Week 6 Results

So much for planning to succeed. Meals 1 and 2 went to plan yesterday, but that was it. Found myself unexpectedly in town for meal 3. Did I find a cafe to order a tuna salad? No, I went to Starbucks and had coffee and their blueberry cheesecake. (Yummmm. No, dammmit, BAD blubber, BAD BAD BAD.)

Went to the supermarket to get the rest of the ingredients for the chicken and squash in cream sauce recipe (we’d run out of mushrooms) but hubby fancied a roast chicken. Ok, I thought, roast chicken and salad. That would be fine. But then I had mash with it. Without having worked out first. For readers not familiar with Precision Nutrition, you get veg at every meal, fruit sometimes, but are only allowed other carbs when you have done a workout in the previous couple of hours, when your body is more receptive to processing the carbs for energy rather than storing them as fat. And ideally they should be wholegrain complex carbs, not mashed potato from Smash. Find out more about Precision Nutrition here. Then I craved something sweet, so I made chocolate banana brownies. So I ate five meals yesterday and only two were PN-compliant.

Also, apart from the class I taught in the morning, with maybe 15 minutes of demonstration time, I didn’t do my Turbulence Training weights workout. My legs were like lead and I could barely stand up from my chair, let alone do squats and stuff. I did manage to get it done today, meaning I did all 3 TT workouts this week. But because I need a day off before my next one, I won’t be able to do it till Tuesday. I had hoped to do Monday and Wednesday because we go away Wednesday evening. And I’m still a touch over an hour short of my 5-hours minimum exercise for the week. Maybe I will try Aluschka’s Free Yoga DVD. Aluschka is an amazing (and amazing-looking) woman. Check out her story on the PN Challenge forum, here.

Anyhow, as you can see from the sidebar, all this weak-assed compliance has finally taken it’s toll. I’m back up to 15 stone 2.8 pounds, although my body fat has held steady at 44%. This is attributable to me gaining another 1 pound of lean mass. But my waist measurement is up 1.5 cm! The workouts are doing their job, but I’m sabotaging it with what I’m eating. Only 52% compliance this week – my worst yet. I’m disappointed this week, not so much with my results, but with myself.

Planning to Succeed

You know what they say:

If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.

I’m going back to planning out my meals in advance. Hopefully, that’ll make me less likely to end up ordering in Chinese or pizza or Indian or …. you get the picture.

So here is my plan for tomorrow.

Meal 1: Protein shake – nothing too heavy as am teaching a kickboxing class tomorrow, for the first time in over a year, and don’t want to throw up!

Meal 2: Prawn and mango salad (see recipes)

Meal 3: Chicken with chickpeas (from Gourmet Nutrition, the PN cookbook, see links), green salad

Meal 4: Small tuna salad

Meal 5: Chicken with squash in cream sauce (from Gourmet Nutrition), green salad

Meal 6: Cottage cheese with blueberries, raspberries, nuts and seeds

Will let you know how I get on.

Losing sight of the wagon altogether

I seem to be in meltdown. Last night I got home and hubby said he wanted pizza. Rather than saying no, I’m going to cook, I said, yay, pizza, and lets have wedges, onion rings, and chicken wings too. And how about chocolate cake and ice cream for dessert? Making that my 3rd binge-style cheat meal in the four days so far this week.

I just don’t seem to be able to motivate myself to stick to Precision Nutrition guidelines. I suppose when I’m not bingeing, I’m PN compliant, for what it’s worth. But 3 times in 4 days I’ve lost complete control of myself and gorged until I had to come up for air. I’m starting to sink into the dangerous cycle of self recriminations, self loathing, and self destruction.

On the exercise front, I’m not exactly burning up the treadmill, but at least my Turbulence Training workouts are on schedule. I’m up to 2 hours and 40 minutes so far this week. Not great, but not horrendously slothful. I should still be able to make my PN-recommended 5 hours minimum.

Still, feeling pretty down and hopeless. I suppose, if I don’t think about the 16-week PN challenge, which is fading fast into the distance of probability, and think more in the long term, these are all just baby steps towards a better, fitter, healthier me, and at least I’m moving largely in the right direction.

Toodling along

Nothing much of interest yesterday and today, just toodling along, but I thought I ought to post something. I did have a rather large cheat meal yesterday evening, which resulted in me not wanting to eat again before bed, thus clocking up a ‘missed meal’ as well as a cheat. But exercise going well, and have had 5 PN-friendly meals today. Sorry my life is soooo dull right now. ‘night all.

