Dead to me

I was up early with a light breakfast before I went to lift a little at New York Sports Club before my cancellation goes through. I need to start doing this a couple of times a week. I hate deadlifts the most, so I decided to start there. This article also had something to do with it.

Breakfast:

• Coffee with raw milk
• OJ
• Home made raw milk yogurt with granola and banana
  

Workout - 5x5 Deadlifts
225-235-245-255(4)-265(3)
I didn't make to a full 5 towards the end. Lots of reasons for that, with the primary one of course being that I wasn't strong enough. Other secondary but (I swear!) legitimate reasons in order of decreasing legitimacy are that (1) my hands are still a little tender from ripping them a couple weeks back, (2) there was no chalk and I wasn't using straps, (3) I couldn't drop the weight like at Crossfit, (4) squatting inside a power rack is claustrophobic, and (5) it was cold making my grip fail even earlier. When I move into my office I'll have to smuggle a sledge hammer in and use it to develop my grip.

I dropped by the Green Market to pick up some meat, vegetables, and apples. At this point there's really nothing green outside of the pricey hydroponic vegetables and sprouts. So I stuck with pork chops and potatoes and onions to accompany them tomorrow. And apples for snacks at work, one of which I had as soon as I got to my office.

I also indulged in sauerkraut-like pickled ginger and carrots and ginger-blueberry jam. Sadly the fish guy was not there. However that's OK, as I am going to a macaroni and cheese bake-off tonight at Glasslands and making pork chops tomorrow.

Leftovers again?

Last night had a lot of influence over tonight. Specifically what I ate. I skipped Crossfit because I was feeling lazy. I didn't even make it to Alex's thing at Affinity. My more self-indulgent rationalizations include (1) I had to be at home to sell a frame, (2) I'm going to lift in the morning (REALLY), and (3) rest is super important too.

Life goes on and Paul and I will have pork on Thursday. Now all I need is a recipe. Perhaps tomorrow from Jen.

Tonight I am obsessed with Filson. How is this related to working out and food? Well, it comes from a similar place. Part of why I decided to eat meat was because I didn't want to supplement. I wanted to eat food, whole food. Clothes like those made by Filson are highly functional garments. There is a certain style to them, but they are also made out of classic non-high tech fabrics like wool and oiled cotton. They are sort of clothing's version of whole food.

Tradition

I finally went to Minar with Marcus. It had been quite some time since we dined together there. I went with the usual: a veggie combo with a healthy, albeit smaller-than-usual dose of kvetching about work, women, and not enough time for personal projects.

Breakfast Tuesday January 20, 2009

Just like everyone, including Barack, I put my pants on one leg at a time. But seeing as mine aren't on yet, he's had his on for a lot longer than me already today. But he probably didn't make the yogurt for his breakfast. I think that's all I have on him though. He is getting inaugurated later today.
Breakfast:

• Raw milk yogurt with banana and granola
• OJ
• Coffee with raw milk
  

Failed gymnastic fitness and gobble gobble

The last bit of the Crossfit Carnival I attended was really hard. It was a guest appearance of Keith from Crossfit Virtuosity. I made it pretty far into the class, but once we got to L sits on paralettes, I really started to fall apart. I sort of pulled off an L sit, but that was the last exercise I managed with any success. And calling the L sit I pulled successful is generous. So I made myself useful and took some pictures.

Tonight I finally cooked up the turkey breast I got last week. I continue to struggle to manage my inventory, but I think I'm starting to get the hang of it. I think.

I breaded the turkey breast, following this recipe. Simple, but probably a bit too oily. I sauteed some asparagus and made a black eyed pea chili loosely based on a recipe from this book. The pressure cooker continues to be a game changer. I'll be preparing meat in it soon enough, which will make it a game changer in the changed game. Take that Barack.

