blink and 5 kilos gone

well, thanks to Precision Nutrition - slightly modified pour moi, some good honest workouts, the couch to the 5km program (still haven't finished week 5 - got the first 5min run/3min walk x 3 session in, then training client began!) and kettlebells...
5 kilos have dribbled off of my frame.
Hallelujah.
I feel human again.

Two training sessions down!

Well, I'm really happy. I'm finally doing what I have wanted to do for such a long time.
I can't wait to make the transition from (as my manager says) "corporate whore" to 'self employed business woman'.

:-)

Have had two training sessions (tuesday and today, and then we are up for another tomorrow)
Then I have a whole week away from work - we're heading down the coast to a spot called "Brogo" - it's in the mountains half way roughly between Narooma and Merimbula.
And..it's dog friendly (rule number 1), so we can have a nice family trip away for a few days.

Will be nice to chill out, head to the beach, walk around the countryside... fab.

What a weekend

Well, Saturday dawned bright and beautiful, so I took jemima off to obedience training. She's just getting so good... she just can't quite allow herself to 'stay' when I turn my back on her. But.. she is just the best dog in the world.
Anyhow, got home, had a quick read of the papers, noticed my horoscope said "there's money out there to be made, if you stop spinning your wheels and just do it" hmmmm does that strike a chord ? hell yeah. Went up to see the horse, who appears to be coming down with another foot abcess. Seriously, if it's not one thing, it's another with him. The past two years have been total crap. I am thinking seriously of just getting rid of him.... a notion I never would have entertained in the past... but..when you fork out $120 a week for nothing... you start to get a tad p*d off when you can't even have a nice ride.
Not much to ask really.
So, got home, did a little more on my website, then we went out for dinner to Bistro 345 - which as usual was fantastic.
Sunday dawned just as beautiful, so we met up with friends (and Jemima's best buddy..see photo below) to go for a walk on one of the dog friendly beaches in Austinmer. Our girl behaved impeccably amongst so many people and dogs, it was a pure delight.
The dogs down there were also all so friendly and well mannered - so it made for a really nice morning walk.
Then I headed up to check on the horse - no change - grrrr and we had decided to meet up with our friends again at Stanwell park to attempt to do some kite flying.
We drove our little 'snotmobile' up - perfect weather for an open top! the wind 'toyed' with us a little and we did get some kite flying...but it was nice just to hang out and chat - then we heard someone say there were whales off the beach - so we ended up going and checking those out. We could just see them about 1km off shore - obviously just following fish and having a good feed!

Then... I get a phone call from someone who has seen my website..so I have my first 'real' client on Wednesday morning at 6.15.. cool!!

The way to keep the weight off

Katie wrote a great post Over here: http://thin-enough.blogspot.com/2008/10/diet-or-lifestyle.html it's definitely worthwhile reading for those of us who struggle with the maintenance thing.

nasty virus be gone!

By the afternoon yesterday I was starting to feel decidedly average...by the time I'd cooked dinner ( a nice pork fillet marinated in a tbsp of hoisin, honey & soy seared 1-2 mins in pan and then in oven for 15-20 mins) with mashed cauliflower, & tbsp sweet potato - what a distinct lack of colour! Must get more veges today.
anyhow, I was feeling like something was going on in the throat/back of nose ... I went to bed at 9pm after swallowing an echinacea/zinc & vit c and set the alarm for 6am - I didn't think I'd venture out for my run as I thought I was going to be sick.
Anyhow, woke up at 6am feeling quite chipper.... maybe I've kicked that virus away for now. I opted for a quick walk with the dog, then worked on my VMO..... so I did wall squats with a swiss ball with a towel in between my knees - try it if you are lacking VMO (vastus medialis oblique) that works properly or is weak & non existent - it works.
Then I did some leg extensions & lunges that are only 1/4 lifts from the ground - this really works the VMO.

