Grains, Gauntlets, and 10 Foods For Interplanetary Travel

Hello again! Hope everyone is enjoying the sunshine and having a happy and healthy week. First off, I have to come clean about failing to reach one of my goals. Yep, you guessed it; I gave in to grains on Sunday. I got home from a night out with full intentions of eating some ice cream and hitting the hay (no pun intended, but interestingly hay often includes oat, barley and/or wheat plant materials), but the whoopie pie from the farmer's market and a Katie Bolton peanut butter brownie looked way too delicious to avoid an EUI (eating under the influence; make note because you WILL see this acronym again). I threw up an "L" for the entire day and decided I deserved sandwiches, cookies both cooked and uncooked, and a bowl of cereal even Jethro Bodine would have trouble finishing. In hindsight I'm not too happy about it, but it's time to move on. Perhaps a 2-week goal would have been more realistic to start with, however, I do think I can make it through the rest of the month without another indiscretion.

In other news, last Saturday I competed in the Rebel Race, a 3.1 mile obstacle course through a muddy apple orchard, complete with hay bails, barbed wire and multiple water passes. I finished 3rd in my heat in an extremely taxing, albeit exhilarating 29 minutes. It was my first obstacle race, but it will certainly not be my last; I plan to enter the Warrior Dash in August, and if I'm feeling really stimulated, Tough Mudder in November. Competition is something I have been missing since I hung up the baseball spikes, and this kind of thing is right up my alley because it is a test of "will," as opposed to "can" (either you can bench 300, or you can't). I also feel that a new hobby will provide me with something to work toward, and some incentive on those days I want to just say, "fuck it."

For today, inspired by this post on Mark's Daily Apple, I've decided to post my own list. For you guys that make the mistake of not reading Mark's post, the basic idea is this: if you were going on a 10-year expedition to another planet and you could to program a machine that could create only 10 earth-based foods you would have to survive and thrive on for the duration, what 10 foods would you pick? My hope is that this will inspire some of you to post your own. **Assume all products are organic and free range when possible, and also that I am bringing with me the largest container of crushed red pepper that you could ever imagine.

1.) Chicken breasts - Though it lacks a complete nutritional profile, chicken is my favorite animal to eat and it's loaded with protein. I never get sick of it, and its versatility is incredible.

2.) Eggs - Eggs have it all: highly bioavailable protein, healthy fat, vitamin D, lutein, folate, choline, etc. You can cook these a million different ways as well, and I like them all.

3.) 93/7 ground beef - I definitely enjoy a good steak, but I think I like it ground a little better. Beef: It's what's for dinner, every day for the next 10 years...

4.) Almond butter - my all-time favorite food, I typically consider this "cheating,"only because of my inability to stop eating it like it's pudding. Almonds are far from a diet sabotage, but it's probably not necessary to polish off an entire 16 oz. jar the like I did last Thursday.

5.) Coffee - JUST gets the nod over blueberry green tea. I drink a cup of tea on most days, but I am addicted to the taste of good coffee - I even drink decaf sometimes.

6.) Broccoli - full of vitamins and texture. Good thing it goes great with chicken, eggs, and ground beef.

7&8.) Fish oil supplement and coconut oil - fat is your friend, for  a myriad of reasons. I'm thinking the post about essential fatty acids is coming next week; stay tuned!

9&10.) Ice cream and Jack Daniels - 10 years? I think these are pretty self-explanatory....I have never mixed the two but the way that I labeled this is giving me some crazy ideas.

There you have it. It's basically my shopping list every week anyway, but it was definitely tough to leave some things out. Honorable mentions:

- Everything pizza (wow, imagine the possibilities...on second thought, this takes the place of broccoli, because I would be able to pick that shit off if I had to!)

- Chocolate covered pretzels

- Sweet potatoes

- Whole milk - I just recently started drinking the full-fat variety. I feel that I've been missing out, but what's another 10 years?

- Asparagus - love it, but I don't think I could handle the pee smell in close quarters

- Frank's Red Hot - maybe I could sneak this on there too?

- Any of the 139 types of cereal that are absolutely delicious

I could probably go on, but it's making me hungry. WOD from yesterday:

"Complex movement circuit" - complete 3 sets of 10 of each exercise with 30s rest before moving on

1.) Pullup-to-burpee

2.) DB squat-to-overhead press

3.) DB lunge-to-curl - 5 each leg, 10 curls total

4.) Chinup with hanging leg raise at the top

5.) Navy SEAL pushup (pushup to single-arm DB row) - pushup, row right, row left, pushup, row left, row right. That's 2 reps.

