Training Tuesday: Insanity Day 1

There was a great article in Competitor last month about the importance of off-season training. As much as I love the magazine, I really dislike the Web site. I can't find the article, but it talks about the importance of cross training in the off season. There were two articles: one about how to design the perfect off-season plan, and the other a column by Scott Jurek talking about how Kenyans might not take a single running stride for weeks. Instead, they spend time with their families and recuperate. Scott Jurek says he doesn't even think about the weight he gains and enjoys "taking it easy," which I'm sure is still more miles than I can knock out in a summer.

In the same vein, I decided to finally finish an entire round of Insanity. We bought the DVDs during the spring off of Craigslist. We finished the first month and made it into the second month, but stopped doing it because it was finally nice enough to go outside to run. There's not much danger of that happening now, so we might as well hunker down for the long haul and get ready to enjoy the great indoors.

I'm not at a point where I'm willing to share photos of myself before unless there's a nice after to show next to it. I will say this, this morning I weighed in at 130.2. My stable-state weight tends to be around 127, but we had a decadent couple of days around here (chocolate fountain, delicious Mexican food lunch, Garrett Popcorn, etc.). My goal is to reach 124, which I've been working on since I started this whole healthy living thing in July of 2010. My starting weight was 144, so I'd like to say I've lost 20 pounds. Who cares if it took me a year and a half.

The Insanity program is a two-part approach: high-intensity interval training and an eating plan. Last time around, I tried to do the eating plan, but it's so specific that it's boring, expensive and time consuming. This go around, I plan to keep doing what I do: eating 300ish calories every three hours I'm awake, adding extra calories and treats in the morning.

After my first fitness test today, I whipped up a protein-heavy dinner, which is what's called for in the plan. I had some Land O Lakes Eggs from the Foodbuzz Tastemaker program, so I made a quick scramble with one whole egg and two egg whites. Sometimes I top it with salsa, but tonight I went with a bit of cheddar and a small side salad. I eat a ton of eggs (seriously, like two dozen a week between scrambles, hard boiled eggs, egg salad sandwiches and protein muffins), and there are some tricks. Here's how to made the perfect

scramble:

• Preheat the pan to medium
• Beat the eggs well with a whisk or fork
• Spray the pan with oil
• Use a stiff spatula to fold the eggs over
• Remove the eggs from the heat just a little before they're set and leave in the pan for a few seconds to finish the process