Saturday, March 9, 2013

Foodies and Work-Out Snobs


My relatively spartan paleolithic diet wouldn't really qualify me as a foodie, but I am, as I have realized, a work-out and food snob. It could be the fervour of the newly converted, although four years have passed since I radically switched diet and work-out routines. It could be a reactionary defence mechanism against the surrounding societal pressure to eat a carbohydrate dense diet and to exercise based on a series of outmoded concepts. But, it is most likely that I feel entitled to some smug self-righteousness because, no matter how difficult it was, I got up early, did my WOD, walked wherever I had to go within a reasonable distance, engaged in active outdoor sports, and spent a whole lot of energy avoiding eating all the good tasting but bad for you food that surrounds me every day. And, did that day after day, week after week, month after – well you get the picture - even if I felt tired, muscle sore, weak or really, really would have liked to join you when you ate that big chocolate cake.

Whatever the origin, I know that I, however surreptitiously and covertly, feel just a bit superior to – what really amounts to 95% of the population – who eat a the standard Western diet with it's heavy emphasis on dense carbohydrate sources and slot in their thrice weekly fitness class at some globo-gym, which some how miraculously means that the rest of the week can be spent in slothful indulgence.

Exercise and activity should be something that comes naturally to you and which you enjoy and shouldn't be something you force into your 45 or 55 minute work-out window. Driving to a fitness class is asinine - in fact, driving anywhere you can easily walk in half an hour is asinine - so is standing on an escalator when you can take the stairs, sitting when you can stand, and any of a hundred other things people do that reduces their energy output.

Eating a diet that is slowly killing you is similarly foolish. You don't have to be Crossfit games rigorous, but the least you could do is cut out the grains and dial back the treats so that they are treats not daily occurrences.

But, I gotta go, it's sprint day today, time to get outside and run hard.

Today’s WOD:

Warm-up: Three rounds of 10 back extension, 10 air squats, 10 warrior sit ups.

Work-out: 15 rounds of 10 seconds on/10 seconds off sprints. 

Working some lock-offs on the train on the way home from a hike

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