Hello, bet that title got your attention!
The idea got started as PT, Kat Millar announced a challenge on her website. Mainly the aim was to pick something achievable to all, and to get as many people involved as possible.
So she advertised the challenge as 1000k run or walk in a year challenge! That is approximately 3k a day or 20k a week average. Pretty doable hey? The idea is to set a longer term goal so followers can get into the habit of 'consistency'. Also as it's a long term task, done with an online team of others, there should be a sense of 'online community fulfillment' at the end, - finishing something we started!
So yes, I'm up for the running bit. I can do it either on the treadmill or outside with my garmin watch! I will use this challenge for long runs, 5k 'time trials', - still aiming to bust 25 mins outdoors! Lots of flat ground without getting interupted by traffic to give me the best chance of attaining that in NZ, - just may have Southerly Antarctic winds to battle with though! I'm thinking of the running leg as being from Sydney, (where Kat lives), to northern Brisbane lol! I have always ADORED Noosa and for some reason have always felt as proud as punch if I get 24k running in a week! Noosa is about 200k north of Brisbane, - so I'm secretly aiming for 24k running average a week and to make it from Sydney to Noosa in a year, (of course a wine or even better a small party or night out at maybe Barluca, Invercargill NZ when I 'reach Noosa'!)
To add to this 'challenge' for myself.........who is wanting to be involved in some triathlon........I decided to attain 50km of swimming in a year, - average of 1km a week of pool laps with 2 weeks off. Initially I thought 100k, - but do realise that next year will be very busy with study, work and training and I want to do quite alot of resistance work as well. 1k a week or 2k a fortnight average swimming will be a niggly little goal, but I do want to improve form, skill and speed here.
As for the cycling component, - it took a bit to come up with a figure but I set the task of 1450km in a year. Just under 30k a week average on the bike! If the weather outside looks completely hopeless I am going to go along with the fact that an RPM 45 min class = 15km. (I have read it is more like 19-20) but if I consider I get a good sweat up and work near my max I will count it as 15km. With longer daylight hours plus better weather in summer I am aiming to clock up more summer km to give me less of a job to do over next winter where I will spend lots more time doing weight training. Also before I leave Perth I hope to clock a few hundred km!
So all in all, - it will be an Ultra Ironman, - 50/1450/1000 to equal 2500km in total. I just googled the distance to drive from Sydney - Port Douglas, (another beaut tropical party secluded hangout I have only spent 3 hours in but would like more time in) and the distance is listed as 2541km.........lets do this!
The more the merrier with this challenge! If anyone else would like to run/walk 1000k in a year or similar, come, join! We are kicking off 1 Sept 2012, - needing to reach our destinations by 1 Sept 2013! By the way I just checked the straight flight distance from Invercargill to Sydney, - it was listed as 2005km! I am a maths 'nerd' when I wanna be!
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
SLIGHTLY EDITED PLAN FOR BINGE-FREE FUTURE!
Hello again!
You know what! As for the 'binge' that started on Sunday, - I felt SO disappointed! I had done the 29 day challenge meeting targets on all fronts, I had stayed bingefree for another week beyond that, - I had a few challenges and less sleep over the last week but nothing too major. The 'binge' started from going over my alcohol 'allowance' this time.
I had hoped this was FINALLY the end of all bingeing for me, that I had turned the leaf for good. As I had several times before, - I had a secret confident feeling that this IS it. I had read Kathryn Hansen's wonderful e-book, 'Brain Over Binge', it made sense. However, I also had the mindset that, - a binge can form by giving into a silly fleeting urge, can feel damaging, giving in would disappoint me, I would then have to deal with all the old 'urges/feelings' which are diehard habits I had formed over the years.
When 'In the Zone', I usually don't really have any urges to binge, or even eat junk. Getting into the zone takes 2-3 days for me, and it's about ignoring urges, then they go. But when 'in the zone' the only times I feel like bingeing a bit is if I don't get a workout in on a planned day when I 'could' have,
perhaps after I'd been out eating socially with others, - and the food available was not quite as healthy as my normal choices, - but I can generally withstand those small urges and they pass and I'm pleased I don't give in to the 'less desirables'. Also lack of sleep, being tired, under influence of alcohol are other things that can lead me toward silly urges.
I wish I could say the binge just lasted Sunday and Monday, - unfortunately I let it continue Tuesday and today. I was still full this morning, and tired, dreading work. Plan was to eat nothing till hungry later in day and keep up the water as tummy had been overloaded. But my bloated tummy had a sick feeling pit, I felt really flat and had a mental urge that it needed a cheesy savoury brekkie before I started work to get productively through busy morning at work. Couldn't then decide what to have so I doubled up on 2 different things at brekkie, not really a good start today.
SO THE NEW IDEA CHANGE:
Tomorrow I am planning to start way toward a bingefree future for good again.
Major difference this time is........while the 'ultimate' is to be binge free for good from tomoz........if I DO indeed have another 'glitch' in a few months or whatever, - ...............acknowledge it happened but DON'T view it as failure and be BACK TO control the very next day.
I am saying this in the context of a perhaps a smoker. I have never smoked luckily and have never been interested and am very confident I will NEVER smoke. However a heavy smoker may attempt to quit many times. Maybe eventually they do quit for a few weeks or months, - BUT find they give into an urge and light up one evening at a party. Does this make them feel like a failure and go back to fulltime smoking again? In lots of cases it could, due to past habits, their feelings of disappointment, failure etc. But if the very next day they went back to being a non smoker, - their mental 'blocks' would change. If an ex - full time smoker had a solo evening where they 'lit up' for whatever reason every few months, that is still progress, one day they may give up totally for good.
So in relating that to binge eating or even over-indulgence of alcohol, -
* The Gold Star idea is that I never eat or drink in a way which I define as 'bingeing' again.
I don't want to make an 'excape clause' but if it DOES happen I need to put all my energies into making sure it doesn't go on for more than 1 consecutive day and place a strong emphasis on possible binges declining in frequency, not increasing.
Thursday tomoz, think tomorrows plan for overfull tummy is lemon and water for brekkie, then an orange, then lots of water, then 'suck it up' at work! Sweat up at gym, no matter what!
You know what! As for the 'binge' that started on Sunday, - I felt SO disappointed! I had done the 29 day challenge meeting targets on all fronts, I had stayed bingefree for another week beyond that, - I had a few challenges and less sleep over the last week but nothing too major. The 'binge' started from going over my alcohol 'allowance' this time.
I had hoped this was FINALLY the end of all bingeing for me, that I had turned the leaf for good. As I had several times before, - I had a secret confident feeling that this IS it. I had read Kathryn Hansen's wonderful e-book, 'Brain Over Binge', it made sense. However, I also had the mindset that, - a binge can form by giving into a silly fleeting urge, can feel damaging, giving in would disappoint me, I would then have to deal with all the old 'urges/feelings' which are diehard habits I had formed over the years.
When 'In the Zone', I usually don't really have any urges to binge, or even eat junk. Getting into the zone takes 2-3 days for me, and it's about ignoring urges, then they go. But when 'in the zone' the only times I feel like bingeing a bit is if I don't get a workout in on a planned day when I 'could' have,
perhaps after I'd been out eating socially with others, - and the food available was not quite as healthy as my normal choices, - but I can generally withstand those small urges and they pass and I'm pleased I don't give in to the 'less desirables'. Also lack of sleep, being tired, under influence of alcohol are other things that can lead me toward silly urges.
I wish I could say the binge just lasted Sunday and Monday, - unfortunately I let it continue Tuesday and today. I was still full this morning, and tired, dreading work. Plan was to eat nothing till hungry later in day and keep up the water as tummy had been overloaded. But my bloated tummy had a sick feeling pit, I felt really flat and had a mental urge that it needed a cheesy savoury brekkie before I started work to get productively through busy morning at work. Couldn't then decide what to have so I doubled up on 2 different things at brekkie, not really a good start today.
SO THE NEW IDEA CHANGE:
Tomorrow I am planning to start way toward a bingefree future for good again.
Major difference this time is........while the 'ultimate' is to be binge free for good from tomoz........if I DO indeed have another 'glitch' in a few months or whatever, - ...............acknowledge it happened but DON'T view it as failure and be BACK TO control the very next day.
I am saying this in the context of a perhaps a smoker. I have never smoked luckily and have never been interested and am very confident I will NEVER smoke. However a heavy smoker may attempt to quit many times. Maybe eventually they do quit for a few weeks or months, - BUT find they give into an urge and light up one evening at a party. Does this make them feel like a failure and go back to fulltime smoking again? In lots of cases it could, due to past habits, their feelings of disappointment, failure etc. But if the very next day they went back to being a non smoker, - their mental 'blocks' would change. If an ex - full time smoker had a solo evening where they 'lit up' for whatever reason every few months, that is still progress, one day they may give up totally for good.
So in relating that to binge eating or even over-indulgence of alcohol, -
* The Gold Star idea is that I never eat or drink in a way which I define as 'bingeing' again.
I don't want to make an 'excape clause' but if it DOES happen I need to put all my energies into making sure it doesn't go on for more than 1 consecutive day and place a strong emphasis on possible binges declining in frequency, not increasing.
Thursday tomoz, think tomorrows plan for overfull tummy is lemon and water for brekkie, then an orange, then lots of water, then 'suck it up' at work! Sweat up at gym, no matter what!
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
In Wake of the regarded kinda 'flop'.......
G'day,
Firstly I will acknowledge the kind help from Magda and Hilary in regard to my last post! Thank you for making me feel better.
I was mentioning on some posts recently that I read Michael Hill's book, - 'Toughen Up'. I am now reading his second book called 'Think Bigger', - gosh I am actually liking and utilizing my kindle e-reader! I don't quite have the same aspirations as Sir Michael Hill, - who has a goal of 1000 Michael Hill Shops globably my 2022. He is in his 70's now, didn't really start his journeying of getting ahead/opening his own first store until the age of 40. In addition to his world known jewellery chain, - he runs a world class violin competition with world class judges and top class competitors from many countries. (Sir Michael thought of a way to utilise is passion of playing the violin), - and he dreamt big. He also had a hobby of building golf courses, and built a world class one near Queenstown and Arrowtown in NZ. Amongst much more he and his 'gang' have designed and built many boats. He always seemed to then want something bigger and better. He seems to thrive on 'thrill' and gets more pleasure out of planning/building such things like better boats, new business plans, better golf courses than he does sitting back and enjoying the fruits of his massive accomplishments! He enjoys taking friends out fishing on his awesome boats and helping/providing good experiences for others, more than sitting back indulging himself.
Ya know, - I had just written MUCH more than this, - about Aussie Pole to Pole runner legend Pat Farmer, how once I even donated $15 to charity, (to cover some wine I DIDN'T drink), - his main purpose for his run was to raise $$$ for the Red Cross! However while I thought I was saving this post, I lost over half of it, - frustrating. I gave a bit blurb on his run. Basically he trapsed through the heart of the polar regions, covered on average 84k running EVERY day non stop from most Northern tip of Canada to most Southern city of world in Ushasia, base tip of I think, - Argentina. He flew across necessary oceans at the smallest points possible. I was nearly NOT gonna run in this years Perth 14k charity run as I was still stoked with last years time, knew I would be a bit slower this year, - HOWEVER after I heard Pat come to the local radio station and promote the run there was no way I COULD NOT participate! And I still achieved what I consider at least a respectable time!
NZ ASPIRATIONS........(Still called 'loose' aspirations, not yet goals haha!) Just a quick outline!
* Move, - arriving 21 Nov this year, - first night in new home
* Initially settle in, catch up with family, suss out course details, (see what I can get accepted into), probably initially over summer work on parents business, maybe/maybe not take on a hospitality shift, aim to improve or at least maintain fitness, study up on the beginner level of anatomy, phsysiology, maintain home!
* Start course in Feb 2013, - Exercise Science L5 diploma lasts 1 year, if one passes they can choose to go into a L6 Diploma in the second year, and attain a bachelor in the third year. Am just taking 1 year at a time here, it's a full time course, the 'zero fees' local scheme makes it much more affordable. I'd apply for the student allowance scheme, hopefully be able to supplement that with a couple of shifts a week work. Initially that may be hospitality, ideally working toward shifts in the health/fitness industry, (even gym reception or salesperson at Rebel Sports or similar :-)). Keeping fit, enough sleep, keeping up with course, study, work, home maintanance and some fun will keep me well busy!
