Making My Mind Up!

I was going to find a photo of Buck's Fizz, but I decided that I don't want to inflict that upon any of you that read this blog, so I'm going Blankety Blank instead.

I made a decision tonight, that is I'm not going to compete in the INBA titles in Brisbane on the 17th May.

I hate admitting it, but a lot of the reason is financial - we've just made our first drawdown for the house and we're thinking of sending the girls to Ipswich Grammar next year. When I added up the cost of joining the INBA, the entry fee, the tan etc, I just felt that what I would gain from the experience would not be as worth as much to me as that money will be going somewhere else.

A lot of people often pull out of a comp because of insecurity about how they are looking - in my case, this couldn't be further from the truth. I look amazing, I am fit, I am toned and I cannot wait to have my photos done with Dallas on the Monday following the comp! Everytime I pass my reflection in the mirror (after checking out my biceps of course) ,I marvel and smile at how good I look and feel (especially after sleeping in this morning).

Over dinner tonight, I reflected on if my decision would change what I ate tonight. No, things went on just as normal.

I can't wait to see everyone at the show and I cannot wait to show everyone my photos.

Handy Hints for Figure Competitors

The whole comp prep thing has given me a few learnings I will share with you,

Here goes:
* Expect people to ask you if you eat a lot of tuna. I don't know why tuna, especially the canned stuff is associated with fitness loving types and bodybuilders. Except for my Paleo Tuna Patties, I have yet to crack open a can for the sake of it.

*Expect people to ask you why you're not massive when you say you are competing in a Bodybuilding competition, especially as a natural athlete (yes, this week I'm an athlete again, thanks Kek!)

*Expect your leanness to be scrutinized by all the other gym members. This week I've taken to wearing my CAnterbury compression garments from head to toe. I'm hoping to be mistaken for Libby Lenton instead

*Expect that your own perception of your body will change - all of a sudden you'll take a liking for flaring your lats in public bathrooms and secretly flexing your biceps in the lift. You'll be checking yourself out every 5 minutes, looking for changes. This is exhausting, so my take is to get on with it.

*Expect to question yourself about how much work and discipline you're putting in for fifteen minutes on stage in a skimpy bikini. This one runs through my head a bit. But I am keeping on keeping on.

*Expect a few bumps post comp, but have a plan - me - moving on to other things in my training and still very committed to eating well for the long term.

Training Update:
Yesterday: 50 minute run @ 11.2km/hr felt good, back/triceps
Today: Chest/biceps + easy pace elliptical 35 minutes. I have hard hard workload tomorrow so the cardio was kept to a minimal level.

Don't Open the Door and the Charter of Laws

"Slinky Malinki was blacker than black, a stalking and lurking mischievious cat" - Slinky is one of my favourite children's book characters - he's also a bit of a "Criminal Cat" which is a family nickname for me as I've had one too many speeding tickets in the past - pleased to say that I haven't leadfooted it for awhile...

Lynley Dodd also wrote a second Slinky book called "Open The Door" and my post today is about NOT opening the door in and letting the Food Beast or your Inner Gollum into your psyche to play games with you. The Food Beast is a sneaky creature and it is always waiting, whether you are in comp prep mode or not ..." you're tired, you deserve this", "here, eat this it will make you feel better". The Food Beast is elusive and will strike when you have let your guard down, let the door open and make you believe that you're suggesting negative eating behaviour which in turn leads you to beat up on yourself when you "fail" yet again.

The take home message is not to let your guard down, to stay awake and to understand that even "moderation" has its own set of rules. Moderation is not about going hell for leather in the kitchen because the Beast has masqueraded as your Higher Self and suggested that intuitively, you really need the sugar fix. Decide how you're going to live and stick with it - make a Charter of your own Laws! Today, I'm feeling particularly tired and when I get really tired, the door begins to swing open. In the spirit of keeping it firmly shut, I'm off to have my planned dinner and some fresh fruit for dessert.

With a competition so close, this Criminal Cat is staying on the right side of her own Charter of Laws....

So what's your Charter?

Circular Thinking

I remember having a chat with Jo Rogers ages ago about how when someone competes, usually something major is happening - for her I remember "something always died" and the first time I competed the house got flooded and we had to move into a hotel with very limited facilities the week prior - think my emotions were on a knife edge then and thinking about it is a good reminder of how important it is to stay level and keep a good perspective about everything.

At the beginning of the week I was having a circular argument with myself as to whether you could call bodybuilding a sport - after all it's not a test of power, strength, speed or endurance (though on this point I could beg to differ!) - you're simply judged on 'how you look' and unfortunately it doesn't seem to be uniform across all federations or even within the same federation which makes it all rather confusing. Part of my brain tells me that I shouldn't consider it a sport - but then I think of the hard training we put in and think that I would be doing bodybuilders and figure gals a huge disservice by suggesting that in doing this activity that they're not athletes. I think of the likes of some of the girls around me who have really dedicated them who have really dedicated themselves to whacking on the muscle and decide that how could they not be athletes given the intensity and focus of their training? So as you can see, prepping for a show has the ability to mess with your mind!

Kek wrote a great post about "Fit to Travel" and I have to say I agree with her. I started off by taking some pre prepped meals but eventually I ended up eating out with every meal - my strategy was to keep carbs low if fats were high (ie had salmon and vegetables a lot!) and vice versa. I walked everywhere and arrived home lighter than before I left. I had the choice whilst away of "stress out about your eating and send cortisol levels through the roof " or "take a chill pill, be moderate and level". Option B works better for this little black duck.

Today's training - got some chest and biceps in (yeah!) and a good hard run where I dug out a nice little niche just under anaerobic threshold and went for it for 20 minutes. Have added a 30 minute relaxed walk to most days as well which is helping to keep my mind clear (apart from when I'm engaging in planned gas release at airports and circular athletic arguments).

Everybody's Free (to feel good)

Today I was reminded of how the mind can influence the body - if you think positively, I think you move better!

I would be telling a complete and utter lie if I didn't say that getting into competition shape is occupying a lot of my thoughts right now - in fact I've never been this close to a competition and been so heavy before! I have to add the disclaimer that although I think I look like a skinny minny right now, the concept of being too fat right now is hysterical. I think Katie P lovingly refers to it as Stage 3 of a comp prep. Meanwhile I continue to paddle around in the illusion that I've added more muscle - one thing I do know is that I've added silicone since last time - hope that counts for something!

In fact this prep has been the weirdest one ever - I haven't had the luxury to give this one as much focus as the last three - in fact, the comp sometimes has had to go on the bottom of the priority list whilst I have tried to get other things done. I'm not even training like a competitor - taught RPM and Bodystep today (which was awesome) and my weights consisted of core work with a client and a few sets of push ups. I've been off the upper body work due to the cranky shoulder and every time I decide to hit my legs, I get asked to teach a class. There has been little, if any extra cardio apart from teaching classes. The end product sure is going to be interesting.....

So training wise was a big cardio load today - I had energy to burn today, felt fantastic. I'm still eating in the Paleo style but had a big chunk of cheese last night in my omelette - just felt I needed "more". I don't seem to react at all to dairy products.

Visited the physio today and am hoping to get some sort of training in tomorrow...

Correct Use of Frankenfoods

I had a great weekend in Sydney attending FILEX - here I am with

Miss Selina getting in some posing practice and being generally silly. It has been a long time since this little black duck went to FILEX and it was a really enjoyable experience. I chose a rather diverse series of lectures but enjoyed the exercise phys related ones the most - seeing the Krebs cycle again was like meeting an old friend.

I started early, catching the 6.30am Virgin flight down to Sydney with Shannon, had an awesome second breakfast with her and Kerryn and after the first lecture, kicked back at the bar and looked at the water and shared a Diet Coke - was a lot of fun.

