little catch up

Aaah, what a busy weekend - taught RPM yesterday morning and smashed it, saw two PT clients and then did an emergency locum at a pharmacy yesterday afternoon as well as working in a pharmacy today (I've taken on a shift once every two weeks). I have forgotten how tiring standing on your feet all day can be and the priority right now is to catch up on sleep.

An interesting thing I noted about the sleep deprivation program was that when you're sleep deprived you get really hungry. This weekend, I have really been particularly peckish - I have felt that no amount of food would fill the gap. I've sensibly filled up on more vegetables and lean protein, but I have to admit that the intensity of my hunger scared me a little bit this weekend as I've probably consumed almost 50% more than I would on a normal day! Think I'll just chalk that one up to mysterious bodily goings on and keep on keeping on.

Tomorrow is a Public Holiday here and I'll be working on programs and playing with my new Macbook. I have been so time poor lately and looking forward to a time where I can just hang out with myself and no distractions. The relative busyness and lack of sleep have even had me feeling less than enthused about doing any training so my agenda is sleep first, recreational time and then some training.

Back to almost normality

After yesterday's events, things have almost returned to normal. I think about what happened yesterday and believe still that I was really lucky, the whole situation was not normal and that I'll keep being very mindful of my surroundings.

I taught RPM to a full house this morning. Nothing like looking at 44 bikes, all with riders on them. It was a good session this morning - got all my choreo right and felt fit and strong!

The girls are at school tomorrow. It is Miss G's first day as a Preppie and she is excited. I don't think I will know myself without a little person holding my hand. The end of an era. I will miss her, but mostly I am happy for her because I know how much she is looking forward to it.

I finally bought a new digital camera (ours got lost in the move), so hopefully you'll see a lot more family shots in the blog.

I've added the rhino in because I'm having a "I could eat the a... out of a rhino" kind of eating day. When I look back on what I've consumed today I can't really say I've missed out in the food department, so with my inner crave-o-meter firmly in check, I'm off to bed.

I've been on an asparagus bender!

I love this time of year when asparagus is in season. I chomped through two bunches today. I just steam it for a minute or so, then dunk it into icy water and it makes an awesome snack. I don't know what my work mates thought today as I did a pharmacy locum for the first time in months but they all commented on how much food I could put away. As well as all of the asparagus I had put together an absolutely gi-normous turkey salad for lunch and I munched on a Slim Secrets bar, smoked salmon and a small banana. Yum :)

However, I am not always perfect when it comes to eating and as Rick Kausmann writes in his fantastic book, "If Not Dieting, Then What?", everyone will overeat at one stage or another due to a multitude of different factors. Last night, it was all about the food. A dear friend of mine from Fitness First (who is Indian) made me a curry - a beautiful lamb biriyani with exquisite saffron rice and vegetables and nuts. DH and I fell on it like we had been deprived of food most of our lives and it was "game on" to see who could scrape out the casserole dish first! It felt good going down, but I definitely felt uncomfortable about 20 minutes later. It was just another thing to chalk up to experience - watch out for the orgasmic rice I say !

I managed to get in a third strength training session for the week - I am extremely proud of myself - upped the weights for all exercises, quite the thrill really and I am sitting here with DOMS from head to toe.

Definitely looking forward to some R and R tomorrow - slopping round the house and reading the paper.

Eating a Small Pony

"Skwigg" referred to the fact that she's been eating so much she could devour a small pony and I feel like I am headed in this direction myself. I have increased my calories faster than what Precision Nutrition suggested for a "metabolic reset" and I have been absolutely ravenous! I hope this means that my metabolism has "woken" up further. I haven't weighed myself, nor measured anything - though I did log my food on a few days - yesterday's effort was in the vicinity of 1900 calories which I'm pretty pleased with. Visually I look no different and a few people have asked me if I've actually lost weight (gotta love that!)

The girls and I met my parents at Indro to have a Father's Day get together and cup of coffee which was very nice. Now I'm going to take the girls to the park for some bike riding and fresh air. It's a bit flat without DH around though. I have spoken to him though, he arrived in Cape Town on Friday evening and restarts his course at University of Stellenbosch on Monday.

A Precision Nutrition Day of Eating

Meal One: scrambled eggs, broccoli, beans and snap peas, slice of low fat cheese and good handful of almonds
Meal Two: Slim Secrets bar and apple
Meal Three: oats, protein (whey), milk, berries (raspberries and strawberries in liberal amounts), pumpkin, cauliflower and carrot soup
Meal Four: 150g cottage cheese and 2 cups mixed steamed veggies
Meal Five: pumpkin soup and nuts
Meal Six: salmon and grilled asparagus :)

Training and Eating for the day.

For Stacy, here is what I ate and how I trained today.

My eats:

Meal One: 2/3 cup oats cooked in water with 1 scoop Ladybird Tone and 1/2 cup skim milk on the top. Yummy and creamy and vanilla scented.

Meal Two (post workout): kangaroo chilli con carne, 1/2 cup brown rice, 2-3 cups steamed veggies :)

Meal Three: baked apple with cinnamon on top of 200g reduced fat natural yoghurt and sprinkle of protein powder

Meal Four: packet of Steamfresh Veggies - carrots, corn, beans over 125g creamed cottage cheese, sprinkled with paprika, microwaved Plus 2-3 rice cakes with tuna, cottage cheese and as many veggies as I can fit on them ;)

Meal Five: Fruity chicken curry (as prepped from "Survival from the Fittest" -only change is I used half low joule chutney, half regular, and added an apple and some sultanas instead), 1/2 cup brown rice, 3 cups steamed veggies

Meal Six: piece of fruit and a paddlepop (this is my Thursday night treat as I stay up late watching Heroes, Lost and The Amazing Race- and I get hungry )

As you can see I am not one to promote a low carb existence!

Training today: "moderate" day. After hammering myself in RPM and upper body training, I did 40 minute easy run (5.30 min ks) and 35 minutes leg and shoulder training - moves included cleans, leg press and a great divebomber/BOSU shoulder press combination

Weekly Wrap Up

I can't believe it, I've trained seven days in a row this week. Time for some well earned recovery this week. I've taught four RPM classes, a Bodystep, done two runs and 3 strength training sessions. Apart from some hamstring DOMS that I keep telling everyone about, I'm feeling pretty good right now.

My eating has been pretty good too - lots of vegetables, lean protein and plenty of water. I did make the mistake of letting myself get too hungry yesterday though - I came home and wolfed down a peanut butter sandwich before I realised what I was doing. Rather than beat myself up for eating "off the plan", it is simply a case of "plan ahead next time and just keep going!". My relationship with food has completely changed - it used to be "I've blown it and I'm a failure"(and keep on overdoing it some more) - now it is more about being more intuitive - "how am I feeling? What does my body need?" Gosh that salad looks delicious...mmmm". It's only taken me a few good years to get to this point where I can say now that I truly "walk the walk" as well as "talk the talk".

This week I'm rejigging my training and starting an Alwyn Cosgrove Hypertrophy Program. Miss G is begging me to take her to the gym tomorrow. I would rather have a day off, but I will see what happens in the morning. Tuesday could be an even better rest day - meet up with DH for lunch in the city and swan around Borders for a few hours :) What could be nicer?