Furry Alarms, A Nutrition throwdown and Full Contact Yoga

*whew*

Ok, the title pretty much sums up my morning... and it's only 9:30!


And that was me this morning, starting around 5:30 am. Apparently the kittens are entirely too used to me getting up around that time, getting ready for the gym and feeding them because no matter how much I tried to force snuggle them into sleepy submission it didn't work. SO around 6:30 I gave in and got up to a chorus of ::mewmewmewmew feed me monkey mewmewmewmew::


It's days like this that I'm grateful for whomever brought coffee to the new world. And for the invention of naps which I foresee in my future.



Since I was up, I figured I'd get my brain going as well. While having my morning snackie (kept it light for Obstacle Yoga... more on that in a minute) I decided to continue reading the Zone book, figuring I need to get a good handle on the basics and really focus on my food this week (and I know... talking a lot about it... feel free to skip ahead or move along... really, this is my random ramblings). Now, I've mentioned that the thing I like about the foundation of this plan is that it's focused on real food, all things in moderation, and the principle that if you have one meal that's out of whack, it's no big.

The thing that bugs me is that, like the Atkins plan and a lot of other proposed eating plans, it plays the blame game and jumps on the Insulin is Evil bandwagon. Now, it's easy to see why Insulin and it's balance is considered the pinnicle of good health, weight loss, and overall world peace, because when the levels are steady, life is good. Just ask my hubby what happens 5 minutes after I've announced, "I'm HUNGRY!" It's a matter of cake or death*. But really, insulin isn't the only hormone in the body, but it's the easiest target, after the thyroid, for weight issues. I just find it very amusing that so many eating plans are build on the shaky campaign of "Save the insulin levels, save the world" especially after having read/listened to my BFF Tom Venuto - and he addresses it in his book "The Body Fat Solution" as Myth #8.

Essentially, insulin balance helps with a whole slew of things, but weight loss is simply a happy side effect, not THE effect. When you're eating in a way for your body's blood sugar levels to stay stable, you're not constantly in the feast/famine mode, you're more... snackish. As one who continually struggled with hypoglycemic issues, feeling hunger creep in was an emergency situtation for my system and those around me at risk for getting their heads ripped off. Now, not so much.

That all being said, the Zone and Tom Venuto's BFFM/Body Fat Solution plan, pretty darn close to each other - moderate amount of lean protein, lots of nutrient dense/calorie sparse veggies & fruit, healthy fat, and reduced grains eaten through out the day. Works for me. But I'd still like to see Barry Sears & Tom Venuto in a throwdown... though my bets are on Tom, just cuz. :)

After being tired of reading the evils of insulin, decided it was time for my weekly yoga bit.

I've mentioned before how my Muggins kitten likes to... um...help with some of the poses. Well today was no different and if I could have caught it on camera I would have. I opted for a particularly vigerous routine turned full contact sport this morning, with Muggins wandering or laying all over the mat, usually EXACTLY where I needed to put my foot. Or hand. Or body. Or head. Until the very end, of course, with 'corpse' pose - just laying there at his mercy if he desired. But he's a cat, so what's the fun of demanding attention when his human is /ready/ for it?!

And on that happy note, I shall leave you (mainly Ramona, because I know she'll appreciate it...) with this thought from Stan Rogers since iTunes has graced me with many of his tunes while writing this:

"And you, to whom adversity has dealt the final blow
With smiling b*stards lying to you everywhere you go
Turn to, and put out all your strength of arm and heart and brain
And like the Mary Ellen Carter, rise again.

Rise again, rise again - though your heart it be broken
And life about to end
No matter what you've lost, be it a home, a love, a friend.
like the Mary Ellen Carter, rise again."

* If you haven't seen Dressed to Kill by Eddie Izzard, I HIGHLY recommend it... once you get past the 6'3" british guy in heels and lipstick, he's bloody hilarious and intelligent!

Follow-Up Friday

Wow! Friday seemed to take it's own sweet time getting here this week, yet, the week blew past! Granted travel and a silly busy work week will do that. LOL!

Anywho, it occurred to me that I'd touched on a few things over the last week or so that I've been wanting to follow-up on so figured today was as good of time as any. :)

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You had me at ATP...

SO... last week, I made this sweeping announcement about exploring life in "The Zone" and I really felt conflicted about it. In the midst of the trauma of losing my friend, and the self-reflection that followed, I was basically doubting my own abilities to make proper choices to get me physically and health wise to where I wanted to go. I also knew that it was time to focus my efforts even more. Basically, it came down to deciding if I was ok with my general results achieved through my general approach, or if I was willing to be more specific about both.

