Denial Workouts and Weight commentary

After reading Katie's blog today (and nearly peeing my pants, thanks K), I have to report in with my weight seeing as I went out for Thai with hubby last night (very enjoyable too I might add!).

Weight today: Up 0.5kg Notes: must Thai harder!

I wasn't expecting to see any drop - that 0.5kg is salt, carbs and a good dose of leg DOMS on this otherwise hot looking attractive sexy (need I say more?) gal.

Back to regular proceedings now- had a pretty busy day at Fitness First - got an hour of very light cardio in and pumped up my biceps (so I could admire them in the mirror all day..not) - what happened to my idea of interval running?? Hmmph! I managed to hog the squat rack for a lot of the morning with Miss Shannon and then Miss Dori (who I am sure thinks that I truly have earned my title as the "Mistress of Pain") - you see it's Dori's birthday tomorrow so we had to pull out the ol' "denial" workout and she nailed it beautifully. Quite a few of us at Fitness First this year are hitting our 40s and 50s and a mate of mine at the gym (who is also an Exercise Phys) coined the term "denial workout" - that is the workout you do where you're feeling invincible regardless of your age - we have a good giggle whenever we see each other training.

Busy weekend planned - have to teach two RPMs - one Saturday and the other on Sunday - not that I'm complaining. Gives me a chance to improve on last week's classes.

Then hopefully I will have a chance to read the paper and put my feet up (as per pic).

Hope everyone has a great weekend.

The Workout Confessional

For Shelley - weight today - 58.8kg (thank you, spank you as we discussed!) I'm going to send a blog weigh in to the wilderness for awhile so I would like to sit there and bask in my general hotness for today...kidding...but hey it sounded good and I am feeling pretty good about how the old bod is looking. I'm going for a little more weight nudgery in the downward direction but I could see the ol faithful lines in my legs as I was stepping today so all is nice.

I taught Bodystep this morning and even did some weights (more on this in a sec) - I must say that I am in a world of pain and DOMS today - my legs, my glutes, my calves, my abs are on fire but I loved dishing out every minute of the class yesterday right down to all the little dancy bells and whistles that you have the opportunity to add - I am also teaching on Saturday morning - may try for more choreo again..will see.

I labelled this post the workout confessional because lately I haven't trained my lower body at all - between RPM and STep I have been too scared to do any lower body training - yes, this chick hates leg DOMS! Although I am always banging on about the benefits of resistance training, I have been the cardio queen of late. I'm not sure what is on the cards training wise tomorrow - I have my general goals but usually wing it from day to day - see how the old legs are feeling - maybe it's time for an interval run...or maybe not!

Dance, dance, ants in my pants!

Today's post is all about how, despite feeling blue about a few things over the past few days, I decided to reclaim my power through a bit of hard work and discipline.

It is all too easy to decide we are powerless over something and it is all too easy sometimes to wallow in your own misery, ie "this is too hard", "life is unfair", "why me and no one else?" etc etc. Naturally my own emo moments were running along the lines of "life is unfair" when my planned dinner turned out to be off and the fallout from the gym mix up on Saturday left me with a definite, "life is unfair" moment going on.

Anyway, to jump to another topic, I have been asked to fill two Bodystep classes a week for the next few weeks. I don't get much chance to teach Step as I don't have a regular class these days and hence, when the new releases come out I don't always learn the choreo because I figure that I'll get around to it when I have my own class. Rather than use the same choreo I am used to, I decided to push myself out of my comfort zone and learn new stuff to teach this morning. Even though I made a few mistakes I felt like my class well and truly made up for it with the intensity side of things - I really pushed it and felt like I was flying! I was drenched in sweat from head to toe when I was done and felt such a sense of accomplishment for getting a bit uncomfortable and really going for it. I didn't learn an entire release - the goal for next week's classes is to learn the second half and put the whole shebang together. Then hopefully send off my Certification video (only six years late, but..hey)

I'm so glad I pushed myself and believed in myself to get the job done. Consequently I feel on top of the world and not remotely interested in doing any emotional eating - there's the kicker, manage your moods and believe that you can handle anything and the battle with the emotional side will begin to pale. That is not to say that I will never eat for emotional reasons again - however this sort of stuff makes you sit up and take notice before you start heading for the muesli bars again which is why working it all out is so important.