Kerryn and I shared a room at a hotel near the Convention and after my first planned snack was devoured we ate out for the entire duration of the convention, the most hilarious part being the restaurant we went to on Saturday night - the meal I ordered of salmon and steamed veggies came presented like one of my everyday Paleo meals - so much for a planned indulgence. I made up for it last night though with some superb cookies and cream icecream..those Danish icecream makers know how to get it right!

The Expo was amazing - I came away with a pair of workout pants and a pink kettlebell!

There were lots of displays there, many many samples of protein bars, which to me are Franken foods (ie foods made of chemicals that masquerade as food) - I ended up having a rather large bar for afternoon tea yesterday which upset my tummy big time. Protein bars give me really horrible stinky gas.

My flight back home was late and the airport was full of obnoxious football players who were carrying on in the waiting lounge. As I walked past them, it was the opportune moment to relieve myself of some protein bar steam. I am childish enough to admit I had a bit of a chuckle when they all started arguing over "who farted". Flight home was uneventful and gas free :)

Taught RPM today, over and out!

Travelling Foolosophy

After my "trundling" post yesterday, I was thinking about how to keep the focus alive to see it through to the end and the thought occurred to me in the middle of teaching RPM - focus on discrete areas of performance and the rest will follow. Here I was at 7am sprouting some "foolosophy" on the class. It is not enough to want to come in and "look better", though "looking better" is an undeniable and valid reason for wanting to join a gym, but in the context of my RPM class, riding for "better legs" doesn't really give you a lot to grasp on in terms of performance. However, increasing resistance to improve your climbing, working on your cadence and your transitions are all concrete goals that actually lead you to naturally looking better anyway and you didn't have to *think* too much about it. It's the same with nutrition, focus on your meals with intent, rather than just say "I want to eat, so I lose body fat" - focusing on improving aspects of your eating eg more vegetables, less processed crap leads to the same effect as the concrete athletic goals - looking better.

Psychologically speaking, if you take the time to look after yourself - eg "I will go to sleep at 9pm" rather than "I'll try to get to bed earlier"...same result will happen.

This applies really well to comp prep - today I focused on teaching decent Bodystep and RPM classes , I made a semi paleo curry (semi because it has dried fruit in it), I ate my planned meals. I learned new Bodystep for tomorrow. I can rest easy knowing that my work is done for the day - and that I'll be improving never the less - you know, DO, not think.

Trundling

"Trundling" is the only word to describe where I'm at right now. I equate it to being at the 16-17km mark in a Half Marathon race..you're in No Man's Land - even though you've run 16km, you've still got another 5km to go - and when you've got tired legs, that can seem like a long way off.

I've done a fair chunk of the work, now it is time to see it through to the end. Focus, girl, focus! I'm faced with a few obstacles - one is my left shoulder, which is really cranky, accompanied for good measure by my fifth rib - I must have impressed Louise today when she was working on me by saying "what are you doing to my fifth rib?" - she counted and sure enough she was at the junction of 5th rib to one of my thoracic vertebrae (I'm not smart or lucky enough to remember which one - probably T5?). Therefore any training or posing practise..limited for a few days.

Time to keep on keeping on :)

Anyone interested?

I have a "Chicken or Chocolate" T Shirt from Monica Brant's site for sale. It's a size M but a small make, fits an 8-10. I have worn this shirt all of once and paid $25.00 for it. I'm selling it for $12.00 so if anyone is interested please email me - postage is extra. I also have a tub of Ladybird Whey - Cookies and Cream 500g for sale that expires at the end of July for $19.00 (cost price) + post if anyone is interested in that as well.

****EDITED TO ADD - BOTH ITEMS ARE SOLD, THANKS! ********

Se a vida e (That's the Way Life Is)

"Come outside and feel the morning sun,
Se a vida e` I love you,
Life is much more simple when you're young.
Come on essa vida e`
That's the way life is, that's the way life is...
Although we see the world through different eyes
We share the same idea of Paradise
So don't search in the stars for signs of love
Look around your life you'll find enough"
(Tennant/Lowe, Pet Shop Boys 1996)

Looks like I'm on an official Pet Shop Boys bender this weekend. They're quirky and I love their off beat lyrics. I like this little reminder to keep things simple and to focus on what is most important!

Today's been a bit of a topsy turvy one - I got on the scales and didn't have to do a Shelley - no "wrong way dickhead", weight was exactly the same. However my tummy was pretty grouchy about the onslaught of the wheat and has been letting me know about it for the last 12 hours or so. I was quite surprised that there was no spike, maybe tomorrow, hee hee. I prepped all my gear and CDs to take to RPM only to get to the gym and find my CD cases were empty - I'd organized the cases but not the CDs! Luckily I was able to adlib with another release that was lying at the bottom of my bag - though it was only seven tracks instead of nine, so I had to repeat two - I jokingly called them "mental toughness" tracks.

Then I went and trained my back and shoulders which went well, shoulders a bit grumpy (to match my belly) and went to shower - shock horror, had forgotten to pack my undies yet again - it was off to Lorna Jane to buy a new pair of undies - fittingly I got a pair that say "never say never!" on the front which gave me a bit of a giggle.

Finally it was off to the supermarket to buy things for breakfast tomorrow (my sister turns 30 and we're having a brunch) and lamb for a Massaman Sweet Potato and Lamb Curry which is going to sister in law's tomorrow night. Got the curry stuff sorted but forgot the orange juice!

Now the curry is made and festering I've had a chance to sit down and catch up on blogs. It is funny how your taste in blogs changes over time, with your goals and own growth. I remember when I started blogging in 2006, there was a 'core group' of us Aussie Figure Competitors - it's been fun to actually meet all of these people and add new bloggers to the list along the way - I highly recommend blogging as it's a great way of making new friends and meeting likeminded people. I would love to keep expanding my reading list so if anyone wants to share, please leave a comment!

Kneading a Day Off

The whole week has caught up with me because I slept in until after 9am this morning! I spent the morning pottering around the house making hot cross buns - I have never made these from scratch and after assembling all the ingredients and mixing the initial lot together, I had to knead the dough for a good 15 minutes - what a workout! Then there was an hour and a half to let the dough rise, another 5 minutes of kneading, another 30 minutes for the second rise and then there was making the crosses out of a flour paste and cooking them. They turned out amazingly, even better than the store bought variety. I enjoyed one for lunch today - and then another 1/2 for arvo tea later on after Good Friday service - hot cross buns are one of my favourite things but they sent the old carb score skyrocketing to over 60% intake today - even though my calorie intake is pretty moderate (there wasn't much room for anything else after the buns), I am sitting here as full as a goog.

Given the wacko carb ratios, I can almost ascertain that there will be a "Wrong Way Dickhead" movement tomorrow on the scales - but I know that tomorrow's RPM class will be a real smacker!

Better behaviour...

Thought it might be fun to put a Pet Shop Boys cover up to signify better behaviour today - it's amazing what a good night's sleep will do for one's perspective. Got my training in today, taught a good step class this morning (though I left my brain at home in Track 6) with plenty of intensity and made sure I got my strength training in, so I'm a happy girl. As well as all the 80s rockers with long hair, I'm a bit of a diehard Pet Shop Boys fan - in fact their mix of "Go West" was our "going away song" at our wedding! You see we purchased the "Very" album and must have listened to it for 10 months straight during our Canadian sojourn.

I hope everyone has a very safe and blessed Easter. I'm sure I'll be blogging over the weekend - but not until I've done some training and honoured my intentions by eating well and getting plenty of sleep!

Taking a Chill Pill

Today has been one of those days where I have officially decided that I need to take a "chill pill" - tired, cranky, full of leg DOMS and feeling like I'm not going to be lean enough "on the day". However the wiser side of me knows not to buy too much into emotions, especially when one is tired. The wiser side says, "one meal, one workout at at time". The unwise side of me says, "is it time for Indian yet?" The wise side replies and says "you will get your Indian in due course, my young apprentice".

