Life o' Limey

RFL Day 6

2011-05-14T22:14:00.000-05:00

1) 176.2
2) 172.6
3) 168.8
4) 167.8
5) 166.2
6) 165.6

Saturday:
Cals Out: 1991
Cals In: 772
Deficit: 1219
Activity: 3-6 mets: 10 mins, 6+ mets: 0 mins
Steps: 2688
AM Weight: 165.6

B: Black coffee
1:30pm: 6.5oz chicken breast, 1 cup egg beaters, mushrooms, 1 kraft fat free single
8:30pm: 6oz ground turkey, 4oz snapper, mushroom, zucchini, asparagus, lemon/lime juice, sugar free jello

Cals: 772 P: 146.3 C: 18.7 F: 11.9

Ended up painting for about 6 hours. Got a good chunk completely finished with the top coat which makes me happy. Spending a whole weekend doing primer sucks knowing you have to come do it all over again. Hubby finished the outside today too. He's just got the shed left to do out there. Progress is being made.

I was frickin exhausted by the time I finished. Sad considering it's not exactly a tough workout although one has to imagine I got up and down from the floor several hundred times.

RFL Day 2

2011-05-10T21:23:00.000-05:00

Code:

1) 176.2
2) 172.6

Tuesday:
Cals Out: 2021
Cals In: 791
Deficit: 1230
Activity: 3-6 mets: 25 mins, 6+ mets: 0 mins
Steps: 4323
AM Weight: 172.6

B: Black coffee
1:30pm/4pm: 13oz chicken breast, green beans
9pm 8oz Chicken, mushroom, asparagus, salsa, sugar free jello

Cals: 791 P: 146.3 C: 22.7 F: 10.4

Lunch is eaten through the afternoon, appetite is fairly non existent at the moment so I split it into 2 meals. Carbs are all from veggies.

RFL Day 1

2011-05-09T22:08:00.000-05:00

RFL Day 1

Monday:
Cals Out: 2184
Cals In: 888
Deficit: 1296
Activity: 3-6 mets: 53 mins, 6+ mets: 0 mins
Steps: 5232
AM Weight: 176.2

B: Black coffee
1:30pm: 8oz (cooked) Roast chicken breast, green beans
9:30pm 11oz (raw) Chicken, mushroom, zucchini, salsa, sugar free jello

Cals: 888 P: 150.7 C: 22.9 F: 17.4

Doing the full body workout in the RFL handbook.

Treadmill: 5 minute warmup.

Barbell Squat: 45x8, 65x8, 85x8, 85x8, 90x8
Barbell Deadlift: 135x8, 155x8, 155x8
Bench Press: 65x8, 65x8, 65x8
Assisted Chin-Up: -50(x6, x6, x6)
Lateral Raise: 10x10, 10x6
Bench Dips: 2 sets of 10
Ab Crunch Machine: 50x8, 50x10
Hyperextension: 25 x 8, 25x8

Red text is a personal record (PR)

Thoughts:Squat: I definitely do better when there are people squatting next to me
Deadlift: Going up
Bench: still heavy
Chin-ups: yay 3 sets of 6, getting better. I like the pump, I went over to do my lat raises and I could actually see my biceps in the mirror without even having to flex
Lat raise: Something wasn't happy. First set was fine. 2nd set something voiced loud complaint in my bicep area.
Bench Dip: Nothing remarkable, I guess I should try some form of weighted ones.
Ab Crunch machine: Sucks, I'm going to use the bench next time and a dumbell.
Back Extensions: did em.

Great day 1. Actually weighed in at 176.2 this am. By this evening I was down to 174 already.

Fierce, Fit, Fearless

2011-05-09T12:00:00.000-05:00

I have found a new friend to stalk. Jenn Diamond of Fitness Safari. She started a facebook group for ladies that follow Intermittent Fasting and it's been a wonderful source of motivation.

To whit we have started an 8 week Spring Challenge.

My goals for this challenge are:

1) Get into the 150's
2) Weight train 2x per week
3) Kill my sugar addiction.

My method of madness for this challenge is the Rapid Fat Loss plan by Lyle McDonald. Love his stuff. Historically I've had excellent success with this plan but I don't tend to come off it very well and typically dive into a carb coma for 3 weeks while negating all my efforts. Suffice to say that I have been having some personal revelations and I am determined to not let that happen this time.

It annoys the crap out of me that I will let what I want most, to be fit, to be over ruled in a moment by simple gluttony. It is unnecessary. We can still love and appreciate food without having to eat so much that we are stuffed beyond idiocy. I should be able to drink a glass of wine without finishing off 2/3rds of a bottle.

Just like smoking, it is an addiction that has to stop. I quit that because it was unhealthy, why can I not seem to apply the same thoughts to my eating habits? This time I will. I would so dearly love to pick up a cigarette again sometimes, when I smoked I rarely ate dessert, I switched smokes for a coffee and sugar addiction which are as unhealthy when you look at the side affects of obesity.

So I hereby lift my water bottle in a toast to the first 8 weeks of the rest of my life :)

Thanks Jenn :)

Thurs/Friday

2011-02-19T16:53:00.000-06:00

Thursday:
Cals Out: 2366
Cals In: 1600 ish
Activity: 3-6 mets: 84 mins, 6+ mets: 9 mins
Steps: 8612
AM Weight: 164.4

45 min Beginner Fitness pole

B: Dan Active Immunity, Oatmeal
L: O'Charleys: steamed broccoli, grilled roma tomato, and grilled chicken breast topped with bruschetta, balsamic glaze and mozzarella.
D: Top sirloin, mushrooms, zucchini, bell pepper. Fage greek yoghurt.

I started out today pretty stiff and sore but by the evening was feeling pretty good. I called it at one class though. That helped work everything out without over doing it.

Lunch was a sub 550 calorie meal they have put on the menu. Was very good and I have picked up ingredients to recreate myself.

Friday:
Cals Out: 2064
Cals In: ? ish
Activity: 3-6 mets: 33 mins, 6+ mets: 0 mins
Steps: 4665
AM Weight: 165

Rest day.. Phew..

B: Dan Active Immunity, Oatmeal
L: Grilled Chicken wrap, mocha latte and a cranberry muffin (@ bakery)
D: Roast chicken, 1/2 Bell pepper, 2 slices prosciutto, guacamole. Greek yoghurt.

Grocery shopping day so no work outs. Lunch was a bit overkill (I blame hubby, he stood me up) so dinner was a light nibbly cold plate.

____
Awesome week so far, weight is messing around but judging by my dance improvements stuff is going on. Total of 7 classes attended and while my hands are feeling bruised and there were a few days of stiff/sore I feel great.

Upper body strength is steadily improving, I can almost do a hanging pike (pole gripped in both hands, legs held out horizontal to floor), my legs are closer to 45 degrees than 90 but it's a start. And I actually managed to climb the pole on Thursday night! Both of these were impossible when I started. My spins are all improving and I think I am even finding some level of hand and foot co-ordination.

Been weeding my flower beds this morning, spring is most definitely in the air here and the bloody weeds are showing back up. Good activity, but due to the way I was sitting I now I have one sun burnt arm and half my face. Ouch.

Burning those calories :)

2011-02-16T22:35:00.001-06:00

Going good so far despite the candy from Valentines day.

Tuesday:
Cals Out: 2462
Cals In: 1700 ish
Activity: 3-6 mets: 81 mins, 6+ mets: 33 mins
Steps: 10890
AM Weight: 165

45 min Hip Hop Pole class, 45 min Beginner Fitness pole

B: Dan Active Immunity,
L: Oatmeal, string cheese
D: Lamb Chops, Zucchini, Mushrooms, New Potatoes with a little peanut satay sauce for flavour.

Other half of giant hersheys kiss throughout the day.

Wednesday:
Cals Out: 2603
Cals In: 1400 ish
Activity: 3-6 mets: 78 mins, 6+ mets: 44 mins
Steps: 11300
AM Weight: 164.4

45 min Zumba, 45 min Beginner Fitness pole

B: Dan Active Immunity
L: Oatmeal, string cheese
Pre-Workout: low fat chocolate milk
D: Stuffed Monterrey Sole, Zucchini, Mushrooms & Bell pepper.

I cook everything in my cast iron skillet with a little sesame oil.

This is why we are fat..

2011-02-14T13:39:00.000-06:00

When I was a kid we'd get easter eggs and one would always dream about it being solid chocolate. Of course it never was, it was always hollow, invariably with a little packet of the real candy tucked inside inside. And yet still enough chocolate to make you suitably sick and satisfied by the time you finished.

