Flying makes you fat....

well who knew?


Ok whatever leads me to this bizarre statement? 


Christmas? No instead of catching up with family I went on my own little holiday for 3 days up to Hamilton Island - that also meant I could totally stick to my eating plan - sure I had a few beers with a few people but nothing like I would have done had I been with family - so by the time I flew out to England on 27th I was still looking fab in my slinky white figure hugging Karen Millen lace tunic dress.


So in England, I stuck as much as possible to the eating plan - a couple of days I had organic natural yoghurt with blueberries and boiled eggs for brekky instead of chicken, and I think I ate potatoes twice and rice twice - my mother always like to stock up on gluten free stuff for me - cakes, biscuits, bread, cheese crackers that sort of thing, but I'd told her not to get anything so there was no issues there.
New Year was a big night but then isn't it always? My parents thought I was a bit odd eating chicken for brekky and not eating potatoes but they're fairly traditional like that :-)
I got a temporary gym membership to the local gym and did a couple of 5 km runs - so I didn't entirely stop exercising, even though I decided I'd give my body a rest.
So on the whole not much changed over Christmas and New Year except my location....


So why did I feel completely bloated? By the time I got back to Australia, the slinky Karen Millen had a definate pot belly and my beautiful size 6 jeans that I'd needed a belt on before I went to England were now exhibiting evidence of a muffin top!!!


Imagine my horror when I had my Bio Sig assessment on Jan 17 to find I'd piled on 3kg and 2% body fat!! And that was after 2 weeks being really strict with my eating, back in the gym and not having the horrible bloated feeling anymore


How is it possible that just 10 days in England has obliterated 5 months of blood, sweat and tears - and I do mean blood, sweat and tears - I'm completely devastated, not to mention very demoralized by the whole thing - and whats worse is that even another 2 weeks later after going to the gym every day and sticking entirely to my eating plan I still haven't lost the fat - unbelievable! after all the effort I've gone to its incredibly demotivating, I'm almost at the point of wondering why I bothered. 
It also doesn't help that my shoulders are so messed up that I can't train my upper body properly.


in a pretty bad space right now.


so what was it?
The Flying! I think most people notice that when they fly their feet and ankles swell up - me too, and my calves and I have been noticing for the last few years that my abdomen also swells - quite uncomfortable really.  So after flying up and back to Hamilton Island (6 hours) followed by 48 hours of flying for just 6 days on the ground messes up the body a treat so it goes into survival mode and stores as much fat as it can...


bugger.


so what am I going to do about it? 


well I've always been very good at motivating myself and having always exercised my whole life I know a fair bit about getting and staying fit, and when I have something to aim for like climbing a mountain I get so focussed that I push myself to do whatever it takes - training 2,3 even 5 hours a day, but right now I have no major goal and I'm feeling a bit lost as to how to get back to where I was just 5 weeks ago, how to get back the beautiful definition and shape I had...
so for the 1st time in my life I've hired myself a personal trainer.
I met Aiden on Friday, he works at Fitness 1st in Richmond and comes highly recommended by a friend of mine who owns her own sports company.
We sat down and chatted about what I've been doing up till now, where I want to get to, long term goals etc, and then he checked out my technique (very good), my posture (excellent) - then he got me to a selection of upper body exercises so he could get a gauge on the extent of the shoulder issue, he asked lots of questions, made suggestions and just observed - he came across as very calm, competent and knowledgeable - I'm really looking forward to working with him, this could be very good...


So, Aiden is going to put together a program for me do to every day and I'll catch up with him for a 1 on 1, once a week starting next Tuesday - can't wait! 
who knows I might just be entering comps soon...

Assessment 7 - Tue 14th Dec 2010

So whats news since last time?

well the Weary lunch was excellent and despite Melbournes weather doing its best to ruin things, I have to say I that I did look really good - the snow white form fitting Karen Millen was awesome - and very attention grabbing :-) Even got compliments from some of the rugby players themselves saying how fit I looked and what was my routine!

How cool is that - being asked by elite sports people what I was doing to be so fit...can't wait for the next lunch in Feb...

Amer, the guy who is fixing my shoulders even suggested I should try entering a body sculpting competition...interesting, not sure about that though - I'd have to be even more strict about my diet and exercise to lose another 5% body fat and its fairly dull as it is! Besides not only would I disappear, I don't like the body builder look - and fake tan orange is just sooo not my colour.. :-)

I also haven't been going so well on the exercise bit recently, having only managed 2 weight sessions and 1 cardio session a week for the last 3 weeks - not really sure why, a couple of times I've been out on a night and not felt like training the next day, 1 day my gym didn't even open (!) but I'm waking up really tired.

Sleep isn't the problem anymore - in fact, I can't get enough of it! but the last week or so I've been really lethargic and not recovering after a training session, which is a bit odd. I never normally have that issue - even when doing the ridiculous amount of training for Kilimanjaro I wasn't getting as tired as I am now.

