Just as expected..

Yep - just as expected - a good loss this week - 1.4 kgs!

And I say "just as expected" as this is part of my trial of being good to my body - no wild swings in how much I eat/exercise - just regular good eating, within my calorie allowance, plenty of water and regular exercise, to see if it will provide regular reliable results, and improve my metabolism. So so far, so good, it did just as expected, and in this week I ate Chinese one night, and had a meat pie for lunch one day. All within the calories, and everything else was good stuff. The interesting thing is that since I had an head cold last week - I did no high impact cardio - no gym, no running. But I did walk on the tready every day for 1 - 2 hours, plus weights every second day.

So this weeks challenge? not to lose my mojo whilst I'm away.

Soon to be gone

Well - I wont be around much over the next week - am off to Adelaide for some training - and where i'm staying there is NO INTERNET ACCESS! I have no idea how I'm going to survive without this - as I am online all the time! Any way I have worked hard to pack my food for an entire week so that I don't have to rely on the catering for food and can stick to my clean eating.

I'm sharing a unit with two guys from work and they are going to pay me out something huge when they see how much stuff I have brought with me. On top of a large suitcase for all my clothes (and its been a bit warmer the last few days so I have had to pack warm clothes, spring clothes, going out clothes and casual clothes!) I have a big esky with all my food, a separate bag for all my exercise gear, a bag just for my shoes! (cause the big suitcase was full) a bag with my Geocaching gear (to collect whilst I'm running) and a bag with stuff for my mums birthday (going there Monday night). Oh and a box of Powerade Light cause I can't seem to find them in Adelaide! Eeek! Anyway, I don't care, it means I will be well prepared to maintain my healthy living and thats the most important thing. .....Am still deciding whether I might pack the scales...

My official weigh in day at the moment is Monday - so I am hoping to do a quick post early tomorrow morning before I leave (pre 6 am!) Am expecting a good loss, and want to be able to update my ticker!

Have a good week.

Question for CalorieKing Users

Hi all
Just trying to work out if Calorie King adjust exercise calories according to your weight, like Weight Watchers do.

At 62.0 kgs - Outdoor Walking 5.5kms/hr for 60 mins - CK suggests I burn 223 calories.

If there is anyone who DOES NOT weigh 62 kgs and uses CalorieKing - could they look up this exercise and tell me how many calories it estimates for you?

Thanks

The Winter War Theory is True!

Just found in the latest edition of Oxygen:

"Its not uncommon for anyone to gain up to five kilos during winter. As a matter of fact, eating more food in winter is the body's natural response to find the means of generating body heat, and increased caloric intake is one of them."

I knew it! I could see lots of people struggling with their weight over winter, and have been wondering if its a "normal" thing. When I look at normal, I ask my husband questions - as he is someone who never watches what he eats, and never gains weight.... or does he? One of my theories is that maybe naturally thin people do vary in their weight, but because they're not obsessing over it, they dont notice daily and seasonal variations. So he weighed himself - and he is about 3 kilos heavier than normal - interesting huh? So what I want to know is, if you consistently eat healthily - will the weight drop off as the weather warms up? After all, thin people can't just gain kilos every winter and stay thin!

I'm quite fascinated at the moment with normal eating habits, normal body responses etc, as I try to learn to maintain my lower body weight. I think my metabolism is quite stuffed from bad eating habits in the past and am trying to address this, as mentioned in an earlier post, because my body doesn't react the same way to food and exercise as my hubby's does. And I was interested to read in Jen's blog that she was managing the maintenance quite well, but recently she's been on holidays and gained 4 kgs (hope you don't mind me sharing this here, Jen). But I wonder - is this normal for regular people who don't struggle with their weight? I can't imagine that Jen binged for whole time she was away, more likely that she just relaxed her eating, and ate what people normally eat on holidays - does every regular thin person gain 4 kgs like this - or do they gain it, and then because their body is so used to being at a standard "set" point weight, that the pull is so strong to maintain it that it naturally returns when routine is restored? Thats what I want - a stable weight that will self regulate.

