<p>Anyone else unable to see posts 9151-9165?</p>
<p>I felt weak mid-afternoon so I ate lunch instead of running. I’ll have to decide on running tonight or not. Lentils + round steak + meatless meatballs. Carbs at 21% - wow number for me.</p>
<p>mominva- I can see them. Try doing a refresh on your computer and see if it brings the page back. It is page 611.</p>
<p>New Rules of Lifting for Abs. </p>
<p>Done.
Got the t-shirt.</p>
<p>Started on New Year’s Eve.
Forty-eight workouts.</p>
<p>I went out in style. For the final round of the final superset of the final workout I did four sets of 1 and 1/4 squats with two 35lb DBs, alternating with sets of chinups. Then, for the fourth and final set of chinups, the last exercise of the last superset of the last workout, I pushed the SuperBands to the side of the bar and did the final two chinups unassisted, the second one from a complete dead stop at the very bottom. Starting with a heart rate above 90% from the squats.</p>
<p>Not bad for an ol’ (formerly) fat guy. 
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<p>A lot of grunting went into that exercise program. They’d have kicked me out of Planet Fitness so many times, I’d have left skid marks in the parking lot. It’s an absolutely brilliant program. Can’t wait for the next one in the series: New Rules of Lifting for ol’ middle age guys and gals.</p>
<p>I’ve been feeling crappy for a few days but I went to the Y and ran two miles around the track. I felt better afterwards. Knee is okay - took it slow not wanting to do any damage in the corners. Tomorrow is tennis day - I think I’ll get a new knee brace beforehand.</p>
<p>I picked up some greens and will do a homemade salad. I also have some turkey meatballs and I picked up a bottle of red wine vinegar that has zero calories. I don’t know how they do that. I think that all of the other vinegars had some sugar in them, typically from one to four grams per serving. I’m going to toss some cheese and turkey balls in the salad and see how it goes. May do some weights at home tonight too.</p>
<p>It was very quiet in the YMCA tonight. It’s hard to judge the number of people there. Some nights are hockey nights, some basketball, some have a lot of people in the cardio room. Some nights it’s dead. It’s nice to see some action running around the track or else it is boring. It is nice not to have to run around people all the time.</p>
<p>I also did some sprinting and I had a moderate pain in my chest near the armpit - I was moving very fast, maybe 8.5+ MPH (I’ve measured my speed on the treadmill and this was quite a bit faster than that - I’m afraid that I would wipe out on the treadmill at those speeds. It feels fine now. A little clicking in the area when I move it around. I don’t think that I’ll do that again in the near term.</p>
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<p>The [Vinegar</a> Institute](<a href=“http://www.versatilevinegar.org/faqs.html]Vinegar”>http://www.versatilevinegar.org/faqs.html) says that</p>
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<p>It has zero everything on the label. I’m hoping that it tastes good. It would be like Coke Zero (not that I’m a fan of Coke Zero).</p>
<p>I did southern style tonight. Boneless pork loin I roasted outside last night. Sliced and seared in a skillet to reheat with baby lima beans cooked and tossed in the skillet with the pork. Hmmm. Hmmmm. Good. The only “thang” missing was a big tall jar of sweet tea, but I don’t drink sugar anymore!</p>
<p>Lima beans are pretty high carb, but also very high fiber. </p>
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<p>The vinegar labels that I think might be fudging a little are the balsamic vinegars that claim to have no calories. That stuff is too sweet to have no sugar, but – hey – if it says it on the label, it must be true, right? </p>
<p>BC: I love huge dinner salads. They aren’t lo-cal, the way I load them up with olive oil and cheese and stuff, but they are massively filling, a lot of bang for the calorie buck. My attitude is that I make the same dressing – 2 TBS of olive oil and 1 OZ of cheese per person, so the more letttuce and carrots and celery and vidalia onions and bell pepper and raw brocolli I throw in, the better. That’s all pretty much freebie in terms of calories.</p>
<p>1 tablespoon olive oil, an ounce of cheese, four turkey meatballs, four soy meatballs. Not too bad on calories. It’s red wine vinegar - no balsamic - I think that the word Balsamic adds a few calories. The greens are more protein than carbs - interesting.</p>
<p>The vinegar isn’t sweet - just a mild bite.</p>
<p>I used to make salads all the time - then my wife took over. I just bought a bag of greens from TJs and threw the whole bag in the mixing bowl.</p>
<p>My favorite kitchen gadget: the salad spinner. I’m on my third one. I keep wearing them out…</p>
<p>Mine broke ages ago. I had a small puddle of water at the bottom of the bowl. I tried to drain it by hand. Oh well. I have been buying my salads at Panera Bread but I have to call ahead and go over there. Salad greens are $2 at Trader Joes. Four jumbo turkey meatballs are a buck and the oil and vinegar are cheap. I personally prefer fruits but they have way more calories. My wife will be back home in two weeks so I could ask for more salads then.</p>
<p>I broke my first one during a nicotine fit the week I quit smoking. My smoking deck is next to the kitchen, so cooking dinner was a huge learned smoking trigger for me. The first week or two cooking without smoking was pretty tough. </p>
