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This Guardians of the Galaxy image is closer to what I remember as a kid.

Mutant Diet Phase 2 Day 56
The sanity chip is not well screwed in. What British sci-fi comedy am I referencing?

A funny thing happened on the way to Yoga class. My ankle, between the heel and the actual bone on the side was registering as painful. Out of the blue. In class it was giving me moderate trouble but went completely bonzo when I tried a balancing pose on one leg. It did not like that.

What the heck?

I’m in a mental state of hypersensitivity. This can be characterized with this fictional exchange.

Other Person: “Rob, you’re really taking things personally.”
Rob: “Yes, that’s because everything is personal.”
Other Person: “Huh?”
Rob: “See that discarded cigarette butt over there? It may not look it, but I’m taking it personally right now. Don’t get me started about the unraked leaves at my son’s school that have been there since October.”

And it snowed. In Vancouver. In effing March.

Drax (the green one) is part of Guardians of the Galaxy. I think they should vacation in PEI.

Mutant Diet Phase 2 Day 55
Time to put this derailing train of a diet/fitness program back on the rails. Yikes.

It has been 120 km/h all week and when things aren’t right, the eating goes sideways. The advice of taking more sleep is valid but difficult to achieve. The laundry sadly does not march itself down to the basement to do itself. Although maybe there’s a Harry Potter spell that would do that. Hmmm.

Today’s going is to just keep things simple and not eat out of stress or panic.

Each of the tasks I face, with the possible exception of weight loss, are do-able and achievable with sufficient time and focus. But all these are stealing time and focus from each other. Decommissioning activities or delegating have their own overhead.

The key thing for this coming week is to not to add anymore obligations!

Zatanna the sorceress calms me down. Ucluelet by the water is a place to calm down.

Mutant Diet Phase 2 Day 54
Big snack attack last night. I think if I can navigate through the next few days without any major slipups, I’ll be good. I have a meat and veggie supply shortage so I need to shop tonight.

Sleep would really help as would fewer last minutes projects with children and strange happenings on the volunteer front. I keep reading articles about sleep and its requirement and it’s been tough getting enough rest. And I eat to compensate.

The kettle bell workout yesterday was good. I managed to warm up, do most of the work and stick with the heavier bells.

Today may be more difficult to get to the gym. Lunch appointment.

Early image of Gamora from Guardians of the Galaxy. Brandon came to mind today at 14° today.

Mutant Diet Phase 2 Day 53
My lifestyle does not support my weight loss attempts. I am too stressed and too busy. Or, is it that I have too much stressful stuff going on that makes me busy or is it too much stuff making me stressed?

Anyway, I think I have to not give up because, honestly, why think that way? Giving up means a one-way ticket to profound health issues. And that won’t help the stress.

However, making sure I’m not going mental in the process is a good idea too.

Off to the gym for kettle bell homework.

I saw a new trailer for Guardians of the Galaxy. Looks like fun. Saskatoon is a meagre 16° today.

Mutant Diet Phase 2 Day 52
Pink sequined outfits and a bad diet day. Huh? Yesterday went according to plan in the morning. I took my son to a dance competition where Dads were scarce, where there were more boy dancers than last year, but existed a stunning number of little tiny girl pixies. Shortly upon arrival, I realized I wasn’t going to be able to leave the dance theatre to find a proper lunch.

Downhill from there, sadly.

There was a weigh in yesterday with the personal trainer, but for mental health reasons, I’ve hidden the results until I’m ready.

May the lo-carb routine survive today.

I found this cover to an old Justice League comic that looked totally unfamiliar. Snow still in Vancouver. Seriously.

Mutant Diet Phase 2 Day 51
I undertook one of my least favourite activities: the early morning workout. Circumstances forced me to reschedule to the morning. Part of the workout required that using a think rope, I drag a punching bag with a rope across the floor. With the personal trainer sitting on it.