Got some training in, taught RPM this morning but felt a little lacklustre - more due to leg DOMS (bitch, moan, whine!) than anything else.

Loving the Loser

Before I get to the meat and potatoes of today's post: Training - done - yeah! Eating: great, but feeling a bit peckish today..this will pass.. one of the trials and tribulations of competing..you can get hungry but it passes with the next good meal.

Today's post is all about celebrating imperfections and failure. Because if we didn't have failure, what incentive would we have to achieve anything? Failing and being less than perfect is really important for long term personal growth.

I don't have enough fingers, nor toes to count the number of times I've failed at one thing or another. I don't have enough fingers or toes to count the number of times I've failed at ONE thing only. The greatest measure of success I have is that I failed enough times to finally do something about it (losing and keeping my weight off is a great personal example). Once I realized that nothing changes if nothing changes I was able to set myself to the task of losing 35 kilos. I am still a work in progress as I continually learn about living lean and loving life. The biggest difference between those who succeed and those who fail again and again is the response to failure.

Beating yourself up for making a mistake never works. I am guilty as charged when it comes to this - taking a step back and finding perspective...hard work but priceless. Recently my Inner Gollum and had a field day with me - I overate due to an underlying emotional driving factor - looking from the outside it appeared that not only had I "failed" my training regime, I also "failed" for a moment with my eating. Following on from that (and from what most people do) I should be now labelling myself as a fat disgusting pig...WRONG. Winning from this experience means looking at what I was thinking before I took the first bite and evaluating or disputing its' validity. And once I've worked out what went wrong and what steps I can take in the futre to diminish the likelihood of reoccurrence, I can then take a big step into the light, say "NEXT!" and get on with it.

And that's EXACTLY what I did. Dave calls it "failing forward".

The END.

Nothing Changes if Nothing Changes

Got up and TRAINED today!!! Yes, that's right - you all read it here first....Liz actually trained!

I did an elliptical workout this morning and did some leg training - kept it really simple.

1) Romanian Deadlifts - 6 x 6
2) Barbell Back Squats - 6 x 6

DONE!

I must say I was pleased with my squats this morning - some days are just gold in the gym where the load and the technique are good together. Am pleased to say that this morning was one of them.

Today I am remembering that "nothing changes if nothing changes" - so in the spirit of doing something different, I trained at Toowong today where all of the equipment is slightly different and I pushed myself a lot harder than I have - so it's all "different" today. I'm just hoping that the DOMS won't be too bad tomorrow morning.

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Paleo Tuna Patties

By popular request:

1 big tin tuna in springwater, drained
2-3 egg whites
shallots
semi dried tomatoes, the fat free kind
coriander (if you want Thai flavours, a smidge of tomato paste and basil if you want Italian style)
chilli (if you like more kick)
diced capsicum
20 g flax seeds (linseed) ground
sea salt and pepper to taste

Mix the whole lot together and make patties - I make them in egg rings and get about 9-10 patties out of each lot. Obviously once I have em in the egg rings I cook them until browned on each side. One patty from memory is mainly protein and in the order of about 75 calories. I have been having two of these on top of a big green salad with lots of other vegetables added to said salad. If you want to keep the Italian theme going, add a splash of 4 star balsamic vinegar.

Hope that helps everyone out!

Focus on your thinking, change your results!

I was reading Carolyn's ramble and realized that it's been quite a long time since I've been the "fat chick". My journey started on Australia Day 2005, when I decided that I was going to not only change my body, that I was going to change the way that I thought about myself and finally step up to the plate and be the person I truly was, rather than hiding it it in shame behind a layer of fat or in my case, several layers of fat .

For me, being the person I truly am meant to be was firstly accepting where I was in the whole journey and then who I was. I've lived in the shadows of a fairly extroverted family - not that I wasn't loved or encouraged, but a lot of the time compared to all of the hilarity going on around me, I felt that what I had to offer was bland and boring - part of my transformation has been knowing that it is OK that I can be more on the serious side, introverted and reflective. I often have my best revelations in these moments of quietness. However I love people and love to share in the journey with them as well.

Over the past four years my world has been full of different thoughts and perspectives about all sorts of things that's finally led me to where I'm sitting today, six weeks away from another Figure Comp.yikes! I feel that transformation and personal growth for me occurs in layers and this time around has been yet another experience entirely.

For a start, I've had the swelling joints issue to deal with - the results say probably viral, but have noticed a strong correlation between ingestion of processed wheat products and swelling. So for the first time ever, I have eliminated a food group and embraced the Paleolithic way of eating. I've ditched most food and drinks with artificial sweetener (apart from the odd Diet Coke - I had my first can in about 3 months yesterday at the movies). I'm reading more labels and noticing the insane number of fillers and preservatives that go into so many commonly eaten products and believe that none of this stuff can be possibly good for you.

Secondly, I haven't used a formal training program - why? - because I've been focussed more on moving better and looking after my shoulders, SIJ and glutes. Then I've been trying to fit it in around clients - so often I'll have a look at myself and decide there and then what needs work. Better movement is still the number one priority for me, show or no show.. Cardio works out between 30 minutes and an hour depending what I've got on that day, 4-5 days a week. Usually there are 3 x 30 minutes and 2 x 1 hour.

Thirdly and most importantly, I have a different perspective on this one to previous efforts. I know realistically that I probably won't win or place, given that I just don't have the symmetry or the muscle to be a top figure athlete. My reason for doing this is to honour myself with the values that I hold dear and that I try to instil into my clients - discipline, focus, concentration, perspective, personal growth and seeing the job to completion. I'm looking forward to being up there with the biggest smile ever, to celebrate getting to the end and staying true to my values the whole way through.

Even though I didn't get a stitch of training in last week, I'm going to look very positively towards this week and have loosely planned out my training week - after all to hit a goal well you have to prioritize it. I did a bit of cooking today and am set to go there as well. I made these awesome Paleo tuna patties that I've been enjoying all weekend. I plan on losing 0.7kg this week to bring me to the 5 week out mark. That will happen by Saturday.

Yesterday was fantastic - really enjoyed teaching RPM and having Lia, Dori, Lindy and Tara in class to "enjoy" it with me. I am really loving the High Performance format at the moment even though there was a moment there I was thinking ,"oh no, still two tracks to go!" I chose a few favourites, "Silence" by Sarah McLachlan, "Human" by The Killers and "Blood is Pumpin'" by Serrano et al. It was great to catch up with Lindy O, Shelley, Katie and Shannon afterwards - uplifting to be around like minded people!

We all really enjoyed the movies last night - we've all been making a lot more effort as a family to do things together and this was a fun movie to see.

RPM Catch Up

From Back (Lto R) - Me, Lindy W, Tara, Front: Lindy O, Lia, Dori

Hmm what a bunch of fresh faced fit looking chicks getting ready to have Vietnamese after RPM Hi Performance and no red faces anywhere. I'm beginning to wonder if I didn't work them hard enough!

Seriously, everyone is looking so good, so fit and sharp and it was wonderful to see the results of everyone's fit lifestyles. We were also joined later by Shelley, Katie and Shannon, so it was quite a rowdy table and really good fun.

I'll blog a bit more over the weekend but now it's back to Indro again to see "Monsters vs Aliens" with the hubster and the girls. I promised I would pack some healthy popcorn, so I'd best get to it!

Not feeling like a competitor this week!

I should title this post, "you make plans and God laughs", which is exactly what has happened to me this week. One of my daughters has been sick with the dreaded lurgy which has meant me taking the entire week off work and doing very limited training. This has left me, naturally feeling like "what the heck are you doing with only 6 weeks to go and not training?" Then I remember that most of it is nutrition side of things being the most important thing right now, with the training being an added bonus. My motivation is to see this thing through properly to the end, enough said. Right now, I am the biggest I have ever been at this stage of the game at this time out, so there is probably some major work to be done. My issue is not seeing myself as being too fat, mine is in seeing more leanness than there probably is - which means it must be time for a round of photos - camera never lies!

