Property Investments, Landlording, CrossFit, Nutrition & Safety

Had 4 days off over the Easter weekend so was looking forward to getting back. Today was clean-tastic! Even the warmup was medicine ball cleans from first principles. Here’s a video of a Crossfit clean: clean.wmv

Cleans for 1 rep max: 1 – 1 – 1 – 1 – 1 – 1 – 1

My reps: 40kg – 50 – 60 – 70 – 80F – 80(PB) – 90F – 90F

The problem with cleaning 80kg (12.5 stone) or more, is it’s scary! You’re throwing a significant weight up as high and as fast as you can, then trying to get your body right under it before gravity brings it crashing to the floor. Still it is satisfying cleaning that amount of weight.

Then:

3 rounds
Dumbbell Clean 15 reps – 2 x 17.5kg
Run 430m

17.5kg dumbbell cleans suck, big time. Especially after the previous cleans exercise had maxed me out. Then you add 3 runs to the mix too…. I was not happy with my time of 17:01, especially as I failed to maintain the running for the last 2 rounds. Calves hurting again.

Marks helped with working out that I’ve been stretching the wrong way though and stretching the wrong calve muscles. Who knew there was more than one! Hopefully the new stretching exercises will help.

In other news, I’ve lost another 1/2 off my waist. This brings my waist shrinkage to 1.5 inches in 3 months now. As I’ve maintained weight however means that I’ve lost 3% body fat, down from 29% to 26% since January. Sweet.

On Sunday I received an email from someone in Canada who I have never met, and only know from exchanging a dozen emails or so, here’s what it said:

“And a very Happy Easter to you Colin. I just presumed that with that Irish name you are probably RC [Roman Catholic], certainly not Jewish or Moslem. So it’s safe to wish you a great Easter. ”

It was nice to receive an unsolicited email like that and if you’re reading this, thanks Fred. However, it’s a sad reflection on society these days I think, that he even had to consider whether it’s “safe” to wish someone seasons / festival greetings, irrespective of the particular occasion. He lives in a nominally Christian country, and so do I, so why shouldn’t one person be able to say Happy Easter (a recognised national holiday) to someone else without fear? If an Indian friend of mine wishes me Happy Diwali say, why should I be offended by that, whether I be Christian, Muslim, Jewish or otherwise? The answer is political correctness.

Sorry but this is a particular hobby horse of mine. I firmly believe that political correctness has gone mad in Western society these days. There seems to be a general fear of “offending” someone….. So what? I say. Since when did it become illegal to have a different opinion from someone else and not be able to express that, just because someone might not like what you say? I’m not saying that anything goes, you should not be allowed to incite violence or murder, but that’s not the same as saying that you think something is right or wrong. Take the Jack Straw and Muslim head scarves row a few months ago, he got crucified by the political correctness lobby, simply for stating an opinion that dared to go against the current trend of “let’s all be nice to the Muslim’s, in case we upset one of them”.

I don’t know you the reader, but I can pretty much expect that I probably hold some views that might offend you. Not because I’m particularly radical, just because the law of averages says that we won’t agree on everything. Does that mean we shouldn’t converse, in case one of us says something the other won’t like? This progressive sterilisation of society in the name of political correctness, is a dangerous trend I think, as it actually fosters divisiveness by preventing people from even discussing different points of view. But worse, thinking differently from the norm becomes socially unacceptable, and once you prevent free thinking, you stifle much of what it is to be human and what we need to do to grow as a society.

I firmly believe that one day there will be a backlash. There’s a growing resentment amongst your ordinary man on the street, that things have gone too far. Here in England there’s a small, but significantly growing, political movement called the British National Party. Every country has it’s ultra right wing, bordering fascist party, in England in the last local government elections, the BNP has started winning elections for the first time. It’s a small movement, predominantly local in efficacy, but it’s growing and spreading and I believe the root cause is political correctness, coupled with the perception that it applies differently to different sectors of society. A belief that is fostered because people feel they can’t converse about divisive issues, in case they offend someone.

Sorry, rant over.

Forget it! I took the view that there is very little point trying to stay on the zone diet at Easter, I’m partial to the odd chocolate egg as much as the next person. Additionally we had friends over for a few days, so we decided to lay off our Zone diet plan for the weekend.

This did however provide for an interesting experiment about the effects of the diet. For all the wonderful claims Dr. Barry Sears attributes to following a zone diet plan, they are rather hard to properly measure. The Atkins diet and its ketosis allows for easy measurement of whether you are doing it right and are in ketosis, the zone diet does not. I’m sure I think I feel better, have more energy, seem to need less sleep, but these effects are hard to measure.

