Monday, July 12, 2010

59 - Seminar

Who has ever heard of a gym not having any sort of bar so a person can do their pull-ups? It seems this hotel doesn't! They have an "athletic club" here in their Executive Tower, but the only things it contains are treadmills, step-climbers, bicycles, a tiny pool, a couple benches and some weights. I've been able to do most of my exercises in the room, except the pull-up and the Kung-Fu sit-ups due to the lack of said bar. I ended up trying an incline pull-up with a bench (which really wasn't high enough) and in place of the sit-ups I did a bunch of ab workouts.

A bit later (after dinner) I did the Wide-Angle stretch for 20 minutes while reading my book. I think the stretches are starting to work. Today was the first time I was able to touch my toes with both hands during the Chin-to-Knee stretch.

Food today was okayish based upon the time that I had available. I got a strange look at breakfast time when I ordered two eggs, a glass of skim milk, a couple pieces of toast, and a house salad. (It was the only vegetables they had that could be ordered ala carte.)

Breakfast was a little later than my usual time (due to sleeping a bit to help with the time zone change exhaustion). On the way back from the restaurant, I came across the most amazing little farmer's market. Some vegetable, some fruit, lots of baked goods (pies, muffins, scones, etc.), and a few lunch carts. Not being able to store much stuff (unfortunately) in the hotel room, I picked up some cherries (as that was the major fruit they had there, with raspberries a close second) for my morning and evening snacks. Then I had to head off to my seminar.

Since today was only a half-day of seminars, they did not serve us lunch, nor an afternoon break, so I missed out on both meals. After the classes, they did have a little meet-n-greet and offered some appetizers for that. Well, three appetizers specifically, of which I could only eat one (a mushroom and caramelized onion tart) as the other two were meat (coconut shrimp and chicken on a stick).

For a late-ish dinner, I went to this Thai place call Typhoon and had a Thai Sweet Pea soup with coconut milk and a Buddha's Feast, which was just all vegetables (hold the rice as dinner is not suppose to have any carbs).

Tomorrow will begin a full day of seminars. If it's like the ones I've attended in the past, breakfast is going to contain lots of muffins and danishes, some fruit and cereal, orange and possibly apple juice, maybe cereal and milk, coffee and tea. During the morning break, they'll offer all you can drink soda. Lunch is totally up in the air, and afternoon snack is going to be whatever sweet and fattening thing they can find. Basically it will be akin to trying to navigate a mine field.

Well, that's about it for today. Time to get some rest. Later dudes!

1 comment:

  1. I think there is a strong dislike of pull-ups in the human consciousness. Think how many teenage movie protagonists had themselves ridiculed while doing pull ups. Think of all the commercials that use pull ups as a counter to their "easy way" to exercise. Perhaps this has gone as far as to affect gym design. Gyms want their clients happy and in the Western mentality the pull-up bar is not conducive to happiness. Just a thought.

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