I'm looking forward to Saturday though - I get to dish out some RPM punishment to Lindy and Lia plus I get to catch up with Dori and Lisa and some other bloggers to name a few. We're going to head out and have Vietnamese afterwards. I can't wait - so if there's anyone else that would like to join in the party, please let me know.

Hmm , what else - heard a very interesting talk on Sunday about some themes that underpin Christianity and how they apply to the athlete. There were four key points that I found pretty interesting. They were a) dissatisfaction - everyone, no matter what their station in life suffers from varying degrees of dissatisfaction - whether you're rich, poor or somewhere in the middle. In the athletic sense you are always striving towards betterment and if your performance is not up to par, in creeps dissatisfication.
Then, b) discipline - this refers to the point that human beings love discipline in order to live a full life. I know I've mentioned this before - along the lines of why a society without rules doesn't work. Lack of discipline works against the athlete - "sucking it up" and getting on with the job, no matter what it entails seems to be important for success both in athletic endeavours and with life in general. Then there was c) "trust" - in the Christian sense, that is trust in God - and for the athlete, it is "trust" in the plan. I've experienced the benefits of both - call me superstitious, but my prayers do get answered, sometimes though the answer was not what I expected. Finally there was d) gratitude and connection with the poor - to help you to be grateful for what you have and what you can do. Gratitude about how your body works is important for it to work well. My physio said to me when I complained about my shoulder once - "but you're nearly 40 years old and you've never had anything go wrong before this!" It was a great reminder to be thankful for how well things do work.

We all have a tendency to focus on remembering the immediate past, so if injured you will focus on the injury, not how well the body has served you previously.

Wow, I don't know where all that came from! Therein lies my lesson - I just wrote about the week not being to plan - no it hasn't been but I've got other things out of it, so it isn't all for nothing.

Catch up and questions!

Whew, much busier week than I had anticipated -every time I had a chance to write a post, something came up.

Got in a decent amount of training in by my standards, including a fantastic de dorking by Miss Jo - my posing is pretty rusty but it was a lot of fun to go through it again, accompanied by the beautiful Miss Selina. All good! I've enjoyed five days of maintenance and beyond calories - still mainly Paleo eating ( there was a yummy Vietnamese rice paper roll in there on Thursday) but just a whole lot more - am just loving it right now. This week has been one of visual change but not much scale movement, even had a spike-a-roo in there. Going into the six week out mark is the next sign that the foot is firmly planted on the accelerator this week. I've had a lot of recovery over the weekend as well and I'm ready for this next phase. Then it will be determining when and where to have a planned indulgence meal. I'm thinking of taking hubby out to Vietnamese again - it really is delicious!

Now on a totally unrelated topic, I would love it if you could all post your comments on this blog telling me what you think of sending your kids to a private school vs a government school. We are at the stage of deciding on secondary education for our girls. I went to a government school for primary and a private girls' school for secondary (Catholic school). Although I am Catholic, I don't feel like it deepened my faith in God. I feel that this sort of thing comes from how you live at home.

I'm more interested in my girls having the opportunity to be able to do and learn what they need to in order to be successful in their chosen career path/s - which was one thing my school lacked....so I'm considering Grammar schools, which I believe are more focused on academic achievement. My eldest daughter is quite good academically (and is in a gifted/talent project at school right now).
If anyone has been to Brisbane Girls Grammar or Ipswich Girls' Grammar please post your experiences. I would find it really helpful. We also have a government school nearby with an excellent reputation except the number at the school is well over 1000 students. The cost of sending them to the Grammar schools is in excess of $10K per year, so we want to know that we're making the best decision for them. So if anyone can weigh in, I would so appreciate it.

Moderation for Cake Lovers

After reading Kerryn's post about the fruitcake figure chick, I decided to weigh in on the old concept of moderation myself. Being in action mode is definitely highlighting to me what I need to do exactly to get competition ready. I've written a bit about my experience with Paleolithic type eating and I've seen the effects of all types of nutrition regimes on my clients - so I'm feeling quite qualified to throw my two cents worth in.

To me, total moderation and total balance is a myth, unless you're the Dali Lama. We're always in a state of flux and moving towards a goal, or simply paddling to keep ourselves from giving into the current and going downstream. Fruitcake alludes to being completely focused and that she doesn't do moderation well - she has a point where it comes to reaching a goal, that is if you are to succeed then you must devote appropriate time, attention and focus to achieving that goal. That is, the goal needs to be prioritized, and dealt with accordingly.

However, as Kerryn says, being extreme all year round isn't healthy, physically or mentally. Having a bit of "dirt" every now and again is good for the soul. Imagine not being able to share a meal with friends because it's not "perfect". The social aspect to sharing a beautiful meal cannot and should not be denied. My only caveat is that it's not a trigger food, the type where one bite is too many and a thousand are never enough.

The whole trigger food thing puts a spanner in the works for a blanket approval of "moderation". I have some great papers of some studies suggesting that sugar changes brain biochemistry to the point of mimicking heroin addicts... definitely food for thought. Trigger foods can be equated to being pushed off a building, you just have to take one bite and then the rest is done for you...down, down, down you fall into a pit of hurt, hate and self loathing..all because you perhaps have unfavourable brain chemistry when it comes to dealing with sugar.

I have written several times about how baking cookies and cakes is my Achilles heel - I'm like a drug addict - I simply cannot be moderate about this stuff once I've taken the first bite. As everyone is aware, it's difficult for the drug addict to be "moderate" about his addiction. I watch for potential triggers in clients when they say "I MUST have x food" - there's the absolute coming in again or "I'm ADDICTED to chocolate"..

So to sum up I believe that you should (and can) be moderate about most things, however there are times when you should not be moderate and get a grip that x food or drink may have to be off limits for a trial period.

Gravitating towards whole foods and less stuff out of packets is the easiest way to begin I think. Cooking from scratch has more benefits (for me, that is cooking savoury stuff from scratch!) - no added chemicals, preservatives or the like.

Meanwhile life goes on - I'm sitting here being thankful that Indian is not a trigger food for me and neither is Vietnamese. We had the nicest dinner last night - go the gai larn is what I say! Yummo :)

Training is going OK and after a few days of maintenance type calories , I'm back into the swing of looking for another 0.3-0.5kg off this week.

I know I said I was busy...

I know I said I was busy, but I'm taking a break from being the House Cleaning Gnome to write about my latest news. We're building a house! It's been a long time coming as we originally purchased our land to build on in 2006, just before we got shipped off to Woop Woop - it's a lovely big block with views of the city - even if the city is a little further away than we'd like. It has been 'touch and go' as to whether we would ever build with the exploding real estate market and cost of building and then the subsequent crash. My hubby works for a mining company that recently laid off 20% of its workforce - so we had to wait and see whether we would be lucky and stay employed, or be made redundant - we were incredibly fortunate that his old job was made redundant, but that he was offered another position within the company so we are OK. It has been incredibly stressful and my heart goes out to those who haven't been as fortunate with employment as we have.

Anyway, we finally (after a false start) decided on a builder - IDH, or Individually Designed Homes - they have been tremendously helpful thus far. We have designed our own home and have been having fun choosing various things like appliances, flooring and carpet. We have decided to go with Miele appliances, expensive but we've never had any of our Miele stuff in our other houses kick the bucket - I'm rather looking forward to cooking with fantastic appliances again. The gas cooktop we've chosen even has a rather nifty wok burner which is going to get some good workouts I am sure! Hmm what else - we're going to invest in solid timber floors (another dream of mine ) - can't wait. I guess I will have to start a house blog shortly once the council plans for house and pool (yes, we're doing the pool now too because there will be limited access later) are approved.