I'm working really hard at fixing my metabolism. Here's what I'm doing

• Regular, frequent eating - no starving myself, no excessive eating, and consistently healthy
• Increasing the consistency of my weight training - I read that something like increasing 1kg of muscle will result in burning an extra 500 cals a day to maintain it - that's huge and I want it.
• Increasing my fluids - this is my worst area - I just don't drink enough and dehydration slows the metabolism. So, as I'm hopeless at drinking water (just don't like it unless its iced - and its too cold for this in winter) I'm trialling drinking more powerade light - 65 cals/600 mls. Its a trade = spend 200 cals on powerade a day - but know that I'm well dehydrated - which will have a more positive impact on my weight I wonder. So far this week - the powerade seems worth it
• Maintaining my cardio exercise regularly - the easy bit
• getting my thyroid function checked out - since I have now been off work for 4 days - have to go to the docs for a med cert. So thought I'd make it worth my while and ask for a blood test - the main reason for this is that I am sooo cold allll the time. I have far more body fat than my husband to keep me warm - but I am ten times colder. In fact i am colder than anyone else I know, including skinny people! (Hence I think my winter weight troubles - fighting to stay warm)

By the way - I also read in Oxygen that when you are sick, provided your symptoms are "above the shoulders, and you have no fever/body aches, you are well enough to maintain a modified workout. And I am very proud of myself that I have done just that. I've done no running, no combat, no going to the gym and spreading my germs, BUT I have walked slowly on the treadmill every night and continued with my weights. So the routine has been maintained - which is what I am aiming for - teaching my body to expect consistency of nutritional intake and regular exercise - even if there is variety within this.

And the Mule fell....

Yes, today, I've finally seen 62 62.2 to be exact - that's 800gms down from yesterday.

It has reminded me of how I've always believed that the secret to weight loss was consistency, and eventually the scales will follow suit. This was the truce I drew up on my war - forgot to mention this part - the agreement I made was that I would treat my body consistently well with nutrition and exercise - no extremes (both positive and negative ones) so that my body could rely on always being supplied well nutritionally for the tasks at hand, and in return by not having to guess at what I would ask of it next - it would start to provide more consistent and reliable results on the scales. An 800gm drop may not seem like a steady one, but I think that this is where I deserve to be based on my eating and exercise schedule over the last few weeks. It has just taken a consistent approach to get the scales to finally give in and agree with me.

I think I've rediscovered my mojo. I've found myself returning to some old weight loss habits:

Making food decisions based on what weight I want to see on the scales in the morning. You see this is where I think the "weigh once a week practice" falls down. Last night when I was hungry and thinking of eating something I shouldn't, I was motivated by my old mainstay question - do you want the chocolate - or do you want to see 62 kgs in the morning? I put the chocolate away, because I really want to see the scales move. If you only weigh once a week - can you only use that tactic once a week? It would be too far away for me to make a difference. And I have two responses to the morning weigh in. If its higher than what I wanted: "Damn you scales I will beat you" - and it spurs me on to reevaluate my food choices, and work even harder during the day or "Yes, I did it - what's my next goal!"

Visualising where I want to be. I find visualisation techniques really powerful for both weight loss and running. When I train, I visualise crossing the finish time of the race I'm training for, and what it will feel like having achieved a certain time, or other goal. For weight loss - I visualise myself with a certain body shape, or in a certain outfit that I really want to look good in. Right now I'm visualising myself 10kgs lighter looking extremely slender but muscular/toned - and there are a few pieces of clothing I want to get back into - so I'm picturing them to. Well I still fit into them, but I currently don't like the way they look.

So - not surprisingly - my next goal is to see a weight in the 61's and I really want to be under 60kgs for the City to Bay - which is 4 weeks away. I'm sure I can do this!


By the way - s big thank you to CalorieKing. I'm feeling a little stupid - but I've been using the Nutrition and Exercise Manager for about a year now, really enjoying it but frustrated with the American database of foods. Yesterday I discovered that they have an Australian site, with an Australian Database - and the appropriate software. I emailed them and they have agreed to refund my money on the American one so that I can buy the Australian one! This was really good customer service - and it now makes their software heaps better than the weight watchers one. It is sooo easy to enter the foods (that I normally had to enter manually), and I really like the way it gives you your breakdowns into cal/fat/protein and the way it adjusts your calories based on your exercise. Its just fab now to have it "Australianised"

And yes, I'm still home, sick, hence all the posts. Last night I was meant to be running - but not good for a sick bod -so I walked on the tready again. Did you know that my treadmill doesn't record more than 99 mins and 99 seconds? I do now - have found this out over the last two nights!

The Stubborn Mule

That's an apt description of my scales.

I desperately want to see 62 again on the scales, so yesterday even though I was sick, I replaced the high impact aerobics with low impact, slow walking. Walked for an hour on the tready, did 45 minutes of weights, felt ok and was still watching TV so walked for another hour. That's three hours of exercise and the scales this morning ......

....consistently remaining at 63.0 - they will not budge!

