Week 2 plan

This is more for me than anyone else - sorry for the mind numbing read :)

Here's a cute picture to distract you.

The weekly meal plan didn't really excite me this week - so I'm going to instead work through my leftovers in the freezer for lunches.  I have meat and vegies for dinners for stirfry or similar. Actually that's not completely true - but a lot of the meals I knew my partner wouldn't enjoy, and some of the meals like Prawns - I didn't fancy the idea of heating that in the microwave for lunch the next day.

Monday
Exercise: get up for a short run (to get my mind used to running again), Yoga after work.
Food: Belvita breakfast biscuits, Bob Harper's Cauliflower soup (I really hope this tastes yummy) with some toast, yoghurt, banana, quakers nut bar, chicken stir fry or tacos after yoga.

Tuesday
Exercise: Maybe upper body stuff at the gym in the morning (interrupted sleep is killing me at the moment) - want to be fresh for my run on Wednesday.
Food: Vegemite toast & egg, banana, yoghurt, muesli bar, leftover chicken noodles, Pasta Bolognese.

Wednesday
Exercise: 7.2km fun run after work
Food: Breakfast not sure, banana, yoghurt, muesli bar, lots of hydration, leftover bolognese for lunch.  After the run I may just grab something at the zoo, or takeaway on the way home.

Thursday
Exercise: Pump after work. 6:30pm + protein shake
Food: Breakfast not sure, fruit, yoghurt, muesli bar, mystery container from the freezer for lunch. Dinner - stir fry (probably need to take meat out of the freezer for this).

Friday
Exercise: Pilates after work with butt clencher man. 6:30pm
Food: Breakfast not sure, yoghurt, dev lunch this week (not sure where we are headed), muesli bar. Dinner - Paprika chicken + sweet potato wedges.

Saturday
Exercise: SSS
Food: unknown. Probably banana smoothie for breakfast.

Sunday
Exercise: Rest
Food unknown.

Week 1 Mindset Lesson

Week 1 Mindset lessons:
- measured, fitness test done, weighed, before photo taken.
80% of success is just showing up

Mish's Top 6 Tips: 
1. Become a morning exerciser. Get the monkey off your back.  Requires you to go to bed early!
2. Count calories burnt in each training session. 400-800 per session. Motivate yourself to keep going until you've burnt a certain amount, or work out based on heart rate.
3. Don't drink sugary drinks. Water needs to be drink of choice
4. Mix up your training - keep it interesting!
5. Learn to run.  Great for fitness.
6. Always finish with a bang. Give it your all when you only have a few minutes to go.

Week 1, round 1, 2013

Recap of my first week:
Monday - was my birthday so ate what I liked! Banana smoothie for breakfast, body pump class, yum cha lunch with my mum, Vietnamese iced coffee with condensed milk and (free) pot of tea at my local bonsai garden, dinner was roast chicken, veggies and sparkling Shiraz. Slice of ice cream cake for dessert

Tuesday - wholemeal and grain toast with peanut butter, chicken wraps for lunch (12wbt recipe but extra chicken and extra rice mountain bread sheet). Yoghurt and maybe a banana as snacks. Workout was another pump class. Protein shake. Can't recall what dinner was, maybe a bolognese pasta with high fibre pasta spirals. Really sore - especially my legs.

Wednesday - bel vita breakfast biscuits, coconut water, chicken wraps for lunch, snack of banana and yoghurt I think. Boxing session in the park after work. Dinner I think was chicken stir fry in hoisin sauce with noodles but lots of veggies. Morning weigh in - down 200g from Monday but overall up 800g from last Wednesday.

Thursday - felt bit crappy so had coconut water when I got to work, no breakfast. Charity morning tea so bit naughty - two bits of I think Turkish bread, 2 cubes of cheese, beetroot dip, strawberry yoghurt with fruit (pineapple, blueberries, strawberries, melon), choc cupcake and v day heart chocolate. Lunch attempted to eat my potato frittata (12wbt) which I'd burnt the bottom of the previous night but tasted awful so after a few bites it got chucked out. Ended up with a mr burger burger. After work pump class, protein shake. Dinner was steak with mushroom sauce with corn and beans (12wbt recipe but slightly bigger quantity and I added corn).

Friday - wholemeal and grain toast with peanut butter, went with some work people to the people's market as there was a "brutal chilli dog" challenge thrown down. I had a cup of corn (with some red cabbage, some sauce or aioli or something -yummy), a small chorizo and hmm potato maybe taco, and a braised beef cheek taco with some spicy sauce added. Also got a bottle of pear cider. The tacos were tiny so i was still hungry, stole a bite of the mild chilli dog. Was in the mood for milkshake but didn't find one being sold (the place that did had no electricity for 10 mins...). Back at work miffed about spending lots of money and being hungry still and missing out on an "american style" milkshake, I had my yoghurt and an apple baked bar, then had a packet of salt n vinegar chips (bad), a milo (no milk). After work did a Pilates class followed by my legs being all crampy. Dinner was ham and pineapple pizza and sorbets and ice cream from my local cafe.

