The Week that Was #6 – Vague

I’ve had such a mixed up week, I don’t know what I have done. Let me think.

Monday night I did my normal PT session, a hard interval row 6x 1 minute rows going as hard as you can with 45 second rest in between, it doesn’t sound too hard but I dare you to try it.

Tuesday I went to the gym to do my new weights program that has been set for me, 12-15 reps x 3 sets only a 3-5 second rest in between. It was hard at the time but I felt strong afterwards.

A recent family pic with Nanna Nanna on her 89th Birthday.

Wednesday I had no intention of exercising as we had the funeral of Nanna Nanna, it was a lovely service and great to hear more about her life. Such a talented woman she will be missed.

Thursday I had arranged with another Mothers Group friend to do some babysitting swapsie’s so we could both do some Tri training. So she brought her 2 girls over and took off for a cycle and then she came back and I took off and did the same, such a great idea given that I was still living the single mum life with Hubby being away. I was then inspired to improve my cycling and headed off to the bike shop to check-out getting clip-in shoes and pedals and I also needed to get a new colour coordinating helmet (gotta look the part), so I found all of these things and then just happened to ask if they had a Tri-suit, you know a flattering Onesie made entirely of Lycra, well they were having a clearance of these and managed to pick 1 up cheaper than I had seen anywhere at cost price (apparently). So, an expensive little jaunt, but not as bad as I was expecting.

Friday Miss “Almost 3” woke up with a terrible cough, which I had noticed she had during the night, so took her for a trip to the medical centre for a check-up, not much they could do for her, just 1 dose of Steroid meds to try and clear it up quicker. No time for a workout before or after work.

Saturday (yesterday) can’t remember what I did but pretty sure there was no exercise involved. Oh hang on, I put my new cycling pedals and shoes onto my Spin bike and had a bit of a spin (not a workout tho) and practiced the clipping and unclipping, I was really bad at it, so there will be a lot more practice and adjusting before I put these on my bike and hit the road.

Sunday (today) I was soooo looking forward to hubby arriving home and was at the airport by 6.30am uggghh, hate the early morning flights, he arrived back safely but was sick and tired so went off to have a nap as soon as we walked through the door. I was going to venture to the Gym with Miss “Almost 3” but she was sooooo feral today I just thought it would be a waste of time. By the time she collapsed on the lounge at 7.30pm I was too tired to even consider doing anything, but I have big things planned for tomorrow’s public holiday.

Goal for this week is to keep up the better food choices and do regular light workouts leading up to the big event on Satuday, my first Triathlon, eeeek, freaking out now, countdown is going too quick.

Weigh-in Week #5

A good weigh-in this week, so good in fact that I got on the scales 3 times to make sure, sometimes when I do this my scales change by a few grams but this week my scales stood solid with a nice loss.

105.1kg (231.7lb) A loss of 1.4kgs (3lb)

 

 

Breaking the Bad Food Habits and Rituals

Movie Madness – So today I ventured out to the movies with Miss “Almost 3” and her cousins (we saw Madagascar 3 for the second time), the point of this story is that for as long as I can remember whenever I went to the movies I would as a minimum get a choc top Ice-cream, then usually chips or popcorn, jumbo frozen coke or soft drink. This week I swore I would have 7 good days of food so a trip to the movies was going to be a challenge. As I was standing in line juggling Miss “Almost 3” as she had just woken up and was very clingy and whingey (an awesome combination) I reached for My Fitness Pal app on my phone and did some quick calorie counting; choc-top approx 350 calories, movie popcorn approx 35 calories per cup (not to mention the salt content), I did not even consider a frozen coke or other soft drink. So I successfully navigated the Candy Bar, I got nothing for myself but a bottle of water, I bought the kids choc-tops, popcorn, juice and frozen coke, 1 food item and 1 drink item per child. I did grab about 5 handfuls of the kids popcorn which I allocated in my daily intake. I also packed some Vita-wheats with vegemite as a snack to nibble on. I honestly think my “OLD” self would have bought chips, drink and choc top which would have been close to a full day of calories.

