RUNNING GIRL REVIEWS APRIL

This morning I was determined to run 5kms to see how fast, or in my case today, how slow I could do it LOL.

It was drizzling when I set out. Hmmmm do I go back inside and do (another) bike ride? I decided to give it a go as it was a light drizzle and if it came down heavy I could always abort. So off I went, stopwatch clicking over, watching my step as it was pitch black at 5.15am, pushing myself hard but maintainable and certainly working with some puff.

At the 1km mark I looked at my time and knew that this was no cracking pace. Did I have it in me to push harder? Probably. Could I maintain it for the 5kms? Not likely. So I settled on that pace and kept going. I was working hard but stopping or slowing down was not an option.

So how did I go?

My time was 33:14 which means I was running my kilometres in just over 6:30. LOTS OF ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT THERE.

My heart-rate (including a short warm –up and cool down) sat at an average of 158 with it maxing at 173**. Yowzer! No wonder it felt hard but give me credit for being able to maintain that intensity for over 30 minutes. At the end of the run I was red faced, clothes soaked in sweat and ALIVE!! I felt great.

So I’m not surprised with my poor result. My running has been sporadic at best, non-existent at worse for several weeks now. I’ve lost a lot of aerobic condition but I know it can be trained back and relatively quickly. Bring it on.

What a great end to a topsy turvy month. I’ve had some good times but I also had some difficult, dark times where bad old habits took hold and I wondered if I’d ever be able to shake them. Mentally I’ve reviewed my April training plan and original goals.

Weight training: tick (exceeded my expectations thanks to Joe)
Cardio: fail – all over the place
Weekly Program: fail – all over the place (but not as critical as long as everything gets done) but fail on that account as well
Diet (macronutrient ratios + daily checklist): some successes, many failures
Goal Weight: fail (it was ambitious!!)

So what have I learnt from this? Lots. Tune in tomorrow and all will be revealed.

Cheers all

Magda


** Based on my age, my maximum heart rate should be 166bpm with my 60-80% training zone being 100-133bpm.

DAILY REFLECTION AND ROUND UP

Today I travelled for work. These days can be quite challenging as I'm away from my desk, have no access to a microwave and need to stay awake whilst driving in the country. Each of these factors can result in a nutritional disaster .... but I held it all together for another good day :-)

After a perfect night's sleep (go figure) I trained Shoulders and Bis this morning. I'm now at the end of my current program and will soon be preparing a new one with a slightly different focus. I'm excited about this. Although I missed my planned run yesterday morning, I didnt slacken off my cardio completely as last night I did Tabatas on my exercise bike and then added a stretch of steady state riding for a good 50 minute session that burnt a nice number of calories.

I planned and packed my meals for today so I wouldnt have to resort to a country bakery - that would be like sending an alcoholic to a wine/beer tasting - and I only "indulged" in a can of Diet Coke to keep me awake at my afternoon sleepy time. I've cut my DC right back but when doing counrty drives I usually allow one then. So it was tuna with salad for lunch which wasnt inspiring but to compensate I made one of my favourite tuna/veg/wholegrain pasta meals for dinner. Then I was happy.

What made things harder today was that it was so cold where I was working. Some of the buildings had very poor heating and my feet were going numb from the cold. Needless to say that in the car, I cranked the heating right up to thaw me out. Lucky I was travelling on my own as anybody with me would have died from the hot, stuffy conditions LOL.

When I drive alone in the country I do lots of thinking about everything and I love the solitude and having the time to reflect. I assess how I'm travelling and whether my destination is right for me. I try hard not to dwell too much on the past, not to keep beating myself up over past mistakes - no matter how many times I repeated them. Everything happens for a reason and sometimes we just arent ready to win our battles, let alone our wars. The winning times will come. So I looked at how I was travelling recently and I was happy with it. I dont feel pressured or stressed and I'm embracing good, sensible habits. My destination has changed somewhat and this is exciting and challenging but in a different way. I like where I'm headed and I like the road I'll be taking.

Stay tuned for more on this soon.

Cheers all

Magda

SEEKING SLEEP SOLUTIONS

I’m having serious problems with my sleep and its affecting my training.

