Road trips can be a real pain in the butt. Literally and figuratively. I crunched some numbers the other day and determined that on the average I spend 2 hours and 50 minutes in a vehicle every single work day. That's a rough average, but if the number is off it's off on the low side. Some days it's less and some days significantly more.
Whatever. That's 14 hours and 10 minutes or so a week. 736 and 1/2 hours a year. That's 30.7 24-hour days (an entire month), sitting on my butt in a vehicle. It becomes fairly impossible for me to always have a healthy snack on my person during all this windshield-time.
The scope of my life encompasses a heck of a lot of stops at gas stations. Go figure.
Have you ever stalked the isles of a gas station desperately searching for something to eat that wasn't poisonous? I have. I do. Several times a week.
I usually wind up with beef jerky, and even that is highly questionable. Sound familiar?
It's got all the salt content and whatnot. Who knows where the meat came from.
I did find something encouraging the other day, a fruit/nut bar called a "Kind" bar. It seemed like the lesser of a thousand evils, so I snagged one. Okay, two. They were pretty good! I did a bit of research on them when I got home and wasn't disappointed by what I found... as far as gas station food goes I have to admit I'm leaning toward buying them again.
Maybe I'll order a case of them and stick em in the work truck, save myself a bundle of money while I'm at it. It just makes good economic sense, see... myeah see... myeah.
Good hunting.
TSN
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Friday, October 7, 2011
More on Tabatas
There's been some good feedback about Tabatas! Thanks Don it sounds like you're liking them as an after-workout way to get in more reps, and your numbers are pretty impressive!
I've found that in order for me to "feel the burn" during the ab exercises (particularly Russian twists), I need to use a weight. As little as 10 pounds made a big difference but I think more wouldn't hurt. The only thing stopping me from trying is the fact that I don't have any 15's.
My home gym equipment is sadly lacking. I have a set of 35 pound dumbbells that I bought from a friend back in 1997 (There's a set of 10's and 5's as well but those technically belong to my wife) and a treadmill. We also have a few stretchy bands kicking around that have come in handy.
Oh and a sit-up foot holder that goes under the door and makes me think I'm about to rip the door off every time I use it.
Tabata results have made me realize I don't need a lot of equipment to healthy-up! I like that.
If I wasn't 6'8" and 265 lbs it would be easier for me to find a place to do pull-ups/chin-ups. Those door frame pull-up bars, I'm terrified to even try one for fear of the entire house crashing down around me. Nothing fun about that!
There's a storage space in my basement with a high ceiling and the rafters exposed, I'm considering mounting some handles up there so I can get my Tabata pull-ups going.
I'm using Tabatas as a way to keep demand on my muscles so they don't shrink on me during my metabolic reboot process. My body is toughening up, I can really tell. I'm less and less having to strain in order to appear as though I didn't spend the second 15 years of my life eating garbage and sitting around.
Progress is good, I like it!
I've found that in order for me to "feel the burn" during the ab exercises (particularly Russian twists), I need to use a weight. As little as 10 pounds made a big difference but I think more wouldn't hurt. The only thing stopping me from trying is the fact that I don't have any 15's.
My home gym equipment is sadly lacking. I have a set of 35 pound dumbbells that I bought from a friend back in 1997 (There's a set of 10's and 5's as well but those technically belong to my wife) and a treadmill. We also have a few stretchy bands kicking around that have come in handy.
Oh and a sit-up foot holder that goes under the door and makes me think I'm about to rip the door off every time I use it.
Tabata results have made me realize I don't need a lot of equipment to healthy-up! I like that.
If I wasn't 6'8" and 265 lbs it would be easier for me to find a place to do pull-ups/chin-ups. Those door frame pull-up bars, I'm terrified to even try one for fear of the entire house crashing down around me. Nothing fun about that!
There's a storage space in my basement with a high ceiling and the rafters exposed, I'm considering mounting some handles up there so I can get my Tabata pull-ups going.
I'm using Tabatas as a way to keep demand on my muscles so they don't shrink on me during my metabolic reboot process. My body is toughening up, I can really tell. I'm less and less having to strain in order to appear as though I didn't spend the second 15 years of my life eating garbage and sitting around.
Progress is good, I like it!
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
What? No Pasta?
What's your first thought when you read the title? Be honest. Mine is "*@&*!, you've got to be @$%*&#$ me!"
Check this out: Tonight me and the Mrs. cranked out an excellent alternative. Spaghetti squash! What? Trust me.
