Preparing…

So I got final confirmation of my trip to Japan yesterday afternoon when the tickets were finally purchased.  Of course, I guess it isn’t final until I’m actually on a plane, but it’s a lot further knowing the tickets are ‘in hand.’  My company is known to be rather flexible in regards to travel plans… sometimes you think you’re going and your not… sometimes you don’t know you’re going and your are… sometimes you think you know how long, but it’s more.

I headed into my closet, dug out out my remaining ‘nice’ pants and found they all fit – a perk of travelling while under the influence of PCP.  I also discovered that I only had a couple of dress shirts that I’d care to wear, so today was spent in discount stores grabbing a few more, plus some dress shoes that are better than I have today.  My wardrobe in the US office isn’t going to fly in the Japan office.

I plan on crashing the Team Orange Crush party there in Tokyo by inserting my Team Cookie Monster self into their homebase.  Honestly, I’m quite excited to have a chance to meet both Patrick as well as some contingent of the other half of our project!  It’s been a blast telling people around the office that I’ve got 10 people to meet when I get to Japan.  (Bill thanks for the invite, as I will take you up… but do you commonly invite people to JBlo’s flat?)

I don’t know that I’ll get much free time in the country, but I’m planning on sneaking out to the studio in Yokohama at least once, preferably on Wednesday for the meditation class.  I’ll be in Roppongi, apparently a bit of party place, but Patrick and Bill have both said it shouldn’t be hard for me to keep the diet going.  At this point I land on Tuesday around 2p, so I should get to experience a couple of eating times pretty quickly.  Oh… and apparently Wednesday is a holiday, so I’ll get a nice quiet start to my work in that office.

We’ve rallied the local friends to make sure they can help support Susan and Olivia while I’m away – we only have an aunt that’s local when it comes to family, so the easy babysitters like grandparents aren’t really available to us.  They are, of course, on standby and will drive up if required.

In other news…

*** Warning – Disgusting Digestive Stuff Ahead ***

… it seems my guts are rebelling at the moment.  I’ve been enjoying the expected easy and regular bowel movements that come along with our diet, but within the last day or so I’ve become rather unsettled.  Firm has moved to softer.  Calm and happy guts have shifted to roiled and gassy.  I had to make a brand shift on my Greek yogurt, and it’s the prime suspect.  I’m lactose intolerant, but I’ve not had any problems so far with the Fage brand, but Dannon… they may have gotten me.

Speaking of shifting brands of yogurt… I had to switch because the closer grocery store doesn’t carry Fage and I was out.  I initially pulled “Greek Gods” (or something similar) from the cooler, only to discover that they had basically no protein in there.  I don’t understand what the heck they did to screw that up, but luckily I read it before purchase, otherwise it would have been a general waste of time and money.

*** End disgusting stuff ***

I haven’t gotten to my exercise for the day, so I’m going to try and knock that out amongst my upset stomach and the sleepiness creeping up.  Tomorrow I have to dress up as Shaggy (from Scooby-Doo) for the office Halloween trick-or-treat for the local elementary school.  After that I’m judging the office costume contest.  And finally, I take Olivia to the doctor to catch up her immunizations so she can stay in daycare beyond tomorrow… a small detail.

Saturday we’ll drive halfway to Chattanooga to meet my mom so I can borrow my sister’s nice luggage for my trip.  We’ll likely head to the zoo that evening for the Halloween party there with some friends.  Sunday will be my mad scramble to get prepared for the Monday 6:45a flight… busy, busy.

So… off to JFD.  Keep it up Cookie Monsters.

Grim indeed.

Wow, this has been a tough week.  The food isn’t changing much in it’s weights and my creativity is waning.  I did well with a turkey breast a few weeks ago, but this time it got dry, so I’m having to muscle through that.  I re-tried the ground turkey breast “sausage” but that was dry without baking it, so that has also not been too pleasant.

The past few weekends have been busy which puts a strain on the food prep for the week.  I’ve had to cobble a meal or two together based on little bits of stuff hanging around the house.  Needless to say, eating has been a pain in the butt.

The exercise has been okay, and having things change up has been helpful to keeping me interested.  I did Saturdays routine at my sister’s house despite a number of people there for a hockey viewing party.  My sister / brother-in-law are used to it, so they didn’t blink… the others didn’t say anything either.

