WODs, Meals, & Taxes

Nothing could derail my best laid diet plans like a stressful situation. And tax week is among the most stressful experiences many of us face. Last year at this time, I was likely seeking solace from my tax-anxiety at any one of the dozens of fast food drive thrus that have sprouted up on seemingly every corner in our community (I remember when there were only a handful of such restaurants when we first moved to Southwest Riverside County 20 years ag0). Whether I found any comfort, even fleetingly, from these binges is debatable, but the stress was certainly a convenient excuse for stuffing my face.
So how do I combat this tendency? What's working right now is careful planning. The combination of scheduling in my exercise and outlining all of my meals for the week has proven to be a powerful preventative measure. And keeping the meals simple and easy to prepare has been essential. For example, the breakfast scramble you see to the left was a quick and delicious meal this morning that kept me fueled and on track throughout the day. It's simply some gluten-free chicken breakfast sausage, peppers, which I had chopped up the night before while preparing some chili, and eggs. Took no time at all to prepare, but the key was having those ingredients ready because I knew ahead of time that this would be the breakfast meal for today.

Planning dinner is equally important. If nothing firm is set, then it is all-too-easy to go off the rails and head to the drive thru. But again, if the plans call for something too complicated to prepare, then it is also easy to put off that home cooked meal and to instead go out for something quick, easy, and less healthy. The dinner pictured to the right is a great example. Shrimp and tilapia, pan fried in a healthy oil and seasoned simply with Cajun spice, with a side of steamed organic asparagus (frozen). We even garnished with some Paleo cocktail sauce--a simple mixture of Paleo ketchup and horse radish. Took maybe 15 minutes to prepare (and served with a flourish on our finest paper plates). However, if it wasn't planned out ahead of time with all ingredients ready, it would have been easy to skip this meal, especially at the end of a busy, stressful day.

So planning has been the biggest lesson. That's why I'm posting my meal plan for the week each Sunday along with my shopping list to share with you and hopefully contribute to your success. Until I started doing that, it was far too easy for me to be lured in by that Siren call: "Hello, may I take your order?"

WODs this week:
Mon--

Press
3-3-3-3-3-3

8 Alternating Tabata cycles each movement (16 total intervals):
Russian Kettlebell Swings
Pushups

Tabata cycles mean you do as many reps in 20 seconds of the first drill, rest 10 seconds, do 20 seconds of as many of the 2nd one, and so on, until you've done 8 of each drill. You count only the lowest number of reps, which is the big challenge. For example, my lowest number on the KB swings was 11, and on the pushups 6. As you can imagine, it gets tougher and tougher with each cycle.

Wed--

Back Squat
3-3-3-1-1-1

30 Dumbbell Walking Lunges
15 V-Ups
125 Meter Run
30 Dumbbell Walking Lunges
20 Knees To Elbow
125 Meter Run
30 Dumbbell Walking Lunges
30 Sit-Ups
125 Meter Run