Monday, June 13, 2011
Thursday, June 9, 2011
The prone position...
Or as most people will know it by "the plank".
The longest plank I have been able to do is 60 seconds. Tonight I went to a circuit class, we did 7 exercises all up, 30 seconds per exercise then 60 seconds then 90 seconds then back to 30 seconds. I did and held the plank for the full time each time it rolled around within those 7 exercises. I do believe in the 90 second hold position I was grunting, and sweating and possibly making some disturbing faces but I held the sucker and now my arms hurt, my abs feel tight and I am dead asleep on my feet - but I got a smile on my face baby :-)
Take Care,
Megs x
The longest plank I have been able to do is 60 seconds. Tonight I went to a circuit class, we did 7 exercises all up, 30 seconds per exercise then 60 seconds then 90 seconds then back to 30 seconds. I did and held the plank for the full time each time it rolled around within those 7 exercises. I do believe in the 90 second hold position I was grunting, and sweating and possibly making some disturbing faces but I held the sucker and now my arms hurt, my abs feel tight and I am dead asleep on my feet - but I got a smile on my face baby :-)
Take Care,
Megs x
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Time to stop and take stock..
I am officially half walf in my weight loss. 18.3kgs are gone and I have 18kgs left. I have been thinking alot about this today and a message from a friend really got me thinking? I originally set my goal weight at 90kgs, it would have put me just under the obese catergory and then I thought, no I want to be well and truly under a BMI of 30 so I decided to drop it to 85kgs - now I am wondering.
I have decided to adjust my goal once again - this time to 80kgs. It was take my BMI to around 27.5 which is still in the overweight range but I feel like this would be a good result for me. I have a letter sitting in my drawer, its for me when I reached a weight I had picked - I originally thought it was 85kgs but I got it out this afternoon and I realised it was 80kgs. That letter has been sitting there for 18months, unopened. There is no way on this earth its going to stay like that :-)
Take Care,
Megs x
I have decided to adjust my goal once again - this time to 80kgs. It was take my BMI to around 27.5 which is still in the overweight range but I feel like this would be a good result for me. I have a letter sitting in my drawer, its for me when I reached a weight I had picked - I originally thought it was 85kgs but I got it out this afternoon and I realised it was 80kgs. That letter has been sitting there for 18months, unopened. There is no way on this earth its going to stay like that :-)
Take Care,
Megs x
The best of you..
Something I have noticed when I train is it really brings out the best in you. I was having a very lazy day today, exams are over and I literally did sweet f all - oh except for take the dogs for a walk and play with them. I slept in till 9am, didnt have a shower till 10.30am and just plodded around the house. It was great. Then tonight I decided to hit a circuit class, I had no itention of particualy pushing myself, it was more just to keep up my promise for the holidays which was that I had to do two forms of exercise a day, for six days. Holidays really are my best guilt free exercise time.
Well, in I go. And then its on. We had weights after weights, focusing mainly on upper body. We did pistol punches where you punch above your shoulder with weights, then we layed on one of those half ball boards and did the same movement lying down while pushing our pelvis up, then there was ab crunches, there was seated rows on a ball, punching bag punches except we used handweights as the resistance, skipping, a exercise where you had to sit your knees on a bench, bend forward and touch the ground and then push yourself up and down (kinda like a handstand), then there was side crunches with a medicine ball, then push ups, then the plank and finally to wrap it all up there was a squat with a kettle bell then you had to pull it up to your chest and then squat again. Phew, I am tired just writing about it all. It went 50 second sets, 45 seconds and then 30 seconds. We had the option to stop after round one and two, but I decided I really did have another set in me so I did the three. My arms are feeling it, so I am sure I am going to be feeling it tomorrow.
What I loved about it all was how my body just kept going. I didnt stop, I probably made some seriously unattractive faces but I just kept pushing. Thats the thing about the best of each of us, when it comes down to it, we have that inner strength. We can do it. While we were going, the PT and my friend E said "keep going, its not your body saying you can't do it, its your mind". And its so true. So many times we hold back because we think, well no I cant do that. Its actually one of the reasons that when i run I dont set a certain distance I want to go, I just start jogging and as I am going I make a new path and then at the end see how far I have gone. I know if I say, well tomorrow I am going to do 6k, my mind will wake up with me being sore, or tired, or lazy. Sometimes you just have to get out there and keep going until someone says you can stop - then you realise just how far you have come :-)
Take care,
Megs x
Well, in I go. And then its on. We had weights after weights, focusing mainly on upper body. We did pistol punches where you punch above your shoulder with weights, then we layed on one of those half ball boards and did the same movement lying down while pushing our pelvis up, then there was ab crunches, there was seated rows on a ball, punching bag punches except we used handweights as the resistance, skipping, a exercise where you had to sit your knees on a bench, bend forward and touch the ground and then push yourself up and down (kinda like a handstand), then there was side crunches with a medicine ball, then push ups, then the plank and finally to wrap it all up there was a squat with a kettle bell then you had to pull it up to your chest and then squat again. Phew, I am tired just writing about it all. It went 50 second sets, 45 seconds and then 30 seconds. We had the option to stop after round one and two, but I decided I really did have another set in me so I did the three. My arms are feeling it, so I am sure I am going to be feeling it tomorrow.
