Testimonial Time

I was digging around and found a picture of me with my shirt off from almost exactly one year ago. The difference between now and then is pretty startling, especially when you consider that by most people's standards I was in pretty good shape then. Anyhoo, here's the photo from then and the story that follows...




This photo was taken in Hong Kong during a liberty call while depoloyed on the USS JOHN C STENNIS (CVN 74). At the time I weighed approximately 155 lbs. I was running about 45 miles per week, doing pull-ups, push-ups and sit-ups about 3-4 times per week, going to the gym to lift weights 1-2 times per week, going to the EOD workouts (1 hour of misery doing push-ups, 8-count bodybuilders, squats, sit-ups, flutterkicks...) and hitting spin classes 1-2 times per week. My diet wasn't anything special. I tried to watch what I ate, but the cookies got me and occasionally the ice cream. I didn't limit carbs, mostly just trying to avoid bad tasting food, which was difficult at times. Compared to most on the ship my diet was stellar, but compared to how I eat now my diet was crap.

So, now fast forward to July 2008. I started doing CrossFit in December on my own and officially at Oceanside CrossFit (OCF) in January. I have been pretty rabid about getting to the gym 4-5 times per week. For the first 4-5 months of the year I was also marathon training running about 30 miles per week and occasionally hitting the bike and swimming. I ran the Huntington Beach Marathon in February and Boston Marathon in April. Now I'm following the CrossFit Endurance (CFE) program and going to OCF. I hit the CFE workouts 4-6 times per week, although the last week wasn't a good one for the endurance training. I also started following the Zone diet about 10 weeks ago.

After a few months of CrossFitting I was noticing an improvement in my physique, but it was after just a few weeks of being on the Zone that I really saw dramatic improvement. Wish I would have taken pictures throughout the process. That damn hindsight, gets you every time.

Okay, without further ado...this photo was taken on Saturday 19 July 2008.



Now that I have shown off it's time to discuss my continuing battle with keeping the diet in check. Mostly during the week it's pretty easy, work, eat, workout, play with my daughter. It's the weekends that are tough. We usually have a cheat night per week, but occasionally that turns into a cheat couple of nights. This weekend was kinda rough. Neither of us felt like cooking on Friday night so we tried a mexican restaurant that came highly recommended, Marieta's in Oceanside. Not a great location but the food was really good. I had the fajitas (chicken, beef & shrimp) and Amy had enchiladas suiza (green chicken enchiladas) very good. I would have been okay, but I crumbled with the chips and salsa, I absolutely killed each basket they brought out. I was a hurting unit when we got home, ugh! Saturday wasn't much better, started out okay. I made fajita omelettes with my leftovers for breakfast. For lunch we had Subway while we were helping the OCF guys move to their new location (more on that in another post). Then for dinner it really fell apart. We had a post-gym moving party and I again went nuts with chips and guacamole. Argh! I'm so Stupid, stupid, stupid!! Sunday was better, aside from the 2 small pieces of Little Caesars Pizza Pizza for lunch while helping out at the gym. Dinner was actually really good, grilled curry pork tenderloin, grilled zucchini, roasted cauliflower and carrots and salad. Getting back on track today, but then leave for vacation on Thursday. It's a CrossFit/Winery vacation, so should be an interesting juxtaposition. Will try to be good during the CrossFit days, but we're going to enjoy wine country.

am weight 151.4

Breakfast ( 4 blocks)
1 cup Lowfat Cottage Cheese
1 cup Strawberries
Handful of macadamia nuts
1 slice Milton's Whole Grain Plus Toast
1 tbsp peanut butter
1 tsp blackberry jam

2 1/2 cups coffee throughout the morning

Morning Snack
1/2 c lowfat plain yogurt
1/2 c mandarin oranges
handful of mixed nuts
1/3 of Peanut Butter Clif Builder Bar

Lunch ( 4 blocks)
4 oz grilled meat leftovers (pork and flank steak)
approx 1 1/2 blocks of veggie leftovers (cauliflower, zucchini, carrots)
1/2 c raw green beans
1 orange
couple handfuls of mixed nuts (peanuts, almonds, pecans)

early afternon snack
2/3 peanut butter Clif Builder Bar

A little later in the afternoon snack
Mozzarella string cheese

Just before going to the gym snack
2 pretzel rods
Trader Joe's Blue Cheese Roasted Pecan spread (Mommy, that's good fat)

OCF workout - Power Cleans 154# (just not that good at the oly lifts yet)

Dinner (4 blocks)
1 1/2 block salad - green leaf lettuce, red cabbage, celery, tomatoes, 1/2 avocado
5 1/2 oz salmon
2 tbsp Bragg Vinaigrette
3/4 small apple
1 Stone IPA