Over 6 hours exercise!

The title says it all, doesn’t it. I managed over 6 hours of exercise last week! I’m not sure how – it didn’t feel like I was working out all the time. It felt quite doable actually. Check out last weeks score sheet from Joe’s Goals.

In fact, I did really well on all my goals, with the exception of going to bed early, and even that’s not as bad as it looks. At least one night, I was in bed by 11.30, and a couple of days I got home from work and went straight to bed, sleeping till 9 or 10pm, getting up for a few hours and then going back to bed. So although not an ideal sleep pattern, I was still getting sufficient sleep overall.

My goals for next week will remain much the same, but I am going to add one more – I’ve got a bit of residual soreness from the weight training programme, so I am going to include at least one bodyrolling session this week. I bought a DVD and ball (for rolling under muscles) kit last year sometime and it is still in the plastic, partly because I am scared it is going to hurt too much. Oh well, no pain no gain, right. So, at least one session, and I’ll write about bodyrolling and self myofascial release after I have given it a go.

Weights and intervals on the same day?

As I wrote a few days ago, on Sunday I did my weights and intervals on the same day. There were practical reasons for this but I won’t bore you with those. Despite a ten or so minute break after doing my weights (which take around 35 minutes), the interval workout (23 minutes, five 1-minute RPE 7/8 intervals) was really hard work (not in a good way) and I found that I wasn’t working at the same intensity as I normally would.

For the same practical reasons, which I still won’t bore you with, I need to continue to do my weights and intervals on the same day for the rest of this week. So this morning, I actually managed to get up a bit earlier and did my intervals before work. Purists will be horrified, but I did not get up super early, re-fuel and then workout. I just crawled out of bed, into my workout gear, and got on the elliptical.

There are different schools of thought on the benefits and suitability of fasted cardio in the morning. For a good, although sometimes complex discussion on the reasoning and science behind this check out The Fasted Cardio Roundtable on T-Nation. The gist of it is that during the night, the majority of energy you use is produced through fat metabolism, so come morning, there should be a greater availability of free fatty acids in the bloodstream, available to fuel your workouts. This is only true of cardio, not resistance training – everyone agrees that doing resistance training (weights) on an empty stomach is BAD. However, the use of FFAs for energy only works at low to moderate intensity workouts. Because fat oxidation is a slow process, higher intensity workouts will switch to alternative energy sources.

All I know is that doing my intervals just after waking up felt like c**p. It felt as though I had upped the resistance on the machine and every stride was an effort. It took about fifteen minutes, or three of my five intervals, until this eased a little. And rather than feeling great after my workout, and starting my day with a bounce in my step, I was tired all day long, despite a relatively early night. And I didn’t get the benefit of knowing that I had done my workout for the day, because I knew that my resistance training session would be waiting for me when I got home. On the plus side, my weights session this evening was unaffected and I matched or improved on my performance on all exercises compared to last time. So, strike two for weights and cardio on the same day. While morning might be a good time to get in some bonus cardio, I don’t think I will make a habit of doing my intervals first thing.

In the name of scientific endeavor, I will try something different for my third and final weight-and-cardio on the same day. On Thursday I am going to, shock horror, try doing my intervals first, followed by my weights. This is generally frowned upon because having tired yourself out doing cardio, you are likely to perform sub-optimally on your resistance workout, and may also have more difficulty maintaining good form, thus increasing the risk of injury. However, after my interval sessions, performed in the evening, I usually feel great, and regular readers will know that after a little break, I usually do some bonus cardio. So just this once I will do my intervals, take a break, and then do my resistance session. Exercise boffins out there who understand these things better than me have until Thursday evening GMT to talk me out of this earth shattering course of action. Stay tuned.

I’m starting to sweat a little

Weight was up this morning. It was up last Monday too, before dropping again for the rest of the week so I won’t worry too much. If I didn’t like my job so much, I’d think it was my heavy heart from going back to work after the weekend!

I found out recently that there is a ‘workout room’ at work. There is an elliptical trainer, a mat with an ab curler, and three sets of girly weights. However, this was absolutely perfect for doing a pilates workout, which I did for the first time today during my lunch hour. First time at work, that is, not first time pilates. I think I will make this a regular thing since I don’t even need to bring anything or change clothes.

Also this evening, I was so engrossed reading on the bus on the way home that I missed my stop, and got in a bonus fifteen minute walk.

