I’m back…tentatively

It’s been a really rough week to 10 days for me. I’ve been suffering from severe depression, non-stop crying, the works. My diet’s been to pot and a bad back and trashed knees from a too-intensive-for-my-limited-abilities reformer training course have meant that I’ve neither had the will nor the physical capacity to work out. There’s been a bit too much ordering in and a few too many chocolate bars.

But it’s starting to pass. I’ve not been able to bring myself to get on the scales since last Sunday’s horrendous reading – all that hard work undone in 3 bad days. And I can’t imagine next Sunday’s will be any better. But I’m going to the supermarket tomorrow to stock up on fresh produce, I’ve just done a 40 minute Latin workout (that Latin Sizzle section is a bit more complex than the beginner routine!), and I’m determined to get back on the wagon. Thank you to all those of you who have dropped me messages of support in the meantime. ‘night all.

Reformer Week

I was doing great last week until after my Challenge resistance workout. Managed to battle through a couple of days of DOMS before giving up. And I was too scared to try the second scheduled workout at starting on Saturday, I’ve got 9 days of pilates reformer training, and I thought being able to actually move my limbs might be a plus. At least I did well on the diet front, for which I was rewarded with a 0.4 pound weight loss this week. Woohoo.

Anyway, it’s Monday today, and I’m probably putting in at least 2 hours a day of actual work on the reformer, with the rest observing or teaching. I’d hoped to throw in a few additional cardio and weights workouts this week to keep going with the challenge, but I can see that that isn’t going to work. So it’s reformer week this week. Back to normal next week. If I can still walk.

Nutrition Tip of the Week No. 20

Tip #20
How much water?
by Dr. John Berardi

You always hear experts recommending that you drink more water but how many of you actually do it? And how much is enough? Well, check out this chart below for some interesting data on water loss.

Water Loss/ Normal Weather No exercise/ Warm Weather No exercise /Exercise in Warm Weather (85° F)

Skin 350 mL/ 350 mL/ 350 mL
Respiratory Tract 250 mL/ 350 mL/ 650 mL
Urine 1400 mL/ 1200 mL/ 500 mL
Feces 100 mL/ 100 mL/ 100 mL
Sweat 100 mL/ 1400 mL/ 5000 mL
Total 2,300 mL (2.3L)/ 3,300 mL (3.3L)/ 6,600 mL (6.6L)

It should be clear that quite a bit of water is lost per day, especially if you’re an athlete. Since most people can get about 1.5L of water from their food and from metabolic water production, for a margin of safety, I suggest:

Sedentary individuals drink at least 2L or about 8 cups of water per day
Athletes in normal climates drink at least 3L or about 12 cups of water per day.
Athletes in hot weather climates drink at least 4L or about 16 cups of water per day.

SEE ALSO:
This tip is sponsored by Precision Nutrition – our pick for the best nutrition and supplement resource currently available. Containing system manuals, gourmet cookbook, digital audio/video library, online membership, and more, Precision Nutrition will teach you everything you need to know to get the body you want — guaranteed.

Order Precision Nutrition now and get $50 off!

To see an amazing transformation and to get an idea of what Precision Nutrition could do for you, click here.

Look out for more on water intake in next week’s tip.

The Thigh Tightener

Bloody hell that hurts! I guess that workout yesterday was tougher than I thought. My arms are sore and it hurts when I sneeze (not good in hayfever season), but for real pain, check out those thighs. I guess the Thigh Tightener is going to be my new Chairmaster. The one I love to hate. The one that makes me tremble and whimper as I’m doing it, and in this case, for 48 hours afterwards. I’ve been staggering around today like a new-born lamb, and raising eyebrows at work every time I got out of my chair with yelps of pain. It didn’t look that hard. It didn’t even feel that hard at the time, but could explain why I struggled through the rest of the workout.

