What Rhymes with Phlebitis?

This is what I look like with Phlebitis

So last spring I was the shit.  I strutted my stuff around Planet Fitness like I owned the place.  I mean after all I was back up to an hour a night (and sometimes each morning too) on the elliptical machines.  But in April I kicked it up huge and went for those vertical super-motherfucker elliptical machines that made you look like you were rock-climbing your way through a seizure.  One night I finished 30 minutes on one of those bad boys and the pain in my knee was just mixed into my standard post-"workout" euphoria...that is, until I went to the doctor a few days later to explore the three bumps around my knee and calf that were hot to the touch.  Yep...Phlebitis. An inflammation of my veins that meant an increased chance I could end up with a blood clot.  Turns out all I could do (once they confirmed it wasn't in my "deep system", which would be bad) is wear compression stockings (think Tim Curry in Rocky Horror) for a few weeks and hope for the best.  I asked the vascular doc if the benchmark exercise had anything to do with it and he was certain that it didn't.

Fast forward to last week.  I'm coming off a week where I was near-debilitated from 225 air squats in a kick-ass WOD. I recover just in time for three epic days of snowboarding in Utah.  Just before the trip I discover a nickel-sized bump on my left calf.  By day three my quads are pretty cooked, so I take it easy and do half the runs I did the previous two days.  Regardless, the trip leaves me with some serious pain, mainly in my left calf. Fast forward to Saturday night (after seeing the doctor on Friday). Yep...easy to figure this one out.  I have Phlebitis again, albeit far smaller and more superficial than last time. So I promised myself that I would listen to my body and give it the time it needed to heal.  After skipping today's skill day (it would have been my first day back at CF in over a week) I tried some air squats tonight and it seems while the bump is there the pain in my calves has subsided.  I'm going to try tomorrow's WOD and see how it goes.  If the pain comes back at all I might just cash out with some pushups, pullups or something else that's not leg-intensive.  I know this life change is a marathon not a sprint, but it's hard not to at least get back in there and make SOMETHING happen.

A random aside...as part of the triage checkin at the hospital they asked me to hop on the scale to get a weight.  This turned into a pretty big moment as I haven't weighed myself since last spring. While that weight was 320 pounds I easily packed on 10-20 more before starting Crossfit in November. So here it went...the moment I was sparing myself as I realized that weight isn't nearly as important as the size of my pants (which it's not).  But lo and behold, even considering that I'm 4-5 inches smaller around the waist, and I know I'm so much stronger, I couldn't help but get pumped when she read off the number:

298.5!!!!

Holy shit I haven't weighed 2-something in YEARS. What a crazy milestone. It feels amazing to have come so far in such a short time.  And considering what must be significant muscle gain I feel GREAT about losing that much weight.  I've recently been thinking about tightening up my Paleo into the Zone but it seems what I'm doing is working well enough for now.  I'm maintaining probably about 90% Paleo, with the other 10% being the whey & casein protein I eat for recovery, as well as balsamic vinaigrette 1-2 times a week (many of my lunch salads have olive oil & balsamic vinegar).  I guess it's time for a post about diet sometime soon so we can break it down and maybe I can get some feedback.  For now I coast back into the Black Box tomorrow on a cloud.  This stuff is working so well.  I hope my veins hold out until I drop another 75 pounds or so :).

Peace and Love to you all...

Belting It Out...

It's absolutely crazy that just over two months ago I still hadn't ever done a WOD, hadn't given up pizza and cake...mowed candy on Halloween, drank 4 cups of coffee to get through a day, and in the blink of an eye here I am cutting hole #2 in my belt just to keep my new, smaller pants from falling down when I walk three steps.  One hole for each month I've been easily able to get up early, get my ass to Crossfit, and spend the day still eating a bunch, but just filling my menu with delicious, Paleo-friendly choices.  Can the progress keep chugging at this pace?  If so by summertime I'll be a size 40 for the first time in over 15 years.

I welcome the hard work.  Just tonight I was hanging out with my son and, where I'd usually melt into the couch toward the end of the day I decided to crank out 30-ish pushups with him riding on my back.  He was having a laugh riot and I was psyched to get my body up off the ground more than a handful of times.  I remember trying pushups last fall and it was embarrassing...I was incapable of doing five...makes me think of that scene in Stripes when Bill Murray can barely do five.  He could do more than me!! Yikes!