* I am working toward some fulltime job in the health/fitness type industry. If that is not forthcoming for a bit I will work toward shifts in hospitality and/or retail and for maybe my parents.
* One ambition IS to start either a personal training 'on the side' business and/or take a group fitness class or similar! I am still very loose with this, have not decided on a 'target market(s)'! - or how I would implement it, - but it's a vision for the next few years, - and quite weirdly vivid!
* I will join the Southland Multisport club! Also a gym, maybe a running OR bootcamp type group. Getting back into netball would be good, - but no promises on that one yet.
* I hope to be able to get away on a decent overseas holiday/adventure for about 2-5 weeks every 2 years, - some adventure, some relaxing but enjoyment, new experiences and fun.
* Keep up blogging/photography, ideally start a blog more suitable to general public and FB mates over time!
* Obviously build friendships, relationships etc over time.
* Nicely maintain my property!
Haha, - this is not quite Michael's vision but I this is what I am very happy and excited with now, - and I visualise this 'outline' for the next few years). Beyond that, - who knows!
HOWEVER, - the biggest thing is EFFORT! Even as the last couple of days prooved again, the most destructive thing is BINGEING!
Whatever eventuates, - the biggest disappointment will be bingeing. If I get annoyed, let doubts overule me, then binge, then spend too much $ I will be gutted if I don't pass my course.
However, - if I can control the controllables and at least not binge on uncontrolled food or booze plus remain happy with my efforts at personal organisation and not spend wastefully.......if I am happy with my effort of study and lifestyle balance however still don't manage the marks I want or even pass, I will feel OK that I have given my best, stayed in control, then move onto the next thing.
On that note, - 'urges, come, go'. They seem to arise more when tired, outta routine, a little stressed, - where 'excuses' ponder to get us 'outta the zone'. If fully in the zone, not tired, organised etc, they seem to arise 'less'. I still believe the art in fully getting over binge eating/compulsive alcohol consumption or compulsive general spending of money IS to not act on those non helpful 'urges'. If we manage to ignore our 'urges', or at least tell ourselves, 'they WILL pass at some point, - I bet we can enter bed that night, - pleased we didn't give into those slippery slope/destructive/unplanned urges at the end of the day!
I have rattled on enough today!
Pip :-)
Firstly I will acknowledge the kind help from Magda and Hilary in regard to my last post! Thank you for making me feel better.
I was mentioning on some posts recently that I read Michael Hill's book, - 'Toughen Up'. I am now reading his second book called 'Think Bigger', - gosh I am actually liking and utilizing my kindle e-reader! I don't quite have the same aspirations as Sir Michael Hill, - who has a goal of 1000 Michael Hill Shops globably my 2022. He is in his 70's now, didn't really start his journeying of getting ahead/opening his own first store until the age of 40. In addition to his world known jewellery chain, - he runs a world class violin competition with world class judges and top class competitors from many countries. (Sir Michael thought of a way to utilise is passion of playing the violin), - and he dreamt big. He also had a hobby of building golf courses, and built a world class one near Queenstown and Arrowtown in NZ. Amongst much more he and his 'gang' have designed and built many boats. He always seemed to then want something bigger and better. He seems to thrive on 'thrill' and gets more pleasure out of planning/building such things like better boats, new business plans, better golf courses than he does sitting back and enjoying the fruits of his massive accomplishments! He enjoys taking friends out fishing on his awesome boats and helping/providing good experiences for others, more than sitting back indulging himself.
Ya know, - I had just written MUCH more than this, - about Aussie Pole to Pole runner legend Pat Farmer, how once I even donated $15 to charity, (to cover some wine I DIDN'T drink), - his main purpose for his run was to raise $$$ for the Red Cross! However while I thought I was saving this post, I lost over half of it, - frustrating. I gave a bit blurb on his run. Basically he trapsed through the heart of the polar regions, covered on average 84k running EVERY day non stop from most Northern tip of Canada to most Southern city of world in Ushasia, base tip of I think, - Argentina. He flew across necessary oceans at the smallest points possible. I was nearly NOT gonna run in this years Perth 14k charity run as I was still stoked with last years time, knew I would be a bit slower this year, - HOWEVER after I heard Pat come to the local radio station and promote the run there was no way I COULD NOT participate! And I still achieved what I consider at least a respectable time!
NZ ASPIRATIONS........(Still called 'loose' aspirations, not yet goals haha!) Just a quick outline!
* Move, - arriving 21 Nov this year, - first night in new home
* Initially settle in, catch up with family, suss out course details, (see what I can get accepted into), probably initially over summer work on parents business, maybe/maybe not take on a hospitality shift, aim to improve or at least maintain fitness, study up on the beginner level of anatomy, phsysiology, maintain home!
* Start course in Feb 2013, - Exercise Science L5 diploma lasts 1 year, if one passes they can choose to go into a L6 Diploma in the second year, and attain a bachelor in the third year. Am just taking 1 year at a time here, it's a full time course, the 'zero fees' local scheme makes it much more affordable. I'd apply for the student allowance scheme, hopefully be able to supplement that with a couple of shifts a week work. Initially that may be hospitality, ideally working toward shifts in the health/fitness industry, (even gym reception or salesperson at Rebel Sports or similar :-)). Keeping fit, enough sleep, keeping up with course, study, work, home maintanance and some fun will keep me well busy!
* I am working toward some fulltime job in the health/fitness type industry. If that is not forthcoming for a bit I will work toward shifts in hospitality and/or retail and for maybe my parents.
* One ambition IS to start either a personal training 'on the side' business and/or take a group fitness class or similar! I am still very loose with this, have not decided on a 'target market(s)'! - or how I would implement it, - but it's a vision for the next few years, - and quite weirdly vivid!
* I will join the Southland Multisport club! Also a gym, maybe a running OR bootcamp type group. Getting back into netball would be good, - but no promises on that one yet.
* I hope to be able to get away on a decent overseas holiday/adventure for about 2-5 weeks every 2 years, - some adventure, some relaxing but enjoyment, new experiences and fun.
* Keep up blogging/photography, ideally start a blog more suitable to general public and FB mates over time!
* Obviously build friendships, relationships etc over time.
* Nicely maintain my property!
Haha, - this is not quite Michael's vision but I this is what I am very happy and excited with now, - and I visualise this 'outline' for the next few years). Beyond that, - who knows!
HOWEVER, - the biggest thing is EFFORT! Even as the last couple of days prooved again, the most destructive thing is BINGEING!
Whatever eventuates, - the biggest disappointment will be bingeing. If I get annoyed, let doubts overule me, then binge, then spend too much $ I will be gutted if I don't pass my course.
However, - if I can control the controllables and at least not binge on uncontrolled food or booze plus remain happy with my efforts at personal organisation and not spend wastefully.......if I am happy with my effort of study and lifestyle balance however still don't manage the marks I want or even pass, I will feel OK that I have given my best, stayed in control, then move onto the next thing.
On that note, - 'urges, come, go'. They seem to arise more when tired, outta routine, a little stressed, - where 'excuses' ponder to get us 'outta the zone'. If fully in the zone, not tired, organised etc, they seem to arise 'less'. I still believe the art in fully getting over binge eating/compulsive alcohol consumption or compulsive general spending of money IS to not act on those non helpful 'urges'. If we manage to ignore our 'urges', or at least tell ourselves, 'they WILL pass at some point, - I bet we can enter bed that night, - pleased we didn't give into those slippery slope/destructive/unplanned urges at the end of the day!
I have rattled on enough today!
Pip :-)
Monday, August 27, 2012
Hmmmmmm, - in 'want' of help lol.........
G'day all,
I really want this to be my last 'drag down', 'negative type' post for a bit. I am writing this here as in all honestly I feel bad about having the 'same' conversation with the 'same' people about 'same/similar things'. I am concious that if I get a tangent in my current frame of mind I could potentially drag others down lots, - who don't deserve to be dragged down, but bottling it up inside yourself sucks too :-( I feel bad as I know I once again dragged family down this past weekend about very similar issues of the last many many years!
I know many many people worldwide have much more earth shattering probs and concerns than me by the way!
Firstly I will say up until mid arvo yesterday, - I stayed well on track. I got over 30k in for the week of running, some smashing resistance workouts. Saturday's workout was cut a bit shorter than I meant it to be but I still got a 20k ride in, (to and from gym) 15 mins as intense as poss on rower and some good sets on the assisted chin up and assisted tricep dip machine. I did weigh in on Saturday, had a decent drop, - 75.5kg, - that was after a healthy but decent sized lunch, a medium skinny flat white and same water.
I did intend a run, followed by lots of pushups/crunches/plank, lunges on Sunday but ended up just not getting it done early, then at almost lunchtime started helping my housemate moving her BF in who is new to the household!
Mid arvo yesterday housemate and I started having a few drinks and a quick chat while her BF was away cleaning up his old property. Oops, - too much alcohol, - a bottle of crisp sav blanc, (3 full large glasses) and then 2 low carb beers over a few hours :-( My eyes went really sleepy, I then drank heaps of water. I felt a bit dizzy but decided on food. I binged on my bag of parmesan cheese that had lasted over a month and was only used sparingly occasionally up till then so I had 3/4 of a bag or so to finish it off. Also Had 4 slices toast, thick low fat cottage cheese, a tin of tuna in water, a bowl of oats with protein powder and more water. Still felt somewhat dizzy but felt as if I had eaten more food at once than I had in a good while. Then showered and went to bed early.
After 3 hours quick sleep I awoke to a fast strong heart rate, feeling much warmer than normal, feeling bloated and having my food repeat on me and I felt horrified, could not settle back to sleep till another 5 hours later.
I have been a bit down on myself of late for a few minor reasons, (am trying to snap out of it):
* My boss ringing me out of work last week really did have a major effect.
* I am 32, have had much fun and experiences but seem to undo much good work I do, have not alot to show for my working life, (thank goodness for Super but I can't transfer that to NZ)
* All the shit to do with my Thailand trip, I will have to pay for another tour if I wish to go, - my savings are going way down! Kumuka has gone into liquidation and are not forthcoming in refunding me promptly.
* Not feeling I have 'made' it how I wanted to in Australia, however I love Oz! Am in a dead end job
* In my efforts to become a more confident driver, after a little progress I always seem to get a major confidence 'knock', - therefore I haven't really progressed at all. That limits many opportunities.
* I was a late talker, watching videos of me as a child I see I was a late developer and always looked a little 'slow off the mark'. I constantly stress I still come across like that to others, - hence that will make it harder and maybe unrealistic for me to achieve what I want in life. I always think, - maybe I should lower my ambitions.
* Sometimes I feel some don't take me seriously, - not that I should really worry by the way.
* I am concerning myself with the fact I may need financial help from my parents in NZ if my aspirations there are to become a reality, - I feel a bit of a 'drain' for that, 32 is too old for that. They have helped me lots over the years.
* I still haven't done all the round the world travel that I want! Coulda/shoulda organised myself differently over the years.
* Just have that horrid kinda 'hopeless' feeling at the moment!
* Am really concerned my NZ aspirations will be a flop!
Today, after last night and being Monday was a drag. I missed brekkie as tummy still felt weird. But when I got to town I ended up getting a coffee and pumpkin scone for brekkie before work and got some Superannuation stuff sorted on phone. The urge to binge kept being strong all day, for anything, everything, - unfortunately I listened to it......badly. Started out with adding brie cheese to lunch roll, from then on eating at least 4-5 times more food today than I would any other day. Including first hit of sugary stuff, - iced skinny coffee, icecream, caramel sauce, caramel cheesecake, chocolate.......galore, also a brie cheese, seafood, marinara sauce Italian thing on bread. I've experienced this flop many times before after feeling almost invincible, in control, on track so it's familiar.
One thing last week was I still had far too little time in bed, kept being busy only averaging 5-5.5 hours till alarm rang, so always felt on the back foot but pushed on! Kept on being busy.
I read Craig Harper's post today on 'commitment', - as well as Michael Hill's 'Toughen Up' book recently. The general idea is 'successful people do what most won't', they don't stop when the going gets tough. I was pleased with my commitment in my recent 29 day challenge. Yesterday and today I had choices about whether I gave into 'urges' or not but still conciously put excess food or alcohol in my mouth, - to a point of feeling out of control and not happy with my actions. As strong as the urges were, I could have chosen to ignore them, or at least tell myself 'they will pass', - (which they will), - then when I go to bed at night, I would feel happy with my actions.
