Optimum Anabolics - Day 25/Go Ahead...It Won't Kill You!

Before I list the days workout and food details, I thought I'd mention something briefly that I think plays a big part in our society's disease epidemic.

Today was a milestone birthday for one of my co-workers (Happy Birthday Terri!). About 9:00, the office staff gathered in the conference room, sang the HB song (poorly...think Office Space here people!), and had cake.

As the cake pieces were getting passed (again, picture Office Space) I was, of course, offered a piece. I declined but got a rather typical response from some folks of "go ahead! It won't kill you!". This happens a lot since I often take a pass on things like this.

I'm the first to admit that I have my days or periods of indiscretion (please see Day 22 post) when it comes to food choices but I try to limit my intake of straight up, no doubt about it "Franken-foods". In my opinion, there's a big difference between eating a baked good made from scratch with whole food ingredients in someone's home versus eating a factory-made cake.

Still, would that piece of cake kill me? If I ate it and other similar chemical concoctions on a regular basis, my answer would be yes. Since I really prefer to not eat these sort of things AND I had just had a "screw it" meal a few days ago, I chose to abstain. This works for me. For others, it may be different. However, I believe that until we get back to eating "the old fashioned way" (whole, fresh, simple ingredient foods) on a consistent basis, our health as a species will continue to suffer.

Perhaps, too, it comes down to your goals and your values. Is that piece of cake moving you closer or further away from that goal or that value? Additionally, no matter which choice you make, you must accept responsibility for it. Own what you choose.

What would you do?

WORKOUT - BACK

All 3 supersets of the Day 4, Week 4 workout were focused on the back.

Superset 1: Straight Arm Pull Down, Pull Ups (Assisted)
Superset 2: Wide Arm Cable Row, Close Grip Lat Pull Down
Superset 3: Close Grip Cable Row, Wide Arm Lat PD

Total Time => 40:15

Comments:

I did well at pre-setting the weights today and meeting the prescribed rest periods. Felt good!

Weights used were a little light which is probably ok during this phase of the program.

DIET - HIGH PROTEIN

Breakfast was a tropical paradise today. Hehe. I started with a bowl of oatgurt mixed up with a mango, some cinnamon, and a solid spoonful of almond butter. Who needs packaged, processed cereal?? Next I blended up another "toffee" smoothie with almond milk, chilled coffee, espresso flavored whey protein isolate, a frozen banana, cocoa powder, and about 2 TBS of coconut milk.

Here's the smoothie before shot...















Hey! Our favorite cookbook made the photo! (~:

Mid-morning snack was 1/2 cup of yogurt, 4 tsp ground flax seed, and 1/3 scoop of plain whey protein isolate powder.

Lunch was a repeat of yesterday...wasabi salmon from this book and a salad of raw broccoli slaw, with cucumber, peppers, celery, and scallions. As a dressing for the salad, I made the ginger, sesame oil dressing from our favorite book.

As a mid-afternoon snack I had a 1/2 cup of cottage cheese along with my raw nut mix of walnuts, cashews, almonds, and Brazil nuts.

Dinner tonight was a fabulous summer time meal of grass-fed beef burgers on the grill wrapped up in a turnip green "bun" with big slices of tomato. There also may have been some salsa involved. Since the grill was all fired up for the burgers, I threw on some eggplant burgers, too. Maybe I could be a vegetarian, huh? (~:

As a quick snack before bed, I had a half scoop of plain whey protein isolate mixed with a little water.