The Situation
I got the once (or at least very few) in a lifetime chance to take the all American family road trip this summer. 3 weeks in total! We loaded up the sedan with mom, dad, brother (6) and sister (8) and hit the road exploring 7 states roving from Nebraska down to the beaches of the panhandle of Florida. Navarre Beach to be specific. My brother has lived there for 12 years and I have heard many stories about the underdeveloped beach community that used be called “Florida’s Best Kept Secret” and now is called the “Most Relaxing City in America”. It was nice! Ok, enough about that.
Let’s just say it can be difficult to keep up the healthy habits while on a road trip of that duration. Most of it spent at the beach, but 7 nights in different hotels on either side of it coming up and back.
We did what we could by shopping and cooking at the rental house in Florida. We even brought a canister of Peak Performance Green Superfoods Organic Powder as a catch all-knowing we were going to be “vacation eating”. I have tried Athletic Greens and some others but anything that has an artificial sweetener or even stevia seems to do a number on my internal systems. Peak Performance is something my wife researched and is unsweetened. A little tough when it is mixed just with water, but no problem if you can add it to a smoothie (my go-to on the trip was nuts, peanut butter, cinnamon, banana or avocado, coconut oil, and ice). Unfortunately, it ran out about 10 days into the trip and we couldn’t find anything similar at regular grocery stores.
OK, back to the bad eating portion. I have an ongoing battle with my addiction to Diet Coke. On a driving vacation, I have no chance. You always kick it off with Doritos and a 32-ounce supertanker or Diet Coke. These are not my rules, you just do it!
Then add on twice the amount of deserts I would normally eat and 21 days straight of 2 or more cocktails (rarely more than 3) but there was a reason to drink every day. I fluctuate between 185 – 195 generally eat healthy (at least 2 out of 3 meals). If you want more about my stats go here.
About a week in you start to develop what we call “cookie tummy”. That leads into what I call “dumpy” and the next step is full-on “dad bod”. I am always trying to stay a couple of steps ahead of “dad bod”.
This isn’t a miraculous cure-all, it was just me examining my eating pattern as I attempted to go back to a normal reasonably healthy diet. I have been meaning to track my eating an excise for a week at some point and this was as good a time as any. Again, I am not a super athlete and don’t have superhuman genetics, but I do think my routine keeps me several steps ahead of the “dad bod”.
There may be some things you can take from this and, overall, it ended up being an interesting week. Little curveballs we all go through. I will say, I had a slow roll back to full-time work that week and had a little more time than usual.
Day 1 (We’re Bringing Fasting Back, Yeah, Fasting Back)
I am not going to get into all the details on why I started intermittent fasting and I will have some other articles on that. It may be more accurate to say time-restricted eating (that sounds less daunting). Essentially, I am going for 12+ hours each day without eating. I feel pretty good if I execute it 4 or 5 days in a week. Sometimes I extend to 18 hours and once I did 24 hours (almost by accident). I mention it because I didn’t make it one day on vacation and am going to list my fasting hours on each daily entry. It isn’t that difficult if you just don’t eat anything after dinner. I haven’t been seriously heavy or out of shape for 20 years, but I give fasting, which I started about 18 months ago, credit for dropping me 2 additional waist sizes.
Alright, after the family polished off a convenience store-bought pizza when we finally arrived back home on a Sunday afternoon I decided enough was enough and decided not to eat again that day. Day 1 fast went from 3:00 p.m. to 7:30 a.m. the next day for 16.5 hrs (BAM! Take that dad bod).
I went back to a decent breakfast which normally consists of 3 eggs and whatever vegetables (goto’s are spinach and broccoli). Then the regular daily vitamin regimen. I know this may seem excessive, but it is what I am doing as of this writing:
Took the boy to his basketball day camp at 8:30. Got a little work done. Played noon basketball at the gym. In a perfect world, this would happy 2 – 3 times a week with a goal to play at least 3 games. I played 10 this day after doing almost zero physical activity (2 games of competitive volleyball and 3 trips to an actual gym to lift weights) in 3 weeks.
