Welcome to 2012

Greetings and salutations, and happy 2012! 2011 was a disastrous year for me in many respects, and I'm not sorry to see the back of it. Having said that, I learned an awful lot last year. I would certainly not want to live that 12 months again, but I think I am a better person for having lived it.

But now, here we are, in 2012. And it's time to take this blog back to what it was originally about - fitness and weight loss. The reason it hasn't been about that for a while, a long while, is pretty simple. I have been neither fit, nor losing weight. Today is the first day of turning that trend around. A good friend and I have decided that 2012 is the year of "Operation Fit Body", the year to get ourselves fit and healthy. We had to start on 2nd January though, we were too hung over on 1st January after all :-)

I have also joined a Facebook group started by one of my old online buddies from when I lost weight successfully 4 or so years ago. It's called 20SIZE12, and is focused around shrinking to a size 12 in 2012. Cool, huh? The group is in fact full of old Calorie King people from when I was a regular. None of us have been using that site for some time, and sadly there are a lot of us who have regained a lot of weight. But we are an enthusiastic group and I feel motivated and excited about taking on this challenge with this crowd again. It has been a very long time since I could say I felt motivated and excited about losing weight - it's a good feeling.

My plan for executing OFB (operation fit body) is as follows:

• Track calories. It sucks, but it works. I'm not completely sold on whether I'm going to use Calorie King or My Fitness Pal. I'm kinda using both at the moment. I'll see which one suits best and go with that.
• Running. I haven't run consistently for a good while, and I'm finally at the point where I miss it. I need to finalise a schedule, but I'm looking at doing a few races in July, August and September - a 15km, half marathon and 12km race respectively. I'll ponder this a bit more and lock in a schedule when it's a bit closer.
• Gym. I want to get back into a regular weights/resistance programme, because I have a sneaking suspicion my muscle mass is going to hell. I actually really like weight training, so this should be the easiest part of the plan.

My starting point as of this morning is 90.9kg. I was surprised it wasn't a bit higher - I seem to remember being thinner than this at 91kg. Hence the thought that my muscle mass is not what it should be, I think I have an extra layer of fat. Ew. This makes the weight loss goal an easy one though... I want to lose 20kg. I have been lighter than that, I got down to around 66kg at one stage, but I looked gaunt and sickly, and it was completely impossible to maintain... I was starving every waking minute of the day. Low 70's, while not in the stupid BMI healthy range, is what I think is right for me.

So here we go. Here's to a happier, healthier year in 2012. One in which OFB sees me drop 20kg, wear a size 12, and hit some big fitness goals. Watch this space!

Looking for ideas on how to murder someone and not get caught

Howdy peeps, it's been a while. Where to start, where to start? Best start with the title of the blog I suppose.

EDITED TO REMOVE CONTENT

Onto happier thoughts - I haven't been on the scales, but I'm actually tempted to get on (for the first time in a looooong time). I feel like I've lost quite a bit the last couple of weeks, my clothes are feeling looser and I'm just feeling better about myself. Still a long way to go, but feeling good nonetheless. The pants I'm wearing today were uncomfortably tight in the waist and legs before, but they are now a little too loose. I might have to start going through my packaged up smaller clothes soon, that will be awesome :)

On the exercise front, I did very little on the weekend. I took the dogs for a couple of small walks (one of which resulted in the pug collapsing under a tree 3/4 of the way home and me having to carry him, so I guess there was some incidental weight training there too!) I also spent a few hours in the garden, planting my hedge, fertilising the vegies and roses, doing some weeding. I was busy most of the weekend, just not with dedicated exercise. I'm OK with that, as I did have a big week of it and I was ready for the rest time.

This week so far has seen one boot camp (which has really ramped up now and is challenging), one boxing class, and a ride to work today. Obviously I'll be riding home tonight (beats walking), then there's boot camp on Wednesday and Friday. I'm thinking of a run on Thursday. Saturday might be a rest day, then I've got my 10k fun run on Sunday morning. I hope I can make the distance, I'm starting to feel nervous about it now. Still, if worst comes to worst and I have to walk part of the race, this is not the end of the world. It will give me something to work on for the next race.

I wish I had more boxing classes this week, I have a lot more frustration I need to unload...

Musings of a maniac

I've just got thoughts buzzing around in my head randomly at the moment, so I thought I'd spit them all out here. Probably not logically or with any consistent flow, but blogs are like that sometimes.

Firstly, I'm an idiot. A down right fool. If I was on CK and saw someone complaining that they're not using their calories, or wondering if it was OK to not eat their calorie limit, I'd grumble to myself about how annoying it is. Yet here I am doing exactly the same thing. It's times like this that make me realise just how much of a head game weight loss is.