(can you tell by all the posts that I'm home sick and bored!)

You've got to work up a sweat

Interesting new article below:

The era of gentle exercise is over. It's official: you've got to work up a sweat
Polly Curtis, health correspondentFriday August 17, 2007

GuardianOfficial advice that 30 minutes of gentle exercise a day is enough to improve your health has been revised by the scientists who first developed the international fitness guidelines.
Until now, government recommendations have suggested that people can achieve a minimum level of fitness through their normal daily routines. But amid fears that the lightest of activities such as dusting and the stroll to the car are being counted as exercise, a new study by the public health experts behind the formula concludes adults need to add jogging and twice-weekly weight training sessions if they want to cut their risk of heart disease and obesity.
The scientists, world-leaders in public health and exercise advice, say they want to clarify the fitness guidelines for healthy adults which were adopted by the World Health Organisation and later used as a template for healthy living by the UK government. Some people have misunderstood the original message and are doing too little exercise, they argue. But they go even further saying explicitly that people should do vigorous as well as moderate aerobic exercise because of the "substantial science base" that it is good for you.
The paper published in Circulation, the journal of the American Heart Association, includes authors who are influential members of the American College of Sports Medicine. They write: "There are people who have not accepted, and others who have misinterpreted, the original recommendation. Some people continue to believe that only vigorous intensity activity will improve health while others believe that the light activities of their daily lives are sufficient to promote health."
The new guidelines say:
· 30 minutes of moderate exercise a day is still the minimum, but vigorous as opposed to moderate activity should be "explicitly" recommended
· Combining days of moderate exercise with other days of vigorous exercise is better for you
· Moderate exercise should be in addition to daily activities such as casual walking, shopping or taking out the rubbish
· People should do two weight-training sessions a week
· Adults over 65 or those who are infirm during their 50s and early 60s should also do balancing exercises if they are at risk of falling and draw up appropriate exercise plans with their doctors.
"Many adults, including those who wish to improve their personal fitness or further reduce their risk of premature chronic health conditions and mortality related to physical inactivity, should exceed the minimum recommended amounts of physical activity," it says.
But their apparent change of heart exposes the dilemma facing health officials of how to encourage an increasingly overweight population to exercise without deterring them with over-ambitious programmes. Anti-obesity experts suggested that advising people to do weight-training was unrealistic.
David Haslam, chair of the National Obesity Forum, said: "If you suggested everyone here should do weight-training twice a week they wouldn't do it. They don't have the time or money for the gym, it would be an unrealistic guideline. I'd rather see healthy habits built into daily life - gyms aren't a sustainable habit."
Paul Gately, professor of exercise and obesity at Leeds Metropolitan University, said: "Scientists keep changing the goalposts but this advice is trying to provide more specific information for specific groups of people to encourage them to do appropriate exercise.
"It's the age-old problem of one-size-fits-all public health advice versus tailored programmes. People who are very overweight would have to do an hour of exercise a day just to maintain their weight if they aren't going to change their diets."
The authors include several experts who are on a high-level committee in the US which next year will announce America's new physical activity guidelines. Their revisions this month are widely expected to be adopted as official advice there. Their original recommendations in 1995 were quickly adopted by the WHO and by the UK government in 1996.
In 2004 the chief medical officer for England and Wales, Sir Liam Donaldson, republished the recommendations in his attempt to underscore the importance of more rigorous exercise and show that people could achieve the total through smaller 10-minute chunks. It was revealed then that up to two-thirds of men and three-quarters of women were failing to meet the 30-minute goal. Scotland's advice is similar to that in England and Wales.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Health said it was watching developments in the evidence about how much exercise was optimum but there were no plans at the moment to change the advice.

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007

PT's - are they the Bees Knees?

Hi all
I'm looking for some information here.
Everyone talks about personal training and I've never tried it.
What do you get out of it?
How much does it cost? From what I've heard its seems fairly expensive -do you pay gym membership on top of this?

Do you go for the motivation (I seem to have plenty of this), the knowledge base? (I'm a google expert), training plans...... What?

Post me some comments - I'd love to find out what I'm missing out on!

