Week 17 - I've been a bad girl...

I have been SO bad.... in the sense that I have neglected my blog!  Let's say that I've had a bit of a block.  That happens sometimes - I just find the information in my head won't flow out of my finger tips.  However, I think Jack's back so to speak!

One thing that I'm very happy to report is that even though I have neglected my blog, I have certainly not neglected myself!  I have been consistently going to gym and consistently watching and experimenting with my nutrition.  It's been a very confusing experience!  I have lost a total of 3kgs!  Yes!!  THREE kilograms!  I mean how ridiculous is that!  BUT, people keep asking me what's going on and how much weight have I lost, etc.  My clothes are feeling way better on me than they used to and in fact two profound things have happened.... there are actually pants that I've had to pack away as they are just too big now and the other thing is that, ummmm,  I've had to buy smaller underwear!  

On the gym front, I have been having an absolute ball.  I'm loving it more and more and the fact that I keep challenging myself and that I can feel I am fitter - probably fitter than I've ever been in my whole life - keeps me going back for more and more!  It's become my drug of choice!  I am still doing a combo of cardio sessions and strength sessions.  I throw myself a curve ball every now and again like a kata box class or anything that my body has never experienced before!  You know just to shake it up a bit and keep it away from becoming too relaxed about this exercise thing.  Keep it guessing and keep it awake and keep it producing results.  

I was quite excited before the kata box class.  I arrived about ten minutes before class started.  As the people started arriving, I had a look at them - a real mix of tall, short, thin, fat, fit looking and not so fit looking and I felt a little more confident.  As we started filtering into the class, I asked one of the victims if she thought I would survive this class as it's my first time doing kata box.  The look in her eyes sent a shiver down my spine.  There was a shadow in them and she asked me "have you NEVER done ANY kata boxing before?" in a grave tone.  I smiled and said "no - never".  She couldn't really make eye contact with me after that and muttered something about the instructor being hectic and the class being an hour long one and that I should've really rather tried the 45 minute Monday night class first, etc, etc.  I told her that I'm sure I'd be fine but I have to admit I was a little nervous.  That was until the instructor walked in.  I had to control myself from collapsing in a fit of giggles!  The term "dynamite comes in small packages" did not occur to me at that moment.  This little, petite girl walks in, probably about 1.6 m tall, probably battles to find clothes in the adult departments, probably wears about a size 3 shoe.... I mean seriously, how could this sweet little thing give a mean class?  Really!!  

Oh my, how wrong one can be!  Do not EVER judge a person on their looks!!!  Never EVER, Kathleen!!  In the space of an hour, this diminutive demon inflicted more pain on this old body that one could ever imagine.  I loved it of course.  When I arrived home, a dripping heap of aches and pains, walking up stairs with difficulty because my glutes were protesting severely, I realised that I may not be able to move the next day.  Even just getting up from the dining room table after supper caused abs and glutes in particular to let me know that they had performed beyond their usual range!  I was most upset as I'd left my chest strap at home - I would LOVE to know how many calories that class burnt!! 

The next morning when I carefully eased myself out of bed, I had a rather pleasant surprise... I was ok!  Yes my muscles were stiff, and there was some stiffness identifying muscles that I really didn't ever know I had, but I was not in pain, that was until I pulled close the shower door.  It felt like my sternum was about to crack in half!  When I moved my arms around in a "boxing fashion" my sternum and my arms protested loudly!  

It didn't stop me going to gym again last night night though!!  Got to keep pushing myself! I have found that going to gym and pushing yourself further than the last time is a magnificent way to de-stress.  It's almost as if your problems and worries can be sweated out!  It really does work for most problems anyway - not all! 

And today, I'll be going back to gym yet again!!  I'm loving it.

Week 12 - habit keeps you going when motivation is lacking

Amazing!  I've reached week 12 already - and that without dying, but also without undergoing a miraculous transformation either!  When I look at the before and after pictures on the USN website of people taking up the 12-week challenge, then I feel like a wee bit of a failure!!  However, if I look at myself 12 weeks ago and how I felt and look at myself now and the golden oldies I'm digging out of the wardrobe because they actually fit and the fact that I feel fit and energetic (well most of the time anyway!) then I feel rather good.  This is after all a lifestyle change and not something that is destined to last only 12 weeks.  I'm also not consuming vast amounts of chemicals to help me get there.  I read a Tweet today that said when motivation is lacking, it's habit that keeps us going.  I realised that this is probably where I'm at right now.  I think exercise has become a habit.  I sure get grouchy without it!  As brilliant a week I had during the holidays, I had a bit of a flop last week.  This was for various reasons, e.g. my Mom has become extremely frail and unwell, my youngest has a dancing schedule that "skriks for niks" as he is dancing in the SA Nationals this coming weekend, and by Friday evening I realised I hadn't seen the outside let alone the inside of the gym.  I felt tired and miserable when the husband said that I simply have to accompany him as he HAS to go so that he can take the weekend off.  I imagined performing various acts of violence on him with various pieces of gym equipment, but I went along.  After all, when someone is that motivated, you gotta have respect.  


So we arrive at the gym at about 18h30 on a Friday night.  Right.  Grumpy and Mr Motivated are in da house.  Well, it took me one whiff of that gym air - you know what I'm talking about - that combo of chlorine, sweat, a dash of steroids, a little blood and more than a few tears - and I was amped.  I would surely show that treadmill who is the boss.  I pounded away for 20 minutes on the treadmill gaining motivation from a gentleman in the pool who had a stunning style *evil grin*!  I hopped off the treadmill and claimed a bicycle.  I assumed the racing pose and proceeded to better my record of 10km in 20 minutes.  With the sweat pouring off me making a little puddle around the bike, the husband came up to me and mouthed "YOU are SCARY" while Pitbull urged me on ever faster from my MP4 player.  I just smiled!  


After cleaning up the bike and floor with extra heavy duty antibacterial cleaner, I popped over to the other side of the gym and did a fantastic workout on the Powerplate.  The Powerplate has become my abs new best friend!  Use the right technique and those vibrations really wake up the muscles.  No wonder you have to wait 48 hours between sessions!   The few pieces of sushi and the glass of red I had for supper tasted absolutely awesome after that session.


