Plan? IS there a plan?
Surprisingly enough, considering this is me, there is.

And I am off the mark of it today. Total calories: 1537. 192g protein; 129g carbs (26g fibre); 26g fat.

Damn Tuesday. I ate early because of the meeting... then I worked a bit late, and had too much dinner (3.5 oz elk stir-fried with peppers, onions, ginger, garlic, and Braggs; broccolini with teriyaki sauce; pumpkin, 1/4 cup Quark, and Da Vinci syrup for dessert)... then because my eating schedule was off, I was starving, and decided to have a sixth meal even though it would throw the numbers: protein shake, mixed with flax fibre and Udo's, frozen in the ice-cream maker.

Anyway. What was I saying? Plan, yes.

There isn't much concrete to go on in the way of diets specific to bodybuilding -- in the way of formal research, at any rate. Most diet, and even exercise, research is done with regular volunteer-type people -- not necessarily particularly fit. There's plenty of anecdotal research -- from other bodybuilders -- but you never know, from that (or from published material in magazines) whether the person in question has a little extra chemical help.

So, what I'm doing is a composite: from reading around here and there, and all the crap I've done on my own, including the previous show. Goodness knows, noting and observing my own diet for the last, what, four years? has got to be good for something.

I wasn't lean enough last time (of course, that may also have something to do with the fact that I completely messed up that crucial last week). I started off too slowly, with only a minor caloric deficit. I then switched over to carb cycling, according to Tom Venuto's magnum opus, Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle. Most of what you'll find on the web about this is typical cheesy hype, but in point of fact, the book is pretty solid.

Venuto's version of carb cycling is moderate carbs for three days, followed by a higher carb day. This worked very well for me; I was losing fat and actually gaining muscle, with only a very small weight loss.

However, I wanted to enter the lightweights, and felt that I wasn't losing weight fast enough. (In hindsight, I might have been fine in the event.) So I went lower carb -- no carb (except for fibrous vegetables) days, and moderate carb days. And that was a mistake. Not only did I feel awful, but I began losing muscle -- not the way to go. And I gained a lot of fat right after the show. I made the weight limit -- but big deal.

So that tells me one thing: that plans such as Beverly International, or a cyclical ketogenic diet, probably aren't for me. In point of fact, the CKD is out for more than that reason; others have observed that the carbohydrate refeeds of the CKD tend to aggravate any tendencies to binging -- which I have, because of a slight difficulty with blood sugar balance. I'd probably lose fat on either one, true, but the health and comfort consequences aren't a good trade-off.

I've also learned that the nutrition principles espoused by John Berardi appear to be true of my metabolism; I tend to gain fat when I combine carbohydrate and fat in a meal. Splitting meals into protein/fat or protein/carb, and avoiding protein/carb near bedtime, encourages my fat to make an exit. Again, some argue that he has no scientific basis for his theories, and I don't know enough to say one way or another -- all I can say is that my own observations support it in my case.

This woman's pre-contest diet post has also featured heavily in my reading rotation, as I scratched out my plan. Again, from what I know of my own reactions, it makes sense; and psychologically, I like the idea of taking it "backwards", as it were; dropping calories fairly drastically at the beginning, then raising them again as the press of cardio and lifting gets more intense closer to the show. Last round was a constant and ever-increasing drain on me.

As for the specifics, I suppose I "should" do what most competitors do: lay out a menu plan, same foods every day in a ceaseless round. At least that way I'd always know I'd hit my goal. (I really ought to take the time every night at least to plan out the following day, but haven't quite managed that yet.) However, most of 'em then go forth and binge (as I did) after the contest, and then gain weight in the off-season. Not fun, and not good for you, really, either.

And plus, this is three months of my life. Even for the sake of standing on stage in scanty Lycra velvet, I don't want to spend three months of my life hating every mouthful that I eat. And, truthfully, I know from even older experience, that I can stand any kind of deprivation except sensory. Smaller portions? A bit of hungry discomfort? Fine, but make it interesting.

Thus, I am keeping some things which some competitors might dump straight off. Seasonings. Splenda. The occasional diet pop. Other things, like fruit (which you will notice does feature in the Beverly plan -- and very often in CKDs as well, albeit in very small amounts -- "three strawberries") I am mostly cutting out, simply because I noticed last time that I didn't seem to respond to it very well. I'm still eating a bit of low glycemic index fruit (primarily berries) just for antioxidants, but I'm keeping it to the mornings.

