Month One Down

Last day of the month and time to do measurements. Was going to get Rob to do my skinfolds today but he's been catching up with a friend from Newcastle for most of the weekend so will just post weight today.

Weight at start of year = 65.8, today's weight = 64.1 (down 1.7kg). 8.3kg to go!
I'm happy with that given that this month I had a week off training due to being sick and two days off with a sore lower back. These 'spanners in the works' are one of the reasons why I've given myself a deadline of 12 months to get this weight off. That way there's no stress about trying to get it off in a short time frame.

All going well with my back I'll be starting my new program tomorrow. I'll probably be training three times a week (as opposed to my current four times a week) but each workout includes a touch of energy systems training at the end (between 6 and 12 minutes of intervals), so hopefully that will keep things moving along. Food will stay the same for now.

Today's food
M1: protein shake, muesli, eggs
M2: spicy peanut chicken, bok choy, zucchini
M3: chicken salad, nuts
walk TJ
M4: kangaroo patty, sweet potato, mashed cauliflower
M5 (treat meal): homemade beef and bean nachos, mango and passionfruit frozen yoghurt

I will lose 10kg by 31 December

Program Goals

Lower back is feeling better today. Still not 100% but I'm more mobile than I have been the last couple of days.

---

Along with the photos and video clips I sent off to Mike Robertson the other day, I also included my short-term and long-term goals. For my short-term goals I put the following:
-get rid of the ache in my left rhomboid/levator scap that appears after weight training and swimming. Strengthen and stabilise my left shoulder (it tires more quickly than my right shoulder and subluxes occasionally)
-hypertrophy of all muscle groups (especially shoulders and glutes)

I received my first program from Mike today. He said 'I think it’s going to address some of the major issues I see with your posture/alignment. The big things I’d like to address are getting your hips stronger and doing more of the work. Right now your TFL is pretty strong, so I really want to focus on getting glute max/medius stronger. That coupled with some core work is going to go a long way.'

So it looks like I'll be getting plenty of the glute work I asked for!

He's also included lots of trapezius and rotator cuff exercises so hopefully my shoulder will get nice and strong!

The program includes quite a few things I haven't done before so I've spent some time today looking up all the various exercises I'll be doing (I'll discuss these in more detail next week).

Today's food:
M1 protein shake, muesli, eggs
M2 spicy peanut chicken, bok choy, zucchini
M3 chicken salad, nuts
M4 kangaroo patty, sweet potato, mashed cauliflower
M5 prawn salad, sweet potato

I will lose 10kg by 31 December

Friday

I slept in the spare room last night with the electric blanket on 'low' all night. Back felt much better when I woke up this morning, but still a little bit tender.

Today's food
M1 protein shake, muesli, eggs
M2 spicy peanut chicken, bok choy, zucchini
M3 chicken salad, nuts
M4 kangaroo patty, mashed cauliflower, apple
M5 tuna, caper and salad sandwich on sprouted grain bread
M6 spicy peanut chicken, carrot

I will lose 10kg by 31 December

Thursday

Did something to my lower back while walking TJ this morning and spent most of the rest of the day in bed with a hot water bottle. Not happy.

Today's food
M1: protein shake, muesli, eggs
walk TJ
M2: chicken salad, nuts
M3: spicy peanut chicken, cabbage, zucchini
M4: kangaroo patty, salad, sweet potato
M5: tuna and sweet potato patty, bok choy, zucchini

I will lose 10kg by 31 December.

Wednesday

Last Wednesday I got Rob to take my posture pics for Mike Robertson but I realised after emailing them off that I wasn't positioned correctly in some of them. So today we redid them and I sent them off along with my video clips and goals. I think I'll be receiving a program back some time this week - exciting!

Today's food
M1: protein shake, muesli, eggs
walk TJ
M2: chicken salad, nuts
M3: spicy peanut chicken, cabbage, beans
M4: kangaroo patty, sweet potato, salad
M5: calamari and bok choy with chilli garlic sauce, sweet potato

I will lose 10kg by 31 December

Australia Day

Spent a relaxing afternoon with our friends, having a barbecue and listening to music. Was happy eating my own food and wasn't tempted by the sponge cake, muffins or pavlova. I'm in 'the zone'!

