Here Puss Puss!

That was Shelley calling me out on my leg training! We spent the day sorting out our assorted treasures to put onto Ebay, chattering away about the pussy weights I lifted and the heavy shit she smashed. It was all going to plan when she suddenly turned to me and said "are your legs sore?" I told her that I was too scared to tell her that my pussy weights had inflicted nasty DOMS and that I'm walking around like I've got a pole wedged when it 'don't belong' (thanks Nicole).

This morning's training effort went well - more hip flexor work and shoulder rehab which took about 20 minutes to get through and then I did some girly push ups pain free as well as pussy weighted cable rows using the Paramount machine and some medium grip lat pull downs. I also did a 26 (yes I counted!) minute set of undulating X trainer intervals (that sounds pretty techo).

As for the pussy above, it's of my favourite breed, the Burmese. It is an open secret that I would like to again have a couple of kitties in my life but unfortunately hubs hates cats. No win situation there.

I have just read Kerry's post about her hip (sorry to hear about the inflammation ) and it reminded me of just how frustrating injuries can be. I think that my own rehab experiences have taught me that it's a real journey - ie do things, but progress slowly without too much agenda and in an obtuse way given me the confidence that I can conquer whatever comes my way (to a point). Which is why I haven't blogged about specific goals, figuring that it's more prudent (after last year's disaster where I achieved nothing) for me to be vague about things. That way I'm not down on myself for not achieving something I wanted to do yet everything that I can do is an added bonus!

Generally I believe goal setting is a good idea and can give you a template to achieve things in a set order. However, it's not just about the end point, it's the journey in between. Some of my goals have been interrupted by random occurrences where I have veered off on a tangent and it's often been some of the best life experiences I've ever had.

No matter how tightly, factually and precisely we want to do something eg achieve a goal (Left Brain thinking), there will be some point where things will happen in a rather nebulous way that is the Universe's or God's way of telling you "it was meant to happen" - right brain thinking at it's best. I think when this happens, it's not necessarily a poor reflection of your character, there's often more to the story.

I wonder if true success is all about accepting the balance that is right for you?

Horizontal Workouts with My Husband

Before you start getting all hot under the collar, I'd like to advise that this is a strictly G rated post. Kitty, if you're reading this, I can't put the "adults only" disclaimer on my blog just yet - but who knows, one day that may come (pardon the pun).

No, today, it was decided with the move into our new home imminent, that it was time to buy ourselves a new bed and look at outdoor furniture for the new deck. I got up early and squeaked out a good run and stretch at FF Jinders as well as some pulling/posture exercises and foam rolling. We dropped the car off for its scheduled service and then headed off to Fortitude Valley to check out the homemaker precinct.

We had coffee at the awesome smelling Merlo (well I had tea, love the smell of coffee but not so keen on the taste) and then ended up at Forty Winks and ended up spending about two hours trying out mattresses and choosing a bedroom suite (we ended up with the one in the link). I have always found the concept of testing out mattresses hilarious and I commented to the salesperson with a bit of mirth that it must be an odd job selling mattresses. He replied with something along the lines of "we take our customer's sleep needs very seriously". OK, Liz, back in your box and try not to laugh, OK?

Then after all of the ups and downs of lying down on what seemed like a gazillion mattresses, we went to Meccabah for lunch. I had to use the powers of mindful eating and not clean my plate of the three cups of delicious rice that were adorning my plate! I would have certainly felt really uncomfortable if I'd eaten the whole shebang (which further solidifies the need to focus on the intuitive side of things even if you choose to log your calorie intake - there will be events/meals where you can't log them so you need to be able to learn to listen to the wisdom of your body's satiety signals and learn appropriate hunger and fullness cues when such things occur). And in long term maintenance, as opposed to short term action where a food diary can be very useful, it's more important to focus on lifelong changes to lifestyle and personal growth.

Time to go and eat a chook, lovingly made by hubs, prepared in the Stephanie Alexander tradition (I have a budding Masterchef on my hands!) No, seriously that show scares the living daylights out of me - I love to watch it, but I'd hate to be in the kitchen under pressure doing those Challenges. Yikes!

