Wed, 5/23

Woke up: 6:05am (6.5 hours of sleep)

Breakfast, 7am: 2/3 cup greek yogurt with 1/4 cup blueberries and 1 small apple, 3 dates chopped
Liquid: 12 oz cup of coffee, black
Supplements/meds: zyrtec

Exercise: 4 mile bike commute

Liquid, 10:00am: 16oz water, 16oz coffee with splash of half and half

Lunch, 12:00pm: 3 egg omelette with 8 cherry tomatoes, 2 cups of spinach, and 1/4 cup grated sharp raw milk cheddar
Liquid: 16oz water

Pre-work-out snack, 3:00: 1 Think Thin bar because I was low on protein because of my breakfast, 1 coconut water
Liquid: 16oz water
Supplements: 3 BCAA capsules (I decided to increase to 3 capsules before and after workout. recovery was rough last week, but this week has been great. Way less sore the day after workouts)

Exercise, 3:30-4:30: 
SKILL WORK: kipping. worked on kipping pull-ups for 7 minutes. can chain 3 or 4 kips with a mini-band but still can’t really get one unassisted kip.
STRENGTH: Peak of 2 for strict Chest to Bar pullups. Last week I did 3 with a light band and a mini band. This week I did 2 with an average band and 5 pounds on a weight belt.
METABOLIC CONDITIONING:
Helen – 3 rounds for time of a 300m run + stairs, 21 american kettlebell swings at 1pood, 12 pullups. I used a mini band for pullups and kipped. This was the slowest part of my workout by far but I’m really glad I pushed through them and was still getting my bar over the chip for every rep at the end. I did tear a callous on my hand though, luckily with only 3 reps to go before finishing.

Supplements: 3 BCAA capsules

Exercise, 4:45:00pm: 4 mile bike commute home

Post-work out Snack, 6:15pm: 2 scoops of Tera’s whey, for 19g of protein

Dinner, 7:00pm: made braised leeks and tofu. i stole the braised leeks idea for jordan’s body composition challenge blog! she’s another vegetarian at my gym. Here’s her blog: http://brusselsprouting.wordpress.com/
Liquid: 12oz water

Exercise, 8:15pm: didn’t do my armstrong pullups because of all the pullups at the gym today and my ripped callous.

Bed: 1:30am (whoa. 3 hours past my bedtime…. I was trying to finish the cover of my book)

Tues, 5/23

Woke up: 6:05am (6.5 hours of sleep)

Breakfast, 7am: 2 eggs, 1 cup broccoli, 4 spears of asparagus, sauteed in butter, 1/8 cup grated raw milk sharp cheddar
Liquid: 12 oz cup of coffee, black
Supplements/meds: 2000 mcg of B12, zyrtec.

Exercise: 4 mile bike commute

Liquid, 10:00am: 16oz water, 16oz coffee with splash of half and half

Lunch, 12:30pm: salad greens with 5 baby carrots, 1/4 of a tomato, 1 fried egg, 4 stalks of asparagus, 1/2 cup of broccoli, 1/8 cup feta, evoo, white wine vinegar
Liquid: 16oz water

Pre-work snack, 4:30: 1 small apple (really small actually!), 1/2 cup edamame
Liquid: 16oz water
Supplements: 3 BCAA capsules

Exercise, 5:30-6:30: 
SKILL WORK: 10 minutes of headstands to handstands, i practiced both kipping into a handstand against a wall (which i got for the first time!) and using band assisted handstand pullups.
STRENGTH: Strict press peak of 2. I worked up to 55 for a peak of 2. My old one rep max is 55 so that’s cool.
METABOLIC CONDITIONING:
21-15-9 of handstand pushups and chest to bar pullups. i used assistance bands for both and finished in 8:59 or something. there was a 12 minute cap. i used an average band with a light band for handstand pushups (and sammy helped with my legs), and a light band and mini band for the chest to bar pullups. in the end, i feel like maybe i could have taken a slightly slower time and used just a light band on the pullups.

Supplements: 3 BCAA capsules

Exercise, 6:45:00pm: 4 mile bike commute home

Post-work out Snack, 7:15pm: Got my new whey powder. Took 2 scoops of that, which is one serving for 19g of protein. it’s also cocoa flavored which is way more enjoyable than vanilla.

