Today I had to miss my lunch cardio again. We had a company lunch and I had to attend. And since I fiddled around with my blog way too much once I got home I didn’t quite have the time to put in the extra 30 minutes of cardio like I did yesterday. So I had to settle with my 60 minutes and call it a day.
Elliptical
Today was another leg day just like every Wednesday. It also means it was an ab day. I really don’t care for these days. My legs are all worn out from all the cardio the last thing they need is a killing on the machines. Then throw in some ab workout to go along with it and it’s one of the toughest days of the week. And since I had a company lunch at lunchtime I had to do the strength training after work. At that point the last thing I want to do is go to the gym and work out. I just want to leave the place and go home. But it was still a decent workout. I have upped my weights and it felt OK. The weakest spot is my standing calf rise. I’m always worried that I will end up hurting my back which is not in all that great of a shape to begin with. Back problem runs in my family, my dad has a pretty messed up one. he needs surgery but he keeps putting it off. I really hope he comes to his senses and takes care of it before it’s too late though.
Ab Crunch
Twisting Oblique
Leg Press
Standing Calf Raise
Leg Extensions
And I really mean steroids, not apple or orange juice. Today at 3:50AM I woke up with a terrible ear ache. I’ve been fighting what appeared to be a common cold for the past week which started with the usual runny nose then it turned into stuffy nose with sore throat and drainage then green mucus and I finally thought it was coming to and end. Then in the middle of the night stuff decided to find its way into my left ear and hand out there instead giving me utter pain.
By the time I woke up in the morning to the phone ringing with my grandma calling to wish me happy birthday I could barely hear to my left ear it felt like I had an earplug in my inner ear. I have done scuba diving before I have learned how to equalize your ears so I have tried to overpressure it mildly to open up the passage from my ear to my throat and let some of the stuff drain. It was a no go. Nothing happened. I really wanted to avoid going to the doctor but I just couldn’t take it any more. So I went ahead and called my doc and luckily they saw me at 8:30.
I told my problems and they offered a multitude of solutions. They put me on antibiotics, gave me a decongestant and a cough suppressant with some good old hydrocodone in it. Great stuff! The doc also said that since there is no generic of the tablet version of the decongestant she’d prescribe a liquid that will be cheaper! Super! But before I left she also recommended a steroid injection to reduce the inflammation and help with my ear canal opening up. Who was I to say no? So I got all juiced up today for a $25 copay! Yay!
The prescription for the decongestant ended up being the name brand stuff so it cost $55 while the other two meds were $10 each. I just blew $100 on a stupid ass cold. Makes me pretty pissed off! But by lunch I could equalize my ear and the stuffy feeling was gone so it was money well spent. I hope by tomorrow I’ll be good as new. Another lesson was that just because you have a cold it doesn’t mean you have to skip your workout. Just tough it out and it will make you feel a lot better. Especially while on the juice.
My 33rd birthday with the kids.
Today was my birthday. I knew I was going to have cake. I knew we were going to eat out for dinner. So in anticipation I haev reduced some calories in the morning, skipped my morning breakfast and ate a light dinner. Even with all these precautions I have failed to stay the course of 1,700 calories. I still managed to stay under 2,000 calories which some would still consider absolutely excellent. But given the circumstances I consider it a failure and my week mind. Let me tell you what happened.
For dinner we went to Red Hot & Blue, a barbecue joint. I had my new usual, a pulled pork sandwich with built-in coleslaw, they call it Memphis style, and I had a side of green beans. It was really good and not too bad on the calories. Then we came home and we had cake. The cake I had is called a Black Forest Cake. But this is NOT a Black Forest Cake in the style of a chocolate cake with cherry filling. This, instead, is a frozen confection of meringue layers with whipped cream in between, topped by shaved chocolate. Very light, or so it feels yet full of calories. Obviously the pastry shop has no nutritional information for such item so I had to wing it on my own. I have located a recipe for the cake and managed to add up all the ingredients, assumed that the egg whites dried out 100% and I was able to put together a simple calorie count as well as macronutrient breakdown for the cake. 100 grams of cake had 343 calories. But the problem was that I had 140 grams of it. And the real problem was that I had it in two slices.
That’s right. I actually had two slices of the cake. Had I stopped after the first slice I would be sitting on a 1,701 calorie day. Instead I’m at 1931 calories. That’s 20+ minutes of cardio right there. Was it worth it? I say yes. I don’t get this cake too often, usually on my birthday and maybe one other time at work throughout the year. We had it at our Thanksgiving Pot Luck last month and I opted not to eat any of it. But eating two slices of cake was still excessive and I will have to refrain myself from doing it in the future.
Today’s cardio at lunch felt great! I was pushing it pretty good and despite the horrible morning I had with waking up at 3:50AM with a throbbing ear infection I think I did great. Since I really went overboard with my diet today and had two whole slices of cake I felt I had to make it right by doing an extra 30 minutes of cardio at night for a total of 90 minutes plus the 30 at lunch. I’m feeling a lot less remorse about the second slice of cake now but I’m also not 100% sure the extra cake was worth it. It is a lot of work! I have started watching Modern Family and I’ve just finished episode 5. At the rate I’m going I’ll be back to 30 Rock in no time.
Elliptical
Elliptical
Today was just another back day. I’m trying to maintain my weights but I had a harder time today to keep pulling them. I don’t know if it has to do with just how little carbohydrates I ate the day before or if it’s due to me being a bit under the weather but the numbers don’t lie. I just didn’t feel like today I was as strong as I was a week ago.
Lat Pull
Seated Low Row
Chest Supported Row –Outer Grips
Bench Press
Butterfly
Today’s cardio was excellent. I have kept my average heart rate really high and it burned calories off of me big time! I was watching the season final of Dexter while doing the cardio and I think the intense episode kept my heart pounding, not only the workout. I can’t wait for Dexter to come back on!
Elliptical
Elliptical
Today was a decent day. I’m having a hard time eating 145 grams of calories unless I start my morning with eggs. I will either have to eat more eggs in the morning or replace my morning snack of Cliff bars with a protein shake. This is pretty much the only way for me to get the 145 grams of protein. Why 145 grams of protein? Because I’m trying to eat 1 gram of protein per pound of lean body mass. Since I weigh 212.1 lbs right now and I have 31.4% of fat that leaves me with 145.5 lbs of lean body mass. So I’d like to eat at least 145 grams of protein a day which is not an easy task by itself let alone on 1,700 daily calories.
I was kind of disappointed in the sirloin steak I have made for dinner, it was nowhere near as good as the filet mignon that I have been buying lately. But then again it’s $8/lbs vs. $29/lbs. However I think I rather just eat it less often and get the filet. My next steak will certainly be a filet, I just love that stuff. I was also kind of disappointed how little protein there was in the filet, in the 4.6 oz piece I had it was only 25 grams of protein. That means less than 20% of the meat is actually protein the rest is fat and water. thanks to the fat in the sirloin I had to give up rice at dinner to stay within my calories and only eat broccoli and cauliflower. Then whatever little calorie I had left over I ate 7 pieces of almonds with good fats and a bit of protein. This is how I managed the 1699 calorie count of the day.