Week 5 Results

Weigh and measure day today, and it wasn’t as bad as I expected with everything pretty much holding steady. I’m back on plan now and feeling a lot more positive. I went and got my hair cut short yesterday (no, not so I’d weigh less!)… kind of a mini-rebirth, and it seems to have worked.

On the food front, the good news is that all the ice cream and chocolate brownies that I made a surreptitious midnight run to the store for a few nights ago are now out of the house. The bad news is that that’s because I ate them. But have been eating clean for two days now and my PN compliance is up to around 74%. I’m very determined to have a really good food week next week because it’s my last full week before going on holiday and I’m not sure how that will affect my diet.

I’m back exercising again, too. There was the Turbulence Training workout I did yesterday. 50 minutes, including HIIT. It was my RPE 9 30 second intervals again. Didn’t think I ought to try jogging again, as I’ve been having twinges in my knee, so I did the intervals on the turbo trainer. Added in 2 extra intervals as I’d planned. It’s good in that it takes the pressure off my knee, but when I get off the treadmill I usually feel fantastic. When I get off the turbo trainer it’s just a relief.

Today, I’ve just finished 45 minutes of standing pilates and I’m dripping with sweat but feeling fantastic. Having some trouble with The Star Level 3. You roll down to a plank, get into a side plank, take upper arm straight up to the ceiling. Then lift your upper leg to hip level and swing it backwards behind you as you swing your arm forwards in front of you. Then you swing the leg forward. Repeat! This is one of the few standing pilates moves that take you down to the floor; most of them are done upright. Check out the link on the Books page to find out more about standing pilates.

So that takes me to 2.5 hours exercise this week. I might do some kickboxing later too, when I catch my breath. Never did make it for a hike with hubby. Been chucking it down all day.

Yep, did the kickboxing. So that’s 3 hours this week. Gosh, short hair is so much easier to wash! There’s another link on the Books page for Kick the Fat – the book that taught me to punch and kick, and where I get my workouts from. If you have a bit of a masochistic streak, check it out.

That’s it for week 5. ‘night all.

Getting back on the wagon

Ate 5 PN-friendly meals today, didn’t miss any, no cheats, and did a stonking TT workout to boot. OK, only my second this week, but feeling much better about myself for finally reining myself in.

Not looking forward to weigh and measure day tomorrow though. My compliance so far has been only 70% (actually, I’m surprised it was that high! Will try and get it a little higher tomorrow though. And so far, I’ve only managed 1 hr 45 mins exercise. If the weather is nice tomorrow, maybe hubby and I can go for a bit of a hike. Forecast is good – will keep my fingers crossed. ‘night all.

Falling off the wagon

To my regular readers, I’d like to apologise for the gap between postings. Truth be told, I’ve been too ashamed to post. Not only have I fallen off the wagon this week, but the wagon has then backed up and reversed over me a number of times. Basically, I’ve been baaaaaad.

I’ve barely had a PN-compliant meal all week. I haven’t wanted to work out. So far, I’ve only managed one turbulence training weights workout and about half an hour of standing pilates on the day I was teaching. No cardio. Nothing. I really don’t know what’s gotten in to me. I’ve been a bit down and I really just couldn’t be bothered.

But I figured I’d have to post on this blog at some point. The whole reason for writing it and putting those awful pictures of me up for all to see was to keep me accountable. So feel free to kick my ample ass and get me back in line.

Nutrition Tip of the Week no. 3

From now on, I will be posting one of these tips each week, courtesy of Dr John Berardi, the brains (and brawn) behind Precision Nutrition. Enjoy, and click on the link below for more info on PN.

Tip #3
Fish Oil Rules
by Dr. John Berardi

I consider fish oil to be an essential supplement for fat loss. Data from the University of Western Ontario shows that fish oil supplementation increases lean body mass (during non-dieting conditions), increases BMR (by up to 400kcal/day), decreases inflammation, and improves the ratio of fat/carb oxidized (sparing carbs, burning fat). Recommended dose: Start with 6-10g per day of total fish oil (assuming 30% EPA and DHA).

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Definitions:
BMR is Basal Metabolic Rate. It is the amount of energy your body needs when at rest, just to do internal housekeeping stuff, like keeping your cells healthy, your heart beating, and so on. Fish oil can increase your BMR, so even without exercise you would be burning more calories (energy) every day.

DHA and EPA are omega-3 essential fatty acids. They play an important role in brain and heart health, and are often in the news these days. They’re called essential because although our bodies need them for optimal health, we can’t make them ourselves, so we need to get them in our diets. Good sources of omega-3 are cold-water oily fish, like salmon, and to a lesser extent, some plant sources such as flax (linseeds). Most of us don’t get nearly enough omega-3 essential fatty acids and supplements are readily available.

