Leaning challenge, week 4

Monday
Breakfast - 3 egg scramble with peppers and onions, two slices bacon
Snack - nugo organic bar
Lunch - spinach and mixed greens salad with veggies, 4oz salmon
Snack - nugo organic bar, diet coke
Afternoon crossfit workout
Dinner - 2oz sweet potato, 2 hebrew national hot dogs, vegan protein shake
Snack - blueberries and whip cream

Tuesday
Breakfast - scramble with peppers and onions, and 2 slices of bacon
Lunch - Spinach salad with salmon at the cafeteria
Dinner - summer sausage, sweet potato, blueberries and whip cream

Wednesday
Breakfast scramble with peppers and onions, and 2 slices of bacon
Lunch - Spinach salad with salmon
Snack - nugo organic bar
Crossfit workout with Duncan
Dinner - 2 hot dogs, tsp of peanut butter and 2oz sweet potato

Thursday
Breakfast AMRAP nutrition bar, paleo beef sticks
Lunch - Nugo organic bar
Snack - hand full of jelly bellies :(
Dinner - Omelet with Goat cheese and salsa, sweet potato

Friday
Brunch - Attitude cleanse juice
Lunch - Lamb curry with mango chutney, hold the cous cous and pita.
Dinner - Summer sausage and beef jerky in the car on the way to Chelan. Several glasses of wine after arrival

Saturday
Crossfit Workout at Chelan Valley CF in Manson
Breakfast - omelet
Lunch - wine tasting starting at about 1pm. A box of Mike and Ike's got consumed along with bbq chicken and kale salad
Dinner - more wine tasting and a big steak covered in grilled onions and bleu cheese.
Dessert - more wine

Sunday
Hot Yoga at Yogachelan
Brunch - omelet, summer sausage
Drive home from Chelan - trip snacks (beef jerky, slim jims, and a peppermint patty)
Dinner - the last of the sheep feta cheese (about 1oz)

Leaning challenge, week 3

Sunday
Breakfast - 3 eggs, sunny side up. About 12 raisins
Lunch - burger and salad, several skinny margaritas.
Dinner - seared ahi tuna, burger (no bun) and mixed greens salad

Monday
Workout at Cactus Crossfit
Post workout snack - 4 slices bacon
Lunch - taco meat, no shell, salsa and sautéed veggies, skinny margaritas
Dinner - sushi rolls, wasabi, ginger, wine

Tuesday
Breakfast - berry plate and turkey bacon
Lunch - 3oz beef jerky
Snack - 3oz beef jerky, skinny margarita
Dinner - beef tenderloin fondue, sautéed asparagus, New York strip steak
Dessert - sorbetto

Wednesday
Breakfast - 2 fried eggs, 2 slices bacon, bowl of berries
Lunch - lamb burger and hummus
Dinner - sliders, no bun and a few potato chips
Snack - Blueberries, 2 oz of summer sausage

Thursday
Snacked throughout the day (vaca) -- ~6oz summer sausage, bowl of blueberries, 2 tsp organic almond butter, Glutino gluten free pretzel sticks
Workout with Steve
Post-workout -- Omelet with salsa, goat cheese and half an onion, blueberries and whip cream for dessert

Friday
Breakfast - omelet with onion, salsa, goat cheese
Lunch - attitude cleanse juice
Snack - nugo organic bar
Dinner - lamb kabob, few fries, hummus

Saturday
Morning crossfit workout
Brunch - el diablo omelet x2
Dinner - crust less pizza (red sauce and mozzarella, pepperoni and jalapeño)

Sunday
Crossfit workout
Post workout snack - 2oz summer sausage, 2 fried eggs in coconut oil
Brunch - el diablo omelet and a side of bacon
Dinner - 2oz summer sausage, 2oz sweet potato, and 2 tsp organic almond butter

Leaning challenge, week 2

Sunday
Breakfast - 2oz summer sausage, emergen-C drink, bowl of blueberries and whip cream
Lunch - el diablo omelet and 2 diet cokes
Snack - bowl of blueberries and whip cream
Dinner - Falafel, hummus (no pita!), red peppers stuffed with sheep feta, olive oil and spices, cucumbers and 3 kalamata olives