I’ve noticed that every time I become really focussed on losing body fat my sleep suffers. I eat really healthy, drink much less, if any at all alcohol, I train regularly and I should feel so much better but lack of sleep leaves me feeling like a washed out rag.

I’m exhausted by bed time and make sure my lights are out by 10pm. I fall asleep quickly but then wake during the night and I can literally feel all the sleep leaving my eyes. Then I lie in bed or get up and read as I get very restless. I can usually get back to sleep around 5am but by then I’ve lost 2-3 hours of my precious sleep time.

This is what happened last night and after waking around 2am and being up reading I went back to bed for whatever sleep I could get. And yes I turned my alarm off and didn’t do my planned run. I think I dozed from about 5 to 6.45 and then rushed around getting ready for work in record time (maybe that burnt a few more calories than usual LOL).

Last year as I was getting closer to comp time I was up during the night on most nights. Yes I was stressing a bit about getting lean enough and like clockwork it affected my sleep. Although I don’t feel like I’m stressing about it now, the pattern is very obvious.

Does anybody else have similar sleep issues? Why does this happen at a time when you’d think that all the good habits would contribute towards better sleep? I have nothing else in my life that’s causing me worry or stress.

Cheers

Magda

NEWSFLASH!!

I survived 5 days off work including a long weekend with two modest free meals (dinner and brunch), two glasses of wine, one mini home-made Anzac biscuit, no other sweets, no stuffing myself and no secret, mindless eating. I’m 2 kilos lighter today than what I was last Wednesday at the start of my mini-holiday. WOOHOO!! GO ME!!

.... AND IT EVEN BROUGHT HAIL

I was training Chest and Tris this afternoon and could see out the back window as it was raining. Then I noticed the small white balls coming down in the rain. OMG .... HAIL!! BS was highly amused asking what it was LOL. There was heaps of it too, covering the lawns and garden beds. It was awesome. So its been understandably cold today but I've been so busy with domestic chores, training and more domestic chores that I havent really felt it.

I made roast beef tonight and had some nice lean slices of it for dinner with steamed brocolli and a small serve of roasted pumpkin (done in minimal olive oil). It was a nice meal and WH was particularly happy as he also got yorky puddings and gravy with his. I (easily) passed on these not so clean food options.

I hope the rain holds off tomorrow morning so I can get out for a run. Its been a while and I'm itching to get hot and sweaty :-)

Cheers all

Magda

WINTER HAS ARRIVED

..... and I quite like it. Its cold and we've had lots of rain which is a good thing here in dry old SA.

With BS sleeping at his grandparents last night I finally got the sleep in I was so badly craving. I woke up around 7.30 (yep thats a sleep in for me LOL) feeling quite refreshed. WH decided he would row for his cardio today so I have yet to do my training because I wasnt going to run in the rain.

The Figure Girls met for brunch today at Citrus Cafe on Hutt Street in Adelaide. However there were only 3 of us as others werent able to make it for different reasons. We still had a great catch-up talking all things training, dieting and competing as we always do. Its so good for me to have these catchups as none of my other friends have any interest whatsoever in anything to do with this sport. Sometimes I feel like a bit of an island.

Over the last week or so I've been thinking lots about where I am and where I'm going and whats the best way for me to get there. I've come to realise some things which initially didnt sit well with me but I've made peace with them now. I will blog about them soon.

Cheers all

Magda

THE DAY AFTER ANZAC DAY

OMG can my titles get any more unoriginal LOL??

Well here's the lowdown.

Last night we had rain. Such an unusual sound that when I woke up during the night (as I usually do) it kept me awake. Grrrrr!! Then BS decided that today HE WOULD SLEEP IN. WTF??!! So I'm up reading the paper, having my hot lemon drink, mosying and pottering waiting for him to be up at any minute so I can get his breakfast and then train. It was almost 8 when he got up. By then I was quite hungry (after reading KatieP's post today I will eat as soon as I get up in future) but got stuck into my shoulder session followed by just 20 mins on the exercise bike. Thats all I had time for as I was getting my nails done at 10.

