What is Best?

I am a mum and I run a business. My plans don't always come to fruition. I have to balance sometimes.

So what do I choose to do if I have just 4 hours to train a week? I do 2 weight sessions and 2 cardio. You don't need to do a lot of cardio to loose or maintain your weight. You would be suprised how controlling your diet and weight training is as much a powerful tool.

After I had Jethro I was only able to exercise 3 to 4 times a week. Through diet, and the 3 to 4 sessions (made up 2weight 2 cardio), oh and lets not forget the calories I expended breastfeeding, I was able to get back to where I wanted to be.

Let me just add that you can expend up to 500 calories a day breastfeeding, thats like going for a run without running! Lets be realistic here, I was eating a clean diet, so I was expending more calories than eating (the simple math we all know right??) just pointing out that breastfeeding is not a miracle weight loss tool, it is simply extra calories that your body requires to produce the milk and support a life, I wasn't eating crap and loosing weight, I was eating well and loosing weight.

I suppose I am trying to say that if you are time limited, make smart exercise choices. One to two intense cardio sessions and 1 to 2 low rep heavy weight sessions, a healthy diet and you will be back on track in no time!

This weeks training and I got inked again!

Anyone want to guess what it means? I think I might have given it away in a previous post. It is nautical flags (as is the one on my wrist) but the letters of this one are ....... JETHRO. I decided not to get them coloured at this stage, I am not sure I want them coloured, I like the colour on my wrist, but not sure here.

When Jethro was shown he looked over his own shoulder puts his hands out and says "gone"..... hehe I am sure this is an argument we will have when he is in his teens. I tell everyone that you shouldnt get tatoos until you are 30. I think that if I had of gone through with the ones I wanted when I was 20 I would be full of regret! I actually cringe at the thought of them. Life has given me some experiences which I wanted to permanently mark my body with, they have meaning, not just some picture that I liked.

Anyway, so thought I would blog what my training has been for the past few weeks, actually make that months with a few little changes the last few weeks!

Sunday: AM Back and rear delts

Monday: AM Yoga PM Teach Body Attack

Tuesday: AM 6km run in 30mins good day to 32mins PM Crossfit

Wednesday: AM Stretching PM Chest & Shoulders

Thursday: AM 6km run in 30 to 32mins PM Crossfit

Friday: AM Yoga

Saturday: AM 10km run 50mins on good day 52.50 on bad (ie with DOMS)

As you can see I have let go of a couple of weight sessions, not training legs at the moment cause they seem to get a hammering at Crossfit and not doing bis and tris, the other obvious choice to drop because they are small muscle groups.

Gees it is getting dark! All my AM training during the week is done at 5.30am as Jethro is in bed and this means I can train, shower and eat breakfast before he wakes. Dreading the return of winter hope I can try keep those 2 6km runs in.

When you find the right 'spot'

Mid December I had hurt myself so bad that I could hardly walk. Standing was ok, sitting was terrible. For two days I worked on my knees at my desk even. I hobbled around the block and did pissy little upper body weights. Of course, although feeling the pain in my left lower back it was the result of tightness in a series of muscle groups, one causing another ones problems etc. Oh AND I do know why, in fact I knew what I was doing was wrong. I always carry Jethro on my right side and kick my hip up, just the more I do it one side, the harder it is to change it, as much as I try, I will never give up!

Anyway, had a massage a few weeks back (not because I was in particular need of one, just because I felt like it) didn't really have pain to speak of. But the masseuse went into great detail of some imbalances I had. In all this he showed me the above stretch (nothing out of the ordinary right!) but then tweaked it a little by moving the back leg.

So I try this at home on my good side, no problems. I switch legs and OH MY GOD I thought I was going to vomit, their is the spot!!! Anyway, weeks on I STILL feel like vomiting when I stretch my left side.

Although I am not in any pain at the moment, I now know just how bad this area is and how much of a ticking time bomb it is. It has been a continual focus for me for weeks, not only after a run, I also stretch it in the mornings. It still makes me feel sick, but eventually I will win it over :)

My Training Buddy

This is my training buddy Kellie. But we are more than just 'training buddies', we are lovers hahaha just kidding, it's just that it sounded like that's the way the sentence was going, how it was really going is that we are real life buddies.