Today's food
M1: protein shake, muesli, eggs
walk TJ
M2: kangaroo patty, sweet potato, salad
train upper body (workout drinks)
M3: tuna and sweet potato patty, broccoli
M4: chicken salad, nuts
M5: spicy peanut chicken, cabbage and beans

I will lose 10kg by 31 December

Ultimate Chocolate Mousse

Thought I'd share the recipe for the mousse I had yesterday as part of my treat meal.

Ultimate Chocolate Mousse
by Teresa Cutter
serves 2

In a food processor, combine 1 avocado with 1 tsp vanilla, 1/4 cup cocoa powder, 1/4 cup organic maple syrup* and 1 banana. Blend until smooth and creamy and enjoy.

*I used 1/4 cup of water and added stevia to taste. You could also use sugar-free maple syrup or agave syrup.

Today's food
M1: protein shake, muesli, eggs
walk TJ
M2: chicken salad with nuts
M3: spicy peanut chicken, cabbage, beans
M4: kangaroo patty, sweet potato, salad
train lower body (workout drinks)
M5: tuna and sweet potato patties, cabbage, beans

I will lose 10kg by 31 December

10 things that make me happy

Following on from Steph's post, here are 10 things that make me happy

1. Spending quality time with my husband. Having a good chat and laugh.
2. Having a sleep-in on a Sunday morning then having coffee (for him) and breakfast (for me) in bed.
3. Weight training. Love it.
4. My morning walk
5. Cooking and eating - not so keen on doing dishes though!
6. Reading - one of the reasons I became an editor. Rob always says if I've got a book he can take me anywhere and I'll be happy.
7. Working for myself from home and not having to deal with traffic, office politics etc
8. Blogland - love reading what other like-minded people are up to.
9. Watching movies. Like reading, it's a great escape into another world.
10. Spending time with friends and family.

Today's food
M1: protein shake, muesli, eggs
M2: kangaroo patty, salad, nuts
M3: chicken stir-fry
M4: chicken, sweet potato, salad
M5 (treat meal): homemade gluten-free chilli con carne pizza, ultimate chocolate mousse

I will lose 10kg by 31 December

Saturday

Today's food
M1: protein shake, muesli, eggs
M2: chicken salad, nuts
M3: chicken stir-fry
M4: kangaroo patty, roasted sweet potato, salad
M5: steak, roasted sweet potato, red onion and garlic, corn, broccoli

I will lose 10kg by 31 December

Friday

Rob and I both woke up hungry at 3.30am this morning. We ended up getting up at about 4am to have breakfast and walk the dog. Got my veges about 9am, then sliced and diced them all in preparation for my big cook-up on Sunday. I crashed about midday for a two-hour snooze, then got up, ate, and hit the gym before dinner and a movie with girlfriends.

All workouts done for the week. Looking forward to stepping up the intensity a bit more next week.

Today's Food
M1: protein shake, muesli, eggs
walk TJ
M2: chicken stir-fry
M3: kangaroo patty, roasted sweet potato, salad
train upper body (workout drinks)
M4: kangaroo patty, roasted sweet potato, broccoli
M5: chicken and avocado salad

I will lose 10kg by 31 December

Thursday

I woke up with a smile this morning - no sore throat and no sore shoulder. Yay! But while I'm feeling better physically, mentally I'm feeling a bit down. Taking photos always does that to me. They never represent the image of myself I have in my head. Must be positive and patient!

Today's food
M1: muesli, eggs, 3/4 kangaroo patty (ran out of pea protein)
walk TJ
M2: chicken stir-fry
M3: chicken salad, nuts
M4: kangaroo patty, mashed sweet potato, roasted broccoli with garam masala
train lower body (workout drinks)
M5: monkfish, sweet potato, salad

I will lose 10kg by 31 December

Wednesday

Wednesdays are a day off weight training for me, but I use that time to have a myotherapy treatment. I thought I'd show you what today's treatment consisted of. I had two areas of concern. First was tightness around my left shoulder blade after training upper body yesterday. Rob did some tests and told me that my rhomboids and levator scapulae were tight, causing downward rotation of my scapula. To treat this he cupped the area.

'Cupping is an ancient Chinese therapy in which a cup is applied to the skin and the pressure in the cup is reduced (by suction) in order to draw and hold skin and superficial muscles inside the cup' (source)

Rob did this to place a constant stretch on the rhomboids and levator scap to release those muscles and reduce the tightness, allowing the scapula to move back into a more ideal position.

