The concept of fast

I have worked on this over the fall into the holidays.  This entailed pushing myself on the treadmill with interval training.
I havent run much since the holidays.
I spent a good part of this month getting back in the saddle.
So now I am back to some focus.  And the newest layer to add to the mix... SWIM fast!
I was back in the water yesterday.  And to my surprise even with such a long break my 100 yard swim time comes in at just over 2 minutes.  Then I remembered, I need to add the same philosophy of sprint work into my swim.
So I did some fast laps in my 800 swim yesterday.
Todays swim will just be to swim.
There is going to be a bike in there too.

Change in plans

Mom arrived about an hour early for dinner with a boxed up Christmas tree in her car. No yoga no nothing. Tree stored away especially since it won't be needed for 2012. Salad for dinner was yummy. I could go toe to toe with Panera any day with that salad. Try to get those work outs in tomorrow.

Soup and salad

So the Whole Living web site might not be the easiest to navigate. Lots of fun pages to look at. But a bit busy to get back to things. But I have decided to do my best to follow their lead on a 28 detox diet. Now we know I struggle with these items as life gets in the way but I can always give it a try. The first week is the elimination of everything except fruits and vegetables and nuts or seeds and healthy oils. I have some foods set aside for this that has been working to get me used to the concept. As of today I pulled a few recipes and headed out to the grocery store. The first a butternut squash soup. Utternut squash, onion, garlic, carrot, and apple. And a bunch of spices. Although I am glad I did not buy the cardamom. Man that is expensive and ultimately I only needed an eighth of a teaspoon. Oncenit is all cooked it calls to be puréed. My problem with that is it loses any need to chew. And there is something satisfying in the need to chew. Nsomat the moment I do not know if I will purée it or not. The second recipe was a kale red cabbage cole slaw. I have cut up all the veg but have not made the dressing. I bought a bottled dressing for this evenings salad. Depending on its flavor that may be the dressing the slaw. Net to see. I boughtbsomethingbfor roasted veg and tahini and another with some balsamic something. I figured they would be tackled later in the week as far as the kitchen is concerned. They also provide some yoga detox poses that I am about to try. I should have gone to the gym but with everything else in my day that did not happen. So I get an hour of exercise before dinner.

Apples with breakfast

So in the quest for decaf I bought some Starbuck decaf.  I am liking it.  However someone did mention a little tidbit of info that I had not been thinking about.  Starbucks decaf may not be as decaffeinated as other brands.  She has a point.  We will eventually use up all of this and have to try a more reasonably priced variety.

My other new treat for breakfast is apples.  Here I go through all this hassle to try to create a shake or smoothie or juice or something for breakfast.  But then I read somewhere that apples have a great array of nutrients to start off your day.  So I decided earlier this week to give it a try.  Here's my secret...

Cut the apple into thin slices.  I know I usually eat the apple right off the core.  It gives a great sense of satisfaction while eating.  Save that for the afternoon snack.  And when I say thin, I mean thin.  Quarter inch slices perhaps...
Arrange nicely on a plate - there is something to be said for presentation.
Sprinkle with cinamon...  Do the reading on cinamon, it has a lot of great qualities.
Sprinkle with some ground flax seed...  This will give you some added fiber (like there wasnt enough in the apple), a little bit of healthy fat and oil, hint of a nutty taste, and a slight dry carbish type feel on some slices.  If you dont understand that last reference, sorry, it is definitely i something I find comforting in the carb family.
EAT SLOWLY with a large bottle of water.
It is very satisfying.