Saturday I took a rest day - if you can call running around wildly trying to complete a long list of errands a rest day!  Sunday afternoon it was back to the gym for a welcome workout.  I find doing some hectic cardio followed by free weights on the Powerplate is my thing at the moment.  We'll see what results it brings. 

Week 11 - 180%

Well, here we are at the start of week 11 and what a week has just gone by!  You know, I use a Polar heart rate monitor which is set up to improve my fitness.  It gives me the amount of calories I need to burn in a week in order to do that and at midnight every Sunday night it leaves a little envelope on the screen of my watch for me to find on Monday morning to tell me how well I've done for the week!  This morning it told me I achieved 180% of my weekly calorie burn!  Awesome!  Now, I managed to do this because it was school holidays so I could hit the gym every morning for a decent workout without the clock chasing me to get home and get the boys up and everything organised and ready for the school run.  It was truly fantastic!  Having a really good gym session in the morning is the most awesome way to start the day.  I know I was not supposed to, but I snuck onto the machine during the week - clearly I've hit another plateau because my weight is the same and the body fat is the same as the previous time.  That's ok - at least it hasn't gone UP and I've figured now that my body does this in some sort of step pattern!  Just when I'm ready to give up and throw in the sweat towel, I suddenly get results!  


I don't actually think I could give this up now!  I have become kinda addicted to exercise now and the great thing is to realise that it's just become part of my lifestyle now.  That's a great feeling.  I was chatting to a friend in the gym on Saturday - this was after I'd just attained my goal of cycling 10km in 20 minutes - and saying that my results are so slow and I seem to be working really hard and being very good about what goes into my mouth.  She suggested I actually add a bit of carbs to my meals before 14h00 - NO carbs after that!  Now if you could see her body, you would listen to everything she has to say!!  May I just mention here that she is a granny and she looks better than most of the young bokkies at the gym!  


Oh ouch!  Talking of bokkies.... ai shame, our fantastic Bokke were knocked out of the world cup on Sunday morning in the quarter finals.  There seemed to be a cloud of depression and frustration hanging over SA all of yesterday!  Look I don't know enough about rugby to criticize... but the REF!!!!  I don't know!  


Ok people, it looks like Summer is making a great attempt at arriving and actually staying for a while!  Let's rock this week's socks off, ok?!

Week 10 - probably the toughest yet

I have just had to check the calendar and make absolutely sure that I really have been doing this thing for 10 weeks already!!  It doesn't seem possible!  On various fronts...


Ok, so today is the start of week 10.  Still, I expected to be 10kg down by now and looking a whole lot different to when I started.  I really haven't had a good week, so this blog entry may have a bit of a negative feel to it.  I may even become whiny at some point, but I did promise in the beginning to be honest!  And right now, I feel a bit like a whiny child who cannot get their way!  


After being well and truly "donnered" by the yoga class, my entire body hurt for days afterwards.  I did a power walk on the Monday after work, but on Tuesday morning when my alarm woke me at 04h40 for my early morning gym session, my body just said "forgeddaboudit, capiche".  I had also not slept well for two nights in a row. I reset the alarm and went straight back to sleep!  I spent the day on Wednesday at Tygerberg Hospital and when I went to drop my son at the dance studio for his hip hop class (and of course my power walk), we found the studio closed and so we assumed that class was finished for the term.  I drove home - no power walk.  On Thursday I had to catch up on Wednesday's work that I'd missed and so ended up working late - and missing my beloved 17h30 zumba class.  My colleague is on leave, so I worked all day on Friday and therefore missed out on my usual hectic Friday afternoon workout too.  Aaarrrrgghhh!!!  Just like that and a whole week has slipped by and the exercise sessions are sorely lacking.  


We were child-free on Friday evening and went to a movie - Friends with Benefits.  Very sweet movie by the way - a fairly predictable romcom, but you know for me, I go to movies to escape reality, so I like the nice ending type movie, or the real skop, skiet and donder also does it for me, although I get a little amped and should preferably see a movie like that first thing in the morning, followed by a gym session!  I digress.... Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis are the two main characters in the movie - plenty eye candy for both the guys and the girls.  However, it got me thinking and feeling like a fat, middle-aged, washed up disaster zone!  Believe me, when I hit the gym on Saturday morning, I was DRIVEN!  Between yesterday and today I managed to catch up on my calorie burn for the week.  I am really looking forward to this coming week as I'll be able to hit the gym every morning as the kids have school holidays now and so my time is a little less hectic in the mornings!  Maybe I can double my calorie burn this week and make some head way!  


Again I say consistency is key as is continually checking in with yourself and finding out why you have these goals and keeping yourself motivated even when it seems that results are a far off dream.  


I have only 6 weeks left to my first goal post and then 10 weeks to the next.  Time to drop a gear or two and open up the throttle!!

Week 9 - and it's National Braai Day!

Riiiiggghhht, I'm setting here - a perfect day, the first summer's day we've had I think, and the braai fire is going outside, the sliding door is open, the radio's on playing the top 40 hits of the week and life is good.  Ok, admittedly, my mind is all zenned from the yoga class I did earlier... my body, well that's another story.  I feel like I've dislocated both hips, ripped my shoulders out of their sockets, my spine is still in shock at all the work IT had to do and I have persistent muscular aches in places I didn't know I had muscles!  At the end of the class when the boneless rubber lady instructor was leaving with her yoga mat rolled up under her skinny, rubber arm, she asked me if I'm new in her class.  I told her that I was in fact new to yoga and that this was a first for me in my 43 years.  Her eyes proceeded to enlarge quite frightenly and she exclaimed "OOOoooohhhh, well you did rather well with some of those poses".  Well lady I can tell you it will be a number of years before I can perform some of those contortionistic asanas.  Eish man!  


My son apologised profusely too!  He's been nagging me to try yoga, but he's been to a different teacher and a more beginnerish class!  No worries, hopefully I'll be able to remove myself from my bed tomorrow morning without any fatal injuries!  


