Thursday, December 30, 2010

more advanced

last night's workout:

800m sprint (my time - 2:10)

3 rounds - 1 rep max military press (my weight - 95 to 115lb)

3 rounds -3 rep max push press (my weight - 115lb area)

3 rounds - 5 rep max push jerk (my weight - 115lb area)

400m sprint (my time - 0:53)

comparison of the three press movements:
http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/SPPPPJ155.wmv

this can all be scaled....remember, just doing these presses with a PVC pipe is better than nothing at all.

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

gotta move

aside from a 5 minute strength piece on the parallettes and some walking to/from errands, i got 0% exercise yesterday. and i felt lousy. granted, my overriding goal was to study, and the weather outside was frightful, but i regret not getting on the rower for even 5 minutes.

we need to move every day. even in small ways. but i do think that movement should be unto itself. while doing errands yesterday, i probably did walk a mile or so (probably more than most americans, unfortunately), but that doesn't count. i should have walked around the block with my rain suit on. i should have done some squats and stretching at home.

going forward, i'm going to share some things that i do that i find quite difficult, and some things that you might think are very easy. the point is that we should be doing something, and even the small things count:
-stand on one foot for 1 minute, switch sides
-do 10-20 squats. gets hips below knees.
-kneel and lean back, getting your arms/head/shoulder blades to the floor
-walk around the block
-jump rope for 30 seconds 5x, or get to 200 skips in groups of 25
-do a hurdle stretch
-hold a plank pose for 1 minute
-accumulate 2 mins/5 mins/10 mins in a squat over time
-park your car in the depths of the mall parking lot, then walk out of your way in the mall

i have some co-workers that do 10 push-ups every hour. that's 80 push-ups in a day. not bad. i did 20 second parallete holds last night. gotta start somewhere. before i know it, those will be 1 minute L-sits. keep chipping away!

food

let's talk a bit about food. i'm very fortunate in that i can eat the same things over and over again and be satisfied, and that many of these things are quite healthy. here are a few staples, almost all of which can be bought at two places - safeway and trader joe's:

breakfast:
-trader joe's chicken sausage - spicy italian
-lightlife smart sausages - italian style
-trader joe's smoked salmon
-2oz of orange juice
-peet's coffee

snacks:
-trader joe's simply the best trail mix
-trader joe's 50% less salt dry roasted almonds
-la tortilla factory low carb high fiber tortillas
-cliff bars
-chobani non-fat vanilla yogurt
-fuji apples
-berries

lunch (at work):
-sf soup company turkey chili (3-4x per week)
-green salad with protein

dinner:
-organic spring mix
-trader joe's soy nuggets
-lightlife smart ground mexican stlye veggie protein crumbles
-green beans
-more of the aforementioned proteins

dessert:
-skinny cow ice cream sandwich
-jello non-fat pudding cups

yes, i could do this every day. i feel better when i eat like this. i have tons of energy, no crashes, and am sharp (or as sharp as i can be).

you'll notice high levels of protein, few carbs, and almost no sugar (other than that which is in my fruit). it's a very simple formula, distilled from elements of the zone and paleo, and summarized very neatly by crossfit:
"Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, litle starch and no sugar. Keep intake of levels that will support exercise but not body fat."

more crossfit nutrition tips - http://www.crossfit.com/cf-info/start-diet.html

i suppose it's not easy...but it is simple. and it gets easier. i really don't miss pasta, potatoes, carrots, or bananas at all.

hello

hello and good day. i wanted to put together a forum to share some positive, healthy things that i've been doing. perhaps some of these thoughts/tips can be useful to you. i don't hold myself out as the best example, and i'm certainly not an expert on anything i mention....and perhaps that is the beauty of this. i'm certainly stealing ideas from many, many sources - definitely inquire if you want to hear about any of those. and please please please post comments/questions/suggestions. thanks! and let's have some fun whilst getting healthy!