Having been on the zone, ditching it completely for a few days then should be interesting, so the question is, how do I feel having eaten mash potatoes, pasta, rice, and an (un)healthy amount of chocolate in the last few days…..

I feel like I always used to before following a zone diet plan, which is to say: rather lethargic and tired; generally feeling run down; a lot of things feel like a whole lot of effort and sitting on my fat backside and watching tele all days seems like an excellent idea; but the biggest change is this: I’m hungry! About 2 hours after every meal I feel I could eat all over again. If that’s not evidence of the typical effects of excess insulin in my system, brought on by eating too many carbs and excessive high glycemic index carbs at that, then I don’t know what is.

So what does that mean for me and the zone? Well, I’m going back on my zone diet plan as soon as I can. It’s off to the shops for me today to restock up on zone favourable food.

Tonight’s meal on the zone diet: Green and Blue soup, so called as it consists of only green vegs and blue cheese (mostly). This is a 10 block family meal on the Zone diet plan, which you then serve up appropriately:

• 4 cups of Leeks – 4 Carbs
• 12 spears of Asparagus – 1C
• 2 2/3 cups courgette (zuchini) – 2C
• 1 1/4 cup of Green Beans – 1C
• 4 cups of Broccoli -2C
• 10oz Blue Cheese – 10 Protein
• 3 1/3 tsps Olive Oil – 10 Fat

Instructions:

• Simply chop and fry off the veg in the olive oil.
• Add 1-2 pints of chicken stock (or any stock or just boiling water, adjust amount to personal preference).
• Simmer for 20 mins then liquefy.
• Grate the cheese and mix in till it melts.

Optional Extras:

• Herbs.
• Garlic.
• Wholegrain Mustard .
• Ground Pepper to taste.

Variations:

• Reduce / remove the olive oil to allow for single cream to be added at the end (replaces the 10 blocks of Fat).
• In its current guise this is a vegetarian zone diet recipe, but you could reduce some cheese and replace with some bacon.
• Any veg could be substituted for something else if desired.

The thing I find with zone diet recipes, is it’s actually tricky to get enough favourable carbs in a meal without bulking it up too much. This zone recipe makes a lot of soup for 10 blocks!

2 weeks ago I tried out the “Christine” Crossfit workout as part of the Athletic Skills Level 1 (well rounded beginner) and failed to meet the 15 minute target, only managing 19 minutes and 1 second. Christine is this workout:

• 3 rounds of:
• 500m Row
• 12 Dead lifts
• 21 box jumps

Whilst there’s no prescribed weight or height, the Crossfit Manchester instructors set me 60kg dead lifts and 20″ (inch) box jumps. It was disappointing to fail it then, so today I tried again. I’ve been working on my rowing technique to actually row slightly slower in order to stay fresher. Hare and the tortoise and all that. 😉

Cutting a long story short, I paced myself much better and completed the first round in 4:30, giving me 30 secs lead (5 mins per round to get 3 rounds in the 15 min target). The 2nd round was getting very hard work as I couldn’t afford to take more than a few seconds rest and I was getting very “blowey”, but I got the 2nd round in just under 5 mins, giving me about 40 seconds room.

3rd round was very tough. I’m afraid there was grunting and groaning, especially the row, sweat was dripping off my face, nose, eyelids, the works, and I barely kept the 500m row to under 2:10. 12 dead lifts were done in 3 sets, but took over a minute. I know from the clock I had a little over 2 minutes for 21 box jumps, about 5 seconds each but by now I was ready to sit on my 4ss.

It was the slowest box jumps yet, but I managed it with 22 seconds spare, time: 14:38 ! 😀

I failed this 2 weeks ago, but Crossfit has a habit of surprising me. 4 minutes 23 seconds faster, a massive 23% improvement! I put this down to 2 things I think, the first was (bizarrely) taking Christine slower. I know it sounds odd, but by not going all guns, and pacing myself, I could keep going with less rests. Crossfit is all about work and effort, the (one of the) mantras is: stronger, fitter, faster. I did the same amount of work, but in less time, so power output was higher, and that will get me fitter in the long run.

The second is possibly the zone diet, I’m not sure I’m bursting with energy, but I certainly feel less tired and since I started the zone diet, my performance has definitely improved, as today can attest to.

