Yearly Archive for 2007

Holidays! 

Well it has been some time since I last posted.  I’ve been on holidays J  Well, kinda.  I’ve had some time off (well deserved in my eyes!) over Christmas and New Year.  I really needed to stay away from my computer as much as possible!  I’ve been to Victor Harbor and Adelaide, for 4 nights, after Christmas Day at mum’s, then dinner at my sister in law’s.  I’m still in Adelaide at present, but we are heading home tomorrow after visiting the Central Market to fill up our esky with seafood, fruit and veg.  I’ve had the entire week off training.  I had been having some trouble with my groin/hamstring injury flaring up again and figured it would be a good time to take a bit of a break.  The diet has well and truly been ‘liberal’ but that was always intended and whilst I feel a bit blah from the different food (as in rich, sweet, fat food) I’ll be back into the swing of things with a vengeance as of when I get home.  I’ve signed up back at my old (new!) gym so a change of pace and place, will be good.  It’s closer to our new house too so it’s more convenient.

Coffee with Ali

I caught up for a coffee with Ali this morning who is also in Adelaide, and got to meet her lovely daughter.  Ali and I chatted mostly about comps, diets and training – as you do J  Ali is working on coming to Mildura in the next couple of months which will be great.

What’s in store for early 2008?

So, 2008 is shaping up to be a huge year already.  We have the WHO Magazine article coming out on Jan 11, featuring Carolyn’s amazing transformation.  That same week I travel to Brisbane for a few days to visit Rachel to do some staff training.  I had fantastic news from a client last week that unfortunately I can’t share until about February!   It’s very exciting though and could involve a trip to Melbourne for me in early Feb providing I can arrange a few things.  I also hope to have an article published soon by Body & Soul liftout (Herald Sun, etc) – they have expressed interest so I will take it from there.

I have my own personal plans but will not elaborate for the moment.  Basically they involve beating my dependence on muscle relaxants to sleep – involves a detox program and I can expect nasty side effects from withdrawal and acute rebound insomnia.  I have counseling sessions booked and I will begin this very scary phase after I return from Brisbane.  There is no way to determine how long it will take for symptoms to diminish but the longer you have been taking them, the longer recovery appears to take.  Not a good sign for me as it’s been over 10 years.  However, I am looking at it positively.  I also plan to compete – date is tentative in my mind.  Following that, we would like to try to start a family!  I’m getting on a bit, so whether it happens remains to be seen I suppose, but at least I know everything was and still is working down there, it appears I am still ovulating regularly and my cycle is pretty much like clockwork.

Anyway, so I hope everyone had a fab Christmas.  If you overate and feel like crap, no biggie.  Put it behind you and focus on making 2008 your best year yet, no matter what your goals!

Winners ‘make’ it happen. Losers ‘let’ it happen.”

- Denis Waitley

Well, here I am, writing in my new blog.  It may take a bit of getting used to, a little different to the Blogger sofware.  So, my trip to Melbourne was a long, long day.  It was a little eye opening, if I could put it that way.  I only got 4 hours sleep so by the end of the day I was shagged.  Sharon met me at the airport and we went to a Port Melbourne cafe to have coffee and chat.  6 hours later (yes that’s right, 6 hours) she dropped me off at Wayne’s office in Moorabbin.  I sat with him whilst he had lunch (I wasn’t hungry, yet had barely eaten anything), then we went to another cafe and we chatted about comp stuff and reminisced about old times, in particular our funny trip to the US back in 2002. 

