Preparing
to confront the villain of the week is getting easier. Eating well, not so much. I’m not sure how Bat man does it.
The gym is
a set part of my routine. The instructor
for my boxing class and the people at the front desk know me by name. There are a couple people who make a point of
saying high. It’s much like riding the
bus—after a while you form a location specific bond if you see people often
enough. Sunday I hit upper body and
cardio. I’m finally getting full use
from my left knee—so it looks like it’s back to full power again. Squish and I have been working off joint and
back issues for the last two months. It
was nice to finally feel whole. I’ve got
enough practice in that I can hit the boxing room twice a week—once on Tuesdays
with class and once on Thursdays after my clubs. It’s taken a while to get my hands and
shoulders to a point where I can box regularly.
Even with one pound training gloves and heavy padded bags, the repetitive
impacts take their toll. I know longer have pain in my right hand if I box more
than an hour a week. My knuckles are
slightly flattened. They align so that I
can get my weight into hooks and punches.
I always thought people were talking figuratively when they said boxers
got sunken knuckles. Apparently those
stories were more literal than I realized.
Yesterday I had my best bag session
in recent memory. I paced myself with
short breaks throughout the class and ended up working with more overall
intensity and endurance than I’ve had in a while. I spend the class at a single heavy bag that
is lowered to touch the floor in order to keep it from moving around too
much. The rest of the class moves with
partners from station to station. It’s
easier for me just to stay in one place than to try and figure out where the
next station is and what the next exercise will be. Of course that means I don’t have a partner
to switch off with. I started off trying
to go 100% on my own for the entire hour.
Half way through I was mostly done unable to really push myself. By pacing my efforts I managed to actually do
more. I like the earthy simplicity of
the boxing room. It is very no-frills,
just moving weights and punching things and cardio. The atmosphere reminds me of my high school wrestling
room. The people there aren’t there for show;
they’re in there to do serious work.
My employer
is sponsoring an 8 week fitness challenge where we track our steps and
exercise. It motivated me to finally get
the fit bit zip I earned last year up and running. I’m not sold on these pedometers—especially
since the new iWatch is coming out soon.
It seems to me that this dedicated technology is going to be quickly superseded
by phones and other wearable tech. Also,
I’ve seen some strong arguments that their measurements are unreliable. That being said, I figure it’s a place to
start. If the zip is unreliable at least
I can get a consistent measurement to compare day to day. I’d rather upgrade to the fit bit flex. The flex is a bracelet that you never have to
remove. The zip is a little key-fob-like
device that you carry around with you.
If you forget to put it in your pocket you lose that time. I’m going to use the bit I already have and
see how I like the tiny master before I drop cash on its replacement. Next on my list is grabbing the aria wireless
scale so that my phone can keep me honest re-weight. It’s like having a bunch of secret agent tech
monitoring your every move. I linked my
fit bit account and my work tracking group.
Now there’s no need for me to do the annoying tracking of steps and exercise—the
unit does it for me.
Sooooooo,
weight. Yeh…so I’ve been holding steady
just under 300. This is good in that I
haven’t gained weight during my injury recovery. This is bad in that while I’m stronger, I
haven’t seen any progress on weight in about 8 months—which was when I stopped
gaining and just flattened out under 300.
I am seeing steady strength gains—I am benching 175 and military 105 in
three sets of ten which is up from last cycle.
My endurance and speed are up.
I’m noticeably stronger on the heavy bag. I’m down to a size 48 jeans—which was one of
those long ago goals to start wearing normal sizes again. Granted, it’s almost the biggest size rangler
makes, but it’s a good start.
The catch
is that my diet hasn’t done so well. I’m
still not ordering or eating at the café much.
We cook often. However, I’ve
gotten out of the habit of morning health shakes. I snack more than I’d like when I’m at
home. Worst of all, the meals that were
interesting back when I started training have become dull. It’s much easier to fudge the diet when
you’re not interested in the available options…or maybe it would be more
accurate to say that my preferences have begun to run to the options that used
to be the treats and exceptions. The
brunette recently gifted me with two spicy cookbooks which are going to serve
as the fulcrum for moving the diet along in this regard. I have new cooking gear from the pampered
chef…I need new dishes to keep things spicy.
Monday I
grilled marinated steak strips, made Mexican rice, diced veggies, and assembled
a dressing from light sour cream and salsa. The marinade was a head of
cilantro, a couple table spoons of minced garlic, black pepper, and half a cup
of sweet bourbon sauce. I could have
made this healthier by cutting out the cheese (which didn’t really do that much
for the flavor anyway.) I could have
used brown or basmati rice instead of the boxed mix and just added my tomatoes
and chilies. I want to start thinking
along these lines more often—not how can I eat something different that’s
healthier, but how can I make the dish that I want to eat better for me? I’ve already done that with burgers a couple
times mixing lean ground beef and lean ground turkey for a burger which my
father says is better than beef anyway.
I don’t want to find a better way to eat junk food. I do want to find a healthy way to expand our
menu that keeps life interesting. Offhand
that’ll mean reducing pre-packaged elements I use as much as is cost
effective. I’ll start adding these
recipes to my entries going forward.
Hopefully others can add to and offer suggestions about these ideas.
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