Obsessions

Last night I watched an episode of one of my favourite TV shows, "No Reservations", hosted by author, foodie and one-time chef, Anthony Bourdain .  I've long been of fan of Bourdain's going back to when an excerpt of his book "Kitchen Confidential" appeared in New Yorker magazine several years ago.  It seemed like finally someone was telling it as I remembered it from working in dozens of restaurants over the years.  I was jealous I hadn't written it myself.

Over the years I have often wondered why I didn't turn my obsession with food into more of a career - beyond waitering, bartending and wine sales, that is.  Now there are bloggers and food writers galore.  How come I'm not one of them?  I fell like Marlon Brand on in "On the Waterfront": 'I coulda been a contender...'  But then I watched this episode.  On the liked episode you will see various people talking about their food obsessions.  Some of them are within normal parameters, whatever normal is, and perfectly understandable, like the guy who has taken pizza to a whole new level, of the chef that likes to catch the fish he serves.  But when Tony met with a couple of food bloggers that's when I began to be happy I didn't take my love of food in quite the direction they did.  All three of the guys he interviewed confessed that they had never been what you might call social successes so food had become their lover, their friend and replaced everything their lives didn't have.  They were all very obese and one gentleman said, perhaps with a hint of exaggeration, that he was told by a doctor there was more fat in his blood than red blood cells.  As for Tony, a renowned meatatarian, he too is on cholesterol meds, as he confessed at the end of the show.  He's 53 years old!  I was yelling at the TV; "Tony, eat some vegetables!"

So.  Do I want food to be an obsession like those guys and have to go on medication because there is so much fat and undigestable protein in my blood that I can't function?  Hay-yull no, as they say in the south.  I still live for real barbecued ribs and will never turn down a good steak medium rare, please, but watching shows where people act like gluttons (Check out 'Diners, Drive-ins & Dives') for an instant case of vicarious heatburn).  The days of seaching for the perfect eggs benedict (I once ate them every day while on a two week holiday) are over and I do not miss them one bit.

On the other hand, could it not be said that turning up for boot camp in 30C weather is also an obsession?  I had no transport this morning because Higgie was working so I ran down to the beach in what was already registering as 26C (80F) and joined two others in our agility training routine.  It was tough, but I did get a second wind partway through, and despite a few sand flies biting me I was able to do a full minute of plank pose and the rest of the strength training we normally do.  I didn't make it quite a far with bear crawl but my crab was slightly better.  I wouldn't have missed it for the world, truthfully.  I drank plenty of water and walked home up shady streets at a good pace.  Later today I'm going to take my mom out for lunch and might just have a pint and the pub's famous Stilton burger.  I'll leave half the bun and forgo the fries - and guess what?  I won't need medication afterwards - or ever!  Let's see: which do I prefer?  Thirty sit-ups in the sand at 7:00 a.m. or cholesterol meds?  Healthy obsessions?  Nothing wrong with 'em. 

Boot Camp and Puppy Love

Did I ever doubt if Lily would be anything but a great addition to my life?  Heck, no.  All the more reason to get up early.  She fits our lifestyle so completely.  Get up early to walk the dog, get up for boot camp, what's the difference?  One makes you sweat more.  We practice running with Lily up and down the driveway.  Our neighbours think we're nuts as we trot along like trainers at the Westchester County Dog Show.  She will never be able to run at our pace but she loves to run.  Soon, when she's had all her shots, we can take her to the park to run, though I would be very hesitant to let her off the lead.  This is a popular breed to get stolen.

Meanwhile, boot camp continues and I find everything I ever knew about training seems to fit tongue and groove with everything I am learning about dog training: patience, attention to detail, consistency.  It all pays off.  My weight has stopped fluctuating, I have more energy and I sleep better.  Oh, and I have a dog.  Did I mention that?

Boot Camp - Week Three

The weather has finally improved so there should be no more cancellations.  I'm happy that we can now move forward because I'm looking to seeing improved strength and ability in myself.  Having said that, I am finding it interesting to note that while I believe I can do better, I am stronger than some of our newer members.  This is only to be expected; everyone has to start somewhere, but I had almost taken my strength for granted. Of course I remember a time when doing a simple push-up was one of the most difficult things I had ever done.  Looking back over my journal from the first year, one of the most frequent comments was "I want to puke".  Everything exhausted me at a much faster rate than it does now.  Nowadays the routine is familiar and almost comforting.  It's definitely enjoyable, something I would never have said four years ago.