Work hasn’t exactly provided a respite from the busy times – I finally made a role change that I had announced 3 months ago, but only now had the opportunity to make the transition.  (We had to find my replacement)  It’s a welcome change to my professional life, as I’ll be moving out of management and back into an individual contributor role.  Finally I’ll once again be responsible for only myself. :)

That said, my first assignment has come as a bit of a shock.

I’ll be going to Japan, Tokyo specifically.

It seems they could use some help on the ground there with the type of work I’ve been doing as a manager for the past year.  As such, I’ll be (supposedly) travelling there as early as Monday the 1st and staying for 2 (I suspect 3) weeks.  It’s a pretty big deal to be selected for this gig, as it’s not a trip we take very often.  We’ll be going in to help out a somewhat ‘rough’ IT situation, so there is plenty of visibility involved.  And here I thought my new job would get me out of the spotlight…

So now Susan and I are racking our brains over how to work out our lives with a sense of normalcy despite my not being around.  We’ve had a great routine going to make sure our exercises get done, so now we’ll have to adapt – Susan more so than I probably.  She does have the distinct advantage of small, low-prep dinners whereas I need to sort out how to find 5 pounds of food in a foreign country everyday.  Granted, Tokyo shouldn’t be too tough to find food and protein in the form of fish should be simple, a nice change from my birds.

Well… sorry for my absence from the scene lately – I’ll try to do better.  I need to get some reading done, too, as a reminder that we’ll all (likely) struggling at this point in the program.  Oh – and pictures too…

oh man... i'm tired

wow. just... wow.

i dont know when i last posted, as i didnt look before starting this one.  i'm typing on my phone, which reminds me how terrible mobile support is on blogger.

so, eating. well, not eating so much as preparing. it sucks. i am so worn out with cooking and weighing right now.  i continue to amze all those around me with my tupperware towers at work.  eating is fine, so long as i stick to the schedule - today was tough because i  did a lot of interviews and i figure its not nice to stuff your face at the first time someone sees your company.

time is another tough one.  right now as soon as i get home from work, i make sure susan can get started on her workout, then i start eating my preworkout and do a staggered start.  once we wrap up, i eat my post workout and start to prepare dinner.  maybe i eat first and maybe i put olive to bed first.  either way, as i eat dinner i'm likely preparing the many containers for the next day.  when that done, its time to sleep.  i've been nonstop for a week or two, so its getting rough.  susan is stepping now that her dinner is "simple" so that helps a lot.

the exercises are progressing steadily. i would have photos from tonight but the camera battery is dead... after two shots.

there is plenty more to dicuss - a freezing motorcycle ride, a great honor from a friend, etc - but i'll do that later.

jfd cookie monsters.

A few other things...

It's late, I should be in bed, but I'm a bit wired and wanting to catch up.

1) Jump Rope today - I GOT CROSS-OVERS!  It wasn't a lot and there were only a couple of times that I was able to pull off a series, but boy that made it a ton of fun trying.  I also tried single leg, but that just couldn't last more than one or two jumps.  I also got back into being able to go really fast - fast enough that I can't say the whole number in a single rotation.  It's a fun change, but not something I can sustain for long periods.  Needless to say, the jump rope is out of the naughty corner in my mind. 

I did notice one small detail about the improvement - when I jump in the dawn / dusk light, I can't see the rope and suddenly I'm much better.  It's not as if I'm concentrating on the jump, but somehow its different.

2) I'm considering a pretty massive trip next fall.  Susan and I are still negotiating the terms between ourselves and I'm still reading up on the destination so I know this is the thing I really want to do. 

The "massive" destination?  The Annapurna Sanctuary in Nepal.  It would be through REI, done with Sherpa and pack animals, but still a pretty big deal, given the elevation change and the 6 hour daily hike.  I've done a 4 day 6+ hour hike carrying my own gear (in New Zealand) with some elevation changes, but not an ascent from 5000' to 13,500'.

I'm figuring, though, that my PCP body should hold up to the challenge, and given that it probably won't happen for a year from now, it'll be great inspiration to stay in solid shape through to that time.

My other target would be good ol' Fuji... maybe that's 2012 when all three of us visit Japan - if that's the destination we decide on for our family international vacation...

Did you ever wonder...

What my breakfast / lunch looks like, given that I'm eating like a race horse?



That's turkey breast (B / L), quinoa pasta (L), apple / raisin / cinnamon couscous (MS), two eggs (MS, AS), greek yogurt (AS), whole wheat bagel (B), the same couscous (B), tomato (B), corn / carrots / snap beans (L).  This excludes the kiwi as part of my MS.