I was also tight around my kidney area from (improperly) twisting during a dynamic stretch I did on Monday. Rob often uses dry needling but was reluctant to needle that area directly due to the proximity to the kidney, so he placed needles nearby, in my quadratus lumborum and erector spinae, and while he was at it decided to needle my rhomboids, infraspinatus, supraspinatus and levator scap.

Rob took this pic while the needles were in. The needles are superfine and you can hardly feel them going in. The red circular marks are from the cupping.



I expect I will be a bit sore tonight, but should be a lot looser tomorrow.

Also had full length posture photos taken today to send to Mike Robertson. (Not willing to post those just yet!)

Today's food
M1: 'muesli', eggs
M2: chicken stir-fry
M3: larb gai, nuts
M4: kangaroo patty, sweet potato chips, roasted spiced cauliflower
M5: Asian-style sweet potato and tuna patties, dry coleslaw

I will lose 10kg by 31 December

Tuesday

Took TJ out after breakfast this morning, which meant more big dogs around, and my relaxing walk became somewhat of an interval training session:
warm-up: walk down our street and the next one to get to the main road (TJ off lead)
medium intensity: clip TJ on the lead just before we get to the main road, then get dragged down to the lights
recovery: stand at the lights until we get the 'green man' to cross
medium intensity: get dragged the rest of the way to the park
recovery: walk through the middle of the car park (not much for TJ to sniff at here)
high intensity: get to the point where I normally let TJ off and see two other dogs nearby. Keep TJ on the lead and try to walk him slowly, hoping he doesn't spot the other dogs beforehand and pull me down the steep slope and steps. Reach the bottom safely then have to negotiate my way past the other dogs, which are stopped with their owners on a narrow path. They make way for me but TJ and one of the other dogs (a young collie) are straining on their leads to 'talk' to each other. I know TJ and the other dog don't get on, so am not keen to stay and 'chat' in case any growling starts. As we get past them, TJ tries to drag me into the nearby bushes so he can pee all over the place. By this stage my heart is racing and I'm feeling slightly nauseous.
(brief) recovery: we round the bend away from the other dogs and my heart rate starts to drop a little
high intensity: as we get round the corner a large unfamiliar dog (looks like a tall boxer) is approaching from the other direction. It is on a lead, but TJ could easily pull me over to it if he wants to, so I take a wide berth, dragging him onto the grass, so the dog and its owner can get past.
(brief) recovery: head across the bridge and towards the bush that TJ usually goes to the toilet near, so he doesn't drag me there of his own accord. See more dogs being walked ahead of us in the distance, and turn around to see the collie and its mate coming up behind us, and realise that I am going to be stuck between two groups of dogs for most of the rest of the walk. Feel like a mouse on a revolving wheel.
medium intensity: head up the hill, dogs in front and dogs behind, trying to keep TJ from straying off the path so the other dogs don't catch up to us, but not letting him go too fast, so we don't catch up to the dogs ahead.
high intensity: spot another unfamiliar dog coming in the opposite direction. TJ drops down onto his belly, into his 'launch' position (if it's a small dog he will launch up with a waggy tail and want to play; if it's a big dog he will launch up with a waggy tail and an uncertain growl, which can sometimes make the other dog nervous and growly). I hold onto TJ tightly so he can't 'launch' too far. The collie and his mate overtake us as the other dog approaches. TJ doesn't know where to look but decides to concentrate on the new dog. As they get closer, the other owner asks 'is your dog friendly?'. I say, 'Yes, but he can be a bit growly.' She decides to take a wide berth, and as she does so, TJ jumps up, growling, hackles raised slightly, but tail wagging. 'He's just excited,' I say. (The truth is that he was mauled by a big male dog about a year ago and suffered a bite to the throat, and ever since then he has been a bit wary of other big dogs).
recovery: the collie and his mate have gotten a bit further ahead and we head off down the hill after them, TJ still on the lead. We round the bend and see them take a different route and disappear. I finally let TJ off the lead, halfway into the walk.
medium intensity: About 30 seconds after letting TJ off the lead, the tall boxer from earlier in the walk comes towards us. It is on its lead but TJ isn't and goes racing towards it. I yell at him to 'sit', so I can get his lead on, but he ignores me and continues towards the other dog.
high intensity: I go running towards TJ and manage to clip his lead on just as he reaches the other dog. Freak out that something is going to happen but try to calm myself down so the dogs don't pick up on it. Turns out it is a 'she' but she is a bit 'snappy' to begin with.
recovery: We give our dogs lots of praise and they are friendly towards each other. I suggest letting them off their leads to play with each other, but the other owner is reluctant because his dog won't come back when called. We are both heading in the same direction so I go first, but TJ stops to sniff something and the other owner decides to run his dog on ahead.
medium intensity: TJ wants to follow, and it's a bit of a strain as we head back up the hill behind them.
low intensity: The other dog disappears into the distance and there are no other dogs around, so I let TJ off and he runs around happily sniffing and peeing on stuff as we head back to the start of the walk.
cool down: I put TJ back on the lead, we leave the park and head home. TJ is less energetic by this stage and happily trots along beside me like a good boy instead of straining at the end of his lead like he does on the way down to the park.
THE END.