I decided it is time to be more specific with my nutrition to achieve a specific goal. After reading Jess' blog about starting the Atkins induction phase as part of her pre-comp diet plan, it really drove home that point.

But in reality, it's all about the ATP, baby.

I know, you're scratching your head at that one... I've brought up ATP before, and I think eyes glazed over. ATP is the molecule that stores energy in a form that can be used for muscle contractions, and is the energy source for all muscular movement. There's a series of chemical reactions that happens that I won't bore you with. The important thing to know is, it's the happy stuff that is released to allow you to lift heavy things, but when it's gone, fuggitaboudit. You couldn't squeak out another rep if someone held a gun to your head. It's amazing stuff and it does replenish sort of quickly which is why, after you rest for a minute or two, you CAN squeak out another set without your limbs locking up.

How the two things (ATP & Zone) connect is the theory that the zone way of eating helps the body replenish the ATP supply quicker. Quicker replenishment leads to being able to handle more weight loads and higher reps.

Sign. me. up!

Yeah, I know. Total geek

Now that I'm mostly readjusted back to my routine, I've been doing more reading and implementing the requisite tweakage to my eating plan to make it more in line with the Zone principles. What I'm learning is that I was already on the right track - like the universe is reassuring me that I can, indeed, trust myself. I am just being even more mindful of portion sizes, and what sort of starchy carbs vs. veggie carbs I'm consuming.

And looking to reap the ATP rewards, baby! LOL!

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Let them eat LUNCH!

Lunch at Claim Jumper on Wednesday was an interesting adventure - it was my actual bossman, B, (I work for 3 people, but he's the person I actually report to), the birthday girl, D, and our co-worker, S that went.

It was fun - and wished that my spark friends could have been there with me!

The interesting part is that B & D got burgers, and S & I both got salads. I opted for the Chinese Chicken Salad - Num-O! But OMG messy to eat. I think I amused everyone at the table trying to get the 'slivers' of lettuce in my mouth, not on my lap. S, on the other hand had the soup & salad, and then proceeded to make several comments about how it was more than she's used to eating and how she's not going to need dinner, etc. I interjected with the occasional "really?!" and "seriously?!" after making a mental comparison that I had at least 2x the volume of food she had on my plate.

The best part was when they brought out the dessert - the red velvet cupcake (WOW NUM! and actually reasonably sized; There was /just/ enough for each of us to have a couple of bites.) S would have none of it, and made little jabs designed to make us feel bad about eating it, and also interjecting the occasional "really?!" and "seriously?!" . We ignored her and dug in.

I didn't realize that it was going to be the trend of the week - people blatantly being judgemental about what other people are eating. But I am proud of the fact that I didn't go on a tirade or prattle off key nutritional information. Wasn't the place or time, and definitely wasn't the audience.

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Cakey goodness & more thoughts on therapy

Since I was asked, I got the recipe for the Chocolate Blackout Cake from, where else? King Arthur Flour

It turned out fantastic - yummy and slightly rich/sweet, but not overpowering.

Here's my confessions:

1) I didn't have a piece. This isn't a "I'm better than everyone" statement, just wasn't in the mood for it. When I made it, I did sample a bit that I sliced off for the topping for quality control purposes (a very important part of the process!) and that was enough.

2) I used canned frosting. ::blush:: I know! Mainly because I didn't have time to order it, and I had some after my mom's brownie baking extravaganza a few months back... either way, the cake was a hit, my bosslady loved it and hopefully her family did to.

As for the sweat therapy... I'm sure my co-workers are happy that I got my gym time in this morning - it was an 'easy' day (aka more weights, less cardio) but was nice to get up and move heavy things around.

It's odd that I do fine on planned rest days, but if I have a planned workout and it doesn't happen, I'm all out of sorts. Yes there's a slightly addictive property to it, but not to the level of it having to be an all the time/long hours type of thing, but more of it being part of the routine - like taking a shower, brushing my teeth, feeding the cats - and when I miss one part of the routine, it throws everything off. There IS the physical benefit from a short burst of exertion - an endorphin rush that helps get my brain in the right place but considering the thought of an hour workout makes me want to hide under my bed (hence why I'm dragging my feet, so to speak, about making the commitment to an 8K in October) AND exhausts me - her, being hypothyroid is almost like having a built in 'off' switch sometimes - I don't think I'm at risk of being an over exerciser.