Unprepared for pranayama

In case anyone is wondering, pranayama is the technique of breathing and breath control which regulates energy flow and aims at maintaining energy balance in yoga.

Today I taught RPM, slammed down breakfast, reviewed my Step choreo, taught Bodystep then participated in yoga. It is a mix of Hatha and Power Yoga and we started with a relaxation sequence - unlike the first time, I relaxed my mind and breath straight away and was beginning to feel like a smug yogini but once we started into our Sun Salutation, and various poses within this, I started feeling really seedy. My problem? Low blood sugar it seems - feeling dizzy really dents your enthusiasm for Downward Dogs, so I quietly snuck out of the room with my apple and refueled - feeling much better, it was back to the group fitness room for the relaxation (perfect!). The above picture can mean many things, today it represents that I was feeling rather messy doing my yoga!

Now back to the picture - it's a famous "droodle" and can be interpreted in many ways. For example this picture could refer to:

• A spider doing a handstand.
• Total eclipse of the sun on a stick.
• A family of worms stuck on a toffee apple.
• A frightened mop.
• A dandelion seed making a perfect landing.
• A supermodel on a bad hair day. ( I particular like this one, because it happens to me often - the hair, not the supermodel!)

I try and think of droodles when my hubby and I talk about what's important in the house (he has been blissfully ensconced in cabling up the room we are going to call the home cinema. I hardly watch TV, so I'm concentrating on what's going in the kitchen and bathroom instead). Actually I'm pretty lucky that we agree on most decisions (though I could care less about speaker cable, just for the record).

I really enjoyed both RPM and Bodystep although my legs are still screaming from Monday's "pussy effort" on the weights (really, you'd think I was lifting monster load here, but it's woefully small) and my triceps were on fire from our dumbbell extensions yesterday (I do believe that I heard "sook" emanating out of the back corner of the group fitness studio as I did all push ups rather than tricep push ups in our conditioning track!) Hmm, I'll just have to wait until Friday to give the girl a thorough pasting in RPM (he he he)

Talk to Me (All I want is a little conversation)

Yeah, all I want is a little conversation! I was inundated with the response to my "Fierce Conversation" post and it was great to see so many people popping in a comment about things.

So inspired by my spaceman Ace Frehley (especially for Carolyn!) I've decided that I want you all to "Talk to Me" about issues you want to see blogged about (I could start with 'why did KISS have to take off their makeup - in their case makeup definitely maketh the men..) so leave me a comment or contact me via The Fitness Solution - I would love to hear from you, fitness related or not.

Today you now know that I'm a not so closet KISS fan - "Unmasked" was the first KISS purchase I made and I just thought Ace Frehely in his Spacesuit was just the bomb and I was in all of Grade Six!

Fitness and loving life wise, I've had a terrific day - started off with a cracker of an RPM class - we were small in numbers but made up for it in sweat. Then teaching Bodystep - was rather chuffed with myself for learning 5 new tracks and giving it a good caning. Miss Shelley (sans itchy MM balls) turned up to step with me and listen to me sing a poor rendition of "The Way You Make Me Feel" and then we both gave Lynne's Yoga Class a go - this was harder than I thought and my abs and shoulders got a thorough pasting with all those Downward Dogs. The meditation part was definitely the highlight and I left with a rather fuzzy warm sense of joie de vivre.

Then off to quickly slam down lunch with hubby and off to choose bathroom tiles which we did in record time before it was home to pick up the girls and take Miss G to ballet.

All that activity today has given me a wicked appetite and I feel like I haven't stopped chowing down all day which is always a bit disconcerting but it will even out in the end. But better to listen to genuine belly hunger and have a feed than to go over the edge and eat up eating a whole load of stuff that doesn't honour your beliefs or your belly!

My 6 to 3 ratio

Of live to dead fish - made the mistake of putting Angel Fish in with my Platties and now I have three Angel Fish, two Siamese Flying Fish (not the fighting types) and one Paradise Fish (called Mona - haven't named the others yet!) and no platties (they died violent deaths at the hands of Mona).

Have spent the day cleaning the house - I'm just about to mop the floors and I've done the obligatory washing and ironing. I want to be ready to hit the ground running tomorrow - RPM, leg training, work - it's all happening!