Today's food
M1: 'muesli', eggs
walk TJ
M2: chicken stir-fry
M3: larb gai, nuts
M4: kangaroo patty, sweet potato chips, roasted spiced cauliflower
train (workout drinks)
M5: Kek's Asian-style tuna and sweet potato patties, dry coleslaw

I will lose 10kg by 31 December

New Coach

Rob and I did each other's skinfolds today, three weeks since the last lot. Although my scale weight has only decreased slightly, my fat mass is down and my lean mass is up, so am happy with that. Will keep food the same for another two weeks then measure again.

I hit the gym this evening for the first time in a week. I'm still not feeling 100% but wanted to do SOMETHING. I was due to do a deload week this week, so went with that and took it easy with two sets of each exercise (lower body).

For the last couple of months I have been using a couple of programs by Mike Robertson: this one and this one. His style of programming seems to really suit me: it's challenging but enjoyable, and I'm seeing some gains out of it.

I had looked into doing online training with him (so I could have something tailored specifically for me), but I was hesitant due to the cost. However, over the weekend I had the opportunity to sign up with him for half price, with the understanding that all of my fees would be donated to the Haiti relief fund. So not only do I have the opportunity to work with a great trainer, I am able to donate to a good cause as well.

Over the next week or so I will be submitting pics, video clips and a list of goals to him, so will keep you up to date with that. Exciting!!!

Today's food
M1: 'muesli', eggs
walk TJ*
M2: chicken stir-fry
M3: larb gai, nuts
M4: kangaroo patty, sweet potato chips, cabbage
train (workout drinks)
M5: monkfish, sweet potato chips, roasted spiced cauliflower (sprinkled with turmeric, garlic powder, chilli powder, salt)

*Am going to try walking TJ after breakfast for the next two weeks as I think that going before breakfast is contributing to the length of my cold.

I will lose 10kg by 31 December

Sunday

Today's quote is from Sheila Viers:

'if you spend a large amount of time worrying about and analyzing what you eat, weighing yourself daily and then getting upset with any fluctuation, focusing on all the things you don’t like about yourself and the way you currently look, etc, you are causing more problems than you are helping your situation. Lay off.

Just like pushing too hard, being overly critical causes stress in the body, and stress causes your body to stop cooperating. My philosophy is of the “set it and forget it” mentality. Learn what you need to learn, apply it so that it fits your situation/life/body, and then let it go. Live by the principles, but don’t stress over them.'

Today's food
M1: 'muesli', eggs
M2: larb gai, walnuts
M3: chicken stir-fry
M4: kangaroo patty and salad sandwich on sprouted grain bread
M5: grilled dory, sweet potato chips, green beans; choculence biscuits

I will lose 10kg by 31 December

Saturday

Had a great day today. Attended two birthday parties, one at a cool garden bar and another at a bowls club. Didn't drink any alcohol but enjoyed lots of soda water with lime wedges. Still have a bit of a croaky voice but feeling much better

Today's food
walk TJ
M1: 'muesli', eggs
M2: tuna in evoo, salad
M3: chicken stir-fry
M4: antipasto, Morrocan chickpea salad
M5: Thai takeaway

I will lose 10kg by 31 December

Friday

My annoying cold is still hanging around. I was feeling so yuck I went to bed at 8.30 last night. This morning I made myself a really spicy larb gai (Thai chicken salad) for meal 2 and that seemed to help a bit. Appetite is slowly decreasing as the only exercise I've done this week is slow walking. Am feeling really frustrated about not being able to train, but I know if I do it will just take me longer to get over this cold. Hopefully I'll be back into it on Monday.

