Well, I'm back. I never thought that this would happen to me but I've come off the rails BIGTIME in the last ten days or so!
I stuck with the diet (mostly) but due to a series of ridiculous days at work. I've been based back in Wollongong these last couple of weeks, and haven't been able to see Leander for way too long. I have been living in hotels again, and I have been unable to exercise properly. Crappy treadmill in the hotel gym, been raining outside, can't afford to go to Fitness First or Savvy Fitness. Boo hoo, poor me.
Notice the wimpy (mostly) admission about the diet? That means that I am eating the right foods, but not strictly weighing/measuring portions like I said I was going to. I've been eating too many snacks - good snacks (ie fruit) but way too much of it. I never realised that I had an emotional eating side to my personality. I'm a guy - I don't get the "emotional eating" thing that girls get. I guess that I understand that now. I dont eat crap or chocolate or other rubbish. I eat healthy foods, but waaaaay too much. I ate three humungus nashi pears in a row yesterday. I love the damn things but I know I should only eat 1 at the most.
Hmmm. I made a promise to myself, Leander, my family & Mish that I would train my arse off and this time I was going to measure my portions exactly. Guess what? I have to admit I have _ALLOWED_ things to fail. I honestly could have done better. If I _REALLY_ wanted to I could have got up earlier (ie 4 am) to train, or delayed dinner until later in the evening to enable me to get a session in. So I guess that, in reality, I'm full of it. I am full of good intentions and I didn't have the fortitude to see it through and be a man of my word. I didn't have the absolute _HUNGER_ to train that I normally have. I normally am so motivated that everything else can go to hay, I'm going to get my training session in.
SO there it is. I am human. I have always wanted to be the person that people can rely on. The person that my lady, my family & my friends can absolutely count on to get the job done. If I can't get the job done for myself, how can I become the man that I want to be so very much?
Mish's JFDI slogan helped a lot to make me get back on the horse. I heard a slogan today that motivated me even more than that - You are not dead so you can't quit !
Sigh. Well, the self-pity is over. I'm back into it big time. I'm sweating like a horse and I feel absolutely great. I just had a huge long run, kind of like a SSS session, and burned 989 Polars ! Woot ! The manager of the hotel where I am staying is a mad keen runner, and I have arranged to go for a run with him tomorrow after work - I am feeling better already.
Talk about feeling better - I discovered to my great surprise that I have three new followers ! Wow - that's really nice. Warm welcome to Rosa75, Miss Holly and LanB.
Kind regards,
Gav
Tuesday, 15 March 2011
Friday, 4 March 2011
Thank Heavens it's Friday (or Oh Shivers - SSS tomorrow !)
Hi Gang,
I had another interesting day at work, and the opportunity to try something new at the gym - Body Balance. I've never done yoga or anything remotely like it before, so got in 30 minutes early for a thorough warm-up. I hit my friendly treadmill for 20 minutes (250 cals) and once I had a nice glowing sweat on I did an ancient dynamic stretching routine that I try to use before anything demanding.
Well, talk about blissful. I had a really nice instructor;
Gav - "I've never done Balance before".
Instructor - "Kewl ! You are in for a real treat. I want you right down the front here where I can keep a really close eye on you."
I found my body really likes Balance. My fitness has improved to a level where I was comfortable enough to perform everything required, doing all of the advanced stretches to boot. Stretching is so much easier without a big wobbling belly in the way. There were two that I'll need to work on, and they were when I was standing on the ankle I broke many years ago. There is a noticable difference between my legs in this posture, so I have something to really strive towards. I was very interested to find myself sweating like a horse through most of the class. I wasn't moving at my limit aerobically, say like with RPM, but gee I had quite a glow on.
The end of the class was a real surprise - we had probably 10 minutes to cool down. The surprising bit was the technique used was basically a light form of hypnotism. How cool was that. I was relieved that we weren't asked to pretend to be chooks or something.
At the end of the class I headed over to a different treadmill, and ripped through another 250 cals. So while I know that I didn't get the target of 1000 cals in this session, I reckon I burned at least 500 "Polar" calories. Again, the gym closes at only 8pm on Friday nights, so it was the best I could do in the time.