But my big news this evening – well, not big in the real sense of the word, but my breakthrough moment for the day – was when I did Kathy Smith’s Latin Rhythm workout DVD after dinner. This is one of my most fun workout DVDs – the first one I ever bought that I could follow (more or less) and actually enjoyed. I think the difference is that it is fronted by a fitness professional who understands cueing for imbeciles rather than a professional dancer or a choreographer to the stars, who are used to working with people who took their first dance class in the womb and have been at it ever since. Anyway, the first 20 minute session is kind of a beginner workout. And although I’ve always found it really fun, it’s always been really hard work. It’s broken down into warm up, salsa, merengue, and cha cha cha segments, roughly five minutes each. I usually have one eye on the counter to see if we’re nearly at the end of a segment so I can collapse in a chair, towel down and swig a gallon of water, before finally starting up the tape again and carrying on with the next section. Well, I haven’t done it for a while, and this evening I just went straight through without stopping. There’s a point about halfway through the merengue segment, ie. the third part, where Kathy looks at the camera and says “I’m starting to sweat a little.” It always cracked me up because at that point I’d be dripping wet, gasping for air, and ready to collapse. Today, there I was merengue-ing away and I thought, “hmmm, yeah, me too”. Awesome. OK, it’s not the IronMan, but I’ve come a long way and I’m loving every single one of these little victories.

Workout schedule for this week

My mum was visiting today and saw my belly-dancing DVD. She said she’s always fancied it, so we’ve made a date for Wednesday night to do belly dancing together. Then a friend was over and she fancied giving it a go too, so now there are three of us. Hi, Annette, if you’re reading.

So I’ve extended an open invitation to join me in any of my bonus cardio sessions this week (i.e. not intervals and not weight training – that’s the serious stuff!). Thus, this is my workout plan for the week. I get home from work around 6. Come and join me for a bit of sweaty fun. Actually, I should probably delete that – I’m going to get all kinds of interesting invitations now! Anyway, here it is, my workout schedule for this week.

Saturday	Off
Sunday	Weights, intervals
Monday	Pilates, Latin dance
Tuesday	Weights, intervals
Wednesday	Belly dancing
Thursday	Weights, intervals
Friday	Pilates, (and maybe Kickboxing)

Actually, that was the plan. I just did my weights and intervals for today. Last week I did them on alternate days and this was the first time I have tried to do them together. Even with a 10 minute rest after weights, I was just too tired for a really good interval training session. I’m pretty sure I wasn’t working as hard as I usually do. So I might try to do the intervals in the mornings before work and the weights in the evenings and see how that works. I know I don’t have a good track record with morning workouts, but I have been noticing in the last week that I am starting to feel more alert in the mornings. Maybe there is a morning person inside me yet. Or maybe not. Otherwise, I may have to rejig the schedule a little and go back to alternate days.

10 lbs off and a yummy soy bean stir-fry

It’s official weigh day today, and I have officially lost 10.2 lbs. Let’s just say I am officially chuffed (Brit for happy). It’s been just six weeks now since I started working on the various categories in the Is fat your fate? quiz and it is obvious what an impact it has been having. This week there have been ups (well, one up) and plateaus (ok, one plateau) but I am down 2.2 lbs on last week. And although my body fat seems to be holding steady week by week, there is quite a bit more variation on the daily weigh ins, with several readings this week in the 45s rather than the 46s.

As for the stir fry, we had this last night for dinner and it was really nice. I got the recipe out of the Tesco Food Club January 2009 issue. Unfortunately, this isn’t available online. But if you live in the UK, and you shop in Tesco (a large supermarket chain which is taking over the world), and let’s face it, who doesn’t, and have a clubcard (and if you don’t, get one – something for nothing), just go to the website and click on the clubcard link, then sign up for the Food Club and the Healthy Living Club – it’s free, and they send you magazines with nice recipes, and money off/bonus points tokens for your shopping. So anyway, here is the recipe, which I will also add to my recipes page at some point.

Soya bean, chilli and ginger stir-fry
Serves 2 people; takes 10 mins to prepare and 10 mins to cook.

