Fighting Phat

I'm Back

2007-03-15T21:53:00.000+11:00

Hi All, I am back after a long absence. Just got home from my first rugby training in a while and I am sporting a few bruises. It was good, some contact training tonight, and apparently the first trial game is on this weekend. I am actually looking forward to it, however I wont be playing at 100% first off. I'm not quite there yet, but am ready for a hit out. It should be good and I'll let you all know how it goes. They seem to be a good bunch of guys at training.

My partner and I have moved, and our stolen bikes have been replaced. It feels great to be out of the old place, and our new pad is located in a much more interesting part of town, and there is a park right next door that is ideal for cycling and running in. My partner and I have just started to take advantage of that, and are really enjoying our new place.

So, it is good to be back - had the usual performance with Telstra getting our internet connected. They are useless, so if anyone out there is thinking of going to Bigpond, don't. They are the worst service provider that I have ever come across and as soon as we can get off contract we will be going to someone else..almost anyone else. Keep well, and check back soon for more substantial postings from me - there will be at least one on Saturday so check back then at least!

A Terrible Few Days

2007-02-17T15:36:00.000+11:00

Sorry all for the absence of posts of late. I have been having a really tough time lately and the toll of it all has been that I haven't had any time to post to my blog, and not much time to exercise either. Okay, so what's been going on?

Well, first of all we were robbed the other day which was really bad. It was good luck that they didn't take too much that can't be replaced, but it was very unsettling for both myself and my partner. Most people have been really good about it, but we have decided that we need to move.

In Sydney at the moment there is a 'rental property crisis' so moving and looking at properties has been a real strain for the two of us. This weekend was much better and for the first time in three weeks of looking we have found at least 3 places that we can imagine living in so hopefully we will get one of those three - fingers crossed.

When we do get one of them, move, and get settled elsewhere, I'll be right back into the rugby training and so on. Until then, I really do have bigger fish to fry and the effort will have to be placed elsewhere. I have kept on the straight and narrow diet wise, but I can tell that I need the exercise to come back as well. In any event, most of the places we have been looking at are more ideally located for exercise (nearer gyms and parks and what have you). I'm looking forward to it, and I'm looking forward to returning to posting more often as well.

The Night Before

2007-01-31T21:23:00.000+11:00

Well, it is back to Rugby training tomorrow evening, and I am looking forward to the session tomorrow night. I managed to get out for a run yesterday evenng after work, and I am nowhere near as sore as I was after my training session with the rugby team last time. I also managed to do an enormous walk on Saturday, and that helped a lot with the residual soreness from the training. The training tomorrow night will be different to running on my own, but I am picking that it will be a good session for me, and the soreness should return but be a lot less intense than it was last time.

I plan to take Friday night off from training and will be heading out after work to watch the first game of the local rugby competition on television. I'm really looking forward to the start of the rugby season, it will be a real cracker, and it is made that much more exciting by actually playing the game. This weekend I will also return to the gym and insist that time is put aside for that this weekend. This is a really important part of training as it helps with the impact training that will be part of the Rugby sessions for me in the near future. I still have no intention of doing any contact training in the meantime.

I will let you all know how it goes tomorrow night. I am sure that it will be fun, and my short term goal is to emerge from the training sessions injury free...easier said than done apparently. This time I may do some warm up on my own and make sure that I stay at my own pace. I should be able to handle it better this time, and hopefully I will be able to set the standard for training sessions to come. Good luck to you all, check back soon for more on my fight against fat.

And So It Begins

2007-01-26T09:33:00.000+11:00

Last night was the first night of rugby training, and to be fair it was quite tough. Fortunately for me it wasn't too hot yesterday, so that made running around that much easier. However, it has been some time since I did any sprinting or the rest of the training that comes with rugby.

I was pleasantly surprised with my perforance though. I was running at the end of the pack most of the time, but apart from one running section of the training I completed it all. I was not impressed with the structure of the training. We went right into it, and there wasn't much stretching at all. Consequently, I took it a bit easy as the body simply isn't as young as it used to be...I wasn't at all surprised when three of my colleagues fell out of training with torn calves and dodgy hamstrings.

However, the worst surprise came when they bought out the tackle pads and expected us to begin carshing into each other. Now, I know this was going to happen, but not at the first training when I haven't run fulls team into another bloke for a few years. To me, that is just asking for trouble, and sure enough there were a few more injuries sustained by those who did take part. I felt that by that stage I had done enough for the first session and so I sat that part out with my mate from work. He was not inclined to tackle this early on. I mean there are still two months to go until the first pre-season game so it isn't like we haven't got time to get a bit of fitness together first.

I enjoyed having a run around and meeting some new people. I think that I will keep going for as long as I can, and one thing that struck me about the training is that having other people around does make you go harder than you do on your own. I expended quite a lot of effort in the sprints to make sure that I kept up with the others, and I reckon that I did pretty well. Bring it on, I love the training and I even managed to avoid the pub afterwards! Maybe next time!

I am sore this morning however. My legs hurt, my groin is really tight, my back hurts (thanks to a wayward pass that I had to scoop up off the ground while running at full speed - good to know that skill is still there, even if the body found it tough first time up). It feels good however, as I know this means that I put in a good effort and will be rewarded. I am going to up my running time during the week so that next time when I go back I can do even better. I'd like to get into one of the teams for the season, but wont be disappointed if I don't. I was definitely at the upper end of the age range for the training session! Check back soon for more on my training.

Decisions, Decisions

2007-01-23T21:02:00.000+11:00

Well folks, having made the transition to Blogger Beta, although it is no longer beta, I have a few decisions to make. If I change my template and update it to the new blogger formats, I will lose all of the HTML goodies that I have added to the blog - such as my stats...

I'm not sure if it is worth doing this, and perhaps starting again from the new weight, or if I should remain with my old template and leave it just the way it is. It would be nice, I guess, to have a record of the entire journey to my new goal weight...If anyone out there has any thoughts, leave some comments on what you think I would be best to do.

Making Progress, But Still Really Busy

2007-01-20T15:27:00.000+11:00

I have been making progress, but am finding it hard with all the work I have on to report to you all aobut it, sorry, but I will be more regular with my posting as of next week. Promise!

My rugby training starts next Thursday. I have decided to do the training and see how I pull up, I may decide not to play, I can't really afford any injuries at this stage of my life, and the older I get the more likely those injuries are to ocurr, and any injury is also likely to be more serious. Anyway, I will see what the action is after a few training sessions, once I am able to gague the level of skill that my fellow players have and if I feel up to it. A great way to meet people, and it should be fun, as well as healthy and it should also save me some money if I can use this training, and my own to keep fit and not spend money with the trainer.

Tomorrow my partner and I plan to go for a walk, but we will have to wait and see what the weather does. It is enormously hot here today, and that is not conducive to exercise at all. I'll keep you all posted on how things are going for me.

Decision Made

2007-01-15T18:37:00.000+11:00

Hi All, it has been a busy return to work, and a busy opening to this year. I have not yet had time to contact the trainer, and I am considering not doing that for a wee while yet. The reason? I have met someone at work that plays rugby like I used to, and training for the pre-season starts soon. I would like to start saving some money, so if I cut back on a personal trainer, and have some regular training sessions with some other people to go to (now that I can run again properly) I think that this would be a great way to fill the gap.

My first training session is next Thursday and I am about to get out and start preparing for it now. There will be no contact to begin with, just running around and general fitness training once a week. I am actually looking forward to this and it should be good fun, plus a great way to meet some people. I will keep you all posted on the training when it starts, but for now I am a tad under the weather - I have a sore throat and a bit of a fever so I am taking it easy until that passes by. Look out for some more posts soon.

Back Into the Swing of It

2007-01-07T14:13:00.000+11:00

I have had a great holiday, and I hope that you all have as well. I mean, I had a fantastic break with my parents, and caught up with a lot of old friends over the two weeks that I have had off. I made the most of my time off, and had a really well deserved break over the festive season. I have put on some weight I believe, but I am not at all worried about it. There is plenty of time to get into the fitness thing now that we are in 2007, and I am back home now and get back into my routine.

It is good being home, while I had a good holiday and really enjoyed my time away, it did feel like coming home when we returned to our little home in Sydney. It is home now, but I still have a great time when I go back to visit where I used to live. I have made a decision that I have been thinking about for some time. I have decided that it is time for me to get back to the morning workouts, and this means doing a 30/30 spolit run from home for at least 45 minutes in the morning. This will necessitate a 5:00a.m start each day, and I hope to be able to do this, initially anyway, every second day. I will progress to running every day, and possibly doing another 45 minute session in the afternoon. I will keep all of you up to speed on how I do.

I will be posting on this blog with more regularity again than I have in recent times. I hope that you all will come and post comments on the blog and help me get back into the swing of things for my next long term goal session. I want to be at my 100kg overall goal mark by June this year. 6 months and I should be able to do it as I will be about 1/2 way there I reckon. Hope to hear from you all, positive comments really help.

Christmas Day, and Day After

2006-12-26T06:40:00.000+11:00

Well, this was one of the best christmas days on record ever. I had a wonderful time with the family. I was the deisgnated driver for the day, and this meant that I wasn't drinking any alcohol for most of the day. I collected my partner and my grandmother and we spent the day with my parents at the family home before I dropped my partner and grandmother off at their respective houses.

Christmas day is not christmas day without really nice food. My mother outdid herself this year, preparing a fillet of beef wrapped in bacon as the main dish. This was served with a superb greek salad, and with a bean and marinated mushroom salad as well. My grandmother had grown her own potatoes, so we had those boiled with some fresh mint to give them a bit of go. It was a superb meal. Dessert was christmas pudding, or plum duff, with cream, ice cream, and custard (I avoided the custard, the cream etc... was enough for me). It was worth waiting for, and for the first time in a very long time I had a great meal and did not feel in the least bit guilty or over weight, or as if people were watching me and thinking that I needed to pull myself in! It did feel great. I know there is more work to be done, but I still feel good about having come this far. I am looking forward to 2007 when I will start again in earnest, probably around the 6th of January (there has to be a lead in time!).

On the present front I did very well. I got some really nice soap that was named after various wines. The smells were terrific and I think that they will be something that I can use on special occaisions, as opposed to every day use. It was a great gift. I also got a fair swag of cash, although I gave a fair chunk of it to my partner so that she can get herself some nice things while she is over here. We have a bit more money now that I am working full time, and as we are on holiday at the moment, we need to make the most of it as we wont be on holiday again for quite some time. We have started a new savings scheme so that when we are next on holiday, we should have a fair bit of cash to ensure that we have a good one.

My grandmother seemed to like the candleabra that we got for her. It was in the shape of a palm tree so it should be pretty nice. My mother got a peshmina from us that was very beautiful. She had been saying that she wanted more things that she could wear that would go around her neck, and now she has another thing at least! She can add it to her jewellery collection! My father got the two books that he was after, well at least one of the ones he has been looking for. I think that he will enjoy the book that I got for him, it did very well in Australia and I know that he is interested in that sort of thing.

I got a yoga mat for my partner, and she was embarrassed as we had said that we weren't going to get presents for each other. I assumed this meant that I still had to get something for her, but apparently this is one of those times where one should not do the opposite of what one's partner says! Never mind, she will get a lot of use out of it, has been wanting one for ages, never got around to getting it, and it is only a small gift so a good result in the end.

Well, that is about it for now. Hope that you are all having equally good times. I look forward to resuming normal posting in the not too distant future.

Contact Remade

2006-12-22T17:51:00.000+11:00

I made contact with the trainer again today. I had a bit of time on my hands at work today, as we wound down to the end of year break. I need to sort out a routine that will work for me in terms of exercise, and I have been wanting to go back to her now that I can afford to again. I think that it will work well if I can get into a training routine around work with her in the New Year.

The job is going well, I like it there and it is well situated. The people are really friendly and there is a great atmosphere there. One of the great parks in Sydney is just up the road and I am hoping that I may be able to work out in the park during the day - I have just managed to locate the showers in our office building. That is a necessary thing when working out at work!

Aside from that, I wish you all a happy holiday if you are taking them at the moment. Remember, this is a time for celebration, there is plenty of time to get back into things in the New Year. At least that is my plan. There have been plenty of functions at work for me to go, and they may have taken a toll. I am going to start with the figures etc again in the New Year and make losing 15 kilos my first long term goal I think. All the best for your holidays, be safe and have fun.

Feeling Good This Morning

2006-12-18T06:21:00.000+11:00

I had to take an extra 10 minutes sleep this morning when the alarm peeled out at 5:00am. I toyed with the idea of getting some more sleep, but eventually dragged myself out of bed and got ready for day one of the new routine. When I took off it was about 25 past 5, and it was quite chilly outside. I went for 5 minutes of walking to warm up, and then got into my 30/30 split walk run.

It was good, my knees were a bit dodgy from time to time, however I kept at it and by the end they were going okay. I think there will be a bit of lead in time while my body gets used to road running, as opposed to running on the treadmill. I went for 35 minutes all up. I had hoped to do 45 minutes, but it felt right to finish after 35 as I was near home, the traffic was picking up, and I was starting to feel it by that stage. So, that will do me for the first day on the new routine.

Right now I am chowing down on my sanitarium weetbixs. They are bran boosted for extra goodness. I have showered, and will be fed soon. It feels good to take some time to cool down before I get into my work clobber and get ready to face the day.

I've been on my own all weekend as my partner is already away. I miss her a lot, not having her here at the weekend was very hard. Now that I am working for the rest of the time until I see her again I will be right. I have even made my lunches for the entire week - sandwhiches that I have frozen and will take each day. Be interesting to see how that goes. I have also got stuff in for morning tea so that I can get used to not going out for lunch every day. Now that I am more settled in at work I feel that this is the right thing to do.

Well, best of luck to you all in your own fight against fat, and especially good luck to you over the silly season!

Big Week

2006-12-16T21:40:00.000+11:00

I've had a big week this week. Work wise it has been flat out, but good. I have been home alone, my partner has left for a week or so until I can join her on holiday. Today I spent my whole day running around doing chores for her! Typical I guess, but at least they are done now. The rest of the day I spent doing some work on the internet. I think that I better take some time tomorrow to slow down and maybe have a bit of a sleep in.

I haven't been doing much in the way of exercise and have started to feel it. Tomorrow I am going to get up and get out and get into it. I have decided that until I settle in at work and get used to going to the gym, I am going to exercise in the morning's before it gets hot, and before I head out to work. It gets light here at about 5 in the morning so I am going to get up then and hit the road. I will be doing an old routine that I used to do a few years ago and it worked well. I will walk for thirty seconds and then run for thirty seconds. I alternate like this for at least 45 minutes. I used to do this twice a day, but to begin with I will do this in the mornings and see how I go. It will be interesting to see how the body copes with it all.

I am also going to put in a bit more effort with the blog. I ought to be able to post more often than I have been, so I will continue to keep trying to get on line and post a few more entries - at least twice a week to let you all know how I am getting on. I will let you know how day one of the new routine goes - I wont be going at 5 in the morning though!

No Loss This Week, But No Gain Either

2006-12-10T12:56:00.000+11:00

Well folks, it is official, no loss this week, but no gain either which is an achievement in itself given that I haven't been training at all this week. I have kept a very close eye on what I have been eating and I think that has been the different between putting on weight, and maintaining this week. Each day I have been having salads for lunch, making sure that my evening meals are good for me as well. Not the best result I have had since I started, but to be expected given the drop off in activity.

I have identified the gym and structure that my workouts will follow in my new routine now. I am really looking forward to getting into the gym in the centre of Sydney to see just how busy it is, and find out how I am going to go trying to workout there after I have finished work. My partner and I are starting to workout together after work tomorrow evening. She is going on holiday soon and I will be left on my own, so I intend to make the most of that time by keeping up with the exercise and looking my best for when I go on holidy myself in a couple of weeks time.

Given all of the upheaval that my routine has gone through recently, and the time of year I think maintaining is a good goal to have for right now. I can get back into the loss cycle in the New Year and continue to develop a routine that will work for me on a daily basis in conjunction with my lifestyle. One thing that I have learned is that what you do must suit your lifestyle and be something that you can maintain. If it is always a superhuman effort to do what you intend to do, eventually you will fail.

Well, that is about it for the weekend, my household chores are calling. Apologies for the lack of psots, this will be a regular thing as I no longer have the time to post everyday. Thanks for the comments that are coming in and for those of you that still top by to read what's been going on for me, I apologise for not stopping by your blogs as I used to. Undoubtedly I will be returning to your blogs to leave comments in due course, but for now I have to make sure that I get myself sorted and into the new working lifestyle. At least now I will be able to go back to the trainer in the new year when I can afford it again! Looking forward to that, she's tough and good.

Busy Busy Busy

2006-12-07T19:24:00.000+11:00

Hi All, I have been flat out this week and this accounts for the lack of posts over the last few days. Really busy with work, so much so that I aint been near the gym all week, not good, but can't be helped. Once things settle down a bit, I will able to start in a new routine and build in the exercise again, but at the moment it is just too much all at once.

I have been most gratified by my appearance in the old suits and shirts that I used to wear. They fit so much better now, better than they have since I got them a couple of years ago. It feels great to be in clothes that aren't bursting at the seams or causing me difficulty when it gets hot. I have no desire to go back to the way things used to be, but I realise that to try and do the exercise right now will make the transition that much more difficult than it needs to be.

It is a dangerous time of year of course, Xmas with all the parties and goodies on every street corner. So far I have managed to aboid most temptation, but this wont last, and nor should it. There is no reason why I shouldn't enjoy christmas like everyone else is, to deny having a good time in this season is pointless in my opinion. There is plenty of time for denial during the rest of the year! So, I'm doing okay at the moment, but am looking forward to the weekend when I will be getting into the gym and doing a few decent workouts. I think that I should be ready to get into the routine of regular exercise as well as the new work next week. We'll see how things go. Should be back for an update at the weekend, or maybe tomorrow evening.

Another Loss - Only Just!

2006-12-01T16:33:00.000+11:00

Well, it aint the biggest loss ever, in fact it might even be the smallest, but after a great holiday and a serious break in the normal routine I'll take it! 100 grams is the loss this week, nothing to be proud of but again it is still on the downward track. I think that having to eat out and not being able to go to a gym have taken toll on me, and of course there is the fact that I was unable to make time to get to the gym today which definitely affected the normal routine for me on weigh in day.

Today I had to go into town and return the car, and then do some stuff for my partner and myself while I was in the city. The drive into town in the car was a real adventure, the first time I have done this in Sydney. I got to see a lot of the city on the way in and my understanding of the geography of Sydney is much better than it used to be. By the time I had finished it was too late to get to the gym, and I will have to make do with a start there tomorrow instead. This must be my longest break from they gym since I started my fight against fat, but I don't feel like it is starting a trend or anything. I am still looking forward to getting in there, and pump class on Sunday should be good. The main thing is to get back into the routine which I will be able to do this weekend.

Overall I am pleased with my progress although of course I wish it was easier - who wouldn't? I guess, it is important to make lifestyle changes that can stick. I think I have achieved this as the fast food we had while on the road at the weekend really did nothing for me at all. That is really saying something as I used to love the stuff, just couldn't get enough of it into me all the time and after, of course, it would leave me feeling greasy and yuck. Now I felt greasy and yuck while I was eating it, and I could eat much less of it than I used to. I am glad that I have put that behind me.

Well, that is about all the news that is fit to print today. More work beckons and I must get started on preparing the dinner for tonight. It needs some marinating to get the flavours into it. My partner has been on some course at work all day and will probably be having a few champagnes after work so it will be a lateish dinner tonight. Be nice to have something decent ready to go when she gets home after a long week. Good luck to you all for the weekend.

Chores Day

2006-11-30T18:29:00.000+11:00

Hi all, what a day I have had. When we arrived home last night I remarked to my partner how great it was that we had cleaned the house before we left for our holiday. I foolishly thought that meant that there wasn't that much that I would have to do today. How wrong I was!

Today has been spent washing, drying, folding, wiping, vacumming, storing...you name it I have had to do it today. No time even for the gym today. I have been out making the most of our time with the car, which I have to return tomorrow. I have been to shopping malls taking clothes in that need dry cleaning and repair. It has been full on, and later my partner and I are heading out for some late night shopping that needs to be done. We are making the most of the vehicle, and it will be sad to see it go. It wont be sad to have to fill the tank with gas however!

I'll be back into it tomorrow after I have taken the car back. I think I will head to the gym after that, the drive and delivery of the car is likely to take some time. It might also take a wee while to get back home, but an afternoon cardio session will go well. The weekend will be spent working out both days as well of course. So, hopefully there will be some progress to report tomorrow for the weigh in! Might be expecting a bit much after a holiday, but you never know!

Last Day In Dubbo

2006-11-29T10:56:00.000+11:00

The mercury is about to shatter the thermometer here in Dubbo on our last day in central New South Wales. It was 40 the day before yesterday, 38 yesterday, and I reckon it is going to be even hotter today. I started the day well with 3 espressos in the best cafe I have been able to find in town, and even got some take home beans for the coming week. Looking forward to trying them at home as even though they sold a lot of different kinds of beans, in the cafe you had to have the house blend in all drinks. Anyroad, I got mostly organic coffee and am looking forward to tasting some of them in Sydney.

My partner is out at the zoo on the last morning of her course. I have to pick her up in about half an hour so I am killing time in the thriving cosmopolitan metropolis that is Dubbo. Home of Australia's best meat pie (2003 and 2005). I tried one yesterday for the novelty and it was the best pie I have had in Australia. This was mostly because it tasted like real meat had been used, and the gravy was a bit thicker than the others I had tried so it didn't run all over the plate. It was nice, but it is too hot for that sort of thing and there is no way I am going to go back for seconds.

Not much else to report, a long drive back to Sydney - should take about 6 hours or so. The Blue Mountain stretch will be interesting as there are fires there at the moment. The central city was on the news this morning, covered in a haze of smoke from the bush fires so it could be fairly slow going. Also, when we arrive in Sydney it will be rush hour so we will probably stop somewhere along the way to time our run into Sydney after the rush hour traffic has gone. We're hoping to stop at our favourite Lebanese restaurant on the way too for some great felafels, hommus, and of course their famous chilli chicken and lamb. Delicious. Then back to the grindstone again as of tomorrow! It has been a great holiday so far, the zoo was a highlight as were some of the vinyards. Check back tomorrow for my return to Sydney post!

