Garden Blooms!

I think this is pretty exciting... We've got some blooms on the Spaghetti Squash and the Eggplant now! The two on the left are Squash and the third is the Eggplant.

I'm pretty psyched for the veggies when they come in. We also took a few shots of the lower body workout today, you can see those over at Stre7ch Fitness.

More Nutrition/BMR

OK, so I found a great set of 10 rules to live by as far as diet is concerned. They are linked here:

Nutrition 101 - Part 1
Nutrition 101 - Part 2

Also, something I've never considered, but makes a lot sense... For those who count calories, normally it's based on your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR), or how much your body burns at rest. This number is calculated by converting your weight (in Lbs.) to Kilograms by multiplying by .45 or dividing by 2.2, then multiplying by 24. The result is your BMR.

The thing I haven't thought about is the number we are using... In an article by Rodney Gaines, PhD, CSCS, called Periodized Nutrition for Strength and Power Athletic Performance, he points out the error. Most people use their total weight, fat and all. Is it really necessary to eat those extra calories to support our fat mass?!?

I'm around 195 with a body fat probably in the 12-15% range. That means I have somewhere between 23-29 pounds of fat on me! I don't want to support that! Using the calculations (I'll use the mean here):

195*13.5%=26.325 lbs.
That's ~169*.45=76.05*24=1825.20 Cals

So, my lean mass burns ~1825 calories at rest.

To further that, you need either 1.3 times your BMR for low activity, 1.4 for moderate activity, or 1.5 for high activity.

Consider that when you're counting those cals!

TX Vac. Abbr.

Tues: Flight delayed forever, couple manages 30-minute goodbye kiss next to us, arrive Wednesday to meet Dave.

Wed: Took long walk, Michael arrived from OKC, tubed the river, ate lunch at Granzin's, went to SA, paid too much for a birds-eye view, had some Hard Rock Pecan Pie after Megan and the Mom watched Wicked.

Thurs: Hit the big rides at Schlitterbahn after a 90-minute wait, swam home from Surfenburg, swung a bat for the first time in years, met John and stuffed my face with Salt Lick barbeque, witnessed 1.5 million bats leaving a bridge, "The Nothing" came to Austin, enjoyed a mediocre band; good band; and Irene grabbing my chest at Back Door Social while the storm passed.

Fri: Salt Lick Pecan Pie for breakfast, stocked up at H.E.B.(eat your heart out, Giant!), ran into a few old coworkers (Mafia! Denise!), Shannon; Laura; and Brad arrived from Ft. Worth/Arlington, tubed the river, collected cans, ate fajitas, Nusto and Angie (+a baby on board!) came over, Orrin arrived from Houston, Tavern in/at/on/around the Gruene served cheap beer and commercial opportunities.

Sat: 10am tubing (LOTS of cans w/Orrin), leftover fajitas, Schulze came down from Austin, 2nd tube run (likened to coin machines at the fair), another 100 degree day, Kyle came home to grill up the ribs, sweet potato candy with that for dinner, Christina and Kyle came over from Dallas for the night tube run, Canuto barely made it (but he made it!), nice chill (or chilly, depending on who you ask) trip down the river, multiple runs on the chute just like the old days.

Sun: Michael leaves, Shannon and gang leave, changing plans, changing plans, changing plans, Phil drops by (didn't get to work out with him!), Mom comes home, head to San Marcos Factory Outlet, buy sweet Nike polos, head to SA for Cheesecake Factory, meet Kyle (Happy Birthday!), we each eat portions large enough for a small family, head to airport, vacation ends.

Wow, how did we make time for all that... I'm counting 6 tube runs and 3 barbeque dinners! I think we did what we came to do!

Grocery Shopping

I'm about halfway through Gary Taubes' "Good Calories, Bad Calories," and I'm beginning to really dislike going to the grocery store. From all the exaggerations we've been told about the benefits of Fiber (Nope, no colon cancer cure there...the only thing it really helps is constipation), misinformation about the cause of heart disease (nope, it's not cholesterol... that means we can eat our bacon and eggs!), and the silly notion that somehow refined grains and sugars are better for you than their unrefined counterparts (luckily this died out a while ago...), how can we really believe anything we hear?