Thank you to everyone who posted comments about my photos - as I said in my earlier posts, I didn't know if I wanted to compete or even mention it on my blog - but the support and encouragement I have received has been gratefully received at this end. It really helps to know that when you're not feeling willing, you can write a blog and somebody will be along to give you a kick in the pants.

Have had a pretty good training session today and did what I call a post shoulder PB on the bench press this morning (did 3 x10 @ 35kg) - I cannot believe that six months ago I couldn't even trace the movement with my hands!

Am looking forward to salmon and asparagus for lunch - may do both on the BBQ - this sort of food may sound plain to some, but it is simple and delicious.

Anyway, back to work - life is good!

Busy As!

Gosh, seems like the weeks are flying by these days - just stopping in for a quick blog before diving into the week with a vengeance. Everything is going pretty well, catching up on all the boring things like housework over the weekend and giving good old Gollum a bit of a slap at the same time.

Sometimes we're way too easy on ourselves under the guise of being "kind" to ourselves. For me, trolling my way around the pantry because I'm bored and picking here and there is not being kind to me, nor is it inducing me to perform better fitness wise. I guess, because I am taking such strong action at the moment that these sorts of thoughts bubble to the surface.

One of my fellow LLers, Mary L has a great way of looking at so called "hunger".
1) This is not real.... truly "starving" and I wouldn't be living in a first world country
2) This situation is temporary and will pass. You will eat again...
3) I am in control
4) There are alternatives to this behaviour. This is where the phone-a-friend strategy can work really well as can going for a walk, driving etc.

The amazing thing, when I troll for food, I'm not hungry, I'm bored and procrastinating about something - I open the door for Gollum to get in and tell me I need a "treat". Bugger that-am off to fold my washing right now!

Aaah photo opportunity!

As I mentioned in my first post of the day, Shelley and I had lunch today after meeting up at Fatness First for a bit of a walk and talk on the treadmill and then lunch at the Vietnamese. She also took some eight week out photos - we've done a couple of rounds of photos in the exact same spot in the Fitness First bathroom - we have our "posing tile" and we have to make sure that we cover the word "store" that is on the door - I didn't do such a good job here, but I will blame my height for that...or that my head needs more muscle! It's also a great reminder that even though I'm slim by most standards I'm not yet comp ready (I've been having a big case of the "smallies" this week - thinking I'm tiny and puny) - which is a good thing at where we are at right now. Anyway it was good to have a bit of a catch up - the girl is looking awesome and we're both looking forward to putting out the "big gun show" on together at the comp..hee hee.

Started with a Little Kiss, like this...

Seeing Kerryn is "Walking This Way", thought I would keep adding to the lyrics!

Taught Bodystep this morning - woohoo!!!! and trained my puny chest - it hasn't had any work for well over a year due to injury and surgery - so I gave my pecs a good reminder of where they were this morning - just home now with a belly full of oats and Melbourne Breakfast tea, so all is nice in my Universe right now. Meeting Miss Shelley for lunch - judging by her blog I'll be looking for the chick with the big guns :)

Anyway, who loves the rock band "Kiss"? I just think hairy men with make up are classic!

What I ate today

I have had a few emails/comments about what constitutes a Paleo intake - good reading includes the original "Paleo Diet" (though it should have been called Lifestyle) and the resource I have used the most, "Paleo Diet for Athletes".

Thought I'd list out what I ate today as an example in full prep mode - the athlete's book provides for one serving of grains.

Breakfast: 50g oats, 1 scoop protein powder, glutamine, creatine
Morning Tea: 200g raspberries
Lunch: 160g salmon fillet, macadamia nuts crushed, 1 cup fresh beans, 2 cups broccoli, lemon juice
Arvo Tea: 6 egg white + whole egg omelette made with half bag Woollies spinach, 2 cups mushrooms, 1 tomato , shallots and cracked pepper., 2 plums
Dinner: 150g chicken breast poached in tomato puree, canned tomatoes, 1 big bag of spinach, onion, garlic, fresh herbs, 2 cups of green beans
Dessert: 200g raspberries and a plum.

Carbs well over 40% in this example - believe it or not this just scrapes in under 1300 cals. I'm not advocating the lower cal number necessarily, but just highlighting that you can eat an abundance of food, even when in full prep.

Over and Out

Staring into the barrel of an extremely busy week and I'm going to have a 'media free' next coupla days whilst I get on top of it all - training, working, writing - am going to give any computer time that's not work related the flick for a day or so - result of the management meeting I had with my own bad self after RPM this morning... you know doing what is most important and all that :)

See you all in a day or so!

I just want the world to stay saved!

I'm a big fan of kids movies, especially when they have adult undertones throughout them. I think "The Incredibles" is one of the best animated movies I have seen in this regard and it's very, very funny. I mean, who names a supposed super hero "Syndrome"? LOL!

I'm feeling a bit like Mr Incredible today on many fronts - I just want the world to stay saved! Firstly I'm amazed at how my orderly clean home went into a state of disorder so quickly - I had everything perfect and then a cyclone, otherwise known as Life has cut a path through here this morning. I had my two RPM classes and took my time coming back to Earth and DH had lots of errands to run. The RPM classes went really well - the first one was pretty good, but the second one was a smasher!!! I often find that if I have to teach a double (which is rare, thank goodness) that the second class is often better than the first - you work out all the kinks in your teaching and you're more relaxed (probably because your legs feel like jelly to begin with)..

Secondly I've had a visit from both Gollum and the Insane Scale Leprechaun who were neither friendly nor favourable and that Incredibles Quote really resonated with me - it would be so good if we could just maintain a fantastic state of mind and then experience linear scale drops, but it's not the case - Gollum turned up with my other good mate, TOM and I expect that once they've had their jollies they'll be on the way out - but today I am feeling utterly female, hormonal and all the other good stuff that goes with the territory.

I'm looking forward to hitting my training a bit harder this week and the next job is to look at my diary and block off my training times before anything else. I have a job to do and I'm looking forward to grumbling about insane tough workouts this week.

Good Vibrations

Today I'm as "happy as a pig in mud" - put in a good solid morning trained 5 clients, and then had a very relaxing lunch with Lisa , ate Vietnamese (as per usual) and followed it up by two big mugs of English Breakfast tea, which fit the bill perfectly as it's been rainy and overcast here - it also seems as if the peeps in the shopping centre have turned up the aircon in the bid to encourage shoppers to buy winter woollies, we were all marvelling at how chilly it was inside Indro today. I missed my training today, but I am not too concerned as I am teaching double RPM tomorrow morning with Bronwyn for our St Patrick's Day open weekend at the gym. After a day off and a good rest, I think I will be jumping out of my skin at the prospect of a double whacker. I've added in glutamine now which has been making a difference to energy levels and recovery as well - I went to the supplement shop and asked for the cheapest, nastiest glutamine that was on the shelf :)

I'm also really excited because I'm going to FILEX on the 17th April and sharing an apartment with Kerryn - Selina and Amanda will also be around and I'll get to do the new Les Mills releases at the Super Workshop on the Sunday...woohoo!!! It all started yesterday when I got an unexpected delivery in the mail from Kerryn - see above. I think that I must have been channelling some Dirty Diana vibes to her and I see that it was mailed well before "Supersets" week (which I'm looking forward to next week, girls - after all I have to take my own medicine!)
So I'm looking forward to having a little date with Di later on tonight with hubs before hiding the chocolate away from him until next time..thanks Kerryn, made my day!! We got talking about FILEX and I thought to myself "I really should go...", then there is a wall post from Selina on Facebook "you really should go.." and then Kerryn going as well and there it was the old "three signs that that's it, I must sign up!" scenario. It's only 4 weeks away and I am really looking forward to it.