That's 4 of 8 eating opportunities in my day.  Not pictured are the before / after workout, dinner, and evening snack.

I spent a lot of time tonight (with help from my lovely wife) preparing the next block of food to make it through the week. A few things amaze me from this...

1) I can eat all this
2) I don't feel uncomfortably full, only pleased
3) My body is handling all of this food - I've seen little impact on my weight
4) I have enough tupperware to carry this stuff to work 5 days a week...

Katana = 0 rep failure

I have no idea why or how, but the Katanas tonight were a 0 rep failure for me.  I grabbed our lowest level band, got into position and... that was about it.  I'm confident my brain told my muscles to contract and my arms to move, but they didn't... not a budge.  I struggled and wiggled through a couple, but simply couldn't do it with the band, much to Susan's amusement.  She headed to the kitchen and pulled out a couple of soup cans so I could do the proper motion / count.  I'm at a total loss - I've been do the dips with straight legs from the moment they showed up...

Anyway, other than the damn katanas, I thought today's routine was a bit of a break.  Squats were a breeze and I gave up on finding failure just because I wanted to move to the next exercise.  The rest of the work was a our standard fare, and even the v-sits were too torturous.

Only jumps tomorrow and a look at the next set of grams... I'm curious to see where I'll end up this week.  The preparing and eating is beginning to be my hardest part of PCP...

Ah, hockey

So it's 12:15a and I'm almost ready to make the trek upstairs to sleep.  I got home around 11:30p after the game and have been preparing tomorrow's food most of the rest of the time.

The game went well - a 4-3 win - and I noticed a few differences in my play.  First and foremost I didn't run out of energy for the game and my lungs stayed right with me.  I needed to play a double-shift a few times, but it didn't hit me too bad.  I continued to play my slightly conservative style of defense which didn't give me a lot of opportunities to see what sort of speed or reaction boosts I might have, but maybe for the next game.

I spent most of the game thinking it would be just the breath that would be different, but my final shift of the game gave me an opportunity to test my strength.  We were up 4 - 3 with 3 minutes remaining and the opposing team put out their strongest set of guys.  They really wanted that tying goal, so it was a lot of physical action.  Mind you, this is a "no checking" league, but it doesn't mean we don't do a little pushing and shoving from time to time. All night I'd been paired against #1 on their team and we'd been battling nicely.  Here at the end we were locking up continually.  Prior to PCP I probably would have had a lot more difficult of a time keeping my balance and / or keeping him off the puck, but tonight I held my own, which (I figure) ultimately made a difference in them not scoring.

It was equally nice to come home with an even energy level - it used to be that I'd be exhausted, but completely hyped-up from the game.  Tonight it feels a lot calmer and certainly not exhausted - just well worked.  I also found myself a little more even-minded during the game, whereas I used to be a little more of a hothead when things got physical I just went with it tonight and gave back what I was given.

I'm afraid I'm going to fail the sleep portion of our routine, but if I go now at least I'll be close.

Go Team Cookie Monster! (?)

Okay... a lot of catching up

I've been writing a lot of blog posts since Tuesday... in my mind... <shame>

Ad-hoc meditation
Tuesday afternoon was a delightful day, albeit chilly, and I went for a walk around the office building with my headphones.  I made it halfway through the circuit and decided to take a seat in the grass on a little hill so I could bask in the sunlight.  With the sun warming me gently, I sat back and looked up at the big puffy clouds that were passing overhead.  I examined the various shades of light reflecting on them, and their slow movement with the wind that was, most of the time, imperceptible.

As I sat there pondering these clouds a thought crossed my mind: "What do I need to get rid of to do this more often?"

I carried that thought into my Tuesday afternoon / evening activities (individual, then group therapy) and it grew some legs.  I turned into things like reducing our house 'requirements' to something smaller, perhaps not even owning any longer.  It turned into really travelling more instead of talking about it.  It made me consider how I want to approach my job, how I'd like to make my job (even) more flexible so as to allow for more time with puffy clouds or starry skies.

The idea took me to a point where I, for the first time in my life, laid out some personal goals.  Things like making sure Olivia travels out of the country before her passport expires.  (Side story - Olivia, our near 3 year old, has had a passport since she was 6 months old because there was a small chance I might travel to Japan for business and I wouldn't have left them behind for that!  The trip didn't happen so she hasn't 'used' it yet.)  Now we're talking about places like Australia, New Zealand, Japan and England.

