DaveGetsFit

In a way, it was a great weekend. I was the meet referee for a USA Swimming long course meet here in Corpus. The meet went well and I learned a few new things about running one. But the bad news is that I ate a bunch of junk in the hospitality room–blueberry muffins, tacos, sandwiches, etc. Way too many carbs. So once again I pretty much waste a week of good work with a lousy two days. But it is what it is and I just have to climb back on the wagon and get going again. I have a racquetball match with Neal scheduled for tomorrow.

I was supposed to play someone for the first time Thursday but he had to back out. So I ended up on the court with Ron again. Although I lost three games, I actually played fairly well. I fell behind 11-1 in the first game but I fought back to get it to 11-8 but that’s as far as got. I also scored eight points in the second game and nine points in the third. Ron was using a drive serve more often then usual so I was real happy with my effort. And it should go without saying, but I will, it was a hell of a workout!

I took it easy on Friday but I did get in some pullups on the Gravitron machine. I did three sets of ten with the weight set at 110lbs. The first two sets were clean but the last couple of reps on the thrid set were sloppy. But I feel like I’m making progress.

Long day at the pool tomorrow. Hopefully they will provide something decent to eat.

Morning Weight: 206lbs

I find myself in catch-up mode again! So here goes:

Monday
My winning streak against Neal came to and end. I blew a 13-10 lead in the first game, fought back from 2-7 in the second to win, and was tied at 8 in the third before running out of gas. I really put a big time effort into coming back in that second game. It was a great workout—gotta start a new winning streak next week.

Tuesday
I played Ron for the first time in awhile and he put a whuppin’ on me. I really didn’t play all that bad, however, and hit a handful of really good shots. Earlier in the day I had walked to his office with the intention of postponing our match until Thursday because I wanted a break after the match with Neal. But it’s hard to turn him down—I just enjoy playing. As a matter of fact, I’ve scheduled a match for Thursday against another guy in our office that I haven’t played before—should be interesting.

Prior to playing with Ron, I did three sets of pullups on the Gravitron. I lowered the weight stack from 120 to 110.

Today I disappeared into the library stacks and did four rounds of pushups: 12, 10, 7, and 7.

After the ride home today, I’ll be three-for-three with the bicycle commute. The weather has been great but I may get a strong headwind going home today.

Nutritionally I’ve done well this week once I got passed the chocolate left over from Easter.

My morning weight has been 206 the last two days.

And with that, I’m caught up!

Got back on the bike this morning after an extended layoff due to my foot problems. No hint of pain now so hopefully everything is back to normal. There was a light westerly breeze which is rather unusual. Hopefully it won’t turn into a big southerly blow before I start home this afternoon.

The scale took a jump over the weekend–not unexpected considering what I ate. It occurred to me as I stepped off that my weight loss is like a roller coaster but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The thing about a roller coaster is that although it goes up and down, the “up” portion is less and less each time. So as long as my weekend “bounce back” keeps ending up at a lower point, them I’m doing ok. The big thing is make sure I don’t get reattached to the lift that takes me back up!!

Morning weight: 206

My website/blog server was inaccessible Friday afternoon so I was unable to post. I just wanted to do a quick update. Friday afternoon I did a quick workout in the front yard. I did kettlebell clean and press ladders, and some swings. Saturday I went to the gym (while my wife was a few hundred yard away grocery shopping) and did pullups on the Gravitron, and some pushups. Saturday I also walked for an hour around the hood.

Today was a do nuthin day—a lot of time in front of the tube watching golf. But I did manage to cook a rather primal meal. I made a stew from javelina meat. I came out quite well.

After a long layoff due to the foot problems, I’m back on the bike for the commute tomorrow.

My Dad would have been 80 years old today.  One thing we shared was a love of golf.  This video was taken a couple years ago after he had a TIA (aka mini-stroke) which left him a little weak.  He came within a stroke of shooting his age when he was 72 because of his great short game.  I wish we could tee it up together again.

My Favorite Golfer from Dave Clary on Vimeo.

I sent out a couple of Tweets yesterday that had to do with drinking German coffee.  That got me to thinking about my time in Berlin, and then to my time as a youth growing up in New Orleans.  What I was thinking about was the differences in the way my family at any particular time brought groceries.  I’ll start from the beginning.

