Friday, September 30, 2011

September Diet Quality Card
 home days

september diet card

Slightly shifting the diet quality cards to the end of the month, so I can review how I have actually been eating for the month and not so much project how I hope to eat.

So upping my protein intake actually does mean that I don't need an afternoon snack, I'm full longer... only. Only aagh, I can't stop drinking Coke. And I don't keep Coke in the house; if I want a Coke, I have to put on my shoes and walk to the gas station for my fix. And every afternoon, I fidget in my chair and then the next thing is my shoes are on. I've been trying this week to stay conscious and choose not to put on my shoes and all I have to say is, I do not ever want to get hooked on heroin.

Also what the hell happened to my fruit consumption. Partly it's that I have vegetables for breakfast now, I am A-OK with vegetables for like the first time ever. I guess it's also that I'm supposed to be having post-workout smoothies, but lately I can only manage a bowl of raisin bran and almonds. I would not stoop so low as to count the raisins in raisin bran as a fruit serving. Smoothies would cover both fruit and essential fat servings. So would peanut better apples, I used to eat an apple every day and all of a sudden I stopped. I don't know why.

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Adibisi's Hat

I have been talking about studying for my personal trainer certification, and lordy I have finished Week One of the ACE Personal Trainer 12 Week Study Coach Program. In eighteen weeks. I think it took four weeks to get up the courage to actually open the book, and I lost four to six weeks at the beginning of summer to becoming captain and the draft and tryouts. And it says right here in my study coach email, "Many candidates get stuck on Chapter 1 because of the vast amount of information covered."

Chapter 1 was Human Anatomy, which is a hella vast amount of information. I feel like I only slightly know it now. It's sort of like when you start working out, your abs are so weak that you can't even find them and eventually you work up to a point where you can actually find them to work them out. So I will be moving onto Chapter 2, but also writing up what I know about human anatomy in upcoming blog entries.

This is how I learn. Basically that's what this blog is, me learning my life. So, up next: human anatomy alla Poppy.

Anyway, I have key questions written up on my chalkboard:

  • What bones are at this joint?
  • What body part moves at this joint?
  • What body part is moved at this joint?
  • What movements happen at this joint?
  • What muscles make these movements happen?
  • What exercises make these muscles work?

important anatomy question

To which I noticed the sweetie man has added the most important anatomical question for anybody who has watched Oz.

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Veganly Cannellini Beans with Cubanelle Peppers and Spinach

veganly cannellini beans with spinach

This is great, veganly beans are back for fall. And I still have a few new variations up my sleeve before I start back at the top, so there's a lot of good eatin' ahead.

I'm not eating this with rice so much; but if you want, put on a pot of rice before you start the beans.

olive oil
1 onion
2 cubanelle peppers
3-5 cloves garlic
1 Tbsp flour
1 can broth
2 cans cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
1 lb spinach, thoroughly washed

Gently heat oil over low heat as you chop the onion and peppers, adding vegetables to the pan as they are chopped. Turn up the heat to medium high and saute aromatics until golden, about ten minutes. Mince the garlic, add to pan and saute until fragrant, about a minute. Stir in flour and cook for another minute or two. Add broth, stir and cook a couple minutes more. Add beans and simmer until slightly thickened, about twenty minutes. Roughly chop spinach, add to pan and simmer until spinach is wilted. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

ETA 3/19/13: I think this is better without the flour, actually. And I guess a bag of spinach is 10 oz? So you could use one or two bags, depending on how spinachy you want this to be.

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Fall Work Wear
 ankle boots

fall work wear

Still going with the chart for my clothes, fall work wear is the same miniskirts and leggings with the lighter of my thirteen sweaters. And I bought a pair of fall boots, these little black suede ankle boots that I came across at H&M. Actually that day at H&M I also ran into Betty White Lightning, who broke her ankle at Rioters practice that night. I keep wanting to go back in time to warn her. And possibly also to tell myself the reason I haven't worn heels in such a long time is that they do hurt my feet. Not intolerably, but more than not at all. And also it's scary walking down stairs in them, though going upstairs is fine.

Monday, September 26, 2011

Slow Cooker Steel Cut Oats

slow cooker steel cut oats

Really the worst thing that Corner Bakery has done to me is given me a taste for steel cut oats. Aagh I was so fine with quick cook oats, so easy. Steel cut oats in a slow cooker is just about as easy, though. I'm not gonna lie, they're not as good as standing over the stove stirring for forty minutes. But you know what else is good, cooking while sleeping.

1 cup steel cut oats
4 cups water

Before bed, put the oats and water in your slow cooker set on LOW. Go to bed.

Haha, that's it.

When you wake up, fix whatever you want to put on your oatmeal, sweet or savory.

Okay one more thing, you might want to butter your crockpot beforehand, you get a pretty serious, not burnt-on, but shall we say browned-on crust overnight. You can eat that, by the way, if you can unglue it from the crockpot.


Friday, September 23, 2011

Fall Food Plan

Basic guideline for eating around workouts:

BEFORE
complex carbs &
light protein

IMMEDIATELY BEFORE
simple carbs
 
WORKOUT IMMEDIATELY AFTER
simple carbs &
light protein
AFTER
complex carbs &
light heavy protein
BETWEEN
complex carbs &
heavy protein

Immediately before/after means within 45 minutes, before/after means within 1-3 hours, and between means more than 3 hours before or after workouts. Ish.

With mostly evening workouts, it works out like this:

  • Dinner - complex carbs with light protein - pasta with veg sauce
  • Workout Drink - simple carbs - CocoOJ2O
  • Post-Workout Snack - complex carbs with light protein - smoothie
  • Breakfast - complex carbs and light heavy protein - eggs and oatmeal
  • Lunch - complex carbs and heavy protein - back to veganly beans and creamed veg soup for work days, with chicken

I actually have this worked out for all four seasons in my book of charts. When I say that this blog might go into a sleepy period, I mean this. If I figure out what to eat, once and for all.