Still on the Road

2006-11-28T12:59:00.000+11:00

Hi All, we're still in Dubbo and I went back to the zoo today. When you buy a ticket, it gets you entry to teh zoo for two days as it is pretty large, and the hot weather and flies make it difficult to do the entire thing in one day. Today instead of driving around the zoo I decided to walk, setting off from the car park at just after 9:00 a.m. It was great to be there nice and early, the animals that were a bit hot yesterday were out and in the open, I think I have managed to get some nice shots on the camera and will be looking to post those at the end of this week.

Walking around the zoo does get a bit tiring, mostly due to the heat and the constant presence of annoying flies. It is an upper body workout as you have to spend most of the time you are walking shooing flies off your face and body. This was especially the case at the hippo pen, the flies must come out at feeding time just like the hippos. It is worth it though, the zoo is special. I walked all told about 6km around the zoo and did get a sweat on. I think that will do for the workout today, although I may take a swim at the hotel later on. Tomorrow is our last day in Dubbo, we head back to Sydney in the afternoon and expect to arrive home about 8 tomorrow night. It'll be nice to get home, it has been a great trip but I miss my hard bed at home, the soft one in the motel room has been giving my back a bit of a hard time but a good night last night has put paid to that.

Well, that is about it for today, I am off to the shelter of the air conditioned room to enjoy some cable tv before I venture out again this afternoon for a bit more of a look around this part of the world. Check back on Thursday for my next update.

Post From On the Road

2006-11-27T13:28:00.000+11:00

Well, as the ashes test match (cricket) finished early due to England slumping to a 277 odd run defeat earlier today, I have ventured out into the heat, and into a dodgy internet cafe in Dubbo, to make this post on the run. We've been having a great time away so far, our trip to Mudgee was a bit of a highlight and we've taken lots of photos to put up on the blog when we do get back home. No way to upload them on the road so you will all have to wait until Thursday or Friday of next week when I get back home and can post the photos for you to have a look at.

As I was saying, Mudgee was the highlight of the trip so far. It is an old gold mining town and has some magnificent old buildings in it, most dating back to the early 1800's, which is pretty impressive for this part of the world. The old colonial style houses are still around, and the area seems to be going through a bit of resurgence as it becomes a weekend destination for sity dwellers like ourselves - bringing with them the city dollars. We stayed above a pub in Mudgee and that was both cheap and nice. It had air conditioning and we were very glad for that - it got up to at least 40 degrees the day that we were there.

There is a lot of wine being made in Mudgee now and we toured about five vinyards. My partner did the tasting as I was driving, although I did manage to sample a nice semillion and a couple of decent reds. We did buy some wine to bring back with us, a case and about four other mixed bottles, so the cellar at home will be in good shape for the summer. I even had a couple of beers on Saturday as it was so hot that I needed some liquid, and given that the cricket was on tv, and we were staying in a pub, it just felt right to have beer! It was nice, hit the spot.

Mudgee is also a foodie town, there are at least a dozen places of interest to stop in. After the first couple of places we decided that was enough, it was all just a bit too tempting. Butterscotch sauce, wicked chocolate sauce, belgian chocolate and all sorts of sweet stuff was on offer, and studioualy avoided - bar the occaisional small tasting sample of things. There were also some fine cheeses to try, the pesto infused feta was the highlight and we have some of that to bring home.

Dubbo is not quite as impresive as Mudgee. It is bigger, but there is less of the historical side to this town. We are staying in a hotel and it isn't really up to the standard that we were expecting. The best thing about it is that it has cable tv. We did get out for a few hits at tennis, but after about 15 minutes max we were completely shagged as it was 35 degrees, there was a hot wind, and there were about a million flies trying to join in our game! No good, and once you inhale some of those little buggers it really puts you off. We got in the pool after that and I did a few laps to get a bit of a work out. Today we have been to the zoo, and we've got some good shots of that which I will write about next week. It is an impressive zoo, they had a lot more animals than I was expecting as well having a great space for it. We saw the usual local animals - koalas, kangaroos, wallabies (all sorts), camels, emu - as well as tigers, lions, buffalo, zebras, giraffe, ostrich, elephants...and the list goes on. We've got some nice shots of some of them which I hope will look good once I upload them to the net.

All in all this is a good holiday, feels nice to be out of the city and somewhere different. We're here for another couple of days and then it is back to sin city. I'm looking forward to getting back to the gym, I just aint used to training in heat like this. I am a city boy, I need my air conditioned gym to work out properly - no bush background for me as they say! Check back in a couple of days for the next update.

Loss Achieved, but Smallest To Date

2006-11-24T09:51:00.000+11:00

Well, it is great to see the "to go" section of the above tracker progressively getting smaller than the "lost" side of the tracker. However, it is a mixed result this week - good to still be going down, but not so good that it was only 200 grams. I guess the weekend away made a difference, I was eating the same food as everyone else and not really watching what I was doing, and I guess looking at it from that point of view it is good to still be losing weight. We are off to Dubbo for another few days away from home and I am hoping this time to use the break as an opportunity to do some quality training away from the usual gym. Might be nice to get a break from there too. Just a bit of a change, however I think the few days away from the gym at the weekend have lead to the downturn in result this week. Most important thing for me though is to keep going down, and just keep at it. Negative thoughts and feelings about not having lost enough wont help me at all.

My totals for today were 62 minutes, 8.35km and 1051 calories. Not a bad effort, took a bit longer than usual to reach the calorie goal, but I got there, and the goal was attained. The progress chart on the web site has been updated so check it out if you'd like to.

Not much else to report at this stage. I had the usual workout this morning at the gym and am back at home, about to head out to get our rental car for the weekend. My partner has a half day today so she and I are off to do some shopping before we take off, and make full use of having some wheels. We take off tomorrow morning. I'm looking forward to it. Have a great weekend all, and all the best for your own fight against fat if you have joined me.

Daily Grind Ground Out!

2006-11-23T09:17:00.000+11:00

Back into the gym this morning, and again it is a very hot day. Yesterday afternoon was particularly bad, we had the hot air coming from the desert so when you were outside it was like being in a fan forced over. About 38 degrees at worst I think, not pleasant at all and it looks like we are in for another sweltering day today. At least I have been out now and may not have to go out again for the rest of the day with any luck.

I stuck with the usual two 25 minute sessions on the treadmill, and then moved to the calorie goal session on the cross trainer. I went hard and managed to knock off the 200 calorie goal in a record 10 minutes. I was pretty stoked by that. My totals for the day were 60 minutes, 8.36 kms, and 1050 calories in all. A good day at the office.

Not much else to report. I am cooking dinner tonight so will get something nice together featuring chicken. Our trip to Dubbo is on this weekend - I will be driving for the first time in a while on Friday - right in the heart of Sydney! That should be entertaining, out of practise so I want to pick up the car and get back here as quickly as possible. We have a party to go to on Friday night that is being thrown for the people who work in the same position as my partner. It should be fun, apparently if everyone turns up the house wont be large enough and we'll have to move to the bar next door! Sounds promising, but obviously I will be staying away from the demon drink - I have to drive the following day but my partner will be able to tear into it! I'll keep you posted on how it goes.

Difficult Cardio Workout Today

2006-11-22T10:22:00.000+11:00

I made it through my usual routine today, however I found it a bit harder than usual for some reason. I am not sure if it was the day off yesterday or if it is the hot and humid weather, but whatever the reason is, I wasn't as into the cardio today as usual. My totals for the day were 65.1 minutes, 8.5km, and 1,051.1 calories. Not a bad effort, but it took me longer on the cross trainer to reach my 200 calorie goal than it usually does. Never mind, there is always tomorrow to put in a big effort, and I am sure that I will return to my normal enthusiastic self. Maybe I need to jazz up the workouts a bit, try different equipment to inject a bit of variety into things.

I watched a pretty good film the other day called "Touching the Void". It was about a couple of mountain climbers who embark on a climb of a previously unclimbed mountain face in the Andes. It is a tale of disaster and difficulties that at times defy all belief, but is based on a true story. It was interesting to listen to the characters as they went through such a terrible ordeal, and I was always thinking "I am really glad that didn't happen to me"! I'd reccomend watching it if you are at all interested in what the human body can withstand and what people are capable of doing.

Aside from that, not much to report. It is hot and sticky here today. It is supposed to get up to 38 degrees here today. To top that off there are bushfires burning out in the Blue Mountains and they are starting to threaten homes in the area, a real shame. The hot desert wind is not helping the efforts to put out the fires at all. I feel for the people out there.

In other news Thorpe, Aussie mega star swimmer anounced his retirement. This is getting a lot of press right now as you would expect. The Ashes (a series of cricket test matches between Australia and England) start tomorrow morning and the country is practically on a war footing to win those back after losing them last year for the first time in 17 or 18 years or something. It should be a good series. Well, check back tomorrow when hopefully I will have a report emphasising how mucyh more intense my morning workout was than today!

Apologies For Lack of Post

2006-11-21T17:43:00.000+11:00

Hi all, apologies for the lack of a post today. I have been flat out all day, jetting into town and taking care of some urgent business that we needed done. So, no gym for me today but at least all the work is done and I can hit it hard tomorrow morning. I am quite looking forward to it, I actually missed the gym today, but can't be helped.

We're organising ourselves for our trip to Dubbo this weekend. We are renting a car and we pick it up on Friday night. We're taking off the following morning and return to Sydney on Wednesday. We're spending one night in Mudgee on the way there, and will take our time on the way back so we avoid hitting Sydney at rush hour on Wednesday. I'm looking forward to some time away, it'll be nice for my partner and I as last weekend wasn't that restful - there were too many other people there all wanting to debate every little thing that we were going to do. This time we will be in charge of ourselves and can organise to do things we want to do.

Not much else to report, very hot in Sydney today. I have been sweating all day and seem to have managed to get dehydrated. The eating has been going well, no dropping off in that regard since the trainer and I parted ways. I am hopeful that I will be able to return to see her, but I think it is most likely this will happen in the New Year, as opposed to a return in the near future. Again, apologies for the delay in posting, and for the still as yet to be posted holiday snaps! I will post these tomorrow.

What A Weekend

2006-11-20T16:30:00.000+11:00

Wow, that was a full on weekend away at a beach called Bendalong. It was very nice, near to a better known area called Jarvis Bay where they claim to have the whitest sand in the world. I am not a worl expert, so I can't really say yay or nay on that one, but it was white, that is for sure, and it made a very interesting squeaking sound when you walked on it that most people seemed to enjoy. Yes, I did get some pictures and I will post them, along with tales of my weekend probably tomorrow afternoon, a bit pressed for time today. What I can say is that I have a bit of sunburn lingering today that I really ought to have avoided, and when you go on holiday with nine people, there is a fair bit of frustration that goes with it. It was good to get away and see a bit more of the state, and I am looking forward to our next holiday this weekend at Dubbo in central New South Wales.

I did get to the gym this morning, there was a bit of exercise required to address the holiday atmosphere and it was good to get back into it. I went on the treadmill for two 25 minute sessions, and I then did 200 calories on the treadmill. Having a calorie goal is good as it encourages you to work harder to reach the goal faster. With time and effort already set out under the program I usually work to, it doesn't matter - everything is set down for you. But if you have a calorie goal only, you can work harder to reach it faster. I quite enjoyed that aspect of the final stage of the workout this morning. I also did three sets of 20 situps on the Swiss Ball, as well as three set of 20 leg raises on the floor. It was a good workout, I know because my workout shirt was absolutely soaking wet by the time I headed home.

My totals for today were 62.5 minutes, 8.36km, and 1,046.3 calories. I felt great on the initial phase of the treadmill and went quite hard. I think that some of the sand dune walking and swimming of the weekend took a bit of a toll on my feet as they were a bit painful during some of the running. However, I pushed on and did well. I'm looking forward to getting back in there tomorrow. My apologies for the brief post today, there will be more tomorrow afternoon I am sure. I hope that you all had the same great weekend that I did.

Half Way Point Reached!

2006-11-17T11:29:00.000+11:00

Great news, I have finally gotten past the half way point in my quest to lose 45kg (99lbs) of fat. I feel great having finally reached it, and it has been getting progressively more difficult to maintain high levels of weight loss each week. My rate of weight loss has come down, but I feel good about this because it isn't such a struggle and I know that I wont be going to back to the old ways anytime soon. Obviously if it would fall off that would be great, but I have to make changes to the way that I eat, and they have to be changes that will stay with me for the rest of my life. Slowly but surely is definitely the best way to go here. I am stoked, only 22kg to go to my overall long term goal! 2kg to go to reach my next short term goal.

I hit the gym hard this morning. I had a slightly larger than usual serving of dinner last night, I must have needed it as this morning I felt a bit sore and tired, but once I got moving I felt good. I think I did the walk to the gym in record time this morning, and once I got on the treadmill I couldn't help but go faster than usual. As this doesn't happen too often I made the most of it. My totals for today were 61.47 minutes, 8.49km, and 1072.6 calories. So, much faster than usual, and about the same distance and calories as the other workouts this week. Not too shabby for me.

We're heading off to the beach this weekend. I am being collected in the not too distant future and have been put in charge of packing up for the trip so I will have to get stuck into that. The achievement of this morning has made a bit of difference to my mood, I am really looking forward to spending a couple of days away from it all, near and in the water. My partner and I are planning a few marathon walks for our time away so that we get to see a huge amount of the the area that we will be in. I'll be taking photos, so look out for those on Monday. Have a great weekend all, and keep it up for your fight against fat.

Attitude Issues Solved by Phone Call

2006-11-16T12:57:00.000+11:00

Well, it is a wet, windy, and miserable day here. I was really tired this morning, and a bit sore from the workout yesterday evening...so I can only conclude that it was a good one! My legs are sore from the lunges and I was sitting at the pc looking out the window and I couldn't imagine a less inviting scene to get my active and going to the gym. Just then the phone range and my father was calling for a chat and a bit of a general catch up. We had a chat for just over 1/2 an hour and it was really good to hear from him and chew the fat. Anyway, his call put me in a good mood and I decided to overcome the adverse elements and venture out into the tempest for my cardio session. I was glad for the phone call.

I was a bit later than usual, but was determined to do a proper workout and get through my regulation 1000 calorie goal. I toyed with the idea of getting on the rowing machine and some other machines that wouldn't hurt my foot, but in the end I went for 3 sessions on the treadmill. I was glad that I took this option as once I got going I really enjoyed the running. It was good, I felt good running and moving at pace. I even upped the speed during the first two sessions at various stages to get to goals I set for myself during the run. It worked well. My totals for today were 69:47 minutes, 9.11km, and 1131.6 calories.

The reason that the time is out is that for my last session on the treadmill I set a calorie goal of 250 and worked to that. Once you reach the goal, the machine gives you a five minute warm down period. So, in 14:47 I burned 250 calories, which wasn't too bad. I think I was running ahead of what I normally do on that session. It was good to have a goal like that, although kind of demoralising at the start when it seems that you have so far to go! They soon add up and after a while you relish watching them click over so quickly, getting closer and closer to your goal. Next time I think I will make it 300.

After that I went to the stretching area and did some leg raises on the floor holding the base of the stretch bar. These were quite good, and my back felt pretty good afterwards. I think that I really need to build some strength in my abs as they lag behind the rest of me now. I also did some sit ups on the floor - all of the Swiss Balls were being used which gutted me. To finish off I did some hamstring and back stretches. When I finished I ran into the trainer, she was happy to see me at the gym and was very encouraging. She told me to go hard because when I go back to her she will "kill me"! A good incentive to keep going with my own weight regime because when I do go back to her (I will when I can afford it) I don't want to suffer that much.

And that is about all the news that is fit to print. No evening workout today. I have the rest of the day at home to recover and tomorrow will be another two workout day. That will be a real test as I am tired in the legs already. Hopefully that will have gone, but probably what I will do on Friday is a workout that is different from what she used to have me do - I will keep all of the exercises that I felt worked best, but may not be able to do them the same way that she used to help me do - that was very difficult on my own as other people would come and grab the equipment while I was using something else. Never mind, I am sure that I will get on top of it.

First Solo Workout Completed

2006-11-15T17:19:00.000+11:00

Well, I'm back. I managed to complete my first solo workout, and I wont pretend that I enjoyed it, it was really hard today. Most important was there was no one to talk with, no one to help with the weights, and no one to look after the equipment while I took off to do lunges somewhere else in the gym. I did miss the trainer today, but not as much as I would have missed the money I would have eventually had to pay her I'm afraid. That is the reality, and I will have to adapt to the difficulties that the new situation presents. I may ask if the gym arranges training partners as that would make a real difference for me.

Anyway, I got through the workout. It is amazing how different it is when you are in charge of the exercises that you are going to do. It is just that much more difficult working out when you have to think about it as well! I think that I went about as hard as I used to, but I don't think it was quite as good overall as the workouts used to be. I think it is a confidence thing, and an experience thing. It has been a while now since I was last in charge of my workouts and it will take a while before I am in the swing of it.

I did lunges, flys and situps on the Swiss Ball, press ups on the Bosu, and then squats on the Bosu. That was the first part of the routine and took me about 40 minutes to do 3 sets. I then went and did some dumbell work on my back, followed by some chest press on the machine to finish off. I worked quite quickly and had a good sweat on by the end of the workout. I reckon that the intensity was there because I almost threw up at the end, although I think that was mostly because I forgot to take my water bottle with me to the gym and my mouth was really dry!

Anyway, that is the first day containing two workouts in the new timetable done. I feel a bit tired, and it was hard, but I think that it should be manageable. Some news came in today, my partner and I may be getting away this weekend to the beach. One of her cousins is in town and they are renting a beach house just south of Woolongong and have invited a few family members down for the weekend and we may be able to tag along. I really hope so, it'd be nice to get away and get amongst the surf down south. I'll let you know how the plans go, but obviously that will have a bit of an impact on the timetable! I'll have to put it in storage for the weekend! Wont matter, there will be plenty of exercise over the weekend at the beach - swimming and walking are foremost in my mind...

First Step on New Plan Taken

2006-11-15T10:54:00.000+11:00

Well, I have my cardio workout of this morning out of the way, I have just arrived back from the gym now and it was quite an interesting one today. I had a sore foot yesterday and I think that happened as I ran a bit harder than usual on the treadmill. In particular, during the machine's warm down cycle, I kept running at the pace the machine determined, rather than actually warming down and following the guidelines given by the trainer. I was hobbling around a bit yesterday afternoon, and while the pain had subsided this morning I decided to give the treadmill a miss and inject some variation in the routine this morning, as well as avoid doing any further damage to the foot.

I decided to start on the bike as there was no chance of hurting my foot pedalling on a stationary bike. I jumped on the thing to find that there were a vast array of programs to choose from, but none of them were called "calorie goal" or even "distance goal" which surprised me. I had a look and chose something called weight loss and gave it a shot. It wasn't too bad, and quickly after starting I found out that the bike has a 30 minute time limit, not the 20 minutes that applies to the treadmills. Of course there was, I assumed the usual 5 minute warmdown at the end, and I was pretty much correct. For some reason it stopped at the bizzare time of 34:25, but that was long enough. My butt was sore by then anyway. I got through 420 calories which wasn't too bad by my reckoning. I had thought that it would be a lot less.

From the bike I got on the cross trainer proper and had a blast on that for the usual 25 minutes. It was good to get on this machine again, as I hadn't been on it for ages. I found, to my surprise, that you can burn just as many calories on this as you can on the treadmill running. I was quite impressed with my 425 calories and 3.24km from that session. After that I got on the cross ramp and again was surprised to find that I did 419.8 calories and 3.22km. Today's totals came in at 84 minutes, 21.96km, and 1264.8 calories (note on the bike I got in over 15km). To check the spreadsheet of my stats click here.

I feel tired, but pretty good. I stuffed down breakfast as soon as I got in the door because I will need to have lunch out of the way by 1:00 this afternoon so I will have two hours to digest prior to my 3:00 workout. I am a little apprehensive about this workout, it is the first of the workouts that I have designed to do myself and it will be interesting to see what the gym is like at that time of day, and how I get on with hogging a lot of equipment to myself while also doing cardio in between sets as the trainer used to have me do...at least when she was there she could watch over the weights and keep the nosy scavengers at bay. I'll be sure to let you know how I get on, so check back later for my updated post this afternoon.

New Timetable Underway, New Cardio Fitness Tracker Working

2006-11-14T13:08:00.000+11:00

Hi all, I have been outrageously busy, yesterday evening we got a nasty surprise that threatened our already slightly dubious financial position in the form of a water bill for $200.00. This was a surprise to say the least, and as it didn't arrive until after 5:30 p.m. yesterday we weren't able to follow it up with the water department straight away. My poor partner was racked with worry about this bill as it threatened to really put a damper on our Xmas holidays, and our trip to Dubbo in about two weekends time. Suffice to say that I have beena ble to sort it out this morning and it looks like we don't have to pay the account, but I have to make sure it gets to the agent so that it can be paid or else our entire complex will be without water! Hope we can avoid that, just waiting for the agent to call and find out where to send the bills.

My partner had been contacted by the gym during the day about her 3 half hour personal training sessions at the gym that she got as part of the deal I signed her up under. She set one of them down for last night at 7:30p.m. so once I heard this I decided that my twice a day routine might as well start right then, and I went along with her. I decided to start with something a bit light to get used to it and did a workout on my biceps and triceps. It was quite difficult to workout at 7:30 as the gym was enormously packed. My partner and I decided that we wont be going back at that time, and I will use the afternoon for my workouts instead of the evenings. I think this should work okay for me - there will be enough time to recover from the cardio workout and still put in a decent effort.

I did manage to do a reasonable arms workout, and I was glad that I had chosen a small muscle group to work out. It took ages to get any of the weights to use because of the large number of people there, most of whom were young guys hogging a huge number of massive dumbells that they weren't even using most of the time. In any event, I did alternate dumbell curls, tricep pushdowns, ezcurl barbells curls, tricep dumbell extensions, and finally some standing pulley curls to finish off. My arms really felt it by the end of the 1/2 hour, and I did notice that there was some stress in my back so I will have to be careful about this. However, I felt good and it was good to get through the first workout. In future I think that the muscle and strength building workout that I do will only involve my arms and my back. The rest of my body will make do with workouts modelled on what the trainer used to have me do.

