Skip to main content

Senior Project Day 11- May 19th

 Day 11:

Today I woke up from a good 7 hour sleep feeling like I got hit by a truck. My whole body was aching and I could tell right away that my body needed a day off. I really dislike taking rest days because I feel lazy and unproductive but I know they are a crucial part of being an athlete. I chugged a ton of water, stretched for half an hour and then used the theragun for half an hour.

Breakfast:

-Coffee

-Protein oats with peanut butter, banana, blueberries, and granola


After breakfast I decided to do yoga. Usually I hate yoga and find it really boring but I found a 30 minute video for people that lift so I tried it and it actually made me feel a lot better. Here’s the link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iN-FPh7r1yg 



Obviously yoga isn’t a super high intensity exercise, so at the end of the 30 minutes I had burned 73 active calories and 110 total calories. 


Snack:

-2 dates

-Rice cake with peanut butter and banana


I usually find myself insanely hungry on rest days so I make sure I’m eating plenty even on days I’m not lifting to make sure I’m giving my body enough calories both to recover from previous days and provide me with energy for the next day.


To get some hours in I decided to watch a 90 minute Netflix documentary called “What the Health”. This talked about the meat industry and how what you eat contributes to cancer, diabetes, and other serious health problems. 



Here are some facts I learned while watching:

-⅔ of Americans are overweight

-In the next 25 years, ⅓ of Americans will have diabetes

-Meat is a huge cause of diabetes, not really carbs and sugar because it clogs the blood so sugar can’t get through

-1 serving of processed meat per day increased risk of developing diabetes by 51%

-Chicken has high sodium and carcinogens

-Eating 1 egg a day can be as bad as smoking 5 cigs a day for life expectancy

-ADA and American Cancer Society are sponsored by meat and dairy companies


What I took away from this is that basically if you want to eat food that tastes good, you are going to get cancer. The guy that made it is a hypochondriac and I found him kind of annoying. It did make me think more about my diet so I did try having a different lunch than usual today.


Lunch:

-Green beans

-Salad with chickpeas, black beans, carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers, and croutons

-White rice with 3 tiny pieces of chicken (couldn't bring myself to cut it out completely)

-Big bag of fruit


I tried some alternative protein sources like chickpeas and black beans rather than a meat-based meal, which I usually do. I felt pretty good afterward, although I definitely missed meat.


Snack:

-Protein bar

-Apple

-Pretzels

In the afternoon I took my dogs for a short 20 minute walk:

My walk burned 58 active calories and 81 total calories. 


For dinner, I went out to eat and grubbed.

Dinner:

-Salad

-Salmon, black rice, potatoes

-Chocolate mousse


When I got home, I spent 40 minutes stretching, rolling out, and using the gun again.


Night snack:

-Brownie


Today was a good rest day. I burned 1,804 calories and ate around 3,000. My water intake was way over a gallon. I’m still pretty achy but I’m hoping that I’ll wake up tomorrow feeling super well rested and better than today.


Today’s hours: 4

Total project hours: 47



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Week 2 Reflection

 This week was a stellar week of lifts. I can definitely feel myself getting stronger. I was able to up either my weight or my reps for every one of the 4 days and hit a few PR's.  My volume rocketed up as well, which was awesome to see. I've been hitting my calorie goal every day and really prioritizing rest and recovery. These are paying off, and based on the results I'm seeing from prioritizing these, I will definitely make sure to continue paying close attention to them in all of my future workouts.  As I've mentioned before, one of my common personal issues is that I'm not good at taking rest days. Senior project has shown me how essential these are, and really reinforced the idea that rest days will actually help you build muscle, not cause you to lose it. I took 3 days off for the first time in over a year and my workouts in the week that followed were unreal and I saw serious progress. Last week, there were several days where I just did not want to lift what...

Week 1 Reflection

      Senior project has been off to a great start for me. I started the week off strong with my bench day. I then moved onto a brutal leg day, followed by a press day. I then finished the week with another leg day and then back and biceps. I felt super good, pushing through all of my workouts even on the days when I was struggling to find the energy for it. On Thursday, I made the decision to not do an afternoon walk or workout. Although this wasn't ideal, a huge part of fitness is knowing how to listen to your body and when to take a break.     I've definitely started feeling some soreness as the week has progressed. Luckily, a huge part of my project is recovery. I have plenty of time to ensure that I am taking proper care of my body, resting when needed, and stretching even more than I think I need to.  A little bump that I have run into is some pretty severe bruising on my legs. After a conversation with Kelly, I learned that it is due to the muscle te...

Senior Project Day 1- May 8th

This morning I woke up at 7:30, after 9 hours of sleep and ate breakfast.  Breakfast: Coffee Protein oats with peanut butter, banana, blueberries, and granola  I then spent an hour researching, investigating the benefits of intra workout carbs, since I planned to begin implementing them into my lifts. Although their effectiveness is debated and will obviously vary from person to person based on a variety of factors, there really isn’t any downside to consuming them. I got to the gym at 9:40 and spent 25 minutes stretching, warming up, and rolling out before beginning my push day. Snack: Overnight oats bar Around 20 minutes into the workout, I ate an overnight oats bar, which had a good balance of carbs and protein, to help power me through the 90 minute workout. Intra workout carbs are shown to help you sustain energy throughout and make you less likely to fail sets, as they replenish muscle glycogen so that you have energy constantly coming in helping you to get up the weight...