Way too much for the first day back. The first couple of games the body feels alright since it had all that time to heal. About 3 games in the 3 weeks off don’t matter. The knee starts to get that familiar twinge and the lower back seems to get impacted from the shoes hitting the floor so many times. But then you catch the defense sleeping on a roll to the basket and get a layup and it all feels worth it. Remember this is a blog primarily about staying on the court (in my case basketball court)!
I weighed in at 188.5 with no shoes after basketball. Thought for sure I would be in the 195 range. I certainly felt and looked like I was in the dumpy to dad bod range. Maybe sweat out 7 lbs of water? I always try and get in the hot tub for 5 – 7 minutes if I have time. No scientific proof, but I feel like the muscles recover a little faster.
I had Chipotle Barbacoa salad with guacamole, cheese and sour cream for lunch and meatballs and salad for dinner.
The lower back started to stiffen up even 5 hours later as I was trying to play big ball volleyball with the kids in the backyard after dinner. Well, live an learn!
I spent 10 minutes with The Neck Hammock before I went to bed which normally helps loosen the neck and back. I love that thing. I think there are some knock offs now but this is the one I have and I think it is the original. I heard about it on the podcast Side Hustle School. Sometime I will write a full post on it. It is for cervical traction and I bought it for my wife who has had neck and back issues. She loves it but I think I now use it more frequently than she does.
All in all, I couldn’t have asked for a better Day 1 to get back on track!
Day 2 (Really, You thought It was a good idea to play 10 basketball games)
Yep, played too much basketball. Lower back and neck stiffness, check! .You know the old man kind of soreness that makes you understand why older men start to shuffle rather than walk. Then just the overall leg soreness that tells you you haven’t been doing anything for 3+ weeks. But it does make you feel alive. The feeling that you have finally exercised and maybe getting back to normal.
Fasted from about 7:00 pm the previous night until 9:00 am (14 hrs) the next morning. I planned to go longer. We did a morning birthday celebration for my newly minted 9-year-old daughter and then had to get her to her summer science camp and the 6-year-old boy to his first ever basketball camp. Thankfully they were both on the campus of the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO). I thought I had a 9:00 am work meeting but found it was actually 9:30. That allowed time for an experimental smoothie creation.
Today’s concoction:
Blueberries
Avocado Oil
Oat Milk/Whole Milk Mixture
1 Raw Egg
Cinnamon
Ice Cubes
Our mixer of choice is the Vitamix 5200. A little overkill for a smoothie. My wife likes to cook and we are willing to spend a little on good kitchen equipment. It does work nicely and has a permanent position on our counter.
Then I broke down to get my 32 ounce Diet Coke at the neighborhood quickie mart. I planned on ruining myself with a slice of pizza but it looked so bad (too late in the day for the fresh stuff) that I went for the hot dog (not any better nutritionally). This is my Achilles heal during the day. I like to get out of the home office for a few minutes and some days I can’t resist the convenience.
A couple of handfuls of M & Ms as my wife was using them to decorate my daughter’s birthday cake later in the day.
My daughter requested sushi for her birthday dinner So we went out to an adequate sushi place with some family friends. Then It goes south. I order a beer to be social (hey at least I made it at least 48 hrs with no alcohol). I say no to a second one but the waitress, who was incredibly nice and not complaining about sitting all the kids at a separate table, brings me one anyway. Ok, it is rude to not to drink the second beer so I do.
The meal wasn’t horrible nutritionally. Two mini Kobe burgers, some sushi, and a kale salad. But then it is time to go home and have the cake. Freaking delicious chocolate cake my wife made. Gluten-free from a Trader Joe’s box mix made with quinoa flour with cream cheese frosting. My wife has a few secrets to improve it (add extra chocolate for one) but she heard about the box mix from some vegan family friends.
Basically health food right? Not going to turn that down. The nice big piece that I finished off around 8:30 pm so a 12 hour fast is pretty much off the table at this point.
Sneaked in a few parts of my base daily exercise routine before bed. I have had tendonitis in my left knee since high school and heard from a pickup basketball player with the same problem that it is all about strengthening the rest of your leg. So my base routine revolves around that. I always prioritize planks. I started doing them about 3 years ago and haven’t done a sit-up since then. For me, it seems to be the most efficient exercise when you are on a time budget. I just do a minute with a basic plank and 30 seconds on either side.