Oh! And my tweaky knee - it's doing better today, even after last night's run fest on the treadmill. As long as I consistently do my stretchies every night, and do a few other things, it's fine. Since I slacked in that area over the weekend and while traveling, it's been acting up. For the time being, I'm good with what I'm doing, but sooner, rather than later, I will most likely look into physical therapy and/or acupuncture to keep things in top condition.

Sweat Therapy and the Great Cake Incident

In college, I had a roommate that couldn't function before she had her diet coke. She pretty much wasn't fit for human consumption until she had her requisite 1-2 cans in the morning - I learned that the hard way when I tried to ask her something early on in our roommate career and she about ripped my head off. After that I learned to keep my distance or at least make an offering if I needed to talk to her before the caffeine and fake sugar worked it's magic.

Turns out I'm not too different from her. I have been super duper cranky all day today and couldn't quite figure out why. Everything and everyone was bugging the begeebers out of me but there didn't seem to be a reason behind it.

Then I figured it out: I didn't get my sweat on this morning.

I mean, I did get up and go for a walk, but about 10 minutes in, my knee started getting tweaky. I headed back home to ice & tape my knee and made plans to get to the gym after work. No big, right?

Riiight. Yeah, by 9:00 *I* couldn't stand to be around me, let alone anyone else... and I'm surprised the hubby didn't hang up on me!

Apparently I wasn't too far off when I call it sweat therapy...

Luckily my knee cooperated with me this afternoon and was able to work up a serious sweat and feeling muuuuccchhh better... and there's much rejoicing. :)

But not before I almost started a fight.

See, it's my bosslady's birthday tomorrow and being the awesome type person that she is... I decided to make her a cake. Being the chocolate fiend that she is, I made her a Chocolate Blackout cake. OMG num! She loved it, which was about the brightest spot in my day. She decided to share half the cake with co-workers so I put it out on my desk for folks to help themselves.

After people got over the shock of the fact that I not only cook but can bake, too, the line formed to the left. LOL!

Then it happened... One of the co-workers made a comment about it, "YOU have cake?! Oh, wait, it's sugar free, right?"

::blink:: Uh... no, I only use real ingredients.

"Oh, but still, YOU don't eat cake, /do you/?"

Ummm... yeah, I do. Why wouldn't I?

"You've lost all this weight! You stop eating sugar, right?"

You mean like the stuff I have in my coffee each morning? Apparently I didn't stop, I just got more selective.

Then the other co-worker chimed in, "That's cuz she spends a lot of time exercising."

Really? I do? I thought I only worked out a few times a week for 20-30 minutes. Wow... I work a lot harder than I thought.

I knew it could go down hill fast but luckily they were more involved in digging into the cake than continuing the conversation. *whew*

I took out the frustration on the treadmill after that. :)

Ignorance was bliss

I'm going out to lunch today to celebrate my co-worker friend's birthday, and she picked Claim Jumper.

I have a love/fear relationship with Claim Jumper. I mean, the food is great, and it's an occasional treat so no worries in the grand scheme of things... thing is they have super huge portions! Even the 'small' is freakin' HUGE!

And Claim Jumper was one of the last hold outs for releasing their nutritional information... until now.

We, as humans, have an infinite capacity to delude ourselves. When presented with a HUGE plate of food, the mind games start - if it's on the plate, it must be 1 serving... It can't be /that/ bad nutritionally, I mean, they use fresh ingredients and there's lettuce in there some where... Then there's the don't ask/don't tell/you really don't want to know anyway factor.

Well, I had to look.

It's like a train wreck - you can't look away!

Ok, so they have the uncanny ability to make a salad have over 2,000 calories (which, ironically, is more calories than the 'widow maker' burger that I have a special place in my heart for when I'm feinding for protein.) and can cram more sodium into an appetizer than a salt lick. Is it really any surprise? I mean, most of the plates are bigger than my head, so of course it's going to rack up the numbers.

The thing I find amusing is that they include the calories, sodium, carb/protein/fiber counts and amount of _saturated_ fat... but they leave out the ACTUAL amount of fat. But I'm sneaky and can figure it out... silly people, hiding behind technicalities.

