Small Epiphany

Monday, October 19, 2009

165#

I think that sometimes we cruise along oblivious to change. Sometimes that change is around us. Sometimes it is within us. Perhaps we are too busy evaluating other areas of our lives, scrutinizing them, trying to change them, that we miss important changes in other areas, changes that are really right under our noses.

In a lot of ways I have been a small bit of an emotional basketcase lately--for no reason at all really, except that estrogen is a bitch. As always, at least a piece of this dissatisfaction manifested itself in a frustration with how I look. A few days ago, though, I tried the pullup with only the black (~10-15#) band for assistance and darn near got my chest to the bar (My chin was there for sure)...almost got a full pullup with only that little bit of assistance, so I was dancing around, playing with my workout buddy, and generally being a fool when I started thinking about the workshop this weekend and how maybe, just maybe, with a little tweak in form I could do a full pullup this weekend (!). I have been quite excited, actually, about the possibilities this weekend holds for me both during the weekend itself and later as I apply the principles I hope to learn and come closer to mastering. As I was thinking about the almost pull up and the possibilities of the weekend, it hit me, that teeny epiphany, that small glimmer of personal insight. My journey has changed its course. In the beginning of the journey, I desperately wanted the aesthetic benefits. They were the focus of thought and planning while other, more performance-oriented goals, were secondary benefits I knew would come. I have by no means reached my aesthetic goals. On the contrary, I find my being so far from them a constant source of frustration. But...I find myself more concerned with losing the 25 or 30 extra pounds I need to lose more because doing so will most definitely make pull ups easier. Heck, if I were currently that light I'd be doing pull-ups! I find myself thinking more about the day I can do multiple pistols and pull ups and push ups at will than the day I look rockin' awesome in a bikini. Maybe that is more because right now the pull ups and pistols seem more attainable, but I like to think it's because in some small part, I have changed and come to see that function is way more fun than form.

TODAY'S WORKOUT: 5 5-rung ladders of black and purple-band assisted pull ups and perfect elevated pushups.

Between rungs:

1st ladder-knee together squats with one-legged pulses at the bottom.

2nd ladder-partial pistols 1/1

3rd ladder-plank x 30 sec

4th ladder-knee together squats, laddered reps

5th ladder- 4 burpees

Finished with 16 burpees.

YESTERDAY'S WORKOUT: 75 Burpees, 5 min of 16kg snatches (80).

SATURDAY: No workout

FRIDAY'S WORKOUT: 5 rounds of

20kg press 2/2 Double 16kg press x 2

I'm getting 2 strict 20kg presses on the left for 3 rounds usually, then having to go to a push-press for one of the presses. On the right, I can do two strict presses for 1-3 rounds. I'm still not back to where I was with this before the pneumonia, but I'm getting there.

20kg Goblet squat x 5

Perfect pushup x 3

double 16kg OL Dead 3/3

High Plank x 30 sec

Burpee x 5

After the 5 rounds, I did 8 burpees to get my challenge numbers for the day then did 20kg Tabata swings.

THURSDAY'S WORKOUT: See today's workout, but add 45 burpees to the end.

WEDNESDAY: No workout.

TUESDAY'S WORKOUT: See Friday's workout, add 5 burpees at the end of the 5 rounds, and add 2 12kg TGu per side to the end.

Heart Attack Grill

Sunday, October 11, 2009

http://www.heartattackgrill.com/media.html

Maybe some of you have come across this place before now, but my first exposure to the Heart Attack Grill (see link above), was tonight at work when I walked by the television playing the Travel Channel as I was going to the restroom. At first I couldn't figure out what they were talking about but I hung around until I did. Burgers were smothered in cheese and mayonnaise. Instead of a salad bar, they have a french fry bar on which the fries are cooked in lard. People over 350 pounds eat free--every day. I was fairly taken aback, honestly, but then I applauded the owner for his originality. His was a marketing strategy to do what he can to make a buck. I get it, and "it" is brilliant. As they interviewed the patrons, however, I was disheartened. As one would expect, they were all corpulent, but they were also deluded and complacent, often stating in their brief interviews that they were glad they were already on cholesterol medicine.

