Monthly Archive for June, 2009

Is there something in the water?

Published on June 25, 2009 in Uncategorized. 21 Comments

Well it seems every man and his dog is getting pregnant!  Just read Shar’s blog, congrats Shar (if you happen to read), that’s awesome news.  And of course Hils, which is just lovely, and Marce too!

I have my own story to share here.   Awhile ago you may have noticed there was a bit of a depressed and sad feel about my blog posts.  About 4 weeks ago I was pregnant too.  First go, bang, preggo, found out when we were on the Gold Coast.  Must have conceived the very week (ie a few days!) after my comp.  We were very proud of that effort, me being 40, and our first go and all.  We were so excited, we really weren’t expecting it and it was a real surprise.  Every waking (and even sleeping!) thought was about being pregnant.  It gave me such a calm, contented feeling.  A week later it all turned to crap.  I started bleeding.  And didn’t stop for a week.  I ended up in emergency, for 3 hours, sitting there waiting, knowing that I was losing my baby.  Hoping it would stop and they would be able to tell me everything was still ok.  Everytime I went to the bathroom to check, the blood flow seemed to be just getting heavier, and I had terrible cramping to go with it.  So, the realization started to sink in, and my thoughts, somehow, had to return to ‘normal’ and forget about being pregnant.  As I said, it took a week to get over the physical symptoms of  the miscarriage, so it wasn’t like I could even try forget about it.  I didn’t want to see anyone, talk to anyone or go anywhere.  I was so tired, and was sleeping all the time – natural I suppose, my poor bod had just finished a comp, got pregnant and miscarried all within the space of a few weeks. 

So, anyway, that was a month ago now, and I am very much normal again now.  I visited the ob/gyn on Monday anyway, and had a good chat to him.  We will just keep trying and see what happens.  My cycle is already back to normal so bring it on. :)

I’m sharing the story because, well, it’s part of my life, and it’s part of what I have had to deal with.  I must say I’ve become quite resilient in my old age!  Which brings me to publish a lovely email I received from a reader recently: 

Hi Sue Just wanted to let you know I just a little bit of a 12 week challenge, and when ever my mind was telling me to go to the shops and buy a block of chocolate I would hop on your blog and read about the days you were feeling down, tired, hungry, stressed or just over it all and it would make me realize that everyone has tough days and it isn’t going to always be a walk in the park, and just to read that I was not alone in the way I felt some days really helped me to just shut up and get on with it cus that’s life and it doesn’t always go according to plan but the best thing to do is just take that next positive step weather it be going to the gym or eating that chicken and broccoli rather than giving up.

I am sure you hear it all the time but just wanted to know that you are very inspiring and it really helps for you to write your blogs warts and all, and not bullshit that everyday is sunshine any bunny rabbits and that we are all the same and not alone.

Everyday certainly isn’t sunshine and bunny rabbits :)   But we do what we have to.

Anyway, I am so, so happy for Hils and Shar and Marce and everyone else that is preggo or had babies recently.  I hope to join you soon!

I can’t stop eating this…

Published on June 22, 2009 in food and training routines. 2 Comments

Creamy Blueberry Crunch

I have this for breakfast every day, and I sometimes have it for dinner too!!

Creamy Blueberry Curnch

Cottage cheese – 1/2 cup

Blueberries – 1/2 cup

Natural yoghurt, 80g

Bran cereal, handful

LSA, 1 heaped tsp

Walnuts, about 5 1/2 ones

Sugar free maple syrup, squirt

YUM.

I have a leg workout for you:

Lumberjack squats, DB Walking Lunges, Jump Squats – 10 reps each

*This is a tri-set, so go from one exercise to the other with very little rest (10 sec max).  Have 3 minutes rest between tri-sets.  I did 4 tri-sets.

Hamstring curl (7-8 reps, heavy), DB Swings 10-12 reps (use a heavy DB! I used 15kg)

*This is a superset.  Have 2 minutes rest between supersets.  I did 3 supersets. 

 Rope Pull Throughs, Bench Jump Overs (hands on bench, jump across the bench and straight back 20 times)

*This is a superset.  Have 2 minutes rest between supersets.  I did 3 supersets.

See how high your heart rate gets!  Mine was up in the 170′s on numerous occasions!  One reason is that I’m not quite as aerobically fit as I was, but, also because it’s a tough workout!

Try it and let me know what you think!

