Here is my Flickr Photoset of pictures that I took on a recent trip to San Francisco for the RICON 2012 convention.
Whole30 Challenge, Day 3
This is day 3 of the Whole30, Version 4.0 challenge that Mikie and I started on Sunday. Going pretty well so far. So what is the Whole30 challenge? Here is an extract from the Whole Nine site. For full details go here.
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Eat real food – meat, fish, eggs, tons of vegetables, some fruit, and plenty of good fats. Eat foods with very few ingredients, all pronounceable ingredients, or better yet, no ingredients listed at all because they’re totally natural and unprocessed. Don’t worry… these guidelines are outlined in extensive detail in our Shopping Guide.
More importantly, here’s what NOT to eat during the duration of your Whole30 program. Omitting all of these foods and beverages will help you regain your healthy metabolism, reduce systemic inflammation, and help you discover how these foods are truly impacting your health, fitness and quality of life.
- Do not consume added sugar of any kind, real or artificial. No maple syrup, honey, agave nectar, Splenda, Equal, Nutrasweet, xylitol, stevia, etc. Read your labels (and your Success Guide FAQ), because companies sneak sugar into products in ways you might not recognize.
- Do not eat processed foods. This includes protein shakes, pre-packaged snacks or meals, protein bars, milk substitutes, etc.
- Do not consume alcohol, in any form. (NEW! And it should go without saying, but no tobacco products of any sort, either.)
- Do not eat grains. This includes (but is not limited to) wheat, rye, barley, millet, oats, corn, rice, sprouted grains and all of those gluten-free pseudo-grains like quinoa. Yes, we said corn… for the purposes of this program, corn is a grain! This also includes all the ways we add wheat, corn and rice into our foods in the form of bran, germ, starch and so on. Again, read your labels.
- Do not eat legumes. This includes beans of all kinds (black, kidney, lima, etc.), peas, lentils, and peanuts. No peanut butter, either. This also includes all forms of soy – soy sauce, miso, tofu, tempeh, edamame, tamari and all the ways we sneak soy into foods (like lecithin).
- Do not eat dairy. This includes all cow, goat or sheep’s milk, cream, butter, cheese (hard or soft), kefir, yogurt (even Greek), and sour cream.
- Do not eat white potatoes. It’s somewhat arbitrary, but they are carbohydrate-dense and nutrient poor, and also a nightshade (refer to your Success Guide FAQ for details).
- Most importantly… do not try to shove your old, unhealthy diet into a shiny new Whole30 mold. This means no “Paleo-fying” less-than-healthy recipes – no Paleo pancakes, Paleo pizza, Paleo fudge or Paleo”ice cream. Don’t mimic poor food choices during your Whole30 program! Those kinds of food miss the point of the program entirely.
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We had lots of questions and ended up purchasing the excellent Whole30 Success Guide. This is an ebook, so you get instant access (very nice). It is chocked-full of supplementary information including a comprehensive F.A.Q. that was very helpful.
So far, so good!
2011 CreekFest Chalk Artist Festival
Today was the 2011 CreekFest Chark Artist festival at the Pearl Fincher Art Museum in Spring, Texas. This is a Flickr photoset of the pics that I took today:
Mikie was one of the featured artists and she got tons of positive feedback during the 8 hours that she spent working today. This was a really well-organized event and everyone associated with it was just delightful.
Steve Jobs passed away today. Though I never had the pleasure of meeting him in person, he has had a profound impact on both my personal and professional life. He will be missed.
WordPress App
A friend of mine at work just told me about the free WordPress App for both the iPhone and iPad. I’m composing this using the app from my iPad. Was very easy to set-up. Seems to run fine. One glitch I have noticed – the area that you type in to compose your post seems to have a sizing issue because text doesn’t wrap properly. You can be typing away and the cursor will go several characters past the right edge of the screen before the line wraps.
Update: I’ve quit using this app as I have found it to be really buggy. Hopefully all that will get sorted out in future updates.
Triathlon Training – day 34
Morning – Running with Kingwood Fit Group
Details
Duration: 01:47
Distance: 11.71 mi
Energy: 1695 kcal
You can see the route and the splits here.
Swimming – Mod-easy pyramid
Description
WU: 4 x 100 swim done as 25s each of kick, R arm only, L arm only, swim.
MS: The even intervals are done at 5 seconds slower than 100 T-pace. The others are relaxed swims with good technique. Recoveries are in seconds within parentheses.
100 (15”) 200 (20”) 300 (40”) 400 (60”) 500 (60”) 400 (60”) 300 (40”) 200 (30”) 100.
CD: Easy combination of kicks and strokes for 10 minutes.
Total: 3300
Triathlon Training – Day 33
Strength Training – MS, 3-4 sets
Description
BT: Warm up 5-10 minutes. Then 3-4 sets of MS. Cool down 5-10 minutes spinning in easy gear/resistance at high rpm.
Details
Duration: 00:45
Energy: 319 kcal (estimated)
Sets:
1. squats - 235x10,10,12
2. seated row - 120x10; 140x7; 130x10
3. ab with twist (decine) - 184x20,20,30
4. donkey heel raise - 120x20; 140x20; 160x20
5. standing bent arm lat pulldown - 60x10; 70x10,7
Russian Accordion Player
OK, check out this young Russian guy play the accordion. Pretty amazing. This is something I saw on Boing Boing today.
Triathlon Training – day 32
Run – Strides, 6-8, count, up-down
Description
Strides. Warm up. Then 6-8x20 seconds on slight hill. Odd numbered strides uphill; evens downhill. Count steps--30+ in 20 seconds. Cool down with heart rate in zone 1. (This is best outdoors but may be done on a treadmill).
Details
Well the weather was, again, atrocious so I did this workout at Bally’s on a treadmill.
Duration: 00:32
Distance: 2.84 mi
Energy: 451 kcal
Swimming – Masters Class Well not much to report here. We were not in the water more than 5 minutes when excessive lightning, too close to Lifetime Fitness, caused the lifeguards to make everyone get out of the pools. Bummer!
Triathlon Training – day 31
Cycling – Force Reps
Description
BT: On flat road or on a trainer. Use the big chain ring and a gear that allows only about 50-60 rpm. While in the saddle drive the pedals down as hard as possible for 15-20 revolutions of the cranks. Do 6-10 of these starting a new one every 3-5 minutes after warming up. Heart rate is not observed.
Details
I didn’t get to do this until after work. Was already dark and it was raining on and off the whole time. A bit freaky but otherwise OK.
Duration: 00:54
Distance: 12.82 mi
Energy: 789 kcal
Triathlon Training – day 30
Strength Training – MS, 3-4 sets
Description
BT: Warm up 5-10 minutes. Then 3-4 sets of MS. Cool down 5-10 minutes spinning in easy gear/resistance at high rpm.
Details
Duration: 00:59
Energy: 414 kcal
Sets:
1. BB step-up: 160x10/10,10/10,10/10
2. seated row: 160x15; 180x10,10
3. ab with twist: (decline) BWx20,20,16
4. standing hamstring curl: 45x20/20, 14/14; 35x21/20
5. standing bent arm lat pulldown: 67.5x10,10,10
Upon the advice of my tri coach, I got a sports massage today from Alton at Massage Envy in Kingwood. He was great and I think regular massage is going to help cut back on some of the nagging injuries that I’ve been getting.
Evening – Master’s Swim Class This was my regular class at Lifetime Fitness. I didn’t record the total distance before the coach yanked the whiteboard but I think it was about 3500m.