We didn't do the safety dance.... it was the charity dance!

...and so we reach the final day of the 2nd last month of 2013.  Wow!  Everyone seems to be getting into the festive spirit and there is lots of charitable work going on.  What we did this morning was a 90 minute zumbathon.  It was the Movember zumbathon and we were each given a stick-on moustache!  The "entry fee"  was a toy which Virgin Active will donate to under-privileged children.  Well, are we not just the most blessed zumba class this side of the equator?!!  Why?  Well, we have the two hottest zumba instructors ...like...ever!!  They are really like chalk and cheese, but they each bring their own brand of sexiness to the class.  Elroy, with his awesome body, flamboyance and wit, and Sakkie with his ...how do I describe him.... Afrikaner boy sexiness, rhythm and great sense of humour.  They are ruthless mind you, and make us work really hard, but we are having such fun that before we can do another booty shake, the class is over!  A 90 min class every Saturday would be great - especially now that we need to be "beach ready".  I have a feeling though that tomorrow morning I am going to be moaning their names as I attempt to get out of bed!!  And not in a good way either!  

So with only 4.5 weeks of 2013 left, I need to get the booty into gear and burn off 3.8kg.  If - no, no, no - when I do this, I will have achieved my 2013 goal weight. How wonderful that will be to enter 2014 with a brand new goal.  Yessss!

Year Three

It's been eight months since my last post...I would call that severe neglect!  So much has happened in those eight months, it's difficult to know where to start, so I'm just going to ramble!

I'm in year three of being a gym member and, I am proud to admit, a regular gym bunny.  I love going to gym - for various reasons.  I think the biggest plus for me is the de-stressing factor.  I can pour out all the day's frustrations in sweat and I can pound that stepper or shake my booty unashamedly in the zumba class, and the world just seems like a better place afterwards.  Of course that's not the case at all...I'm just a better me afterwards!  The most wonderful spin-off of being a regular at the gym is the friends I have made who have added a wonderful spice to my life.  I think they add to the de-stressing factor hugely.  We laugh - a LOT!  I can't leave out the fact that being fit or fitter at least, adds a quality to ones life that is absolutely awesome.  Everything is brighter and better.  Unfortunately my appetite too!  They... you know who I am talking about, those people that know... they say that your results come from 80% diet and 20% exercise.  Well, I have to admit that they seem to be right!  Ok, so I am not 20kg overweight anymore, I have only 9kg to lose now and my body fat has dropped a bit, but given that I have been working at this for three years, my progress is a tad slow.  I admit freely, I'm not quite getting that 80/20 thing right!  I can attest to the fact that by dropping a large percentage of carbs, ensuring you get enough protein and keeping a positive frame of mind, the results do appear.  I know what I need to do - it's implementing it that gets a little tricky!  I am a Gemini and it really does seem as if there are two of me who have constant arguments about food consumption.  I walk past the snack shelf in the local Kwikspar, unfortunately located directly next to the healthy fresh veg, and those Doritos Late Night Chilli Ribs call my name... I swear!  My inner gym bunny says "blegh, walk on by, you know you don't eat those disgusting high GI carbs" and my inner couch potato says "oh come on now, you work so hard, life is short, you can have a few delicious, crunchy, awesome Doritos".  I casually look around to see if anyone else has noticed the argument going on, but everyone seems oblivious.  Sometimes gym bunny wins, and sometimes couch potato wins.  Now if I can get gym bunny strong enough to challenge couch potato to a burpee competition, it would shut that slouch up once and for all!

A month and a half ago I had the most amazing experience.  I went overseas for the first time in my life!  Not only that, I went to a place I have been longing to see for years - Thailand.  What an awesome, mind expanding, wonderful experience.  It's as if you brain has been wired to deal with work and domestic issues, work and domestic issues and more work and domestic issues for the last 25 years.  Suddenly those centres of your brain get to shut down and this whole new department of your brain sparks.  You suddenly have new smells, new tastes, new climate, new sights, a new language, rain that is warm, sea water that feels like bath water, people who are non-aggressive, food that is absolutely divine and many other awesome experiences.  There is nothing quite like walking through warm tropical rain, the steamy climate, the temperature in the thirties, then stopping at a roadside pub and having an ice-cold Chang beer.  It's crazy to swim in crystal clear, warm sea water.  The nature of the Thai people is just beautiful.  The whole experience has given me a whole new take on life.  I need to go back and experience more of that!  On the fitness and fatness front, in general, although the Thai people have a staple diet of rice and or noodles, there are few overweight people.  My theory is that Thai food is quite spicy so you tend to eat small amounts.  This points back to Granny's advice of "everything in moderation"!

Anyway, before I turn this into a travel blog, let me sign off with the promise that I have the best intentions of keeping this blog up to date with at least a weekly post.  I have plans to enter 2014 4kg lighter than I am now.  Let's hope I can beat that couch potato into submission!

Whisky Tango Foxtrot! We've entered the last month of the first quarter!

