Danny's Getting Fit: Journal Entry #3

Danny's Getting Fit--Day 3

For those of you expressing concern over my health, I regret to inform you that I'm still sick.  The good news is I'm convinced it's not H1N1 (formally know as yadayadayada).  But I'm not 100% healthy either.

Today, I went to the trainer, half expecting to get a note to go see the school nurse and with any luck get my mom to pick me up so I could go home early.  Instead, he suggested I lift heavier weights for fewer reps., explaining that while I'm physically not at my peak, my strength hasn't really been affected by my cold.  What is impacted, he went on to say, is my endurance.  Now by "my" what I mean all of us, because we're all human and having a cold zaps water from muscles while our body engine heats up to fight off infection, which in turn saps our endurance, but not our strength.

Now to the workout:

For pulldowns, I did 150# for 10 reps.  Back on 9/5 most I could muster was 140# for 7 reps.  (cue Rocky theme music . . .)

Next up was the dreaded seated row.

I dread the seated row because the dang bar pulls at my hands and I have to use paper towels just to hold on to it.  But even sick, using a makeshift glove, I managed 150#/10 reps., which was 10 pound, 3 rep. improvement over the first time I did the exercise.

By now, I was really tired.  I was quite wobbly doing the bicep curls and I felt my back tweak out a bit while lifting.  I skipped the core/ab routine (which was supposed to be some sort of torture type crunch) but still did the post lifting cardio bit (burn baby burn).   Afterwards, I felt like hell.  But a good kind of hell, you know.

New fitness tips to share:

1. It's advised (not by me, mind you, but by certified folks who know this stuff) to always have a complete protein with every meal.  Complete proteins are basically anything that comes from an animal (including dairy), but you can also mix food to create a complete protein.  Don't ask me how you do that because I haven't a clue.  Today, I got a new recipe for a high protein nut mixture that I was told creates a complete protein because of the mix. Unless of course these are animal nuts, which I don't believe them to be.

Danny's High Powered/High Protein Nut Mixture

1. Soybeans (dry/unsalted)

2. Sunflower seeds

3. Almond slices

Note: You can add raisins/M&Ms or salted nuts for flavor but keep them to a minimum. 

I promised to elaborate on this salt thing as well.  Refresher from earlier posts: Salt = Bad, Potassium = Good.  Here's what I've learned on the topic: Apparently, there is the law in nature called the law of highest concentration.  I don't know if it's a real law or not, but let's assume for now that it is.  Below the skin, in the subcutaneous layer, the body stores sodium.  Below that, are cells which help to form muscle tissue.  If the body has a lot of salt (sodium/NA) I guess what happens is that you become bloated as the water moves to the area of highest concentration in the body.   In essence, you fill up the subcutaneous layer with water, thus bloating your skin.  This I'm told is bad.  By decreasing your sodium intake and increasing potassium levels, water will move to the cell layer and actually help pull your skin tighter.

So, let's say for all intents and purposes that my science here is completely flawed.  What isn't flawed, is that the less sodium you consume is probably a good thing and might make you less bloated.  Again, bloating, for the purposes of this post, we're assuming to be bad.

Some products with low sodium/high potassium are:

Mrs. Dash

Jim Beam's Marinades 

Here's a link to a table of foods that are high in potassium. 

In summary:  
Weight Loss-3 pounds (mostly because I'm sick and haven't been eating gold fish).  Strength Gain-a wee bit (despite cold)  Daniel Craigness Gain-0 (but I will shave today, so that should help some) 

Authors note:  I love tortilla chips and sea salt potato chips and there is a good chance I'm not going to follow this advice.  With that said, I'll do my best.