I just linked some random articles I could find within a few seconds, but there are tons of studies done that dispute those "facts" that are deeply ingrained in our heads. The bad connotation of fat (saturated in particular) on the nutrition facts is probably the worst of them all. Since I'm having trouble deciding what to believe, I decided to shop for things closest to what I might find back when we didn't have to get our food at a grocery store (with a few exceptions). Here's what I came up with...

2% Milk
Unpeeled carrots
Sliced Mushrooms
Cottage Cheese
2 cartons of eggs
Chicken Thighs
Strawberries
Kiwis
Peaches
Avocado
Organic Peanut Butter
Milled Flax Seed
Cheddar Cheese
Canned Pumpkin
Whole Wheat w/flax flatbread
Lime Fruit Bars (A little off here...)
Chocolate Syrup (for post-workout choc milk!)

I feel like this is a good start towards healthy eating, not to mention the HUGE Spaghetti Squash, Eggplant, and Sweet Potato plants we have growing currently. I can't wait to get some of that!

Another sport to think about...

I mentioned my trip to Chicago in a few other posts, but I wanted to just direct everyone to a great write-up of what I took part in on Saturday night at Soldier Field. I will be the first person to tell you that I'm not a big soccer fan, and I generally don't concern myself with watching or playing the sport. I understand that a large percentage of Ultimate players may have played the sport at one time or another, but it is not a sport that I really identify well with.

Regardless of this, I found myself attending the USA vs. Honduras World Cup Qualifying match on Saturday night. The story leading up to the game was an adventure all it's own, but the game was about as exciting as I've been part of (I'm going to restrict that comment to all things outside of Oklahoma football, as Renaldo Works would probably have something to say about that...).



Anyway, the game was rowdy. There were 55,000+ fans there, ~40,000 of them being Honduran. Their passion for the game was evident as we made our way to the stadium, and they more than overwhelmed the "home" team's fans. It was not surprising to see the contrasting levels of support between our two countries, and, to be honest, it almost made me want the Hondurans to win. After all, the number of Chicagoan's confused by the Honduran presence speaks volumes about our views on soccer... I ended up having a great time, thanks to those fans. You could feel their passion in every juke, every pass, every corner, and, of course, every goal. It was impressive the way they supported their country. It made me feel slightly uncomfortable about my own patriotism (I wore a green shirt to the game...).

Back to the reason I posted today... John and I checked out the game together, and he is officially a Master (of Science) of Journalism now so you should probably read his take: Passion.

In Defense - Part 3

Just a few quick facts that I find interesting here...

*In the late 1800s 5 states passed laws requiring all butter imitations to be dyed pink so everyone would know.
*The Supreme Court struck down that law 1898.
*The 1938 Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act required the word "Imitation" to appear on any food product that was an imitation.
*In 1973 that rule was removed after years of argument from the food industry.
*The new rule allowed that "as long as an imitation product was not 'nutritionally inferior' to the natural food it sought to impersonate (as long as it had the same quantities of recognized nutrients) the imitation could be marketed without using the dreaded 'i' word."
*Processors backed that move.... Surprise, surprise.

There are some other interesting tidbits about the use of "flavor packs" in Orange Juice in Brian St. Pierre's blog entry here: The Orange Juice Deception. It's not technically imitation now, because the "flavor packs" are made from orange extracts... Cool deal, just buy an orange.

Stre7ch Fit

There aren't too many readers here, but, for the ones who are, I've moved my workout log over to www.Stre7chFit.blogspot.com. No more reading numbers of sets and weights! Well, unless you'd like to...

In Defense – Part 2

American’s make compromises over a great many topics on a daily, weekly, and yearly basis. We make compromises over movies, over music, and over even bigger things. Most of these we manage to do without a real impact on our physical health. I mean, sure, if you were to compromise and sit on the couch with me instead of running that might have an affect on you physically… But, we don’t generally think that compromises are made about our well being often, and we wouldn’t dare think that our own government would compromise our health, right?