Think that is enough for today, - I would love to say today will be my last 'binge day' for good.........
Pip :-)
I really want this to be my last 'drag down', 'negative type' post for a bit. I am writing this here as in all honestly I feel bad about having the 'same' conversation with the 'same' people about 'same/similar things'. I am concious that if I get a tangent in my current frame of mind I could potentially drag others down lots, - who don't deserve to be dragged down, but bottling it up inside yourself sucks too :-( I feel bad as I know I once again dragged family down this past weekend about very similar issues of the last many many years!
I know many many people worldwide have much more earth shattering probs and concerns than me by the way!
Firstly I will say up until mid arvo yesterday, - I stayed well on track. I got over 30k in for the week of running, some smashing resistance workouts. Saturday's workout was cut a bit shorter than I meant it to be but I still got a 20k ride in, (to and from gym) 15 mins as intense as poss on rower and some good sets on the assisted chin up and assisted tricep dip machine. I did weigh in on Saturday, had a decent drop, - 75.5kg, - that was after a healthy but decent sized lunch, a medium skinny flat white and same water.
I did intend a run, followed by lots of pushups/crunches/plank, lunges on Sunday but ended up just not getting it done early, then at almost lunchtime started helping my housemate moving her BF in who is new to the household!
Mid arvo yesterday housemate and I started having a few drinks and a quick chat while her BF was away cleaning up his old property. Oops, - too much alcohol, - a bottle of crisp sav blanc, (3 full large glasses) and then 2 low carb beers over a few hours :-( My eyes went really sleepy, I then drank heaps of water. I felt a bit dizzy but decided on food. I binged on my bag of parmesan cheese that had lasted over a month and was only used sparingly occasionally up till then so I had 3/4 of a bag or so to finish it off. Also Had 4 slices toast, thick low fat cottage cheese, a tin of tuna in water, a bowl of oats with protein powder and more water. Still felt somewhat dizzy but felt as if I had eaten more food at once than I had in a good while. Then showered and went to bed early.
After 3 hours quick sleep I awoke to a fast strong heart rate, feeling much warmer than normal, feeling bloated and having my food repeat on me and I felt horrified, could not settle back to sleep till another 5 hours later.
I have been a bit down on myself of late for a few minor reasons, (am trying to snap out of it):
* My boss ringing me out of work last week really did have a major effect.
* I am 32, have had much fun and experiences but seem to undo much good work I do, have not alot to show for my working life, (thank goodness for Super but I can't transfer that to NZ)
* All the shit to do with my Thailand trip, I will have to pay for another tour if I wish to go, - my savings are going way down! Kumuka has gone into liquidation and are not forthcoming in refunding me promptly.
* Not feeling I have 'made' it how I wanted to in Australia, however I love Oz! Am in a dead end job
* In my efforts to become a more confident driver, after a little progress I always seem to get a major confidence 'knock', - therefore I haven't really progressed at all. That limits many opportunities.
* I was a late talker, watching videos of me as a child I see I was a late developer and always looked a little 'slow off the mark'. I constantly stress I still come across like that to others, - hence that will make it harder and maybe unrealistic for me to achieve what I want in life. I always think, - maybe I should lower my ambitions.
* Sometimes I feel some don't take me seriously, - not that I should really worry by the way.
* I am concerning myself with the fact I may need financial help from my parents in NZ if my aspirations there are to become a reality, - I feel a bit of a 'drain' for that, 32 is too old for that. They have helped me lots over the years.
* I still haven't done all the round the world travel that I want! Coulda/shoulda organised myself differently over the years.
* Just have that horrid kinda 'hopeless' feeling at the moment!
* Am really concerned my NZ aspirations will be a flop!
Today, after last night and being Monday was a drag. I missed brekkie as tummy still felt weird. But when I got to town I ended up getting a coffee and pumpkin scone for brekkie before work and got some Superannuation stuff sorted on phone. The urge to binge kept being strong all day, for anything, everything, - unfortunately I listened to it......badly. Started out with adding brie cheese to lunch roll, from then on eating at least 4-5 times more food today than I would any other day. Including first hit of sugary stuff, - iced skinny coffee, icecream, caramel sauce, caramel cheesecake, chocolate.......galore, also a brie cheese, seafood, marinara sauce Italian thing on bread. I've experienced this flop many times before after feeling almost invincible, in control, on track so it's familiar.
One thing last week was I still had far too little time in bed, kept being busy only averaging 5-5.5 hours till alarm rang, so always felt on the back foot but pushed on! Kept on being busy.
I read Craig Harper's post today on 'commitment', - as well as Michael Hill's 'Toughen Up' book recently. The general idea is 'successful people do what most won't', they don't stop when the going gets tough. I was pleased with my commitment in my recent 29 day challenge. Yesterday and today I had choices about whether I gave into 'urges' or not but still conciously put excess food or alcohol in my mouth, - to a point of feeling out of control and not happy with my actions. As strong as the urges were, I could have chosen to ignore them, or at least tell myself 'they will pass', - (which they will), - then when I go to bed at night, I would feel happy with my actions.
Think that is enough for today, - I would love to say today will be my last 'binge day' for good.........
Pip :-)
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
DOUBLE CRANKY TUESDAY!..........
Well, - if I thought I was cranky yesterday, - something late this arvo made me even crankier today, - upset, grumpy, raging angry, feeling used, hopeless, worthless, dumb, non achieveing etc etc........
That being the boss ringing me up, - out of work hours to have a discussion with me and express his concern that:
a) I am kinda working in limbo hanging out for my last day, (5 weeks, 3 days away)
b) I am not concentrating, making too many 'little' mistakes and not listening to others, (I misheard something he said once as he mumbles and forgot a customer order when I had a list to try to remember by memory)
c) That he has a business to run, and I need to be fully there and concentrate harder and never make a mistake, (I make few). He said a few other things but that was the main jist.
I was ropeable as a) - he rang me outside of work hours when busy to discuss this so my head was out of the work 'game', - why not take me aside when we are both at work? b) I can handle constructive comments about most things but as for this job, it is dead end, no 'go ahead' however he tries to run his franchise business with less staff, and some staff starting a bit later than other franchised stores with a similar turnover so it's chaotic and flatout mostly! He is lucky to have good staff and does work hard himself. In 2008 I was store manager at one of the company stores, however got demoted as it was said that I wasn't a good manager, I got an A plus for personal effort, personal productivity and hours put in to try and make it work and cover others but it was said that I wasn't good enough at managing others, - hence a demotion to store employee and a pay decrease. I all the time curse *why* I am still in this job, haven't progressed or moved on. The main reasons I am still here are:
* it's full time, not casual, - I like certainty of income.
* no nights or weekends now
* I HATE writing resumes, job hunting etc in my spare time.
* Being not a confident driver limits possibilities
* I remember all the past struggles of finding employment that provides enough income to live off in Australia, (had to return to NZ twice as I ran down my savings 'trying' to look for enough work)
* Scared to leave, - that I may become a liability etc.
I have always gone that extra mile, pushed myself speed wise as much as poss to be as productive as possible, often have been silly enough to start early, finish later to help the 'team', (who all work hard) out with no extra pay. Boss is right, - I am hanging out for my last day! However my efforts have not decreased and I am pushing self as much as poss. He acknowleged that reliability is no issue. (But is that all I am useful for?) There is a relatively new staff member to our store that has been transferred from a few shops because of personality issues with others. She works with me, is good and efficient, punctual etc. She is just trying to take over the leadership role in the kitchen, (natural to her) and wants stuff organised/done her way. I can't be bothered putting her nose out of joint, her or my suggestions would work so as feel a bit peeved but 'zip' my mouth and 'go with it'. Maybe that is putting me on the outer a bit?
Anyway, sorry for all that ramble, - I hope to have a non cranky topic soon!
Oh yeah, on a good note I had that free Body Composition Reading done today.
Height was measured, - still the same at 1.71m
Weight was 77.1, (light clothes, no shoes)
Body fat % was 32.1%
Bone mass was 2.6
Lean muscle mass was 49.7. That was pleasing as my DEXA scan in 2008 told me it was 46.3. And any other time I got body composition tests done muscle mass was generally 47.something kg, (had not had one done for at least 4 years)! Therefore am truly a bit stronger like my lifting tells me, and the resistance training must be working a bit.
Metabolic age was 40, (it lowers as body fat is decreased).
Water % - 48.5
After this I went to gym to meet buddy for training session, - pushed the weights! Then 7k running on the treadmill. First 6k done at 0.5 incline, 11.5kmph, was stuffed, then kinda intervals for the final last km to really overkill, then abs!
Oh how I wanted a wine tonight, - crisp sauvignon blanc. After todays upset I even got as far as walking into the bottleo between the gym and train station after my workout and bought a bottle. But came home, refrigerated it, had tea, wrote this, urge died down for night so it won't get opened now today anyway, tough but! Nah, can't have any till Friday! Sorry for today's rant!
That being the boss ringing me up, - out of work hours to have a discussion with me and express his concern that:
a) I am kinda working in limbo hanging out for my last day, (5 weeks, 3 days away)
b) I am not concentrating, making too many 'little' mistakes and not listening to others, (I misheard something he said once as he mumbles and forgot a customer order when I had a list to try to remember by memory)
c) That he has a business to run, and I need to be fully there and concentrate harder and never make a mistake, (I make few). He said a few other things but that was the main jist.
I was ropeable as a) - he rang me outside of work hours when busy to discuss this so my head was out of the work 'game', - why not take me aside when we are both at work? b) I can handle constructive comments about most things but as for this job, it is dead end, no 'go ahead' however he tries to run his franchise business with less staff, and some staff starting a bit later than other franchised stores with a similar turnover so it's chaotic and flatout mostly! He is lucky to have good staff and does work hard himself. In 2008 I was store manager at one of the company stores, however got demoted as it was said that I wasn't a good manager, I got an A plus for personal effort, personal productivity and hours put in to try and make it work and cover others but it was said that I wasn't good enough at managing others, - hence a demotion to store employee and a pay decrease. I all the time curse *why* I am still in this job, haven't progressed or moved on. The main reasons I am still here are:
* it's full time, not casual, - I like certainty of income.
* no nights or weekends now
* I HATE writing resumes, job hunting etc in my spare time.
* Being not a confident driver limits possibilities
* I remember all the past struggles of finding employment that provides enough income to live off in Australia, (had to return to NZ twice as I ran down my savings 'trying' to look for enough work)
* Scared to leave, - that I may become a liability etc.
I have always gone that extra mile, pushed myself speed wise as much as poss to be as productive as possible, often have been silly enough to start early, finish later to help the 'team', (who all work hard) out with no extra pay. Boss is right, - I am hanging out for my last day! However my efforts have not decreased and I am pushing self as much as poss. He acknowleged that reliability is no issue. (But is that all I am useful for?) There is a relatively new staff member to our store that has been transferred from a few shops because of personality issues with others. She works with me, is good and efficient, punctual etc. She is just trying to take over the leadership role in the kitchen, (natural to her) and wants stuff organised/done her way. I can't be bothered putting her nose out of joint, her or my suggestions would work so as feel a bit peeved but 'zip' my mouth and 'go with it'. Maybe that is putting me on the outer a bit?
Anyway, sorry for all that ramble, - I hope to have a non cranky topic soon!
Oh yeah, on a good note I had that free Body Composition Reading done today.
Height was measured, - still the same at 1.71m
Weight was 77.1, (light clothes, no shoes)
Body fat % was 32.1%
Bone mass was 2.6
Lean muscle mass was 49.7. That was pleasing as my DEXA scan in 2008 told me it was 46.3. And any other time I got body composition tests done muscle mass was generally 47.something kg, (had not had one done for at least 4 years)! Therefore am truly a bit stronger like my lifting tells me, and the resistance training must be working a bit.
Metabolic age was 40, (it lowers as body fat is decreased).
Water % - 48.5
After this I went to gym to meet buddy for training session, - pushed the weights! Then 7k running on the treadmill. First 6k done at 0.5 incline, 11.5kmph, was stuffed, then kinda intervals for the final last km to really overkill, then abs!
Oh how I wanted a wine tonight, - crisp sauvignon blanc. After todays upset I even got as far as walking into the bottleo between the gym and train station after my workout and bought a bottle. But came home, refrigerated it, had tea, wrote this, urge died down for night so it won't get opened now today anyway, tough but! Nah, can't have any till Friday! Sorry for today's rant!
Monday, August 20, 2012
CRANKY MONDAY..........