What things look like food wise for Kristy

Breakfast:
Norganic 9 wholegrain cereal with Metabolic Drive chocolate protein shake/skim milk

Mid Morn:
25g cheese & strawberries or
Precision Nutrition bar (made from peanut butter, protein powder, flaxseed, almond meal, egg, pecan meal)

Lunch:
is usually leftovers from the night before, so could be:
Chicken & vege stirfry with small amount basmati rice
Grilled chicken & salad
Grilled Moroccan lamb & salad
Fish & salad or green beans / broccoli etc

Afternoon:
Always the same
Natural yoghurt with frozen berries & spoonful of muesli on top

Dinner:
Like lunch

Evening:
If i am peckish I'll have a bit of Precision Nutrition bar or something like that.

I eat on plan Monday - Friday lunch. Friday evening will have some wine & we may have some nibbles.
I eat on plan Saturday - may just have wine on Sat night & maybe some Lindt Dark Chocolate Orange
Try and eat as much to plan on Sunday

Freezing and Raining

This weather is just downright bizarre. The last two mornings it's been freezing and pouring rain - certainly not ideal for me to jog on the bike path!!! So yesterday morning I opted for a full on kettlebell workout and this morning I trained upper body - with pushups, full pushups with mountain climbers, some boxing moves, then with DBs - then DB chest presses, reverse situps off the bench.

I'm tired.... I hope I am not coming down with something...

Maybe it's just the weather! I hope. Still I chucked a multivitamin down this morning as well just in case.

My weight & size continue to decrease - I think I've dropped a size! 3.5kg.

Hopefully the weather will be a bit kinder and I'll go for my day 1 of week 5 run session! Going to have to do them back to back and do one again on Saturday morning too - Sunday will be my rest day - we're off out to Bistro 345 again for a friend's birthday dinner.

Jemima and her best buddy

If you can make out the t-shirt..it's a custom design... it says

mmmmm mima licky...

yes, jemima just loves giving little eva lots of kisses ;-)

a long weekend

We had the absolute fortune to have a long weekend this weekend - our work has a 'picnic' day which we had yesterday.

Having a three day weekend makes so much difference - you feel so much more relaxed, not racing around trying to fit everything in over the two days. I actually had time to do a bit of a 'spring' clean around the place too - safe in the knowledge that I still had Monday to just do 'stuff'.
As such, I slept in - well, 7am is a sleep-in compared to 5.30am.
I had breakfast, then took Jemima down the bike path for a walk, then got home..and got changed as yesterday was a scheduled run day - my last week 4 run. I struggled a bit - most possibly because we'd had a barbeque and friends over on Sunday afternoon - which went late - and a few wines were consumed. Have found a nice white - T'Gallant - Pinot Grigio. If you like a Sauvignon Blanc, you'll love the Grigio - but don't do the Brown Bros version - not good. I foolishly purchased 2 bottles, but..don't like.

The T'Gallant version from the Mornington Peninsula is, however, superb. Actually, the first one I'd tried was the Rosemount version also - that was pretty good and what sold me on the type.

Anyhow, enough of alcoholic beverage speak!!!

So.. I went for my run - the last in the run 3/ walk 90 / run 5 / walk 2.5 x 2 - and yes, struggled ... but it was pretty warm and I was doing my best beetroot impersonation by the time I'd finished - plus I'd had breakfast. I suspect, given that I am so used to doing my runs first thing in the morning on an empty stomach, this seems to suit me.

Then last night was our netball final... we were fairly slaughtered. Somehow we'd been put up in this comp to division 1 - we were in 3rd place, but after last night finished the comp in 4th place. Not bad for such a pro division! LOL

Tomorrow morning is supposed to be cold and rainy - it's pretty cool today - and marks the start of week 5 - tomorrow will be a run 5 / walk 3 x 3 - must put the iPod on for that.

This morning I did a bit of a kettle bell workout - it's bizarre how quickly one can get one's heart rate up and break a sweat with a little piece of roundness like that!

Awful ad...

As our company tends to advertise a lot in certain publications, we get a few freebies each month across all the Lifestyle/Home maker titles.

This of course can be a nice perk, but... my blood boiled when I came across this advert...

So, basically all it's saying is...

Why bother with exercise and diets - just go visit the 'doc' for a quick fix.

Talk about preying on those people that don't want to put in any hard work.

Hmmm... so Abbott Industries, fitness doesn't come into the equation?? Bloody pharmaceuticals... "here, take this little pill and it will all be better".