I also remember as a child when we went to the movies that my dad would finish his choc-top before the previews had finished and would go and get himself or all of us a second ice-cream to have during the movie.

Take-away Trouble – Some of my other bad habits that I have gotten into over the years, ordering way too much take-away Chinese, Thai or Indian, I always want entrée, I loooove spring rolls (I could live on entrée style food), high carb noodles (I don’t eat rice), plus too many dishes for 2 adults and 1 small fussy child. We rarely can finish it in 1 meal, especially since the Lap banding surgery and therefore we don’t just have 1 bad meal but often 2 or 3 because of the leftovers. So recently I have been cutting back BIG TIME, no carb type noodles, so an example of a Thai order for me personally would be Spring Rolls (can’t give them up) and a chicken curry and eat half of each, usually this keeps me at an acceptable 500 calories for the meal and keeps me happy to have a night off cooking or out with the girls.

Friday Night Pizza – We have a great Pizza place nearby Woonona Pizza Kitchen and 1 of the ladies who works there is lovely, we have a good chat about what Movie we are going to watch that night, generally a kids movie as I go in there with Miss “Almost 3” in tow. Pizza has become a Friday night “Ritual”. The problem in our house is that Hubby and I do not like the same sort of pizza. We order 2 of their small size pizza which is actually called a large and Miss “Almost 3” has diverted away from Pizza and will just eat garlic bread, so we have the same problem as with other Take-away where we have the equivalent of a whole pizza left over and then have it for dinner the next night. This problem I have not yet resolved, however a friend suggested that this be a once a month treat and not every week. I do love Pizza, it would be up there on a list of favourite foods, I would say top 3.

Petrol Station Problem – Fuelling up the car has its challenges, god help me if I have to do it when I am hungry or late for a meal or in a bad headspace. Those marketing and product placement people certainly know their stuff (although it is not rocket science), leaving chocolate and “tiny” little morsels near the check-out. Reverting back to childhood my parents would often buy us an ice-cream at the Petrol station and this is a hard habit to break. As a grown up if I had eaten not long before a “Servo” stop then I felt that a dessert Ice-cream was warranted. If I hadn’t recently eaten then a giant bag of chips, coke AND Ice-cream would be the “norm”, I really begrudge paying $3 for a bottle of water and stupidly am happier to pay for a flavoured full sugar beverage. It takes all my strength when I need petrol to NOT buy a snack. I am trying to overcome the drink issue by constantly making sure I have a sports bottle of water in my car. I am no angel it doesn’t always work, but I am TRYING to make better choices.

I am sure I have many many other rituals and places where I make poor food choices that need to be addressed, I guess the positive I can get from this is that I realise I have a problem and I am trying to do something about it.

The Week that Was #5 – Ups and Downs

Monday night I did a cracking pace at my regular PT session with my indoor rowing training, 6k in 28mins, equal to my best.

Tuesday hubby left to go OS for 12 days providing me with some single mum challenges, how do they do it, my goal was to get Miss “Almost 3” into bed at a reasonable hour and do a workout at home – never happened. Since she has been sick she is out of whack with her sleeping and my normal 7.30-8.00pm bedtime has blown out to 9.00pm, time to rectify that quick smart.

Wednesday was a sad day, my friends’ husband’s funeral, I felt for her and the kids, he was a very popular and loved man based on the turnout. In her true kind hearted way she was consoling the congregation and she did an amazing job honouring him with her eulogy and photo slideshow.

Thursday I had all good intentions to do a workout but received a call from my MIL to say that Nanna Nanna (her mother) was not in a good way, she had been in hospital for a few days and been up and down with her health over the last few years. So I took Miss “Almost 3” to basically say our farewell, very sad to see her like that. (She passed away on Sat night, a fighter to the end). RIP Nanna Nanna.

