Saturday, 30 June 2012

Latte love...

I am in love. I have been in love for a long time and over the last nine months I have fallen more in love with lattes as I have fallen more in love with someone that used to make coffee for a living. Our days off together are spent hanging at coffee shops, after I smash Simon at the gym, and if the kids are with us we have our coffees take away at the park.

Outpost :: Our Coffee Shop :: Our Barista & Friend David

My love affair started with a small full cream cappuccino with two sugars. That was over 10 years ago. Since then I cut the sugar, swapped from a cappuccino to a latte, swapped the full cream milk to skim, gone from a small latte to a large latte and then six months ago, with Simon's encouragement, from a large latte to a small double shot latte. I then began having two a day. I am Simon's coffee apprentice!

Latte :: Love

I have recently asked an expert to help me achieve my fitness and health goals. I have decided that I have gone as far as I can on my own and I need the guidance, mentoring and encouragement from someone that understands where I want to be physically and mentally.

Chris Dufey is my awesome trainer. Three weeks with Chris and there are changes. Changes not just noticed by me, but by others as well which for me is something that is awesome and motivating. Chris sent me my new meal plan after our first meeting. This meal plan included one cup of black coffee a day and two green teas. Black coffee? No more lattes?

It got me thinking about the benefits of drinking coffee. I hear about these benefits a lot. That coffee contains anti-oxidants and caffeine which are both said to have health and anti aging benefits. Antioxidants, for example, help your body repair damage to cells caused by free radicals. The damage caused by these free radicals occurs when they react with important cellular components such as DNA, or the cell membrane. Caffeine has been shown to help improve a range of symptoms and may even be important in fighting of Parkinson’s Disease and other age related brain disease. Coffee is loaded with both antioxidants and caffeine, and each has different potential benefits for improving health and reducing the risk of chronic illnesses. Green tea is also packed full of anti-oxidants and caffeine hence why I now have two cups per day on my new eating plan.


Wednesday I bought myself some instant coffee. I decided to try to ditch the lattes. I thought if I am just going to drink black coffee why bother getting it from my coffee shop. Just have instant. It will be easier and cheaper. Instant coffee is not the same, especially with no milk. A comment from a colleague has made me look further into whether instant coffee is a better option than brewed coffee. If I am now having coffee for health benefits I need to make sure I am putting the right coffee into my body. I have found that the caffeine content of instant coffee is generally less than that of brewed coffee and a lot of the health benefits are lost as most of the essential oils can't survive the dry freezing process. The oils are where many of the health benefits (as well as flavor) come from so back to the coffee shop I go! Yay! Taj will be happy we can hang at Outpost this Sunday morning, he loves their treats!


Now the next question :: To milk or not to milk? My coffees are meant to be black but the more I learn about calcium the more I think I need to keep the milk.

Then the next question :: Full cream, skim or soy? The questions I ask myself are endless but I will save the milk issue for another day.

Wednesday, 27 June 2012

Boyfriend pounds...

Have you heard the expression boyfriend pounds?

Here is my definition ::

So you have a new boyfriend, you are falling in love, it is a truly wonderful thing. Your alarm goes off each morning at 6am telling you to get up and head to the gym, you reach over and change it to 7am. You want nothing more than to stay cuddled up with this amazing new person you are getting to know. You are spending more time at lovely restaurants eating incredible food and drinking yummy wine. Beautiful rainy evenings spent curled up on the sofa watching a movie and ordering take away. You slowly feel things getting a little bit softer. Your jeans getting a little bit tighter. Maybe your skin gets a little worse. Maybe mentally you start to feel not so good. 

Not only have I heard of the expression, I have suffered first hand the worrying effects of boyfriend pounds.  I have no regrets about putting my training second to spending time enjoying my awesome new honeymoon period but deep down knowing that I wouldn't and couldn't let my training and eating fall by the wayside forever. I knew I would re-focus, knew I would re-prioritise and that a new routine would bed in allowing me enough time for my new man, and his two children and I would no longer compromise the time I spent on me.

I wanted to share with you my experience as a 23 year old who had put on those unwanted but comforting kgs. And also how I lost them. The first eating and training plan I ever followed.

I am not usually one for New Year's Resolutions but this photo was taken on January 1st 2007.  My "before" photo at the start of Body for Life....


 

Seven months after getting together with my ex-boyfriend. Seven months of eating everything and anything and partying way too much. Our favourite evening was getting a DVD from VideoEzy and the Seafood Banquet from the fish and chip shop near my house. I would say the seafood banquet could feed five. We would polish the whole thing off just the two of us followed with either m'n'm's or maltesers...or both.

This is my "after" photo 12 weeks later...