Today Lauren asked, WHO'S ON YOUR SIDE......in life. Tell us who supports you and keeps you sane from day-to-day.

First of all I would have to say my husband, Rob. We met at a gym, and so we have always had training and eating well in common. He is supportive of everything I do, and always has positive things to say about me, whether I'm in competition shape or 15kg heavier. He is a great listener, and I often feel like he knows me better than I know myself.


Then there is TJ, my walking partner. The moment I open my eyes in the morning he gets excited. He makes noises until I get out of bed, and leaps about when I pick up my hat, jacket, shoes... It's easy to walk in the morning when I get to put this smile on his dial:


We have two couples who we regularly spend time with. They aren't into exercise as much as us, but they are really supportive of what we do (my competitions and Rob's grappling). They want to come along and watch when we compete, they always ask what we can and can't eat, and don't blink an eye when we bring our own food. The first year I competed we got this photo together with all of us 'posing':


The blogging community are also a fantastic source of support. I've met some lovely people who share the same goals and make me feel like I'm part of a bigger community.

Lia, Rae and me

My family in New Zealand are also great. My parents bought me my first gym membership when I was about 15 or 16, and I often get a 'good luck' message from them before my comps. When I competed in New Zealand my sister, her husband and their boys came along to watch. It was hilarious to hear my nephew talking about me while I was up on stage. And the boys are always interested in trying my food when I go to stay with them.

Today's food
walk TJ
M1: 'muesli', eggs
M2: larb gai, walnuts
M3: chicken stir-fry
M4: chicken and salad sandwich on sprouted grain bread
M5: fish curry with brown rice

I will lose 10kg by 31 December

A day in the life of

Me!

Like Kristin, I work from home, which means my hours are pretty flexible. My preferred option is to sleep in, but the best time for me to walk TJ is around 6am, when there are mostly just small friendly dogs in the park. So I'll run with that option below.

6am Get up and drink a glass of water with a squeeze of lemon while getting dressed.

6.15-6.45am Walk TJ to the park

6.45am Arrive home, prepare breakfast

7.00am Eat breakfast. Lately it's been pea protein, stevia, vanilla, cinnamon, yoghurt, grated apple and raw oats all mixed together:

Followed up by a couple of boiled eggs

After breakfast I clean my teeth and head into my office. I usually start the day's blog post about this time.

7.30-10am Work

10-10.30am Meal break. Lately I've been having salad with some sort of lean mince and some nuts:


10.30am-1pm Work

1-1.30pm Meal break. At the moment I have a portion of the big chicken stir-fry I cook up on the weekends:


1.30-4pm Work

4pm Preworkout meal. This is usually kangaroo, some sort of starch (lately either sprouted grain bread, sweet potato or potato) and salad

4.30-5pm Get ready to go to the gym, walk to gym (15 minutes)

5-7pm Train, walk home from gym, prepare dinner

7pm Eat dinner. Usually fish, some sort of starch and steamed veg:


7.30-8.00pm Do dishes (no dishwasher - boo!), get stuff out of the freezer for next day's meals

8.00-8.30pm Shower, clean teeth etc

8.30-9pm Finish blog post, read other blogs

9-9.30pm Read in bed

9.30pm Lights out

Wednesday

Not a lot to report today. I'm still not feeling 100%. Rob's eye is slowly improving. He can actually open it now, so we did a slow walk together with TJ this morning.

Food
M1: pea protein, stevia, cinnamon, vanilla, grated apple, yoghurt and raw oats made into 'muesli'; boiled eggs
M2: mint and coriander pork (based on Rae's recipe), salad, nuts
M3: chicken stir-fry with almond butter
M4: roast kangaroo, sweet potato, salad
M5: hoki, sweet potato, steamed veg

I will lose 10kg by 31 December

HOW TO ACHIEVE WEIGHT LOSS IN 2010

I received an email newsletter from Mr Supplement today, and it contained some useful information on weight loss, so thought I'd reproduce it here (I've altered the text in blue).