However before lunch I did 25 mins on the rower which was a nice round of cardio again. I chose the hardest program and did 3 rounds of it with my abs very sore from Thursday and my upper body still quite sore and tired. I ran out of time to have an afternoon nap.

So good training again today and I purposely left out bis due to lack of time + after Thursday's caning I didnt think they needed another round so quickly.

We went to the movies in the late afternoon and saw Forgetting Sarah Marshall. BIZARRE!! But funny and quirky and a bit different. It made us laugh and we both enjoyed it. Then we went to Mondo on The Parade at Norwood and had a nice dinner where I chose fairly wisely AND DIDNT STUFF MYSELF!! Woohoo!! Feeling really good right now I'm pleased to say.

After an awful spike in my weight after last weekend, I'm pleased to say that its back down to the number I never want it to be higher than. Its still too high at this absolute upper limit but not as bad as when it was 4+ kgs more. AAAAARGH!!

One more day of this lovely long weekend to enjoy and I hope to blog again tomorrow after the Figure Girls brunch.

Take care all and cheers from

Magda

ANZAC DAY

Not a very original tilte but hey .... its 100% spot on LOL.

So what did I get up today? Lets see ....

BS woke us up before 6.30 Grrrrr. Would like to have slept longer .... say about 10!! Trained legs today as my upper body is shattered and I knew that I could not do a shoulder workout any justice let alone biceps (after 4 sets of 8 assisted chin-ups yesterday). No time for cardio straight after as mum and dad were coming over to help with stuff around the house (extending the pergola and doing my ironing). BS and I baked Anzac biscuits and I had one very small one and stopped at that. Yay me - on many previous occassions I would have had 5 or 6 throught the day, at least.

After a healthy lunch (vegetarian omelette with a little extra lite cheese) BS and I went out with my best friend (Miss E) and her boy to see Horton Hears a Who. Its a great animated movie based on a Dr Seuss story. I loved it .... oh and the boys did too. Follow this up with a session at one of the very noisy games places and I'm hanging out for a peaceful coffee and chat with Miss E. We went to her place for this.

Anyway the afternoon just slipped away and before I knew it it was right around dinner time and we were still there so a quick decision to pick up takeaway on the way home as the meal I had planned would take some time to prepare. My choice was chicken and chips with bought coleslaw which my boys loved. I had about 1/2 a chicken breast and heated up some already cooked green veg and stayed reasonably clean with my meal. Yep thats right, no chips (even though our local makes the BEST chips ever), no coleslaw and no wine for me.

So although Ididnt do any cardio today I know that a decent leg session will go a long way to helping with reducing body fat so I'm ok with that. I'll cardio tomorrow for sure. I'm happy with where I'm at at the end of today and thats the main thing.

Hope you all had a great day.

Cheers

Magda

ANOTHER GREAT DAY OFF WORK

Yep I was off today as well and could really get used to this life of no work and time to do all the things I want to. Shame that I'd have no money for anything so hi ho hi ho its off to work I go ... well next Monday anyway.

Today's cardio was a short and sweet sprint session. Just 10 repeats of 100m sprint / 100m recovery walk. Add the warm up jog and the jog back home and it was just over 20 minutes. Shame my legs were sore (from Monday night) and a bit tired but after the 2nd repeat they fired up ok.

Today Miss S (BS's Godmother) looked after my boy while I had my training session with Joe. We skipped legs today and did back and abs. Joe pushed me to my limit and I felt like I gave 100%, especially as I could hardly get off the floor at the end of abs when the session ended. We also talked about a slight change to my training as I have a new goal for this year. I'll devote a post about that over the weekend.

I then headed back to Miss S's for lunch with her and the kids (I took my PWO meal with me) before heading off to do grocery shopping. Typically today I got the trolley from hell and with my upper body thrashed to death I was struggling BIG TIME!! I forgot to mention that I have a bout of DOMS in my pecs and a little in my tris so everything from the waist up is mighty sore and fragile right now :-)

No double cardio today. I honestly feel like I've trained enough and now good food and rest are on my "must do" list. Looking forward to the Anzac Day holiday tomorrow and then a nice weekend to follow. The Adelaide Figure Girls are brunching on Sunday so that'll be a real treat.

