At a time when I thought this would be starting to get easier, I'm actually starting to struggle. Trying to eat at 1200 daily is becoming hard, I'm becoming overly food focussed and hungry. I'm having days where I go over and then days when I try to catch it up and go under. Today I am officially drawing a line in the sand and saying anything over or under to date is closed, and we start afresh at 1200 today. It's too easy to get too obsessed with the numbers, and I am most definitely heading down that path at the moment. Time for a slight deviation to get back on course with the stuff that actually matters, focus on the big picture.
Day 27, super Saturday. The day started with 7am elite squad trampoline training, the Olympic coach is *different* and I'm glad I don't train with him all the time. I'm sure he's quite brilliant, but he's also quite annoying in many respects. At least I can say I tried it out! I did manage to do a few pretty good Level 6 routines, but no work on Level 7. That's OK, I haven't done any complete routines for a while, good to mix it up.
After bouncing and coaching, it was off to the gym for the "Rowers Revenge" SSS. 10 minutes on the cross trainer, followed by 15 minutes of interval hill sprints, and then 3x circuits of 300m rowing/15 push ups/300m rowing/15 dumbell squats/300m rowing/15 mountain climbers. I thought the hill sprints would do me in, but the rowing circuit was the tougher part. A good hard workout, I was happy with that.
After a break for some lunch, I met up with a friend and we went for a walk rather than a ride. We did about 6km walking and talking, a lovely way to spend an afternoon.
Day 28, another 7am start, this time to tackle the Mt Lofty climb. Damn that's a nasty mountain, but it's a great challenge. We got up the 3.9km climb in 47 minutes - I could have gone faster, but my walking companion was struggling a bit. In the good old days I could beat 40 minutes up, I'm pretty sure I'm not capable of that just at the moment. Hopefully I'll get back to it though. The reward for the climb is a nice jog back down, that feels much better!
Day 29, it was a public holiday, and a group of 12WBT challengers had arranged to meet up at a Scouts property to do the Challenge Hill obstacle course. It was a really fun way to get some exercise, mix up the training, meet some new people, and challenge both your physical and mental strength. There were climbing challenges (which were hard for those with a fear of heights), rope challenges over water (for those with a fear of crossing water), and the enclosed space challenges (for those with claustrophobic issues). Some of it was hard, some not so much, but we had fun. My upper body is still killing me two days on, so it must have been good!
Day 30, early morning run to start the day. My body was agonised from mountain climbing and obstacle coursing, so I scaled back my expectations to a slowish 5km. It hurt and it was hard, but I got around (with one small tumble on the main road, how embarrassing) in 31 minutes. In the evening I did my regular step class, back to a lower step but with the more jumpy/higher intensity moves.
I came home to a bit of a disaster, which meant that I didn't get a lot of sleep, and my upper body is still suffering greatly, so the planned Day 31 pump class did not eventuate. I'll jump back on board and get on with it from here. It is also weigh in day, and I had a loss of 600g. That might be artificially low, because I ate dinner at 10pm, but then again it might be right. We'll wait and see what next week brings, hopefully more consistency, less hunger, and less emotional turmoil...
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Thursday, June 6, 2013
12WBT: Days 24, 25, 26
Man this has been a long week. I am soooooo tired, I really just want to sleep, sleep and sleep some more.
Wednesday (day 24) - early morning pump class, same weights as Monday, challenging but manageable.
I was supposed to have freestyle trampoline training on Wednesday night, but I wasn't well at all. I went to the club and coached intermediates, and at the end of the session had a temporal lobe seizure. I have a mild-ish form of epilepsy which is largely controlled as long as I look after myself, particularly with getting enough sleep. I have been sleeping a decent amount (7 hours or thereabouts a night), so I'm not sure what brought this one on, but it's not pleasant. I waited long enough for the symptoms to subside (stopped seeing spots in front of my eyes, hearing something like the ocean crashing in the background), and then drove myself home to rest. I had my dinner, but still had this weird "empty" feeling, so I had a bad night on the eating front. I ended up at 1,600 calories with some peanut butter on crackers, a protein shake and a bar of Atkins chocolate. It was more food than I needed and I should have stopped, so I am disappointed on that front. On the flip side, I didn't eat the whole jar of peanut butter, or the whole box of Atkins bars, and 1,600 calories isn't a disaster, so I'm owning it, feeling pleased that I'm making progress with controlling my compulsive eating, and moving on.