So I sit at my desk half the day thinking I'd like something extra to eat, but then convincing myself that I don't need it. Great for the concentration while working on some pretty complex accounts, I might add. I'm just terrified of eating too much earlier in the day and running out of calories at night. But then I want to get out of the habit of eating after dinner. Can't have it both ways, dumbo. Seriously, this is not brain surgery, the logical person in me can see the answers right in front of my face. But can I take my own advice? Not often. I seriously need to work on this.

Now, about the aftermath of my 10k on Monday. I'm thinking I probably shouldn't have done so much so soon, but it's done now, and it does make me want to do more - running is like that. I hate taking off for a run, and I don't much like it while I'm doing it most of the time, but I LOVE the feeling afterwards. It's such an achievement. But should a 25kg overweight person who is 3 weeks back into a fitness regime be going out running 10k on the pavement? Well my knees, ankles, hips and lower back are suggesting perhaps not.

I was reading something the other day (I can't remember where off hand...) about the power of muscle memory, and how people returning to exercise can have much more rapid results than those doing it the first time. The article was talking more about weight bearing exercise and body building, but I think this must apply to running, and probably other cardio based exercise, as well. I doubt whether many people at my current weight and in my current level of conditioning (i.e. very poor) could have pushed on for a 10k run, particularly in the hilly sections. I'm certain I didn't do so much so soon when I was first getting fit a few years ago. It's not because I'm so tough now, or so immune to pain - I'm a pansy really (I stood up in the middle of bottom half squats last night in Pump, it hurt *cry baby*). So the only answer that really makes sense is muscle memory - my body knows it's done this before, and it knows it can do it again.

Along a similar line of thought - my body seems to adapt to certain exercise really fast, which is kind of annoying. I've got my HRM back out of the cupboard, and in part I can see why I stopped using it to start with. The stupid thing flashes a heart rate of 00 at random intervals, which is particularly annoying and stops me focussing on what I'm supposed to be doing. It might be time for a new one. Do I go Polar again, or do I go Garmin? Advice gratefully accepted! Anyway, it seemed to be working fine in Pump last night, I didn't see any 00 readings. But I burnt about 220 stupid calories in 55 minutes. My heart rate is low, particularly if I'm laying down. So laying down with the chest and tricep tracks, despite lifting weights and feeling the burn, my heart rate was about 60. My max heart rate for the session was 130, even with squats etc. Now the realist in me knows that I don't do pump for the calorie burn, I do it for strength and muscle conditioning. But I find it damn annoying seeing that little calorie number at the end of a tough workout. Hmph.

Just quickly before I sign off and find somewhere else to waste my time - weights for pump last night: 10lb warmup, lunges and shoulders; 15lb chest, bicep, tricep; 20lb squats and back. An increase for a few tracks.

Lots happening

I haven't updated for a couple of days, but it's not through having nothing to report. Exciting news first - I'm booked to go on a cruise on 13 May 2011, hooray! I've been on a cruise before, back in 2008, and I loved it like nothing else I've ever done in life. I actually had a massive struggle to readjust to life on land after we came back - there was something about seeing lots of different places but coming back to the same room every night that made it feel like a lifestyle, and this was my new home. Alas all good things must come to an end.

However, we're going again! Last trip was longer, and went around SE Asia. This cruise is a 12 day South Pacific adventure, departing Sydney, 3 days pure cruising, 3 ports in New Caledonia, 3 ports in Vanuatu, 2 days cruising, and back into Sydney. I have always wanted to see crystal clear water, where you can see to the bottom and see fish swimming around in it and stuff. This is going to be just the place to do it.

Now what does all this have to do with a diet and exercise blog I hear you ask? Well everything as it turns out. Last time I was on a cruise, I weighed 71.8kg and felt fab. I don't really care if I weigh the same as that this time, but I want to be the same size and fit back into all those beautiful dresses I had for the dining room. I also want to be as fit as I was then. Now running on a treadmill on a rocky sea is not necessarily the easiest thing in the world, let me tell you, but it can be done. On one trip to the gym, I ran 4 miles on the treadmill while rocking away. It's an awesome workout because you've got so much extra to do to keep balanced, great for the core muscles. I want to be able to do that again!

So in giving this lots of thought, I was wondering if I have enough time to get into the same shape as I was last cruise. The only way to figure this out was to take a massive plunge and do 2 things I didn't want to do: get on the scales, and log back into my old Calorie King profile and see what the timeframe was like last time around. The scales part sucked, coming in at 95.3kg. Blah. The CK part wasn't as hard as I thought, in the past I've found it hard to look at all these check ins in the 70's and 60's and not feel depressed. But now I have a goal in mind, it was just a really informative trip down memory lane. And the good news is that it can be done!

