Homework Week 6

Tomorrow starts Week 7.  Holy crap has time flown by.

The 400,000 Hour Body

There are no shortcuts!  Bam.  Here is a reapparance of the very line I posted on my Facebook today, and that I have been thinking of somewhat frequently lately as I attempt to figure out... everything.   If you can do things, every day, that result in you improving your state; in waking up better tomorrow than you were today, you're doing okay.  It's an experiment in constantly optimizing your body and your life.

Derailed

Interesting read about accepting where you are.  Sometimes shit happens in life and there is nothing you can do to stop it.  You just have to go with what you have, accept that there will be X to do to get back to where you want to be, and embrace it.

Sometimes the grad school train plows in to the rest of my life, and I hate those times... but it is what it is.  On the same note, I hurt my wrist a month ago, and it still isn't 100% back to normal.  I have to accept that too, that no matter how much I fight it, I have to wait until it heals.

Context Matters

So this one is particularly relevant to me because, a) context does matter b) I fall in to a "special population".  The decisions that I make on this program impact me more than the average person with a baseline average health who took on this challenge.  No fruit may be an exercise in willpower and sugar demons for that person, but for me... it makes an enormous difference in how I feel and how my body reacts to food.  It physiologically changes what is going on in my body.  Context matters.

Rest Vs. Recovery

This is a great article that I've read several times before, and was shared in my team (thanks Madi) during the competition season.  I struggle with staying out of the gym as I use it largely as a source of stress relief, so I work to optimize my recovery while still being in the box.  This involves attempting max sleep, good food and other rest, fish oil, mobility... doing what needs to be done to help me recover.  I was taking 2 rest days a week during competition and I didn't feel as good as I did taking 1 day a week, so I'm going to continue to mess with that going forward.

Fat is Good Food

In regards to the ISWF reading assignment this week, I've read the book a couple times over now.  It still resonates with me how I can eat such a high-fat diet (quality fats) and lose weight like no tomorrow.  Because fat is hormonally neutral, it doesn't send my body in to a nutso reaction spiral.  And it is a sustainable energy source -- I think of myself as a slow-burn fuel now rather than the snap crackle pop of carbohydrates.  But maybe that is just me :-)

I also enjoy that grassfed butter is cool (when not being 100% CFSA-level-strict, that is!) and will look forward to incorporating ghee and maybe some kerrygold back in to my diet.

And while they talk about coconut... I am so freaking sick of coconut.  I am surprised I haven't turned in to a coconut.