I'm not usually one to log my scale weight but I want to do a Shelley today and write....
59.1kg (down .1kg - that piss-ant weenie amount...liar liar, pants on fire!) Hee, hee, the small things we do to amuse ourselves....

Tuesday Checkin

Back to the coalface more officially as my little ones went off today ready to start the school year. Didn't have early morning clients as I wanted to be at school for the kidlets first day. After the emo moments of yesterday, today has been rather quiet - prepping for Bodystep tomorrow and teaching RPM, a few clients and a quick 30 minute run on the treadmill - though I must admit it didn't feel quick at the time....

Reflections on Emotional Eating

Well here is my mug all Munga'ed up - thanks to Miss Katie for such a brilliant idea ...and the boobs are real..woo hoo!!! Did I ever mention how much I like my additions!

Anyway some thoughts on emotional eating today. I have been working through an amazing book by Roger Gould that Katie mentioned on her blog (ordered from Amazon) which deals with emotional eating.

I believe that most people who have issues with weight or eating also have issues with emotional eating. Although physical illness did play a small role in my weight gain post Miss G, there were more emotional factors in there that really amped up my weight gain and turned it into both a physical and psychological problem. Roger Gould concludes that emotional eating is driven by a sense of powerlessness in the individual - ie the individual harbours a belief that they are powerless to control what, when and how they eat and that the sense of powerlessness over food is really a cover up for a deeper experience of powerlessness, for example - dealing with self doubt, gaining real satisfaction in life, feeling powerless to fill yourself up when you're feeling empty inside..etc etc.

It is in dealing with the deeper issues such as satisfaction in life etc where healing begins. In my own case, I continue to be a work in progress and look at my eating slip ups in a continuum of from when I was when I was at rock bottom and physically overweight through to the experience of being a competitor, then a coach and now juggling full time work with family etc etc. There have been periods of quiet where emotional eating has not been an issue for several months, then all of a sudden a stressor will pop up and I will sometimes find myself eating for the reasons of powerlessness above, rather than confronting what is really going on and dealing with it.

Which is what happened this weekend - instead of acknowledging how tired and exhausted I am from trying to juggle all of my PT clients in the Junior Care times, entertaining two small kids during holidays on a tight budget, working on my RPM, learning Bodystep choreo as I don't teach often enough to retain it, worrying about DH's job, worrying about which way to jump with a Real Estate decision, ensuring there is a meal on the table every night... rather than face up to feeling overwhelmed and dealing it with it in a methodical way, I thought it better to eat 5 homemade muesli bars and have Indian takeaway for dinner as the salad I had purchased to go with our chicken breasts was decidedly "off". On reflection I have been feeling powerless over my own situation..and it triggered off the emotional eating groove.

I got my wakeup call this morning after a mix up about the classes on Saturday when the receptionist didn't open up the gym in time. My class was 45 minutes late, and rather than filling in the time and tacking onto the next class which would have been the better option , I just gritted my teeth and taught the whole thing which apparently was not the thing to do - again another knee jerk reaction rather than thinking things through... so I went into the Steam Room and let the tears fall for a good half hour and worked out what was going on and sorted a rough plan to address the issues and felt better. The worst part was leaving the gym a little red face only to have a George Castanza look alike chat me up - I was trying to look in the other direction whilst this guy was telling me that "he'd seen me in RPM this morning.. that RPM was his warm up because he pushed big weights in the gym and did I do a lot of "toning work". I was desperately trying to get away from this guy and I managed to spit out "our Olympic Coach doesn't allow us to tone" (yes, he was speechless after that and I had a quiet chuckle to myself despite my teariness).

So lesson learned today was that sometimes it's just best to let the emotion out, whether it's hokey or not, rather than stuff it down with food. I'm a real sucker for toughing things out and I need to take my big girl panties off more often and howl at the moon.

Saturday Catch Up

A blog for today as I'm going to head off the computer this weekend to spend time with family and cover the dreaded school books, so if anyone is wondering what my workout of the day is, shall we say it will involve sticky plastic and a deft hand with the scissors, Nikko pens and DYMO labeller!

