NEW: Week's Workout Schedule

Day 1:  Basics - volume and reps
      Push-ups, rows, knee raises, squats
      Shoot for 1000 reps (10 sets of 25)

Day 2:  Skills - 1 rep negatives of
      One arm push-ups, one-arm chin-ups, front lever, pistol squat
      As many times as possible throughout the day, do not count

Day 3:  Intermediate - difficult exercises, intermediate rep range
      Dips, pull / chin ups, hanging toe raises, lunge or split squat
      Rep range is 8-20, shoot for 400 reps (100 each, 10 x 10)

Day 4:  Skills

Day 5:  Advanced - unilateral assisted exercises, low rep range
      Archer push-up, archer pull-up or one-arm row, hanging toe-to-bar, hover squat
      Shoot for 100 reps (25 each, 5 x 5)

Day 6:  Skills

Day 7:  New skill, sprints

Leaky Gut Diet - Some Examples

Here's what I'm eating and drinking a lot of.

Bone broth, olives, sauerkraut, ginger tea, apple cider videgar, Himalayan pink sea salt, avocado, fish, supplements (l-Glutamine, Cicrumen, fish oil).  Not pictured:  licorice tea, peppermint tea, berries.

UnChronicles: Volume 1 - I Just Spent Six Months in a Leaky Gut (More Like Six Years)

Or 10.  Or more...

On Wednesday I had confirmed what both of us (doctor and patient) have suspected.  Via blood test results, we have confirmed that I have leaky gut.  In addition to the standard tests like cholesterol and other markers (all normal for me), she tested for food sensitivity.  In order, starting with the worst, I am sensitive to:

Wheat

Banana

Yeast

Corn

Tomato

Beef

Dairy

Egg white

Chicken

Chocolate

Potato

Orange

Soy

Anything above 2.0 indicates "out of range" and wheat was 23.1, banana 23.  The least of the bad was soy at 5.8 followed by chocolate and apple.  Seriously?  Banana?  Apple?

Although this list is shocking and sobering, it's not surprising.  I think it is more reflective of what was tested for and what I ate prior to the blood draw rather than an exhaustive list of what bothers me.  That is to say, if I had eaten sweet potato and lentil before the blood draw and the testing detects these, they would have shown up too.  I believe these results are indicative of a fairly indiscriminately unhappy digestive system.  My inhaler history clearly reflects this.

To add to the pain, my blood pressure was through the roof, higher than I've had it measured outside of an emergency room.  She made me march down the street to the nearest pharmacy and fill a prescription for Lisinopril.  I don't want to take medication and she knows it, but for now I have no choice.

In the coming months I will try to document what I and my doctor are doing to overcome leaky gut.  Aside from the script for bp, we are focusing on diet and lifestyle changes.  As quickly as possible, as gradually as necessary.  Generally speaking, I will try to remain as "paleo" as possible, avoiding grains, dairy, sugar, legumes, anything artificial, and anything processed.  I will also try to avoid the foods on the above list as much as possible, with some exceptions.  For example, if grass-fed organic not GMO no antibiotic beef is available, I will not it.  My choices are so limited.

Additionally, may doctor wants me to "take it easy" because of the bp and the stress.  So that means dialing the bike commuting back by as much as I can tolerate.  Maybe to once a week, rather than 3 or 4.  I will also try not to do strength training every day and will keep the workouts short.

As far as supplements and additions to the diet, I am trying to add as much bone broth and fermented vegetables (yogurt is not an option) as I can per day.  I hate supplements, but I am reading over and over that they are essential to combat leaky gut, so I am taking l-Glutamine, Circumen, and fish oil.  There are others I need to add, which I will document as I begin to take them.

I am continuing intermittent fasting, and am attempting to cut my coffee intake by 50%.  Most sources say to quit coffee entirely but I will try to keep one cup a day and see how it goes.

And of course, no alcohol.  We'll see how that goes, but I'm not pretending I can get away with skipping that one.  It's largely what got us here in the first place.

Lunch today:  bone broth, grass-fed ground beef with asparagus (in coconut oil), a little bit of salmon and some beet greens, kim chi, sauerkraut, and olives.  Also, licorice tea, peppermint tea and ginger tea throughout the day.

Workout today:  twelve minutes of escalating density training (EDT) pull / chin ups.  I did 71.

Escalating Density Training (EDT): Pull / Chin Ups

12 minutes, various grips and grip widths.

5 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

71 Total

On Being Process Oriented in a Goal Oriented World

I love my job.  I love my boss, my employer, and my co-workers.  I enjoy going to work and I enjoy being there.  I look forward to it.  I'm not kidding.  But my boss and my department are goal-oriented. I think they have to be.  I'm guessing all bosses and all departments are goal oriented.  But I always struggle to make and keep and talk about goals.  It just doesn't feel natural to me when deep down, I realize that the main key to success, mine anyway (if I have any), is showing up.  At work, I could do better, I could work harder, I could be smarter and better and more competent and well trained.  I wish I were.  But I show up and do my best and have a good attitude.  At the very least I have these things and they have served me well. I DO make the goals and talk about them and talk about meeting them.  But I do this because I'm supposed to.  The truth is I work hardest at showing up and being a team player and having a good attitude.  And the beauty is I don't really have to work at these things.

