State of My Arts

In a previous post, I mentioned that I was looking into several internet products on the subject of nutrition.  I decided to go ahead and purchase the Fat Loss Troubleshoot/Metabolic Repair Manual.  If you are interested in more full reviews of the product, check out the reviews at Skwigg Blog and Alwyn Cosgrove’s blog.  From my perspective, there was a lot in there I already knew, but plenty more that I didn’t.  It isn’t for everyone (especially priced at $77), but I’m hoping it’ll be a bit of a spur for me to improve my nutrition.

So far I’m just making minor changes.  What I should do is create some daily meal plans and get myself on a good schedule of measured portions.  I haven’t gotten to that yet, though.  My normal weekday schedule consists of:

Breakfast: massive bowl of oatmeal and peanut butter (nearly 550 calories)
Second Breakfast: Sliced apple dipped in 3/4 cup of 1% cottage cheese
Lunch: 700-1000 calories of over-processed, high sodium foods
Dinner: 500-600 calories of over-processed, high sodium foods (such as Lean Pockets)
Snacks (if needed): Almonds, carrots, 100-calorie popcorn
Treat: Ghirardelli 60% cacao dark chocolate square

So my lunch and dinners have been leaving much to be desired.  Lunch is often a hoagie (aka sub, grinder, or a hero depending on where you live), which is middling okay.  But sometimes I get Chinese, or Taco Bell.  Other times I get salad-by-the-pound plus a slice of pizza.  I could really improve matters by making my own food and bringing it in.  But that’s where the laziness comes in.

After I get back from the dojang (7:30-8:30, usually), I don’t often feel like making my own food.  Sometimes I’ll have another bowl of oatmeal, but over the last few months I have often been in a Lean Pockets rut.  This past week I made some healthier food (beef & couscous, chicken & pasta), and I hope to continue that trend.

My breakfasts and snacks aren’t too bad.  My morning oatmeal (around 7:45 AM) is something that I’m not willing to give up.  I make it nice and thick with 1 1/3 cups of oatmeal and 1 1/2 tablespoons of peanut butter.  The apples and cottage cheese is new — I had been doing a meal replacement shake until last week.  Either way is slightly over 200 calories, but the apples and cottage cheese keeps me satisfied longer.  Snacks are only when I need them.

Next on my nutrition docket is improving my pre- and post-workout nutrition.  I should have something both before and after I workout (as I laid out in my last post), especially on those days I’m working out for several hours.  It is a journey.

Fitness

I really didn’t mean to go nearly two weeks between posts.  I actually thought I posted a few days ago, but it turns out I merely left it as a draft.

Here’s my current workout plan that I started last Tuesday:

Sunday: P90x upper body/abs
Monday: Advanced TKD; Kali
Tuesday: P90x upper body/abs; Teaching beginner TKD
Wednesday: Hapkido; Teaching intermediate TKD; Advanced TKD
Thursday: Rest!
Friday: P90x upper body/abs; Hapkido
Saturday: TKD (90 minutes)

There are several P90x upper body routines: Chest & Back; Shoulders & Arms; Chest, Shoulders & Triceps; and Back & Biceps.  I’ve only tried the first two so far, and they are definitely good, challenging workouts.  The Chest & Back workout involves lots of chin ups, so for me that involves cheating (only lifting some of my body weight).  My shoulders just aren’t that strong yet.  My left arm is far weaker than my right — my left arm will fail on the final move while my right could have done more weight/reps.  Hopefully that left arm will catch up.  I haven’t had issues with my surgically repaired shoulder doing the lifting programs.  When I first started doing push ups (a couple of months back), the scar tissue would crackle and pop, but that is no longer happening.  So full speed ahead with strengthening.

Another quirk to my workout schedule is that I like to play tennis.  I almost invariably play with the same guy, and we keep it very light and active when we play.  We don’t bother serving or playing games, we’ll just rally back and forth workout ground strokes, approaches, and point construction.  So it is a good cardio workout.  We often play on Sunday (when my partner isn’t injured), so that will make for a tough double workout on those days.  We’ll see how that goes.

Fitness, Training