Spinny rooms

Well it appears I have finally got my mojo back once and for all. YAY!! Welcome home baby!

Training has been bloody awesome this week. I have cut down on the high intensity cardio and incorporated a better balance of steady state in and am feeling much better for it. Food has been fantastic, I haven't been eating more than planned because I haven't been overtraining.

I have had one minor issue though...dizziness. Major dizziness. I am prone to it here and there as I have fairly low blood pressure as a rule, and get some mega dizzy spells sometimes. When I say sometimes I mean maybe once ever couple of months. And they normally last say, 20mins...I can usually eat a few lollies or a spoon of honey and bingo - goes away.

Not this week. The last 3 nights I have had hour upon hour of it...on Monday I got one of my workmates to take my BP when I was feeling dizzy - it registered at 80/65. Tonight I took it after eating a few snakes and it was 90/60...ate a few more snakes, waited...still dizzy....still low....spent most of my shift tonight walking around the gym holding onto inanimate objects to stay upright...all I can say is THANK GOD it was state of origin night and I didnt have too many bookings!

I'm not quite sure what is happening or how to fix it but thinking I might get myself to the doc's on Friday if it sticks around much longer. It's only been happening of an evening though and I am wondering if it could be cos I am not having many carbs after brekkie this week.

Anyway 'side from that it's business as usual :)

So off to bed now, early training session tomorrow morning, YAY!! I love training early!

Til next time train hard and be good xx

Overtraining

Monday night and I'm feeling a whole lot better than I was during Saturday's miserable-ass post. Sorry to be such a whiney bitch but I think that most of you who commented nailed it - overtraining syndrome. I have been going at it too hard with the cardio, specially high intensity stuff, which I normally try to do in moderation. Well after having thought about it, I realised that I hadn't actually had a complete REST day in about 6 weeks. This is the first time ever I have trained 7 days a week for comp prep, not on purpose but usually doing guilt-trip make-up sessions for having missed a cardio session here or there. I normally take Sundays off completely but haven't done in some time...and I think it was doing my head in!! Which is so unlike me as I am the first person to tell my clients about the importance of having at least one training free day a week. So yesterday I did nothing, quite literally. I left the house once to go grab my mum some supplements, and spent the remainder of the day giving my butt some quality time with the couch.

I woke up fresh this morning and did a pre-brekkie walk, then after breakfast did shoulders and calves and spent half an hour on the stepper. Awesome session.

I have also re-written the diet to give things a little bit of a shake up and after 2 days on the new plan am feeling bloody fabulous. BRING ON COMP SEASON, that's what I say!

Gonna go have my pre-bed eggwhites so will leave you with this for the night...

"If you think you can do something, or if you think you can't do something...you are probably right..."

Vic x

Something's not right...?

OK I have no idea what is going on with me this year but I can't seem to budge those bloody scales, well at least not in the direction they need to be budged. This week has seen a gain of 300g. I am at my wit's end trying to work out what is going on and I just can't piece it together. I have been eating clean and cardio-ing twice a day (on a couple of occasions this week it's been 3 times), doing every weights session as planned...and can't drop the weight. I did my measurements this morning too and have not lost ANYTHING centimetre wise since last measurements 3 weeks ago. I'm not sure if this is a hormonal thing maybe but I am starting to think it might be? Has anyone else out there had this frustration before? And if so do you have any suggestions? I am thinking I might get a blood test done to see if there is something going on there.

I know I know - negative boring post but I can't get my head around this and am hoping someone might be able to throw some ideas at me??

