GRIZZLING

It irks me no end when my body doesn't work properly.  

For some time my right ankle/achilles has been playing up. At first it was occasionally when I wore high heels to work but its now constant. I'm having major problems extending my foot and shortening my achilles. Last Thursday I was to attend a very high level meeting so I dressed in my Alanah Hill suit with a matching pair of high heels to look the part. Well by lunch time I concede defeat and hit the mall for a pair of matching flats. I could not bear to walk in the heels. I've worn mainly flats or very low heels since then. Even putting on a pair of heels at dinner out on Saturday night (I walked to the restaurant in flats) was very painful.

Ironically I've had no problem with running. Foot flexion is fine yet when I step on a downward sloping curb the pain is back. This morning I went to train legs after about 20 days of ignoring them (not because of this injury, I might add). Squats were fine but when I moved onto static lunges my right ankle just wouldn't cooperate. It was weak, unsteady and painful as soon as the foot moved into flexion. It even played up on both sides irrespective of whether the right foot was forward (worse) or if it was back.

Goddam!! I hate that. Not only do I suffer with an aching right hip and glute and occasional knee pain, now its moved all the way down. I modified my workout to include an extra set each of squats, deadlifts and hip thrusts but I swear nothing works as well as the static lunges :-( 

So I've bitten the bullet and made an appointment with a podiatrist and resigned myself to the fact that I will be told that high heels are banned (boo hoo that will really suck!!). But I just want to know what the problem is so we can fix it and get everything working properly again.

But all that aside, I'm actually in good spirits. I've cut the junk from my diet and the MM is now showing just above the weight I was when sick and (somewhat) dehydrated. I'm pretty happy with that. I'm waking up about 2 minutes before my alarm and that indicates I'm happy and keen to train. I'm having a green smoothie on most days (even though it has no 'cleansing effect' whatsoever) and I'm sleeping well. Maybe I should celebrate the positive and not whinge about the negative but its not too much to ask is it, that my foot work properly to allow me to do normal every day activities without pain?

M

 

I CANT BELIEVE I'M DOING THIS ....

On Sunday 11th November I'm starting on a Learn to Row course that will run for 5 weeks. I believe I have to do 2 courses before I'm considered a competent rower and can join a rowing club, if that's what I want to do.

I got interested through a friend of a friend. She rows socially and on the rare occasions that we've met at our mutual friend's place she has been encouraging me to join their group. "Just come on down to West Lakes on a Sunday morning  and row with us. We have a lot of fun and then we all have coffee and a catch up after." That sounded good to me.

So that got me thinking that I wouldn't mind giving it a go but if I joined the group I'd like to know what I was doing hence I'm doing the LTR course first. I'm so nervous yet I'm so excited. I wonder how I'll compare to the other participants - if they're a bunch of strapping young fit teenage or early 20s boys then I'm going to be like their old and unfit nana LOL. But I'm secretly hoping I can hold my own amongst people of a similar age group and lifestyle (think office worker who sits on their b*m all day). Hopefully my weight training has developed enough strength that I wont embarrass myself even though I'm not overly strong and able to lift heavy sh*t.

I must ask Peter to show me how to set up our home rower for a few practice runs before the course. Which is timely really as my left ankle/.achilles is giving me major grief and whilst I can still run (its foot extension and shortening of the achilles thats very painful) getting some aerobic exercise off my feet is probably a good thing. Plus, did you see the female rowers at the Olympic Games? Peter and I were outwardly admiring their physiques. Yes I'll have me a bit of that thanks :-)

M

RETHINKING

With every regrouping comes some rethinking and over the last couple of very busy days I've spent some time working out why things went off the rails for me in the last couple of weeks. The answer was simple really. I took the focus off my original goals (getting my weight down and improving my fitness) and shifted it elsewhere (my Fibrober challenge). With this new focus (and somewhat obsession) I stopped paying attention to all the positive changes I had made to my lifestyle and let a lot of them slip into oblivion. Follow this up with some old bad habits creeping back in and VOILA I was on a backward slide.

 

I have found lately that weight loss for somebody like me (age, level of activity throughout most of my day, love of food and wine) will not just magically happen without a conscious decision to consistently eat well, train hard, get enough sleep and keep the headset positive and balanced. Yep the bottom line is I have to work for it LOL.

