An Easy Friday…………….?

An easy Friday.  Or, at least it started that way……

Had my usual Protein Shake upon Waking.  Wolfed down some Organic Blueberries and Raspberries as I drove to drop my daughter off at her school.  (As you can probably imagine, I was washing the whole bit of nutrition down the gullet with my favorite beverage, Unsweetened Organic Iced Tea.)  Now, as a reminder, let’s eat the berries WITH something that is NOT highly Glycemic.  The Natural Sugars in fruit are healthier for you than the white stuff that you see on the table at Gramma’s house.  But, they still can cause some pretty measurable glycemic spiking when eaten on their own.  And, the best way to mitigate the amount of spike you get from fruit is to eat a larger portion of calories from something else that is Low Glycemic at the same time you are eating the fruit.  The protein shake that I always eat will do very nicely since it has two times as many calories as that helping of Fruit….and, nearly zero of those are from sugar.  Another good option would be an omelette or bacon….or, if your stomach is in the mood in the morning, eating a ton of veggies (about twice as much quantity as the berries) would pretty much do the same thing.  Actually, THAT would be the perfect offset for your fruit this morning and every morning.  I need to get better at using Veggies in the morning.  But, my tummy really isn’t digging the idea of veggie ingestion until sometime around lunch.  If you want the Nutritional Specialist’s opinion on this matter, I will tell you that the Low Glycemic Nutrition Docs would be screaming at me right now to type that you should be eating Veggies at EVERY meal.  According to those guys, Vegetables are a big part of the magic that causes this whole Low Glycemic potion to make you lean and healthy…..and to cause you to have increased longevity for the long haul.  (You would still need some protein though….cuz Veggies and Berries don’t really have any worth mentioning.)  How about some free range Venison Summer Sausage….like my daughter ate this morning with her berries?  Or, some eggs would be a perfect balancer.  Or, if you really are hard to get along with….how about a leftover grilled chicken breast that you should probably keep cold in the fridge (in massive quantities if you are really so picky that none of the aforementioned options would suit you!!  Good Gracious.)  Actually, let’s not poke fun at our hard-to-please eaters.  The truth is, you just have to find those food items that YOU like that happen to result in a relatively gently sloping up and down insulin and glucose level in your body’s inner environment.  There is no right and wrong….except to say that whatever you pick must keep your levels gently rolling instead of spiking up and down (like they would if you were eating the Standard American Diet.)  Figure it out, people.  What protein options do you like in the morning?  What Veggie options do you like?  (For me, you can probably guess that I kind of cheat by eating a Fruit….an almond….that pretends to be a vegetable.  In other words, it has no glycemic spike at all.)  What Fruit options do you like…..and, remember, you can’t have near as many of these (even in the morning) as you can of the rest.  (May I suggest that your fruit options are chosen from the Berry Family?  Let’s kill two birds with one stone here.  And, berries happen to be fantastic Anti-Oxidants!  In other words, they help reduce the oxidative stress that happens to your internal organs.  The less of this….theoretically….the longer you will live….and, the healthier you will be while you are living!)  There.  If you found the answers to those questions, you just figured out what you should generally use as your rotation of potential breakfast options each morning when you sit down for your meal.  (Needless to say, it would be very wise to “planahead“….are you getting tired of hearing that?…..so that these options will always be in your pantry or fridge to keep you from potentially grabbing for something that you should not be eating.  Cheerios, milk, and sugar….. anyone?  I certainly hope not!)

10:20 – Drank another protein shake.  I love that Chocolate Cherry Butter from Living Tree Community.  But, I did not add it in this one.  I really don’t need the sugar grams.  And, my shake already tastes so good that adding that stuff is really taking things a bit too far…with nothing to gain (except a glycemic elevation in my blood stream.)  So, I think the Chocolate Cherry Butter experiment….which cost me nothing (cuz they sent it to me as a gift/bribe)….is a failure.  In short, I don’t need it in my shake……and, I assure you that YOU don’t either!

As you may remember, today is Friday.  And, as we all know, Friday is a very tough day for folks that are members of Sky’s the Limit CrossFit Gym.  Although I knew that fact prior to departing for the gym…and, although I had even read what today’s workout was prior to going to bed last night…(they post them towards the end of the previous evening so you can’t plan more than one day ahead at a time)….I still was not prepared for the butt whooping that was doled out during the short 30 minutes that we were exercising while we were there!  Today, we had a “buy in” that you had to do to earn the opportunity to start the “real workout”….(a.k.a. the WOD).  The “buy in” was 100 “Double Unders”.  For those of you that don’t know, a “double under” is when you jump rope but make the rope go under twice for each one time that you jump….in other words, “double under”.  Since I am horrible at these little boogers….(I jump way too high for efficiency)….they suck the air out of me like a human air-sucker vacuum cleaner.  So, by the time I had earned the right to start the workout, I was not in the best of aerobic shape….in fact, I was huffing like a 400 pound man who had made the poorly advised decision to start his morning’s exercise program by running the stairs at the local football stadium.  The Workout Of the Day (WOD) was Five Rounds of this:  10 Power Cleans using 135 pounds, 10 Front Squats using 135 pounds, and 10 Burpees.  Once you are done with the burpees (google it), you just go back and start round two with the Power Cleans again…and, so on.   By the end of round two, you cannot help but feel your mind wanting to start investing energy in what kind of injury you could theoretically fake to be allowed to quit.  But, you know you can’t….cuz there are 40 other people in there with you that are doing the exact same thing….and, even the gal who has to be in her mid 60’s (and doesn’t look like she spent much time in any kind of fitness program prior to age 62) over there is still buzzing along like a slightly more mature version of the freaking Energizer Bunny!  In short, it was finally over.  And, to “Buy Out”, you had to do another 100 Double Unders.  My arms were so tired that I couldn’t even manage one.  The “you failed” option to “Buy Out” was to do 300 Single Under jumps of your rope.  And, that is how I finally got out of there.  On day’s like today, you see a lot of people laying right where they fell the moment they did the last repetition of the last set of Jump Ropes.  For a bit, that is all you are really capable of doing. …..and, even that is a bit of a stretch.  It took me right at 30 minutes to get through all that.  Hard to believe that you can get that much of a butt kicking workout in that short of a time…..50 power cleans @ 135, 50 Front Squats @ 135, 50 Burpees…..that is a lot of volume in a very short time allotment….and, that is not even mentioning the times you jumped your $75 jump rope….(for most of us, somewhere between 400 and 600 times.)    Anyhow, that is CrossFit.  Short Duration, High Intensity.   Exercise is a bit similar to the food choice decision making I mentioned above…..you have to find what YOU like to do and you can ENJOY doing weekly….for the rest of your life.  And, feel free to vary it…..I do CrossFit, cycling, and Yoga every single week.  And, in Crossfit, we dramatically vary the many exercises that we do each day we are there.  A couple of pretty hard days a week is sufficient.  The other days don’t need to be “blow your guts out” days…..don’t be afraid to exercise below your maximum capacity.  That does a body good too.   And, make sure you do add something akin to Yoga into your regimen….even twice per week would be great.  Hey.  Are you too old/resistant to change to try Martial Arts???!!!!  Dr. Life is 74 and started working towards his blackbelt after the age of 65……..what is holding you back?  Just do it!