This was not my only first for this week... when I went to my zumba class on Thursday after work, the instructor didn't pitch up, but the pilates teacher did.  She offered to give us zumbaholics a bit of a workout.  Well, I've always wanted to try pilates. I was quite mesmerized by the way the sweat droplets were flying off me as I jumped up on the step, lifted the dumb bells, and jumped down again.  An hour later, I felt like I'd done a round or two with Mike Tyson!  I went to her after the class and thanked her for giving us a workout and told her I'd always wanted to try pilates.  She was quick to tell me that that was no pilates but more like "pilates on steroids"!!  


On Friday I went for a "fitness test" - you know the one - you do a step test, then you do a flexibility test, push ups and sit ups and of course they measure your body fat with those caliper thingies, take your blood pressure and measure your waist.  I'm quite keen to get the results.  I do however need to redo the step test as the aunty that did the test clicked on the wrong button on the PC and lost it!  So I have to go next week. 


Well, I've read on numerous occasions that when one does exercise, it's better not to do the same thing over and over and over, but to mix it up a bit and keep the muscles guessing.  Well, I can tell you after these 9 weeks, my muscles are just staring blankly with their mouths hanging open as they sure as nuts don't know what's going to hit them next!! 


To end off, let's look at the stats:  after 9 weeks, 3kgs down and 4.6% body fat, many centimeters and one dress size down. Results don't come easy!!!  Happy braaiing everyone!

Week 8 - halfway to week 9 and Braai Day!

I really had to do a quick post this morning.  See I have a confession to make.  I know I was only supposed to get on that machine in a couple of weeks, but yesterday morning, at 05h00 when I walked past it at the gym, it just called my name and it looked so lonely.  Ok, ok, I'll stop talking nonsense!  I just couldn't resist anymore ok!  


So, I hop on the blasted thing without great expectations (although I do feel a little thinner)  and it tells me the following - since I last weighed, I've gained, yes, gained just over a kilogram, but get this... my body fat, over the last 8 weeks, has dropped by 4.6%.  I start smiling and I can't seem to stop!  I mean this is what it's all about - I'm not too phased by the weight measurement and I just know that that kilo I've gained is pure muscle, so I am now even more motivated to keep on doing what I'm doing!


I went on to have a fabulous workout with loads of other nutters who frequent the gym in the middle of the night as my husband puts it!  And believe me, it's really really difficult for me to get out of bed at 04h30 - especially when it's cold, windy and rainy - brush my teeth, tie the hair up, get dressed and get out of the door.  There is an evil voice in my head that runs this non-stop commentary of every excuse why I really don't have to go and that there is a lovely warm bed waiting... but once you've done it, your day is made.  You really can handle anything that comes your way. Wish I'd discovered this 20 years ago, although the young body is so forgiving, I don't suppose I would've been as motivated!


It may not be true for everyone, but for me, I have learned that protein is essential and also my mid morning and mid afternoon snacks.  I've not been too organised on the food front at work this week, and yesterday I did not have anything for an afternoon snack.  As I've been working out quite hard, I get hungry and it's essential to have the healthy stuff at hand.  What happened by the time I got home at six.... I promptly ate two pieces of toast and Marmite!  I don't even eat bread anymore!!!!  Anyway, I just had to remind myself of the 85/15 or the 80/20 rule or whichever one you follow - as long as I eat correctly 85% of the time - my body is not going to freak out and nor will anyone else!!  


On Friday afternoon I'm doing a "fitness test" where they assess your strength, flexibility and cardiovascular ability.  I'm quite excited to see where I fit in on the fitness front!


Get moving today people.... we're down to less than 100 days until the silly season with all its parties and beach time and all the skin exposure!!

Week Seven ... and I should be halfway to my goal... but....

Hullo and goodbye week seven and what a week it's been.  It's been bad on several fronts.  On Monday after work, I missed my power walk - for a very good reason though - I went to visit my Mom!  Nevertheless, I missed my exercise session.  After getting home, we realised our dogs were missing.  We went into panic mode and immediately started a search party.  We drove all over the place and whistled and called and whistled and called some more - but nothing.  I think if I had 2 hours sleep on Monday night it was a lot.  I kept thinking the dogs were come back home during the middle of the night.  I was really afraid that they had been stolen as the one is a pitbull and she is everybody's friend!  She will literally make friends with anyone and go with them.  I had terrible visions of dog fights, etc.  Tuesday mornings I'm usually in the gym at 05h00, but at that time I was far too much in panic mode to go gym.  It probably would've been the best thing to do, but I was in zombie mode.  I called the animal welfare as soon as they opened and lo and behold, some wonderful woman had picked up the dogs at Radloff Park and looked after them overnight! Phew!  WHAT a relief!  


Let's say that on the nutrition front, things went awry as well!!  On Monday we had a birthday at work and I consumed a small piece of cheesecake.  Not too bad.  Then Tuesday arrived and some wonderful person brought another cheesecake as a belated birthday cake for the birthday boy. I yet again consumed  a small piece of cheesecake.  So Wednesday arrived and, yip, you guessed it, a rep brought another cheesecake!! Oh my hat, Nando's for lunch and cheesecake for dessert.  Ok, clearly when I'm placed under severe stress and don't get enough sleep, my strength, motivation and total unwavering commitment to my goal goes out the window!!  Yikes! 


I'd had a horrendous muscle spasm in my shoulder over the weekend, with a niggling pain in my calf muscle and a nerve pinching in my lower back on and off.  By Wednesday I was limping and was not a happy chappy.  I did my power walk after work and really limped around the park quite badly.  I realised I probably should have listened to my body and not pushed it, but with the darn cheesecake sitting on my left thigh and right hip, I had to do something!!  I phoned the chiropractor on Thursday morning and fortunately she could see me within two hours!  She gave me a good talking to, told me NO ZUMBA on Thursday night, but that I could go back to gym on Friday afternoon if I promised to take it easy.  Of course I would!!!  *evil grin*... 


Well, as it turns out I HAD to take it easy on Friday afternoon because my husband decided he wanted to come and check out the facilities at Somerset West VA.  So most of the time was spent walking around talking about the various bits of equipment and not doing much working out!  Maybe a good thing.  