But Hershey had to go and do it didn't they.

I have a giant hershey's kiss sitting on my desk from my boss. And it's not a hollow shell, filled with a packet of little kisses. It's one solid 7oz monstrosity of chocolate.

And you can't break it up, you just have to gnaw chunks off of it. (Do not try and get sensible here like hubby did with suggestions of a serrated knife, this is a woman and her chocolate we are talking about)

And yes Dad, I know Hershey's sucks, but until you start sending me regular Galaxy care packages then I have to make do with what I got :p
As a child I would have been absolutely delighted. As an adult I am in 2 minds. In one I get to gleefully gnaw my way through this giant hunk of chocolate and thoroughly enjoy it.

And in the other I am sad as this is just yet another obvious proof on why obesity is in general a problem. My husband ordered a plate of chicken strips at Cheddars the other day. We swear that at least 4 chickens must have given their lives for the single plate of food they placed in front of him.

Wed, Feb 9th

2011-02-09T20:17:00.000-06:00

Wednesday, Feb 9th

AM Weight: 164 -bye bye bloat.

Daytime: 3 x Black Coffee, with sweetener. Water
Dinner: Roast chicken, Oysters, mushrooms, black beans, orange bell pepper, asparagus sautéed with sesame oil. 3 eggs, 1 avocado and shredded cheese in a frittata style.

Calories: 1289, Protein: 99g, Carb: 77g, Fat: 67g

BMF:
Calories Out: 1937
Deficit: 648
Activity: 0Hr 27 mins. 27 mins @ 3-6 mets, 0 minutes @ 6+ mets
Steps: 4550

No workout, classes were cancelled due to the promised 2-4" of snow which of course turned out to be a 10 minute flurry that covered a few car windows.

Counting calories sucks. Grilled avocado is fricking awesome.

Tuesday, Feb 8th

2011-02-08T22:49:00.000-06:00

AM Weight: 166

Daytime: 3 x Black Coffee, with sweetener. Water
Pre/Post Workout: Protein Shake with 8oz 2% milk, Dannon DanActive ProBiotic
Workout: Private 45 minute pole class
Dinner: Roast chicken, zucchini, mushrooms, black beans, red bell pepper, asparagus sautéed with sesame oil and drizzled with a balsamic glaze. Fage total greek yoghurt with Honey.

Calories: 1223, Protein: 116g, Carb: 116g, Fat: 33g

BMF:
Calories Out: 2261
Deficit: 1039
Activity: 1Hr 17 mins. 68 mins @ 3-6 mets, 9 minutes @ 6+ mets
Steps: 7200

Mmmmm, I haven't had greek yoghurt since I left the UK 9 years ago. Finally this week it arrives in swampsville :p I'd almost forgotten how awesomely tasty it is.

Numbers are a lot better today food wise, I haven't counted calories in so long it's taking me a bit to get my head wrapped back around eyeballing the meal plan.

Only one class tonight, no one else turned up so Kristie took me through a pretty intense walk through one of our routines. Loved it right up until the last spin when I skinned a chunk off my palm. Guess the skin just needs to toughen up a bit more but it put paid to attending the second class.

So furious with myself though, I spent all weekend stripping and re-seasoning my two cast iron skillets and I go and leave the darn burner on under my good Lodge one that was just supposed to be a quickly drying off. Hubby found it an hour later and I think I am going to have to start from scratch if it's not totally ruined. Pain in the arse, not to mention smoking up the house when putting the high heat coat on. Grrr

Monday Feb 7th

2011-02-08T13:54:00.001-06:00

After crappy eating last we are back on the wagon. I decided to go to the Zumba class which was quite a giggle, and beginner pole class tonight and it certainly paid off on calorie burn. This will probably be my general Mon-Thursday evening plan. They have Saturday classes as well which I will possibly end up attending.

Still trying to convince myself that getting up to do my kettlebells in the AM is a good plan. Hubby is debating the same thing though and our workout room isn't big enough for the both of us unfortunately.

For anyone local to me Move Your Body Fitness is where I am taking classes. Absolutely loving it.

Daytime: 2 x Black Coffee, with sweetener. Water

Pre/Post Workout: Protein Shake with 8oz 2% milk

Workout: 45 minute Zumba class, 45 minute beginner pole fitness.

Dinner: Roast chicken, Oysters & veggies sautéed in a skillet with some Sesame oil and drizzled with a balsamic glaze.

Calories: 1066, Protein: 129g, Carb: 68.5g, Fat: 30g

Yummy

BodyMedia Fit graphs for the day.

Ooops

2011-02-05T23:02:00.000-06:00

Last Thursday (27th) I got a bit over confident, we were doing fireman spins and I guess I came in with a bit too much momentum and I ended up pulling a muscle in my hip which took a few days to heal.

I could have gone back to class on Tuesday but ended up working late. Combine a pretty hectic work week with some added stress and I ended up falling back to my comfort eating habits. Thursday classes were cancelled due to the inclement weather Louisiana was suffering for the last couple of days. Freezing rain and snow is not our typical lot.

Anyway, spilled milk and all that. As usual I don't sweat the fails any more, plenty of time to get my act together. I'll be back to dancing and fasting on Monday.

I do have a fridge full of fresh veggies which I intend to whip into shape for dinners. Pictures to follow. :)

Having Fun with Dance Lessons

2011-01-25T17:53:00.000-06:00

At the risk of sending my dear Pa into convulsions of laughter or possibly shock I am going to put this right out there..

I'm taking Pole Dancing Lessons :)

Now that you've got back in your chair don't get the wrong idea, there is no stripping going on :p - This is Fitness Pole, I'm dressed in a t-shirt and leggings and working up a sweat. It is enormous fun, I might have two left feet and currently lacking anything that can be termed as grace let alone sexy I am slowly getting better. I'll be
heading off to lesson #5 in a few minutes and figured I'd let all 2 of my readers know what's going on.

From a fitness aspect it is already proving to be pretty awesome, I burn about 300 calories per hour's lesson according to my BMF and judging by how much pain I was in last week (first week) it is certainly hitting some muscles. I'll be bringing the kettlebells back into play once I can actually get through a full week of classes (Mon-Thurs) without crippling myself.

Eating is my let down at the moment but I stocked up on veggies on the last shopping trip and am going to get back to actually cooking instead of snacking on packaged food even if it is organic or 'healthy' products. Fasting is still the aim of the game although occasionally like today hubby will spring lunch on me. I kept mostly behaved at Logan's with some grilled tilapia and veggie skewers. I did have one of their rolls though.. and I celebrated a friends birthday this afternoon with a slice of chocolate cake. It was stunningly good enough to warrant every calorie so I have no regrets there, I will just keep supper fairly light.

Day 6

2011-01-08T20:43:00.004-06:00

Day 6 - Saturday

W: 162.8 lbs

Food:
Breakfast: Oatmeal, coffee w/cream
Lunch: Roasted red pepper and tomato soup, 3 mushrooms, mini bagel.
Dinner: jambalaya, jello sugar free mousse.

Oh yeah...:

That is some raking, power washing 3 sides of my house (the off body just after 12 was me trying to defrost in a very hot shower). Making jambalaya, some vacuming, and then sweeping out the shed and cleaning the windows in there. Right around 6pm was my workout. Short and sweet for that tonight thankfully.

Workout:

Warmup: 10 squats, 10 knee pushups, 8 squats, 8 knee pushups, 6 squats, 6 knee pushups.
30 seconds swings (20), 30 seconds rest
30 seconds knee pushups (18), 30 seconds rest
30 seconds swings (20), 30 seconds rest
30 seconds knee pushups (15), 30 seconds rest
30 seconds swings (20), 30 seconds rest

16KG for swings

Kind of surprised at the numbers. The swings were easy enough but I knocked the pushups out pretty decent. Especially after today, the power washing was mostly aimed all above my head as I was cleaning the eaves and porch/carport ceiling.

BMF Daily Info:
Calories: 2619
Steps: 8781
Total Activity: 2 hrs 49m
Vigorous Activity: 0m
Sleep: 8:50 Lying Down, 6:38 asleep, 75% efficiency.

Sleep not so good last night. Calorie burn for today flipping awesome

Day 5

2011-01-07T20:17:00.000-06:00

Day 5 - Friday

W: 162.6 lbs

Food:
Day: Black coffee, water
Dinner: Mixed Herb Salad, dried tomatoes, sunflower seed, pine nuts, balsamic/olive oil viniagrette. Mini Pizza's! with chicken franks. Latte.

Pizza worked out better than I hoped although I waited too long to eat them and they were cold. Still tasty though. Multigrain bread, tomato paste and string cheese grilled under the broiler.

