Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Sunday, January 14, 2007
P.s
I haven't had any alcohol since NYE. I know thats only two weeks but I usually have wine 2-3 times per week. Its been great. It was def one of my resolutions and i'm going to stick to it!
The weekend came and went
So RPM training was awesome. I learnt heaps and got to know some really awesome people. I also spent so much time on a bike that I now have a rash like thing you know where. To get me through the weekend I lived on gatorade, dried fruit and oat based muslie bars. Essentially I ate carbs and sugar all weekend :( I knew that I would need all the glucose that I could get so I just went with it and tried to to think of how badly I was sabotaging my diet. It was all worthwhile though because I was cleared to instruct, with flying colours.
I'm back on it this morning though. I was starting to feel like I was loosing a little body fat. I folded late last week and weighed myself and at the moment, the scales havent moved. But I am feeling better and feeling slimmer. A couple of people have also asked me whether I've been trying to lose weight because they think I have. Which is nice. I'm worried that my eating over the weekend has sabotaged that and I might have to start again. I guess i'll just need to be agressive with my diet and exercise regime this week. I need to have today off from working out but i've started eating great first thing. I'm trying not to worry about it too much.
I have an RPM class next week so I need to learn my choreography and I also need to find someone I can jump onstage with and present a track or so as a practice run. I'm excited about the new challenge and the variety in my class load, hopefully i'll start getting classes :) I guess thats what I should be focusing on. If i put in the hard work, eat well and just dont think about losing the fat, chances are I probably will.
It was really great to be around other instructors all weekend. They understand your obsession with classes and working out. They understand your obsession with wanting to get your body to do the best it can for you, They just understand all that stuff. It was really inspiring. It was a great experience. Its about eight weeks until bodypump training. I'm pumped, i've got stacks of work to do before then but i'm up for the challenge!
I'm back on it this morning though. I was starting to feel like I was loosing a little body fat. I folded late last week and weighed myself and at the moment, the scales havent moved. But I am feeling better and feeling slimmer. A couple of people have also asked me whether I've been trying to lose weight because they think I have. Which is nice. I'm worried that my eating over the weekend has sabotaged that and I might have to start again. I guess i'll just need to be agressive with my diet and exercise regime this week. I need to have today off from working out but i've started eating great first thing. I'm trying not to worry about it too much.
I have an RPM class next week so I need to learn my choreography and I also need to find someone I can jump onstage with and present a track or so as a practice run. I'm excited about the new challenge and the variety in my class load, hopefully i'll start getting classes :) I guess thats what I should be focusing on. If i put in the hard work, eat well and just dont think about losing the fat, chances are I probably will.
It was really great to be around other instructors all weekend. They understand your obsession with classes and working out. They understand your obsession with wanting to get your body to do the best it can for you, They just understand all that stuff. It was really inspiring. It was a great experience. Its about eight weeks until bodypump training. I'm pumped, i've got stacks of work to do before then but i'm up for the challenge!
Thursday, January 11, 2007
The week in review
This week has been an interesting one. I've started recording what I eat, and when i'm eating as I should be i'm consuming about 1200-1300 calories per day. Which is good, I think. Yesterday was a little different though. I made some protien cookies (with oats, protein, milk eggs and equal, so there really isnt too many calories in them) and I ate three of those. I was also feeling really quite ill last night and had a massive bowl of fruit salad for dinner, which i'm sure would have tipped my calorie count way over. I was feeling so average and I really was just craving fruit, i'd taught three classes that day and I have my RPM training this weekend so I thought i'd listen to my body and give it what it wanated.
I've decided that after my training this weekend i'm going to stagger my carb days. So i'll have one day of eating carbs at breakfast and lunch and then one day of no carbs at all, then one day of carbs, then one day of no carbs and so on. Because I'm so active I dont think cutting carbohydrates from my diet entirely is a great idea, but I do know that my body responds really well from eating low to no carbs. I'm going to give the alternate days thing a go and see how it ends up.