Friday I did the evil thing and woke Miss “Almost 3” before 7am*, dressed her and put her in the car and she was basically still asleep until half way to Daycare, all so I could go for a swim and still be at work at a reasonable hour. I wanted to get in and do 300m straight away to see how it would feel for the Triathlon, felt pretty good. Also had a physio appointment to treat the sprained ankle and get it strapped up, seems to be getting better, but still no running.
*(Does anyone else do selfish things like waking their children to get in some exercise?)

Saturday I dressed in my workout wear from the time I got up and still had not managed to do anything by 12noon, so I decided to go shopping, to a local Active Wear store LokaMo were having a sale, I tried on a few things and bought an inspiration top (a little too small but I loved it), quick trip to the fruit shop and the butcher on the way home and then I tried to get Miss “Almost 3” to sleep in the car, the only way I can get her to have a day sleep is to drive her around til she falls asleep, I gave up after 20mins, how much petrol can 1 use on such an expedition. So I decided to try working out at home whilst she was awake and I dragged the Spin Bike out under the awning so she could play in the yard, my little helper wanted to keep looking at the TV ie the screen on the spin bike, then she got her little fingers onto the buttons and reset it so I lost who-knows how many k’s that I had already done. Anyway a few more interruptions to the workout, lots of whinging (not from me) and I managed to finish around 20mins and 10k plus the reset amount. Whilst spinning away I looked at the pants I was wearing and realised I had put them on inside out after my shopping, oops, so here I was wandering around town looking a wee bit special.

Today (Sunday) was my Aunty’s 60th Birthday party lunch, Miss “Almost 3” and I headed off. As per usual parties are such a tough gig to keep on track with healthy eating. I nibbled so much I wasn’t hungry by the time lunch was served, but not wanting to look rude I ate a bit anyway and then there was the cake and chocolates. Horrendous day of food really and I had a couple of cans of coke to wash it all down.

I must say I have been happy with the amount of exercise I have gotten done being like a single mum, I have teetered on the edge of not exercising on every occassion this week, but thought I would really regret it later.

My goal for this week is to keep up with my exercise and stay on track with food for 7 whole days, no free day/meal for me, because honestly I don’t deserve it.

The Week That Was #4 – Binge and Whinge

So after last week and the sprained ankle which started a downward spiral of bad eating, I had a few emotional days leading up to Monday 10 September which would have been my niece’s 16th birthday, she passed away just over 14 years ago to SIDS before her 2ndbirthday. Also on Monday which I believe was Suicide Awareness day a dear friend of mine lost her husband to suicide, this was really hard to comprehend, I did not know her husband very well but to think of her and her 2 young boys just crushed me along with everyone else who knows her. It also brought back memories of about 10 years ago when my cousin committed suicide in the same way as my friends’ husband.

Thinking of my friend and her recent loss.

I know bad things happen and that is something we can’t control but turning to food seems to have always been my drug of choice and a bit of alcohol which then makes me more emotional.

It makes me sad and sad makes me lethargic, which makes me idle and therefore not prepare good food and I order take-away, go to drive-thru’s and/or eat junk. My self-control (which was limited to begin with) falls off the proverbial wagon.

I tried to continue with my workouts as this does help my mental state but only managed a few light workouts due to my ankle, which is still getting me down because all I really want to do is run (I never thought I would say that out loud “EVER”).

A friend of mine called me when I was on the exit of a drive-thru this week and said, STOP, what are you doing, don’t undo all the good you have done, this made me stop and think. So thanks for that wake-up call.

I also had a weekend away with the girls Scrapbooking, which is always a weight-loss challenge sitting for long periods of time and nibbling all day. I had to cut my weekend short and come home as Miss 2.75 had a vomiting bug, which Hubby managed to keep under control most of Saturday but by the afternoon he was a little frantic and rightfully concerned and suggested I come home, which I am glad I did. We got the Doc to come out and see her, but as we suspected not much can be done so it was just a little bit of over the counter medication and some hydrating ice-blocks which she still didn’t manage to keep down. Sunday saw a big improvement with only 1 bout of vomiting to contend with and she kept down some crackers with Vegemite.