Saturday was of course a big rugby game, so my planned first yoga class just didn't happen as the game was still on!  I did a lot of washing, a lot of cleaning, and then slept.  Yip!  I lay down and slept!  Bliss!  I was woken by my son who had found a young beagle running around the streets in front of cars, looking very confused.  He had taken her to a vet to check if she had a chip - she didn't.  So he brought her home.  It really surprised me, but this little doggie got on with my two like a house on fire.  They played up a storm!  


Sunday morning was spent putting up "found" posters and shopping.  Then it was time to hit the gym!  Oh, how awesome it is to do over an hour of hard cardio.  It kinda shakes off a lot of stress and strain.  I have remained true to my word and stayed away from the machine that weighs, checks body fat and blood pressure.  I think I have another two or three weeks to go before I'm allowed on there again.  Hope I can hold out that long hey!!  


So, although I cannot give you any numbers as far as progress goes, I can report back that I am  still attending gym regularly, I'm being good most of the time on the nutrition front, and I am still loving this fitness lifestyle!  It's a little scary that I should be halfway to my goal and I don't feel that I'm even close, but I'll continue plodding along closer to my goal one step at a time.  


Wellness wishes to you all!  

Hullo? What happened at the end of Week 6?

As far as reporting my results go, I have nothing to report.  Why? Well, the good lady at Virgin Active just about made me sign a sworn affidavit that I would not get on the scale machine thingy every week.  She said it's going to kill me because we have fluctuations in our weight all the time and one must weigh and measure and check once every five weeks. FIVE WEEKS!!!  I really don't know if I can last that long!  I might make it every four weeks - you know to fit in with various cycles and hormonal fluctuations.  


What I can tell you is that the more Zumba I do, the more I love it.  I mean what can be better than laughing and dancing your way through an hour spent at 90% of maximum heart rate?  I'm still doing my power walking twice a week, although I think I may try running a bit instead.  I missed my early morning gym session this week as my dogs had disappeared off our property the afternoon before and we were all rather hysterical.  They were found and taken in by a very kind lady.  


All things considered it's been a helluva week - what with a shoulder muscle in spasm causing a pinched nerve, the stress of thinking you'll never see your beloved doggies again and a night without sleep, short-staffed at work with phones that don't even allow you to dash down the passage to the cat-box - I think I'm doing ok!  My biggest fear at this point is that the chiropractor will tell me I can't limp through my Zumba class tonight!!  

Whoa!! Week 4 has come and gone and Week 5 is at an end!

Wow!  Apologies to my regular readers!  Time just completely got away from me there!  Now let me step back a week to the arrival of the end of week 4.  I took myself off to the gym - this time with little expectations considering that for two weeks in a row I'd shown no progress whatsoever - and dutifully got onto that machine.  Well, surprise surprise... I'd actually managed to gain a few grams.  Oh come on!!  How can someone be so consistently good with nutrition and exercise and show no results!  Fat free milk, fat free yoghurt, no grains, lean protein, etc, etc.  Consistent exercise hopefully balanced between cardio and strength.  I can tell you that I was not impressed and felt completely and totally demotivated. I was in a really foul mood when I got off that blasted machine and I stomped into the changing room, got my MP4 player out, plugged it into my head, put Pitbull on really loudly and found a cycle.  I strapped myself in and got moving.  It's quite amazing what a difference music makes to your workout - it just keep you going in a rhythm.  So by the time I walked back to the changing room, I was feeling rather shaky.  I'd just cycled a quick 7km, climbed 56 floors on the stepper and then rowed about 3km not so gently down the stream!!  All this on an empty stomach.  I got my goodies out of the locker and stopped at the Kauai counter and ordered a skinny capuccino to go.  I added a sugar and I must say that I felt a bit better by the time I got home.  

I am however proud to say that I kept it together and instead of going on a wild bender just yet, I hopped onto the world wide web and started reading everything I could find on fat burning, fitness, building lean muscle, etc.  A rather interesting fact emerged... well, I'm not sure how much of a fact it is, but it pops up all over the place.  They say if you've got excess body fat to burn, do not use fat free dairy products.  Yes, you read it correctly - DO NOT use fat free dairy, but rather opt for the low fat or 2% products.  These allegedly contain a substance called leptin which plays an important role in the torching of body fat.  I figured that it's worth a bit of experimentation.  With all this new knowledge, Sunday evening arrived and I popped a few beautiful lean pork chops on the braai, and we had this with a stunning salad which the kids had made, along with some raw grated beetroot.  Mmmmm, delish!  After this, I was full, but this did not stop me from having a complete loss of mental capacity and I consumed two, yes, TWO rolls with ... no, not Marmite or lettuce or even cheese, but chocolate spread!  Bread and chocolate spread... oh there was no hope for me!!  But it was really goooood!  

During the week leading up to the end of week 5, I consumed too much red wine, an awesome pasta with basil pesto, ice cream on toast and a small piece of carrot cake.  I tried hard to work all these bad calories off with power walking with added weights, zumba, weights training, and hectic cardio on the machines.  I must say that just a half a kilo strapped around each ankle makes all the difference when power walking!  I thought it may get  my heart rate up faster and higher, but it didn't actually.  My legs just felt like I was working on all the leg machines on the circuit.  Those muscles were really working hard.  After I got home, I removed the weights and my knees wanted to bounce up with each step!!  The next morning I could definitely feel that my legs had had a good workout.  

I packed my gym bag early the next morning, because I was going back to a zumba class straight after work. I had done last weeks class and I was back for more.  The Zumba teacher's name on that evening was Adri.  Well, I will be truly impressed when I can shake my booty like this girl!  What an awesome class...and here I was - back for more.  Adri, however, couldn't make it, so Dupie was the okie who took the class for her.  Well, this boy, he can zumba, he can salsa, he can entertain and he worked my body like never before!!  I think we laughed through the whole hour and didn't realise how hard he was working us until later!  Absolutely awesome!!