Following that crazy exercise event, I met Angie at Grand Street Cafe.  I would have gone to Kona on the Country Club Plaza….cuz they were having Wild Barramundi and Pan Sauteed Green Beans….wow.  What could be more perfectly Low Glycemic and healthy for your body?  But, I was so unpleasantly sweaty that it bordered on “disgusting”.  And, neither Angie or I were sure that that kind of arrival was really acceptable when dining on the Plaza.  (Grand Street is technically NOT on the plaza.  It is about 1/2 block off of it.  So, we figured they would be able to live with my appearance…and, potential smell…especially given that they have been fine with it nearly every day for lunch for the last however many weeks!  If you it makes you feel any better, I did run home and throw on some clean clothes to slightly reduce the potentiality for muckiness.  I think it worked.)  Before our entrees arrived, we shared another one those side salads that we discovered on their menu last week….with a bit of that Basil Vinaigrette dressing.  Good gracious.  We actually had Adam go back there and ask the chef for the actual recipe.  You may be seeing it at the Curry House in the very near future.  I didn’t take a photo of what Angie ate.  But, it was another perfect Low Glycemic Lunching option…..Seared Ahi Tuna with Pan Sauteed Brussel Sprouts.  Mmmm good.  And, I had the “special”…..some shrimp sauteed in garlic and chili and butter and olive oil….not quite as good as Angie’s….but, still, better than anyone else’s!  And, I had them ixnay the starch that was planned with it and replaced that with some zucchini and squash.  Wow.  Fantastic ending to my somewhat trying lunch hour!

Since the girl that comes to the house to cut my hair seems to be on the “Fritz”, I had to go to the Brookside Barber today after lunch.  Best hair cut I have had in forever….and, hardly a soul there.  Evidently, 2 pm is a great time to hit the barber shop!  Headed for home and not much work to do…..and, started feeling the need for some Organic Pink Lady Apple Slices and Raw Organic Artisana Almond Butter about 3:52 pm.  And, at about 3:59 pm, it made its appearance through my home office doorway.  Thanks, Nicole. time to take a little break the Low Glycemic way…..yes.  technically, fruit at 4 pm isn’t really the best way to end your afternoon.  But, I did eat a TON of almond butter with it to offset the potential spike to my insulin/glucose levels….and, I even threw away part of the apple…the part that was left over when the Almond Butter was all gone.  I think it all worked out.  Even so, I continue to recommend that, if your belly is still not completely flat, you grab a big heaping tablespoon of the almond butter (on its own) and skip the Pink Lady Apple Slices.  Your tummy will love you for the omission…..and, your pants’ waistband will too!

Headed down for dinner this evening knowing that it was going to be another Angie’s Chili Night.  Don’t worry.  I could probably eat that stuff 4 out of 7 nights and still not be in danger of getting tired of it.  Tonight, I started with the beef chili instead of the chicken chili.  Before that, I had a bite of Free Range Elk Jerky from my friends at M and S meats in Montana.  Wow.  Get yourself some!  But, even before that, I started with the remainder of the bottle of Two Rock Red Wine that we had opened the night previous.  And, after that….but, before the chili….my wife and I each ate ONE piece of our daughter’s thin crust Pizza Hut Pizza.  I do love Pizza.  And, although our normal cheat meal is on Sunday afternoon, we both are far enough along our Low Glycemic transformation to be able to do a little “extra cheating” here and there if the mood strikes us.  (If I want something, I typically eat it.  It is just that I rarely want for anything that doesn’t happen to fall under the category of Low Glycemic Nutrition……and, if you eat Low Glycemic, you will find that you don’t either.  The less spiking if your blood insulin and glucose levels …..and crashing of your glucose levels afterwards…..the less you will crave things that cause the spiking….and, the more you will eat for Nutrition instead of for “want”.)  Anyhow, the one piece of pizza was actually more than enough.  And, I went straight from it back to the island to eat my chili and finish my wine.  Both went down marvelously…..and, in reality, I don’t think  I did myself much harm with the pizza.

I assure you that the only thing that is crossing these lips tonight will be the water out of this BPA free water glass from which I happen to be drinking.

Another day of Eating What David Eats…………Over and Out!