On the other hand, I have not cut out sodium this time. Last round, I got very tense about sodium, even going so far as to make my own low-sodium salsa; then I sodium-loaded just before the show. This had the advantage of making me drop a whole lot of water weight right at the beginning of my diet (very cheering). The disadvantage was that my food was boring as fuck, and I was living off hot peppers with a bit of chicken added as a condiment. While this may have served to boost metabolism (and there are plenty of chiles going down my maw now) I think it screwed the sodium load a bit. And, well, it was boring as fuck. So, I've tried to cut back on the salt shaker a little bit, but I'm not getting crazy. (Which may at any rate mean that the two or possibly three pounds which have already departed are real, genuine adipose pounds. One can hope.)

That is the plan, at present, dietarily speaking, along with a solid program of lifting and a modest beginning level of three days a week of cardio. (Which is going to be going up, fairly shortly. Although last time, I never managed more than five days a week. There don't seem to be enough hours in the day to lift regularly, do cardio and, you know, work and sleep and make the Healthy Cutting Meals.)

And we'll see how it goes. This is now one of my tools: something to which I can refer. I'll learn a few new things this time round, and use them next time, if there is a next time.

Lusting for lemon
My reader has requested (hi, reader!) the recipe for Lemon Lust Squares.

There is a story behind these. A friend of mine used to get them from a bakery in Stratford, and they were addictive things. The ones from the bakery were huge, of course, and absolutely chock-full of coconut goodness. Then, the bakery changed hands. The Lemon Lust Squares first became not so good, then vanished from their showcase entirely, and sounds of mourning were heard across Southern Ontario.

So I went in search of a replacement. I found recipes for lemon squares in plenitude, but nothing that sounded quite so full of coconutty goodness. Then, in the Better Homes and Gardens Homemade Cookies book (which appears to be out of print) I discovered a recipe for Orange Coconut Bars which sounded about right.

It was right. Last weekend's version was very good, if slightly different. I realised too late that I was nearly out of shredded coconut -- I only had enough for the crust. Fortunately, my freezer yielded a bag of coconut flakes. A. liked them better; I think I like the shreds better, as they're more macaroon-ish that way.

Lemon Coconut Bars

Crust
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour, or all-purpose flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup unsweetened coconut meat -- shredded
1/4 teaspoon salt
Filling
2 large eggs
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon lemon zest -- freshly grated (about 1 lemon's worth)
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice -- (from the same lemon)
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup unsweetened coconut meat -- shredded

To make the crust:
Line an 8x8" baking pan with parchment or foil, and spray with cooking spray. (You can just spray, or grease and flour, the pan, but if you line a pan for squares -- with a strip the width of the pan -- and leave an inch or so at either end, then you simply lift the bars right up out of the pan for cutting on their foil or parchment "sling".) Preheat the oven to 350F. In a medium-sized bowl, combine the flour and sugar. Cut or rub in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in the coconut. Press mixture into prepared pan, and bake 15-20 minutes, until golden.

To make the filling:
While the crust bakes, in another medium-sized bowl, combine eggs, sugar, flour, lemon zest, lemon juice and baking powder. Beat with an electric mixer or whisk until well combined. Stir in the coconut, and pour the mixture over the baked crust. Bake another 20 minutes, or until edges are light brown and centre is set.

Cool completely in the pan on a wire rack. Cut into bars, and store refrigerated.

Mm, lemon squares. I think I'll have to make my next batch of oatcakes lemony.

Might as well carry a fridge
Today's weight: 130 pounds. Temperature: 97.4?F

Tuesdays. Tuesdays are a "long" day at work; usually I come in very early, and leave early too, leaving me the whole afternoon for lifting and things. Tuesdays, though, there's an afternoon meeting I can't miss, so I have to pack up an entire day's worth of food (and not lift that day, unless I want to do it at night -- which I don't care for so much).

I do have a little bit of extra time in the mornings, though. So I had pancakes for breakfast, mixed up with Quark and egg sub in the batter, more Quark with protein powder on top and a bit of sugar-free jam. And green tea. And lemony vinegar.

Stuffed in my cooler:
Meal two: pile o' Romaine, 3.5 ounces chicken, and a tomato salad with the other of those delicious home-grown tomatoes -- tomato, Vidalia onion, a lot of fresh basil, balsamic vinegar and lemony fish oil. Fish oil's rumoured to be the very best promoter of fat-burning; I only wish I liked it as well as Udo's.