When I start adding more proteins back into the diet I may have to change this up a bit.  I will address that later.  Now off to make some more work phone calls.  Yes, on a Saturday :) or :(

Heart rate zones

This still confuses me. I think I spend a lot of time burning calories that are not fat calories. TRAINING ZONES Healthy Heart Zone (Warm up) --- 50 - 60% of maximum heart rate: The easiest zone and probably the best zone for people just starting a fitness program. It can also be used as a warm up for more serious walkers. This zone has been shown to help decrease body fat, blood pressure and cholesterol. It also decreases the risk of degenerative diseases and has a low risk of injury. 85% of calories burned in this zone are fats! Fitness Zone (Fat Burning) --- 60 - 70% of maximum heart rate: This zone provides the same benefits as the healthy heart zone, but is more intense and burns more total calories. The percent of fat calories is still 85%. Aerobic Zone (Endurance Training) --- 70 - 80% of maximum heart rate: The aerobic zone will improve your cardiovascular and respiratory system AND increase the size and strength of your heart. This is the preferred zone if you are training for an endurance event. More calories are burned with 50% from fat. Anaerobic Zone (Performance Training) --- 80 - 90% of maximum heart rate: Benefits of this zone include an improved VO2 maximum (the highest amount of oxygen one can consume during exercise) and thus an improved cardiorespiratory system, and a higher lactate tolerance ability which means your endurance will improve and you'll be able to fight fatigue better. This is a high intensity zone burning more calories, 15 % from fat. Red Line (Maximum Effort) --- 90 - 100% of maximum heart rate: Although this zone burns the highest number of calories, it is very intense. Most people can only stay in this zone for short periods. You should only train in this zone if you are in very good shape and have been cleared by a physician to do so.

Mulligatawny Detox Soup

Mulligatawny Detox Soup

This looks like an interesting take on soup for SuperBowl Sunday.

GO GIANTS!!!

Vertigo

It was nice to get home last night and hang out with the little guy before going to bed. It was so nice to sleep in my own bed. The little guy woke up a few times over night. It upset me that he was spot trained by my mom while I was away for it to be OK to get up at that hour and want attention. I rolled overand went back to sleep. He woke me up a few more times. uGH! In the morning I struggled to get out of bed. The sun salutation was a non event. Took a shower. Got on the scale. I was pleasantly surprised to see that I had lost 3 to 4 pounds while I was away. Good job me with my attempts to keep the focus. Then I came downstairs... Something smelled foul. Or maybe fowl. I feared what in the world did I ignore? What in e world is wrong with Bacchus. He could not move. He could not get out of the crate. He could not stand up. We went outside. He still struggled. He kept falling. We sat on the floor and cried for a good hour waiting to get I touch with the vet. This could be it. What a miserable morning. I am exhausted by it. My head hurt. My eyes were swollen. And we come to find out it is vertigo. He has an anti nausea type medication to take over the next week. He seems better right now. Again I am still exhausted. Roasting veggies for dinner. Gonna go to KPs for TVD. She is having a rough day too.

Caffeine

In prepping for this Whole Living detox diet there is the elimination of caffeine.  I didnt and dont think of muself as a caffeine consumer.  I have 4 cups rach morning according to the level on the coffee maker.  This is up from 2 a few years back.  So I decided on this road trip I would utilize the services of the hotel and switch to decaf.
Day 3 headache?  Is it really caffeine withdrawal?  Maybe it is just sinus pain.  Who knows.

But I am going to stay in this approach for a good number of weeks to see how it goes.

Next stop - processed carbs... you know bread, pasta, baked goods, refined sugar...  even throw rice and potatoes in there...

This will be harder.

On the road again.

To my shock.  The hotel had little boxes of cereal on the buffet this morning.  So I checked out the options...  compared the raisin bran to frosted flakes... um, guess which one had more sugar, calories and sodium.
I opted for the cheerios instead.
I also considered the oatmeal.  The thin layer if pretend butter on top turned me from that option.
I had a pretend egg omlet for additional calories and some protein.
The switch to decaf seemed to work OK.

Last nights dinner - probably within reason... the beer not so much but hey it was football at Taco Mac.