Other goals have me learning new sports (skiing and cricket), spending more time with on my bonsai trees (I got 3 this past spring), and getting outdoors more with my family.  (Car camping, backpacking, introducing Olivia to all these things)  I have to think that all this proper eating and exercise has helped play a part in this newfound clarity.  Now to control my 'goal-oriented' tendencies and take my time enjoying these things instead of just trying to mark them off...

Sleep, interrupted
So on Thursday night (into Friday morning) I got called at 1am for work.  It's a occupational hazard, being a manager of an IT team that supports 24x7 global ops... sometimes I have to manage an 'incident' in the middle of the night.  That particular incident lasted until about 3a, at which point I settled back into the bed... and didn't settle my brain for at least 30 minutes more.  Of course Olivia was kind enough to wake me at 5:30a like normal.

I thought everything was going to be okay with the day - I got my food ready, etc, etc and the day went by just fine.  I got home around 5p and set myself to do the exercise routine for the day.  I stepped outside for the rope and discovered I couldn't string together more than 5 jumps for most of the time.  I got to 600 or so miserable (and painful, thanks to the whipping action) jumps and called it quits.  I was frustrated, in pain and extremely tired.  On top of that, my throat was getting rougher and rougher from previous days, an indication to me that the cold I've been flirting with was starting to find a good home.

Susan pressed me to take this as a sick-avoidance rest day, and I did... with great protest.  I really wanted to do the workout.  For one thing, it feels good to do it and the other is that I like the development in my body these exercises are bringing.  However, I listened - to Susan and my body - and called it done there.

Jump Rope - I'm falling out of love...
Saturday continued my absolute frustration on the jump rope.  I've adjusted the rope both shorter and longer. I've critiqued my hand and arm positioning.  I've faced different directions, I've tried to clear my mind, I've tried to think about stuff.  Nothing.  I get a couple of 50 - 75 stretches, but generally it's 20 or less between trips.  I did, however, begin taking slightly longer breaks after trips, giving my body a little more recovery.  Part of this is likely mental, whereas I'm thinking ahead to the rest of the workout that I'm a little more excited about.  I moved my weekday workout time from the morning to the afternoon just to avoid time pressure.

Weekends... sort of painful for some reason
This weekend has been similar to last weekend in that I'm really pretty much a giant pain in everyone's back-side being really cranky and short.  I purposefully moved the workout to right after waking up to get that rush at the start of the day - and it was a reasonable push, but because of the above mentioned jumping problem, it put a bad color on the day.

I also didn't eat breakfast at my normal time, putting my body into a crash that dragged me down... I didn't end up eating until about 3 hours after normal.

Speaking of eating this morning, I prepared the turkey sausage that Sara had suggested.  They looked great as I prepared them, and I thought that I'd do a one step better than the recipe and bake them.  I figured it works for bacon, so it should work for this right?  It may have, except I had no reference for how long I should bake them, so they dried out.  Nice taste... if you have any saliva left.  I'm going to toy with how to 'rehydrate' them in the morning so I can enjoy something different at breakfast.

Also, something different at breakfast today was some couscous - apple, cinnamon, raisin couscous to be exact.  That's a nice naturally sweet way to start the morning carbs, so I'm looking forward to packing that guy up over the coming days.  We've found couscous to be an amazingly flexible carb that is equally delightful in the simple preparation methods.  To that end, we discovered a huge list of couscous recipes!

Various other things...
We've been in the midst of preparing to sell our house and we had initially loosely planned to list it as soon as next weekend.  However, we came to a few realizations within the last couple of days - A) we don't have the energy to get everything put together the way we'd like in the time we have B) we'd only have the house on the market for 30 days until the holidays come along when no one is really looking.  So now we've decided to take a slower pace and aim for a February listing date.

I finally got back on my motorcycle today... I haven't spent much time with it for various reasons, the largest being the time available to me amidst all this exercise, eating and preparing to eat.  It's also been pretty cold here and I don't have proper cold weather gear given that this is my first bike.  It was a great rush to get out on the interstate and pull on the throttle... it was a reasonably quiet Saturday afternoon / evening, so traffic was just right where there weren't too many semis nor were the cars packed together.

I have a hockey game on Sunday night, the first since I've started PCP.  The first game of the 'season' was prior to PCP, but I'd been getting into a little bit of an exercise routine by that time, so I could already feel a difference in my game over the one previous.  I'm fairly excited about going out to this one in the hopes that I'll have a pretty significant improvement.