Half reps

I wanted to clarify a bit more about my posting on Half Rep Harry yesterday.  Half reps can actually be useful, but most often they are used (unintentionally) when people are training with a weight that is too heavy!  Generally speaking, you should always use full range of motion (ROM) when performing an exercise.  I use half reps when for instance I’ve maxed out my full reps, and all I have left in me are partials.  For example, I often use them doing BB Military Presses.  I like to go heavy to try and grow my puny shoulder muscles (not so puny now), so I will lift what I can for about 5-8 reps, and on the last couple of sets when I have maxed out I will continue with partial reps until I can’t do anymore (so I may get another 3-4 half reps out).  As far as doing partials all the time – that’s just cheating.

Jools – I have my blog set to be sent out at a certain time of day, so you won’t get it immediately as I write it.  I think I will change the time again to the middle of the night so that way it’s there to read in the mornings.  Thank you for the compliment also :)

Great weather here today, I was up at 4.30am – not because of the weather however.  I did go for a walk/jog at 6.20am, in the dark!  That was rather refreshing actually.  Tomorrow is shoulders and biceps and will also do a bit of cardio.

Have a lovely evening everyone.

*Note, yes should be frozen blueberries Janelle!

Choc Raspberry Crunch recipe

Published on June 20, 2009 in food and photos. 3 Comments

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I’m glad you are liking my food pics!  I took another today but will leave that for another time, as you can see I decided to plaster my own pics over this blog instead.  These are pretty much all that is left from my shoot, maybe another few here and there.

A couple of people asked exactly what’s in the Choc Raspberry Crunch recipe that I blogged about last.  So here goes:

1 heaped scoop of MRM Low Carb choc protein, mixed with water to a smooth thick paste

1/2 cup frozen raspberries

1/4 cup natural yoghurt

5 dry roasted almonds, crushed

1 or 2 heaped teaspoons of LSA mix

Handful of bran cereal

Squirt of sugar free maple syrup

The bran cereal can be found in the supermarket health section, it’s just long bits of crunchy bran.  You can choose oat bran if you prefer it to wheat bran.  Gives it a nice crunch, and some added fibre.

Well, I haven’t trained since Tuesday!  I have been in Melbourne, not that that is any excuse, but the training just didn’t happen.  I had some rotten night’s sleeps, just after bragging about how well I was sleeping – so typical.  So I just returned from the gym, a 2 in 1 session – chest/back/tris and rear delts.  I finished off with just a few short sprints on the bike and I am horrified at my current fitness level!  My heart rate was soaring and was having trouble coming back down even after tiny 15 seconds sprints!  Right, more cardio here I come.

Half rep Harry was at the gym today.  That’s my little nickname for this guy who lifts mammoth weights, but only does half (maybe even quarter!) reps.  It’s quite amusing.  He never warms up, just walks in, picks up some 20 or 30kg db’s and starts doing (half) front raises.  Today he was doing legs.  I’ve never seen him train legs before.  Squat rack stacked to the hilt, and these pissy little knee bends like you would see in a Pump class, maybe not even that deep!  I felt embarrassed for him. 

So this weekend I will be working on our June newsletter.  We have a couple of specials on at the moment, one is $100 off our Personal Success Mentor programs, and the other, is 10% off our entire range of products in our Ideal Supplements store.  I don’t think my store manager has put the specials up yet, think it’s going up tonight (Saturday).  I’m actually really excited about the possibilities in store for Ideal Bodies Online heading into the near future.  I have some things lined up that are going to be sensational!

My next food pic and recipe will be of my current fave breakfast – Creamy Blueberry Crunch.  Don’t forget to sign up to have it delivered via email (top left corner of blog).

Have a great weekend folks.

How good does this look?

Published on June 17, 2009 in food. 4 Comments

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And it tastes as good as it looks.  Ok if you think it looks like a dog’s breakfast (like my husband would) then it tastes a lot better than that :)

This is MRM Low Carb chocolate whey protein, mixed to a smooth paste, topped with frozen raspberries, Vaalia natural yoghurt, bran cereal, almonds, LSA mix and a squirt of sugar free maple syrup.

I actually had this for lunch today.  Try it and let me know what you think!

No training for me today.  Supposed to be cardio day but I had an article to write for Oxygen magazine so I needed to get that done.  Plus we are heading to Melbourne early in the morning (unless we are fogged out, which is highly likely) and I need to pack my bag still, and get my nails done soon.  Plus have a phone appointment with a web marketing company soon.

Yesterday I trained shoulders (my fave) and biceps (least fave).  I did some drop sets for my shoulders so they are a bit sore.  Started with nice heavy military presses, then to DB see-saw presses, standing side raises/seated side raises drop sets and some upright rows.  Followed with biceps – standing DB curls, BB drag curls and finished with a set of 21′s.  Biceps are more sore than shoulders actually.

