Thursday Pre-Weather

It's come to my attention that I just don't eat enough vegetables. I'm not particularly fond of salad. Perhaps my Asian upbringing makes me suspicious of raw veggies in large quantities. I like my greens cooked! It also seems to be impossible to eat recommended amounts of soluble and dietary fiber enough to impact my borderline cholesterol levels. If I eat a half serving of oatmeal (with an egg and dried tart cherries) every day, and an occasional dose of prunes, then my cholesterol is at a tolerable level that doesn't require problematic medications like statins. But what if I want to eat avocado toast with crushed garlic? Or a burger leftover from last night's dinner? Or the turkey chili I made two nights ago?

I have my annual next Monday and I'm nervous about the blood work. Because I haven't stuck to eating just oatmeal and prunes every day even though that worked for me back in August. It's hard to have constant self-control and mechanically eat the same thing every single day (because that's sort of dull). But mindless, stressful snacking has got to stop. Yes, it takes a lot more effort to eat properly but it's the only solution to the dietary backsliding that's been happening over the past few months.

At the gym, Lazy Pedals and his bud Middle-Age Dude are on side-by-side ellipticals chatting up a storm. Which means they've put the Close For Your Safety signs on the other two ellipticals, which thoroughly annoys me. I drop the sign on the 4th machine on the floor, wipe the handles and console and proceed to do Program 1. When I'm done, I put the sign on top of the other one that sits on the console for machine 3. No one who works at the gym is going to say or do anything anyway since masks are completely optional as is being vaccinated. I'm fine with it, just don't get in my face especially while I'm working out.

I have to skip pull-ups because I did them yesterday. Tomorrow's not looking good for the gym though because no one (especially not the meteorologists) can say for certain whether our area will be hit with sleet, freezing rain, or just a messy wintry mix. Winter Storm Landon appears to have originated just east of the Rockies and is sweeping across the country. My routine is routine and yes, the capricious Step Mill is still exhausting me. Today, it kept it's speed to 55 most of the time, occasionally blipping down to 52 or up to 60 (where it's supposed to be at Speed Setting 6). 

I got a new CD called The Very Best of Meat Loaf because I wanted to hear some of the songs that aren't part of the Bat Out Hell trilogy. I have a 6-CD changer in my car so I get to listen to tunes when the wonky analog radio can't get a clear signal. CD 6 is George Thorogood and the Delaware Destroyers, and I find myself singing along in the car because his tunes are a lot of fun. I don't care much for jazz, but the blues are another story. (I guess that explains why I've always favored the Stones over the Beatles...)

3 February 2021
Foggy Rainy Thursday

Precor elliptical
Program 1
Time: 30 min + 5 min cd (5624)
Distance: 2.84
Cal: 315
HR: n/a

Crunches 60
Piriformis/Hip/Pencil Stretch
60 Dead Bugs
Elbow Plank 60s
Quick Child’s Pose
Cat stretch 12x
Fire Hydrants 25 x 2
Bird Dogs 60s x 2
Child’s Pose
Push-Ups 25
Air Squats 25
Mild Mat stretch w 3 Eye Yoga

Matrix StepMill
Manual 10 min
Speed 6 (55)
Step 545
Floors 34
Calories 80
HR: 120