Day 36 - Enter the Egg White

The term "PCP proper" gets thrown around a lot in the project. There is Day 1 "proper" and then there is Day 36 "proper". Today, I entered the egg white. 4 a day. 2 for dinner, which I did not find out until I was about to cook up some shrimp. I finally looked down the sheet and there it was, under protein, 2 egg whites. Ah, now I am experiencing PCP proper. The shrimp will have to wait until lunch tomorrow where I plan on chewing each one very slowly. Savoring the delicate flavor with each bite. Lunch. The holy grail of protein ingestion that is not egg whites. The new exercises added that extra element to the routine that keeps you on your toes. Keeps you thinking. Keeps you working the different muscle groups throughout your body. The pistol squats made me laugh because I was doing them rather poorly. Patrick warned that they were hard. He was right. It's going to take me a few weeks to adapt to form required to execute a proper pistol squat. Tomorrow morning will bring a proper morning workout. Morning being 10 in the AM. Still not 6, but, hey. Off to Philadelphia tomorrow night to see a show. A proper show. Sweet dreams, my lovelies. I'm off to eat some pineapple and 200 ml of low fat milk. Ah, paradise.

Day 35 - Easter Sunday

A gorgous Easter sunday. Perfect for dawning a breezy white shirt and heading down to the farm to spend time with family, feed corn to the animals, and drink a cup of fresh apple cider. Jumping rope in the afternoon sun was a perfect appetizer to the Easter dinner I later cooked sipping some home brew ice coffee. Roasted sun chokes, tomato, potato, onion, arugula and some wild caught Alaskan salmon. Today's R&R and put me on firm ground, ready to take on this weeks new exercises and diet, along with any new challenges that are sure to pop up. Let's do it!

Day 33 - Pain & regret

I woke up today feeling about one thousand times better, add to that a warm and sunny day, the sum, just a general good vibe emanating from my being all day. I couldn't wait to get in the gym and kill it. I knocked out the routine in 45 minutes and felt great. I even managed to stretch afterwards! Holy Cow!

The quote of the day for me is, "Pain is weighed in grams. Regret is weighed in tons." I read that early in the day and I mediated on the statement. Reflecting on how it relates to my life, the lives of my loved ones, and the general state of society in this country. The weekend is brining much needed sunshine and family time and a new goal. Adding the eight minute abs routine to my workout. I'm expecting pain and certainly no regrets on day 91. PCPeace!

Day 32 - The grump

The grump. That's my wife's pet name for me when I wake up in a certain mood. This morning I awoke in one of those moods. Tired, sore, cloudy, stuffy, hungry, and just plain old leave me alone. Alas, when you have 18 month old child, all of the adjectives I listed above, don't mean a thing. You have to go on.

I did give thought to not doing the workout today. I pulled up Patrick's e-mail about not pushing yourself when your body gives you signs to slow down. So, I figured I'd play it by ear and at least I'd do my 1350 jumps. Thankfully, after a long day I felt I was in good enough shape to perform the routine and so, I did just that. The workout took me a solid hour due to my general condition but I slogged through and I don't feel worse for it. Tonight, I need sleep. As much sleep as possible. Wish me luck, I'm turning in.

Day 31 - The peaks and valleys of the PCP

The peaks and valleys of the PCP. We hear about them in the blogs of the peakers who go before us. We may or may not realize that we too will be travelling the same ground. In my last blog I mentioned how spring was here and for some of us with spring come the allergies. With the pollen count today very high I was hit this morning with a cloudy head and a runny nose. Which very well might be a tiny cold. I felt I was dragging for a good part of the day. During the workout tonight a gym buddy helped me do 10 pull ups and after 1300 jumps, the cloudiness had lifted and the runny nose gone. I worked it pretty hard today. Pushing myself to do 40 second planks and keeping one eye on the clock to make sure I was keeping with the rest portions.

After the workout, now this is one of my favorite parts of the PCP, I get in the locker room, remove my shirt and it's just amazing to see all your muscles pumped and bulging. It's a great feeling to know that's actually you in the mirror. I get home to make my tilapia and asparagus as I was ravenous and again cloudy as the allergies and/or cold came back on. I started to tell my wife a story from a book I'm reading about a little girl and her father playing baseball and I just broke down and cried and I mean, I was crying! My wife stood there with a look of amazement of her face as an innocent parable transformed into epic sobbing. I then started laughing and took a nice long shower. Which, needless to say, was just what a needed.

How about my fellow peakers? Any mood swings going on in your world?

Day 30 - Around any corner

I found a new love today. Baked artichokes. I had never had one before, baked that is. Usually the artichoke is hidden in something called “dip”. Which, one must admit, is rather delicious. However, I never eat artichoke dip because it is rarely presented at cocktail parties, beach shin digs, nor the bingo hall. This morning, I sipped my morning Joe, and baked a dozen or so artichokes. I then scraped away the leaves, held the precious still beating heart in my hands, and chomped down. A new love indeed. The smell recalled tomatoes, the taste recalled, hmmmm….artichoke minus dip. Splendid!

The PCP offers many new opportunities to test boundaries and explore the world inside and out. That’s the wonderful thing. The discovery right around the corner of a new burning sensation in the arms, a new taste on the tongue, a new sight in the mirror. Oh, and just in time for spring. A wonderful time for renewal and discovery.

PCP confession booth: I could not do my V sit up's today. After the 4 sets of leg ups I was a quivering mess and I literally could not lift my legs anymore. So, I did three sets of regular sit ups and one set of planks.

Week 5 pics up.

Day 29 - Kick it up a notch

How does one feel after 1300 jumps of the rope, 120 lunges, and into the 2nd set of floor jumps? Tired and exhilarated. The pleasure and the pain of the PCP. PCP proper. PCP, kicked up a notch. That's where we are right now. The grams reduced, the carbs cut, the exercises doubled, and a long month ahead as we reach the 30 day mark.

I need to make adjustments to my meal times. By 12:30pm today I had gone through my mid-morning snack and lunch with only my yogurt to look forward to at 4. This is where my coffee would usually come in to help me reach my 7pm workout. So, one cup of coffee a day is manageable but I will have to push my lunch back an hour. Overall, a great PCP day.