Chicken Soup Cures Everything

When my son and I got back from his play date yesterday, we had about 15 minutes for him to change into swim gear and me to fix some semblance of dinner for us to chow down. An hour of swim is exhausting and I know he needs to eat before hitting the water. It's at least a good half hour drive from our house so no worries about stomach cramping. I open two cans of chicken noodle soup (because it's one of his favorite foods), dump them in a big pot and turn the stove top on high. I even scarf down a peanut butter sandwich while I'm waiting for the soup to boil. Chicken soup cures everything. I'd like to say I'm 100% but I'm not quite there. However, I haven't had any heinously embarrassing coughing fits either. Must be the soup!

Today I have trouble leaving the house. Maybe it's the dreary November weather. It's not quite raining, not quite cold, not quite warm. But everything is wet. The leaves are down and there is fog everywhere. It's been like this for days. I glimpse my forearms at a weird angle and think, "Egads, what horribly skinny wrists!" Worse, my abs have disappeared. All I see in the mirror is the slight sag of baby belly skin that won't shrink back. I guess I'm going to have to add crunches back to my routine. That is the one true thing about my body: if I lift heavy, I get big. I don't feel skinny now, but notice that the liner to my running shorts seems a tad looser than I remember. Okay, maybe my thighs are also shrinking? I wonder if I still have hamstrings. Maybe I should put GHRs back into my routine too? I plan to whack the machine tomorrow, but maybe I'll skip the Step Mill and do crunches and GHRs afterwards? Well, that'll certainly surprise the heck out of my body.

Today I do 30 minutes on the cross-trainer, then push ups and planks. But I like to change things up every now and then, so I replace my 100 Regular Push Ups with 50 Knuckle Push Ups. Those are definitely harder if only because you're that much higher off the floor and have to drop that much deeper. I'm still stuck at 45 reps for Diamond Push Ups, and can barely manage 45 Dand Push Ups. I don't know why these are so hard lately. They didn't used to be. By comparison, the One-leg Push Ups are actually kind of easy. Once I catch my breath. I need to change up my planks. The Bird Dog ones are too easy so maybe I'll try doing them with the bottom leg straight instead of bent at the knee. By the last set of planks (side planks), my arms are shaking so maybe it's not so easy after all?

There's no one at the MaxRack® so I do a few sets of RG BB Rows, only going as heavy as 135 lbs. I used to do in excess of 155 lbs! Ugh! I don't like Seated Cable Rows because there's always the danger of exacerbating lower back injuries or sciatica. Today I do a few sets of One-Arm Seated Cables because I'm moving less weight. Creepy PJ Pants is staring from way across "machine city". Ugh. I hope he stays there and doesn't come over to sit across from me. I see R and little R working out. R is looking very tall and chiseled. There's no Incline Bench to use in the DB area so I grab a pair of 20s and plant myself in the OHP station, supersetting DB Laterals with Bent Over DB Reverse Flyes. These used to be easier too. Before I did oodles of push ups as a warm up.

I finish with Drag Curls and RG BB Curls, oddly both with the same 50 lb BB. Maybe I should up the weight for the Drag Curl? Because tomorrow I'll be kickboxing the machine, I punch in the Intervals program on the elliptical. Afterwards, I do a quick turn at the Cybex Torso Twist machine. There's no entry in the JeFit app for this machine so I have to modify the Weight Plate Twist exercise once I post my reps. But I skip the Mat Stretch today. I'm wearing shorts because it's been so humid and warm, and the last place I want to put bare skin is on those Mats.

The gym scale reads 107.8 lbs and I'm surprised. Hey, I'm putting on weight? I think it's just water though, because I've sucked dry my1.5 liter water bottle, and I did eat an entire can of Chicken Noodle Soup last night. Can anyone say mega-sodium content? Tonight's dinner will actually be worse: fish sticks and pasta and beans. No where else can I find a product where the fat content is double the protein content (fish sticks: 7 gms protein, 14 gms fat)! Next time I'm getting chicken nuggets: 14 gms protein to 10 gms fat. Not great nutritional value, but not quite like eating lard straight up. No wonder my gallbladder complains when I eat these things. Actually, so far it hasn't said anything. Hopefully it'll stay quiet all night...

Thursday Workout
(6.94 miles total cardio)

CrossTrainer

Steady State

Calorie :   142 CAL
Distance: 4.17 mile
Lap/Rep :  8.32 Lap/Rep
Duration : 00:30:06

Knuckle Push Up

50

Set 1 : 50 Lap/Rep

Plank

Regular

Straight : 00:00:30
Elbow : 00:00:30
Straight : 00:00:30
Elbow : 00:00:30

Dianond Push Up

45

Set 1 : 45 Lap/Rep

Plank

Bird Dog

Left : 00:00:30
Right : 00:00:30
Left : 00:00:30
Right : 00:00:30

Dand Push Up

45

Set 1 : 45 Lap/Rep

Plank

Side

Elbow Right : 00:00:30
Elbow Left : 00:00:30
Straight Right : 00:00:30
Straight Left : 00:00:30

One-Leg Push Up

45

Left : 45 Lap/Rep
Right : 45 Lap/Rep

Barbell Reverse Grip Bent Over Row

208.33

Set 1 : 55x25
Set 2 : 75x20
Set 3 : 95x15
Set 4 : 105x15
Set 5 : 125x20
Set 6 : 135x15

Cable One Arm Seated Row

70

Set 1 : 30x12
Set 2 : 45x12
Set 3 : 52.5x10

Dumbbell Lateral Raise

28

Set 1 : 20x12
Set 2 : 20x12
Set 3 : 20x12
Set 4 : 20x12 SuperSet with

Dumbbell Seated Bent Over Reverse Fly

30

Set 1 : 20x15
Set 2 : 20x15
Set 3 : 20x15
Set 4 : 20x15

Barbell Drag Curl

75

Set 1 : 50x15
Set 2 : 50x15
Set 3 : 50x15

Barbell Reverse Curl

85

Set 1 : 50x21
Set 2 : 50x21
Set 3 : 50x21

Elliptical Training

Intervals

Calorie :   319 CAL
Distance: 2.77 mile
Duration : 00:30:02

CybexTorso Twist

Right : 50x25
Left : 50x5