Today was interval training, which is one of my favourites because I love running so much.  We run a mile to start with and then do five sets of run/walk for two minutes each.  We follow this up with two sets of strength training exercises: push-ups among them.  I am getting far, far better at those.  I can go a full minute and get my chest lower than originally.  I'm working on doing one-legged bench dips and leg curls for the sake of strengthening my knees but it's slow-going because I tire quickly and wind up having to put both feet down.  My goal for the end of the summer is to be able to do more of them.

It was a gorgeous morning, sunny and bright and the leaves are at the point of early Spring perfection where they are that tender green in colour that will last only a very short while before they come out in full and darken in colour.  These are days to revel in.  Thanks to boot camp I get to enjoy them more.

More Boot Camp Memories

Am I crazy?

It's been raining and cold all weekend and we just had a brief flurry of snow.  Boot Camp starts tomorrow.

I've been going over journal entries from previous years.  Here's one from the fall of 2009.  The weather then is much like it is right now:

After only managing to get four hours sleep last night thanks to snoring husband, puking cat and asshole neighbour I was not in the mood for the cold wind, 34F degree weather and misty rain.  Nevertheless, and despite Higgie and I asking each other if we were crazy, we met with Bruce and proceeded to run the longest steepest hill in the beach.  I slipped on a wet leaf on the road that was not visible in the dark and almost landed on my head, and by the third time up I felt nauseous.  Fortunately, we stopped after that and then went down to the beach where the waves were roaring onto the shore with the intensity of a hurricane.  We did push-ups, pull-ups and bench dips all the while trying not to get blown over or too wet.  I could barely hear Bruce calling out instructions because the wind took his voice away.  Just when I though we were done he made us do walking lunges for 100 meters and then do the whole strength training circuit over again.  It truly was a tough, tough morning.

This is from Year three (again, in the Fall, but still...)

Freezing temperatures this morning; ice on the boardwalk and crunchy sand.  I'm not allowed to run or walk hills so I power-walked the boardwalk (oh yippee) while Higgie and Gail ran one of the nearby hilly streets with Bruce.  There were very few people out at first but on my way back down the boardwalk I saw one running club and a few people walking their dogs as the sun slowly showed itself as a pink streak on the horizon.  My fingers and butt were very cold and I never even broke a sweat.  I was late joining the others for the strength training portion of our work-out so I did a few extra push-ups and dips just to get caught up.  It was far from being the boot camp work-out I am used to but it was better than staying in bed, even if it was freezing cold!  We just signed on for 10 more sessions and there's no snow predicted for the whole month of December so we'll see how far we can take it.

But then there were some great moments, like this one:

Good drill, good knee, good ice pack.
It was cold this morning and there was a not-inconsiderable breeze down by the water but I had tons of energy and flew through the agility drill.  My knee cooperated right up until the end when some sumo squats kinda undid me.  No pain but I could feel the strain and knew I had a date with an ice pack as soon as I got home.  There was a gorgeous sunrise and I couldn't help but be pleased as we did rolling side plank that when I rolled to face the west I saw the downtown skyline all twinkly lights and as I rolled to the other side I saw red and orange sky to the east.  Fabulous sight! 
I'm sitting here getting colder by the minute thanks to this ice pack strapped to my knee but I will get into a very hot shower in a few minutes and feel great again.  Ah fitness!  How I do adore thee.  I'm crazy, I know....

Crazy or not, I've been sifting through memories of previous years all this weekend and becoming more and more excited about challenging myself once again through a tough fitness regime.  I re-reading my old journal entries one issue seems to surface again and again, however; my knees.  They do not respond well to this sort of treatment.  I'm presently having knee trouble for no good reason and have been icing and resting it all weekend.  I'm sincerely hoping that they will stand the test and get me through this year with few problems.  I've come to understand that I must ice them after all activity.

Tune in later this week to see how our first week goes.

Boot Camp: A reverie

I'm about to start my fourth year of boot camp training and I'm remembering the first year.  I thought I'd share some thoughts from a journal I kept.  I decided to take up this type of training when it was offered through a gym I used to belong to.  The gym is long gone but the trainer, Bruce Tisdale has continued the tradition of a tough outdoor work-out with everything a boot camp brings to mind: outdoors, early hours and not fancy stuff, just a stripped down, bare bones work-out.  My reasons for wanting to do this type of work out had to do with my brother's years spent in the military.  I figured if he could do iIt, I could do it. The final 20 pounds of my weight loss goal were slow in coming off and I wanted something that would bolster my discipline.

