Fri April 29

I walked around today in a haze, really. I had some really bad sleep last night, I think because of the youngest child waking up two or three times. I kept being interrupted in the worst part of dreams; I have several images in my head that I just couldn't shake.

Ya know, I know I posted a poem/prayer yesterday ... but these lines from Hamlet seem most appropriate:

"O God, I could be bounded in a nutshell, and count myself a
king of infinite space—were it not that I have bad dreams."

It's just the way these times go, I think.

I ate fairly well today, despite the party to celebrate the British freaking wedding at work.

Breakfast: juicy roast beef and poached eggs. Coffee on the way in

Snack: more coffee and six meat balls.

Lunch: buffet in the lunch room. It was good: veggies, meat balls (I prepared those) vegetarian samosa, two salads of green leafy stuff and a small piece of Williams' chocolate cake. Yeah, the last one was less than the size of my thumb.

Snack: water and more veggies.

Dinner: small bowl of pasta, water to drink.


I did get a workout in, although a short one, as I have a game of rugby tomorrow.

I did this for four rounds:

30 BW squats
10 bicep curls
10 triceps extensions
30 two handed KB swings, 20 kg kb used
10 snatches each side
30 regular push ups

It felt good afterwards. Now for a relaxing night with my wife to try and recharge my batteries for tomorrow and tomorrow night. w00t!

Thursday April 28

Oh, man. I'm tired and cranky today. Things just aren't going my way. I understand that people elsewhere on this planet are having a much worse day, but ... man, today just sucks.

Headache, tired... ugh.

Here's something I've not tried yet... a prayer:

Beannacht, John O'Donahue

On the day when
the weight deadens
on your shoulders
and you stumble,
may the clay dance
to balance you.
And when your eyes
freeze behind
the grey window
and the ghost of loss
gets in to you,
may a flock of colours,
indigo, red, green,
and azure blue
come to awaken in you
a meadow of delight.

When the canvas frays
in the currach of thought
and a stain of ocean
blackens beneath you,
may there come across the waters
a path of yellow moonlight
to bring you safely home.

May the nourishment of the earth be yours,
may the clarity of light be yours,
may the fluency of the ocean be yours,
may the protection of the ancestors be yours.
And so may a slow
wind work these words
of love around you,
an invisible cloak
to mind your life.

I feel better, anyways.

I ate this:

Breakfast: roast beef and poached egg. Water to drink, coffee on the way in

Snack walnuts and water to drink

Lunch: tuna sandwich with tuna also on salad. Not carrots no green pepper left, so I went without. Water to drink.

Snack ... water.

Dinner: he he he .. it was only really well prepared roast beef. that's it. It was awesome. I only had one hand to eat ... so I ate beef. Water to drink

After rugby training snack: 2 pints of beer and more roast beef when I got home.

Workout for the day was a rugby training session at my local club. Started at 7pm, ran until dark, about 8:30 these days. I did four rounds of this at the end:

50 m sprint
30 BW squats
20 feet up push ups
20 lunges

I was pretty tired at the end of that. The 90 minutes of rugby were fun, but muddy and tough. Lots of contact, lots of running and physical contact. I almost missed that stuff.

Wed April 27

This was an ok day - the weather was crappy, but I got an outdoor workout in, so it's all good. Seriously, I spent the day inside, although that was ok, as the rain was just brutal. On the way home from work I got to check out a local butcher ... the first thing I saw when I walked in the door was my favourite thing, Chimmichurri Sauce... on sale.

It was an omen.

There were a lot of items I've read about in Paleo Solution, so I know I'm going back there when i have time and a bit of coin. Still not sure if the sauce was Paleo in nature, but it is friggin awesome with steak.

I ate this today:

Breakfast: roast beef dipped in ketchup. Yup, dry and getting worse. Almost done. Walnuts, water and a banana. Coffee on the way in

Snack: Walnuts and carrots with hummus

Lunch the usual, tuna on salad, carrots and green peppers on hummus, water to drink.

Snack after work: chimmichurri sauce and steak. Kicked major butt

Dinner was a small piece of homemade lasagna, walnuts and salad. Water to drink.

After dinner, I had a nap with my boy to get him asleep. The sun came out, and I asked my wife if she wanted to go for a walk. She said no, so I jumped at the chance to get out of the house and go to the local park for a workout. Simply awesome.

I did this five rounds:

30 TH KB swings 30 lb kb used. Need to get another KB in the van
20 one handed snatches
10 one handed flips
20 feet up push ups
30 bw squats - also used the 50 lb backpack for two rounds
20 lunges

This took me about a half hour; I got all muddy, too. But the mud was warm, so it was all good.

Tuesday April 26

To was off to a great start ... and things kept rolling along. Work, even though it is very stressful at the moment, is going smoothly. Nothing worse than a stressful turbulent work environment, man. Nothing.

I'll be at this until mid-May, and I got a few calendars counting down the days for me.

All I can really do is just keep plugging away at things; make sure that people around me do their work and that's enough. My stuff is back on the go after a few days off.

Here's what I ate, man:

Breakfast: roast beef and poached eggs. I need to stop overcooking the pot roast. Seriously.

Snack water and a handful of walnuts.

Lunch: the usual of tuna on salad, hummus and carrots and green pepper. Water to drink.

Snack: stress. and two slices of pepperoni pizza with hummus. Meh, that'll be my cheat for the week.

Dinner: small - I mean tiny bowl of pasta with a huge salad. Water to drink. I saw this as punichment for me - I wasn't going to make my kids each stupidly dry meat. I am the only one that needs to suffer in that way...