Dinner, 8:45pm: made a big pot of split pea soup. ate a small bowl of it and finished the gluten free pizza that i had leftovers of. not the best but i was feeling lazy to prepare sides and i had the pizza in my fridge to get rid of. i was also about 450 calories low for the day, and at only 60g of carbs so i felt okay bumping it up a bit.
Liquid: 

Exercise, 8:15pm: only did two sets of my armstrong pullups. i hit a wall pretty hard at night and lost motivation fast. i did 2 sets at max effort, which was lower because i had just done a lot of pullups at CFCC. i did 2 sets of 6.

Bed: 11:30pm (later than I would have liked, but what can you do)

Mon, 5/21

Woke up: 10:00am (9.5 hours of sleep)

Breakfast, 11am: had three eggs with feta and a salad
Liquid: 12 oz cup of coffee, black

Snack, 1:30pm:
Liquid: 12oz Americano from intelligentsia

late lunch,3:00pm: we sought out some gluten free pizza. Also a stretch in terms of my challenger. It had toasted almonds, goat cheese, and olive oil and basil drizzled on top. It was really good. I ate half a 12″ pizza myself. I don’t know what the crust was made of, but it was house made at the restaurant.

from here I caught my flight and didn’t end up eating for the rest of the day. Severely lacking in protein for this day

Bed: 11:30pm

Sun, 5/20

>

Woke up: 11:00am (7 hours of sleep)

Breakfast, 12pm: went out do brunch with Daniel and Bouchard on the way out of town for a photo shoot. I had a spinach and feta omelette with a side of fruit
Liquid: 2, 12 oz cups of coffee, black

Snack, 3:30pm: after shoppin for the shoot and drivin around Gary, IN looking for a location, I ate a protein bar, a ThinkThin bar with 0g of sugar and 20g of protein.
Liquid: water

late lunch, 5:00pm: had a full package of Tempeh bacon that we grilled over the fire on the photoshoot and half a roasted red pepper

Late-night Dinner, 10:30pm: after a few hours of downtime and meeting up with my friend Leslie, Daniel and I went out to a fancy dinner. Every time we visit each other we go out to one super fancy meal at a well known restaurant. We only see each other every few months so it’s worth the expense and it’s a fun departure from reality. This time we went to Girl and the Goat, which is the restaurant of a winner of Top Chef. It was probably my favorite of the six or so really fancy meals we’ve ever gone out for. I forgot to photograph it all and the restaurant was really dark, but I had a kohlrabi salad with A fancy cheese called evalon, blueberries, ginger, and a few other things. Then I had chickpea fritters in a red sauce with pickles and fresh mozzarella? This was unreal in flavor and texture. Then I had roasted cauliflower with pinenuts and mint. Also so good. The whole meal was gluten free. We also shared two desserts (super fancy restaurant sized desserts which means, tiny). We shared a flour less chocolate cake with creme fraiche sorbet, raspberry sorbet, and chocolate mousse. We also shared a goat cheese cheese cake with creme fraiche. I couldn’t believe how good this was and it was gone in like three bites. Haha. Our desserts were also gluten free! Girl and a goat provides a whole gluten free menu upon request.

Bed: 12:30am

Sat, 5/19

Overall I actually just didn’t eat enough this day, but did okay with what I did eat (minus the brunch dessert, though on the scale of evil desserts, i’m gonna say that creme fraiche local sorbet isn’t the worst thing i could’ve eaten). We had planned to make it in to crossfit both Friday and Saturday but because of last minute gallery stuff, we didn’t make it either day. I didn’t exercise at all this weekend aside from walking around a lot and generally being on my feet the entire weekend.

Woke up: 10:30am (7 hours of sleep)

Breakfast, 12pm: Went to a well known farm to table restaurant in Chicago called Lula’s. It was really delicious. I got a fritatta with goat cheese and spinach and tomatoes, a side of lemony kale, and a small side of fruit. Definitely food challenge friendly. However, several folks working at Lula’s were artist friends of Daniel’s and they brought out a complimentary dessert as a surprise to congratulate him on the opening of the show that night. It was really sweet of them, so we indulged. There was a raspberry sorbet, and a creme fraiche sorbet, and a little oat crisp. We split it.
Liquid: 2, 12 oz cups of coffee, black

Lunch, 4:30pm: after heading up to my friend erin’s house to visit her baby, i stopped for coffee with my friend matt. then we got lunch at a place called Native Food’s. I got the Coconut curry bowl (this is billed as a healthy vegan restaurant). It had brown rice, coconut milk curry, kale, and browned tofu. Unfortunately, it was pretty bland. I’m always surprised that places manage to make curry, of all things, bland. I left most of the brown rice in the bowl because there was like 2 cups of it or something ridiculous.
Liquid: 16oz iced coffee

Indulgent snack, 6:30pm: had another iced coffee… yikes!