I wonder, though, if these restaurant patrons even remotely begin to understand that even one meal like this has an immediate effect on their system. We tend to think of things like our nutritional intake in the cumulative, and ultimately, that is the most important thing. I, like most active and health-oriented people, believe in the mental health behind an occasional "cheat day" or "cheat meal." Complete glutinous debauchery like this, however, can have immediate ramifications. Within minutes of completing a high fat meal like this, our body is bombarded with its contents and is forced to deal with them. For some, the result is fat-laden blood like this (you might remember this pic from last year on my blog):

The blood on the right is what blood is supposed to look like after it's gone through the centrifuge. The blood on the left is the blood of a woman who had, in the last few hours, had a high fat meal. That stuff that looks like a cream layer on the top?...it's, well, a cream layer, a layer of fat on her blood, fat that was dispersed in the blood before the centrifuge.

How well do you think that blood functions? How smoothly do you think it flows through the tiny vessels of your heart, brain, kidneys, feet, and eyes? It functions so poorly in so many ways, in fact, that research is showing that the hours following a meal like one at the Heart Attack Grill actually show an increase in heart attacks (http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0813/is_n4_v21/ai_15224643/).

Please don't misunderstand me. I appreciate capitalism and originality. I think the fellow who came up with this concept is absolutely brilliant, and I wouldn't picket or protest his business. Heck, I might even visit it on a cheat day. :) I wish, though, that ours was a world where a concept like this would wither and die for lack of business while the parking lot in front became the town's rowdiest tire-flipping, kettlebell swinging, rope flinging gathering place of people.

TODAY'S WORKOUT WAS A SHORT ONE: 6 minutes of 16kg snatches, 30 burpees.

YESTERDAY'S WORKOUT: See the press/squat/push up/dead/plank/burpee workout above...BUT I got 3 (count them...THREE rounds of 2/2 strict presses with the 20kg!). I had to add some burpees to total correctly for the burpee challenge, too.

Proud To Be An RKC--A Year Later

Monday, October 5, 2009

163.5#

Though some people likely do not understand, being an RKC brings me as much pride as any other intellectual or physical achievement in my life. In many ways, I am more proud to be associated with the RKC than I am to be associated with other M.D.'s. This goes far beyond the physique most often seen on an RKC, but speaks more to the character that most of them have. RKC's are, as a rule, quality people on multiple levels who just happen to look awesome when scantily clad. So this weekend as I was posting flyers thru the gyms in Gainesville, I found myself feeling self-conscious. I was fixated on my flaws, preoccupied with wishing that the muscles in my arms were showing more, wishing my belly were less round. It's been a long time since I was embarassed to be me, but I blushed and ducked my head as I shook the hand of a very nice trainer at a boutique gym in Gainesville. All I could think about was how I wish I could represent the RKC better. I am 36 years old. I am a physician. I have a happy marriage, and I live life by my own rules (albeit with the occasional bit of guilt). By many standards, I am a very successful woman. I think it speaks pretty highly of an organization of people when I want so desparately to represent them well. (Now that I've reread this, it sounds a bit arrogant. I think you guys know what I mean, though.) I've thought a lot about this the last few days. To my fellow RKC's, I am still humbled to be in your midst.

TODAY'S WORKOUT:

5 rounds of:

20kg C&P/PP x 2/2, double 16kg C&Px2

I actually got 2 strict presses per side in 2 different rounds.(WOOHOO!).In the other rounds I got one strict press per side and one push press.

5 20kg goblet squats

3 perfect pushups

double 16kg one-legged deads x 3/3

high plank x 30sec

5 burpees

Rest 2 min

YESTERDAY'S WORKOUT: 12kg VO2 Max Protocol. First 40 sets, 7 reps, Next 8 sets, 6 reps, 5 for the remainder of the 80 reps. (I'm thinking I need to reset my pace for this workout and work back up.)

43 burpees

SUNDAY: NO WORKOUT

Now for a little eye candy. ('Cuz everything's better with pictures, right?)...

I never thought Florida would have such wonderful wildflowers, but it does. I missed getting pics of the ones in the spring, so I wanted to make sure I got a few of the sweetpeas when I saw them this fall. They are FANTABULOUS! I hope you enjoy them as much as I do. I took these about 200 yards down the road from my driveway.