I've just come back from teaching RPM this morning - bit of a pain as the receptionist who was meant to open the gym did not show up, we managed to get a key from another guy which snapped when we tried to get the door open...anyway we got in and got busy. It wasn't the greatest class I have ever taught and even though it may sound weird, I find myself learning so much from the "stinkers" because I really really want to be a superb instructor and coach. That is the beauty of group fitness, you never stop learning how to become a better instructor. Felt a bit lacklustre as TOM decided to turn up again after 2 weeks' break - I had decided to try the Pill again as a means of keeping my period pain under control but it didn't really do that much, so rather than go for a stronger Pill, I'm happily hormone free again. However I wasn't expecting to be rolling around with period pain again so soon...bugger.

Despite feeling like a bloated cow this morning, a few members asked me if I was competing again. I do have a little goal coming up and that is to become a Les Mills Presenter in RPM. Naturally I want to look really good and a bit leaner. Les Mills are looking for Brisbane presenters so I am putting my portfolio together in the hope of being asked for an audition. For me, this goal is getting over my shyness when it comes to things like auditions and instructor feedback. My steps that I have undertaken so far have been to work on the five elements of coaching as per Les Mills and I've been slowly working on different aspects of my class when I teach. The next big step I have taken is asking Ruthie T to evaluate my class. Any Les Mills instructor would know that Ruthie has played an integral role in developing Les Mills programs and just what an amazing mentor she is. Unfortunately when I've met Ruthie before, I've been so tongue tied ( kinda like meeting someone famous) and nervous that I haven't relaxed and enjoyed myself. So class is booked for a few weeks time and this is my next big test - to overcome my fear of looking silly in front of Ruthie. However, it's time for me to step up to the plate and push myself and let the cards fall where they may from there.

I must say that Shar, if you've been reading lately, I have been thinking about you and how fantastic you are to have been asked to become a presenter...awesome.

Love this one...and the Tennis!

Found this somewhere on the internet and want to dedicate it to Shelley who was feeling a little bit blah this morning and didn't feel like doing her training - so I told her to get with it and she pushed out a cracker of a GBC session for chest/biceps - we actually heavied up on a lot of the weights, the push ups were stronger...success all around. The only low light of the situation was that I had instructed Shelley to drop the dumbbells at one point so I could hand her a lighter pair to finish off a set and I had one dropped on my big toe...ouch!!! I am sure that it is going to look a treat by tomorrow morning!

Just dropped over to Rae's blog, where she has written about Casey Dellacqua and Roger Rasheed's take on her body fat levels. I was just commenting to hubs yesterday about how tennis players need to do more conditioning work in their offseason as I feel the game has changed a lot over the years and it is a sport where you need to be fitter (cardiovascular endurance), faster ( sprint/power training) and stronger (strength/power training) in one package. Tennis is simply not a sport where one can ditch one form of training in favour of another, yet you still need to get "results" in all of these areas of conditioning plus your court work to get better. On that note...go Miss Jelena Dokic tonight - that poor girl's been to Hell and back - I'll be cheering for you!

I think some "weekend warriors" get too involved in the minutiae of things - are overthinking and are not doing enough general conditioning work - my classic example is the person (whose main aim is to look better and live lean) who comes along and tells me their trainer is not "allowing" them to do any cardio because "they're going to lose muscle". These people are usually 25% + body fat and are overthinking, rather than acting. It's due to a lack of education on the trainer's part as well - don't get me started there! I encourage anyone that wants to be fitter faster and stronger (and as a side effect look sh*t hot) to do a wide variety of training - if you are focused on changing your body composition, focus on strength training first and add some cardio around it (preferably my RPM class, but hey, I'm biased!), some recovery and a bit of yoga/pilates here and there. Most of all, focus on getting a little bit better with each session you do and enjoy the journey! Right now I'm enjoying that I'm bench pressing and not getting any pain.