The first few weeks were very tough because of inclement weather, illness and injury.  I wasn't in as good of shape as I thought I was, the early Spring weather and the local dog-poo infested park where we first began to train were enough to turn everyone off.  Here are a few comments from a journal I kept:

Today was killer and it's only going to get worse!  We went to the park and Bruce laid out a course about 100 yards long which we were to run and then do a series of lunges when we reached the other side.  Then we ran back and did it again.  We did this for ten minutes and then he switched it to 20 military squats at the end of the run for an additional ten minutes.  I was drenched with sweat and my glasses fogged up.

I wanna puke.  Today was the hardest so far and I felt very weak for some reason.  I had another lousy night's sleep and 6 hours is just not enough to go on when you're working out this intensely.

Today we did sprinting for 100 yards with a walk or jog back to the finish line.  We did this for 20 minutes.  I jogged back at first but after a while it was a fast walk and more like a jog than a sprint.  Then we did ten minutes of bear walk, which is walking on all fours, followed by ten jumping jacks at the finish line, then crab walk back with more jumping jacks, squat-hops and lunge-walk.  I was ready to heave by the end of it, my breathing was all raggedy and my bum was wet from plunking it down on the grass during that god-awful crab walk.

Both myself and another woman commented to the trainer that we thought we were getting worse, not better.  He said it was because everything he was giving us to do was becoming increasingly more difficult.  I hadn't realised there was any difference in the difficulty level.  Now I feel better.

Which I came down with a cold I had to miss a few sessions.  On my return I discovered we had relocated to the beach.  It was a more attractive setting but the work just got harder.  Sand got everywhere - in my shoes, in my ears, even in my underwear.  Doing push-ups and crab walk in sand chafed my hands to bits until I got smart enough to bring gloves.  But I began to notice things - like how all the colours of the Canadian shield could be found in the sand beneath my face as I did push-ups, and how the sun would rise as we did sit-ups, and the flocks of cormorants that would come in to feed.  Could it be I was starting to enjoy it? 

The hardest part of the training seemed to be the run back up a very steep hill to return to the gym at the end of the session.  Silver Birch Avenue is the steepest street in the Toronto Beaches neighbourhood and I was determined that one day I would make it, running, all the way to the top.

Funny things happened:

Today I was doing pelvic lifts on my back with my feet on a park bench and a dog came up and licked my face.  I screamed and then laughed so hard the dog thought I wanted to play.  It was hilarious.  His owner could barely get him off me.

Damon Allen is a jerk!  The famous CFL quarterback who retired yesterday after a stellar career including running a total of 7000 yards (I'm quoting here; I don't actually know this stuff) is Bruce's best friend and as a tribute to him we did a football drill today including something horrible called 'breakdowns'.  I almost had one.  They involve marching in place (in the sand) for 30 seconds followed by 30 seconds of running in place while squatting as low as you can go.  We did four sets of this.  It was exhausting. 

And I did make it up that hill:

I was very slow and definitely feeling tired so I had no idea that I would find it in me to finally conquer that hill .  As we were stretching before run back to the gym, I leaned back in a lower back stretch and looked up at the clear blue morning sky and thought, 'Whatever else I gain from this, I at least have this sky to look at.' The run back up the hill begins at a slow, gradual and steady ascent.  It leads past the office of a medical professional who performs liposuction.  His sign reads 'medical slimming techniques'.  Sure, there's the ticket.  Get your fat sucked instead of running it off.  I find it ironic to be running past there three times a week when all I'd have to do is fork over thousands and risk my life, not to mention have some very ugly scars.  As if.  I looked up and saw I was very near the hedge that marks the limit of my past efforts up that hill.  The next thing I knew the hedge was gone.  I reached the top of the hill and my feet stopped before I did.  I was staggering and gasping but I felt very elated.   As I walked home afterwards I think I was strutting with pride. 

Today I kept thinking about all the times I had wished the fat would just magically disappear, all the excuses I made as to why I could never do Weight Watchers, how diets didn't work, how I was too old to exercise, how I had injuries, etc., etc., etc.  Here's what i have learned: if you want something badly enough you have to work at it.  You can't buy it or borrow it from someone else.