Cheers all and enjoy the day off tomorrow but dont forget the significance of it.

Magda

GIVING IN

Well today I gave in and bought myself a pair of jeans that fit me now. (Insert somewhat depressed sigh). I wasnt going to as I'm determined to get back into my everyday size 11s but its been a while since they last fit and I decided I could survive no longer without at least one pair of jeans. I saw some on sale in Katies (I usually NEVER shop there) and just to ease my pain the sizing was huge and I fitted into a size 10. In a wierd way this makes me feel a bit better - but the reality is that I'm nowhere near a true size 10 now.

But I'm on the way!! This morning I trained chest and tris and had some nice improvements in weights lifted on 3 of the exercises. I followed that up with a half hour moderate intensity cardio and my favourite oat/protein pancake for breakfast. The day was off to a good start :-)

BS and I had a few things to do including buying his winter school shoes, a nice winter outfit for him, my jeans and some casual winter clothes for him too. Lucky boy!! We had lunch out and I enjoyed a Mediterranean Chicken Salad which would have been nice if the poor chicken breast strips werent so overcooked. At least it was fairly clean even with a little feta and some olives in it. I could have done a lot worse.

WH is out at the soccer tonight so after BS had gone to sleep I snuck in 20 minutes each on the rower and bike. Now I've somewhat made up for the lack of cardio yesterday and I'm feeling good with a diet yogurt in me for PWO refuelling. Soon it'll be a quick shower and then bed to finish reading Oxygen (with Rosa Marie Romero on the cover). What a great read that mag is and I've especially enjoyed the feature on fit women who are over 40. Their stories were truly an inspiring read. I hope mine is too one day.

Cheers all

Magda

GIRL POWER

This fantastic picture was taken at my 40th (almost 5 years ago!!) and the only special girlfriend missing from the shot is Miss J (my SIL). From L - R there is Miss E (bestest friend), Miss S (Godmother to my BS), me of course with champagne in hand and Miss R (longest serving GREAT friend).

Last night I caught up with Miss R and want to share what a beautiful and special person she is.

We have been friends since I was 14 and she was 16 (yep thats now over 30 years!!). I've seen Miss R go from a happy but fat size 16 teenager to an anorexic marathon runner (her own words!!) who comfortably wore a size 8. Many years have passed from there to now and she is now a comforatble size 10-12 maintaining a nice weight that has her looking slim. She is obviously happy in her skin and just knows how to eat to happily stay at that weight. She is an inspiration.

Miss R has one of the loveliest, outgoing, positive, warm and friendly personalities you could imagine. In her 20s she travelled the world ON HER OWN, never worried about being on her own as she would just meet some-one with a big happy "Hi I'm R" and the conversation would flow. Many men have swooned over her and there were many proposals before she married her man who she describes as her best friend and her rock. In our eyes they are an unusual match as he is much quieter and reserved but I guess you cant have 2 shining lights together. As they say, opposites attract.

We dont see each other often and there have been times when several months have passed in between our get-togethers but it makes absolutely no difference. We pick up where we left off with never any ill-feeling or that usual "you never call me / well you never call me either". After not seeing each other for a while we just sit down and talk and talk and talk.

And thats what we did last night over a glass of wine, then dinner and then coffee afterwards. It was a lovely night and the catch up was great.

I'm so lucky to be blessed with the greatest friends. There arent many that I place in the "greatest" category - some I'm just not that close to but these special ladies are just that. If I was ever in need of anything I know that each and every one of them would be there for me - no matter what. What more could a girl ask for?

Cheers

Magda

LUNGING LESSONS FOR LOVELY LEGS

I’m loving training with Joe at Adelaide Health and Fitness. Last Friday we did some heavier leg work before caning my back again. It was great to load a bit extra onto the bar and push out some nice deep squats. Joe was happy with them too. Then it was single legged leg press and I was feeling it … nicely. The Smith Machine is one of my favourites and I supersetted calf raises (YAWN – waste of time for me as I have well developed calves anyway) with lunges. Now here is where I really got my money’s worth. Apparently my lunge technique is awful and Joe pulled me up on it and corrected it. So with this new way to lunge (butt tucked under and hips tilted slightly forward) I was discovering new sensations and new muscles working.

