KICKIN GOALS

It feels so good to get to a Friday knowing you've clocked up a pretty good week. My training has been solid (even though Monday's 300 workout could have been harder) and and I've been really happy with my eats too. I've been waking up with a little spring in my step just from looking and feeling better. I've nailed 3 pretty decent runs and finished the week off with another 300 today but with some of the weights increased. I nailed it in less than 20 minutes so maybe its still too easy. I also threw in a shoulder/bis and tris session as those muscle groups have been a bit neglected for a couple of weeks and then wrapped up today's session with 2 x 60 second planks, another exercise that I've been ignoring of late.

Yet it never ceases to amaze me how a few simple positive actions usually breed a few more positive actions and strung together they have this amazing effect of changing my whole perception of myself. I tell you at times like this I wake up genuinely believing that I'm a lean, mean athletic machine (LOL!!!). I have this really positive vision of how I'll look and feel on my holiday and I just aint letting it go. What's that saying?

Dream it

Believe it

Achieve it

I reckon there's another line that I've missed but you get the drift, I'm sure. More and more I'm appreciating the power of a positive mindset and the difference it makes in everyday life.

I have a busy weekend ahead but happy that its starting with a quiet Friday night at home :-). Tomorrow I'll be doing my usual time in the icebox followed by lunch out with my Mum (its her birthday today) and then watching The Great Gatsby. In the evening we'll be going out to dinner with a couple of friends that we rarely spend time with. I get a bit of 'me-time' on Sunday when Peter spends the afternoon with the boys. Hopefully the weather is kind and I can nail another hour of power run on Sunday. If not, it'll be studio training which is never as much fun.

Have a great weekend guys.

M

 

 

 

THE DAY AFTER MY FIRST 300 AND AFTERNOON INTERLUDES

The day after my first 300 and I'm not feeling too bad. I have a bit of DOMS in my upper thighs but Sunday's one hour run would be to blame as much as yesterday's workout.  What I did notice this morning on my run (yep I was out there again!!), was just how tired my legs felt at the 30 minute mark. It was like they were waving the white flag - 'WE SURRENDER'. 'Suck it up' I told them and we kept going for another 12 1/2 minutes. Hey, I might be Cliff Young Shuffling but at least I'm out of bed and sweating it out, unlike last week's piss poor effort.

Tomorrow marks the 4 week countdown to our holiday. 4 WEEKS!! I'm in a good place with my fitness and lifestyle but it will be a really good time to reaffirm what I want and why I want it. I see it as a bit of a progress check with some fine-tuning thrown in just to make sure things are running at their optimum. As Kerryn said to me in her comment a couple of posts ago, its so easy to lose sight of your goals and why they matter to you when you're consumed with the day to day drudgery of life. Not that life is a total drudgery but lets face it, how many of us have time to sit around and contemplate our navels? Not many, I'm sure.

Finally I'm going to share an amusing little incident from yesterday. At the end of the day I was walking through Rundle Mall on the way to my car. I wasn't rushing as I usually do, just walking at a comfortable pace. Despite a toughish day, I was happy wirth how it had ended and I was feeling generally good and quite relaxed and happy. I passed a gentleman on my way and for a second we made eye contact and he said to me with a smile "you look really lovely." I said "thank you" and kept walking albeit with my spirits lifted even higher. That evening I told Peter about it. His comment: "Was he a derelict?" No he was actually normal(ish) ... well sorta. LOL.

:-) M

 

300ING IT TODAY

Having had somewhat of a light bulb moment last week and subsequently changing some key actions, it was a real delight to wake up on Saturday morning feeling AMAZING. And this was despite a nasty dehydration headache that came about from too many meetings on Friday and way too little water being consumed in said meetings.  Note to self, TAKE A WATER BOTTLE TO ALL MEETINGS.

The problem was easily rectified with heaps of water being guzzled on Saturday and Sunday. I had lunch out at one of my favourite cafes on Saturday and I ordered a 'winter warmer' herbal tea flavoured with orange and cinnamon in place of a second coffee for the day. Talk about delicious!! As at today I'm safely well hydrated and feeling really good.

