Day 8 of my “Superhuman Project” (#SHP), Tuesday 13th Oct 2015: – Week one complete! Managed to pretty much stay away from binge eating and too much junk food with the exception of some sparkling wine at the orchestra and 3 oreo cookies.
The biggest shift I've noticed the whole of last week except for one day was the very noticeable increase in energy I felt throughout the day (even without the usual afternoon nap I take). I've also realized how little I've been eating for breakfast.
I suspect that the increased energy has come mostly from cutting down my consumption of carbohydrates, shifting to more protein and moving over to what's called the “slow carb diet” slowly. This is a major shift and win for me because prior to this new meal plan (which I'm loosely following), I needed an afternoon nap every day and by about 6 or 7pm (especially on coaching days), I felt really mentally tired.
Tim Ferriss's 4 Hour Body book lesson/s of the day:
- The bike-shed effect – while not many people will right assume they know anything about nuclear power plants, almost everyone will wrongly assume they know something about building a bike shed, and will argue till the cows come home about every detail.
- Everyone you meet will have a strong opinion about how you should train and eat. You must cultivate selective ignorance and politely refuse to have bike-shed discussions with others. Just step away and do what you've planned to do, nothing more, nothing less.
Remembering the 3 F's – Fun, Flow and Flexibility, got me to stay out of the pool today and have a rest from freediving training. We'll see what positive effect this might have on tomorrow's pool training session.
Here's the progress for day 8 of my superhuman project.
Measurements Recorded (on 13th Oct 2015)
*Note: I've decided to take measurements once per week, so the next set of measurements will be on the 20th.
Biceps (Left / Right) – 12.2 in / 12.2 in
Waist – 35.5 in
Hips – 39 in
Thighs (Left / Right) – 22 in / 22 in
Total Inches – 142.9 inches
*Note: These measurements were more accurate as I got help to measure the hard to measure areas like biceps. And, I began using specific points in the middle of each thigh to take measurements for consistency.
Superhuman Diet
Breakfast:
4 eggs -half-boiled with little soy sauce and pepper.
2 slices of toast – brown bread.
1 glass of water + apple cider vinegar (1 tbsp) + psyllium husk.
1 glass of water + spirulina powder (1 tsp).
Lunch:
1 cup brown rice + stir fried kailan vegetables.
1 tuna sandwich.
Dinner:
1 portion chicken coconut curry.
1 portions of tomato avocado salad.
1 portion steamed fish with egg.
Snacks:
Night – small pack of dried seaweed + 1 cup unsweetened soy milk.
Superhuman Workout
Warm up jog (treadmill) – 9 km/hr or 6:40 min/km pace.
Push-ups – 3 sets x 25 reps, horizontal, body weight, narrow grip.
Lat pull downs – 3 sets x 10 reps, 11 slabs of weight (not sure what each weighs), wide grip.
Leg extensions – 2 sets x 10 reps, 8 slabs of weight.
Dips – 2 sets x 10 reps, bodyweight.
Lunges – 2 sets x 12 reps, bodyweight.
Close grip supinated (palms facing me) pull downs – 2 sets x 10 reps, 11 slabs of weight.
Abdominal leg raises (modified) – 2 sets x 20 reps.
Side (double) leg raises – 1 set each side x 20 reps then hold for 20 secs.
*Note: With the exception of the warm up treadmill jog and the ab leg raises, all other exercises were done circuit style, meaning I was switching from one exercise type to the next, in the order listed above. Timing of 1 minute per set/exercise was used. By completing the required reps well before the minute was up, the remainder of the minute was used as rest. On average, I had about 30 seconds rest before I began the next set/exercise.
Hatha yoga – Morning yoga routine was done and enjoyed.