Travel

I arrived home late on Thursday. I went to my moms to get the little guy. We had dinner there. I ate too much food. Well maybe not too too much but she fixes side dishes -like rolls - that I generally don't have in the house. And the next thing you know I have had four of them. No will power. And then there are cookies lying around for dessert. She said she bought them for me? I try not to eat these things so I am not sure where this rationalization comes from. Needless to say a week on the road with little exercise and odd food intake does not bode well with the scale. Yesterday I did OK... Except I did meet a friend out for some wine after work. I suspect that was within reason as was the very expensive small salad. I take that back... The lettuce tomato and non existent blue cheese dressing were probably within reason (no chunks of cheese make me suspect the calorie count of the dressing) BUT the homemade bacon CHUNKS probably threw it over the top. I had some leftover ravioli when I got home - thankfully there is none of that left in the house now. We are just down to spring mix lettuce, ground turkey with tomatoes and black beans, naked green machine smoothie, and two packs of frozen vegetables... Oh and some apples... I leave again in a little over 24 hours so this will do. I need to make sure that I have appropriate snacks with me for the trip and healthy food upon my return. Always good to plan ahead. Today I am contemplating swimming. I just have lots of other stuffs to get done around here.

Calorie consumption for a day

So I started out the day with the shock of sugar in my breakfast.
I avoided my originally planned lunch of lunch of the grilled Chic Fil A sandwich without pickles and without lettuce and tomatoe as the nutritional info on the website noted 1000+mg of sodium.  Yes, you read that correctly... lots and lots of salt... so maybe it is the pickles and I would avoid it since I am not a fan of pickles on my sandwich...  but then again who knows... so I avoided it
I went to Atlanta Bread Company instead... Would you beleive they do not publish nutrition on their site?  So I have no real clue at how many calories, fat, sugar, salt and protein grams were in my turkey brie cranberry sandwich and butternut squash soup...  You can imagine with that line up that it wasnt minimal... 
So much for the minimal day.
I had my packed snacks for the day and snacked on them.  The all natural 100 calorie snack pack of almonds is quite tasty.  Again surprised and the amount of nautrally occurring sugar in the almonds.  This accompanied a mashable furit snack of 70 calories...
I WAS DOING SO GOOD!!!  But those hotel lobby cookies got the best of me today.  Ooops.
And eventually went out for dinner... salad with italian dressing - probably not too bad - 2 garlic knots dipped in the remaining dressing - probably not good - and a half serving of chicke francaise... i could have done well with just the salad...
Why dont my salads taste as good at home?!
I need to work on that...

Hotel breakfast

The beginning of the day can so set the pace for the rest of the days eating.  I generally stay at Hampton Inns.  Enough points for two free nights in Dublin...  I like them as they do provide a free breakfast.  And lets face it breakfast at a hotel does not have to be a big production.  I could digress about breakfasts in Ireland as well but...  Or that even breakfasts at a cost a mediocre at best. 
So I sit here reviewing the facts of my options.
Cereal - I went with Kelloggs raisin bran...  was shocked that a cup serving with half cup of skim milk is 230 calories.  Sugar and high fructose corn syrup are high on the list of ingredients.... 17 grams of sugar.. isnt that the same as a soda?  Tomorrow maybe I will search out a hot cereal.
And then the Yoplait yogurt.  I felt like I could feel the sugar on my tongue as I ate this.  Again sugar was listed fairly close to first fir ingredients - even before the strawberries it was flavored after.  This little 4 oz serving was all of 110 calories and again the sugar content of the morning 17 grams.
I wrote some other info down in my journal such as sodium and protein.  They both seemed within reason. 
What will I do for lunch?
We shall see.  I have some snacks in my bag but suspect I will stop off somewhere on the way back to the hotel.

Keep trying

So two weeks on the road.  I have gone over and over the details of the trip.  Making an effort to make sure to eat OK and exercise.
So today went OK...  oatmeal for breakfast with coffee, taco salad and some nasty dressing that needs to be thrown out, a few more Twizzlers than need (5), an apple, oops a roll with my grilled chicken but no cookies or fries... could use a few more veg but not an option in todays mix.
The exercise was minimal at best - 30 minutes on the treadmill.  And a crappy treadmill at that. But better than nothing.
Heres to equal success tomorrow.  Or maybe even better success.

Got a swim in

Why have I waited so long. The water was wonderful. And the swimming so much fun. I covered 650 yards. I only did 200 yards continuously but was glad for the overall distance. I was going for 800 but decided not to push it. Tomorrow, Wedensday and Thursday will have to be run days as I am on the road. Swim again the next weekend.

