Day Twenty-three: "Boot Camp and Anchors"

This morning, I woke up early (for a Sunday) and headed over to Arisugawa Park for a charity boot camp day. I kind of wanted to skip the thing and do just my PCP exercises, but some very good friends of mine were hosting it and all the proceeds are going to the flood victims in Queensland, Australia, where they are from, so I couldn't say no that!

Turned out to be a very nice, warm winter day and it was nice to get a good outdoor workout in. I did my 1,050 skips first to warm up, then joined the group to do some boxing, then walking lunges, steps, inclined pull-ups, push-ups, planks, interval running and stair running. It tired me out a little more than I was expecting. I thought that given the charity nature of the event and the number and the varying fitness levels of the people turning out, there would be a lot of down time and it would be easy. Not so. They split us into groups and I was made to go in the "advanced" group, of course. It had been about 8 months since I boxed so it was tiring. Boxing cardio is an entirely different kind of cardio, I think. But the jump-rope must have been helping because I felt quicker and more mobile on my feet. "Float like a butterfly..." Right? When I work out, I tend to go all out. There's no quitting or doing a half-ass job, so I used up a lot of energy.

The most expensive supermarket on Earth is next to the park, but it has tons of stuff you cannot find in a regular Japanese supermarket, so I went to town: wild swordfish and coho salmon from back home, quinoa, bulgar wheat, lentils, dal, garbanzo, whole grain flour (going to follow Jason B and try making a PCP pizza one weekend). I also procured a loaf of 100% rye bread to try, though the only ingredients in it say "rye and salt" and don't tell you how much salt there is. I also picked up a frozen loaf of 100% whole "sprouted" grain bread. But I looked on the ingredients list, and also some salt, as well as honey. Heck, every single loaf of bread I have looked at in town has some sodium or salt in it. Is this a no-no then? Am I just going to have to skip bread? I bought them just in case because I am struggling here to find the right whole grain bread.

Did you know that the vast majority of advertised "whole grain" bread in Japan is a mix of bleached white flour, with a little bit of whole grain thrown in? It's hard enough to find 100% whole grain bread. It seems impossible to find it made without any salt.  I am not even a "bread person" to begin with. I like brown rice just fine. But the one craving I seem to consistently be having is for bakery food. It's weird. Maybe it is because I've walked into a dozen bakeries looking for whole grain bread and I've taken in the aroma of fresh-baked bread so much. My girlfriend had a piece of toast this morning with butter and it smelled so good.  I've also found a neighbourhood bakery that only makes 100% whole grain bread on Wednesdays, so I've ordered one for this Wednesday to see if it holds up. But again, I can't tell how much salt or other stuff is going to be in it.

Anyway, shopping done, I went home and finished off the rest of my exercises in my second home or second offfice, if you like--my gym. It felt good, though I snapped my door anchor. I can tell I may end up going through plenty of these things. They are pretty flimsy.

Here's the carcass of my former door anchor

Oh, on the "did my girlfriend notice any changes after 10 days of not seeing me" question, the answer was that I lost a little bit of my face and I have "dimples" on my stomach--"why do you have dimples on your stomach?" What the heck? I have no idea, either.