 

But the good bit is that I actually dont mind. Its a choice I make and its one I'm happy with. I dont see it as a long, hard slog of hating every step along the way. If I did, I'd be in BIG trouble. Take today for example. I started the day with an hour of exercise which was a mix of walking (a little) and jogging (a lot). Felt fantastic at the end of it. Today's green smoothie tasted great as I had 1/2 a kiwi fruit spare so I added it to the mix. Wow!! What a difference it made. It was so yummy, I could have had 2 LOL. Then it was 10 minutes of stretching for this rickety, tight body followed by a long, hot shower. After all that I felt so good I could have slayed dragons. For dinner tonight we had a mini Greek feast. I marinated some heart smart lamb leg steaks in garlic, olive oil, lemon juice, oregano and black pepper. Did similar with some calamari rings (+ 1/2 kiwi fruit to tenderise it) and also marinated zucchini and eggplant in garlic, lemon juice and olive oil. Peter BBQed the lot and I made a Greek salad adding some low fat feta and kalamata olives. It was to die for: tasty, lean and healthy.

 

So let the new week begin where the only sliding is forward towards my weight loss and fitness goals.

 

:-) M 

REGROUPING

With about a week to go in October I'm wrapping my Fibrober Challenge although I'll be forever mindful of making good dietary choices to help and not hinder my cause. I know its SO not a  sexy topic but by putting it out there, I've had the most amazing feedback (via blog and privately) from people offering helpful hints. I'm already onto the green smoothies, will be trialling a probiotic and considering some other suggestions too. Thanks to everybody who contributed to this sometimes awkward topic.

Geez October has been a topsy turvy month and amongst it all I seemed to lose my way a bit, getting quite off track with both my short and long term goals. Being so focussed on my regularity (or lack of it) didn't help and then things just seemed to hit a bit of a downward slide. Until Tuesday morning at a work related exhibition, I found myself repeatedly drawn back to the morning tea table where bite sized pecan danishes seemed to jump from the platter to my mouth REPEATEDLY!!!

Couple this with a serious case of "I cant be arsed training" late last week and a super busy weekend with very little time for it and I was heading quickly towards Slothdom. Aaaargh talk about positive breeds positive and negative breeds negative. My world had turned into the latter and it was inevitable that my back pain would flare up again (I jarred it turning over in bed). That translated into a little more time off training and then only doing upper body work and yep, over a couple of weeks I felt like I'd lost so much ground.

But I have picked myself up, dusted myself off and got back on with it now. Yesterday was my 'regrouping' day even though I had very little time to spend on the emotional side of it. I met with the MM (now that I'm a big girl and the number has no power over me); gave my legs another rest day but did lots of stretching and then got back into some good eats. Even though there were moments throughout the day when my mind wandered to food I knew I didn't need, I let those thoughts go and by the time I got home for dinner and I was really hungry, I was also feeling pretty invincible and really happy.

I have a new goal for the end of October and achieving it should place me in good stead for some even better achievements in November. I'm focussed back on what I want, how I want to live and more importantly what I need to do to feel good .... which incidentally is NOT eating several pecan danishes :-) :-)

M  

  

MY FIRST GREEN SMOOTHIE

 

 

On Saturday morning I whipped up my first green smoothie - or 'green chunky' was a better description. I used 12 organic spinach leaves, 1/2 organic lebanese cucumber, 1/2 organic pink lady apple and an over-ripe home grown lime. Hmmmm, interesting combination.

 

 

OK I didnt put a lot er, much effort into its presentation but here it is served up ready to drink/eat. That whole lot (thats a 400ml glass) went down the hatch and I almost felt instantly *different*. Its like my stomach went "WHOA, what's that???" It wasnt bad but it sure was unusual. Did it have a cleansing effect? No but I could feel my insides churning which I took as a good thing.

 

I've had 2 more since then but am unsure if I'll make it a daily thing. Lets just say, the jury's out on that one.

 

The other thing I want to try is a daily probiotic. I know next to nothing about these so its internet research time before I venture out with some knowledge of what to buy.

 

Wrapping it up for tonight but have lots more to write about shortly.

 

Cheers all

 

 

M



THERE AINT NOTHIN HAPPENIN

Fibrober: no movement since I was sick last Wednesday night. Thats 7 days and this is not the first time I've been in this predicament. Why oh why does my body insist on holding onto it? Hoping tonight's dinner helps things along but its not a long term solution if I want to build a lean and toned body.

 

So next plan is to attempt a green smoothie. I might buy one tomorrow but will want the pulp left in (I dont have the necessary ingredients on hand to make it at home) and then trial making one in my processor (I dont have a juicer).