Well, politics can be a dangerous thing. In my last entry, I spoke briefly about how we were beginning to see food as a combination of nutrients instead of as a “food.” Well, that came into being when science tried to tell American’s that they needed to cut back on their meat intake, specifically that of meats, poultry, and fish. After the firestorm of criticism from the meat and dairy industries, the statement had to be changed to: “choose meats, poultry, and fish that would reduce saturated fat intake.” So, instead of just eating less meat (which we are not allowed to say because of the effect on profits), we now have to continue to eat meat in its leanest form. See the difference? Imagine where we go from there…

To continue on to this profit-driven science of nutrition, I’ll just give you a few facts from “In Defense” about the lack of separation of nutrition and state. The World Health Organization recommended that no more than 10% of your daily calories should come from added sugars (Not the sugar you’ll find in fruit, the sugar you find in sweet tea…. The good…ahem, BAD stuff.). Now, back to the compromising… There is a super-powerful, evil empire of a lobbying group on Capital Hill that is dead-set on destroying the WHO recommendations: The U.S. sugar lobby (www.sugar.org, which you can at least commend for differentiating between sugar and high fructose corn syrup). Obviously driven by money, the sugar lobby threatened to lobby Congress to cut WHO funding unless these limits were raised, and eventually were able to force Congress into compromising and allowing a 15% increase in allowable daily sugar intake. It is now part of the official U.S. recommendation that the maximum permissible level of free sugars in our diet is 25% of daily calories. A full quarter of your daily fuel from added sugars? Holy $#!T.

I don’t know how to feel about this, really. I mean, we don’t have to eat sugars because it’s in the U.S. Recommendations, but what kind of message is that sending?

(Search www.washingtonpost.com for an article called “Big Sugar” for more dirt on the sweet industry. I’d give the link, but I don’t have internet where I’m writing.)

Again, the facts in here are mostly pulled from Michael Pollan's book, many opinions are added by me....

June 5 - Hotel Workout

Seated Leg Press
135x10
175x8
215x8
230x8
250x10
260x10
270x8

Seated Leg Curl (Single Leg)
50x10
60x10x3
Superset with DB Shoulder Press
40x10
45x10
50x7
50x8 (Push Press)

Seated Leg Extension (Single Leg)
75x10
80x10
85x10
Superset with Pulldown
150x10
150x10
150x10

Renegade Row (1 rep is two push-ups and two single-arm rows)
30x8
25x8
25x8
Superset with SL Bulgarian Split Squat
50x10x3

Got a compliment from the duder on the elliptical, he said “good job, you’re working hard, man.” I’m glad I look like I’m working hard, but, really, what are you comparing me to? Another tidbit about today’s workout: this was the best/worst/only $12 workout I’ve ever done. It was nice to be able to get a new towel when I needed one, knowing that somebody else will come to wash it and clean off the equipment when I was done. Nobody does that at my place…

In Defense Of Food - Michael Pollan

I rolled into the airport in Baltimore fully expecting to be on my way to Chicago within the hour. According to the monitor I was already 20 minutes delayed as I walked into my gate. As I waited, the skies opened up and dumped water on us for 15-20 minutes while I gave in and picked up some California Tortilla. It wasn’t exactly the best choice of foods, and, after my flight, I’m seeing even more reasons to doubt the nutritional value of most things I put into my stomach.

The Borders located by the “A” terminal is surprising packed with good books; Twilight sequels line the walls and I think I found the next book on my list, “Chuck Norris vs. Mr. T.” Anyway, I’ve been reading some nutritional blogs/studies recently, and a book called “The Omnivores Dilemma” by Michael Pollan had been referenced multiple times. I considered it, but then noticed his next book, “In Defense of Food.” The cover includes his “Eater’s Manifesto”:

Eat Food. Not Too Much. Mostly Plants.

I got about three quarters of the way through the book before I realized I was rereading every other page to make sure I was reading it right. It’s pretty unbelievable, the facts Pollan brings up. I’m motivated to do a brief series to cover what I believe to be some of the more important and interesting tidbits from the book. Actually, before I get started, I just want to say that this book is definitely worth purchasing if you are interested in nutrition or nutritional science in any way.

