New Quarter, New Start

Not that I need a new start, just a new boost. Give it some gas, you know?

The Xerox quarter end over, I'll have more time to think, I think. I hope. Tons of work ahead of me, but plenty of time to get my ducks in a row.

On the personal side, I've got a new workout going at the moment. I read Eric Cressey's Ultimate Offseason Training Manual and got pretty excited by it. I'm no athlete, but I'd like to be able to move and look like one, that's for sure.

As I suspected, I need to get stronger, so I'll be following a regimen based on EC's manual. While not powerlifter specific, it certainly has it's roots in a PL template.

I followed a PL based routine before, and stopped after a couple of weeks. The dynamic effort (DE) days always left me bored and underwhelmed. I guess I just didn't do them right. I just finished off one week of my new routine liked it a lot. While the DE, itself, wasn't hard, it actually left me invigorated for the next few lifts. Plus, if you think of the DE work training the movement and building acceleration from a stop, it shouldn't really matter if the work itself seems hard, right? That's not the point of DE.

That's the workout part. The next part of the fitness trifecta, nutrition, comes next.

Nutrition has been hard for me. Living with my father makes it hard. I'm constantly tempted by the foods that he has laying around. He's a CostCo shopper, which means CostCo sized boxes of cookies. Oatmeal, too. My favorite. If I could only have just one, I'd be good. But one leads to two. Two leads to eating myself into oblivion. Must avoid having even one.

So, part of my plan is to not be tempted when I'm there. I must time things so I don't want crap when I'm at home. What makes me want crap? Ironically, working out does. 3-4 hours post workout, I'm starving. I crave carbs. Any carbs. I want to stuff myself. However, if I'm busy (like at work), I can curb this craving after a while. So, part of my nutrition plan is to workout before work or at lunch (this is harder, as it means shorter workouts).

Final part of the fitness trifecta is the mental part. Success in the first two parts help a lot. But, this is circular. When I'm down, I want to eat crap. I always want to workout, so that part's not so bad.

So, sticking to my nutritional plan keeps me happy. Staying happy helps me eat right. Why can't I be one of those people who loses their appetite when they get to feeling down?