It could be a combination of things, but Kat says its probably my body is still on adrenaline overload from pre climb - think it would be a really good idea to do absolutely nothing over Christmas...except eat of course! :-)

just as well I'm taking myself off for a relaxing mini break on christmas eve to 27th, then watching the ahses on 27th dec then will have 2 days enforced inactivity while flying home to England for New Year. That should give my weary body a nice little break. So just one more week of training to go - I can do that!

so whats my assessment telling me since last time 4 weeks ago - am doing extremely well! Body fat down to 13.6%!!! crikey thats 1.4% in 4 weeks and am weighing in at 54kg nearly another kg. Really good results - and to me thats surprising given how little I've been training. 

My back is so lean now I'm getting really good definition, and my tummy has virtually no fat on it at all - unfortunately I don't have the 6 pack abs showing cos I've got a lot of loose skin, but we're working on that - come on Gotu Kola.

My legs are still not losing fat in the same proportion as the rest of me, which is odd - I'm eating spinach, broccoli, brussels sprouts or cauliflower or all 4 every day and lots of the stuff too - apparently this shows I still have an oestrogen imbalance, so we're really going to work on that after Christmas. Good - lets have nice thin hammies and calves in 2011! :-)

The food bit is all good news - my brother is soo going to hate me when I tell him that not only do I get to eat meat for breakfast, lunch and dinner every day, but I can now cook using BUTTER!!! 

yep thats right - got to eat fat to lose fat... so can also eat more avocados (about 4/5 a week - yum!!)  and can start adding in CARBS...

good carbs of course - brown or wild rice, sweet potato, pumpkin, quinoa or gluten free pancakes - PANCAKES!! haven't had pancakes for MONTHS - and my pancakes are always gluten free cos I'm coeliac, so no worries there

oh did I mention the FULL FAT CREAM?? mmmm...strawberries and cream....

right I'm off to fry up some turkey breast in butter, lemon juice, garlic and thyme with spinach, peas, cauliflower and sweet potato, followed by blueberries and strawberries with cream and cinnamon - yum!

:-)

Happy Christmas!

Assessment 6 - Wed 17th Nov photos

Assessment - photos! back, shoulders and arms really looking good...and my butt! very happy about that :-)
bring on shorts weather....

Assessment 6 - Wed 17th Nov

Good result today - lost 0.3% BF so bang on 15% and down to 54.9kg - how exciting have broken 55kg! can't wait to see my photos - my back, arms and shoulders are looking really fab - very buff!
Biggest area of improvement since the last assessment (at last!) is my calves - probably because the last 2 weeks or so I've been sleeping like a baby, and after 3 weeks of no fruit I can have berries again - woohoo! love my fruit


Its very cool when you bump into someone you haven't seen for literally years and they compliment on how fantastic you're looking - even better have got the Weary Dunlop lunch next week at Crown - not many people can carry off a skin tight white dress - watch out boys! :-p

Assessment 5 - Tue 26th Oct

Not such a good result this time, although my weight is down to 55.6kg a loss of about 1kg, my BF % has gone up by 0.5% so that puts me at 15.3% BF. 

I guess its not too surprising really as I've been off the diet for 4 weeks whilst climbing Kili and then being sick and I've only been back in the gym for 2 weeks. I also haven't managed to get into a good sleeping routine like I thought I would - been stressing about getting a new job! 

So now I've got a new job its time to focus properly on sticking to the correct diet and getting into a maintenance training routine - having got this lean I want to stay lean.

I've got to cut out fruit, I've been eating too much, generally about 4 pieces a day and I need to go heavy on the dark green veggies mind you I'm not really sure how I can increase how much I eat, I'm pretty good with the greens and have a big green salad for lunch most days as well as a combination of broccoli, cauliflower and brussels sprouts for tea. Trying to think what I could have to snack on thats green. 

The maintenance training routine is going to focus on doing weights and I need to do 3 days on 2 days off. Each session needs to be about 1 hour - 45 - 50 mins of weights split into legs 1 day, back, biceps,abs 1 day and chest, shoulders, triceps 1 day  + 4 mins tabatas on the rower (that means go very very hard for 20s, rest for 10s) - I tried it and 4 mins is plenty long enough!

I've got 3 weeks before my next assessment, so I'm aiming to be back to where I was pre - climb

Haven't got any photos from my assessment so I thought I'd just throw this one in cos I reckon I look pretty good! Lets go Racing!

and this one - cos I climbed a big mountain!

I'm back!

well its been 6 weeks since I last posted anything - seems like longer than that - so much has happened!

ok so lets do a quick catch up 

I CLIMBED MT KILIMANJARO!!!! 

Woohoo!

its was the hardest thing I've EVER done - mentally and physically - not for the faint hearted thats for sure! trouble was I got sick with a severe chest cough, fever and flu the day I left for Africa....could hardly get out of bed to drag myself to the airport...and it didn't get better the whole time I was away. I climbed the mountain stopping every 2nd or 3rd step to cough up my lungs and green goo - twice I broke down in tears cos it was so bloody hard - I nearly quit...

but I didn't....and I made it...and its was amazing once I got to the top, check out the photos!