HOW TO ACHIEVE WEIGHT LOSS IN 2010

Without doubt, the number one New Year’s Resolution is to lose weight. Whether you are looking to lose fat, or get a little leaner, you probably want to show more of the muscle you’ve worked so hard to build after they’ve become hidden by the holiday overindulgence. For many the problem is not a small recent increase in bodyweight, but the continued accumulation of body fat over an extended period. Now that you’ve made the decision to lose this weight, don’t let excuses creep in. Now is the time to act.

Define Your Goal: Instead of saying “I want to lose weight,” set a Specific Measurable Achievable Realistic and Time-based (SMART) goal. An example would be “By December 31st, I will lose 10kgs.” Without a time constraint, you will not be accountable for your goal.

Write Down Your Goal Daily: Try doing it at the same time & place daily to develop the habit. This will continually reinforce & remind you of your goals plus help you act daily to see this through to completion. The fact that there is a deadline will mean that you have to work daily to achieve your goal.

Keep A Food & Training Diary: There’s no better way to track your progress with respect to your diet & training. This can be a simple record, there’s no need to complicate it. Just note the food, size of portion, and the calories plus record your training. This may discourage you from having the extra servings of desert or push your exercise to new records if it’s all documented. This is a proven method of helping people lose weight.

Eat More Fruits and Vegetables: Fruits and vegies not only give you nutrients, antioxidants, phytochemicals, but they help fill you up more than many other foods. As a bonus, they are less dense with respect to energy, so they give you a good proportion of volume for the relatively lesser calories.

Consume More Protein & Less Starchy Carbs: Protein is a great macronutrient which has not only been shown to assist in repairing or building lean muscle in trained athletes but also has fantastic fat loss benefits. Staying away from starchy carbs like white rice, potatoes, pasta & breads particularly in the evening shall be most beneficial in reaching your goals.

Train Hard and Train Regularly: Map out your days and allocate time to exercise. This way you can’t let it get crowded out by other activities. Make regular training a priority lifestyle choice.

Lifting: Whether you are male or female, lift weights with a purpose to fatigue your muscles. This increases (or maintains) your "lean body mass" which will mean that you burn more energy & calories at rest. Ladies don't be afraid that weight training shall bulk you up. The goal & result for most of you here shall be to increase strength, tone up & reduce body fat levels.

Cardio: Include some steady state cardio into your programme. If you are pressed for time, break this up throughout the day. Interval training (i.e. higher intensity training mixed with lower intensity training) on a bike, treadmill, outdoors, on a rowing machine, etc are effective for fat loss and cardiovascular health. Use this technique with caution, however, especially if you have not exercised for a while or have a medical condition.

Supplementation: Fat loss supplements shall assist even a sedentary person, however best results are achieved when they are combined with training for enhanced fat loss. Options include a Fat Loss Protein Powder, Thermogenic Supplements, Acetyl l-Carnatine, Conjugated Linoleic Acid and Fat Metabolisers to help you achieve your fat loss goals.

To reiterate, once you’ve decided on your goal, write it down using a constrained approach such as “I will lose 10kgs by December 31.” This way, you will be accountable for your efforts to achieve this. Write down this every day to remind yourself of your goal. Keep a food journal to discourage unwelcome foods. Improve your consumption of fruit and vegies, as they offer relatively better satience compared to their more energy dense counterparts. Increase protein consumption whilst reducing starchy carbohydrates. Train regularly with weights and cardio and you’re almost there. Supplementation with fat loss supplements can help you achieve better results, faster. Keep re-evaluating your results and be consistent, before you know it you’ll be on your way to a leaner and a healthier body.

Monday

Yesterday I read an interesting article on overeating in the Sunday Herald Sun. I particularly liked this bit:

If you look at junk food and think, "That's my friend... I'm going to have it because it makes me feel good," you're going to want it, Dr Kessler [author of The End of Overeating] says. A better thought pattern is "It's not real food, it won't satiate me and will make me feel disgusting." The first few times you try this it might feel a little strange, but eventually these thought patterns become second nature.

---

I took TJ out for a walk about 6am this morning before it got too hot, but that's all I managed today in the way of exercise. I've got a bit of a scratchy throat, and it's 42 degrees, so I had a nap instead of training this afternoon.

