24

Since I hadn't gone for a swim in a while, I decided to get back in the pool today for my workout. I've been varying my workouts a lot, and as such I wasn't in the mood to do my usual 2x3x10 freestyle and breaststroke combination. Problem is, I wasn't sure exactly what I was doing when I hopped into the pool. Luckily, the workout didn't turn into the disaster my run did the last time I tried this, mainly because I enjoy swimming a whole lot more.

I started out with an 8 minute warmup in freestyle, and then switched to breaststroke as normal. I decided to try a Tabada-like approach, but since I didn't have a clock, I did 20 strokes at max effort, and then 10 strokes at light effort, for the standard 8 repetitions. I then replicated this with freestyle, and decided to try to swim a mile as fast as I could. When I realized it was going to take me longer than I had to do the mile, I scaled it back to a half mile, and swam away.

I could tell the difference when I really locked into the new correct technique, and when I was struggling with my old inefficient technique. My lap times (lap = 50 meters) were about 1:20 each but if I swam correctly I could get them into the 1:10 range. I felt everything coming into alignment about 4-5 laps into the swim, and felt strong throughout. I wound up swimming it in a respectable 18:46, a time that I am proud of, and would be competitive in my age group in a triathlon. Cool.

Tonight's molecular gastronomy pairing was mint and mustard. Actually, I also worked in the strawberry-mint pairing I used last night to synchronize the plate and all the ingredients. I made crab cakes, using spicy whole mustard, mint, 1/2 pound lump crabmeat, a tablespoon of sun dried tomato paste, and 1/2 cup panko, sautéing them lightly in a teaspoon of oil in a non-stick pan (about 200 calories per two cake serving). I made a mustard sauce out of an egg yolk, dijon mustard, olive oil, agave nectar, and Frank's red hot, which added about 100 calories to the dish. The mint and mustard paired nicely, the flavors both stood out but still complimented each other and kept them from dominating the taste. Worked very nicely.

I carried the mint into some bok choy I sauteed in garlic, mint, and stock (about 100 calories per serving), and then added some strawberry jelly and roasted garlic to some Quinoa (about 250 calories) on the side. The strawberry and mint combination works nicely as discussed yesterday, and it caramelized a bit in the preparation process.

Oh, why did I title this segment 24? I weighed in today at 218, down over 24 pounds since program inception. I'm not even trying to lose weight anymore and it is still coming off, so I need to tinker a bit to get back to equilibrium. More bacon seems to be the logical choice.