I did say I probably wouldn't go to the gym for 3 weeks after Kilimanjaro  because I was sick of exercise - well I haven't, not because I didn't want to, but because I have just been sick - mind you the upside of this has been - lots of sleep!! 

I did say that once I got back I'd be getting a lot more sleep, well I think I've finally caught up on the last 3 months! :-)

so where am I at?

well I'm sooo glad to be back on my low/no carbs diet

CARBS ARE EVIL!

I've been eating anything and everything the last few weeks to try and get better, but I've felt like a total fat blob - now that is certainly not true (pick up my new size 6 tailored suit today....very excited! and the spray tan lady complimented me on my beautifully toned legs....bring on short shorts this summer!), but my body just doesn't like carbs anymore - and I'm talking about multigrain bread and brown rice here - so not even crappy carbs like white rice, white bread, sugar or pasta.

lean is the way to go - curry for breakfast again - yay!

I've also got back to the gym this week for the 1st time in 4 weeks - phew! how nice is it to be back training again - albeit not to the same extent as before - definately no more office block stairs for me!

well....until the next mountain... :-)

so now I've got at least another 2 weeks before my next assessment which  I'm looking forward to  - it will be very interesting to see whats changed.

I'm going to really focus on eating lots of broccoli, cauliflower and brussels sprouts and getting lots of sleep - lets see if I can make some progress on my calves and hammies!

Assessment 4

Wed 25th Aug

Its been 3 weeks since my last assessment  - seems like even longer! Its been a very busy few weeks work wise, training wise and social wise!

Writing my food diary has been like pointing an accusing finger at myself - it seems like every other night I've been out drinking and even though in most cases I've limited myself to 1 or 2 glasses of wine, and my eating has been exceptionally good in applying all the rules, it really feels like I've totally undone all my good work. 

The trouble is, being so tiny now, even 1 glass of wine a night is enough to completely upset my sleep, so I'm usually tired when I get up and as a result probably haven't been training as effectively as I should be, so of course I've been stressing about that a bit.

Work is also pretty busy right now in the lead up to Spring racing carnival, and I feel that my training time is starting to impinge upon work time so I'm not getting stuff done as well as I usually do - and I'm a bit stressed about that!
hmm...I've got a nice little -ve feedback loop going on with myself at the moment.

In 2 weeks it will change - when I head off to climb Mt Kilimanjaro - once I've done that I will have way more down time - and I'm going to be using it..all of it...I probably won't even venture to the gym for about 3 weeks afterwards! :-)

Ok so whats the result of all this craziness? well I have lost more weight - down to 57kg on the scales at fitness 1st and amazingly enough I've lost nearly 1% more body fat! I'm down to 14.8 % - wow! 

Even though when I started the modulation I was already at a low BF of 17.5%, in the last 7 weeks I've managed to lose nearly another 3%. This is really cool.

 

 As can be expected there are some areas not doing so well in light of the last few weeks - I have put a bit of weight of my stomach (due to stress!) and I'm not losing fat on my calves (due to sleep issues) and hammies (oestrogen) - so no surprises about that at all really.

 

So here's me now:

                                                

                                                

                                                          

                                             

                                                             

                                                             

                                                         

                                                         

                                                      

                                                          

                                                        

 Again I think, once I get back from my holiday, I'll be able to totally scale back the training to a maintenance level which will be much more relaxing and I think the sleep will fix itself as I won't be worrying about whether if I've done enough training to get up the mountain!

I'll switch to bikram yoga instead of dragging half a beach up and down an office building!

Other changes I've noticed - I am getting much better definition in my arms (yay!) and my shoulders are so lean that after training I notice theres a little wriggly vein visible on my left shoulder (I think thats quite cool) 

I bought a pair of pants for work just 3 weeks ago - size 6 (!!! I've NEVER been size 6!!) and they fitted 'snugly' shall we say.... and now? not quite falling off me, but definitely too big - I'm even contemplating getting them re-tailored to fit!

Even better, is that with the butt exercises that Nicola (at Teamfit gym) has shown me, my bum is not so flat and is beginning to round out a wee bit - watch out Kylie!

Bring on summer....I'm going to be looking amazing!

so whats new on the diet front? This is where it gets even better - I can eat bananas again!!! yay - I love bananas, and have really missed not eating them, and I can have a glass of red wine every day - have probably been averaging that the last few weeks anyway - (oops!) but now its official :-)

The things, now I'm officially supposed to be drinking red wine, I'm not really sure I want to anymore - because it upsets my sleep so much! I'll have to find a happy medium.

otherwise, not much change - keep up the protein intake, keep up the cruciferous veggies

I won't be having another assessment for about 7 weeks - Kat is on holiday, so it will give me time to get settled into a post mountain routine, where hopefully sleep is a much more prominent feature! :-)