Day 16 - food!

After a few weeks of running around this weekend was about laying low and relaxing. With this much time I actually got to make some interesting food for a change. Roasted a couple of chicken breasts. Seared some swordfish. Tried making bulgur wheat (it was easy and awesome) and also picked up some cous cous to round out the grains department. I ate lotus root (great), fresh steamed spinach, zucchini, tomatoes, red onion, mushrooms, garlic, peppers, cucumbers, carrots and avocado. On the fruit front I had pomegranite (good, but far more effort than it was worth), mango, cherries, banana, and apple. Mmm... good stuff.

Day 14 - time flies

Two weeks down already? Time flies when you're having fun. And yes, I'm actually having fun. The project is taking a lot of time, the food is boring, I'm being a bit anti-social - but it is all good. I'm feeling good, I know changes are going on for the better... awesome. In a month I suspect I'll be less excited about how things are going, but I'm not going to let that get me down now.

I worked out with George yesterday. Good stuff. Always more fun and better drive working out with someone else to push you a bit. Best of all, he cooked dinner and on PCP the best meal is any one that you don't need to cook/weigh yourself.

I picked up a leather jump rope when I was in HK, I know some people in the last crew were using them and liked them. Tried it out today for the 800 jumps. The rope itself is much lighter than the rubber one I usually use, whole different feel to it. I can't believe I actually have preferences about what kind of rope I jump with, me from 6 months ago wouldn't get this at all.

Day 11 - working out at home

The last two days I've actually managed to work out in my apartment! I'm at work around 7 each morning, so exercise before work is seriously tough. I end up working out at the gym in my apartment building after work and since I don't usually get home until 7ish that is ugly. It takes some real mental energy to get home, get changed and then go back out to workout. The last two days I finally managed to pull off the whole routine in my apartment and it was awesome.

Wall to wall carpet and regular apartment height ceilings always kept me from jumping at home, but I've made it work. New band has a door anchor, so got that sorted. Dips off the side of a recliner. Inclines under my desk. It isn't perfect, but it ain't bad. Still need a solution for pull ups, but we're not there yet.

Started to feel achey today. Part of it is a cold that I can feel coming on, but mostly it was in the muscles. Started feeling burn in the legs, biceps and shoulders. Awwww yeah. Love the burn. Hurts, but lets you know you're doing it right. Bring on day 12!

Day 9 - back in Tokyo

Flew back home today. Landed around 9, home at 10 (how much nicer is it to fly to Haneda than Narita??), drop off bags, head to grocery store, buy food, home, cook lunch for tomorrow, make tea, eat apple, prep breakfast. Now it is 11:30 and time to fall over.

HK was great. Last two days of diet were a bit more flexible than they should have been, but weren't too bad for being on the road. Didn't eat 6 times a day, but did manage to stick to dishes like steamed chicken and salmon. Had a bit of white rice but went with grains like quinoa and cous cous where I could. Not too bad and now that I'm home everything is prepped to the gram.

Workouts were good. Got to exercise with Aki on Saturday, she has mad jumprope skills - don't let her fool you. Couldn't find a place to do inclines at the hotel so did pulldowns instead. Other than that everything has been according to plan. I'm excited to get back to "normal" PCP routine here in Tokyo this week.

Day 8 - still in HK

PCP is a bit harder on the road. Good thing that this week's exercises didn't take too long, I managed to get them in every day even if I didn't manage to blog about it. Food was fine, in some ways even easier being on the road. At home when I'm making a meal I have to make the call on what I would have had and what half would be. On the road I have a much better grip on what I would order and I know I'd clear my plate so I just eat half of whatever a restaurant brings. Today and tomorrow will be harder. Last night I went to dinner with friends, got a steak, cut it in half. Tonight I'm out to dinner and will have to figure out how to compose a meal from the menu with approximately (no interest in carrying a scale!) the right amounts for the new diets and keeping as close as I can to the rest of the guidelines. Most restaurants wouldn't do too well with "can I have 120 grams post cooked weight of cod, 100g of brown rice and 180g of steamed veg all with no salt, butter or oil?" It won't be perfect, but I'll get close and while traveling I'm ok with that. Tomorrow night I'll be back in Tokyo and can hit the diet full on.

It was great to spend a few days in the HK office and get to spend some time with Nick. This afternoon Aki and I are meeting up to work out together. Working out on my own is fine, but doing it with someone else is fun and always makes me push a little bit harder.

Day 4 - off to HK

Cut out of work early because I'm catching a flight to HK this afternoon and working from there for the rest of the week. Had time to sneak in my workout before I head off to the airport and it was awesome. I usually work out pretty late, around 7 or 8 pm or later. Would love to work out before work, but I would need to wake up around 4:30 am to do that. Haven't found a good answer for working out during the lunch break so I usually do it after I get home at night.

Doing the exercise at 1:30pm was a whole different ballgame. Felt much more coordinated, better energy, better rhythm. I guess none of this should really come as a surprise, but it is. Next week when I get back I'm going to check out the places around the office and try to get lunchtime workouts in at least a couple times a week.

Day 3 - support

Support makes a huge difference. It is awesome to have members of Team Orange Crush It, Running Rats and Fantastic Carrot following the project. We got our new teams today, looking forward to getting rolling with the new crew but we're definitely going to need to come up with a better name than Group Zelus.

Day 2

Two days in and one thing is already clear, it is much easier to work out when someone else is telling you what to do. Over the last month when I did hit the gym if I didn't have a solid plan before I started then I would end up wasting a lot of time in the gym figuring out what to do and how much of it to do. Making a plan ahead of time meant doing the work ahead of time and figuring out what I needed to work on. Much easier to just open that day's PDF and follow the instructions.

Workouts are pretty smooth so far. 3 months ago when 250 jumps was a major undertaking that probably involved 100 trips seems like a lifetime ago. I'm still lousy at jumping, but it is a whole lot better than it was.

Day 1 - here we go

What can I say? I'm a glutton for punishment.

I'm not talking about the fact that I finished 3 months of Foundation just a month ago, I'm talking about the 30 years before that of getting to the point where I needed this. The journey began last fall, psyched to kick it up a level and get into the best shape of my life!