Off to cook dinner, I feel some chicken and vegetables tonight..yum..yum!

Thursday's thoughts

Thursday is the day that I teach Bodystep at Fitness First. As I have previously blogged, I have only just started teaching Step again after a looong layoff and I am loving it! It's such a departure from the usual training I do and classes I teach ( I know my RPM class wouldn't be too enthused if I started adding armlines) , it's got some real fun factor going on. Plus connecting with the other Step instructors (most of whom do other programs like Pump and Bodyjam) has been a hoot.

In terms of competition preparation I've just been humming along and doing what I can, whilst accepting what I can't do - brings the old "do your best and forget the rest" Tony Horton mantra to the surface. I have noticed some changes in the old lean-o-meter this week and wish that I had more muscle - I think I've been looking at pictures of all those pro IFBB girls, some of who I'm sure have pharmaceutical help as well as hard training under their belts. However, I'm a firm believer in competing naturally, so I'll leave it there.

I have to work hard at my leanness, particularly at the beginning of any prep before anything happens. That is my pattern and the good drops I'm reporting are a culmination of all of the work that has gone beforehand rather than it being suddenly the event of the day. Now I've broken through with the initial good loss, based on my own past experience, I should be able to cruise in and put in some maintenance weeks which is nice. I heard a great quote this morning: " Many of life's failures are those people who were so close to success and gave up". Can't remember who it was by but it's a good one to have by you when things aren't running as you'd like them (for me, more often than not!)

Green Day

We have an Open Weekend at Fitness First this coming Saturday and Sunday and our theme is "St Patrick's Day" - so as I do not own any green workout wear, it was time to pop over to Lorna Jane and buy something that would fit the bill - so I ended up with the green workout top you see on the left as well as a matching green headband. I did eye off the matching blue capri pants with the green and white trim, thinking they would look nice in Bodystep but decided that the top would do nicely. I also bought a long sleeved shirt and a T Shirt so all in all I think I did pretty well.

Today's workouts were along the lines of Workout W or "Where I could fit it in" between clients. I started off with RPM at 6am this morning and channelled positive energy to Carolyn who is down in Brisvegas and was doing the 6am CBD class - then it was off to train a client for an hour, then fit in some weights and some rehab stuff. Got stuck into a few tight spots with my muscle mate, did lots of pec minor stretching as well ( that hurts!), before doing a chest workout - I lifted at about 75% of max effort - my philosophy is that anything that activates a muscle is better than nothing and I'm more concerned about crappy movement than competing in the long term. Workout consisted of push ups (I love push ups), bench press (pain free..wahoo!) and incline flyes - these I still have to be pretty careful with but I am improving. THis all took about 40 minutes and then I had another client who has been having rotator cuff problems - did a little trigger point massage, stretching and pulling work and she was moving properly within the hour.
This is what I find incredible - how you can make such a difference to someone's movement patterns within one training session.

The only regret I have today was eating my oats before RPM - whilst digestively I was fine, the post workout snack I had wasn't large enough and in hindsight I should have flipped them around - I've upped my oat intake big time, though I doubt I will ever hit Shelley's fantastic oat intake quota :) Hence I was pretty hungry by the time I got home but feeling so much better after an omelette and fresh fruit.

Scale is moving in the right direction and this week I'm seeing some nice changes in the old bod.

Don't Wanna, Not Gonna'!

After having a perfect delicious dinner of oven poached fish in garlic and lemon and a rainbow of vegetables, not to mention raspberries for dessert ( the point here is that I'm not suffering AT ALL) I sat down to watch Desperate Housewives and I wrestled with Inner Gollum telling me that Paleo was boring and that the best thing to eat would be a bowl of cereal or a piece of toast and honey or peanut butter crumpets...all glutenous problem foods for me.

However he was masquerading as someone else which made it initially difficult to see it was him - he was masquerading as my body, telling me that I "needed" comfort carbs. When I looked rather dispassionately at my food log, it told me that a) I was nowhere near malnourished (calories fine) b) I was nowhere near carb depleted (despite the myth that Paleo is low carb, my carb intake was 47% of total cals yesterday) and the kicker c) that I had only eaten dinner less than an hour ago.

Using cold hard facts, I was able to determine that my thoughts were simply phantom hunger cravings - in fact the real truth was that I'd been putting off watching a DVD that is part of the Bootcamp experience - I had been finding it hard to get it to work. I managed to set the DVD player up to make it work and I got to watching an interesting program from the History Channel about the "Seven Deadly Sins". The series goes through each "sin" from a historical perspective and this particular program was about gluttony - how it seemed like a "soft" sin but how in reality, it was one of the most dangerous. eg a person in hell - gets to choose to live with one of the sins as punishment, so thinking it would be the least harmful chooses gluttony. Gets drunk and accidentally kills someone..."living hell" . Take home message I got from that one was to keep life simple, treat every now and again with gratitude and that is not just for food - it's for everything.

In the end I chose to honour myself and not go for the very foods that seem to be causing me such odd reactions - and woke up feeling much better for it. I didn't have to say "wrong way d..head" to the scales this morning - just had to get up , do my workout and enjoy the busy day of clients I had.

Workout was "D" - "Do what you can!" - shoulder is playing up and there's some crappy movement going on in there so the strength training was more rehabilitative than hardcore but I'm OK with that. I am still jumping up on that stage although my delts may not be bulging as much as I'd like.

A date gives you incentive..

I'm off to train my legs this morning. Those of you that know me well would have heard me complain about how much I dislike leg DOMS - however, I have a date with a bikini now, so I'm going to forge ahead with the job regardless. It's funny how I can handle (and actually don't mind) upper body DOMS but lower body...not so much fun for me.

Today I am grateful for some inner peace that has been a long time coming. I feel at one with the world and connected to my higher purpose. I know who I am and the role that I play so well and I am grateful for all of the clients who put their trust in me in their journeys to get lean, get strong and to love their lives as well.

Interestingly enough I think my peace has not come from some magic psychological revelation but from eliminating gluten and its close relatives from my diet. Over the weekend I have been researching food allergies as they relate to weight loss and it seems to be consistent that those who have wild spikes in scale weight may have allergies and intolerances to certain foods. It's not the first time I have had trouble with gluten - I was hospitalized in 2004 for suspected inflammatory bowel disease and as soon as I took out the gluten (not even consciously - I just gravitated towards more vegetables), my tummy improved dramatically. Now with the swelling and fluid retention I have been having lately, I've noticed a positive correlation between my Paleo meanderings and lack of swelling and retention. The one serve of grains I have are gluten free. It's all rather interesting - another thing that was discussed was allergies affecting the brain as a site and therefore having an effect on mood. This has been the most interesting aspect of the whole shebang as I feel that a light fog has been lifted from my brain.

That is not to say that I'm never going to be a Dirty Diana - quite the opposite. I always did well with any treat meal that doesn't contain processed flour etc - for example the chocolate flourless cake I had at Freestyle with the girls did not affect me one iota - neither does icecream. However at the moment, I will keep embracing my Paleo lifestyle until the swelling is completely gone - it's a lot of vegetables, but it's really not a chore or bad news when the results it gives you makes you feel sensational! And, yes, I've even had a nice little scale drop over the weekend which is an added bonus!

Contextualizing Food

Now that I'm in action, as opposed to maintenance, you may see some more content from me relating to competition preparation and training and so forth. However you're never going to see a post from me about how all I ever do now is think of food and my next meal and what my macros or even calories are going to be for the day. Whilst it is important to plan out your nutrition for a competition preparation no question, this post does not relate to this aspect of action, or body fat loss at all.