Watch out, tomorrow is Saturday !
Kind regards,
Gav
I had another interesting day at work, and the opportunity to try something new at the gym - Body Balance. I've never done yoga or anything remotely like it before, so got in 30 minutes early for a thorough warm-up. I hit my friendly treadmill for 20 minutes (250 cals) and once I had a nice glowing sweat on I did an ancient dynamic stretching routine that I try to use before anything demanding.
Well, talk about blissful. I had a really nice instructor;
Gav - "I've never done Balance before".
Instructor - "Kewl ! You are in for a real treat. I want you right down the front here where I can keep a really close eye on you."
I found my body really likes Balance. My fitness has improved to a level where I was comfortable enough to perform everything required, doing all of the advanced stretches to boot. Stretching is so much easier without a big wobbling belly in the way. There were two that I'll need to work on, and they were when I was standing on the ankle I broke many years ago. There is a noticable difference between my legs in this posture, so I have something to really strive towards. I was very interested to find myself sweating like a horse through most of the class. I wasn't moving at my limit aerobically, say like with RPM, but gee I had quite a glow on.
The end of the class was a real surprise - we had probably 10 minutes to cool down. The surprising bit was the technique used was basically a light form of hypnotism. How cool was that. I was relieved that we weren't asked to pretend to be chooks or something.
At the end of the class I headed over to a different treadmill, and ripped through another 250 cals. So while I know that I didn't get the target of 1000 cals in this session, I reckon I burned at least 500 "Polar" calories. Again, the gym closes at only 8pm on Friday nights, so it was the best I could do in the time.
Watch out, tomorrow is Saturday !
Kind regards,
Gav
Thursday, ah Thursday.
Feeling pretty cruisy today. I slept in, because I was simply exhausted when my alarm went off at 5am. You need to get to bed earlier boyo. Luckily I could sleep until 8am as work is only 15 minutes away. Work was pretty laid back and straight forward today. All day I could feel that tiny bit of soreness in every movement I made. You know the feeling; it's the one that doesn't hurt, it just says, "you've been training". Yep, all was pretty good in my world.
I didn't have a couple of hours tonight to train, so again, I just did what I could. I warmed up for five minutes with a brisk walk on the treadmill and then began a nice, slow, easy jog at 9.5, 4 degree incline. I ran for thirty minutes, had a five minute walk then ran until 1000 cals showed on the treadmill. I walked to cool down and stopped at 1100 cals burned. I stopped my trusty polar heart rate monitor and stretched for about 20 minutes.
It was interesting to directly compare the readings between the treadmill and the HR monitor. Treadmill said 1100 cals, Polar says 785 cals. Hmmm. I wonder who Mish will reckon is correct ! No doubt she'll tell me go with the Polar . . .
I didn't have a couple of hours tonight to train, so again, I just did what I could. I warmed up for five minutes with a brisk walk on the treadmill and then began a nice, slow, easy jog at 9.5, 4 degree incline. I ran for thirty minutes, had a five minute walk then ran until 1000 cals showed on the treadmill. I walked to cool down and stopped at 1100 cals burned. I stopped my trusty polar heart rate monitor and stretched for about 20 minutes.
It was interesting to directly compare the readings between the treadmill and the HR monitor. Treadmill said 1100 cals, Polar says 785 cals. Hmmm. I wonder who Mish will reckon is correct ! No doubt she'll tell me go with the Polar . . .
Wednesday, 2 March 2011
Welcome to BIG Wednesday - Weigh in Day
I was up at 5 am, weighed myself, small loss, smiles. Could do a lot better, especially considering the effort I've been putting in lately. Though, due to an ongoing training course, yesterday was a bit of a lighter exercise day. The best exercise I could squeeze in yesterday was a half hour power walk at lunch. It's all I had time for, and I made sure I got something in. I really felt ready to drop when I finally hit the hay at 10.30pm, so I definitely needed the sleep.
Lesson - Have I been paying as strict attention to my diet as I should ? The scales tell the story - clearly I have not. Learn from this Gav. You'll need to do much better than this to reach your goal in the remaining 10 weeks.