Sunday

Have just finished a massive food prep session. Think I need to get a food processor to help speed things up a bit. Anyone have any recommendations?

Rob was going to do my skinfolds today but he's not really up to it, so will just report on scale progress: down 1.2kg in two weeks. Am happy with that, so calories and amount of exercise will stay as is for now. 8.8kg to go!

Saturday

Survived babysitting OK (the child and the food) but didn't get home until about 1.30am then was up about 8am this morning so am feeling a bit tired today.

Today was food shopping day. First on the list this morning was a trip to the organic greengrocer in the next suburb. Got it all home and unpacked then headed down to the local supermarket to get most of the other stuff, then to the butchers. Then it was home again to unpack everything. This was all done on foot and on the tram, carting my little trolley behind me, so plenty of 'incidental exercise'. After all that I really enjoyed my massage this afternoon.

Rob came home a little while ago with a patch over his eye. He got a poke in the eye during training, so he was sent off to the doctor. Diagnosis = scratched cornea. Has been given some antibiotic eyedrops but is in a bit of pain. Hopefully it will heal quickly - although TJ is a labrador he is a bit boisterous to be a seeing-eye dog!



Will report back tomorrow with weight-loss progress.

Keep cool!

Friday

Am feeling shattered after yesterday's leg workout (4 sets each of deadlifts, front squats, pull throughs and lunges). Slept almost 12 hours last night. Walk this morning was very slow but nice. Temperature is creeping up so will be mid-30s by the time I do my upper body workout this afternoon. We are babysitting this evening so hopefully she won't want too much entertaining as I can't see myself doing much apart from lying on the couch. Must keep out of their kitchen! (It's stocked with a lot of stuff we don't eat at home, and it's tempting to graze even when not hungry.)

Vision Board

Inspired by The Fitnessista's vision board, I decided to have a go at making one of my own. So here it is:


My health and fitness goal for 2010 is to finish this year 10kg lighter than I started it


I aim to do this by walking:


Lifting heavy:


and eating well every day, with occasional treats:


I could rip this weight off quickly if I really wanted to, but I know (from experience) that it won't stay off. So I'm taking it slowly:

The text in pink is a reminder to Enjoy the Journey.

Recovery methods are getting a much higher priority this year:


And so is play time!


"I love my body and love eating great, healthy wholesome food. I love socialising and I believe in balance." (Jill Edmonds)

So that's it. I'll see it every time I walk into my office, so it will be a daily reminder of my goal.


In the words of The Fitnessista,
Have you ever made an inspiration board?? Get on it- I’d love to see it! :D

Wednesday

10 days into my new year (I started on 28 December), and Rob says my lower body is getting tighter - yay! Off to my myotherapy appointment shortly. Seeya!

Tuesday

Does anyone else get nervous before their workouts? I am off to do upper body - am looking forward to it but nervous at the same time.

Monday

Yesterday was food prep day. Caught the tram to the organic shop in the next suburb, picked up some veg (though will probably do this on a Saturday in future as there wasn't a lot left), packed it in my trolley and trammed home again. Once home I made a chicken stir-fry for my lunches for the week, put together a giant tub of salad to use for morning and afternoon teas for the next few days, and cooked up a batch of eggplant, red peppers and zucchini to have for dinners. Also cooked up some roo patties and fish. So that's me covered for the next little while.

We had some white bread left in our freezer from a Christmas barbecue so got rid of it this morning. I had been having (too much of) it over the weekend: toasted then spread with butter and sprinkled with garlic powder = instant garlic bread!

Everything on track so far today. Am off to the gym to do my squat workout. Catch you tomorrow!

Saturday

Did Friday's workout this morning (chin-ups are improving, yay!) and took TJ for a stroll down the bike track this afternoon. Early this evening I had my first ever Thai massage - had lots of sore bits I didn't know about but am now feeling very relaxed. I'm currently parked in the lazyboy and plan to be here for the rest of the evening. Might watch the latest Star Trek movie. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

A New Dawn, A New Day

Love this song...


Gym is closed today so am just having a quiet day at home. Will do today's workout tomorrow instead. Shortly I'll prep a big batch of salad and some stir-fry veges to last the next few days. Might take TJ for a wander down to the shops later to pick up a few bits and pieces.

Happy New Year!