Body for Life is an eating and training plan put together by Bill Phillips. His first book called 12 weeks to Mental and Physical strength was published in 1999 and sat on the New York Times Best Sellers List for seven years!!

Broken down the programme looks like this ::

The food plan ::

Six meals a day
Each meal is consumed every 2 to 3 hours
Each meal consists of a portion of protein and a portion of complex carbohydrates
A portion of protein is the size of your palm
A portion of carbs is the size of your fist
Three meals a day must contain two cups of vegetables
One serving of healthy fats per day (monounsaturated & polyunsaturated)
One free day (cheat, treat, off day etc) per week :: Eat what you like!



With Body for Life there is no cutting out anything. You are still allowed carbs, you are still allowed good fats but the aim of the game is to manage the frequency of your meals, manage your portion sizes and really just stay away from the things we know aren't the best things for us such as sugar, butter, deep fried and processed food. The first three weeks were tough, I was constantly at the supermarket, I was buying way too much and wasting it, I was like a fish out of water but I stuck with it and I got there. I lost 3.8kg in my first four weeks.

Preparation is key, make your shopping list, plan ahead, and you will get your head around it. I have pretty much followed Body for Life since 2007 and have managed to work around the food plan through my years of travelling and living overseas.

The training plan ::

3 days cardio alternating with 3 days strength training
1 rest day

Your cardio work out is 20 minutes. That's it! 20 minutes, three times a week. Body for Life doesn't require you to spend an hour on the treadmill giving 60% effort. It requires you to put in 20 minutes at your maximum capability. The structure of the cardio is set out so you can use it on any of the cardio equipment or even outdoors. Here is a break down of the cardio work out ::


My preference was the treadmill and I would increase the intensity level by moving up 1kph every minute. My level five intensity at the start of Body for Life was 7kph increasing up 11kph at level nine. At the end of body for life I was starting level five at 10kph! I loved that I could track my progress each week by seeing how must faster I could go at my level five starting point.

The weights training is split across three days ::

Day 1 is the upper body muscle groups so chest, shoulders, back, biceps and triceps. Day 2 is the lower body muscle groups so quads, hamstrings, calves and abdominals and then day 3 is the upper body muscle groups again.

You need to carry out two exercises for each muscle group. Each exercise should consist of six sets, starting with 12 reps for the first set, then increasing the weight and doing 10 reps, increase the weight and carry out 8 reps and then one final increase of weights and do 6 reps. Rest for one minute then reduce the weights back to your starting weight and carry out 2 sets of 12 reps.  You now rest for two minutes before starting the second exercise for that muscle group. Your reps will look like this x12, x10, x8, x6, x12, x12. 

For a bit more detail on the strength training programme please visit the Body for Life website.

If I could give you one piece of advice it would be always go in to the gym knowing which exercises you are doing for each muscle group and which weights you are lifting for each set. Keeping notes really helps and is quite commonplace in the gym. I see people all the time making notes after each set and I think this is a really great way to track your progress as well as keep you continually motivated as you see your strength improve.

Mid way through I fell off the wagon big time! I'm talking a big weekend of partying and eating junk followed by two days of beating myself up! I did pick myself up, dust myself off, re-focus and I used that slip up to motivate me even more to succeed at this programme. I realised then that it is ok to make mistakes, that it is ok to still live your life. It is all ok as long as you use those negative slip ups and turn them into something more positive.

I weighed myself at the start and finish as well as have the photos taken at the same time. I lost a total of 8.3kg which I was thrilled about. I also took my hip, waist and chest measurements and took these again at the end of week four, eight and 12. Although I did not keep the measurements, from memory I lost a total of five inches from my hips, 3 inches from my waist and two from my chest. No longer having muffin top was my greatest achievement!

Three words to describe Body for Life ::

Logical. Challenging. Rewarding.

It is logical that if you feed your body all of the things it needs to run effectively and that you exercise consistently, doing both cardio and strength based work-outs, you will see and feel the results of your hard work.

Yes the work outs are challenging and the meal planning and prepping is challenging but I found Body for Life challenging as it made me the only person accountable for my actions. No one is going to do your food shopping, no one is going to plan, prep and cook your five meals. No one is going to get their bum to the gym six days per week. The benefit of this is that the results are all of your making. If you set yourself a challenge, that last person you want to let down in the world is yourself.

Rewarding! The most important part. I felt amazing and I really believe I looked so much better in my after photo than in my before.

There is no better feeling than seeing what you can achieve when you focus and really put your mind and body to work!

Monday, 25 June 2012

Drying out...