Anyway, self-pity is a state of mind as they say. . . After "Big Wednesday Weigh-in" I was off to the gym to blast an RPM class. I was stoked to be first in the gym at 5.30 and had a good long warm up on the boxing gear before jumping on my bike. I decided to really up the loads this morning and made a special effort to blast my heart rate time and time again to max the burn. And did it burn. It hurt, it burned, my breathing ached and my heart rate was soaring. But you know what, within moments of hitting the rests and easing that load, I was back down to only 135 - 140 BPM.
At the end of the RPM class I stretched carefully and then jumped straight onto the treadmill. I was a bit sore so I only churned through 500 cals before finishing the session. To my annoyance, I found three times during the treadmill that my Polar heart rate monitor had lost signal. The treadmill hadn't but the watch had. I'm sure my arms aren't quite _THAT_ long. It's only six months old, but maybe the transmitter battery needs replacement. Might explain why the calories burned seems a lot lower than what the gym equipment reads. Total energy burned was only just 800 cals. Workout done. Time to focus on what is going into my mouth more closely. It _must_ be portion sizes.
Oh, and welcome to the first follower of Aeolian - Jane, nice to have you on board !
Lesson - Have I been paying as strict attention to my diet as I should ? The scales tell the story - clearly I have not. Learn from this Gav. You'll need to do much better than this to reach your goal in the remaining 10 weeks.
Anyway, self-pity is a state of mind as they say. . . After "Big Wednesday Weigh-in" I was off to the gym to blast an RPM class. I was stoked to be first in the gym at 5.30 and had a good long warm up on the boxing gear before jumping on my bike. I decided to really up the loads this morning and made a special effort to blast my heart rate time and time again to max the burn. And did it burn. It hurt, it burned, my breathing ached and my heart rate was soaring. But you know what, within moments of hitting the rests and easing that load, I was back down to only 135 - 140 BPM.
At the end of the RPM class I stretched carefully and then jumped straight onto the treadmill. I was a bit sore so I only churned through 500 cals before finishing the session. To my annoyance, I found three times during the treadmill that my Polar heart rate monitor had lost signal. The treadmill hadn't but the watch had. I'm sure my arms aren't quite _THAT_ long. It's only six months old, but maybe the transmitter battery needs replacement. Might explain why the calories burned seems a lot lower than what the gym equipment reads. Total energy burned was only just 800 cals. Workout done. Time to focus on what is going into my mouth more closely. It _must_ be portion sizes.
Oh, and welcome to the first follower of Aeolian - Jane, nice to have you on board !
Monday, 28 February 2011
Welcome to Week Two
Well Mish laid down a bit of a challenge in her video last night. In Round three 2010, the blokes were supposed to burn at least 500 cals, ideally 800 in a workout. Last night she lifted the bar again to 800 minimum, but ideally 1000 cals or possibly more.
This morning I rose to the challenge. I still have a little bit of DOMS from my Super Saturday Session, which was not going to stop me. I did an RPM class, and luckily got there about ten minutes early so had time to roll the legs over gently until the endorphins kicked in and it didn't hurt at all. Sweet. So I charged the RPM class and went hard. Luckily for me there were lots of hill tracks (my favourite) so I kept my heart rate elevated.
Immediately after stretching, I hit the treadmill and had a long gentle run. I was planning to do around 500 cals as I figured I'd burned plenty in RPM. But 500 cals came and went too soon so I kept going. So another 1000 cals down on the treadmill and it was just after 7:30am. How good is that - What a way to start your day !
Total workout according to my Polar HR monitor - 1,389cals. Polar cals are so much harder to burn than treadmill cals. . .
This morning I rose to the challenge. I still have a little bit of DOMS from my Super Saturday Session, which was not going to stop me. I did an RPM class, and luckily got there about ten minutes early so had time to roll the legs over gently until the endorphins kicked in and it didn't hurt at all. Sweet. So I charged the RPM class and went hard. Luckily for me there were lots of hill tracks (my favourite) so I kept my heart rate elevated.
Immediately after stretching, I hit the treadmill and had a long gentle run. I was planning to do around 500 cals as I figured I'd burned plenty in RPM. But 500 cals came and went too soon so I kept going. So another 1000 cals down on the treadmill and it was just after 7:30am. How good is that - What a way to start your day !
