Chris' Blog

Food and Exercise Logs

Instead of posting my logs here I have decided to put them on the new EmerFit forum:

http://www.emerfit.com/forum

I plan to use this site for my other writing.  I hope to have a new article posted next week.  Stay tuned.

The Second Half of the Week

A few observations:

A good friend is moving away Saturday so we're spending time hanging out and getting in all her favorite meals.  The cookies I mentioned Tuesday, East Moon for Thai food Thursday night, and homemade pesto pizza tonight.  I'm enjoying it and trying not to stress about it.  Oh, and while I'm eating some cheat food I've kept my beer/alcohol resolution.

I'm eating too much fruit, especially apples.  They are convenient, tasty, and go with peanut butter.  More veggies next week.

Other than that the week went well.  I am feeling better aside from some congestion this morning which I suspect was related to last night's carb fest.

Dr. Eades did a great post on "Why Low Carb is Harder the Second Time Around"  and I was reminded of this post from Timothy Ferriss  about losing 20 pounds in 30 days when working with a client today.  Good Friday reading.

Today

Food

• 1.3 c cottage cheese, 7 oz. blackberries, 30 pistachios
• No morning snack
• 2 apples, 30 pistachios, 3 oz. roast beef, 2 oz. cream cheese
• 1 c. milk, 1 apple, 1 Tb. peanut butter.
• Homemade pizza and whatever else but no beer

WOD

• Rest day.  Long dog walk and joint mobility work.

Thursday

Food

• 3 eggs, 1 c. milk, 1 slice toast, 1 apple, 2 Tb peanut butter, fish oil
• 1 string cheese, 1 apple, 3 almonds
• 5 oz. left over pot roast, 2 apples, 15 almonds
• 1 apple, 1 string cheese, ran out of nuts
• Thai food (chicken veggie curry) at East Moon and Gelato

WOD

Overhead squat 5 sets of 3.  Last set turned into a single at 69 kg.  Shoulder were tired and stability just wasn't there.

Wednesday

Food

• 2 eggs, 3 sausage links, 1 piece of toast, 2 Tb. PB, 1 apple, fish oil
• No morning snack
• Left over pita dip.
• 2 string cheese, 1 apple, 6 almonds
• Pot roast sandwhich with 1 slice mozzarella.

WOD

155 lb. power clean 15-12-9-6-3 alternated with
Ring Dips 10-9-8-7-6

22:40

Power cleans were ugly because I tend to favor squat cleans.  Ring dips were jumping towards the end.  My ring dips are way down from a year ago.  Once I got muscle-ups I laid off the dips, a mistake.

Cookies 4, Chris 0

Okay, I lost it today.  I don't know if it was the volume of exercise today or the intensity of my main workout but I was starving and super moody by 5:00 PM.  I decided to have the fat for dinner while I was cooking but I made the mistake of leaving the jar of almonds out instead of counting out my 15 and putting it away.  I "binged".  Maybe 30 almonds but that isn't the worst of it. 

Later the house was filled with the aroma of baking oatmeal cookies that K was making for a going away potluck for her best friend.  I made it for about an hour and then gave in.  Four cookies and 1 cup of milk.

Coincidentally this occurred a few days after I read Byers' Cookie and Burpee post.  Which leaves me questioning whether I'm my intent was to be on a short-term "hard routine" in an effort to get back to a nutritious baseline or if I'm just trying to eat as if I'm back on that baseline.  If it is the later then I would have no guilt about my cookie consumption as long as I don't eat any other sweets during the week this week.  If the former, then I broke from the routine.  Hmmm.

Food

• Breakfast: 2 eggs, 3 sausage links, 1 apple, 1 piece of sprouted toast with peanut butter.
• No snack, no time.
• Bowl of leftover Santa Fe Chicken Soup and 30 pistachios.
• 2 apples, 2 tablespoons peanut butter, 1 c. milk, 1 string cheese
• Almond Attack before dinner, probably 30 almonds.
• Pita Dip: 4 oz ground beef, 3 tablespoons cream cheese, salsa, sour cream mixture, and 1 pita
• Cookie Stand Off: Cookies win.  4 cookies.

WOD

• 7:30: 16 minute KB circuit with Kitty using 16kg for snatches and 12kg for squats.
• 10:00 Bike from Pederson to EmerFit.
• 2 rounds of CrossFit warm-up.
• 30-25-20-15-10-5 Virtual Shoveling with 45 lb bar and plate and pull-ups: 26:40.
• Biked home.

How Much Time Do You Spend With Your Food?