• 1/4-1/2 red chilli, finely chopped (or just use chilli flakes, to taste)
• 3 cm piece of ginger, peeled and finely chopped (or just use ready-made ginger paste, buy in spice aisle, it lasts forever in the fridge)
• 3 garlic cloves, crushed
• 2 Tbsp soy sauce
• 2 Tbsp cider vinegar
• 2 Tbsp sesame oil
• 1 red onion (or regular onion), thinly sliced
• 1 yellow pepper (=bell pepper; capsicum), thinly sliced
• 250g frozen soy beans, defrosted by pouring over hot water, drained
• 100g bean sprouts
• 1 Tbsp runny honey

1. Put the chilli, ginger, garlic, soy sauce and vinegar into a small bowl and let steep for a few minutes.
2. Heat the sesame oil in a wok over a high heat and stir-fry the onion and pepper until the onion softens and just starts to go brown.
3. Add the soy beans and cook for a couple of minutes.
4. Pour in the chilli and vinegar mixture and toss well.
5. Mix in the bean sprouts and honey, adding a dash of water if the vegetables are sticking. Serve with brown rice or whole wheat noodles.

Each portion contains 255 cals, 13g fat (2g saturated). There was no listing for protein content, and to be honest, it’s Sunday, I’m taking it easy, and I can’t be bothered to work it out. But according to the package, 125g soya beans (half the recipe) contains just over 15g protein. Plus all those good-for-you phytoestrogens.

Handy tip re: bean sprouts – they tend to come in quite large packages in our supermarket, and I rarely use them all in a recipe, and then they go off really quickly, so last time we used some I tried putting the leftovers in the freezer. This recipe last night was made with those leftovers, defrosted with the same hot water I used to defrost the soya beans. And they were absolutely fine. You wouldn’t mistake them for fresh, so not ideal for salad, but great for something like this. No more brown slimy bean sprouts giving birth to new life forms in my refrigerator!

Over 5 hours exercise

Well, I’ve just finished my first week following the exercise programme from Tom Venuto’s Body Fat Solution book, and boy, was I good! I did all of my scheduled workouts, plus extra cardio five days out of seven, for a total of 5 hours 14 minutes exercise last week! Wow, I haven’t done that in a while, but I was really enjoying myself. Check out my score sheet from Joe’s Goals.

Apart from not getting to bed early, I did really well on everything else. And it’s starting to have an impact on my mood. A few days ago as I was getting off the bus and walking into work, a strange feeling came over me. I felt light and floaty, with a kind of soaring sensation. It threw me at first until I realised that it was happiness! And then I teared up because I couldn’t remember the last time I felt like that. On a more prosaic note, seeing the results on the scales each morning is also sending me into work with a spring in my step and a silly grin on my face. Considering that I’m not counting calories (or anything else) or trying to cut out ‘bad’ foods, it’s very gratifying to see the weight continue to drop off.

Anyway, specific areas to work on this coming week: (1) try and go to bed a little earlier; (2) try and get in at least three green leafy salads; and (3) try and mix up the bonus cardio a bit – do some more fun stuff (this week was just scheduled weights, intervals and then walking on the treadmill). I think I might also try to add in an hour of pilates this week, possibly spread over two or three workouts, we’ll see.

Three times a charm

I’m just coming to the end of my first week on the Body Fat Solution exercise programme, which uses an A-B-A pattern for resistance workouts each week (week two will be B-A-B). So today was Workout A, again. The first workout is tough because it’s such a shock to the system. The second workout is tougher because you’re still sore from the first workout A. But the third workout, when you’re sore AND you know what’s coming – getting myself psyched up for this was quite a bit tougher!

And yes, it was hard, but in a way it was easier than the first time, I suppose it seemed to flow more smoothly because I knew what I was doing. I did have to do twenty minutes of pretty slow walking on the treadmill to get my leg muscles warmed up enough that I could even attempt the warm up. And those first squats bought tears to my eyes (hamstrings – I hadn’t anticipated that because the tough part of the squat is getting back up and that uses the quads on the fronts of the thighs, but I’d forgotten I had to get down there first). I may even have grunted a rude word or two during my third set of DB rows. But I finished up with another 25 minutes on the treadmill just walking at a comfortable pace, for a total of 45, and when I staggered off at the end with legs of jelly and soaked through, you know what was going through my mind? “Damn, this is FUN!”

Fat Joke

Inside me there’s a thin person struggling to get out, but I can usually sedate her with four or five cupcakes.

That has been my ‘Joke of the Day’ for about 18 months now. I think it’s about time for a change. A quick trawl of the net came up with these:

You know you’re fat when … you step on the scale and dial reads “To be continued”.

I once tried giving up chocolate. It was the worst twenty minutes of my life!

