Friday, July 9th

The Knot just emailed me a reminder that Mike's and my wedding is only 9 months away!  :-) Very exciting, so much left to do...

Anyways, down to business.

Workout Journal:

- Warm-up: 15 minute walk to the gym, 3 minutes of jumping rope

 
- Squats: 1 set of 12 bodyweight.  I’m usually pretty good at form but I realized today that mine is pretty crummy, or that I’m very weak when I actually do them correctly.  So I did 3 sets of 12 with a bar that probably weighed about 20 lbs, and it was always difficult on the bottom, getting just past 90 degrees.

 
-Bench press: 3 sets of 12 reps with the olympic bar, touching the bar to my chest at the bottom.  I tried to keep my time between sets to 60 seconds, but after the second set, I took 5 minutes to recover.  I wouldn’t have been able to do the 3rd set otherwise.

I intended to do more but I was pretty wiped after those two exercises.  I’m going to have to kick it up a notch next week, for sure.  My mother, the personal trainer, is going to send me some workouts because I completely lack the creativity to come up with them on my own.

When I was researching what I could do to squat more weight and with better form, I came across the Box Squat.  Here’s Dave Tate (who’s apparently an expert -- a fitness guru, even -- he was quoted on many, many websites) explaining how and what to do:



Obviously, I would start with no weight, then go up to very little weight.  In another video, he suggests you start at a doable height (so that you’re going back far enough and also not dropping at the end) then gradually lower the box.  

Anyways, I thought it was interesting.  Squats are such an amazing exercise, I want to make sure I’m going them correctly.


Food Journal:

- Breakfast: Nil.  Wasn’t really intentional but I went to the gym so I didn’t eat anything beforehand.  Even though people say you shouldn’t skip breakfast, or meals, paleo diets often encourage intermittent fasting (or IF) to mimic life in the wild (cavemen and women didn’t always sit down for meals at 9, 12, and 6 because they didn’t always know where the meal would come from).  It has benefits.  You can read about them here. (I love, love, love this website: Mark’s Daily Apple.)

 
- Lunch: 2 hard-boiled eggs, part of an avocado (it was mostly bad, unfortunately), and a banana.  Coffee with cream.

 
- Snack: More coffee.  With cream.

 
- Dinner: My advisor went and got some really fun ingredients from the fancy market.  We had hamburgers wrapped in bacon, with some melted goat cheese on top, as well as some sauteed mushrooms and onions.  Then, on the side, some steamed sugar snap peas with a little butter.  Delish!

 
- After dinner: Decaf coffee with cream.  (Maybe I drink too much coffee?) Also, I was craving chocolate so I had 4 of those dark chocolate truffles that are still sitting around the kitchen.  But no wine, at least. I just brushed my teeth, so I’m done for the night!

*Note: I will start taking photos of my food soon, but I don’t really want to look like a wierdo in front of my advisor.