I have been visiting Nicole's blog and saw her post on favourite things - so thought I would add mine...
I have to say mine changes on a regular basis - firstly I'll do five favourite treats (it is Friday)

1) Any dessert from Freestyle Tout
2) Bulla Fruit and Yoghurt Raspberry Splits (more low brow, but works just as well!)
3) Mexican food - lots of it and preferably after running a marathon...if Mexican is not available then smoked salmon, capers and cream cheese on piping hot croissants will just have to do
4) Metabolic Drive Protein Powder - tastes so good, it could be dessert!!
5) My mother's sultana cake - rich, buttery and definitely not good for the carb fat balance :) :)

Protein Sources

1) Salmon
2) barramundi
3) veal
4) lamb
5) chicken

Starchy Carb Sources:
1) oats
2) basmati rice, preferably saffron and cardamom infused :)
3) potatoes - any type will do just nicely
4) Burgen Soy Lin Bread or fruit toast
5) Bakers Delight Capeseed Loaf

Vegetables/Fruit
1) Any stone fruit or berries love them all
2) Fresh pineapple
3) Pumpkin, roasted with sea salt
4) Beans
5) Asian Greens


Now stop drooling over your computer and leave me a comment! Have a great weekend~!

Defining Your Success

I've had an interesting week so far in terms of busyness and training - and despite a very hectic schedule, I've managed to get a good whack of exercise in, not perfect mind you - but again my week has been proof positive that you don't have to be perfect to be successful - just get a bit in here and there, and put yourself on what I call "good nutrition autopilot" - just stick to the basics, don't plan to be perfect and be consistent!

This week I have done 2 RPM classes, 60 minutes of weights and taught Bodystep this morning. Considering this was the week that I'd get nothing done, I'm really pleased. Less volume and more intensity has worked well for me and I am feeling fit and strong. My other highlight of the week has been bench pressing on Monday - with my gammy shoulder I never thought this would ever happen again!

On the body composition front things are looking good too - after a pretty indulgent weekend (and yes, fat and carbs in the same meals featured at least more than once!), I woke up, pleased not to kick the scales and say, "wrong way dickhead!" - I've almost got myself to where I want to be but that ol drop has been a long time coming (for me, I take a good week to see the results of being a little more careful with my nutrition!). I have to use the mirror and my clothes as a guide to keep me tracking when the scale is not reflecting any change. I wore a pair of size 8 trousers out last night - it's been awhile.

Anyway, take home message is - train with joy - love what you do (gosh Step was fun this morning ), eat mindfully and enjoy the different flavours in your food and stay positive!

My Rainbow

Your rainbow is shaded violet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What is says about you: You are a creative person. You appreciate beauty and craftsmanship. You are patient and will keep trying to understand something until you've mastered it.

Find the colors of your rainbow at spacefem.com.

Training Update

Can't believe it - had a cancellation this morning and got some training in. Carolyn will be pleased to read that I did the same "flatline run" as she did this morning - 45 minutes of "hang in there, this too shall pass" and some chest/ shoulder work. It's rather nice to be pushing again - I always start off with decline push ups - today I knocked out 3 x 12 and next week will be adding a plate to increase the intensity. I mix up all of the pushing with a little bit of pulling to keep things in balance as I have a tendency to roll the heads of my humeri (I'm sure it's not "humeruses" :) ) forward so this helps me think of activating my lower traps and then I'm good. I even increased my lateral raise weight to 4kg - thrills all around!

Whirlwind Week

This is going to be a whirlwind week with not a lot of time for training or blogging - that said, I'll probably blog everyday now that I've written this - it's the stubborn part of me!

My goals for the week are to complete all tasks with a smile, eat well, enjoy my enforced "rest" and give RPM a good smack on Wednesday and Saturday. Look out world!

I had the pleasure of meeting Magda on Saturday - who came to get her butt whipped in RPM and then further whipped in a personal training session afterwards. It is always so much fun to meet other bloggers, especially when they live so far away from you. We did meet at the All Females last year, but didn't really get much chance to chat. Now I can really visualize the Adelaide Figure girls catching up for their brunch! The lovely Lindy got up at 4.30am just to visit me in RPM - what a gorgeous girl - go check out her website and you'll see us hamming it up on the home page. We filmed another workout for UltraFit magazine at the end of December - this one called "Deconstructing the Deadlift" which is a partner to my "Deconstructing the Squat" article which is featured in this month's Ultrafit magazine (yes, do yourselves a favour and go to your local newsagent NOW :) and pick up a copy!)

OK, I'm done pimping myself for now - go and see what a goose I really am when I've got a video camera in my face (not good).

Happy week to everyone!

Lightness and Being 10 years on

I had an interesting conversation with Lisa yesterday alluding to the fact that when you feel strong, you walk differently. I can attest for this phenomena being true - when I know that I have made improvements in whatever training I am doing, I walk taller, prouder and I feel strong. I believe this sensation comes out of a love for what we are doing...

