A LITTLE MORE ON THE BINGE MONSTER AND HOW TO BURN 540 CALORIES IN ONE CARDIO SESSION

Thanks to everyone who left a message of congratulations for me. Its nice to share one's achievments with people who understand the significance of them. I'm sure if I told one of my non-fitness girl friends about it, they'd give me a really wierd look and think I had lost the plot.

I just wanted to add to yesterday's post that I think a couple of other things contributed to my success.

1. My diet hasnt been too restricted and I've been enjoying lots of foods that I really love like: low fat creamed cottage cheese eaten with a good sprinkle of cinnamon and a little Splenda, my favourite pancakes (recipe posted last Monday), unlimited veges, lean protein of my choice (not just chicken breasts/egg whites etc), fruit loaf or other wholemeal/grainy breads, and lots more. The weights been coming off so Coach says keep doing what you're doing - including having 2 glasses of wine / week and a small handful of raw peanuts.

2. At the end of the day I believe that the reason I succeeded was because I made up my mind that I'd do it. No more stuffing around. No excuses. No thoughts of "its just too hard". It was a case of "just do it". Cliched I know but thats what it boils down to. Once I accepted that there WOULD be times when I felt like cr*p and that it was ok to feel that way, it became a little easier. Previously I'd run for food as soon as those feelings surfaced and I'd be trying to stuff them down. It really wasnt the answer and dare I say "I've seen the light".

OK enough of the corny cliches and onwards.

PART TWO: HOW TO BURN 540 CALORIES IN ONE CARDIO SESSION

1. Set out at 8.20am when the temperature is already in the high 30s.

2. Walk for 1 song and then jog for 1 song and repeat, over and over again.

3. Monitor heart rate and watch it soar and stay high even in the walk intervals.

4. Keep going for an hour.

At the half hour mark I was seriously considering walking the rest or cutting the session down to 40 minutes (Liz gave me the target of 40-60 mins so I could have taken the shorter option). So I started the self-talk to get me to the end of the song and then enjoy the "recovery".

Then it was like "just jog one more song". And I did. Aaah recovery.

"You feel ok. Do one more". So I did and yippee ... recovery.

Soon it was a case of "There's only 10 minutes to go. You ran 12kms last year in the City 2 Bay. You've run in weather this hot before. Keep going. You can do it." So I did and the hour was done and dusted. HRM checked and yep 540 calories burned thank you very much. It was worth every step.

Cheers all

Magda

PS Can you tell, I LOVE CARDIO!!!!