We realised that my poor technique was a result of my generally weak glutes, poor hip mobility and stemmed from all the trouble I have with everything muscular between my waist and knees. I cant even blame it on my lower back any more as its far more than that.

So last night I trained legs at home and stripped my lunges back to the bare minimum aiming for perfect technique and they still hurt like mad. No wonder I was in agony after lunging incorrectly with 10+ kgs on my DBs. I know I’m on the right track now so I can begin to overload gradually so as not to compromise form and not cause unnecessary injury.

Anyway back to the session with Joe and after week 2 I had another bout of DOMS in my lats which I’m seriously loving. I thought I trained myself hard last year but this year “hard” has taken on a new meaning when I train with Joe.

On a more mundane level though I’ve had another night of poor sleep where I’ve been awake since 4am and couldn’t train this morning due to family circumstances. I’m catching up with a friend tonight so it’ll either be a very quick late training session tonight or a longer session tomorrow. I’m tired and would kill for a solid 10 hour sleep (like that’s ever going to happen!!). Oh well at least I’ve got tomorrow and Thursday off work. YIPPEE!!

Cheers all

Magda

MY 6 WORD MEMOIR

PAMPERED PRINCESS DECLARES WAR ON BODY FAT
(As at 21 April 08 - it could be different in a week or a month's time)


Hi guys,

thanks to everyone's well wishes for my son's birthday. We had a great weekend with lots of socialising and celebrating. The photos are a bit disappointing though but I'll go through them again in the hope there are at least a few good ones I can post.

Unfortunately the diet wasnt as lean and clean as I would have liked but today is a new day where better habits and choices can be my priority. My sleep suffered a bit too so I'm very tired and have some training to catch up on as well. Thank goodness I'm working 2 days this week and then having 2 days off before the long weekend.

I have a few things to post that I'm looking forward to sharing but they'll have to wait til I have a bit more time to spend on the luxury of blogging.

I also loved the wierd food stories that were shared on my post from last week. When I read some of them, I didnt feel nearly as wierd as before LOL.

Cheers all and will blog more soon

Magda

A MORNING OFF WORK

I have enjoyed the morning off work today as its my gorgeous son’s 6th birthday. While he busied himself with his birthday present I did my training (shoulders/bis + low/moderate intensity cardio on my exercise bike). I then made choc fleck cupcakes for tonight’s birthday dinner with the family. BS has requested that they be decorated with Smarties. He’ll get his wish :-)

Then I raced around doing tidying, cleaning, my food prep and prying BS off his activity of choice. My MIL arrives from the Sunny Coast this arvo. We have some busy days ahead and I’m looking forward to it all.

I’m feeling surprisingly calm, in control and positive about handling this potentially dangerous time well. Social occasions usually see me hoeing into lots of nibbly snack foods, alcohol and then meals which are way more than what I need. I’m aiming for moderation not perfection. I think I’ll do ok as my focus and perspective is now different.

I hope to get on and post some pics but I suspect my time on the computer will be limited over the next few days. Hope everyone is travelling well and handling challenges and curve balls with strength and confidence.

Cheers all

Magda

WIERD FOOD

Does anybody else eat weird food?

I’m not a fussy eater with my list of “never eats” being quite short actually. So sometimes my meal concoctions are “unusual”. Last Friday’s was a disaster that I’ll be careful to NOT repeat. It was embarrassing to say the least.

I love red cabbage and had some already cooked in a little home made chicken stock. I also had some snapper fillets that I had cooked with a bit of low salt lemon pepper seasoning. So I put a hot-pack of cabbage, fish and brown rice together. I didn’t think there’d be anything wrong with it. Well I heated it in the microwave at work and people from the other end of the floor started protesting loudly about the smell. (I swear it was no worse than the smell of tuna and lots of people have tuna regularly). Well the reaction to it (the smell) was so negative that I was too embarrassed to open the container all the way up and eat my meal. I ducked out to Subway and bought a roasted chicken sub with heaps of salad instead.