Hungry Hungry Hippo

Phew...what a week! This week has seen me feel DOMS in a way I haven't felt in a very long time!! It has been an awesome week training-wise, I have really smashed it up in the gym every single day this week - no holds barred. My legs are aching in places I didn't know existed - I have managed to annihilate them almost every day (stairs Tues/Fri, Leg weights session Wed, 2 x spin classes on Wed as well, and have legs again tomorrow!!) and today I trained with one of my friends, an up-and-coming teen bodybuilder that I have befriended who is gonna be awesome if he sticks at it. We did a back session together today (which in itself is a change for me, I ALWAYS train alone) and I had to get dumbells out of the back room for him to do single arm rows with as they are the heaviest ones we have and we keep them out the back so that the silly boys don't get silly with extremely heavy weights!! Anyway I have never actually been requested to get these weights out in my time at the gym...I literally had to roll them across the gym floor!! hehe

Food on the other hand...well has been a bit excessive. I haven't actually eaten anything bad as such, nothing off plan, but I have eaten way more than I normally do all week. I have been logging everything in CK and have been in a pretty decent deficit every day when you factor in my exercise but I think it's just cos I have a set number in my head of how many cals etc I should be having that it does my head in! I can't figure out if the extra food has been cos of how heavy and hard this week has been (eg arriving for work Wed arvo and teaching an extra spin class after having done all my planned training - 2xcardio + 1xweights session - for the day, doing an extra half hour cardio Tues night)...but either way I am a bit scared of what the scales are gonna say tomorrow morning. Time (ie, 8 hours) will tell I guess!!

My bestie came over for dinner tonight and I made her my turkey mince concoction, which she loved. OK so we followed it with a trip to Maccas so she could have a sundae as I don't have ice cream in the house (I was well behaved and ate yoghurt with mixed berries and crushed walnuts although it was very tempting to order an Oreo McFlurry with Extra Oreo!!) but all in all was a hit, so it's not just my diet brain using reverse psychology and telling me it tastes good lol.

Working all day tomorrow and then going out with some of the guys who get coached by Mike for Teppan Yaki tomorrow night for dinner - should be good fun, I have never been to Teppan Yaki before but been dying for someone to throw food at me lol. Might be inclined to eat less as I'm not likely to be good at catching it :) Not much else to report on my front so might just go and prep my work meals for tomorrow and call it a night me thinks :)

Night y'all!

Vic x

Pyjama Spin

Last night was sooo much fun at work. We launched the new Winter Group Fitness timetable with a Pyjama Party!! It was a blast!! I got an extra tough workout in as my boss thought it would be a good PR thing to get staff to join in the classes...and I got roped into doing the Spin class, in flanny PJs. Which was fine, during the warm up. After that the next 40 mins were, hmm, like doing aerobics in a sauna!! I was dying but all good fun.

Might add for the record that I taught spin in the morning and did my 2nd cardio session of the day on the bike too, so add an extra unplanned Spin class, yeah great for the cardio and dieting factor but not so great on the old ass!! hehe

I trained shoulders and bi's yesterday and know my shoulder workout worked...cos I have never, NEVER had DOMS in the shoulders like I have today. I think it was the isometric holds I finished the workout with (unplanned...threw em in at the end, 3 x 10sec holds in the "up" position of a lat raise, BURN BABY BURN!!)

I have done my stairs session this morning and upped the intensity a little by adding another variation, so now I have 4 different ways of running up the stairs, 3 sets of 10 laps for each...so all in all I now do 120 laps of 18 stairs...and let me tell you it hurts real good!!

OK better jet...off to start work and need some caffeine first :)

Catch you all soon xx

Kitchen Creativity

And so my kitchen prowess continues (ok so ever-so-slight exaggeration there but, meh, whatever). Today's creative streak has seen me make protein bars. They are currently in the freezer waiting to set but I can confirm that they tasted bowl-licking good ;)

To make: (makes 5 bars)

5 scoops choc Evolve Fast Whey
1 cup quick oats
5g Splenda
4 egg whites + 1 yolk
1/3 cup water
50g natural peanut butter (I used crunchy)

In one bowl mix protein powder, splenda and oats.
In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites / yolk together with water.
Heat the peanut butter in microwave to melt.

Mix powder/oats and egg mixture together thoroughly. Add peanut butter in and continue to stir til mixed right through. Pour into dish lined with baking paper. Freeze til set. Cut into 5 slices.

The breakdown is: 308cal, 43.4g protein, 13.7g carbs, 7.9g fat

I am DYING to get it out and eat it!!