Technodunce!!!

Just when I thought it was safe to go back to the bike track for my 2nd running session from Week 4 - complete with iPod strapped safely around my arm, wired up for hearing well - along comes my inner technodunce to foil me. Do you think I could get the damn thing to work? Nah.
My OH had proclaimed the battery dead the other day and was apparently re-charging the battery. So naturally, I assumed that he had failed in that regard. Needless to say, his name was mud for the time being.
I carried on, nonetheless, pretending my iPod was working and having several catchy little tunes going along in my head (after all, to the external world I certainly looked as though my iPod must be working). I managed to get through my 3/90/5/2.5 x 2 jog / walk session without further ado - although I do admit to being frightened on two occasions - one as a magpie was peeking at me evilly from a waist high pole as I passed her - the other when a cyclist cheerily said "good morning" from behind me - I must have leaped about three feet in the air and at least it made my heart rate climb a bit more!
After I stretched and got back in the car for my quick trip home - I still couldn't get the thing to work...but I noticed a little padlock symbol on the display. Always being the quick thinker, I thought.. "a-ha - it's possibly locked" - and I managed to find a little button on the bottom, that when I magically flicked it to one side...all was well in iPod land once more. At least I will know better for next week, when the real fun begins .

More on the couch to 5km and my loathing of jogging...

You know.. I have Day 2 of week 4 coming up at 5.30am tomorrow... so I thought I'd just peek a look to see what next week has in store.

Cool Running - determined to kill Caroline ;-)

they reckon I'll be running for 20 minutes non-stop by the end of week 5 - which I think will be a week on Monday. Hmmm. That could be interesting!!!

Jemima's Birthday...

My beautiful baby Jemima turned 1 yesterday on the 15th. How quickly the time goes and how quickly they grow up.
I'll download some piccies over the weekend and upload (just for you Sue!).

Week 4 - couch to 5km

Well, I am very pleased with myself that I have managed to get this far in the program - which now entails:
Warmup walk 5 mins
Jog 3 mins
Walk 90 sec
Jog 5 mins (FIVE minutes? sheesh that's a mind game)
Walk 2 1/2 mins
Then repeat - jog 3 etc
Then finish with a 5 minute cooldown walk and stretch.
So..total of 16 minutes jogging.
THAT is a MAJOR milestone for me (aside from when I was jogging the full length of my beach in the soft sand... that'll be my next regain goal!)

I do suffer so much from boredom... I will try and remember to get the iPod in it's little case and strap it on my arm to take away the boredom voices in my head.

I've sponsored a mixed touch footy team with shirts - Attitude to Burn. Slackers lost their first game ;-) but they say they looked the best on the field! :-)

I'm in shock

I went up to ride my horse last night. Saddled up, lunged (he needs a lot of pre-work before you get on) all was good. Hopped on him, all was good. The girl from next door was over riding a pony of hers, and then she came up into the arena. The minute she walked into the arena on that pony, a change came over my horse. He suddenly got really tense and got 'antsy'. She commented he looked like he had the shits, I said, only since you arrived (it was true!). Anyhow, she left to go home - and the minute she started to leave - Kado lost it big time. He started leaping around like an idiot then he did something he has never done in the 10 years that i have had him - he reared up completely on his hind legs - which frightened me somewhat.. especially since he had never done that before my first thought was *shit, he's going to flip over if he goes up any more* my second thought was *which is my best escape route before that happens* somehow I managed to half fall, half launch myself off his back and land feet first on the arena sand. On the way down I must have sliced the side of my nail bed deeply on the rein buckle. Noice. Bloody. Noice.
Once I got up and realised I was okay (very surprisingly) aside from the bloody finger, I thought, SHIT that means I have to get back on again.
So I hopped back on and he was just like his normal self (the mare had completely disappeared by this time).
Of course, whenever I go home after a ride, my husband's standard question is, so, how was your ride, did you fall off? BUT every time I do fall off, he never asks!! how bizarre is that. So I had to say, okay, ask me the usual question...and he of course knew then that I had fallen off!