Thursday (day 25) - my planned fitness test and gym cardio for the morning didn't proceed as planned. I still felt tired and had a headache from the seizure, so I decided to give myself a temporary break, and defer the session to Friday. This isn't super ideal because I'm not having a full rest day, but Wednesday morning to Thursday night is pretty much a rest day, right?
By Thursday night I was feeling OK, if still a little tired, so I went to trampoline training. I did pretty well, did some nice double backs and 1 3/4 fronts, but freaked myself out on the damn rudi again. I'm a little frustrated that I don't seem to be making much progress at the moment, but trampolining is like that sometimes.
Friday (day 26) - the fitness test day. I don't know what it is, but I sleep horribly the night before I'm going to run in the morning. For goodness sakes, I was only running a 1km time trial, but I just DREAD it in advance. I love to be able to run, but I physically hate doing it. Suck it up Princess.
Fitness test results;
1km time trial - 5:25. I struggle over 1km to pace myself. In retrospect I should have gone out harder, hopefully I will improve this time when I do it again in 4 weeks.
1 minute push ups on knees - 38
Plank hold - 1:40
Wall sit - 1:10 (I've done better than this, I think my legs are fatigued. I hate static hold exercises though).
Sit and reach test + 18cm
Not too bad. Everything other than the wall sit now puts me in the "advanced" category on the 12WBT scale, but I'm going to stay with the intermediate program, because I feel like it's challenging me enough, and I'm only following it loosely anyway. I feel like I need to be lighter to be able to follow the Advanced Lean & Fit program, I just don't have the strength to do multiple reps of push ups on my toes etc, but with training and with a reducing in the weight I'm pushing up and down, I'm quietly confident this will happen with time.
On the food front, Wednesday was a bit of a mess as I said, Thursday was stellar, I wasn't suffering from hunger pangs at all and I ended up way under at about 980 calories. Not something I would do repeatedly, but given it followed a high day, on the law of averages it will even out. Friday is still a work in progress, but I've been hungry all day which is annoying (I'm also bored, so I'm trying hard to differentiate the signals). I will keep fighting the good fight, and hopefully go to bed early to avoid late night munchies. I have a big day planned for Saturday anyway (elite squad training with the Olympic coach, eek, gym session and then a leisurely bike ride with a friend), so an early night is definitely in order.
Wednesday (day 24) - early morning pump class, same weights as Monday, challenging but manageable.
I was supposed to have freestyle trampoline training on Wednesday night, but I wasn't well at all. I went to the club and coached intermediates, and at the end of the session had a temporal lobe seizure. I have a mild-ish form of epilepsy which is largely controlled as long as I look after myself, particularly with getting enough sleep. I have been sleeping a decent amount (7 hours or thereabouts a night), so I'm not sure what brought this one on, but it's not pleasant. I waited long enough for the symptoms to subside (stopped seeing spots in front of my eyes, hearing something like the ocean crashing in the background), and then drove myself home to rest. I had my dinner, but still had this weird "empty" feeling, so I had a bad night on the eating front. I ended up at 1,600 calories with some peanut butter on crackers, a protein shake and a bar of Atkins chocolate. It was more food than I needed and I should have stopped, so I am disappointed on that front. On the flip side, I didn't eat the whole jar of peanut butter, or the whole box of Atkins bars, and 1,600 calories isn't a disaster, so I'm owning it, feeling pleased that I'm making progress with controlling my compulsive eating, and moving on.
Thursday (day 25) - my planned fitness test and gym cardio for the morning didn't proceed as planned. I still felt tired and had a headache from the seizure, so I decided to give myself a temporary break, and defer the session to Friday. This isn't super ideal because I'm not having a full rest day, but Wednesday morning to Thursday night is pretty much a rest day, right?