Day 3 – Wall Sits and Near Career-Ending Injury
My wife has been taking a tennis class this summer at our gym. They only do it for a couple of months in the summer. A former college player conducts the class and she enjoys it. I played in high school and was always just a little shy of playing Varsity. I enjoy it and wish that I had started learning tennis earlier in life. I have tried to get back into it here and there and even joined a league as a sub when I lived in Scottsdale, Arizona.
I did summer school drop off and decided to join my wife at the class since I was enjoying a more casual work week. It was my wife and then 3 other women that were all in their 60’s or older. I was not expecting this to be much more than batting some balls around for an hour. Oh, I was wrong! The next thing I know we are doing ball drills with ladder drills and wall sits while waiting for your next turn. You know one of those fitness agility ladders you see football players using. And I am quite sure I had not done a wall sit in about 25 years.
The rest of the drills were similar and it was a lot of fun and much more tiring than I would have thought. Of course, it was to be the last class of the summer. It was nice to have a pro running the class who could run the ball drills and get the balls in the right places.
Since I was at the gym already I thought I would do some work there and then make a game-time decision on playing noon basketball (I say noon but it starts at 11:00 normally). I decide to play and broke my fast with a smoothie at the gym. I wrestle with extending the fast vs. getting my 30 grams of protein in pithing the first 30 minutes of the day. That Tim Ferriss inspired breakfast rule from his book The Four Hour Body has helped transform the way I eat and ensures that I get one good meal in a day. I try to adhere to it whether I am at home or on the road for work.
I will give my self credit for 13 hour fast which isn’t bad considering I was still stuffing my face with chocolate cake at 9:00 p.m. the previous night.
The gym smoothie was called “Monkey Biz and was made with Maxpro Elite Chocolate Cake protein powder, peanut butter, banana, almond milk, and ice. I hit the court about 10 – 15 minutes later and that smoothie was not sitting well 2 -3 games in. I just read the label and it has artificial sweeteners in it (Sucralose Sweetener). I think the gym has other brands and I will definitely look for an unsweetened or stevia.
I ended up with 5 or 6 games and ended with a bang (not a good one!). In the category of why I consider quitting basketball every once in a while. On the last play of my last game the other team had a steal and break away for a layup. I always try and remember I am there for exercise so I tried to chase him down knowing I really had no chance to get to the ball. They made one extra pass that gave me a slight shot. Somehow my legs got up from underneath me and I landed head first where the wall and floor meet behind the baseline. Not going to lie, I was a little worried when I heard some cracks in my neck. I weighed in at 190.5 with only a towel and definitely hit the hot tub after my collision with the floor.
I was able to get up and I knew I was going to be in for some soreness and stiff neck but nothing career-ending. I spent the rest of the day having to turn my entire body around to talk to someone or look at something if it wasn’t directly in front of me. A little Neck Hammock treatment before bed definitely loosened it up but I am pretty sure it will be nice and stiff in the morning.
I picked up my daughter from summer school and son from basketball camp and joined them for some leftover birthday cake. A little dessert before dinner which is part of my strategy to be able to keep my fast going and not be tempted to go for the peanut butter and chocolate chips after the kids go to bed. Dinner was a seafood medley of sorts in red sauce with rice and then a vegetable medley of zucchini, peppers, onion, eggplant and perhaps a few other things. I think I mentioned my wife likes to cook and likes food which is definitely an advantage for me health-wise. If I get breakfast right I ensure at least 2 good meals on most days even if I destroy myself with convenience store pizza or hot dogs for lunch.
Day 4 – Neck Recovery and Tortilla Chips
Yes, sure enough, the neck was very sore. Do you recall Joan Cusack’s character from Sixteen Candles? That is pretty much how I moved around all day.
I had the standard breakfast. I broke down at lunch and went out to get a Diet Coke and the pizza looked reasonably fresh and I got sucked in. If you are tracking it, getting back off the Diet Coke is not going very well so far this week.
