“What’s Your Gain?”

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In high school, my gym teacher had a famous saying during weight lifting class, “What’s Your Gain?” That’s why he always wanted everyone to do sets of 12 instead of sets of 10. The set of 10 was supposed to just get you to where you were before… but the last two are what make you stronger for the next workout. Technically, I think his philosophy is sound only if you are working with the right amount of weight. And even then many may see bigger gains with fewer repetitions of bigger weights.

However, that’s not the point. The important question is whether you are just staying still or whether you are gaining? For far too long, I’ve just been staying still. I haven’t been pushing myself for gains.

Part of the reason why I’m not pushing myself for gains, is that I’m Lazy. I haven’t been putting in the work. I have to start changing that… However if I fail, at the very least, I can eat right for the day. This last Thursday, I didn’t get a chance to get a full workout in… I was too busy trying to write, making airport trips for my wife, and other stuff. So when it came for dinner, I looked to throw a couple of pieces of boneless skinless chicken with a little BBQ sauce on the Foreman Grill. I grabbed myself some V8 Fusion Acai Berry, tossed it into a blender with 5 oz. of red wine (Two-Buck Chuck Shaws from Trader Joe’s) and some frozen berries (also from Trader Joe’s). In hindsight, I probably could have added some vanilla whey protein. Nonetheless, it took me only about 90 seconds – including clean-up. I added a little dark chocolate for desert (goes great with my speedy sangria).

I had a nice high-protein, high-antioxidant meal. I could probably add more veggies, though the V8-Fusion has some. It’s not a perfect meal. However, I felt like I had done as much to get healthy as going to the gym… and I could do it the Lazy way. It’s not good to substitute eating for exercise all the time, but when it’s necessary, it’s better than nothing. For that day, eating well “was my gain.”

This post deals with:

dark chocolate, foreman grill, frozen berries, high protein, red wine, sangria, skinless chicken, two buck chuck

... and focuses on:

Exercise, Nutrition

Posted by Lazy Man on February 9, 2009 in Exercise, Nutrition.

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