I have always been a big believer in loving what you do - recently I have been combing through my old bookcase and came across a training log I had made and written in, circa 1998. I used to make my own training logs out of spiral notebooks and cover them with inspirational sayings and pictures. This particular training log had quotes all over it pertaining to love and particularly, love of exercise.

"Love isn't a sin, it's a necessity, for with love as our guide, we imagine our bodies moving the way our bodies were meant to move: we can do marathons with our feet, lift pounds with our arms, have stars in our eyes and do a nifty tango".

and:

"You feel funny inside. You feel funny outside. You feel you could do anything and noone would dare laugh at you."

These little quotes and bits and pieces continue to inspire me today. Here is my log from March 2000, six months after having Miss S and slowly losing weight from first pregnancy:

"Yahoo! What joy! The run I did on the treadmill this morning was awesome! I felt so strong, centred and almost invincible! What a great feeling! I have climbed one mountain and about to start on the next one!"

It was really interesting reading my journal - yes - I was trying to lose weight after childbirth, I was struggling with my eating, but page after page is littered with the joy of exercise and the feelings of accomplishment it gave me and still continues to give me 10 years on. It was once I started solving the nutrition puzzle that things really fell into place.

Even though I eat well, like most of us who live in first world countries, I have the innate tendency to want to eat well past fulfilling hunger, because the food is there and secondly it tastes fantastic. Pretty normal scenario there I would say. Over the past few months I have getting out of maintenance and into action. I've become very practised and accomplished at maintenance and all of a sudden going back into action felt really difficult. I was hungry (and baulked at the "discomfort" of it), I had to think more, I just had to do it.

After a good kick in the tush by someone in my circle of influence and upon seeing photographs of myself (yes, the camera never lies) - I have got on with the job. At the same time, I ditched the diet drinks, noticing that my consumption of these increases dramatically when I'm stressed and pretending not to be hungry. Water and tea is now rocking my world. There has been payoff, not immediate mind you (which is always hard for the "I want it now" part of my psyche) but I am looking and feeling leaner, fitter and faster and it feels good.

Cooking..

Today I've been cooking up all sorts of vegetable laden concoctions in preparation for the working week ahead - I'm sure that Rae cooks something similar to this. I got chicken breast, a couple of cans of diced tomatoes, herbs, onions, garlic and about a kilo of assorted vegetables (ie whatever was there) plus some leftover champagne (for flavour!) and simmered it into a big casserole for a few hours. Needless to say you all know what I will be eating for the next few days. It tastes pretty bland right now, but like any good casserole, it just needs a day to fester and the flavours to meld together.

Back to work tomorrow - as the hours I can work are determined by the gym creche at the moment, I'm up for a date with Coach Troy of Spinervals fame tomorrow - will be 3 x blocks of my favourite Aerobase Builder (No 25). Then I will squeeze in some weights between clients.

Thoughts

I borrowed this:




Thought for the day-- Handle every stressful situation like a Dog-- If you can't eat it or hump it, piss on it and walk away.

I'm on sale.....

The Fitness Solution has never had a sale before but I've decided to take 20% off all DVDs and Slim Secrets bars - this brings a box of 12 Slim Secrets down to $25.60 - which is pretty unheard of , even the big supplement warehouses cannot match that. So go and have a visit and pick up a bargain! You will need a discount coupon however - it is NY2009 .

I love a bargain!

rest and recovery

All has been quiet over here lately - well, to be truthful, I haven't been exactly quiet but I've been juggling quite a few balls with doing quite a lot of writing (more shall be forthcoming on that), looking after kids and generally trying to recover from what has been a pretty hectic 2008. I had plans of going to the gym and training today and yesterday, but my body has been telling me that it doesn't want to train. I've got the beginnings of a sore throat and it is not like me at all not to want to do any exercise. Plus, I've been getting cold - another sign that I've been overtraining and not getting enough recovery.

Sometimes the word "recovery" sends chills down the spines of us fitness fanatics - many get concerned that they're going to "get fat because they're not training" - however, if you are truly overtrained and requiring recovery, this is the least of your worries. In fact, in this situation, taking a recovery break is exactly what you need. After two days off and lots of sleep and good food, I am starting to feel a lot warmer and my weight is dropping again. I will teach class tomorrow, have a steam and take Sunday off as well. I may be quiet for the next few days but you know where I'll be - sleeping or slopping around watching the tennis.