 


Saturday - banana smoothie, 4km run in 24:53. Felt slower than that as I had 2 short walking stints and I stopped for water! Felt real struggle town but my legs felt fine, chest felt really constricted. Felt better for the second half of the run. Was really warm though. Followed by our local group SSS workout that Sharon devised. Missed out on the butt track as I had to take the clan to the vet for annual vaccinations. Protein shake. Lunch had a yummy prawn pasta at a local cafe and mocha. Was naughty and had the leftover pizza from dinner and coconut water from a coconut and a bit of coconut flesh. Also had a cider to make housework seem less annoying :)

Sunday - contemplated a 10:30am Pilates class but everything hurt pretty much as I got up to let the dogs out. Thought I'd try and beat the heat and walk the dogs to the local cafe. Didn't really was 25 when we left and just got hotter (plus cafe was slow). Walked very slowly!! At the cafe was tempted to have bannoffee waffle with banana and honeycomb ice cream, but my evil (yummy) iced mocha arrived and I thought I should have savory. Instead I got the breakfast pizza which probably wasn't the best idea as I didn't feel great after. So after my 2x2km walk I relaxed with the dogs in the air con for a bit, did some washing, did grocery shopping, made dinner. Had Pinot noir before cooking oops, coconut water (before shopping), dinner was Rogan josh paste with lamb strips, onion, zucchini, tomatoes diced from can, and small amount of white basmati rice. Totally forgot i had bought roti. Missed having some natural yoghurt to mix in. Was bad and had a magnum big bikkie ice cream which I'd bought a box of 4 for my partner. The wine was also for my partner but went down real nice!

Not really the best eating week! Exercise was good though, will be a bit messed up with a fun run on Wednesday and preparation beforehand.

New Mood Board

Here's my new mood board

Here's to maintaining my weight, toning up, cementing those good habits into routine.  Keeping in touch with good friends, keeping active with my boys and doing the things I love.  Here's to being happy.

Round 1 - 2013

I'm baaa-aack.

Largely because the finale is going to be in Melbourne and I think it will be fun to be a part of the round and then go to the workout/finale and also I'm off to Hawaii in March (bikini time?).  Weight wise I'm just looking to maintain.  Any weight I do put on just seems to go on my guts so I'm keen to stop it creeping slowly back up (which it started doing after Christmas).  Fitness wise - I slacked off a lot when I did Round 3 last year so this time I want to get more fitness happening.

At this stage I'm not sure if that means doing the full hour's workout each day, or taking bits from it and doing a more express workout.  I'm happy to spend 30 or so minutes in the gym in the morning during the week and chuck in a casual boxing session or gym class, and try to get a few SSS with the local ladies each month.

Foodwise I'm hoping to get inspired into the planning, shopping, cooking, etc.. rather than buying lunches during the week, and randomly deciding what I'm going to eat on a weeknight - often foiled because I've forgotten to take the meat out of the freezer in time.  I was a little disappointed to see that the Week 1 meal plan has a lot of Round 3 items in it.  Was hoping for a bunch of new things to try - rather than things like the Apple Muesli which I just don't like.  Yes I know I can swap things out and I will.  I should go check out the recipe index.

Having signed up a few days ago it feels odd to see all the preseason tasks you haven't done with only a couple of days to do them before the program kicks off.  I should do the fitness test but haven't gotten off my butt to do it yet, and I should do measurements.  But I should also work out what off the meal plan I'm eating next week and plan out my shopping list and stuff. A lot of shoulds there... :)  Overall I'm happy with how I've been tracking, but need to tidy up some habits and some bad eating too!

I commit to eating healthy meals during the week and to making regular exercise part of my week.

Bob Harper's website

Want to work out with Bob Harper??? Sure you do :)

He has a website where you can do just that (kinda).  https://bobharper.com
Only $9.95 (USD) a month, with a free 7 day trial.

What do you get?
Here's a sneak peek:

We'll start off with the good:

• 3 fitness circuits a week. (Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays - US time).
• (I think) 4 videos a week.  food, group training, one-on-one training, think well live well
• Access to Recipes (broken down into breakfast, lunch, dinner, extras, and a daily recipe guide that you can print). You can filter by Dietary preference (standard, vegetarian and vegan).
• Fitness Journal - where you can record journal entries and attach photos.  You can choose to make these private or public.
• Message Boards - on general discussion, food, exercise and suggestions for the site.

