The Almond Affair

Day 55

March 3, 2011

I cheated, bleh. The worst part – it wasn’t even a cheat food and it was TOTALLY preventable. We needed a couple things from the store and upon spotting the salt’ n vinegar seasoned can of almonds I made a bad decision. I put it in the cart. I knew it was a bad idea, which is why I came so very very close to putting them back at the checkout. You see I have a longstanding love for salt n vinegar, namely Pringles, so I guess this cheat story could be much worse. At least my cheat had low carbs and 30 grams of protein. It was a quantity cheat not an item cheat; I ate almost the whole can aside from the ones C had, and nuts may have their merits, but damn those cals add up quickly. It’s fair to say I had 5/6 of the 6 oz. can and umm yeah that’s 850 cals comprised of 30 g protein, 75 grams fat, and 25 g carbs. Worst part of the story? I’m telling you a cheat tale after I disappointed the smiling Girl Scouts selling their cookies on the way in AND the way out of the store. I mean if I’m gonna have to confess a cheat on my blog it should have been starring Samoas right? Mmmm, damn ;)

Other than that it was a good day and I ate 100% clean, well technically the almonds were clean too, just way overboard on quantity. Since getting serious about this diet I’ve noticed one good thing and one bad thing. The good thing is that my veins stick out when I lift and you can see my muscle more translucently under the skin (not creepy – one of those have to see it things). The bad thing is that all my weights are down and I’m kind of flighty. Carbs are apparently brain food and strength food. Once I get used to doing something at a certain weight I really don’t like having to lift less. I’m slowly working up the number of real pull-ups I’m able to manage in a single set. I nailed 5 today! Love that. I also managed a new heavy at Triceps Rope Pushdowns, 80 lbs, and got my Cable Kickbacks up to 65 lbs. Those things aside everything else is running light and I don’t like it.

Sometimes on this diet it is hard to remember that the next day is fresh and that regretting a bad food impulse accomplishes nothing. I think my mistake was not eating oatmeal for breakfast this morning. Those oats seem to be the glue that holds everything else together!

6:20 am Cardio + Abs

30 min Elliptical Interval Program
376 Cals Burned

Dumbbell Side Bends
3 sets x 12 reps each side x 30 lbs

Quick Stretch

7:00 am Protein Shake

1 scoop vanilla MyoFusion with water and ice in my bullet

8:15 am Breakfast

4 Isernio’s chicken breakfast sausage links
2 pieces Trader Joe’s high protein whole grain bread
Coffee no sweetener

10:30 am Snack

5 oz. chicken breast
¾ orange bell pepper

12 pm Lunch

½ cup oatmeal
200 cal pack raw almonds
½ cup fresh strawberries

2:15 pm Chewing + Caffeine

Coffee with 1 T ½ and ½ tried a pack of Splenda jury is still out on that verdict
¾ cup baby carrots
¾ cup snap peas

3 pm Carb Load

I realized I had no hope at lifting any decent weight at all based on what I’d recently eaten so I bought a 150 cal Kind fruit and nut bar (2 g p, 22 g c, 7 g f) I needed a healthy carb and this was the closest fit for sale on campus. All I had left in my cooler was 5 oz. of chicken breast and I had to save that for post workout to feed my muscles.

3:45 – 4:50 pm Weights @ The Rec

I need to start planning firmly in advance what muscle group is getting hit on what day(s) of the week. When I’m unplanned this is the sort of unfocused workout that happens. Yes, there is some good stuff, but it is better to fully focus on a muscle group, really take it to task, kick its ass, feel the DOMS, and love the look over time. Today should have been a full biceps/triceps/shoulders focus, but I hadn’t pre-written anything, went to the gym with a blank sheet, and also had my mind on cable kickbacks for glutes.

1)Real Pull-ups (I like to start with my favorite to get mental boost on)
1. 4 ½
2. 5! =)
3. 3 ¾

Superset with

2)Single Leg Standing Leg Press
1. 100 lbs x 10 reps each leg
2. 100 lbs x 10 reps each leg
3. 100 lbs x 10 reps each leg

3)Bis/Tris/Shoulder Circuit
Alternating DB Hammer Curls, Triceps DB Pull-overs, Biceps Barbell Curls, Barbell Military Press
1. 20 lbs x 20 reps, 20 lbs x 10 reps, 30 lbs x 10 reps, 30 lbs x 10 reps
2. 20 lbs x 20 reps, 20 lbs x 10 reps, 30 lbs x 10 reps, 30 lbs x 10 reps
3. 25 lbs x 10 reps DS to 20 lbs x 12 reps, 20 lbs x 10 reps, 30 lbs x 10 reps, 30 lbs x 10 reps
4. 20 lbs x 20 reps, 20 lbs x 10 reps, 30 lbs x 10 reps, 30 lbs x 10 reps

