Weekly Wrap Up

It's hard to believe the room this photo was taken in was pitch black at the time - here I am teaching Track 3 in RPM last Saturday. I desperately need a tan!

It's been a quiet day, poor old Miss S has been feeling under the weather, so a day off school was in order. I was grateful for the respite in personal training which has been pretty hectic in the last month. I've found myself gravitating towards taking less clients and my day often looks like
a) train one or two clients b) my own workout (about an hour) then c) train 3 more clients and done for the day. Even though I have been falling into this pattern, I've been feeling desperately tired and last night, knowing that I didn't have to get up at 4.45am slept in until 8am! I keep underestimating the power of sleep - felt a bit crazy this morning, but will feel even better when I get another good night in under my belt. I'm lucky in that when I do sleep I sleep extremely well, am rarely up in the night and normally wake naturally before my alarm.

On the training and nutrition side of things, I knocked out a killer workout during the week and have just recovered now and I'm looking forward to teaching RPM again in the morning. I usually have a 40 minute spin at home pre class - this has really been helping me feel nice and warm and feeling ready to hit it hard. Nutritionally speaking, a bit of a topsy turvy weekend saw me paddling back to where I started the week from. This week has been a little bit better and I'm sure I'll see that monster drop I keep talking about any day soon. I'm currently sitting on 61kg and my happy weight is 58-59kg so a little bit to go still.

Training Update

My training is continuing to improve - that is I am starting to move away from the rehab side of things into the "let's improve" type of things and get fitter. Today I enjoyed a nice steady run on the treadmill for 30 minutes and did some Sumo deadlifts and box squats to finish off. I'm not using a ton of weight, just focusing on the muscles that need to be worked and the stabilizers that need to be stable and revelling in just generally feeling a whole lot better. My abs are a different story though! I have ab DOMS that I haven't had in months! Ouch!

Nutrition is also humming along and I'm still happily eating my starchy carbs - just a constant drip feed during the day is doing the job. Weight bounced up by 0.1kg today but I know I'm in for a good drop judging by the Fitness First WorkPantsometer.

For The Love of Oats

Have just finished teaching my first RPM class of the day and have just had "second breakfast" - yes Shelley, that is 80g of oats in total :). I am just about to go and teach my second RPM class and am ready to cane it! I was asked to teach the second class yesterday and told John that I would love to because it would mean that I get "second breakfast" of my favourite, oats and protein powder. I've also snuck in some caffeine pre second class - caffeine is an excellent fat mobilizer and will help push my weight/fat loss along a little more. Went to my new low this morning, unflattering FF personal training pants are getting a little bit baggy - bring it on!

PS I came across a great blog with the same title. (the oats, that is)

Having a laugh!

I got to train Shelley today - we did back - I made her work hard, I hope she's sore tomorrow! I told her that I was 'feeling the grip' - she cheered me up by telling me about all the fantastic shopping she's doing on Ebay at the moment. I am laughing at what you can actually pick up on Ebay....I feel much better now..thank you Shelley! I'm going for 2nd breakfast tomorrow..2 RPM classes how good is that ? Bring on the oats I say!

In the grip of my inferior function

This title sounds a bit odd but what the inferior function refers to in Myer Briggs terminology is the opposing side of your dominant function (ie the way you prefer to behave). My dominant function or way of behaving leans towards being more introverted/introspective (though I break to teach RPM, there's always gotta be a little bit of show pony in you if you're a group fitness instructor), intuitive and more fluid/global in approach, feelings oriented and happiest when well organized. Myer Briggs theory suggests that when you are stressed or out of balance, that your inferior function is triggered.

For me, this would be "extroverted, tell it like it is with no holds barred" behaviour. If I allow myself to get in the grip of this function, it's just a disaster in the making - not only do I potentially hurt the person I'm "telling it like it is" to, but I also end up feeling like aliens have invaded my body and that I need to be wrapped up and placed in a padded cell. The worst part is that I feel hollow and unauthentic.

In certain aspects of my life, I have been teetering on the edge of the grip for a few weeks now. Do I give in or do I take a big breath and step away? I'm looking to see whether being in the grip has actually got me anywhere and this morning decided a workout was the best medicine.