What I am talking about is how I choose to contextualize food in the course of taking action and even through maintenance. Like most of us, I don't know anyone that doesn't love eating, particularly when it's top notch, decadent, fancy, tasty food. Like Carolyn, I'm a bit of a foodie - I enjoy the good things in life - and will continue to do so. I will probably enjoy food that I consider a treat on my path to the stage. When I told others that I was going to commit once and for all to do this comp, they said "I couldn't do that, I couldn't be that disciplined with my eating" - and then the kicker, "If I couldn't eat what I wanted, I would be so unhappy - I'd be starving".

That's when I thought, "whoa!" This person was talking in real absolutes - so unhappy? Starving? Then, throughout the week whilst chatting to various clients I heard of food spoken about in almost pornographic detail - unbeknowingly, they were all "making love" to their meals in such vivid detail that their phrases could have easily been slid into a Mills and Boon novel (a few character changes of course) and nobody would have been any the wiser. Then I thought of all the times I have innocently said that I was "starving" - and came to the conclusion that I've been feeding (pardon the pun) myself a bit of bull as well. I may get really hungry but in a first world country it is very unlikely that you're ever going to be starving. Now I'm making an effort to tell myself the facts...what really is true.

My own take home message for the week was enjoy food - but put it in the right context - if your day is spent in salivation over the meals ahead, you've placed too much importance on something that may not be as important as you think it is. Where is the "most important" in all of this? Where's the rest of your life, your family, your friends? Successful weight loss or comp prep doesn't mean hiberating from the world for 12 weeks a year. Integration of all parts of your life is the key. I am looking forward to my next meal out - the food, for sure and even more importantly, who I share it with.

.........................................
Training and Nutrition
I taught RPM again this morning and managed to keep that wonderful momentum I felt yesterday going through today's class. What helped me the most I feel was a more deliberate than usual shift of focus to the participants and the whole coaching process. When I hear the groans and the "yahoos" and see the smiles, I feel so uplifted. Same for all of the clients I see - in some cases I've started off with one and inherited a whole family...it is too cool.

Nutrition - all going well - eating a truckload of fruit and vegetables to bump my carbs up to over 40% - I'm not a low carb lover, more of a middle of the road chick and now my hands are looking rather frog like - puffy on the tips of my fingers and back to normal finger joints. I think I may just be winning the swelling race! Scale has begun to catch up after the hard yards I have put in this week which a nice change.

Exercise High

Have you ever had a workout where you felt the stars, moon and all the cosmos line up in perfect harmony and you are at one with the task that is ahead of you? That was my RPM class this morning - I don't know if it is the effects of the Paleo eating or just that I "broke" through a personal barrier this morning but I just taught the best class ever. My coaching was right on song and my energy on the bike was fantastic today - not to mention that every single participant rode like a demon - it was if we were all one and just giving the whole shebang a massive hit out! I am so grateful for this light after the few weeks I've had of not-so-stellar anything with the weird swelling and achy joints going on.

Followed it up by a new client assessment and some gorgeous Paleo fruits to get my carb intake up after class (I'm embracing my inner Paleo princess). Now off to chill out and read the newspaper - it's amazing how well some of us fitness nuts can go into full on sloth mode - I do a pretty good job of it!

A week already?

I can't believe an entire week has passed and it's only 9 weeks until the INBA comp. I've done pretty well on all training and eating fronts this week - chowing down lots of good food and trying to fit in some training where I can. My left shoulder is bothering me but my magic physio, Louise, has really helped get things moving in the right direction. I did a little chest workout yesterday and I caned my back this morning in 15 minutes flat after a bit of a run. Weight has inched down by 400g - so right on track for a fantastic next week. Bring it on!

Photo above is Miss J, me, and Mrs W (who shall remain nameless for now ) after last week's Bodystep and RPM launches. The two steppers looked far more exciting than Miss Bland RPM did! I got my chance to teach Step on Thursday - new release - started off a bit nervous but really got into it by track 4.

Dirty Di to Queen of "Clean"?

Reporting in to say that I am still having trouble with swelling in my extremities and am turning into a human pincushion in attempts to work out what is going on. My joints have also been very achey - so as I mentioned in my last post I have been eating Paleo style to see if I can eliminate any variable in my nutrition that may be contributing to this. Paleo eating harks back to the Stone Age through to the period before Man discovered agriculture - the simple premise being that we're not evolved enough to eat a lot of grain, let alone any grain that has been highly processed eg breads, noodles etc etc. Paleo eating is based on what man did to survive during that period, eating unlimited quantities of vegetables and fruits (in season), lean protein, eggs, nuts and seeds etc. Dairy was limited until animals were domesticated by man..ie ever try to milk a wild yak? Didn't think so...

From the fat loss perspective, Paleo is good in that you require more energy to digest all of those vegetables and lean protein - but it's no magic bullet in that regard - rather it's illuminating in how you can learn to eat so much more and not overconsume calorically speaking. It's much easier to get your calories level out of whack with incorrectly measuring grain portions (should be weighed on a kitchen scale - my half cup of oats comes in at 56g others are at 40 - significant difference) as opposed to accidentally eating 2 cups of broccoli instead of one (unlikely as broccoli here is ten bucks a kilo...)

I'm still eating my 40/40/20 ratio of P:C:F - and when you're eating Paleo style that is a truckload of vegetable and fruit. I have kept my morning oats (50g ) and protein powder in though - a girl's gotta have her oats!

I think it's done me the world of good psychologically speaking - my head feels clear and I feel good with the world.

Not that being a Dirty Diana is a bad thing - I think it's important to be able to factor in a wide variety of good healthy foods and some that may not be in a Paleo plan. My reasons for doing Paleo are to try and nut out a health problem I'm having. The resultant weight lost will be a bonus.

Training: Yesterday: Teach RPM/participate Bodystep
Today: Chest/Serratus work (limited due to left shoulder now being hinky), biceps and putting together the beginning of my routine (now that is interesting...lol!)

What's different today?

Thanks to all for the kick in the pants to get going and do this comp! I woke up this morning to a visit from the "wrong way, dickhead Leprechaun" but all the signs are there that I'm visibly leaner. I believe that by using the scale and your body as a guide you get to learn an awful lot - so I just did the scale cackle and am looking forward to a drop later in the week.

The only thing that I did differently from yesterday when I hadn't made the decision to forge ahead, was visualize myself looking really lean and stage ready. I picked up a great saying from Dave Greenwalt , who sourced it from Ernest Nightingale - "you become what you think about most".

Competition nutrition was no different from my daily nutrition - until I have the swelling issue resolved, I'm sticking with paleo style nutrition. I'm really enjoying it at the moment and will stick with it until I decide that I'm in need of a little Dirty Diana.

Got my training in and a bit of Bodystep practice, now off to bed. All in all, a successful day.

To be or not to be?

Some of you will know that I've been toying with the idea of competing - I get enthused one minute and the next I'm "nah..don't want to do that". However, I'm thinking of competing in May for the last time at possibly the INBA and/or the ANB shows.

However, I've been having all sorts of self doubts - have I lost muscle (I'm up there 2nd from right)? I haven't been training all that consistently and I had an abdominoplasty not even a year ago - will I still have swelling issues? Plus, will my viral issues head out the door in time? I've made some really good strides this last week and am wearing parts of my comp wardrobe with ease. I've got about 4 good kilos to get to comp lean physique.

I want to do this competition solely for myself, to remind myself of the discipline and commitment we need to get into THAT sort of shape in a tiny bikini on that stage - Having not been on stage for three years has made me forget how much determination you need to get there, even with a top notch and sane eating plan.

In the meantime I'm going to work my butt off in the gym and start taking some supplements (I'm very lazy) over the next 10 weeks, and keep up the positive self talk. I can evaluate the belly situation more when I'm leaner. However, I think I'm using that as an excuse..I just need to do what Nike says...Just Do It...

I did train this morning - lower body - squats and deadlifts - just the most basic stuff - that was it and went at 75% of max effort - I couldn't walk most of last week, so thought I would ease my way back into it.