I need to change this haha, - but I need to start looking for a way to love Mondays :-)
Day of optimism for the week ahead perhaps? Ideally should feel rested???
In all honesty I tend to loathe Mondays, - am at least glad when the work component is over
I often luckily sleep soundly on Friday and Saturday nights, (and most others) but Sundays, - not quite so much. Reckon I was lucky to get 2.5 hours sleep infact last night.
I was feeling a little disappointed in myself for having some sparkling wine last night, kept analysing my decision not to wait till Friday. I would have had a bit over half a bottle between 4.30pm and 7pm, didn't feel drunk or anything. I didn't binge or anything. I had completed the 29 day challenge, was pleased with that. Anyhow I had come to realise that unless I make a firm decision NOT to have any wine.........I can easily act on an urge. I remained 'undecided' about yesterday but thought 'probably best if I can hang out till next Friday' haha!
Work was a struggle, we were all clumsy, I have now just under 6 weeks yet till I resign, (not long, but still a good while!) Just felt fatigued and as if I couldn't be arsed, - yet had to work really fast and be quite productive all day. I was glad to see the end of the work day!
I was DREADING training today as the last few weeks I have been pushing myself on a Monday, and thought I'd be lucky if I can manage a 'half' effort. I had binge 'urges', - my animal brain couldn't decide what it wanted to 'devour', - cheese, various cakes, iced coffee, iced chocolate, chocolate etc. I knew I DIDN'T WANT to give into any urges, just told myself 'they will pass',- they did.
Lunch was delicious. I had a crusty multigrain warm baguette with middle dough removed, then scrape dijon mustard, full salad, about 120g plain tuna in springwater, cracked pepper and lemon juice. That is similar to my lunches most days. These baguettes are quite long, (not far off 30cm) but they are skinny and are one of the highlights of my workday! I enjoyed eating it so much, - I just wanted to eat it again when I finished, and then hoe into my sugarfree carrot 'cake' which was part of another 'meal', (with small skinny flat white) later that day. But I drank water, didn't give in. Most days for brekkie of late I have a heaped 1/3 C oats, (or slightly scant half cup) microwaved with water and about 100g frozen berries, then stir either chocolate or vanilla protein powder and psyllium husks through it, - so good! I stayed within my normal control and didn't binge or overindulge, - good! Today was a challenge though!
However: - I blew off the gym today. Good to catch up with my housemate though. Best get to bed early to make sure I get an early night for some killer workouts the next few days! I have made a firm decision not to drink any alcohol till at least Friday. I bought some wine in the Swan Valley yesterday but it remains out of the fridge.
Tomoz after work I am getting a free metabolism test. Will find out weight, lean mass, water percentage, metabolic age, fat around organs and targets when I 'can' work towards. I am sure tomorrows results will be better than those 4-6 weeks ago (if I had them then) and I also reckon they will still leave alot of room to improve. One major point of interest is if my lean mass has increased at all from 4 years ago, (or decreased). I know I am stronger, can lift a bit heavier than back then. Then it's off to the gym for workout with my mate.
I rang up agent about Thailand trip. The thing is back in Feb I booked a 16 day Kumuka tour of Thailand. However a couple of months ago Kumuka worldwide has gone into liquidation. I had paid for tour, flights, travel insurance. I have had to go and fill out forms which I returned to the travel agent and they go toward getting me a refund for the cancelled Kumuka tour. Meanwhile I found another tour through G Adventures which is of similar length and fits in with my pre-booked flights. I so want to book my spot before it gets booked out, - this G Adventures tour sounds even better than the original Kumuka one! BUT getting a refund from Kumuka is proving a nightmare, the travel agent is not getting any sense out of them at the moment. I'm worried they may not pay me back. Agent is reluctant to book G Adventures tour till I get refunded from Kumuka. My dates for Thailand now stand at leaving 19 Oct, returning 6 Nov.
Either way I need to stay focussed, want to continue to get a bit fitter all round, lean up somewhat and drop a few more kg by then and stay in control.
That's about it for Monday gossip, at least Monday is outta the way for this week :-)
Day of optimism for the week ahead perhaps? Ideally should feel rested???
In all honesty I tend to loathe Mondays, - am at least glad when the work component is over
I often luckily sleep soundly on Friday and Saturday nights, (and most others) but Sundays, - not quite so much. Reckon I was lucky to get 2.5 hours sleep infact last night.
I was feeling a little disappointed in myself for having some sparkling wine last night, kept analysing my decision not to wait till Friday. I would have had a bit over half a bottle between 4.30pm and 7pm, didn't feel drunk or anything. I didn't binge or anything. I had completed the 29 day challenge, was pleased with that. Anyhow I had come to realise that unless I make a firm decision NOT to have any wine.........I can easily act on an urge. I remained 'undecided' about yesterday but thought 'probably best if I can hang out till next Friday' haha!
Work was a struggle, we were all clumsy, I have now just under 6 weeks yet till I resign, (not long, but still a good while!) Just felt fatigued and as if I couldn't be arsed, - yet had to work really fast and be quite productive all day. I was glad to see the end of the work day!
I was DREADING training today as the last few weeks I have been pushing myself on a Monday, and thought I'd be lucky if I can manage a 'half' effort. I had binge 'urges', - my animal brain couldn't decide what it wanted to 'devour', - cheese, various cakes, iced coffee, iced chocolate, chocolate etc. I knew I DIDN'T WANT to give into any urges, just told myself 'they will pass',- they did.
Lunch was delicious. I had a crusty multigrain warm baguette with middle dough removed, then scrape dijon mustard, full salad, about 120g plain tuna in springwater, cracked pepper and lemon juice. That is similar to my lunches most days. These baguettes are quite long, (not far off 30cm) but they are skinny and are one of the highlights of my workday! I enjoyed eating it so much, - I just wanted to eat it again when I finished, and then hoe into my sugarfree carrot 'cake' which was part of another 'meal', (with small skinny flat white) later that day. But I drank water, didn't give in. Most days for brekkie of late I have a heaped 1/3 C oats, (or slightly scant half cup) microwaved with water and about 100g frozen berries, then stir either chocolate or vanilla protein powder and psyllium husks through it, - so good! I stayed within my normal control and didn't binge or overindulge, - good! Today was a challenge though!
However: - I blew off the gym today. Good to catch up with my housemate though. Best get to bed early to make sure I get an early night for some killer workouts the next few days! I have made a firm decision not to drink any alcohol till at least Friday. I bought some wine in the Swan Valley yesterday but it remains out of the fridge.
Tomoz after work I am getting a free metabolism test. Will find out weight, lean mass, water percentage, metabolic age, fat around organs and targets when I 'can' work towards. I am sure tomorrows results will be better than those 4-6 weeks ago (if I had them then) and I also reckon they will still leave alot of room to improve. One major point of interest is if my lean mass has increased at all from 4 years ago, (or decreased). I know I am stronger, can lift a bit heavier than back then. Then it's off to the gym for workout with my mate.
I rang up agent about Thailand trip. The thing is back in Feb I booked a 16 day Kumuka tour of Thailand. However a couple of months ago Kumuka worldwide has gone into liquidation. I had paid for tour, flights, travel insurance. I have had to go and fill out forms which I returned to the travel agent and they go toward getting me a refund for the cancelled Kumuka tour. Meanwhile I found another tour through G Adventures which is of similar length and fits in with my pre-booked flights. I so want to book my spot before it gets booked out, - this G Adventures tour sounds even better than the original Kumuka one! BUT getting a refund from Kumuka is proving a nightmare, the travel agent is not getting any sense out of them at the moment. I'm worried they may not pay me back. Agent is reluctant to book G Adventures tour till I get refunded from Kumuka. My dates for Thailand now stand at leaving 19 Oct, returning 6 Nov.
Either way I need to stay focussed, want to continue to get a bit fitter all round, lean up somewhat and drop a few more kg by then and stay in control.
That's about it for Monday gossip, at least Monday is outta the way for this week :-)
Sunday, August 19, 2012
29 Day Challenge DONE......what NEXT???...
G'day!
Am pleased to announce my 29 day challenge as a SUCCESS all round, - very good feeling!!!
What I achieved was:
* 29 consecutive days clear of ALL alcohol
* I SMASHED my training goal every week of a minimum of 3 intense cardio workouts of 30 plus mins each and 2 resistance workouts of 30 plus mins each. Smashed those by a good bit actually and am really appreciating the efforts of my resistance training.
* Remained 'sugarfree' for the 29 consecutive days. By 'sugarfree' I mean that no 'confectionary' items were consumed such as chocolate, lollies, cake, biscuits, fudge, icecream, sorbet, packaged fruit juices, soft drink. I DID eat homemade 'healthy' carrot cake, well portioned, (no sugar, but oats, egg whites, carrots, a few dates) and 'healthy' homemade date and walnut loaf, (very well portioned and only a very small amount of dates would have been in each serve, - again oats instead of flour, egg whites, no sugar). I did generally have 1-2 serves of fruit per day, (1 serve was always berries heated in my oats at brekkie!)
* No 'diet' soft drink either!
* No binges!
* Other than when I caught up with a mate who made a pie for lunch, I had no pastry or deep fried food.
RESULTS:
* Improved fitness levels all round, - strength and cardio
* I weighed in on day 4, again on day 27, - between those dates had a 3.5kg drop. I didn't take measurments otherwise, still lardy for my liking but can feel there has been fat loss.
* Sleep patterns seem to be better without alcohol. Still tired and grumpy with alarm awakenings but at least not hungover! Sometimes I still needed/wanted a coffee to feel alert in the mornings, but was secretly pleased I couldn't blame it on alcohol consumption, - still maybe lack of time in bed. I have been averaging 6-6.5 hours in bed per night recently, - still not quite enough but a little better than it used to be! Weekends I often average 7- sometimes 10 hours till I wake naturally!
* Feeling pleased as I achieved what I set out to, and aim to transfer that to whatever I do.
CHALLENGES:
* The hardest was not substituting one 'less desirable' habit for another, - not something I have managed to keep up for a good length of time, - since maybe my early 20's anyway.
* A couple of times I had the 'urge' for a sugar/and/or food 'binge', - told myself, 'it will pass', and didn't relent. Urges 'did' pass. They only arose if I skipped 'training' for a day that I did intend to train, (although I did blast all my pre-challenge training goals). The day after my mate made us the big lunch, - I had a big urge as I had a small 'idea' I would accomplish a 50k bikeride early Sun morning but it didn't eventuate, then I had that 'bigger lunch'. It took a bit of concentration not to 'give in' to a binge that evening!
* Not giving into a few urges for an alcoholic drink was a challenge, - particularly Friday and Saturday arvos and evenings but everyday to a degree! Probably the first couple of weeks for that were the absolute toughest!
THIS WEEKEND:
* I attempted to prep and clean the house for the return of my best mate/housemate who comes home tonight. She owns and built the home from scratch.
* Pics on the posts below were of my hair after my 'salon' visit on Friday after work, ended up getting chunky gold highlights and a dark brown, (without red tones) base colour.
* 10.4km outside run done late yesterday arvo/evening
* I DROVE, (hate driving new places) out to Yahava Koffee in the Swan Valley, for a nicely made skinny flat white, to view the valley, and I picked up a bottle of classic white and also a bottle of sparkling from one of the local vineyards there, (something I have not done in my time in Perth till now)!
* I had not made a firm decision on whether I would/wouldn't but late this arvo I opened a bottle of chilled sparkling, plonked a strawberry inside and am enjoying a glass, - with no firm decisions NOT to, - I relent so I see! Tastes good.
UP AND COMING:
* Hmmm, I have quite a bit more fitness to gain and fat to lose so want to keep pushing myself, will keep to my baseline goals but I do want to keep up training at least 5 days a week, and continue to make grounds with resistance efforts, hopefully manage pullups/chin ups someday! Still am shooting to make new PB's eventually on my run times, fit size 10's tone, (get under 25% BF, perhaps 20%BF), - I have a love/hate relationship with the discipline of it all!
* I plan to stay bingefree for good no matter what!
* I strive to keep 'mainly' sugarfree. I won't bring sugary sweet stuff into house, it will not be part of my 'day to day' consumption. If I take a 'dessert' to a party it will be maybe a fresh fruit/cheese platter or one of the sugarfree desserts with a higher protein source. I will still permit the occasional controlled portion of sugary stuff if at a dinner party or if it's an occasional social desire with others but it is the stay the exception, not the norm. If the urges to 'binge' presents itself after that I have to be ready to IGNORE haha!
