I went to see Frank, my trainer at the local Crunch gym, this morning to restart my training program. Because of my knee issues and the time I’ve been away, we took it really easy.
Warm up was 5 sets of lateral runs and some stretches
My work out comprised 3 sets of the following:
1 minute of rope pulley machine – pulling down
1 minute of rope pulley machine – pulling up
20 modified inchworm exercises [just going forward and going back to stand up]
traditional lateral pull down machine
traditional row machine
Dumbbell Lateral Raises [to the side, moving across to the front and then back down to hips; reverse order for next set]
side leg raises
I’m incapable of moving my knee to a 90 degree angle with any weight so squats and lunges are out of the question for the time being.
Icing and some trigger point massage seems to have helped a bit with the sore forearms. I will continue tonight to see if I can get back to a pain free state.
I signed up for the Self.com Diet Club. They provide a possible 16 strength and plyometric exercises and a cardio plan. You’re supposed to do the exercises three times a week. The trainer on the online videos is from SparkPeople.com. The idea is to exercise as part of a community and to track it online everyday so that you are more aware of your daily food and exercise decisions as well as more accountable. I’m not that community minded but am giving it a go.
The exercises I did today were:
Regular Hotdog w. ketchup, roll, no mayo – 315 calories
Rotating Sculptor- 5 lb weights
Bottoms Up- 3 lb weights
Reshaping Reach – 10 lb weights
Biceps Balancer – 10 lb weights
Step Off It – 3 lb weights
Rear Raiser
Wide High Knee
As I am careful of my knees, I decided to avoid the plyometric exercises for the time being.
We are heading off to the Staten Island Yankees game tonight with All-You-Can-Eat tickets again. I’m pretty sure that I saw an article saying hot dogs are a better junk food choice.
I will try to at some without the bun… That should save some calories. LOL
I went to see Yayoi Kusama’s Fireflies on the Water at the Whitney Museum. [http://whitney.org/Exhibitions/FirefliesOnTheWater] It was absolutely amazing. The exhibit is a small room that only one person may enter at a time. The museum staff will open the door after one minute. The sensation is surreal. You stand upon a small platform surrounded by still water in a mirrored room full of tiny lights. The space appears to go on forever; the water on the ground is never completely still so its reflection throughout the room means there’s movement around you as well. I could have happily stayed inside for quite a bit longer.
From the Whitney Museum site: Kusama’s Fireflies on the Water (2002)—with its carefully constructed environment of lights, mirrors, and water—is one of the outstanding examples of this kind of installation, which creates a space in which individual viewers are invited to transcend their sense of self.
During lunch, my friend and I discussed healthier eating and the dangers of High Fructose Corn Syrup. Here is some info that I found:
In 2010, a Princeton University research team demonstrated that all sweeteners are not equal when it comes to weight gain: Rats with access to high-fructose corn syrup gained significantly more weight than those with access to table sugar, even when their overall caloric intake was the same.
In addition to causing significant weight gain in lab animals, long-term consumption of high-fructose corn syrup also led to abnormal increases in body fat, especially in the abdomen, and a rise in circulating blood fats called triglycerides. The researchers say the work sheds light on the factors contributing to obesity trends in the United States. ….
Not everyone agrees that High Fructose corn syrup is any worse for you than regular sugar. Here’s an excerpt from a MayoClinic.com article about high-fructose corn syrup with some suggestions:
Some research studies have linked consumption of large amounts of any type of added sugar — not just high-fructose corn syrup — to such health problems as weight gain, dental cavities, poor nutrition, and increased triglyceride levels, which can boost your heart attack risk… Recommendations from the American Heart Association — not a part of official U.S. dietary guidelines — say that most American women should consume no more than 100 calories a day from added sugar from any source, and that most American men should consume no more than 150 calories a day from added sugar, and that even less is better. That’s about 6 teaspoons of added sugar for women and 9 for men.
It’s prudent to consume any added sugar only in moderation. Consider these tips to cut back:
Avoid sugary, nondiet sodas. Drink water or other unsweetened beverages instead.
Choose breakfast cereals carefully. Although healthy breakfast cereals can contain added sugar to make them more appealing to children, skip the non-nutritious, sugary and frosted cereals.
Eat fewer processed and packaged foods, such as sweetened grains like cookies and cakes and some microwaveable meals.
Snack on vegetables, fruit, low-fat cheese, whole-grain crackers, and low-fat, low-calorie yogurt instead of candy, pastries and cookies
There is a Wiki page on How to Avoid High Fructose Corn Syrup. It notes that.. “the average American eats an astounding 41.5 lbs of high fructose corn syrup per year.”
