Hump Day in the Week of Pain

So the workout rolled back around to legs this morning. I was just barely recovered enough to manage stairs without a rail so I took it nice and easy this morning. Didn’t do squats and went down to 220 on the press. By the time we moved on to calves I felt good and I’m walking much better now for having done the routine. I had expected to be lucky to make it through. Didn’t realize how much it would help.

I never exactly intended to turn this into a health and fitness blog but the fitness is consuming a good deal of my time and energy these days. I’ve even started trying to do a Yoga for Dummies DVD whenever I’m home alone. This is my third week of 6-day workouts without missing a day–three days of cardio, three days of weight training. Before I started working out with Michael I was managing 3 to 4 days a week, all cardio, if I was lucky. Knowing someone is waiting for your lazy butt to show up is a powerful motivator.

You’ll notice the thing I’m not talking about here is food. I love fitness bloggers who itemize their workouts and diets in little tables for me to pour over and get ideas and inspiration, but I’m not willing to share that much here. All anybody needs to know about that is I’m working on it, and have been for a while.

I’ve found that in general, just as soon as you start talking about what you’re eating, everybody comes out of the woodwork to tell you all the things you’re doing wrong and why you should be eating this that or the other thing. Frankly, that just makes me want to smack them upside the head with a pizza and a six-pack. I’m not interested in opening myself up to diet criticism from any corner during this process.

What I will say about my diet is that Rob’s comment about diet and cholesterol is dead-on and more than anything, that has been a major focus for me this year. I’ve switched to Soymilk and EggBeaters, increased my fiber significantly and I struggle to eat lots of fruits and vegetables everyday.

I eat ground turkey instead of ground beef exclusively now and I’m also looking at ways to increase my Omega 3 intake (cod liver oil supplements, anyone?) without eating lots of fish–because I hate fish. I literally can’t remember the last time I ate something deep-fried, but it was probably something I fried myself in canola with a coating of EggBeaters and crunched up kashi.

Even if my numbers don’t come down significantly, my ratio of HDL to LDL should be hugely improved. If it’s not I’ll be shocked. Also, quitting smoking should have automatically lowered my high triglycerides.

The thing that pleases me right now is that I’m still intensely motivated. And I can’t remember the last time I maintained this level of interest or commitment. When we were at Katie’s Saturday night I drank two 10-ounce Michelob Ultras. Let me repeat that. Two. 10-ounce Michelob Ultras. That is all. Don’t faint.

Now 15 people will probably have something to say about EggBeaters or supplements or Soy or something and I’ll be annoyed with myself for writing about food. Suggestions of good things=fine. Telling me why something is bad=bite me. I’m very clear on this.

I still hate to floss. And I probably still won’t do it every day. So there.