The Glowing Edge

Tag: Sugar

How to Get Back Into Training

We played flu dominoes at my house. First my youngest son, then the middle son, now me. I wrote down a bunch of my whines about it here, then deleted them because they were so onerous. Having the flu sucks.

And type A that I am, I’ve spend a fair amount of my laying-miserably-on-the-couch time thinking about how hard it’s going to be to get back in the gym, how intensely difficult it is in general to come back after a period of inactivity.

How fast do you get out of shape?

I’ve read and heard lots of conflicting opinions on this. Some say that you have to be out for two months before you lose your conditioning. My guess is that they mean ALL your conditioning, because I feel a significant reduction of fitness in two weeks (or less).

Maybe I’m wrong, but getting in shape feels like climbing a mountain, and if you’re only halfway up, you’ll get back down to the bottom faster than if you’re standing on the summit. Just my non-scientific view.

And I always thought everyone slides down the mountain at about the same rate, but this old article in the Chicago Tribune says veteran exercisers lose their fitness level at a slower rate. (See, I tried to do at least a little research.) Thank the good baby Elvis something’s working in my favor here.

First the lungs…

Fewer mitochondria means less oxygen to your muscles, and the longer you’re out of the game, the faster your mitochondria count plummets. How to build more mitochondria? Err, aerobic exercise. Dammit.

Then the muscle…

I barely have the power to shove my 6 pound dog Rocky out of my way so I can shift positions on the couch. Ugh. And according to this guy, you not only start losing muscle fibers when you’re out of your workouts, but your slow- and fast-twitch muscle fibers freaking convert to “couch potato” muscle types. I’m screwed.

So what’s the plan, Stan?

Life is no fun without spreadsheets. So I have one, even if it only exists in my mind. I’m planning my return to boxing, you better believe it. How do people NOT box? Life is no fun with out boxing. Spreadsheets and boxing. And little dogs. But I digress…

Truly, I do have a plan. It’s a four-point plan, which is easy enough for my fatigued brain to hang on to. Here ’tis. (more…)

April 12, 2013
Getting Ready for the Next Fight: Cutting Weight and Mental Prep

Next fights are always iffy, partly because it’s boxing, and also because I’m in the Masters (over 35), and female. There just don’t seem to be that many of us out there.

I went to weigh-ins for a match a month or so ago and didn’t get an opponent, which is fairly standard in boxing. In fact, 12 of my team went, and only 6 got matches.

This time I am a bit more hopeful, but I’m keeping my expectations tamped down. I’ll be very pleased to get the match if it does come through, but it will not be a huge deal if it doesn’t.

My opponent weighs 125, which means I’ve been cutting weight, which is miserable, since I’m already on a clean diet and normally fairly light (142). But I’ve been managing, and I hope to weigh in at 136 if I possibly can this weekend. If she’s gained at least a few pounds we’ll be in range and the match will be on.

I was chatting with Amy Scheer about this and told her about the weird rule in boxing (not all jurisdictions follow it) that you can’t weight in 1. Unshaven — no beard or ‘stache, boys, or 2. In jeans or pants. I told her that I plan to weigh in in my lightest ever undies, shorts, and a tank.

To cut the weight, I’ve mostly chosen to eliminate sugars and processed carbs. No Cheetos (aaaaugh!). Goodbye to my periodic slice of whole grain toast. Tortilla chips reduced to 6 at any given time (I love hot salsa). No popcorn with the family (they have it all the time). No bread. No pasta. Bread and pasta were already nearly non-existent, anyway. Nothing processed or canned.

Even the sweeter fruits are gone — apples, oranges, and most bananas. Only raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, and cherries remain right now.

I’m eating a ton of raw broccoli, almonds, bell peppers, fresh asparagus, lean meat, onion, spinach, egg whites, plain yogurt, cottage cheese with berries, almonds, smoothies…

And I’m adding more green tea and oolong tea. I drink at least 3 cups a day now.