So overall an emotionally draining week.

I have given myself an upper-cut in relation to food and even though I said it almost every day last week, I am going to get myself back on track Monday and use my friend My Fitness Pal keeping a food diary really does keep it real.

My #2 Goal – my first Triathlon

To complete my first triathlon in Oct 2012 and not come last. Check out my post on Goal Setting.

How does 1 just decide to do a Triathlon?

Well in December last year I was encouraged to participate in a Relay Triathlon at the local Triathlon Club and I did the cycle leg. I did this on my heavy weight “Cruiser” bike which is an Electra Townie. Simply put it is a slow poser style of bike, it has 21 gears so you can get up and down hills but it is certainly not optimum for speed or longish distances. I even wore a skater style helmet with pink flames on the side, I was definitely going for style not speed. I had to do 14k which was 6 laps of the course and was being overtaken in rapid succession and to be honest I lost count as to how many laps I had done, I also had in my head that it was 7 laps, ie that it was a 2k circuit. Some of the organisers thought I did 7, oops.

My “Cruiser”, built for looks not speed.

Anyhow I came last by a LOT, my poor runner who had to finish off with her leg of the race didn’t even get on the track until most of the other competitors had finished. She was a good sport about it. It was a fun event and a really well run. I remember a lady from the club talking to me before the race, saying watch out you will get addicted to “Triathlon”. I laughed at her. I was truly thinking she was a “nutcase”.

My personal trainer said I should train for a short distance Triathlon event and made me start running during our sessions. From when I started running until the event he wanted me to compete in was about a year. I was thinking “I will just come up with an excuse and not go, but I will humour him and train a LITTLE bit”. And once I started running I began to think that I COULD do this.

I will do a later post about my “Couch to 5k” journey, but let me just say the day I ran my first 1k without any walking was a HUGE achievement and I really shocked myself. Obviously my trainer had a lot more belief in my abilities than I did.

I also had not been in the pool doing laps for a few years and I was shocked that with all my other training I had been doing had definitely improved my stamina in the pool. I jumped in and did 300m (slowly) but I was able to do it non-stop which is the distance I have to do for my Tri.

With the excitement of my progress I decided that I would do a Triathlon earlier than the 1 my trainer had me earmarked for. I started training (sort of) and thinking about doing this in Feb 2012 and my first event is 6 Oct 2012.

Last week (before sprained ankle) I could swim 300m non-stop (and probably more if I had to), cycle 20k relatively easy (still quite slow), and run 6k non-stop (very slow). The distances that I have to do for my event are 300m swim, 9k cycle and 3k run. I have also done some transition training and managed a 10k cycle and 3k run straight after. I was confident that AT LEAST I could finish the damn race. My goal is not to come last.

I love this “Quote”

So now that I have the “sprained ankle” and my training is limited, I don’t know if I should revise my goal to just “finish” or if I should stick with my original goal. For those who don’t follow me on Facebook I went to Physio the other day and he suggested I not do any running for 3 weeks, so with 23 days until the event it doesn’t leave me any time to train all 3 legs consecutively.

I am still thinking I am slightly crazy to even attempt this but dare I say “WHY NOT”.

Weigh-In Week #3

So today’s weigh-in was not good and I know the reasons why. I was going to lie to everyone and say I was away from my scales and could you please call back later, because I suspected from my obsessive compulsive scale riding that it was not going to be good, so here it is for all the world to see.

106.6kg (235lb)
A gain of 0.4kgs (0.88lb)

What am I going to do now? Pick my self up from a miserable week, stop comfort eating and get back on the wagon.

The Week That Was #3

This is so appropriate for this week.Monday I did my regular Monday night session with my PT, some good cardio Indoor Rowing training, I can really see my training times improve, which makes me excited for the upcoming State Champs in Nov.