Well, this morning I popped off to gym nice and early with every intention of doing another zumba class, this time with the legendary Elroy, but I had cut the timing rather fine.  I arrived at about 07h55, but when the guy at reception swiped my card, it said "access denied".  Come on, I'm running late here!  What crap is this???  After about ten minutes he said it looks like they are "waiting for some part of the contract".  Huh?  My card worked perfectly well on Thursday evening!  I told him the only thing that was "outstanding" was a letter from my doctor saying that my 13 year old was in good enough health to join the gym!  He eventually just overrode the PC and let me in.  I raced through to the changing rooms, locked my stuff away, raced out and over to the machine, which one has to use BEFORE exercise and there was an old toppie doing his thing.  Aaargh!!  He was probably even recording actual results!!  Eventually he finished up and I hopped onto that machine, again with a rather nonchalant, no expectation type of attitude.  Lo and behold, finally I'm seeing results - after 5 weeks!!  I've dropped 3.6kg in total and I've incinerated a whole 1.6% body fat.  Ha!!  Elation!  

By this point I was SO late for the zumba class that I gave it a miss.  Call me strange, but I find it extremely bad mannered to pitch up late for a class.  Be on time, or don't go at all.  So I watched the class from the cycle, stepper and the rowing machine.  

I finished up with some good stretching and left the gym with a capuccino in my hand, a bounce in my step and a song in my heart.  Now this is what motivation feels like.  Woohoo, can't wait for my next session! 

Week 3 - heading for week 4

Alright people, yes, I have been rather quiet of late.  I have been through a bit of a dip or a downer or whatever you'd like to call it.  I've had various stresses and strains on me and if you combine that with a complete lack of progress according to "the machine" at the gym, then you get a bit of a blue mood!  Now don't worry - nothing so depro that I rushed off and bought a dozen doughnuts, or a double-thick milkshake or a whole lot of chocolates!  No, no!  I am proud to say I've remained strong and I've exercised diligently and and I've been really disciplined on the food front.  How, I hear you ask, have I achieved this when I have zero help from that machine at the gym?  Well, people have actually started asking me how much weight I've lost and telling me I'm looking great, etc, etc.  This goes a long way in encouraging me to stay on track!  Yes, I can feel the difference in my clothes, but I suppose I'm hung up on seeing the results on the scale!  I've just decided to keep plodding on towards my goal and remembering to actually enjoy the journey and, without exactly losing focus of the destination, enjoy each step of the way.  You know the proverbial "living in the moment" type scenario.  I think it works!  I've learned that we can be so hard on ourselves and all that self-talk which absolutely drips negativity can be so damaging to our long term goals.  Let's learn to enjoy the here and now.  Let's savour our day to day experiences.  Let's take a step back and take a look at the negative experiences and instead of saying "oh why me", let's look at the hidden gem in them that is the lesson. 


I know that as I approach week number four of my mission, I'm learning to live in the moment - enjoy the warm hug of a friend, enjoy the pure endorphins as they kick in after 50 minutes of hectic cardio, the warm feeling of assisting a patient of almost 90 years with their bill and experiencing their appreciation, the joy of having a job to go to each morning, the bliss of sliding into a warm bed in a warm home with a hot water bottle, the privilege of owning your own car... oh my goodness, I digress!  I can get completely carried away when thinking of how many blessings I have!  


I've been experimenting with going to gym at different times of the day to see what works for me and for the family commitments.  I'll find my rhythm soon!  In the meantime, I'm loving the journey.  

Progress? What progress?

It's Friday afternoon - something about which I am so glad as I'm feeling rather flat today.  Almost another week has gone by but I am not as excited about getting on "the machine" tomorrow morning as I was last week.  I guess I just don't want to get my hopes up only to be disappointed again.  I've been very good except for the two birthdays we had at work this week.  I had a tiny piece of cheesecake on Monday - it was heavenly - but about half an hour after I'd eaten it, I realized that my body just doesn't want food like that any more.  I felt positively nauseous!  I went for a 45 minute power walk after work and really pushed it hard. I walked as fast as I could without actually breaking into a run.  I felt good after that.  


On Wednesday I got all dressed up to do another 45 minute power walk, but due to family and pet commitments, I never got to do it!  I crashed early that night and was up at 04h40 the next morning and got myself to the gym by 05h05!  Wow, there are SO many people in the gym at that time!  What an inspiration they all are.  The circuit was unexpectedly busy, so I opted for a hard cardio workout, choosing the elliptical trainer, the rower and the cycle as my weapons of fat destruction.  I was wearing my Polar heart rate monitor and was extremely pleasantly surprised to see that I managed to burn 718 calories during my workout!  Awesome!  


So yet another birthday at work and this time I wasn't so good!  I had marshmallow tart at teatime with my strong, bitter coffee, and then at lunchtime I had the quiche and salad.  It was all absolutely divine, but again, my body protested!  I think this may be a good thing.  


Friday morning arrives.  It's been a very stressful two weeks at work.  I have huge personal stress as well and then today we lose a beloved patient.  I went to the gym this afternoon and tried to sweat out the sadness.  I did a fantastic weight training session followed by a lovely rowing session, and it certainly helped to a point.  


Tonight I raise my glass of red wine and say "rest in peace tannie Barnard, you're sure in a far better place".  

The Second Week - the honeymoon's over!

After a marvelous second week, doing all the right things, eating the right things, and feeling fantastic, I really couldn't wait to get on that machine at the gym and actually see my progress on record.  What an awful disappointment!  Nothing!  NO weight lost, NO body fat burnt - how could this be?  I was so taken aback that I actually weighed myself again as I thought the machine was picking up my recording from last week!  No, there it was in front of me on black and white - no progress.  My heart sank.  Very fortunately I had measured myself before going off to the gym and in the past two weeks I have lost a total of 13cm.  I have to force myself to focus on that and not on the lack of progress on the weight/body fat front.  It's really hard though.  It's hard not to start beating yourself up about being a failure and all the other negative things we love to say to ourselves.  I proceeded to do a good weights workout, and enjoyed watching the characters in the gym.  