I have every year for as long as I can remember seen the promotions for Dry July. Every year I have thought there is no way that I could go a whole month without my wine. Every year but this year. This year I have signed up! This year I will attempt and succeed in not having a drink for a month.

I am looking at this as a huge positive. I am looking at this as a huge change in myself and where I am mentally. I am focused. I am focused on being the best person I can be. Both in my every day life and with my eating and training.

I feel I have grown a lot in the last 12 months. I am at my happiest and I am wanting to see whether I can achieve something I have never thought I would be able to achieve.

I like to think of myself as a "re-formed" party girl. I loved all nighters but have not had one for nearly two years. I am proud of this achievement!



My relationship with alcohol has never felt like a real problem to me but there have definitely been times that I have felt myself lose control over how much and how frequently I was drinking.

I was and could still call myself a binger.

The definition of binge drinking is more than five standard drinks in one sitting. By this definition I think I am fairly confident that a majority of 20 somethings could also be categorised as bingers. Personally I think binging becomes a problem when you feel it is a problem. My binging is a problem because I don't like myself when I'm drunk. That argument on Manly corso is not so funny the next morning. Waking up with a bucket beside your bed, not so funny. Stuffing your face with a kebab, so good at the time but really not good for you especially when you wake up the next day to find the leftovers in your handbag!


I still love a night out with my girlfriends but the nights spent in Kings Cross nightclubs are behind me. They have have now been replaced with dinner and drinks, a bit of dancing and home by 1am. Do I binge at these dinners? Yes. We all do by definition.

Over the last six months, as my focus on my eating and training has increased, Saturday night became my night to have a few wines. I was no longer buying wine during the week and having a few glasses when I got home from work. I was, however, noticing that Saturday night was becoming my night to drink a whole bottle and sometimes more. It was as if I was making up for not drinking during the week which kind of defeated the purpose of cutting back mid week. This past Saturday night was different. I don't know what has changed but I had one glass, poured a second and didn't drink it. I am not going to question why I didn't. I am going to go with it. Pouring that glass of wine in to the sink has given me the confidence that I needed to know I can make it through Dry July and hopefully raise some money for charity.

To sponsor me please go to my Dry July profile. All donations go to the NSW Cancer Survivors Centre.

For those of you who are also planning to dry out this July, please do drop me a line if you are needing some moral support or encouragement. I may need some in return.

Sunday, 24 June 2012

What is yummy...?

To me this looks divinely yummy!




And this? Well this is questionable.






Do you think this tastes good? How does it make you feel after you've eaten it?


For me the answer to the first question would be a positive response, like yum! And the answer to the second question would be yuk!


I will be completely honest here and say that I was a Big Mac girl as far back as I can remember, I think I get this from my Dad. Growing up, my sisters and I got McDonalds as a treat maybe four times a year and I remember the day when I got a Big Mac meal instead of a Happy Meal. A proud moment for me and my father.


And I will admit that I ate McDonalds on a regular basis, three to four times a week, throughout my teens. Now? Not so much. The last time I ate a Big Mac meal was last year on the way to the snow with my girlfriend Antonia and yes it tasted good at the time but the rest of the drive was not so pleasant. I can't say I will never have McDonalds again but for now I am quietly confident that the love Mr McDonald and I had is finished.


So back to my beautiful vegetables! I wanted to share with you what I bought home from the supermarket with me on Thursday night, how much it cost, what I prepped and how long it took me to cook. 


My shopping bag contained:


500g Lean beef mince $7.00
400g Rump steak $9.00
400g Salmon fillets $10.00
2 dozen free range eggs $11.00


400g Mushrooms $3.10
500g Broccoli $1.70
Bunch of celery $2.50
1kg carrots $1.50
600g Red capsicum $2.20 (on sale, they are normally so expensive!)
400g Zucchinni $2.50

1kg brown rice $3.00
1kg Oats $1.20
500g Almonds $7.00

Total spent: $58.20

From this I made:

4 x beef stir fry
4 x mince with mushrooms and fresh veggies
4 x salmon fillets with steamed veggies
8 x breakfasts of oats with almonds and three scrambled egg whites (I didn't prep these that night)

It took me 1.5 hours to prep, cook and wash up and I had meals ready to go in the fridge for 4 days.

I normally do a shop like this twice a week with maybe a few stops at Woolies in between if I run short on something. That's a total of $116, give or take a bit, but I think that is pretty good value for someone that eats five meals a day and never goes hungry.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I like organisation and consistency in my life so for me prepping everything and knowing it is there in the fridge helps me stay focused on my healthy eating goals. This amount of prep and the eating plan I am on now is new to me so I am sure there will be times where things don't go quite as I hope.