4)Cable Kickbacks
1. 45 lbs x 10 reps per leg
2. 50 lbs x 10 reps per leg
3. 55 lbs x 10 reps per leg
4. 60 lbs x 10 reps per leg
5. 60 lbs x 10 reps per leg
6. 65 lbs x 10 reps per leg

One more set of pull-ups in between the 5th and 6th CKB sets for the mental boost (3 ¾ )

I did 6 sets because feeling these tomorrow will make me smile. I tried them for the first time on Monday with my PT and my hams have been so stiff since then my hurdler’s stretch flexibility has been chopped in half. I laughed at that discovery. Monday was fewer sets so here’s hoping…

5)Triceps Rope Pushdowns (minimal 30-45 sec rest between sets)
1. 50 lbs x 12 reps
2. 60 lbs x 12 reps
3. 60 lbs x 12 reps
4. 70 lbs x 8 reps
5. 80 lbs x 6 reps
6. 65 lbs x 8 reps
7. 40 lbs x 20 reps

Going for that stretch out the fascia thing on those…

6)Biceps Cable Curls
1. 60 lbs x 8 reps
2. 55 lbs x 8 reps
3. 50 lbs x 8 reps

Superset with

7)Push-ups to Failure! (the “before I found out I was capable of real pull-ups favorite” ;)
1. 15 ½
2. 11 ½
3. 9 ½

Honestly, if I could do 5-10 sets of real pull-ups and push-ups to failure superset with one another at home every single day I would be in hog heaven. The pull-up bar I ordered doesn’t fit my door jambs, boo. My house is an old 1920’s bungalow that was gutted and beautifully remodeled right before my landlords found out they were expecting their 3rd child and would be way too overcrowded. The door jambs are wider than modern ones apparently. If anyone coughs up a link to a pull-up bar that doesn’t damage the house and will fit my old wide door jambs I’ll declare you my hero! ;)

8)Box Step-ups (silliness)

I got this bright notion that I should end with these. Turned out I was weak as all hell by then. Tried with 25 lb DBs in each hand and only made it to 6 reps. Then I grabbed 15 lb DBs and managed 20 reps, but promptly decided to quit while I was ahead (I mean behind).

9)1 more set of real-pull-ups (3 ¾ ) because finishing on a favorite is important too! You’ve got to walk away strong and smiling. Wussing on box step ups is no way to do that…

10)Extended hamstring stretching.

5:15 pm Chicken in the car
5 oz. chicken breast

6:40 pm Dinner

A single serving of those illicit S&V almonds
Trader Joe’s lemon chicken salad
hot tea

7:30 pm The Regrettable Almond Affair

4 more servings of those ilicit almonds. So preventable too. If you don’t want to end up eating all of something and kicking yourself do not, I repeat, do not leave the store with it.

Honestly, I have a case of Larabars and they tempt me, C also has carby snacky things around like flavor-blasted Goldfish. All these things are stashed on the top shelf of his closet. Why? Because I know if I sneak in his room while he is sleeping and then open the closet door, which creaks, it could easily wake him. That, thankfully, is enough to keep me from the nighttime impulsive snacking that plagues many a competitor on this diet.

Daily Tally

Yes, it should be a macro tally, but I'm tired and too lazy to go look up all the macros for today. I do, however, have cal counts memorized on all my frequent foods as I'm an old hand at the cal count.

So today's lovely almond episode brought the cal tally to:

2,340 Ingested
(1,448) BMR
(766) Training
126 Net Gain

Ok, it bugs me not to do macros for my own knowledge so here's my lazy calculation. I ran down my food list generally aware of the carb and protein counts in everything I ate today. That tallied to 192 grams protein and 122 grams carbs, added together that is 314 grams x 4 cals a gram = 1,256 cals, but I ate 2,340 so the remainder must be the fat. Therefore, 2,340-1,256 = 1,084 / 9 (fat is 9 cals a gram) = 120.44 grams of fat. That sounds about right as the almond affair contributed a whopping 75 grams of fat. So I'll call it on the estimate:

44% Protein 28% Carbs 28% Fat

Hmmm, actually that isn't that horrific. My carbs are nice and low. It is WAY better to run high on fat, especially as they are healthy fats, than to run high on carbs. Contrary to popular presumption, eating fat DOES NOT MAKE YOU FAT. Overdoing it on high-glycemic carbs and/or cals in general is what will cause the creation and storage of body fat.

Alrighty, night nighty, told ya this diet was making me flighty!