So, last night I finally finished off what I am calling my Xmas timetable, a daily plan that sets out what I do, and when I am supposed to do it. This should have me fighting fit by the time I head off on holiday and aside from the 5 day trip to Dubbo from 25-30 of this month, I think it should be fine for me to stick to it. If any one wants to have a look at my proposed timetable, they can download it by clicking here, or from the spreadsheets page of the web site directly of course.

I have also redesigned my cardio tracking spreadsheet so that it has a couple of features that are improved over the earlier versions. First and foremost it calculates totals for all of the data that you enter into it. Also, the graphs work a bit better now, and they look a whole lot better. You can download the spreadsheet that I am using by clicking here, or directly from the spreadsheets page of the web site.

This morning I got into the gym as planned and according to the tiemtable. I did, in the end, 3 25 minutes sessions on the treadmill. At the end of the usual two I saw that I needed just over 200 calories to get to the 1000 calorie mark so I figured I would grind them out on the treadmill rather than transfer to the cross trainer or the cross ramp as I did have a slight pain in one knee and the trainer had suggested not using those machines if that ever happened. By the end of the workout I had done 75 minutes, 9.52kms, and 1166.9 calories. Not a bad effort considering it was backing up from last night, and I felt really good at the end.

I decided to do some ab work as I think they are the cause of the slight trouble my back is giving me. I did 3 sets of 20 situps on the Swiss Ball followed by 3 sets of 20 leg raises on the bench. I felt pretty good at the end of these exercises, but I thought that would do for the first day. I have all of that to do again tomorrow morning, along with my first workout tomorrow afternoon where I will be trying to emulate what the trainer had me do. I'm looking forward to it, and will be designing the workout this afternoon. I have a good idea of what to do, it hasn't been that long since I last saw the trainer.

I also spoke with the trainer yesterday afternoon. She was really good about it, and even offered to train me 2 times per week on what amounted to a credit system - meaning I would pay her when I could. She said that she thought of me as more than a client, and she was very sad to hear that I couldn't afford to see her anymore, but she understood. I thought about her offer quite seriously, but as I can't be sure when I will be in a position to pay her I can't really incurr any credit as I hate not being able to pay people and it could turn sour. She says she'll be happy to answer any questions that I might have and she'll still see me at the spin classes on Saturday mornings. It was sad talking with her and ending an 'era' for want of a better expression. I feel a bit of doubt about what lies ahead, but I am also determined to continue on with losing weight.

Good Start To The Week

2006-11-13T10:57:00.000+11:00

I started well this morning, 25 minutes on treadmill for 3.07km and 366.6 calories. I backed that up with another session of 25 minutes for 3.23km and 391.3 calories. I then went on a machine I haven't tried before which was like a cross trainer, but without the handles that your arms move back and forth. I think it was called a crossramp machine - it is one of those precor elliptical training machines. I was surprised at how tough it was, and played around with the buttons to see what changes they made. It was a good workout and I may use it a bit more, although my hamstrings are a bit tight after using it. It does seem to targe them well, however after pump yesterday I didn't really need that on the hamstring. They were sore last night.

Anyways, on the crossramp machine I got through 15 minutes for 1.89km and 240 calories. Unfortunately my mathematic skills are not what they should be and I had hoped that this would get me across my new goal of 1000 calories of aerobic exercise every day. I think the total is in fact 997.9 calories. Bummer, but I guess with the walk to and from the gym that would take me over the 1000 mark. However tomorrow I will make sure that I do the whole lot. I also did a total of 8.19km this morning which isn't too bad really. I feel good about it, that is for sure. After the cardio workout I did some situps on the Swiss Ball and a couple of the instructors that were roving around the gym mentioned to me that they had noticed how much weight I have lost. Always feels good hearing people say that, but I must say I find it hard to take a compliment like that. Not sure why, I always feel obliged to say something like "Yeah mate, but there is still a lot more to lose" or something like that. Not sure why, and it seems like a negative response. I suppose I should say something like "Yeah thanks for mentioning it, that really helps. It has been a lot of hard work, but I feel much better for it".

I wont be in the gym for the second workout today. After the pump class I need a bit of recovery time, and also I think some stretching at home will be enough to keep me going for today. Tomorrow will be the first two workouts in one day under the new regime and I have the rest of today to fine tune the workout that I will be doing in the afternoon. I was thinking this morning about the changes that I am making to the workouts that I am doing and I am feeling pretty positive about it all.

My partner and I have finished our budget and the trainer will have to go due to financial constraints. It is a shame that we couldn't juggle things to allow me to keep going but it just wont fit in and so my new plan takes on added significance now that I can't rely on the trainer to keep me going to the gym and keep me training hard. Now I will have to do that myself, but I feel that the time is right to make this move, and it may even help me to be in charge of my entire workout, anything that goes wrong will be down to me exclusively! I will call her later on today, and I am hoping that she understands and that she will still see me at the spin classes that I am hoping to keep going to.

Well, I will post my new cardio spreadsheet soon, and I will also post my timetable for working out, and my workout plans once I have them. I will be doing a couple of run throughs before I sort out the correct weight levels and what have you, but I have a pretty good idea of where I am at, although it was hard to pay attention with the trainer as I was always so tired while working out I just had to concentrate on what I was doing to get through it. I think I will keep some of the cardio and weight mix she gave me, but I must remember that towards the end her workouts were so tough I couldn't do them and a cardio workout as I had been able to do at the start of my time with her.

A new challenge on the horizon, and one that I am looking forward to actually. This will be a good experiment - a bit like the one I went on this weekend. I decided to shun all caffeine this weekend, and I think I have suffered a little because of it. I have had headaches - fortunately they could be treated with panadol, and felt a little jittery at times, but this morning I feel fine. Four days without coffee! It wont last, but I just wanted to see what it was like....and I think drinking coffee is better and easier! Love the stuff, and it wont do me as much harm as what I used to drink in large quantities I am sure!

Good Weekend

2006-11-12T13:05:00.000+11:00

I've just arrived home from Body Pump class and am feeling good. Workout went well, and I think that this class will be a regular event for the three of us (myself, my partner and her cousin). It was a tougher workout than usual today, the music was different and the exercises seemed just that little bit tougher. I enjoyed it, and pushed through, but I could see that many of the regulars were struggling today.

It was interesting watching some people in the class today. The form that some people use on exercises had me worried for their safety, however the instructor didn't see any reason to help them out by suggesting that they change what they were doing. I know my own form isn't always text book perfect, but I don't do squats like good mornings - one woman at the front of the class did hurt her back during the warm up, but soldiered on without changing her technique at all. I think I will have to be careful doing this class as clearly I wont be able to rely on the instructor correcting my form if it isn't right. It is a worry, but I don't think that classes will be featuring too highly on my workout plans for the coming month.

I mention a month as by that time, 14 December 2006, I will be on holiday for the Xmas period. I do not expect to remain losing weight during that time - only a fool would diet over Xmas. I intend to have a good time, eat some nice food, drink some nice wine and beer, celebrate the New Year with some old friends, and not let dieting and exercise get in the way. Of course, that doesn't mean just going off and eating heaps and drinking even more, it means doing exercise and keeping up with that side of things, while not concentrating on the diet as much as I have been. It will be interesting to see how it goes, but one thing is for sure - I just don't think that I can eat as much as I used to anyway so that will help me.

I'm looking forward to hitting the next month from tomorrow quite hard as I have a goal in mind - the Xmas holiday period and getting down as far as I can before that starts will be important. I'll be catching up with some good friends of mine over the Xmas break and will also be working out with at least one of them. Last time I saw him I was at my heaviest and we did some boxing training. I'll be looking forward to doing some of that again but this time doing a bit better -a long with doing some running and that sort of thing. It'll be good fun and we may even be able to get out to the west coast for some swimming in the big surf. Sweet.

Well, I hope that all your weekends are going well and that you are all set for the coming week. Should be a good one and I will be letting you all know soon what my hard out month of exercise and eating entails. Cheers!

Half Way Mark Remains Elusive

2006-11-10T08:32:00.000+11:00

Well, I have been to the gym, done my usual cardio workout and had my weigh in. The 22.5kg (49.5lbs) half way point still eludes me. I had hoped to reach that mark this week, but it wasn't to be. I am at least pleased that the downward trend continues, even while the workouts are not as intense as they used to be. I think I am still carrying some of the effects of the sore knee I suffered during the massive walk half marathon I did two weeks ago now. My knee is now performing like it used to, but an injury like that does slow you down a bit while you have it, and then there is a period where you come back from it. I am happy to say that this morning on the treadmill I felt good (yes, it is sunny today too so that really helped me!) and am back to normal running now. Feels good and I know that I can use this to reach the next goal of getting over the half way mark (next week I reckon), and then on to the next short term goal of 120kgs (264lbs).

My session with the trainer this morning went well, however I am now fully conversant with the plan of our workouts together and they are not as taxing for me as they used to be. I still get tired, I still go as hard as I can, but by virtue of knowing what is coming next, I find the workouts are easier to get through because of this. As they don't come cheap I am thinking about whether or not I should continue seeing her as I really could use the money at this time. This is not a decision to be made lightly, however my partner and I have identified that we need to make some adjustments to our budget and this is one area that stands out as being a possible area to cut back. I think that now I could design and do my own workouts that would not be entirely dissimilar to the ones she has me do. Perhaps when our financial position improves I will be able to afford to go back to her. At this point it is likely that I will have to do this, but my partner and I are going to discuss it further tonight.

Not much else to report. The diet has been going well. It is getting a bit repetitive, however we recently were able to get our hands on some really hot chillies and we have been using these to spice up the normal stir fries, and add a bit of go to things generally. Our veggies boxes have helped to keep things a bit more interesting as we are not in control of what veggies are put in the box when we get it. So, this forces us to be a bit more inventive with recipes and what have you. It is working out well, and we are definitely eating more veggies, and saving money on our weekly shop. The last box we ordered has lasted us two weeks so we are doing well out of that one.

Well, this is definitely moving into a crucial time for me, and I am looking forward to it. Taking responsibility for more of my exercise seems like a good idea to me at this point, and could be just what I am looking for now that I feel I can do more working out than I used to. I used to be so tired it was hard just to do things around the house after a workout in the morning. Now I feel like I could head to the gym and lift some weights in the afternoon and this might be exercise model that I move too soon. I'll keep you all posted, and I wont be giving up in this fight against phat, of that you can be sure!

Cardio Session Done

2006-11-09T13:22:00.000+11:00

Hi all, got into the gym this morning for my usual cardio session. 50 minutes on the treadmill and a walk to and from the gym. I cranked up the incline on some parts of the workout routine today to add a bit of extra grunt to the session. Worked well, and a few extra calories were burned by me. I have found that my knee is now more or less completely back to normal and is not giving me any trouble to speak of.

It is raining outside again today, been cloudy and bit off for most of the last week now. Not the best sort of weather for getting out and hitting the gym, it is always a little bit more difficult to keep motivated when the sun isn't shining I find. Not sure why, I mean I work out inside I just find it less inviting to get outside to walk to the gym I guess. The MP3 player is a real help on the treadmill on days like today, if you let the music move you.

I am pretty sure that I am not the only one that feels like this as the gym was nearly empty when I went down there today. There must've been less than 20 other people there with me today, well down on the usual 50-75 people that usually cram the place in the mornings. Long may that last, I much prefer it there when there is plenty of room to go around, and no one cramming the machines or even worse, having to get in a line to get on exercise equipment.

I'll be developing a new timetable for myself in the next day or two and will publish that on the site if anyone is interested in having a look at what I propose to do. I will also be recording my weights workouts from now on as it is crucial that I track my progress in this area also as part of my fight against fat.

Exercise and Movies

2006-11-08T09:36:00.000+11:00

Hi All, apologies for the lack of a post yesterday - after I went to the gym in the morning I took the rest of the afternoon to head into town and have a look around. I went for quite a large walk in town, from Kings Cross back to the city. As it was the afternoon by the time I got there, my partner asked me to wait in town and meet her there after she finished work. I decided that I may as well take in a film to kill some time, and afterwards we had a light Chinese meal for dinner and so we weren't home until late.

I went to see "Flags of Our Fathers". I was expecting quite a good film, having heard a lot of good reviews. I was a bit dissappointed by the film in the end - I found that it was disjointed, very poorly directed, often quite confusing, and the temporal connection between scenes was changed too often to follow accurately what happened during the battle. The whole "I don't want to be called a hero" side of the film was overplayed and stated too often to really develop into a theme of any consequence. The main problem is that the photo is a remarkable image of struggle and success, regardless of how it actually came to be taken and does capture the imagination of most people who see it.

Some of the action sequences were very good, but overall I was disappointed by what I considered to be a very poor retelling of monumental struggle in the face of adversity pitching tenacious defence against the projection of massive military power. By constantly juxtaposing the battle scenes of the past against the present of the film, the temporal nexus of the battle is destroyed and it is often difficult to place where and when scenes on the island are supposed to take place. In addition, the bits of the film about the fund raising tour that the heroes go on fall flat and the movie at times becomes overly laboured on the points of alcoholism, the effect of the battle on the men, and the public interest in identifying heroes to worship in difficult times. Eastwood has done much better than this, and hopefully will again. Mediocre at best.

I have been to the gym this morning, another cardio workout on the treadmill. Nothing of any great consequence arose this morning. I have been considering whether or not I should continue with the trainer and will make a decision today and call her about it. In the end, I think it will come down to finance as I don't think that I can really afford to continue to see her anymore. I would like to return to seeing her when I can, but for the meantime it may have to go on hold. I feel confident that I can keep up the good work on my own now, and perhaps even start to do more if I take over control on my own. I will let you all know what decision I make in the end.

Drizzle Continues

2006-11-06T15:33:00.000+11:00

After a damp weekend, the rain continues for the third day...feels like it has been raining for a month! Had a good weekend, got to the gym yesterday morning for a pump class and did quite well. The weights that I was training with were a bit heavier than the first time I went through. I coped well, but did struggle with the squat part of the routine - I think that the weight was not assisting my knee much at all and I did have minor pain during the workout from the left knee. I am sure that it will come right however.

I have decided to take today off from the gym, I can feel that the muscles are a bit sore from the workouts I have done for the last few consecutive days and so some rest is in order. I am looking forward to getting into the gym again tomorrow morning and get back on that treadmill. Should be fun.

Today I was going to venture into town, but with the weather the way that is has been there isn't much point. I will probably postpone the trip until tomorrow and may some photos for you all to have a look at. I'll be trying to sample a few great coffees while I am out and take a look at some of the sights around Sydney. Of course, this will be after the morning's exercise which I will get out of the way fairly early I think. Not much else to report today, looking forward to a good sweat session on the treadmill tomorrow.

No Class Today, Cardio Workout on Treadmill Done

2006-11-04T17:36:00.000+11:00

I forgot to mention in my previous post that the trainer told me not to go to the spin class this morning. Apparently the usual instructor is on leave this weekend and she reckons the replacement is nowhere near as good. Consequently she suggested that I not go to the class and we are set to go next weekend instead. I am looking forward to going back to that class, the trainer said that I did very well last time I went to the class. I am, however, also grateful for the fact that my knee will have an additional week to heal and I can get some cardio under my belt before I go back.

So, in order to make some progress I went into the gym this morning with my partner and her cousin. They decided to do a body balance class - a mixture of yoga, pilates, and tai chi. That is a bit too slow for me and so I got on the treadmill and went for a decent walk. Felt good too, 50 minutes at pace, although I stayed away from doing any running. I finished off with an abs session, I need plenty of work on that part of the body and a few sit ups on the Swiss ball was a good way to finish off - I find that working out my abs on the Swiss Ball also has an effect on my back - seems to tighten things up and help my posture a bit. It does need some work.

Not much else to report, tomorrow morning the three of us are heading into the gym for the 10:30 body pump class. This should be good, a nice way to work out all the muscle groups in the body without going too far. I'm looking forward to it, and I think I will try and keep the weights fairly light as a lot of the exercises will test how far my knee has come in terms of being fully repaired. I'll let you know how I get on, and of course I will let you all know what the outcome of our determinations on finance are this weekend.

Another Half Kilo Loss!

2006-11-03T10:24:00.000+11:00

Well, it has been a pretty unusual week for me this week. The sore knee has been the focus and getting right has taken a bit of the sting out of my usual workouts. However, I have still managed to drop half a kilo again, and I am heading down towards the goals that I have set for myself. I am really pleased with my result this week as I was a bit worried that the lack of cardio exercise might have had an adverse impact on the result for this week. I have kept eating fairly normally, however I guess that mighty walk must have done me some good! I am now closing in on the half way mark, and that feels really good.

I had a workout with the trainer this morning and it was back to normal really. There weren't any lunges, but aside from that it was business as usual. I felt that I did pretty well considering, and when she got me to do bench press I pulled out all the stops and went as hard as I used to back when I was lifting a lot of kilos on the press. I could tell that she was surprised by how much I could lift, but as I said to her my back needs work to catch up. She agreed and gave me a couple of back exercises to finish off with. Yay - that'll teach me.

Not much else to report. It is raining here today - undoubtedly everywhere but the catchment areas. Everyone is most concerned about rain here, except me. I love the sunshine and hate it when it is wet and miserable. Apparently we are supposed to get some of the mighty desert storms coming through this weekend, so that could get exciting.

Aside from that, I don't think that we will be up to much this weekend. Trying to save some dosh, and my partner and I will have to sit down at the weekend and see what the budget is looking like as we have a couple of holidays coming up. Yes, a very exciting time at our house this weekend! Never mind, not much chance of coming off the diet doing things like this! Hope you all enjoy your weekend and have the upper in hand in your own fight with phat.

Knee Getting Much Better

2006-11-02T12:14:00.000+11:00

My knee is well on the road to recovery after a decent walk on the treadmill this morning. I initially sought advice from the trainer as to the appropriateness of walking on the treadmil considering the injury, however as I hadn't heard from her and I was feeling pretty good I decided to head in to the gym and give it a crack.

The knee went well, I walked for 50 minutes on 6 km/ph and did not have any trouble at all from the knee. It has started to get a bit tight, I think mainly from the muslces not having moved for a few days. I think that by tomorrow I should be back on track and able to do a proper workout with the trainer again. On Saturday morning it is my intention to go back to the spin class and give it another go, seems like my knee will be up for it. Good news!

So, even though it was just a walk I was able to get through 550 calories which was quite good. It is important to keep going in and getting some exercise done. I am looking forward to getting back into the running, it is hard to just keep walking when I know I can do so much more. Important not to rush things and hinder my progress any more than the injury has done already. The other good news was that an NFL game was on tv while I was there, so I got to watch Cincinatti take on Atlanta for the first quarter of the game (there was a great documentary on running backs before the game started too). I like American Football, a more technical and strategic game than the rugby union that is my first game. It was good to be able to watch some of the game, and I must say that it is the best presented football game in the world that I have ever seen.

It wasn't until after my workout that I got advice from the trainer to rest my knee for today! Oh well, never mind, it feels fine and I feel good for having gone into the gym and done a light workout.

My trip to Kings Cross yesterday went quite well. I visited Cafe Hernandez (pictured), one of the oldest espresso bars in town along with selling roasted and blended espresso beans to take home. It was a great experience, and Kings Cross is certainly one of the more interesting parts of Sydney. It was a bit tame, being the middle of the day and all, however there were still a few players around even though the sun was shining. Entertaining to say the least. My knee was a bit sore so I came home around 4 in the afternoon, but I knew that it would be okay. A good afternoon checking out shops and espresso houses. Good fun, and staying within the rules of my fight against phat.

New Workout With Trainer

2006-11-01T09:35:00.000+11:00

The trainer called me last night to set up the appointment for this morning and we had a discussion about whether or not the session should go ahead in view of my sore knee. She said that she would do a session with me that didn't work the legs out and should leave the knee alone to recover. I agreed and we set the time for 8 this morning. I have just returned and it was an interesting experience.

Instead of running or stepping up onto a bench to get my heart rate up, she had me row on the rowing machine. This worked the knee but didn't put any pressure on it. It felt a bit tight, but I could tell that nothing bad was happening to it. So first up she had me row for 5 minutes, then it was 20 press ups with a hand slap in between each one, shoulder press on the swiss ball, bent over barbell rows, and finally sit ups. I did four sessions of this and I was very tired by the end of it. The rowing really took it out of me and I have decided to work this into my normal routine for cardio.

To end the session for the morning I was told to do pull down followed by tricep pushdowns on the lat pulldown machine. These were pretty tough, but I have started to enjoy working out my back - it is weak but the strength is starting to improve and it wont be long until my back catches up with my chest. I also need to work on my arms and may start doing additional work on my arms other than when I am with the trainer.

The trainer said that she was very pleased with my weight loss again last week - I had forgotten to text message her with the weight so we discussed it today. She also said that she was mightily impressed with the walk on Sunday after the workout session the day before. She wants me to carry on with the spin classes on Saturday mornings to get used to it. I think it is a good idea as the class is pretty tough and it is a great start to the weekend - normally such a tempting time to go off the diet, or stay at home and take a day off. Anyway, I will be there this Saturday depending on how the knee feels - at this stage I reckon it should be okay.

I've decided to take a day out in town for the rest of today. My partner is off at spanish class tonight so I am home alone fending for myself. I figure that I might as well take some time to see a part of the city that I haven't been too - Kings Cross. Should be interesting, there are a couple of reputable coffee houses that I want to try out in that area. I'll get some take home beans as well while I am there. I'll take the camera and should be able to get some shots today which I will post for you all tomorrow. Until then, take care.

Knee Feeling Better For Having Had Day Off

2006-10-31T09:03:00.000+11:00

Yep, the knee is getting back to being right after yesterday's day of rest. It was necessary to take the time out to allow the swelling to come down, and as I had completed a fair chunk of the track with a sore knee, I discovered during the day yesterday that my calf and lower leg had probably not been bending and moving as they should have for a fair chunk of the course. As such, the lower leg muslces were sore yesterday, and are still sore this morning. However, this has only started since I began moving more freely. Nothing serious I reckon, just tight and bit sore and another day's rest should see me right.

So, I will be home based again today but will get out for a stroll to the library to return my DVDs, books, and stretch the legs at the same time. The swelling in my knee has gone right down now and I reckon I will be right to return to the gym tomorrow. I think that I will take it easy tomorrow, probably will just do an upper body workout with weights and leave the running and any pounding exercises for another day to allow a full recovery. It is important to let these things repair properly to avoid any further problems down the line. I am under orders from the trainer not to do anything until all my joints feel right - she was very proud that I did both the advanced spin class and the massive walk on the same weekend.

