My 2011 *New Year* Challenge

[Boss Man]

Well i mentioned such Fats as potential inclusions only, I wasn't really stating them as definite inclusions one and all .

However my vitriolic tone was fully intended and implied .

[musculargirl]

Point taken. I had to google the word vitrolic.

[Athene]

I tried your pumpkin recipie by the way! It was okay. I didn't really like it with stevia as much. I was craving real sugar when i had some. But otherwise good. Thanks!

Good to hear, I'm glad it worked out alright. I usually use Splenda, I've never had it with sugar or Stevia before so it would be interesting to taste the difference some time.

Meal 4 - 1 Little Caesars hot-and-ready pizza (I just looked it up - almost 1500 calories.

I don't know how any company can get away with that and jusitfy it, it's an absolute disgrace to sell a portion of food that caloric, let alone the potential excess Saturates, Hydrogenates, Trans fas and Salt that may be there too.

Little Sleezebags, sorry Cassers want shooting for it.

I appreciate you badmouthing the pizza place for selling pizza rather than me for walking in, deciding to purchase it, purchasing it, and then eating every single slice by myself because it really was my fault, not theirs! They don't call it an "individual" or "personal" sized pizza or anything, and all of the nutritional information is posted in the store and on the website. It really is nice of you to defend my consumer rights rather than tell me off for eating it, Boss : ) I just sabotage myself a lot, it's all me.


P.S. Les I will be taking wiggle-naps from now on! I love the name. I fell asleep on my grandma's shoulder while visiting with her today I was so tired. She answered the phone and BAM! "Grandma-nap"!

[Athene]

Nutrition
Meal 1 - 1 egg, 2 egg whites, 1/2 cup green pepper, sprinkle cheddar cheese.
Meal 2 - 1 raw apple, 300 ml coffee with skim milk.
Meal 3 - 1 cup coconut steamed rice, 1 cup yellow curry with chicken, onion, potato (staff lunch at Thai restaurant, so good)
Meal 4 - Same as Meal 3, eating leftovers, 300 ml coffee with skim milk.
Meal 5 - 1 cup rice, 14 shrimp, 2 cups green salad.

Workout
No workout, but fit in some activity during breaks - two brisk 20 minute walks outside.

[Athene]

Months ago I agreed to volunteer today at my old job which is at an art gallery, and of course I wanted to sleep as long as possible this morning so I didn't pack adequate food. There was a lot of coffee and fruit at the gallery, so I could at least eat something, and then I went to visit my grandma, who is awesome and always feeds me homemade perogies, and fruit with tea. Not the best eating day, but lots of fruit carbs and good times ; )

Some links for perogies, just in case. In my family we call them varenyky, or pyrohy:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierogi#Ukraine
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varenyky

Nutrition
Meal 1 - 1 raw apple, 300 ml coffee with skim milk.
Meal 2 - 1/2 cup pineapple, 3 strawberries.
Meal 3 - 6 perogies, 1/4 cup pineapple, 1 cup blueberries, 400 ml black tea (Carb city!)
Meal 4 - 1 cup extra lean beef, 1/2 cup peas, 1/2 cup baked potato.

[Athene]

Nutrition
Meal 1 - 2 eggs, 1 piece whole wheat toast, 1/2 a tomato, 4 strips bacon, 500 ml coffee with milk.
Meal 2 - 3 oz salmon filet, 1/4 cup yogurt/dill, 7 stalks asparagus, 1/2 a baked potato.
Meal 3 - 3 oz salmon filet, 1/4 cup yogurt/dill, 7 stalks asparagus, 1/2 a baked potato.
Meal 4 - 500 ml skim milk

Workout
1000 m swim, vigorous effort.

[Athene]

The Crossfit program I am starting on Wednesday involves some diet changes that were emailed out to me yesterday, and I would be curious to hear your thoughts on it. Here are the links I was sent:

Shopping and Nutrition Guide: http://www.crossfitwinnipeg.com/wp-cont ... nGuide.pdf
Food Journal Sheets: http://www.crossfitwinnipeg.com/wp-cont ... ournal.pdf
Local Recipe Book: http://www.crossfitwinnipeg.com/wp-cont ... -Book1.pdf

Nutrition
Meal 1 - Whey shake, 1 raw apple, 300 ml coffee with skim milk.
Meal 2 - roasted turkey and lettuce sandwich (sprouted wheat bread, 1 tsp light whipped dressing)
Meal 3 - Whey shake, 2 cups raw veg (cucumber, pepper, carrot, celery)
Meal 4 - banana, 300 ml coffee with skim milk.
Meal 5 - roasted turkey and lettuce sandwich (sprouted wheat bread, 1 tsp light whipped dressing), 2 baby dills.

