Workout
Today I returned to the Striver’s Resistance Workout, Phase 1. Once again, I was running late, so I ran through the two “circuits” once rather than twice. It took me 45 minutes to do whatever I did manage to accomplish, so I think some streamlining is required to complete this workout in under an hour. The weights I have require me to add and remove disks if I want to change weights, so that slows me down, too. For example, I need a lighter weight for the P90X bicep-building classic “21s” (as in 3 times 7 reps). For plain old bicep curls, I use a heavier weight and do 8-10 reps.
I took a first attempt at making a worksheet for tracking my weights and reps for these exercises. I also asked on Tony’s Facebook page if there are any worksheets available.
My next resistance workout is Saturday, so I should have plenty of time and energy to complete both circuits of this workout, right? I did a “bonus round” today, though. My son had his pull-up bar on the door, so I did a set of eight close-grip pullups, then came back a little while later and did eight more. Just for fun. Pull-ups are not included in this phase of the resistance workouts, but they will be back, with a vengeance.
Nutrition
No Zone Perfect bar today, and I did OK with nuts as a mid-morning snack. Of course, I didn’t complete my workout, either. I do find there’s a correlation between the difficulty of my resistance workouts and my cravings for protein. The week 1 P90X workouts made that very clear.
I’m starting to run out of the meals I prepared over the weekend, so it’s time to plan for the next batch. There is a tempeh and yam stew that looks interesting, since I have had tempeh in other meals before, and a “kitchen sink” vegetable soup (which means “lots of different vegetables”), similar to the soups I have made for myself.
Health and well-being
I was really tired this morning, after a mediocre night’s sleep. That is probably my number one health concern right now, just blocking out enough time for 7 to 8 hours sleep on a consistent basis. If my evening activities end too late, it’s difficult to get in that early morning workout.
I don’t think I have mentioned yet that the book includes a dietary “cleanse” over the course of several weeks. It is adjusted slightly for every fitness level. This week, Strivers are asked to give up alcohol, next week caffeine, and over the course of a month, no more dairy, gluten, packaged foods, or animal products. The goal is to find out how your body improves by eliminating sources of food allergies or other negative health effects. So far, alcohol is not a problem, because I don’t drink it anyway. Actually, I am a little ahead of myself by almost completely eliminating refined sugar as well. My whey powder has a little bit of sugar, and we already talked about those Zone Perfect bars. Skipping dessert is a little tough, but I am willing to do it as an experiment. Anyway, so far I am not seeing a dramatic improvement due to my healthier diet, but we’ll see how it goes. A little wrinkle is that my birthday is coming at the middle of the month. Stay tuned!