Tues no training I did go to work because of my not being in the office all day Wed.

Wed no training see my post about Wednesday’s debacle. Unexpected bump in the road …….

Upon reading that you will understand why this post should almost stop there. In short for those that don’t want to read it I sprained my ankle, was in so much pain on Thurs I went to Emergency for precautionary Medical treatment, Xray and thankfully nothing more than a damn good sprain.

By Saturday I was able to walk without much of a limp and decided upon heading to the gym for upper body weights. I managed 10 mins on the recumbent bike and pumped out 45mins of upper body weights. I am completely not used to the Gym environment, only joined 2 weeks ago and the new Gym/Studio only opened this week (I usually do small group PT sessions), I was a little bit nervous and self-conscious about it all, I am used to free-weights and this was mostly machines, although they train the same muscles, I was a little confused and when I went to do my free-weights I soon realised I had worked those muscles on the machines. Something tells me I should pay more attention and learn more about my muscles, but who has time for that, I sort of prefer being told what to do so I don’t have to think. I do know how to safely lift weights but I just don’t always know what exercise work which muscles.

Sunday I did a massive massive day of spring cleaning, 2 rooms and a “drop zone” sorted, lots to go. It felt like a workout.

I was really good with food up until Wed night when I splurged on Maccas after my stumble and haven’t really gotten back on track this week. I will get back to tracking tomorrow. And I know I haven’t drank enough water this week so that is on the agenda.

Goals this week, get my sore ankle out moving, track food and drink more water.

Unexpected bump in the road……

So what should have been a fun day turned to “Le poop” yesterday as I headed off to an all-day meeting in the city. Over an hour on the train and I wandered off to find the address of where I had to be, too busy looking at the navigation on my phone I stumbled down a little gutter and went over on my ankle, screaming in pain I crumpled into a heap in the gutter with huge profanities coming out of my mouth. As I called Hubby crying, 2 lovely people came over to see if I was ok, after a few minutes of chatting to them, composing myself I dragged myself out of the gutter and checked I was going in the right direction and limped to my meeting.

My right swollen ankle with my new best friend “Frozen Peas”

Being the martyr that I am, I gritted my teeth and walked as normal as I could, I did mention that I had sprained my ankle and they asked if I needed anything. Which I refused.

The meeting was ok but it did involved walking to different locations which was getting painful the longer the day went on.

Finishing the meeting at around 5.30pm I managed to get a lift back to the station, by this time I was in a great deal of pain and just wanted to get on the train and put my foot up. Because of my now very slow pace there was a train on a platform, which had I been able to run, I would have made it but I could only hobble as fast as my sore swollen ankle would allow, which was not fast enough. Next train was 45 minutes away and required a change of trains half way, soooo frustrating. Anyway I made it back to my station, limped to the car, got Maccas on the way home because it was late and I was hungry and cranky at myself.

This morning I was in sooooo much pain I couldn’t even walk to the bathroom, I had to crawl. I called hubby to come home and save me before Miss 2.75 woke up which was 2 seconds after I got off the phone from him. I took a precautionary trip to the Hospital, Xrays and 3 hours later the Doc said it did not appear to be broken, phew.

To find a positive in a bad situation, whilst speaking to the Triage nurse I was having a whinge (as I do) about how this is going to throw my Triathlon training into chaos, she looked at me alarmed and said “Triathlon wow” that’s huge, as I played it down and said its only a little 1, we got chatting and she was genuinely interested in the fact that before Feb this year I could barely run across the road let alone pound out the K’s, I said just get out and get started, I genuinely believe I inspired her to get out and get moving, of course sharing my blog link with her to follow my journey. You don’t need to be skinny to be fit, just have a go.

I am really beating myself up for being a clumsy oaf and worried how I am going to look after my family and get on with life, as well has how it is going to effect my Triathlon training, with only 30 days to go I’m now stressing out.