Friday, March 31, 2006

Rinsing your cottage cheese?

A excerpt from the book "Good to Great":

..We came to call this the "rinsing your cottage cheese" factor. The analogy comes from a disciplined world-class athlete named Dave Scott, who won the Haiwaii Ironman Triathlon six times. In training, Scout would ride his bike 75 miles, swim 20,000 meters, and run 17 miles - on average every single day......So, Dave Scott - a man who burned at least 5,000 calories a day in training - would literally rinse his cottage cheese to get the extra fat off. Now, there is no evidence that he absolutely needed to rinse his cottage cheese to win the Ironman; that's not the point of the story. The point is that rinsing his cottage cheese was simply one more small step that he believed would make him just that much better, one more small step added to all the other small steps to create a consistent program of superdiscipline. I've always pictured Dave Scott running in 26 miles of the marathon - hammering away in hundred-degree heat on the black, baked lava fields of the Kona coast after swimming 2.4 miles in th ocean and cycling 112 miles against ferocious crosswinds - and thinking to himself: "Compared to rinsing my cottage cheese every day, this just isn't that bad"....

Have I rinsed my cottage cheese?
Have you rinsed your cottage cheese?

18 comments:

Peter Lawson said...

Ick I don't even like Cottage Cheese LOL.. but hey if it was good enough for Dave Scott.. hmmmmm

Boris' Dad said...

good food for thought***

E-Speed said...

wow that is bizarre!

tri-mama said...

I suppose I take a lot of little sacrificial steps along the way-because it makes the finish that much more meaningful

and yes, I think my plan calls for a gradual increase in bike minutes as part of base 2. I'm not sure if I'll have time for 4.5 hours on the bike though-at least not at once.

Nancy Toby said...

NO. In fact, hell no!

I never subscribed to the super-low-fat cult.

Of course, my figure shows it....

Habeela said...

At this point I'm doing well to just eat the cottage cheese. The point being you have to eat it before you're willing to rinse it. So once I've got the pattern down of eating it...you bet I'll be rinsing!

William said...

Wow, no, I never have, but I might like it more if I do. 20,000 metres? That sounds like a stretch each day. Must be a type-o. More like maybe 4000-8000 max. right?

Unknown said...

rinsing cottage cheese is like not eating a cadbury egg every day. it just doesn't make sense.

but... i have to say, wow! that's commitment. a little extreme, but it apparently works for him.

so... when he didn't rinse the cottage cheese, did he lose?

Eric said...

I read that in the book Iron Will and was like, WHAT?!?!?!?

I like cottage cheese but I don't rinse it.

*jeanne* said...

Maybe that's why I'm so slow.

I have NEVER rinsed my cottage cheese. But they no longer make the kind of cottage cheese I liked, so I almost never eat it anymore, anyway.

it's only fuel said...

That is just a bit over the top, methinks. I'm all for discipline, but there comes a time when you should also enjoy life and not get all psycho with the details. I bet he would have been fine without rinsing...oddness!

Jennifer P said...

Um no. But I didn't lick the lid of the cream cheese icing container when I made cookies last week. Does that count?

Mike said...

I don't rinse the cottage cheese but I do use a paper napkin to soak up all the extra oil off of my pizza before eating- does that count?:-)

Unknown said...

I have to admit that I am just not that dedicated Cliff. In fact I don't even eat cottage cheese.

Migofast said...

blech! I dig cottage cheese .... throw in some pinapple or peaches but rinsed?! Let me know how it works out for you. :)

Hilda said...

Ideas like this to keep up consistency!

Kewl Nitrox said...

I'm with NancyToby on this one. I'm not one for the low fat stuff - except for Coke Light. Gotta have that. ;)

Hey, your pictures of the toast and the nuts are making me hungry (again)....

Rae said...

Hmmm....I don't like cottage cheese but maybe if I did I could win Ironman! That's the point you were trying to make, right??? =)