If you are intimidated by the very mention of it, rest assured. It's easy and it's really good.
<---Here's what they look like (thanks yahoo image search)
2: While that's happening, make some sauce (skip this step if you already know how). Brown up a pound of your favorite ground meat (unless you opt out of the meat department) and saute (in butter of course) a bunch of peppers, onion, and garlic. Feel free to add whatever you would normally use in spaghetti sauce, you're the one eating it!
3: When the meat and veggies are ready, pour on the marinara (doesn't have to be expensive or flavored or have a brand name on it, the flavor will come from all the ingredients you're adding anyway) and spice to your liking. I like oregano, so I use a lot of that.
4: Let it simmer and become more and more delicious. When the squash is done, scrape the good stuff out of the middle with a fork. It'll come out looking something like spaghetti, hence the name. Mix all that in with the sauce and let it simmer for as long as you like.
5: Eat. As an alternative, you can pour it all back into the baking dish, cover it with a layer of cheese and bake it until the cheese melts. That's what we did tonight. Fantastic.
Bonus: This makes a lot of food (we filled a lasagna pan to the brim and beyond) so there are several to-go lunches for me already packed in the fridge, which means I'll spend 6-8 bucks less at lunch for those days and won't be tempted by stupid chain restaurant garbage food. Also, it's flippin delicious. It's win/win/win.
TSN
Check this out: Tonight me and the Mrs. cranked out an excellent alternative. Spaghetti squash! What? Trust me.
If you are intimidated by the very mention of it, rest assured. It's easy and it's really good.
Here's what we did:
1: Cut a spaghetti squash in half the long way. Scoop out the seedy stuff (it looks like the inside of a pumpkin). Put the halves face down in a baking pan with about 1/4" if water and toss it in the oven for 45 minutes at 375F.
3: When the meat and veggies are ready, pour on the marinara (doesn't have to be expensive or flavored or have a brand name on it, the flavor will come from all the ingredients you're adding anyway) and spice to your liking. I like oregano, so I use a lot of that.
4: Let it simmer and become more and more delicious. When the squash is done, scrape the good stuff out of the middle with a fork. It'll come out looking something like spaghetti, hence the name. Mix all that in with the sauce and let it simmer for as long as you like.
5: Eat. As an alternative, you can pour it all back into the baking dish, cover it with a layer of cheese and bake it until the cheese melts. That's what we did tonight. Fantastic.
Bonus: This makes a lot of food (we filled a lasagna pan to the brim and beyond) so there are several to-go lunches for me already packed in the fridge, which means I'll spend 6-8 bucks less at lunch for those days and won't be tempted by stupid chain restaurant garbage food. Also, it's flippin delicious. It's win/win/win.
TSN
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
There's a Pill For That
Documentaries on Netflix instant-que (I guess now it's called something else, or will be soon) can be really eye opening. Ever since Bryan got me to watch one, now I'm all over it. Each one is like a piece of a giant puzzle.
Every documentary, every study, every book, journal, blog, archive... all the stuff I find about trying to get healthy in this country... they all fall into place in the big picture.
There's no way for me to accurately summarize fifty documentaries in here, but I will say that the picture is BIG and once I started seeing it the implications blew my fragile little mind. It continues to amaze me, every time I see another piece fall into place.
The money behind the medicine is the same as the money behind the food.
People are falling apart thanks to lack of nutrients in our diets. Medicine has made enormous advances to help keep us alive by treating the symptoms of our illnesses, and is a colossally big industry thanks to the number of people eating garbage and getting sick.
None of this is revolutionary information, the industries know that the food is empty and that people are nutrient starved, and that being nutrient starved causes all sorts of health problems. There's only so much poison a body can handle before it begins to fail. They know.
Call me jaded, but this rabbit hole is dark and sometimes it scares me. Trying to get healthy is a battle, and it seems more and more like it's a few people chucking pennies at a castle made of gold bricks.
Fight the good fight!
TSN
Every documentary, every study, every book, journal, blog, archive... all the stuff I find about trying to get healthy in this country... they all fall into place in the big picture.
There's no way for me to accurately summarize fifty documentaries in here, but I will say that the picture is BIG and once I started seeing it the implications blew my fragile little mind. It continues to amaze me, every time I see another piece fall into place.
The money behind the medicine is the same as the money behind the food.