Weekly Weigh In 20/8/07

Ok - I'm going to try and make myself more accountable by posting my weekly weigh ins. This week, a loss of 0.2 bringing me to 63.0. I really wanted to hit 62 this week to feel like I was making progress downwards, but a loss is a loss and I will have to accept this. This week - no way I can't hit 62. I am disappointed though as I eat so well early in the week, and then weekends are my downfall with snacking. This week I spent a couple of days in Adelaide - and had dinner with my daughter. She always likes to eat chinese as her partner doesn't like this, and I enjoy doing something special with her. So I relaxed my eating and enjoyed it, with the thinking that if I can't indulge occasionally - what's the point, and if it slows the weight loss - what the heck, as long as it doesn't go up! That was Thursday, and then Friday as I travelled home, I thought I would really like to try Nando's as I've never had it before - so I did. It came with a huge plate of fries - I ate some but not all.

So I guess overall I can't complain- I still registered a loss. Will aim for a really good eating week this week - as next week I'm spending the week in Adelaide for work. This is going to be a challenge as there will be a number of us, and they will all plan to go out for tea everynight. I won't be able to use the "occasional indulgence" rule here. I will have to choose healthy alternatives, moderate the portions and OMG - how much food am I going to have to take with me for healthy eating options during the days! I better start preparing now!

Its Official - I am the Queen of Running!

Oh yes I am. I'm so excited I have to share it with you.

Firstly - if you haven't read it before - read my "I failed twice" post in February, and then listen to this:

I ran the Hills from Hell again a few weeks back with my hubby - I was recovering from a cold, and didn't do very well. We basically ran a hill, walked a hill.

Well today, I tackled it again - and guess how much of it I ran - the whole fricken lot! That's 10 kms of nothing but hills, no flat bits just up and down, and half of it is a rocky dirt track. And time wise - I did it in 1.01 to my door - but as that was only 9.6 km I ran around the block bringing up my 10 kms in 1.04. I'm aiming for my C2B race pace to be 10kms/hr - and I came pretty close to that even with the hills - yayyyyyy.

Bring on the C2B! If I can run 10 kms of hills, I'm sure I can run 12kms downhill!

Some positive amongst the negative

I might not like my weight at the moment, but I have recently noticed some really positive changes in relation to weight training and fitness.



Weight training:

I do most of my weight training at home, and record my exercises/weights on an excel spreadsheet. Last weekend due to some computer reshuffling, I had to reload my spreadsheet onto a different PC. Went to do my workout, opened the spreadsheet, looked up the exercises and weights for biceps - and it said 4.5 kgs... What the... "I cant be looking at the most recent sheet?" Checked again - it definitely said 4.5 kgs. "Who am I to argue with the computer - maybe I have no decent memory of my weight training...." So I went and picked up 4.5 kgs, threw it around my head a few times, and in disgust, reset the dumbell to 8 kgs and did my reps. "Maybe the different versions of excel are reading the data differently - some sort of "blip" in the system (unlikely). Came to triceps - the PC said 3.6 kgs - the jaw dropped again - "Whaaat" I thought for a minute - 3.6kgs is the weight of the medicine ball I got for Christmas - havent used it in a while - ah well - I'll give it a whirl - it did seem hard last time I used it.....Wrong - Gave it a go and I could have played netball with the ball this weight, or at least 100 overhead reps with this one without breaking a sweat. Changed the sheet and went on with 10kgs overhead extensions



So what was going on? I relooked at the sheet, and realised that I had copied across an old version of the spreadsheet. These were the weights I was doing in January! Not bad hey - I hadn't really been conscious that I had upped them so much in that period of time. I knew that every so often I do a little more, but I'd never really bothered to quantify it.



A few days later I was at the gym, talking to a friend whilst she used the Nautilus system weight circuit. I haven't used this since December - moved on to free weights, and it occured to me to try the triceps machine. I used to HATE this one. For those of you who are familiar with weight machines, there is usually a base weight applied at all times, and then you move the pin to increase the weights in increments of 5 pounds. Well on this machine I could never get beyond base weight. I kept try a few reps 5 pounds heavier but just couldn't do it and it frustrated the hell out of me. The evil eye in me was active, thinking, if my triceps have improved so much - maybe I can beat this machine at last! So I tried it out. Woo hooo - base weight was a walk in the park - it was like there was NO WEIGHT on it at all! Added 5 pounds, easy, another 5 pounds - still manageable - probably would use it now 15 pounds above base weight YEAH!



I've also decided that I don't want to build up my biceps any more than I have now. I was standing in front of the mirror in a singlet top the other day, applying my makeup, as my right armed reached across to put blush on my left side - I noticed this bulging bicep appear - WOW where did that come from! But its big enough - I already have problems with my arms fitting into some clothes - so I 'm going to make sure I don't increase the weight any further, just aim to maintain - now if I could just lose the body fat my arms will have plenty of definition!

