Well it's day two and I honestly can't see any difference. Except I am in a lot of pain. Especially in my legs, which I rarely worked on before, adopting the admittedly slightly rose tinted view that walking, and other more general locomotion, would deliver ample callisthenics to both quads and calves alike. Not that it hadn't occurred to me that focusing too much on my torso might land me looking a little top heavy eventually, but this rumination was easily cast into the doubtful void of ever actually accomplishing anything from going to the gym.
Whichever way you look at it, "Six pack by Sunday" was probably a little optimistic, but I digress.
Today started off with 50 sit ups and 50 press-ups. Very straightforward, with the view of upping the quantity and quality of exercise as i get used to it. I did them in 15 rep bursts, pausing for about a minute between each set and alternating the exercise, much like the supersets detailed in yesterdays routine. I also treated myself to ten minutes meditation (more on that later). What I did not do was eat breakfast. This, apparently, was my first mistake of the day.
A little on that point. All this extra activity saw me getting up about 40 minutes earlier than usual in order to get in at my self appointed start time of 5 minutes later than everyone else (the trick with office tardiness, i find, is that as long as you maintain the consistency of piss taking it is eventually accepted as the norm). Give we work 5 days a week, 52 weeks a year that's 260, less 25 days holiday makes 235. Times that by 40 and you get 9400 minutes, or 6 days, 12 hours and 40 minutes. for anyone that's ever said that "breakfast is the most important meal of the day", try staying awake for that long, then we'll talk.
Exercise - Yoga, 1 hour
Along with meditation, I've been interested in Yoga for some time, and I did it for a while a few years ago. I find the the level of relaxation attainable through hatha yoga in particular (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatha_yoga) unparallelled Muscular relaxation through the constant stretching and relaxing of the body, entwined with mindful, focused awareness on the breath steadies the mind and hones concentration. The only real issue was that this particular class took place in the office, which, as it transpires turned out to be slightly counter-productive for two main reasons.
1. I found it incredibly difficult to pay attention to what the instructor was say because, for almost the entire hour I was desperately trying not to fart. Flatulence in the office is not, on any level what soever acceptable. A subtle incident in the lift, devoid of sound is forgivable ONLY if COMPLETE deniability on behalf of the fartie is plausible. But in a room of 6 young, nubile, 20 something girls, where blame could be instantly and with Lazar accuracy attributed to me? No thank you. I don't need that kind of publicity.
2. I kept thinking , repeatedly and with mounting conviction that each and every one of the girls in the room (which incidentally was everyone except me) thought that that I was trying to look at their vaginas. Completely irrational, and verging on paranoia perhaps, but have you ever seen "Downward Dog"? Now I'm always game for a good perv, but with work colleagues? Just awkward.
Diet
Lunch - Simply yesterdays leftover of mackerel and salad, with some of the remaining sweet potatoes and was very tasty.
Dinner - Thought I'd be a bit adventurous here, sticking to the fish and friendly carbs i tired my hand at Salmon Thai Red Curry, with Green Sauce (in retrospect that's probably just Salmon Thai green curry...).
For this you will need:
Whichever way you look at it, "Six pack by Sunday" was probably a little optimistic, but I digress.
Today started off with 50 sit ups and 50 press-ups. Very straightforward, with the view of upping the quantity and quality of exercise as i get used to it. I did them in 15 rep bursts, pausing for about a minute between each set and alternating the exercise, much like the supersets detailed in yesterdays routine. I also treated myself to ten minutes meditation (more on that later). What I did not do was eat breakfast. This, apparently, was my first mistake of the day.
A little on that point. All this extra activity saw me getting up about 40 minutes earlier than usual in order to get in at my self appointed start time of 5 minutes later than everyone else (the trick with office tardiness, i find, is that as long as you maintain the consistency of piss taking it is eventually accepted as the norm). Give we work 5 days a week, 52 weeks a year that's 260, less 25 days holiday makes 235. Times that by 40 and you get 9400 minutes, or 6 days, 12 hours and 40 minutes. for anyone that's ever said that "breakfast is the most important meal of the day", try staying awake for that long, then we'll talk.
Exercise - Yoga, 1 hour
Along with meditation, I've been interested in Yoga for some time, and I did it for a while a few years ago. I find the the level of relaxation attainable through hatha yoga in particular (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatha_yoga) unparallelled Muscular relaxation through the constant stretching and relaxing of the body, entwined with mindful, focused awareness on the breath steadies the mind and hones concentration. The only real issue was that this particular class took place in the office, which, as it transpires turned out to be slightly counter-productive for two main reasons.
1. I found it incredibly difficult to pay attention to what the instructor was say because, for almost the entire hour I was desperately trying not to fart. Flatulence in the office is not, on any level what soever acceptable. A subtle incident in the lift, devoid of sound is forgivable ONLY if COMPLETE deniability on behalf of the fartie is plausible. But in a room of 6 young, nubile, 20 something girls, where blame could be instantly and with Lazar accuracy attributed to me? No thank you. I don't need that kind of publicity.
2. I kept thinking , repeatedly and with mounting conviction that each and every one of the girls in the room (which incidentally was everyone except me) thought that that I was trying to look at their vaginas. Completely irrational, and verging on paranoia perhaps, but have you ever seen "Downward Dog"? Now I'm always game for a good perv, but with work colleagues? Just awkward.
Diet
Lunch - Simply yesterdays leftover of mackerel and salad, with some of the remaining sweet potatoes and was very tasty.
Dinner - Thought I'd be a bit adventurous here, sticking to the fish and friendly carbs i tired my hand at Salmon Thai Red Curry, with Green Sauce (in retrospect that's probably just Salmon Thai green curry...).
For this you will need:
- 1 tsp vegetable or sunflower oil
- 2 tbsp Thai green (or red, whatevs) curry paste
- 1 tbsp Thai red curry paste
- 1 onion , sliced
- 250ml reduced-fat coconut milk
- 500g skinless salmon fillets , cut into chunks
- 200g pack green beans
- coriander or basil, to serve
- Chillies / Chilly powder / Chilly flakes to taste
1. Heat the oil in a large pan, then add the curry paste. Stir in the onion, then cook gently for about 5 mins until softened. Pour in the coconut milk and bring to the boil. Reduce to a simmer, then add the salmon chunks and beans.
2. Leave to gently simmer for 5 mins until the fish flakes easily and the beans are tender. Add the Chilly, in whichever form to taste. Scatter with the coriander or basil, and serve with brown rice.
NB remember to stick the brown rice on at the very beginning otherwise you'll be waiting around for ages after the salon has cooked.
Nutrition Per serving:
326 kcalories, protein 27g, carbohydrate 5g, fat 22 g, saturated fat 9g, fibre 2g, sugar 4g, salt 0.46 g
On a personal note, this was fucking delicious. :)
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