Competition

I have a lot of thinking to do about my approach to competition and if even do it.  I still want to, but there are many factors involved.  Let’s just say that stress has played a bit of havoc in my life in the past and recently (mostly job stress at present) and that I really need to learn to relax and unwind at the end of a day.  At present (well now in past) my days have been haywire for the simple reason that I have no schedule.  My schedule can vary widely and will depend on how well I sleep (or not), how much work I have on, my training, my appointments, and other every day committments.  So, I’ve concluded that stress is the major contributing factor to a number of issues I have at the moment.  The first step to dealing with this is to make a daily schedule which means being up at 6.30am every day and off to do cardio – yes, every day.  I will schedule a good 6 hours every day for sitting at my desk and working (I am extraordinarily efficient and can get a lot done in this time ), 2 hours for lunch which can be used for whatever I need to do, or, if I need a nanna nap   No more working in the evenings.  They are for relaxing.  I’ve had a bit of an issue with defining my business/personal life.  So, this will really help and I already feel much better for it.

I’ve reduced my intake of various supplements, and keeping the basics only – a multi, vit B, C, antioxidants, MRM Smart Blend oils, glutamine, BCAA’s and my adrenal mix.  Every night I take a muscle relaxant to help me sleep.  This is a habit that has developed over the past 10 years and it is time for me to look for another way.  At present, and for as long as I can remember, my mind is just so active at night.  I have trouble winding down.  So, I’m going to go to see someone about a plan to come off these gradually, as well as learning relaxation/meditation techniques.  I doubt if I would do this whilst preparing for a comp as the effects of sleep deprivation will be very difficult to handle with my busy workload as well as trying to train 2-3 x day and diet.  I simply cannot function without at least 7 hours (8 or 9 is better!) every night.

At the moment I am still going gluten and dairy free, and I do already feel much better.  More alert, not as much need to sleep during the day.  However, more alert, is not so good for me in the evening!! 

Ok it’s time to clock off   More soon.

I was asked this question in the Ideal Bodies Online Forum today.

It’s important for people to understand that such answers are not cut and dried, and the reasons why this is so. I thought it would be worth sharing (and also because I have been told by my web guru, Brendon Sinclair, that I need to post more often )

Q: Is it correct that you should be looking to lose between 500grams and 1.5kg a week, any more than this and it is just water/fluids loss ?

The trainer at the gym I go to, said this, so I was just confirming, as when I look at the scales and have only lost 600g – 700g I become despondent.

A: This is so individual – there are no cut and dried answers to ‘how much weight should I lose each week’. Personally when I diet for a competition, I can go weeks with the scale bouncing up and down but no real change and then suddenly I will lose a few lbs (this is a lot for me because I am small) in a few days.

It’s About Consistency & Patience 

So, this is why I preach consistency, and patience. It all depends too on how much you have to lose. Someone who is very overweight and has been very inactive will find it relatively easy to lose weight when starting a diet and exercise program.

Others who are already active and have been eating quite well, and don’t have a lot to lose – will find it more difficult. It depends on your size too – if someone told me I could lose 1.5kg a week I’d laugh in their face. That would mean I could be competition ready in 5 weeks, and that’s just not gonna happen. Additionally, if you are losing a lot of weight quickly (ie say more than approximately 2kg per week) then you are likely to be losing MUSCLE as well as fat, and water.

Losing muscle is not good.

Muscles Keep Your Metabolism High 

Muscle keeps your metabolism high and keeps you burning fat. Lose muscle and your metabolism slows down making it difficult/impossible to lose fat. This is why diets such as Cohen’s (and others), you may lose a lot of weight quickly, but it won’t all be fat, and eventually, it will slow your metabolism down so much that when you start to eat ‘normally’ (and you will, because you are starving), you will put all that weight back on and MORE.

We all know someone that has attempted these fad diets, lost weight, and is now fatter than ever. I say if you are losing, which you are (and at a good rate) you are doing great. Keep it up. Remember, some weeks you may not lose, and other weeks you may lose twice as much.

Exercise……& Sex in The City Reruns
Now, as for me and what I’ve been up to – I went for a run last night – well, when I say ‘run’, it’s a walk/jog/run/stairs, and man, it was tough! I couldn’t even take 2 stairs at a time, my legs were that sore. They have eased off a bit today. I did my cardio earlier this morning, this time on tready, watching Sex & The City reruns. I’m doing 45 min sessions at the moment.