Did you ever see the customers in a health-food store? They are pale, skinny people who look half dead. In a steak house you see robust, ruddy people. They’re dying of course but they look terrific.

My gym teacher told me to touch my toes. I said, “I don’t have that kind of relationship with my feet. Can I just wave?”

And the winner is…

I’m not fat – I’m a woman and a half.

Special thanks to the site where I nicked most of the jokes from. Think you can do better? Send ‘em in and who knows, your joke could be my Joke of the Day for the next 18 months.

BBG’s Pink Power Playlist

Thought I’d try something a bit different. Normally, I pick and mix tunes from various artists in my iTunes music library to make good workout playslists, but I’ve recently been getting in to P!nk. Hubby had her first album, and I got her new one plus another one for Christmas. So I just chucked all the up-tempo, pumping tunes into a playlist, added a cool bluesy track for the cool down, and came up with just over 43 minutes of rockin’ girl power for a great cardio workout. Absolutely perfect for a BFS 23-minute beginner intervals session followed by a bonus 20 mins of steady-state cardio. (For any new readers, BFS = Tom Venuto’s new book The Body Fat Solution, but that would have kinda messed up the syntax!)

And after experimenting with different ways of trying to give you a taster of my new workout motivation toons, I discovered you can publish it at iTunes for all to share. So check out BBG’s Pink Power Playlist on iTunes and burn baby burn (calories that it).

Sadly I will not be using it myself today as I have severeDOMS in my hamstrings from Workout B on Monday. I tried Deep Heat last night but it didn’t really help. So back to tiger balm tonight. Also, I came home from work today, crawled into bed with hubby, and slept till 10pm. Got up, had some cereal, it’s now 11pm and I’m going back to bed. So no workout today. Fortunately, I am still on schedule to get all my workouts in this week. Workout A tomorrow. ‘night all.

Extending your intervals with steady-state cardio

This week I saw a very good article on interval training on the Precision Nutrition blog written by the strength and conditioning coach Mike Boyle. You can access it here and just scroll down to the relevant bit. While very informative and well researched, I’m getting a bit sick of all the stick that the elliptical gets. For the less fit client, like me, it is a good starting place. Plus, if you have knee problems, like me, it is a good low-impact form of cardio. I know the bike is too, but I loathe the bike. I never learned to ride as a kid and I guess I just never developed the right sitting-on-a-saddle muscles. I just find it absolutely excruciating.

Still on the theme of intervals, if you’ve ever gotten to the end of your interval training workout and thought that you had enough left in you to do some more cardio, but maybe not at the same intensity, here is a great tip for extending your interval training session with steady-state cardio. (This is not to suggest that after my intervals on the elliptical my heart is not pumping at a mile a minute and I am not dripping with sweat – don’t tell me I’m nor working hard enough!!) This tip comes from the book The New Rules of Lifting for Women by Lou Schuler, Cassandra Forsythe and Alwyn Cosgrove.

Rather than just shifting straight into steady-state mode, get off the machine (or take a rest if you are working-out freestyle) for five minutes, then continue your workout with steady-paced exercise at an easy pace. The reason for this is that the intervals have used up some of the glycogen in your muscles and stopping exercise causes your body to flood your bloodstream with triglycerides. Women’s bodies tend to use triglycerides for energy more than men’s. When you start up again, you’ll have a ready pool of fat molecules to fuel your steady-state workout to increase the rate of fat burning. Cool or what?

Steady-state cardio is getting a bit of a bum rap at the moment, with many of the big name muscle people slating it as a fitness option. Certainly intervals are more efficient, and more productive in terms of improving fitness levels, but you can only keep them up for so long, and if you are out of shape and overweight, adding a bit of extra cardio is no bad thing in my opinion. And although aerobic exercise like steady-state cardio is catabolic, as opposed to weight training which is anabolic, unless you are training for a body building competition, I really can’t see that an extra mile on the treadmill every day is going to derail your attempts to shape up. I find it completely counter-intuitive. One of the reasons I like Tom Venuto is his rather more sensible approach to cardio, i.e. just do some. Yes, intervals are ideal, but he’s not precious about it like some of the other experts. I am currently doing the exercise programme from Tom’s new book – The Body Fat Solution. So I’m doing interval training three times a week, and in addition, I am doing steady-state cardio as often as I can manage on top of that, not as an alternative. And weights of course, three times a week. I’ll write more about the book later in the week.