Been super busy with work baseball and everything else. It ends tomorrow when I head to Vegas on a 1-way ticket. Most likely I'll come home in about a week, but nothing is set and anything is possible.

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

Hammy Rehab

So of course I pulled my hamstring and it doesnt want to get better. Its been feeling better so I've started doing rehab like really light deadlifts, some light jogging, and some bodyweight squats. It's actually the perfect time to get injured for the fact that with baseball 5 nights a week its tough to find time to get to the gym. On the other hand I was making awesome progress on strength, and now have to assume a lot of that is gone. Since I'm not able to work out, I've tried to be extra careful with food choices, as some of that wiggle room is gone without the glycogen depletion of working out. I've made a couple of good things and will post them here soon. I had a thought the other day:
No one has ever planned on eating McDonalds.

Seriously, at least no one I know has ever planned their day of eating out and said, I'm going to make an onion and pepper omelet and then for lunch I'll have a lovely double quarter with a ton of fries, and for dinner I'll have pecan crusted chicken and sauteed greens. It just doesn't make sense. I understand the creation of convenience food and how it's become popular.

What's the point? Try and plan your food whenever possible. Think ahead of time what you will be able to eat, and be prepared for other backup options (paleo kit, tuna cans, etc.) You will eat healthier, have better tasting food, feel better, and most importantly, be more badass then other people.

Today

Todays training:
5x5 squat, set a new PR at 285, I think I could go up, it did not feel too heavy, however my hamstring was hurting, so it was probably stupid to do them, but I did anyway.
5x5 press, shoulders were really tired from handstand practice and pushups, but did 115 without too much issue.

Food:
Breakfast I forgot my stuff at home, so had a bunch of almonds in the morning, and some coffee.
Lunch I had 2 chicken cabobs, about a cup of coleslaw, and some broccoli. Coleslaws not the greatest choice I could have, but it added some fats, and I really wanted it! I had my daily fishoil here too. After work before my workout I had a handful of almonds. Post workout I had a Zico coconut water, and made dinner which consisted of about a lb (precooked) of grassfed beef and a whole bunch of onions, peppers, and zucchini. I had a few pistachios before bed.

This past weekend I really needed to rest and relax. For whatever reason the last couple days of the week were really draining and I felt like I was running on empty. You know the feeling, 0 energy, 0 drive, 0 will power, 0 everything. Friday I managed to get in a workout even though I felt like crap and powered through "diane" which is 21-15-9 of 225lb deadlifts and handstand pushups. The deadlifts are relatively easy for me, but the handstand pushups are a dreamland away, and I've decided that developing them should be added to my list. Plus getting better at handstands will let me get some of those cool crossfit handstand pictures! The first thing I will do is build up to holding 1 minute a day of handstand against the wall. Ill start with walking my feet up the wall until I get comfortable enough with kicking up against it.
So other than that, both saturday and sunday I played golf with my parents, and had baseball practices. Our first game is next saturday and we are nowhere near ready. I think we feel that way every year, but this year is worse because we have 1 less week than other years. A lot of downtime, along with that and I feel much better (other than a tweaked hamstring that will hopefully be better by tomorrow). I'm ready to tackle anything. Tomorrow starts my last 3 weeks of the current strength regiment I'm on with 5x5 of sqaut, press and deadlift. Hopefully I'll continue to PR every time and keep pressing numbers. To combat eating poorly, I am going to write on here everything I eat, good or bad. If it's bad, please give me crap about it, and I really want to get my nutrition dialied in now as I really press for strength numbers (and then try and lean out a little for some beach time!)

Training update

I've started my season of coaching 8 yr old allstar baseball, and I love doing it. Seeing kids improve and hopefully develop a love of baseball is one of the most rewarding experiences I've had. It does make it more difficult to work in training time when I have to be half hour away from the gym for 2 hours after work. So I have to work out in the times I can as much as possible, as well as get creative. Monday I went to our high school track at home before practice and ran. I ran some 400m, and timed myself at 1:26. Its not great, but I was happy to know I could break 1:30. At our gym I'm happy with 2:00 because it involves going up and down stairs, and wanted to see what it would be at a normal 400m. Then I ran 10 100m sprints with 60s rest between each effort. I think next time I will shorten breaks, but this allowed me to fully recover for each effort. I can't beleive how sore I am 2 days after, and know this is a capacity I need to continue to improve.

Tuesday was a regular workout at the gym with 30-20-10 of single handed overhead kettlebell squats and box jumps. It sucked!! Today was an off day as I had a practice. I ate terribly today with subway sandwiches as 2 meals, and feel like I'm slipping a little. Mark of Marks daily apple has a concept called the 80/20 rule which says that if you do healthy things 80% of the time you will get most of the benefit from it. This is a great concept as long as it is really 80/20, not 70/30 or 50/50. I personally would like to see myself eat well 95% of the time and then if I slip, I can stay inside that 80% zone.

Israel

This thing with Israel is nuts. First of all, 2 points about anything I say about it.
1. I've really just scanned articles and headlines, and do not know details in depth.
2. My points of view are completely 100% based on biases, stereotypes, and paranoia.

That being said, I am a huge supporter of Israel, and as a Jewish person am extremely defensive of it. However going through news reports it seems like the Israeli press was trying to feed the public a lot of bull shit. Obviously they are not going to be completely neutral, but it seems that its been especially thick. I hope that Israel is in the right here, and they should be willing to allow outsiders to investigate. If they are in the wrong and used excessive force then they should face their consequences. I understand their feeling of a need to barracade gaza is to protect from rockets, but perhaps there is a way to allow aid to innocent civilians (which I'm sure there are some).