Monday
Lunch - mixed greens and spinach salad with onions and peppers, sheep feta and 4oz salmon
Dinner - onions, goat cheese and salsa omelet

Tuesday
Breakfast - scrambled eggs with onions and peppers, 2 slices of bacon
Snack - Nugo organic bar
Lunch - Steak salad
Snack - Nugo organic bar and a diet coke (boo!)
Dinner - 4 oz burger, frozen veggies, 1/4 cup berries
Post dinner - 2 oz summer sausage

Wednesday
Lunch - spinach and mixed greens salad with 4oz salmon, diet coke
Snack - nugo organic bar
Dinner - 4oz summer sausage, bowl of blueberries and whip cream, 2tsp organic almond butter

Thursday
Breakfast - Nugo organic bar
Lunch - salad (same as above), 2 diet cokes
Snack - 2 small packages of beef jerky from the vending machine
Dinner - Chicken with hyderabad cooking sauce from a jar, 6 berries, charred broccoli and cauliflower, 2 tsp organic almond butter

Friday
Breakfast - onions and pepper omelet
Lunch - Root veggie hash with corned beef, and egg on top
Happy Hour - Guacamole and sauteed veggies, 3 glasses of wine
Dinner - Chicken in madras curry, berries
Dessert - 9 Glutino Gluten Free wafer cookies (bad!)

Saturday
8am Workout - the Hare and the Bear
Snack - Organic beef jerky
Lunch - omelet - three eggs, 1/2 onion, salsa and goat cheese crumbles. 2 slices of summer sausage.
Start:vacation
Snack - qdoba steak, veggies and guac
On the plane - mixed nuts and gluten free potato chips
Dinner - ceasar salad, no croutons or cheese and veal on bed of parsnips and sautéed onions and peppers

Leaning challenge v5! Week 1, 3/30-4/6

So far, not a good start. Traveling and breaking all my rules, starting with no alcohol during leaning challenge!


Sunday 3/30
Lunch - Leftover brisket with BBQ sauce, few slices of sweet potato, Emergenc-E drink
Snack - More brisket!
Dinner - Greek salad at zeeks
Workout - Wendler deadlifts, good mornings and planks
Post workout second dinner - More brisket! And few more slices sweet potato

Monday
Breakfast - Chicken Burrito, hold the rice, beans and tortilla. So basically chicken, salsa and guacamole from qdoba at the airport
Dinner - Steak, many glasses of wine, chicken wings

Tuesday
No breakfast
Lunch - Green salad and a scoop of tuna fish with horseradish mayo, diet coke
Dinner - Steak, 3 diet cokes
Post dinner - Several glasses of wine, sweet potato fries and some chicken wings.

Wednesday
Breakfast - Omelet with peppers and onions, some melon, diet coke

Lunch - Green salad and a scoop of tuna fish with horseradish mayo, diet coke
Dinner - Steak and seasonal veggies, finally was able to avoid the wine!

Thursday
Lunch - Green salad and a scoop of tuna fish with horseradish mayo, diet coke
Snack at airport - Sweet potato fries, wine
Dinner - Finally back home again and ate more leftover brisket and bbq sauce
Dessert - Bowl of Blueberries and whip cream, few slices of summer sausage
Midnight snack - more brisket

Friday
Breakfast - ~2oz of summer sausage and Emergen-C drink
Lunch - Root veggie hash with corned beef and eggs on top
Snack - "attitude cleanse" juice -- beets, carrots, greens, extra ginger, and cayenne. 3 stars out of five spicy and even that was pretty hot!
Dinner - Summer sausage with homemade horseradish mayo and the last of the leftover brisket, and a hot dog (no bun) with grilled peppers and onions.

