cesimpson

Thanksgiving Weekend highlights:

• Kids had upper respiratory infections. We stayed home.
• Ate turkey for the first time in 10+ years.
• Pulled a 375# conventional deadlift Saturday morning.

Sickness

Kids came down with these nasty eye and upper respiratory infections. Fevers, swollen shut puffy eyes, bad hacking coughs and lots o’ snot. Yuk. We called all the family and said we’re staying home.

It was all for good. Just kept it quiet and restful and the kids are feeling a lot better.

Turkey

Well, my son, L, is 20 months old and has been diagnosed with severe egg, peanut and soy allergies. Very severe. We now have to carry an epipen with us wherever we go. No peanuts or soy in the house. Eggs are OK, if we’re super careful to make sure he doesn’t eat any.

I’ve been a vegetarian for about 10 years. I think it can be very healthful to be a vegetarian. I think that it can even be healthful to be a vegetarian strength athlete. I would even go so far as to say it’s difficult (but not impossible) to be a healthy vegetarian without eggs.

I do not think it’s possible for a person to be a healthful vegetarian without eggs or legumes.

And while my health is important, my son’s is also. (Really, my children’s health is the only reason I exist. Pass along my genes. Make sure the kid stays healthy enough to reproduce at least once. That’s the ultimate meaning of life, I’d say.)

With those two goals - my health and my son’s health - and some serious introspection, I’ve decided to begin the journey back into eating meat.

At my doctor’s encouragement, I started eating fish a few months ago. That experiment has gone pretty well. In some ways this new decision is just an extension of that.

Thursday I had one bite of turkey at lunch. Not bad. It’s definitely not vegetable matter. Very very different. Had about three more bites at dinner.

Friday, throughout the day, I had about 10 more bites. All is well so far.

Saturday lunch, I had a turkey sandwich. Without being too gross about the whole thing, let’s just say that was asking a bit much from my belly. =)

It will be slow. I’ll probably spend about 6-8 weeks working up to reasonable tolerance of poultry.

I have plenty of research to do. Lots of learning. I have to figure out what I like and don’t like. I have to figure out what are healthy cuts of different kinds of meat. It’s all very very new.

It’s weird, but absolutely the right thing to do. I’m very comfortable with my decision. Once I made the decision, the actual following through was remarkably easy.

Any input from former converts would be most welcome.

375#

I did not get a chance to head to the gym Friday morning, so Saturday I took a quick 45 min for a work-up to a deadlift 1RM.

Warm Up Barbell Complex @ 75#, 85#, 95#, 105#, 115#

6x Deadlift

6x Bent-Over Row

6x Hang Clean

6x Front Squat

6x Press/Push Press

6x Back Squat

1RM Deadlift

4x @ 185# (fast)

2x @ 225# (fast)

1x @ 275#

1x @ 305#

1x @ 325#

1x @ 355#

1x @ 365#

1x @ 370# !

1x @ 375# !!

I felt very strong lifting the 375#. It went slowly, but I was steady and strong. Back stayed flat. Locked out solid. Good.

That’s about it from here for the long weekend.

More on this morning’s workout later.