I got back from a pretty all-over-the-place vacation at around 1:30am and was up and out the door at 7am for a nice 4-mile run to kick off the week. Somehow, through surviving an absolutely insane car crash that still has me wondering how the hell I made it out alive, then getting from Albany to NH to hang on the beach for a couple days, then to Boston, spent time with two aunts, an uncle, three cousins, a grandmother, saw my sister, visited my Moms grave, then back out to Norwich, NY to see all of Lindsey huge family, and we still ate extremely well and got all our workouts in!
So, it's another one of those "we need a vacation after our vacation" situations. But, I was able to wake up this morning with some real good energy and felt awesome getting an evening workout in with Big Dan while the crazy rain began to come down in DC. I hit 4 sets of 3 at 325# on the back squat and really felt like I cheated myself there (should have gone up to 345#...oh well) and then was able to bang out some solid work with completely unassisted glute/ham raises and roll outs with a 52# sandbag on my back. Weakness is NOT the lower half, it's the core (mostly the low back), so that is going to be a focus of my supplementary work over the next month.
Besides training, which I feel is going very well as of now, I am having a grand ol' time testing out different things with the diet. Red meat is just not treating me as well as I had hoped and not only did it mess with my GI system last week, but it also aided in some serious grogginess when i woke up in the morning. So, I am taking that out completely for the next two weeks to see if it truly was the culprit. I am also taking out the extra protein pre-bedtime that i'd been taking in. My pre-bed meal will now consist of 2 tbsp almond butter and celery; I am curious if that will hep my sleep a little, but mostly curious to see how it effects my wake-up mood. The only other change I have made is to cut out not only the oatmeal, but also the sweet potatoes. I am not opposed to consuming complex carbs like the Paleo zealots in the CrossFit world, but I am curious to see how my body will respond to none at all for a week or two. And who knows, perhaps I'll feel awesome and stick to it! All I know is that i am having so much fun experimenting with all this food stuff. I am learning more than ever an i really feel an extremely close connection to food and my body. Case in point: Yesterday I let myself go a bit at Lindsey's family gathering, I indulged in plenty of your typical cook-out specialties including my fair share of desserts. Besides the expected boated feeling, and general lethargy and fatigue, I formed a splitting headache as well, something I am generally not used to getting very often. I have read recently of people getting headaches as a side effect to gluten consumption and I have been so far removed from gluten over the past 6 months that i am convinced that had something to do with it (I've been MOSTLY gluten free now for about 2 years). It was so intriguing to me to have such distinct and immediate reactions to what I consumed and I hope to keep up with these different experiments and believe me, I will be sharing all my experiences with all of you!
Well, that's it for today, just a little welcome back post. But now that I am back into the daily grind I will also be back into the regular posts! Hope everyone had an awesome 4th of July (with any near-death experiences!) and Hope everyone has some exciting plans for the rest of the summer!
Never Stop, GET FIT.
Josh Courage
So, it's another one of those "we need a vacation after our vacation" situations. But, I was able to wake up this morning with some real good energy and felt awesome getting an evening workout in with Big Dan while the crazy rain began to come down in DC. I hit 4 sets of 3 at 325# on the back squat and really felt like I cheated myself there (should have gone up to 345#...oh well) and then was able to bang out some solid work with completely unassisted glute/ham raises and roll outs with a 52# sandbag on my back. Weakness is NOT the lower half, it's the core (mostly the low back), so that is going to be a focus of my supplementary work over the next month.
Besides training, which I feel is going very well as of now, I am having a grand ol' time testing out different things with the diet. Red meat is just not treating me as well as I had hoped and not only did it mess with my GI system last week, but it also aided in some serious grogginess when i woke up in the morning. So, I am taking that out completely for the next two weeks to see if it truly was the culprit. I am also taking out the extra protein pre-bedtime that i'd been taking in. My pre-bed meal will now consist of 2 tbsp almond butter and celery; I am curious if that will hep my sleep a little, but mostly curious to see how it effects my wake-up mood. The only other change I have made is to cut out not only the oatmeal, but also the sweet potatoes. I am not opposed to consuming complex carbs like the Paleo zealots in the CrossFit world, but I am curious to see how my body will respond to none at all for a week or two. And who knows, perhaps I'll feel awesome and stick to it! All I know is that i am having so much fun experimenting with all this food stuff. I am learning more than ever an i really feel an extremely close connection to food and my body. Case in point: Yesterday I let myself go a bit at Lindsey's family gathering, I indulged in plenty of your typical cook-out specialties including my fair share of desserts. Besides the expected boated feeling, and general lethargy and fatigue, I formed a splitting headache as well, something I am generally not used to getting very often. I have read recently of people getting headaches as a side effect to gluten consumption and I have been so far removed from gluten over the past 6 months that i am convinced that had something to do with it (I've been MOSTLY gluten free now for about 2 years). It was so intriguing to me to have such distinct and immediate reactions to what I consumed and I hope to keep up with these different experiments and believe me, I will be sharing all my experiences with all of you!
Well, that's it for today, just a little welcome back post. But now that I am back into the daily grind I will also be back into the regular posts! Hope everyone had an awesome 4th of July (with any near-death experiences!) and Hope everyone has some exciting plans for the rest of the summer!
Never Stop, GET FIT.
Josh Courage
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