Total workout according to my Polar HR monitor - 1,389cals. Polar cals are so much harder to burn than treadmill cals. . .
Sunday, 27 February 2011
End of Week One - Extreme Caffeine no more
Well, I'm back on the 12WBT, and have just started round one for 2011.
I was very surprised at myself as I have been really keen to get stuck in and the first week has almost been a non-event. I had a very busy week at work and I couldn't make the time to get my backside to the gym. I was really annoyed, but I just honestly couldn't get there. So I focused on what I could do - which was be strict with my diet. Last round I did really well by giving nodding respect to my diet - I ate the right foods, but I wasn't strict with my portions - I wouldn't weigh or measure them. I was getting great results by eating decent food and training hard at the gym.
This round I vowed I'd keep working out at the gym, but I'd pay proper attention to my portion size. Watch out world, I was going to really hit it hard.
One of the things I was determined to do was give up coffee & diet coke. My middle name is "Extreme Caffeine" and I could drink litres of the stuff. I work in an office and always have a cup by my side with two heaped teaspoons of coffee and skim milk. I'd also drink at least a litre of diet coke per day, sometimes twice this.
So last Saturday I kicked the coffee & diet coke habit. I've gone cold turkey. I felt like absolute crap headaches, runny nose, just feeling terrible until Thursday afternoon. So that's my excuse. I felt crook all week, but by Thursday I was feeling calm. Still, relaxed and concentrated.
As I said, my spare time has been minimal this week - I've not even made the time to do my measurements and take my fitness test. My weight loss has been minimal so far - 400gms. It's reflected the effort I've made to my program so far - minimal. That's a start though. I have 11 weeks to go so watch this space.
Saturday was my first free day for the week so it was time to put my house in order. It was also my first SSS for this round, my Super Saturday Workout. I chose to see just how far I have come since I started in Round Three, 2010.
First thing was to knock over that bloody fitness test and measure up. The fitness test revealed I'd slipped a little as I haven't trained seriously (IE regularly) since Christmas. My 1 km was 4min 48 secs, my wall sit 2 mins 12 secs, push ups in 1 minute only 40, abs only stage 1 (same as last round) and flexibility down to only 7cm for the sit and reach test. So this puts me in the "Advanced" category for the exercise program.
Next thing was the gym sessions. First up was Body Pump, which is the first class I'd taken for about 5 years. Challenging, but I was sensible with the loads and got through the class relatively OK - the push ups beat me though, I only got 3/4's of the way through before I had to drop to my knees. So I finished the class sweaty, warm and feeling good.
I went straight from Body Pump to RPM (my personal favourite class) and went hard. Luckily I'd already set my bike up prior to the pump class so I could walk straight in. It was already 1/3rd of the way through the first track when I started. I found RPM interesting - I was actually shaking at first and by the end of the second track I was pretty-much back to my old self. I finished the class feeling GREAT ! Which was just as well, because next stop was Mt Panorama, the race track home to the famous Bathurst 1000 car race.
The race track is approximately 6.5 km in length, and has a whopping great mountain in the middle of it. I parked in the pits, and because I was still pretty warm, I did some careful stretches and walked to the starting grid.
So I started the stop watch at the starting grid (visualising turning my electric car into a V8 supercar) and I was off, all cylinders blazing. That Hill ! No wonder Brocky was king of the mountain, because it feels like a mountain. But you know what, when I finally got to the top, the view, oh the view ! It’s called Mt Panorama for a darn good reason. So I’m on the flat at the top, feeling pretty chuffed with myself.
Suddenly, it’s starting to head downhill ! Woo hoo ! I’m gunna make this ! I round the last corner when oh no ! Road closed. Theres a hill climb going up the mountain the “wrong” way. So I was a bit disappointed. Then I realised that some things you can’t change plus I was probably more than 1/2 way, so I was likely to get an extra kay on my run. Talk about making me smile ! So I paused, took a few shots on my iPhone, and headed back.
When I finally made the “Start” line again, I was over the moon. I couldn’t believe I’d done all that in one day. I honestly thought that I’d bitten off more than I could do. But I hadn’t. I just kept going and didn’t allow myself to stop.