My son and I have named the one dude "The Beast".  He is probably in his late forties or early fifties, he is about 1.7m tall and is built like a brick sh*thouse!!  He looks mean too!  I stood a short distance away from him while doing  bicep curls with my 3kg dumb bells.  Please note I've progressed from 2kg!!!  So he has his music plugged into his ears, he picks up a 20kg dumb bell in each hand, and in a very rhythmic fashion, grunts his way through his bicep curls.  He's relentless and unstoppable and gives most of the machines there the hiding of their lives! 

Then there was Cardioboy - this guy - obviously a body builder - maybe preparing for a competition or something and trying to drop body fat.  He was punishing the cardio equipment - he must surely have cycled from here to George, then ran around the Peninsula and followed that up with rowing to PE!  He also looked mean though.  At one point when I was warming up on the rowing machine, he walked past me and gave me a filthy look. Maybe I just reminded him of his ex-wife or something.

Back at the weights section there is Demongirl.  She is this tiny little lady - impossible to say whether she is actually about 14 years old or whether she is just a really petite full grown woman.  Either way she has a power to weight ratio that's beyond human!  

After we'd finished up, we were walking out of the gym, an absolutely freezing wind coming off the mountains and all I wanted to do was to keep walking across the parking lot straight into the Spur and order the biggest breakfast they have on the menu!  Fortunately I did not and have maintained my discipline all weekend.  There is a birthday at work tomorrow, so I'm saving myself for a piece of cake!  

Let's see how week three goes...

Spinning? Gulp!

As I approach the end of my second week, I realize that I have discovered two really important things.  


Firstly, that you don't have to go to the gym every day, but you do have to remain active every day.  People so often say "oh where do you find the time to exercise, I certainly don't have time to exercise" and it just doesn't wash with me.  You see, if you value yourself and your health, then you prioritize exercise as extremely important and you work around that.  I mean surely one doesn't say "oh well, if I have time this morning I'll brush my teeth"!  I don't think so!! So whether you go to the gym and pump iron for an hour or whether you power walk for twenty minutes while you wait for your kid, you're being active and that's cool.  That adds up to that magic word "consistency".  Consistency can attain goals that seemed completely unobtainable. 


Secondly, I discovered something called "spinning".  I took the plunge and booked myself into a spinning class for 05h30 in the morning so that I would not be able to cancel a few hours beforehand.  I have to say I was terribly nervous.  I had visions of the whole spinning class looking on as they try to resuscitate me, but it was actually alright.  I'm here telling the tale!  The instructor was great.  After asking if there were any beginners and me putting my hand in the air, she came over and made sure I knew exactly how to set up the spinning bike, checking that I'd get a comfortable ride and telling me to pace myself and not try and keep up if I felt it was beyond me.  Rather come back again and build up slowly than be put off for life.  Ok, I like her thinking!  Those sections where you have stand up and cycle "uphill" were absolute killers.  I'm afraid I only managed a couple before my legs flatly refused to straighten and push me out of my seat, no matter how much I willed them!  Not to worry, I managed to keep up with the pace and the resistance she took the class through even though most of the time I was seated.  I can tell you that my sweat towel came in really handy, especially when mopping up the bike and floor afterwards!  I looked like I'd been dunked in the pool man!!  I felt very awake and ready to take on the day.  I'll definitely go back.  I would in fact aim to do two of those classes a week. And I have to tell you I dedicated my first spinning class to my brand new "great niece" named Scarlet who was born the night before!  


I hope I can in fact get out of bed tomorrow morning, as I need to be at the gym early and do my thing with the weighing/blood pressure/body fat machine again.  I wonder how I've done this week?  I've certainly put in the time on the exercise front and I've been fantastically good on the nutrition front, so I'll hold thumbs... 

When you have DOMS - you feel pain!

So peeps, I discovered what DOMS is!  Oh yes, you know when you've had a really good workout and you've pushed it quite hard, and you think to yourself "oooh I'm going to wake up so stiff" and then you don't!  Wow! Awesome!  You leap out of bed and feel pretty bullet-proof!  You decide to get your cardio down at the beach because the sun is shining and it's just a perfect day.  You push it some more - really getting and keeping that heart rate up and burning that fat.  You feel it in the legs, but that's good... right?  You get home, now you're basically on a high, jumping and dancing around to a Boom CD.  In fact, you go and dig out the weighted ball and start playing around with it.  Yeah, work those arms and work that core!  Ok, so you finally manage to settle down a little and relax.  Aaaah!  You have an awesome night's sleep and wake up to a pain in the shoulder you're lying on.  You attempt to move, but the other shoulder and the abs protest too.  Making little whimpering sounds and doing a sort of body shuffle, you manage to manouevre yourself around to lying flat on your back.  Ok, if you keep rather still and not breathe too deeply, then everything seems ok.  Trying to get out of bed.... that's another story.  It feels like someone has dislocated both shoulders.  Man this is insane!!  No it's not, it's Delayed Onset Muscle Stiffness or DOMS!!  Alright so after my cup of hot water and lemon juice, I do a whole lot of stretching and I feel a bit better.  I decide to stay away from the weights today and rather just stick with the cardio.  Again I opt to make the most of the beautiful weather, and head for the beach.  I do a short 30 minute power walk, but I push it as fast as I can.  And again, I feel great afterwards!  I have a protein supplement right after my exercise to try and assist those muscles with the recovery.

We have a public holiday - Women's Day - and the family leaves it to me to decide what I'd like to do.  Well, I opted for fishing with the family but that was unfortunately very short-lived as even though there was not a breath of wind in Somerset West, the wind was howling in Gordons Bay!  I opted to visit my Mom and after that decided to tackle the weights at the gym again.  I dragged my son along with me.  Off we went to the gym on the other side of the N2.  I did a 10 minute warm up, got through the circuit without throwing up or having a stroke, did a vicious rowing stint and then cooled down on a spinning bike.  Sweat damp hair sticking to my neck, beetroot red face and singing heart and I grab a skinny sugarless coffee at Kauai and head home.  Woohooo!!!  Endorphins - hullo - love you!!  I got home and mentioned that the wind had dropped down at the beach.  I asked my husband if he didn't feel like a cycle at the beach.  He said sure, so off we went.  Ok, so I've done the weights and now I'm going to tackle cardio - all on one day - well if I don't burn off some body fat this week, I'll be most disappointed!