The same is true for me in fitness and exercise.  The truth is, I don't think I really have any goals other than doing it again today and tomorrow.  I have typed a number of posts, especially lately, about progress towards goals.  But I don't really have any goals.  In strength training this seems strange or misguided, because the message always is that you need goals and you have to keep track of your progress and better yourself.  Progressive overload.  If you don't, you fail.  What's the point in working out if you are not meeting goals? 

Well, I don't really have these goals.  Building muscle?  Honestly, I don't really care.  I don't want to be bigger.  I don't want to take up more space.  I don't have bicep or chest or abs goals, really.  If anything I wouldn't mind being smaller and take up less space.  But that's not really a goal either.  Almost everything you read is based on building muscle, getting this or that to grow, bulking, lean muscle mass, cutting.  Blah blah blah.  I'm sick of it.  I think it's a teenage male mentality and maybe it has to be in order to sell.  That's one big reason I'd probably be miserable and horrible in a fitness career.  I'd have to start talking about the same things.  The same dubious goals and motivation.

I love and respect Mark Sisson and have benefited greatly from his work and read his blog every day and have bought and read his books.  He says he has a goal of helping 1 million people and he wants to "look good naked".  Why?  What about the other 40 million people that need your help?  Have you failed them?  Look good naked to whom?  Your wife?  Part of being a wife is not caring what you look like naked, and whenever I'm naked with someone, there's not a lot of looking going on.  Maybe you want to look good naked to yourself, but that's a moving target I would suspect, and "good" doesn't have a clear definition.

I talk about achievement goals like a muscle up or pistol squat, but the truth is, I don't think I even care that much about those things.  To some degree they're parlor tricks; things to make people ooh and ah.  They make ME ooh and ah.  But I don't really work on them and if I did, I would be able to do them by now and I can't.  I just don't really have anyone to impress.

I forget.  I forget all the time.  I forget that I don't really care about building muscle mass or doing a hand stand.  So I forget and then I switch to body-part splits and keeping track and muscle-building dogma and maybe do weights and dead-lifts.  Or I try to progress to a calisthenics crowd-pleaser.  I forget that my real goal is to get and stay strong with minimal equipment and to keep doing this.  I get convinced by all the noise out there that I'm supposed to be objective and work towards muscle and strength goals or else I'm wasting my time.  But then I do remember eventually that I am doing this because I like it, it makes me feel good, and it's fun to wake up and imagine what kind of work out I might do today, rather than the nagging feeling that I have to nail that front lever or bench 275 by end of summer.

I love calisthenics because it's simple and beautiful.  It's fun to watch and to do.  Ever watch someone lift weights?  Not pretty.  Pretty ugly really.  And watching someone bench 350 is really no more interesting than watching someone bench 135.

If I have any kind of notoriety or tangible success or advice-giving credentials about anything at all, it would probably be in four areas:  bike-riding to work, intermittent fasting, natural hygiene, and calisthenics. (Possibly also minimal footwear but the jury's still out on that one.  I DO it, consistently, and think it's a good thing but I'm not exactly sure why or what it's doing for me.  More on that later.)  I've been riding my bike to work and back more often than not for the better part of 13 years (I only know because I remember starting sometime around my 40th birthday).  But I'm slow, upright, un-spandexed, and wholly uninterested in speed or "performance" (whatever that is).  I'll never race.  I don't want to race.  I'm no faster today than I was yesterday or last year.  I'm probably slower.  My bike is heavy, comfortable, bag-laden, and made of steel, leather, cork and hemp.  I have no goals other than to do it again, I don't know exactly what it's doing for or to my health, and I don't really care.  Well, I do CARE, but I'm not planning to look into it.  I show up and have a good attitude and enjoy the process.

Similarly, I've been doing body weight calisthenics every day for at least 6 years.  I only know this because my family and I took a beach vacation in 2011 and it's the first time I remember trying to figure out how I would keep working out while away from home.  How can I do pull ups?  (Push-ups, squats, pull ups on doors....)  As I said, I can't do a muscle up, but I can do a lot of push ups and am proud of that fact.  I show up, every day.  And I don't have too much trouble keeping my weight consistent and my pants waist size 32 and to not be fat despite my age and consistent transgressions (beer).  I show up every day.

Similarly, I can count on one hand the number of "normal" breakfasts I've had in the last five years, and all showers are rinses for me.  These may deserve their own posts, but it's not a struggle to do them, they benefit me greatly, and I can't imagine not doing them.

Progression to Goal: One Arm Push Up

Regular push up:  30
Feet elevated push up:  20
Dip:  18
Assisted one arm push up with other arm on ball (voleyball size):  12
Assisted one arm push up with other arm on ball (basketball size):  10
Archer push up:  8
On arm push up on waist-high bar:  6
One arm push up on thigh-high bar:  3
Diamond push up:  12
21s push up:  7 lower end of range, 7 higher end of range, 7 full range

Progression to Goal - Pistol Squat

Body weight deep squat:  30
Body weight feet together deep squat:  20
Drinking bird:  16
Sissy squat:  14
Bulgarian split squat:  10
Hover squat:  6
Assisted pistol squat:  5, 3