I met this lady over a year ago, I brought her into the 'weights room' and she took me back to the real world - enjoying the mornings in the great outdoors. As she has gotten stronger, I have gotten quicker.

I learn from this woman. I laugh with this woman (although apparently not so much when I almost started a comp diet) though she never told me that at the time, because instead she chooses to support and encourage me to do it.

What a body hey? I get to perve on this body between sets. She deserves this body. She eats a clean diet and like me 20% of the time allows leeway. Neither of us can be or would want to be perfect (we both like a glass of champas too much and enjoy real living). We understand our 30+yo bodies and know how to treat them. She trains hard - its not the quantity its the quality, she is an awesome runner. She TRAINS FOR LIFE. That is what she will tell you if you ask her and hence sho I stole the line from.

I have great respect for her as a person I am very lucky to have my buddy. She was there for me throughout the hardest part of my life, and although at that time I didn't know her well, she understood me and was probably the only person who didnt think that I needed 'help' just because I was having a hard day.

No bullshit, zero tolerance, honesty. What more can one look for in a friend. She gets my RESPECT.

Why I wouldnt want to be 20 again....

1. I believed a step class would be more beneficial than weight training. Oh, and didnt really believe I needed to weight train.
2. I would eat a muesli bar for breakfast.
3. I actually believed a muesli bar was healthy.
4. I was vegetarian for 6 years. Not saying its not healthy, just that it resulted in eating a lot of refined products because I didnt know better. I ate low fat, no other nutrients where taken into account.
5. Then I was an avid Atkins follower - yes after 6years of vegetarianism I decided to eat animals again.
6. I binge drank on weekends and believed that it did no harm (oh and yes its probably something you just have to do), then did step Sunday morning pretty hung over.
7. I believed in the quantity of cardio, not the quality.
8. I didnt like wearing a bikini.
9. I believed in skipping meals or eating fruit for lunch to try and loose weight. Scale weight of course!
10. I never lost weight.
11. I drunk diet sodas.
12. I used artificial sweetners.
13. I didnt like myself.
14. I was always looking forward to something in the future, especially when I would finally be skinny!
15. I vommited, and not because I was sick.

Any wonder I was always trying to loose weight!

When I see young girls, I never wish to be there again. For me, here is much better.

Sam

I Fail to Understand

Why anyone would want to have a less than fit and healthy lifestyle?

• When having a fit healthy lifestyle will enhance your lifestyle into old age.
• When I will chase my grandchildren.
• When I will get out of a chair without complaining.
• When I wake up and LIKE what I see.
• When I walk along the beach in a bikini because I feel good.
• When young men hit on me thinking I am in my 20's ;)
• When I run through the house with Jethro on my back and he says 'more' and yes I can physically give him more!
• When I bench press my bodyweight and the endorphines last for hours.
• When I run early morning and the streets are empty and my body buzzes and I feel like I have achieved so much and the day hasn't even started.
• When girls up to 10 years my junior ask old me what they can do to look like me.
• When people tell me I inspire them.
• When my body suprises me on a daily basis by getting older, yet stronger and fitter.
• When my body produced life and remained physically cable of exercise even past the due date!
• When the food on my plate looks like it did when nature produced it and eating it gives me nourishment and a sence of wellbeing.
• Enjoying the natural vibe the above food sends me.
• When everyday brings me something to look forward to instead of looking forward to a certain day.
• When it is yoga morning and I know my body needs different attention that morning.
• When I do it and know my body is made to do it!
• Because I feel 'it'. And 'it' is like watching a cheetah pouncing in slow motion. You can visualise and connect with your body, understand what it is doing, that the function requires action from many different elements of your body.... and you get it!

And yes I get it, and it will never leave me because it feels bloody good!

Don't ever do it because you have to, do it because you where made to. Do it to improve it.

You only get one life, there is nothing later, why wouldnt you want to make the most of it?

Balance, don't be hard on yourself, we are not perfect, don't ever try to be, trust me I am certainly not! Pull down the boundry fence and make the choice not the rules. Breaking a rule feels bad, making a choice feels good.

Continue to build your lean body mass and you will defeat the slowing metabolism that comes with growing older.

Thats all I have to say today.