All in all, not a great day for a Paleo type of diet. I am liking it, even if I am a little bored with what I am offering myself. However, I will be taking advantage of Robb Wolff's recipes, and those of others in the know, and getting a varied menu shortly. Seriously, it's good.

My wife asked me to get my son to sleep, so I do what I do best... I fell asleep with him in the rocking chair. My wife came in about 9pm to wake me up and put my son in the crib. We'd been like that for almost two hours, she said. Cute, but not very functional. I got up, she went swimming at the local YMCA and I worked out.

I did this five rounds for a workout today:

20 BW squats - should make this a bit harder next time, perhaps with a sandbag/BTB
20 regular push ups
10 bicep curls
10 triceps extensions
8-10 deadlifts 190 lbs
10 TRX body weight rows
10 ab roll outs
20 two handed KB swings
10 snatches each side 30 lb KB used.

Not an awesome workout, but it got the job done. I'm feeling stressed from work, and this is more or less a maintenance thing with me, I think. At least I am working out, prepping for rugby season, some grappling tournaments and such in the summer. Oh, and my Spartan Race, too. Man, I'm looking forward to that.

Monday april 25

oh, there are days when I want to work for myself. Seriously, there are. And then, days like today make me thankful that I don't. It was a stat holiday in the province of Ontario ... and so I hung with my kids. For most of the day.

I ate this:

Breakfast ... bowl of chilli ... with had lentils in it ... beans, peas, corn, ground beef... delicious, but not Paleo as I later found out.

Lunch was a black coffee with some roast beef.

Snack was a handful of walnuts with some grapefruit juice

Dinner was roast beef, potatoes, corn, peas and a large (I mean large) piece of carrot cake leftover from yesterday at my parent's place. I was kinda sick after sticking it in my gaping wadi.

I finally got a copy of The Paleo Solution today. Kind of an interesting read - the sections I read covered the whys and the whats... I get into in later on this week.

I did this workout five rounds:

20 BW or with 50 lbs extra squats
20 feet up push ups
20 two handed kettlebell swings (30 lb KB used)
10 KB snatches each side
10 overhead presses with a 60 lb backpack
10 ab rolls outs.



I discovered that there are a lot of odd people around the rugby club during the day. Of course I already knew that there are a lot there during the evening ... ha hah ha h aha...

Seriously though, I saw this video about how low I should be getting with the ab rolls outs. Can't say I'm as low as this, but it's a good goal for which to shoot:

thursday, Friday and Saturday

This was not a good couple of days.

Thursday, ate thi:

Breakfast was coffee on the way into work

Snack was walnuts and water to drink

Lunch was not good, a tim horton's chilli and bun.

Dinner was lasagna - pasta, lots of ground beef, cheese, spinach and other veggies. Salad. water to drink

Friday was a day off.

Breakfast was salad and tuna about 10am.

Snack was coffee, waluts

Dinner was steak and salad. Chicken breast, too. Rice, veggies on the side.

White wine later as I helped a buddy with her Macbook.

Saturday was just not a great day, either

Breakfast was some left over steak while holding my son and watching Super 15 rugby on my laptop.

Lunch was more steak on salad. Water to drink.

Dinner was some paleo chilli I put together: ground beef, corn, peas, beans, mushrooms. pretty good. White wine to drink. Yeah, I know.

Did this workout for five rounds on Saturday, finally:

20 BW squats
20 feet up push ups
10 ab roll outs
5 chin ups
10 TRX BW rows
20 two handed swings 30 lb KB used

Wed April 20

I really hated today. I hate the fact that people choose to complete losers today and champion the cause of something as destructive to families as alcohol. The again, I really can't stand St Patrick's Day either, for basically the same reason.

In any case, work was that much more difficult today, as people left early to go smoke dope. I was stuck with a mess on my hands; my boss was basically chewing my butt on their behalf. I like my boss, I deserved it, sort of. In any case, tomorrow is another day.

I did eat fairly well today, at least until I got home for dinner. Still everything is still cool, although I still need to pick up the Paleo Solution, I did listen to a few of the episodes of Robb Wolf's podcast today on the drive in. Interesting stuff.

I ate this:

Breakfast: chicken and salad/veggies. OJ to drink

Black coffee on the way in (no dairy in a paleo diet)

Coffee with milk as a snack, with prunes and a handful of walnuts, carrots with hummus.

Lunch was the usual of tuna on salad, carrots and hummus, walnuts, water to drink.

Dinner was a very meaty lasagna; spinach, ground beef with some cheese.

Yes, kind of disappointed with the amount of dairy in today's meals. However, when presented with a gift of coffee, one doesn't turn it down. I also don't turn down lasagna when it is made by my six year old daughter. If you turn down either one, it is just bad karma. I also am getting rid of the almonds in my diet, as they as just too many calories; I really really like them, and I just have to put them to the side, at least for this week. Walnuts look like brains to me, by the way....



he he he he ... zombies... I hate them, but they are just so "there".

Did five rounds of this:

20 Bodyweight squats
20 feet up push ups
20 kettlebell two handed swings
10 kettlebell snatches (both hands)
10 ab roll outs
20 step ups with 10 lbs in each hand - 20 inch step
10 bicep / triceps with 50 lb barbell

a good workout; I would still like to be able to afford to do some Bjj, but between childrens' stuff and a mat leave, there's just no coin left over for it. Meh, I know I need to start running again. Cheaper and probably better for my sore neck in the long run.