Luckily, I did my 20-minute pilates workout this morning before work, and before the DOMS set in. Having said that, the one-legged monkey squats on the wobble board probably did nothing to help me. As for the Challenge month two cardio workout also on my schedule today, I waivered between I will do it, I can’t do it, it may help loosen up the muscles, I don’t think I could do it even if I tried, to, finally, I’m proud to say, doing it. Thirty minutes comprising 10 minutes each of three different cardio machines. For me, working out at home, that means 10 minutes stationary bike, 10 minutes elliptical, and 10 minutes treadmill. I did them in that order and didn’t worry too much about maintaining the recommended RPE 7 intensity. I concentrated more on just moving and not falling off each piece of kit as my legs repeatedly buckled under me. But I’ve just finished and it did help. I’ll take this opportunity to stretch my quads and slather on some tiger balm before bed. Hopefully, by tomorrow morning, the worst will be over.

Anyhow, here it is for all you masochists to try at home: the Thigh Tightener from month 2 of the 2008 Self Challenge. Stand with your feet slightly wider than hip width apart, holding one end of a dumbell in each hand at chest level, elbows bent. Squat deeply, ie. as far as you can go down, then tilt forward as you lower the weight to the floor, straightening your legs up so your bum’s in the air and your head is pointing down. Reverse the movement by bending your legs again as you raise the dumbell back to chest height, ie. back into squat position, then return to standing. Do 12 repetitions, rest, repeat. This movement works your legs, arms, legs, bum, and legs. Oh, and did I mention it’s good for your legs.

Trainer tip: when squatting, you want to take your bum backwards rather than your knees forward. I find it useful to actually visualise lowering myself on to an imaginary chair on the way down, although in this exercise, it is more of a low stool! Enjoy.

2008 Self Challenge Month 2 Workout

OMG! Today I’m down to do the resistance training workout from the 2008 Self Challenge. I decided to do it when I got home from work rather than climbing into bed and snoozing with hubby for a couple of hours before dinner, TV, and a midnight workout like usual. Thought it’d be nice to get it over with. It’s two sets of 8 exercises, and while some looked more challenging than others, it didn’t look too bad. Plus, it was only supposed to take 25 minutes.

25 minutes in, there I was, lying in a pool of sweat on floor, having completed half of the workout. I literally couldn’t get up. I lay there till hubby came along and gave me a hand up. And my legs were like jelly for nearly an hour afterwards. While the exercises were harder than they looked, I don’t understand why they had quite that much an effect on me. It did seem a bit disproportionate. Perhaps, a bad night’s sleep last night, high pollen count today, and lack of my usual early evening nap combined to turn me into a snivelling wreck.

So here I am, 3 hours later at 11pm, post-dinner, post-TV, about to attempt the second half of the workout. And if I can still stand, I’m down for 20 minutes of Latin Rhythm after that. Wish me luck.

Yay, the last half of the workout only took me another 15 minutes, so 40 minutes total for the resistance workout. Whether that number will come down over the next month as I get fitter and spend less time lying on the floor whimpering, we shall see!

Double yay. Latin Rhythm’d my way into another nice sweat. I do love that DVD. I’ve only done the 20 minute beginner workout so far, but I find myself, me with two left feet, cha-cha-ing around the house, wiggling my ample bum for hubby and actually feeling sexy instead of fat. A really feel-good workout.

So that’s all for today. Got both my workouts done and feel fantastic. Off to have a shower and a nice cup of tea. And it’s only quarter past midnight. Almost an early night by my standards. Buenos noches, amigos.

BlubberBeGone Mr & Mrs Challenge Month 1 Results

Well, we’ve been at it four weeks now and the results are just in:

Hubby started at 13 stone 11.2 (87.8 kg), 22.1% body fat, and 10 stone 3.0 (65 kg) lean body mass.
After 4 weeks, he weighs in at 12 stone 13 (82.3 kg), 19.6% body fat, and 9 stone 12.2 (62.8 kg) LBM.
That’s a loss of 12.2 pounds and 2.5% body fat.

Mrs BBG started at 15 stone 13 (101.4 kg), 44.4% body fat, and 8 stone 5.6 (53.5 kg) LBM.
After 4 weeks, I’m at 15 stone 3.2 (96.9 kg), 44.8% body fat, and 7 stone 13.8 (50.8 kg) LBM.
So for me, it’s a loss of 9.8 pounds and up 0.4% body fat.