I have had some software installed on my blog so that you are now able to sign up to have it delivered to your inbox if you like.  Just sign up on the left hand side purple box.  Sign up for our newsletter while you are there!

Well that’s about it – off to Melbourne to work on a couple of projects so I will be off the email air tomorrow and Friday while I concentrate on those.

Answer for Tracey

Published on June 16, 2009 in Uncategorized. 1 Comment

Hey Sue,

I have found I seem to maintain around 1600-1700 (BTW: I have been diagnosed with hypothyroidism) Happy eating in that range, don’t feel hungry or deprived.

Well, recently have been dealing with a nutritionist and she says this is way too low for me.

She feels I should be eating more along the lines of 2200-2500 (especially at 28 years old). She believes I might have what is called a Compromised Metabolism.

Have you ever heard of this??

Kind of concerns me…

Maybe I screwed up my metabolism when I went from 176lbs to 128??

What are your thoughts??

BTW:I’m petite framed.

Tracey – there is no simple answer.  Everyone is different.  I would gain weight on that amount of calories at my current weight now (around 115/116lb), but, I was able to maintain around 123-125lb on a muscle gain diet at 2000-2200 calories.  Mind you I felt full to the brim ALL the time and it was not good for my digestion or energy levels.   You probably have compromised your metabolism with constant dieting – that’s what happens when you yo-yo diet.  I also have the same issue from my early dieting days.  I maintain nicely at about 1700 cals which I feel is a decent amount of food.  It doesn’t allow for much junk eating though of course, so lucky I’m not big on that.  If you wanted to trial more calories, simply add 100 cals per week and monitor your weight/body fat.

Typical…

Published on June 16, 2009 in food and photos. 4 Comments

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I boast about how wonderfully I’m sleeping and today I wake up and get up at 3.30am.  Thanks to my darling husband who is kicking around in bed!  I actually woke with a bit of a cough so rang the swine flu hotline – all I got was crackling.  LOL!!  Damo told me that one, thought it was quite good.  I did though wake up with a cough!  Bugger.

Can you believe I bought an IPOD about 6 weeks ago, and still haven’t used it.  I mean, still haven’t downloaded any songs so I CAN use it?  Must get on to that, of course I think about it every time I go to the gym for cardio – which I admit is rather rarely these days which explains the 6 week time frame I suppose!

Gee I manage to buggerize around and waste some time here.   At the moment I am resizing some more comp photos I found on my camera.  Reason I’m looking at that is that I thought I would start taking some pics of my food – excitement plus for you – but some people are interested in what I eat on a regular basis, so at the top of this post you can see my lunch yesterday!  BBQ chicken (and yes that is a bit of skin you can see, everything in moderation when not dieting is a good mantra), avocado, pesto and a veggie mix of green beans, spinach, corn and peas.  I use Barilla Pesto, very yummy, and a tsp goes a long way.  You can probably also see how much sea salt I put on too if you look closely.  Big chunky bits.

Anyway, it’s now 5.16am and my tummy is rumbling so think I will trot downstairs and make some breaky, my favourite meal of the day, though sometimes I also have my breaky meal for dinner! 

Today I have to get busy again and write my article for Oxygen mag – speaking of did you see the last issue – thought it was great from the new publishers.

Thanks again for comments on my photos, I still have a few left but thought I better give it a rest for the moment!

Too raunchy?

Published on June 15, 2009 in photos. 5 Comments

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The last lot of pics were probably a bit too raunchy to be displaying but I have to say, I really don’t care.  These ones are too so if you are offended, don’t look!  I worked hard for that damn body :)   Pity it doesn’t hang around a bit longer that’s all!

Thanks for your comments, you are all just too nice. 

Yesterday was leg day and I have a very sore butt today.  Which is good of course.   I don’t think I will get back into heavy squats for awhile, will do other squat variations instead.  I started with hamstrings yesterday, it’s always good to focus on the glutes and hammies before quads sometimes, so we don’t become quad dominant and start getting all sorts of injuries etc.  Hammies are often neglected.  I did Romanian deadlifts then Pull Throughs (great for the butt) supersetted with Swiss Ball curls.  Then lumberjack squats supersetted with DB swings – and I swear my heart rate was up around 170bpm.  Don’t ever tell me that weight training does not give you a good cardio workout – IF you train with intensity!  Followed this with knee extensions, supersetted with DB walking lunges.  Finished with some stretching.  Oh and yes I did my dynamic warm up to begin with – hip mobility drills and quad stretching included.

This morning I got up at 7.30, well ok it was 8 before I climbed out of bed, but I have been having amazing sleeps lately!  I had a coffee, did a bit of work then off I trotted in the wet for some walk/jog, sprints, stair work.