Aside from that, there is not much else to report today. Our box of vegetables should be arriving today. It is a great way to ensure that I keep eating a lot of veges, and this is an important part of my diet I have come to realise. Last night for dinner we had a wonderful chicken salad and finished off a fair few of the veges that were left from the box delivered last week. My partner is an excellent vege cook, she gets them to taste so good with the addition of a few spices and herbs. Fantastic stuff.

Well, until tomorrow that's it phat fighting fans. Hopefully I will be back into the swing of things and over the slight hick ups presented by the distance walk from the weekend. I'm looking forward to heading back into the gym and getting into the weights and treadmill again. How about that, I actually miss it! Progress for sure.

The Morning After the Long March

2006-10-30T09:51:00.000+11:00

Well phat fighting fans, I did it. I managed to make my way around the entire 22km course for the seven bridges walk yesterday, and I am feeling it this morning. On Saturday evening we went out to the BBQ and had a great time. It was so good to get out and spend time in a nice social setting and meet some new people. We had a fantastic dinner - souvlaki with salad and spuds which I accompanied with one or two glasses of a fine rose, and a couple more of red, that we had purchased when we went to the Hunter Valley (north of Sydney). It was delicious, and both myself and my partner had such a good time that we probably had a little bit more wine than we intended - I'd say no more than 5 glasses for me, and probably 4 for her. So, not a hard night, but more than we have had for a while. It felt good and I have always thought that wine is better than beer in terms of putting on weight, or rather not putting on weight! By the time we got home it was midnight, and of course day light savings started so it was really 1:00am by the time that we turned in. Not ideal preparation for the huge day to follow!

We had to get up at 6:00 a.m (really 5:00 a.m) so that we would get into the city on time to start at 9:00 on the dot. We woke my partner's cousin up with text messages and she was ready to head into town with us, in spite of having stayed up late the night before also. We made the trip into town all feeling a bit jaded and not really too sure of how well we were going to perform. On arrival at circular quay (where the opera house is) it was apparent that this thing was going to be pretty popular as there were a lot of people checking in to start the walk already there. We got in line and after about 10 minutes we had our 'passports' and set off on the walk.

The first half of the walk had 6 of the 7 bridges in it. Because of where we started, the last bridge that we were going to have to cross was the harbour bridge, right next door to where we started from. This meant that the walking distance between bridges 6 and 7 turned out to be about 12kms - the entire north shore leg of the walk. In any event we started and things went well to begin with. The first bridge came up pretty fast and we were in high spirits. Pretty much after each bridge there was a village where you could get water, food, sunscreen and medical attention if you needed it. It was rpetty well organised and the only delay was getting your passport scanned at each bridge and village as many people had signed up on the day and the barcodes they were given were not working for some reason.

The first 10kms wasn't bad, but started to get hard as we neared the final bridge. My partner started to get dizzy and so we decided that would be a good time to stop for lunch. We ate, and during lunch it became clear that I was really the only one that wanted to struggle on and complete the entire course. We talked about it and they decided that they had done enough and would catch the bus back to town while I struggled on the walk back to town and to cross the bridge.

That was a fairly important choice that I made. The second half of the walk was much tougher than the first. There were a lot more hills to climb, and lot more stairs to go up and a lot less villages and comfort stops. It really started to hurt on that part of the walk and the best part of the walk from that point was that I had my MP3 player and was able to listen to some great music to help me through. Also I had a few text messages from my partner, parents, and mates to help me stick out the rest of the walk. I made it all the way to the end, however it was tough, I was sore, sunburned, and totally disinterested in the views that the walk provided as it was such a struggle to finish! Finishing was my only goal and I had to swallow hard and push on as people tore past me towards the finish line - by the looks of them I would doubt that they had started at circular quay and were probably only doing part of the walk - I couldn't be sure however and it was a bit demoralising at times. I hadn't thought that it would be as hard as it was as it didn't sound that far when I first heard we were doing it. But it was!

The last part of the walk across the harbour bridge was nice. The wind had picked up, and the bridge was shading where I was walking by that time so it was nice and cool and I could see the finishing line off in the distance. I did have a chance to appreciate the view at that stage, but most of the north shore views I missed as I was simply trying to put one foot in front of the other by that stage. When I got to the end of the harbour bridge, I was scanned at the top before you head down the stairs and out. When I got out of the bridge there weren't any signs to indicate where we should go. I asked one of the marshalls who told me "That's it, you're finished, you are free to go!". They also told me what the time was and that my time was a good one - they hadn't seen anyone finishing there that had also started at circular quay so that made me feel a bit better! A bit of an anti climax really, there was no finishing line or any indication that you had completed the course. I walked the extra bit down to circular quay just to make sure that there was no finishing line, and indeed there was not. All there was by that stage was a few tired souls like myself lying on the grass. I knew that if I lay down there was a good chance I wouldn't get up again so I jumped on the train to head home and meet my partner there.

I was glad to get home and I noticed on the way that one of my knees was a bit swollen (not the one that used to give me trouble at the gym) and I was pretty whacked. I made it home, and even managed to run for a connecting train so I knew that no serious damage had been done. I got home and pretty soon it was time for dinner and then bed. I slept like a log! I'm feeling good today, and am under orders from the trainer to take a day off today to recover. No problems there, my legs need the break, although they feel much better than I thought they would today and my knee has improved thanks to the ice I put on it last night. No lasting trouble I reckon. Good stuff, and a great way to round off a very healthy and fun weekend. Looking forward to this week, it should be good.

Advanced Spin Class a Surprise

2006-10-28T11:00:00.000+10:00

I arrived at the gym this morning for my scheduled meeting with the trainer for my first spin class with her. I gather that this class is her own exercise for the day and as such it is not a proper training session for the two of us, more of an introduction to the class and a chance to see how I cope with the cardio aspect of it. I took a little too much notice of her warnings to get to the gym early, and arrived before it even opened! Fortunately it was only by a couple of minutes so I didn't have to wait that long before I was able to get inside.

The instructor was already there and had reserved our bikes for us. After I dropped off my bag in the lockers I met her in the cycle studio and we set up the bikes. She scoped me out and made a few changes to the way that the bike was set up and we were ready to go - only 25 minutes before the class started! We chatted for most of this time and during this discussion I learned that the class was 'advanced' and wasn't for the usual 30-45 minutes, but was for an entire hour. It was at this stage that I started to wonder what I had gotten myself into...

I felt good at the gym, and had managed to have some very strong coffee to fortify me for the workout. I like a caffeine hit before going to the gym, I have no idea if it has a real effect, but it does seem to help power me through my workouts. When I heard I would be cycling for an entire hour I was most grateful that I had the foresight to get up early and suck back some stong coffee before attending the class.

As to the class itself, I knew I was in trouble when I started clock watching 20 minutes into the workout. I found it quite tough, and the music and pace was unrelenting. I kept up, and did managed probably to about 50 minutes of the workout keeping up with the class and even turning up the resistance when told to do so. I know that my form on the cycle is not correct, however I tried hard and corrected my positioning a number of times. It was a good effort on my part, and I know I went as well as I could during the class. I think that I may make this a regular thing as it was good fun, there was some good music, there was also some funny people in the class, and the instructor was pretty classy.

So, chalk up one advanced spin class at the gym. It is very popular and people were being turned away from the class so I will always have to make sure that I arrive very early and sit there cycling for ages. I did get sore from the seat on the bike, but I feel okay now. I know that I will be suffering tomorrow, I am already starting to hobble and it has only been about an hour and a half since I finished the class. This does not bode well for tomorrow and I will be assessing myself tomorrow morning to see how I pull up.

We're off out tonight to a BBQ in Newtown, a hip and happening suburb of Sydney where the University is. The BBQ is being put on by a work colleague of my partner and marks our first invitation out to a a party since we arrived in Sydney. It'll be nice to meet some new folks and have a bit of fun. We're both looking forward to it, and hope that we can return the invite in the not too distant future (we have to get a BBQ ourselves). Good stuff. Roll on weekend, it has started well and if I do 22km tomorrow it will finish well too! I may have to take Monday off and just get the blood test done and recover for the rest of the day.

What a Difference Some Rice Makes!

2006-10-27T11:35:00.000+10:00

Last night I had stir fry for dinner with my partner. We had basmati rice from the punjab with the stir fried veges and chicken (apparently that is the ONLY rice to eat I am told). We have been using the vegetalbes we ordered last week and they are much better than the veges we get at the stores in our area, and there was a good mix of different kinds. Given that they are also cheaper, and delivered to our home, as well as being better, it seems like a pretty easy decision to carry on ordering them.

Anyways, the rice that I had last night seemed to be able to power me through the workout this morning. I went so much better than yesterday, even though I was pretty tired during the workout I found that I could push myself and do better. I feel good too, which is more than could have been said at this time yesterday. Tomorrow I am off to the gym to work out in the spin class with the trainer, so that should be interesting. I did 50 minutes on the treadmill (only walking) after the workout this morning to assist with my recovery and avoid (hopefully) being overly sore tomorrow morning, and of course Sunday.

Another loss this week which is encouraging. Not quite what I had thought I was in for, I had thought that I would be losing about .5 of a kg each week, or about 1.1lbs. I didn't quite make it, but I am still heading in the right direction which is the most important thing. Who knows, there could be a big loss coming up as I do seem to go in cycles. Look at it this way, at least I have less to push around the track on Sunday than I would have if I had done it last week! One good thing is that I am sneaking up on being half way to my goal weight, I think that there should be some sort of celebration when that point is reached.

Well, chalk up another loss and any week there is a loss is a good week. I have made some enquiries about getting a blood test and it seems that I can do one on Monday. I am required fast over night and before the test is taken, so I couldn't do the test yesterday or today because I must eat before working out with the trainer. I am planning to go in on Monday morning and get the blood sugar, thyroid, liver function, and cholesterol check up. It'll be interesting to see what comes back...

New Cardio Workout Catches Up With Me...

2006-10-26T10:44:00.000+10:00

I finally hit the wall this morning during my training session. I was very tired from the previous three days in a row of the new routine and even though I had twice as much coffee as usual before the workout, I was not able to fire on all cylanders today. The trainer understood, as she had seen me in there working out yesterday and said she was very impressed with what she saw. She slowed things down a bit today on the understanding that tomorrow morning will be another flat out session. She will be trying to get my heart rate up so the next session will be very intense. I will have to make sure that I get some rest today to prepare.

Aside from the fact that I wasn't quite my usual self during the training session, I did okay during the workout and managed to do everything that she asked of me. I even managed to do much better on the back exercises than usual which was good. I was tired, sweaty, and had it by the end, but I did manage to do a decent warm down at the end of the session on the treadmill. I feel better than I did yesterday after the cardio session, so I think I should be right for tomorrow morning.

The trainer and I had a discussion at the end of the workout about my preparation for Sunday's marathon walking effort. She suggested that I join her for a spin session during the group cycle calss on Saturday morning. She wants to take me through it and teach me how to do the class properly. I think this is a good idea, even though she suggested that it may be a bit tough and leave me sore for the next day. I think that I will be okay, but if it gets too tough I can always throttle back a bit. However, I doubt that will be required and I'll go as hard as I can and maybe I can work this class into my routine to break the monotony of the constant treadmill workouts. It'll be good and I am really looking forward to it.

The walk on Sunday should be great, a bit of a challenge and something fun to do. We should see a lot of the city on our way around the course - apparently this is the first year that they have had this walk so we are taking part in what hopefully will be the first of many seven bridges walks that will be held to raise funds over the coming years. I'm looking forward to it, and am hoping that we all get through it and complete the course in less than 5 hours (no point in setting the bar too high at this stage!). Weigh in day tomorrow, check back then to see how I got on this week.

A Good Day, In Spite of Beginning

2006-10-25T12:46:00.000+10:00

I had a good day today, despite the first event of the day being a phone call from the trainer asking where I was! She had forgotten to tell me to come in this morning and even after some last minute attempts to rearrange the morning, she wasn't able to rework things. This means that I have a Thursday and a Friday session this week. It has been a while since I last did this so it will be interesting to see how I go. 8:00 tomorrow morning will be a bit of a shock I am sure. Best be getting up at 6 so that I can have my caffeine hit before I take off to meet her. It seems to give me a kick in the pants and keep me working out a bit harder. Placebo effect or not, I'll take it.

I was feeling a bit tired on it this morning, I think two days in a row of the new routine was taking a toll. I got on the treadmill and started the new routine, but in the back of my mind I kept thinking about maybe taking it a bit easy today, maybe trying new things and preparing for the long walk this weekend. However, after the first three minutes that is a bit like a warm up, I was into walking at 7 km/ph and I thought to myself "Harden Up Man!" So, I got stuck in and things were tough to begin with, but I stuck at it and managed to get through the wall and in the end I did a more difficult workout than usual. In the second session I was able to add on another 5 minutes running at 10km/ph instead of the usual walk to warm down at 7km/ph. I felt so good that I decided to do a warm down of 25 minutes duration and I played around with the incline and speed during it so that I ended up cranking out a few extra calories.

The stats for today were 3.52km and 457 calories for the first session, 3.61km and 468.1 calories for the second session, and 2.62km and 282.7 calories for the warm down. All told a massive 9.75km and 1,207.8 calories burned. I am stoked by these figures, they really give me a boost and I am so glad that I keep track of them. It has been a goal of mine to reach the magic 10km mark in total distance and I am sure that it wont be too long before I am there - only 250m shy of it today so had I done some running during the warm down, I probably would have made it! That will come with time, and I must stay injury free. Until then, this is good progress.

I saw the trainer on my way out. She said that she had seen me on the treadmill and was really impressed with the way that I am running. She was very supportive and complimentary (maybe to do with having made the mistake this morning), and it is nice to know that people notice the progress I am making. I told her about the walk this weekend, she thought that it was a great idea and she had told me just to watch out that I don't get too hot in the weather. Take plenty of water and I should be okay. She thinks that I wont have any trouble walking that far, and she should know! I guess this morning was not that far off being half way so I should be able to do it at a walking pace no trouble at all. I will have to keep an eye on my partner and hope that she and her cousin do okay. They both seem keen.

Well, until tomorrow then. Keep fighting the good fight and sticking with it. It seems to me that this is an endurance game and so far I am doing okay. I just have to stick with it.

Round Two

2006-10-24T16:13:00.000+10:00

Second round of the new workout today. I doubled up and did the same routine as I did yesterday and I could definitely feel that this was the second day in a row. The legs felt that little bit heavier, I was clock watching even more than usual, and I was very thirsty byt he time I had finished today. It was tough, but I did manage to grind it out. I did not add any weights on at the end of the workout, however I did get my normal ab workout in before I wandered home and into the shopping centre.

It was a good workout today, and I think that I need to keep it going as the walk this weekend will be a fairly lengthy one. It ahs been a long time since I walked all day, and what I remember from that experience is that any preparation you can do ought to be done properly. I remember on the day that once I was about 10km from the end I stopped to do up my shoe and almost never managed to get going again! I am sure not to repeat that mistake this weekend. 22km, that is a long way.

Not much else to report from the day. Our fruit and vegetable box arrived today. I think it is pretty good, especially considering the amount of money that we paid. It will give us greater cause to eat pklenty of fruit and veg, and one of the best things aobut it is that we have a vast array of vegetables to choose from now. This will cause us to be a little more creative than usual and make different meals to ensure that we use up all of the produce that we have. Should be fun!

I still haven't heard from the trainer, we normally have a session on Wendesday morning, but there is still plenty of time for her to contact me. The ball is in her court as at the moment I am on top of the workouts, and am doing well with working in some weights so we will see what the story is. I've been eating well, no troubles there so really just getting by quite well at the moment. Long may that last!

Tough New Cardio Regime

2006-10-23T12:45:00.001+10:00

Wow! I did the new routine this morning and it was a bit of a killer. I found it a lot harder than the previous workout regime and I think that this one really is the last transition before I will be running for the entire 50-60 minute period. The first session has two sets of running at over 10km/ph for at least 6 minutes each, so that is 2km there. The rest of the time is walking really quickly so the first session ended with my having covered 3.44 km and having burned 449.3 calories. It is hard, this new routine that she has me doing. At the end when I stopped, I had to de-sweat myself before I started the second session and take a minute to get the breath back a bit. It felt good.

The second session starts with a hiss and a roar. The walking starts at a quick pace for 3 minutes, and then it is straight into the running for 9 minutes - all at over 10km/ph. That is 1.5 kilometres on the trot, and is actually over it as part of the time I was running at 10.5 km/ph. It was, I think, the longest period of running at that pace I have done so far and I found that it went better than I had expected. The rest of the workout in the second session is fast walking with a fair bit of incline thrown in there which makes it tough. This second workout had me cover 3.34km and burn 426.2 calories.

So, the total workout this morning covered a massive 6.78 km and I burned 875.5 calories. Not a bad effort, and a great start to the day. I also did a few weights after the cardio session. I did a set of ricep curls, shoulder press, tricep extensions, and some abs exercises to round out the session. It was a great start to the day.

In other news my partner has booked us to go on a walk around Sydney on Sunday. It is a course that is 22km long and is around the harbour, so we cross a total of seven bridges. It is a fund raising event for various charities and I am really looking forward to it. It is a decent hike and I think it will be a lot of fun, as well as being a chance for us to make a contribution to charity and see some of the city. We are going to try and do the entire course, walking. It will be a challenge, but fun. If anyone else lives in Sydney, or will be in town and is interested in doing a massive walk, click here to check it out. Good opportunity take some more photos!

Well, that is about it for now. I'm not sure when I am next due to see the trainer, but it should be tomorrow or Wendesday I guess. It'll be fun. I will try and do the same cardio session tomorrow, however if I pull up a bit sore I will follow the old routine for a couple more goes to ease into this more difficult stuff. No point in doing myself an injury after all this hard work.

Tough New Cardio Regime

2006-10-23T12:45:00.000+10:00

Running the Gauntlet

2006-10-22T21:36:00.000+10:00

I had a really good day today. I went to the gym nice and early this morning and cranked up the usual cardio workout. I went really hard and managed to get through 800 calories fairly easily. This is a good sign for the new workout, which I am a bit worried will push me pretty hard. I have been feeling a bit sore from the last workout with the trainer, so I am going to start the new regime tomorrow morning. Wish me luck! It should pretty hard, but I am looking forward to it.

After the workout my partner and I decided to go and see the newish flick "Children of Men" with Clive Owen, Julianne Moore and Michael Caine. My partner and I enjoyed it very much, I had read the P D James novel that it is based on a few years ago and was interested to see what they had done with it. I thought that it was a very strange novel for her to have written, and while outside her usual genre, it was fairly interesting. The changes that were made for the film were an improvement overall I felt. It was nice to get out and about and take in a film, we haven't been to one for a fair while now...

The theatre that we went to was in a shopping mall that is about three levels high. It is quite large and as we were walking to the movie theatre - from the ground floor all the way to the top we were struck by the opportunities presented to us to consume extremely sweet and fatty food at almost every turn. There was 'gourmet' pop corn featuring such flavours as chocomellow and triple butter caramel, there was a cookie shop that had about 40 different types of cookie on sale. There were ice creams, chocolatiers, frozen yogurt, muffins, and fudge. You name it, it was there if it was bad.

The unhealthy food options that were like a gauntlet around the movie theatre. Not once, not twice, but thrice we were stricken by having to move through an area of almost unlimited opportunities to massive increase our calorie intake for the day. It was hard not to be tempted, but the opportunity was resisted. A massive cup of coke zero was our choice of treat for the film - not the most healthy thing around, but probably only had about 5 calories in the entire cup. I mean, you have to have something watching a movie and of all the choices there, that and water were the only ones that tempted us - and I refuse to pay $5 for water.

So all in all we had a good weekend, bit of a relax, and a workout or two. I'm looking forward to this week, undoubtedly there will be some good workouts coming up and some very trying cardio sessions. Bring it on!

The Longest Kilo...

2006-10-20T09:44:00.000+10:00

Finally, I made it to 124kg (272.8lbs) after last weeks slight delay. I think that the workout yesterday will have helped as today my butt is sore from all those lunges and I can really feel the upper body work that I did as well. Feels great, funny how I now look for this feeling the next day to let me know that I have done a good workout, rather than resenting being sore! Maybe I am becoming a sick gym rat!

I put in the usual cardio workout this morning. I didn't want to start the new workout as I was feeling the workout from yesterday and I think that I will need all my strength and fitness to make it through the first session of the new workout. I will be giving it a try tomorrow morning instead, and probably again on Sunday depending on how I feel. If I am sore I will do the pump class, it will also help keep some variation in it.

I wore the new shorts today, and they look really good. I think that they were called cycling shorts, but the only difference I have noticed between them and the other shorts is that they are made out of softer material and I like shorts like this because it reduces any friction between the legs and they just feel nicer when you are wearing them. They certainly went well on the first run today and I think I will pop back into the store and get one more pair so that I have three to keep me going.

I'm feeling pretty good heading into the weekend, and it is nice to have broken the back of the longest kilo - 125kg down to 124kg. It has been a bit of a trying time as I have at times felt like I wasn't being rewarded for all the hard work I had been putting in. However, I did not break in this time of difficulty and have made it to the next round, and now I feel like it was a bit of a triumph to get here. I'm feeling good and know that if I stick at things, eventually I will reach the goals that I am setting for myself. The main thing is to keep going no matter what happens as everything will not go your way all the time.

I also meant to tell you all about a story I saw on one of the tabloid style news shows a couple of nights back. It featured a fish and chip shop that sells battered and deep fried pizza...they claim it as a world first but I don't know about that. Apparently it is at least a first for Australia. What they do is prepare pizza in the ordinary way (although it looked to me like it might have been pizza prepared in an oblong style rather than the round pan), it also looked like it might have been layered say three pieces thick and then cut into oblong pieces, and then they dip a stacked piece in batter (same as what they use for the fish) and then drop it into the boiling fat to deep fry it. It is insane I tells ya! I thought that battered and deep fried mars bars were way over the top but this beats them all. Deep fried cheese and dough...

Apparently one slice packs a mighty 800 plus calories - that is as much as I burn in an entire workout when I go as hard as I can at the moment on the treadmill! I bet most people that eat that stuff probably don't do any exercise so it is no wonder that the weight goes on. They had the fans of the meal raving about how delicious it was, and this was quickly followed by nutritionists denouncing this creation as an abomination on the culinary scene and the quickest way to an early grave. That is one thing that I can honestly say I have no desire whatsoever to try, but it was interesting to hear what people are doing in contrast with my own new healthy style of eating.