Overall, not a bad haul in 4 weeks (although I was doing better at week 3!). Just to remind you, or if you’re visiting for the first time, hubby was doing the resistance workouts from beginner level Turbulence Training for Fat Loss 3 times a week, plus 3 sessions running on the treadmill at various intensities and for various lengths of time, depending on how he felt on the day. Also, 5-a-side football once a week and the odd walk with me. From this month, he’ll be doing TT intermediate level workouts and his running schedule is going to be a bit more, well, scheduled. We’ve already got his resting heart rate and today, poor baby, he will be doing a max heart rate test. Then I’m going to schedule in some TT intervals and a training programme based on John Parker’s Heart Monitor Training for the Compleat Idiot (see Books page for more details).

I am following the 2008 Self Challenge month 2 resistance and cardio, but adding in extra fun-type cardio as these are the kind of things I want to be able to do (dancing, kickboxing, walking, bike riding – although that last one is still not my idea of fun) and extra pilates. This month I am doing a 9-day Stott pilates reformer course and this will affect my other workouts. So while that is going on, I will keep other workouts to a minimum of Self Challenge resistance twice a week and 30′ cardio 3 times a week, and not much else. My workout schedule for this week looks like this:

Sunday	20′ pilates, 30′ Self 08 Challenge month 2 cardio 1
Monday	20′ Latin Rhythm, 25 mins Self 08 Challenge month 2 resistance workout 1
Tuesday	20′ pilates, 30′ S08C cardio workout 2
Wednesday	20′ pilates, Tae Bo workout
Thursday	25′ S08C weights workout 2, 30′ S08C cardio workout 3
Friday	20′ bike
Saturday	Pilates course

Back to Nature

Went for a walk in the country today with hubby. It’s been on the schedule every Saturday for the last month, but the best we have managed so far was 30 minutes in the local park. Well today we dug out our local walks book, picked one not too far away and set out. It was 4 miles (6.4 km) and was graded as easy.

I would just like to say in my defence, up front, that I have been quite ill this week. Jittery, dizzy spells, feeling very out of sorts. Most likely due to withdrawal symptoms from coming off the antidepressants. But I have to say, almost from the outset, I just didn’t want to be there. It took us an hour and a half, not including a stop about half way at a garden centre where we had some lunch, and for the vast majority of that, I was giving myself silent pep talks about getting through it. I think these walks are supposed to be fun, and I just hated every minute of it. I felt sick, dizzy, my legs felt like lead, even slight gradients had me huffing and puffing, and I had to try mighty hard to take any pleasure in the wild bunny rabbits, squirrels, and fields full of golden flowers we passed on the way. How sad.

Despite me no doubt ruining it for hubby too, he is keen for us to keep trying in the hope that it will get easier. I have to say, I’m not sorry that the next two weekends are out because I will be doing my pilates reformer course.

We’re now 4 weeks into the BlubberBeGone Mr & Mrs Challenge, but I certainly don’t feel any healthier. On the plus side, my workout times and distances suggest I am making fitness gains, but it’s a good job I make a note of that stuff, otherwise I wouldn’t believe it. Although, looking at it now, they have been down a bit this week compared with week 3. So for example, Self Challenge month 1 cardio workout 1 involves a 5 minute warm up, 15 minutes at RPE 6–7, then a 5 minute cool down. In week 1, I covered 1.7 km in the time. In week 3, my best, I covered 2.029 km, and this week managed 1.908. Cardio workout 2 involved three 2-minute hard intervals plus 4-minute recovery, with a warm up and cool down, also 25 minutes total. In week 1, I covered 1.580 km, in week 2, 1.832 km; week 3 was 1.931, and this week was 1.923 km. Workout 3 is hill intervals as well as speed intervals and I’ve mixed them up a bit so I can’t compare. But overall, I’d say around a 20% improvement in performance over the month.

My goal achievement has been a bit patchy this week. I only managed one of my pilates workouts out of four, missed two days cardio, didn’t get a minimum of 5 fruit and veg every day, and only stayed within my WW points allowance twice. Mostly that was due to eating out – first at a friend’s house, at a Chinese restaurant for my boss’s 50th birthday, and at an Asian noodle house last night. The other days, I only have myself to blame. I also only managed to get to bed by 11.30 once. So not brilliant. But I did do all my 2008 Self Challenge workouts, which is my minimum requirement.