So, I think I will train tomorrow and Sunday, then have Monday off whilst in Melbourne. My diet has been clean and good. I have reintroduced some whey protein since I have been off dairy for 3 weeks now – going to see if that has any effect. I really do like to have protein powders after training.

I am still feeling very cleared minded which is fantastic, and thankfully I am now sleeping a little better also.

Have a great weekend everyone, train hard, eat well and enjoy!

Hi all, yep, still here just head down, bum up at the moment. Since I went off dairy I can’t sleep. Whether it’s got anything to do with that I don’t know but it seems like it.

So much has been happening!Long stories short:

Had our first Christmas party last Sunday on a riverboat on a 40+ degree day/evening. They even cooked me gluten/dairy free!

Speaking of, I’m hungry. Started dieting somewhat. Doing my own comp prep, had too much trouble trying to find someone (reputable) to help. Already written up plan and started. 4 x training and 4 x cardio at this stage. Want to be around 114/115 come Jan 1 – around 118 now, put on a couple of lbs. I’ll have Christmas off, and Damien’s birthday on the 5th, and a couple of drinks for the New Year.

Must put tree up this weekend. We have a huge tree. It’s awesome when it’s up.

Work is crazy.

Been doing a lot to my web site – well, I’ve outsourced it to a company in Brissy and they are doing a fabulous job so far. I just don’t have the time to send newsletters myself so they will be doing all that for me (already are). So be prepared to see plenty of changes and updates.

Big news is that Carolyn Gerdtz and I have interviews tomorrow for WHO Magazine! How exciting is that. Stay tuned!

Thanks to all who answered our survey – and for those who missed my blog It was gone for a short time!

Training has been going really well, I squatted a PB last week, and was very very sore, today I DB rowed 30kg for 10 reps which was also a PB.

I’ve had blood tests done for hormone and iron levels, still a few to come back. Iron levels are the only things not looking quite right at this point. Seems now I have too much iron.

Pictured above is Ideal Bodies Online’s latest Body Blitz winner, Troy Pedretti. Even though we ‘mysteriously’ weren’t mentioned as Troy’s trainer’s. Congrats Troy, what an outstanding transformation! Well done to Feedback Coach Rach too.

Ok think I’m finally getting weary enough to sleep. I was planning on a much better update than this.

Just a quick check in. Been really busy, huge week of clients again this week. Of course having the races yesterday didn’t help my productivity. It was a good day though, and amazingly enough, I backed the winner of the Cup. I think I am getting another cold I am not having a good run of things lately! I know I’m not the lone ranger there though. I had a few drinks yesterday and not a lot to eat but I don’t think I was hungover. I have finally decided to bite the bullet and go gluten and dairy free. It’s the dairy that will be tough. I bought and cooked up some quinoa tonight, which will be my oats replacement. Got a big plate of flathead that I cooked up tonight for dinner which was beautiful.

So, tomorrow I will try my quinoa for brekky, not really sure yet how to have it but I will experiment and find a way. Like I said, no dairy makes it tough to be creative! I’m also going to reduce my consumption of artificial sweeteners. Not that I have a lot but I will make an effort to reduce.

I trained in the morning before the races and leg pressed the whole stack for 3 sets. I could feel my muscle fibres tearing! Pretty sore today. I am going to get up and do some cardio in the morning – I haven’t done any for so long (3 weeks!) and I feel a bit slobbish! Went to the chiro today which was well timed because my deadlifting session caused me a few issues. My neck and back were so sore. It’s time to deadlift again tomorrow or Friday but I don’t think that would be wise. Every 2 weeks may be better.

Still trying to figure out my plan of attack for shows early in the year. Will be calling someone tomorrow, and also waiting on a call back from another trainer to confirm her availability.