In true piss-ant fashion I started small. I am lifting less than half of what I could lift pre injury. But I did nail three sets of decline push ups on my toes..so I must be getting somewhere. Finished with a steady run and Bodystep training. Wahhoo - feeling more like my old self already.

PissAnt to Princess!

Not a massive post today (unlike how massive I will get eventually!) Trained five clients and managed to get a good cracking run workout in, actually the fastest and furtherest I've run post surgery. Then I attacked some pulling exercises - did horizontal pulling, vertical pulling (x2) and vertical pushing (neutral grip shoulder press - felt a bit weird but will watch the shoulder for any unusual signs). I had to look in the mirror and sigh today - I have lost so much muscle! My mind is made up for my December goal - I'm going from pissant to princess! That I'm even thinking this is good news - must mean I'm getting over my injury laden annus horribilis sooner rather than later!

The intensity pic is for Ferny - hoping that she doesn't find the vomit when she comes up and does RPM next Saturday with me!

RPM Hotties Having Fun!

From Left to Right: Shelley, Me, Lisa and Dori

It was our RPM launch this morning - can't believe it's RPM 41 already! Our theme was "Bollywood" and it looks like after a good hard RPM class that I have lost my bindii! I did have a beautiful Indian Skirt that I wore, but it was too long to wear comfortably on the bike so I stuck to my traditional black clobber.

It was a full class and it was great to catch up and find out what everyone has been doing. Everyone put in a huge effort and the high you get after a tough class is amazing...except for the fact that I had to turn around and do the 9.30am class as Leesa, one of the other Group Fitness Instructors wasn't well. So I had to pretend that my 8.10am class was just a figment of my imagination - got out there and hit it hard again. I have to say that my Vietnamese Rice Paper Rolls after class and they were pretty awesome.

I love our Launch weekends - so much fun and it's going to a party and being paid for it!

Evaluation of Nutrition and Training Plans

Hello bloggers, I feel like I've been away from you forever....but I'm back!

Here's what is going on with me....

Over the past 8 weeks or so I have dropped 4.5kg (yes, I have mentioned that I was having to take a little action). Here's what I did:

*Trained on average about an hour a day - this was divided up into approximately 40 minutes of cardio and 20 minutes of strength training. If you add RPM into the mix, it's about a 75% cardio, 25% strength training split. I took on average one rest day per week, sometimes two.
*I had 10 days off any serious training due to tonsillitis
*I was away from home for approximately 5 nights
*I ate meals that contained starchy carbohydrates in them 4 times a day, and mostly did not log my food intake. When I did, my macronutrient ratios were approximately 40% carb, 40% protein and 20% fat (as an example, yesterday I ate: Oats and protein (pre training), Slim Secrets bar, 1/2 a banana , Big Asian Salad (which included a small serve of noodles) with 100g chopped turkey breast, oats and protein powder with cinnamon and the other banana half, 2 bunches of asparagus and hommus dip, Grilled salmon, small baby potato and buckets of greens/carrots.

Now many so called "experts" out there would look at this plan and say "too much starchy carbohydrate!", "not enough strength training!", "not enough application to training ". So why, using this model have things worked so well?

*when I train, I treat every session with specific intent, that is if I plan to smash it in RPM , I really try to cane it, if I'm focusing on my shoulder rehab, I work on my mobilizations. When I'm strength training, I'm all about doing a quality 20 minutes of what I can do and what is complementary to my current position rather than trying to waste my time on exercise which is essentially useless to me right now. Somebody at the gym asked me "Don't you miss doing bench presses?" and I was reminded about Lisa's post on Labels - my reply was, "I don't need to be doing bench presses right now." They were pretty surprised and asked me, "why" - my response was along the lines of that my body needs a lot more pulling type work to maintain a good posture and 3 sets of push ups on my toes (which I'm very chuffed about given the annus horribilus shoulder year) was all I needed to keep my chest muscles happy. If my specific intent was different, well the answer would be obviously different.
*when I eat, I really listen to my body - I'd been having the old "let's mow down the fridge" syndrome upon coming home from work - so I decided to trial what I call my "Mad Monkey" oats (thank you Shelley) - oats and protein and a sliced banana (no magical powers there, just tastes awesome) for afternoon tea. What a difference that has made - less stress, less cortisol and frankly (the best part), a nice full belly.
*I treat my body like a science experiment and encourage everyone to do the same - this is a cornerstone rec of PN and a good one - if you don't get the results over a two week period, then make a change. I had a bit of a stall there - so my strategy there was to "clean up " a little and it worked well.

