Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Feeling great


I feel so good about the improvements I am seeing.

Nearly evertime I go to the gym I break several personal bests. I am getting faster fitter and stronger.

I do need to watch that I don't start overeating now, because I justified eating some leftover potatoes heavily soaked in pork fat, because I need more fuel now.

I wish life was as simple as just eating well and exercising, then results follow, unfortunately it isn't but really being healthy is simple.

Everyone should do it, because then at least there is one thing in your life that makes sense.

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Gloating


My tummy doesn't sag anymore.

Ok that isn't quite true. It does sag when I bend over or sit down, but when I stand up the sag is gone. Sure there is still some fat, but it is more toned and sits like a small round bump below my belly button.

I never thought the sagging would go away. Even at 52kgs, my tummy sagged, but it doesn't anywhere near as much anymore.

It is almost as though I had no change over the past month or so and then bang, my body changed.

Flat stomach here I come.

On the other hand my back has gotten bigger and firmer and my bras don't fit anymore. So I guess I will have to go shopping soon.

I bought new jeans today, size 8 which is definately a bonus. Still I am very short, I should be at most a size 8.

Yay, I am starting to get real results.

BTW: Gina Carano, sure is hot for a mixed maritial artist.

Friday, August 21, 2009

Arghhh I'm single.

I don't really have much to say except that I still feel on track, although I have not been to the gym in days due to study and personal stuff. Still it is all good I am off to the gym this afternoon and looking forward to pumping some weights. LOL

Singledom is a scarey world and at my age the fear is that no one is going to ever give me a second glance. Luckily I have had a small amount of male interest in the past few days, just enough to make me feel good about the way I look.

Actually, I am looking better everyday. My tummy is definitely firmer.

I am slightly revaluating my image because well I want/need to allow for the major change in relationship status. I am no longer a married woman, but a single mother of two. I want to express who I am in how I dress, act and look. I don't want to be the most gorgeous girl in the world but make sure that I represent my personality honestly, that way I hopefully won't attract the kind of men who don't like assertive women.

I am caught up in a struggle as to whether I should grow my hair or keep it short. I think I will keep it short, but who knows, how I will feel tomorrow.

Diet has been pretty good, with a few treats here and there, but nothing over the top or particularly often. Well thats about it for now.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Rowing machine is my biatch.


A few years a go I was going to the gym, the first time ever. ( at least 5 years a go)

The rowing machine was hard. 30 strokes per minute killed. Every second I rowed was one closer to the end. I had the resistance set to low and it hurt. I dreaded the machine.

Last night, I did my first interval training session on the rowing machine.

The resistance was set to maximum. While doing the high intensity I was up near 40 to 45 strokes a minute, while doing the low intensity I was still doing 30.

Oh yeah, I am a lot fitter than I used to be. The thing is I now know how much further I have to go.

Still it is a great feeling to see such a huge difference. I can feel it today though.

Monday, August 17, 2009

Don't worry be happy.


We all have ups and downs, I sure seem to get my fill of the downs. It is time for my husband and I to part ways. As friends mind you. It isn't so bad, but a little sad.

When life throws you lemons, make lemonade.

I fought off the urge to eat a muffin yesterday, but did indulge in a turkish delight on Sunday. Sunday was a busy day with several hours on my feet at the canteen and I forgot to eat the snack food I had brought. I completely forgot I had brought it in the first place.

Still, I won my fight over the muffin.

I have even more reason to do this, get strong and fit. I want to be invincible, physically and emotionally and strangely the two are linked. So bad things do happen, but at least food is the furthest from my mind right now and my determination is stronger than ever.

I love going to the gym. I think it will definately help keep me sane in the coming days. I will need to grieve and process, but a lot of that has been done already. Yesterday I grunted and groaned my way through my weights session doing several new personal bests. I feel myself getting leaner everyday and not at all bulkier, except maybe my biceps. Huge biceps are sexy right?

I wish my training mate the best of luck with his future.

Amazons aren't meant to be tied down to a man anyway.


Friday, August 14, 2009

I feel pumped


A quick cadio session.

While my heart rate was right up there and I sweated about 2 buckets, I still feel like I have more in me. I guess I need to up the level on the elliptical machine.

Science and study.


