The Need for Speed...

or why working at high intensity is good for you.

I finally hit the 227lb mark (again) and so I'm getting closer to the
220lb mark. 200lbs is very appealing now! I think our societal
need for speed, wanting everything right now or yesterday plays havoc
with our efforts to loose fat and eat healthy. Or for that matter to
reflect on the important things in life (different for many
individuals). I thought of taking this issue of the need for speed and
see where I could benefit from it.

Come in breakfast. I usually cook my breakfast. I boiled water for green
tea, mix that with the oatmeal, cook the oatmeal in green tea. Add the
ground almonds and flax seed, blueberries, banana and cinnamon powder
(no sugar, naturally sweetened by banana and blueberries). For the last
couple of days after having read and article on breakfast and
preparation strategies I tried the following. I did not cook my oat
meal. I use my coffee grinder and put half a cup of oatmeal in the
grinder and turned it into a fine powder(how much time? 30 seconds). I
ground 20 almonds and mixed those in with the oatmeal (you can make
pancakes out of this also). I placed the oatmeal, almonds, blueberries,
banana, 1 cup of raw milk, flax seeds (ground), cinnamon powder, vanilla
whey (30 some grams) into a blender. In five minutes I was drinking my
breakfast. It was good at about 600+ calories. It actually sustained me
well into 11:00 AM. So that's one application of speed.

Following this theme, I went to gym and I needed to have a short
workout, no longer than 30 minutes total (it was actually 25 minutes).
So speed was of the essence here also. I got on the tread mill and
walked for about 3 minutes, listening to music to pump myself up. After
the warm up, I hit 8 mph. Slowed down to catch my breath for about 90
seconds and hit 10 mph. I did this a total four times and 25 minutes
later I was done, spent, slowed down and staggered off the tread mill. I
burned twice as many calories than if I had run at an even tempo. I know
this because I often use my heart rate monitor to track this efforts.
Cooled off, took a shower and I was done.

One thing about maxing speed on the tread mill. The whole contraption
seems like is going to explode. There is a lot of pounding as I go fast
and some folks in the gym tell me they saw smoke :-). In any case it was
great. I had a slight head ache before going to the gym which went away
after this workout. I need to make sure to go to bed early to recover
from this workout.

I also recorded my food intake and I'm on point. Next workout after
recovery? Dead lifts and squats. The revenge of the barbell!