* I plan to stay away from 'diet' soft drinks, - I did give them up for about 2 years not that long ago!
* Hmmmm, alcohol! Part of me thinks it could be easier to keep completely away from it and deal with it. But I enjoy it too! On the other hand it is classified as a drug! It doesn't go well with sporting objectives! At this stage I have made the decision to steer clear of it weeknights, (Mon to Thurs), - only reasons to have one or two is a major social function. Friday to Sunday, - I certainly don't want to be drinking every night, - or too much! I still want to keep up high training goals over the weekend so if I have anymore than about 3 standard drinks in a sitting, it is to be no more than one weekend night a week, and I still need to be careful and diligent not to have TOO much.
So there has it! Only 6 more weeks of work. Then hopefully Thailand. (There have been dramas with my Thailand trip. I booked a tour with Kumuka back in Feb this year but I have been informed Kumuka has gone bust! My tour has been cancelled. I found another GAP tour that sounds good I could do with the same dates but there are dramas with getting refunds from Kumuka, travel agents getting back to me and more!) Original travel agent who I dealt with has been transferred to an unaccessible office to me so I am dealing with it through phone/email.
Will keep you updated with my doings :-)
Pip
Am pleased to announce my 29 day challenge as a SUCCESS all round, - very good feeling!!!
What I achieved was:
* 29 consecutive days clear of ALL alcohol
* I SMASHED my training goal every week of a minimum of 3 intense cardio workouts of 30 plus mins each and 2 resistance workouts of 30 plus mins each. Smashed those by a good bit actually and am really appreciating the efforts of my resistance training.
* Remained 'sugarfree' for the 29 consecutive days. By 'sugarfree' I mean that no 'confectionary' items were consumed such as chocolate, lollies, cake, biscuits, fudge, icecream, sorbet, packaged fruit juices, soft drink. I DID eat homemade 'healthy' carrot cake, well portioned, (no sugar, but oats, egg whites, carrots, a few dates) and 'healthy' homemade date and walnut loaf, (very well portioned and only a very small amount of dates would have been in each serve, - again oats instead of flour, egg whites, no sugar). I did generally have 1-2 serves of fruit per day, (1 serve was always berries heated in my oats at brekkie!)
* No 'diet' soft drink either!
* No binges!
* Other than when I caught up with a mate who made a pie for lunch, I had no pastry or deep fried food.
RESULTS:
* Improved fitness levels all round, - strength and cardio
* I weighed in on day 4, again on day 27, - between those dates had a 3.5kg drop. I didn't take measurments otherwise, still lardy for my liking but can feel there has been fat loss.
* Sleep patterns seem to be better without alcohol. Still tired and grumpy with alarm awakenings but at least not hungover! Sometimes I still needed/wanted a coffee to feel alert in the mornings, but was secretly pleased I couldn't blame it on alcohol consumption, - still maybe lack of time in bed. I have been averaging 6-6.5 hours in bed per night recently, - still not quite enough but a little better than it used to be! Weekends I often average 7- sometimes 10 hours till I wake naturally!
* Feeling pleased as I achieved what I set out to, and aim to transfer that to whatever I do.
CHALLENGES:
* The hardest was not substituting one 'less desirable' habit for another, - not something I have managed to keep up for a good length of time, - since maybe my early 20's anyway.
* A couple of times I had the 'urge' for a sugar/and/or food 'binge', - told myself, 'it will pass', and didn't relent. Urges 'did' pass. They only arose if I skipped 'training' for a day that I did intend to train, (although I did blast all my pre-challenge training goals). The day after my mate made us the big lunch, - I had a big urge as I had a small 'idea' I would accomplish a 50k bikeride early Sun morning but it didn't eventuate, then I had that 'bigger lunch'. It took a bit of concentration not to 'give in' to a binge that evening!
* Not giving into a few urges for an alcoholic drink was a challenge, - particularly Friday and Saturday arvos and evenings but everyday to a degree! Probably the first couple of weeks for that were the absolute toughest!
THIS WEEKEND:
* I attempted to prep and clean the house for the return of my best mate/housemate who comes home tonight. She owns and built the home from scratch.
* Pics on the posts below were of my hair after my 'salon' visit on Friday after work, ended up getting chunky gold highlights and a dark brown, (without red tones) base colour.
* 10.4km outside run done late yesterday arvo/evening
* I DROVE, (hate driving new places) out to Yahava Koffee in the Swan Valley, for a nicely made skinny flat white, to view the valley, and I picked up a bottle of classic white and also a bottle of sparkling from one of the local vineyards there, (something I have not done in my time in Perth till now)!
* I had not made a firm decision on whether I would/wouldn't but late this arvo I opened a bottle of chilled sparkling, plonked a strawberry inside and am enjoying a glass, - with no firm decisions NOT to, - I relent so I see! Tastes good.
UP AND COMING:
* Hmmm, I have quite a bit more fitness to gain and fat to lose so want to keep pushing myself, will keep to my baseline goals but I do want to keep up training at least 5 days a week, and continue to make grounds with resistance efforts, hopefully manage pullups/chin ups someday! Still am shooting to make new PB's eventually on my run times, fit size 10's tone, (get under 25% BF, perhaps 20%BF), - I have a love/hate relationship with the discipline of it all!
* I plan to stay bingefree for good no matter what!
* I strive to keep 'mainly' sugarfree. I won't bring sugary sweet stuff into house, it will not be part of my 'day to day' consumption. If I take a 'dessert' to a party it will be maybe a fresh fruit/cheese platter or one of the sugarfree desserts with a higher protein source. I will still permit the occasional controlled portion of sugary stuff if at a dinner party or if it's an occasional social desire with others but it is the stay the exception, not the norm. If the urges to 'binge' presents itself after that I have to be ready to IGNORE haha!
* I plan to stay away from 'diet' soft drinks, - I did give them up for about 2 years not that long ago!
* Hmmmm, alcohol! Part of me thinks it could be easier to keep completely away from it and deal with it. But I enjoy it too! On the other hand it is classified as a drug! It doesn't go well with sporting objectives! At this stage I have made the decision to steer clear of it weeknights, (Mon to Thurs), - only reasons to have one or two is a major social function. Friday to Sunday, - I certainly don't want to be drinking every night, - or too much! I still want to keep up high training goals over the weekend so if I have anymore than about 3 standard drinks in a sitting, it is to be no more than one weekend night a week, and I still need to be careful and diligent not to have TOO much.
So there has it! Only 6 more weeks of work. Then hopefully Thailand. (There have been dramas with my Thailand trip. I booked a tour with Kumuka back in Feb this year but I have been informed Kumuka has gone bust! My tour has been cancelled. I found another GAP tour that sounds good I could do with the same dates but there are dramas with getting refunds from Kumuka, travel agents getting back to me and more!) Original travel agent who I dealt with has been transferred to an unaccessible office to me so I am dealing with it through phone/email.
Will keep you updated with my doings :-)
Pip
Friday, August 17, 2012
Thursday, August 16, 2012
DAY 27/29
Wow, have come to the end of another training week, - did a tough session today!
Efforts include:
Sat: - 50.5k bike ride, definitely pushed it speed wise a during second half after a slightly cruisy first half ride!
Sun: - felt naughty, it rained, I only did a few pushups and plank but then it was 9.30pm, not even a structured session. Missed planned run!
Mon: - 12.5 mins rower, 2.8k or thereabouts L10 I think. Just over 6k running at 0.5 incline, 11.4 speed on treadmill. Full body challenging weights/resistance workout on machines.
Tue: - Tried to push it a lil hard on the treadmill, at 1.0 incline and 11.5, did 5 mins, was just so fatigued, so pushed speed back to 11.3 and incline down to 0.5. Struggled but just after it hit 20 mins I dropped speed back to 10.2, just made it to over 6k. Followed that up with de-puffing and stretches, then a 30 min hard core resistance workout with mate, (phew), then just 5 mins on new 'stepper' machine, - nice and hard too.
Wed: - 9.6k 'Bridges run', - 59 mins, 17 secs, - 4 mins slower than last Wednesday, was windy, and after a really busy particularly active day at work. Still happy with dedication to just get it done!
Thurs: - Treadmill run where I set incline at 0.5, then speed at 11.5 and suffered through till just after the 30 min mark, - then I dropped speed to 10.6 but pushed incline up till 6.8k were covered! Followed up with stretches, loads of water, then chest and back and shoulder resistance work, then went over to the mats/dumbells. I did 3 supersets of 30 powerlunges holding 4kg dumbells, 30 pushups, - (10 toes, 10 tricep, 10 knee), 30 bicycle twist crunches. So after the 3 sets, - 90 of each were completed so I made self do a set of 10 of each to finish off to make it 100 of each! Next was biceps, leg press and more abs/core with swiss ball.
Fri, (tomoz): - DAY OFF TRAINING!
I checked scales progress, - Day 4 was 81kg, Today, (Day 27) - 77.5. Can notice there is slightly less back flab and breasts are slightly smaller, - still much fat to remove/muscle to tone around torso lol! I have dressed like a dag these last few weeks as I have limited nice clothes that fit with my recent bit of a gain, (workout clothes, elastic waisted trackie type pants and baggy tops, (which become more fitted) and polar fleece jackets)
I have a desire to keep this up. I want to keep up the increased resistance training, (working toward better all round strength and levels plus pullups!) I also want to keep up the running, cycling, get into more swimming again and rowing..........am working toward being competent in shorter distance triathlons in NZ and not coming last haha! Also am still working on a sub 50 min 10k outdoors, a sub 25 min 5k and I still want to finally complete a half marathon sub 2 hours. I have come really close when at last years mid year 'peak' to all these targets, now just want to see if I can nail them! It will be interesting to see how my physique responds over time to a higher resistance training load, much less wine/alcohol in future and staying off diet soft drinks and with keeping mostly sugarfree and of course bingefree! Will keep you posted!
More to write, but it's late so beddybyes for me :-)
Pip
Efforts include:
Sat: - 50.5k bike ride, definitely pushed it speed wise a during second half after a slightly cruisy first half ride!
Sun: - felt naughty, it rained, I only did a few pushups and plank but then it was 9.30pm, not even a structured session. Missed planned run!
Mon: - 12.5 mins rower, 2.8k or thereabouts L10 I think. Just over 6k running at 0.5 incline, 11.4 speed on treadmill. Full body challenging weights/resistance workout on machines.
Tue: - Tried to push it a lil hard on the treadmill, at 1.0 incline and 11.5, did 5 mins, was just so fatigued, so pushed speed back to 11.3 and incline down to 0.5. Struggled but just after it hit 20 mins I dropped speed back to 10.2, just made it to over 6k. Followed that up with de-puffing and stretches, then a 30 min hard core resistance workout with mate, (phew), then just 5 mins on new 'stepper' machine, - nice and hard too.
Wed: - 9.6k 'Bridges run', - 59 mins, 17 secs, - 4 mins slower than last Wednesday, was windy, and after a really busy particularly active day at work. Still happy with dedication to just get it done!
Thurs: - Treadmill run where I set incline at 0.5, then speed at 11.5 and suffered through till just after the 30 min mark, - then I dropped speed to 10.6 but pushed incline up till 6.8k were covered! Followed up with stretches, loads of water, then chest and back and shoulder resistance work, then went over to the mats/dumbells. I did 3 supersets of 30 powerlunges holding 4kg dumbells, 30 pushups, - (10 toes, 10 tricep, 10 knee), 30 bicycle twist crunches. So after the 3 sets, - 90 of each were completed so I made self do a set of 10 of each to finish off to make it 100 of each! Next was biceps, leg press and more abs/core with swiss ball.
Fri, (tomoz): - DAY OFF TRAINING!
I checked scales progress, - Day 4 was 81kg, Today, (Day 27) - 77.5. Can notice there is slightly less back flab and breasts are slightly smaller, - still much fat to remove/muscle to tone around torso lol! I have dressed like a dag these last few weeks as I have limited nice clothes that fit with my recent bit of a gain, (workout clothes, elastic waisted trackie type pants and baggy tops, (which become more fitted) and polar fleece jackets)
I have a desire to keep this up. I want to keep up the increased resistance training, (working toward better all round strength and levels plus pullups!) I also want to keep up the running, cycling, get into more swimming again and rowing..........am working toward being competent in shorter distance triathlons in NZ and not coming last haha! Also am still working on a sub 50 min 10k outdoors, a sub 25 min 5k and I still want to finally complete a half marathon sub 2 hours. I have come really close when at last years mid year 'peak' to all these targets, now just want to see if I can nail them! It will be interesting to see how my physique responds over time to a higher resistance training load, much less wine/alcohol in future and staying off diet soft drinks and with keeping mostly sugarfree and of course bingefree! Will keep you posted!