 

On Saturday my tummy was beautifully lean and flat. Today I could pass for 5 months pregnant :-(

FIBROBER - THE SAGA CONTINUES

I was back at work today firing on all cylinders with a LOT of catching up to do. Phew, it was a busy day. I've decided not to keep logging my food as it takes up a fair bit of time and puts me back into that anal and obsessive mode thats not good for me over the longer term. After a week of doing it, I have a pretty good idea of my intake anyway and I can get close to the mark even if I dont hit it. I've picked up lots of interesting tidbits like:

 

1. Brown rice is actually not very high in fibre (but its better than white rice).

2. Wholemeal pasta is higher than brown rice (I rarely eat it though)

3. Burgen rye bread rocks for high fibre so I try to have at least 1 slice/day.

4. Pears are the king of high fibre fruit - lucky I love them and devour a hard, brown pear every day (you can keep the juicy ripe ones - blah)

Plus a whole lot of other rivetting facts.

 

Something I like to do when looking into health matters is to check the Chinese medicine philosophy on the issue so I did this on Friday night and found some more interesting info. The CM philosophy for combatting constipation is to lead a 'consistent lifestyle' (as well as the usual dietary considerations that every man and his dog know about). And I think this is where I really fall down.

 

All week I eat well and keep my water intake up (ticking all the boxes to combat the dreaded 'c' word). Then on the weekend I get up later, train later, eat MUCH later and therefore less (often skipping lunch on a Saturday and Sunday) and dont drink as much water as I'm on the go all day and dont want to be chained to a toilet. My system is living 2 lives and the weekend life isnt doing anything to help my cause.

 

*sigh* I know what needs to be done but making the change wont be easy. Although having said that I've resorted to taking my fibre supps again and am now suffering gripy pains :-( possibly from too much fibre. God give me strength to work this out.

 

On a non-Fibrober note, I jogged for 40 minutes today but was back to my usual Cliff Young shuffle pace. I guess not every run can be amazingly awesome.

 

M

THE UP SIDE OF BEING SICK

They say that every cloud has a silver lining. Well every bout of illness has one (or a few) too. Here's what mine have been:

 

1. At my friends 40th last night her comment "I can see you've lost weight."

 

2. Feeling considerable lighter I had an awesome run today.

 

3. Enforced rest means rested legs also contributing to that awesome run.

 

4. I'm still eating less than I was before I got sick.

 

5. I'm very grateful for my usually robust and healthy constitution. Considering how bad I felt on Thursday, I've bounced back quickly and am feeling mighty invincible.

 

Yep, I had a FANTASTIC run today where I did a 5 min warm up walk and then hit my jogging pace. Except I felt so light and rested that I actually increased my speed from my usual Cliff Young shuffle to a respectable jogging pace. Every 5 minutes my average pace was getting faster and faster (remembering that my 5 minute walk was being factored in to it). It was only the last 5 of 40 minutes that were hard(ish) and then I walked for 15 minutes to finish off a mighty fine one hour session. I LOVE it when my runs feel like this.

 

Tomorrow I go back to work and normal life which is all I've craved this week but now its almost here I wish I could stay being a lady of leisure. Oh well, I can dream, I guess.

 

Tomorrow its also back to my Fibrober Challenge broadcast. Watch this space for my latest rivetting findings :-) LOL.

 

Cheers all

 

M

 



WHEN FIBROBER REALLY BECOMES A CHALLENGE

Well my Fibrober Challenge has really become just that. A CHALLENGE!! After being sick on Wednesday night and yesterday I'm not able to eat enough to get 30g of fibre in :-( I havent logged my intake as I know I'm way off the mark. At this stage I'll just have to ease back in gradually over a few days. On a positive note though, my trusty favourite Mavi jeans are feeling a bit looser so my 'skinnies' should be but a few kilos away. (Please note my 'skinnies' are a non-stretch size 11 flared jean that I need to be a certain weight to be able to wear. I cannot even entertain the idea of a traditional skinny jean with my big calves and thighs).

 

I've been home today as well and I took myself out for a bit of a walk as I just needed to move. My training schedule is all up the creek now but I plan to do weights tomorrow regardless. I just know that my strength will be down after I finally got it up last week. I guess I just have to accept that for me less calories = less strength.

 

Not surprisingly Peter seems to be getting the stomach bug as well although it hasnt hit him as hard as it hit Mitchell and me. Because of this we've just had our shortest, driest Friday night beer o'clock. We shared a small bowl of peanuts in their shells (gotta work for the calories) and I had one glass of wine that lasted through to dinner whilst Peter had a quarter of a glass before switching to water. Dinner was a total non-event. Bring on better days.

 

M

THE BUG'S GOT ME TOO

Well this is turning out to be a week I'm looking forward to being over. Last night not only did my fibre supps kick in (this is good) but the stomach bug that Mitchell had, decided to get me as well. Whilst I didnt puke I came damned close. I'm lucky I have an iron constitution that can fight bugs really well. In between dashes to the toilet, I lay in bed shivering and aching despite my electric blanket being powered up again.