15 minutes continuous work and I was wasted, but that’s my penultimate skill in the Athletic Skills Level 1 requirements. I have but to do a 1 mile run in 9 minutes, and I can call myself a “Well Rounded Beginner”, lol. I’m very pleased with my Crossfit performance to be honest. I’ve only really been doing Crossfit for about 2 months properly, and to get all but one of the Athletic requirements for Skills Level 1 in 2 months, has actually surprised me. I had set a goal of achieving this by 1st June 2007, now is just that run, maybe the zone diet will help with that too….

In separate news, down at the Crossfit gym today, I got a new personal best in back squats. Well actually, you could argue I got 4 PB’s.

My previous crossfit back squat personal best was 110kg’s. Today I did 7 single reps at these weights:

• 90kg
• 100kg
• 110kg
• 115kg – PB
• 120kg – PB
• 125kg – PB
• 130kg – PB

Very pleased with these back squats. PB’s make you feel alive.

For reference, 130kg is 286lbs, or 20 stone 6. That’s the equivalent of my brother sat on my shoulders, with my daughter on one of his shoulders, and his step daughter on his other !!! Blimey. This after just 2 months of Crossfit, I tell you, it’ll change your life.

The kid has been asking for mashed potatoes for a while, which are pretty hard to do on the Zone Diet. Well I say hard, the zone carb block system means that boiled potatoes are 3 blocks per cup (250ml) which is not a lot. Anyway, tonights Zone recipe was Lamb Burgers, Mash Potato, Broccoli and Gravy ! Doesn’t sound very zone to me, here’s how I did it, I make 10 block meals (10 zone blocks of protein, 10 blocks of carbs, 10 blocks of fat).

12 oz Lamb Burgers (cooked weight was 10.5oz) = 7 zone blocks of protein – 7P
3 oz Cheddar Cheese = 3P

1 cup boiled potatoes = 3 zone blocks of carbs – 3C
3 3/4 cups of broccoli = 3C
45 grams of Bisto Beef gravy granules = 4C

1 2/3 teaspoon of butter = 5 zone blocks of fat – 5F
1 2/3 teaspoon of mayonnaise = 5F

So that’s my 10 zone blocks of protein, and 10 carbs and 10 fat.

Steam the potatoes and broccoli.
Grill the burgers.
Mash the potatoes when ready adding in the butter, mayo and grated cheese, along with a dollop of whole grain mustard.
Just add water to the gravy, along with some crushed garlic and an oxo cube.

That’s it, a very easy traditional meal on the zone diet.

I served myself half (a 5 block meal, my zone diet plan is 5-5-1-5-1), the wife a 2 block portion (her zone diet plan is 2-2-2-2-2) and the kid got a 3 blocker. All had large portion sizes, thanks to the broccoli.

My last post on body fat percentage calculations shows that I calculated a body fat percentage of 27% (down from 29% after 2 months of Crossfit, and 2 weeks of the zone diet). As I weigh 14 stone 10 (206 lbs) that means my actual body fat is:

206 lbs x 27% = 55.62 lbs, which is just about 4 stone exactly. Eeek!

Anyway, this leaves a lean body mass (meaning everything else) of 206 – 56 = 150 lbs, or 10 stone 10 lbs.

Now, on Dr. Barry Sears’ the Zone Diet, this figure can be used to calculate what my protein intake on the zone diet should be, measured in protein blocks of course (a block being 7g of protein). The only issue is picking my level of activity, options are:

• 0.5 = Sedentary
• 0.6 = Light – just walking
• 0.7 = Moderate – 30 mins per day, 3x a week
• 0.8 = Active – 1 hour per day, 5x a week
• 0.9 = Very Active – 2 hours per day, 5x per week
• 1.0 = Heavy Weight Training – or twice a day exercise, 5x a week

Hmm so where does Crossfit fall into this? By definition Crossfit is maximum intensity workouts, and I’m going 4-5 times a week. Each session is an hour, but that’s not continuous (it’d be impossible to do a continuous hour of Crossfit I think!). Let’s go for Active at 0.8 and see how we do.

Now what I’ve not said is what the numbers mean, on the Zone Diet, the numbers are your Protein Requirements, measured as Grams per pound of lean body mass. We already know my lean body mass is 150 lbs, so:

0.8 x 150 = 120 grams of protein a day.

A zone block is 7 grams of protein, so:

120 / 7 = 17 protein blocks per day. Which is strangely fortuitous, as Mark and Karl, the coaches at Crossfit Manchester already prescribed me as a 17 block per day zone diet plan. Or most specifically a 5 – 5 – 1 – 5 – 1 block zone diet plan. Nice to know they know what they are talking about! 😉