I think I can

Okay, so I just finished a design conference in Nashville yesterday, and I was kind of irritated at the way the Nashville Sheraton’s catered was geared toward unhealthy eating. Every morning in front of the ballroom, there were tables full of pastries, donuts and the average breakfast of America’s champions. And sure enough, the unhealthy people at the conference were flocked to and lined up around this table, basically salivating over what the platters had to offer.

Luckily, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a tray on a side table that had honeydew and cantaloupe sitting on it, resting unmolested, away from all the action. I took a few pieces off of the tray and took it into the conference with me, not having to wait in line to do so.

Of course, I arrived expecting this to be the case, so I had the foresight to bring a few protein bars with me and some water to get me through the day, and I’m glad I did. There were no healthy places to eat lunch around the hotel, so I ended up opting for some fairly uneventful White Castle fish sandwiches. I’ve had better. This lunch, of course, was at the ‘normal’ noon-1 timeframe, a point during the day that I usually am not eating.

I guess I just get tired of what people consider to be the ‘norm,’ especially if the norm is causing the problem that the media is constantly discussing and stating needs to be changed.

I suppose that a lot of this boils down to me being a control freak, and when I’m expected to do things on other peoples’ schedules, especially when it affects my goals of getting healthy, it just leaves a sour taste in my mouth. This is what makes it hard for me to do anything with my friends, as well. Not many of them are choosing the same health path as me, so when they want to go out or do things, it makes it hard to say yes. Luckily, though, most chain restaurants are starting to at least carry some stuff geared towards our lifestyle, but I am still suspect about the actual health factor that these meals provide.

Okay, so as of last week I am trying a new strategy on my workout–ever since I started hitting the weights when I was 13 with my dad, I have always focused on pecs and tris. Now it’s time to let other parts catch up.

I have taken both a week-long leg and week-long back workout off of this site and will be alternating between the two. My goal is to increase my legs all around (I basically have chicken legs–thanks Dad!) and to increase my middle and upper back size. The other goal for my back is to increase the strength. I keep reading that, to have a balanced upper body, one should be able to pull as much on the seated cable row as he/she can bench press on the flat barbell bench. I don’t know how exact that ratio needs to be, but I’m pretty sure it shouldn’t be the (approximate) ratio of my back-to-chest, which is about 3:5 (I can row about 60% of what I can bench).

The increase in back strength will, theoretically, help minimize the popping in my shoulders, since as of right now they are somewhat misaligned due to the imbalance between my chest and back. Hopefully this will help–my shoulder surgery in January really has me focused on keeping things working properly (even though the surgery was for a bone spur digging into my supraspinatus tendon, which was something I couldn’t avoid).

So wish me luck. I took measurements of all my body parts, and plan a re-measure in about 2 months. Here’s to hopin’!