Thursday, November 28, 2013

Thanksgiving Day and what are my intentions?  Quite simply to overeat all the wrong kinds of food for the entire day and without a single pang of guilt.  Oh…and sitting around watching football to burn off the excess calories.

But I didn’t do just that.  In fact, I was up early and dragged Jack and Dakota (my amazing dog) to the North Chagrin Reservation where we went through the Survival Workout in two inches of snow and temperatures in the low 20’s.  Jack was in a talkative mood; discussing what he should do with the rest of his life and how best to approach college.  I didn’t do as many sets as I would have normally, but thought answering his questions and giving him my focus was more important.  Until I got home again.

I hopped on the trainer in my office and loaded Netflix onto the computer, picking a movie starring Robert DeNiro and John Travolta called ‘Killing Season’.  I love both actors and it was filmed in the Appalachians, so I figured it had to be good.  It really wasn’t, but it kept my mind off the fact that I was riding a stationary bicycle indoors well enough for me to get 80 minutes of riding.  Now I felt like I could eat with reckless abandon.

But I still didn’t.  I went to the kitchen with the aroma of a baking turkey and fresh pies and put together a blender of fruit smoothie.  I downed the whole blender an hour before dinner was to be served as a way to keep myself from gorging on graving, dressing, mashed potatoes and pie.  When we did finally sit down, I put only turkey, sweet potatoes and corn on my plate, still somewhat satisfied from the smoothie.  I knew I didn’t need to eat all the turkey at one sitting; I’d control the leftovers.

I skipped dessert following dinner, but had a huge slice of apple pie with a couple of scoops of Breyer’s Vanilla ice cream with Natural Bean Specks a couple of hours later.  It was Thanksgiving, after all, and I would have felt guilty if I hadn’t. 

Survival Workout:  45 minutes.  Bike duration:  80 minutes. 
Training Heart Rate:  100-150 bpm for SW and 120 bpm on the bike.
Calories burned during workout:  450 for SW and 1100 on the bike.