My goal for next week is simply to do better. Not to go over my WW points more than once, to get my 5 servings minimum F&V every day, to do at least 2 pilates workouts, and to get to bed by 11.30 at least twice.

Month 1 results and next week’s workouts up tomorrow. ‘night all.

Nutrition Tip of the Week no. 19

Tip #19
How to Manage Your Macronutrients
by Dr. John Berardi

Are you more likely to be able to decipher ancient Greek texts than figure out how to construct a diet containing 30% protein, 50% carbohydrate, and 20% fat? Well then check out the following resources.

1. www.nal.usda.gov/fnic is the National Agriculture Library’s Food and Nutrition Information Center. Here you can find basic information on dietary supplements, an advanced food composition database, information about the food guide, and a listing of interesting resources about special needs, food allergies, etc.

2. www.nutritiondata.com is a fantastic resource and although it uses the food database above, may actually offer a better presentation of the food composition data. It doesn’t offer the other information, though.

3. www.fitday.com is another great food composition site that offers much more including online diet and fitness journals.

4. www.calorieking.com offers many of the same resources as fitday.com but has several excellent additional features such as an online ‘university’ (weekly education about the physiological and behavioral sides of nutrition). The extras cost money but are worth checking into.

SEE ALSO:
This tip is sponsored by Precision Nutrition – our pick for the best nutrition and supplement resource currently available. Containing system manuals, gourmet cookbook, digital audio/video library, online membership, and more, Precision Nutrition will teach you everything you need to know to get the body you want — guaranteed.

Order Precision Nutrition now and get $50 off!

To see an amazing transformation and to get an idea of what Precision Nutrition could do for you, click here.

Look out for another nutrition tip next week.

Dinner with Friends

Feeling very down today and craving food like you wouldn’t believe. Tried to satisfy my chocolate cravings with WW rich toffee bars and caramel wafer bars. Three all told. Didn’t really work though. Dinner with a couple of Polish friends tonight. They cooked Mexican. Yesterday I would probably have picked but today I just dived straight in – guacamole on toast with grated cheddar, enchiladas with cheese and double cream. Can definitely see the polish influence. Oh and white chocolate and raspberry cheesecake for dessert. With kirsch filled chocolates to go with coffee. God I feel sick. I did manage to stay off the wine though, unlike hubby, and came home and did my workout afterwards, unlike hubby. Just gonna go puke then head to bed now. ‘night all.

Challenge Week 4 Workout

As promised, here is my workout schedule for week 4 of the BBG Mr & Mrs Challenge. I’m still doing the 2008 Self Challenge. This is week 4 of month 1 for me. Plus extra fun cardio and extra pilates.

Sunday	20′ pilates, 25′ Self 08 Challenge month 1 cardio 1
Monday	20′ Latin Rhythm, 20 mins Self 08 Challenge month 1 resistance workout 1
Tuesday	30′ pilates, 25′ S08C cardio workout 2
Wednesday	20′ S08C resistance workout 2, 50′ Bhangra DVD
Thursday	20′ pilates, 25′ S08C cardio workout 3
Friday	15′ bike, 60′ pilates lesson
Saturday	Walk

Yesterday, I did last week’s Challenge cardio 3 workout in the morning and my scheduled cardio 1 workout in the evening with my pilates practice, so my Challenge workouts are back up to date.

Hubby’s workouts have been the same each week. He prefers consistency, whereas I go mad if I have to do the same thing over and over. Beginner level Turbulence Training resistance workouts 3x/week (although at least there are two of these that you alternate between), running on the treadmill 3x/week (no system, but I’ve been encouraging him to mix it up and add intervals), and 5-a-side football (soccer) once a week.

The lemon and blueberry pancakes I wrote about yesterday were OK, but nothing special, so I won’t bother posting the recipe. In the interests of keeping you supplied with new and wonderful recipes, I will just have to taste test lots of new and wonderful meals. Oh, it’s a dirty job…