For metabolism-boosting purposes research shows that a minimum of 6g a day are needed. It is not hard to find Omega-3 capsules containing 1000mg (1g) of omega-3, of which 300mg are DHA+EPA, ie. 30% as recommended in the tip. Aim for at least six of these a day.

Look out for another nutrition tip next week.

Week 4 Results

Well, dropped nearly 3 and a half pounds from last week’s high of 214.6, taking me to 211.2. I’ve given up on the calipers as a decent means of measuring body fat – it’s just too hard to get consistent results. My top-of-the-range Tanita scales are quite consistent, so I’m going to be posting those results from now on. And this is how they look so far:

Start: 214 lbs, 47% body fat, 113 lbs lean body mass
Week 4: 211.2 lbs, 44.1% body fat, 118 lbs lean body mass

This kind of makes up for me having lost only 3 lbs in a month. I know it means I’ve gained 5 lbs muscle and actually lost 8 lbs of fat, but I’m a girl. And a fat girl. I wanna see the numbers go down!!!! And I know it’s not about what it says on the scales, or it shouldn’t be. But I’ve been so good. My lifestyle is so different now, after just a month, and I really like it, but I wish I were wearing a smaller size. Hubby and I are just shopping for a trip we have coming up, and I can’t get the gear I want in my size. It’s very depressing. Big people need high-tech clothing too, you know!

Actually, although I haven’t posted my 1-month pics, since there’s not much more to see than there was at the start, if you stand on one leg, tilt your head 30° to the right and stick your tongue out, you may begin to think that just possibly, perhaps, there might be a bit less cellulite on the tops of my thighs… maybe a bit tighter there too… and perhaps the angle of my tummy fat is a little shallower? Well, you’ll just have to wait another month to see. I’ll post halfway pics (for the PN challenge) even if there isn’t much to see.

As for exercise, it was a good week. Did my first week of the Intermediate Level Turbulence Training. Making progress with the intensity of my cardio intervals, and added an extra interval session in this week, for a total of 4. In all, did 5.5 hours of exercise this week:

• 3 x Turbulence Training workouts for a total of 2 hrs 20 mins
• 1 extra high-intensity interval training session for 25 minutes
• 2 hrs 15 minutes steady-state cardio (walking, turbo trainer, elliptical)
• 30 minutes standing pilates

My goal for the next week is to add 2 intervals to each of my HIIT sessions, do at least one extra pilates workout and take my total exercise up by one hour to 6.5 hours. My nutrition goal is to maintain 90% compliance with the PN eating plan, not miss any feeds this week (missed 2 last week), and remember to take all my supplements.

Learn more about Precision Nutrition
Learn more about Turbulence Training

Rotator Cuff Exercises

I’d like to apologise for the lateness of this post, which was due to problems with our internet connection. This post follows on from the previous one ‘Stabilising the Scapula & Shoulder Mobility’. If you haven’t read that post, read it before trying any of these exercises.

Shoulder Impingement
Stabilising the Scapula & Shoulder Mobility

Once you can ’set’ or stabilise your scapulae with ease, and have good mobility at the shoulder, then it’s time to start strengthening the rotator cuff muscles. I’ve demonstrated most of these using a dynaband – these come in varying strengths so you can start with low resistance and use progressively stronger bands as you get stronger. You can also start without the bands, particularly if you already have shoulder problems, and build up to using them.

The first exercise, called the dumb waiter in pilates, involves starting with your elbows in a tucked position, shoulder blades ’set’ and then externally rotating the arms. Many people won’t be able to get far to begin with, but with practice you should be able to increase the range. Make sure not to let your shoulders ride up while you do this exercise, or to let your elbows stray from your sides.

The opposite of external rotation is internal rotation. Attach your band to something stable at about elbow height, such as a door handle. Start with your hand forward in front of you, elbow tucked in to your side, shoulders ’set’. With a slow controlled movement, bring your hand across your body, hold, then slowly release.

Once you get stronger, these exercises can also be performed with dumbells, or with an adjustable cable-pulley machine, set at the level of your elbow. Be sure to control the movement in both directions, your elbows tucked in, and your shoulder blades ’set’ throughout.

As always, if something is very painful, or doesn’t feel right, don’t do it and seek professional assistance. Happy strengthening.

Here is a link to a series of articles by Eric Cressey, MA CSCS, on t-nation.com, about shoulder health for serious lifters. If you like to pound ‘em out in the gym and have dickey shoulders, this one is for you:

Shoulder Savers Part I

Shoulder Savers Part II

Shoulder Savers Part III