Slowly learning the correct proportions of milk to coffee for my aeropress. Other than loving the gizmo. So far 3 coffee shots to half cup of milk seems to be pretty good.

Also might eat something else later as well as I'm still a bit hungry. Wanted to see how I felt if I spread it out a little.

Workout:

Warmup: 3 mins on treadmill, 10 squats, 10 knee pushups, 8 squats, 8 knee pushups, 6 squats, 6 pushups.
20 seconds swings, 10 seconds rest x 8 (13 swings per set = 104)
60 seconds knee pushups (24)
3 minute cool down on treadmill.

12KG for all sets.

Lunges have left me in some pain so I subbed some partial squats in tonight just to stretch my quads out a bit.

BMF Workout Stats:
N/A Bluetooth fail and me remembering what clock said fail.

BMF Daily Info:
Calories: 2223
Steps: 7463
Total Activity: 57m
Vigorous Activity: 0m
Sleep: 8:21 Lying Down, 6:58 asleep, 83% efficiency.

Sleep was better than that, I was reading for about 30mins first.

Day 4

2011-01-06T21:14:00.001-06:00

Day 4 - Thursday

W: 162.8 lbs

Food:
Day: Black coffee, water
Dinner: Mini cinnamon raisin bagel with a smear of butter pre-workout. Mixed Herb Salad, dried tomatoes, sunflower seed, pine nuts, pecans, sesame ginger viniagrette. Black bean chili heavy on the chicken. Elfling inspired grilled cheese on multigrain toast. Small latte

Workout:

Warmup: 10 lunges, 10 knee pushups, 8 lunges, 8 knee pushups, 6 lunges, 6 pushups.
30 seconds swings, 30 seconds rest x 15 (20 swings per set = 300)
6 minute cool down on treadmill.

14KG for 12 sets, 12KG for 3 set

Those lunges are evil..

BMF Workout Stats:
Duration: 30 mins
Steps: 1649
Calories: 163
Moderate Activity: 29m
Vigorous Activity: 0m
Avg. Mets: 4.42

BMF Daily Info:
Calories: 2349
Steps: 8200
Total Activity: 68m
Vigorous Activity: 0m
Sleep: 8:03 Lying Down, 7:44 asleep, 96% efficiency.

Busy day, our T1 went down yesterday afternoon and I took the opportunity to put in my new Sonicwall firewall and the two remote site point to points. Then grocery shopping and finally the longer workout of the week.

Day 3

2011-01-05T20:05:00.002-06:00

Day 3 - Wednesday

W: 162.6 lbs

Food:
Day: Black coffee, water
Dinner: 2 black bean veggie burgers, mini bagel, kraft single, hummus and cream cheese. String cheese, Pineapple cup. Roasted red pepper and tomato soup with half a small chicken.

Workout:

Warmup: 10 lunges, 10 knee pushups, 8 lunges, 8 knee pushups, 6 lunges, 6 pushups.
30 seconds swings, 30 seconds rest x 5 (20 swings per set = 100)
8 minute cool down on treadmill.

16KG for 4 sets, 14KG for 1 set

BMF Workout Stats:
Duration: 20 mins
Steps: 1600ish
Calories: 97
Moderate Activity: 18m
Vigorous Activity: 0m
Avg. Mets: 3.93

BMF Daily Info:
Calories: 2110
Steps: 6003
Total Activity: 40m
Vigorous Activity: 0m
Sleep: 7:32 Lying Down, 6:46 asleep, 90% efficiency.

Day 2

2011-01-04T21:09:00.003-06:00

Day 2 - Tuesday

W: 163.2 lbs (-2.2)

Food:
Day: Black coffee, water
Dinner: Jambalaya, seafood chowder, 2 x black bean veggie burgers, kraft single. Pineapple cup.

mmm, leftovers Not enough of the jambalaya or chowder for a normal meal on their own but worked together.

Workout:

12KG Bell

5 minute warm up walk on treadmill
20 seconds swings, 10 seconds rest x 8 (13 swings per set - 104)
60 seconds knee pushups. (23)
5 minute cool down on treadmill.

BMF Workout Stats:
Duration: 20 mins
Steps: 1600ish
Calories: 101
Moderate Activity: 16m
Vigorous Activity: 3m
Avg. Mets: 4.09

Bluetooth fail on workout stats. Definitely not to great on the iPad yet.

BMF Daily Info:
Calories: 2148
Steps: 6861
Total Activity: 46m
Vigorous Activity: 3m
Sleep: 7:44 Lying Down, 7:18 asleep, 94% efficiency.

Sleep last night was awesome, I didn't even hear the alarm clock this morning, I rolled over to hear hubby chinking his toothbrush on the sink which kinda sucks as I like to come to terms with conciousness while he is in the shower.

Measurements:
Waist:30.75
Hips: 39
Thigh: 25.75
Calf: 16
Bicep: 11

bleugh, at least there is nothing above 40" any more though

This made me go find my old PN log, these are from May 2007:
176.5lbs 37.5% bf (I think this am was 33% on the same tanita)
Waist: 38"
Hip: 42.5"
Thigh: 26"
Calf: 16
Arm: 11.75"

Funny how thighs and arms have barely changed much although I might be measuring my thigh a fraction higher come to think of it.

Hello 2011

2011-01-03T21:55:00.000-06:00

Day 1

W: 165.4 lbs

Food:
Day: Black coffee, water
Dinner: Jambalaya, string cheese, pineapple, decaf latte in my new aeropress

Workout:

12KG Bell

3 minute warm up walk on treadmill
30 seconds swings, 30 seconds rest x 10 (20 swings per set)
3 minute cool down on treadmill.

BMF Workout Stats:
Duration: 18:18
Steps: 1140
Calories: 79
Total Activity: 15m
Vigorous Activity: 0m

BMF Daily Info:
Calories: 2195
Steps: 6745
Physical Activity: 47m
Vigorous Activity: 0m
Sleep: 7:08 Lying Down, 6:11 asleep, 87% efficiency

Bye Bye 2010

2011-01-01T18:57:00.000-06:00

My discovery of Lyle McDonald and my first round of RFL started on 6/14 of '09 at 182.2lbs.

By 9/15 I had successfully RFL'd my way to 159.6lbs.

Come January 4th of 2010 I was back to 182.3lbs.

Once I gave up RFL'ing (awesome as it is, I don't come off it very well as you can see), recognized that fasting was the best way for me and settled into food choices that did not leave me feeling deprived and unhappy I wandered down to my best ever weight since, my teens probably, 155lbs on my wedding anniversary 12/12. No banned food groups, no meticulous calorie counting.

I fasted during the day and ate till I was full in the evening. Simple is as simple does.
This morning I was 164lbs. Not great, but considering what I have consumed in the last week not bad or particularly surprising either. And thankfully nowhere close to last years holiday disaster. Whatever I manage to eat between now and Monday I am not going to be close to 182 that's for sure. And I was able to eat it all knowing that it was no big deal, no guilt, no shame, no hating myself. Just good food and fun holidays.

I have certainly learned a lot about myself, my habits and what really works for me over this last year. I am going to be going into January knowing exactly what to do. I have a plan that works and is going to blast me down to a stupendously sexy booty and a flat belly by January of 2012.

Swings for the Win

2010-11-11T09:50:00.004-06:00

I started with Tracy's DVD about 4 weeks ago. On the first day I managed to keep up using a 20lb bell up to the point where she starts teaching transfers. This is about the 500 swing mark. My form on those last few swings was not great to say the least. I collapsed in a small puddle clutching my forearms and watched the rest of the DVD in awe at Tracy barely breaking a sweat.

For the last 4 weeks I have been doing a combination of following the DVD and the roundabout video that Tracy posted from her blog around the same time.

Last Sunday, I followed along with the entire DVD, and repeated the workout at the end for a second time all with my 12kg bell. My hip snap at the end was as good as the first rep.

My left hand grip has improved so much that I no longer need chalk to complete the workouts and I have no fear of losing my bell on the 1 hand swings and transfers as I did in the beginning. Oh and my forearms don't hurt any more. I also have a much better appreciation for how important the hip snap is. I train in front of a mirror so that I can't slack off without seeing it immediately.

For the record the entire DVD, by my count, is 926 swings. The 12 minute workout is 266. After I did the math I quickly stood up and snapped out 8 more reps to be able to claim a 1200 swing workout. :)

To say I was pleased is an understatement. This is phenomenal for me. I am loving my workouts, I am excited to get into my workout room and knock out some Tracy Style swings. I am feeling and seeing changes all over my body. So is my husband. *grin*

I think I am ready to start designing some of my own workouts as well. I think more than anything I love how this DVD gave me the tools, ideas and confidence to make up my own workouts. At first I thought I was going to be all left feet in trying to get the moves down, specifically the roundabout but it comes pretty natural now. I do have to envy Tracy's ability to keep count though.

