It's hard to eat right during the day if you haven't plotted out your menu, cooked the food and packed everything up in the appropriate-sized servings. And starving when you arrive home from work, or after a workout, without having planned what you're going to eat -- and ensuring it's ready or can quickly be prepared -- are recipes for disaster.
Working out is similar -- you can't hop out of bed at 6 in the morning to head to the gym if you didn't go to bed until 2 that morning. And you have to look down the road at potential obstacles to your regular workout routine, occasionally making some changes to your normal schedule to accommodate those obstacles.
This weekend is one for me -- a big obstacle in sticking both with the 30-day clean eating plan and my regular workout routine. Saturday my oldest daughter is graduating from Radford University (YEAH!!! -- more on that in a later blog), and then Sunday is Mother's Day.
Thankfully, Radford U. is less than an hour's drive from where we live, but we'll be hitting the road somewhere between 9 and 10 that morning and won't be back until sometime late that evening. Since Saturday is normally my off-day for workouts, that shouldn't matter, right?
Well, on Sunday we'll be taking my wife out for Mom's Day, and since my oldest son has to work that night, we're limited to lunch. And since the gym is only open 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday, that means I can't get in for my regular leg workout -- and there's no way I'm going to go two weeks between workouts (from last Sunday until the Sunday a week after Mother's Day).
That's where planning and shifting things around a bit come in. Thursday is usually one of my two long cardio days. However, today I did a leg workout. A little bit lighter than normal for a Sunday, but still a pretty good, taxing workout. Afterward, I did a light, easy cardio workout (probably ridiculously easy for most people).
Tomorrow, Friday, I plan to do my regular morning cardio and evening weight training, then Saturday I'll go down to the gym as soon as it opens, get a quick, hard 30-minute cardio routine in, and use Sunday as my off-day.
Then, next week, I'll probably do another, abbreviated leg routine either Tuesday or Thursday, followed by full legs that Sunday, and then I'm back on the regular schedule.
In re-arranging the schedule like this, I'm probably sacrificing a little in the cardio work, and maybe even getting a tiny bit more work for legs. If I didn't do this, though, I fear I'd end up missing legs altogether this week. At this point, I'm willing to give up a little on the cardio in exchange for keeping the weight training on target.
I'm also doing a little advance work on the eating front, as well. I'm not going to slip on the 30-days of clean eating, although it's likely I might end up taking in a few more calories each day than normal. Yesterday, today, and tomorrow I've tried to cut my calories a bit, just about 100 to 150 fewer calories each of the three days, from what I might otherwise take in.
I've also checked out nutritional values on the menus of the places we'll eat (both my daughter and my wife long-ago made it known where they wanted to go on their respective big days), so I'll know what I'm going to eat before getting there. And, at the reception my daughter's department will have for their grads after the ceremony, when everyone else is munching on cookies and punch, I'll be sneaking bites of a protein bar (though, if they have any fresh fruit among the refreshments,, I'll probably partake of a few bites).
See, just a little bit of planning and these things can be handled just fine.
Now, for today's workout and eating!
First, let me note that I did some treadmill walking today, after doing the leg workout, for my cardio. I've learned the hard way to take it easy after a leg workout, so I did the walking instead of the bike. I have to be careful with walking, however. I'm so big and fat when I try walking fast, or for long distances, I get terrible shin splints! I mean, some serious soreness and pain in the shins that takes a long time to go away. And it's not muscle soreness, not the good kind of soreness.
Anyway, I've lost enough now I can throw in an occasional walk, and I plan to do that from time to time to vary the cardio a bit, but when I walk it'll be short, relatively slow, and not all that difficult, until I lose more weight and build up to it. The folks at The Carroll Wellness Center tell me the new cardio equipment will be in late this month, and I'm looking forward to having a working stair climber. I actually enjoy doing the stair climber, and I can do that without any shin issues!
Workout
Cardio
Treadmill walking
22 minutes
1 mile
155 calories (yeah, not a lot)
Weight training -- legs
Squats
135 pounds -- 1 set, 10 reps
185 pounds -- 1 set, 8 reps
225 pounds -- 1 set, 8 reps
245 pounds -- 1 set, 8 reps
205 pounds -- 1 set, 8 reps
Leg extensions
110 pounds -- 2 sets, 10 reps each
Lying leg curls
70 pounds -- 1 set, 10 reps
100 pounds -- 1 set, 10 reps
Standing calf raises
450 pounds -- 2 sets, 12 reps
And that's about it!
Eating for the day
Breakfast
Coffee
Eggs -- 1 whole, 2 whites
Lunch
Lean center cut pork loin -- 4 ounces
Sweet potato -- 5 ounces
Mixed veggies -- 1-1/3 cups
Snack/first dinner
Chicken breast cooked in a bit of olive oil --4 ounces
Salsa -- 2 tablespoons
Mixed salad -- mixture of multiple lettuces, spinach, and other green stuff)
Second dinner
Chicken breasts again, cooked in a bit of olive oil -- 5 ounces
Cheese -- 1/4 cup
Salsa -- 3 tablespoons
Mixed salad -- bunch of green stuff again
Snack (which I haven't eaten yet, but I'm going to do that as soon as I post this)
Granola -- 2/3 cup
Almond milk -- 1 cup
Totals for the day
1,260 calories
34 grams of fat
119 grams of protein (far too few, but it's hard to get enough protein on less than 1,260 calories).
Water 60 ounces
Diet soda -- 24 ounces
Water 60 ounces
Diet soda -- 24 ounces
No comments:
Post a Comment