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!