By Thursday night I was feeling OK, if still a little tired, so I went to trampoline training. I did pretty well, did some nice double backs and 1 3/4 fronts, but freaked myself out on the damn rudi again. I'm a little frustrated that I don't seem to be making much progress at the moment, but trampolining is like that sometimes.
Friday (day 26) - the fitness test day. I don't know what it is, but I sleep horribly the night before I'm going to run in the morning. For goodness sakes, I was only running a 1km time trial, but I just DREAD it in advance. I love to be able to run, but I physically hate doing it. Suck it up Princess.
Fitness test results;
1km time trial - 5:25. I struggle over 1km to pace myself. In retrospect I should have gone out harder, hopefully I will improve this time when I do it again in 4 weeks.
1 minute push ups on knees - 38
Plank hold - 1:40
Wall sit - 1:10 (I've done better than this, I think my legs are fatigued. I hate static hold exercises though).
Sit and reach test + 18cm
Not too bad. Everything other than the wall sit now puts me in the "advanced" category on the 12WBT scale, but I'm going to stay with the intermediate program, because I feel like it's challenging me enough, and I'm only following it loosely anyway. I feel like I need to be lighter to be able to follow the Advanced Lean & Fit program, I just don't have the strength to do multiple reps of push ups on my toes etc, but with training and with a reducing in the weight I'm pushing up and down, I'm quietly confident this will happen with time.
On the food front, Wednesday was a bit of a mess as I said, Thursday was stellar, I wasn't suffering from hunger pangs at all and I ended up way under at about 980 calories. Not something I would do repeatedly, but given it followed a high day, on the law of averages it will even out. Friday is still a work in progress, but I've been hungry all day which is annoying (I'm also bored, so I'm trying hard to differentiate the signals). I will keep fighting the good fight, and hopefully go to bed early to avoid late night munchies. I have a big day planned for Saturday anyway (elite squad training with the Olympic coach, eek, gym session and then a leisurely bike ride with a friend), so an early night is definitely in order.
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
12WBT - Days 22, 23
Another week already...
Monday's start with a pump class, and the weights went up for most muscle groups this week:
Warmup 5kg
Squats 17.5kg
Chest 10kg
Back 10kg
Triceps 7.5kg
Biceps 7.5kg
Lunges mostly body weight, lots of the little suckers though
Shoulders 5kg
I will probably be at this level for a little while, because it is definitely challenging me. The squats might go to 20kg fairly soon, but I don't think I'm ready to move further on any of the others. My shoulders never seem to improve which is a bit depressing. I've got really broad shoulders which look like they should be strong, apparently not!
Tuesday (day 23) AM - 5km run. Awesome run... well actually it hurt a lot, but an awesome time (for me anyway), 29:03, hooray! Nearly 1:30 off last week's time. My heart rate got to 170 for the final stretch, which is damn high for me with my ridiculously low resting rate of 38 and I felt a little bit like I was going to throw up, but I made it. I'm now at a bit of a cross roads about whether I keep working on speed over 5km or whether I start to add some distance. Part of me wants to do the City to Bay in September, which is 12km and would require some distance training. Another part of me doesn't want to get up any earlier for distance training haha. We will see what the ensuing weeks bring.
Tuesday PM - step class, with a little run to and from the gym as a result of parking down the hill again. I reallllly struggled in this class for some reason. I had my step at high and was doing higher impact moves, I think I might have gone too hard too early. My shirt looked like I had jumped in a pool, I was completely soaked. My legs were also struggling in some of the moves, so I guess the harder work in pump and a fast run had taken it out of me. Oh well, some days you're feeling it, some days you're not, the important thing is to just push through it anyway. And that I did.
Nutrition wise, things are still going strong. This week's recipes (of which I've only tried a couple, but there are more pre made and awaiting eating) are heaps better than last weeks. I had the weirdest lunch for Monday and Tuesday, I was quite apprehensive about it, but it was amazing, I loved it... 3 small rice cakes with 15g peanut butter, 1.5 boiled eggs mashed with a dash of curry powder, topped with grated carrot and sliced cucumber. Sounds odd, tastes sensational. I could do without all the idiots at work analysing what I'm eating though. Seriously, bugger off, it's none of your business.
