Long Day

10/2/2013

Today was a LONG day…lots of driving back from my 10 year law school reunion. It’s a good thing I planned my cheat “day” (i.e. 24 hour period) to align with my reunion  I’ll spare the details, but I actually didn’t ‘cheat’ too much at first… I actually had a protein shake in the morning and then a good sandwich after that for lunch. 

As of now, what I’ve been doing on the actual ‘cheating’ portion is try to spike my sugar intake so my body doesn’t plateau with the lack of bad sugars and bad carbs/grains during the week (check out www.fourhourbody.com for more details on Tim Ferries’s “slow carb” lifestyle). Basically, in this program, you don’t eliminate carbs, rather you just get them from good sources (i.e vegetables etc), but once a week, you do just go for it. The rationale behind it remains simple:  just like with weightlifting, you pleateau…same for working out in your cardio zone…you plateau and achieve aerobic efficiency. The same applies to eating. That said, you don’t necessarily have to go completely overboard by any means on cheat day, but the point is to shock the body a little bit. Brittany isn't too fond of this approach and says, at some point, you should move to cheating better than you did before. Go ahead and eat the mac and cheese, but opt for the Annie's brand that has no preservatives or artificial food colorings instead of the store brand, chemical laden kind (Check out Fit W Britt's list of Things to Avoid at All Costs). Anyway, I think the main point here is that I don’t really feel like cheating all that much and just going for it anymore, which is a good thing. It means that my taste buds continue to change to the good stuff, thereby allowing me to get to my goals faster. Brittany says, you have to remember, this is a lifestyle, not a diet, so making too many changes all at once may sabotage your journey. Instead of quitting your fav junk foods cold turkey, phase them out, or find healthier versions of them, so you don't totally derail your progress. 

I rested from working out yesterday and today because I worked out pretty hard this past week, and especially on Friday. I ended up squatting 300 pounds on the squat rack which is a tremendous amount of weight, but I felt completely fine. I followed that up with 76 standard air squats (no weight), 76 pushups, 76 hollow rocks (ab work), and 76 lunges, along with a half mile run. Despite really working my legs this week both at crossfit and Kettleworx, I still had juice in my legs. I attribute this directly to the work Brittany has me doing with the food intake and making sure I get the right stuff at the right time. Tomorrow’s workout will be fun…crossfit in the morning…and then hip hop dance class in the evening. This could be interesting…..