There is No Negotiation!

Oooh, I'm feeling the DOMS love today. Yesterday Shelley helped me with my training at Fitness First Jindalee and my lats and triceps are on fire today. I'm slowly making more progress across the board with my overall strength - have even progressed to holding a weight between my knees as I do bodyweight tricep dips (see pic ). I did pretty well, knocking out 2 sets of 8 with the weight. I turned to Shelley and said, "how about we just take the weight away for the last set?"

As soon as I had uttered that sentence, I knew that my timing had not been the best.

"There is no negotiation!" she said. Indeed, there wasn't! I managed to power through 4 more reps with weight and then polished myself off quite thoroughly to failure. That is the beauty of having someone to push you when you think you can't possibly get another rep in.

Rolled over in bed this morning, my lats are on fire. It's such a great feeling to be pushing the boundaries in the strength department.

Today though has been all about cardio - taught Bodystep this morning - very enjoyable and I worked really really hard (must be because I haven't done any cardio since last Saturday!) - again, you get so much more out of your workout when you give your body appropriate time to recover.

A follow on

Kerryn has written a great post this morning and I agree.

Sometimes action has to precede motivation. If I had waited to become "motivated", I would never be where I am today. There are some days, excluding injury, where you just have to suck it up and do it.

Sometimes, you're not perfect. But if you got up and gave it a crack and did something, you're achieving.

Sometimes it's hard fighting back the inner voice that says "I deserve crap" BUT it's really character building when you stay true to your core values.

I hope that today is fruitful, I learn something and I'm grateful for the good things I achieve.

*****************************************
Training today: Teach Bodystep then RPM (yes, I'm the cardio queen today...but last time I looked, I still had triceps...phew) Then I'm off to think about lifting some heavy shit myself. I've got a training partner who's raising the bar to chase!

Being a Badass

"but they say the sky's the limit,

And to me that's really true,

And my friends you've seen nothin'

Just wait 'til I get through....

Because I'm Bad, I'm Bad - Come on(Bad Bad - Really, Really Bad) " Michael Jackson, "Bad"

I was inspired by the late Michael Jackson to theme today's RPM Hi Performance to be simply all about "Being a Badass" - today I dropped the motivational cues and technique focus to just bringing it home hard and strong! Class was packed and the amazing thing was that I didn't need to give any motivational cues, the momentum just kept building over the course of the class and it was an awesome feeling being part of it. That's what I love about teaching Group Fitness, sharing the joy of movement, giving and receiving encouragement and not to mention a top notch workout!

On the subject of workouts, Shelley and I got down and dirty in the gym yesterday for our first session together training chest and biceps. Groans all round doing decline push ups with a 10kg plate on the old back and then I surprised myself with a comfortable 40kg bench press for 8 reps ( I remember 30kg being a struggle at one stage). We finished with cable crossovers and let me say we're pretty good at doing "The Incredible Hulk" impersonations doing this move. Until yesterday I thought that I enjoyed training my biceps but that concept was blown out of the window - three sets of sheer pain doing barbell bicep curls with a good whack of weight. Luckily I was not alone with Shelley at one stage whimpering "I can't" then taking a breath and roaring back "I CAN!!!!! (thatta girl, Shel!) and finishing strong. My biceps aren't too happy this morning with the DOMS setting in.

With all this training going on, my Inner Beast has been tapping on my shoulder and telling me to troll for all sorts of crap. Today my Beast has been renamed from "Inner Gollum" to "Vera Sluttinski"...ie will encourage me not to be choosy and have a stab at anything! Yesterday was one of those days where old Vera was calling out to me...."eat some crap....after all you deserve it, you've been training so hard". I had to firmly put old Vera in place by taking the line that even though sometimes I don't feel like it, I'm going to continue to eat well and that I won't wake up in the morning in a fog of regret.

Living without a 'fog of regret' is not about being on a starvation diet or never having a treat meal ever again, it's about respecting yourself enough to take a stand against the bad habits that can lead to becoming overweight and unfit. Some days making the choice to "live without regret" is the only one to make, rather than relying on intuition and your feelings. Because it's likely that your feeling for instant gratification will lead to regret later on - so work out whether it's you or Vera speaking first (put it this way, I'm really pleased I said no to the Cheezels...).

