Thursday, August 16, 2007

Five exercises I like - Part 5

This is the last of 5 parts.

Over the years I have tried many movements and exercises. Some felt like a waste of time. Others helped me add on pounds and absolute strength (thereby making me look muscular than my 165 lbs) while at the same time keeping me light on my feet (like I was when I was a 100 lb kid). Here are five movements that I seem to have settled on now. They get done on a regular basis although not in each and every training session.

Breakfast

Ok, so this isn't exactly an exercise but it contributes to my overall feeling of well-being and infuses me with plenty of energy at the beginning of the day.


This is a typical breakfast for me.

I eat a traditional western breakfast 5 to 6 days in a week. A couple of days I have breakfast outside in a restaurant near my office. The rest of the days I wake up famished enough to prepare breakfast at home. I haven't eaten cereal in close to 3 years now. I have never experimented with other "foods" like pop tarts. And I don't remember the last time I had bagels or donuts.

I make bacon first. I like my bacon soft (Irish style). Then I don't drain the pork fat from the pan. Instead I use it to scramble a couple of eggs. Add to that wheat toast with fruit spread (sometimes butter). Then wash that all down with black coffee and a bit of either cranberry or prune juice (the latter being high in fiber). If I am going to be doing a lot of physical activity that day (like on weekends), I might add an egg white or two on top of the whole eggs and go with tuna (or anchovies) and red beans. I will skip the bacon. I will also take my coffee with heavy cream. With such a solid breakfast, I typically won't eat again until late afternoon.

Some days I have a second breakfast at work comprising of instant oatmeal and a couple of bananas late in the morning. This way I can sometimes put off lunch until mid-afternoon.

Since I go to bed early on most days, I have found dinner to be quite unnecessary on most days...unless I plan on hitting the gym in the evening. When I come back from training, I can't sleep right away anyway. So I would make myself a small steak or pork tenderloin, watch TV or read a bit until sleep beckons.

(Acceptable substitute) There is no substitute for a good breakfast.

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Is it better to work out in the morning or the evening?

If you do a web search on this topic, you will get all kinds of studies pointing out why training at one time or another in the day is best ...