Horses.. they like wounding your pride ;-)


Still, I dragged myself out of bed at 5.30 this morning and managed run 2 of the wk 3 couch to 5k program. I suspect the third run will fall into Monday of next week, so I'm going to be slightly out of whack, but I really want to get stuck into my new 'kettlebell' DVD tomorrow...then Sunday is a day of rest & riding.

Precision Nutrition

This one's for Jadey.

After following the Body for Life way of doing things for quite a while, I felt like I need to change things around a bit. I did get great results with Body for Life, but felt like I just needed something different - change is good, right?
Sometimes, mucking around with things can have disastrous effects. Like when I tried to do 'Afterburn'. Obviously/Maybe? I just wasn't doing it right, motivated enough to put the effort in...and I put on weight. Enter Precision Nutrition. The thing I like about Precision Nutrition is that nothing's really off limits - so long as you time it right. I think it takes the whole 'new way of eating' to another level - for me it works. I'm now into week 2 of getting myself right back into line, and I'll let you know more results in a week or so.
When I was last following this way of eating - I had nice shoulder veins popping out - for the first time in my life. I was so proud. Then we went to Bali, came back and my beloved Suki puppy died, everything went into spiral mode..and now I'm back out the other side focussing back on me. Shoulder veins here I come ;-)
It's worth a dust off!

Week 3 - couch to 5km

Woo! a major milestone. I actually STARTED week 3 of my couch to 5km program. I took myself..no..make that dragged myself out of bed at 5.35am..and then went down to the beach to run along the bike path. I didn't have the energy to avoid magpies or hike back up hills at the end...chicken, plus I thought that the change of scenery would help keep me going. After all.. I had to run for three minutes today..in 2 bursts. Talk about a test of my mind power! How pathetic am I??

So this week's schedule is Wed/Fri/Sun - 5min walk warmup, jog 90sec, walk 90 sec, jog 3 min, walk 3 min..then repeat..and finish with 5min walk to cool down.
Then go home, walk dog for 15-20 minutes, then finish with some ab work.

Thursday will be a nice hard legs day, Saturday I am going to do some kettlebell training, and yesterday was just a bodyweight circuit which involved pushups, burpees, squat jumps, get up situps, mountain climbers, planks and one legged bridge/bum raises - the proper name for which eludes my sleep addled brain ;-)
Whilst the state of play in the mornings is currently killing me - well, not quite, but you know what I mean... it was LOVELY to be able to ride my horse in the evening with NO lights required.
Yay for daylight saving :-)

Hmmm

Looks like blogger has been infiltrated by 'blowjob' blogs... LOL - When I logged in to dashboard, you know when it flicks through the latest updated bloglists - every second one was about blowjobs! Oooooh dear.


Anyhow - on to my morning! Wow - it's going to be a HOT day today - 35degrees... it was already really really warm at 5.30am as I set out to do my last of my week 2 Couch to 5km runs. As I was rounding one street corner, I heard the tell tale...WWOOOSH WWWWWOOOOSH.. of BLOODY magpie wings again! So I had to jog backwards until I turned the next corner so the damn thing wouldn't swoop me again.

The hills killed - but my calves were better this morning. Must be getting used to the hills now. I think I need new shoes. I can't believe it. My right foot I am finding some of the toes are getting pins and needles... grrrrr.
When I got home, I then took Jemima out for a longer walk this morning - which meant back up the hills again for a second time on the way home! We were both pooped when we got back. So warm.
Plus I am feeling really dizzy today... it feels like that 'dizzy' bug that was going around a year or so ago.

Hope everyone has a lovely long weekend - good luck to Kek in her comps this weekend too!

I have Jemima's rhodesian ridgeback specialty show to take her to this weekend - if you've ever seen 'best in show' - that movie was really a documentary ;-) LOL

Aaah weight is going down...

I managed to whack on a fair few kilos over the stressful work period. I failed in my attempt to not let work get the better of me - but now, they are falling back off. Thanks to resuming the Precision Nutrition way of life and getting back some intensity & time in my exercise.
This morning, post puppy walk, was ..Plyometric morning! Burpees, Squat jumps, bounds and cycling sprints.
God. I hate my bike trainer with a passion. Maybe I can sell the damn thing on ebay and get a proper spin bike?!