Joining the Slug Club!

Wow, I'm looking back on this week's training and can safely say I gave it a good whack this week.  This morning, I am in a world of pain!  I was grateful that we did no lower body work yesterday otherwise RPM would not have been a pretty picture.  That said I gave it everything I could muster this morning and actually started gaining a second wind on the second "Track 7".

Playlist this morning was:

"I Could Have Loved You More" RPM 42

"Hot and Cold" RPM 43

"Rocking for Myself" RPM 19

"Human" RPM 42

"Painkiller"  RPM 36

"Going Wrong" RPM 42

"Blood is Pumpin" RPM 20

"Inspiration" RPM 33

"Heaven" RPM 40

"Every Little Step" RPM 36

"Long and Winding Road" RPM 19

I know I'm having a grizzle about training, but not so secretly, I'm enjoying the push and reconnecting with what I love after a few tumultuous weeks of deciding where my life was going.

I'm also setting myself a little challenge and trying to plan ALL of my food out for a week - I have never been successful at this and I'm looking to do this more from a fiscal point of view than anything else.  Hubs and I just looked at the budget and we were blown away by the amount of money we've been spending on groceries per week.  I would be really keen to hear from everyone else what you spend on groceries.  This family of four eats $350 worth a week.  My aim is to get it down to $300.  Is this an insane amount or am I on the money and no, I won't be offended if you tell me I'm insane.

Love, Pain and the Whole Crazy Thing

Thank you to Keith Urban for the title inspiration.

Today's post is about what happens when you get a Birthday Girl and a PMSing PT, add some Surge and heavy iron.

Yes, Shelley and I trained lower body yesterday and although I was scared of starting, I was elated to get through the workout feeling so good! We did conventional deadlifts, squats, and hamstring ball bridges, polished off some bear-crawl planky things - I need a name for these and then I suggested cardio.

"Aren't you forgetting something?" said Shelley.
"What?" I replied, thinking "I'm already pasted, do you mean there's more?"
"What about shoulders, remember we spoke of training shoulders on Friday?"

What can I say, Shelley has a fantastic memory. So we grabbed two benches and grabbed 10kg weights and did a rather comfortable set of military presses.
"Phew, " I thought. "I'll get through this just fine."

"Now do you want me to spot you?" smiles Shelley.
Spotting? Uh oh, looks like this is going to get tough!

"OK, let's go".
So I grabbed the 12.5kg dumbbells. Start off well. Come on, you can do it. Six reps, looking strong. Seven or eight reps..."oh oh, I'm in trouble".
"C'mon" says Shelley.
"Grunt" says me.
"Nine" says Shelley.
"Expletive deleted....Hooooooowwwwwwwl!!!!!!!!" says I .

My turn to give her the same treatment. I'm yelling at the poor woman telling her to bring it. Then I realize that I'm really making a lot of noise in a very quiet gym and sounding like Ray "Rabbit" Warren. We had a good laugh about that!

Must have worked because I'm so sore this morning - in order, shoulders, glutes and quads. The shoulders have kicked in first but I can feel the glutes coming, especially after teaching another cracker RPM class.

Gosh training is fun!

Training Update

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

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

Hump Day

I chose this photo today because I can't wait to get outside a bit more. I'm hopeless at fishing though, just another thing I have to try before I die.

I read Andrea's journal today, she was lamenting that she had nothing to write about, as she has been laid up by injury and is feeling demotivated. I hope she doesn't quit writing just yet and jumps into the "I've got to take time out, I'm fed up, but I'm still going to write," boat with me.

I still have a long way to go before I can even think of any formal exercise, but I can close my eyes and imagine that one day not to far away in the future, I am going to be able to really kick some butt. I've been thinking of the road I took back to fitness when I lost all of my weight, and remember that it was very exciting to see the changes and improvements I was making to my fitness nearly every training session that I did.