Streamlining ..and daily ramble

Bodyfat readings when done by skinfold calipers can be inaccurate due to factors such as measurement technique, start bodyfat, hydration levels etc. Not a good tool as a stand alone measurement.

Inaccuracies in measurement skew "results" ie how much muscle you can TRULY gain in a certain amount of time. I feel this has led to all sorts of misconceptions about expectations of muscle growth.

Take home message is that using a combination of different measurement methods yields the best picture of whether you are making changes or not. Don't forget the best piece of equipment - your camera - photographs never lie.

Got up early and went for a walk this morning - every time I go for a walk I'm reminded of my time in Woop Woop where I'd get up in the freezing cold and dark and go for a walk every single morning - there were never any people around and only lots of miners finishing off the night shift whizzing by. I found going for a walk rather therapeutic as it allowed me to just think or listen to music and basically just retreat into my own world for an hour. Every location that I walk in is different and holds different memories for me.

Time to get ready for the day ahead - I'm meeting Shelley and we're doing a little bit of training together - should be fun!

Gym Whoppers

My blog today focuses on big fat fitness lies - so settle in and watch what I'm going to pick on today.

Firstly a tool of measurement that is commonly used to chart a transformationist's progress - the body fat calipers. Body fat measurement is in vogue, it seems. Mention scales or weight and you'll clear the room full of frightened people worried about what a number will mean to them, but mention measuring percent bodyfat as a more accurate guide and you'll pique everyone's interest. "Finally, a way of charting my progress that doesn't use the scale!" they'll rejoice and "look, my measurements dropped even though my weight is up, it must mean I've gained muscle and lost fat!", followed by the even bigger whopper "I've gained 2kg muscle in a month (from a female perspective )" or, "I've gained 5kg muscle in a month" (from the male point of view). I must mention I am talking about trainees that don't use their local internet pharmacy but are "natural" athletes - more on that later.

I want to first highlight that body fat measurements taken with calipers from a highly experienced and skilled individual, with well calibrated equipement can be quite accurate for certain populations. I know several people who use skinfolds during their comp preps who do have highly experienced coaches so this doesn't really apply to them. However the point of difference is that they are athletes and athletes usually maintain a lower body fat % than the general population.

As a rule of thumb body fat measurements, using calipers become more accurate as your leanness increases - you'll get the best readings close to a competition for example. If your body fat % is wandering up in the 20% or more range, accuracy decreases as % fat increases - try taking poor Oprah's tricep skinfold as an example. So when I hear "average" women (bodyfat 25% or more) complaining that weights have "bulked" them up and that they just want to reduce their bodyfat, and looked toned, it's hard for me not to laugh.

Other things that throw caliper readings out is - time of day measured - typically bodyfat readings are more accurate at night, hydration, supplementation status (for example some creatines can cause water retention), water retention or hormonal status - body fat is calculated using skinfold sites, weight, height - if you've gained 2kg of water, you'll return a false body fat reading as well by virtue of simple mathematics. The other thing to look out for is making sure the same person does the measurements - pinch your body- first thing you'll notice is that when you apply more pressure your skin compresses - apply brute force and you too could have lower skin fold readings (which mean diddly squat when you're up on stage in front of 500 people in a skimpy bikini).

With all of these confounding variables I don't usually do skinfolds unless specifically requested. The main thing (as with scale weight) is that you're 'trending' downwards.

Now onto the fantastical claims of muscle accumulation that abound on the Internet. Dave Greenwalt says it beautifully in his book, "The Leanness Lifestyle": "claims of higher muscle accumulation abound in popular muscle building comic books and Internet discussion forums. To say that I question their veracity would be an understatement. If you're not sure, then ask any person who claims you can add more muscle that what I suggest (for women 0.25-0.75lb - 0.1kg to 0.3kg per month)to provide a published, peer-reviewed study supporting their claim. Just make sure you don't hold your breath waiting".

These same people who claim superior muscle growth can also be those who tell women that by adding muscle that they "won't bulk up" - if the claim was true, I'd be pole position for the IFBB Olympia (yeah, I've been training awhile). By the magic 2kg calc I would have gained 360kg of muscle by now.

