Down and Out

My regular readers may have noticed that I haven’t been around for a couple of weeks. Since I couldn’t come up with an excuse that was both interesting and plausible, I suppose I’d better come clean. A quick look at my stats should tell you what’s been going on. Not exercising and not eating right.

Excuse number 1: I was ill. I had a really bad sore throat that felt like I was swallowing razor blades. My sore throat needed company of course, so came hand in hand with rather bad ear ache and sinus headaches. And as an asthmatic, I also got puffed by rolling over in bed. In total, I have had 5 days off work due to this over the last 2 weeks. Obviously couldn’t exercise, but then for a couple of days I couldn’t eat either. Weight dipped slightly, but not for long. See excuse number 2.

Excuse number 2: I was ill. I have had a return of my depression. That sounds so proprietary, doesn’t it. Like my house, my friends, my depression. I guess when you have a chronic illness you do develop a relationship with your disease, in a way. Anyhow, severe depression, and yet again, misery likes company, so massive anxiety/panic attacks. The doctor wanted to sign me off work but as I come up to the end of my 6-month probation period, and having just taken 5 days off for an infection, didn’t think this would do my career prospects much good. Decided to try and guts it out for a little while longer.

My solution to wanting to shoot myself/eviscerate myself/drive my car into a brick wall on a roughly half-hourly basis (actually, the car into the wall thing was every 2 minutes when in the car but otherwise not really practical), was to inhale anything more-or-less edible I could get my hands on, the fattier and more disgusting the better. I’m not entirely sure how this helped, but it seemed the thing to do at the time. While exercising would have probably helped with this situation, it’s all very well to know this on an academic level. Actually thinking, “hey I’ll put some workout clothes on and go and do some kickboxing” when you are in a depressive state is, sadly, often beyond the realms of one’s capabilities. Particularly when “OK, I won’t kill myself in the next 10 minutes” is a major achievement. So, no exercise, and junk food galore. Salad veg and lean meats going off in the fridge as the pile of take out cartons stacks up and my handbag fills up with chocolate wrappers and empty crisp packets.

It’s now Sunday 27th April. I am feeling mostly better, although I’m still suffering with anxiety attacks. I’m clinging on at work, but only just. My mum is taking hubby and me on a week’s holiday from this Saturday, and the most I am looking forward to is not going in to work. But maybe it’ll be just what I need. I’m also thinking about changing careers, as this one doesn’t seem to be really conducive to my mental health, despite being ridiculously well paid. And I hope to start moving again, and eating real food that is not coated in sugar and/or deep fried. My weight is up to it’s highest level in 2 years, but I am alive. So while it is discouraging and frustrating, I will live to make better choices another day.

Airplane Food

All in all a pretty good week, considering I was ill for half of it. I still managed to do all my weights workouts, my pilates, and 3 of my cardio sessions, staying within my WW points allowance 6 days of 7 (1 day we had dinner at a friend’s house – lots of creamy sauces, creamy soups, free-flowing wine and good conversation; I didn’t sweat it), and got my 5 fruit and veg minimum every day. Not doing so well on going to bed early, but I slept through the day a couple of times. So I was a bit disappointed that the scale hadn’t budged any. Just keep slogging away I guess. Although got caught out today and ended up having lunch at TGI Fridays. Blow out. Oh dear.

I’m away on business for the next couple of days. Rather than eat airport and airplane food, I thought I might try out my first day on Brad Pilon’s Eat Stop Eat programme. Will write a bit more about this when I get back, but basically, it means I won’t be eating for most of tomorrow. I’ve packed a skipping rope and will do a kickboxing workout in my hotel room tomorrow night. Hopefully. There’s a chance I will be working into the night, but I will try and avoid that. I’ll post again on Wednesday when I get back. ‘night all.

Good Fats

As a follow up to John Berardi’s nutrition tip of the week below, here are some more sources of good fats. Note that all oils should be cold pressed and unprocessed. As cold pressing is a bit of a plus for oils, if it is, it’ll say so on the label.

For most of us trying to lose weight, it’s a bit of a mental leap to think that eating more fats is good for us. But it is. Eating good fats actually improves the type of cholesterol in your blood and reducing the risk of heart disease. It’s also important for brain and joint health and overall general wellbeing.