I am still trying to work out what is going to thrill me the most, restoring my cardiovascular fitness, or my strength. It is amazing how much we use our abdominals for the most innocuous of movements. I am noticing them when I try and open our sliding door, get out of bed or lift up a carton of milk (yes, you read right!). I think, that given my strength is so limited right now, that improving it will be a real joy.

Closer to standing up straight but not perfect - by the end of the day I am swollen and hunched and sport a pot belly. At least my boobs are now always going to be bigger than my belly.....

Crikey! Take a look at these little beauties!

Child Friendly Chicken Koftas! OR "FUD", if you're a Gary Larson fan...

To make these little rippers, you need

600 g chicken breast mince

1 onion (sliced and diced)

3 tbsp Taylor's Satay Sauce

2 Slices Wonder Higher Protein Bread (made into breadcrumbs)

1 egg white

1 small carrot (sliced and diced)

Mix whole lot together and shape into koftas on soaked wooden skewer sticks (so they don't burn).

Aah, the nutrition stats: two of these little fellas come in at 25g protein, 10g carb, 4.4g fat and 185 calories. That's the fine print.

I also made Ras El-Hanout Chickpea and Tuna Patties which turned out a little smooshy, but eminently edible. That recipe still needs refining before it's blog worthy!

Here's the dish:

1 big tin of tuna, drained , 1 egg white, 120g drained chickpeas, 400g raw potato (cooked and mashed), 150g cooked and drained carrot, 1 big zucchini, Alexandra's Moroccan Ras El Hanout Spice blend (available at www.shopnewzealand.co.nz - yes, I support those over the ditch :) )

These made 14 big patties. Two patties come in at 160 cal with 16.6g protein, 22g carb and 1 g fat - these would make an excellent post workout meal - I think I am going to indulge in these tomorrow post RPM with a big side of vegetables.

Thanks for yesterday's comments - Lisa, I must say that variety is the spice of life - I started off as more of an endurance type, swung into the strength training and think it may be nice to spice it up with more endurance stuff once I'm better - I just loved the Adventure Race I did in Feb and we were pretty much running or on the road for the 3 hours we were allotted. I just want to experience as much fitness stuff as I'm able to!

Buffet anxiety

It's another post about life and learning today - I was wondering if anyone had ever experienced what I am going to call "buffet anxiety"? As part of our holiday we were fortunate enough to stay at a 5 star hotel, thanks to DH's conference and part of the stay included buffet meals at breakfast and dinner.

"Buffet anxiety" is what I call being totally overwhelmed at the choices of food available, coupled with stress of how you feel if you overdo the eating, mixed in with the sensation of "entitlement" - ie there are 10 types of dessert here, it's imperative I try them all....

I started the week feeling rather anxious about what foods lay ahead of me in all their glory. Being full of PMS didn't help my cause either but then I decided to stop and analyze the situation. There was no way I would know *exactly* what I was eating, so being anxious about what the meals comprised of was not worth my worry. Rather it was time to bring in the more intuitive side of my eating - I told myself that "I could have it if I really wanted it, but did I really want it?" I really listened to my body. Surprisingly it didn't take long to feel satisfied at all, though I had a few hits and misses along the way - some dishes I had taken a mouthful of and had decided that they weren't the taste sensation I was seeking . I was perplexed for quite a while to be hankering for fresh Vietnamese Pho Soup rather than dessert. I had tried a dessert or two and had been underwhelmed. I was worried that DH would think I was crazy to be craving Pho instead of smoked salmon but by the end of the week I had embraced my inner "Pho" princess and left feeling inspired to grow more coriander etc.

Training wise I did a rather sharp 40 minute run and trained my upper body Mike style. Mike refers to the actual strength training as "iron work"- he's not wrong - I upped all of my weights today and actually face pulled the entire cable stack, yea me :)

personality and the internet

I was reading LIVY's post about loneliness, social contact and the internet. I felt for her as I know only how awful I felt about living in Woop Woop - and Livy's personal "Woop Woop" is a lot more remote than mine was.