I'm glad I have moved on from eating that sort of thing. It seems that there is a greater and greater choice out there of more calorie packed food than ever before, with more on the way. I think that I am lucky to have started turning my life around now and I never want to go back. Let's hope I can get to my goals and change my life during the journey.

Big Workout Complete

2006-10-19T11:07:00.000+10:00

Big session with the trainer this morning, and I am feeling mightily pooped at the end of it. It was such a hard workout that my old shorts finally gave up the ghost and now must be consigned to the dust bin. Good excuse to buy some new ones at least, which I did on the way home. Should be looking sharp now with my new shorts - may have to get some new t shirts to go with them I think. However that will have to wait until I have enough money to buy new clothes.

It was mainly an uypper body session today but she also hit me with lunges for the length of the gym. We were in a different area today so the lunge session was much further than usual and it really did get my heart rate right up. She told me part way through that she is going to be working me a lot harder to get my heart rate up like it used to be when I first started. This will burn more calories and will help to get me fitter - along with the new workout. Sounded great, didn't feel quite so good doing it though! Funny that. However, I did feel great when I finished and enjoyed the trip home and stopping off to get some shorts on the way. Feels good to buy with confidence off the rack - I only need XL now instead of...larger sizes than that!

I also did the shopping ont he way home and will start to cook it shortly - we'll have chilli for dinner tonight. Yum. I have a nice low fat version that I can make and it should be real nice for my partner and I tonight. This is hot food weather, and as it speeds up the metabolism I figure that it has got to be good for us!

The diabetes and obesity debate featured on tv again this morning and I managed to take some of it in before the session with the trainer. On morning tv the were debating what, if anything, the government could do about the 'obesity epidemic'. The issue was a little distorted I felt because they seemed to be suggesting that people were blaming the government for being overweight. I don't really think that is the issue at all, no one is looking for someone to blame for being overweight, at least in the way that I see it. What is being asked is "what, if anything, can the government do to deal with this problem before it gets any further out of hand". Once they got off the side issue of blaming the government for what you eat, there were some suggestions that caught my ear.

One such suggestion was having gym memberships claimable on medicare (the government health insurance scheme. The only point against it seemed to be that it would be impossible to know if the people who joined actually went to the gym. Not the best counter argument as they certainly wont if they can't afford it. Another suggestion was making foods with a certain fat and sugar and cholesterol percentage illegal. I'm not sure about this one as I would hate to imagine what "fat and sugar pushers" and an illegal trade in food would be like! What was surprising was that no one suggested making healthy food available in schools or making healthy food cheaper to buy. I'll be abolutely staggered if there is any concrete proposal to do anything, but I will keep you posted.

Weigh in tomorrow - check back then and see how I did.

Sore Today, But Workout Helped

2006-10-18T13:39:00.000+10:00

I felt a bit sore this morning from the workout yesterday. The trainer had me do some Romanian deadlifts (straight legged variety) with dumbbells. I had only ever done them with a barbell before and I must say that the dbs made it a lot more difficult for the upper body. My shoulders and lats and feeling it today, but that is a good sign. I went in this morning and did a 50 minute session of the old routine as I felt that it would be a good idea to keep something up my sleeve for tomorrow morning when I next see the trainer. I'm looking forward to it and think that it will be a good leg session as we did mostly upper body last time.

Last night the new cardio workout arrived, however I decided that this morning would not be the best time to start it. I think Friday morning will be the first time that I give it a shot as it looks really tough. There is a lot more running in it than I am used to, and the walking phases are also quite quick. Clearly it is meant to challenge me and I feel that by Friday morning I should be ready to give it a crack. I did well this morning and got a good owrkout so I am feeling pretty good all in all.

News today is that a government report has been released estimating that obesity costs the country $21 billion a year, more than the government currently spends on medicare (the government run health insurance program). It seems that for the next few days there may be some debate on obesity and the epidemic currently sweeping the country that we hear so much about. I will try to collect any interesting snippets and pass them on, but so far the opposition has simply been stating that the government isn't doing enough about the problem, but I have yet to hear of any alternative proposals. Mind you, they have a pretty simple task if they are trying to come up with something more creative - they only have to beat a health minister who says it is the fault of people who just need to stop stuffing their faces with food and take responsibility for how fat they are. A real vote winner that!

We're shaping up for another good weekend. There was some suggestion that we may be doing another suburban walk, but it seems that the plan has changed at least both mornings we will be heading to the gym. I think that I will probably do the pump class again on Sunday as I did enjoy that. The other days I believe we will be doing at least one walk, and I personally am hopign that we do another coastal walk. My partner has managed to get her hands on a book called "Sydney Walks" so it seems that we will not be short of ideas on where to go! Fantastic.

Session with Trainer Complete!

2006-10-17T15:36:00.000+10:00

I had a very hard session with the trainer today. She really gave me some tough stuff today, but it felt good (except for reverse lunges which we dispensed with after the second set as they were not working as well as she had hoped). I find that a lot of the time she is giving me new exercises just for the sake of giving me new exercises. I know that I have been on a little bit about some of the boredom that is slipping in, but reverse lunges are not really going to address that. I think it is variation for the sake of variation. It is good to do things different ways, but only so long as there is something better about the way of doing it, or some increase in value. Frankly, I don't see it with that exercise as lunges with dumbells or the barbell are difficult and really kill my legs. I prefer to stick with those as I really feel the benefit of working out with that exercise the next day, and at the time.

Everything else was great though and I did enjoy today's workout. I was tired at the end of it, but not utterly exhausted like I was last time. She suggested that I train with her again tomorrow, however I wasn't sure that was such a good idea as I felt that I would be feeling the workout of today a bit and that might slow me down. She agreed and we are set to train again on Thursday. I'm looking forward to it, it should be good. I even did some running around the gym today and managed to kick it up a gear or two. I am feeling good about my running now, the treadmill has given me a lot of confidence, even if I am still a running novice. I know that I travel better around the gym now than I would have to begin with.

Other news is that she is sending me the new cardio workout today. I gather that it will not be radically different from the previous one, however it will have running for longer periods of time - like 5-7 minutes throughout. In essence, it will be a bit like the variations I was making to the cardio program that she gave me so it wont be too much of a shock to the system. I'm looking forward to it, and if for some reason it doesn't arrive I think that I will start a new training system that essentially does this as I am a bit tired of the monotony of the other system. So long as I am making it harder, but manageable, I think I will be doing the right thing.

I discussed with her the chances of doing some pump classes in addition to the routines that she has me doing. She said I could do a couple a week, but any more that that would start to affect the workouts that I do with her. It sounds to me like she would prefer it if I simply beefed up the cardio sessions that I am doing rather than starting to go in the morning and afternoon each day. So, I think that I will look at that instead of working in pump classes. I will let you know what I settle on, but I think it will be treadmill, cross trainer (short period), followed by a regular abs workout of about 10 minutes duration.

Sick partner today, she is home crook and I have been looking after her, with the exception of going to the workout this morning. She has a fever and is very tired so I have been keeping her watered and fed while she sleeps on the couch taking in a few choice episodes of Frasier and some of the other DVDs in our collection. It has slowed down my post today - hopefully no one missed out due to the delay!

Week Underway

2006-10-16T13:53:00.000+10:00

Up and about n time this morning and off to the gym for the standard cardio workout session. I am starting to get a bit bored so I think that I will spend some time this afternoon working on a new routine for myself, I am getting a bit tired of waiting for the trainer to send me a new routine. The workouts I am doing now all have a sense of sameness about them and it is hard to get motivated, so at the weekends you may have noticed I have been trying some new things.

Yesterday for instance, I went with my partner and her cousin to the gym near our home and we all did a body pump class. This is like aerobics, but with weights. Basically you do lots of reptetions with relatively light weights, and you have control over the amount of weight that you use for resistance. I used to do these classes in the past, and the used to work well for me. I found that the class was as good as I remember, and I think that I will be working this into the new routine that I design for myself this afternoon. The basic plan will be cardio in the morning and a pump class or some sort of resistance training in the afternoon. I think that this is the next step forward for me now to take things to the next level.

I'll let you all know what it is that I decide on. As for the photos of my day spent walking in Balmain, we all got so excited over the shops and what we were doing that we forgot to take any snaps at all! Shocking I know, but the experience was great and we will be sure to repeat it before too long. We found some great products and really enjoye dthe day out and about. We saw a nice house for sale and took a wee tour of it and thought that it would suit us well. Unfortunately the $1.7 million price tag was a little out of our league! Still, it was a great day and I even managed to get a bit of colour as the sun was out in force - 37 degrees by lunchtime.

Magic Day

2006-10-14T09:43:00.000+10:00

It is another wonderful day here weather wise, at least 30 outside already and apparently it is heading for 35 today. Nice and toasty warm again! My partner and I are about to make the most of it and head to Balmain for a nice walk around that part of town. We haven't been there yet, and there are a number of shops that she wants to visit in that area. We're going to catch the bus to the suburb, and then walk around it, mostly down hill to the harbour where we can get on a ferry and head back to circular quay where the Opera House and all that jazz is.

I'm looking forward to the day out and about, it'll be nice for us to spend some time together doing fun stuff and just having a bit of a wander. I guess that we will be walking around 10kms again today so that will probably do for the exercise requirements for the day, but I will be insisting that we get into the gym tomorrow morning so I can do some running. Seems like it has been a little while since I ran at the gym, although it must have only been two days.

I'll be taking my camera today, so I will get some shots for the blog, as well as posting some of the shots that I took during my massive walk the other day. Check back later to hear what we got up to!

More Weight Lost, But Only Just!

2006-10-13T12:07:00.000+10:00

Well, today marks the first day that I have weighed myself and lost only a small amount of weight. I knew that this day was coming, but had hoped that it would be a little way off yet. I am certain that this is not the start of the slow down in my weight loss, or even worse a plateau, it just feels to me like this is a blip, and next week I should be back to normal. I don't know why I think this, but I do and I think that is for the best because I don't want to let this get to me and get discouraged. I knew that this was coming, and along the way I am not always going to be dropping 1 or 2 kg every week. The important thing is that I am still heading down, going in the right direction.

Yesterday was a wonderful day. I walked further than I have walked since I lived in the Cook Islands and took it upon myself to walk around Rarotonga, the main Island, as part of a marathon that was being staged on the island. That was a long way, and a really hot day, but yesterday was pretty taxing too. I think the round trip of the island was 32km all told. Mate, my legs were really sore after that! The walk yesterday was great, and I did get to have several delicious espresso shots on my travels. I reckon all told I probably walked about 15km during the course of the day and manged to get a lot of sun without getting burned. My new haircut has meant that parts of my head are exposed to the sun that used to be well covered (such as my ears) however all parts of me seem to go brown over here rather than going red and then back to white!

A big weekend lies in wait for me. Both days I will be at the gym with my partner and her cousin. There is talk that we will be off to the beach again, apparently it is going to be 33 degrees tomorrow so that will be a bit of a challenge. We have a bit of a heatwave going at the moment, but I must say that I like it. I feel toasty warm every time I am outside and just love being bathed in sunlight - it improves my outlook on life, even if I am not out in it.

Well, chalk up another successful week, even if it wasn't as successful as some past weeks. Onwards and upwards and I am sure that I will be rewarded for my ongoing efforts in due course.

Ouch!

2006-10-12T07:24:00.000+10:00

Wow, pulling up very sore this morning. The pain is good pain however, just in the muscle and no joint pain at all. A bit of DOMS I think, although the delay was not that long as my legs were quite sore by yesterday lunchtime. I think that a recovery day is in order, and I intend to get out and walk around this fair city to make the most of a wonderful day.

I am going to head into Redfern and check out a couple of coffee houses there that roast and produce their own espresso blends. I plan to make a whole day of it as my partner will be at the university this afternoon and I can meet her there and we will probably have dinner out in the city at one of the nice and cheap claypot restaurants around there. Quite looking forward to it actually, it should be a great day.

I'll be walking between 15 and 20 kms all told today so I should be burning off a few calories, and it seems that my legs will get plenty of light exercise to help them get over the stresses of the lunges yesterday. It has been a while since she had me do the version of the lunges where you have dumbbells and essentially walk up and down the gym. She also had me run aroudn the gym after that and I was proud of the effort that I managed to put in. It was a good workout and I feel good about being able to do it. It should be a good challenge to back this workout up tomorrow, but I will cross that bridge when I get to it.

I may get a few photos of my travel today, so check back later as I will put any up that I take. Enjoy the day!

Back To Trainer Today

2006-10-11T13:20:00.000+10:00

What a rough return to form with the trainer! It was an action packed workout, and right after we finished I was so tired that I had to have a bit of a lie down, pretending to stretch of course so that the rest of the gym goers wouldn't be able to catagorically detect that I had gone soft. There is some credible doubt there I feel with the feigned stretches that I carried out! Mate, I was shagged.

Turns out she intended to do it to me to see how I am holding up, and she indicated that she was pleasantly surprised at how well I did today, and how I handled a substantial increase in the weights. She is about to move and intends to send me a new cardio workout with more running in it to increase the calories that I am burning. Sounds like the new cardio workout will be what I turned the old one into over these last few weeks. Looking forward to it.

I was tired today after the workout, but I knew that if I just limped off home I would feel bad tomorrow, so I decided to get on the treadmill for a couple of 25 minute sessions at an easy pace. I felt much better after the 50 minutes of walking and even managed to stroll home with a bit of a spring in my step. The workout was good and I appreciated it all the after the short break that I have had. I am due to see her again on Firday morning and I am looking forward to it at this stage, however I am a little apprehensive as there is a fair bit of recovering that I will need to do bewteen now and then. I am sure that I will handle it.

I was too tired to think much about any other issues this morning on the treadmill. Two days until weigh in, that will be what occupies my mind until then!

Back to Business As Usual

2006-10-10T12:00:00.000+10:00

I feel great, after a couple of below par days at the gym, today was a complete turnaround. I started well on the treadmill and managed to do an above average first 25 minute session. Then, in the second session, I built in 6 minutes of running at 10 km/ph so that I cranked out a kilometer to add to the total distance that I ran. I also broke over the 400 calorie mark for that session for the first time since last week. I felt so good once I had finished that I did a further 25 minute session walking at 6 and 7 km/ph in five minute blocks. I feel much better and I am pleased to report that there was no pain at all. My total calories for the day were 1,102.9 - the most I have ever done before since I started to rcord my progress. Now all I have to do is build on this with the trainer tomorrow. It is fantastic to be feeling so good again when exercising, maybe my body is over the shock of losing all my curly locks!

A former boss of mine is in town today so I am about to head out and meet her for a coffee at circular quay. I get the feeling that every visitor to Sydney that we have will be meeting me down there! Just as well that it is one of my most favourite of places in Sydney. I have to take them to a train station that is on my line so unfortunately I wont have much time to knock around in town, but if I do get up to anything exciting I'll make sure that I let you all know about it.

A couple of nights ago on tv there was a segment on 60 minutes about diabetes, and the disease formerly known as adult onset type 2 diabetes. They had some really young kids on the show that had the disease and basically were saying that it was all down to their diet (8 years and 16 years). I was watching what the kids said that they had been eating before they got the disease, and it was rather frightening. The resemblance between their diet, and what mine had degenerated to, was rather sobering. There were several interviews with people that had lost limbs to the disease and all I could think about watching these poor people was how glad I am that I have made a start in reducing my weight, and I hope that I am doing enough right now to prevent myself from getting it. The individuals were urging anyone out there to do whatever they could not to get the disease.

I am fortunate in that there is no family history of diabetes that I am aware of. Family history and genetics plays a major role with this disease, although this was largely left out of the show on 60 minutes. The message was that there is an epidemic sweeping the country and kids are now getting what used to be an adult disease. However, while watching the entire clip it became clear that most of the kids on the show had a diabetic parent, varying between type 1 and type 2. Diet and what have you clearly contribute, but genetics cleary plays a role, emphasised in the same piece by the fact that scientists on the show were searching for a gene that causes it. I believe that you must have a disposition to get the disease as I notice that it is particularly common in certain parts of the world, not just decadent 'fat' western countries where it is rising (India and Pakistan spring to mind).

Immediately after the show we were treated to Supersize Me on free to air tv. I had seen it a few years back at a film festival and was stunned by what happened to the film maker, in particular his liver. It was over the top in that no one would eat McDonalds three times and day for a whole month, but I was still shocked at the havoc it wreaked upon him and I noticed many similarities between what he experienced, and how I used to feel. At one stage he is really down, and then he eats his Mackers and almost seems to be intoxicated from the food. I remember that while eating that sort of food I would feel good, but the rest of the time I would feel like crap. I believe that my liver must have suffered during those days, particularly considering the amount of liver damaging alcohol that I used to drink. Apart from my parents visit, I haven't really touched the stuff since embarking on this mission and I would be interested to know what sort of state my liver is in. It may be that I should head to the doctors and get a blood test to see how I am.

I certainly feel much better, and have more energy. I am still prone to remain sedentary, but at least now I feel guilty when I do it, and normally get out and about to assuage my guilt! However, I have noticed a new trend, and that is that I can actually enjoy exercise, and it is possible for me to feel good when I am doing it. A few months ago that would have been impossible and I must remember how far I have come, as well as keeping track of how far I still have to go. I may still be obese, probably even morbidly so, but at least what I am now has to be so much better than what I was, and where I was likely to end up.

I'd like to say also that while the government is always on about the obesity epidemic and consequent rise in the prevalence of diseases such as diabetes, there seems little on offer to assist people that are affected by this problem. Unlike many other things, there are very few people or experts suggesting that there are any concrete steps that could be taken by governments to address this problem by assisting individuals that are in danger of becoming negative statistics in this area. I'd like to know why the only proposals are to regulate the advertising of fast food on tv, or punishing fat people by introducing fat taxes - levied either on food or fat bodies. Why are more positive things not being considered? If everyone agrees that exercise is good, why not offer tax incentives to get people exercising? Perhaps make gym memberships tax deductible? This is no guarantee that people will go to the gym, nor is it a guarantee that they will lose weight if they do. But any exercise is better than none, surely.

The government (in Australia at least and with the current Minister of Health Tony Abott being particularly clear on this point) seems to hold to the view that it is entirely the fault of the individual that they are fat and lack the discipline to control themselves. There have been proposals for a fat tax to be adopted to make fast food more expensive, thus discouraging people from eating it. I say how about something more positive like subsidies for fresh healthy foods to make them less expensive and more readily available? What about teaching food appreciation at schools, instead of serving up pies, ice cream and chips in school lunch rooms?

I notice that smoking and smokers are treated completely differently with quitlines being sponsored by the government where people can call 24 hours a day and get help to give up that habit. I think it is a double standard that there is no corresponding assistance for overweight people that might need the same help. Is it not the case that people can be addicted to a certain type of food? I guess the main difference is that everyone has to eat to live, but you don't have to smoke to live. Unlike smokers that can claim to be addicted to the nicotine in tobacco, fat people apparently just lack self discipline. Gluttony is, after all, a deadly sin. Instead of whipping fat people, perhaps some constructive ideas to positively help those that want to address this issue for themselves would work better.

Pain Persists

2006-10-09T15:50:00.000+10:00

I'm not sure what it is, but the shin pain continued today. I still think that it is mostly in my mind, as during the second 25 minute session today, the pain went away in spite of the fact that I ran at 10km/ph for 3 minutes in that leg. I stuck with the training regime that had been given to me, and I did make it to the end. It isn't as hard as what I was doing, but I think it is important to work through whatever it is that is causing the pain without adding too much stress. I will discuss it with the trainer on Wednesday when I next see her, however it may resolve itself by then in any event.

I did add on some extra time on the treadmill today as my knee was also a bit tight during the last walking phase of the 50 minute workout. I decided that I would add on another 25 minute walking session at 6 km/ph which I find is easy. I hoped that this would work out the area and get a bit of blood pumping through without placing any stress on the area. It seemed to work as I felt really good while doing this part of the workout, and I felt really good on the walk home. It was great to walk all the way home without any pain or stiffness at all. I am thinking that perhaps the fact that I don't do any stretching at all on my own may be causing the issues that I am having. I will address this during the week by doing some stretching of my own at home. My hamstrings in paticular are very tight and I think it affects me widely.

The pilates class turned out to be a bit of a fizz today. I did not have any stiffness or tightness anywhere that I was hoping I might. I think it may be a technique thing and I probably have to give it a bit more time before I decide to move on to something else, however for the meantime I may use the pilates class as something to add on after a cradio workout on Sunday mornings. I wont be too tired to concentrate on form, and I can also be sure that I am burning enough calories. I'm looking forward to another workout with the trainer this week, be good to get some huffing and puffing underway with some weights thrown in for good measure.

Pretty Good Weekend

2006-10-08T17:40:00.000+10:00

The weekend is drawing to a close and I have had a pretty good one. Yesterday was fairly slow, but I did make it to the gym for the standard cardio workout. I am still hopeful that the new cardio training regime will be sent to me soon and I can make a start on that. I found the cardio routine quite hard for some reason yesterday, however I did get through it, and I know that is the most important thing. My shins were sore, as were my feet, but I think it was mostly psychological as for some reason I just didn't seem as into the workout as I usually am. Maybe I need new music on my MP3 player!

Today was good, my partner and I tried a pilates class today, my first one. It was unusual, not that much of a sweaty workout but hard nonetheless. I think that it will take me a few goes at it before I get the hang of it, and I found some of the position quite hard because I am still a bit too large for some of them. Bits of me still get in the way, but I can't even begin to imagine what it would be like to have done this class at my original weight.

I think that I may try and work a few more classes into my routine as they serve a good purpose keeping things new, stopping the boredom and daily grind from setting in too soon and affecting your enthusiasm. I felt good after the class, and while I knew it wasn't the hardest workout I have ever done, I think that I will find bits of me that I don't usually work on have been hit this morning and will probable be sore tomorow! I have a good week ahead of me, I'm feeling good and looking forward to spending some good time at the gym and making some good progress.

Short Term Goal Reached, But Not Passed!