I jumped on the scales yesterday (I know, I know I said I wouldnt till week four but I couldnt help myself) and as it turns out I havent lost any weight. I feel like i'm starting to though, so i'm not going to dispair. I'm going to keep plodding along and weigh my and measure myself again in three weeks. My diet is pretty much going to fly out the window this weekend though. I'm going to need to eat heaps of complex carbs if i'm going to get through the weekend properly. I'm sure i'll burn it all off though!!!
Apart from not feeling my best i'm still feeling positive. I know this is going to be a long hard road and i'm willing to stick it out for the long haul.
I've decided that after my training this weekend i'm going to stagger my carb days. So i'll have one day of eating carbs at breakfast and lunch and then one day of no carbs at all, then one day of carbs, then one day of no carbs and so on. Because I'm so active I dont think cutting carbohydrates from my diet entirely is a great idea, but I do know that my body responds really well from eating low to no carbs. I'm going to give the alternate days thing a go and see how it ends up.
I jumped on the scales yesterday (I know, I know I said I wouldnt till week four but I couldnt help myself) and as it turns out I havent lost any weight. I feel like i'm starting to though, so i'm not going to dispair. I'm going to keep plodding along and weigh my and measure myself again in three weeks. My diet is pretty much going to fly out the window this weekend though. I'm going to need to eat heaps of complex carbs if i'm going to get through the weekend properly. I'm sure i'll burn it all off though!!!
Apart from not feeling my best i'm still feeling positive. I know this is going to be a long hard road and i'm willing to stick it out for the long haul.
Sunday, January 7, 2007
P.S
Those photo's were taken on December 29 - i'll take some more at four weeks and again at 8 weeks, then again at twelve weeks. I'll take measurements at 6 weeks then twelve weeks. I'll post all on here as they are released. I just realised that I havent got my measurements (as taken at December 29) up yet. I'm not at home right now so i'll post them tonight.
And so it starts
I'm not really a morning person. I find that it takes me a long time to wake up and I never have the amount of energy first thing in the morning as I do a little later in the day. But I've committed myself to getting up and going to the gym with Brad before work for a three day split weights program and we started today. Before the gym i'll either have half a cup of oats or 5 egg whites scrambled and it still doesn't seem to kick my energy systems into gear. Its such a struggle!
Today we did back, abs and biceps and this afternoon i'm heading back to the gym for 1 hour of RPM and 1 hour of body pump so i'll get a mighty good calorie burn in this afternoon.
So far, the thing i'm finding the hardest is eating healthy snacks between meals. I'm trying not to overdo it on the fruit but i'm finding myself at a loss for snacks unless I do. I generally have oats or eggs for breakfast (as previously mentioned) then if I go to the gym in the morning i'll have a protein shake straight after and probably a piece of fruit too. I then try and hold out till 12 - 12.30ish for lunch and have half a cup of brown rice with a tin of 180g tuna (drained and mixed into the rice) and a non fat yoghurt tub. You can bet your bottom dollar that within two hours though i'll be hungry again and scrounging around for things to eat. This is when I find myself heading back to the fruit bowl for more apples or banana's. I limit myself to two pieces of fruit per day (except on sunday's when at the moment i'm having a mango for desert in addition to my other fruit). I dont really want to have another protein shake because I like having a small cut of meat at my evening meal so I don't want to over do the protein. But by the time I reach this point i've used my fruit quota and my protein shake up so what the hell am I supposed to eat! I NEED to eat something mid-afternoon, especially if i'm heading back to the gym for a cardio workout. Lately if I have oats for breakfast and i'm at home, mid afternoon i'll have five egg whites scrambled - but again i'm worried that I might be overdoing the protein. I find the diet thing the hardest of all.
The portion sizes is something I contstantly struggle with. Because i'm an aerobics instructor, i'm incredibly active and I need to eat to stay strong and alert. I find the reccommended portion sizes for weight loss are really quite small and i'm always walking around hungry. I'm eating every two hours at the moment in attempt to try and stay satiated. I know that's what you're supposed to do and I know that you're supposed to feel that niggle before you eat but its an incredibly difficult feeling to deal with. Whenever I feel hungry like this I get the urge to eat far more than I should. The types of foods I eat has never really been the problem, I guess the portion control side of things is really my biggest fault. Even though in recent months I have eaten more fatty/processed foods than I would ordinarily, as a general rule of thumb I eat very well. The only thing I can put it down to is the fact that I was eating 2/3 - 3/4 cup of oats and brown rice (and things like that). So I'm cutting that stuff down but goddamit, its so hard!