I was supposed to go off to World Gym yesterday after work to see Mike and have my skinfolds done, and then train legs with him. I woke up early for my weekly weigh in before going for my walk. I only dropped 100g this week despite feeling loads leaner - however in saying that, I have pretty much not "gone" for 2 weeks - so having lost 100g was fine with me when I factored that in. After my walk, had brekkie and got myself ready. As I was leaving for work, I got the most phenomenal tummy cramps...really bad. Yep, got the runs :( I spent the entire day running backwards and forwards to and from the bathroom, even had to cancel the clients I had booked in. It was horrible!! It has settled mostly today but still not back to 100%. Needless to say I called Mike and cancelled as I didn't think a) I would last a 45min drive to see him, and b) I would survive a leg training session!! Lol I couldn't think of anything worse than attempting leg press or squats in my fragile condition.

So I traded my rest day, which is normally Sunday. Got up this morning and headed to the gym after brekkie. Smashed out 5 x 20 squats, 5 x 20 leg curls, 5 x 20 extensions, 5 x 20 db deadlifts, 5 x 20 standing calf raises. Backed that up with 40 painful minutes on the bike. I say painful cos unlike last week, today my heart was not in the cardio. At all. If any of you have read Kek's post today (sorry I am still not good with the whole blog technology thing and don't know how to link it), well my cardio was pretty much in line with hers!!

Anyway program change tomorrow - YIPPEE!! I love mixing it up a bit and writing new programs. Haven't written it yet but will get onto it tonight :)

That's it from me. Hope you have all had a fab weekend. Will let you know how the bars taste too!

Til next time, train hard and be good :)

Vic x

OK - update. It (protein bar recipe) was good (well in my humble dieting brain opinion). So good that I ate 2 in a row (yes, nearly 90g protein in one hit) for my afternoon "snack". And another for dinner. I have totalled over 240g protein today. If it's possible to OD on protein...today is the day I have done it!! piggy lol

Me enjoy cardio?? What the...? ;)

This week I think I can safely say has been much better all round than any other I have had in MONTHS! I think I have been a little off the rails since my bean-baby saga and have really struggled to get back on track after pulling out of last comp season.

I have found a new passion for traninig this week, and have even been semi-enjoying cardio. Very odd for me, I normally HATE it, no matter how good the headspace has been! I have spent lots of time cycling as although my achilles is feeling truckloads better it's still not 100% and I don't want to risk making it worse. I have thrown a couple of walks in to mix it up too but all in all have been enjoying my time on the bike as it has given me some time to catch up on reading...which makes cardio fly by!

I am doing another stairs session for cardio this morning as I have the day off, and will be doing another boxing class tonight for 2nd cardio allotment. Back and abs training apart from that :)

I have also REALLY been enjoying my food this week. I have made me a new recipe and loved it so much I have had it the last 3 days for lunch, with plans to have it again today too lol. It's pretty simple but delish, haven't named it but basically it's

100g lean turkey mince
1 egg white
50g boiled basmati rice
chopped onion & garlic
pinch of salt/pepper (to taste)
50g diced tomato
50g chopped green beans
20g chopped green capsicum
1 finely diced mushroom
(veges can be changed to suit taste, I also use zucchini, chopped broccoli etc)

*Heat nonstick frypan on stove
*Mix turkey mince, egg white, rice, onion and garlic in bowl. Throw into frypan and stirfry til mince is cooked thoroughly (no need to add oils etc due to egg white)
*Add chopped veges til throroughly heated.
*Place in bowl and enjoy!

Very simple but very tasty. I took it to work yesterday and everyone was asking me to bring them some next week cos it smelt divine :)

I am feeling a lot leaner after one week, despite adding more carbs back into my diet. I don't think my body responds well to super-low carb, which is always handy to know! I am getting my skinfolds done tomorrow afternoon for the first time since pulling out of prep in March - pretty scary lol but needs to be done. What I need to remember is that last time they were done I was about 9 or 10 weeks into full on prep so it will be very normal for those figures to have gone up somewhat.

Anyway better be off, gotta go hit the stairs...just too scared to get out of my warm pj's and robe!!

Vic x