2006-10-06T19:22:00.000+10:00

Bang on 125kg (275 lbs) today. So, my short term goal wont officially change until I actually get over the mark, next week with any luck. I feel really good about reaching the 125kg mark today, so much so that I took the afternoon off and went out to Newtown and sampled a few fine coffees at one of the many establishments in that part of Sydney. A wonderful afternoon, and I walked the 4-5km back into town, taking in the many sights on the way. I met my partner after work and we travelled home together. A great afternoon.

The walk and afternoon in the city was the main reason for the delay in my posting the results today. Newtown is a great area, very bohemian and a younger part of town. Lots of students and a diverse demographic makes it a great place to take a stroll and check out the second hand book stores. I had a great time, just whiling away the afternoon. I did manage to find a couple of books I had been trying to get for quite some time. An excellent way to celebrate the result that doesn't involve food.

Of course this morning I went to the gym and did the usual workout. It went well this morning and I am looking forward to hearing from the trainer about my new workout. She is supposed to send it to me in the next few days so I am looking forward to that. The plans for the weekend are to gym it both days and be well prepared for next week. Bring it on! Can't wait until I am halfway to my goal - 2.5kg away now!

Mighty Fine Day

2006-10-05T21:54:00.000+10:00

I arose reasonably early this morning and made it into the gym for a standard cardio workout. It was nothing to rave about, but it felt good to get in there a bit early and get it out of the way. I got home, had lunch, and then decided to head into Sydney and meet my partner after work. She works on the North Shore so I got the chance to take the train over the harbour bridge and meet her there after work had finished.

We had decided that we would walk back across the Harbour Bridge to the central city and meet up with my partner's cousin. There is a festival on this month in Hyde Park (in the central city) where they have set up a large number of stalls selling Asian food, and we thought that it might be nice to meet after a nice walk and have dinner there.

The walk from the shore is very nice. We walked around some quite stunning suburbs with nice old terraced houses, most of which have been done up and look very flash. Rents are high, of course, and the view of the bridge, and back to the city is stunning. The walk across the bridge is nice too, although I was pestered by a single fly for more or less the entire trip. I only managed to lose it when we got into the city. You haven't experienced flys if you haven't been to Australia.

The city was extremely busy with the all of the offices emptying out of workers and the footpaths were crowded. It was nice to in and amongst it, normally at that time of day I am at home recovering form the days exertions, but being in town in the action was very stimulating. I enjoyed the walk, and the three of us met at the park as the sun was setting, filling the sky with a wonderful pinkish hue.

The stalls were very good, and we recognised a number of restaurants that we have been too. We had some salt and pepper squid, and my partner had a selection of dim sums which we shared. My partner's cousin also had a Thai pie that we all tried. Most unusual - a red chicken curry pie. It was surprsingly good, however I don't think that I will be making a change to my normal diet to include them as they tasted like they had a fair bit of fat in them. So all in all it was a good day. It is the official weigh in tomorrow, so check back to see how I get on.

A Day Off

2006-10-04T17:35:00.000+10:00

I had the day off today, there was a fair bit of work around the house to be done that I had been putting off so I put aside some time today to take care of that. The house is now looking clean and lovely, all the washing is done, and I am looking clean cut and presentable for the first time in a long time.

I splashed out a whole $12 on the 'do' today - very reasonable price for cutting off that much hair. The poor barber was so appreciative when I confirmed that he could shave the hair off the side of my head - I think he envisaged being at it all day with the scissors! By the time he had run the number 2 clippers around the sides and back, and then taken off the mop from the top, there was hair all over the place. I was quite impressed, especially when the other barbers in the store started commenting about it! Nice. He earned his $12 today, let me tell you.

I'm looking forward to getting back into the gym tomorrow and having my session with the trainer. It will be tough I think, she will be recovered from the operation that she had and be ready to give me a very hard time. Still, bring it on. I'm feeling good and ready to rip into losing the next 20kgs. Check back tomorrow to see if I am still as keen after being taken to task at the gym!

Visit Over Today

2006-10-03T21:12:00.000+10:00

A bit sad this evening, earlier on today I farewelled my folks at the airport. I was sad to see them go, I had enjoyed having them around over the last week and I wont be seeing them again for a while - probably not until Xmas. I guess that isn't too far away, but it is always sad to see them off knowing that it will be a while before we are together again. Something to look forward to I suppose, and Xmas will be great as I will in all probability be that much closer to my goal.

Speaking of which, I had two days off over the weekend, but not in a row. I had Saturday and Monday off. Today was a pretty hard session, and I purposely pushed myself beyond the normal routine as I had taken some time off and knew that my body could take it. I didn't do the best workout ever, but I did manage to get over 400 calories per 25 minute session. I think that I needed it as I had noodles for dinner last night and they have plenty of energy in them.

I've also made a decision that having long hair is no longer a good idea. I am finding that in the heat it is making my head hot, and also the hair gets wet when I am running and then flicks into my eyes. So, off it comes along with the moustache and general rugged look that I have been sporting. A new clean shaven and clean cut image awaits! Who knows, it might even account for a few 100 grams when it gets cut off! No, seriously I doubt that my hair could materially affect my weigh ins! I do now have to find a suitable barber to cut off my flowing locks, I may even venture into the city to see what there is on offer.

Tomorrow I have my session with the trainer and it is really early so I will have to get up extremely early so that I am able to have breakfast digested before we get underway. That's about it for now, hope you all have been doing well. I'll be back to regular daily updates to the blog so check back and see how things are going.

Day Off

2006-09-30T18:13:00.000+10:00

I took the day off today and went to China town with my parents and my partner. We went our separate ways as my partner wanted to go with my dad to the maritime museum, while my mother wanted to have a look at Paddy's Market. She and I went for a walk around there and I managed to find myself a pair of sun glasses for $20. Quite stylish!

Mum and I had a good look around, but didn't really buy that much aside from the sun glasses. My mother got some freshly made turkish delight to take home, and my word, what a revelation it is trying that stuff when it is freshly made. Absolutely superb. Now I understand what the fuss is all about! Mum also got some fresh dates, macadamia nuts, and some pecans to bring home and scoff later. I'm looking forward to having some of those.

We met up again after a couple of hours and went for yum cha in Chinatown. It was a wonderful meal, although our timing was a little off and we arrived at the end of the session. We were able to get what we wanted, and had more than enough to eat. We decided during lunch that we would again separate and spend the afternoon doing different things as we didn't really want to go to the same places. Mum and Dad took off for a walk around the rocks and the botanical garden, while my partner and I took off to David Jones to check out the sale that is on there today. My partner got herself three pairs of shoes for work, and as they were substantially reduced in price, that was a good score.

Tomorrow will be a morning cardio session at the gym, and my partner is going to come along with me. I might get in some weights as well while we are there, depending on how much time we have. Dad and I are off to the Rugby League Grand Final tomorrow night at Telstra Stadium between Brisbane and Melbourne. It should be a great game, both teams deserve to be there and both have been playing extremely well in the lead up to the final. We don't really support either team, but we're looking forward to seeing the game as we have never been to a grand final before. I feel well rested and ready to go hard at the gym in the morning, and enjoy the afternoon and evening out and about.

Good Loss This Week

2006-09-29T12:08:00.000+10:00

Another successful week, and I am particularly proud to have achieved this loss while my parents are here and my normal routine has been thrown out of whack a bit. Clearly the dessert last night did not affect things too much, and I am glad to still be on the downward track. Fantastic result really, I hope that things continue this way and next week I can knock off the short term goal. With the running that I am now including in my cardio workouts the weight seems to be falling off and some of the recent marginal weeks have been made up for. I feel great too, doing more active stuff around the city has really made a difference.

Well, today's post will be very short, we are about to head off to Manly right now so I will stop now. I have done well this week, and I hope to build on this loss for next week. A day walking around Manly should burn a few more calories, and the session with the trainer this morning clearly made some difference. Good to have her back and she seemed to be okay after her operation.

Keep well, and keep on top of your own fight with fat!

Wonderful Trip

2006-09-28T21:13:00.000+10:00

The visit continues to go well. On Wednesday we took advantage of the weather and did the coastal walk along Sydney's south coast. My parents and I followed the same trip that I did with my partner from Bondi to Coogee, and the only variations this time were that there was no whale to be seen frolicking in the sea (bummer), and that the surf was much stronger this time (fantastic). My swim (I was the only one brave enough, or stupid enough, to go in the water) was great. I got punished by the waves, it felt like being in a huge washing machine and I was constantly getting knocked over and sucked under by the rip. I really love swimming in the sea when it is like that, and this was no exception. After about an hour I was almost completely exhausted, and the rest of the walk was quite difficult, but in a good way. I knew I had exercised well that day.

By the time we arrived in Coogee we were all really thirsty, and a bit hungry. We stopped at the first bar we came to and my folks each had two beers while I had a water and diet coke (I was good and hopefully will be rewarded on Friday). It was great to sit and chat for an hour or so while we all relaxed after what was a taxing walk. After the walk we were onto the bus, into Bondi Junction, on the train and then home. We met up with my partner on the return journey home - it turned out that we were on the same train but had no idea until we got off at the home station!

Today was a bit more of a laid back day. I didn't get to the gym until about 10:00, I think this was mostly because I was tired from the day before. Also my partner had a late start and didn't leave home until about 9:00 so I had time to chat with her, and also look after my folks before I got my act together and got to the gym. It was a great workout today, my best yet I think. I decided that I would try and get in excess of 400 calories burned in each of the 25 minute sessions, and sure enough I made it! Today I got through 441.9, then 427.8 for a total of 869.7 calories. On the distance front my stats were 3.44km, and 3.37km for a total of 6.81km. I was mightily stoked with that effort, my best yet.

On my return home my parents and I got ready and set out for town. We went to the Sydney gallery in the Domain and had a good look around at the art. I hadn't been there before and did enjoy checking out the collection. It is a lovely old building, but they have modernised it by adding in a lot of natural light and opening it up a bit. We spent a good couple of hours there and then met my partner in town after her conference had finished (at last). After that we had a stroll to our favourtie Opera Bar at circular quay, and we watched the sun setting by the harbour bridge. I had a couple of glasses of house red.

Dinner tonight was our extravagant treat for my parents visit. We went to Cafe Sydney and the food was spectacular. As was the view. It is above Circular Quay and so there is a panoramic view of Sydney's North Shore framed by the Harbour Bridge on one side, and the opera house on the other. It really did take my breath away, the best view of central Sydney we have seen from a restaurant since we have been here. We were wondering if the food coule live up to the view...we need not have.

The food was to die for. Our table had Tuna, Lamb, Spatchcock, and Roasted Snapper. We did not have entrees and that proved to be a good call. The mains were large, and filled me right up. The tuna was rare and I love it that way - super fresh so it just melted in my mouth. The lamb was also medium rare, and while hard to cut at times, again melted in the mouth. Maybe the cutlery could have done with a sharpen as the food was not tough at all! We also had dessert, my partner and I shared the Chocolate and caramel baked cream with fresh raspberries. It was out of this world! It's been a long time since I had anything like it, but I still reckon that this was one of the best desserts that I have ever had. We all reccomend this place, and it may be so good as to become a regular event when my parents visit.

Well, that's about it for now. I have the official wiegh in tomorrow and I am looking forward to it. I know I have done well this week with exercise and I don't think that tonight will hurt at all. My body seems to be ticking along well at the moment and I think that the session with the trainer tomorrow morning will have me in good stead come weigh in time. Check back tomorrow to see how I get on!

Knocked Off A Quick Workout

2006-09-27T09:50:00.000+10:00

Up and at 'em early this morning. Straight down to the gym - I was so keen that I left the house without having my morning coffee shot! It was a good workout too. I had a nice meal of chilli in tacos last night and felt full of energy this morning. I hit the treadmill running and cranked out the first 25 minute session with no trouble at all. I decided to go hard on the second session and managed to crank out an 8 minute long running stint first on 10km /ph and then I put it up to 11 km/ph for the last two minutes.

I felt great running, and nothing was hurting. Everything still seems to be fine so apart from getting tired, it was great! On the calorie front I got through 388.2 in the first session, and 453 in the second (a new record for me!) giving a total of 841.2!!! On the distance front I went for 3.19km and then 3.54km for a total of 6.73km. I was stoked at that effort, and feel that I need it at the moment as the dieting will be difficult being out and about all day. Burning off a few calories before we take off will help, and of course the walking during the day will also help the cause!

Today our plan is to take advantage of the weather and head to Bondi for the walk to Coogee. I am sure that my folks will love it, the view is spectacular and the weather seems nice enough. We'll be heading off shortly, but I thought that a post before we take off is in order. I'll let you all know how it goes and what we get up to, but with any luck we will be body surfing in Bondi soon!

Busy Tuesday

2006-09-26T21:36:00.000+10:00

The day started with a hiss and a roar very early. My partner is working in town at a conference at the moment and they seem to have some very early starts. I still made the effort to get up and make her a nice cup of coffee and had one myself. After dilly dallying watching the morning news I got my act together and hit the gym.

It was a good session today, I had my running shoes on and for the first time since the weekend my knee felt good. I got through the routine that the trainer has set for me, and I added in a lot more running today. It wasn't my best session ever, but I felt good having ground out over 700 calories prior to the arrival of my parents. The next few days will be a bit of a test in that I will be travelling with them and eating out while I show them the sights of Sydney.

After the session I took off home and found I was running late for the airport. I had a quick shower before dashing off to get the train to the airport. I will never be doing that again as I found out on the return trip home that it is cheaper to catch a taxi to the airport from my home than the train fare. For some reason it is inordinately expensive to catch a train to the airport - $14.00 one way for a five minute trip. Outrageous, anyway the return taxi fare was only $13.00 so I will travel in commodious luxury (if somewhat rushed in terms of driving style) next time.

Mum and Dad both looked great, and are both well. I didn't have to wait long for them to get through customs, the timing of my trip turned out to be perfect. They seemed to be impressed by the way that I look now. My mother was initially more interested in my long flowing locks (and the grey that is now in them) rather than my weight loss, but both were very positive about my apperance and how much weight I have lost. I think my mother just wanted to mother me initially, and after that she took a good look at what my appearance is now. It felt good to see them again.

I'm really looking forward to spending some time with them over the next week. We'll be able to explore some of the territory that I now know as a local here and I can show them some of the better beaches that I have come across. Dad is keen to get out there and go swimming, and he wants to do a lot of walking while they are here too. I will encourage this as walking in addition to my regular gym workouts will help me keep on top of things with the diet and weight loss! This is important, however, I will not let it get in the way of us having a good time. The main thing is to spend good quality time with them as we don't get to see them as much as we would like. I purcahsed tickets to the Rugby League grand final this weekend and am really looking forward to taking dad to the stadium. We have never been to a grand final so this will be a wonderful experience for us. Hopefully it will be a great game that we will enjoy.

They've both just gone to bed, and I am waiting for my partner to sms me and let me know that I should go and meet her at the station. She's been at the conference since about 6:00 a.m. and it is now 9:30 p.m. so that is a pretty long day for her. It'll be nice to have her home and she will no doubt want to crash and get in some quality sleep when she does get home. One more conference day and then that is over for her. She's taking Friday off so that we can do things with my folks. So far I have stuck with the diet, the only variations being two glasses of Moet to celebrate the arrival, and a couple of glasses of wine with dinner! Fantastic!

A Massive Walk on Saturday, and Good Start to the Week

2006-09-25T10:55:00.000+10:00

Saturday was the action packed day that I had hoped for. My partner had staked out a walk for us to do over on the North Shore of Sydney and so at about 11:00 we took off for the ferries at Circular Quay and a few minutes later we were over on the north shore at Taronga. There is a zoo there, but we were more interested in exercise and our trip plan was to walk the track to Balmoral Beach. We might do the zoo some other time.

The trip was supposed to take two hours, and was meant to be for a distance of 8kms. There was an option of extending the walk to 12kms, but by the time we got to the optional part, we were more interested in finishing as the terrain was steep in parts, and there were a lot of steps so it was quite hard going.

The bushland was beautiful and there were some quite stunning views back towards the city from the track that we were walking on. In addition there was some wildlife about the place, the most remarkable being the water dragons that were sunning themselves on the path, and took off at great pace when we startled them by daring to use the track! They were quite quick and did look like something out of Jurassic Park. Nice to see so many of them so close to the city.

We were surrounded by Australian bush during the entire trek, and that saved us from getting sunburned. We were wearing hats, but did not think sun block was necessary, and we were proved correct. The federal government has been spending a bit of money on parts of the track, trying to prevent the bush from dying back, so we were forced to stick to the trail most of the time, and frankly given the cliffs and bluffs that were around, that was no hardship. On the walk we went through an old naval training facility that was opened in 1890 and then moved in 1998 to somewhere else in Sydney. They are restoring some of the old buildings, and it is a magnificent walk.

I'd say that the walk in terms of exercise was better than the walk we did the previous weekend, however it was not as stunning and the beaches were a bit of a let down. They were nice enough, but they were inside the harbour and so there were no waves at all. I like a beach with some action, and these were strictly boring beaches, but great for families as they are much less dangerous. There were several roped off or netted water areas on Balmoral Beach which I had not seen before. The nets were steel wiring, or more like cables, in some parts and I wasn't too sure why they were there. It didn't look like they were there for any serious reason as plenty of people were swimming way outside of the netted areas.

Our walk was strenuous and we were had it by the time it was done. We had moved at a cracking pace, and reachd the end well inside of the suggested completion time. My knee had been playing up on the downhill leg of the last part of the walk. The stairs that we were going down were quite big, and the shock wasn't going down too well. It was clicking and giving me a bit of pain, but once we finished it seemed to settle down. Hopefully all of this will be strengthening it and helping it to come right. Also, my partner's cousin who joined us managed to fall over on the track and skinned her knee so she didn't feel like pressing on too much more than what we had done to reach the end. My partner had streaked on ahead so I was left to help her cousin. I am pleased to report that I was quite the gentleman - I didn't laugh or anything! After I had stifled the laughter I even managed to enquire as to how she was - as you can imagine there were many jibes about my bedside manner needing improvement! Nothing serious happened to her I can tell you, and I think she was embarrassed more than anything else!

Balmoral wasn't the cafe scene that we were hoping for. The cafe that had been suggested to us was very expensive and so we decided to head for home. We caught the bus back into town, and the train from there. It was a good day, but we were all glad to get back home. I think next time we will try and choose a beach where there will be waves as our final destination as a couple of hours walking followed by an hour long swim is a magic way to spend the day.

Sunday was a bit of a dull day. My partner and I spent the day cleaning the house and getting ready for the arrival of my parents tomorrow. This place hasn't been this clean ever I think! We did some shopping and got a couple of DVDs, one of which was The New World with Colin Farrell in it. A very average film that I wouldn't bother watching again. I found it ponderous and very dull. It covered quite an interesitng story, but never managed to get to the essence of what was exciting about it - two civilisations meeting, and a love story of two people - Captain Smith and Pocohontas. If it wasn't for some of the historical aspects of the film it would have been a complete disaster. The acting was awful as well, particularly Farrell and his love interest. Talk about wooden. Not reccomended. My partner fell asleep, and she is a Farrell fan.

Today I have been to the gym and done the cardio workout given to me by the trainer. I didn't crank it up that much today as my knee was still a bit sore. I carcnked out over 300 calories for each session, and noticed that this felt very much like an easy workout. I remember it was only a week ago that I was wondering if I would be able to keep up with the workout that she gave me! Progress - good, all the time progress and I will make it to my goal. No workout with the trainer today, she's having an operation this week so apparently I may be on for Thursday and Friday but I wont worry too much, there'll be plenty going on with my parents here!

Keep fighting the good fight!

Weight Loss Continues...

2006-09-22T12:16:00.000+10:00

Another week, another loss. This week I was 100g under the 1kg mark that I was hoping to achieve, but I still feel good about being officially recorded at 127.8kg (281lbs). It is great the weight is continuing to come off and there is less of me in the world! Also this week my body fat percentage has come down a bit and that is good news. I am still 2.2kg (4.8lbs) off the goal of 125kg that I had hoped to reach by the time my folks came to visit, but never mind. Since I last saw them I have still lost an impressive 17.2kg (37.8lbs) and it will be interesting to hear what they think.

More good news this morning was the fact that I was able to put in a very good showing on the treadmill this morning. I did the standard two 25 minute sessions, however I felt so good that while running I tried to do a bit more than usual, and succeeded. In the first session I did 3.14kms and increased it to 4.06km for the second session, making a massive total of 7.2kms for the session. The best so far by a long shot! On the calorie front I did 377.9 calories in the first session followed by a very pleasing 427.6 calories, a total of 805.5. I was so stoked when I got through the session that I decided to round it all off with 3 sets of 20 situps on the Swiss Ball to give my abs a bit of a kick!

I am tired now that I am back home, and am really feeling like I need my lunch! It was a bit of a slow start to the day as my body did ache from the clean and presses that the trainer had me doing yesterday. I think that my stomach is still getting in the way of me being able to properly lift the bar with perfect form and that puts a bit of stress on my back - I usually feel it the next day. I'll be keeping an eye on this, and upping my stretching at home as I think being inflexible does not help the cause either.

Well, thanks for checking up on me, and thanks for all of the positive comments that have been coming in. For the coming week my posts might be less than the usual daily post as my parents arrive on Tuesday. Until then I will keep the posts going, and then see how I get on while my parents are staying with us. Keep well, and keep up all the good work those of you that have started your own fight against fat.

Gut Wrenching Workout

2006-09-21T15:40:00.000+10:00

Today was the mother of all workouts, to be sure. I have never been so exhausted since I started my fight against fat. It has been a torrid battle so far, and now it is also starting to become what could be referred to without too much hyperbole as "lengthy". Of course, it was always going to be lengthy, given the distance between my starting position, and my goal. But now being this far down the track I am really getting an idea of how far I have to go. However, dwelling on that is the road to rack and ruin (or the drive through at KFC or Mackers), and the most important thing is how far I have come since I started. Tomorrow will be the official weigh in and yet again I hope to have lost some more weight so that I am closer to my goal. I am certain that today's efforts will have assisted me no end in getting towards my goal.

It has taken me the majority of the morning to recover from the workout, to get enough energy to write this post. Today was a real workout, perhaps the benchmark for things to come as the trainer was discussing with me a new cardio routine that will incorporate running. She is hoping that I will be at 125kg tomorrow, but I am certain that I wont be. She did her level best to knock a couple of kilos off me today though! I just don't feel that much lighter, but given my progress over the last few weeks and the fact that I am following the same routines (except with more exercise) I am sure that I will have lost weight this week. Not many days to go until my folks are here, but I haven't given up all hope of being 125kg by that time. I have a big weekend of activity in front of me and I am looking forward to that.