People are falling apart thanks to lack of nutrients in our diets. Medicine has made enormous advances to help keep us alive by treating the symptoms of our illnesses, and is a colossally big industry thanks to the number of people eating garbage and getting sick.
None of this is revolutionary information, the industries know that the food is empty and that people are nutrient starved, and that being nutrient starved causes all sorts of health problems. There's only so much poison a body can handle before it begins to fail. They know.
Call me jaded, but this rabbit hole is dark and sometimes it scares me. Trying to get healthy is a battle, and it seems more and more like it's a few people chucking pennies at a castle made of gold bricks.
Fight the good fight!
TSN
Monday, October 3, 2011
The Struggle Continues
I was happy to read that butter plays such a starring role in TPT. Some things are just heart-warming, and I admit that pretty much any time I hear news that I actually don't need to change something about my life, that's good news. I get tired of the gloom and doom sometimes, you know?
It's sort of like this:
The World: "By the way there fella... everything you know is wrong, everything you're eating is killing you, and everything you do is making you lame, fat, uninteresting, toxic and generally a burden to yourself and the entire society that has had to carry your sorry butt through your entire miserable life!"
Me: "Bummer!"
The World: "Oh wait, butter is okay."
Me: (Jumping excitedly around the room until I fall to the ground panting, wheezing and unable to function at all after ten seconds because my life up until now has been one episode after another of slow poisoning and sedentary brain-rotting) "Yeah! Score one for me!"
So I saute stuff in butter. I go with the unsalted stuff, and try to get the organic stuff while I'm at it. Why not? I also put a little butter in with the vegetables while they're steaming. I don't know if it does anything other than psyche me into thinking they taste better, but I keep doing it.
Eating healthy used to be something I let other people worry about. Not so much anymore.
It used to be when I saw someone in bicycle shorts in the grocery store buying organic this and natural that, I'd think "What a chump!" Then I'd drive the two blocks back to my apartment, eat an oven pizza or maybe a couple microwave burritos, sit down with a liter of orange soda and watch cartoons in my boxers until I fell asleep rubbing my belly on the couch.
Now I'm tempted to approach people in grocery stores and beg them not to feed their kids the crap they're scooping into the carts.
Should I do it? I know I wouldn't have wanted to hear an impromptu schpeal from a random crazy guy in a grocery store. Maybe some of those people will stumble across this blog and it will make a difference in their lives.
Tell your friends!
TSN
It's sort of like this:
The World: "By the way there fella... everything you know is wrong, everything you're eating is killing you, and everything you do is making you lame, fat, uninteresting, toxic and generally a burden to yourself and the entire society that has had to carry your sorry butt through your entire miserable life!"
Me: "Bummer!"
The World: "Oh wait, butter is okay."
Me: (Jumping excitedly around the room until I fall to the ground panting, wheezing and unable to function at all after ten seconds because my life up until now has been one episode after another of slow poisoning and sedentary brain-rotting) "Yeah! Score one for me!"
So I saute stuff in butter. I go with the unsalted stuff, and try to get the organic stuff while I'm at it. Why not? I also put a little butter in with the vegetables while they're steaming. I don't know if it does anything other than psyche me into thinking they taste better, but I keep doing it.
Eating healthy used to be something I let other people worry about. Not so much anymore.
It used to be when I saw someone in bicycle shorts in the grocery store buying organic this and natural that, I'd think "What a chump!" Then I'd drive the two blocks back to my apartment, eat an oven pizza or maybe a couple microwave burritos, sit down with a liter of orange soda and watch cartoons in my boxers until I fell asleep rubbing my belly on the couch.
Now I'm tempted to approach people in grocery stores and beg them not to feed their kids the crap they're scooping into the carts.
Should I do it? I know I wouldn't have wanted to hear an impromptu schpeal from a random crazy guy in a grocery store. Maybe some of those people will stumble across this blog and it will make a difference in their lives.
Tell your friends!
TSN
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Liquid Water
I'm beginning to see some results in the muscle department. My weight is about the same, it's been hovering for a few weeks, but I'm pretty sure I've got some exchange happening with fat and muscle. Especially in my legs... those jumping tabatas are killer!
I got off track this weekend and scarfed down way too much pizza and drank too many beers. What can I say? It happens.
Here's something worth mentioning: Water. It's quite possibly the most amazing thing that exists, and we tend to write it off. It's hugely important to drink a lot of water! There doesn't have to be anything at all in it, just water by itself is where it's at.