Anyway it feels damned good, and if you're happening upon this blog and you're wavering in any way over the decision to do Crossfit and/or Paleo, I can't reiterate enough how life changing it becomes in such a short period of time.  Here I am about to go to sleep at 9:11 on a Saturday, when I usually stay up late and sleep in on Sundays (my one day to do so).  I've been reading enough about the necessity of good sleep that this is my one chance to get a full nights worth of shuteye...and I'm taking advantage.  Lack of sleep is the one sacrifice I'm making in this situation that will likely take away from my benefits over time.  See, in order to get to Crossfit NYC from where I live, I get up at 4:10 AM to catch a train at 5:15 into the city so I can make the 7:00 WOD.  Doing this 3-4 times a week allows for an average of 4-5 hours of sleep per night, plus whatever power naps I'm able to crank out on the train.  Physiologically speaking I'm sure this is horrible.  But when faced with more sleep or the chance to make it to Crossfit...well I guess I'll just have to live with that sacrifice.  What kills me about it is that everything I read says that a full night's sleep (7-9 hours) is the most crucial part of an intense workout regimen like this.  Check out this amazing graphic about sleep...really hits the nail on the head, and scares me that the majority of my sleep schedule is in the "WTF" column.

So another weekend rant (and a little more of high-fiving myself) hits the books...thanks for the comments people!  Keep the feedback coming.  It's amazing to meet all of you along the way...feels great to know there are a bunch of folks out there as addicted to this whole thing as I am.  What a bunch of friggin nutjobs we are :-).

Peace...

Milestone

Every fat person remembers the day they had to put on a size 50 pair of pants.  It's like you're crossing over into some crazy land of acceptance...a place you don't want to be, but you couldn't fight your way out if you tried. It feels just as shitty as it sounds, but you keep your composure and keep going...after all, you're past the point of no return. Why even fight it? It's this milestone that has you convinced deep down that this is it.  This is you, and enjoy the days you have because there's a reason pant sizes don't go to 60, even in the big & tall stores...

Yesterday I went shopping for pants. I stared at the label for a minute after I knew these were the ones that fit...50/30. It wasn't a typo. There it was...the ever-dreaded milestone. Wow...

Thing is...my pant size back in October?

54

There are no shortcuts.  Crossfit is no joke, and some of the hardest work I've ever done.  But at this point I crave the WODs that are going to tear me down and build me back up stronger and healthier than I've ever been. Paleo was no picnic in the beginning, but now you could wave a huge plate of pasta with sauce in front of my face and I truly would have no desire.

This is our one life (perhaps until the next one, but that's another discussion). We DO control our destiny and getting out of the abyss IS possible. When every small step is a huge one, it takes everything you have to move your journey in the right direction. But here I am...just a couple months after starting the journey, and I can tell you first hand that this is truly amazing...

The Bitter Truth

As an obese person I look back on my life and see pockets of time where I was super-excited about getting healthy.  There are four specific periods where I went through weight loss of any significance, and each time I really felt I nailed this health thing hard.  The positive part of each of these "healthy" periods was the inclusion of fairly strenuous exercise.  For someone who is largely inactive for the majority of my life, I can look back on these exceptional periods and be proud that I gave my body a break, if even for a little while.  But when I examine my methods when it came to my diet, my efforts were pretty disastrous.

First there was the method of limiting my fat intake to 10 grams of fat per day.  I can only remember this number of fat grams as arbitrary, but it seemed to hold my focus long enough for me to lose 30-40 pounds.  Once that weight came back, there was the time I lost close to 80 pounds eating almost nothing but foods that required more energy to digest than they supplied my body with.  The greatest hits of this disastrous mixtape were cabbage (often sauerkraut) & grapefruits.  This along with a restricted diet that was fairly bean-centric at best, but imbalanced to the point of ridiculousness.  So that weight came back, and while the third healthy period wasn't as successful diet-wise, I had a steady and dedicated Bikram Yoga practice which increased my body's flexibility (and continues to do so five+ years after I stopped) and had me feeling truly my best and healthiest, ever.

More recently I decided to become more scientific and logical about my approach to health, and thanks to some web research and a good amount of luck I've come across some life-changing things.  One of them is Crossfit.  Another is the Paleo Diet.  And one other thing has sent such shockwaves into my daily awareness of food intake, I would view myself as irresponsoble if I didn't share it with you.  Below is a YouTube video of a presentation by Dr. Robert Lustig (professor of Pediatric Endocrinology at UCSF).  It is called "Sugar: The Bitter Truth" and I cannot say enough about how life-changing it has been for me. The lecture delves in huge detail into the poison that is Fructose, the horror of the US diet, and how high-fructose corn syrup has infiltrated the American diet to a debilitating degree. Those even mildly curious with the source of the obesity epidemic should absolutely take the time to see this video.  Please spread it around...it is truly amazing.