Late-night Dinner, 11:30pm: had some grilled veggies at an after party bbq and party for the opening and for my friend murphy’s birthday. not enough to really constitute a meal.

Bed: 2:00am

Fri, 5/18

Woke up: 9:00am (7 hours of sleep! not bad considering how late we stayed up)

Breakfast, 10am: I was staying with my best friend who is a crossfitter who keeps close to paleo, so any food we made was no problem. 3 eggs and a salad.
Liquid: 12 oz cup of coffee, black

exercise: back to the gallery for more sweeping, mopping, carrying, moving

Liquid, 12pm: 12oz americano, black

Lunch, 4:30pm: had a chipotle burrito bowl (no tortilla), with black beans, 1/2 a serving of brown rice, cheese, guac, sour cream, lettuce, medium salsa, veggies. arguable cheat. (forgot to photograph this)
Liquid: 16oz water

Indulgent snack, 6pm: okay, this was a straight up cheat. nothing around that. we finished up sorting out a minor catastrophe at the gallery, and were able to take a little break after being stressed out about it most of the day. D wanted a treat because he felt really relieved (he’s just made a major push through grad school finals, and preparing a gallery sculpture show), so I reluctantly indulged too. I got frozen yogurt (in which the menu said they use real, unsweetened yogurt, so expect it to be tangier than frozen yogurt you normally expect), but then i also got raspberries and nutella mixed in. nothing redeeming about that. it was about a cup and a half too.

Late-night Dinner, 11:30pm: another pretty terrible cheat. nothing good was really open still by the time we took a dinner break. We still had several hours to put in at the gallery, so we stopped for chinese food across the street. I got snow peas and tofu. D got cashew chicken. We shared egg drop soup. We agreed it was the worst chinese food we had ever eaten, but we hadn’t eaten enough throughout the day and we both scarfed down a ton of it, and ended up feeling terrible later.
Liquid: 16oz water

Bed: 3:30am, though i did nap on the couch in the apartment attached to the gallery for about an hour at 2am.

Thurs, 5/17

 Woke up: 8:05am (6.5 hours of sleep. not great)

Breakfast, 7am: 1/2 sweet potato, 1/2 block extra firm organic tofu, 2 cups kale sauteed with lemon juice, all cooked in butter. half an avocado. 2 tbsp crunchy sprouts.
Liquid: 12 oz cup of coffee, black
Supplements/meds: n/a

(took the bus to work, no exercise)

Lunch, 2:30pm: 4 spears of asparagus, 2 eggs, simple mixed green salad with 1/4 of a tomato, 1 celery stalk, lemon juice, olive oil, parmesan cheese, cooked with butter
Liquid: 16oz water

Pre-airport snack, 5:30: the rest of my prepared food from breakfast, another half block of tofu, 1/2 sweet potato, shared with my nanny baby
Liquid: 16oz water

Exercise: n/a, went to the airport to head out of town

Dinner, 7:30pm: yogurt smoothie at the airport, with raspberries and blueberries, and a scoop of protein powder added, made with yogurt in stead of juice, def. had some sugar added?

Late night dinner, 1:00am: had a big salad at Big Star in Chicago after spending a few hours helping my friend prepare for his gallery show. salad had blue cheese, queso dressing, pepitas, radishes. it was a fat feast, but so delicious.

Bed: 2:00am (my sleep goes to shit this whole weekend since i was on vacation)

 

no exercise. i decided to just try to make reasonable decisions this weekend in terms of food but not obsessively log things. i was on vacation, and helping a friend get his show ready in time for an opening on saturday night. there was a lot to get done in a little amount of time, so food wasn’t the first thing on my mind and i didn’t want to feel guilty all weekend for not hitting numbers right. i just did my best.