Food things

Three and a half weeks without alcohol, sugar and white bread: I am feeling very smug. And I actually can be, I can see the fat peeling off. I definitely am back to the best phase that I had before Christmas.

So it actually only is starting now. And there is the first hicki: I am getting a bit bored with my food! Because I wanted to get back to my starting point quickly I stayed with the foods of which I know the calories and then tried to balance around 1800 cals. It worked perfectly fine, but it means:

• my own bread - which is nice as it has a lot of nuts and seeds, 
• mince meat loaf, 
• eggs, and 
• bananas, 
• topped up with the occasional voluptuous lettuce, the pasta version
• Well, and the infamous protein shakes

That's it!

It is a good diet, it has everything I need, but a bit boring so I have been browsing through my recipes and found the Weird Cheesecake, a brilliant protein bomb and simple to make. No idea why I forgot about it. So that is my new favourite for now.

Now I am looking forward to Saturday. The day of truth: 4 weeks in and measurements are to be taken.

Until then: Happy lifting!

Best workouts happen in the brain

What a wonderful mooorning... what a beautiful daaahahaay! This is me trying to sing...

I am a happy bunny because I eventually turned a corner. When I was in the gym I had a floating moment... which actually shouldn't happen there..., but this time I started thinking about my workout schedule and realised that I am still attached to other people instead of doing my thing. I had fixed my gym times but very much in accordance to constraints which were not mine.

I like to work out in the mornings but that is when I go to work, I do not like to work out in the evenings, but that is when my training partner goes. In this case partner is husband and we are not training together to focus on my goal but to do something together. Sorry hubby, for the next four and a half month we will have to find something else. Training wise I am out. If I need a spotter, I will find one.

And work: I am working flexible hours anyway. I can work out in the mornings and work in the afternoons and even the evenings.

During this gym session I decided that nothing is more important than my training and until the competition I will train in the mornings. If people want to join me: Fine! If not: Fine, too!

Be prepared for regular updates now. ASN, the guys organising the competition have started sending out newsletters with info about Protein intake, fat loss, and so on. Should you be interested, have a look at their website and sign up for the newsletters. I now will work my way through those and I will make myself a plan for those good 4 month.

Happy lifting!

20 weeks to go!

Overtrained

Oh my goodness! Who would have thought that with just three sessions per week and a bit of cardio one could overtrain.

Well, I had been training with rather heavy weights quite intensely, but each muscle only once a week. I didn't think it possible that way, today however I got proof. Let me turn the story back a bit, though.

I had encountered the phenomenon of overtraining before: at that time I was training heaviest weights, in 3-5 sets with less than 8 reps each, twice a week. Then I learned about High Intensity Training, where each muscle is only trained once the week, the weight is reduced to about 70 %, the sets reduced to maximum of 2, repetitions raised to 10-12, the exercise executed very slowly and possibly weights are ripped at the end or half reps are done. It kicked in like mad, the number of injuries went down and I looked better than ever.

I however didn't have an aim at that time and so I always had phases when I trained less  intense or took breaks altogether, hence I never had problems. Now I had decided to do the competition and religiously went to the gym week after week. Then I realised that I got a persistent muscle ache from the slightest endurance session, I felt tired, I couldn't concentrate and the muscles felt flat. Those were exactly the same symptoms as last time, but  I still thought that it could not be and that I maybe coming down with something.

Well, eventually I caught a cold and took a break, but the next session still felt not right. And now we had the Christmas break. I felt rather grumpy about all the days the gym was closed, it however turned out to be the best thing that could happen to me. The reduced training during the weeks before and now another two weeks off gave proof that the reason for the whole moaning was overtraining.

Today I went back to the gym for the first time. And although I still feel some leftovers of the cold I had a really good training session. Got through the whole thing without feeling hungry or sleepy, although the gym was stuffed and oxygen scarce. I lifted max weight with max reps and it felt good. And then I remembered a blog about overtraining which I had read some years ago, confirming all the symptoms.

So it seems that I am back now, and it seems that I have to organise my training and my sleep even better. I will have to take down times with smaller weights and just pumping some reps, without actually exhausting the muscle and I will have to use those down times for posing training.

The task now is to count backwards from the 5th June - Competition Day - and to make a proper plan. Yay! I get to write another list.

Will keep you posted!