Then i looked at my exercise regiment and wonder if i'm eating enough to sustain energy levels in my body. Because i'm fairly fit already i've decided that I need to up the ante and throw a few more really high intesity sessions in there, to shock my body. I know I need to create a calorie deficit but I'm torn between feeding my poor muscles the food they crave to recover or letting the calories burn off.
I'm doing RPM training this weekend which means my class load is going to increase even further. And, i'm doing Body Pump soon after, so my class load will increase again. I'll be interested to see if I can maintain this diet while i'm teaching so many classes. I'm definitely going to try but I feel like I have an obligation to my body to reward it with nutrients after it works so hard for me. I have these battles with myself inside. I'm torn between eating as much fruit as I want (because I really love my fruit) because i'm so freaking active or really limiting it because I want to lose weight.
All my fitness idols would work out as much, maybe even more than I do. I would love to know what they eat because they all have absolutely amazing bodies. The body is supposed to know no limits, only what you impose upon it - but I feel like i'm running on empty all the time. Where am I supposed to get the fuel I need to perform at my best ability and constantly workout at a high intensity?
All good questions which I think loads of women all around the world ask themselves regularly.
Today we did back, abs and biceps and this afternoon i'm heading back to the gym for 1 hour of RPM and 1 hour of body pump so i'll get a mighty good calorie burn in this afternoon.
So far, the thing i'm finding the hardest is eating healthy snacks between meals. I'm trying not to overdo it on the fruit but i'm finding myself at a loss for snacks unless I do. I generally have oats or eggs for breakfast (as previously mentioned) then if I go to the gym in the morning i'll have a protein shake straight after and probably a piece of fruit too. I then try and hold out till 12 - 12.30ish for lunch and have half a cup of brown rice with a tin of 180g tuna (drained and mixed into the rice) and a non fat yoghurt tub. You can bet your bottom dollar that within two hours though i'll be hungry again and scrounging around for things to eat. This is when I find myself heading back to the fruit bowl for more apples or banana's. I limit myself to two pieces of fruit per day (except on sunday's when at the moment i'm having a mango for desert in addition to my other fruit). I dont really want to have another protein shake because I like having a small cut of meat at my evening meal so I don't want to over do the protein. But by the time I reach this point i've used my fruit quota and my protein shake up so what the hell am I supposed to eat! I NEED to eat something mid-afternoon, especially if i'm heading back to the gym for a cardio workout. Lately if I have oats for breakfast and i'm at home, mid afternoon i'll have five egg whites scrambled - but again i'm worried that I might be overdoing the protein. I find the diet thing the hardest of all.
The portion sizes is something I contstantly struggle with. Because i'm an aerobics instructor, i'm incredibly active and I need to eat to stay strong and alert. I find the reccommended portion sizes for weight loss are really quite small and i'm always walking around hungry. I'm eating every two hours at the moment in attempt to try and stay satiated. I know that's what you're supposed to do and I know that you're supposed to feel that niggle before you eat but its an incredibly difficult feeling to deal with. Whenever I feel hungry like this I get the urge to eat far more than I should. The types of foods I eat has never really been the problem, I guess the portion control side of things is really my biggest fault. Even though in recent months I have eaten more fatty/processed foods than I would ordinarily, as a general rule of thumb I eat very well. The only thing I can put it down to is the fact that I was eating 2/3 - 3/4 cup of oats and brown rice (and things like that). So I'm cutting that stuff down but goddamit, its so hard!
Then i looked at my exercise regiment and wonder if i'm eating enough to sustain energy levels in my body. Because i'm fairly fit already i've decided that I need to up the ante and throw a few more really high intesity sessions in there, to shock my body. I know I need to create a calorie deficit but I'm torn between feeding my poor muscles the food they crave to recover or letting the calories burn off.
