surfastarian

Wisdom: Read voraciously and cultivate optimism. Courage: Engage with others. Self-Control and Endurance: Lift weights and eat well. Creativity: Practice bass. Ingenuity: Build things. Interdependence: Get on couch surfing / maximize online communities. Organization: Purge clutter and manage finances. Ecological connection: Kayak.

Well, still working on the fridge thing. Kinda made it take a backseat. Also revising some of the other experiments. First, going strong on the strong lifts thing. My test last sunday was 9 push ups. Haven't updated signature yet. Will get around to doing that at some point. Dropping the other two experiments. Decided that, as a way of easing myself into this, I focus more on portion control. When I eat something, I never once consider how much of what I'm eating is an acceptable portion. Usually, I just fill my plate up or my glass of whatever it is I want. So, I'm going to start examining my approaches to portions for the time being--see how much I can let leftovers go and stuff like that. That, I think, will be my main battleground. My tendency to be indulgent to the point of self destruction. My goal should be to control that tendency. Other experiment: Scheduling periods of thinking about certain subjects.

You know, I'd forgotten about batch cooking. Or at least, I'd gotten away with it. I read it in one of those Paleo books I bought last year around this time. Probably the same place where I found that tikka masala recipe, come to think of it. That was pretty much why I learned that recipe was because I'd fill up these little tupperware containers with the amount that I'd measured out, and while it took a little bit more effort, every other meal that week was effortless. I think I just ended up getting busy and just got out of the habit of doing that. Senior class from hell kicked in.

Day 2 of experiment phase. Expect mass revision of food related experiment. In other news, I'm attacking my fridge today. Full on offensive right down the middle. Here are the before photos: Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'd done the batch cooking approach once before from a Paleo Cookbook that I bought online, but developed a bad taste in my mouth for it because I think that some of the recipes that were a bit lacking. The beef / seasoning recipe that she recommended turned out bland and a little bit odd tasting. I did do some chicken tikka masala that I ate on regularly, but I can't find that damn recipe anywhere. Also, one of my issues is that most of my favorite meals involve weird processes that I'm not sure how to record on any sort of calorie counter. Such as brining. I fry chicken, and I always always always brine. But I have no idea how brining influences the nutrient content of a food. Same with boiling brats in beer. How many grams of carbs/protein/fat etc would something like that add? Or would it even add any?

Stopped by to snoop on your meal plans. Saw a rubric. Reminded me of work and the impending end of my summer vacation. Nearly had a heart attack.

These look pretty good. One of the things I've been running into with my food (it's always the food battle that gets me) is that I can't seem to stay consistent with it. I can through together one or two really good meals, but I run out of ideas (since I don't want to eat the same thing every day), money, or time. I teach high school, so while I can cook pretty much whatever I want in the summer, but whenever school starts, if I'm really busting it, I'm at work from 7 am until 4:30 or 5, and I hardly have it in me to do any cooking. Half the time, I end up eating junk food, and the other half, I don't eat anything at all, so my eating patterns are all over the place. As a result, it kills any gains that I'd make when I'm lifting, so I eventually fall out of that, too. So my biggest problem isn't making the food, per se, it's making the menu for the week and sticking with that. Do you guys have any ideas or approaches to handling that?

Measurement Day Breakfast: Eggs in basket--One egg, two pieces of turkey bacon, one slice of bread, pat of butter, tablespoon of grape jelly. Half of a banana. Lunch: Dinner: Snacks: Water with some cucumber slices. This wasn't recorded as I have no way of knowing how much sugar I would have gotten from this. It's tempting to assume that the number is negligible, but as I don't know, I'm not going to make that assumption. Sugar Intake: Amount of Pushups completed at 8 pm: 9 Waistline Measurements at 8 pm: Experiment 1: How will the Stronglifts program affect the amount of push-ups that I can do? Hypothesis: While there's no doubt that my number of push-ups will increase, the question is how. I anticipate that they will increase exponentially as not only does my physical strength increase with a weight program, but my psychological fortitude will increase as well, allowing me to power through those moments when I think I can't go on. My ability to withstand stress will increase. Experiment 2: How will reducing my sugar intake affect the size of my waistline? Hypothesis: Focusing on limiting my sugar intake will have a linear affect on decreasing my waistline. (Needs revision). Project to explore: Eating with the mind of a fit man instead of an unfit man. Seeing myself as a fit man first and then making choices that a fit man would make.

Moving my log to here: http://rebellion.nerdfitness.com/index.php?/topic/50236-i-didnt-come-here-and-i-aint-leaving/?p=1098145

Okay, so here is the thing. I am considering abandoning the challenge in favor of trying a different approach. This is not to say that I'm abandoning the site or life improvement or anything like that. I just think that the one main goal, three sub-goals, one life goal, points thing, etc. is a little too unwieldy for my tastes. This isn't a criticism of the method, of course, and I love how people here keep the whole thing in perspective. It's a game, and it's nice to see that everyone acknowledges that. Maybe that's why I feel perfectly safe admitting that I need to try a different approach, and I feel confident knowing that the good folks here will back me up as long as I'm not doing anything too silly (Like trying to get in shape by sitting around on the couch playing Skyrim 24/7 for a week). So here's what I'm developing: I'm going to take an experimental approach, and I'm going to keep track of my experiments in my "Daily Battle Log" as it were. I'm going to approach it Freakonomics style. By the way, if any of you haven't read that book, click over to Amazon and order a copy now. You won't regret it. A few caveats: 1. I'm still formulating my idea. I want to give this idea at least 24 hours to stew, and it's been cooking since 5 pm yesterday, so I'm not going to make any moves until 5 pm today. I threw around a few preliminary concepts in my battle log (also named after a Willie Nelson song). 2. My overall goal / commitments / what-have-you will not change. I want to get better. Period. My methods may be different, but the goal of "leveling up" remains a constant. To Super Destroyer: Even though I'm changing things up a bit, I'm hoping I can still hang out with the warriors and spend some time cheering them on and seeing how their goals work. I still want to get stronger, and conversing with those who are good at this sort of thing will no doubt yield useful information.

See, Muscle Milk itself is actually decent, in my opinion. This is some weird off-brand stuff, though, and it kind of tastes like chemicals.

Rest Day 2. Decided to make today a rest day as well. For one thing, it's a holiday. For another, I've been thinking that now that the weights are starting to get a -- Keyboard is being stupid. Will have to screw it. finish later

Rest Day. Breakfast: 4 pieces of turkey bacon. Two eggs. Three cups of coffee. Lunch: Can't remember. Dinner: Grilled amberjack, shrimp with some kind of spicy seasoning, grilled (steamed) zucchini, four beers throughout the course of the evening. Also encountered two donuts at some point during the day.

Batman would have measured the size of the indentations that his fists made in the bad guys' heads. So he can keep track of his personal best and stuff. Would love to join you, but alas, my Xbox has gone to the place where all good Xboxes go when they die.

Lift Day. Breakfast: One-ish cups of coffee (two unfinished ones, I should say). Two glazed donuts from Dunkin Donuts. Snack: Bit of hummus and about 1/4 of a cucumber. Lunch: Baked pork chop, leftover potatoes, leftover bok choy Post Workout: One of those muscle milk things--Not because I think it's a good idea, but because I was in Ingles at the time and needed something. It tasted awful. Dinner: The other pork chop. Whatever else I find laying around. Two beers. Other notes: Pleased with myself for resisting the temptation to buy a six pack of beer at Kroger today. Well, hm. Still, I'm under my 6 beer limit and it's almost Monday, so there's that. BW: 201 Sq: 90 OHP: 65 DL: 105