One of the first things I read was the introduction of a new term to me: orthorexics, or people with an unhealthy obsession with healthy eating. Surprising to you as well? Well, there isn’t solid evidence yet, but there’s a concern that there is a relationship between worrying about nutrition and a person’s overall health and happiness. Basically, people worry about nutrition so much that they neglect other aspects of their nutrition, as I’ll (really, Pollan) cover later.

Our first steps towards orthorexia, as Pollan states, is a separation of nutrient and food. Once William Prout, a smart English dude, discovered Fats, Carbs, and Protein in food, we thought we knew why food was good for us. So, we began to engineer (yup, engineer food) to included ratios of these nutrients that we believed to be “healthy.” It got even worse when we realized there were vitamins in food. Eventually, we began to think of food in terms of the nutrients in them instead of as the sum of the whole. See “Vitamin D Added,” “Now, with more vitamin C,” and “With Extra Fiber.”

It’s about time for me to hit the sack here in Chi-town. I’m going to the Aslanian Group conference on Web Marketing for Adult Students tomorrow, it should be interesting!

June 2 - Upper Body

Some stupid wrist pain today, so I was a little limited here:

Bench Press
135x10
135x10
165x10
185x8
205x4
205x4
205x4
Wide grip Bench Press 135x10

Hybrid Renegade Row
50x10
60x10
60x10
Superset with DB Incline Fly
40x10x3

Rear Raise
15x10x3
Superset with Isometric Bicep Holds
45x30secx3 different anglesx3sets

Biked through 3 songs before Megan came by.

Not really excited about this workout because I was just feeling crappy with the wrist. I'm going out to Chicago, IL tomorrow afternoon for a conference and to spend the weekend, so hopefully that will give it time to heal up. If it's not one thing, I guess it's got to be another...

The Door

Four years ago (or so) I went to The Door in Dallas, Texas to see Sherwood play. At the time, I had no clue who Quietdrive, Discover America, or Waking Ashland were, but now they all have spots in most of my playlists. I'm not really here to talk about how great that concert was, from Quietdrive's version of "Time After Time," Discover America's "Green Eyes," that tambourine dude from Sherwood, to "All Hands on Deck" basically selling me Waking Ashland's CD. Nope, we're not here for that...

We're here to talk about Waking Ashland's latest CD, The Well. The last two albums, Telescopes and, before it, Composure, were a great success for the band. They managed to churn out great lyrics and soulful ballads, and wrapped it all in this nice, neat piano rock package. On The Well, we still hear bits of that sound, but none of the catchy melodies or emotion of the first two albums. The Well is about as contrived as it gets... Check these lyrics:

"Raindrops on the windshield they're catching my eyes
They were falling with such grace until they washed away
Leaving a dashing display
No single one looked the same."

I mean, really? I think they at least covered their weak sauce tunes by ending the song:

"The piano don't sing like it did…"

Piano being a metaphor for the band, I think. That's just a taste of what you would get on their new album. I've only listened twice now, but I'm not really falling in love with anything here. Hopefully I can at least find one of two tunes to latch on to. The only takeaway is that at least I can fall back on Composure...

June 1 - Lower Body

Single-arm Kettlebell Swings
35x15x3

(I always wonder if these numbers make sense... It's Lbsxrepsxsets, or lbsxreps if I do different weights.)

Deadlift
135x8
185x8
225x6
275x6
300x4
350x1
355x1

Hang Clean
135x8x3
Superset with Single-leg Leg Curls
45x10x3

Bulgarian Split Squat (w/bar)
100x10
100x10
105x10
Superset with Single-arm DB Shoulder Press
45x10
50x9
50x8

Got on the stationary bike and rode through the next 4 songs...
Last of the American Girls - Green Day - 21st Century Breakdown
Big Pimpin'/Papercut - Jay-Z & Linkin Park - Collision Course
Allure - Jay-Z - The Black Album
See the Light - Green Day - 21st Century Breakdown