Today I had brussel sprouts which I have discovered a new love for since preparing to compete last year. With them I had beef chevaps (lean skinless sausages, quite spicy in flavour) left over from a BBQ on Saturday. I add a little flaxseed oil and its just delicious. Nobody complained of the smell today although I would have got strange looks if they’d seen what I was having.

WH often looks at my food and rolls his eyes but the absolute best was one week out from comps last year when breakfast was green veg and lean protein. I tried to eat these meals away from him but by the last one I just didn’t care anymore and ate it in front of him. Well I just gave him the “death stare” and cut him off before he could even start on that one. Mind you, in hindsight I agree that chicken/tuna with green veg is NOT an inspiring breakfast choice.

Do you have any weird food stories to share?

Magda

A SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT FOCUS AND APPROACH

Today I wrote a "Private Post" that I dont plan to publish til at least 3 weeks down the track. Its a reflection of where I'm at but I'm not ready to share it just yet. If/when I do you'll understand why.

So that post and advice received on yesterday's post has prompted me to adopt a slightly different approach to my diet and training. Its not a cop-out, nor am I throwing in the towel and quitting coz its all too hard. Far from it, in fact.

When I look at where I was 2 years ago and then 6 months ago and where I am now it feels like I've gone from crawling, to walking and then running. However I sustained an injury and lost my ability to run. I keep thinking that I can run but every time I take off, I fall over again. I can do it again but I need to crawl first, then walk and then run. It will be done but it cant be rushed. This is what I plan to do over the coming months. Crawl first, then walk and run when I'm ready.

Build the foundation as strong as possible and then whatever you put on top has a mighty good chance of surviving any storms. Currently my foundation isnt in too good a shape.

So my new focus is on the here and now, not one day in September. I have a lot of work to do both physically and mentally over the next few months but I feel this is a better road for me to travel and the journey will be a happier one.

Thank you to the lovely Lia, Lisa, Raechelle, Combat Girl and Liz for your wise words, your tough love and your support. They really do mean a lot to me.

Magda :-)

SUNDAY ROUNDUP

Well I was going to blog more on the weekend but things got busier than I expected and here I am on Sunday night doing my one and only post.

What can I report?

A killer leg session ths morning which had me working to my max on lunges even without the weights being heavy. I'm not sure whats going on there? Last year I lunged with heavier weights and whilst it was never easy, I dont remember it being THIS hard. I wonder if I'll have DOMS in my glutes for 3 weeks running?

I have DOMS in my lats for the first time EVER, thanks to Joe's killer back session on Friday. It feels wierd but good I guess. On Saturday I had to do shoulders and bis to make up missing the session last week. I'm a bit all over the place with my weight training and need to work out a new routine allowing for the Friday training with Joe. I need to also step up my cardio. My April training schedule has proved too rigid and its not working so I'll be back to the drawing board for May.

Diet continues to be my biggest challenge and I'm just not applying myself like I should be. There are so many things going through my head, including questioning whether I REALLY want to compete again this year and whether I'm prepared to WORK FOR IT? Can I put my self doubts aside? Have I got what it takes MENTALLY to push through this difficult stage? The answers within me arent sounding very positive right now.

Magda

IMPROVING MY COMP PREP

The owner of ADELAIDE HEALTH & FITNESS, the wonderful Joe Mammone is assisting with my training for competition this year

I’ve known Joe for a long time as we both instructed at the same gym for several years. He had his business then and was building a reputation as a great instructor and trainer who was popular with many of the gym members. In fact many of the members also attended his gym for his quality one-on-one training.