If you don't own this DVD, I cannot encourage you to get it enough. Thank you Tracy :)

Vacations over..

2010-10-11T22:37:00.000-05:00

Here we go:

Weight For giggles, aka why people need to stop freaking over 1lb variations:
8am: 168.2 (On Waking)
6pm: 167.2 (Post Fast)
8pm: 166.0 (Post Workout)

Supplements:
Fish oil, Prograde metabolism, Saffron, 6000 iU D3 supp (docs orders), Multi

Fast: - Not strict but good enough for me.
8am - 12pm: 2 cups of coffee w/Creamer, 32oz water. (60 cals)
12pm: 1 yoplait light yoghurt (100cals)
3pm: 1 cup of coffee w/creamer, 64oz water (30cals)

Pre-Workout Snack:
6pm: 1 Prograde Craver (180cals)

TL;DR Workout: 21 mins - 464 swings. (see below for more complicated breakdown)

Dinner Post Workout:
8.30pm: 1 Can of Amy's Vegetable & Barley soup (140cals)
Pad Thai with Chicken and Sausage. (no clue)

Pad thai was leftovers. maybe 1.5oz dry rice noodles. 1/2lb'ish of meat. Onion, bell pepper, lime juice and a healthy dose of sesame oil. (meat mix was a leftover from day before, I don't usually put cajun sausage in my thai food. It worked out pretty damn good though.)

There might be something else before bed, probably just a decaf coffee though.

Workout:
This was first run through so a bit fluffy. It's the 12 minute workout at the end of the DVD I have been raving about. I tried to do it twice. Didn't make it all the way through the second time around.

Tracy's pacing is 10 swings per 15 seconds. Speed swings are 12 swings per 15 seconds. This pacing makes up most of the entire workout. Each set as listed below took 1 minute to complete including it's rest component.

15 seconds work, 15 seconds rest: (W15/R15)
Set 1) 10 2h swings / Rest / 10 transfers / Rest
Set 2) 12 2h speed swings / Rest / 10 transfers / Rest

30 seconds work, 30 seconds rest: (W30/R30)
Set 3) 10 2h swings / 10 transfers / Rest
Set 4) 12 2h speed swings / 10 transfers / Rest
Set 5) 10 transfers / 12 2h speed swings / Rest

Working into rest component. Each set is 1 minute, the 1h swing portion takes 30 seconds exactly, the 2h swings are working into the rest period.
Set 6) 10 swing transfers (30s work, 30s rest)
Set 7) 10 swing transfers + 2 2h swings
Set 8) (5 1h swings left / 5 1h swings Right) x 2 + 4 2h swings
Set 9) (5 1h swings left / 5 1h swings Right) x 2 + 6 2h swings
Set 10) 10 1h swings Left / 10 1h swings Right + 8 2h swings
Set 11) 10 1h swings Left / 10 1h swings Right + 10 2h swings (45s work, 15s rest)
Set 12) 10 2h swings (15s work, 45s rest)

Total: 12 mins, 266 swings.

Transfers are when you switch hands, ie:
1h swing up with left hand, switch hands at top of swing and come down in right hand.
Swing transfers are a 1h swing + 1 transfer (1 rep made up of 2 swings)

Just to explain my possibly cryptic notation here:
(5 1h swings left / 5 1h swings Right) x 2 + 4 2h swings
is 5 swings left, 5 swings right, 5 swings left, 5 swings right, 4 2h swings - rest.

Some of this info is for you guys, the rest is for own remembrance later while I figure out a standard of notation for myself. It might look complicated but it really does distract you from the workout.

I do know that while the Rif's might be able to walk in and make it up as they go along I will have to plan mine out beforehand to start off. Half the time I can't remember what set I'm on unless I'm making scratch notes on a pad as I finish each set.

Ended up resting about 5 mins and then repeating up to Set 9. I was losing the 1h swings on my left side at that point.

Swinging it TracyStyle

2010-10-06T20:16:00.000-05:00

Watching and re-watching Tracy Reifkind's new DVD: Programming the Kettlebell Swing this week. Absolutely love it so far. I also highly recommend checking out her blog for some awesome recipes :)

The DVD is a workshop they did in San Francisco so I've just been following along with a bit of what was done in the class while I re-watch it hoping things slowly sink in.

The biggest thing I have gotten so far (and this is just the tip of the iceberg) is the pacing she teaches. I'll be setting up some proper workouts for Friday but this evenings following along resulted in 400 2 handed swings with my 20lb bell in about 40 minutes. Not great cardio wise but it's easing my hands into it. I got a bit further Monday night which explains the sore abs.

Gardening... aka working miracles

2010-10-06T11:17:00.000-05:00

My absence has been due to my Mum coming over for the last 10 days to help clean up the chaos that was our garden. I have the blackest thumb around unless it's a weed and quite frankly gardening is one of my least favourite chores. Especially in the Louisiana heat.

We spent 6 days of constant cutting, clearing, hauling and laying down mulch. It's nothing special but it should be easy to maintain over the winter and even I should have a hard time killing it. We weren't going for much more than providing a blank slate for prospective gardeners or a should look prettier in a few months, easy to maintain for the non gardener. If we are still here in spring I'll most likely brighten it up with some bedding plants.

I didn't get too sore thankfully but I did go to bed early every night absolutely shattered.

This is what we accomplished in 6 days.

There are a couple of oak trees growing in on the right there that were not fun to remove. And there was a bramble that has gotten itself all through the Wisteria and Azaleas that is responsible for a lot of scratches and rude words. The Azaleas are all coming up as they are pretty much dead. I still have to finish off cleaning up the bed to the right. We made pretty good progress though. The front of the house was our main goal and what took up most of our time.

Just to give you some idea, the bird bath you see below is actually under all the weeds in the picture above. Mum had also cut some of the ivy stuff before we thought to grab the camera and it was actually growing pretty thickly up the centre post of the car port.

You can see the bigger pics here: Taming the Garden

We then spent the weekend in hot springs hiking around 6 miles of Garven's Woodland Garden trails, climbing 15 flights of stairs up to the top of the mountain tower and then hiking around town shopping. I am exhausted.

Changing it up

2010-09-20T21:16:00.003-05:00

Kettlebell Circuit
(all done with 26# kb)

Set one:
20 swings left, Transfer 20 swings right
20 transfers (DARCs)

Set two: 10 swings left, Transfer
10 swings right
1 swing, one transfer, 40 times

Set three:
One swing, one transfer 30 times

Set Four:
One swing, Clean, Press: 10 reps per
arm then transfer to opposite arm

Set Five:
One swing, Clean, Press: one rep per
arm then transfer10 times
then 10 Transfers (DARCs)

Set Six:
One swing, one snatch, 10 reps per
arm then transfer to opposite arm
then 10 Transfers (DARCs)

There was supposed to be a 7th set but I was fried and I had put a huge blister on the middle finger pad of my my right hand pruning our bloody wisteria over the weekend. It was starting to rub even under the plaster.

Still 162 even with a pint of B&J and a bottle of sake over the weekend

Doc's and program hops.

2010-09-19T22:12:00.000-05:00

Wednesday's workout didn't happen thanks to a visit to the doc's for my annual checkup. Between the blood draw on my right arm and the tetanus shot in my left arm I felt like I had been 10 rounds with Mike Tyson.

I did complete Friday's workout however. In retrospect and in respect for the authors work I won't be posting any more detailed training sessions while I am following this particular plan. I have been having some interesting discussions over on Dragon Door's forums though so I might be changing up a little bit. Mainly following something along Tracy Reifkind's work. I just ordered her Swing Progression DVD's this evening.

I think I am going to try experimenting this week with the workout in her original story (see my fitness page). It looks pretty brutal which is the general idea :)

Friday night Mum comes into town to help us with getting the house ready to sell, I'll be spending the following week gardening, painting and cleaning. I doubt much in the way of workouts will be ensuing.

Workout 4

2010-09-13T20:37:00.001-05:00

Kettlebell workout B:

Clean and Press ladders
Get Up Sit up
Reverse Lunges
2 Handed Swings

Still can't press my 12kg with good form for long. 3rd ladder @ 12kg was a bit messy. Final set on the 20lb bell saw a last rep fail on the left side. Sucker just was not going to go up.

