup ground turkey in homemade sauce + mushrooms (leftovers from last night)
About 10 ounces of green beans with butter (1 pat butter for the whole serving of green beans - I was REALLY craving the green, haha)
1/2 apple
2 packets almond butter (190 cals each)

Just finished my first 32 ounces of water, off to refill.
I guess I'm supposed to be training fasted and eating earlier in the day, and making my post workout meal my largest of the whole day? Gah. OK - patience patience patience while this all works out. I definitely have to eat earlier in the day if I'm gonna be this hungry after my 6am.

3:30 PM
*Very sleepy at my desk. Drank another 32 oz water and ate the other 1/2 of my apple.

6:30 PM Dinner
*had like, 3 nuts and 1 spoonful of goat cheese as I was cooking
Made a frittata - a bunch of mushrooms, peppers and onions sauteed in ghee and garlic, baked with 9 eggs and a few bits of goat cheese. I had about a 3x3 slice? And a bunch of roasted cauliflower. 

About to go take Vitamin D, Natural Calm, and Fish Oil, drink a bunch of water, and go to bed.

Abs are feeling kinda tight from this morning.

Monday, April 11, 2011

Day 1.

Sleep: 
10pm-7am (dead tired from the weekend)

Breakfast: 
Fasted + coffee
12pm Lunch (no picture today): 
7 ounces steak (marinated in balsamic, onions/garlic, salt/pepper), 2-3 cups baby spinach + EVOO/balsamic
7pm Dinner:
1 cup homemade sauce: crushed tomatoes, 1 tbsp ghee (in the whole pot so not that much per serving), crushed red pepper, 1 square 90% dark chocolate (in whole pot), salt/pepper, mushrooms
kale chips (about 1 cup, made with EVOO and salt)
*snacked on 2 squares dark chocolate and some spiced nuts that Angel made beforehand. Was REALLY hungry when I got home.

Drank 80 ounces of water today and just hit pretty much everywhere with a lacrosse ball. My whole back feels junked up from driving yesterday and sleeping in an unfamiliar bed, so I worked on that for awhile and also did upper part of my glutes and my calves. Felt really good, but I think I need a massage.

Daily Goal Summary

This is also for my quick reference:

Stage 1 Goals (Mon4/11 -Thurs4/21): 
Train 3 or more times per week (metcon biased + squats)
Supplement BCAAs 15minutes pre-workout and 2x more through the morning.
Fast until 12pm
8 hours sleep per night (bed by 9pm, up at 5am)
Fish oil daily (2g)
80 ounces water/day
Eat mindfully (20 plyometric box jumps!)

Stage 2 Goals (Fri4/22 - Sun5/1):
16 ounces quality protein/day
No gluten grains
No fried/heavily-processed foods
At least 2 kinds of vegetables each day (try new veggies!)

Stage 3 Goals (Mon5/2 - Thurs5/12:
Cut down the fruit (2 servings or less of low sugar fruit/day)
No sugar.
No dairy except butter/cheese as FLAVOR
Only one starchy meal early in the day, sweet potatoes and root veggies are best
No oils when cooking except coconut/grassfed butter
Limit alcohol.

Stage 4 Goals (Fri 5/13 - Mon5/23):
No fast digesting carbs (fruit, rice, white potato, corn, GF grains) except post workout.
Cut out coffee. Only green tea.
Eat ONLY whole foods.
Further limit alcohol.
20 minutes of fun/low stress activity per day.

The CFCC BCCC 2.0 Parameters

This is for my reference. If you're interested in reading the whole post, please go here (you really should visit there anyway, they are pretty awesome people):

Tier 1 (10 days):

1)  Train 3 or more times per week and supplement with BCAAs in water 15m before and 15m after your workout.
*Light physical activity outside of the gym (easy sport, brisk walking, etc) is fine, but no endurance training without our approval.
2)  Be in bed at least 8 hours total per day, preferably at night.
*This means time in bed, without TV or lights on.  You should be at least making an attempt to fall asleep.  Relax.  Take naps to make up any deficits.
3)  Take fish oil every day (3g/2g of combined EPA/DHA) unless you are eating a large serving of fish that day.
*After a meal.  All at once is fine.
4) Drink half your bodyweight in ounces of water per day.
*Any non-alcoholic beverages will count towards your total.  Alcoholic beverages count as a negative serving of water (for our purposes), so make up for it.  Coffee and tea count positively if you are a daily caffeine drinker.
5) Never eat until you are full, and don’t starve yourself.  Learn what the right amount of food is.  Stop eating when you are satisfied.  The right kinds of food will satisfy you much more easily.
*Imagine doing 20 plyometric box jumps immediately after standing up from eating.  If that thought makes you uncomfortable, you ate too much.  Eating less than 1500 calories a day and not losing weight?  You’re probably not eating enough, and for a long time.

Tier 2 (10 days):

1) Eat at least 1.5/1lbs (M/F) of a quality protein source each day.
*Suggestion is pre-cooking weight.  Eat more if you’d like.  I certainly do.  Grass fed and local meat is recommended.   Eggs and fish are great too.  Beans are not a quality protein source, they’re a carb/fiber/phytate source.
2) Remove gluten containing grains entirely. This guide should help.
*You may still continue to drink beer, as it is low in protein (that’s what gluten is), and the brewing process changes the make-up of grains slightly to make it less of a problem.  Keep in mind that beer may be higher in calories, and it may make you feel worse than other drinks.
3) Remove all fried and heavily processed foods from your diet.
*Light sauteeing is fine. Remove anything deep fried.  Fries are fried.  No you don’t need fries.  Most things with a label are going here.  If you can’t separate the ingredients of an item with your hands and identify them, then you probably shouldn’t eat it.
4)  Eat at least 2 different kinds of vegetables every day.
*At least a serving of each.  Eat the good ones.  Potatoes, corn, beans, and peas don’t count, because I’m a jerk (or maybe because they are tubers and legumes).  Don’t eat the same two vegetables every day for 40 days, duh.