What I loved about it all was how my body just kept going. I didnt stop, I probably made some seriously unattractive faces but I just kept pushing. Thats the thing about the best of each of us, when it comes down to it, we have that inner strength. We can do it. While we were going, the PT and my friend E said "keep going, its not your body saying you can't do it, its your mind". And its so true. So many times we hold back because we think, well no I cant do that. Its actually one of the reasons that when i run I dont set a certain distance I want to go, I just start jogging and as I am going I make a new path and then at the end see how far I have gone. I know if I say, well tomorrow I am going to do 6k, my mind will wake up with me being sore, or tired, or lazy. Sometimes you just have to get out there and keep going until someone says you can stop - then you realise just how far you have come :-)
Take care,
Megs x
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Another day..
I was having a pretty flat weekend this weekend. I didnt really feel up to exercising much, I was more wandering around the house studying and eating. I felt pretty disgusting, so this afternoon I decided I needed to get out before I started to go insane. I have found that I need to exercise, in some form, everyday. There is very rarely a day where I dont feel like doing something, be it walk the dogs, hit the gym, go for a run, play a game of tennis. S and I were nitpicking at each other as well, so I said Ill go to the gym and you take the dogs for a walk and when we come back, no more bickering. And it worked.
I decided to jump on the treaddy and do some speed work, I jogged for 20 minutes at 8mins per km - thats a nice increase for me. At my best I have done 8.15-8.30mins/km and I can usually only maintain it for around a km and then I manage to psych myself out a little. Well this time I managed to do 2.5kms and then I slowed down to around 9mins a km and increased the elevation and simulated the last 0.5kms going up a hill. Not sure which was harder to be honest :-) All up I only did 3kms, but I wasnt looking for a long run today - more just something to keep my form and not let me slack off too much. On Tuesday once I am offically on uni holidays I am going to do a 5km run and see how my time is going and then probably on thursday I am going to try and do another long run. I go away on Saturday for a week and I am not sure how much running I am going to get in, so I am going to try and fit in a little more this week.
Ahhh, exam tomorrow so more study to do.
Megs x
I decided to jump on the treaddy and do some speed work, I jogged for 20 minutes at 8mins per km - thats a nice increase for me. At my best I have done 8.15-8.30mins/km and I can usually only maintain it for around a km and then I manage to psych myself out a little. Well this time I managed to do 2.5kms and then I slowed down to around 9mins a km and increased the elevation and simulated the last 0.5kms going up a hill. Not sure which was harder to be honest :-) All up I only did 3kms, but I wasnt looking for a long run today - more just something to keep my form and not let me slack off too much. On Tuesday once I am offically on uni holidays I am going to do a 5km run and see how my time is going and then probably on thursday I am going to try and do another long run. I go away on Saturday for a week and I am not sure how much running I am going to get in, so I am going to try and fit in a little more this week.
Ahhh, exam tomorrow so more study to do.
Megs x
Friday, June 3, 2011
A new weigh in day...
I have decided to shift my weigh in day to Fridays. Mainly because S and I like to go out for dinner on a Friday night and I dont want to have to worry so much about being bloated for my weigh in the next day. Probably a bit of a catch 22, I may overindulge, but it also allows me to have a glass of wine of two and not worry. So I did my weigh in today and I lost 400gms in the six days since my last weigh in. Not spectacular, but still a loss is significantly better than gaining. Its womanly time here, so I am retaining water like a camel which I know factors in, but as I am typing this I am wondering why I am making excuses about losing 400gms. I am HAPPY, its all adding up and regardless of any extrinsic factors I am losing weight which is a good thing. I also lost 3.5cm taking my total loss to 87cm; getting closer and closer to that 100cm/1m mark.
New Stats:
Sw: 121.3
Cw: 103
Ltw: -0.4
Ltd: 18.3
mini goal: 100kgs
overall goal: 85kgs
Its nice to have cracked the 18kg mark, and moving up to an 18.3kgs loss has seen me move halfway to my overall goal. I have exactly 18kgs left to reach 85kgs. I am optimistic that it will happen this year, but if it doesn't, then I will continue on until it does. No running been happening my way, actually not much of any exercise the last two days except walking the dogs. In my long run on Wednesday I put a little too much pressure on my left calf so I have been letting it rest, it is almost completely pain free now, so I am having a small gym session tomorrow doing weights and then I am going to head out with the aim to do 5kms on Sunday morning.
Tomorrow I am heading out to see if I can find some compression tights. There is a mixed consensus about the use of them, but this blog post here http://runtrails.blogspot.com/2009/06/compression-tights-and-clothing-worth.html gives an excellent discription of their use and the different kinds. I am leaning towards ones with knee support, I have noticed as my distances have increased, so has some slight tenderness in my knees, nothing spectacular and I suspect that its attributed to a) the extra weight I am carrying (although trying very hard to get rid of) and b) running form, including weaker muscles surrounding my knee and ankle joints which I need to start addressing with weights training. I thought about a knee gaurd, but from what I can gather, the tights reduce inflammation (reduction in circulation of blood in these areas from the compression) and can ease muscle cramps - so a little more extensive than just a plain knee gaurd.