Late in the afternoon, I went upstairs and had a “dipping station” snack. That is getting out anything dippable. In this case, it was hummus and egg salad. Then I usually go for the vegetable container that we usually have stocked with assorted colors of peppers, carrots, celery, etc. Then I throw in some gluten-free crackers or chips. I am going to call out the Frontera Tortilla Chips. My wife turned me onto them this year. They just seem to have the perfect crunch. I believe Rick Bayless who does a PBS cooking show on Mexican food is involved.
I would normally try and sneak in some weight lifting on a non basketball playing day but it wasn’t looking good toda since I was picking up my daughter from summer school to checked out all her Lego creations.
That afternoon slot would normally be chance to lift. I also tried to sauna. We haven’t talked about this yet. We bought an infrared sauna at the end of 2017. It was a Christmas gift to myself. I had been researching the benefits after hearing a Tim Ferris podcast with Dr. Rhonda Patrick. It wasn’t cheap but wasn’t crazy and I figured it would have some resale value. We live in a house built in the early 1960s and had to have some special electrical wiring put in to handle hooking it up in our basement.
My reseach led me to a Ceramic Infrared Sauna. The subject probably deserves its own post. But, on this day, the sauna would fail me as well. For the last couple months it would flip the circuit breaker. I would go flip it back on and it would do it again. I think I got 9 minutes of sauna before I gave up. Sounds like it is time to call in an elctrician. No problems like this the first 18 months or so.
I finally did get in kettle bell shoulder exercise I learned about recently. I took back a sauna back rest that I got for Christmas and the fitness shop had a 30 lb kettle bell that was about the same price. I thought I would give it a try. I have a basic kettle bell, but at one of the hotels I came across some adjustable kettle bells that I wish I had at home.
I had a solid dinner of fish and vegetables and did end up getting part of the “clam shell” leg workout and planks in before bed. Also, a little more Neck Hammock. I used a lacrosse ball to hit the really tight parts of the neck and shoulder from the basketball injury. It was becoming a little more evident where the injury was and was more where the neck meets the shoulder. I keep a lacrosse ball on the night stand and find it works well for rolling your feet or, in this case, hitting a really specific part of the back and neck. Any lacrosse ball will work, but if you want to get fancy or specialized you can check out these.
Day 5 – Jefferson Curls And More Beer
I got a 13 hr fast in from 7 p.m. the previous night to 8 a.m. (13 hrs) and, again, had the standard breakfast. My neck was definitely still sore and I was monitoring it since it was basketball day and I always want to play. Another exercise I try and do daily is called a Jefferson Curl. I picked this up from a Tim Ferriss podcast with former Olympic gymnastic coach Christopher Sommer. You may be detecting a pattern here. I really need to work on my technique but even the poor form I have seems to help stretch out the back\spine, assular region (my custom term) and the hamstrings.
The schedule was going to work out today for basketball. Probably for the best as I tried to shoot a little before weight lifting a little later in the day. My neck was not having it. I don’t think I could have gone up and down the court today if I tried. I was more sore after even shooting for 10 minutes.
I created another smoothie mix in the late morning. This one was very fat heavy. Peanut butter, cinnamon, Peak Performance Green Superfoods, Vega One Organic All-in-One Shake Chocolate Protein Powder, oat milk, 1/4 avacodo, cashews, ice, half banana and coconut oil. It tasted good, but had to be eaten with a spoon. Not even the Vitamix 5200 could make it liquid enough to drink. I could have added more oat milk but I wanted to limit the amount of sugar. I did have a little bit of a Chipotle style burrito (it wasn’t Chipotle though, local place) that my wife was nice enough to bring home for me.
I got in about 30 minutes of weight lifting, 15 minutes of dry sauna (gym sauna not home infrared sauna) and 5 minutes of hot tub. This was all in the name of hoping my back and neck would feel better. I weighed in around 191.5 lbs. And, of course, I stopped on the way how to get my Diet Coke fix for the day. I did stay away from the conenience store food (little victories).
We ended up going to a decent quality burger place for our Friday night meal with some friends. Food was pretty good but it was still burgers and fries (combo of regular and sweet potato). My burger did have quacamole. I had a beer at the restaraunt and another at the house since the friends came over for one more drink. A 12 hour fast was definitely in danger with my last sips of beer going down around 9 p.m.