The swings totally fried my forearms. I think the only reason I didn't drop the damn bell was my iPad was in the potential landing zone.

Workout 3

2010-09-10T20:40:00.003-05:00

Kettlebell workout A:

Turkish Getups.
Goblet Squat
Bent over Row
2 Handed Swings

Huge improvement over Monday's session. 20lb bell not used at all. Got 2 extra TGU's in and the squat/row combo went from 6 sets to 9 using the 12kg bell for all sets. I had to drop to BW squats for 2 sets last time. Swings went to the from 136 to 150 which is about the max I can do in that time. Week 2 changes to a 30/30 split.

Mmm Curry

2010-09-09T20:30:00.001-05:00

I've been experimenting with Thai cooking recently. I think experiment #2 of the Red Curry can be declared a success.

Swampsville doesn't exactly have a great amount of locally available speciality stores so I have to make do with supermarket ingredients. There is where Taste of Thai products come in. I had to laugh at the first variation of this I made:

The recipe on the back of the jar of curry paste directs you to use 1/2 to 1 tbsp per 14oz of coconut milk along with a careful admonition at the bottom to start with a small amount and work up according to taste. Well I guess I've worked up my tastes a bit since living here as I thought I'd be daring and add the whole tbsp straight off.

Couldn't taste a damn thing. What I ended up with was way too sweet and not even remotely spicy. So experiment #2 I went to three tablespoons of curry paste and left the sugar and fish sauce down at the original amount. Much better :) I still think #3 will probably have one or two more tablespoons. I would put what I just ate at a 'mild' rating. I like my sinuses to be clear when I finish a curry, I'm barely even sniffing. Flavour was definitely good though. I might have gone overboard on the veggies though, I tend to load up on those and skip the rice. I did discover a great addition is some new potatoes though. :)

Anyone who knew me from back in the UK might be mildly shocked as I never cared for anything remotely spicy growing up. Now I eat things that will knock the socks of most of the cajuns around here and they can do some mean seasoning at a crawfish boil. Trying to eat the corn on the cob from your average boil is asking for totally numb lips that'll burn for hours after - it tastes sooo good though :)

Workout 2

2010-09-08T21:07:00.001-05:00

Kettlebell workout B:

Clean and Press ladders
Get Up Sit up
Reverse Lunges
2 Handed Swings

Stiff and sore so not my best efforts here. I have a 16kg bell tucked in the corner waiting for me to get uber enough to use it Resorting to my 20lb bell is a current sign of weakness. I should be able to do all of this with the 12kg. It's amazing the difference 6 pounds can make.

Snack Pack Score

2010-09-08T13:20:00.002-05:00

So my current eating habits have revolved around Intermittent Fasting of the daily kind. This basically boils down to no breakfast, small lunch and a happy me sized dinner that doesn't make my brain implode at the unfairness of such a minuscule portion as happens when I used to eat 5 times a day.

Generally this keeps me happy but I spent half the weekend ravaging my kitchen for whatever it was I was craving and eating way too much in the process.

After the second pot of sugar free jello mousse (great little snack packs by the way - 60 calories in a little pot of heaven) that normally quash any such craving but this time being totally useless in that regard I found a fruit cup in the back of the fridge.

I pondered it, up till now they had been ignored. Purchased for hubby at some time or another which typically puts food out of my mental range. I don't eat his food, he mostly doesn't eat mine. It's a good system for us that means he can buy his junk and I don't eat it. I just mentally treat it like a house mates food (totally off limits) unless I ask. He knows me well enough to typically say no *laugh*

Anyhow, I ate it since it had been there for a month or so. It was perfect, and then I realised I hadn't bought any fruit recently. So I ended up at brookshires for my lunch break and stocked up on some humongous peaches, bunch of granny smith apples, tub of pineapple and my score of the week: 100 calorie snack packs of wholly guacamole.

Avocado's are a fruit too!! hush :p

Anyway, I love avocado but suffer from the once you pop you can't stop attitude and will eat a whole one without blinking. So this fits the bill beautifully. And I can stick it in my lunch bag.

Omm Nom Nom.. :)

Kettlebells for the Win

2010-09-07T15:51:00.003-05:00

Kettlebell workout A:

Turkish Getups.

Goblet Squat

Bent over Row

2 Handed Swings

And we're back

2010-09-07T15:48:00.002-05:00

Seems blogger has done a wonder on updates in the last couple of years. Not that I am much of an active blogger but hey, never hurts to start again :)

So, I've lost some weight running around the lower 160's these days, picked up my kettle bells again as of last night and decided to move back to England...

Hubby wants to explore the world, to experience a new culture and generally get out of Dodge. I can't blame him. I want to as well and I don't think we are going to do it with our current life.

I could write so much here, the why's the wherefore's but it simply boils down to we aren't happy with the american dream, it's not all it's cracked up to be. We need some passion in our lives, something more fulfilling than a 'good job' that means we are stressed out of our brains whilst simultaneously being stuck behind a desk. I love the people I work with, they have treated me so wonderfully but the job itself has burned me out somewhat.

So back to England we go, me to work with my family. Hubby to explore various avenues and figure out what he wants to do when he grows up :) I hope that one day it is to come work with my family too, I'm not putting any pressure on him there.

In the mean time, we have a house to fix up and sell, packing and sorting to wade through and numerous other hurdles to overcome that seem a whole lot harder than when I did it the other way around exactly 8 years ago this weekend. I also am continuing down my journey to find that flat belly I have been dreaming about for so many years.

So this blog will be a recording of that journey and the move we make that I hope one day we look upon and say 'this was the best thing we ever did'. I hope my only regret to be that we didn't do it sooner.

I moved

2008-10-30T09:57:00.002-05:00

Sorry Blogger, but Wordpress has cooler features.

You can find any future musings from me at http://lifeolimey.wordpress.com.

mmm stewed prunes

2008-10-28T20:16:00.003-05:00

Well Mum recommended a quick recipe to help my system out with this iron supplement.

I have to say as far as 'medicine' goes this was freakin delicious.

I got organic unsulphured apricots and some prunes. Place equal amounts in a pan and add fresh orange juice to about 3/4 up the fruit. Heat on low for 15 mins or so stirring regularly. All the OJ pretty much vanished into a thick syrup around the apricots and prunes. I also added some mulling spice I found (cinnamon, all spice and cloves)

The resultant stodge was absolutely wonderful. I proceeded to add it to a bowlful of oatmeal with banana protein powder and I also threw in a bunch of blueberries. Yum :)

This was dinner this evening. Lunch was a bad choice, tried a new burger wrap at o'charlies. Lots of veggies (lettuce, pico de gallo, and jalapenos) and a nice wrap but the burger was pretty sucky. Was too much too especially for breaking a fast on. Oh well.

Health stuff

2008-10-27T21:40:00.002-05:00

Went to class tonight. First day back in 3.5 weeks sucked but I made it through it. Standard ladies class, so 20 mins warmup, 20 mins technique and 10 mins of rolling. Didn't think I was gonna make it through the rolling without losing lunch but ended up doing okay :)

Today is also a fasting day so only 2 meals.

Breakfast: 1 cup of Post Great grains raisin, date and pecan cereal with 2% milk
Lunch: kinda homemade chicken soup - creamy wild rice soup base (packet mix), add roast chicken, corn and mushrooms. 1 dannon 0%Plus yogurt smoothie and a pecan and cherry balance pure protein bar.

Drinks: water, coffee, green tea, powerade zero during class

Won't be bothering with the balance bars again, I was attracted by the all natural, no preservatives claim. Wasn't that good though. I'll stick to my organic trail mix I made. Also gonna dump the smoothie, it was low fat/low cal. I'll go back to my probiotic yoghurts from yoplait though. They taste better.

Found an organic dried dates, apples, raisins, apricot and cranberries trail mix and added organic sunflower seeds & pine nuts. I threw some walnuts in I had left over too. those were the only non-organic item. Yummy, healthy and no bloody almonds *bleugh* No sulphur covered fruit either which does indescribably bad things to my digestive system. Actually not so bad for me as for the poor people around me. *sigh*

Update

2008-10-27T10:41:00.003-05:00

Life has been quiet recently I must admit. I finally got over my flu/viral thing when my fever broke after 10 days. That sucked.

Since then I have just been having arguments with my iron supplement. Lets just say my digestive system is not appreciating it and is making it known. Suffice to say not many workouts going on.