This post isn't meant to be "flipping the bird" to anyone who likes to approach things from a different perspective - everyone's journey is amazingly different - however I want to use it as an example that you don't have to blindly follow a fitness/food trend (eg low fat, low carb etc) or a rigid diet to get "results".

The actual mechanics of it is quite easy on paper - it's the application of the mechanics that will trip most.

Make small manageable changes, believe in your capacity to achieve great things, try to beat your own personal best (ie don't look at others, look at the wonder within) and most of all, ENJOY THE JOURNEY.

Carbs evil ? Let's break it down some more.

I am copying and pasting this post from David Gillespie, an Australian Author who has just published a book called "Sweet Poison - Why Sugar is Making Us Fat". It is an excellent article and I couldn't have written it better myself. As you Aussies know, Kerry Armstrong is spruiking the "benefits" of Coke which is frightening in itself and in North America, consumers are being bombarded by a similar campaign selling High Fructose Corn Syrup as being natural and "fine in moderation" because it comes from corn. David Greenwalt from Leanness Lifestyle recently sent me a copy of the HFCS commercial, then sent a page of related scientific studies which link HFCS with addictive behaviour etc - I loved this because not only did I see how awful the commercials were, I got a big wad of scientific studies which satisfied my inner propellor head, you all know how much I love stuff that has had studies done on it.

Bottom line is, nearly 100% of the population don't do well on this sort of crap. If you're talking about carbs being evil, we'll it's these sorts of carbs that fit the bill. Let's talk about HCFS being the work of the devil, not your Uncle Toby's oats!


Here is the except of David Gillespie's Article, published in "The Courier Mail " and "The Australian". I haven't read the book yet, but I plan to.

The Coca-Cola Chronicles: Big Sugar drops the other shoe

TUESDAY, 28 OCTOBER 2008

David Gillespie, author of Sweet Poison: Why Sugar Makes us Fat writes:

Here I was thinking that the Kerry Armstrong episode was merely the bumbling of ham-fisted PR mongers. I imagined the poor Big Sugar flaks being soundly spanked for underestimating the intelligence of the buying public.

Alas it appears it was I who misunderstood the higher arts of persuasion. Little did I realise that the Kerry Affair was merely the opening salvo in a far bigger campaign for hearts and minds. It is not a campaign for my heart or mind and probably not yours. I’m not an employee of the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) and I certainly don’t sit on the Parliamentary Inquiry into Obesity.

The Big Sugar campaign is not about convincing you and me that Coke is health food (although if we happen to come away believing that, it’s well and good). No, it’s about convincing ACMA (and Parliament) that Big Sugar does not market to children under 12. In fact Coke are so responsible that they’ve been voluntarily abstaining from such practices for years.

ACMA is proposing to update its Childrens Television Standards. At the start of its consultations it had toyed with the idea of (gasp) regulating the advertising of food and beverages to children. But after receiving some forceful submissions on the point, has decided now was not the time.

So what is Big Sugar worried about? When you read the fine print, the report says that ACMA won’t regulate for now. But the door has been left well and truly ajar. ACMA says it may change its mind if anyone comes up with a standard way of labelling foods which are high in fat, sugar and salt. This would then allow them to seriously consider rules aimed at limiting the advertising of such foods to children.

This is where those busy bodies over at the Parliament come in. Their inquiry into Obesity is turning up quite a few submissions from folks like CHOICE who want to see a traffic light system of labelling introduced to help consumers identify such foods. Big Sugar has attacked CHOICE for daring to propose such a thing, even suggesting that their researchers cooked the books.

Big Sugar doesn’t plan to sit back and meekly let unambiguous labelling be implemented so on Friday, the Second Act of the master strategy was unveiled on the media stage. Big Sugar in the guise of the Australian Food and Grocery Council (AFGC) announced they had a plan. They would voluntarily sign up to a code of conduct that says they won’t advertise to kids under 12.

What’s wrong with Big Sugar’s voluntary ban? Surely they’re helping out by jumping the gun? Well, in a word, no. This way they get to define the word ‘children’. In its initial examination of the need for reform, ACMA had been dropping disturbing hints about bans that defined a child as anyone under 16 (rather than 12).

