A Healthy Dose of Healthy Eating

Hey everyone! It's been an interesting few days so let's get into it.

Saturday was my day of rest and day of indulgence. I knew that once I met with the dietician on Monday I would dive head first into dieting. I figured, why not one last day of good eating? I had wings and a "Soprano" burger that had marinara and cheese on it along with a garlic bun. Good stuff and I won't soon forget it. Sunday was an easy day with me just doing some cardio in my basement on the elliptical and doing the at-home workout that the Parisi guys gave me. That workout just consists of me doing their "Dynamic Warm Up" along with 3 or 4 exercises to improve my acceleration and the same thing for my top speed. As well as abs. Never forget those abs.

Monday started bright and early with an 8 a.m. Pilates workout with Kristen. This was my first Pilates workout and I'll be honest I had no idea what to expect. As soon as we started she had me on this padded table with so many springs, bars and chains I thought it was a Medieval torture device. We went through an hour of different exercises working on my shoulder position, my hamstring flexibility (I'm really bad there) and of course my abs. She was throwing a lot of information at me but it was all really helpful. It's funny because she knows a million technical terms for muscles and movement and stuff but she often throws in childlike names for bones and muscles. It's like a medical school anatomy and physiology class with the professor occasionally saying things like "suck your tummy into your bony butt-bone." It's an entertaining juxtaposition.

At 10 a.m. I had my meeting with my dietician Ariel to go over the meal plan she made for me and to take my measurements. She mapped out 8 days of eating for me with three meals and two snacks each day. Everything that she had me eating had all the nutrition facts and measurements listed in the packet she gave me. I have to say I was quite impressed with the work she put into this. We went through checking which foods I liked (chicken, baked potatoes, fruit) and which foods I didn't like (fish, yams, more fish). She originally had me cooking and baking a lot of my meals but I had her change that when I said I'm doing this to become a top-notch athlete, not a top-notch chef. I'll still be making a lot of my meals but my day will have some extra time with me not making my own carrot cake from scratch three nights a week. An amusing part of the meeting was when we had some portion-opinion differences best illustrated with the following conversation:

Ariel: And for Day 3 lunch you'll be having steak with assorted vegetables. Do you like steak?

Ben: Of course! How much do I get to eat?

Ariel: A good portion, about 8 ounces.

Ben: (Look of horror) Good portion? That's more like 16-20 ounces for me.

I proceeded to tell her of my "Steak-Off" with Dennis down at Duke and how I ate 34 ounces in one sitting. I think she threw up in her mouth a little bit. The best part of the meeting was when she told me I can eat what I want for one meal a week. Those words may come to haunt both her and me.

I was then scheduled to have a speed training session with Eric but he was sick and had to cancel on me. I decided to go back to the gym and do an upper body workout. I worked on my back and did some cardio. Good session but nothing too brutal. Later in the day I tried my first swim workout. My goal is to swim for about 3 hours a week. I lasted 20 minutes in the first session. It was a good reminder that I really suck at swimming. However, I like it a lot and it's a great workout in that it's real easy on your joints, lengthens your muscles, and improves your conditioning.

Today was a relatively easy training day. Eric was still sick so I couldn't go and train at Parisi. I did another swim workout and am about to do the Parisi home workout as well. I started the diet today and it's been pretty tough. I really have to pay attention to when I'm eating and what I'm eating. I definitely feel that the diet will be the toughest part of my training. It's not that hard for me to avoid unhealthy foods. The hard part is cooking all of my food, portioning it out, and keeping to the meal plan. I figure if I truly focus on it for two weeks then after that it should come as second nature. Once I get this dieting thing down along with the swimming, everything else will come easy. It'll be hard at first, but I'm willing to put in the time and sacrifice.

Tomorrow should be a great day and I'm really looking forward to it. I've got Pilates with Kristen at 10 a.m., Parisi with Eric at 1 p.m., and basketball at 5 p.m. I'll be exhausted tomorrow night but I'll be feeling good about myself.

As a final note I'm going to plead with you readers. If you guys could post every so often it would really encourage me. Reading feedback makes my day and gives me good motivation knowing that there are people out there reading up on what I'm doing. If you take ten seconds to make my day I will greatly appreciate it. Thanks a lot!