Tier 3 (10 days):

1) Eat up to 2 servings of fruit per day.  Remove anything else sweet including natural sugars and artificial sweeteners.  Your 2 pieces of fruit are your sweets.
*You have no physiological need for sweet foods.  Psychological want, yes.  Physiological need, no.  Choose berries for your fruit intake as much as possible.
2) Remove all dairy from diet except for small amounts of butter, cheese, or cream, used only for flavor.
*If you’d eat it with your hands, its a serving of cheese.  If you’ve removed Greek Yogurt from your diet and then added it back in with no symptoms of allergy (congestion, lethargy, digestion issues, etc), then you can have a small serving a few times per week.  Do not rely on dairy as a protein source.
3) Eat only 1 starchy meal per day, other than  your post-workout meal (which can be starchy as well).
*Any non-gluten starches are ok here., but weet potatoes and other root vegetables are best.  If you’d rather not have the starch in this meal, that’s fine.  Try to eat more of your starch earlier on in the day, and move towards fat and protein at the end of the day.
Save things like rice and white potatoes (very fast digesting carbohydrates) for your post workout meal, which should be eaten anywhere from 1-3 hours after your workout, if you have BCAA 15m after you finish training.
4) Limit your use of oils when cooking.  Stick to coconut oil and grass-fed butter when  you can.
*Try not to cook with olive oil.  Avoid most dressings.  Avoid most oils in general, as they are generally high in omega-6 fatty acids (pro-inflammatory).
5)  Limit alcohol consumption to 3/2 (M/F) standard drinks per day.
*Beer is still ok, but not recommended at this point.

Tier 4 (10 days):

1)  Make sure your NON-POST WORKOUT starchy meal comes from only root vegetables such as the sweet potato.
*Again, having this meal as your first of the day is recommended.  NORMAL PORTIONS.
2)  Eat your fruit, gluten free grains, white potato, corn products, or white rice ONLY in your post workout meals.
*This should be your highest carbohydrate meal of the day, if possible.
3)  Drink 2-3 cups of green tea per day instead of coffee, unless you have a caffeine sensitivity issue.
*You do not need to start drinking caffeine if you don’t already.
4)  Eat ONLY whole foods.
*You’ve hopefully removed any food with a label by this point anyway.
5)  Limit alcohol consumption to 1 glass of wine, cider, or drink of spirits per day.
*Gluten is now completely gone.  No sweetened liquors.  Tonic is very sweet.
6)  Engage in 20m of a fun and low stress activity every day.
*This can be meditation, plain sitting, playing with your dog or kids (or dog-kids), playing music or singing, etc.  Just relax, and breathe.

I love acronyms.

It begins.

I like CFCC and I like acronyms and I like thinking about food, so I'm participating in this thing. I've been with CFCC from the beginning, and I've gone through several group challenges in various incarnations. I hated the Zone the first day I tried it, so that didn't happen. I didn't make it through the major macro-counting one. I don't like weighing and measuring obsessively, but I do check in every once in awhile to make sure that what I think is 6 ounces of chicken isn't like, 3 or 12. I get nervous when people start to freak out that they ate 1.5 cups of broccoli instead of 1.

 That being said - I have done literally EVERYTHING when it comes to food. I've done standard American/college student diet. I've done the Zone (for two days before I hated everyone in the world). I've done strict Paleo and loose Paleo and Primal and loose primal. I've done vegetarian and vegan, HAH. What can I say? I like learning and I like experimenting with myself as the test subject. I was pretty thin as a marathon-training vegan, but I was frail.
Senior year of college. This was the don't-eat-anything-then-teach-two-step-aerobics-classes diet (not recommended). Also, prime examples of how you never realize how skinny you are until you see pictures of yourself 5 years later and are like, oh.
 
These legs could run a half marathon, but couldn't deadlift 255.



Rows a 2K in 8:30, socks are 2nd only to Jen's in awesomeness, but Duz Not Have Teh Pullupz.

I've done a few Whole30's and was very happy with the results in my overall good-feeling/wellbeing and performance, but you know. Inevitably there's a creeping back in of less-than-optimal stuff. And I think that you really can't do any better than that and still enjoy life. I mean, I really don't think anyone can subside on perfectly measured tuna, chicken, broccoli, and almonds for the rest of their life. If they can, more power to them, but I think my life is shaping up to be good maintenance, good food, and reeling things in/tightening up when I start to feel like the less-than-optimal is becoming a bigger factor than it should be.

Does that mean I've found peace with food? MAYBE. ALMOST.

What I need to learn now is PATIENCE. That is, nothing happens overnight and when it starts working, for God's sake let it work for more than a few weeks! I know I can complete the challenge, because I can do anything for a month. My personal goal will be to keep this up for a little longer. And since this summer has been affectionately/official coined "The Summer of Pullups"- that is, the summer I work on getting really good at everything not related to a barbell - I think we've found a good thing here.

I'll take measurements and pictures tonight and weight at the gym tomorrow. There are a few things I need to accomplish every day, and yes, I have a chart because I'm slightly insane. And we'll see what happens.