I recently started reading the blog Wise Bread after it was recommend by another blog I regularly read.  Last week they wrote about "How To Avoid Recession Pounds" borrowing the term for weight gained during a down economy from this Yahoo article.  The Wise Bread suggestions all seem reasonable although most of them are not advice I would give a client.  However, suggestions 10, 11, and 12 start to get to one of my favorite points about healthy eating:

10. Talk. And be social, if you can. Conversation is a great way to slow a meal down, not to mention enjoy it. I think of my friends from Europe who have these enormous meals drawn out over several hours, and an important part is good conversation.

11. Eat with people who either share your dietary goals or have already achieved them. There is strength numbers, not to mention inspiration by way of guilt.

12. Turn off the TV. Nothing is better at shutting off your brain and encouraging mindless eating. So just turn it off and read, or better yet, talk to your table mates.

What do all these suggestions have in common?  They encourage you to spend more time with your food.  In "In Defense of Food" one of Pollan's more controversial suggestions is "Pay More, Eat Less".  Yet, Pollan points out that it isn't necessarily the cost that makes you eat less but the things that go with a higher cost.  He cites a few examples of how food preparation has gotten cheaper due to new technology or outsourcing preparation to someone else (most likely a factory). 

One of Pollan's examples it that in 1980 less that 10% of American households had a microwave but by 1999 83% of American homes had adopted this new technology.  This particular statistic comes from a study titled "Why Have Americans Become More Obese?" in the Journal of Economic Perspectives.  You can find the article online as a free PDF and its ripe with interesting statistics. 

The authors theorize that the increase in obesity does have to do with an increase in consumption of food but that that increase is caused by the production of food being outsourced outside the home.   They also point out that this outsourcing has resulted in an increase of processed food driven by industrialization of food preparation.  They also note that the resulting reduction in price has been beneficial to some people who previously could not afford sufficient amounts of food.

Finally, Polan also points out that in the 1960s Americans spent 17.5% of their income on food compared to 5.2%.  While anecdotal I have seen these ideas in my own eating habits.  When I am sticking with the Zone or a Paleo diet I am more picky about my foods, I eat less, but I spend way more time planning and preparing my meals.  However, we do not really see an incease in the total cost of food from month to month when we eat better.  We may spend more on certain items but our efforts at efficency keep the price down.  Things like always eating the left overs and using every piece of what we buy.  Why throw away a chicken carcass when you can make broth out of it that can be frozen for next week's soup.  Joy of Cooking to the rescue.

In the Yahoo article that started this thread one of the experts has this to say:

"The answer lies in affordable but nutrient-rich foods such as ground beef, beans, milk, nuts, cheese, carrots, potatoes, canned tomatoes, soups, and rice," he said, calling it "a diet for a new Depression." -Adam Drewnowski, the director of the Nutrition Sciences Program at the University of Washington in Seattle.

All of those foods are less processed which means they require more in-home cooking and consquently cause the eater to spend more time with his food.

So my suggestion is to seek ways to maximize the amount of time you spend with your food.  As Wise Bread points out that could be in the consumpion but it should also be in the planning, ingredient sourcing, preparation, cooking, and clean-up.

One final point is that all this time need not happen everyday.  I often spend 1-4 hours on a single day cooking or prepping all the food for the next 3-4 days.

How much time do you spend with your food?

Monday 090112

Food

• Breakfast: 2 eggs, 2 slices ham, 1 slice cheese, 1 cup oatmeal, and 15 almonds.
• Missed the morning snack.
• Lunch: 1 c. cottage cheese and a package of blackberries.  15 almonds and an apple.
• Snack: 2 apples, 2 mozzarella cheese sticks, 6 almonds.
• Dinner: 1 bowl Santa Chicken Soup from "Eating For Life" and 15 almonds.  Soup had chicken, long grain brown rice, green chile, onion, garlic and chicken broth.

WOD

Row 5k: 18:33.  Personal record.

Wednesday 090107 through Saturday 090111

Wow, I hugely failed to keep this up to date last week.

Food

I managed to stay in the Zone all week.  Breakfasts got a little unappetizing when I got to busy to prep the night before, lots of hard-boiled eggs.  Other dinners included pork chops and acorn squash, chicken breast and salad, Kung Pao chicken, some ribs and veggies at Texas Roadhouse.

My only cheat items of the week was a Yerba Latte at Dazbog and 2 roll at Texas Roadhouse.  The Latte was a complete accident.  I hadn't gone to a coffee shop in weeks and just ordered without thinking.  The rolls were a weakness.

WODs

Wednesday: 4 rounds of Run 400m, 15 Handstand Push-ups, 2 Rope Climbs.

28:12.  I used two green rubber bands for assistance on the HSPUs.

Thursday: Rest

Friday: Attempted the CrossFit.com pull-up workout.  Ended up using the 25 pound dumbell and doing 1 weight pull-up, 2 strict pull-ups, and 3 kipping for the last 5 rounds.  For the first 5 rounds I tried to do 3-3-3 but wasn't successful.  My right shoulder continues to feel "tweaked"  and is impacting pull-up only WODs.