Fitness Freebie

I just discovered a new site and got myself a Free Digital Subscription to Fitness Rx magazine - US. In the interests of sharing the love with my fellow fitness devotees here is the link

Hope you enjoy!

Scale Perspective

After reading Lia's post referencing the Figure Athlete article about throwing out your scales and a few other random posts about "how the scale should be thrown away", I was saddened that this poor old measurement tool is being so maligned.

Here are my thoughts....

When the scale isn't useful -
-when you're taking a one off reading or sporadic readings eg this can include the "once a week" weigh in.
- when you're not using it in conjunction with other measurements
- if you're at a healthy level of leanness (plus you're happy with that, and you're maintaining happily without food issues ) and the sports you play don't require a weight/class or division.

When the scale is useful-

- As a means of data collection and you are taking consistent readings - eg daily, same conditions etc - the more data points you can collect, the more statistical significance you will create.
- as an adjunct to other measurements. I'm always amused when I hear that others may just use caliper measures only and throw out their scales. In the physique transformation world which I'm very familiar with, there's a fairly consistent correlation between weight and caliper readings. Unless you're using your local pharmacy, skin folds usually drop as weight does. Sometimes, there's a lag between skin fold drops and weight, but if you've collected enough data, you should be able to see where things start to meet. In other words, I've never seen, nor prepared a competitor who dropped bodyfat, but not weight to get to the stage.
- keeps you on the straight and narrow if you're in maintenance - if you're a weight fighter like myself, keeping tabs of things on the scales helps me to keep my body in check rather than me stick my head in the sand in denial.
- you can also use a weight range as a "control" in the study of your own personal data.
-much easier and more accurate for everyday people who may not have access to a skilled operator in taking % BF measurements
- cheap :)

I'm going to happily keep weighing myself on a daily basis - even when the scale doesn't reflect what you want it to see, you can use the number as a learning process or reminder as to where you want to be physique wise. I'm also going to keep combining this statistic with how good I look in my clothes - my own experience has told me I don't go wrong when I keep up this practice!

I Could have Loved You More...

Today's post title comes from Track One of the new RPM release: "I Could Have Loved You More" by Lighthouse family. As it was a "soft" launch at Fitness First (ie no Launch Weekend), I got to teach the latest RPM release by myself which was a little bit weird. I liked this one upon first listening - it has Billy Idol ("New Future Weapon" - classic Billy, if I do say so myself) and the Killers latest (which I blogged about a few days ago).

After being so swollen and fatigued yesterday, I woke to a better day and rode so well this morning that I seriously considered staying behind and doing the RPM double - there are two classes on a Saturday morning - but instead I went and attacked my back which can always do with a bit more work.

It was off then to do some food shopping with the girls and prep for the next week of Bootcamp. I hit my target of 57.9kg on Thursday before the swelling kicked in, so I'm focused on getting in plenty of water, lots of vegetables and lean protein and keeping the nutrition tight. I am going out to a 40th tonight where I'll enjoy what ever is served in moderation - after all a gal has to have a little Dirty Diana in her life and then stick to Paleo for the rest of the week. I am trying to eliminate any potential nutritional cause for the swelling by eating this way and reevaluate towards the end of the week. Luckily I love vegetables - I think I had a record 500g vegetables at lunchtime today...just felt like them!

Best be off now, vegetables to prep (though if I keep eating them at that rate, I'll have to hire a personal chef!) and some writing to do...

Testing times

Argh, have woken up again with hideous swelling in my extremities again. Looks like I'm off for more testing. I have more blood work to do next Tuesday, but in the meantime, I'm just going to try and take it easy today - have taught RPM this morning which was a bit tough on the old cankles and drove back to Indro thinking that I'd cruise in and have a shower. I was told on arrival at the gym that there was a plumbing problem and there was no water. I ducked into the shower regardless and got the last few spurts of water from the shower, thank goodness! Have four clients today and am rather relieved that I'm not stinky....

My Last Post

Disclaimer: I've just edited my last post - I realized a few hours after I had written that it sounded like that everyone who designed a training protocol or plan didn't know what they were talking about - I was having a laugh at the concept of elaborately named training plans - whether they are positive or negative , well that is up to your own critical evaluation. I am poking fun at myself because I have come up with elaborately named plans...I've even done idiotic plans, such as The Bootcamp Boogie.

This post was not intended to offend anyone or prove a point, simply it was me being amazed at how words/language can be interpreted - and I'm one of the worst offenders in this regard. My blog is about my thoughts and feelings and it's not my modus operandi to use it to offend.

If you're thinking by this stage I'm becoming unhinged, then you can rest assured that is probably the case - I'm sore, tired, mentally exhausted and feel like I'm going to lose the plot. So on that note, I'm off to bed.

Word Play

I love the English language - I love "playing on words" and unusual quotes or use of language - I love words that sound like they actually are like caterwauling and cathartic. I love language that is sometimes used out of context, I love how language can be so emotive in both the written and spoken words and wonder "how did they come up with that?" My hubby and I are always giggling at stupid words and have been known to stay up cackling all night about some idiotic word or phrase. I also love "c" words, well not all of them, but you get the drift.

This morning as I dragged my weary body to Bodystep I remembered a conversation I had with Mike last week and that was about how fitness professionals love to use big words and phrases, regardless of whether or not they were appropriate or not. Charles Poliquin and the peeps at Precision Nutrition love the word protocol - and let's face it, what's not to love about this word - I reckon it conjures up images of "program grandeur" - that even if your program (or should I say "regime" (that's my own personal favourite)) is poorly planned and executed it, every time you write about it, it sounds like it's the best thing since Vegemite on toast........

which maybe it's not. Who knows..is it just "words" or is it "training gold"??

Again, as I alluded to yesterday, adding to the soup of "I'm better than you" that, most of the time, very innocently floats around the blogging world. I have to admit, I'm guilty as charged over some of my big words and phrases - as I mentioned, "regime" would have to be right up there. I remember in my student days, my exercise physiology lecturer talking about a particular regime and thought how much sexier it sounded than a plain old plan. We give our workouts names (as all of my clients know - "Reverse Psychology Intervals" sound so much more intriguing than "train your butt off until you puke". I get even drier and call my workouts A, B, C and D - and wondered why I'm so orderly when in so many other parts of my life I'm rather, uh, random.

Today I have officially decided to rename my workouts. Today I did "Workout W" , that is "WHY the hell did you decide to train your legs on Tuesday when you knew you were teaching 3 RPMs on Wednesday and a Bodystep on Thursday" . Tonight is going to be a special "P Protocol" - that is the "pass out on my couch at 7pm tonight because I'm so tired routine". Tomorrow's exercise is going to be "M" - maybe, or maybe not! I tell a lie, another RPM class to smash (though with my legs so sore right now it may be a false hope..but sounds good anyway) in the morning.

It all goes with the territory of the human condition I guess - I was heartened to read that many other bloggers have "sideways issues" - even today as I was training a client, I looked over at a woman with a fabulous physique and had to say to myself, "looks fab, but keep training!"

I heard another interesting thought today - we don't see the world as it is, we see the world as we are - follows on nicely from my last post.

I am in the thick of learning new choreography for Step and RPM - I love the new RPM release and I love how the lyrics can be so emotive and move you. We are such meaning seeking creatures - is the meaning actually there or do we give things meaning? My favourite so far is "Human" by The Killers.

Here are part of the lyrics:

"I did my best to notice
when the call came down the line
up to the platform of surrender,
I was brought, but I was kind
and sometimes I get nervous
when I see an open door

Close your eyes, clear your heart
cut the cord

Are we human, or are we dancers?
My signs are vital,
my hands are cold
and I'm on my knees looking for the answers
Are we human, or are we dancers?"

Edited to add content..