Some of you may laugh but underneath it all, I'm a rather introspective introvert (does that make sense). I love to hang out with like minded people, but on many days I liken myself to a crab - love a moment in the sun, but also enjoy scuttling back under my rock for a bit of solitude. I find the Internet a real haven for my INFJ (check out the Kiersey Temperament Sorter!) nature - I can interact with others in all sorts of deep and meaningful ways at my pace, my place.

Some people make the mistake of thinking that introverts don't like hanging out with others. I don't like hanging out with large groups of people I don't know. I am no party starter (OK, except in RPM), but with people who I know well and within small groups, I am passionate and intense!

To sum up, I think the friendships you can make online are really worth it. I've met so many great people in the Figure/bodybuilding area and have been lucky now to have met many in real life. That's why I'm contemplating Jen Hendershott's Phat Camp in Melbourne next year - a chance to get together and be passionate about what we're all interested in :)

Core and More....

I have just spent part of the morning revising our choreography for the new Fitness First Core Program which is launched in Queensland this week. It's been exclusively choreographed by Mike McSweeney (who originally designed Bodypump) and let me tell you, it is not an easy class to teach, nor to participate in. My hamstrings, glutes and abs will be sore for days after the pasting I gave them during our practice session.

I also ran 40 minutes at 75% Max Hr which translates into 5:15 min ks. I'm pretty happy with that. I also did some leg work.

Little pleasures!

I managed to score myself a new snazzy gym bag from Fitness First today. I have been wandering around for the past few weeks with a gym bag that was about to fall apart - being a staff member of Fitness First, I managed to score a great deal. I can't count how many "Fitness First" towels and other accessories I own!

I had a relatively light day, participating in RPM and recovering from yesterday's workout. Tomorrow I am teaching RPM "Hi Performance" which is RPM class with added tracks, hence the "high performance" part. I have been feeling very strong on the bike of late and really dialling in the load.

With the comp training, I feel I have leaned out a bit more this week, despite killer (almost!) PMS and TOM and the scale is cooperating. I am going to give it everything I have to get there (within the bounds of common sense) - I am a bit behind the eight ball prep wise, but will stay committed to my plan of action and see where the cards fall. I am hoping to contact Jadey for another photo shoot, so I need to be in tip top shape for that anyway.

I am looking forward to a restful weekend and whipping up some new gourmet concoctions to try. It's important to have plenty of variety in your intake, even when prepping. You need never feel like you "are on a diet", ugh! The two things that I really focus on remembering are "setting limits" and "effective nurturing". Set sensible limits with yourself about what you will do and how you will prepare things - and nurture yourself effectively without reaching for a donut. In my overeating days I would draw myself to certain foods as a means of "treating myself" - these days I've swapped my down time to seeing Harry Potter movies - much more fun - though my planned excursion to the cinema on Wednesday didn't come off. Always next week. :) Yeah, I know, I date myself!

Looking forward to it again!

Here I am at Qld Titles last year 2nd from the right!

Today I am feeling more settled and got in a fantastic training session. As I worked out, I really thought about my goals - wanting to nail this run and then getting back on stage next year. I cranked out a fantastic run - what I call my "run of fives" which is starting off at marathon pace and adding 0.5km/hr increments on the treadmill every five minutes for five cycles. I was running 4.30 min k's at the end and max HR achieved was still in the 155s - very happy indeed. If I can just get my glute to function properly, I will be in seventh heaven! I have not been able to run this well (and fast for me) since before Miss S was born (we are talking nearly 9 years ago) and it's a bit of a thrill really!

Then I hit the weights and did a Cosgrove type workout, supersetting:

Incline chest press and Cable Seated Row; Wide grip Lat Pull Down and Shoulder Press (I made this fun by doing "crazy" shoulder presses - on one leg using different weights in each arm) and finally Close Grip Bench Press and High Pulls. I then did two sets of cleans afterwards because I was feeling happy.

This is just enough strength training to keep things interesting whilst I am training for this run - then it will be less cardio and more strength from August onwards (gotta remember the bowling ball glutes!).

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?

Quick Training Update

I'm going to be pretty boring with a quick training update.

Today: RPM 45 mins, strength training 30 mins (squats, dumbbell rows, split squats, push ups and swiss ball crunches).

Still lots of paperwork to get through, but I'm getting there :)