Good grief, but 2013 is going like a boeing!  I'm finding it hard to deal with all the Easter goodies in the shops when I feel like I'm still trying to catch my breath from all the Christmassy stuff.  Talking of catching my breath... last week on Wednesday, I went to my mid-week zumba fix.  Shame man, Elroy was not well.  He said he had a bit of a cold and his voice was pretty much non-existent.  To make matters worse (for the hearing humans that is!)  the sound system was giving problems and his microphone was not working.  He resorted to hand signals only - something which suits me down the ground being a deaf one! Respect brother!  This guy took us through the whole class, sick or not, and ensured we had our fix.  As always, it was an awesome, de-stressing class.  

Due to time constraints along with a dose of demotivation, I had not made it to gym on Monday evening and so Wednesday was my first workout of the week.  Yikes!  I would be short for my total calorie burn for the week.  Friday afternoon saw me in the gym - on my off afternoon nogal -  to make up for Monday.  I had a quick, intense workout.  I was desperately looking forward to the weekend as I'd planned to go away for Saturday/Sunday with a couple of friends.  You know, leave the husband and the sons to fend for themselves for a few hours!  I was delighted that we were only leaving late morning as that meant that I could still get my Saturday morning zumba fix.  Yeah!  I got to the gym and noticed that the queue was not as long as usual for a Saturday morning.  Immediately I was concerned as I was not sure what was going on.  On my way back from the water fountain where I had filled my water bottle, I saw a friend in line who said that Elroy was off sick.  Oh no, I practically felt the blood drain from my face.  She noticed my worry and said that there was a replacement instructor - allegedly named Sakkie.  Oh dear, my heart sank.  What kind of zumba class would Sakkie give and who was he and where did he fall out of?  I had no hope.  Fortunately, I needed my fix and so stood in line and entered the class along with the other die-hards.  Well, in bounded this dude - T-shirt, track pants, tackies, and muscles.  Mmmmm, nice to look at.... but would he perform?  I almost felt sorry for him as to attempt to fill Elroy's shoes must be an awfully daunting task.  I mean Elroy makes us laugh, he makes us feel special, sexy, positive and to top it all he gives us one phenomenal, booty-shaking, calorie burning workout!  

Let me say straight off the bat - Sakkie did not disappoint!  Sakkie has a very different style to Elroy.  Sakkie has a fantastic sense of humour though and he can move that gorgeous body of his - let me assure you!  Man, that guy can dance!  We even did the zorba!!  Of course without the plate breaking and ouzo.  

It amazes me, how you have a simple change like a different zumba instructor, and suddenly different muscles come into play.  Divine!  I could feel it when my friends and I went for a walk on Saturday afternoon.  Sakkie, my booty and my thighs just love you man!

I am very motivated for my Monday workout, and naturally, I'm looking forward to my Wednesday/Elroy/Zumba fix - but I have to say - I wouldn't mind crossing zumba paths with Sakkie again sometime!!

Valentine Shmalentine

So tomorrow is Valentines Day.  Bah humbug I say!  I really don't like this day to put it mildly!  I reckon it was concocted by some clever businessman to rip off all the people too afraid of being non-conformers! Ag, I suppose that's a little unfair of me, but it really irks me that there has to be one day, just ONE day, where one is socially forced to declare ones love and spend copious amounts of hard earned cash on ridiculously expensive flowers, chocolates and various other gifts.  Nah!  I put my foot down.  I will not partake! Ok, so we're trying to do a fun thing at work and everyone is going to wear something red,  but that's as far as it goes for me.  I feel rather strongly that ones loved ones are to be made to feel special all the time and seriously if you can't make an effort throughout the year, don't be making any special effort on Valentines Day - that would just make me angry!

So what does this have to do with exercise you ask.  Good question!!  Absolutely nothing except that I suddenly realised that we are halfway through February 2013 already and I am not on track with my health and fitness goals.  Perhaps that has something to do with comfort eating - ya think!!  It amazes me - here I am with these great goals and I face a little bit of a challenging obstacle in my life, and what do I do, I eat.  And I swing between this not caring, don't care how fat I get, life is too short to eat healthily all the time scenario, to absolutely detesting myself for being such a wimp and giving in to food!!  Aaaargh!!!  Why does life need to be so challenging sometimes!

On the upside, I had a great session on a spinning bike yesterday.  My intention was to do a long session at low heart rate so that I could get a decent chunk of fat burning in.  I was a tad short on time so ended up only cycling 20km but my Polar heart rate monitor says I was running at 55% fat burning!  Yes please!  I need to do at least one of these sessions a week.

This evening of course we had a zumba class.  Awesome!!  I burnt close to 900 calories in the space of an hour - so it was only 45% fat burning, but it was such a laugh and so good for the soul!  I had my two entertainers in front of me again today.  They are young girls in their early twenties.  One is blonde, tall and has bright blue eyes and her friend is a short, curvy brunette.  They are clearly best friends and they laugh and joke around and take nothing seriously!  I love them to bits.  Some people look far too serious in the zumba class.  I had Miss Speedy next to me tonight.  She is very enthusiastic, knows all the steps to each dance, but doesn't feel the music.  For me you need to feel the latin rhythms, not just hear the music.  She does everything she should, but she always seems to be on fast foward and slightly ahead of the beat.  Hey, but she is having a great time, and that's what counts.  Even the dude with zero rhythm has fun.  I think that's what I love most about zumba... you add your own flair and flavour and make it yours.  