I've mainly been using the site for the videos, occasionally using a circuit (designed to be done with no gym equipment) and made my first recipe the other day.  The videos of bob make it worth it if you're a fan - and I'm a fan.  Plus they're nice short workouts which leave you buggered.  ie. the other day I did a 10-1 workout (where you do 4 exercises, but in rounds of 10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1).  I think it took about 13 minutes to complete but I was sore the next day and day after.  I find it odd then that his exercise dvd workouts are all like an hour long.

The not so good:

• People joining may find it a bit of a mystery without clicking through the site what they're supposed to be doing.
• The recipe guide only lets you view 4 recipes in a page, and the meal planner that you could add meals to and then print only lets you do it for a single day.  Hence why I haven't cooked many recipes, I get so frustrated with not being able to have see a long list of recipes so I can pick what I want without going through 4 at a time.  I've actually found it nicer referring to the recipes in his My Skinny Rules book.
• The site development makes me angry.  Its not user friendly and has bugs.  I can't tell what browser it was written for - I think it works best on the ipad - but if you try doing the circuit in the gym, trying to switch between the outline and the how-tos are annoying
• Currently the staff seem to be on holidays (January 2013) and so they're not answering anyone's enquiries or responding to posts on the message boards.  The videos are apparently being repeated but as I didn't use the site much for months last year I'm not noticing.

So currently I'm debating about continuing to be a member - as I've just started going to the gym, and a lot of the circuits don't let you use the gym equipment as an option (and I don't have room or inclination to be doing donkey kicks at the gym).  But if you're looking for circuits and short video workouts you can do at home its great.  Some of the recipes look good - although it's usually the ones that he presents as part of a video that look more appealing than just looking at the recipe guide.  The message boards are pretty quiet but there are some nice people there (a couple of Australians too!!)

Popup Yoga Studio - West Melbourne

Inspired by this Broadsheet article and the desire to give "normal" yoga a go (as opposed to Bikram yoga which I was not used to at all). I signed myself up to the 5 week yoga course at the Pop up yoga studio currently in West Melbourne.

It's a small intimate space with room for 6 participants and the instructor Meredith.  We had 5 people last night. It's been awhile since I've done yoga - but the last yoga I did was Bikram, before that Bob Harper's sweaty yoga for the warrior and before that just typical classes at a gym.  So this slow moving class about breathing, noticing textures and how your body is feeling was a lot different. It didn't make my back any worse than what it was (I'd been to the Osteo earlier in the day with a headache) but I'm not sure I got full benefit from the class.  Will be keen to see how it feels next week. It's definitely different so will give it time.

This week's message was on the Infinite.  So at the start of a new year - trusting that you will be challenged but that your skills will get you through.  I'm sure she phrased it better.  But to accept the unknown, and be prepared to attempt things that take you out of your comfort zone.  There was a quote about to seek new shores you have to be willing to lose site of the old ones.  Again I might have gotten that wrong, but the basic message should be captured.

What did we do? (not listed in any particular order and I've probably forgotten stuff)

• Lying, sitting, standing - focus on breathing.
• Warrior 3
• Eagle Pose & Tree - with the crazy arm crossing that I learnt in Bikram :)
• Rotation of the neck and of the spine
• Leaning forward with crossed legs (this was where I discovered my ankle bones were hurting)
• Sun salutations
• Kneeling with head on the ground (back stretching thing that we also did in Bikram)
• Relaxation session at the end

Observations from the class:

• I find it hard to slow down and just breathe
• Mats should be staggered, as it's not a wide room, standing 3 people alongside one another meant raising your arms to the side. Not a big deal but a little distracting when you can't stand up from a sun salutation properly as you're too close to the person beside you.
• The mats provided are thin - I think next time I'll try a second layer.  Keen not to bring my own as I'll hopefully be on the scooter rather than paying for car parking.  I did notice my ankle bones were sore sitting cross legged on the floor - which I hadn't noticed before so I think it was the hardness of the floor.
• My balance is not very good at all.  And in such a small room when one person loses their balance almost everyone was following.  
• I didn't sleep better because of it although I was bad and started food blogging whilst waiting for my Banana bread to cook.  I did feel more quietness in mind so that's something.
• There was no correction to technique - although we didn't seem to be doing overly complex stuff, but it was well described as to where things should be placed.
• There were no mirrors - so it was a little difficult to correct your own posture.

For anyone interested casual classes are $18, 5 weeks are $75 and each course runs for 5 weeks, with a week following for people to make up classes they might have missed on previous weeks. But you do have to contact the studio to check there is space available.