Also decided to check out the backs of my arms after Donna's effort - especially since I seem to have SUPER TRICEPS now. Couldn't get a photo, but I could definitely see the definition - particularly where the muscle comes into the elbow BUT there is this distinct flabby bit! Probably made worse by the fact that the rest of the arm looks quite toned and compact. WHAT's THIS? Spent quite a while trying to work out which muscle I have undertrained - but have finally come to the conclusion that it might just be loose skin ARGGHH. Did some more reading, and have decided I will concentrate my triceps efforts on the long head to try and improve this - but I don't know if I will ever conquer it without surgery. Of course, losing those extra winter kilos will help too.



Fitness:

As I mentioned in my last post - Andrew and I ran a 9 km fun run last weekend. I pulled up fine afterwards - in fact didn't affect me at all, plus we did a little bit of hiking afterwards, and then I did a core strength workout that night, and about 20 mins of walking on the tready cause the TV program hadn't finished!

How much training did I do for the 9 km run? None.

Achievement = have achieved an ongoing level of fitness that allows me to do things like this without specific training. I remember last year how hard I trained to run the 12 km city to bay, and how terrified I was that if I missed a scheduled training run that I wouldn't manage it. Now I think I have developed a base fitness that will allow me to do specific things like this, should I choose to put myself through it! Yay for me again!

On the weight front, the scales are still resistant, but I will persevere. I AM a healthy person, I eat extremely healthily 80% of the time , and the scales will eventually respond to their master - ME!

The White Flags Went Up, and a Line was Drawn

Well - so much for blogging daily during the battle (er hem - holidays) Unlike Tiny Donna, I am definitely NOT addicted to blogging - I never seeem to find the time!
The war didn' t last long - I seemed to keep myself so busy, that I couldn't JUST focus on my weight. i continued to get plenty of exercise - finally did find the cache in Mt Remarkable, after several trips - and did manage to run the 6kms each way on the "easy fire track" ( nothing like the mountains I had been climbing!) Also did a 14 km (estimate from the time it took me - Garmy was flat) run from Brighton to Glenelg and back with a 10 min break in between to look at the shops.

I have declared a truce on my body - no, I'm not giving up on my weight loss at all, but instead I've decided I have to stop being so up and down in my approach and aim for consistency that I can maintain for ever. The exercise is the easy part, but I need to moderate my diet. Its not that I eat really badly, but I think I try so hard to eat perfectly, that when I fail, I really fail. I love "eating clean" - ie fresh whole foods, avoiding processed stuff, and bread etc, basically eating protein with frut/veg five times a day, BUT it takes a lot of time to prepare it all - and this where I fall down. It is very hard to pick up this sort of food on the run, or from fast food outlets (including deli's etc). So I have decided to compromise, and eat clean where I can, but to consider it quite ok to choose foods purely on their calorie content if there aren't other options. This means I can have a sandwich if I need to buy my lunch, or can snack on Salada's if I need to etc. Maybe this way I can maintain it and be satisfied. So far it is working well, I had a good week at work with my diet and I feel back in control.

On a more upbeat note, Andrew and I ran a 9 km fun run this morning from Jamestown to Bundaleer Forest, and then went for a leisurely stroll through the forest to pick up a geocache. Andrew ran it in 48 mins, me in 58 mins - I'm relatively happy with that. Its a bit slow, but given my hamstring problems I can't expect much more. Plus it was a dirt road run with a gradual incline - so this will always be slower. We ran it as a test to see if we will manage the City to Bay - both felt we could have run another 3 kms - so we will be fine. I think all my training for my 1/2 marathon has slowed my running, so I might spend the next few weeks doing a few short road runs focussing on changing my "normal" running speed back up to 10kms/hr. I was running this at the beginning of the year, slowed down so I could increase my distance, but need to readjust my body back to thinking this is normal.

Finally - I've settled into a new routine for my exercise. Nothing too extreme - focussing on consistency and manageability (is that a word!) I will do:

Monday: Combat and weights (2 hrs)
Tuesday: Run (1 hr)
Wednesday : Combat and weights (2 hrs)
Thursday: Run (1 hr)
Friday: Weights - and cardio of my choosing (walk, DVD etc) (1.5 hrs)
Saturday: Rest
Sunday: Long run, Core strength session (2 hrs)

And I can do all of this with the exception of Combat and the long run, at home in front of the TV in my gym if I wish! Yeah - cause this never seems like hard work!

Have been thinking of Em H this morning on her big run - can't wait to see her post run "Post"

Ciao