I'm doing RPM training this weekend which means my class load is going to increase even further. And, i'm doing Body Pump soon after, so my class load will increase again. I'll be interested to see if I can maintain this diet while i'm teaching so many classes. I'm definitely going to try but I feel like I have an obligation to my body to reward it with nutrients after it works so hard for me. I have these battles with myself inside. I'm torn between eating as much fruit as I want (because I really love my fruit) because i'm so freaking active or really limiting it because I want to lose weight.
All my fitness idols would work out as much, maybe even more than I do. I would love to know what they eat because they all have absolutely amazing bodies. The body is supposed to know no limits, only what you impose upon it - but I feel like i'm running on empty all the time. Where am I supposed to get the fuel I need to perform at my best ability and constantly workout at a high intensity?
All good questions which I think loads of women all around the world ask themselves regularly.
Saturday, December 30, 2006
The end of an era
So i look at those photo's on the right and two things happen. Firstly, I look at them and say to myself "I'm an aerobics instructor, I should be in far better shape than that". Secondly I look at the those photo's and say to myself - I could definitely look worse. I'm not too bad. See my confliction?
The funny thing is, i'm finally starting to feel comfortable with who I am, with my body shape and all that is me. But i've just started this new job where its my job to be a role model to the people in my class and I just dont think that I am. I know that I could be in better shape with some hard work and several tough sacrifices. So I think that for the sake of my job, I should do that. Isn't it funny that at the one time in my life where I feel comfortable enough to say this is me, it becomes blindingly apparent that for the first time ever, I really can't be me. Its not just about my wobbly bits either. I would be a far better instructor if I was fitter. I'm fit, don't get me wrong but I could be fitter. So fitter I will be. I'm really excited about my challenges i've built for myself.
I think the most important thing to note about this post is the fact that I said i'm finally comfortable as me. I don't think i've ever said that to anyone about my body. I dont think that statement means that I like my body, but that I've accepted it for all its flaws and i've come to terms with what i've got. I know the purpose of this blog is to track my journey through changing my body - but this time its going to be about so much more than just weight loss. its going to be about my journey to becoming a better health professional and an inspiration to my clients and participants. Its about being an inspiration to myself. I've done this kind of thing several times before and i've always failed miserably because my head has been in the wrong plac. I was young and the sacrifces were just too great. This is now about training my body to respond the way I want it to, when I say go. Its about being the fittest instructor my gym hires and its about filling classes to the max because a) i'm an inspiration to look at b) i'm motivating verbally c) i'm the fittest there and can keep going and going. See, this time its not just about weight loss - its about me, my career and my inner self. I've gone through loads of personal growth in the last twelve months and I feel this is the last little peice of my cake.
I want to have my cake and I want to eat it too. Soon I will. Watch this space.
The funny thing is, i'm finally starting to feel comfortable with who I am, with my body shape and all that is me. But i've just started this new job where its my job to be a role model to the people in my class and I just dont think that I am. I know that I could be in better shape with some hard work and several tough sacrifices. So I think that for the sake of my job, I should do that. Isn't it funny that at the one time in my life where I feel comfortable enough to say this is me, it becomes blindingly apparent that for the first time ever, I really can't be me. Its not just about my wobbly bits either. I would be a far better instructor if I was fitter. I'm fit, don't get me wrong but I could be fitter. So fitter I will be. I'm really excited about my challenges i've built for myself.
I think the most important thing to note about this post is the fact that I said i'm finally comfortable as me. I don't think i've ever said that to anyone about my body. I dont think that statement means that I like my body, but that I've accepted it for all its flaws and i've come to terms with what i've got. I know the purpose of this blog is to track my journey through changing my body - but this time its going to be about so much more than just weight loss. its going to be about my journey to becoming a better health professional and an inspiration to my clients and participants. Its about being an inspiration to myself. I've done this kind of thing several times before and i've always failed miserably because my head has been in the wrong plac. I was young and the sacrifces were just too great. This is now about training my body to respond the way I want it to, when I say go. Its about being the fittest instructor my gym hires and its about filling classes to the max because a) i'm an inspiration to look at b) i'm motivating verbally c) i'm the fittest there and can keep going and going. See, this time its not just about weight loss - its about me, my career and my inner self. I've gone through loads of personal growth in the last twelve months and I feel this is the last little peice of my cake.
I want to have my cake and I want to eat it too. Soon I will. Watch this space.
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