More to write, but it's late so beddybyes for me :-)
Pip
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
DAY 26/29.......straight......and.....narrow !
G'day!
Am still going strong, no booze, sugarfree, no bingeing, committed intense training, no pastry/deepfried food, no diet soft drink.........all TICK TICK TICK still! Just 3 more days till I can proudly say I reached the finish line of this self imposed 'challenge', all boxes ticked!
RANDOM THOUGHT: When I am training quite 'intensely' like at the moment, I dislike dropping off the effort! The last couple of weeks Wed arvos have been a long outdoor run day, - have done my 9.6k lap 3 weeks in a row on Wednesday after work, (oh, actually once on a Thursday as Wednesday was pouring with rain so I gymed it).
Today however was a particularly mammoth day at work, just flat tac and I got out late. The last couple of days have been intense sessions at the gym. The last thing I felt like doing was the 9.6k run, - but I'd done it the last 2 weeks, didn't want to drop my standards, (felt like going home, curling up with a wine lol!) However run it was, I did it, not a bad time but it was 4 mins slower than last Wednesdays quite pleasing time. Tomorrows training will be another gym effort, with a day off training on Friday.
I am getting much more training in than my baseline of 3x cardio, (enough for sweat up at least 30 mins a pop each) a week and 2x challenging resistance of at least 30 mins each. In future if I ever back off a bit, I'm not to go below my baseline level unless I deem circumstances really permit.
Just 6 weeks left at work this Friday. 9 weeks till I head to Thailand on Friday. Between finishing work and going to Thailand I intend to really nail some study and keep up the fitness training a bit. I have intended to recently do some revision prep for next year but I find time is ellusive! Am quite excited about finishing up at work, - have been with the company in some way and form for almost 6.5 years!
So...........the question begs: - am I planning some wine for Sunday hahaha? This challenge will be finished! To answer, I haven't made a decision on that yet. My housemate is home late in the evening such as 10pm or so, (we won't be then as we are both working early in the morning). I will hopefully train, but spend a good while making her home as spotless as I can for her return, including hopefully sweeping outside patios etc. I will remain non-committal either way regarding wine this Sunday. If I finished this challenge on a Friday or Saturday I would definitely say 'yes' or even 'yes' if there was a party on Sunday. Am non-committal but am leaning toward no wine on Sunday. I really want to not drink weeknights so I may even drag the alcohol free thing out another week!
I intend to keep up all the other stuff, - definitely no bingeing, - stay sugarfree except for rare special social occasions, keep off the diet soft drink again, refrain from pastries and deep fried foods, (except perhaps small amounts where the host has gone to great effort at rare social occasions) plus I want to be fit, (lean too) and feel I can stay committed to a decent training regime. As for wine, - I'd love to still enjoy it but want to reduce consumption to no more than a quarter than what I used to have!
Talk soon :-)
Am still going strong, no booze, sugarfree, no bingeing, committed intense training, no pastry/deepfried food, no diet soft drink.........all TICK TICK TICK still! Just 3 more days till I can proudly say I reached the finish line of this self imposed 'challenge', all boxes ticked!
RANDOM THOUGHT: When I am training quite 'intensely' like at the moment, I dislike dropping off the effort! The last couple of weeks Wed arvos have been a long outdoor run day, - have done my 9.6k lap 3 weeks in a row on Wednesday after work, (oh, actually once on a Thursday as Wednesday was pouring with rain so I gymed it).
Today however was a particularly mammoth day at work, just flat tac and I got out late. The last couple of days have been intense sessions at the gym. The last thing I felt like doing was the 9.6k run, - but I'd done it the last 2 weeks, didn't want to drop my standards, (felt like going home, curling up with a wine lol!) However run it was, I did it, not a bad time but it was 4 mins slower than last Wednesdays quite pleasing time. Tomorrows training will be another gym effort, with a day off training on Friday.
I am getting much more training in than my baseline of 3x cardio, (enough for sweat up at least 30 mins a pop each) a week and 2x challenging resistance of at least 30 mins each. In future if I ever back off a bit, I'm not to go below my baseline level unless I deem circumstances really permit.
Just 6 weeks left at work this Friday. 9 weeks till I head to Thailand on Friday. Between finishing work and going to Thailand I intend to really nail some study and keep up the fitness training a bit. I have intended to recently do some revision prep for next year but I find time is ellusive! Am quite excited about finishing up at work, - have been with the company in some way and form for almost 6.5 years!
So...........the question begs: - am I planning some wine for Sunday hahaha? This challenge will be finished! To answer, I haven't made a decision on that yet. My housemate is home late in the evening such as 10pm or so, (we won't be then as we are both working early in the morning). I will hopefully train, but spend a good while making her home as spotless as I can for her return, including hopefully sweeping outside patios etc. I will remain non-committal either way regarding wine this Sunday. If I finished this challenge on a Friday or Saturday I would definitely say 'yes' or even 'yes' if there was a party on Sunday. Am non-committal but am leaning toward no wine on Sunday. I really want to not drink weeknights so I may even drag the alcohol free thing out another week!
I intend to keep up all the other stuff, - definitely no bingeing, - stay sugarfree except for rare special social occasions, keep off the diet soft drink again, refrain from pastries and deep fried foods, (except perhaps small amounts where the host has gone to great effort at rare social occasions) plus I want to be fit, (lean too) and feel I can stay committed to a decent training regime. As for wine, - I'd love to still enjoy it but want to reduce consumption to no more than a quarter than what I used to have!
Talk soon :-)
Monday, August 13, 2012
DAY 24/29.......HOME STRAIGHT and WEIGH IN
Hello all!
Still haven't caved! Am fully on track!
Friday was a nice day off training, - I watched the Olympics and footy in evening and read a bit more on my e-book, ('Toughen Up'), written by Michael Hill Jeweller!
Saturday I had planned a ride, - rode push bike to Scarborough beach and back via Hillary's Marina. I was hoping to get away by 9am, but didn't wake up, (no alarm) till a bit after 8am! Then had brekkie, mucked around, did housework, watched Olympics and didn't get away till 10.45am.
I stopped off for lunch, (16k enroute) at Hillary's Marina. I was concious of going for a relatively healthy option, (of course not sugar, pastry or deep fried food) not too huge quantity wise or not too expensive!
I settled for a Mexican burrito which was advertised as fresh and healthy and the accompaning nutritional info didn't look too shocking. I skipped the rice which is normally served on the burrito but enjoyed it with blackbeans, beef, lettuce, fresh tomato/basil/cucumber, corn kernels, medium spicy sauce, red onion, and asked for a half serve of the grated cheese and only a 'tiny' blob of sour cream, (I made sure it was small) so I even chopped the calories slightly further. Was delicious and a new eatery I hadn't tried before. Yes, the tortillas were made of white flour as that was all they had but I'm not at the point of being extremely anal about one meal a week on average :-)
I did notice, I walked past the pubs and eateries on the Marina with people hoeing into battered fish and chips, garlic bread, meals with really fatty looking pork chops and chips, creamy sauce based pastas served with white bread, - none of it looked at all appealing at all! The colourful salads, steamed veg, steamed looking fish/seafood, small quantities of lean meat and OK, dark rye bread type foods look much more appealing. Although the glasses of beer and wine on other people's table did look good :-) After the burrito I stopped into Gloria Jeans for a small skinny flat white, (I drink coffee at work but only when out in the weekend!)
Next stop was Scarborough Beach. I parked up, actually went for another coffee, (arvo snack) and read the paper and took a few photos, then it was time for the 25k ride home going as fast as poss, the weather was coming in, (which I beat) and there were less people on the cycle paths which meant a nice fast ride! 50.5km all up according to my Garmin when I got home! Nice light healthy tea and more watching of the Olympics!
Sunday ended up a little lazy, housework, reading, (finished my e-book), watched Olympics, was 'planning' a run all day but it kept on raining, (still could of gone out I guess). Then 'planned' an aerobic/resistance session on the tiles to music, too lazy but and my book, the internet, TV etc were too enticing, then it was after 9.30pm, - I deemed it too late!
I made up for yesterday at the gym today! 5.9km run on treadmill at 0.5 incline, mega full body weights workout, then the killer rower for 12 mins, then abs.
WEIGH-IN: It fluctuated backwards and forth between 77.9 and 78.0. Will go with 78, - that means down 0.8 since last Monday and brings the total loss to 3.0kg since my first weigh in on this 29 day mission. I must look odd, I am the only one I notice to remove my sneakers before weigh in. The scales are right beside the water fountain, many around are either waiting for the scales or to fill up their bottles so they can easily look over their shoulders to see what I weigh, as I could do for other people. Can start to notice a small difference, - some emergency 'fat pants' I bought on special which fit 4 weeks ago, now hang off my bum, and are bagging around my slightly more toned thighs, that was fresh after a wash. Can also tell stomach has gone down slightly but it still needs LOTS of work. Upper body and arms are infact getting maybe just a tad more muscly than before, :-)!
I despise Mondays, - a little urge for a binge was there today, - blaming Monday and the fact I felt slightly disappointed that I didn't train yesterday but no bingeing eventuated, - urge gone. Am now confident I will complete this 29 days as I set out to do :-)
More soon on 'general life'! Pics below are from Sat just been. Sorry, no time to edit or crop pics. The marina is at Hillarys, the beach pic with me in blue top is at Scarborough, quick self portrait and took my hair out from under the helmet!
Pip :-)
Still haven't caved! Am fully on track!
Friday was a nice day off training, - I watched the Olympics and footy in evening and read a bit more on my e-book, ('Toughen Up'), written by Michael Hill Jeweller!
Saturday I had planned a ride, - rode push bike to Scarborough beach and back via Hillary's Marina. I was hoping to get away by 9am, but didn't wake up, (no alarm) till a bit after 8am! Then had brekkie, mucked around, did housework, watched Olympics and didn't get away till 10.45am.
I stopped off for lunch, (16k enroute) at Hillary's Marina. I was concious of going for a relatively healthy option, (of course not sugar, pastry or deep fried food) not too huge quantity wise or not too expensive!
I settled for a Mexican burrito which was advertised as fresh and healthy and the accompaning nutritional info didn't look too shocking. I skipped the rice which is normally served on the burrito but enjoyed it with blackbeans, beef, lettuce, fresh tomato/basil/cucumber, corn kernels, medium spicy sauce, red onion, and asked for a half serve of the grated cheese and only a 'tiny' blob of sour cream, (I made sure it was small) so I even chopped the calories slightly further. Was delicious and a new eatery I hadn't tried before. Yes, the tortillas were made of white flour as that was all they had but I'm not at the point of being extremely anal about one meal a week on average :-)
I did notice, I walked past the pubs and eateries on the Marina with people hoeing into battered fish and chips, garlic bread, meals with really fatty looking pork chops and chips, creamy sauce based pastas served with white bread, - none of it looked at all appealing at all! The colourful salads, steamed veg, steamed looking fish/seafood, small quantities of lean meat and OK, dark rye bread type foods look much more appealing. Although the glasses of beer and wine on other people's table did look good :-) After the burrito I stopped into Gloria Jeans for a small skinny flat white, (I drink coffee at work but only when out in the weekend!)
Next stop was Scarborough Beach. I parked up, actually went for another coffee, (arvo snack) and read the paper and took a few photos, then it was time for the 25k ride home going as fast as poss, the weather was coming in, (which I beat) and there were less people on the cycle paths which meant a nice fast ride! 50.5km all up according to my Garmin when I got home! Nice light healthy tea and more watching of the Olympics!
Sunday ended up a little lazy, housework, reading, (finished my e-book), watched Olympics, was 'planning' a run all day but it kept on raining, (still could of gone out I guess). Then 'planned' an aerobic/resistance session on the tiles to music, too lazy but and my book, the internet, TV etc were too enticing, then it was after 9.30pm, - I deemed it too late!
I made up for yesterday at the gym today! 5.9km run on treadmill at 0.5 incline, mega full body weights workout, then the killer rower for 12 mins, then abs.