<p>My poor wife… she had no idea. I was washing lettuce at the sink, just doing everything I could do to fight through a nicotine crave moment when she asked me to put mushrooms in the salad. Imagine that! I mean the nerve! So, I slammed the salad spinner down in the sink and cracked the bowl. For the next year, I had to use it in the sink because it leaked and that crack served as a reminder of never wanting to quit smoking again!</p>
<p>When I try to help people quit smoking and they are about to jump off the ledge, I just tell 'em to take it out on a salad spinner or something.</p>
<p>Finally the spring mechanism wore out and we moved on to a new one.</p>
<p>Plain vinegar is simply 5% acetic acid and 95% water, which means caloric content is negligible when we are talking about a teaspoon serving. Balsamic and rice vinegars can have residual or added sugars, and that bumps up the calorie number. I’m eating a salad with TJ’s rice vinegar (20 calories per tablespoon which is still way lower than any oil-containing dressing).</p>
<p>Ran my 7 miles. On the treadmill - grrrr. The weather turned really nasty by the time I got home, so my choices were: slog away on a moving belt in the comfort of the dry room or soak under cold, pouring rain for an hour. I chose the former. I was seriously surprised that I could make it this far tonight, since my legs were still in pain from
my weekend weeding blitzkrieg. I started out very slow and did not play with the incline, which made a huge difference. I need to take some Vit I to prevent inflammation.</p>
<p>[Delfield</a> SALD-1 Salad/Vegetable Dryer, 20 Gallons, 115 V](<a href=“http://www.katom.com/032-SALD1.html]Delfield”>http://www.katom.com/032-SALD1.html)</p>
<p>Woke up this morning, went to the bathroom, looked in the mirror and said “who the h*** is that?” That happens from time to time - my face is shrinking in the front as the edges get pulled in. I imagine that this has happened to idad many, many times.</p>
<p>Did some weights this morning and I tried on a bunch of old knee braces. They didn’t help so I tossed a few of them in the trash. The run last night caused a little bit of damage and I felt it this morning. I’m going to CVS in about 30 minutes to pick up a new pair - hopefully it works for tennis.</p>
<p>I also wore my wedding ring for a few hours this morning. It goes on easily and comes off easily if I take it right off but if I leave it one for a while, it’s harder to take off. I expect that there is some slight constriction that inflames the skin above it which makes it hard to take off. Another week or two and I should be able to wear it regularly.</p>
<p>^^^ I’m betting that will make your wife happy, BC.</p>
<p>That’s a great story about the salad spinner. Quitting smoking must be SO hard, but it is the single best thing you can do for yourself. Congrats again, and sorry about the salad spinner!</p>
<p>6am hot yoga this morning then PT. PT said I can run “at the level I’ve been doing”, even though the last couple of days sitting in the car and at the desk has been uncomfortable. He did some adjustments (crack, crack) to even out my pelvis etc. That helped. Graduation/steeplechase weekend here so it will be busy (D is getting her MDiv and we are excited). Her mother in law comes into town and she is “difficult” in a well-intentioned way, so lots of alcohol is required by those around her.</p>
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<p>The intense physical addiction makes it difficult. On the other hand, it is really no different than beginning a new way of eating or an exercise program. The thing you can’t do is play the “should I or shouldn’t I” debate game turning every minute into a tug of mental war about whether you should have just one cigarette or skip today’s workout or just eat one cookie (and then get back on the diet). It’s far better to make the decision and then simply not allow those mental debates to get started. If you make a decision that you are not going to smoke a cigarette for 24 hours or that you are going to avoid all junk food until you lose 5 pounds, then there’s no debate to be had and you can focus instead on things that will make that happen (like breaking a salad spinner instead of marching outside and lighting up!) 
It’s not like ice dancing. They don’t give style points.</p>
<p>As I have said many times, quitting smoking is easy. All you have to do is just not light a cigarette and put it to your lips. That’s it. It’s not rocket science. Do that and everything else will take care of itself.</p>
<p>I’m not sure which is harder: new permanent diet change or quitting smoking. Smoking, because of the physical addiction, is more intense. There are times in the first week or two without nicotine where a crave physically washes over you like a wave crashing on the beach. It’s a real physical response. Food isn’t that intense, but it’s probably more insidious because you have to learn to eat this, but not that. It’s all a matter of degree and easy to slip over the line.</p>
<p>Same thing with losing weight. Just don’t buy the Pringles.</p>
<p>No cardio for me today! 
My knee is swollen, stiff and sore. Guess this week’s workouts have been a little too much. Darn! Really trying to get things moving. Will do some light weights later today here at home.</p>
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<p>It’s all that shopping! Too many laps around the Mall of America!</p>
<p>Seriously, I wish everyone with sore knees could just wave a magic wand and make them better. I’m feelin’ it in the hips. Not sure what exercise got me. Could have been any number of them.</p>
<p>It’s just been ridiculously chilly here in New England all week. Not that cold, but gray and raw. Today is sunny, but it’s 61 degrees and just feels cold. I’m debating whether to go for a little walk/jog or do the Airdyne intervals again.</p>