I actually giggled

Yesterday, when I was doing my clean and press at the new weight of 20kg... after the first set, I sat on the step and looked at my heart rate monitor to see a heart rate of 186.  I actually giggled! :o)  It dropped to 141 in my 60s rest, which was nice, but still... 186 from pushing iron!  No wonder I have DOMS today.

This morning, the pizza weight from Tuesday had gone bye-bye so I'm "only" a kg up on last Friday now; I expect a bit more of that will be gone by tomorrow morning too.  Back on track for target weight next week again so all is well there and given the ferocity of my current weights routine, I'm reckoning fat % should be dropping too :o)

I was going to have a rest day today, but I had one on Tuesday, which I wouldn't normally do, so I figure some cardio today might be fun a good idea. A little playing in the Wave machine, which I've not done in a while, and some intervals maybe on the cross-trainer with a little faffery on the static bikes (which killed my thighs so I only did 5 minutes of that!).

Another of my comfort dinners this evening; beef chilli with baked beans mixed in.  I just love it!

[photo to follow - oops, Mr TOTKat had borrowed my camera for the day, so no photo!]

B - greek yogurt with 1 scoop MP Max, Yeo Valley fruit compote and Grape Nuts
S - Dorset Cereals bar; berries and cherries
L - salad; lettuce, cherry tomatoes, celery, sweet peppers, spinach falafel
*gym*
S - 1 scoop MP Max in skimmed milk
S - carrot and Waitrose houmous
S -  MP beef jerky
D - beef chilli with baked beans

Exercise - 45 minutes cardio

Calories (kcal) [kcals to maintain weight (inc. exercise)	1659 2179]
Protein (g)	145.8 (36.0%)
Carbohydrate (g)	162.5 (37.7%)
Fat (g)	47.3 (26.3%)
Fibre (g)	34.5
Fruit & Veg	13.8

OMG! Vacuuming!

I knew I did it pretty vigorously, I get really hot, break quite a sweat and get achey back and core, but... 415kcals for 49 minutes of it!

I decided to wear my HRM and find out just how much I get out of vacuuming and was amazed to see 415kcals after pretty much 50 minutes of scrubbing at the cat-hair encrusted carpets. And that was after a 708kcal cardio gym session earlier today. Not bad really.

Late getting up after very early to bed meant 12 hours sleep(!) and no morning snack today...

B - toasted onion bagel with Marmite and a poached egg
*gym*
S - 1 scoop chocolate in semi-skimmed milk
L - toasted ham, stilton and tomato sandwich on wholemeal granary bread
S - an apple
S - toasted slice of banana, walnut and raisin malt loaf
D - roast chicken, potatoes, carrots and broccoli with wine
S - little bit of dark chocolate

Exercise - 71 minutes cardio plus core, and 50 minutes hardcore vacuuming

Calories (kcal) [kcals to maintain weight (inc. exercise)	2142 2765
Protein (g)	122.3 (23.3%)
Carbohydrate (g)	207.1 (37%)
Fat (g)	64.4 (27.6%)
Alcohol (g)	36.0 (12%)
Fruit & Veg	6.3

's not fair

I was 250kcals under maintenance overall last week, but I'm a kg heavier. I know I said I wasn't going to beat myself up about it, but this plain isn't fair! Where did an extra 7,000kcals to create a kg of weight -come- from if I was 250kcals -under-?

So, if it's not real weight gain, what is it? Water retention? Unlikely, given the amount of water I've been drinking in the last 24 hours. Transit? Mmm, possibly. Actual fat? Very unlikely in that time period plus there weren't enough kcals to make that much fat without me sleeping through the whole weekend and not moving at all. It's gotta come from somewhere though! Meh. Anyway.

Leg rehabilitation is underway; after a week of using lifts rather than stairs, not walking/running up escalators, no gym, no running, no cycling, no swimming and some deep-tissue massage. I made sure to do a gentle warm up on the rower, taking it gently for the first 500m then a bit harder for the last 500m and then going gently for 5 minutes on the cross-trainer to see how it felt before going quite a bit harder for 12.5 minutes, gently again for 2.5 minutes then 2 minutes cool down and some actual stretching for once. It feels OK; a bit "scratchy' on the inside as if the middle was having rough wool rubbed on it, but no pain at all and no straining feeling. So, I think I'll try some gentle resistance training on it tomorrow, with lighter weights than usual and a slow build up rather than straight into working weight.

Brekkie was my usual greek yogurt creation, with a scoop of whey, fruit compote and some flaked almonds:-


I had a banana before today's little trial gym trip and a protein shake afterwards to fuel up those poor neglected muscles.

Lunch is getting a bit standard, spinach, capers, a few walnuts, tomato (usually sweet peppers) and chicken. Tomorrow it'll be eggs instead :o)


I had a pear and some carrots and houmous to keep me going through the afternoon without killing people or chewing my own arm off. I do so -love- houmous and I even actually seem to like raw carrots now. Me! Raw carrots!