Fast food

Two weeks ago I ran out of coffee. I found myself on this downward spiral of fast god excuses. The first morning was coffee at Starbucks - I had a gift card so why not. Of course the peppermint mochas is a far cry from my coffee with skim milk or soy milk at home on most mornings. And to top it off a sugar laden scone which is a far cry from the normal egg based breakfasts. Unfortunately the lack of coffee continued into the next day. The following morning I opted for a McDonalds coffee. The ability to have more of a basic coffee is the appeal of this coffee. Again it doesn't pan out this way. Who would've known how many people actually go to the McDonalds down the street from my house. Not me. The drive thru was crazy busy. So I opted to go inside. OMG it is the early morning hang out before school. There were lots of kids inside just hanging out. I guess the must be kids that drove in the crowd. It is not a convenient walk to the high school. And again a line. And standing there in line waiting for my coffee I get distracted for food. I should have opted for the oatmeal but it totally escaped me that they had oatmeal. And out I walked with a sausage egg mcmuffin. Oh but it doesn't stop there. In the midst of it all I had an off day of training and had a massage. Being overrun by hunger when I left and on my way to a friends house - oh Chic Fil A caught my eye. There was a Showmars sandwich on there. A roast beef and cheddar sandwich. And finally a milkshake and fries after too many (amazing for me that would be 2) margaritas the night before. So I have spent the better part of the weekend beating myself up on this. Not just from a fat perspective but also salt - wow the salt... And this week begins the first of two weeks on the road. It truly undermines my objectives. I have a game plan on where to go to eat and such when I am on the road. I hope I am able to pull it off. I have a doctors appointment at the end of the month and wanted to be closer to the Athena weight than I am. Truth be told I would like to below the Athena weight but I keep see sawing with the weight loss and weight gain. I really need to buckle down. I am going to try to catalog my efforts to hopefully keep the focus. We shall see.

Danskin Triathlon - Orlando

it is official... 
time share reserved...  pto reserved... registration complete...
now to get back in the water to swim half a mile...  the other 2 areas  - for a change - dont see quite as daunting...
first open water swim - and it is a lake - yuck no bouyancy

Two days of rest

I opted no yoga last night. I felt lazy for it but today my knee thanks me. It is a little stiff this morning walking down the stairs but far better than yesterday. So I have my game plan for this week figured out... Yoga stuffs tonight and tomorrow. May opt for the home on demand version over the gym. I pay for both and use both at a minimum so... Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday will be swim days. Next week will be from the road. If I can get my reservations where I'd like then there will be OK opportunities for running outside. Haven't done that in ages. Of course whenever I travel this time of year the snow seems to catch up to me... So... Now to go back up to the computer and sign up for some races... Or maybe just get dressed for work...

No yoga

Decided after a few advil over the course of the day to rest the knee.  Feeling more like it should this evening.

Feeling that left knee this morning

Kind of confirms that the knee pain is bike generated not run... Interesting observation for sure. This week is swim and yoga. Next 2 weeks is in the road so need to get the swim in now.

Blood donation

So tonight was a rest night. I woke up this morning and could tell it needed to be a rest night. If I thought I was sore yesterday man I should have thought what it would feel like today. Have no idea what I did in pushing myself but sure felt some crazy leg muscles. I counted days etc on the calendar and realised today could be a rest day. I had 3 days on. So an off day it was. Plus I am not sure what to add to the mix for the next week of training. What I decided to do next with my off day is surprising. I decided it was time to head on back to the Red Cross to donate blood. I have been donating blood off and on now for a while. I had a pass out incident a few years back. What a miserable feeling to wake up to... Although the pass out time was quite peaceful. Then I had a few moments when my iron was low or on the cusp of low. Today I had eggs and spinach for breakfast and burger for lunch. So the iron was not an issue. The fainting still haunts me. My stomache gets a little sloshy... Similar to its reaction with nerves on race morning. But I do my darnedest to ignore it. And as long as the staff aren't too touchy freely explaining what they are doing I do OK. And I did OK tonight. So I am glad for that. Now I am off to bed. Tomorrow I am leaning towards a yoga class.