I did start fasting again last week. Started on Monday am at 180.2lbs (81.7kg for my English brethren) we dipped down to 175lbs (79.3kg) and sidled back up to 177.8 (80.6kg) this morning. Considering the 3 glasses of wine this weekend and a bad restuarant choice on Friday that was expected. It is still a net loss of 2.4lbs (1kg) for the week so I am a-ok with that. :)

Gonna try and workout this week, wish me luck :)

On to life, we went to the Celtic festival this weekend which was kinda cool. Heard some good music from the live bands while we browsed the stalls. Not much to buy but we picked up a cool dagger (hubby loves his weapons) and I got a Celtic fairy wing poncho, if your lucky photo might be forthcoming on Friday (we have a Halloween party and I will probably be drunk enough to be daft enough to stand in front of a camera). We also picked up a cool decorative towel (6' x 3') with enormous cool looking dragon. I'll get pictures once we hang it. Not sure how long it'll take the cats to destroy it but we'll find out.

That evening we went to a local MMA (Mixed martial arts) fight that my Jiu-Jitsu club put together. I say local.. this was a big deal, we had people from as far as California come and fight and the main event was one of the Gracies themselves which, if you are familiar with the history of Brazilian jiu-jitsu will understand, was a huge honour. I've never been one for live fighting before but I actually enjoyed myself at this event. I guess it is different when you have friends fighting and you can cheer them on. And cheer I did, my throat was definitely sore the next day :)

Hubby and I finished off a lazy Sunday by playing Little Big Planet together, this is a new game for the PS3. Platform puzzle games taken to a whole new and very cool level. Suffice to say I am still not very good at them especially with 3 glasses of wine down me. :)

Gotta have..

2008-10-09T15:48:00.002-05:00

This is definitely going on my christmas list this year. With 5 cats I am getting real tired of cleaning and hauling cat litter. I've tred environmentally friendly cat litter (aka sawdust, loose and pellet based) and they hated it. Anya so much she would poo on every electrical cable in the living room instead and Mune would poop beside the box. Both would however pee in it.. go figure.

Thus! We found the Cat Genie,

You hook it up to a toilet or your washing machine inlet/outlet and it basically washes and dries the permanent granules with a sanitary solution. Poop gets ground up during the washing cycle and it all goes out the drain. I love it.

It's a tad pricy at $369 but it will recoup cost over time in not having to buy cat litter. The sanitary solution is dirt cheap in comparison.

http://www.catgenie.com/about-catgenie/1-how-it-works/

Pics!

2008-10-09T15:47:00.001-05:00

Here is my beloved fixing the dryer. Took both of us in the end but wasn't as horrendous a job as expected, well except hubby undid almost every screw on the back trying to get to bits before he discovered you only had to undo two in the front. We had one left when it all went back together (as usual) but thankfully it did 3 loads of dry clothes without collapsing so we are declaring it all a success.

I took pics of Nara finally, she is a cute munchkin :) Gotten very friendly with us these day and her and Kai play but I think Anya is still jealous of her. *sigh* Time will tell I guess.

Speaking of Anya, she has decided that the bathroom sink is a perfect place to pee. I can't really complain as that is all she does in it and it does clean out easily, still odd.

Still meh

2008-10-07T15:21:00.002-05:00

Well I'm still sick, on a course of antibiotics and various allergy meds to unswell everything. My sinus's and tonsils are swollen, running a low grade fever and apparantly I have fluid in my nasal caveties, yay.

Oddly not much congestion since monday. Everything else still feeling urky though.

I went to the docs monday for a full checkup and bloodwork. Made the appt before I got the cold. Some of it came back today and as I had to go in and get another shot of something she ran over it with me as I am apparantly suffering an iron deficiency so I am now stocked up on iron supps and gotta get that retested in 3 months. She showed me the numbers, don't quote me here as my brain is not exactly all with it, but I think it said the bottom end of the range was 53 (whatever they meaure it in) and I was at 40. Nurse said it would explain my tiredness and general not exactly peppy nature.

Meh..

2008-10-03T18:29:00.002-05:00

I guess the happy claims of 'I never get sick' were finally noticed by the powers that be and they decided to set me straight. Bleugh. Thank goodness for pseudoephedrine. When I feel like utter crap and just wanna crawl under a rock and die this stuff makes me feel pretty much human again. I still got the sniffles much to my poor spouses annoyance but I don't feel like death warmed up.

Not working out with this going on and not fasting either, comfort eating is probably not helping things but screw it, I can diet when its over. Last workout was wednesday which was circuit training, excellent session too. John had given us a stern talking to about putting in max effort. I feel like I usually do but with that in mind I managed to pull some extra reps or keep the speed up on some parts where I probably would have stopped for a breather or slowed down a bit before.

I was real proud of my kettlebell clean and press. I usually struggle with the 12kg bell but that night I powered that sucker up 8 times on each arm without stopping. On the way home was when my ears started popping and by the time I went to bed I had dug out the nyquil already.

We bought a new chair for hubby last night which of course meant good fun and games for the kitties while he built it. Kai is definitely a cat who does not know the meaning of fear. She'll stand there while things are being yanked out and dropped all around her and she just sniffs them. Everyone else scatters but she just stands there saying 'what's this? new toy?' Then again she also plays with my vacumn cleaner. If I want to vacumn where she is sitting I have to shove her out of the way with the vacumn, she finallys shifts her butt with a look that says 'I was moving anyway'. We know she isn't deaf.. she just doesn't care. And that's when she is trying to swat it as I move it around.

2008-09-30T21:55:00.003-05:00

We have run into owning your own house challenge do it yourself no 3 (first was plumbing in the toilet, second was changing out the sink faucet when it started leaking) Now we gotta change out the belt in the tumble dryer. Sunday night it died on the first load, I will never under appreciate soft clothes again. We hung everything up and dried it the old fashioned way. So now it's all kinda crunchy..

Oh and that just topped off a bad end to the week on Friday when our mail server died at work and I spent 12 hours rebuilding it :(

Here's to a better end of the week, so far it is improving slowly :)

Workout's are going great, I made it to Sat morning's Gorilla fitness class although I skipped ladies class afterwards as I didn't have time to wash my Gi friday night. Wish I had as I might have discovered the broken tumble dryer when we have had more time to fix it on Saturday. On a good note I hadn't put the bed linen in :) We really do have to get a second set one of these days.

Nara (her name got shortened) is kinda of settling down, she is alternately bullying and being bullied. She is becoming cute with us though.

Food choices have been much better this past week. The stew I made was awesome :) Will definitely have to make that again. Still seem to have trouble controlling the chronic munchies at the weekends though. Still managed not to do too much damage :) Hanging tight at 174 right now which is awesome considering recent months ups and downs.

life

2008-09-23T16:54:00.002-05:00

Hmm, lets see...

Mike absolutely killed us in Gorilla Fitness on Saturday morning, I haven't been that sore in a long time. Followed by a good ladies class an hour later and I was almost ready to take a nap saturday afternoon. Thankfully lots of coffee shored me up for a day of playing warhammer online. :)

I think my week of 'relaxed' eating ended up being a carboholics dream, upshot was weight went back up too. Monday weigh in was 178.6, tuesday morning after starting my fast at lunch on monday was 175.6 so I think it was mostly water but still I didn't lose any weight either so obviously not making that good of choices. I dunno what it is about D&D but I always have the most serious munchies throughout the session, perhaps it is cause we play in the dining room which is pretty much open to the kitchen.

Definitely too many taco nights and pasta lunches etc. I was also finishing the foccacia loaf I bought the previous weekend. I am not going to go back to too much of a low carb but I am going to try and limit them a bit better. My veggie intake probably fell in direct correlation to the starchy carb increase. So this week we are making better choices, I made a huge beef stew at the weekend, Beef, carrots, onions, mushrooms, tomatoes, sweetcorn and instead of potatoes which would be my normal addition I threw in two cans of black beans. I really wasn't sure how it was gonna turn out with that but I was pleasantly surprised. So I have a nice fibrous and tasty lunch for this week. I normally like stew thick enough to stand your spoon up in which involves a crap load of corn starch but I decided to view it as meaty soup and discovered it is just fine without the extra corn starch. Just goes to show what creatures of habit we are.

Well time to get to class, most of my stiffness has gone so should be a bit easier than last nights ladies class. Rolling with the boys tonight unless one of the other ladies shows up.

2008-09-21T19:12:00.000-05:00

This is the perfect example of why we can't have any open boxes of tissues or toilet paper out in the open in our house. This happened when I mistakenly left the kitchen towel roll in sight of Willow. She can do that in about 3 seconds flat.

All our regular house guests now know to look in the second drawer down when they use the bathroom.