Things have been going pretty well, although I missed wednesdays work out and had a chocolate tasting session instead. It was for Science!!!

Really it was.

I don't think I had too much, but still more than I normally have which is zero.

I am tired from way too much work to do, but I still plan to head to the gym tonight. I am super satisfied with my life, although it was funny on thursday morning I felt fat because I had eaten chocolate and not gone to the gym. It was all in my mind, a small serve of chocolate and missing one work out will not make me fat, but I felt guilty because I didn't follow my plan.

There were reasons, good reasons, but I do wish my personal goals hadn't taken backseat to other things.

Other than that, I have managed to make being fit and healthy a priority.

It feels good to have started the new program and I am keen to do my measurements.

Monday, August 10, 2009

Frustrated.


I have been feeling a little bit sick. Not a lot sick, but a little bit sick.

Yesterday I was due to start the new program, but with a massive headache hitting me in the middle of the day, it was decided that I should probably not push it.

But I wanted to go. It was frustrating.

Tonight we are going, no matter what. I have been patient, but I really want to get into this new program.

My body is starting to change, especially around my tummy. I love being able to say that, usually the last place I get results is around the mid riff. The scales don't show any difference, I am tempted to do my measurements, but I know I will see a bigger more definate change if I wait a month. So I will wait for that.

My ribs stick out more. Before you could see a rib just below my breast, now I can just see my lower ribs starting to poke out. I feel so much sexier. Apparently my colar bone has become more prominent and my shoulders are bigger, I haven't really noticed these changes, but Iason has so I will take it all as good news.

Well I need to finish making dinner, we are having corned beef tonight, of course I won't be having white sauce. Yum yum.

Saturday, August 8, 2009

Recovery week


Before we started our new program we needed to make sure we were fully recovered from all previous training, so last week was recovery week.

It was a great time figuring out what our maximum weights are and maximum speeds for cardio.

For instance level 10 on the rowing machine is really easy for me, even at 40 strokes per minute. Yay me.

Diet has been really easy to stick too. I did indulge last night in homemade cherry crumble and icecream, just a small serve that tasted good, but I did feel very full afterwards.

Otherwise, my food intake and what I have been eating has been easy to maintain. I do need to chop veggies today to prepare for next week.

The chopped veggies trick is working so very well. If I need to munch on something guilt free, there is an easy option all chopped and ready for me in the fridge.

My knee is hurting. This is disapointing for me. I won't be running for a little while, just to make sure it has plenty of time to get better. The thing is it doesn't hurt when I run, but I know it is the running doing it. I just want to train. I want to keep making gains and I feel so good about going to the gym, I don't want to stop. Emotionally I feel fantastic after a work out and I hate that the gym closes by 1pm on a Sunday. I could really go for a light session today.

I found I could sustain level 12 for a minute on the treadmill, which I am happy about. I am sure I could do it for longer, but the idea is to do 1 minute fast and 1 minute walking. Level 10 on the bike was manageable as well. Seems nothing is too hard, but I think the high intensity running did hurt my poor knee. :(

I just need to let it get better, so I will stick to the bike, eleptical and rowing machine for now. Not going just isn't an option.

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Physical changes


I had a look in the mirror today after my shower and I noticed something different. Nothing major but a small change.

My stomach which is saggy due to fat stores and stretch marks, now instead of being one sag has two sags. There is a bit in the middle that comes up a bit making my saggy tummy look more like an upside down love heart.

So, something must be changing. Upside down love heart is good. Means less fat and a more defined stomach.

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

New exercise program - Cardio



So what is this new program?

Well it is based on a few ideas that I have been slowly been putting together from my own experience and some training advice from Vince DelMonte.

Firstly, your body needs to recover. My body knows this and I used to feel bad if I took a day off or didn't go as hard as I did last time.

If I can't go as hard as I did last time, then my body hasn't properly recovered.

This is important, because I believe it is more important to train at your highest intensity rather than drag your butt into the gym and barely move your heart rate.

When you train at a high intensity, you push yourself and make your body adjust to this increase in intensity. My body doesn't like to change. It thinks that fat storage is a good idea, because it never knows when I might next decide to go for a few days not eating enough.

So I am going to train harder and I will do this by using the interval method.