Saturday: Unplanned rest day.  Spent over 12 hours working in the office at the gym.

Sunday: Row 1k for warm-up and then Front Squat 5-5-5-5.  60k, 80k, 84.6k, 90k, 94.6k (failed on 5th rep).

Tuesday 090106

Food

Pretty much a repeat of yesterday except for dinner.  Felt rather moody at the end of the day from two 12 hour days, stress, and the beginnings of the carb withdrawals.

Breakfast (5:30)

• 2 pieces of Sprouted Barley toast.
• 4 blocks eggs, chorizo, and mozzarella.
• 4 blocks of pistachios.
• 5 fish oil capsules.

Snacks

• 1 oz. Colby Jack.
• 1 Small apple
• 12 pistachios

Lunch (12:00)

• 1/2 can of tuna
• Tablespoon of light mayo
• 1/2 stick of celery
• 2 slices Sprouted Barley Bread
• 1 Apple
• 30 pistachios

Dinner (6:30)

• 3 cups beef stew (based on the CF Journal Zone Recipe cooked in crockpot all day.  Used a pound of local grassfed beef, carrots, celery, mushrooms, zucchini, onion, garlic, tomato sauce and beef broth.)
• 30 Pistachios

WOD

CFWU x 2
Clean 7x1: 40, 60, 80, 80, 84.6, 88.8, 100.  All in kilos.

I jerked the first 5 sets too.  The jump to 100 was to aggressive.  I got it but it was ugly.

Day 1

Food

Zone Blocks Planned: 17

Breakfast (5:30 A.M.)

• 4 blocks of Irish oatmeal and blueberries.
• 4 blocks eggs, chorizo, and mozzarella.
• 4 blocks of pistachios.
• 5 fish oil capsules.

Snacks (9:00 A.M. and 3:00 P.M.)

• 1 oz. Colby Jack.
• 1 Small apple
• 12 pistachios

Lunch (12:00)

• 1/2 can of tuna
• Tablespoon of light mayo
• 1/2 stick of celery
• 2 slices Sprouted Barley Bread
• 1 Apple
• 30 pistachios

Dinner (7:00)

• 1/3 Yam
• 6 oz. Steak
• 1 c. Green Beans
• 30 pistachios

One of my Christmas presents every year is Heart of the Desert Pistachios hence all the pistachios.

My general Zone guideline: At least when I'm starting I follow a philosophy of drawing the line where it is easy to draw.  An idea I borrowed from one of Wendell Berry's letters, of all places.  Usually I find that it is easier to move the line farther to the target overtime by starting with this philosophy.  So for example, drawing a line that says no alcohol and counting my pistachios is easy for me.  On the other side drawing a line that makes my food ugly or cuts out soups, stews, and casseroles is not.  I'll deal with the lack of precision in those types of meals in favor of eating meals that are aesthetically pleasing.

WOD

Deadlift 3-3-3-3-3

CrossFit Warm-up x 2.  Two warm up sets of 5 at 205 and 255.  Then 295, 305, 315, 345, and 375.

Felt good to lift after a couple weeks off.  I'm still feeling fatigued from a cold of some sort.  Did not push too hard on the deads.

Back on The Zone

For the first few weeks of the year this blog is going to be mostly about my diet and workouts.  Later, I hope to expand my writing to other topics but re-establishing my diet and exercise practices are key.  It isn't that I didn't workout or eat well 2008 but both habits were sporadic and lacked planning.

So 2009 is starting with the legit Zone (weighed and measured) and the CrossFit.com WOD.  My workouts are running one day behind CrossFit.com for convenience.

After a couple months with the crossfit.com workouts I plan to give the more Olympic Lifting centric Performance Menu WOD a try.  I am also hoping to do some experiments with intermittent fasting, Paleo, and eating local as the year progresses.

It feels good to get back to basics.

My Guidelines For The New Year

1. Lead the EmerFit community by example in terms of fitness, nutrition, business and overall lifestyle.
2. Act with intention, everyday.
3. Be up and moving at or before dawn 350 days.

I have a number of other more specialized goals for my nutrition, fitness, and the business that I may or may not share on this blog.  These overall goals are meant to guide my daily activities and more specific goals.

What is the motivation behind these goals?  A year into EmerFit I am somewhat disappointed to feel that my own health has declined from one-year ago.  Some might say that decline is understandable given the magnitude of change in my life in 2008 and the rigors of running a small business.  That seems like a valid assessment but our second year in business must be more sustainable.  Finally, I continue to find it easy to fall into the multi-tasking high-efficiency trap that becomes less and less effective over time.  Hence, the later two guidelines.  I do not get up at dawn unless I have a reason.