Oh, and there is no turning back now, I've actually booked my bicycle for the spinning class on Friday!  Watch this space...

The First Week done and dusted

Well well, week one complete.  It was with a mix of apprehension and excitement that I hopped in my bakkie and made my way to the posh gym.  My eldest trains there mostly and the idea was to meet up with him.  He's good for me as he doesn't let me slack off.  The gym was fairly full when I arrived at about 08h30 - and note this is a Saturday morning!  My first stop was that big machine that takes all your vitals.  I was dressed basically the same as last Saturday except I had on long pants today.  I log in and start the process.  Oh bless this machine, it is my friend today!  In my first week, I have destroyed 1.4kg - and yes, I say destroyed and not lost.  I did not randomly lose all those grams, I destroyed them - capiche?!  And yes, my body fat is even down... ok, so 0.01% - but hey it's still progress!  Wow, now I am super-amped.  Bring on that circuit baby - let me push some iron!

I skip over to the cardio section to go do a quick 10 minute warm up on the cross trainer job.  At one point it told me my heart rate was 173, but I think it must have had a bit of a short circuit or something as clearly my heart rate was no where close to that.  My Polar heart rate monitor has gone in for a new battery, but one gets to know ones heart rate.   Having broken a bit of sweat, I head off confidently to the weights section.  The first machine on my list was occupied, so I moved onto the next one.  The first few were all "leg work" and I found that I coped quite alright.  Once I got to the last rep, it was a bit of effort, but I felt alright.  Then I went onto the upper body stuff.  Oh my.  I've always said that I have no upper body strength - I'll kick someone to death, but nothing with the arms!  Well, I wanted to burst into fits of giggles, because picture the scene.... here is me with the weight on the shoulder press set to 10kg.  Opposite me there is a guy doing tricep stuff with a dumb bell that probably weighs about 30kg!!!  He grimaces slightly, while I feel I am going to pop a vein!!  I really battle to complete all the reps, but I do.  Ah so proud.  I managed to do everything and complete two sets at that.  There was only one thing that I could not complete the second set of and that was that darn shoulder press.  My arms would not go up anymore!  I did not beat myself up about it and promised myself that next time would be better.

I went off to the cardio section again to finish off with a quick 10 minute row.  The gym was so busy by that time that I actually had to wait for a rowing machine.  I must say that today the posh gym impressed me.  Maybe my first impression of a lot of barbies and ripped steroid filled okes was not all that accurate.  Today there was a great variety of people who all looked pretty serious about getting their dose of endorphins.

I skipped out of the gym with a song in my heart, already looking forward to the next visit.

Heart Rate Found but Team Fitness MIA

I was chatting to a friend about my new venture in the gym when she said that she can't use the cross trainer as it makes her heart rate sky-rocket and then the machine cuts out!  I was most curious to know how the machine knew what her heart rate was.  Ahem! She tells me very patiently that those silver things on the handles are actually electrodes that pick up your heart rate!  Oooooh!!!  Ok, so with this new info I headed back to the other side of the N2.  Yes, I see the silver jobs.  Ok, but today I want to do weights, so I just need a quick warm up and then move onto building some muscle.  I warm up on my old favourite - the rowing machine.  I then go to the circuit.  Oops, I can't seem to find the machines I need and having been instructed at the posh gym, I was unfamiliar with the layout in this gym.  No problem - I will just find one of those Virgins with the red t-shirt that says "fitness team" on the back.  Oh, none to be found.  No worries, I am paying a small fortune to belong to this gym franchise, so there must be someone available to assist me.  Off I go down to reception where they ask me if there is no one on the floor that I can find.  Ummm, yes, sure there is, but I just felt like coming downstairs and asking if there was anyone available to screw everyone around.  No, there is no one, unless you want me to go in and ask the oke giving the spinning class or the girlie doing to the stretch and tone class.  So the receptionist pages the fitness team asking one to please report to reception.  No one arrives.  She looks at me and says there is no one available.  Oi, this is not good.  I tell her not to worry, I will do cardio AGAIN today.  I march back upstairs and hop on a cycle.  Ah yes, I find those electrode thingies, and wragtig it picks up my heart rate!  So I pedal myself to a point of profuse sweating and a wildly beating heart.  This is cool - I guess the power of endorphins is not to be underestimated!  I do another stint on the rower and then call it a day.  I feel quite cheated as I really wanted to do weights, but I figure this is a long term process, and there is not much point in overdoing it and perhaps injuring myself or something.  You know at my age, one needs to be careful!

I leave the gym unimpressed.

A visit to the gym on the other side of the N2

So I took a few days off work.  I dropped the boys at school and off I go to the gym.  I am wearing my usual ancient attire and get there at about 08h00. I'm feeling a little apprehensive as I'm going into foreign territory now so to speak.  As I walk in a very friendly chappie gives me a very perky "good morning" and as he swipes my card adds "welcome to our gym, I see this is your first visit".  Well, ok, I'm impressed so far and feeling a little less apprehensive!  Off I go to the changing rooms.  As I'm padlocking my locker, in walks a Facebook friend!!  Ah, a friendly face AND I notice that she is looking fantastic AND that she's clearly survived a workout with her personal trainer.  Woohoo there is hope!  We have a brief chat and she highly recommends her PT and asks me if I've ever watched the Biggest Loser on TV - you know the show where the PT's work you so hard that you go and puke in the flowerbed - yes, I know that one.  Well, she says (still smiling) that's how she felt at her first session with the PT!!  Alrighty then, if I were fitter, it might be an idea to run now!  However, I do remember that I am here by choice and I have a goal to attain.  Right, so the sweat towel slung casually around the neck, I march confidently out there and over to reception.  There is a really tiny little girlie there with a track suit on and a clipboard in hand.  I ask her how one goes about making an appointment with a PT.  She says you choose a name off the board and points over to a board with all the PT's names and pictures on.  She gives me a grimace rather than a smile.  I pick a PT and take their business card for later use.  You see when I joined the gym I got two free sessions with a PT thrown in, and the boy who did my intro said that I should gym for a few weeks and then appoint a PT.  That way I could get some freshness injected into my training schedule.