Meal three: ratatouille, and a cocoa oatcake.

Meal four: tuna salad with tofu mayo and dill, and a bunch of zucchini and pepper sticks with The Sauce that Shall Not Be Named for dipping.

This morning, we did 5K round the cemetery again. It thundered and poured rain all night, and when we started out, there were still occasional flashes of lightning. Then the clouds began to lift, revealing the nearly-full moon. Beautiful. It's now clear, coolish and sunny.

The run felt "hard"; I wasn't in the mood, and damp makes my knee puffy inside. But when we were done, our time was 21:42, which startled me -- that's near, or perhaps better than, my best 5K race time. Though when I think about it, I usually start off in mid-pack for a race (so as not to get trampled by the real speedsters) and spend the first third fighting my way past the running-and-gabbing clumps, and the overambitious folk who end up walking the race -- then putting on the heat for the last bit. It wipes me out a lot more, but I suppose keeping a steady pace is actually more efficient.

I always think, though, on days like these, that running in the cemetery is terribly convenient; if I drop over, I can just be rolled into a mausoleum and left. No fuss, no muss.

Encouraging the Polish moustache
I recently read some stuff about testosterone and women -- most notably, that low testosterone can be responsible for a lot of cases of depression.

We have, in our cupboard o' supplements, a large bottle of something called ZMA, "the patented abbreviation for Zinc-monomethionine-aspartate, a mixture of 30 mg of the above mentioned mineral, 450 mg of magnesium aspartate and 10.5 mg of Vitamin B6 (pyrodoxine)."

This is reputed to be (and not just in hyperbolic muscle magazine ads) a very good testosterone potentiator.

I would not be at all surprised to find that I am low in testosterone (yes, women have testosterone too). All of my other natural hormones are pretty much non-existent.

So, I am taking ZMA. Two capsules before bed. A. tried it, but found it gave him bad dreams. I've been taking it for the last four nights. It doesn't give me bad dreams, but I do dream -- for the last few years, I haven't been remembering many dreams. And I sleep very well, and wake up feeling pleasantly rested (as opposed to cranky, creaky, and generally as though the whole period in bed had been a big waste of time).

I figure, too, that at this particular point, a bit of extra testosterone will probably assist with my goals of muscular buffness -- and as for a few extra chin hairs...

... sigh...

they'll never be noticed, clustered amongst their many wiry little friends. Family curse. I tell you, I am not a high-maintenance woman, but I couldn't live without this.

Because you always lick the spoon
The total:
1425 calories
163g protein
109g carbs
19g fibre
33g fat

So I mixed up Meal Five (3/4 cup of Quark, spoon of instant pudding powder, peanut butter). I meant to put in a teaspoon of peanut butter, but it is soggy and gooey from the heat, and a full tablespoon came out. "Too much," thought I, and knocked a teaspoon off into my Quark goop with the mixing spoon.

Then I stuck the peanut butter spoon in my mouth. Sheesh. Oh, well.

Meal Four was broccoli rabe and Exotic Meat. My latest venture to the butcher was a costly one; besides the usual dozen chicken breasts, I also purchased a hunk of bison, an elk steak -- and a large piece off the leg of a deceased ostrich.

I've been reading a lot about ostrich meat. "Tastes like beef!" "Rich and flavourful!" And, of course, lower in fat than chicken, and fulla iron. I had to try it, despite the rather startling price.

It is very lean, and so according to my various Web sources, you are supposed to cook it rare.

Well, I cooked it, then sliced it into strips, and it was still bleeding. Despite my present carnivorous ways, I am not quite ready for Ostrich Carpaccio. I threw the strips back in the pan and cooked them to a nice, dead brown. I think I may have overdone it (them) a little.

It wasn't bad. I do believe I prefer bison, though. There was that about ostrich that reminded me, faintly, of liver. I'm not a hater of liver (or at least, I wasn't, last I had liver, which was probably ten or more years ago), but it isn't at the very top of my list of tasty meats. I suppose it's the iron.

Anyway, I had my ostrich with Tofu Somewhat Like Hollandaise Sauce (inspired by one of the web recipes) and next to a nice big heap of broccoli rabe. Then some canned pumpkin with spices and sugar-free caramel syrup for dessert. Very good.

While I ate that, I watched The Hunchback of Notre Dame. It was at the back of the video cabinet; I'd forgotten about it. A bit of an oddball among Disney movies, this one. They didn't quite manage to deodorise it to the normal saccharine standards, and it's really quite disturbing in places. I like it, though the music is as sickly as one could possibly hope for.