 

I eventually went back to sleep only to have bad, disturbing dreams. In the morning I was totally wiped out and still in bed when Mitchell called out from downstairs about a uniform problem. With Peter in the shower I decided to get up and help Mitchell. But I was very lightheaded and at the top of the stairs I must have momentarily blacked out because the next thing I remember is falling down (on my arse thank goodness) and trying to stop myself along the way. OMG it was SO scary but I was SO lucky to not fall face first. You could say it was a pretty bad start to the day.

 

So there's not much else to do but stay in bed until you cant lie there any more and then take up residence on the sofa with the crosswords and daytime TV. I felt pretty crappy all day. No training and I ate very little of course.

 

What I forgot to blog yesterday was that I managed 2 training sessions. I did an early morning run of about 30 minutes and then later in the morning I trained legs. After a week and a half off, the training was quite tough but I pushed through it. So not only was I dealing with this tummy bug but I have DOMS in my glutes. I guess that answers my question about whether my static lunges are effective.

 

Off to bed for an early night as I'm still not feeling great. Fingers crossed tomorrow is a better day.

 

M

FIBROBER DAY 3 (YESTERDAY WAS ACTUALLY DAY 2)

Today I managed 31.5 grams but am getting fed up with tracking. It makes me feel all anal (oops another pun - SORRY - LOL) and obsessive about food, which I hate. I prefer to follow my instincts which I'm learning to trust more and more. However the 'fibre education' probably needs to continue for a while until I get the hang of what is enough.

 

My friend Miss K suggested a green smoothie every morning so I'm psyching myself up to give it a go. I only have a blender (no juicer) so it'll be interesting to see how smooth, or not it turns out. Oh and I went back to meat for dinner but added a big serve of higher fibre veges. The numbers stacked up and at the end of the meal I felt extremely satisfied :-)

 

On the home front all is well again although there was another day at home for recuperating. At least I wasnt up to my armpits in puke and washing. I did make a serious dent in my ironing basket though leaving only about a week's worth for my mum to tackle tomorrow. I have the BEST mum in the world. She's also washing the blanket that copped the lion's share of Monday night's puke. What would I do without her??

 

M

 



FIBROBER - DAY ONE

Phew. I sure dont need another day like today.

 

My boy was up with the vomits overnight. This meant a big chunk of lost sleep on top of the inevitable clean up. After finally getting back to sleep at a very early morning hour (about 4.30am) I was woken at 7.30 for round 3 :-( I think I've washed just about every hand towel, some bath towels, his quilt cover and PJs in what felt like an endless round of laundering bliss (NOT!!). As I've juggled all this plus a trip to the shops for chicken stock (because chicken soup cures everything), my own meals timed around the vomiting episodes, a bit of ironing, work emails, a much needed afternoon nap and the obligatory checking of FB, the thing that didnt happen today was my leg training. Such is life but I thought it more important to be on hand if required as my studio is at the back of our yard.

 

As far as food goes, today turned into an 'accidental vego day'. Brekky was my signature porridge (sultanas, bran, oats, egg whites and LSA) eaten way later than planned due to the above. If I'm home at lunch time I like to make something fresh and save the 'planned leftovers' to take for a work lunch. So today I whipped up a vege omelette with a couple of eggs, a little low fat mozzarella and onion, zucchini, mushroom and spinach leaves. Then I devoured a large brown pear which is the king of high fibre fruits. I had defrosted what I thought was a kangaroo fillet to stir fry with Gourmet Garden Moroccan Seasoning and veges for dinner but looking closely at and smelling the fillet, I realised it was actually a bit of steak which I decided to donate to Peter's cause. So at the last minute I changed course in my dinner prep and added to my stir fried veges 1/2 can of drained chick peas and 1/2 cup of cooked brown rice. This change boosted my fibre grams from 29.8 (yes I'm logging on Calorie King) to 35!!! My serve of chick peas alone had 9.4 grams of healthful fibre.

 

It wasnt hard to keep calories in check today but I did notice that my protein intake was lower than usual and carbs were higher (duh, of course!!). The other thing that I noticed was that although my dinner serve was large in quantity (close to a pasta bowl full of food) it didnt really fill me up. I could easily have eaten as much again. I guess thats the difference between the filling power of protein (think meat, eggs etc) vs foods that pretend to be both but are higher in carbs (think chick peas).