Today I was bit late getting out of bed as I had stayed up late watching 'City of God' on SBS. I couldn't stay up for the whole film and videoed the end of it. I found it engrossing, shocking but the kind of film that I just didn't want to stop watching. Anyway, I had to finish it off when I got back from the gym this morning, and I ended up being at the gym just in the nick of time as I was sleepy today and it took me a while to get going.

The trainer was there and ready for me when I arrived. The workout started with me running around the gym 3 times before launching into clean and presses with 30kg barbell. After I had done the first 15 the trainer said she was mightily impressed as she thought that I would only be able to do 10. Next up were squats with dumbbells, followed by alternate dumbbell curls, and then dumbbell rows. Last of all were leg raises for my abs. This completed the first circuit and during the last set of squats I have to admit that I had to stop mid set to take a break as I thought I was going to throw up! I didn't, but it was a very near thing.

To finish off I had to do close grip incline bench press, followed by more dumbbell curls on the incline bench, and a set of press ups on the bosu. Again I had to do this for three sets and I am pleased to say that I made it though. It was the toughest workout I have done so far, I felt drained at the end of it and discussed this with my trainer. She told me that the new cardio workout is not designed to be done directly after a workout with her, and is too hard for that. I heaved a sigh of relief at this news and she suggested that I do 10 minutes and then head for home. Instead I did two lots of 25 minutes as per usual, but I alternated the speed between 6km/ph and 7km/ph only. That was a good idea as I still got a good sweat up but did not thrash myself too hard. The total calories today were 602.8. Not a bad effort I felt on the back of a hard workout.

I did my shopping on the way home and got some chicken for lunch, and will probably finish it off for dinner. I had a chicken salad at lunchtime and added in some tinned sweetcorn kernels with fat free italian dressing. It was pretty good, the grilled chicken making the whole thing come together. I guess I had better cook for my partner tonight, but this time I will add in some extras to make the salad all the better. Yum. Check back tomorrow for the official weigh in stats!

Hard Graft

2006-09-20T11:12:00.000+10:00

It was a tough morning at the office this morning. My legs were sore from yesterday's efforts, and they felt like lead to begin with. The stroll to the gym was fine, but the problems started once I got on the treadmill. My legs were heavy, and they struggled through the first warm up phase of the workout! This did not bode well for the remainder of the cardio session. I decided that I would be lucky to make it through the workout that the trainer set, so apart from cranking the running phases up to 10km/ph, I decided to stick with the set workout today.

I made it through the first 25 minute session and felt okay at the end of it, just very tired and I was huffing and puffing so much I was getting a few strange looks from the other people at the gym! Never mind, you go there to workout and you do what you have to get through it. It aint a popularity contest or a fashion show. I took a bit longer than I usually do to get into the second phase as I had to mop myself with the workout towel and clean up the treadmill a bit.

Once I started the second session I knew that it was going to be a struggle just to keep going on the set workout. I struggled with the quick walking phases more than the running, however my MP3 player was there to save me with some excellent tunes today! I reckon that the music makes things a lot easier if you have a good song come on right when you are struggling! I managed to get through to the end, and added on 3 minutes of running for good measure. However, I really felt it today and just made it through the 3 minute phase. I really wanted to stop, but kept with it as I know it is doing me good.

In the end the workout wasn't as good as yesterday as far as the stats go. Today I did 3.12 km for the first session, 3.16 km in the second for a total of 6.28km. The calories were 373.2 for the first session, 377.4 in the second, a total of 750.6. Not a bad effort, but I did struggle. However, the most important thing to me about today is that even though I struggled, I stuck with it and did manage through the entire workout. I feel that is really important, and I feel good for having completed the workout. I considered doing some abs after the cardio, but I was far too tired for that.

The diet has been going pretty well. The featured photo today is of a wonderful salad that my lovely partner made for me the other night after she got home from work. This was a chicken and aspargus salad that she made. For an interesting variation she added in some peeled and sliced bits of orange that were a triumph. They really added to the flavour and taste of the meal. Let me know if anyone wants the recipe. I never thought that I would be into vegetables, but I have to say that I am really looking forward to the fish and salad that she has promised to make for me tonight. It should be great - there is a fresh fish shop near where she works and she thinks she can get us some wonderful fish for tonight. Yum!

Best Distance and Calorie Burn To Date

2006-09-19T10:50:00.000+10:00

Yes, another good workout to start the week this morning. I'm not sure what it is, but when the weather is fine I feel more into my workouts and tend to do better. Today was no exception. For the first time I have broken through doing 3km in each of the 25 minutes sessions, and for the first time I have managed to get near a goal of 400 calories for a 25 minute session. Today I did 3.09 km in the first 25, and 3.2 km in the second for a combined distance of 6.29km! Not bad for me! On the calorie front I did 374 in the first session, and 395.7 in the second for a combined total of 769.7 calories - another personal best. I feel tired but good for having pushed myself. Today I ran at 10 instead of 9 during the running phase and as experienced yesterday, I felt a whole lot better for it - less crashing around and less impact on the joints.

The heart rate monitor showed me that I pushed myself quite hard, but I was not in any pain at any stage and the only effect I noticed was that I was sweating more than usual and the panting was a bit more pronounced. So, I think I trained safely and I should be able to back it up with another good session tomorrow. I hope!

I wore my old shoes today, the ones that gave me the bad blisters in the past. I put on a pair of socks that I thought I had lost (all of the new ones I purchased were in the wash). They are really thin socks, and only come up to the ankle so I hoped that they would allow me a bit more room in the shoe, and it seemed to work. My big toe hurt at times, but I kept going and it went away. They are good running shoes and helped me with the exercise today. I will try the new shoes again tomorrow. The walk home was a challenge, and I am glad to be back having had a bit of sun on the return trip, and being well into the chores that need doing around the house. Yep, another exciting day!

I hope that all of this hard work pays off, my parents are coming to stay with us for a week next week and I want to look my best for when they are here. It'll be a good trip anyway, we always love to have them stay with us. They live in New Zealand so we don't get to see them as much as we would like, but we do keep in regular contact and when they do come to stay, the absence and distance makes the stay that much more special. They are very supportive of me with what I am doing and I am really hopeful that they will notice a difference when I collect them from the airport. It'd be nice to be down to around 125kg by the time that they arrive, but that may be shooting a bit high. We'll see.

Well, that's about it for today. I think that I have earned the afternoon off, but I may get out for a stroll or to do some work outside. I need to work on my tan, so going for a bit of a wander in the not too distant future might be on the cards. My legs are a bit sore from the lunges yesterday so a bit more of a stretch may be in order. Good luck to you all with your own fight against fat!

Good Workout This Afternoon

2006-09-18T17:24:00.000+10:00

The workout this afternoon went well. It was tough, but I managed to do well enough considering that it was on the back of a good cardio session this morning. The trainer informed me that she (in her words) "Felt like being a b*tch" and set about giving me a pretty taxing session today. I started off having to do dumbell lunges for the length of the gym and back again. After that it was into squats with the same dumbells, lifting them up above my head in a shoulder press movement. This was immediately followed by press ups where I had to hold the position with one arm, while using the other to open up my chest and twist around to the ceiling. They were quite difficult, and for some reason she assumed that I could do a lot more of this exercise than I can do for ordinary press ups. Finally I had to finish off with some ab work - leg raises on the floor. I did this routine for three sets.

Next up she told me that she was going to bash on my biceps (not her words, I guess she had had enough of whaling on my quads). First off I had to do pull ups from the floor with the bar resting on the squat rack and me pulling myself up using an underhand grip form the floor. I have done these before, but today she had raised the bar off the ground a lot more. They were tough. Next up were bicep curls with a barbell. I was to do 10 on my own, or try for 12 with her assistance. I managed to get through 10 on my own for three sets. I felt good about that. To round out the session she stretched my legs, and I also did another couple of sets of crunches and situps. It was a good session and I was really tired at the end of it.

The trainer told me that the purpose of the first set of exercises is to sap my energy so that it is totally gone. The purpose of the second set of exercises is to build muscle in the areas that I need to focus on. Today was obviously bicep day and I found it quite tiring. I think that I will try and work in a muscle development day on my own so that I can add to the effect of training with her. I will make sure that it works in with the regular sessions that I have with her, and she can give me some advice on what to do. I may also think about increasing my cardio workouts a bit more, probably instead of doing the weight lifting exercises to begin with, and maybe as well as in due course.

Well, that's about all I have that is fit to print today. It was a good day and I feel good now that I am back at home and hammering away at the PC. I'm also catching up on some housework and waiting for my partner to get home and see how her day went at work. Today she is doing exercise after work, she is walking across the harbour bridge and is supposed to meet her cousin half way, and then they will both catch the train home. Sounds like a nice idea (it was mine, lol) and they certainly have a great day for it. Catch you all tomorrow!

A Great Start!

2006-09-18T10:38:00.000+10:00

One thing that can definitely be said for having a weekend where I don't go to the gym is that I am well rested come Monday morning. Although I was tired this morning, once I was up and had consumed my coffee shot, I felt great. My legs and neck were better, and I had no pain anywhere. The weather is still fantastic and I almost felt like skipping on my way to the gym. Had it not been for the fact that I would look ridiculous skipping, and there were other humans around, I probably would have!

Once I got to the gym I did my normal cardio routine, although I upped the running sections to 9km/ph as this is much more comfortable than running at 8 km/ph as the rhythm suits me more at that speed. I also put the speed up to 10km/ph at one stage and I think that in future I will make the speed I run at 10km/ph as it is very smooth and doesn't seem to be too stressful. 50 minutes of cardio done and I felt great, and had worked up a real sweat. I toyed with the idea of doing some extra work after the cardio, but then I remembered that I have my training session this afternoon at 2:00p.m, a mere 3.5 hours from now. I'm looking forward to it, and am hoping that I feel as good as I did after the cardio session this morning.

I forgot to mention in my posting from Friday that I finally figured out what the object that I have been describing very poorly is. The object I am referring to is what I previously described as a half sphere of a Swiss Ball with a flat bottom. It is in fact a "Bosu", or that is the brand name of the company that makes them, I'm not sure. When I was on my last press up using the said Bosu I noticed the name appeared on the flat underside of the object. If you want to have a look at what a Bosu is, click here. The woman in the middle of the screen is balancing on two of the things that I am made to use at the gym (otherwise known as Bosu). For my squats and press ups the Bosu is up the other way, ie the ball side is on the floor and my hands (or feet) are on the flat side. It makes things quite a bit more difficult, let me tell you! I do think that some exercises are performed much better on a Bosu, it makes you focus on other muscles and works them out as well as the ones doing the lifting.

So, now you'll know what I am talking about when I mention the Bosu! I feel good having 690.5 calories out of the way, and knowing that a session is coming up shortly. I am chowing down on my weetbix, flavoured with honey and coconut and I must say they are pretty good. I have always found that ordinary weetbix are a bit bland, but these ones are nice, still don't have much sugar in them even though the allegedly contain honey. The coconut and additional power of the bran make them a great start to the day. I like them! Don't forget to check back later to see how my afternoon workout went.

Wonderful Weekend Walk

2006-09-17T19:21:00.000+10:00

Here it is, glorious Bondi Beach. This where myself, my partner, and her cousin went for our wonderful weekend walk, the best I have been on in many years. As you can see, it was a wonderful day weather wise, and the sea was in good shape.

We started the day by taking off at about 10:00 from home. It takes about an hour to get to Bondi and we decided to have a light lunch when we got there. We ate just above the section of the beach that you can see there and watched the younger surfers try and find a decent wave.

We then took off on the magnificent coastal walk. We were aiming for a 6km walk to Coogee Beach, and I had decided that Saturday would be a perfect day for my first foray into the water this season. I thought that Bondi was a little busy for me to swim at, and I didn't want to do the whole walk in wet swimming shorts. I thought that maybe half way into the walk would be the best time for the swim with plenty of time to dry off.

As we rounded the point of Bondi, where this shot was taken, we saw a large splash out to sea. As we continued to watch as we walked we realised that what we were seeing (it came up again and again) was a whale spout, and the splash of the whale frolicking just off the coast. It was too far out to get a decent photo of (blast!), but we did get a good look at it. It was really nice to see such a massive marine mammal near the harbour entrance to Sydney and near such a populated area. We did stop to watch it for a while before continuing on with our walk. The whale watching boat did follow it for some time and the people on the boat must have got their money's worth that day! We felt that we certainly did. For many of us it was the first time we had seen a whale from the coast.

About halfway we came to a beach called Bronte. I decided that the surf was the best I had seen at the two beaches we'd seen so far and that this was the place I would grace the surf with my new body! Okay, it is a bit soon for that kind of talk, but I did take the plunge. The surf was about 1.5 metres, and was breaking a short distance from the beach. The sets were regular and I spent a good 45 minutes body surfing the break with a few other keen swimmers. It was wonderful and I got one or two great rides, which wasn't bad considering I am massively out of practise. I was very impressed by the clarity of the water - I could see the bottom and well out to sea quite easily. It was magnificent and I will definitely be going back there. It would be a wonderful place to live if everyone else didn't already know about it and want to live there too!

I was able to shower, wash off the sand, and get prepared for the next half of the walk. It turned out to be a bit further than we thought, about 8kms in all and we were all glad when the end came. This was mostly because we got a bit more sun that we thought, and the swim in the buffeting surf had taken quite a lot out of me. The train ride home was a welcome event, as was getting in and having a nice light dinner. The perfect end to a perfect day.

Sunday was pretty good as well, nice and quiet. I had planned to hit the gym, but decided against it as I felt I needed a recovery day after the swimming and walking the day before. I am not sure why, but my neck and legs were really feeling it this morning. I feel as if I have recovered a lot and am looking forward to cardio tomorrow morning with the training session in the afternoon. I'm all set for the week and can't wait to get into it. I hope that you all had a great weekend too!

Good news! Another Loss!

2006-09-15T11:05:00.000+10:00

Well, it isn't the same league as the weight loss I have come to expect each week, but given the missed training session earlier this week, and my partner's birthday, I am stoked to have continued on the weight loss track this week. I felt it was a bit touch and go, but it seems that the metabolism is now able to handle a day off and a change in diet (for the birthday) without going crazy and undoing all my good work. Sweet.

This morning the training session was pretty hard. Lots of leg work today, no running, but plnety of squats, lunges, and other difficult exercises for me to get through. My heart rate was right up, and I was exhausted at the end of the session. Thet rainer and I got onwell today, and she was pleased with my effort. She has okayed my plan of attending the gym to watch replays of rugby and rugby league games and suggested that walking for 90 minutes is a good idea. I will build this into my training routine, and she and I are going to attend a cycle class next week.

My partner and I have a big weekend planned. We are heading out for a walk of at least 10kms one of the days at the weekend (depending on the weather) and we will be joined by her cousin who wants to get fit and lose some weight too. I am also going to try to make it into the gym both days for a cardio session. I feel like getting stuck in this weekend, and it looks like the weather will be good. We're going to try and walk a couple of beaches and make the most of the sunshine while it is here. We started taking it for granted and then were taught a lesson!

Not much else to report, still going on the same track, if a little more slowly this week. The trainer said to me today that I should be 85kg. I thought that was a bit optimistic. 100kg is a good enough goal for now, at the beginning I was wondering if that was too far away. It is still a ways off yet, but I am sure that I will get there if I carry on with the exercise and being disciplined on the diet front.

Monster Workout Cut Short

2006-09-14T13:28:00.000+10:00

As you all know, Thursday is the day that I normally have an hour workout with the trainer, and then I normally grind out 50 minutes of cardio. Today the trainer had me do an extra hard workout, with a lot of squats, deadlifts, and running. My heart rate was through the roof at some points, but I did manage to do it all and I felt good when I had finished. Tired, but good. I did stop once or twice, but completed all I was supposed to, and even did a few extra on some of the exercises.

After the workout I went to complete my cardio workout, and I found a machine that allowed me to workout for 30 minutes, instead of the usual 20 minutes (each plus the mandated 5 minute warm down period). I got stuck into it, and was even doing well, with 20 minutes having been knocked off the workout, when suddenly the treadmill stopped working and I nearly pushed myself right into the front readout panel. The power went off and all of the treadmills and TVs in the gym stopped working. It was pretty dangerous really, and I was fortunate not to be in the middle of a running leg when the cut happened.

So, aside from the danger, the power outage also wiped all of the stats that I normally keep for a record of the workout! Talk about gutted, I was really put out that this had happened and ruined my record keeping! Anyway, I sucked it up and went to start again for the remainder of the 35 minutes I had started. I barely got going again when the power cut out for the second time. I figured that this was a sign, and wasn't keen to press on when each time it cut out I was worried about falling over or hurting myself somehow. For the sake of 10 minutes, and already being really tired from the workout, I cut it short. Even after getting my things from the changing rooms, the power still wasn't back on indicating that there may be something serious that they need to repair down there. I didn't do it! I swear!

My partner's birthday yesterday went well. We went out for dinner and were joined by her cousin. Before dinner we went to a bar in a hotel on the 36th floor. It had amazing views of the city, all the way up the harbour, and of course over the bridge to the north shore. We arrived as the sun was setting and it was wonderful to be able to sit there, sip on some nice red wine and watch the sun go down. She really enjoyed it, and got stuck into the very nice cocktails which were conveniently priced as two for one! Great timing!

I must say that I had originally thought I might have a beer, but then I saw the wine selection they had. I went just for the house red, which was pretty good but not remarkably good. What was remarkable about the experience was the enormous glass that it came in. I have never seen anything like it and had trouble drinking out of it. I reckon that you could easily have kept a gold fish in there and it wouldn't have felt unduly contrained at any point in time. It did have the effect of magnifying the aroma of the wine and preserving it to be enjoyed during the entire drinking experience. It was a very nice place, and very busy. We'll definitely go back, a great way to see the city and have a nice wine at the same time.

After that we went to dinner, and it was a buffet style restaurant so my partner could indulge in as many prawns as she wanted. I shocked myself as I had allowed myself free reign at the buffet, but I retired completely full after only two goes at the buffet. In the past that would have been unheard of. I think that my stomach is not as big as it used to be and it takes less food to fill me up now.

My partner and her cousin put in a good effort, however they don't have the same issues that I do! We were surprised at the quality of food, not only was there a large selection but each dish was well prepared and kept well even though buffets are not normally ideal. There was also a dessert bar and I did have a couple of scoops of chocolate ice cream and chocolate sauce. It was delicious and I don't regret it one bit! It remains to be seen tomorrow whether or not I will regret it, but I don't think I will. I know I wont be kilos down on last week, but I expect I will be around the 129kg mark. A little low on the workouts this week, and the birthday will have an effect, but all in all I feel good for having had a short break. This weekend, weather permitting, my partner and I are planning either a massive walk, or a massive bike ride, so I am expecting a big one next week. I'll keep you posted, and don't forget to check out my results tomorrow.

Sun is Shining, Weather is Sweet

2006-09-13T12:33:00.000+10:00

Yes folks, back to normal today, although it is not quite your usual Wednesday for me today. My partner's birthday has interrupted the schedule a bit, but I did get up in time to make it to the gym this morning for my usual session. The figures were more or less the same as yesterday as I followed the same speed and incline variations as yesterday. I did find the workout easier than yesterday, but not as easy as previously. I think that doing the full workout after a training session with the trainer will be a real test tomorrow.

The workout results are, as usual, posted on the fighting phat web site which you can link to from the links section of this blog if you like. The total calories that I burned during the workout amounted to 662.5. Not bad for the day, but today being a special day will mean that the diet is out of the window. However, my partner will turn 30 only once, and provided that I don't go overboard it should be okay.

I got home and made poached eggs on toasted ciabatta with hollandaise sauce and smoked salmon for my partner. We had a coffee before the food, and while eating we had a bottle of Moet between us. Fantastic start to the day - wish I could have Moet every morning! No, I think that would probably send me to an early grave! It is nice stuff though, very good as a breakfast drink when the occaision calls for it.

This afternoon we are off into town for a walk around the rocks and a few coffees in some of the finer places in town. We are also going to check out some of the chocolatiers in town, and possibly sample some wine on our travels. We have dinner booked for later this evening, and will probably have pre-dinner drinks either at the opera bar (near the opera house and looking out towards the harbour bridge) or up on the 36th floor of the hotel where our dinner is booked. Apparently you get stunning views of the harbour and the city from up there. Should be nice.

Check back tomorrow to see how the evening went, and of course I will also be reporting on the session with the trainer. Friday brings weigh in day and I will be interested to see how I go this week.

Bad Weather Continues, But Phatfighter Rallies!

2006-09-12T13:29:00.000+10:00

Sydney's shocking September weather continues today. Raining, wet, and miserable out there still, however there are patches of blue sky coming over. This morning I was all set to go to the gym (I even had my gear on and everything) and then the rain started coming down. It looked like it would never stop so I got out the Swiss Ball and the skipping rope again to do some exercise at home. I had been going for about 10 minutes when the rain broke and I decided to get cracking down to the gym and get into it. I got wet on the way, but not too badly.

I did the cardio routine that the trainer has set for me, and only increased it marginally during the running phases (I find it is better to run on 9km/ph rather than 8 or 8.5). I struggled a bit today, I don't think that the time was right to take a few days off from the normal routine. I struggle mostly with the walking phase of the workout, and I wondered for a moment if I was going to make it. I pushed myself, and did get through the workout, burning 665.6 calories today. I think it is important that I keep up with the routine and I will be making sure that I get into the gym tomorrow morning for another session. I wasn't able to wear the special socks today - I wonder if that accounts for the difference in the way I felt?!!!

Tomorrow is my partner's birthday. She's taking the day off work and it is my job to make her a birthday breakfast, to take her out for dinner in the evening, and generally pamper and indulge her for the rest of the day. For dinner we've chosen a nice restaurant in town that has a prawn buffet (prawns are her favourite), as well as a mixture of asian and indian cuisine on offer. We're looking forward to it, and will have a couple of drinks to celebrate. It is not every day that you turn 30 after all so there will be a bit of celebrating! All the more important that I get to the gym in the morning then!

I've also finally gotten a bit fed up with porridge all the time for breakfast. On the way home from the gym I got some Weetbix at the supermarket, as suggested by the trainer. I also got some chicken which I will have for lunch as well as the necessary ingredients for the breakfast tomorrow morning. Eggs benedict to be washed down with a nice espresso, and to round it all, an chilled bottle of Moet. Fantastic! Check back tomorrow to make sure I got to the gym again!

