Body Fat Down 1%

Weigh day on Sunday. Weight held pretty steady but body fat was down a whole percentage point! I’ve now lost 7 pounds and 3 percentage points since coming back from Africa. Woohoo!

I’ve also added a couple of more ambitious fitness goals to my 101 in 1001 list. I’m feeling really positive about everything and almost anything seems possible. Eventually.

Heart Rate Training & The Neck Up–Neck Down Rule

Workouts are going well this week. Only today and tomorrow to go before, for the first time, I can say that I’ve ticked off four weeks of workouts without missing a day.

Over the weekend, I was feeling a bit rough one day, sinusey and congested with a bit of a headache. Not wanting to ruin my perfect record this month, I used the neck up–neck down rule to decide what to do. This says that if you are sick from the neck up, headache, snuffly, that kind of thing, it’s ok to work out if you feel up to it, but use your common sense, maybe take it a little easier, and be sure to keep well hydrated. On the other hand, if you’re sick from the neck down, aches and pains, shivering and so on, take the day (or two) off, hydrate, rest and recover.

It was a neck up day and I didn’t actually feel too bad. So I hopped on the treadmill and began my workout. I always use a heart rate monitor as I find it a more objective way of gauging my effort, and makes it harder for me to cheat when I’ve had enough. I warm up at 30–40% of my maximum heart rate, a moderate effort is 50–60% of my MHR, and harder workouts range from 70–90% depending on the length of time spent at that intensity. For example, I might do 30 second sprints at 90%, but if I was after a 10 minute block it would be at the lower end.

On Saturday, I started at about 2 miles per hour (3.2 kph) for the first minute just to get moving but found myself at 30%. Nudged up to 3.4 kph and watched my HR go up to the mid thirties and at 3.6 kph I was over 40%. Even though I didn’t feel too bad, my body was obviously working overtime to deal with a little head cold and my heart was showing the effort. I did my moderate, steady state, 60% workout at a paltry 4.0 kph (vs. around 5 kph usually), gradually managing to increase that to 4.4 as my heart rate came back down.

And the fantastic thing about heart rate training is that this slow pace gave me the same workout (ie. same cardiovascular effort) that I would normally get from going much faster. Without the monitor, I might have jumped on the machine, plugged in 5 kph, and struggled to get through my workout. And if I had managed to finish it, it would likely have been such a stress on my system that instead of shrugging off the snuffles overnight, as I did, I would likely be laid up today and feeling like hell. Can you tell I’m feeling all smug and pleased with myself?

But seriously, I wouldn’t train any other way. For more information about heart rate training, check out a great little book called ‘Heart Monitor Training for the Compleat Idiot’ by John L Parker. There’s a link and a review on my books page if you’d like to look into it. Happy training.

The Problem with Points

Dear Regular Readers,

Apologies for the delay between posts. This one was written on Friday night but our internet has been down. I’ll try and catch up over the next few days. So here’s Friday’s post:

Here’s what I ate today:

Breakfast: Crunchy nut cornflakes with a sliced banana and a cup of skim milk

Late morning: Apple, hot chocolate made with skim milk

Lunch: Leek & watercress soup, sesame seed bun, this layer of low-fat spread

Dinner: Multigrain chocopuff cereal with sultanas and a cup of skim milk, WW cauliflower cheese, 2 scoops low-fat icecream with a crumled meringue shell and a spritz of low-fat spray cream

Late night snack: WW toffee bar, cup of tea

For a total of 18 1/2 points and barely a nutrient to be seen. OK, I got my share of calcium, and I just made my minimum 5 servings of fruit and veg, but overall, not a standout day on the nutritional front.

Usually, it’s much better than this. I frequently get 10 or more servings of fruit and veg, pass on the sugars and saturated fats, and eat proper meals and snacks made from scratch. (I did make the soup from scratch, and it was probably the healthiest thing I ate today.)

The advantage of using the WW points system is you can eat whatever takes your fancy, within moderation. If you want wine, or ice cream, or a toffee crisp, you can have one. And you have to learn to control your portion sizes. It gives you lots of flexibility and means you don’t have to be a killjoy in social situations.

The downside is that it lets you be lazy, like I was today. In the grand scheme of things, the odd day like today will not do me any harm. It’s not like I gorged on KFC, thick shakes, chili cheese fries, stuffed crust pizza and double mocha fudge ice cream sundaes. (Note to self, no, that doesn’t sound yummy!) But it’s not really the direction I want to be moving in.

I’ve also been aware recently of needing to make up my points allowance with sweet treats, simply to hit my targets. So as this week marks my fourth week at Weight Watchers, following the points plan, next week I am going to try the core plan for the first time. This involves eating three meals from a core list of approved, wholesome foods, and nothing else in between except fruit and veg. You do get 21 points for the week for the odd treat or non-core cooking ingredients, but on the whole, it’s a much healthier way of eating than what I did today. It will also fit in well with me switching back to Turbulence Training. The heavier-weight higher-intensity workouts will go better if I’m fuelling my body appropriately. So that’ll be from next Wednesday. In the meantime, I will try and do better!