I am also in discussions with Dh about new shoes, I just dont feel like I am getting the support from my joggers that I should. I have both asics and nike and neither are doing it for me. The nike feels too constricted when I run and the asics dont feel like they have enough pronate support. We shall see, I dont know what I want which makes it harder to argue my case. :-)
Everyone else is sleeping, so I should probably hit the hay as well,
Take Care,
Megs x
New Stats:
Sw: 121.3
Cw: 103
Ltw: -0.4
Ltd: 18.3
mini goal: 100kgs
overall goal: 85kgs
Its nice to have cracked the 18kg mark, and moving up to an 18.3kgs loss has seen me move halfway to my overall goal. I have exactly 18kgs left to reach 85kgs. I am optimistic that it will happen this year, but if it doesn't, then I will continue on until it does. No running been happening my way, actually not much of any exercise the last two days except walking the dogs. In my long run on Wednesday I put a little too much pressure on my left calf so I have been letting it rest, it is almost completely pain free now, so I am having a small gym session tomorrow doing weights and then I am going to head out with the aim to do 5kms on Sunday morning.
Tomorrow I am heading out to see if I can find some compression tights. There is a mixed consensus about the use of them, but this blog post here http://runtrails.blogspot.com/2009/06/compression-tights-and-clothing-worth.html gives an excellent discription of their use and the different kinds. I am leaning towards ones with knee support, I have noticed as my distances have increased, so has some slight tenderness in my knees, nothing spectacular and I suspect that its attributed to a) the extra weight I am carrying (although trying very hard to get rid of) and b) running form, including weaker muscles surrounding my knee and ankle joints which I need to start addressing with weights training. I thought about a knee gaurd, but from what I can gather, the tights reduce inflammation (reduction in circulation of blood in these areas from the compression) and can ease muscle cramps - so a little more extensive than just a plain knee gaurd.
I am also in discussions with Dh about new shoes, I just dont feel like I am getting the support from my joggers that I should. I have both asics and nike and neither are doing it for me. The nike feels too constricted when I run and the asics dont feel like they have enough pronate support. We shall see, I dont know what I want which makes it harder to argue my case. :-)
Everyone else is sleeping, so I should probably hit the hay as well,
Take Care,
Megs x
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Exams make me absent...
The stress and time consuming nature of exams makes my blog a distant memory sometimes. I have managed to incorporate exercise into my week still, making two very important personal bests as well. But firstly my weigh in stats - I lost 700gms on my weigh in Sat, taking my total loss to 17.9kgs. I also lost some cm's, 4.5 I think it was - took my total cm loss to 83.5cm.
New Stats:
Sw: 121.3
Cw: 103.4
Ltw: -0.7
Ltd: 17.9kgs
mini goal: 100kgs
Overall goal: 85kgs
S and I had a competition on the weekend as well. We mapped a route that turned out to be 5.2kms and then I jogged it and he sprinted/walked it. It took S 37minutes and it took me 44minutes. He was already in the shower by the time I got home LOL. But I did make a personal best, my 5k time was 42.35minutes which is a bit over two minutes shaved off my time. My goal to do the Townsville 5k in 35-40minutes is looking like a real possibility.
I also went for a jog yesterday afternoon, I had spent the whole day sitting on my ass studying and bank appointments and I was going crazy, so I headed out mid afternoon to let off some steam. There was a new route that I wanted to try which turned out to be 6.5km and I jogged it straight. It took me an hour and one minute but I finished. I didnt feel too bad at the end except for some tightness in my left calf but I think thats because I had favoured it the night before at a circuit class I went to and it was feeling a bit precious. I bought myself a new braclet to celebrate the distance :-)
New Stats:
Sw: 121.3
Cw: 103.4
Ltw: -0.7
Ltd: 17.9kgs
mini goal: 100kgs
Overall goal: 85kgs
S and I had a competition on the weekend as well. We mapped a route that turned out to be 5.2kms and then I jogged it and he sprinted/walked it. It took S 37minutes and it took me 44minutes. He was already in the shower by the time I got home LOL. But I did make a personal best, my 5k time was 42.35minutes which is a bit over two minutes shaved off my time. My goal to do the Townsville 5k in 35-40minutes is looking like a real possibility.
I also went for a jog yesterday afternoon, I had spent the whole day sitting on my ass studying and bank appointments and I was going crazy, so I headed out mid afternoon to let off some steam. There was a new route that I wanted to try which turned out to be 6.5km and I jogged it straight. It took me an hour and one minute but I finished. I didnt feel too bad at the end except for some tightness in my left calf but I think thats because I had favoured it the night before at a circuit class I went to and it was feeling a bit precious. I bought myself a new braclet to celebrate the distance :-)
A lady I have got to know shared a picture on FB that really resonates with me. This wonderful lady has lost 47kgs though a healthy lifestyle and exercise and I find her a huge inspiration! She has a great outlook on life, very similar to what I am trying to achieve! (Tee hee, shout out L).
Back to study, Take Care...
Megs x
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