On 27 September 2007, I weighed in at 99kg. On 14 May 2008, I weighed 71.8kg - 27.2kg down in 7 1/2 months. So here we are at 1 October 2010, needing to lose 20-25kg in 7 1/2 months (I say 20 - 25kg, because I want to retain muscle mass and appropriate hydration, last time round I started to do some pretty stupid stuff just to see a better number on a scale, I'm a little older and wiser these days).

How are we going to do it? Duh, diet and exercise :o) The diet is cruising along pretty well at the moment, so it's just a matter of keeping that up. The exercise could do with a jolt, so that will be the focus of the planning for now. I got up and went for a run this morning, even though I really really didn't feel like it, so that's a good start. It was 5.5km including a 750m walk at the beginning (up a big mofo hill, if I ran up that I'd be too dead to go any further). It was pretty tough going in sections, but overall I can definitely see improvements. I was running at about 9.5km/hour too, so the pace is also picking up.

On the back of some encouragement from Jess (thanks!) I'm going to enter some fun runs. The 10k Glenelg Classic is on 14 November, the 10k Christmas Frolic on 12 December, and the 7k Resolution Run on 9 January. I think I'll enter all of those. I can't do 10k right now, and I might not be able to by 14 November either, but there's only one way to find out. I haven't been able to find a schedule of fun runs for 2011 anywhere yet, I'll have to keep hunting and see what else I can book in.

There are going to be 2 mega obstacles in my training and weight loss plans between now and May 2011. First of all is a trip to Bali between 19-29 November - in the past this has been a diet disaster, but mainly because I used it as a binge fest. I'd be buying massive chocolate bars from all the convenience stores and wolfing them down at every opportunity. At least that won't be happening this time, seeing as I can't do chocolate any more. But we're staying at Febri's, which is just across the road from Discovery, which contains the best bakery in the world. The blueberry bread at Bread Talk is to die for. I'll just have to roll with that and try not to overdo it, but there's no way I'm going without altogether.

The second obstacle is, of course, Christmas. Again without the chocolates, things will be improved, but I'm bound to eat too much. Hey, we have pancakes for breakfast, it's tradition (and my sister in law is pregnant, so she's not going to care about calories this year, damn it). Oh well, if Christmas day itself is stupid, I'll just have to live with that. If I can avoid a damaging lead up and craziness with left overs, it should be ok. Fortunately I'm not a drinker (except when in Darwin, but then there's nothing else to do up there...), so calories are saved on that front.

I'm feeling so freaking happy right now it's insane. I've got my mojo back, and I've got heaps to look forward to. Awesome!

Deep and meaningful

It's time to get all deep and meaningful for a Friday lunch time.

I'm lacking a real sense of direction and set of distinct goals at the moment, and I feel like I'm drifting in a pool of "maybe's". I know for sure that I want to lose weight and get fit. Everything else is in maybe-town.

Maybe I'd like to get into running, run a 10km fun run, run the city-bay next year, run a half marathon next year.

Maybe I'd like to get into triathlons.

Maybe I'd like to get into distance cycling.

Maybe I'd like to fly to the moon.

The trouble with all of these options is that they require planning and dedication and commitment. By flitting about trying to do a bit of everything, I'm not going to be able to give it what it takes.

I've also just been reading some blogs of other people who have defined goals in distance running and triathlon, and I realise just how unprepared I am to take up that challenge myself at the moment.

I know how to eat to lose weight, and I know how to train to get generically "fit" - I've done that before. But I have absolutely no idea how to eat and train specifically for performance in a particular field. I will need help with that, and help costs money. I will be prepared to pay for it, but not until I'm completely convinced that I've chosen a direction and I'm working towards a defined goal.

And so my conclusion is thus... this journey is going to be a staged process. Stage 1 is to lose a pile of weight, with no specific endurance training goal in mind. Whatever my chosen path, I'm going to need to be a whole lot lighter and a whole lot fitter than I am right now.

I don't care so much about my weight as a number - I don't currently know how much I weigh, and frankly I don't want to know. The scales make me crazy and obsessive and often self destructive. I want to be a fit and toned size 12 again. I got down to a 10 a couple of years ago, but I looked awful, drawn in the face and the bones of my chest visible (despite still having a pot belly and chunky thighs, grr).

I'm going to get lighter and fitter by trying a bit of everything. I will do cardio and weights side by side, and make sure I don't lose muscle along with the flab. I'm not sticking just to running for cardio - I'm going to do step classes, and boxing classes, and I might try to get into a routine of cycling to work once a week again too. On the weights side of things, I'll mix up the classes and try some body bar, some circuits, and whatever else floats my boat.

This won't be a rapid process, it never is. By the time I'm a lighter, fitter version of my current self, chances are that I will have a better idea about what type of exercise I'd like to focus on next.

Ladies and gentlemen, I think we have a plan. I feel better now :)