Primal Journal - Owly page 13

[Leida]

Now, I am so envious! My husband loves eating primal, but the gym is not in the cards But I take what I can get! Rock on, and squat on.

[Owly]

I am lucky on that point! He has been an active, athletic person his whole life, and he loves going to the gym. He's having fun going together becauseit's good time for us as a couple, and now that I've learned how to lift it's fun. He definitely has more strength training experience, but I am the nerdy one who likes to research programming and exercise physiology, so it's a good balance.

He's also one of those people who never struggles to lose fat, lucky guy. He is an ecto type who worked really hard to gain muscle mass. Photos of him as a young man show a fit but quite skinny guy. His younger brother still looks that way, but years of training and eating have paid off for my partner. It's a great example of activating genetic potential. He's a healthy, strong, fit man, in better shape at 40 than many guys half his age.

[Owly]

Strict press last night. I discovered one of the reasons I liked the women's bars at my CF gym--the 33-pound bar made it possible to do the low percentage warmup sets on a program while staying with the same bar. I ended up using the fixed barbells for my warmup sets, since when you're working off a 70 pound 1RM, 40% is a lot less than the weight of the unloaded 45 pound bar. My 1RM was 80 pounds before, but since I haven't pressed in months, I've dropped it back for calculating this first cycle.

The lifts went well. I think dropping back the 1RM for this cycle was a good idea. The level of effort felt about right for the percentages. I expect I'll get back where I was quickly on OH press, which is nice. Of course, my sets ended where my partner's warmup sets start, but I have to remind myself that he's both much larger and male, which is going to make pressing a different game. Really, I have to remember that I am not competing with him--really, I'm only ever competing with myself. That's actually the thing I enjoy about solo athletics instead of team things and why I've always been more drawn to things like swimming than to soccer. I like the idea of pushing toward my own absolute best.

[Crabbcakes]

I am lucky on that point! He has been an active, athletic person his whole life, and he loves going to the gym. He's having fun going together becauseit's good time for us as a couple, and now that I've learned how to lift it's fun. He definitely has more strength training experience, but I am the nerdy one who likes to research programming and exercise physiology, so it's a good balance.

Sigh. I like my Mr. Crabbcakes, but I am waaaaay more active them he is (I just don't like gyms much). It is I who insist that the kids attempt tae kwon do, swimming, gymnastics, dance, the nature center activities like labrynth walks and hikes and weed pulls, birthday parties at the indoor rock climbing place...

Mr. Crabbcakes likes using what is between his ears most of all. That isn't so good for his middle section. Even though it is very good for a stable household budget.

[Owly]

I think one of the things that surprised me most about him was how embodied he is--what I mean is, he lives so much in his physical self and in connection with his environment. He's certainly intelligent, but he is a kinetic, tactile sort of person, and a lot of his intelligence expresses itself in things like spatial reasoning as well as in a high level of perception about the world around him and the actions and behaviours of the people he encounters.

It's been a wonderful but sometimes challenging experience for someone like me to fall in love with a man like that. I tend to spend a lot of time in my head and have a career in a field that tends to be very much about ideas rather than concrete physical things. He's drawn me out of that space and helped me to reconnect with my body, and I've realized how much better life is when my mind and body are connected and working together, rather than when I treat my body as a sort of machine my brain rides around in.

I was a really active teen but by the time I met him in my late 20s I was a sedentary smoker working as an editor (definitely not a physical job). Over the time we've been together, I've quit smoking and gotten back into so many of the things I loved when I was younger like hiking and cycling, plus I've discovered new loves in things like lifting and ballroom dance. It's a good change and one of the things I am really grateful to him for bringing into my life.

Of course, things run the other way, too. I've definitely led the charge on the eating front. My beloved has a definite sweet tooth and has struggled with hypoglycemia a lot of his life, and it's amazing how much eating primal has helped in stabilizing his blood sugar rollercoaster and getting the sugar monster under control. He still eats some treats, but it's like night and day from before, and he's continuing to work on adapting to things like really dark chocolate. Soon my 90% won't be safe from him anymore and I'll have to share my stash.

[Owly]

I want gym rant buddies.

Group Rant: Pet Peeves at the Gym | Feminist Figure Girl's Blog

[Owly]

I highly recommend not dropping a 25-pound plate on your foot. Thankfully it hit across my toes and the force was distributed, so instead of breaking anything, I just have a monster of a bruise.

[mommymd]

Ouch.

Happy Thanksgiving.

[Owly]

Heh. Thanks, you too! I am thankful that I didn't break my foot.

But actually we had a really good dinner with my dad tonight--a lovely, nitrate-free ham from my friend's farm, carrots and potatoes from the CSA, a nice salad, some good red wine, and a gluten-free pumpkin pie for dessert. Perhaps not 100% primal, but delicious and pretty healthy as holiday meals go. It was Thanksgiving dinner round two because we had dinner at a friend's place last night (the usual turkey and sides).

[Crabbcakes]

Heh. Thanks, you too! I am thankful that I didn't break my foot.

But actually we had a really good dinner with my dad tonight--a lovely, nitrate-free ham from my friend's farm, carrots and potatoes from the CSA, a nice salad, some good red wine, and a gluten-free pumpkin pie for dessert. Perhaps not 100% primal, but delicious and pretty healthy as holiday meals go. It was Thanksgiving dinner round two because we had dinner at a friend's place last night (the usual turkey and sides).

Huh. I didn't know Canadians did a Thanksgiving, with turkey to boot. What is the root of the celebration? I'm going to fall off my chair if you tell me Puritans/Pilgrims and Indians.