There were a few veggies to use up after Burns Night dinner last night, so I boiled 'em up and mashed 'em to go with some beef chilli:-


And I just -had- to try some of the Stilton which was part of our Christmas hamper at the weekend, and how better to serve it than on top of some toasted, fruity, home-made malt loaf with a big mug of tea:-


Exercise - 1km warm up on the rower; 3 sets of - plank (60s), pulsed side planks (10) and press-ups (5); followed by 22 minutes on the cross-trainer.

Calories (kcal) [kcals to maintain weight (inc. exercise)	1828 2131
Protein (g)	152.8 (34%)
Carbohydrate (g)	191.0 (39.9%)
Fat (g)	51.1 (25.6%)
Fruit & Veg	14.6

Quick little intervals session

Brekkie was a slightly overcooked pile of scrambled egg+egg whites on a toasted bagel with Marmite. Nommy, but sub-optimal due to the eggs being ready too quickly. Bah. Then I slobbed about watching Saturday Kitchen (mmmfoodporn), followed by lunch.



A Japanese-style dressing spiced up an otherwise quite boring tuna salad; lemon juice, soy sauce, balsamic vinegar and wasabi paste. Very very tasty on its own and a subtle change to the overall flavour of the tuna when mixed in with it. The tuna was lovely by itself. The salad was nice by itself. But, ew, they did not go together so well. I suspect it was the tomato that broke the flavours.

I was going to swim today, but changed my mind. I'm a tiny bit bored with swimming (better get my ass out of that attitude sharpish with only 12 weeks to the first triathlon!) so decided to do a little bit of intervals on the cross-trainer instead and some core work. The pleasant surprise was that 3x 60s planks weren't hellishly hard; side pulsed planks x60 were clean and almost "easy"; and I did 5 full press ups in between sets of planks without shuddering and grunting and thinking "I can't do these" after only the second press up of each set. :oD

But.

*yawn*

I just want to play around with cooking food right now and taking pictures of it. To be honest, the idea of these triathlons is scaring me as I've not run in a while and cycled even less recently. I didn't want to do any ironing or vacuuming today either, but they needed doing. Bah. And, indeed, meh! Glad I pulled my finger out and did them, so.

Er, anyway...

Afternoon snack experiment:-



Gosh it's nice. The almond butter tastes more like cream with the sharpness of the apple (which was one of the nicest apples I've had in a long time, thank you Waitrose.) And, as well as being delicious, it fulfils "protein plus fruit or veg" :o)

Dinner was one of my favourites. We make a huge vat of beef chilli every now and then and freeze it down in portions. Occasionally, we make lasagne using the chilli instead of a beef bolognese and ohhhh is it tasty!



B - scrambled eggs (1x egg and 3x egg whites) on a toasted seeded wholemeal bagel with Marmite
L - salad - lettuce, sweet peppers, tomatoes, capers, tuna and Japanese-style dressing
*gym*
S - 1 scoop milk chocolate whey in semi-skimmed milk
S - sliced apple spread with almond butter
D - lasagne made with basic beef chilli

Calories (kcal) [kcals to maintain weight (inc. exercise)	1669 2188]
Protein (g)	141.6 (34.9%)
Carbohydrate (g)	146.4 (33.8%)
Fat (g)	55.5 (30.7%)
Fruit & Veg	7.9

Virgin Active anyone...?

Anyone else seen the 10 minute challenge at the Virgin Active gyms this week?

I noticed it while I was doing intervals on the cross-trainer (having done 10 minutes on the wave machine - oh my god that hurts my thighs!) and cut them short to have a look. And I'm -so- glad I did!

Choose 2 out of 4 fitness challenges; bike, row, run and cross-train (different intensities and distances for each, e.g. 1.5km scramble on the bike or 100m climb on the cross-trainer); and either an easy (takes 15% off your total time if you get it right) or hard (takes 30% off your total time if you get it right) mental challenge. A trainer sets up the machine and times you, you answer the mental challenge whilst slogging away. Total time minus any bonus from the mental challenge enters you into a competition for Amazon vouchers and a bicycle.

So I did it. And picked bike, cross-trainer and hard mental challenge. In 05:05! And I got the mental challenge wrong (oh the shame of it!); it was weird, my brain just refused to work while my body was being punished so hard. No idea if that was a good time or not until the trainer looked up "the next fastest woman"! (who did it in 07:25 so I was over the moon!) Plenty of week left for someone to beat me, but still WOOOOOO! It was FUN! (and I had to slow right down at the end of the cross-trainer challenge 'cause I was going so hard I was about to barf!)

So, if you're a Virgin Active member, check out your local gym to see if they're doing the challenge and HAVE A GO! Its brilliant! (and you get a free t-shirt for having a go anyway)