Last year I did all my weight training on my own but Joe helped with my body fat testing as he was one of the few trainers I knew who did skin folds with callipers and this was my preferred method for body fat monitoring. He came to watch me compete, along with some of his clients that knew me from the gym. (Adelaide is a very small, everyone-knows-everyone city)

Anyway circumstances are such that I need to do one gym session a week, but not necessarily more so Joe was a logical solution to my problem. (I’m still doing my own programming for the remaining weights sessions, cardio and diet – for now at least.) I’m taking time out at lunch time on Fridays which is a win / win as its not a busy time for Joe. Its also giving me the necessary incentive to steer clear of Friday morning tea (VERY IMPORTANT) and then stay on track over the weekend. There’s nothing like some in-your-face-accountability to help one to stay on track. He knows my starting weight but by seeing me weekly there'll be cold hard evidence of whether I'm progressing or not.

So I’ve had my first session with Joe today and we do back, some machine leg work (I still do a lot of leg work at home) and abs if time permits. We started with “Ok can you do chin ups?” at which point I thought “B*ST*RD, he’s picked the hardest exercise to start with and I cant do them unassisted” so I warned him that he’d have his work cut out for him as he’d be doing most of the lifting/assisting and there was significant weight there to lift. We both survived it though.

It was a great session, tough but inspiring and I’ll have some serious DOMS tomorrow I can tell. WOOHOO. I love this feeling and will really look forward to training with Joe for that extra push.

I’m also planning some dietary changes and have a question:

Does anybody know of a protein powder that is suitable for cooking with that doesn’t contain artificial sweetener or sugar (or maybe just a little sugar relative to the content of the product)? I normally use a soy protein for cooking into my morning oats (WPI does NOT cook in well) but it has artificial sweetener AND sugar in it. I also love my oat/protein pancakes which require protein powder. But If anybody has an oat/protein pancake recipe that doesn’t need protein powder but still packs a decent ratio of protein to carbs then I'm all ears for that too.

Any advice would be very welcome.

Look forward to blogging more on the weekend.

Cheers all

Magda

FOILED AT EVERY TURN

Would you believe that I now have a bad case of TOM. I had 2 easy months with no p pain and this month it feels like I have 3 months worth. I slept badly last night and decided to turn my alarm off so as to get a bit more sleep as I have a long country drive today. So I missed my shoulders/bis weights session and will have to improvise with a resistance band workout in my hotel room tomorrow morning. I also missed doing cardio last night due a recurrence of the runs. Foiled at every turn :-(

Eating is still ok though. Its not been perfect but if the last few days were the worst that it got then I'd be VERY happy with it all. Going out for dinner tonight will be a bit of a test - especially as there'll be a group of us.

Well must sign off as we'll be heading off soon.

I have a bit more to post about my comp prep but will save it for when I have more time.

Cheers all

Magda

SINCE SUNDAY .....

..... I've been travelling well .....

......except for a serious dose of the runs LOL :-0

Basically it goes like this: I eat. About 1-2 hours later my stomach goes crazy. I'm racing to the toilet.

After a day of it yesterday it eased off today and I went to work and now its back again (that was timed badly!!) and I'm just waiting to see what happens and if I can do the cardio esession I was planning tonight. I'm ok with my weight training as I tackled that early today but it looks like cardio will suffer again this week.

On the bright side though, a good clean out is guaranteed to get rid of any bloating and my weight is back to where it was at the end of my first week so the subsequent gain is now gone. I dont feel sick with it but it is a bit annoying.

Tomorrow I'm travelling for work with my boss and staying away overnight. All routine out the door with meals and training so it'll be an interesting challenge to see how well I can stay on track - or how little damage I can get away with. If I was going alone I'd be more confident that I'd manage it better but hey we cant have too many things going our way now, can we?

Once again I have a decent case of legs DOMS but this time its mainly in the glutes which I guess is a really good thing. I hope that means that I'm hitting my glutes hard and will be rewarded with some better shape this year. My "pancake butt" last year let me down a bit so that is my focus in training this year.

KRISTY: Your suggestion about forcing the internet to update worked and I've briefly taken advantage of it but with things so busy at work I rarely get on these days. (Lisa from SA and Raechelle were interested in this also)

LISA (PL): I'm looking further into the sugar detox. One of my fave meals post workout though is oats, egg whites, cinnamon, soy protein + Splenda made into a pancake and served with banana (or apple grated into the pancake mix), sugar free maple syrup and LSA. I'm wondering how I could make a sugar AND artificial sweetener free version of this. Everything else I'm confident I could ditch but this is a meal that I really love.