I hope that you have also had a really great SSS.
I was very surprised at myself as I have been really keen to get stuck in and the first week has almost been a non-event. I had a very busy week at work and I couldn't make the time to get my backside to the gym. I was really annoyed, but I just honestly couldn't get there. So I focused on what I could do - which was be strict with my diet. Last round I did really well by giving nodding respect to my diet - I ate the right foods, but I wasn't strict with my portions - I wouldn't weigh or measure them. I was getting great results by eating decent food and training hard at the gym.
This round I vowed I'd keep working out at the gym, but I'd pay proper attention to my portion size. Watch out world, I was going to really hit it hard.
One of the things I was determined to do was give up coffee & diet coke. My middle name is "Extreme Caffeine" and I could drink litres of the stuff. I work in an office and always have a cup by my side with two heaped teaspoons of coffee and skim milk. I'd also drink at least a litre of diet coke per day, sometimes twice this.
So last Saturday I kicked the coffee & diet coke habit. I've gone cold turkey. I felt like absolute crap headaches, runny nose, just feeling terrible until Thursday afternoon. So that's my excuse. I felt crook all week, but by Thursday I was feeling calm. Still, relaxed and concentrated.
As I said, my spare time has been minimal this week - I've not even made the time to do my measurements and take my fitness test. My weight loss has been minimal so far - 400gms. It's reflected the effort I've made to my program so far - minimal. That's a start though. I have 11 weeks to go so watch this space.
Saturday was my first free day for the week so it was time to put my house in order. It was also my first SSS for this round, my Super Saturday Workout. I chose to see just how far I have come since I started in Round Three, 2010.
First thing was to knock over that bloody fitness test and measure up. The fitness test revealed I'd slipped a little as I haven't trained seriously (IE regularly) since Christmas. My 1 km was 4min 48 secs, my wall sit 2 mins 12 secs, push ups in 1 minute only 40, abs only stage 1 (same as last round) and flexibility down to only 7cm for the sit and reach test. So this puts me in the "Advanced" category for the exercise program.
Next thing was the gym sessions. First up was Body Pump, which is the first class I'd taken for about 5 years. Challenging, but I was sensible with the loads and got through the class relatively OK - the push ups beat me though, I only got 3/4's of the way through before I had to drop to my knees. So I finished the class sweaty, warm and feeling good.
I went straight from Body Pump to RPM (my personal favourite class) and went hard. Luckily I'd already set my bike up prior to the pump class so I could walk straight in. It was already 1/3rd of the way through the first track when I started. I found RPM interesting - I was actually shaking at first and by the end of the second track I was pretty-much back to my old self. I finished the class feeling GREAT ! Which was just as well, because next stop was Mt Panorama, the race track home to the famous Bathurst 1000 car race.
The race track is approximately 6.5 km in length, and has a whopping great mountain in the middle of it. I parked in the pits, and because I was still pretty warm, I did some careful stretches and walked to the starting grid.
So I started the stop watch at the starting grid (visualising turning my electric car into a V8 supercar) and I was off, all cylinders blazing. That Hill ! No wonder Brocky was king of the mountain, because it feels like a mountain. But you know what, when I finally got to the top, the view, oh the view ! It’s called Mt Panorama for a darn good reason. So I’m on the flat at the top, feeling pretty chuffed with myself.
Suddenly, it’s starting to head downhill ! Woo hoo ! I’m gunna make this ! I round the last corner when oh no ! Road closed. Theres a hill climb going up the mountain the “wrong” way. So I was a bit disappointed. Then I realised that some things you can’t change plus I was probably more than 1/2 way, so I was likely to get an extra kay on my run. Talk about making me smile ! So I paused, took a few shots on my iPhone, and headed back.
I hope that you have also had a really great SSS.
Saturday, 19 February 2011
Commitment Time
Time to give up coffee. I've been using caffeine as a crutch for way too long. Cold turkey day. I've done it before for several years, and it's time to do it again. Time to stock up on the nurofen for the next two weeks - they are probably not going to be pretty. Though the exercise will hopefully minimise the headaches I know will come. Natural endorphins are brilliant for this, so maybe I'll stick to one pack of nurofen & see how it goes.
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