I’m still fantasizing about what I want to eat after the fight. Hot fresh donuts are currently leading. (Hellllllooooo, fast carbs!)

And I learned something new from Amy as I described my eating plan and we discussed particular food choices. In addition to choosing the right foods and maintaining an excruciatingly careful timeline of eating every day (to avoid the insulin spikes), I told her about one cutback issue I’ve been aware of and successfully dealing with this time around.

There’s only a difference of degree between dieting and starving. When your leptin levels drop (because you’ve cut back calories, which I’m doing right now) so does your metabolism and fat-burning ability. It usually happens after a week of dieting. Leptin is doing it’s job to make sure you have enough fat and energy to survive. That’s not good when I want to cut weight.

So I have to increase leptin levels in order to convince my body I’m not actually starving.

Amazingly, this can be done with a whopper of a treat. It takes a week of cutting to drop leptin levels by half, but only one “overfeed” to bring them back up. So a hunk of greasy pizza, some mac n cheese, a coupla Reese’s PB cups — but only once a week, and not crazed. The point is to give your body a good dose of carbs and fat together and your leptin goes back up to normal levels.

Amy mentioned that this was called “Carb Cycling,” which I had heard of, but didn’t know what it was. I used my formidable Google skillz and discovered she was right.

The other thing I’ve been doing is following my normal mental prep plan.

This really only has three steps:

1. Envision all the women I see in the course of my day as a potential opponent.

I look at the women in the gym, in the grocery store, at the park and everywhere, and I size them up. Rarely do I immediately dismiss any of the women I see as potential opponents. If they are three times heavier than me, I think about how I will have to be fast in order to avoid their power hits. If they look small and quick, I run through my defenses against the inside game. If they have big biceps I go over my own strengths and brace myself for a slugfest.

This seems to really help with the shock of seeing your opponent for the very first time.

2. Work through a round or two of boxing in my mind as I go to sleep each night.

I imagine my opening moves, my defense, and my general energy level. I replay certain things over and over again, and make myself quick, strong, and mentally on my game. I try to go to sleep boxing well.

3. Radio silence at all other times.

It doesn’t help me to focus too much on the upcoming match. I just get worked up and have a hard time focusing on other things, like my full-time work, family, or the crazy eating plan I have to be on. So I maintain mental white noise on the boxing channel, which helps keep this whole event from draining energy.

And that’s it! That’s my plan, and it’s what I’m going with.

How do you get ready for a big event? Do you have a plan you follow, or do you just do everything on the fly?

Images by Peter Gordon and Ravensmagiclantern

November 7, 2011
Breakfast of Superheroes

Okay, people. You need to get more protein into your mornings, and ease back on the Lucky Charms. Anyway, you’re wasting money on the Lucky Charms when all you do is eat the marshmallows and leave the oat-y bits. So save those for a dessert and listen up.

You work, play, and train hard, so you need a power start in the morning. The sugar / empty carb overload plan is not going to do it, and don’t fool yourself into thinking that whole grains on their own will, either. I cycle through the following four breakfast menus:

Steel cut and rolled oats with cinnamon apples and ham

Put half a cup of water in a pan on high. When it boils, add a quarter cup of steel cut oats. While those boil, chop up half a big apple. Turn the oats to low and add a quarter cup of rolled oats. Chop a 3 oz slice of lean ham and put it in the bottom of your bowl. Take the oats off the stove, mix in the apple, and dump the whole thing in your bowl over the ham. Sprinkle heavily with cinnamon. Heaven.

Protein berry smoothie

I buy frozen berries and use them when I need them. On a protein berry smoothie morning, fill a large bowl with frozen strawberries and raspberries and defrost them slightly in the microwave. Dump them in your food processor and add frozen blueberries, soy milk, and a giant scoop of soy protein powder. You can also add a scoop of creatine if you’re working to build muscle. Don’t add orange juice! Too many super-sugars, and you will find the berries are plenty sweet enough. Lovely.