Even worse than that, with ACMA doing the drafting there’d be no chance to parachute in weasel words like the ones proposed by Big Sugar. An example appears in the wording of the voluntary ‘ban’ itself when it says the ban should be applied “unless those products represent healthy dietary choices … presented in the context of a healthy lifestyle.”

If you want to know what that looks like, you need look no further than Coke’s new website http://www.makeeverydropmatter.com.au which is choc full of healthy lifestyle messages for Coke drinkers.

Big Sugar’s hope is that by showing what terribly good corporate citizens they are, they’ll head the Parliamentary Obesity enquiry and ACMA off at the pass. Parliament won’t insist on traffic light labelling and Big Sugar will avoid the cascade effect of ACMA implementing actual bans rather than voluntary ones written by Big Sugar.

It may seem like Big Sugar is jumping at shadows, but as Simon Chapman pointed out in Friday’s edition of Crikey, Big Sugar has paid attention to what befell Big Tobacco. They know it’s better to stop this particular train before it leaves the station. If they can’t, they fear it won’t be long before the only place you’ll be able to see a Coke ad will be in the sealed section of an adult magazine. Posted by David Gillespie at 10:50 PM

Poor old maligned carbohydrates and a word on SUGAR

I've been reading several posts about how "carbs don't agree with them" and have been chewing on this for quite a few days. In fact, I've been puzzled by the carb conundrum to a big degree especially as carbohydrates play such a pivotal role in the body. If you're an athlete, then carbohydrates become even more important.

For a start, our bodies run on carbohydrate in two different ways - through processes called gluconeogenesis and glucose oxidation (through the Krebs cycle) - anyone at University studying biochemistry would be pretty aware of this. This process is called glycolysis.

Here is the definition below:
Glycolysis is:

1. An ATP-generating metabolic process that occurs in nearly all living cells in which glucose is converted in a series of steps to pyruvic acid.
2. The metabolic breakdown of glucose and other sugars that releases energy in the form of ATP.

The metabolic breakdown of glucose and other sugars that releases energy in the form of ATP.The first stage in the production of energy by breakdown of glucose in body cells; a chain of chemical events requiring a specific set of enzymes, and resulting in formation of ATP (adenosine triphosphate). In aerobic metabolism subsequent sequences produce several times more ATP, thereby providing a greater quantity of energy per molecule of glucose, utilizing oxygen, and producing carbon dioxide and water — comparable to burning organic fuels in air. In anaerobic metabolism (metabolism which does not use oxygen) glycolysis is the only means of energy production from glucose, and lactate is the end-product. This occurs in cells which cannot utilize oxygen (red blood cells), predominately in some components of skeletal muscle (fast, ‘white’ fibres), and probably to some extent in all cells when there is a shortage of oxygen. However, it also occurs in the first 1-3 minutes after a sudden increase of demand in cells which will subsequently make all the necessary ATP aerobically, because the glycolytic system can respond within seconds whereas both the biochemical pathways of aerobic metabolism and the systems for supplying them with oxygen take time to adjust; the start of vigorous exercise, even in a trained athlete with large numbers of ‘red’ muscle fibres, is the most obvious example.

We produce energy by converting ADP to ATP. In other words, carbohydrates make us move.

When we cut carbohydrates from our diet, our bodies begin to rely on fat or protein to be chemically converted into carbohydrates for use in our bodies as energy. I can hear some people saying "but that's what I want to do to lose body fat!"

In theory this may be good, but carbohydrates also are intimately tied up with neurotransmitters, for example serotonin, which control brain function. Our brain functions exclusively on glucose. Although we have control of what we consume most of the time, if our brain senses a lack of carbohydrate through a drop in the neurotransmitter serotonin, then it will do almost anything to override our thinking that carbs are evil and we'll basically go for anything that will boost serotonin levels FAST - that is have a giant great big binge on sugary fatty foods. Not unsurprisingly most people I have ever met who espouse a low carb diet have often had trouble with "bingeing and overdoing it" in the past.

In athletes and specific situations, low carb days are not harmful and can have benefits in certain situations, however as an every day thing, they are not conducive to muscle gain, increasing fitness or wellbeing. In my opinion if you want to turn into a bingeing mad monkey go low carb, the longer the better!