I do believe that planning and preparation is important in everything we do and I believe that planning and preparing your meals will help you make healthy choices. Try planning for one day. 

Try this for me...

Write down what you will eat tomorrow, starting with breakfast, then your morning snake, lunch, afternoon snake and then dinner (yes five meals, not three). If you do not have what you need at home make a list and head to the supermarket. Buy what you need on your lunch break and take it home with you that night. That walk to the supermarket will give you a break from work and get you moving for 10 minutes which are both awesome. Spend 20 minutes that night preparing your meals to take to work with you, you can make dinner when you get home tomorrow.

Twenty minutes may stop you having to get something for lunch from that take away place you know you shouldn't be eating from. And that 20 minutes may also save you the $12 you might spend at said take away shop!

Sunday afternoon/early evening is my time first of two preps for the new week. Simon cooks my meat while I chop, prep and divide up the portions. I think he is still getting used to my crazy organisation and a fridge full of tupperware!



Friday, 22 June 2012

My change...

To say I was a founder member of Fitness First would be a bit of an overstatement. Yes, I joined Fitness First Mona Vale before the doors had even opened but could I say I went for the first 12 months? If I said yes, I would be lying!

I had been a member of Health Land in Dee Why in 2001 (now Fitness First) when I was 16 and I think my parents paid for my membership to try to get my off my bum and out the house. I had just moved here from the UK, had no friends, no job, refused to go to school and was in a pretty miserable place. Safe to say this membership did not stick around for long.

The catalyst for my "fitness obsession" was an awful, soul shattering break up. You know, the one you hope to have only once in your life? The one that you never think you will recover from? He left me, sad, lonely and with a bigger bum than I would have liked. I had always been that tall, skinny girl growing up and at school refused to ever wear a skirt as my legs were so skinny the boys used to call me skinny bitch. So why, at 21 did I have cellulite, why did I have muffin top, why did I have bits hanging over my bra straps? Don't get my wrong, I was not fat and to look at, people did, and still do, continually tell me I'm not fat, but God I was miserable!


To say that exercise saved me and helped me keep myself together could be seen to be a slight exaggeration but I truly don't feel that this is an over the top statement. A long time ago I remember looking in to this after noticing a huge difference in my mental state and well being and finally feeling that I was moving on from my "x".

When you exercise, your body releases chemicals called endorphins. These endorphins interact with the receptors in your brain that reduce your perception of pain. Endorphins also trigger a positive feeling in the body, similar to that of morphine. For example, the feeling that follows a run or workout is often described as "euphoric." That feeling, known as a "runner's high," can be accompanied by a positive and energizing outlook on life.




Endorphins act as analgesics, which means they diminish the perception of pain.
They also act as sedatives. They are manufactured in your brain, spinal cord, and many other parts of your body and are released in response to brain chemicals called neurotransmitters.

Not such an over the top statement now when you realise there is a physiological reason why we feel so good after a seriously awesome work out.


My first experience at Fitness First Mona Vale was literally sickening! And I mean literally in that I was a little bit sick behind my car in the car park! Body Attack was from then on the new love of my life! The changes in my body did not go unnoticed by myself or others and acted as a huge motivation to keep me going back for more. Fifty five minutes of high impact, high intensity aerobic style moves and I was completely wrecked. And completely and utterly hooked!


For me I find the cardio based classes a lot easier to get through than say 45 minutes spent on the cross trainer or treadmill. I like organisation, structure and consistency in my life and this does definitely translate in to the cardio side of my training.

Attack was a great place for me to start and eight years later I still enjoy every class I do. The instructors give you various low, medium and high impact options which you can choose and progress through as your ability improves. Les Mils have new releases every three months giving you new music, moves and combinations which gives the work out a bit of a shake up, keeping it fresh and interesting as well as challenging.

It is fun, it is hard, it is loud and can be intimidating but more than anything Body Attack will get you fit and you will notice changes in your body. It is for this reason I would recommend this class to beginners. Give it a go! Start at the back of the class if you need to, it will get easier as you learn the moves and their names but the changes you notice will keep you coming back for more, like they did and still do for me.

They say Body Attack burns roughly 735 calories per class which I don't find hard to believe. If you see me after a Body Attack class I feel for you. Red, puffing, sweaty, are a few words I would use to describe myself following 55 minutes in that studio! But I do come out with a massive smile on my face every time, what more could you ask for from your work out?

Enjoy your runner's high!

Wednesday, 20 June 2012

This is me....









This is me


Daughter
Sister
Partner
Step-mum
Best friend
Partner in crime

Lover of health, fitness and well-being

 
Follow me as I learn and grow :: I am no expert
I will share :: This is my journey