Cooking, Training, Eating, and Pull-ups
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Some Random Information about Cooking, Training, and Other Great Stuff
Today I am going to have a few random items in this blog post. Enjoy!
1) I have been cooking quite a bit lately, and absolutely loving it. Several years ago I really enjoyed cooking. However, once I moved away to complete my degree, I stopped cooking. By “cooking” I mean finding and following recipes, trying new foods, and actually taking more than five minutes to prepare a meal.
My form of “cooking” over the past three years mostly consisted of throwing random items together because I was too inpatient to wait more than a few minutes to eat. But lately I have made it a priority to search out new recipes and take the time to cook, and actually enjoy the process.
Last week I shared a Quinoa Loaf recipe with you. It was good, but I have also made a few things since then that are even better. Now please keep in mind that I am not a culinary master by any means, so the meals I do cook aren’t extravagant or even the least bit difficult. But hey, you gotta start somewhere, right?
A great recipe we had was a “Caribbean Beans and Rice” which was absolutely amazing. You can find that recipe here. It’s a combination of rice (I used brown rice instead of Jasmine), black eyed peas, coconut milk, and a few other ingredients. It sounds odd, but it’s delicious.
2) My training is very focused and I’m loving every second of it. Even though I have been lifting weights for eight years, I still learn something new about the way my body responds and reacts to training every week.
The more experienced you become at lifting weights, you learn how your body responds to certain stimuli, and you must adapt. For example, when I first started training I could tolerate a greater training volume and high intensities for extended periods of time. However, over the past year I have found that I get run down very quickly if the volume increases too much, and I can’t train with a high intensity for more than three weeks before I need to deload.
This may sound elementary and even stupid to some people, but I am making an effort to really focus on my body’s physiological state every day I train. Some days I feel incredible and as if I could set a PR on every single lift – these are the days I take advantage of. Some days I just don’t have the energy and can’t “get into the groove”. I still train hard these days, but the volume is quite a bit lower, and I may rest a little more in between sets.
The point is this – at some point you need to learn how to listen to your body when you train. Just because you had every intention of setting a PR today doesn’t mean your body will be up to the task. Do what you can, and accept the fact that you won’t perform at 100 percent every day, especially as you become more experienced.
3) My friend Tony Gentilcore (I’ll have the interview with him posted in a couple of days) had a great post over at his blog a couple of weeks. He made a great point about how people are quick to point a finger at individuals who eat healthy and say they “have a problem” and that they an unhealthy obsession about eating a certain way. However, they say nothing about people who buy nothing but sugary cereals, donuts, chips, cokes (or pop to all my Northern readers), and other processed items that don’t have a shred of nutritional value.
You can check that post out by clicking here.
4) If you want to know how to perform more pull-ups, then you’ll like the article at Jason Ferruggia’s blog - 10 Ways to Improve Your Pull-ups. You can check that one out by clicking here.
I'll be back in a couple of days with Tony Gentilcore's interview.
If you try the Rice and Peas recipe from above, let me know what you think about it in the comments section.
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Comments for This Entry
Hi Nia,
Great points about paying attention to how one's body responds to training and honoring it's signals to back off if needed. I don't think that sounds crazy at all. It's taken me a long time to realize that I can't train all out all the time. Like you, in my younger years, I used to be able to train with high intensity and volume for weeks and could recover pretty quickly. Nowadays, I need to deload about every 3 weeks or so. In fact, right now I'm on phase 3 week 4 of your FLD program and I'm glad it's a lighter volume week because I need it and not just physically but mentally. High intensity, high volume is very taxing mentally/emotionally too.
On to food! Being of Cuban decent I grew up on various rice and bean combinations so that rice and bean recipe is right up my alley. Wow, wine an coconut milk what a combo! Can't wait to try it.
When I began this week of training I quickly realized I'm a little rundown and it is about that time for a deload week so I began with that workout. With the weights I will cut the volume in half and the intensity about 40% depending. With the bodyweight stuff I am cutting the volume in half. I also took a day off period and it feels great. I will minimize eccentric damage as much as I can. I do think emphasizing eating well to live longer is mostly overrated. There is no one live long diet. Many things go into that like stress, outlook etc.... There will always be that culture that doesn't want people eat better and exercise. The more athletic and stronger and leaner you get the more artificial you must be but if you use Jenny Craig or something doctor Phil says then it's okay to flaunt around. I tend to make things like a 3 bean soup with tomato sauce and veggies, whole grain rice with some combo of beef, chicken, eggs. Stir fry with chicken or beef. Steak, fish, or chicken with veggies, nuts, sunflower seeds. Sometimes my post workout meal is shanghai express 3 plate entree and knock it down. Keep posting recipes you find.
Hey NIa: NIce thoughts! Read the pull up article a couple days ago. Been working on a muscle up. A real challenge. You ever try to do one?
Hey NIa: NIce thoughts! Read the pull up article a couple days ago. Been working on a muscle up. A real challenge. You ever try to do one?
Another good reason to avoid processed foods (as if there weren't enough reasons already); salmonella from chips and pretzels: http://specials.msn.com/A-List/HVP-Products-Recall.aspx?cp-documentid=23633953&imageindex=1&cp-searchtext=hydrolyzed%20vegetable%20protein%20%28HVP%29%20recalls&FORM=MSNIIT
Wow great!I was looking for such information.My search ends here.Dieting is not about strict nutrition philosophies and staying unrealistically thin or depriving yourself of the foods you love.Its about feeling great,having more energy and keeping yourself as healthy as possible and this all can be achieved by learning some nutrition basics and incorporating them in a way that works for you.
This article is pretty much useful for me.I have started diet program where so I love to learn what would be the best food from that I will not gain my weight.This article is really informative and useful for me.Thanks for sharing it here...
NIce thoughts! Read the pull up article a couple days ago. Been working on a muscle up. A real challenge. You ever try to do one?
Very good points you have focused on. I also love to cook but frequently. I love to cook the things which requires less effort and time both.
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