Wow tomorrow is day 80!

I can't believe there are only 11 days left. Well tomorrow I will hopefully get a short post in because I will have a busy day I want to leave something each day for sure. Even if it's really short.

Later this week I'll be back with a long post about my awesome hiking/climbing/trail-running/amateur film-making trip to Letchworth State Park hear in NY. It's the Grand canyon of the east, and boy did me and my best friend Jason have a LOAD of fun. More on that later.

So for my indulgence I sampled many things. It all came to the 1,000 calories and boy was it a LOT of food. 

So this is what I had. And how it tasted. I got everything at Wegmans again because it is my most favorite place on earth.

1 cup New england clam chowder - Amazing, not salty at all, potatoes nice and soft, plenty of clams. Creamy and good and warm

1 slice garlic cheese pizza, dipped in marinara - Awesome but greasy. I put parmesan and red pepper on it too. I should have skipped the parm because it was too salty. Over-all a very good choice, the marinara was pure awesomeness. Plum tomatoes and basil freshly pureed all the way baby!

2 glasses spiced apple cider - Amazing and it will never get old. I love that taste

1 pumpkin square - Great! But the sugar on top ruined it. So me and Jason are gonna make PCP worthy ones. After all the man is a chef. It had a whole wheat and walnut crust which could stay the same, and the pumpkin on top could have been a little thicker. But it's only pumpkin so pile it on! Veggie servings! And instead of a crumbly sugar topping, which made it WAY too sweet for my PCP taste, we were thinking either only sprinkling cinnamon and nutmeg on top OR if you want to be a little non-PCP drizzling some thin lines of some 80% dark chocolate to bring down the total sweetness of the dish.

Observations - My stomach was PACKED. It was all very good and I am happy with the whole meal and this part was really neat. Hoe I treated it mentally. It would not be easy for me to start eating that stuff all the time because in my head it was a "one-time thing" so-to-speak. So even though post-PCP I may have occasional indulgences what I am saying is that is all they ever will be. My body is not used to that, neither is my taste buds, so getting back into a habit of doing that would require time, money, and many trips to the bathroom. All of which I don't want to spend to start eating unhealthy again.

Over-all my body took it fine. A little sugar rush from the cider and pumpkin bar. A little upset stomach from the grease on the pizza. But not too bad. My best and most thought out indulgence yet!

Until tomorrow have a good one!

Week 8 is here with a bunch of exciting stuff!

Hey guys so here are all my updates for Week 8 so far. A lot of stuff to go over so here we go!

SECTION 1: Diet

Breakfast 120g carb 140g veg 2egg  200ml yogurt (up 20g carb, up 20g veg)

Morning Tea 100g fruit (same)

Lunch 140g carb 120g meat 150g veg 1egg white (up 20g carb, up 20g meat)

Afternoon Tea 100g fruit (same)

Dinner 100g carb 50g meat 100g veg (up 50g carb, up 50g meat, up 20g veg)

Night Tea 100g fruit 200ml milk (up 20g fruit, up 50ml milk, down 1 egg white)

Before Workout 50g carb (same)

After Workout 2 eggs white (up 1 egg white)

Comments: I am eating a ton of food now. This is about as much as when we started our diets in week 2! It's hard to actually eat all of this and keep it straight. But I'm doing my best and eating it all every day. My belly feels huge after breakfast and lunch because I have to pack it all in! It's crazy. But it's what we need of course with our active schedules. And this is definitely more carbs than I ever ate on a regular basis.

SECTION 2: Workouts

I'm going to spare all of the details this week since nothing has really changed. We only have a new biceps workout called the show-off and elevated push-ups for new exercises. And the new concept of working to muscle failure is now mandatory for a few exercises. That's really nice because we can get away from the numbers, just like with times jump-roping. So for example if you do 4 sets to failure you work to failure on every set and naturally the amount you can do decreases with every set.

And we are doing 4 set of 4 minutes of jump-roping. I am having a great time with it actually because I am really spicing it up now with tricks and things. I have developed this way of jumping I call the PCP shuffle. More on that later.