Workout
1000 m swim, vigorous effort. Broke my 20 minute record with 19:13.

It was long course, I think that's what gave me the edge. I can't do flip-turns (!), so turning around less had a really positive impact on my time. The most amazing part of this is that I got up at 6AM to do it. I have always tried to get up at this time but could never drag myself out of bed. Hello crossifit at 5:30 AM on Wednesday, I am ready for you!

[fitoverforty]

I can't do flip-turns (!),

Keep working on them.....I taught myself, and it may not even be the "official" way to flip and turn, but as I'm approaching the wall, about 3 or 4 feet out, I take a big breath, dive under, do a summersault and push off the wall and twist my body upright to glide back up to the surface, already in freestyle form. It can really help cut off precious seconds in a race because it is basically all one movement from the summersault to the pushoff, to the twist & glide. And, for me anyway..., it made me feel powerful and fast (and maybe just a little "bada$$" )
Great job on beating your previous time! You are doing fantastic!!

[musculargirl]

I think your twice as fast as me swimming. Good job!

[Athene]

I liked the meal planning calendar. The blank one.

I like that aspect too - but what did you think about the food plan? It's basically the 'Paleo diet' I have read about in the past: no grains, no oatmeal, no dairy, no starchy vegetables, no super-sweet fruit. I'm supposed to do it for 30 days to see how I feel and evaluate my old diet *shrugs* but I've never cut grains completely, I've never cut oatmeal or dairy, so it will be interesting to see how it goes. I'm going to try it.

I can't do flip-turns (!),

Keep working on them.....I taught myself, and it may not even be the "official" way to flip and turn, but as I'm approaching the wall, about 3 or 4 feet out, I take a big breath, dive under, do a summersault and push off the wall and twist my body upright to glide back up to the surface, already in freestyle form. It can really help cut off precious seconds in a race because it is basically all one movement from the summersault to the pushoff, to the twist & glide. And, for me anyway..., it made me feel powerful and fast (and maybe just a little "bada$$" )
Great job on beating your previous time! You are doing fantastic!!

I get so much water up my nose, I even tried using a nose plug and it still doesn't really work for me. Flipturns are SO badass, and so are you for doing them! lol I will try, I found some videos on YouTube to check out.

I think your twice as fast as me swimming. Good job!

Swimming is one of my strengths, I could never compete with anyone with a swim team/speed swimming background, but for a recreational swimmer I'm pretty quick I guess. Let's just say you could definitely outrun me

[Athene]

Nutrition
Meal 1 - 1 cup cereal, 1/2 cup skim milk.
Meal 2 - 1 banana, 300 ml Americano.
Meal 3 - roasted turkey sandwich (sprouted grain bread, 2 green lettuce leaves, 1 tbsp light whipped dressing)
Meal 4 - 1 apple
Meal 5 - 4 slices pepperoni pizza and 2 chocolate bars (Paleo diet starts tomorrow for 30 days, and I'm clearly a masochist.)

Workout
Taking it easy in preparation for Crossfit tomorrow, but I took the wrong bus so I got a longer walk than I expected - 5 km/3 miles, very brisk pace.

[Athene]

What did you think about the food plan?

Sorry, love. I kept my mouth shut cos I don't like it (:

That's what I wanted to know! I knew you were holding back ; )

I don't like it either, really. They recommend it for 30 days to, and I am quoting them, "stabilize insulin levels", at which point they suggest re-evaluating what you can/should add back to your diet. I'm going to ask them some more questions about it and see how it goes. I know some bodybuilders who eat this way, but I can't tell if they look tired and are bitchy all the time because of that, or because of something else! A trainer friend once gave me the 'Paleo Food Guide' and it talks about how since shifting from hunter-gatherers to agrarian societies humanity has become "shorter, fatter, and with worse teeth" lol I don't know what to do with that, I'm a history major!

Seriously though, thanks for the information. I really appreciate learning that kind of stuff.

[Boss Man]

People have devloped worse teeth become fatter and shorter, since hunter gatherer days and how would these so-called experts know, as no pictures of Neanderthals or Cro-magnons exist except old cave drawings which can hardly be caleld Kodak quality evidence.