In other news Red Dwarf is making a comeback! yay

Sugar Rant

2008-09-19T16:36:00.003-05:00

There has been a lot of fuss about High Fructose Corn Syrup being the devil recently. It's blamed for the obesity epidemic amongst other nefarious things. The corn industry is fighting back with adverts saying it's natural and no different from sugar.

I do try and avoid it personally but I think people are missing the point. The problem isn't so much the HFCS, it's the fact its in bloody everything. Americans are fat because they are jacked up on sugar. I realised the other night why everyone claims English food is so bland. I think its cause we don't put sugar in everything.

I just went to an Italian restaurant for lunch where I had some spaghetti bolognese. It was pretty obvious there was sugar in the sauce. Another 'famous' Italian restaurant makes a big deal about their 'sweet' sauce. Personally I find it unpalatable these days, I like to taste tomatoes not sugar.

The recipe for meatloaf my mother in law gave me has a tomato sauce spread across the top that is tomato ketchup mixed with an ungodly amount of brown sugar.

Pizza crusts here along with bread in general has sugar added. Plain white bread is almost cakelike.

You cannot buy pre-packaged fruit these days that does not have sugar added. I got excited when I saw no-sugar added mandarins on the shelf, till I picked up the package and saw 'sweetened with splenda' on the side. For goodness sake, mandarins, peaches.. shoot almost any fruit is just fine on it's own. It does not need frickin sugar added to it.

So buy fresh fruit I hear you say.. yeah I do, but there is something nice and convenient about a pre-sized cup of fruit in juice though. I can keep it in the fridge indefinitely. Whenever I buy peaches I usually manage to miss that sweet spot where they taste great and end up letting them over ripen and some end up getting wasted.

The point being that if normal supposedly savory foods had less, preferably no sugar in and the already sweet stuff wasn't additionally sweetend with more I don't think there would be such a problem.

2008-09-19T09:10:00.003-05:00

We were offered another kitten last night, sadly I had to refuse. She does look absolutely adorable as you can see but crazy cat lady in training I might be but I am also a snobby crazy cat lady and I refuse to feed my kids crappy catfood. Thus I have to set a limit on mouths to feed as they are getting expensive. Especially as three of them have a definite preference for wet food.

If you're interested we are using a holistic cat food from Wellness. No grains, human grade meat (not ground up chicken feet), and no crappy fillers. Good stuff and comes in lots of varieties to give them something different each day. :)

Jiu-Jitsu was great last night, learned some cool arm locks. I also found one of my training partners is one of the first people not to think I'm crazy for fasting. She has done it herself last year and loved it. After our conversation I think she is going to start again. She is pretty fit so she is just doing it once a week to maintain weight. Nice to have a warm body to talk to that understands though.

2008-09-18T09:38:00.002-05:00

Did my circuit training last night, was a rep workout which is cool but not as much running as normal. Was feeling decidedly peculier afterwards so not sure I have quite thrown off this infection. I get the feeling it is just lurking.

At least that is my excuse for pulling a total girly on the way home. I had to stop and get gas(petrol) and the stupid machine was being petulant about giving me a receipt so apparantly I was a bit distracted. On the way home I was making fun of this idiot cause he kept honking his horn at every stoplight. Wasn't till a bit further on I went to change lanes and on looking in my side mirror realised my petrol cap was open.. *sigh* I pulled in to the advance auto parts store parking lot as I had a sneaking suspicion that the crappy bit of plastic that holds the cap was not enough to withstand 40 mph traffic. Sure enough it was completely missing. So withdrawing rude insults at aforemention not so much idiot I went into the store and admitted my own idiocy to the nice chap behind the counter. He hooked me up with a new cap and we had a good chat about cultural differences. Having a british accent is sometime's a blessing and a curse. I get some interesting conversations sometimes.. and others that leave me going .. Huh?

Lady: Where are you from?
Me: England, just north of London. Moved here 3 years ago. (this was a while back now)
Lady: Oh cool.. So did you speak English when you moved here?
Me: Uhh... M'am.. I am English.
Lady: Yeah.. but did you speak it?

The mind boggles.. I made my excuses and left fast.. I still wonder what on earth she is under the impression that English people speak if it isn't English.

Weirdness

2008-09-17T09:45:00.003-05:00

So I missed last nights bjj class because by 5pm I was exhibiting all the signs of an oncoming respiratory infection which plague me now and then. Cold, dizzy, slight fever, headache, sinus ache, ears popping and all those other wonderful symptoms. So instead of trying to go to class I just went and bought more catfood and headed home. By the time I went to bed I felt fine, this morning I feel fine.

How does one get sick and throw it off in the span of 8 hours? I love my constitution, really I do, but that is just weird.

Speaking of weird, more cat stories for you. We, like most people, used to keep a cup by the sink in the bathroom. Our eldest, Mune, decided one day that this was going to be her drinking container of preference. She never did like her water dish. Put a glass of water down and within 3 seconds you could guarantee she'd have her head in it drinking your water like she hadn't had any for a week. As we gained more cats they saw this trick and thought it was a good idea. In the end we had three cats fighting over the cup in the bathroom while you were trying to clean your teeth. So my hubby took away the cup declaring that they needed to learn to use their own water dish. That was about 6 months ago.

Kai in the mean time became a faucet kitty and would curl up in the sink and wait for you to turn the tap on. Willow would go so far as to lick up any toothpaste leavings in the sink if she got to it before Kai curled up in it.

This morning hubby walked in to clean his teeth this morning to Kai in the sink, Willow sitting beside her and Mune on her old perch on the back of the toilet (where we would usually put the cup for her). They were all looking at him expectantly. He finally relented and went and got their cup.

I in the mean time was feeding Anya and Inara. Anya seems to think the world is coming to an end in the morning and that she is starving to death. I've never seen a cat who is free fed (they have dry food down all the time) dive into their food so bad, she is such a greedy little bugger. She'll growl at anyone who comes near the bowl, even puts her paw over the bowl so they can't get a nose in the edge and then proceeds to try and bury whats left when she has had enough, kinda hard on ceramic tile, she trys hard though.

Inara is definitely coming out of her shell and even joined us for breakfast of her own accord. Still growling at everyone else though.

Gotta love em :)

My Kids

2008-09-16T19:44:00.000-05:00

Probably one of my favourite pics. Such a lazy bunch. From left to right, Mune, Kai, Willow and Anya.

Inara still to follow.

BreakFast

2008-09-16T14:48:00.005-05:00

I broke my fast today after 22 hours when hubby called me to go to lunch. We went to O'Charlies and I got the Bistro chicken. Grilled chicken breast on top of parmesan encrusted potatoes with a bistro salad (oil and vinager dressing). Was pretty tasty, not too filling and I got some healthy greens in. The salad was actually a pretty decent mix of greens. Not just crappy romaine or iceburg.

Definitely better than the breaded chicken tenders and fries that were tempting me. :)

Life.. I do actually have one!

2008-09-16T13:49:00.005-05:00

I guess its not really life o' limey without some actual life outside my workouts. I'm not a complete health nut.

My cats are my kids and on Friday we got #5. When she stops hiding I will get some pictures she is pretty cute though. She is actually Anya's litter sister. The lady that adopted her had 2 18 year old cats. The kitten just wants to play and her elders just want to sleep so she was driving the poor things batty, thus her former owner offered her to us knowing that we would give her a great home.

She, now named Inara, spent the first couple days cowering in corners so I put her in her own room for a while until she despazzed, got used to the new smells somewhat and didn't have to run the gauntlet to get to the litter box and food. She is now wandering the house although still hissing at anyone who comes too close. I am extremely surprised at how unconcerned the other cats are. Kai is fascinated with her (as I expected) and has been following her around sitting about 3 feet away and looking bored and unimpressed at the hissing fits. I figure another day or two and they will be playing quite happily.

Mune, my eldest, I was sure was gonna leave home but she seems the most unconcerned of the bunch, I think she has finally got past caring what strays we bring in :) She has been cuddly and fairly 'normal' for her. With her that means hating everyone except me and my husband. She'll accept strokes from people when she is outside and will do the leg rub to people inside but try and touch her inside and she'll more than likely leave you with scars. When we got Kai, and then Anya 3 months later she was even being vicious with us. Not a happy kitty to say the least.

On other notes we started Warhammer Online on Sunday. I am a video game geek too and love my MMO's. I am playing a Chaos Zealot at the moment although the Greenskin Squig Herder will be my alt for sure. The squigs are so cute and I have always loved pet classes. :) I normally hate PVP but am actually finding the pvp scenario's a lot of fun.