Today is weigh in day, and I can report another 1kg has bitten the dust. It is also mini milestone week, meaning you redo your measurements (and fitness test, but I haven't done that yet) to see how much size you've lost. On the 12WBT measurement list (which to be honest I find a bit odd, because you only measure one thigh and one arm, but there you go) I've lost 20cm in 4 weeks. That's pretty awesome. Only 3cm off my waist which is annoying but typical for me, but 6cm off my thigh. 6cm! That's bloody heaps!
Onwards and downwards we go.
Monday's start with a pump class, and the weights went up for most muscle groups this week:
Warmup 5kg
Squats 17.5kg
Chest 10kg
Back 10kg
Triceps 7.5kg
Biceps 7.5kg
Lunges mostly body weight, lots of the little suckers though
Shoulders 5kg
I will probably be at this level for a little while, because it is definitely challenging me. The squats might go to 20kg fairly soon, but I don't think I'm ready to move further on any of the others. My shoulders never seem to improve which is a bit depressing. I've got really broad shoulders which look like they should be strong, apparently not!
Tuesday (day 23) AM - 5km run. Awesome run... well actually it hurt a lot, but an awesome time (for me anyway), 29:03, hooray! Nearly 1:30 off last week's time. My heart rate got to 170 for the final stretch, which is damn high for me with my ridiculously low resting rate of 38 and I felt a little bit like I was going to throw up, but I made it. I'm now at a bit of a cross roads about whether I keep working on speed over 5km or whether I start to add some distance. Part of me wants to do the City to Bay in September, which is 12km and would require some distance training. Another part of me doesn't want to get up any earlier for distance training haha. We will see what the ensuing weeks bring.
Tuesday PM - step class, with a little run to and from the gym as a result of parking down the hill again. I reallllly struggled in this class for some reason. I had my step at high and was doing higher impact moves, I think I might have gone too hard too early. My shirt looked like I had jumped in a pool, I was completely soaked. My legs were also struggling in some of the moves, so I guess the harder work in pump and a fast run had taken it out of me. Oh well, some days you're feeling it, some days you're not, the important thing is to just push through it anyway. And that I did.
Nutrition wise, things are still going strong. This week's recipes (of which I've only tried a couple, but there are more pre made and awaiting eating) are heaps better than last weeks. I had the weirdest lunch for Monday and Tuesday, I was quite apprehensive about it, but it was amazing, I loved it... 3 small rice cakes with 15g peanut butter, 1.5 boiled eggs mashed with a dash of curry powder, topped with grated carrot and sliced cucumber. Sounds odd, tastes sensational. I could do without all the idiots at work analysing what I'm eating though. Seriously, bugger off, it's none of your business.
Today is weigh in day, and I can report another 1kg has bitten the dust. It is also mini milestone week, meaning you redo your measurements (and fitness test, but I haven't done that yet) to see how much size you've lost. On the 12WBT measurement list (which to be honest I find a bit odd, because you only measure one thigh and one arm, but there you go) I've lost 20cm in 4 weeks. That's pretty awesome. Only 3cm off my waist which is annoying but typical for me, but 6cm off my thigh. 6cm! That's bloody heaps!
Onwards and downwards we go.
Sunday, June 2, 2013
12WBT: Days 16 - 21
Wow, time is getting away from me. I've had a draft called Days 16 & 17 sitting here for half a week with nothing in the body of the message. Oops.
So, training...
Day 16 - awesome 30:30 run in the morning which I mentioned last post, plus a really great step class in the evening. I've been feeling exhausted in that class of late, but I smashed it out, had two risers and higher-impacted some of the moves. I also had to run half a km or so to the gym thanks to stupid roadworks, I pulled in on the side of the road where I could and ran from there or I wasn't going to make it on time. That actually felt really good, so I'm might try to do that again in future!
Day 17 - commuter ride to and from work, 15km to work, 20km home with a little deviation. My new helmet is awesome, and it would want to be for $230 :) The ride felt strong, and I'm definitely getting better (finally) at clipping in when taking off from lights! My speedo wasn't working though, so I have no idea about pace etc. The bike shop fixed that on Friday when Delilah went in for her first service.
