The Two Slices of Cheesecake

I've been insanely busy lately and my blog entry output (which I apologize for... sorry!) isn't the only thing that's suffered. I just drove back from the Pittsburg, PA area last Friday. Now, a few days later, I jumped on a plane to Orlando, FL for a convention. So, I've spent a good portion of the past few days cramming a lot of work into a little bit of time. Naturally, my training time shrank to the point where I didn't work out for three days in a row-a major sin in my book.

My eating wasn't horrible in this time frame. That is, until I touched down in Orlando yesterday, realizing that I'm in a city that sports two Cheesecake Factory restaurants. I haven't seen one of a good friend of mine in a long time or met his girlfriend so my wife and I took them out. Yes, I had cheesecake. Come on, they had Pumpkin Cheesecake! They only have that for one month a year! I took one to go, for later in the evening...



I didn't work out at all yesterday, save for a few sets of isometrics on the plane. So, this morning I was determined to do something in the morning and in the evening to make up for my sins. Somehow, I landed on the notion that my latest-favorite conditioning routine would be a good place to start. I wrote about this one in the past. It's six rounds, 3 minute a piece, with 30 seconds of rest between each round. I alternate between doing 9-count burpees and jumping rope for each round. That couldn't be too hard, right?

Well, I'm definitely not in Vermont anymore. It was already in the low 80's and humid as hell by the time I got my cheesecake-laden ass outside. It made those measly, little 18 minutes of conditioning HELL! I finished it, averaging 32 burpees a round, but I regretted each and every bite of yesterday's cheesecakes. In fact, I was downright haunted by them. I do this conditioning routine pretty often and I was getting good enough that I was considering going to 8 rounds. I struggled to get to the 6th. Embarrassing.

There's a silver lining to everything and this story of mine is no exception. It's redundant as hell to say that eating two slices of cheesecake in one day is bad. I doubt like hell I'd have realized how much it hurts my day-to-day fitness had I not busted my ass this morning like I did. I've mentioned it in the past but I firmly believe that proper exercise and healthy eating have a symbiotic relationship.

Remember this piece-of-shit article a few weeks ago? This is one of the big marks that it missed: if you eat poorly, you'll notice it right away once it comes time to start training. Subsequently, you'll find yourself much more capable of doing harder work in training if you eat right all along. Plus, it doesn't take much bad eating to put a noticeable dent in your physical capabilities. It shouldn't anyway. If it doesn't, then you may need to re-evaluate your training. Something's probably amiss and you're not getting the full benefits that good training and healthy eating provide.