Had to cut that a bit short when some friends came over for D&D. We are playing 4th edition right now. The combat is definitely so much more interesting now. We had a one shot Sunday as one of the main players was missing so I rolled up an Eladrin Ranger. My char for the main campaign we are doing is a Dwarven Fighter. Loving both right now.

Oops, lunch break over :) Back to work...

New Month, New Plan, Finally Results

2008-09-15T20:12:00.002-05:00

There is a reason that my prior attempt at blogging trailed off. OCD, or more accurately OCE, Obsessive Compulsive Eating.

This is a term coined by Brad Pilon, my new favourite hero. He is the author of Eat Stop Eat. I've seen his book floating around for a long time but in my perceived superior knowledge I had dismissed it as another fad diet. That was my biggest mistake.

I finally saw Craig Ballentyne, another favourite trainer of mine, recommend this book and the results of the latest Turbulance Training Challenge. One lady's results were phenomonal, actualy they were all phenomonal results, but hers stood out as she seriously looked 20 years younger. She had used Eat Stop Eat as had the rest I believe.

So I shelled out some money and read Brads science on Intermittant Fasting. It made sense, a lot of sense. I started my first 24 hour fast that very next day.

My monday morning weigh in was 179.8, This morning (1 week later) after 2 fasts (Mon and Thurs) and a very relaxed eating plan, three meals a day, not watching carbs or proteins or fats or calories I weighed in at 175.8. That works for me. I actually weighed in Saturday morning at 174.4 which I haven't seen since prior to last thanksgiving.

I feel so free, so relieved. Something is finally working. And all I have to do is not eat for 24 hours twice a week and keep up my resistance training. The latter is continuing to be done via my jiu-jitsu and circuit training.

I will still continue to eat 'healthy', plenty of veggies, healthy fats, lean proteins etc but I won't shy away from the bread basket, nor will I gorge myself on it either. Sensible eating is still the key, I don't have to stay absolutely 100% on plan with a carefully detailed macro percentage calorie based plan to make any progress however. All that does is make me go crazy.

Food - 08/06/08

2008-08-07T10:55:00.002-05:00

Breakfast:

1/2 cup Cottage cheese
1 scoop Protein powder
50g blueberries
5g Biotest Superfood

Lunch:

Ate out:
3 hushpuppies
1 cup corn and crab bisque
1 citrus grilled tuna salad, mixed salad greens, mandarins, feta, walnuts

Not the worst lunch, but not PN compliant due to missing my 2 other meals and the hush puppies and bisque.

PM Workout - Circuit Training

Dinner:

2 x grass fed Buffalo franks
shrimp
Steamed Zucchini
Mushrooms
Black beans
Organic ginger sesame sauce

Drinks throught the day the have been water and green tea. (I use a packet of stevia in my tea)

I also had one cup of black coffee

Workout - 08/06/08

2008-08-06T19:29:00.004-05:00

Wednesday AM:

Rest - Woot, an hour extra sleep

Wednesday PM:

Circuit training at BJJ School

Running - 10-15 mins
1 min work rounds, 30 sec (rest/switch):
Ring Pushups w/ feet elevated on a box
12" box jumps
slosh pipe walk and carry
Ab Wheel
Deadlift (135lb)
Bosu Ball Pistons (15lb db's)
Burpee w/ pullup
Kick Arounds
Rowing Machine

What actually happened was more like this:

Hold myself up on the rings was the primary feat, not sure pushups ever got involved
Box jumps were good, I normally use the 18" box but that was being used for the rings
Squatting and picking the pipe up was a challenge, no walking. The pipe is about 15' I think and half full of water
ab wheel was good
pistons were good
burpee, I leapt up and grabbed the bar hanging for a split second, still not up to pullups yet
Kick Arounds were good
Rowing machine got me a bunch of kudo's from the guys, I held a 1.45 average. I have no clue what that means but they all said it was awesome. all I know is I was a hairsbreadth from vomiting :)

All in all a great workout, I love these circuit training sessions. Brutal but so rewarding.

Food - 08/05/08

2008-08-06T13:20:00.000-05:00

Pre-Workout Shake

1/2 cup Cottage cheese
1 scoop Metabolic Drive Protein Powder
3oz Bolthouse Farms Green Goodness
50g blueberries
1tbsp Genuine Health Greens+

AM Workout

Breakfast:

1/4 cup dry oatmeal
1/4 cup Cottage cheese
Half scoop Protein powder
5g Biotest Superfood
1tbsp Carlsons Fish Oil

Meals 2, 3 and 4 are batch cooked and split into 3 tubs

9oz 99% lean ground turkey
6oz Green beans
3oz Carrots
3oz Water chestnuts
3oz Sugar Snap Peas
14oz diced tomatoes
5oz Mushrooms

PM Workout

Dinner:

2 x Applegate Farms organic spinach and feta sausages
Steamed Zucchini
Mushrooms
Black beans
Organic peanut satay sauce

Drinks throught the day the have been water and green tea. (I use a packet of stevia in my tea)

Workout - 08/05/08

2008-08-06T10:38:00.000-05:00

Tuesday AM:

Using 26lb Kettlebell.

Turkish Get-Ups - 8 mins of alternating reps. Total reps: 16
2 mins rest
1 handed swings. 30 sec work, 60 sec rest - alternate hands.
x 10 sets = 15 mins total, 202 swings - Average 20 swings per hand

Tuesday PM:

Horse Riding - 1 hour.

Food - 08/04/08

2008-08-04T22:28:00.000-05:00

Pre-Workout Shake

1/2 cup Cottage cheese
1 scoop Metabolic Drive Protein Powder
3oz Bolthouse Farms Green Goodness
Half a banana
1tbsp Genuine Health Greens+
1tbsp Maca Powder

AM Workout

Breakfast:

1/4 cup oatmeal
1/4 cup Cottage cheese
Half scoop Protein powder
5g Biotest Superfood
1tbsp Carlsons Fish Oil

Meals 2, 3 and 4 are batch cooked and split into 3 tubs

9oz 99% lean ground turkey
6oz Green beans
11oz Broccoli
3oz Carrots
3oz Water chestnuts
3oz Sugar Snap Peas

PM Workout

Dinner:

Salmon burger
Steamed Zucchini
Mushrooms
Black beans
Organic Ginger and Sesame sauce

Drinks throught the day the have been water and green tea. (I use a packet of stevia in my tea)

Workout - 08/04/08

2008-08-04T22:16:00.000-05:00

Monday AM:

Using 26lb Kettlebell.

Turkish Get-Ups - 5 mins of alternating reps. Total reps: 12
2 mins rest
2 handed swings. 30 sec work, 60 sec rest.
x 11 sets = 15.5 mins total, 251 swings (should have been 10 sets, math at 6.30 am is not my strong point)

Monday PM:

BJJ - 1 hour - 30 min warm up, 20 min technique, 10 mins rolling.

First Steps

2008-08-04T21:40:00.000-05:00

Not quite first steps I guess, I have been dieting my whole life pretty much, I was the fat kid at school, the one sneaking Mars Bars when no one was looking and finding every excuse under the sun to get out of PE lessons.

Now I am 30 years old, and while I discovered, after moving from my English homeland to the United States, that my weight (180lbs @ 5'4) was considered almost 'normal' in comparison to the average American I am still not happy.

I want to be fit, I want to be healthy and above all, I wanna look good nekkid *grin*

I have been a avid follower of John Berardi and his Precision Nutrition program for the last 18 months and while I haven't exactly made any startling progress I have learned a whole lot about me, how I tick and I have drastically cleaned up my eating. I no longer live on junk, my main intake is healthy whole foods, lots of vegetables and lean meats. My lack of success has been due to weekend slipups and not enough exercise.

Thanks to a recent recommendation I was introduced to Intuitive Eating. This book has seriously turned around the way I am looking at food. I have been following it's principles for 2 weeks now and while I slipped up this weekend and fell back into old habits it has been an interesting experience. The slip whilst annoying did teach me a few things and I am going into this week with a clearer mindset on what it means to eat intuitively instead of gorging on candy and Wendy's spicy chicken sandwiches (damn that small weakness).

So having learned a bunch of stuff what am I doing?

Workouts:

Kettlebells - these rock, I get up at 6.30am and do a 20 minute workout in the mornings. This week I started a fatloss plan from David Whitley, RKC.
I am also training in Gracie Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, whilst not training at the Gracie Acadamy I am training under one of Pedro Sauer's students.

Diet:

Healthy whole foods
Limited processed foods.
Controlled carb intake, whilst still making up about 30% of my daily intake starchy carbs are limited to post workout. Gotta earn them. The rest of my carbs come from lots of vegetables and some fruit.

I will be posting my diet and workouts here on a daily basis.