From the point of view of weight loss, omega 3 fats counter some of the effects of insulin resistance and so can help promote weight loss. While too much fat will likely lead to a calorie excess, what we should be aiming for is a change in the type of fats we are eating. Reduce the amount of saturated fats we eat, try and avoid trans-fats altogether, and try and get more of our fats from sources of the good stuff. Check out the table below for some examples.

Good fats	Good sources
Monounsaturated	Olives and olive oil, peanuts and peanut oil, rapeseed oil, avocados, nuts, seeds
Omega 3	Oily fish (eg. pilchards, salmon, mackerel, sardines, fresh tuna), flax seeds and flax oil, unrefined canola or soybean oil, walnuts, avocados
Omega 6	Any kind of plant oils, seeds (eg. pumpkin, sunflower, sesame, hemp)

Nutrition Tip of the Week no. 15

Tip #15
Good Fats
by Dr. John Berardi

On average, most people should ensure that 25-35% of their energy intake comes from fat, with your fat intake split equally between saturates (animal fat), monounsaturates (olive oil, avocados, etc), and polyunsaturates (flax oil, salmon oil, etc.). Your total fat in the diet may vary but make sure you’re getting about 1/3 of each type for the best fat balance.

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Look out for another nutrition tip next week.

TT lifting patterns revisited

Just wanted to post a comment from Craig Ballantyne, creator of Turbulence Training, about my last post. Apparently, the 2-0-1 lifting pattern is more about safety than muscle fibre types.

“Regarding the tempo of the lifts, its just listed as 2-0-1 to ensure that all folks control the lift. Going too fast on the lowering phase has an increased risk of injury…so I like the lowering to be slow and controlled, that’s all.”

It seems we TTers benefit on so many levels. As it happens, I haven’t done my workout today. I got home late from work (around 7.30) and slept till after 9. Had some dinner, watched some TV, and now its midnight. The thing is, if I do it tomorrow instead, I won’t be able to do my next one till Monday or Tuesday, and I’m away on business. I was feeling a bit guilty about not doing it, but was leaning towards sloth and a 4-day gap between workouts. Now I know CB is reading my blog I guess I’d better go and put my sweats on and get going. The sooner I start the sooner I finish and all that. And that’s the benefit of a support network – to give you that little boost you need when your natural indolence is winning the game.

All done. Phew. Just done my first jogging interval workout in my new trainers and they felt good, no jarring on the knee at all. I feel fantastic now, even if it is nearly 2 am and my heart is burning a hole in my chest. Am really glad I did the workout after all. Weights were good. Did my first full 3×8 inverted rows. Ok, the last one might have been a 7 and a half, but I made the effort. I really wanted to stop after 6 but I was so close. Next week I will try and slow it down a bit more and really work on my form. Also up to 20 seconds on my side planks. Only managed 10 seconds in week 1. Maybe by next week I’ll get to the full 30 seconds.

Lifting patterns – TT style

I just learned something interesting. Actually, checking my old fitness notes, I have learned it before, but I didn’t remember it. Tut. Anyway, the Turbulence Training pattern of lifting is usually something like 2–0–1, which means lower the weight to a count of two, no pause, then lift the weight quickly to a count of one. And the reason why: slow lowering requires lots of stabilising muscles so recruits lots of slow-twitch muscle fibres giving you extra muscle-bang for your buck. But quick lifting recruits type IIb fast-twitch muscle fibres which require more energy to operate, so you burn more calories. Cool, or what. To learn more about Turbulence Training, click here.

Anyway, as for my own lifting, I am on schedule with my TT workouts but a bit behind with my cardio as I’ve been very phlegmy and chesty. I’m feeling much better today, and hope to be back in work tomorrow. You know it’s bad when you’re actually looking forward to getting back to work. Or else, you might want to think about changing professions, but that’s a whole other post. But I’ve been off work since Monday and I’ve been sooo bored. I haven’t been able to concentrate on anything the last few days as it felt like my head was full of cotton wool, but I did manage to do a bit of reading, in small bursts.

Back to my training, in one of my three inverted row sets the other day I actually managed all 8 recommended reps (6, 8, 6 vs. 6, 5, 3 the first time I tried this), and the plank on the ball is getting marginally easier. Well, not easy as such, but not as much wobbling around involved. I’ve just finished the workout, which takes under 20 minutes, and I’m sweating like a pig. Or as my zoologist hubby would remind me, like a horse, or some other sweaty animal, since pigs do not perspire. Who knew.