The Zone: Good for Diet, Bad for Dating

Tuesday, April 29;

I've not been very good at maintaining the Zone while out on dates. I don't want to give the impression that I'm one of those girls who only eats salad! I usually eat a steak or chicken or something. Last night, I decided I was going to stick to it... I'll tell you it did NOT pay off!

I met up with sed date, who will remain nameless, last night for dinner. We skimmed over the menu. He made his selection (crabcake sandwich), and I made my selection (skirtsteak salad). When he asked what I had picked he made a strange sound in response to the skirtsteak, but I thought nothing of it.

We continued our conversation (which was acceptable at best) until our meals came. We tried each tried our prospective platters, and he said I should try his crab cake. I in turn offered a piece of my steak. He immediately refused saying, "I don't eat steak." Oh, did I mention my date was Hindu? At that point I realized that ordering steak may not have been the best idea.. actually it may have been down right offensive. Throughout the meal he kept speaking to me and then he'd glance down at my plate of bloody steak (cooked medium rare!). To make matters worse... our table was off balance, so everytime I sliced into the steak the table would rock back and forth!!!!

Trying to continue the conversation, I was asking him about his family. I asked about his brother and sister. Then I asked about his parents. "Do your parents still live in India?" At this question, he paused for several moments, swallowed his food, wiped his mouth and said, "I'm from Pakistan."

At that point I apologized then I returned to my stake to hack up another bite size piece of holy meat. We finished shortly after, and I ran off to hop on the metro to end my humiliation. It's so nice when I put my foot in my mouth.. or maybe I should say.. sacred meat. Wait.. that's sounds even worse. I'll just stop while I'm ahead.

Needless to say, there will not be another date.

Shoulder Shocked

Tuesday, April 29;

Pushups are good... 75 pushups at a time are not good. Ouch! today was the first time that I felt the bad shoulder burn in a while. Note to self.. take it easy. Instead of actually doing the pushups, maybe I should have just done situps or squats.. or something else.

Warmup:
As many pushups as possible in 6 minutes
Total: 75 modified pushups

Workout:
For time...
Front Squats: , 4
Star Jumps: , 8
Weighted Situps: , 16
18:49
I'll put the rest of the numbers up.. too many numbers. I forget.

New Study on Artificial Sweeteners

This is a follow up from my earlier Diet Coke entry.
It's the latest from a study done at Purdue University.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/06/040630081825.htm

This Tuesday will mark two and a half months without Diet Coke. I think I can safely say I've broken myself of the habit. What is it that they say?? It takes two months to break a habit. I haven't had a craving for a diet coke.. the next battle is kicking my love of sweets. God help me with that one!

We've Come a Long Way, Baby!

Friday, April 24;
You may be wondering why in the crap do I have a picture of Loretta Lynn on my blog. I thought it worked perfectly to go along with the title of this entry. Friday was a great workout, and the lyrics to the Loretta Lynn song, "We've come a long way, Baby!" kept running through my head.

You may think that's a horrible thing, but I disagree. The phrase has been used to further the feminist movement... you know.. we've come a long way..., but this may be a new kind of feminism. A 21st century feminist that Loretta Lynn would be proud of. The kind of girl that doesn't let a bump in the road keep her down. That puts a smile on her face and puts one foot in front of the other despite what kind of crap she's dealing with.

I'm not really sure where I'm going with that.. To get back to my initial thought, Jenn Conlin came in to work out today and we partnered up to do a wounded shoulder work out. We are recovering from opposite problems with our shoulder. She is trying to build back her range of motion after surgery, and I am trying to tighten my shoulder muscles to avoid surgery. Neither of us can do most of the Crossfit workouts as prescribed, so it was awesome to have someone to workout with.

Since we are both recovering, it's smarter for us to focus on perfect technique rather than getting the fastest time or the highest number of reps. The most difficult part of this workout for me were the pushups (done from my knees). It was the first time I've incorporated pushups into a workout since January. We kept the number of reps pretty low and focused on keeping a solid core and perfect form. We also did hang power cleans and a push press. The idea was to keep this pretty light, so I could maintain perfect form. I'm having to retrain my body to properly do so many movement. I'm going to go pickup some little weights today, so I can work on my over head strength at home.

Workout:
3 rounds for time

10 HPC & PP (35lb barbell)
5 ring rows
10 perfect pushups (from knees)
15 squats
5 ring rows
10 perfect pushups (from knees)
15 squats

Jenn and I finished about a second apart. I don't remember the exact time, but it was a little over 11 minutes for both of us.

Something else to point out, it was so cool to workout with someone who was doing the same thing you're doing. I was competing with Jen, but for me it was more important to keep perfect form than to actually finish first. That is certainly a big change than how I used to workout. It's a nice change!

Headed for the Keystone State

Sunday, April 20;

In preparation for my weeklong trip in Pennsylvania I decided to do a blowout exercise day yesterday. I hit the stairs early in the morning.. got my haircut.. then went out on a 9 mile bike ride.

Workout:
10 Rounds for time:
round of stairs
20 jumping lunges
20 R arm KB swings
Total time: 28:48

Workout #2:
Very, very slow 9 mile bike ride with a friend.