And that, that has more or less been my evening. Thrill a minute. It's very hot and 'umid here, and I haven't drunk enough.

Shit Karma
On our ramble through the civilised wilderness, the dog took off into a particularly thorny thicket, and there dumped a load. I tried to penetrate with my baggie, got spiked in the eye, and reasoned that, while I was a Responsible Dog Aunt, anyone who shoved into that inhospitable corner would deserve to step in a pile of poo.

Further along, we encountered not one, but two enormous piles in the middle of the trail, from Not So Responsible Dog Owners. I had a baggie, and so did A., so for skipping one of our scoops, we got to scoop twice.

Just been down for arms. It is still Power Week. Tempo 313, rest in the neighbourhood of two minutes.

Close Grip Bench
WU EZ+20lbs x6
Work EZ+40lbs x6,6,11 +3 neg
Notes: A. says, "it's time to up the weight." Apparently so.

One Arm Pronated Tri Extension to opposite shoulder
WU 10lb DB x6
Work 15lb PB+Add xR3/L3 neg R3/L3
15lb PB xL6/R6
Notes: On the other hand, it is not time to up the weight on these. More reps on the 15lb.

Incline Overhead Tri Extension
WU EZ+10lb x6
Work EZ+15lb x6,7
Notes: Last time my elbows bitched about these; today it was my wrists. I was going to do 20lb but changed my mind after the warmup. Eh.

Zottman Curls
WU 10lb DB x6
Work 15lb PB+Add x6
(10 slow hanging knee raises)
x7
(10 more knee raises)
Notes: I think again I am at my "weight increase trouble threshold." More reps next time, rather than increase.

Drag Curls
Work EZ+20lb x6, 6-ish
Notes: I did the warmup on these with a couple of plates, thought "Gah! How did I do 20lbs last time? The warmup is killing me! Threw on another couple plates, and of course, couldn't even get the bar up. This was because it was two 10s on the bar from the bench press, not the two 5s I'd been thinking, and I had just put on another couple of 10s and tried to heft 40lbs.

Hammer Curls
WU 10lb DB x6
(10 hanging knee raises)
Work 15lb PB+Add x6
(10 ab rollouts w/short Olympic)
x7
(8 more ab rollouts, then the plate on one side worked loose)
Notes: form on the first, again, kinda sucked. More reps, no weight increase next time.

Total workout time: 45 minutes.

Then I came upstairs for Meal Three, a cocoa oatcake with some cinnamon, and a nice lemon juice, cider vinegar and glutamine cocktail. I'm getting into my little sour shots, but then, I also like to drink pickle juice from the jar.

Meal two was a salad with chicken and Dijon/Udo's dressing -- verily, the same salad I didn't eat yesterday. It was still cold, sitting on its gel freezer pack, so I just stuck it back in the fridge last night. (Hey, that's my fancy grain-fed chicken; I'm not wasting it! If I'm throwing up my toenails tomorrow, I may change my ways in future I suppose.)

Weight this morning: 129.5 pounds. Temperature: 97.7?F.

(See me doing the Happy Dance!)

It looks as though I am on the Diet Track, and yesterday's excesses were a Good Thing.

And they were excessive. I am embarrassed, but I will post them anyway.

No salad for Meal Two; our path took us past an organic ice-cream shop in rural Ontario which we have never before managed to go by while open. So we stopped there, and A. had a big sundae thing with brownies and chocolate ice cream and chocolate sauce. I had a scoop of organic cappuccino-chocolate ice cream, and a scoop of vanilla frozen yogourt.

Then there was potluck -- the cheesecake (which turned out very well); a big salad with avocado and completely unlightened Green Goddess dressing; A.'s bread stuffed with beans and smoked cheese; Lemon Lust squares (I think I had three); and cherry clafouti with gobs of real whipped cream.

Oinc.

Then we came home (all sated and sunburnt). A. had a big leg workout to do, and I did not (having, with forethought, done mine on Saturday). Instead, I rented The Singing Detective ... and had a chocolate overload Blizzard.

What a peculiar movie. It stars Robert Downey Jr. as a hack writer suffering from what appears to be a sort of auto-immune disease of the skin and joints. Lying in his hospital bed, he hallucinates sordid episodes from his cheap novels, and sleazy sex scenes, and wacky musical numbers. Also featuring Mel Gibson, delightfully portraying a nebbish psychotherapist with specs, a bald prosthesis and a shy, fidgety, intellectually funny mien. (This was great. I don't "get" Mel the sex symbol, and it's nice to see that he can act. Rather like Nicole Kidman in The Hours -- freed from the stupid trappings of their expected hotness, they reveal an actual depth.)