After 2 missed Sundays, it was hour of power time yesterday and I managed a 57 minute run (+ 5 mins warm up walk). I followed this up with a pseudo yoga stretching workout of about 15 minutes focusing on lower body and back with a bit of ITB massaging thrown in as well. That combo always has me feeling like I could slay dragons for the rest of the day but I settled on baby sitting my niece and her puppy while the rest of the family did their trekkie thing at the movies. I also managed to cook lamb shanks for Mum's birthday dinner amongst a myriad of other domestic chores.

Finally I've kicked off this week with a 300 workout of my own that went something like this:

Wide squat (DB to floor)/overhead press with 2kg DB x 25 (not too bad once my legs were able to bend enough to touch the DB to the floor)

Seated Row @ 20kgs x 50 (a favourite!)

Squat @ 5kg plate x 50 (going ok, feeling a little smug even)

Push-ups (knees) x 50 (OMG I manged 20 and thought I was going to die. I broke the remaining 30 into sets of 10. It was pain all the way.)

Stiff Legged Deadlifts @ 20kgs x 50 (another favourite)

Fitball Crunches @ 5 kg plate x 50 (I kept telling myself I was nearly at the end and managed 2 sets done as 30 and 20)

Wide squat (DB to floor)/overhead press with 2kg DB x 25. (Home stretch and feeling tired but ok).

This took me about 22 minutes suggesting I could go a bit heavier on some weights. I admit, I was playing it a bit safe so as not to end up totally debilitated with DOMS over the coming days. To round off my workout I hopped on the spin bike and did 5 hill climbs of 1 minute each with a 30 second recovery taking me up to my usual finish time. Happy with the start of my week :-)

M 

 

THE MECHANICS OF CHANGE

Today my over-analytical mind is coming to grips with the mechanics of change. Change as in self development, self improvement and the like. Most bloggers would relate to this as many blogs are about striving to be fitter, leaner, healthier, better at a particular sport or physical pursuit or just a better, more authentic version of ourselves full stop. Many of us are on a journey of change whether we see things that way or not. In fact, life rarely stands still and we are forever changing and evolving.

If you're a regular reader of my blog you'll know that my personal journey is one of letting go of my emotional eating, my ultimate goal being to be free of it for my 50th birthday in July this year. I might write about wanting to be leaner, fitter, stronger or whatever other physical consideration I choose but underpinning all of that is the burning desire to be Binge-Free. Because you see when I achieve that, the rest will take care of itself. I dont need a trainer to tell me that, nor a life coach, nor some riveting FaceBook article backed up by scientific research (beacuse they all are!!). Its just something I know with absolute certainty.

But over the last few months I've been putting the cart before the horse or the chicken before the egg and taking a totally arse up approach which isn't taking me where I want to be. My focus has been all about weight loss and the number on the scale getting smaller. I have placed so much importance on it, obsessed over it and let it take me on an emotional rollercoaster ride. Don't get me wrong, the highs were great (woohoo, weight loss, I love you!!) but as the focus on the numbers got worse I was totally forgetting the real purpose of what I was trying to achieve. And in doing so I was just making it harder and harder to let go of my emotional eating.

I wish I could say that I'm one of those people who makes a decision to change, flicks the switch and just does it but for me that couldn't be further from the truth. For me change is a gradual process of awakening, analysing, understanding and easing into new ways. I usually stumble often, have to pick myself up, dust myself off and get back on the horse .... many times.

This time I have to sort out my horse and cart. 

Horse: eat well; exercise effectively and regularly; nurture my body, mind and spirit; be grateful

Cart: Feel good; look good; be calm; be strong.

And the rest will take care of itself.

This morning I took some time to reflect over the last few days (another rough patch) and I realised that things had gotten all arse up and the answer was to shift the focus away from the numbers and back to overall health and wellbeing and let the rest take care of itself. I feel better already :-)

How about you? Are you driven by numbers and tangible outcomes or is that sense of total wellbeing enough motivation for you?