This is really simple. Just go as hard as you can for 1 minute then take an easy pace for 1 minute.

Over time I can reduce my rest period, or increase my intensity, but never both at the same time.

As an easy way to measure the work done for each exercise I will simply multiply the level by the time in total at high intensity. Eg I run at level 10 for 20 minutes on and off.
Then my workload for running that day is level 10 * 10 minutes = 100. If I manage to get my rest period down to 30 seconds then my workload is 10*13.33 = 133, obviously I have worked harder.

Ok so how is this going to work exactly.

Types of exercise: I don't just want to run, I think I will get greater benefit and not get quite as bored if I mix it up. I will do one day on the treadmill the next on the bike the next on the eliptical machine and then the rowing machine, before getting back to the treadmill again.

The goal on each machine as follows:
Machine Increase intensity
Treadmill: Increase speed level
Bike: keep at 90rpm and reduce rest time
eliptical: Use the "random" setting & inc level
Rowing machine: Keep at 40s/min & reduce rest time.

Next I am going to drop the length of time I am at the gym. Currently I spend a full hour at the gym and go at about 80 - 90% intensity for 50 minutes of it. Instead I am going to only stay at the gym for 30 - 45 minutes. Starting at 30 minutes = 20 minutes interval + 10 minutes warm/cool.

I am going to go more frequently. This though is only if I am fully recovered. If I get to the gym and I can't maintain the level I did last time then I am not fully recovered and I am going to stop. I think I will go do some stretches instead.

Yep a key ingredient to this program is that you push at your maximum every single time. If I can't, then there isn't much point being there. Yes, I will still burn calories, but if I do train when not fully recovered it will take me longer to recover fully and I start to risk injury.

So no training when I am not up to it. This doesn't mean don't go to the gym, just don't do the cardio session.

I am only going 3 times a week at the moment, and half of this isn't cardio. My goal is to be up to 3 times a week cardio and 2 -3 times a week weight training.

Finally I am going to keep increasing my personal best. The reason why I have a way to measure workload is that I want to try to increase my workload by 5% each time I get back to doing that exercise type.

For example: lets say I can run at level 10, on and off for 20 minutes, my workload is 100, next time I want that workload to be 105 and the time after that 110.25. I can either do this by increasing the level, reducing the rest time, or increasing the overall duration. Before each work out I should know what my previous level, work/rest ratio and overall duration and what my new workload is going to be.

So I did level 10 for 1minute on/1 minute off for 20 minutes, next time I do 10.5 for the same thereby increasing my workload by 5%.

I rode at level 10 for 1minute on/1 minute off for 20 minutes, next time I do level 10 for 1 minute on 50 seconds off thereby increasing my workload by 11%.

Clear?

Ok, maybe not, but I it makes sense to me. Tonight I am going to the gym to establish what my maximum levels are.

So that is the cardio program, wait till I tell you about the weights work out.


Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Take note.


I must remember this.

I was exhausted, physically, emotionally and mentally.

I went to the gym, I went hard for 15 minutes and took the rest of it easy.

I feel better, much better. Still a little sleepy, but not exhausted. My emotional reserves feel replenished.

Next time I want to back out of going to the gym because I feel tired, stressed or low, I must remember this.

Exhausted.


I was exhausted last night and I had several personal things to work on, so we didn't make our planned trip to the gym. Which is fine as we want to make sure we are fully recovered before we begin our new work out program.

I tossed and turned last night, suffering from insomnia.

Tiredness leads to craving sugar, which leads to that horrible insulin sugar/carb cycle.

I have managed to not fall into this situation.

Still it is hard to feel motivated when you are tired. My head hurts and my throats is sore, but mostly I hope I sleep well tonight. I have had to think about what my plan was to do when I get like this.

I need to be strong and I need to be healthy. Tonight I will go to the gym even though mentally I really don't want to. I will take it easy when I get there, if I don't feel great, but if the exercise perks me up then great. I know that tomorrow I will feel better because I made the effort to go.

I will eat well because sugar doesn't help me feel better for any longer than about 1o minutes.

I learning a lot about my body and diet. Once I finished reading up, I will let you know what my new program will entail.

Sunday, August 2, 2009

Much better.



Today I ate well.