The only other major thing in the past was fossilsed or unearthed bones, but that isn't going to tell you how fat they were, or how good their teeth were, because you can't uncover fossilised Fat and I doubt the surrounding earth would be saturated with animal Lipids.

Yes you can carbondate or take DNA samples from old bones no doubt, but that sounds like phoney science of sorts, masked with good science.

People have worse teeth because they do things smoke and quaff things like Coffee and Wine and inordinate amounts of fizzy drink.

[Athene]

Body builders aren't necessarily healthy.

Absolutely. From what I've seen, I don't consider it very healthy at all. A friend of mine who does the fitness competition - the aspect where you actually do have to have cardio, strength, and flexibility, and sell it with a high level of energy - kind of freaked me out about it a bit. She cut out all carbs except for leafy vegetables 3 months in advance, and dehydrated 1 day before the show, then right before her fitness routine she had a Red Bull and a box of raisins. Seems kind of unbalanced. Not that I'm the queen of balance, but you know, since we're talking about it.

Body building isn't really strength even though. You train differently for a bb comp than you do for strength. So so many things come into play, especially with your immunity and ability to fight off infection. Women especially have problems with this because we can get amenorrhea when we start dropping our BF too low, which can have some pretty serious consequences (depending on how prolonged it is).

Sorry, Athene (: Didn't mean to jack your thread or rain on your parade!

Don't worry! You definitely didn't. I worry that I come across as a band-wagon jumper, and I'm really not! I just like to check things out, especially now that I'm doing different types of workouts than I did in the past. I spoke to the trainers this morning, who are not bodybuilders they are Crossfit people, and they told me to see how it goes, and suggested keeping in some starchy vegetables like sweet potatoes. We'll see what happens.

People have devloped worse teeth become fatter and shorter, since hunter gatherer days and how would these so-called experts know, as no pictures of Neanderthals or Cro-magnons exist except old cave drawings which can hardly be caleld Kodak quality evidence.

Apparently the skeletons and dental remains have told us this! Who knows? I haven't looked into it, I was given the info at a Clean Eating seminar by a trainer. I check a lot of things out, but at the end of the day I know what it supposed to be good for human beings to eat, and sometimes I follow it and sometimes I don't. The thing I like about this 'Paleo' idea for 30 days is just to finally see what happens when I cut out grains because I have never done that before, and I know a lot of people who do - some bodybuilders, some people with hypoglycemia, and some people with gluten sensitivities.

[Athene]

Yeah, I was talking about this with the folks at the WVU Human Performance Lab. They said there are 5 factors in fitness: strength, endurance, cardiovascular, flexibility, and I think body fat %. I asked about it because I rated excellent in the VO2 Max test (cardio ability), but my body fat was still pretty high. So a bodybuilder might have excellent strength and a low body fat %, but rate poorly in all the other categories.

Really good point. Sorry, I thought I quoted it in my block-response ; ) Yeah if the bodybuilder doesn't do the 'fitness' element of it they definitely don't have to have good cardio at all. Like thin people, muscular people aren't necessarily healthy or fit.

Nutrition
Meal 1 - whey shake, 1 raw apple, 1 espresso.
Meal 2 - 1 can tuna, 3 cups leafy greens.
Meal 3 - 1 chicken breast, 3 cups roasted veg (red peppers, zucchini, onions, 2 tbsp olive oil, ground pepper)
Meal 4 - 2 eggs, 2 egg whites, 1/2 a green pepper, 300 ml white tea.

Felt good today, no peaks or valleys and no hunger, we'll see how long that lasts. I've never had any espresso-based drinks without milk, so now that dairy is out I'm drinking it with boiled water, Americano style. Not too bad, and makes me feel tough, like people who drink their coffee black!

Workout
Crossfit: 50 minutes introduction and working on technique, 10 minute sprint exercises - rowing machine, tabatta squats, sit-ups, push-ups, olympic ring pull-ups.

I'm ripped up and sore already, just from the intro session. The best part was the push-ups: I suck at them, as I have said, but they harnessed me with a heavy-duty resistance band across my chest and tied it to the olympic rings and I finally did push ups in the classic form! No knees, no wall, no incline... just a gigantic rubber band picking up my slack. The complete movement felt great, and I can't wait to do push ups on my own eventually.