I finally bit it on my bike... twice I've been riding three times now and I couldn't get away with another fall free day. We were in Georgetown and heading down to the trail there. I missed the entrance to get onto the sidewalk and realized I was stuck in the middle of the road... I unclipped one foot and realized I was stuck.. there I was.. falling over on the curb. I have a nice chink in my right ankle. That one wasn't so bad.. the second fall was the doozy. We were coming to a stop and I had unclipped my left foot (I'm used to unclipping my right foot first). Then I tried to get out with my right and lost balance. The next thing I knew I was falling over my bike. I flipped into another bike that was left in a rack, my bike flipped over top of me, and I landed. Ouch. My pride is so hurt!

The rest of the ride is good, and I'm getting more comfortable, but not completely.

I'm out on the road all next week, so I'll be noticeably absent from blogging.

Kicking the Habit

I wanted to post something a little different today in honor of a major milestone. Yesterday, Tuesday, April 15 marked two months without Diet Coke. That means not a sip, not sniff and certainly not a gulp of the lovely liquid for 60 days. As you can tell, I still have an affinity for the syrupy, sugar free soda. I am convinced, however, that my decision to kick the habit was a good one.

Since I quit, I've had many people ask me if I've noticed a difference. My answer isn't exactly encouraging. Honestly, I've noticed one significant difference, and it's not exactly fit for public discussion. We'll just say if I went to the doctor today a urine test would appear more clear than yellow. Gross, but it's truly the only noticeable difference. I never had headache's (I'm still drinking coffee for my caffeine fix), I never went into hysterics.. nothing. I still crave the drink when I hear someone else pop open a can or twist open a cap, but my will power to conquere my diet coke addiction has overcome any desire to succumb to these cravings.

Although I may not have offered any noticable changes since I've quit, I decided to do a little online research about what kind of havoc diet coke could have wreaked on my system. (Note: All research was done from online newspaper articles. I do not guarantee that any of this is true, but I did try to find more than two sources for much of this information.)

The major concern with Diet Coke is the chemical that artificially sweetens it. That chemical, called aspartame, has been shown by doctors and scientists to cause head aches, encourage weight gain (I'll go into this one further) and in large doses has been shown to cause cancer in lab rats. Many studies though have shown that lab tests on rats don't exactly translate into how humans will react to a substance. In my diet coke drinking hayday I could throw back between 3-5 cans a day. In recent years, I had cut down to just two a day. I'm not sure what constitutes for large doses of aspartame, but I think 5 cans a day could probably be called excessive.

I thought the weight gain I mentioned above to be pretty interesting, but I don't know how much I buy into it. It kind of goes along the lines with The Zone's idea of increasing glycogen and how sugar stimulizes the body. Sweet foods cause a reaction in the body called a "salient orosensory stimulus." That sends the body a message to prepare to take in a lot of calories. The body alerts its ingestive and digestive systems and tells them to get ready for action. When the sweetness is artificially created (as in Diet Coke) and is not followed by calories the system gets confused, which interfers with the body's ability to intake calories when they ARE real.

I don't know if any of this stuff has been proven for real, so don't make any life changing decisions based on this. I just thought it was an interesting idea.

My success in kicking the Diet Coke habit has led me to the next logical step. If I can give up one addiction why can't I give up another? Sweets is next on my list. I'm not sure if giving up sugar, chocolate and candy is really a feasable life plan, but I certainly can reduce my intake.

I started yesterday, and today was the first true test of my not-so-iron will.. There was a free breakfast at my office. I was thinking there would be some fruit there that I could grab and maybe some eggs. Unfortunately, when I arrived I realized that "breakfast" actually entailed about 12 dozen boxes of donuts from Dunkin' Donuts! Ahhhhh... I was proud of myself. I remained calm and stood a safe distance from the sweet, pieces of morning glee. After leaving, I went to the kitchen and prepared my little egg omelet that I bring to work with me.

Yay to self control.. I only hope it lasts.

Also, in my research I found this crazy girl who actually has a blog about how much she loves diet soda.. strange.. but interesting.
http://www.ilovedietsoda.com/labels/Diet%20Coke.html

The Blister is Back

Monday, April 14;

The blister is back, and I couldn't be more excited!! Take a look at it. It's beautiful.

It's been about 5 months since I've had a callous tear, so I couldn't have been more happy when I plopped the 45lb KB down after today's workout. There she was.. just waiting for me to turn my hand over.. like a little morel mushroom just waiting for a hunter to discover its glory. Big and nasty and just ripe for popping! Sweet.

Warmup:

5 rounds

15 second squat hold w/ 20lbs

15 second jumping squats.. no weight

10 minutes of hollow rocks

Workout:

AMRAP in 20 minutes

9 Right Arm Push Presses 25lb

12 Right Arm KB Swings 45lb

16 Weighted Situps 20lb

Total: 10 1/3 + a juicy callous blister :)

Some more good news.. Some of you know that I've been in the market for a road bike for about a year now. Over the weekend, I found my bike soul mate (if there is such a thing). She is a Specialized Dolce Elite. She's sweet! Now I'm in the process of learning how to clip in and clip out of her. I've already developed a nice bruise on my back from falling over onto my coffee table in my living room. I'm happy no one saw that. What was I saying a few weeks ago about not having enough bumps and bruises? Someone much smarter than I once said something like if you don't have bumps and bruises you must not be that exciting. I like that!

Check out my bike:

http://www.ajssportinggoods.com/lifesports/product.asp?dept_id=2100&pf_id=SP_65046&ad_id=froogle&key_id=SpecializedDolceElite27