Where I think people "go wrong" is in their choice of carbohydrates - put simply, the more refined or processed the carbohydrate source is, the worse the "reaction". This can be tied up with the Glycaemic Index - most highly processed carbs are high GI which cause insulin to spike rapidly and fall just as fast, hence giving you that sugar high/sugar crash that most of us have talked about in the past. In my opinion it's important that 35-50% of intake comes from carbohydrates - a mix of low, medium and high GI carbs and that nutrient timing is looked at. Focus your starchy carbs post workout and then try them at other times of the day as well if you feel you need a bit more. Try less processed grains like quinoa, oats and buckwheat for something a bit different.

What I think people are really trying to say when they say that CARBS ARE EVIL is that sugar and high fructose corn syrup are the work of the devil and I'd have to agree with them. I'm going to add another post to this to stop this from getting too long

Where is your honour, dirtbag?

It's funny how sometimes lines from movies stick in your head and replay over and over again. I saw "Toy Story" with the kids on TV the other night and the line above comes from "The Sarge" who is the top dog toy soldier in Andy's Bucket O Soldiers kit. He asks the question of Woody, after Woody engineers a nasty accident for Buzz Lightyear.

All week I have kept asking myself the same question as I've struggled with balance - "where is your honour, dirtbag?" After my coaching session last week, I've come to the conclusion that something has got to give. I know I've said this before and I probably sound like a broken record, but that something "giving" is going to take some time because I still have to work out what that is! I'm always surprised by how much I am pushed in my own coaching sessions, it makes me think long and hard and the question of honour in the context of honouring myself with my own behaviour has been playing a pretty persistent loop in my thinking so far this week. I've caught myself being overstretched at both ends of the day and feeling rather stressed have asked myself the question, "where is your honour, dirtbag?" rather than mowing down the contents of the fridge with stress eating, baking or the like. Not that is is a regular occurrence for me, but it has been known to happen from time to time.

Today after 8 clients, I asked myself the question. The answer was taking an hour or so to decompress and read the paper and having oats for arvo tea. Consequently my belly feels full and happy and I am refreshed and ready to tackle the online side of my day.

The other thing I am making sure happens is getting my training in - after being sick I am finding the cardio a real struggle but punched out a good session on the elliptical, bike and rower and trained legs yesterday (I am in a world of DOMS today) and upper body today with the most conviction I've had since the surgery. It's time to start transitioning back from rehab into real life me thinks.

On the scale thing, weight has been up and down like a mad yo yo. But I feel my pants get looser every day despite some really wacko numbers and know that in the fullness of time, I am winning the race back to my happy place.

Paarty girl

This is an extremely rare once a year photo of Yours Truly (and the gorgeous Hubster) in high heels. We had Hubby's work Christmas function which had a cocktail theme. As I may have blogged previously, buying cocktail dresses fills me with dread, but I quite liked wearing this little number. I have to admit that as soon as we hopped into the car to come home the heels were whipped off straightaway (I didn't want to encourage my poor posture any further). Had a fun evening and went to bed too late. Even allowed myself a half hour sleep in before RPM HiPerformance this morning.

Had a great class and got to see Tara and Rob - I tied Tara up with a resistance band which I'm sure she was impressed with - but our mission is to get freaky massive over the next year so the foundations of her squat and deadlift technique have to be hunky dory. Nothing worse than training like a demon only to injure yourself before the event and have to miss out!

We also had morning tea with Shelley at the Vietnamese and now I'm hope and thinking that a little nap may be in order. It felt great after being so sick to give the bike a good smashing!

What moves you?

In reply to Steph's comment on my last post about reading about one's motivations, I thought I would share a little bit about what motivates ME. It is probably different from the next blogger, but also frighteningly similar!

Knowing WHY you want to do something is absolutely essential to your success no matter what it is you're trying to achieve. As I work in the health and fitness industry it seems logical to focus on this area, but there is so much more to knowing WHY - how is what you want to achieve going to better you, your relationships, your work - how is it going to impact on other areas of your life? What else are you going to achieve by nailing what seems to be just one little goal?

Losing body fat and getting fitter or getting competition ready is what most clients come to me for. They are looking to find "the push" they need to make it to where they need to go. I can provide excellent extrinsic motivation all the way through to the end. What needs to be developed by the client is intrinsic motivation so that when extrinsic motivation falls away - the coach is ill or the competition is over, there needs to be reason to keep on keeping on. Many competitors crash and burn because they have failed to see what is important to them AFTER they have reached the physical goal.