For now, I suppose I should note that I'm back to eating eggs and chicken. I was just starving all the time, which means that I was burning through my carbs and light protein. It's hard to get anything else done if you're feeding yourself every two hours, not exaggerating, and furthermore if you actually panic from hungriness if you go five minutes over two hours, also not exaggerating. So just a little shift toward heavy protein, which has already solved that problem.

So not at all vegan anymore, not that being a little bit vegan is at all vegan. I guess I would say that trying out veganism didn't help me not eat meat, but it did help me eat a lot more vegetables...

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Fall Fitness Plan
 prescrimmage

Build: Extensive endurance and speed technique

So I'm not sure how I'm really tracking with my subperiodization, that's the bit that says extensive endurance. Which means that I'm supposed to be working on longer endurance like at speed practice. Which is not working with my life, particularly since the spockmobile died.

Boy when I was a rioter, the sweetie man used to drive the spockmobile on Tuesdays and Thursdays to a downtown pickup point at 4:30 PM; I would leave work early to meet him, get in the car and drive an hour and a half to Romeoville, and he would take the bus home. Now that I only work on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I can't really leave early and I'm loth to change this work schedule because it really does work well for everything else I do.

Which leaves Saturday speed. Which I also used to do when I was a rioter, Kola would come pick me up at 6:30 AM. Somewhere along the line, though, my sleep cycle has definitely shifted, I'm not usually sleepy until midnight and not usually asleep until 2:00 AM. At 6:30 AM, I am well into REM sleep. I'm still in REM sleep at 8:00 AM. I don't actually know what REM sleep is, but you know figuratively. And I'm loth to change this sleep schedule because the upside is that I'm never tired for 9:00 PM practices.

And, I'm serious about sleep. You should never short yourself on sleep so that you can get more training in, you should consider sleep as part of your training plan. You may need more sleep when you train, actually.

Anyway I say all this to illustrate that life is choices, and also life is life. There was a great article that Pom sent around last season, the first point was that you can't just plop a training plan on your life. You have to fit training in your life. Frankly, derby isn't going to fit into a lot of lives and that's cool. If you want to make it fit, you will save yourself some nervous breakdowns—not to mention training breakdowns—if you consciously pick and choose what gets tossed to make room for derby, and what gets tossed from derby, and what gets kept and does it still work.

What is being done.

SUN MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 
PLAY
Fury
HOBBY
 
WORK
 
HOBBY
 
WORK
 
HOBBY
 
PLAY
Kru
HOBBY
 
HOBBY
ACE
WORK
 
HOBBY
ACE
WORK
 
HOBBY
alla Poppy
PASTIME
 
PLAY
Referee
HOBBY
ACE
PASTIME
 
PLAY
League
PLAY
Boot
PASTIME
 
PASTIME
 
PASTIME
 
PLAY
League
PASTIME
 
PASTIME
 
HOBBY
 
PASTIME
 
PASTIME
 
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 

Fury practices are on Sunday, and referee practices are also on Sunday. League practices on Monday and Wednesday are now speed or agility, and blocking. There's another blocking practice on Saturdays, which I'm trying to be sane about. Then I do bootcamp with Box on Thursday and at Kru on Saturday.

So I would say that I'm continuing my strength training from postseason, actually stepping it up a little bit. Box's bootcamps have been amazing, as much about muscle awareness as anything else. I feel I will be able to apply this to all of my workouts.

Back to the question of subperiodization, the skatefit that I did in August was not moderate endurance as prescribed then. I mean there's your extensive endurance, if not intensive endurance. Ah, these are head of trainers questions... I will think on them and be right back, because this post is long enough.

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Fall Chart

Breakwise, this time I took a full twenty day break from the first of the last month of the quarter—i.e, Sept 1— to the first day of the season—i.e., Sept 21— though astronomically speaking, the first of the season is not always the 21st; but on my calendar, it is. I had a lovely break, this has been one of my best ideas ever. As it develops, I may design some sort of "Gone Fishing" placard for when I'm on break.

SUN MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 
PLAY
Fury
HOBBY
 
WORK
 
HOBBY
 
WORK
 
HOBBY
 
PLAY
Kru
PASTIME
 
HOBBY
ACE
WORK
 
HOBBY
ACE
WORK
 
HOBBY
alla Poppy
PASTIME
 
PLAY
Referee
HOBBY
ACE
PASTIME
 
PLAY
League
PLAY
Boot
PASTIME
 
PASTIME
 
PASTIME
 
PLAY
League
PASTIME
 
PASTIME
 
PASTIME
 
PASTIME
 
PASTIME
 
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 
SLEEP
 

I will talk about my fitness plan tomorrow, though it's probably self-explanatory. When has that ever stopped me, though.

Actually, there's not that much to explain at all. Which means, things haven't changed much and the system still works. Still working two days a week, pretty well settled into a routine of studying for my ACE exam on Mondays and Wednesdays and writing for alla Poppy on Fridays. Though periodically that gets taken over by planning the league practice schedule, like now. "Recovery" in the mornings, which is to say making the bed and doing dishes and generally getting myself set up to do my work, and "practice" in the afternoon and evening, which is to say studying and writing and actual skating practices.

I don't intend to create new systems just for novelty's sake or to provide myself with blog content. I don't mind if this blog goes into a sleepy period where I've figured a bunch of stuff out, not at all, really the whole point has been to arrive at that point. Where the infrastructure is set up, and then whatever's supposed to happen on the infrastructure starts to happen...