Saturday
Workout - Dave's Mobility Class plus L1 class with Mike. WOD = I go, you go AMRAP 20 min. 15 Front Squats (40kg), 15 pullups, 200m run.
Brunch - 3 egg scramble, with half an onion and a couple tbsp of goat cheese crumbles, plus 2oz of raw sweet potato and 1oz summer sausage. 1 glass Emergen-C.
Second brunch - el diablo omelet at hale's - onions, peppers, jalapeño, goat cheese, and sausage. 2 glasses diet coke
Snack - bowl of blueberries with whip cream
Dinner - summer sausage with homemade horseradish mayo, glass of emergen-C
Post-dinner party - Many glasses of wine, a few slices of pepperoni and two mojitos

Food and Exercise log, 12/23-12/30

After a week of sloppy eating and little exercise due to a sore shoulder, I'm getting back on the program. Yesterday, I had a big brunch then a paleo-friendly dinner, and this morning we went to a kids concert and then over to Buckley's for lunch. I ordered the corned beef hash with two eggs on top, which turned out to be a bad choice. At Portage Bay Cafe, the hash is made up of root vegetables, and only a few potatoes. I didn't expect that good, but I didn't expect the pure volume of potatoes vs. corned beef. I ended up picking through and eating the little chunks of corned beef, but got some potatoes too. I probably left two whole potatoes on the plate. When I got home, I had a couple oz of summer sausage with mayo and two tsp of almond butter.
As an aside, I was reading Tim Ferriss' book last night and he suggested doing 60-90 seconds of squats (high intensity exercise) before a meal and then again 90 minutes after the meal to curb insulin response. He also suggested some other supplements to take with the meal, but I didn't do that. I did do the squats in the parking lot before the meal. My wife was embarrassed.
I'm headed to the gym this afternoon. I'm going to do squats. This week is the fourth week of the cycle, so it's a "deloading week," meaning no more than about 65% of 1 Rep Max (1RM). So I'll knock these out tonight and go to Steve's Crossfit class, where he can modify the WOD for me to be light on my shoulder.

A disastrous two weeks of dieting

Well, the last few weeks have been tough from a diet/workout perspective. Things were marching along well at the beginning of the month...I had a new 1 rep max 1RM deadlift of 160kg while in Phoenix with Annelisa. I also was able to show off my brand new muscle up. Two days later, i was able to do 4 muscle ups (nor in one set). Two days after that, I did the "12 days of crossfit" workout and improved by about 8 minutes over last year, finishing with the 8th best time.
Unfortunately, I woke up the next morning with a sore left shoulder. It felt very similar to the symptoms that I had just rehabbed out of my tight shoulder, which took a year to rehab. So I have backed off on working out for the last two weeks. I'm doing Wendler 5/3/1 deadlifts and squats and some shoulder mobility work with Steve 2 days/week and Dave's mobility class on the weekend.
The good news is that I was able to go 7 reps at 135kg on the deadlift which translates to an estimated 1RM of 166kg using wendler's formula. I looked back at last December and my 1RM was 135kg.
This is about 23% improvement y/y. Not so bad considering I wasn't really doing much the first half of the year.
But the other half of the problem is my diet. We had snacks at work including Oreo cookies, pizza at lunch, Hershey's kisses for dessert at home, etc etc. and once I start falling off the wagon, it's hard to get back on. As Dave says, the only way to get rid of sugar from the diet is cold turkey, like any addiction. So I've put on about 5 pounds.
Now that I've written it down it doesn't sound so bad, but I need to stop the fall. The good news might be that we're heading for vacation next week and we will be away from all the crappy good around work. The bad news might be that we'll be in wine country, and we will be wine tasting. Too early to tell.
I'm also teaming up with one of my colleagues starting when we are back in January to do our own leaning challenge.
And Steve thinks maybe I can start doing handstands again in January.

I started back on paleo diet this morning...I am one hour into it. I had a diablo omelet with goat cheese rather than jack cheese, with veggies rather than potatoes on the side. With diet coke :(
One meal at a time!
Update: I didn't have any snacks after brunch, and dinner was a 1/4 lb bison burger with about a tsp of mayo, I ate ~2-3oz of turkey sausage off of Toby's plate. I also had a cup or so of sauteed onions and peppers and a couple cups of broiled broccoli, with some mayo mixed in. Finished off with about 2tsp of organic almond butter. Unfortunately this brand has some cane sugar mixed in, but not much.
All in all, a good day recovering from a bad week if I can keep from snacking this evening.

Food and workout log, 12/2-12/8

Sunday, 12/2 - Got up this morning with a sore (left) shoulder from thrusters yesterday (43 reps at 48kg) plus Dave's shoulder mobility class.
Brunch (10am) - 2oz summer sausage, goat cheese omelet. I fell off the wagon and had some of the kids' Halloween candy.