I spoke about dates and goals in my previous post.  I am determined to get to Thailand this year.  I have no clue as to how I am going to achieve this, but I just need to believe that I will.  If you can dream it, you can do it.  I think I will take this thought and use it to fuel my workouts and say no to those carbs.  I need to imagine myself snorkeling  in a little bikini.... ooooo e e!!  

And on the Valentine's front - write a note on a sticky and put it on the bathroom mirror so that tomorrow morning when you get out of the shower, you are greeted with "good morning gorgeous"!!  

Coming up for a year and a half

Well, yes, I have been away for a very long time haven't I?  More than a year!  

You know, right at the beginning, I promised to be honest so here goes.  When at the age of 43 I boldly joined the gym, being overweight and with a body composition that was just so wrong, I had this incredible positivity and I imagined that within three to six months I'd have the body of a fitness model and all my problems would be over!  Yeah, I know. Slap me.  Hard.  For being so naive!  

I tried really hard.  I've worked incredibly hard in the gym and still do.  I tried various eating plans and the craziest thing is that nothing seemed to work.  My weight dropped a little, my body fat dropped by an insignificant percentage, I lost quite a few centimetres and yes, I did go from a size 14 bordering on a 16, to a 12, BUT that's where is ended.  My body fat is still dangerously high, and I am still around, or should I say a round (lol) 10kg overweight.  I got to a point where it was embarrassing to actually blog because I just wasn't able to report any further progress.  I felt I was failing miserably.  

It was quite good that I'd been to a dietician shortly after getting this whole fitness kick on the road.  I saw her a year later at which stage she compared my stats with those of a year earlier.  This was quite enlightening.  She said that my bone density was better and my muscle mass was more which proved that I was not talking nonsense about working hard in the gym, but that my body fat was still high.  This pointed a great big red warning arrow in the direction of the problem.  Insulin resistance!  Yikes!  Sounded bad.  And yes it is bad as it's a step before diabetes type II!  Alright no need to panic - the situation can be remedied.  In laymen's terms, a person who is insulin resistant has a body that says the following when you consume carbohydrates, and here I am referring in particular to high GI carbs:  "hell no girlfriend, I've forgotten what to do with this carb stuff so the safest is going to be to store it as fat".  Right.  A "normal" person's body upon receiving carbs says:  "ah, energy, ok you carbs go to the muscles where this gym bunny will need you for fueling that sexy, booty shaking zumba class".  Ok, so how does one reverse this situation and "remind" the body that storing carbs as fat is really just not on?  Mmmmm I see you have it - you remove the carbs!!  Yebo!  I went to see an incredible dietician who is extremely witty, practical and so inspiring!  This respect is mainly because she says I definitely should not give up my glass of red wine at night! She says it should take a cycle of about 6 - 8 weeks of this low fat, low carb eating plan to wake up the body's insulin sensitivity.  Ah, I saw light at the end of the tunnel.

Of course typical to me, I started this shortly before the Festive Season.  Why they ever started calling it Festive is beyond me!  I tried to maintain, but eventually succumbed to the carbs in my three weeks I had off.  Doritos became my carb of choice followed closely by an ice cold ale.  I suppose it's silly really as I really do feel better when I eat less carbs.  Suddenly I don't have a bloated tummy and I haven't had stomach cramps for ages. I figured pretty quickly that bread, low GI or not, does not like me at all!   So we've just hit February and I am now back on track with the low fat, low carb eating plan.  I have various dates that I am using as motivation.... Valentines Day, first weekend in March (I may be going away with friends), 26 April, the first week in May (a challenge with Ashley and Maryjane), and of course the end of May when I shall be hitting the big 45 and the start of my next 5 year plan!!

My current exercise of choice is zumba.  Zumba I can honestly say has changed my life!  It's the most fun, the sexiest, the most de-stressing form of exercise I have ever tried.  I think, no I know, this is due to having the most awesome zumba instructor that was ever born!  He is an amazingly positive energy and just inspires and motivates and makes one feel special and amazing!  Of course it helps that he has thee hottest body I have seen in ages and when his T-shirt clings to his sweaty six pack, it just fuels me to keep going!!  My husband says this guy could get SO much action from the ladies!!  I can't argue with that!  The Kick class also does it for me hey.  I genuinely feel as if I'm going to die during each and every kick class, but the endorphins and good stuff that's released when you're near death is just too fabulous.  I do say a prayer before each class asking that I do survive it and I just keep going back for more!  

I can tell you emphatically that I am so much fitter than I was when I started this blog.  I have a way to go to get the body fat down, but now that I know what the problem is, I can start working on the solution and hopefully I will keep you updated now that I am all fired up again.