Thing is, I really don't care. I mean, if I'm out for a celebration, yes I may have a bit of a catch in my throat when I order something that is equiv. of my recommended daily calorie/nutrient ratio for one. single. meal. But if it's a special time, then I'm going to enjoy the heck out of it! (By the way, don't even think about looking up the Chocolate Motherloade Cake... seriously. Don't do it! Aw, you did, didn't you? Sorry... but it's meant to be shared! Besides it's cake! Not carrots! Get over it.)

Today, however, is about enjoying time with my friend, not about the food. I'll be making a more moderate choice now, so I can indulge at a different time.

Fried but Fired Up!

See that sort of dazed expression on my hubby and my face?

Yeah, that's what an intensive 2 day motivational/business meeting held deep in the heart ::clap clap:: of Texas will do to you.

My brain is still whirring away with all the info I gathered over the weekend, but my body and mind are pooped. In some ways, I'm feeling more overwhelmed than I did before I left. In others, I feel like my path is clearer than it ever was before.

I realized that the last 2 weeks I was in a fog - losing my friend, feeling insecure about, well, a lot, allowing doubt to creep into my life, influenced by the limited self belief of others.

Yeah, the Princess' and I weren't happy campers.

But quality time with the hubby and amazing people helped recharge my internal battery. The workshop was lead by my hubby's strategic business coach & mentor John Di Lemme and I always learn a LOT at his workshops.

Need one more nights rest, then it's time to get back to work!

My personal silliness for today

Here's my workout of the day:

"Tabata Something Else"

Complete 32 intervals of 20 seconds of work followed by ten seconds of rest where the first 8 intervals are pull-ups, the second 8 are push-ups, the third 8 intervals are sit-ups, and finally, the last 8 intervals are squats. There is no rest between exercises.

HOLY MACARONI! Tabata's suck! In that happy sweaty good way, but still...

How the heck do you keep track of your reps when you barely get the chance to catch your breath!?

But I was proud of me - I not only did all 32 intervals, I did no knee pushups! I used the smith machine for the beginner pull ups (Feet on the ground) and put the bar at the the 3rd notch from the bottom for pushups.

Lets just say that, even though the pull ups were a struggle, and the pushups were, well, pushups, I did enough of each to question why I thought it was a good idea to wash my hair today - could barely keep my arms up to shampoo let alone style it! LOL!

My kind of crazy

This morning it was confirmed: I'm crazy.

Ok, I know most of you already knew that, so it's no big shocker. LOL!

Someone posted this comment on one of my groups: "That's not sweat! It's my body crying!" And I laughed my bum off!

Cuz that's how I felt this morning after my workout. You see, today's Workout Of the Day was: "Fight Gone Bad!" I saw it in my book and went YAY!!!

Here's what it consists of:

"Three rounds of:
Wall-ball, 20 pound ball, 10 ft target (Reps) [or you can do 'thrusters' basically a squat with a dumbbell shoulder press, which is what I did... Bally's doesn't look kindly on you throwing a 15-20# ball against their wall.]
Sumo deadlift high-pull, 75 pounds (Reps)
Box Jump, 20" box (Reps)
Push-press, 75 pounds (Reps)
Row (Calories)

In this workout you move from each of five stations after a minute. The clock does not reset or stop between exercises. This is a five-minute round from which a one-minute break is allowed before repeating. On call of "rotate", the athletes must move to next station immediately for best score. One point is given for each rep, except on the rower where each calorie is one point."
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You know you're chomping at the bit to try it!!

I have to admit, when I first found out about CrossFit, workouts like this scared the begeebers out of me. I mean, seriously! Who things this stuff is fun?!

Apparently, a lot of people... and I'm now one of them.

Excuse me?! I mean, these workouts bring MARINES to tears! (Interesting Side Note: CrossFit has started an amazing program called "Operation Phoenix" that donates fitness equipment to the Marine Corps. They started with Camp Pendleton, where my hubby did his basic. So go... support your troops so they can kick some serious a$$!)

Anyway, at some point I made the transition from, "Not just no, but heck no!" to, "Whoo hoo! Bring it!" Workouts like this morning, even though I didn't feel like it was my best effort, I was able to see a lot of improvement over last month when I did the same workout. Using the 45# bar instead of a 30# bar, increasing the height of the 'box' from an aerobic step on the floor to using 2 risers, using 15# dumbbells instead of 8#...

And getting my 'stations' set up was like setting up my own personal playground. Despite how intimidating or scary CrossFit looks on the surface, it's really all about putting the FUN into functional fitness. It helps turn the whole world into your playground... of pain! LOL!