SECTION 3: Indulgence Version 2

So my second indulgence was INDIAN FOOD! I have wanted it so badly for so long! It is my all time favorite food ever.

So I went to this great restaurant called Thali of India and got some seafood masala with basmati rice and garlic naan.

Sadly I have no pictures. 

So I quickly devoured my 700 or so calories. I evjoyed every bite it was so tasty and amazing! However it was much saltier tasting than ever before and that was the only downside. I loved the spicy goodness and the garlic naan tasted so good.

However I ate the naan last and then is when I started feeling gross. It was the most white flour I had had in probably 3 months and it sat really heavy in my stomach and a few minutes late I really started to churn. 

So over-all it was a great indulgence but the downsides were too much salt, so I felt bloated the rest of the day and next morning. And the greasiness of the food made me gassier than usual and the white flour made me sluggish. 

All along there a few things I thought I will change in minor ways after the PCP. I was thinking from time to time I may enjoy some 85% dark chocolate. Make myself fresh OJ like usual (2 Oranges, half grape-fruit, half lemon is my usual recipe) and I really want to start making wine and hard cider. 

All of those things aren't unhealthy and I'm sure I will have allowance for them after the project. As my indulgence 1 showed me however the days of chocolate cake are over. So what about Indian food you may ask? well the answer is after the PCP I will do much experimentation to develop awesome indian homemade recipes that cut out the salt and butter, and awesome whole wheat garlic naan! 

Because man I can't give up those spices.

Have a good one every body!

Week 5 Workouts, Day 30!, Indulgence and a New Record!

So here is a varied and exciting post for you. I have been so busy and I admit the blog is the lowest on the priority list. But I'm here everyday to comment and read everyone else's because often it gives me the energy boost I need!

SECTION 1: Workouts (As usual I will post the range we are given and my projected goals)

Workout 1

Jumprope: 1600 (max - first time it hasn't increased)

Floor-jumps: 4 x 8-10 (max)

Incline Pull-up: 5 x 10-15 (12-12-10-10-10)

Push-up: 5 x 8-10 (max)

Curl: 4 x 10-15 (max)

Davinci (aka Side Shoulder-fly): 4 x 15-18 (15-15-15-15)

V-sit: 5 x 8-10 (max)

Workout 2

Jumprope: 1600 (max)

Creep: 4 x 12-16 (max)

Rowing: 5 x 15-20 (max)

Chest-fly: 4 x 15-18 (max)

Ski-Jumper: 4 x 10-15 (max)

Forward Shoulder-raise: 4 x 8-10 (max)

Plank: 4 x 40 seconds (max)

Notes: Workout 2 I will have marked ease on. I really like those exercises (minus anything to do with shoulders I hate!). Also the leg exercises this week are great for Parkour! Especially for the muscles necessary to roll, cat-walk, and land from leaps/jumps. I am going to order a pull-up bar to start using because that should help push my back muscles. But I am a little worried at the increase in just incline ones, I can destroy the first 2 sets usually but by the end can get the minimum so I have to pace myself.

SECTION 2: Day 30!

So We are a 1/3 of the way done with our project which is insane! I am feeling great and at times even though my enthusiasm wanes coming back here and putting on the PCP mentality really gets me ready to rock. Kazu from the PCP Japan group, left an awesome comment on my Flickr about all the visible muscular improvement and it really meant a lot to know that he sees that much improvement! As far as I understand Kazu works with massage therapy so he knows his stuff. Go check out his Flickr steam and you won't believe where is with the end of Week 6 from the beginning. The man is rocking it. 

So thanks all my readers for sticking with me and sharing things PCP with me in daily life too it helps so much. And thanks to my sister who recently allowed my to eat my PCP-sized breakfast and lunch at her house! 

PCP coming to fridge near you!

SECTION 3: Indulgence

Who: My best-friend Jason wanted to be present for this and I totally understand why. He is very supportive of me doing the PCP and I'm glad he was there to share this WACKY experience.