The turkey was quite good. I don't think I'll be making chicken again any time soon. Turkey actually tastes like something, and is as easy to prepare. That said, Dan was right that it probably would have been a bit too much to begin with. As I already said, fish has a simplicity to it such that even when eating it with the head on, it doesn't seem much like an animal. Chicken has the texture of muscle in a fairly animal way, but is so mild that the texture is all that I needed to confront. Turkey is the whole shebang.

Meal:

• Asparagus sauteed in olive oil and balsalmic vinegar with salt and pepper
• Breaded turkey breast
• Black eyed pea chili

I am one step further along the spectrum laid out by Matt. In fact, thanks to last night's duck, I am jumping around a bit.

From his email:
Luke I keep trying to put myself in your shoes and I keep thinking meat would be disgusting if you've never eaten it before.

Do you have plans for a steak?

I think in order of increasing grossness the order is this:

Fish -> Chicken -> Turkey -> Bacon -> Steak -> Ham -> Roast beef -> Duck/Pheasant/Pigeon -> Veal -> Lamb .

Carnivals and small meals

Today was a company holiday, and my gym planned accordingly with a full day of skills training. I slept in a little later than usual, and fueled up for the first four hours of coaching. Breakfast was The Classic less the multi-vitamin. And I think I digested the duck pretty well. In general that department seems to have stabilized.

Off to the Black Box where the first session was a skills review of basic lifts with Thor AKA Justin. We didn't make it to my weakest lift, the clean, but it was good to have the differences between high-bar squats, low-bar squats, front squats, and overhead squats laid out.

I was most excited about the second session on kipping with Torch. Johnny helped me tape up my hands which still haven't quite healed. Torch took us through the basic progression to a full kip. We all got on the bar and everyone got it with varying degrees of success. Some were pulling themselves to the middle of their chest and doing clapping pull-ups. I managed to get out about 4 or 5 before I found the frequency for harmonic resonance and began to oscillate out of control.

Both sessions were extremely helpful. Crossfit Harlem, which is group of people who work out together at New York Sports Club came, doubling our numbers. Everyone in the group was super nice, and one guy even had on an Iron Maiden t-shirt.

I would have liked to stay for Court's kettle bell clinic, but I wanted to attend Keith's Crossfit Virtuosity clinic. So I ran home to make a snack, pick up my place some, and of course, blog. My snack was a grilled cheese sandwich made with raw colby, the last of my quinoa curry which hadn't gone bad, and some grapes. Fried good sure is tasty. In fact, I think I will be breading and frying my turkey breast later tonight.

Walks, talks

Tonight was the dinner party at Carrie's. We were going to share a duck. Which meant I was going to eat duck. Rosie said that most people don't eat duck, so once I ate beef I would be ahead of most Americans. I consulted a few recipes before heading over, and it was going to be almost 3 hours to cook the bird. So I had a snack of raw milk colby, raw milk cheddar, and grapes.

I swung by Luke's on the way over to Carrie's. He proved to be key to the dinner preparation, as well having a copy of Rambo: First Blood. Overall, a crucial player.

We began food prep rinsing the duck, finishing the stuffing, chopping the potatoes, peeling the shallots, chopping the Brussel sprouts, making the garlic rub, and pouring the boiling water over the duck to tighten the skin. And tighten it it did as we watched. It was a little creepy.

We rubbed the bird, stuffed the bird, added the potatoes, shallots, and Brussel sprouts and tossed it all in the oven. Then we went to the liquor store to get wine, put on Rambo and waited. After hours of cooking with some flipping of the bird, it was ready. And it looked pretty great. Luke described how to carve the bird, but I only made it through one side of the breast and one drum stick. He finished it up.





Dinner was served. It was duck with a garlic rub roasted with potatoes, shallots, and Brussle sprouts, stuffing, salad, and red wine.

Duck was yet another step up. It's such a fatty bird with even more texture. The meat had more variety throughout. I was told that it's much stronger than chicken, and I suppose it is. But I'm still finding that the texture is the most notable aspect.

In closing, duck isn't bred the same way as chicken, and you really need to get into it to get all the meat off the bones.