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