M  

 

PRESSING THE RESET BUTTON

I got this heading from another blogger who'd had a bit of a setback with her weight loss and fitness goals and I thought it was a pretty clever way to flick the switch and move forward. After that I thought nothing more of it until yesterday as I neared the end of 4 days of being totally uncommitted to my goals and plan of action for achieving them. So here goes.

Let me preface all this by saying that over the last few months I have come forward in leaps and bounds in managing my binge eating. I've had several weeks and indeed months of not binging and every step forward made me feel that little bit stronger and more confident that I'd finally be rid of this behaviour in line with my goal to kick it by my 50th birthday.

So a silly negative interlude with the Metal Monster on Thursday undid a LOT of good work and I found old habits came back with a vengeance. Friday was similar and then I regrouped somewhat on Saturday. But Mothers Day was to be my downfall and by the end of the evening I realised I had eaten WAY too much and was feeling pretty yucky as a result. Add to this no exercise on Sunday and it was a bit of a double whammy that messed with my head as much as my physical effects.

At bedtime last night I vowed to press the reset button today and leap straight back into my usual good habits. I couldn't afford to wallow in self pity and allow the slide back to regaining the weight I've lost to just happen. I didn't want to lose the fitness I'd gained and psychologically I certainly didn't want to put myself back at square one. Today its about stepping up to the plate and getting through the first few tough days when you feel heavier than you want to be and your emotions can be a bit delicate. But I'm doing it.

I got up before 5am and nailed a 45 minute legs sessions bumping my max squat weight up by another kilo. Geez it was tough but I did it and felt great for it. I've scaled my food back today and am chugging water like there's no tomorrow. I know it will all be good. And as for the Metal Monster, well I made the fatal error of placing too much importance on it. Up to now I've been pretty relaxed about it but on Thursday I stepped on with big expectations and I was let down when in actual fact I should have celebrated and patted myself on the back for a whole range of other achievements. So the silly bugger aint gonna see me for a while as I shift my focus to good habits and positive mindset vs the number looking back at me. 

I know that challenges and setbacks are a normal part of life and I've just had my share to ground me, but the key now is to press the rest button and move ONWARDS.

Thanks for listening

M

   

TRUDGING ALONG

Hi all,

I've been trudging along since my last blog post and clocking up some nice little victories along the way.

On Sunday I increased my run time to 45 minutes broken into 3 x 15 minute blocks with a 5 minute walk interval in between. I absolutely love my Sunday Hour of Power even if the weather was a bit ordinary for it. Then on Thursday I headed out for a morning run despite being in a bit of a feeling-sorry-for-myself mood (more on that later). I set the bar pretty low to start with knowing that even being out there was more than I felt capable of. Well it didn't take long for a 10 minute jog to turn into a 20 minute one and then adding another 10 minutes didn't seem too daunting. By the 30 minute mark, doing another 10 just felt easy so I pushed on for a total of 43 minutes jogging. All at a nice steady slow pace but even that is enough to make me feel good when I finish it.

Buoyed along by my Sunday achievement I attacked my Monday morning leg session with more than my usual level of gusto. I decided to give myself a bit of a squat challenge with a view to going heavier than I have been for a REALLY long time. I started lighter than usual to get a really good warm up and over several sets I increased the weight until I was 2.5 kilos above my 'psychological limit.'  It was heavy (for me) and hard but I did it and next week I'll shoot for an extra 2.5 kilos again. Slow and steady will get me there.

So why the feeling-sorry -for-myself mood yesterday? I've been working hard at getting my weight down for some time now. Without getting too obsessive about it, I've been a lot more mindful about what, when and how much I eat and I've been weight training and doing some form of cardio quite consistently for a few months. So why can't the Metal Monster show me the love I deserve??!! Normally it doesn't bother me because it will reflect quite accurately whether I've been eating well or not. So when it DOESN'T reflect that I get a little bit peeved as was the case yesterday. With less than 6 weeks to go til holiday time, I'm keen to get a few more kilos off but at this rate I just don't think I'm going to make it. Grrrrr!!!

But I'll stop moaning about that and shift to a more positive focus because if there is any chance of achieving my goal, then it'll be with a positive mindset and not a whingy-woe-is-me one.  So its time to suck it up and get back into it. Onwards, I say.

M