R&R

Well that was a whole week of training before I took a whole week off and pretty much drunk every night.  Not productive.  Not really budged the scales but pretty depressing loss of opportunity. 

More positively, got a session in this morning.  Spin bike, 400+ kcals.  USN Protein bar.  Grapefruit.  Will later be eating an apple and a tuna sandwich.  Dinner will be pasta pesto.  Training will recommence tomorrow morning.

No numbers yet, no time, will try remember tomorrow.

Baby steps

Thursday morning - crawl out of bed.  Coffee.  Gym, 23 minutes on spinning bike.  USN Pure Protein bar and a little protein shake (bugger all left in tub which is why I bought the bar).  Forgot towel.  Come to work, sweating like a beaver. 

So the 23 minutes sounds lazy but it was all I could fit in since I took too long getting out of the house and traffic was piling up on the main road to the train station.  Additionally, given the lack of towel situation I'd rather of not been dripping head to toe in sweat when I got into my suit.  As it was that was fine, but walking quick from the station to the office in too heavy a coat for the morning has me trying to avoid colleagues.

Hopefully my legs will be better tomorrow and I can put more effort in.  I have the day off from work so I'll put a good session in, less limit on time.

As for the rest of yesterdays food, - well lunch was the beef stew, afternoon was milk and handful of almonds, dinner was prawn stir fry.  Not too bad really.

Today should be beef stew again, almonds, milk, banana, fish cakes with mash and veg. 

I'm thinking I should take a full range of measurements on Monday morning so I can start tracking it again properly, only avoided doing it so far just so this weeks work could get rid of any water weight held on.

Legs of lead

My legs are absolutely killing, and from really quite tragically low weight.  Got up again yesterday early to hit the gym.  Rowed (10 mins), squats (5xbar,5x40kg, 3sets x 5 reps x 60k), military press (warm up, increasing to 3 x 8 x 35k), leg curls (warm up, increasing to 3 x 8 x 35k), ab work, stretches, 5 mins more rowing while waiting for my wife to come out of the shower.

So yes, as I said, pretty damned low numbers to be this painful for.  Returning to squats is always a reminder you've been out of the gym too long, they really punish you.  Additionally, this was still on an empty stomach so not sure if the low energy meant I had to work harder.  Could be interesting to test that out.  On the flip side, no protein ready immediately for repair :(  Got home, protein shake (EAS at the moment, will be changing shortly), greak yoghurt and honey.  Had a beef stew for lunch (with bone stock, thanks Bova for introducing me to this).  All was going well untill I spotted the leftover sweets from Halloween.  Oh dear.  Munched my way through a bunch of them. 

Dinner was a pumpkin and steak risotto (more beef!). 

Resting today while the legs get a chance to recover. 

Early mornings

So today is the first time I've went to the gym before a normal workday.  Kept it swift, 30+ mins on the spin bike, race setting, 450kcals.  10-15 mins calisthenics (squats, press ups, abs work).  Did it on an empty stomach (barring the half a coffee).  Got home within 30 mins, had protein shake (whey).  Now at work, bought some whole milk to have cups of if lunch isn't sufficient.  I've got some grapefruit here for my mid morning snack and tuna sandwiches for lunch.  Not sure what dinner will be tonight but I suspect it'll be a steak and pumpkin risotto.

All in all I feel pretty good for it.  It wasn't hard getting out of bed, the session felt great as I was fresh.  Now I can just come home after work and flop out knowing I don't have to be straight back out again.  Feel a bit sweaty mind - body overheating all morning.  Cold shower going forward, might take the edge off.

Good start, let's see if I'm in there again tomorrow.

This time, I swear it...

Hello everyone.  And by everyone, I mean one, taking a look at the stats.  Surprising there are any hit's these but it looks like my review of the Spartan Health Regime is keeping up the passing trade.

So my commitment failed again last time.  In between I took up running in the morning for, oooh let's see, a good week and a half.  Quite tragic.  Also, I had a bit of a scare when the scales we're nudging 15 stone.  I really shouldn't be comparing in weight to my rugby playing brother in law.  That has slipped back down gradually through no particular effort of my own just good fortune in what I've done in my day to day activities.  Now, checking the skills this morning, I'm just tipping over 14 stone again.  Better than 15 at least, but I shouldn't be comfortable at this weight.

And I'm not.  I may have lost some weight through coincidental calrorie drop but I've lost tone.  I'm looking a little, for lack of a better word, slack. 

So it's time to start again.  Again.  Hit the gym last night, 30 minute blast on the spin bike, 400 kcals (according to the machine at least).  And you know what?  It felt damned good.  It makes me think why on earth has my attendance dropped off? 

Time to draft yet another plan (so many plans, so little action so far).  I'm not going to throw myself too heavily into training.  I am going to keep it enjoyable.  I will not regiment my training so it feels like a chore, instead I will stick to some simple rules.

• I will walk to and from the train station to work.  Come rain or shine, I will walk the 20 minutes.
• I will not eat crap snacks.  If it's during the day, I will go for fruit.  If I am desperate for something more junk like I will get exactly what I want, not just grab "something" I can find.  If I don't find what I want, or can't decide that I really want something specific, I won't get it.  If I must eat crap I will enjoy it rather than feel unsatisfied about it.
• I will only eat when I'm hungry, not because I'm bored.  If I need something to consume out of boredom black coffee will suffice.
• I will not use bread as a staple food.  No week of sandwiches at work.
• I will try to make soups using bone broth for some of my work lunches each week.
• I will use my supplements daily, but won't beat myself up if I miss them
• Finally, I will hit the gym 3 times a week.  It doesn't matter if the sessions are short 30 min blasts or 2 hour stretches.  I will get myself into the habit of the gym again.

I am also looking at going back to lau gar.  I'm not sure if I can afford to do the gym and lau gar properly, so if after a few months of doing kung fu once a week just isn't sufficing I may have to drop the gym to increase my hours kicking ass.

Also, from next week I'm looking to get the gym sessions in on the morning before work.  This will get it out of the way, set me up for the day, buring energy on an empty stomach and not give me the "oh it's been such a hard day at work, screw the gym it's beer time".  Till then it'll be the evening or daytime at the weekend.

Okay, so wish me luck.