50-30-10: double unders / BW lunges

10-8-6-4-2: ab wipers / med ball cherry pickers

Do something you've been putting off today. "How soon 'not now' becomes 'never.'" - Martin Luther King, Jr.

Quick update and WOD

So, I didn't push myself as intended at the 5k on Saturday. There were a lot of competitors and our start position was toward the back, so I swallowed my pride and stuck with the team. It was still a good time, and we raised over $800 for the Golisano Children's Hospital (plus beat the rain!)

Secondly, I successfully avoided grains through weekend #1 (I did drink some rye whiskey, which does not count because it's fermented and I said so). I also ate more peanut butter and ice cream (best combo ever) than a normal person should after dinner on Sunday night. The late inning collapse puts me at 4-1 for June, tied with the Twins and Giants for the second best record in baseball (behind the 5-0 Texas Rangers). I'll take it. And let's not forget the impressive showing by the softball squad on Thursday night.

WOD: 

Warmup: include 100 jumprope + 50 double unders

3 x Sampson (20s); 10 - OH squat, situp, back ext., pullup, dip

Overhead squat : 5 x 5

1 round:

o      55# kb snatch x 50 (25 each arm)

o      Dips x 50

o      135 lb deadlift x 50

o      Lateral barbell jumps x 50 (double count)

o      800m sprints (3, with 3:00 rest)

"Civilize the mind, but make savage the body." - Mao Zedong

Winning (for Warriors).

Good morning, friends, and happy June! It's been a long (shitty) winter/spring, but it looks like summer has finally arrived in Rochester. Inspired by Charlie Sheen, I'm going to be doing my best to "win here, and win there" this summer (Attention: Fairport Village Inn Softball...SACK UP!). I urge you to do the same, and I'm not just talking about slow-pitch softball; a new month and new season can mean a fresh start in any aspect of your life. You just have to want it to.

It starts with setting specific and attainable goals. Think about what you want to achieve today. This week. This month. By this time NEXT YEAR. What's stopping you?! Nothing stands in the way of a warrior. Personally, my goals for the month of June are:

- Get re-certified in AED/CPR and finish studying for NASM exam so I can take the exam in July

- Beat my time in the 5k for Kenya at the Stroll for Strong Kids 5k on June 4*

- Enjoy the sunshine (friends, family, workouts, etc.)

- Avoid grains**

- Try new things (not exactly "specific," but this world has so much to offer, it would be a shame if this weren't on your list, too.)

* This Saturday I will running for Team Cody in the Golisano Children's Hospital Stroll for Strong Kids 5k. Cody is my girlfriend Michelle's 4 year old nephew. He has Williams Syndrome and he is awesome. You can visit Team Cody's page and donate to the Golisano Children's Hospital here. Better yet if you'd like to participate in the run, feel free to join the team (Michelle will run with you but I'm not waiting up).

** Dietary carbohydrates are arguably the most controversial issue in the fitness and nutrition world today. I have yet to develop a definitive opinion, but I know certainly don't agree with the food pyramid recommendation of 6-11 servings of grains daily. This month I'm making a strong effort to embrace the Primal lifestyle as described by Mark Sisson of Mark's Daily Apple. As I described in my first post I generally avoid carbohydrates anyway, but I'm going to attempt to eliminate cereals and grains for the entire month. Check out this video for my reasoning.

June 1 was easy. I fasted until 3PM and here's what I ate afterward:


3:00PM - can of Wild Planet tuna steak (with 40g protein and 15g fat, including 3460mg of Omega-3 --- more on fish and essential fatty acids in a future posting, I promise), ~2 cups of steamed broccoli


5:30PM (post workout) - 1 scoop of all natural protein blend (equal ratios of whey isolate, hydrolyzed whey, micellar casein) in 12 oz. organic whole milk (future posts: dairy fat and when to go organic), 1/3 of a large sweet potato


7:30PM - 3 whole hard boiled eggs, small (~3 oz.) bison steak, ~1.5 cups steamed asparagus, ~1.5 cups spring mix dressed with extra virgin olive oil and apple cider vinegar 


9:30PM - 3 egg whites fried in coconut oil, another small bison steak, ~1.5 cup spring mix dressed with half of a mashed avocado


I'm going for another "win" today. As for you, set those goals and don't let anything keep you from reaching them! In fact, share them in the comments section. I really would prefer to derive my postings from comments, questions, and suggestions from you folks, so please let me know what you're thinking!


As always, WOD:


Strength: 6 x 1 dead lift (progress to *max*)
Work capacity: As many rounds as possible in 10 minutes
   - 9 hanging leg raise
   - 15 pushups
   - 21 box jumps (20-24 in.)
Durability: 3 sets of any twisting core exercise


"Success is not final; failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts." - Winston Churchill