Time for me to sign off for tonight...I need to go find something I've lost...

On setting and reaching goals (or why "winging it" doesn't always work)

Many of my blog readers are Figure Competitors or would be competitors or would be physique transformationists. There are many competitors that get tripped up by assigning false meaning to different scenarios, rather than getting the job done.

Of course my favourite one is "If I weigh myself every day, the scales will do my head in!" . Already one is giving a certain meaning to what the scale is saying - in this scenario it means, "if that ol' scale doesn't show me the number I want to see, I'm going to... sulk, get upset, pout, wallow in self misery ... then it's going to morph into a total disaster and catastrophe and a harsh self assessment that yes, I really am the fat cow I always knew I was ....you get the drift ... this comment smacks of listening to one's inner child a little bit too much. Enough already! You may choose not to weigh yourself daily for other good reasons which is perfectly fine, but when you're headed towards a goal, you need to stay on track and you need to remain accountable - to yourself. Now I will add here that as a coach and regularly hormonal female who is known to indulge every now and again, stepping on the scales after an eating "event" isn't easy - but life isn't always about taking the easy out. Take a deep breath, and get on...what is the worst that could happen - you'll see a number you don't like...and guess what, you'll handle it!

Another thing I hear is "If I keep a food log it means I'm anal and obsessive". There's a time and place for everything and if you're truly serious about reaching a physique goal then these qualities are awesome to have - it has been demonstrated time and time again that writing things down (or logging them) achieves a goal so much faster and better than just "winging it". For example, you could measure your oats in a measuring cup or you could weigh them on a food scale. Say you log 50g of oats (half a cup) Depending on the cup and how you fill it, you could be eating way more than that. The same goes for protein portions, vegetables and pasta - who ever eats a serve of pasta which is half a cup. How do you measure that? It is too easy to inadvertently eat more and blame your plan on a "slow metabolism" when in fact you're not measuring correctly or in the case of completely "winging it", doing anything. To me it is the same as a doctor making a diagnosis without examining the patient first.

A food log can demonstrate just how much you can eat - most would be surprised to learn that it is usually more than you think! If you are logging your food correctly and your training as well you can build up quite a good database of information about yourself for practical application. For example, I know that loading an extra 20-30g carbs pre RPM Hi Performance has , well, made all the difference to my performance. I know what calorie range I need to be to lose fat, I know that eating oats in the afternoon benefits my recovery. I know what I need to do to eat Paleo and be successful at it. I know that I'm in potential binge territory if my carb intake drops below 30%. I would never have known any of these things unless I had kept a log.

The other place Figure Competitors trip up is by telling everyone they're "dieting down" - we all know what meaning has been placed on the word "diet", so why not just focus on the competition part, get the job done and be impartial about the process. It is what it is. Add too much meaning and enjoy the emotional fall out on the other side.

You're the best experiment you've ever worked on and by charting all of these variables and understanding them for what they are, rather than assigning false meaning to them is what will ensure your success.

End of Year and New Beginnings

This is a rare pic of Hubs and I facing off and playing Pictionary against each other last night. I went to bed close to my normal getting up time and slept in until 11am. Hubs and I are pretty different but when the s*it hits the fan, he is my greatest supporter, not to mention the best hugger ever. Today has been a topsy turvy day, stomach has been in knots and I've been feeling emotionally out of kilter. It really is true that family issues do become magnified during the Silly Season and whilst the stuff I face is no biggie compared with other's family dramas, it hasn't been much fun. I'm now looking forward to getting back into a normal routine! I managed to do RPM yesterday with John which was a great help and stress release - sometimes it is just great to participate and let the music and instructor take you on a journey.

I do have a few plans for 2009, training wise which I listed a few blog posts ago. On a more personal level, I've set a few financial targets to hit as well as some personal growth goals. I do feel like I'm pivoting on a cornerstone and about to embark on a new quest though I don't know exactly what that is as yet. On reading this, it makes little sense but I'm just going to go with the flow.. and trust that it will all make sense in the fullness of time.

I keep thinking of the quote below and keep hitting on.. "all we have to decide..." so with that in mind, I'm going to make it a good one.

'I wish the ring had never come to me...I wish none of this had happened.''So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.'