WEIGH-IN: It fluctuated backwards and forth between 77.9 and 78.0. Will go with 78, - that means down 0.8 since last Monday and brings the total loss to 3.0kg since my first weigh in on this 29 day mission. I must look odd, I am the only one I notice to remove my sneakers before weigh in. The scales are right beside the water fountain, many around are either waiting for the scales or to fill up their bottles so they can easily look over their shoulders to see what I weigh, as I could do for other people. Can start to notice a small difference, - some emergency 'fat pants' I bought on special which fit 4 weeks ago, now hang off my bum, and are bagging around my slightly more toned thighs, that was fresh after a wash. Can also tell stomach has gone down slightly but it still needs LOTS of work. Upper body and arms are infact getting maybe just a tad more muscly than before, :-)!
I despise Mondays, - a little urge for a binge was there today, - blaming Monday and the fact I felt slightly disappointed that I didn't train yesterday but no bingeing eventuated, - urge gone. Am now confident I will complete this 29 days as I set out to do :-)
More soon on 'general life'! Pics below are from Sat just been. Sorry, no time to edit or crop pics. The marina is at Hillarys, the beach pic with me in blue top is at Scarborough, quick self portrait and took my hair out from under the helmet!
Friday, August 10, 2012
DAY 21/29...INTERESTING THOUGHTS/ALMOST HOME STRAIGHT!!!
Hello,
Well, have made it to day 21, the end of another training week, onto 'week 4' tomorrow! Still on track, still going strong, and am still impressed with my efforts in training.
Firstly I will list training efforts of the past week:
Saturday: - 10.1km run, quite a few hills to go up and down en-route! Quite a slow time today of 1 hour 7 mins, lots of hills but and getting the mental inclination to get outside between rain showers was tough! Evening I did a 20 min or so circuit of Bootcamp type training repeated twice, (some of it 3 times) on the tiles, - including ski jumps, pushups, knee ups, crunches, plank, lunges, sit against wall thing with thighs and calves at a 90 degree angle, tricep dips.
Sunday: - ended up being a naughty unplanned day off intense exercise although I got quite a bit of walking in.
Monday: 11 mins rower, (hit over 2.5k), 30 mins running on treadmill fast as poss, (just over 5.7k), 4 sets of 12 on the assisted chin up machine, - holding it in slightly different places over the sets. Also targeted back pulley machine, and about 3 other weights machines, (can't remember exactly) plus ab work. I did rower first up, then weights, then treadmill, then abs.
Tuesday: Started off with 30 mins treadmill as fast as poss, (think I did 5.78k) before cooldown. Then 1/2 hour training session with mate including circuit of stair runs, push ups, squatting then throwing medicine ball against wall on way up, lunges. Then headed off to work shoulders and triceps. Then visited the leg press for a few weeks, then abs.
Wednesday: 'Bridges' outdoor run. The route has changed slightly as alterations are being made to footpath. My Garmin measured my run at 9.37km, I completed it in 55 mins, 12 sec. There are a couple of lots of stairs to go up and down enroute to make it interesting but otherwise it's rather flat! That's my quickest time for that run in a couple of months, was pleased to get first 5k done in 28:47. Not fantastic by any means but not bad for just under 80kg. I'm still working an outdoor sub 25 min 5k as something to cross off the 'to do' list, think I have come close when at my fitness peaks but haven't quite crossed it off!
Thursday: Tired, big day at work, REALLY couldn't be bothered with visiting the gym LOL! But started off with 12 mins on rower, lvl 10, about 2.75k I think. I did get 'into' the session. Then tricep dip machine, leg extension, leg curl, stretching, abs, then another 30 min blast on treadmill. Hit 5.68km, was struggling a bit and as I made it to the gym I didn't increase speed for last 2 mins to point of almost puking lol! So prob hit a 9/10 effort instead of a 10/10. Happy with that though!
Wow: about 36.5km running clocked up for the week :-) 5.2k on rower, all at pretty intense speeds! Busy active work week too, on go, always take stairs instead of lifts/escalators and there are lots of stairs in my day!
I will give up blogging my training soon, - just finding it interesting during this challenge.
As for all else:
No bingeing = tick! Relatively easy, most challenging part described in last post after lunch with my mate and also the first couple of days of this challenge.
No diet or normal softdrinks = tick! Sometimes I feel a bit like a coke zero, nothing too major and haven't relented!
Sugarfree = tick! Am not really missing or craving sugar at all. If they do their 'coffee' muffin at work, resisting that is a bit of a challenge but nothing overly major.
Alcohol Free = tick! By FAR the toughest challenge, will explain next paragraph!
Deep Fried Food/Pastry Free = tick! There was the bit of pie I had last Sunday as I was invited to a friends for lunch and she served pie with pastry. I am fine with that though so this gets a tick, the above were more of a priority to abstain from than pastry.
Awww yeah alcohol/wine in particular! I haven't relented! But I do miss it! In reality ideally I would prefer not to give it up for good, (as I love it) but I was unhappy about how much I was drinking. If I'm 'aceing' it in training somewhat and eating 'cleaner', the thing that gave was 'wine' and it's consumption went up. It's a beaut sunny Friday arvo here in Perth today, I have completed what I feel was a productive tough week. I am lucky to be able to train, I have lots to be grateful for, although tired from early mornings, being busy, training hard, I am in a relatively good mood. For some reason I am hankering to cap it off with a few relaxing wines, (pleasure/enjoyment). I can't decide if I want sauvignon blanc, or dry sparkling so the temptation is to get a bottle of both, (good specials are on including bottles of my fav wines) have a glass of each, (maybe just slightly more), and drink it over dinner, while watching the footy and the Olympics on TV tonight! What is left over from tonight would be there for tomorrow! I can do without it, but just would really enjoy it. In all honesty I feel like wine every evening, (am embarrassed to admit I could easily drink it 24/7 haha). But I feel like it most on a Friday and Saturday, maybe followed up by a Sunday.
'Thoughts', (perhaps somewhat 'lower brain' thoughts) have circulated such as 'I wish I announced this as a 20 day instead of 29 day challenge'!, (it would be completed now). 'You have been so focussed/you don't want to give wine up for good/ just decrease intake so.....have some and don't tell anyone'.
BUT, - I am still reading Michael Hill's book, 'Toughen Up', he and all inspirational people talk about 'not being a quitter'. 'Follow through on what you say you are going to do' la-de-da'! So if I caved into a drink before the 29 days were up, particularly for no other reason other than me wanting one I would feel some disappointment, then would feel re-affirmed that I don't follow through on what I say I will etc.
WHY DID I CHOOSE 29 DAYS AGAIN?
I did Febfast this year, (a month off the booze, joined by a big fundraising group worldwide). It was a leap year this year so Feb was 29 days. I completed it successfully, - but substituted alcohol enjoyment for coke zero/sugar/cheese/binge urges. I could string a few 'on track' days together with no other baddies except perhaps coke zero, but then had an unfocussed bingey week or two, repeat! Think I weighed very similar at the start of Feb to what I was at the end. The idea of this challenge was to practice ideal habits all round for 29 days, not substitute one less desirable for another and do it for the whole 29 days.
After the 29 days I plan to stay binge free, committed to training. I intend to keep up similar sugarfree standards I currently have in place, (so indulgence is only very occasionally in small/moderate portions). I intend to stick to an alcohol 'budget' of sorts.
So there has it! Another note was I jumped on scales at gym yesterday when I should not have. No change since Monday. Just down 2.2kg in 20 days. Not terribly bad or anything, but when younger, and with the amount of effort I'm putting in I would have smashed off a significant amount more. I'm looking forward to leaning down now ;-)
Sorry this dragged on a bit, - will talk soon!
Pip :-)
Well, have made it to day 21, the end of another training week, onto 'week 4' tomorrow! Still on track, still going strong, and am still impressed with my efforts in training.
Firstly I will list training efforts of the past week:
Saturday: - 10.1km run, quite a few hills to go up and down en-route! Quite a slow time today of 1 hour 7 mins, lots of hills but and getting the mental inclination to get outside between rain showers was tough! Evening I did a 20 min or so circuit of Bootcamp type training repeated twice, (some of it 3 times) on the tiles, - including ski jumps, pushups, knee ups, crunches, plank, lunges, sit against wall thing with thighs and calves at a 90 degree angle, tricep dips.
Sunday: - ended up being a naughty unplanned day off intense exercise although I got quite a bit of walking in.
Monday: 11 mins rower, (hit over 2.5k), 30 mins running on treadmill fast as poss, (just over 5.7k), 4 sets of 12 on the assisted chin up machine, - holding it in slightly different places over the sets. Also targeted back pulley machine, and about 3 other weights machines, (can't remember exactly) plus ab work. I did rower first up, then weights, then treadmill, then abs.
Tuesday: Started off with 30 mins treadmill as fast as poss, (think I did 5.78k) before cooldown. Then 1/2 hour training session with mate including circuit of stair runs, push ups, squatting then throwing medicine ball against wall on way up, lunges. Then headed off to work shoulders and triceps. Then visited the leg press for a few weeks, then abs.
Wednesday: 'Bridges' outdoor run. The route has changed slightly as alterations are being made to footpath. My Garmin measured my run at 9.37km, I completed it in 55 mins, 12 sec. There are a couple of lots of stairs to go up and down enroute to make it interesting but otherwise it's rather flat! That's my quickest time for that run in a couple of months, was pleased to get first 5k done in 28:47. Not fantastic by any means but not bad for just under 80kg. I'm still working an outdoor sub 25 min 5k as something to cross off the 'to do' list, think I have come close when at my fitness peaks but haven't quite crossed it off!
Thursday: Tired, big day at work, REALLY couldn't be bothered with visiting the gym LOL! But started off with 12 mins on rower, lvl 10, about 2.75k I think. I did get 'into' the session. Then tricep dip machine, leg extension, leg curl, stretching, abs, then another 30 min blast on treadmill. Hit 5.68km, was struggling a bit and as I made it to the gym I didn't increase speed for last 2 mins to point of almost puking lol! So prob hit a 9/10 effort instead of a 10/10. Happy with that though!
Wow: about 36.5km running clocked up for the week :-) 5.2k on rower, all at pretty intense speeds! Busy active work week too, on go, always take stairs instead of lifts/escalators and there are lots of stairs in my day!
I will give up blogging my training soon, - just finding it interesting during this challenge.
As for all else:
No bingeing = tick! Relatively easy, most challenging part described in last post after lunch with my mate and also the first couple of days of this challenge.
No diet or normal softdrinks = tick! Sometimes I feel a bit like a coke zero, nothing too major and haven't relented!
Sugarfree = tick! Am not really missing or craving sugar at all. If they do their 'coffee' muffin at work, resisting that is a bit of a challenge but nothing overly major.
Alcohol Free = tick! By FAR the toughest challenge, will explain next paragraph!
Deep Fried Food/Pastry Free = tick! There was the bit of pie I had last Sunday as I was invited to a friends for lunch and she served pie with pastry. I am fine with that though so this gets a tick, the above were more of a priority to abstain from than pastry.
Awww yeah alcohol/wine in particular! I haven't relented! But I do miss it! In reality ideally I would prefer not to give it up for good, (as I love it) but I was unhappy about how much I was drinking. If I'm 'aceing' it in training somewhat and eating 'cleaner', the thing that gave was 'wine' and it's consumption went up. It's a beaut sunny Friday arvo here in Perth today, I have completed what I feel was a productive tough week. I am lucky to be able to train, I have lots to be grateful for, although tired from early mornings, being busy, training hard, I am in a relatively good mood. For some reason I am hankering to cap it off with a few relaxing wines, (pleasure/enjoyment). I can't decide if I want sauvignon blanc, or dry sparkling so the temptation is to get a bottle of both, (good specials are on including bottles of my fav wines) have a glass of each, (maybe just slightly more), and drink it over dinner, while watching the footy and the Olympics on TV tonight! What is left over from tonight would be there for tomorrow! I can do without it, but just would really enjoy it. In all honesty I feel like wine every evening, (am embarrassed to admit I could easily drink it 24/7 haha). But I feel like it most on a Friday and Saturday, maybe followed up by a Sunday.
'Thoughts', (perhaps somewhat 'lower brain' thoughts) have circulated such as 'I wish I announced this as a 20 day instead of 29 day challenge'!, (it would be completed now). 'You have been so focussed/you don't want to give wine up for good/ just decrease intake so.....have some and don't tell anyone'.