It was another busy day at the canteen. I took my trail mix and a protein shake.

The protein shake failed. The protein solidified in the bottom of the cup resembling clag.

Breakfast was a bacon and egg roll, which would be better if not served on a white roll.

So we can home and I wanted something for a late lunch. With a fridge full of delious fresh dips, carrot, beetroot, eggplant and hummus. I decided to cut up several vegetables and eat them with the dip. Yay, no over eating on the bread.

I felt heaps better, the food felt light and tasty.

Dinner was a small portion of pide, salad and vegetables. In total 4 serves of carb plus some sugar in the dips.

Not enough protein, but there was some in the nuts, hummus, and the pide (which contained cheese and meat)

At the end of the day I feel satisfied and healthy. Yesterdays fiasco processed and moved on from. No baklava either, even though there was plenty left.


Starting a new program


Iason and I are starting to take this doing weights thing seriously and are going to try a new program soon.

There are a couple of things, firstly I am not sure if this program will give me the results I want, but I think it will, but to make sure I want to monitor things properly.

I have done a more thorough measurement of my statistics, so that I will know if I am getting the results I want. Some of them may not mean much to you, but they make sense to me. I have measured my wrist and ankle because they are places where you show fat accumulation.

If I am doing this right, these shouldn't get larger.

Kara
weight: 59.4kgs just drank 750ml of water.
dressed and shoes.
Chest 83cm
under breasts 77.5cm
Waist fattest bit 88cm
waist thinest bit 79cm
tummy fat hip bone to hip bone round the fat bit 30cm
fat bit of hips 99cm
upper thigh 58cm
knee 37.5cm
calf 39cm
ankle 22cm
bicep 29.5cm

Saturday, August 1, 2009

Not feeling very strong right now.


I ate too much for dinner.

Tonight we got turkish takeaway, which should have been a meal that I enjoyed but didn't feel guilty about.

I made a quick decision when the food arrived that I should just let my hair down and enjoy myself.

Why does enjoying myself involve eating too much?

There were lots of things to choose from, lamb kofta, chicken kebabs, salad, beans, rice, potatoes, zuchini puffs, dips, pide, stuffed pide and balaklava. MMMM balaklava.

I piled up my plate with a desert spoonful of each dip, rice, chicken, kofta, zuchini puff, salad and beans.

My mistakes:

I ate too much. I put too much on my plate. Next time I will keep my serving to a normal size.

When choosing dip I didn't think about the amount of bread that I would need to go with it to eat it. Next time just have one flavor dip, or skip dip altogether. If I am having bread then I don't need rice. Way, way too many carbohydrates. I know better than this.

Do not eat the deep fried zuchini puff. Yes it is yummy, but it is full of saturated fats and carbohydrates. It wasn't more yummy than the other healthy options.

I also had baklava. Which I don't think was a mistake as such. I enjoyed the baklava. I just wish I hadn't eaten so much before then.

Things I did right:

I didn't eat the stuffed pide, which is basically as good for you as pizza is.

I ate a lot of vegetables, I didn't eat everything on my plate and noticed that I was feeling full.

I didn't eat any chocolate, but I nearly did. I was on a bit of a binge. When that happens it is a case of one in, all in. Except I wasn't enjoying the chocolate, so I stopped eating it.

The results:

I feel sick. I have indegestion. That is what happens when I overdose on carbs.

I feel a bit guilty, worried about if I have lost focus. Worried that I it will take me longer to lose the fat.

I must remember that sometimes it is ok to eat something a little unhealthy, but that doesn't mean I should just go all out.

The two above leave me thinking that it would be easy to throw it up. I really do feel ill. I do though know that isn't a healthy way to deal with overeating.

So what is a healthy way?

Learn from it. Plan for next time.

If I am going to allow myself a bit more leway on my diet I should decide on 1, possibly 2 special things, otherwise eat as much as I would normally. Keep the portions low. Remember bread and dip is filling and I don't like the feeling of eating that much bread in one sitting. Skip the dip, or limit myself to just one dip. Avoid the high carbohydrate things. Stick to the meat and vegetables.

I really hope it doesn't effect my progress, I suspect it won't. One meal in the overall scheme of things is nothing.

So I screwed up, lets hope I have learned from it and won't have it happen again.