This video allowed me to train myself about the choices that I'm making for me and my child.  It really provides the framework necessary to go out into the world and actually succeed in subverting the allure of the American Diet.  I feel like for the first time in my life I've entered a healthy period that is balanced, informed, and the most natural approach to fitness I've taken yet.  It feels really great to be taking a steady course toward changing my life for the better. Tools like the ones mentioned above are only the beginning.  I look forward to finding more useful information and sharing it.  Feel free to share some of your own.  I'm absolutely all ears...

Recovery Nutrition

Back in the spring I subscribed to the mainstream weight-training philosophy behind muscle recovery. Throughout the course of the day you should take in one gram of protein per every pound of bodyweight. I bought chocolate protein powders from GNC, ate protein bars throughout the day, and ingested quite a silly amount of protein, all in the name of building muscle and helping my body recover from my workouts.

Now with Crossfit and Paleo I'm confident that I'm getting significant protein from the meat and nuts, so I'm not nearly as militant about protein shakes. However, within 30 minutes after any WOD I typically find myself drinking an excellent organic protein recovery drink known as Orgain. This has 16 grams of protein, sourced from organic whey. Though its ingestion is a departure from Paleo, it's pretty widely known at this point that post-workout it's crucial to have at least 8 ounces of a drink that has a 3:1 carb to protein ratio. Frankly a ton of sites, blogs, and discussion posts recommend straight-up chocolate milk as a recovery drink, because it maintains the ideal carb-to-protein ratio for ideal muscle recovery.

Here's some of the science behind that 3:1 figure (feel free to skip the next paragraph if you're about to start snoring): The sugar in the chocolate (a very popular flavor in these drinks) causes an insulin spike which primes your muscles for ideal protein intake. The carbs act as a vehicle for the protein to travel efficiently into your muscles to achieve optimal recovery of tissue that has been broken down during your workout.

Since chocolate milk still has the typical hormone and inorganic content found in whole milk, I prefer an 11-oz carton of Orgain. I still get the proper ratio of carbs to protein for recovery, and though it's not Paleo I'm still consuming an organic food. The optimal timing of the recovery drink is within the first 30 minutes after your workout. It's tough to hit that timeframe after a Crossfit WOD, since it's tough to move quickly while showering and changing. I need to start keeping some Orgain in the fridge at Crossfit.

Typically along with the Orgain (which I drink right there in the store) I get a fresh fruit cup and bring it to the office, where I drink 32 ounces of water and eat the fruit cup. By the time I'm done with the fruit and water I'm overcome with the most euphoric feeling. It feels so great to be feeding my body the fuel it needs to optimally recover from the intensity of Crossfit.

I have a lot more to learn, and I certainly can make more tweaks to my observance of Paleo, but vs. where I was a few months ago my nutritional habits are a dream come true!

Paleo and Me

(typed in December 2010, but placed here as I want the blog to be chronological)

It's pretty simple...fruit, vegetables, lean meats, nuts/seeds, seafood. That's it. That's my fuel, and as long as what I'm taking in is fuel, my body will process what I do at Crossfit on an optimal level. I've seen and read a lot of information about the workout not ending when you leave Crossfit. Without the nutritional component you basically cheat the intensity of the workout, and deprive your body of its ability to optimally recover, strengthen, hydrate, and nourish itself properly.

The super-basic premise of the diet is that for thousands of years the human body was genetically set up to run on the above food groups. Only in the past couple hundred years have we flipped the food equation in favor of processed carbohydrates. Grain-based diets have slowly but effectively brought our population's health to its knees. Paleo is a way to get the body back to its roots.

I'm now a month into combining Crossfit and Paleo, and I've made huge strides in my energy level. A few months back I was drilling my body daily with up to 4 cups of coffee...a very necessary amount to take me out of my lethargy. I'm already down to 1 cup every couple of days. My pants are loose and I feel great. I know I have a lifelong journey ahead of me, so I purposely haven't stepped on a scale or taken any measurements. It's quite pointless. For all I know I've gained weight with the amount of strength training I've been undergoing at Crossfit. But who the hell cares? I'm on my way to being as healthy as I've ever been...

I'm fortunate to have a Trader Joe's one block from my office. I stock up for the week on fruit and nuts, and I've been eating salads daily that usually combine meat like grilled chicken, buffalo or a turkey burger, and a healthy amount of greens. At first I was munching down the nuts almost all day long. It seems lately I've calmed down the snacking and I only go through a couple of handfuls a day.

It feels great to be back on the horse. I'm so excited about this significant life change...let's see where it takes us.

peace...