Somehow I sneaked in my “clam shell” routine before I went to bed. I had got a few things in at the gym earlier in the day. Of course, a little more Neck Hammock and I asked my wife to give the sore are aof my neck and back a 3 minute serious rub down before bed.
Day 6 – Neck Injury Relief and Birthday Gifts
The neck still didn’t feel good in the morning. I went downstairs and did some Jefferson Curls to see if I could loosen it up. Today was my daughter’s offical birthday party with her friends from school (a summer birthday so not the entire class). So you know desert is definitely happening at some point.
I started the day out with a smoothie. I just didn’t feel like getting the eggs going and the kids had already eaten. I think this happened between 8 and 9 so I failed to get a full 12 hour fast in. We will call it 11 hours.
Her brother wanted to get her something last minute for her birthday so off to Target we went. I don’t know what it was but something popped or moved in my neck in a good way and my range of movement definitely improved as we were in that target. I am not going to spend much time trying to figure out what it was I was just happy that it all of the sudden started feeling better.
Perhaps it knew I was going to need that fuller range of motion to put together the combo bad minton and vollyball net I decided to add to my daughter’s birthday package. Influenced by the sand volleyball we got introduced to in Navarre Beach, I thought it was a good overall family gift. We are talking around 40 dollars here so it wasn’t going to be the best. I got it up and running over about a 90 minute stretch, but I think I would go for something with easier set up and take down if I were going to do it again. I liked this one on Amazon when I did my research. I don’t think it came with all of the accessories but we are currently playing volleyball with an undersized beach ball so it may not hav mattered to us anyway. And we had aquired a volleyball in Florida. The kids may be a a year out or so from being bad minton ready.
Again, always a reason to get a Diet Coke. In this case I passed my regular convenience store. It would be rude not to stop. Plus, the boy got a free sucker for being a 6 year old.
Lunch was my leftover burrito from the day before and a chili dog with no bun. I made myself feel slighlty better about the meal by eating some bell peppers. I don’t worry too much about the amount of calories as long as it is decent food going in. The rice and the flour tortilla were really the only nutritionally regrettable parts of that meal. Then it was the last push before the birthday party guests arrived.
The regrettable happened later. Several scoops (3 – 4) of ice cream with hot fudge and M & Ms. But man was it good! Ice cream is totally worth it in my opinion. It was a birthday party with an ice cream sundae bar. What are you going to do?
It was my dinner night but my wife already had been slow roasting pork. I made a salad of mixed greens and we through in some rice and brocoli and a little tomato soup. A decent comeback meal to end the day and into fasting mode by 7 p.m.
Ended the day with the Neck Hammock and a full clam shell routine. For a birthday day I will take it overall.
Day 7 – Diet Coke Free Day!
I got to 14 hours fasting primarily because Sunday mornings are a little lazy around our house. I had the standard breakfast with spinach, leftover scrambled eggs, sausage and salami.
I added a cup of “Green Monster” (the smoothie my wife normally makes for the kids with chia seeds, cashews, prebiotic, green powder and oats) because it was leftover.
I finished the volleyball net and we got a little badminton and volleyball in before it got too hot to be outside.
Lunch was egg salad dipped with chips and peppers. We had leftover ice cream from the birthday party so I had to contribute to the consumption and had a couple more scoops with the fudge sauce.
Dinner was more slow roasted port, brocolini and a vegetable rice mix with carrots, peas (both from the garden) mushrooms and celery.
Finally, a Diet Coke free day! I have gone full multiple month periods without drinking Diet Coke. I am just in a bad cycle right now. When I am successful I use sparkling water as a replacement. You get the feel without all the aspartame poison. I have found the better quality stuff helps keep me off it. If I can get it I like Whole Foods Market, Lemon Sparkling Mineral Water or Topo Chico with a lemon if it isn’t flavored already.
Ended the day with the Neck Hammock and a full clam shell routine with a couple sets of standard pushups since I didn’t do any weight lifting. I started the fast around 7 p.m.
Moving On……
Going into Monday I definitely did feel better a week after vacation. I was able to get back onto the basketball court on Monday and felt pretty good. I weighed in at about 191 lbs. and I guess the takeaway is that my weight may not move much since I actually gained about 3 lbs. but I think the composition of my body does feel much better (exchange fat for muscle).
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