What: A slice of Ultimate Chocolate Cake, made by Wegmans. The most awesome chain of grocery stores in the USA. Seriously. They are amazing and this time of year really support all our local farmers. Not to mention they make all kinds of great prepared foods from sushi, to indian, salad bars, and pizza. On top of that the very large 2-story store in Pittsford NY  where we did my indulgence. In that store is an amazing little tea-bar that's part of the store. Going and sampling from the 100's of loose leaf teas they offer is very cool. To accompany my cake I had freshly brewed "lemon-black" iced tea with no sweetener. Amazing.

When: At Patrick's suggestion around 6pm. That gave me enough time to burn it off and not lose sleep. Not to mention it was before work-out.

Where: As I said. Tea-bar at Wegmans.

Why: I used to pound this cake down pre-PCP. I have a huge sweet tooth and love chocolate.  So I figured this was a good first indulgence before my body is so used to healthy food that maybe i go into shock later on in the project by something so rich and sweet.

How: I don't know how. I got really hard after the second bite.

Notes/Summary: So the first bite was delicious. The second also. But by the time I got the middle layer of icing I was starting to get sick. For the first time in a month I had a sinking feeling in my stomach and knew I would have to muscle down the rest. So my the time I got to the think layer of icing on top I was forcing it down and was not very happy. But shortly after I got a HUGE sugar rush. I usually am very desensitized to things like that, caffeine, sugar etc. But I felt this for sure. Jason was having a ball with all my crazy ideas and wackiness that starting spewing forth. I didn't think anything of it but I went back and checked out Patrick's indulgence on a chocolate chip cookie and he mentioned the flowing of ideas coupled with a crazy sugar rush. This lasted a good few hours and through dinner and work-out. Actually I never felt a crash because I went to bed early. But I could not wake up at ALL in the morning and was drowsy until about noon. It was nuts. And (I know it's gross) it made me constipated. So in the future (post-PCP) I may at times enjoy a small portion of 85% dark chocolate (it does have benefits) but never cake again.

So please, consider what you are putting into your body.

Oh and here is a pic of the Tea-bar. All the glasses on those shelves are snifters of the loose-leaf teas they offer. It had a neat pagoda style entrance on the other side too. Great place. One thing I want to do is make my own herbal tea sometime.

SECTION 4: Jumprope Record

So Adrian and Emiko have had huge recent success in Jumprope and I tell you what week 4 might just be the week that your cardio hits the "groove." That what I call it when you feel like you could go forever once you do about 300 and your body realizes this isn't so hard stop panicking and just keep jumping! So I crushed my old record of 374 with 790! IN-A-FREAKIN'-ROW!!!! Without tripping!

I was so excited I don't know how I did it but I did and my mind got the better of me and got distracted. 

So anyway that's about it for now I'll blog again In a couple days. Have a nice weekend everyone I'm off to workout!

Sleep

So yesterday I was going to try to sleep from 9pm on. I wound up going to bed at 10 pm and like usual falling asleep at 10:05. I sleep very well in any and all circumstances. And usually it can be perpetual to the point of I HAVE to get up because I'm to hungry or have to use the bathroom. So I will try the experiment again sometime. My goal is to make it easier to get up earlier and I haven;t had a day to sleep-in a lot since the project started so I want to put a day aside to shake off my sleep debt.

I'll let you know how that goes.

I took my rest day today because I was so busy but my cardio abilities are a lot better. It feels like I can jump forever without getting that "winded" feeling. 

Patrick mentioned in our e-mail for tomorrow (He's in Japan so it's form the future) that around now we might have a hard time with our cravings or maybe just wanting to eat "stuff." It's true! I have been so hungry with this cut-down diet that things I haven't had (or in very small quantities) for months before the PCP (like cookies, candy, etc) are seeming appetizing. The smell is what gets me. I guess when it comes to hunger my body is still like "Give me something!"

We also got the green-light on out indulgence #1. Trust me it's gonna be an adventure I have some great ideas up my sleeve. And you will find this very interesting in the posts to come. I am really curious as to how my body will now react to sugars, salts, and really spicy food, which I haven't made since on the project I have kept things fairly mild.

So other than that nothing is new. Have a great night everyone. Rest well and often!