I didn’t look at the number on the scale but I’m still not really making huge gains. I still feel stronger and I’m keeping at the workouts and I’m trying not to go sideways on the food.

The real challenge is that I know giving up won’t work. But staying the course is going to require much for mental fortitude that I ever thought was needed let alone thought I had.

Anyone know a health food store with a jar of fortitude on the shelf?

I wonder what this guy did to have Spider-man on his hood? Let’s pretend it’s not 1° in Vancouver and go to the beach in Parksville instead.

Mutant Diet Phase 2 Day 50
Wow. This Phase of the Mutant Diet has about a month left.

Last night I discussed with my wife the need for us to dial back our reactions to frustrations. These include (but aren’t limited to) other drivers, school system issues, work issues and children doing stupid stuff. We are pretty much setting the dial to 8 where a 4 is more balanced. (By the way 10/10 on the scale is where you are so angry that are can be arrested for a violent offence. E.g. road rage.)

Relevance to diet/fitness? I found with my frustration with hurt arm muscles that diet/fitness activities became more frustrating and I became angry. And it helped me eat more of the wrong things.

Conscious dialing back to 4 will help I think. The reasoning is that I never found my driving skills to improve when I was apoplectic after being cut off by another driver.

An old Iron Man cover that I suspect I used to have but died at the Cottage. Which looks somewhat like this cottage near Picton.

Mutant Diet Phase 2 Day 49
Yesterday was a full-on dietary train wreck, but without the desserts. The Vancouver Bach Choir concert was on, was amazing, and I drank and ate to celebrate. Today, I must reel myself in and try to deal with the stressors that are not helping.

The music, interestingly, provided a release. As I am on the Board of the VBC I was wanting there to be a good house at the Orpheum. We did not fill the place, but the audience was great. I could tell that the vibe was right as soon as I walked in. When the first part “Invocation” of Jonathon Dove’s The Passing of the Year started I felt this release of stress. That I was free for the moment of all the situations professionally and personally that I found myself in.

Today, the music is still in my mind and, despite the desire to head to the carbs, I just can’t.

And, there’s a final irony. On the day I was cheating like an American President, I was waiting at the bus stop to head downtown for the concert. Friends who were also coming to the concert approached, and at first thought it was me at the bus stop but hesitated because it was too slender to be me.

Hulk and Wolverine from the cover of Wolverine’s first appearance seemed to work for today. I really do want to go to Cape Breton Island someday for summer vacation.

Mutant Diet Phase 2 Day 48
This is the kind of day where diets go sideways. I could not face a power bar or making bacon and eggs this morning so I delayed with chores and then went to Starbucks and had a bacon, cheese and egg breakfast sandwich. The evil of wheat.

I saw Hugh Jackman on the Tonight Show and his Wolverine diet (an inspiration for me for this diet/fitness regime) came up and they fed him pasta. Had he done that during prep for any of the movies, he’d have lost a week on his routine. This makes me think, what am I losing today? Quite possibly my mind, but as I mentioned to my wife last night, my definition of blowing my diet is a piece of bread where in the past that phrase would have meant a Costco-sized bag of M&Ms.

Speaking of pain, I figured out what happened to my arms. The muscles at the top of your forearm and the very bottom of you bicep are used for gripping. Try grabbing your cellphone case really hard and notice what tightens in the arm. Those muscles got cooked on Tuesday. I think I know how to avoid this going forward.

Today, no exercise, rather I’m going to see Carmina Burana in which my wife and daughter are singing.

[two_third_last]

This is fairly representative on my mind today. Positively balmy in Toronto today for a February day.

Mutant Diet Phase 2 Day 47
Last I checked exercise was supposed to help one’s mental state. At this point I’m feeling totally bummed out. I’ll have to see with my sore limbs what I can do that the gym today.

All this pain and just too much stuff going on clearly led to fries. It was a take-out night because I was too damn tired to cook anything but I only ate some fries. I heated my own meat and skipped pop and bun and so forth.

I need some sort of win in the in win column.