First thing in the morning I drink down a huge glass of water. It's good!
Get a good filter. City water especially needs to be filtered... it would be excellent to have the luxury of some good clean spring water, but that's not the case. We have terrible tap water here, but it's reasonably good after the filter.
I've heard all sorts of stats and numbers on exactly how much water a person is supposed to drink every day, but I couldn't tell you what any of those stats and numbers are because frankly I don't care and didn't bother to remember... instead I took away this lesson: Drink a lot of water. That's pretty easy, I can do that.
I ask myself, "Self," I say; "Have you drank a lot of water yet today?" If the answer is no, I go and get some water. If it's yes, I get some water anyway. Water's good. That horse dead yet?
Water.
TSN
I got off track this weekend and scarfed down way too much pizza and drank too many beers. What can I say? It happens.
Here's something worth mentioning: Water. It's quite possibly the most amazing thing that exists, and we tend to write it off. It's hugely important to drink a lot of water! There doesn't have to be anything at all in it, just water by itself is where it's at.
First thing in the morning I drink down a huge glass of water. It's good!
Get a good filter. City water especially needs to be filtered... it would be excellent to have the luxury of some good clean spring water, but that's not the case. We have terrible tap water here, but it's reasonably good after the filter.
I've heard all sorts of stats and numbers on exactly how much water a person is supposed to drink every day, but I couldn't tell you what any of those stats and numbers are because frankly I don't care and didn't bother to remember... instead I took away this lesson: Drink a lot of water. That's pretty easy, I can do that.
I ask myself, "Self," I say; "Have you drank a lot of water yet today?" If the answer is no, I go and get some water. If it's yes, I get some water anyway. Water's good. That horse dead yet?
Water.
TSN
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Heartburn
The thing about TPT is that once you've made the fundamental changes in your eating habits, it's really easy to just keep doing it without really paying that much attention. Once I got out of the habit of buying all that unhealthy crap at the grocery store, stopped seeing it every time I opened up the fridge or the cupboards, stopped hitting drive-through windows and started reaching for vegetables and natural stuff... now it's not a big deal.
Still, once in a while I want pizza. So last night we got this gigantic Sicilian pizza from a most excellent restaurant in town, picked it up, brought it home and tucked in like ravenous hyenas. It was delicious; we knew it would be... but it gave me heartburn so bad I had to make a run to the store just to buy Tums.
Ordinarily that wouldn't even be noteworthy, but it occurs to me that I used to get heartburn all the time and kept buckets of Tums around just for that reason. So why didn't I have any handy?
Since I've been sticking to TPT at least fairly closely, I stopped getting heartburn.
I can't explain it, but I can't argue with the evidence. It's like so many other things; our medicine treats a multitude of symptoms, but no causes. My diet was to blame for my heartburn, not some strange disease or genetic physiological deformity or whatever esle.
There are a lot of drug companies that would go out of business if people really started treating the causes of their problems rather than the symptoms. We are a nation that coats problems over with little feel-betters while the root of the problems thrive below the surface.
Are we really such a depressed nation that we need fifty different anti-depression medications? Or are we just eating so much useless crap food that our brains don't have the nutrients they need? I'm really leaning toward the latter.
It's worth putting some thought into, at any rate.
TSN
Still, once in a while I want pizza. So last night we got this gigantic Sicilian pizza from a most excellent restaurant in town, picked it up, brought it home and tucked in like ravenous hyenas. It was delicious; we knew it would be... but it gave me heartburn so bad I had to make a run to the store just to buy Tums.
Ordinarily that wouldn't even be noteworthy, but it occurs to me that I used to get heartburn all the time and kept buckets of Tums around just for that reason. So why didn't I have any handy?
Since I've been sticking to TPT at least fairly closely, I stopped getting heartburn.
I can't explain it, but I can't argue with the evidence. It's like so many other things; our medicine treats a multitude of symptoms, but no causes. My diet was to blame for my heartburn, not some strange disease or genetic physiological deformity or whatever esle.
There are a lot of drug companies that would go out of business if people really started treating the causes of their problems rather than the symptoms. We are a nation that coats problems over with little feel-betters while the root of the problems thrive below the surface.
Are we really such a depressed nation that we need fifty different anti-depression medications? Or are we just eating so much useless crap food that our brains don't have the nutrients they need? I'm really leaning toward the latter.
It's worth putting some thought into, at any rate.
TSN
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