Eggables omelette crammed with veggies

I use Eggables (or the generic grocery version) in cartons because they have less fat than regular eggs. Shake the carton and pour a layer into a medium-sized preheated iron skillet. The mix should sizzle going in. Grind fresh pepper over it, and leave it to cook on medium while you wash and chop half a box of mushrooms. Put mushrooms in a giant bowl with about 4 cups of fresh spinach leaves in the microwave with a plate over the top to hold in steam and wilt it all down. I throw in some chopped onions too (I keep some in a baggie in the fridge). Your omelette should be cooked through; slide it out onto a plate, peel a stick of mozzarella string cheese over it if you like, and pile the veggies on top. You might be able to fold the monster, but you might not. Powerful!

Cottage cheese with red pears, raspberries, and almonds

I’m lactose intolerant so I don’t eat this as much, but I take a tablet for that if I am going to have this breakfast. Chop half a red pear, half an apple, and a full cup of defrosted raspberries into your bowl with a cup of cottage cheese. Top with chopped almonds. Pure pleasure.

Image credit: http://futuristmovies.com

June 18, 2009
Three nights, five bands

Two great live music weekends in a row now, and more coming. Raleigh is just an awesome place for live rock and roll. Last weekend the Husband and I made it out to see Sugar, now called The Design, for the first time. They essentially played as a cover band, although they are working on more originals (I only got to hear one, it was fantastic) and looking to tour.

For me, a great live rock show is made up of three elements: music, flow, and show. Music means not only do I like the kind of music they play, but they are great musicians. The Design’s lead has phenomenal pipes, but the drummer and lead guitar also sang quite a few songs and they weren’t nearly as good. They did have good show, pogo-ing around the stage, dancing, and having a great time. But the flow wasn’t great, mostly because they constantly interrupted the music in order to talk with the audience, promote their MySpace page, get email sign-ups, encourage the crowd to sing, etc, and after a time or twelve, I got tired of that. Still, it was a good evening out and I’m glad I went. I recommend you catch them at the Lincoln or a place where they are going to function less as a cover band and more as an original group.

The band playing at 42nd Street was Big Johnson and the Members. They are more southern rock and bluegrass (not my favorite) but musically they were very talented and the crowd at 42nd Street were clearly fans. There wasn’t much in the way of flow or show, but with great talent like they had (and crowd support!) they were a pleasure to see.

This past Friday night at 42nd Street, Soul DeCree was keeping their fans warm with a blend of R&B, soul, and funkadelic. I love me some trumpet in my rock and roll, but there wasn’t much show or flow, and they weren’t playing songs I knew, so I headed out early.

Across the street at Napper Tandy’s, Aftershock was sounding great, as they usually do. Lance, JD, and Rob all have stellar vocals, and every member of the band is musically skilled, but I was particularly pleased to see how much they have improved their flow recently. They are not a “show” band at all, but when they stitch the songs together one after another like they did Friday night, the party never stops. I was amazed at the turnout they were able to pull on a cold, rainy, Good Friday weekend. If you love 80’s rock, you need to see Aftershock.

On Saturday night (after watching the Carolina Rollergirls get trounced), the Husband and I went out to see our friend Greg and the newest version of Hip Sauce make their debut at the Red Zone in Garner. They have recently replaced their lead singer and drummer, and shifted their blend from all blues to a good selection of r&b, blues, and (mostly 60’s) pop. There were a few songs that surprised, too, so don’t go thinking you know exactly what kind of music they will play. The new lead is charming and has a fantastic and compelling voice; their guitar player had his best lead moment on a Beatles cover. I think the new drummer is formerly of the Lounge Lizards, and sang lead on a few songs, too. The Husband says their bass player (one of the few women bass players I’ve seen) is outstanding. Hip Sauce isn’t a show band, and it takes time for a new band to develop flow (Aftershock is still working on it and they’ve been together over three years), but they were refreshing and enjoyable, and I will look forward to seeing how they continue to develop.

April 13, 2009