Anyway. Even weirder than I was expecting, this film. Not great, but it was an amusing waste of a couple sunburned hours.

Now, we're off back to the woods again, with the dog.

Through the woods
Weight this morning: 130 pounds. (Yay! Enjoy it now, for I'm sure by tomorrow it'll be back up.)
Temperature: 96.9?F

Me and that dog jumped into Grishilde in the beautiful clear sunny early morning, and took off for a nearby naturalised park, lots of hilly trails through woods. A good time was had by all, a nice 25 minute run (and rabbits!).

Then home, for an egg sub omelette with a can of smoked tuna, a bit of Quark and dill, and a succulent home-grown tomato (A. got a few from friends of ours yesterday). And green tea. And fish oil. Healthy healthy.

I think next meal will be a salad, with chicken. Then -- potluck! Savoury cheesecake, delicious bean bread, lemon squares, and whatever else may be on the table, yes. Tomorrow, water retention...

Kitchen craziness
Phoof. We've spent the whole evening in a frenzy of cooking, and the cooking has been very productive. A. made his bean-stuffed bread, though he altered it heavily, tweaking the filling in particular... caramelised onions, Romano beans, and smoked cheddar. I had a bite, and it was fantastically good, made my meagre dinner seem positively sad. (He also discovered, too late, that when you assemble a stuffed bread on the kneading board, then try to slide it onto the cookie sheet for baking, parchment paper helps, a lot. There was a certain amount of swearing, when his tidy square stuffed bread flopped onto the cookie sheet in an untidy heap.)

I've made my lemon squares, and devised a slightly lightened version of a savoury cheesecake. Okay, not slightly lightened -- I think I halved the fat.

Here's the recipe, with my changes noted:
Spinach-Herb Cheesecake
Bounty of Biltmore Cookbook, via Post-Gazette
Serves 8

2 large tomatoes, sliced
Replaced with two large roasted red peppers, just because
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 cup pine nuts
1/4 cup Italian-seasoned breadcrumbs
I replaced the previous 2 ingredients with:
1/2 cup rolled oats
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
4 tablespoons Parmesan cheese -- grated
24 ounces (3 packages) cream cheese, softened
Replaced with 3 tubs ultra-low-fat cream cheese
15 ounces ricotta cheese
Replaced with a 16-ounce tub of Quark cheese (a skim-milk soft creamy "cottage" type cheese)
8 ounces feta cheese -- crumbled (I, uh, forgot to buy the light feta I was going to use)
3 large eggs
Replaced with 3/4 cup egg substitute
4 cups fresh spinach -- shredded
2 cloves garlic -- pressed
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon fresh basil -- chopped
Inspired by another recipe I found, for a Spinach-Pesto cheesecake, I used about a half-cup of minced basil, and a tablespoon of dill

Process oats and Italian seasoning in a food processor in bursts, until coarsely ground. Stir in Parmesan cheese. Press into bottom of a 9-inch springform pan sprayed with olive oil. Bake at 350 F for 10 minutes. Cool in pan on a wire rack.

Slice spinach and herbs, and place in a large bowl. Chop one of the red peppers, and toss the lot together. Set aside.

Place cream cheese and Quark in a food processor fitted with the whipped-cream blade, and process until smooth. Add salt and pepper. With the motor running, pour in the egg substitute and process until well-blended. Stop the machine and scrape down the sides. Add garlic and flour, and process until blended.

Remove 2/3 of the mixture, and stir into spinach and herbs.

Pour spinach-cheese mixture into prepared crust. Spread plain cheese mixture on top. Bake at 325 degrees for 15 minutes.

Slice remaining pepper into thin strips, and arrange around the edge of the cheesecake. Bake 30 more minutes or until set. Turn oven off; leave cheesecake in oven 20 minutes.

Cool on a wire rack 10 minutes. Gently run a knife around edge of cheesecake, and carefully remove sides of pan; cool 10 more minutes. Serve warm or cold. Makes 12 appetizer or 8 main-dish servings.

Per each of 8 servings, my redux has: 212 calories; 6g fat (25.5% calories from fat); 21g protein; 19g carbohydrate; 1g dietary fiber; 18mg cholesterol; 262mg sodium.