I’ve been eating a little differently lately, trying something out.  I actually feel like it is working with regard to less (ie zero) cravings and hunger.   It’s certainly a bit different to what I’ve been used to.

I have have been super productive today, I love days like today.  I must admit I’m a little excited about the possibility of a joint venture coming up with a big company that should see some nice promo for us.  Hope that comes through.  I also did not need an arvo nap today which always helps productivity, LOL!

I do need my nails done however, I have none left.  I had to cancel my usual appointment about 2 weeks ago and have just let them deteriorate!  Now I have lovely chook hands.   Hopefully my beauty therapist will text me back with an appointment time before I nick off to Melbourne on Thursday.

I also must go stock up on groceries for the next few days so will sign off and hope that everyone has a grand week!

Hope you aren’t sick of them yet…

Published on June 13, 2009 in Uncategorized. 5 Comments

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Well my chiro did the job as always, he’s such a legend.  He even put my little finger back in, it was completely locked up! 

I trained today, good session though I did a bit of chatting while training which is not like me, and as always it ruins the intensity of training.  Chest and rear delt day.  Flat DB presses, flat flys, incline DB presses, and DB pullovers.  DB rear delt flys and overhead rope pull throughs.  I think I will have a sore chest for certain.

I had a bit much to eat tonight, tummy feeling a bit dodgy.  I ate my dinner (salmon and veggies) and then decided to have a piece of butterfish as well (the others were having fish and chips).  I followed with a small bowl of whey protein, raspberries, yoghurt and bran cereal.  Poor digestion, not happy.  But apart from this my eating has been very good so I don’t think this will do much harm.

Tomorrow is leg day.  I really should do some cardio at some point but it’s too cold!!  Yesterday was so cold, I can’t remember it ever feeling so cold!

I’ve added a few more pics from my shoot.

Do as I say not as I do – and pics

Published on June 11, 2009 in photos and Uncategorized. 3 Comments

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Well I’m such an idiot sometimes!  I haven’t been lifting that heavy of late due to various medical issues, and of course now I’m over it I’m like a bull at a gate.  I trained back and triceps this morning and have started doing my old 4 day split.  First exercise of the day was BB Deadlifts (as in power deadlifts, not the stiff legged variety).  I suppose I did one thing right and decided I definitely wasn’t ready for those, and decided on rack pulls instead.  Last time I did them was maybe a month ago, so not that long really.  I pulled 110kg, a PB last time.   Well I did a warm up, then some decent (easy) reps at 80kg.  So I loaded another 10kg on each side, thinking I would aim for, I don’t know, 4-6 reps.  Well I couldn’t even lift the bar on my first 2 attempts, without it falling out of my hook.  I already felt my lower back was a bit tight but in my wisdom I decided to ignore that warning sign.  Plus the fact it was about 10 below zero at 8am in the gym so I would not have been warm at all.  I decided to remove 10kg and go with 90kg, well even this was difficult!  I managed only 2 reps I think, before my grip (even with hooks) gave way.  I cursed a bit and stood up and realised my back didn’t feel too good.  So I stretched and whatnot, but I knew I was going to be sore.  Another reason I decided to actually do these was knowing that I had a chiro appointment tomorrow in case I did anything bad!  So, I will be looking forward to that.  My lower back (and is also moving further upwards) is pretty sore right now already, and also my neck.  So, for those of you at home – always warm up well and make sure you are ready to attempt heavy weight by getting a few weeks of lead up time!

At the moment I’m only doing 1 x day training – ie weights x 4 and cardio x 3.  The cardio has been pretty mild due to same reasons as training has been, but last session I did manage a bit of higher intensity thrown in.  Tomorrow is cardio and think we are heading to the gym.

I’m about to hit the sack but will attach a few more pics first.  Another black and white for Kerry W :)   Thanks for all your lovely comments.

40th Birthday Photos

Published on June 10, 2009 in photos. 7 Comments

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Thought I would put up a few each day – don’t have time to download them all at the moment so just did these three.  Very happy with these pictures, nice to keep - think I look alright for 40.  Thanks again to Excitations Photography. 

My training is becoming a little more intense again which is good.  I did shoulders (my fave) and biceps yesterday.  This morning we went for a walk/run/stairs session for 45 mins. 

I am still sleeping a lot and I don’t think it’s my iron levels, they are all within the reference range so who knows why I am so tired.  I’m just about ready for a nap now!

Soon you will be able to subscribe to my blog posts and have them delivered to your email inbox if you like – not totally sure why anyone would do that but the option will be there!  I will write some more interesting stuff one of these days, I promise :)