Optimum Anabolics - Day 31/Anniversaries

Today marks the 41st anniversary of my parent's wedding. Impressive, yes?

A reason to celebrate? You bet it is!

When asked if they could believe how long they've been married, the response was what you'd expect. "Nope! Time really flies!" was the reply followed by a chuckle.

What's this got to do with health and fitness? Good question.

One key to a long-lasting happy marriage is commitment. Agreed? I believe that the same applies to health and fitness. Commit to making changes for the better in your life and you will become healthier.

Stay with it. My parents will be the first to tell you that it wasn't always smooth sailing. How often have you given up on a healthier lifestyle because you ran into a bump (or bumps) in the road? Maybe you ate poorly over the holidays? Or did an injury derail your exercise for a month?

Change becomes a part of you. Getting married meant lots of changes for my parents and probably yours, too. Moving in together, merging finances, in-laws, etc. Eventually, all that just became their way of life. Exercise and working out (in some form or fashion) is now just a part of my day. I can't imagine going without it. Good nutrition has been a process that continues to change and take shape but "healthy" is now just the way I eat a majority of the time.

Celebrate those anniversaries. When we first start dating someone, the anniversary might only be a week or a month. Once marriage rolls around it becomes a yearly event. Why don't we do this with the other positive changes in our lives? Celebrate the fact that it's been one week since you decided not to eat ice cream right before trying to go to bed. How about the fact that you've been going to Yoga class 3 times per week for the last month? Has it been a year since you were able to bench 200 LBS and you've never looked back?

These things all seemed awkward at the start for sure. But committing to something, staying with it, and letting it become a part of you leads to permanent change. Next thing you know, it's been 41 years! :)

WORKOUT - LEGS

All 3 supersets of the Day 31, Week 5 workout were leg related. This wasn't too bad today since the number of sets and reps are scaled back during this week. I still managed to work up a good sweat, though!

Superset 1: Leg Extensions, Leg Curls
Superset 2: Donkey Calf Raises, Dead Lifts
Superset 3: Seated Calf Negatives, Barbell Squats

Total Time => 40:34

Comments:

Did much better today at keeping things moving and not letting the rest periods get away from me. Took too much time between sets adjusting weights, moving equipment, etc last week. Workout wound up being shorter by almost 5:00.

My legs were pretty rubbery on the way up the stairs today. I think the dead lifts did their job. :)

Seat warmers tomorrow? We'll see! :~)

DIET - HIGH PROTEIN

Breakfast started off with a BIG bowl of oatgurt, a peach, a coating of cinnamon, and a big scoop of almond butter. The meal was topped off with a smoothie that got away from me. Ha! You may have noticed that I like my smoothies whipped up so thick that you have to eat rather than sip them. Since learning the xanthan gum trick, I've been adding a bit here and there if things are a little too thin for my taste.

This morning, I put in about a half cup each of chilled coffee and almond milk, a frozen nana, 3 TBS of coconut milk, 2 heaping TBS of cocoa powder and some (might have been more) cinnamon. There was a whole lot of splashin' going on in the blender so I knew a sprinkling (and it doesn't take much!) of some x-gum was in order. I got a bit over confident and added the powder right from the bottle instead of measuring. Next thing you know...choco/coffee pudding. Whoops! As mentioned, I like to eat my smoothies, but this one actually jiggled on the spoon. Hey, it was still delicious!

Mid-morning snack was my usual 1/2 cup of yogurt with 1/3 scoop of whey protein isolate powder and 4 tsp of ground flax seeds.

Lunch was wasabi salmon from this book and a salad of raw broccoli slaw, with tomato, peppers, celery, and scallions. As a dressing for the salad, I went with Annie's Organic Oil & Vinegar. Good stuff and pretty well assembled for a bottled dressing. And if it's good enough for this well-educated lady, then it's good enough for me!

For a mid-afternoon snack, I popped my usual nut mix of cashews, almonds, walnuts, and Brazil nuts while gobbling down a 1/2 cup of cottage cheese.

Tonight's dinner was yet another gem from our favorite book. Chicken cacciatore! You gotta say it with an Italian accent. Ha. The basic recipe consists of chicken breasts sauteed in EVOO, sauteed onions, peppers, mushrooms, and fresh tomatoes diced up with Italian seasonings. Christina had hers without the peppers and I added parm (of course!) to my plate. Outstanding!

Pre-bed snack was a 1/2 scoop of whey protein isolate powder with a little water.