 

BTW yesterday I managed to have 35 grams as well and I learnt that a Slim Secrets Rev-Up bar has 4.8 grams of fibre. Who'd have thought??!! At this early stage of my experiment I'm still using a fibre supplement when needed but hoping that it becomes unneccesary down the track. It just shits me (LOL sorry about the pun) when it doesnt work :-(

 

M

MY NEXT MINI PROJECT - FIBROBER

Now that I'm back into my usual routine and the holiday fades into a recent and then distant memory, its time to embark on my next mini project.

 

Last month I tried going dairy free and that flopped badly. In all honesty my skin cleared up of its won accord and in my head the jury's still out as to whether dairy or soy are the greater evil. Now this is important to me as I CANNOT drink back coffee and taking away my skim cappuccino is just not on. I don't drink a lot of coffee but geez I enjoy what I have. Add to that the WPI I take after weight training and having just recently invested in a large tub made me realise that dairy free just wasn't stacking up. I lasted but a few days and then happily gave it away. Maybe another time?

 

However my next project is an important one for me. I'm on a mission to get enough fibre in my diet and my goal is to be 'naturally regular'. This is something I've struggled with just about my whole life and I still remember the one time that things seemed to work properly. Some decades ago I was having trouble with my gums and eating meat was often uncomfortable so I went vego for a while. I did a good job of it too, carefully food combining so that I was getting the right balance of nutrients. Almost daily I ate brown rice, salad or veg and legumes (mixed beans, chick peas, lentils etc). Well after a while of eating this way, lo and behold things started working properly without any intervention. Hooly dooly, I was very happily amazed. Not sure why I stopped (probably the convenience factor of friends and family having to cater differently for you) but I did and things went back to my old norm. Incidentally I remember that I managed to control my weight fairly easily as well, debunking the body building myth held by some trainers that vegetarian is NOT a good way to eat. Admittedly I wasn't weight training at all back then and yes I do know of some very lean and muscly body builders that have plant based diets so I put that last comment up with some trepidation.

 

So recently my diet has been mainly Paleo with the exception of oats or a slice of toast for breakfast. Although I drink lots of water and eat fruit and lots of vegetables, its just not cutting it for me and over the weeks my system has gotten slower and slower. I guess at the end of the day for me Paleo works a treat for dropping body fat but its just not the best thing for me over all. Thanks to Calorie King I've researched the fibre content of foods I'm likely to eat and have reintroduced Burgen rye bread and brown rice at lunch time. Add a brown pear and a medium-high fibre brekky and I should hit my daily target of at least 30g of fibre. I suspect I might need a bit more than that but its a good start. I've even considered aiming for a day or two eating vego again.

 

Needless to say, I'll be interested to see what my weight does with this change but as always I'm up for a bit of 'suck it and see'. So lets get Fibrober under way.

 

M

 

        

 

 

BACK FROM HOLIDAYS

I cant believe its been a week since I last came here to blog. I've had a wonderful mini holiday taking my boy to Port Lincoln where a dear friend now lives. We had a short holiday with her family while Peter stayed at home and held the fort at work.

 

You may recall from my last post that my diet and training had gone a little wonky due to a change in routine and me feeling quite tired from lots of running and leg training. My last post was like my recommitment to my longer term goals of getting into awesome shape for my 50th birthday next year. However holiday time is not the best time to aim for significant inroads into such a goal so I pretty much decided to go with the flow for a few days and then get stuck back in on my return.

 

Honestly, the break was fantastic. I ate fruit toast with butter for breakfast. I drank wine and/or champagne every day. There was a hot chip - or 10 - devoured with lunch or as an afternoon snack and the piece de resistance was lunch on the drive home. Mitchell and I stopped at a country bakery and I had a cornish pasty with sauce AND an apple crumble cake. OMG - the perfect fusion of white flour, trans fats and sugar galore. My taste buds were jumping for joy for 10 minutes and then I realised that it wasnt actually THAT great and I knew deep down that I didnt want to keep eating that crap. Sometimes you have to take a step back to propel yourself further forward and thats exactly what Friday felt like for me. Nice indulgence but dont want to keep it up.

 

After doing weight training for three days straight before I went away I took the rest of the week off except for a leisurely walk on Thursday morning. My lower back and right hip are a bit sore since I'm back into training now at home but I'm hoping to keep it under control through stretching, healthy eating and a positive mindset. This worked before and there's no reason it cant work again.

 

I havent checked in with the MM and if there is a bigger number than last time, then so be it. I know that what I'm doing now will have the numbers heading in the right direction in no time at all. I just need to keep my eye on the bigger picture and keep taking one step at a time towards my goals.

 

:-) M