That taken care of, I proceeded up the flight of stairs to where the serious business takes place.  I took a stroll around to see if I could spot any familiar-looking equipment.  I was pleased to see such a mix of people - young and old, black and white, thin and fat - all with one thing in common... it looked like they were here to workout and sweat and not be pretty and parade!  Cool.  I like it here already.  So this is going to be by cardio session.  I decide to start on the cross trainer, move on to the cycle and finish off with rowing.  Ok, so the equipment here doesn't have its own TV screen, but there are screens hanging from the ceiling.  If I remember to bring my earphones I can plug in and listen to Sky News or whatever's going.

I hop onto the cross trainer, set the time, set the "effort" button to 9 and get moving.  After five minutes I think I'm going to have a heart attack or possibly even a stroke, or maybe both, and I take a quick glance around to make sure nobody sees me changing the "effort" down to a rather pathetic 5!  Ok, I can now catch my breath and realize I may survive this cross trainer after all.  I finish my time and get off.  The legs are a little wobbly, but hey, I'm okay!  I drain half my water bottle and get the cycle set up.  I hop on, punch in the time, and off I go.  I have to admit, in retrospect, I was downright lazy on that cycle.  I could really have pushed way harder, but I was still trying to shake off the wobbly legs from the cross trainer.  While sitting there I was watching a spinning class.  Now that looks like it might just torch off some body fat hey.  I felt I may need to get a little fitter before attempting a class like that, although I did spot a man in there of about 80 and a couple of old ducks too!  Mmmm, maybe I'll give it a shot.  I'll check the schedule before I leave the gym.

Next piece of equipment - the rowing machine.  Now I really love this machine.  You just find your rhythm and you go.  You can zone out totally - it's like meditation in motion.  And let me tell you, it works your body really well.  With the sweat towel well and truly used and the water bottle empty, it was time to leave.  Wow, I felt really good.  I think that maybe once I've won that big Powerball jackpot, you'll find me in the gym for a couple of hours every morning.  It's an awesome way to start the day!

A journey of a thousand miles begins with the first stepper

Ok, so here's where I'm at right now... a few days ago I joined the gym.  Why I hear you ask.  Well, it becomes apparent when one's clothing starts shrinking that there is a problem somewhere... either with the clothes washing process or the body that fits, sorry used to fit in them quite comfortably.  Now a quick look in the mirror reflects a person that does look vaguely familiar, although there is a lot more to them than there used to be.  A quick glance down in the shower and yes, right down there I do see some pretty pink painted toes sticking out of a mound of belly that I swear has appeared out of nowhere!  Yikes!  This is bad.  Ok, breathe, and again, breathe.  Try to keep the panic under control.  Come on now, you're a left brained, logical girl.  All your male friends adore you for that, so let's not spoil it and have a melt down now!  Plan of action - join the gym, follow a healthy diet and tackle this problem in small steps.  That boep and various love handles really didn't appear overnight and they're not going to disappear overnight.  This is going to take a lot of hard work, discipline and patience.  Oh, and honesty.

So off I go to the local gym.  I am wearing my ancient trail running shoes, an old pair of running pants which I dug out of the bottom of the cupboard, an XXX large T-shirt (you know to cover that spare tyre muffining out over the top of said running pants) that I purchased 18 years ago when I was pregnant with my first child, and a faded hoodie.  After all, this is where I've come to get hot and sweaty.  Well, the gym is all modern and everything and filled with barbies in the latest fashion exercise gear, with perfect make up and fake nails.  I get a few horrified looks but I let them run off me like water off a ducks back... hey I'm 43 for Pete's sake, I'm not here to parade, I'm hear to start my long journey back to health.

A sweet boy who doesn't look old enough to be legally employed takes me through the start up process.  Firstly he introduces me to this big machine thing.  It's a very clever machine.  It measures your weight, body fat, blood pressure and then after adding a few more personal details, it spits out the bad news.  Well, it did give me one piece of good news - my blood pressure is fantastically low.  The rest was not so pretty though.  I'm 20kgs overweight and I have a body fat of 37%.  Oh that is so gross.  I mean think about it - take away the skeleton and the water, then the body fat..... ag shame, where are my muscles.  Oh crap, maybe I don't have any!  I feel the panic creeping up on me again.  No, no, no, the boy assures me I must have a little muscle under there somewhere.  And he also assures me that I will drop this fat and build beautiful muscle on the program that said machine will next spit out for me.  Yay!  There is hope!

Firstly, the boy takes me over to the cardio section of the gym where he proceeds to show me the first machine.  Ah, yes it's a treadmill.  Oh my hat, the treadmill has it's very own TV screen!!  You simply bring along your earphones, plug them in, pick a channel and happily watch TV while you're walking your arse off, literally.  Wow, things sure have changed since I was in a gym 13 years ago!  So I walk a bit, the boy shows me how everything works and then we move onto the next piece of equipment.  Slowly but surely we went through the stepper, the ski machine, the rower, the elliptical trainer, the seated cycle, the normal cycle, the spinning cycle, the hand cycler thingy, and the stretching machine.  Why anyone in their right mind would want to use that contraption is beyond me!  Right, so now that I am familiar with and have performed a bit using each piece of cardio equipment, we go to the other side of the gym - the weights section.

We start off with the leg press, followed by various other muscle developing machines.  We then move over to the mat where the boy tells me I'm going to do push up now.  I burst out laughing and inform him that I have no muscles and can't do a push up.  He looks a little concerned, but then tells me not to worry  as he will modify it for me so that I can develop those muscles.  Ok, so I end up kneeling at a bench, while there I send a quick prayer up, and then perform these modified push ups.  We end off with some floor work for the abs.  Ok, so they're designed for people who actually have abs.  Again the sweet boy tells me not to worry, if I work hard, I will be gaining muscle in no time.  The boytjie should go into politics - he's good!  And thus ended my introduction to the gym.  Woohooo!  I am amped baby!!