Outsmart Your Brain Article & Saturday's Postage Due Workout

Yep . . . I must admit that Saturday's workout was nowhere near my best effort. In fact, I need to call the check with the Postal Service and see what I owe them because this one was pretty much mailed in. There is no denying it. I was just not feeling it at all. I was still sore and had a lot things planned for the day, so I just did enough to feel like I had done something and left it at that. I don't feel bad about it either. It is ok to take it easy on days when you feel out of sorts in order to avoid injury and to regain energy for the days ahead. Anyway, since Saturday’s workout was rather uneventful, I figured that I would make this post more interesting by sharing an article from Esquire (Yes. . . I am a subscriber, and you should be too.), which is one of my favorite magazines to peruse on a monthly basis. I'll put all the workout info in after I talk about the article.

What I really liked about this article is that it reflected exactly how I feel about dieting, which is that that strict diets are a trap because eventually you’re going to come off the diet and then . . . well you're screwed. That is not to say that people shouldn't watch what they eat. I am all for people eating more healthy foods and avoiding over eating. My basic point is that if you drastically alter the way you eat isn't beneficial and instead people are better served by making long term minor modifications to how they approach eating rather than jumping headlong into whatever fad diet book is atop the NY Times best seller list. One of the things that I like about his article is that it provides simple scientific explanations of how hunger works and some good ways to deal with it. Specifically it talks about how almonds act as a hunger suppressant: "The good fats that nuts contain cause your stomach to suppress ghrelin production, but it takes about half an hour for them to kick in. Note: Peanuts aren't actually nuts, and they contain a lot of saturated ("bad") fats. Stick with something that grows on a tree. (Esquire)" I must admit that the whole peanuts--bad--thing had always confused me and led me to think that all nuts were bad. Now, I am sure that those salted and sweetened nuts that I always see in the stores that look so tasty are certainly not what the article is talking about, so I will be sticking with some plain old unsalted almonds.

I thought that this article was pretty relevant to where I am with my weight loss goals because I am trying to make healthy changes to the way that I eat. I want to scale back my eating a bit, but I am more interested in ways to improve my diet with healthy alternatives to things that I know that I should eat regularly. Also, I found the tips for dealing with the physiological sensation of hunger relevant because I know that often my stomach will be telling me that I am hungry when I am not. So, the ideas that the Esquire gives for dealing with hunger are great.

Outsmart Your Brain

Satuday's Mailed in Workout:

Round Two: 60 seconds work 10 seconds rest

1. Crossover Crunch Left
2. Crossover Crunch Right
3. Standard Crunch
4. Bird Dogs
5. Fire Hydrants w/ leg extension
6. Crossover Crunch Left
7. Crossover Crunch Right
8. Standard Crunch
9. Bird Dogs
10. Fire Hydrants w/ leg extension
11. Crossover Crunch Left
12. Crossover Crunch Right
13. Standard Crunch
14. Bird Dogs
15. Fire Hydrants w/ leg extension

Round Two: 60 seconds work 10 seconds rest

1. Standing Tricep extensions
2. STANDING SIDE BENDS 35 lbs. weights (right)
3. STANDING SIDE BENDS 35 lbs. weights (left)
4. Alternating Kickbacks 12 lbs weights
5. Overhead Press 12 lbs weights
6. Alternating Bicep Curls 12 lb. weights
7. Standing Tricep extensions
8. STANDING SIDE BENDS 35 lbs. weights (right)
9. STANDING SIDE BENDS 35 lbs. weights (left)
10. Alternating Kickbacks 12 lbs weights
11. Overhead Press 12 lbs weights
12. Alternating Bicep Curls 12 lb. weights