The original had: 563 calories; 48g fat (75.5% calories from fat); 22g protein; 13g carbohydrate.

Not so bad. Hopefully mine is tasty; we'll see tomorrow.

In between creating these decadent things, and buying groceries, I've eaten rather less decadent things.

Meal Four, grabbed in between the Fancy Deli and Sobey's, was a bowl of sauerkraut and a can of sardines, with hot sauce on top.

Meal Five was ratatouille, 3 oz chicken breast, and Jello/flax fibre, with some Fibre One on top.

And Meal Six was 3/4 cup of Quark cheese, a half-tablespoon of peanut butter, and some English Toffee Da Vinci sugar-free syrup. (I just cracked this bottle. It's very good.)

Total damage, including the taste of A.'s bean filling:
1493 calories
175g protein
133g carbs
27g fibre
32g fat

Squeaky wheels
I have got to do something about my legs. I should grit my teeth and go to the gym (how I hate gyms!) so's I can train on machines for a while. This is ridiculous.

I'm so terrified of blowing out my knee again that I can't bring myself ever to squat below parallel... the slightest hint of complaint in a knee joint, and I'm likely to throw my form completely in a panic (and that's certainly going to help)... plus, the weights I'm doing are pathetic. I think I might be able to get over it a little bit if I worked on leg-press machines, or even a Smith machine; I wouldn't feel so unstable.

Anyway. I watched Marvin the Martian cartoons and had another Egg Foo Yong thing, then dragged myself downstairs for legs.

This is the beginning of Power Week. Tempo 301, rest 2-4 minutes. I stuck more to the 2-minute end, because I was being such a dumb wuss.

Bulgarian squats
15lb DB in each hand, 10/leg
(These I do for a warm-up; they really stretch out the hip flexors.)

Squats, low bar, somewhat wide stance
WU Oly+50lb x6
Work Oly+105lb x6, 6, 6 + 10 half-pulses
Note: See? See? Nowhere near a fail, but my knee was popping, and I was too much of a dam' coward to drop properly. Plus I'm not even squatting my own weight, which is more than shameful. Well, all right, I am if you include the bar -- but if you're tough, you don't include the bar!

Ski squats
2.5 minutes, 2 minutes, 2 minutes
Note: No weight. But they hurt, don't they? Suck it up, legs; you can't use your knees as an excuse here. I like ski squats. They work, and there is NO scary joint movement at all. By the time I was done the third round, I could barely stand.

Single-leg Step-ups (onto a milk crate)
WU b/w R6/L6
Work 25lb DB/hand L6/R6 35lb DB/hand R6/L6
Note: I've asked A. to make me a wooden box. The bottom of the milk crate is most uncomfortable -- I usually lift barefoot -- and feels like it is going to give way soon, moreover.

SL Deadlift, Wide Stance
WU Short Oly+50lb x6
Work Short Oly+105lb x4, 6, 6
Note: These simply kick ass, literally. I had to cut the first set short because my hands were slipping, despite the reverse grip I was using -- then I realised that I'd rubbed my face and got them greasy. The other two sets I used straps. Somewhere, there's a climbing bag of chalk. I should find it, for these moments.

Lying Leg Curl, toes pointed
WU 35lbs x6
Work 60lbs x6, 6
Note: Boosted the weight 5lbs from last week. Oh, these still hurt. A lot. I had to stretch my calves before I could climb the stairs.

Total workout time: 55 minutes.
Soundtrack: PJ again. I like it more already. Incidentally, after scouting out Ani's site yesterday, I'm more tempted by her latest album; the thing that's bothered me most about the last few is the over-production. Ani's at her best live and solo -- she really pushes herself out to the audience under those circumstances, a little ball of spitting energy. She recorded Educated Guess "at home on an old analog 8-track reel-to-reel, and the result may be her most intimate and indigenous work yet."

I'd like to hear this. I may have to buy it.

Right now, just finishing off Meal Three, postworkout: cappuccino protein shake (whey protein, water, vanilla, cinnamon, a bit of pectin powder to thicken it up, glutamine), and 8-grain cereal with sugar-free almond syrup, 1/4 cup blueberries, and 2T Quark on top.

I've got to get bathed and dressed and on the move, here. Must shop and cook for tomorrow. I'm planning on making a savory cheesecake, and Lemon Lust squares. Then A. is going to make a bean-stuffed bread out of Home Baking.