I feel like anybody who works out legit becomes a legal drug addict. An addict to the greatest drug on earth: endorphins.
Last week I really kicked it in, and I notice the energy, motivation, and mood all improve the more cardio and lifting that I do. The biggest thing I like about endorphins is that unlike other drugs (which i wouldn’t know anything about) it’s on the layaway system… you know, like at K-mart back in the day: You pay for it up front, and only after you’ve paid dearly, do you get your prize.
Other drugs are like credit cards… It’s all, “Yeeeaa, party now!!” and then next thing you know they’re repo’ing all your magic the gathering cards and adopted children that were cool back when you did it because Madonna and Brangie did.
But seriously, think about a night of drinking. You drink, feel great, lose your debit card, vomit, pass out on somebody’s couch, and then all the next day you’re completely worthless and swear you’ll never do that again (at least that’s been my experience… back in college. Not now).
Not so with endorphins. You put in the pain, suffering, and discomfort before you get the pay out… Plus, the best part of it is, it’s actually good for you. Unlike the alcohol that you pour down your gullet, which has no real value… other than it enables you to numb your insecurities/shame/logical thinking abilities if the situation calls for it.
My only complaint with all this is… It’s taking a lot of time. For months I was on a 3-4 days a week workout schedule. Now we’re looking at 5-6, and while it certainly feels good and I’m sure will pay off long term, it’s not giving me a whole lot of time for blogging or working on other things. I’ve also been doing a good job of cooking Paleo food, so as anybody who puts in the effort to eat Paleo knows, all that shopping and time in the kitchen eats up on your precious “after work” time. So now that the workout schedule is starting to solidify, I need to figure out how to lock in the rest of my life.
….If you’ve got any pointers on that, please feel free to lay them on me.
How Mark Sisson puts it: “Make your longer workouts, longer and easier, and your shorter workouts, shorter and harder.” I’ve been doing some insane circuits that mix o-lifting, kettlebells, cardio, body-weighted MetCons, sprinting, and “lifting heavy things” into hellish 12-20 minute stints. Doing 20-30 minutes 6 times a week still tends to leave me with more time than 3-4 days of 1.5 hour stints. But maybe that’s just me? As far as food prep, try to bust out a lot of your core proteins once or twice a week and then heat them up to add to your courses throughout the week.
Trust me on the training, I’ve been in the ‘over-trained’ camp more times than I should be able to count. If you’re going hard, and you’re going to do 4-6 days/week, you’ll want to cut back on the time spent, and increase intensity for those shorter times. Otherwise, I found out the hard way, I eventually hit a wall and was seeing negative progression. Then recovery started taking longer than I cared, and eventually I got frustrated and weaker. So, needless to say, I definitely don’t do that anymore.
Maybe your body loves you more than mine, however and it’ll affect you differently? I don’t know. Experiment and listen to your body. In the meantime, get yourself a girl who can cook. Luckily, I married a chef
I get how much time eating Paleo or primal or whole 30 or whatever you want to call it takes. I work full time, play sports, workout, and have 3 kids who also play several sports at one time. The only thing I find that works for me is cooking a lot of stuff at one time. On Sunday I might cook several chicken breats, eggs, cuts veggies and so on. If I make steak for dinner I cook an extra one for lunch. I wish there was an easier solution but until they come out with that magic pill (which I will take and feel no guilt)we are stuck in the kitchen way more than we would like. We also have a gal from our crossfit gym who makes up meals that are whole 30 and I buy some of those. Maybe you could find something like that. Good luck
@Jay
Married a chef!? Lucky(/wise) man. Fortunately for me I’m starting to enjoy cooking a little bit, but it’s certainly nice to offload that here and there (or at least get some assistance). I’m with you on the cooking core proteins a couple times a week, and have been trying to keep to that.
As far as the training, with the eclectic mixture of events that I’m training for, I have adopted something a little like what you describe. I’ve been shooting for weights at least twice a week (upper and lower) with the focus shifting to some HIIT type stuff. I’d say my go to for the intensity work has become the Tabata protocol, and as much as I hate it, I do love how quickly it gets you out of the gym! The other 3-4 days I’m spreading out running (mixture of steady state and intervals, flat, stairs, etc…trying to keep it interesting), biking via a cycling class (best I can do right now without a bike), and swimming should be making an appearance here soon.
So far I’m feeling pretty good, though there isn’t a day I wake up and something isn’t sore. But I figure as long as I’m not pounding on any one area every single day, I hope the injuries will stay away. I also made my own PVC roller, and ever since graduating from static stretching to rolling out, I have yet to get a lifting/exercise related injury (knock on wood).
Still like to test my 1RM in squats and deadlifts. Would love to at least keep what I have even if I’m not adding to it due to the cardio… We’ll see what happens. I’ll keep everyone posted!
@Brandy
It sounds like you’ve got it even worse than I do! I do the full time job, workout, blog, work on side projects, and have 2 dogs, but I only feed them once a day… I’m no expert, but I”m pretty sure if you fed your kids on that schedule the government might have something to say about that.
I’ve been trying to stick to something similar to what you describe, and cook on Sunday nights (which gives me dinner for that night, and breakfast/lunch for the next day), but really need to suck it up and start cooking 3 meals or so rather than just the 1… I’d like to get into a schedule where I cook twice a week: Sunday and Thursday nights.
You know, the idea of making Whole30/Paleo foods in bulk and selling them is one that I had a few months ago, but wasn’t real sure what kind of demand there would be locally. Do you know if this is just a side business she does, or is she taking it to FT status? I’d be curious to hear how she’s doing it.