BUT, - I am still reading Michael Hill's book, 'Toughen Up', he and all inspirational people talk about 'not being a quitter'. 'Follow through on what you say you are going to do' la-de-da'! So if I caved into a drink before the 29 days were up, particularly for no other reason other than me wanting one I would feel some disappointment, then would feel re-affirmed that I don't follow through on what I say I will etc.
WHY DID I CHOOSE 29 DAYS AGAIN?
I did Febfast this year, (a month off the booze, joined by a big fundraising group worldwide). It was a leap year this year so Feb was 29 days. I completed it successfully, - but substituted alcohol enjoyment for coke zero/sugar/cheese/binge urges. I could string a few 'on track' days together with no other baddies except perhaps coke zero, but then had an unfocussed bingey week or two, repeat! Think I weighed very similar at the start of Feb to what I was at the end. The idea of this challenge was to practice ideal habits all round for 29 days, not substitute one less desirable for another and do it for the whole 29 days.
After the 29 days I plan to stay binge free, committed to training. I intend to keep up similar sugarfree standards I currently have in place, (so indulgence is only very occasionally in small/moderate portions). I intend to stick to an alcohol 'budget' of sorts.
So there has it! Another note was I jumped on scales at gym yesterday when I should not have. No change since Monday. Just down 2.2kg in 20 days. Not terribly bad or anything, but when younger, and with the amount of effort I'm putting in I would have smashed off a significant amount more. I'm looking forward to leaning down now ;-)
Sorry this dragged on a bit, - will talk soon!
Pip :-)
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
DAY 18/29..........
G'day!
Well, I am now well over the half-way mark with this which is encouraging.
My only self perceived 'glitch' (which I'm not at all worried about) so far is the bit of pastry I ate at Sunday lunch with a friend I caught up with. I had notified her in advance I was booze-free and sugar-free for this 29 days, (so she didn't buy wine or make cake/dessert for us)! She then sent me a text asking if there was anything else I didn't eat, I sent one back saying everything else if fine.........then a thought hit me which was I'm not supposed to be eating deep fried food or pastry either! But I thought it was too fussy to send her a text stating that, as it isn't often I catch up with her and it's not like I'm in a figure comp in a few short weeks or allergic to stuff or fussy by nature. She made a big meal for us for lunch, - nice homemade tomato soup with a freshly baked bread roll, then a chicken pie with a pastry case/a creamy sauce, potato salad, pasta salad and some garden salad. I had a smaller spoon of the pasta and potato one and more of the garden salad. Of course that is more lunch/some different type of food than I am used to now, I didn't train that day, the thought passed me by that I 'shouldn't eat tea' to compensate for the bigger lunch but I also had an urge for a binge, - the first urge for binge food this challenge! I didn't binge, (although I tried to ignore it, the urge hung around a few hours). I just told myself the urge would eventually leave, which it did and I settled for a normal but light tea by my standards, good to see my mate but, she is lovely.
I had Friday off training, flogged myself with a 10.1k hilly run Sat arvo, then a army styled half hour workout on the tiles in the evening haha while watching the Olympics. Sunday morning I had a crazy idea I'd get a 50k ride in before 11.30am, - that being ride to Scarborough, treat self with a skinny flat white, then bike home! But I got to bed too late on Sat, weather looked dodgy and I found myself busy with other stuff! It's on the agenda for this coming weekend though! Yesterday I FLOGGED it at the gym. I started on the rower, pushed myself as hard as poss for 11 mins, at the 10 min mark I see I had done 2.340km, - new PB at level 10. Next it was the assisted pullup machine, a few others, where I really gave it my all, then I headed to the treadmill for the fastest run I could do in 30 mins, - 5.68k yesterday before cooldown. Then it was time to torture my abs.
I had my weigh in before my workout yesterday. 78.8 it was. 1.4 down on last week and 2.2 in 2 weeks. Happy with that, - but a few years ago with my efforts of late I would prob have shed 4-5kg in that same timeframe lol! When I say happy, I mean I really should not have gained this flab in the first place! Am noticing I am progressing a bit with the weights, I have been more disciplined with resistance work than in the past, - maybe I'm imagining things but think I can see a lil more definition around the shoulder area and maybe can feel it. I would be interested to know what my lean mass is, - last time I got it checked on a DEXA scan maybe 3 - 4 years ago it was only 46.3kg,. I would like to think I am increasing it a bit instead of letting it decrease with age. However I have been told earlier this year I appeared somewhat toned and muscular., - hmmmm.
Still finding it a bit of a fight not to indulge in a wine, - particularly Friday and Saturdays, - but am pleased to have made it this far, - so I have to until the end!
Loving watching the Olympics, what dedicated talented people!
Gym time now, - so will talk again soon!
Pip :-)
Well, I am now well over the half-way mark with this which is encouraging.
My only self perceived 'glitch' (which I'm not at all worried about) so far is the bit of pastry I ate at Sunday lunch with a friend I caught up with. I had notified her in advance I was booze-free and sugar-free for this 29 days, (so she didn't buy wine or make cake/dessert for us)! She then sent me a text asking if there was anything else I didn't eat, I sent one back saying everything else if fine.........then a thought hit me which was I'm not supposed to be eating deep fried food or pastry either! But I thought it was too fussy to send her a text stating that, as it isn't often I catch up with her and it's not like I'm in a figure comp in a few short weeks or allergic to stuff or fussy by nature. She made a big meal for us for lunch, - nice homemade tomato soup with a freshly baked bread roll, then a chicken pie with a pastry case/a creamy sauce, potato salad, pasta salad and some garden salad. I had a smaller spoon of the pasta and potato one and more of the garden salad. Of course that is more lunch/some different type of food than I am used to now, I didn't train that day, the thought passed me by that I 'shouldn't eat tea' to compensate for the bigger lunch but I also had an urge for a binge, - the first urge for binge food this challenge! I didn't binge, (although I tried to ignore it, the urge hung around a few hours). I just told myself the urge would eventually leave, which it did and I settled for a normal but light tea by my standards, good to see my mate but, she is lovely.
I had Friday off training, flogged myself with a 10.1k hilly run Sat arvo, then a army styled half hour workout on the tiles in the evening haha while watching the Olympics. Sunday morning I had a crazy idea I'd get a 50k ride in before 11.30am, - that being ride to Scarborough, treat self with a skinny flat white, then bike home! But I got to bed too late on Sat, weather looked dodgy and I found myself busy with other stuff! It's on the agenda for this coming weekend though! Yesterday I FLOGGED it at the gym. I started on the rower, pushed myself as hard as poss for 11 mins, at the 10 min mark I see I had done 2.340km, - new PB at level 10. Next it was the assisted pullup machine, a few others, where I really gave it my all, then I headed to the treadmill for the fastest run I could do in 30 mins, - 5.68k yesterday before cooldown. Then it was time to torture my abs.
I had my weigh in before my workout yesterday. 78.8 it was. 1.4 down on last week and 2.2 in 2 weeks. Happy with that, - but a few years ago with my efforts of late I would prob have shed 4-5kg in that same timeframe lol! When I say happy, I mean I really should not have gained this flab in the first place! Am noticing I am progressing a bit with the weights, I have been more disciplined with resistance work than in the past, - maybe I'm imagining things but think I can see a lil more definition around the shoulder area and maybe can feel it. I would be interested to know what my lean mass is, - last time I got it checked on a DEXA scan maybe 3 - 4 years ago it was only 46.3kg,. I would like to think I am increasing it a bit instead of letting it decrease with age. However I have been told earlier this year I appeared somewhat toned and muscular., - hmmmm.
Still finding it a bit of a fight not to indulge in a wine, - particularly Friday and Saturdays, - but am pleased to have made it this far, - so I have to until the end!
Loving watching the Olympics, what dedicated talented people!
Gym time now, - so will talk again soon!
Pip :-)
Thursday, August 2, 2012
DAY 13/29.........beyond.......
Howdy,
Just a quickkie, still here, still on track with everything perfectly so far this challenge.
My training week starts on a Saturday, and so far this training week, (since last Sat) I have clocked up:
* 31km of running over 4 runs.
* 40km bike riding, (last Sat)
* Rower just over 10 mins, 30 secs, (2.4km) L10
* Lots of resistance work including many pushups, (starting on toes till I can do no more, then lowering to knees), plank, lunges, walking lunges, weighted lunges, assisted chin ups, leg press, leg curl with different moves on it, tricep dips, shoulder press, ab things, back pulley machine, flexibility work and stretching. Also jogging on spot, ski jumps and similar have been added to my floor circuit I sometimes do when wanting to warm up instead of turning on the heater lol!
Still enjoying sugarfree. Still missing the wine/beer lol but haven't relented. Day off training tomorrow, (did 9.3km new outdoor run today). Will get some reading done, it's been a busy week. As for reading, I started 50 Shades of Grey, am up to Chapter 6, but can never really stay interested in fiction although I mean to carry on with it. I also downloaded 'Toughen Up', a book written by Micheal Hill Jeweller about the makings of his business, - and I'm finding that MUCH more interesting than 50 Shades of Grey! Am liking my Kindle e-reader for that!
Am looking forward to watching more Olympics this weekend! Bring on the Athletics, marathon and triathlon! May be catching up with a friend on Sunday, she suggested meeting at my favourite bar for a 'drink' on Sunday arvo! I look forward to catching up with her, the idea of a 'drink' is very appealing. I keep telling myself, - 'I'm not meaning to give up drinking for good, I can bike there, have one or two socially with her, then bike home', and that is how I intend to want it to be like in future. However often, a drink or two when out, make me more in the mood to feel like carrying on when home. Of course I could have a soda water or a water, (not soft drink or diet soft drink or any juice with added sugar). Or I could suggest we go for a coffee somewhere, she will be driving I think, and I don't think she is a big drinker, she just has one occasionally. I will let you know the outcome, not giving into a wine is still a daily challenge! Initially I DID tell myself 29 days, - have nearly done 13.
Really look forward to seeing more fitness, strength , speed gains and fatloss! This new fat roll around my midsection is annoying me lol! Daily incidental activity is still lots! Can't believe my time in Aussie is coming to a close, I do want to go on holiday leaner and fitter plus arrive in NZ the same way!
Talk soon!
Just a quickkie, still here, still on track with everything perfectly so far this challenge.
My training week starts on a Saturday, and so far this training week, (since last Sat) I have clocked up:
* 31km of running over 4 runs.
* 40km bike riding, (last Sat)
* Rower just over 10 mins, 30 secs, (2.4km) L10
* Lots of resistance work including many pushups, (starting on toes till I can do no more, then lowering to knees), plank, lunges, walking lunges, weighted lunges, assisted chin ups, leg press, leg curl with different moves on it, tricep dips, shoulder press, ab things, back pulley machine, flexibility work and stretching. Also jogging on spot, ski jumps and similar have been added to my floor circuit I sometimes do when wanting to warm up instead of turning on the heater lol!
Still enjoying sugarfree. Still missing the wine/beer lol but haven't relented. Day off training tomorrow, (did 9.3km new outdoor run today). Will get some reading done, it's been a busy week. As for reading, I started 50 Shades of Grey, am up to Chapter 6, but can never really stay interested in fiction although I mean to carry on with it. I also downloaded 'Toughen Up', a book written by Micheal Hill Jeweller about the makings of his business, - and I'm finding that MUCH more interesting than 50 Shades of Grey! Am liking my Kindle e-reader for that!
Am looking forward to watching more Olympics this weekend! Bring on the Athletics, marathon and triathlon! May be catching up with a friend on Sunday, she suggested meeting at my favourite bar for a 'drink' on Sunday arvo! I look forward to catching up with her, the idea of a 'drink' is very appealing. I keep telling myself, - 'I'm not meaning to give up drinking for good, I can bike there, have one or two socially with her, then bike home', and that is how I intend to want it to be like in future. However often, a drink or two when out, make me more in the mood to feel like carrying on when home. Of course I could have a soda water or a water, (not soft drink or diet soft drink or any juice with added sugar). Or I could suggest we go for a coffee somewhere, she will be driving I think, and I don't think she is a big drinker, she just has one occasionally. I will let you know the outcome, not giving into a wine is still a daily challenge! Initially I DID tell myself 29 days, - have nearly done 13.
Really look forward to seeing more fitness, strength , speed gains and fatloss! This new fat roll around my midsection is annoying me lol! Daily incidental activity is still lots! Can't believe my time in Aussie is coming to a close, I do want to go on holiday leaner and fitter plus arrive in NZ the same way!
Talk soon!
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