For me, my personal time has been focused lately on intrinsic motivation. Although I have a few external events coming up in my future where I need to look really good (not a comp!) , my main reason for getting into shape is purely internal. Because my work requires me to coach others, I tie my own authenticity up in my work - for me, I want the outside (external appearance) to reflect what is inside - a fit , strong, healthy woman! Where I have been going these days is asking myself "what do I really want?" and "why do I want it?". It's what I call a "jellyfish" response to just say "I want to lose weight", because you can't "hold" on to that why. However the response of "I will lose 3kg in six weeks, see my physio regularly, work on my rehab because I need to be fitter, faster and stronger for taking a shot at becoming an RPM presenter" - well, that's got more teeth. I think I've ticked off most of my New Year's goals - this is the last one - so I want to be well on the way to achieving this by the New Year.

I hope this little ramble makes sense, it's one of those "off the cuff" Liz written diarrhoea moments!

In other news, I finally found a dress to wear to hubby's work Xmas function on Friday. Found a great "little black dress" at the Cue outlet at the DFO. There's another advantage to being fit - all the size 10s on the rack fit beautifully!

Moving and Grooving

As usual another busy day on the work front. I'm still not feeling 100% today but have managed to train and eat well. Old scale weight has yet to come into line but I'm feeling leaner today so I know that it's only a matter of time before it behaves. Sometimes it feels like a bit of a slap to wake up to a higher number - I think due to the conditioning most women have about the scale, a "higher" number is associated with fear and panic but the most important part is how you choose to react to it. Do you throw your hands up in the air and moan about the scale doing your head in or do you just get on with the job?

Today, although I felt a little annoyed, I chose to get on with the job. I have so many reasons right now to get into better shape, external and internal leverages. Figure comps have always been a tremendous external leverage but now things are different - I don't have that as a leverage any more but I've got all sorts of interesting stuff in the pipeline. One thing is that once you step on that scale and see that number there is no turning back, only the opportunity to move forward and decide what you are going to create that day - that has also included creating my favourite dinner, grilled salmon with none other than snow peas, carrots and asparagus!

Despite having mainly back to back clients, a late cancellation allowed me to get in my first decent run since my knee issue flared up, mobility work and lower body training. I admit to feeling frustrated about this darn shoulder - but know that I'm doing everything I can to get it right. I am starting to feel some pleasant DOMS building in my hamstrings and glutes already.

I am attending another seminar run by Paul Reid at www.centrality.com.au - on the shoulder girdle. Paul is associated with Mike Robertson who is coming out in February so if you want to see Mike in Brisbane, please email me - we need to know Brisbane numbers ASAP. I cannot speak highly enough of Paul or Mike - and the knowledge that they so freely share.

Monday - back into it!

Back into the swing of things today, finally. I have to admit that I'm still feeling rather weak and sick but nevertheless got some training done as well. I had the luxury of actually participating in RPM today which was nice and I did upper body/shoulder stuff and more glute work. I have "piss ant " glutes which have improved (like a fine wine) but can always do with more muscle! Tomorrow I have a window of opportunity (40minutes ) to train so I will make the most of this with a run and some deadlifts.

Weight is bouncing all over the place - after reaching a new low, I bounced back when I started eating normally again and had what my mate Hazel would call an "ill timed" splurge meal last night which didn't help the situation any. So one step at a time to paddle the old canoe into calmer waters.

The worst is over...I think!

I finally feel well enough to post after a week of being pretty sick - I ended up going to the doctor on Wednesday afternoon after summoning up the courage to check out my throat in the mirror with a torch - diagnosis - acute tonsillitis. Yuck - my throat has been a pussy mess for the past few days. Now it is just red and sore. I've spent most of the week in bed and couldn't entertain the thought of eating vegetables or doing any training whatsoever - I have lived on chocolate icecream and iced water and am only just starting to eat normally now.

Anyway I hope to be back into it tomorrow, last week I was fully booked for the first time and now I feel like I am going back to square one. Oh well, these things happen - just have to look forward and do the best you can with what you have.

Can't wait to feel well enough to train again!