Day 18 - early morning pump class. Like, really early. OK so it's only 10 minutes earlier than my usual one, but it's also at a gym 10 minutes further away, so it felt like I was getting out of bed in the middle of the night (no exaggeration at all, clearly). It's the same instructor as my Tuesday step class and I love him (a very great pity that he's gay...) and the class is a million times better than the pump at the other gym. Not sure if it's worth those 20 minutes more out of bed in the morning though. PM session was a very light bounce session, no coach so it was freestyle, and I wasn't feeling it at all. I exercised my gums talking more than I did my body bouncing.
Day 19 - light morning gym session, roughly following the "stretch and tone" 12WBT session for the week. I burnt 250 calories or so, mainly from the cross trainer 15 minutes at the start. Better than nothing (actually it's better than what I burn in pump when I come to think of it, hmm), but on the whole I'm not sure it was worth getting out of bed for.
Day 20 - elite squad bounce session... it was brilliant. The first time I have felt good on a trampoline in AGES. My timed bounces were nearly a full second ahead of anyone else in the squad (which is actually quite a lot when we're talking 18.5 seconds in total), but still .3 of a second below my best. Damn it, I need to beat 19 seconds! I did some drills, and some rudi's and double backs, and they all felt really good. Huzzah.
After coaching, I made my way to the gym with very little enthusiasm, but I was fine once I got started. The same program as last week, and I have improved quite a lot in that time which is inspiring. Each circuit was taking me 7:30 to 8 minutes to complete last week, and it was down to 6:30 to 7 minutes this week. My arms still gave out on the last few reps of push ups, but I only took a break once during tricep dips because my hands were slipping, and I got through all the bench burpees with no rests. The downside is that I only burnt 358 calories. Damn you to hell, low heart rate. The girl on the other side of the gym doing the same program as me was complaining that she only burnt 700. Grr. I added 20 minutes on the treadmill and cross trainer, got myself to 550 calories and called it quits, I was done. It would have been close to 1,000 calories for the day, it's hard to know what you burn in a trampoline session because you can't wear a monitor. It's hard work though.
Day 21 - rest day, blessed rest day. I ended up running around like a headless chook though, I went to the markets in the morning and bought loads of fresh veggies to replenish my dwindling supplies. The recipes I had chosen for this week were quite labour intensive, so it took me all day to cook everything, and I was well and truly over it. I was also having a hungry day, and for a while I just had to get out of the kitchen and think about something other than food. I ended up about 30 or 40 calories over the 1200 for the day, but I'm calling that a win, because I was ravenous ALL DAY, and it could so easily have turned into a binge fest.
I'm actually starting to dream about going to the shops and buying a block of top deck and eating it all in one sitting. Who am I kidding, I've been known to eat the whole thing before I even got it home. I know I should be repulsed by that behaviour and never want to do it again... but the truth is, I actually miss it. I really hope that mindset changes sooner rather than later. I'd love to think that one day I'll be able to have one row of chocolate or one Freddo frog and feel satisfied. To be honest though, I don't see that in my future, I think my relationship with food is just too "broken" to have that sort of outcome. It's a bit sad and depressing, but that's reality for you.
On the food front generally, I have been struggling but continuing to win the battle. This week's challenge is to stop saving calories for night time. I can have a Vitarium drink with water for 10 calories on the way to bed, and that's all I want to leave for after dinner. That scares the hell out of me, but I want to try it.
Alrighty better get to work. Oops, almost forgot to post last week's weigh in... 1kg down. Pretty good for a week 2 weigh in for me, usually I follow the good week/bad week pattern. Fingers crossed that week 3 is a goodie :)
So, training...
Day 16 - awesome 30:30 run in the morning which I mentioned last post, plus a really great step class in the evening. I've been feeling exhausted in that class of late, but I smashed it out, had two risers and higher-impacted some of the moves. I also had to run half a km or so to the gym thanks to stupid roadworks, I pulled in on the side of the road where I could and ran from there or I wasn't going to make it on time. That actually felt really good, so I'm might try to do that again in future!
