Ruminations

In the spirit of "Do What I Want", I am taking this week off of weights.  I will start working out next Monday, with a 4 day split, two upper and two lower.  I will do different exercises on each of the days, focusing on compound and select isolation.  I know enough about working out that I can plan a basic, simple workout routine based on what I have learned.  I will run 3 days a week, 1 long, 1 HIIT, and 1 easy.  If I want to ride on Sunday, I will.  I will focus on making the plan work to my life, not the other way around. 

As far as my diet goes, I am on an ad libitum diet for a week or so.  Then, I will clean up more or less, and count calories to keep at maintenance level.  I will do this until I get back from Peachtree, and then go on a mass gain diet.  I'll go into detail about that as it gets closer. 

I will get back to the weights on Monday.  I like lifting, and I'll play around with the exercises so I can find good starting weights.  I will increase the weight weekly, using good judgement.  With the dumbbells, I will have to increase the reps if 5lb increase is too much.  I know what I'm doing!  The whole 2% is a good rule, but I am getting too bogged down with program rules.  I just need to consistently train, and work my diet like a hawk.  Diet is the key.

Diet is the key, but I really have to work to find the balance.  I need to find what is the best diet for me.  I read this blog post from a yoga site that talks about eating healthy, yet listening to your eating desires.  It must be in harmony and balance.  I like that.  My first thought is to eat in a calorie surplus, with 2 reward meals a week, placed on surplus days.  You see, I'm planning on doing 3 surplus days, 1 maintenance day, 2 surplus days, 1 maintenance day.  That will keep my metabolism from adjusting, just like on BFFM/RTP.  And with my reward meals on surplus days, I don't have to worry about the calories.  I can and will eat whatever I want, in whatever amount.  If it is a huge meal, I will just adjust the other meals.  Or skip one.  Since I don't have to worry about all the points thing in RTP, I can skip a meal if I have a large reward meal.  That sounds awesome. 

I was thinking about doing intermittent fasting this week.  I have changed my mind.  I will just eat what I want, and starting on Friday 6/19 start counting calories on FitDay and shooting for 2400.

I need to balance the days so I can put sleep at a high priority.  Sleeping in just until 530a or 600a can really make a difference in my sleepiness.  I do find that if I drink a great deal of coffee, I'll get drowsy.  But it usually doesn't last, as long as I am getting 7-8 hours a night.  Gee, where have I heard that before?  Like from EVERYONE!

I have broken my no-soda resolution.  But it is only for this week.  Once Friday hits, it's back to soda-free.  It is truly more healthy.  

Just for starters, my schedule could be weights M, T, R, F.  I could run on W, Sa, and then maybe T.  Yeah, T.  That is a better balance for the week.  Plus, I can sleep in on W.  Sweet.  So weights M T R F, run T W Sa.  Rest day on Su!  I like it.  I will wake up at 500a on M and F, which are both coming off days off. T too, but I will get to sleep NLT 1000p on M, easy since I don't have to run or do RTP blogging.  I can sleep in on W and R, and do weights later in the day on R.  So I can sleep until I wake up on 4 days and up at 500a on 3.  Hmm.  If I put my workout days on Su M W R, and still run on T W Sa, F would be my rest day, and I would only have 1 500a day, M.  Hmm. There are definite advantages and disadvantages to this, but it does put natural sleeping as a high priority.  Plus, it has me doing weights later in the day on 3 days, which I prefer anyway.  I will think about this some more.

 

This post was originally written on 6/15/09, but posted today.  Sure, a bit rambling at the end.  But I must say I am on the writing kick!