Exercise...
I've been pretty happy with our routine lately.  The floor jumps were as advertised - left quivering on the floor at the end.  The pull-downs feel good, but I've gone ahead and invested in the next level of resistance band because I'm not sure it's completely effective with my current level.  The pull-ups are great now we're onto the 'real' ones - the inclines were bothersome to me.  Of course I've been on the straight-leg push-ups and dips from the beginning... meaning I've been murdering myself unnecessarily for a few weeks! :P  The ab exercises continue to be my second most hated activity of the moment as apparently I have no core muscles.

Preparing for the end
I decided at the start of PCP that when I make it to the end, I was going to do something significant for myself.  That something significant is to get the tattoo I've been considering for the past year, as I think it would be an appropriate moment to associate it with.

It's pretty simple, actually - "Know Thyself" in Greek lettering across my chest.  I had considered placing it on my forearm where I'd see it all the time, but after several conversations with well-inked friends I found that unless I'm going to commit to long-sleeves at work, don't do it.  I'm not into long sleeves so I considered alternatives and finally landed on my chest.  Those friends have also informed me that it won't be a comfortable process (not that it ever is I suppose) given my chosen location, but I figure it's the next most visible place for me.  I'll wake up each more to see the reminder to be mindful of my self.

I know the idea of tattoos can be divisive, but it's something that will generally only be shared when I want to, save for the occasions at a water park or a swimming pool. (Oh, and I guess the locker room at hockey...)  The majority of people around me won't know it is there, but for me it'll mean plenty.  Given that my plan is to have it done right at the end of PCP, it'll mark a significant undertaking for me, something that I expect will show me what I can be from a health / physique perspective.  The pain of the inking will mirror, in a manner, the pain of the PCP process - it'll feel like hell in the midst of it, but that will pass and there will be something beautiful to show for it.

So the preparation was to go along with one of the guys from work (actually one of the Senior Directors, someone I respect a great deal in the office) to meet with 'his' artist.  This guy from work has tons of art on him, but he's placed it all such that basically no one knows just how much is there.  This was an unusual opportunity for me to get a glimpse of it.  Further, it gave me the chance to meet the artist that's been recommended by plenty of people around me while going along with someone that knew the person / ropes.

I'll be going back in November to finalize what this will piece look like and set the date / time I'll be getting it done.  It will be as close to December 15th as I can land it...

Empty brain?
Okay... I think I've gotten it all out there... sorry for the massive length of the post.  All the time exercising, eating and prepping food has just kept me away from the blog... I'll try to do better in the coming week.

Keep up the great work Team Cookie Monster... go out there a JFD!

Lots of self discipline right now - in a company-wide meeting amidst free food and drinks. I miss free food. ;(

THE FOOD - SO MUCH FOOD!

Wow... I am stunned at how much food I'm allotted, in combination with the fact that I'm actually eating it all without a problem.  My initial conversations with Patrick were very clear that I pretty much suck at eating - I used to skip tons of meals, eat at random times, eat random stuff, etc.  I would generally eat whenever and whatever throughout any given day.  For the past week I've been stuffing myself with around 3.5 pounds of food and my body wouldn't flinch.  Now, now I think Patrick / Chen are just screwing with me because it went up again this week to a whopping 4.25 pounds of food a day.  (Both of those exclude the weight of the FOUR eggs I eat each day.)

Look, don't get me wrong, I'm digging the results, I'm especially digging the idea that my body wants this much food because of my metabolism, exercise, etc.  What is getting tough is finding the time to prepare the next day's food each night (not cook, just assemble) as well as trying to keep variety in my meals.  We picked up a bunch of couscous, so that's getting made into all sorts of wonderful combinations - carb variety shouldn't be a problem for a while. 

The protein, though, is basically locked into the land of the chicken.  And now I've got a protein spot on my breakfast line and I really don't want to eat chicken for breakfast, lunch and dinner!  I recognize that we can't think of breakfast as a meal with exclusive components (eggs, bacon, waffles, etc) but I also am not so sure I'm going to dig into a big thing of tuna at 8a.  Suggestions anyone?  Oh... and don't say eggs.  ;)

Otherwise things are peachy.  I took a rest day (jumps only) on Sunday at the suggestion of my wife after watching me drag around the house through the weekend.  Monday I was itching for the real workout.  I did my jumps at lunch at work today - I think I'll keep a jump rope in my laptop bag in case of the office blues, because that was an awesome midday pick-me-up.