I grew up in the Mid-City section of New Orleans—just a half block of Canal Street.  There was a small grocery store in our neighborhood where we bought much of our food.  I’d say it had about four times the floor space of a typical convenience store, and it had a meat market in the back with a real butcher shop.  Under the counter sat a notebook where the clerk would make a notation if you were putting something “on your tab.”  Yep, that’s right.  No credit card—just a promise to pay later.  We didn’t use that much but it was always there.  I remember as I got older, a trip to the supermarket was something we did every two to four weeks, but trips to the local store were almost daily.

Fast forward to the late 80s when I brought my family to Berlin, Germany on an Air Force assignment.  One of the first things I noticed in the brand new apartment we moved into was that the refrigerator/freezer was about half the size of what we were used to.  There was no way we could make our normal commissary (military supermarket) trip and fit it all.  There was, however, a small grocery store right across the street from us.  Further down the road was an Aldi–sort of a downsized Sam’s Club where you could buy some things in bulk.  These stores were always busy because what the typical German in our neighborhood did was shop daily for the things they were going to eat.  They did have supermarkets, but the small stores still did good business.  So we adapted and did more of the same.  One consequence was that we didn’t find ourselves throwing out wilted lettuce, or cucumbers that had gone soft.  We bought fresh produce every other day or so.  We still made our commissary trips but that was mainly for canned goods and household products.  Looking back, it was a great way to operate.

 (Side note:  On my first tour to Berlin, I was a single, young airman and shopping for food usually meant buying a döner kebab from a sidewalk stand while in one altered state or another J )

Now to the present.  In the places I’ve lived in the U.S., the small grocery store is basically extinct.  I’m sure there are some scattered about but usually our choice is a typical convenience store or a supermarket–nothing in between.  Sure…I can go to the megamart to get some fresh produce, and then stand in a quick check line that is usually anything but quick.  Personally, I liked my small Berlin store better.  Some folks are fortunate to have a good farmer’s market they can use but I haven’t had much luck with that here.  It’s been awhile since I tried so maybe I’ll give it another shot.

Sometime in the not too distant future I’ll be retiring to my home in Thailand.  Now that’s a place where I’ve done some fresh eating.  I’ve actually seen the chicken and pig breathing before they ended up on my plate!  Daily shopping at the local market is quite common.  It’s going to be interesting to see how well I’m able to stick to the Primal Blueprint with all my Thai in-laws trying to feed me all the time.

Morning weight: 205lbs

Sometimes I feel tired as a result of a hard workout and that feels good—but that is not the case today.  After work today, I had to rush home, wolf down a meal, then drive about 30 miles (in my un-airconditoned car) to officiate a swim meet.  Then after a few hours on my feet, I got to make that drive again.  So I’m sitting here with heavy eyelids, and close to calling it a night.

The good news is that I had a good day with my food choices–stuck to primal blueprint.  No swim meet to work this weekend so I hope to have a good one and keep this momentum going.  The Mendoza line is in sight!!

Morning weight: 204lbs

I went to the gym at lunch today for a quick workout.

Pushups (four rounds)

• 10
• 10
• 7
• 6

Pullups (Gavitron at 120)

• 10
• 10
• 10

I was going to do dips but I decided against it.  The position of the hands on the bar puts a lot of pressure on the same point that caused my nerve injury from cycling.  I need to get some gel gloves or figure out some way to do them without putting pressure on that nerve.  I’m glad that I can do pushups again without pain—I don’t need to reinjure my hands.

Morning weight: 206lbs

This is a follow-up to yesterday’s post on making some faux ice cream. After nearly two hours in the freezer, my batch had only started freezing around the sides. So I put four or five tablespoons in a small paper cup and put that back in. About 20 minutes later I tried it and it was great. There was a very thin crust but the rest was like soft ice cream, and the taste was delicious. I left the rest in the freezer overnight and this morning it was rock hard. I moved it to the refrigerator—I’ll see what I have when I get home. So the trick in making this stuff is getting the consistency right. It will take some experimentation to see how much to put in the freezer for how long to get it right. If more than one person is going to be eating it, it’s probably a good idea to pour it into several paper cups rather than waiting on a big batch to freeze. At any rate, the possibilities for a great tasting, low carb (high fat) snack are there. The devil is in the details.