Thank you too to Em, Kristy and Lisa for your support and advice after my last post. I'm the sort of person who reads/hears something, processes it, stores it, recalls it, ponders it, analyses it and eventually the pieces fall into place and I can see "the light". I may be in a long dark tunnel but there is a small dim light at the end just within my view and I'm moving towards it.

Cheers all

Magda

MY GUIDING LIGHT AND INSPIRATION

I had a good week and made progress.

Then I had a bad week and undid it all.

I let myself slip back into some self-defeating mentalities like "There's no harm in having extra rice cakes and tuna" - except I finished off 1/2 pack of rice cakes and didnt stop there. The stress of Dad in hospital, new pressure at work and (junky) food became my comfort again. Shouldnt have, but it did.

I didnt do all my cardio last week but I did all my weight training and completed the sessions to a level I was happy with. I guess its not all doom and gloom - but its not far off.

As I've been pottering around doing domestic stuff today I've been thinking about the whole competing thing.

Why do I want to do it again?
What am I prepared to do to achieve another step up onto stage?
Can I do it alone or should I enlist help - to what extent/who/how/where?
How much does my long-term comp goal REALLY mean to me?

Some answers came easily. Some didnt.

I also think a lot about my eating habits and wonder how/why at my age I still dont have things under control?
Why I'm not normal?
Why I struggle so much with it?
When will it end?

But I have a fighting spirit and I'm determined to NOT throw in the towel and admit defeat. I will (again) pick myself up and start moving forward. I believe that NLP can help me with this but I have even neglected that in the last week so what can I expect?

14 weeks til the All Females and 24 weeks to WNBF SA Championships. I dont want to be fat for the former. I want to be in comp shape for the latter. Time for action (yet again).

My guiding light and inspiration will be:

ONE MEAL

ONE WORKOUT

ONE DAY AT A TIME

Lisa Stokes.

Thanks for listening guys.

Magda

MINI POST

Hi all,

Well what can I say about the week that just passed? You'll have to tune in tomorrow. Its late. I'm tired. I will post tomorrow.

Have only quickly read other blogs and made very few comments. My heart goes out to Stacy who lost her Dad right at the time that mine came out of hospital after a successful angioplasty. Other bloggers are experiencing the usual ups and downs (me included). How lucky are we that we have this great support base to "lean on" when we need it.

Good night all

Magda

A QUESTION FOR THE IT SAVVY

I hope some IT Guru can answer this question for me.

My blogger address is saved in my list of favourites on Internet Explorer at work. During my lunchtime I often hop in and catch up on my favourite blogs and sometimes update mine then as well.

I also have a few other sites I like to visit including Craig Harper and The Daily Motivator.

What I've noticed is that since March 27th none of my blog sites have any postings from that date. Not mine, not any from my list not Craig's site and not even on The Daily Motivator.

Has work blocked them in some way since that date? I can still get into all the blogs/sites but there is nothing after that date.

I work for a large government department and I'm sure that they could track all internet usage if they wanted to but can they block info in this way or is it something else that I just havent thought of?

Please help if you know the answer or have experienced similar yourself.

Cheers

Magda

A VERY QUICK UPDATE ON DAD

Today it feels like I've eaten my bodyweight in comfort foods. I didnt think I was worried about my Dad's surgery but subconsciously I must have been fretting.

I was up at 4.30am doing the ironing and then with some added pressure at work I seemed to be eating all day. Thats one for the FB :-(

Mum and I visited Dad tonight and he looked good (breathe a huge sigh of relief). He showed us a picture of his totally blocked right coronary artery and of the 3 stents he had put in. All should be good now.

When I got home I had a drink to relax and I'm heading off to bed very soon. Its made me stop and think about what we put in our bodies to cause such problems and maybe a little more vigilance wouldnt be a bad thing. In other words make sure the healthy stuff REALLY outweighs the rare treats.

Will catch up with comments and other blogs soon.

Good night all

Magda