Diet and Exercise

It's almost a month before I head to HI to see mom. Now that she's recovered from cancer, the drugs, radiation and congenital heart failure, she wants to start walking and getting her strength back. She finds it much easier to exercise daily if she has a partner, so I'll be walking w/ her every day.

I did bootcamp and South Beach in fall 2007 for 2 months, lost 17lbs, then gained half of it back over the holidays. The first 2 weeks of South Beach, with no fruit, was so miserable that I don't want to try it again. While perusing the web I found this workout and diet schedule by Tim Ferriss. Even if the final numbers look outrageously high (I'm guessing his body put on a lot of water weight, it's not physically possible to gain that much muscle in so short a time), I'd be thrilled to do half that well. Doing weights twice a week is certainly managable.

So I picked a few multi-joint exercises and did them. I've never done a deadlift before, they always looked off balance and I was worried I'd hurt my back. They felt odd, but I didn't kronk anything. And my hamstrings were sore for days afterwards.

You are suppose to each exercise to failure, which I've never done, though I've lifted weights for years. What was suppose to be 1 set of 10 reps per exercise became 2 or more sets as I kept upping the amount of weight, trying to get to failure. I can lift way more than I thought. Course, for 3 days after the first workout I was wobbly, sore and shaky. I can see why you are only suppose to do this twice a week. It takes that long for your body to recover between workouts.

The food is easy - slow carbs, legumes, meat, and I throw in the occasional piece of fruit. And a half glass of wine a night. I picked up a few bottles of my favorite reds that I have to vacuvin every night, so they don't turn to vinegar by the time I finish the bottle. Not optimal, but I don't have the ability to drink wine faster than a glass a night, even if I'm not on a 'diet'. I have to have it with dinner, instead of before bed as he does it, since I'm a complete lightweight and end up blitzed and spinning while laying in bed.

Another high point of the diet is that you are Suppose to eat crap once a week. I don't have to hold off for weeks at a time, or have only a few bites as a splurge. Which means I can plan to go crazy for Valentine's day with cheese and chocolate fondues.

I'm already seeing the scale changes, and it's only been 4 days.