Day 17 - commuter ride to and from work, 15km to work, 20km home with a little deviation. My new helmet is awesome, and it would want to be for $230 :) The ride felt strong, and I'm definitely getting better (finally) at clipping in when taking off from lights! My speedo wasn't working though, so I have no idea about pace etc. The bike shop fixed that on Friday when Delilah went in for her first service.
Day 18 - early morning pump class. Like, really early. OK so it's only 10 minutes earlier than my usual one, but it's also at a gym 10 minutes further away, so it felt like I was getting out of bed in the middle of the night (no exaggeration at all, clearly). It's the same instructor as my Tuesday step class and I love him (a very great pity that he's gay...) and the class is a million times better than the pump at the other gym. Not sure if it's worth those 20 minutes more out of bed in the morning though. PM session was a very light bounce session, no coach so it was freestyle, and I wasn't feeling it at all. I exercised my gums talking more than I did my body bouncing.
Day 19 - light morning gym session, roughly following the "stretch and tone" 12WBT session for the week. I burnt 250 calories or so, mainly from the cross trainer 15 minutes at the start. Better than nothing (actually it's better than what I burn in pump when I come to think of it, hmm), but on the whole I'm not sure it was worth getting out of bed for.
Day 20 - elite squad bounce session... it was brilliant. The first time I have felt good on a trampoline in AGES. My timed bounces were nearly a full second ahead of anyone else in the squad (which is actually quite a lot when we're talking 18.5 seconds in total), but still .3 of a second below my best. Damn it, I need to beat 19 seconds! I did some drills, and some rudi's and double backs, and they all felt really good. Huzzah.
After coaching, I made my way to the gym with very little enthusiasm, but I was fine once I got started. The same program as last week, and I have improved quite a lot in that time which is inspiring. Each circuit was taking me 7:30 to 8 minutes to complete last week, and it was down to 6:30 to 7 minutes this week. My arms still gave out on the last few reps of push ups, but I only took a break once during tricep dips because my hands were slipping, and I got through all the bench burpees with no rests. The downside is that I only burnt 358 calories. Damn you to hell, low heart rate. The girl on the other side of the gym doing the same program as me was complaining that she only burnt 700. Grr. I added 20 minutes on the treadmill and cross trainer, got myself to 550 calories and called it quits, I was done. It would have been close to 1,000 calories for the day, it's hard to know what you burn in a trampoline session because you can't wear a monitor. It's hard work though.
Day 21 - rest day, blessed rest day. I ended up running around like a headless chook though, I went to the markets in the morning and bought loads of fresh veggies to replenish my dwindling supplies. The recipes I had chosen for this week were quite labour intensive, so it took me all day to cook everything, and I was well and truly over it. I was also having a hungry day, and for a while I just had to get out of the kitchen and think about something other than food. I ended up about 30 or 40 calories over the 1200 for the day, but I'm calling that a win, because I was ravenous ALL DAY, and it could so easily have turned into a binge fest.
I'm actually starting to dream about going to the shops and buying a block of top deck and eating it all in one sitting. Who am I kidding, I've been known to eat the whole thing before I even got it home. I know I should be repulsed by that behaviour and never want to do it again... but the truth is, I actually miss it. I really hope that mindset changes sooner rather than later. I'd love to think that one day I'll be able to have one row of chocolate or one Freddo frog and feel satisfied. To be honest though, I don't see that in my future, I think my relationship with food is just too "broken" to have that sort of outcome. It's a bit sad and depressing, but that's reality for you.
On the food front generally, I have been struggling but continuing to win the battle. This week's challenge is to stop saving calories for night time. I can have a Vitarium drink with water for 10 calories on the way to bed, and that's all I want to leave for after dinner. That scares the hell out of me, but I want to try it.
Alrighty better get to work. Oops, almost forgot to post last week's weigh in... 1kg down. Pretty good for a week 2 weigh in for me, usually I follow the good week/bad week pattern. Fingers crossed that week 3 is a goodie :)
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