Bad Weather Continues

2006-09-11T15:52:00.000+10:00

Well, the change back to training with the trainer on Mondays and Thursday hit a glitch today, the weather! The trainer and I spoke and canned today's session as it is too foul to get out and about with any degree of comfort. So, the session was canned, and I will be doing the usual Thursday and Friday session instead.

I have utilised the day around home doing housework and using my Swiss Ball to do a few exercises of my own. I am hoping that the weather will have turned tomorrow and I will be back into it. Regardless, I think that I need some treadmill time as the workout I did today was good, but a little limited without weights. I do like the ball however, it came with a chart of exercises to do and some of them are really good. Being housebound is not ideal, and it looks like things should turn around weather wise tomorrow.

So, not much to report today. A bit of a dud day, and they happen from time to time, you just have to cope with them as well as you can. I'm looking forward to getting back into it tomorrow.

Weekend Off

2006-09-10T13:41:00.000+10:00

Yes folks, another weekend away from the gym. The weather outside is atrocious so we've been staying at home, taking in a few DVDs and doing work around the house getting it back into shape. The espresso machine has been working overtime and I feel as if I could be a full time barrista with the sort of fine coffee I am producing at the moment! Okay, that is probably boasting a bit much, but my partner certainly seems to appreciate my handywork on the espresso machine. Mind you, if she wants them to keep coming she has to say good things! A captive market in some respects.

I was feeling a bit antsy last night, a bit like I should be getting to the gym at the weekend, but today as I look outside at the driving rain, grey sky, and howling wind I realise that two days is not going to hurt me and I have another big week coming up. I am planning to introduce some more workouts into my week - weights wise. There are some areas that I want to work on that the trainer does not seem to work out and so I will do some extra weights on my own. These will not be too onerous to begin with, and I will make sure that they are not going to impinge on the workouts that I do with the trainer. I still need to be on top of my game for those. I figure that I will do additional workouts on Tuesday and Saturday at this stage.

The focus will be on my back, biceps, and calf mucles. With the exception of my back, these are not directly worked by the trainer and I want to emphasise these areas, especially my back as I have never really focussed on this area with the strength training I have done in the past. The rest of me is above average strength wise, but this area is not. So a bit of effort expended here will do me some good I am sure.

I'm looking forward to the coming week. Back to Monday and Thursday with the trainer. Also, I should be able to build on my running to date, adding a little bit here and there during the existing cardio workout. I wont do any sustained running at speed until I hit the 125kg (275lbs) mark as I think that to do so will be to invite disaster, but I can build up to running in the meantime with bursts of short duration during the existing cardio workout. Fantastic. It is so good to be in a frame of mind where I am actually seeking to increase workout intensity rather than avoid exercise.

Righto, that's about it for the weekend. Not much to reprot, but back into it tomorrow, rain, hail, sleet, snow, or shine! Bring it on.

Another Short Term Goal Reached

2006-09-08T12:00:00.000+10:00

Fantastic! I am feeling really stoked, and really good about myself today! And this is in spite of having to cry off from the full on cardio workout today after the session with the trainer. That's right, today I couldn't make it all the way through the trainer's session and then on to the full new cardio workout. However, there was good reason and I think I did the right thing.

The reason that I couldn't do all of the cardio workout today was that I was tired from yesterday. I got up this morning and had sore legs from the workout, followed by the full session of cardio training that I am required to do. I made it to the gym on time, but I wasn't feeling 100% into it when I got there.

The trainer told me that today was going to be a hard workout day, and I wont tell you all of the exercises that she made me do, but the focus of it was clearly to get my heart pumping and there was no stopping at all today. I was back to running with weights again today, around the gym for 3 laps per set during the first series of exercises. The second set of exercises included more running around the gym, this time without weights, and mate that made a real difference. I felt like I was an olympic sprinter once I had ditched those dumbells.

The workout was good, although I did pull the trainer up on a couple of exercises that she was getting me to do that were just a waste of time in my opinion. I couldn't feel them working anything so I just suggested to her that I do the standard form of the exercise rather than using pulleys and benches and stuff. She agreed and noted that each variation I made to the exercise actually made it harder. So it seems that even when tired I am getting much better. She was positive today, and said that I worked out well. I sure felt like I did as I put as much effort into it as I could. At the end I was absolutely stuffed, which is how it should be. There was no way I could have done a full cardio session, but I did work in a walk for 25 minutes.

The trainer and I had a chat about my working out two days in a row like I have been. I had thought that it was for only a short period of time (while she had exams on) and asked when we would be going back to Mondays and Thursdays again. I feel that two days in a row is pretty hard, and it also leaves me absolutely shattered just before the weekend. This is dangerous because the weekend is when it is most easy to avoid the gym all together. I am happy to report that we've agreed to go back to Mondays and Thursday next week. My main interest in doing so is to get in a position where I will be able to put in a better effort after some recovery time for each workout.

The official weigh in stats have me past the most recent short term goal. I am stoked to not only be in the 120's, but to be well within that range by just a bit less than a whole kilo. This marks two weeks of quite substantial drops and I am sure that this wont continue for much longer, however I will take it while it is there. The measurements that I take are indicating that the weight coming off is now starting to come from my stomach area which is good, I hope that lasts as it is the area that I need to lose weight from the most. Hopefully when I get to the new goal of 125kg I will be much smaller around the middle!

I feel really good at the moment, and the best thing is that I feel that I am not missing out on anything, or going without things that I want. One of the best things so far is that I have been able to get back into clothes in my wardrobe that haven't fit me for about two years. My jeans have been dusted off and I can wear them without feeling uncomfortable at all. My leather jacket is still a tad taut around the shoulders, but pretty soon it will be fitting me well. I guess I should try my suits on one of these days and see how they are looking!

So, the long and torrid contest continues, but things are still going well. I hope to have more good news to report next week, and will of course keep you all updated on my exercise over the weekend, and if we head out on any expeditions around Sydney. I think that is unlikely as the weather is not that crash hot at the moment, but you never know! Until next time, fight the good fight.

One Monster Workout Done, One To Go!

2006-09-07T12:40:00.000+10:00

The workout with the trainer was a bit of a shock this morning. I had to get up early and we had a pretty bad storm last night, so the weather today is shocking. Apparently Sydney reached its monthly rainfall figure last night, so there is plenty of water around. I wasn't really looking forward to the workout this morning, but I toughened up and ventured out into the tempest.

It was not a pleasant walk to the gym today. I nearly got blown over a couple of times, and made sure that I stuck to the footpath all the way there as everything was pretty muddy. By the time I arrived at the gym the trainer was already there and waiting, however I had to get out of my wet weather gear and get changed before I could workout today. Once ready I had a 5 minute warm up on the treadmill and we were underway.

Today was a slightly different workout to the usual ones. Today she was trying to get my heart rate up again, but this time she was using squats, deadlifts, and shoulder press to do it. The first exercises that I had to do with a barbell were front squats followed by deadlifts. Next was the usual step up onto a bench with a dumbbell in each hand, and these had to be curled and pressed above my head as I stepped up. Lastly I was to do crunches, emphasisng the oblique muscles by turning to one side on the upstroke. There were 15 reps per set, and three sets for this first cycle. I completed the entire cycle without stopping which made me feel really good.

Next we went over to the pull down machine and I was to do 15 pulldowns on 65kg (143lbs). Immediately after that I had to do tricep push downs on the pulldown machine at 25kg (55lbs). Lastly I was to do squats holding a weight balancing on the half Swiss Ball contraption, with the spherical side on the floor, and me standing on the flat part balancing. The trick with these was that the weight was a 15kg (33lbs) plate and as you squat down, the plate must come up, so this works your shoulders and back. Again it was 15 reps for 3 sets. At the end of this I was tremendously tired, but I was stoked that I had manged to get through with some time to spare.

Lastly I was taken to the stretching area. Here I had to do lie on my back and do leg raises, 20 reps, with my hands under my lower back, my legs straight, and raise them off the floor up to 90 degrees more or less, and then back down. Following on from this I had to turn over and position myself with the forearms on the ground, and raise myself up so that my forearms and feet were holding me off the ground while the rest of me was straight. This was a good way to finish the workout, and I did well right up to the end.

The trainer and I had talked during the workout about the cardio program she had given me. Apparently I am supposed to run and she not to worry about running, as long as my knee doesn't give me any trouble. It is still feeling better than it ever has so I think that running and working it out has been good for it. The trainer stretched my legs for me to end the session and then I was off to do the cardio workout. She suggested that I might like to walk instead of doing her plan, but I told her that I would stick with it.

The workout on the treadmill was intense coming on the end of the workout with the trainer. I wanted to do it, as I used to do the previous workout this way. I started on the first 25 minute session and stuck to the plan she gave me. At the halfway point I felt great and decided that I might take her up on the suggestion to run a bit more during the workout if I felt like it. During the second session, instead of warming down for the last nearly 10 minutes, I cranked up the pace to 9.5km/ph - my top speed! I did that for five minutes, and then rounded out the session with a 6km/ph warm down and I felt great. I was heartened to see that my workout result was 724 calories for the cardio plus whatever the workout with the trainer had burned. I suspect that is a lot because I get very tired during the sessions with her.

All in all a good day, but I am feeling it a bit. This is not surprising given the increase in intensity for my workouts. I was at the gym for just over 2 hours today, and am looking at doing the same thing tomorrow. It has taken me longer than usual to post this today as I have been a bit tired since this morning. Sorry for the delay folks! It is official weigh in day tomorrow, and I am hoping for a godo result. The trainer remarked on how I was looking like I had lost a lot of weight from around my face, particularly the chin area. It must be true because I was thinking that the other day and normally I am the last person to notice that I am losing weight. It was good to hear something positive, let's hope that it is reflected in my results tomorrow.

Daily Grind Ground Out!

2006-09-06T11:41:00.000+10:00

Another day, another cardio workout done. Today I stuck with the routine that the trainer gave and did not add in any additional running or speed things up at all. I was feeling pretty good when I woke up this morning, and I didn't want to push things any harder than is called for the day after an increase in workout tempo. The good news is that my knee is feeling good, a little tight, but no pain at all, including on the walk to the gym. I am beginning to suspect that my knee is benefiting from the increase in activity that has gone on these last few weeks, and in particular from the running.

Today I did an extra ten minutes on the cross trainer at the end of my workout. I was feeling pretty good after the cardio and went to do my regular 3 sets of 20 crunches on the Swiss Ball. They went well today, and I was really tensing up the stomach muscles on each set, so hopefully they will start to improve as the rest of my body has. The cross trainer seems to be one of the more intense exercises around and I noticed that you get through calories on that machine quite quickly. In 10 minutes I did 173.3 calories. This made my total for the day (including the treadmill) 824.4 calories, which is an increase on the usual 600 or so that I have been doing. It feels good so far to be doing more than what I am used to.

I was speaking with a friend of mine yesterday, and he suggested that I get a heart rate monitor to record my workouts. This arose in connection with the rpm class that I did the other day, and my comments that there was no objective way to measure the intensity of the workout. The suggestion was to use the heart rate monitor to keep a track of performance. My friend suggested getting a polar heart rate monitor that includes a chest strap that you wear to get an accurate reading of your heart rate.

I had this in mind this morning at the gym and after I finished I went to the Rockdale Rebel Sport store to check out what they had. There certainly was a range, and there definitely was a range in price. The most expensive model was about $700.00! The least expensive was about $150 I think. The store has a helpful pamphlet about the product, so I took that for some reading during the rest of today. I will persue the material and see if I think it is a wise investment of not. It seems that you can spend quite a bit of money if you want to, however I am keen to avoid that at this stage. Toys like this are good fun, and I see that it can be linked with a pc to develop reports on your exercise and all sorts of cool geeky stuff like that! I'll keep you posted on what I decide.

Aside from that there is not much else to report. The local gas station now has a street advertising sign featuring Liz Hurley snacking on a massive ice cream on a stick. I was wondering exactly who they thought they were kidding, suggesting that Liz is an ice cream goddess. I've been thinking a bit about food advertising and the proportion of advertising on tv that is dedicated to it. It seems to be extremely high, one advertising segment in our area last night featured nothing but food, although I accept that this is a rarity. Most of the food advertising featured a link between fun and fast food, or love and fast food. I found this predictable, but interesting.

Fast food used to be a staple of mine, however it has now been nearly two months since I had any and I can't say that (apart from my craving for KFC now dealt with, which I think arose from the advertising campaign they have embarked on here) that I have missed it at all. The fact is that it made me miserable, not happy. It made me fat and unhappy, not sexy or fun to be around.

The advertising/marketing is, as usual, rubbish. The only thing that fast food provided for me at that time was something that I could have any time I wanted, it would almost always be the same each time I got it (quality wise), and it did taste nice at the time you ate it. To that extent it did 'feel' good, but didn't make me feel good because I knew it was bad for me, was making my weight issues worse, but still there were a million and one reasons to carry on eating it. So I did. To excess, so much sometimes that I would be uncomfortably full for a good couple of hours or so after eating. Disgusting I know.

I don't know if I have dealt with any underlying issues that there might be that make me eat to excess. I doubt it, I tend to do things that I like as much as I can, so I thought the challenge was to change my perception of what I liked, and take eating as much as possible out of the range of perceptions of good things I had. All I can say at this stage is that having a new approach to attempting to deal with the overeating has worked well for me so far. In the past I have tried to use willpower to go cold turkey with changes to diet and increases in exercise. Sometimes it worked, but eventually it didn't with me running out of steam or eventually feeling miserable again. This time I have purposefully avoided trying to do everything at once. You will recall that to begin with I was just trying to eat like a normal person, and avoid fast food. This worked well, and during that phase I introduced relatively low level of exercise. Again this worked well, and my weight has come down a lot. I know that this will end, and probably sooner rather than later. But, I feel great about what I have achieved so far and don't feel like I am missing out on anything.

My eating now seems more geared towards providing my body with something to power it through workouts, and on the weekend not worrying too much about things so that my partner and I can go out and have fun together. Food is no longer the sole focus, although it is still important. Before I used to think constantly about the next fast fix of fat, salt, and sugar. Now I don't really care that much until I start to get hungry. It is still important that I eat before I get too hungry as I can eat too much still, but nowhere near as much as before. It took me a long time to get that large, I think it will probably take a long time to get back to being the weight that I want to be, but goodness it feels good to have shrugged off the weight that was probably the worst for me, and to be able to fit into my clothes again. I'm talking about a lifestyle change, and a significant one. I have made a start, and made some good progress but I need to start thinking about the next stage after this one.

The next plan I think will be to introduce more and more tasty and healthy food into the diet, food that I might not normally eat, and to begin to keep more of an eye on quantity of food, and the type. For instance, if I have a sandwhich now I will have it with mayo or butter and not worry about it. I'll slosh the olive oil around now because I know I can and still lose weight. It is a great way to get me to eat the salad veggies that I need, and used to avoid like the plague. However, soon the time will come when weight wont fall off the way it has been and I will have to start looking at the extra things like olive oil, butter, and the tasty 'fat free' desserts. I am ready for it, and as I have said it took me a long time to get that fat, it will probably take me a long time to get rid of it too. My goals will need to change from being reached just about each month, to taking longer to get to, and requiring more effort to do so. I am committed to doing it because I firmly believe that if I don't, I'll be a diabetic before too long, and a heart attack waiting to happen. This healthier me should be able to triumph with that for motivation I hope!

New Cardio Routine

2006-09-05T12:18:00.000+10:00

Late last night I checked my e-mail and found that I had received the new cardio routine from the trainer. I checked it out and it actually looked quite daunting. I have posted it on the fighting phat web site, and you can download it by clicking here if you like. Chief among my concerns was that for the first time I was being asked to walk in excess of 8km/ph, which is faster than I have ever walked. Frankly, I didn't think that I could do it, and this morning I thought "Why would I walk it?".

It seems to me that the main point is to go faster. The trainer has had me running as part of my workouts with her, and sometimes during those sessions I have been running for a few minutes at a time carrying weights - perhaps I am supposed to begin running as part of this workout as well? I decided before I took off for the gym this morning that if walking at that pace was not possible, then I should not be afraid to start running.

I got to the gym and felt great. My MP3 player was on a favourite part of its cycle for me and some good tunes were raising my morale for the workout! I made the most of it and got underway. The warm up cycle of the workout seemed to last a long time, and I might move to speed things up more quickly as I think the trainer is preparing the workouts for me on the basis that I am getting on the machine cold. This is not the case as I walk to the gym and do so at a fairly good pace to warm myself up.

That said, I found the rest of the workout great. I ran when it got over 7.5km/ph, and I ran well. I was able to keep good form while running, and avoid a lot of the heavy crashing that can cause injury. I am pleased to say that nothing hurt, and I felt quite proud to finally be able to run and not have to worry about breaking the machine! I was right, once the pace goes up to running speed the calories just fly by! You can download the latest version of my spreadsheet tracking my progress here. Today I broke through the 600 calorie mark and ended up with a total of 695 calories, meaning that I may start to aim for 700 calories per session with this workout. I even managed to clear 3km in one 25 minute session, my best result to date distance wise.

I got off the treadmill feeling great about what I had achieved this morning, and still feeling like it wasn't quite enough. I decided to do some additional weights, only a few light sets on some areas that I wanted to do some extra work on. I did some chest press, pull downs, and shoulder press. I finished off with three sets of 15 crunches on the Swiss Ball and I felt every one of them. I must have been doing something right because my abs were really burning at the end of each set so hopefully this marks the day that I can do crunches properly.

I got home and scoffed some oatmeal followed by yogurt. I'm feeling good, the weather is great, and the afternoon has just started! I got some wholemeal bread on the way home, so pastrami sandwhiches are the go for lunch today. I'm looking forward to it, and will tear into those soon! Let's hope I feel this good again tomorrow and can put in a big effort at the gym again!

New RPM Class A Success

2006-09-04T14:39:00.000+10:00

Sorry for the delay in posting today. I'm not sure why, but my computer must be on a 'work to rule' or some go slow form of industrial action today! It has taken me ages to get in and be able to access blogger and make this post. In any event, I am here now and have the days events to report on.

It was good start this morning. The coffee that we purchased yesterday has all been ground up for the espresso machine. My partner and I sampled it this morning espresso style, sans frothy milk and it had a nice kick. It was tasty, strong, and had a very potent smell. It was very nice, and was a great start to the day.

I left the house with plenty of time to spare today. The RPM class was supposed to start at 9:45, so I left the house at 9:00 to make sure that I had plenty of time to set up my cycle and possibly have a bit of a chat to the instructor to get the inside goss on what the class was like, and if there was anything that I should look out for. I left with plenty of time to spare, and arrived at the gym by 9:30 and was rearing to go.

The class is held in its own room at our gym. It is a small, black room with fans, air conditioning, and there are rows of cycles all pointed towards a bike on a very small stage. The view in the room was non existent, and nothing like the photo I have posted today. That is the view (well part of it) from the platinum gym that I mentioned yesterday. Inside the RPM room at my gym there were a number of stereo speakers in the room and I could tell that it was going to be loud. I had a bit of a look around and then noticed that the instructor had arrived, and as no one else was there, I asked if he could show me how to set up the bike in preparation for my first RPM class.

He took me through setting up the bike and I wont bore you with all the details except to say that there was quite a lot to take in. One thing that I wasn't too impressed with was that the bike had a resistance control on it, but you could only turn it clockwise to make it more difficult, and anti-clockwise to release the pressure on the pedals. There were no numbers, or no 'objective' way to gague how difficult the setting is - no gears if you like. Also there was no readout so there was no way to keep track of calories being burned or anything like that. I figured that wouldn't matter that much as the class has a reputation for being difficult.

After being introduced to the bike by the instructor I got ready to get underway. The class was about 80% full so getting there early will be necessary if I am to continue with it. I forgot to ask how long the class was so when we started I had no idea how long I would be riding the bike. I figured it would be less than an hour due to the time that we started at. As it turned out I was right, the class went for 45 minutes.

In essence what happens is that the music comes on and you are told to pedal fast sitting down, or slower with more resistance standing up. There were slight variations on this, but that was the guts of it. The standing up parts were an emulation of hills, while the sitting down bits were supposed to resemble racing along the flat. The bike was set up like a road racing bike in terms of the handle bars and you could lean forward and get right into it.

Overall I found the class good. The instructor had told me to take it easy as it was my first time, but I found that I could handle the pace pretty well (and consequently am not sure if I had the resistance levels right when we are asked to increase the load). However, I was puffing and sweaty when the 45 minutes was up, and only had to rest out of time once during the class. So all in all I think it was a success. I did enjoy the class, it is preferable to riding exercycles in the gym ordinarily and I will probably build this in to my routine. I will take the instructor up on her offer to go along with her as that will probably give me an idea of whether or not I am pushing myself enough or not. However, my exercise tomorrow will be back on the treadmill to see how I get on.

After the class I did some weights. I wanted to do some work on my arms as they have always been a bit weak, so I went and did a light dumbbell workout. The gym was busy today so I decided to head back home after finishing that part of the workout. I went home via Rebel Sport at Rockdale and managed to find some more gym shorts that were on special. I got them without trying them on because they were the biggest ones in the shop. I was a bit worried about them fitting, however I tried them on when I got home and was surprised to find that the XL size fit me very well. I may get some more tomorrow.

My legs hurt during the class which was a good sign, and I tested the lightfeet socks today. They were very cool, and I noticed that the pain in my knee that was present on the way to the gym subsided, and then went away. I had no trouble with my blisters, and my feet felt really good when I got home. Too early to say if the socks are good, but this is an encouraging start. Let's see how they cope with the treadmill tomorrow!

The Best of Intentions...

2006-09-03T20:26:00.000+10:00

Yep, I didn't make it to the gym today! Surprise, surprise I woke up late this morning and didn't have time to get there before we had to take off to get to Bondi today. The game last night was a bit of a fizz. My team lost, however it did not drive me to break the rules! I stuck with the diet coke and had a good evening (even if I did have a bit of a caffeine buzz on by the end of the night). I think that a loss will do my team some good at this point. They were getting a bit cocky really, so this should bring them back down to earth...with a crash!

So, up late and it ended up being a bit of a dash to the train. We made the 11:15 train into town and shot into Bondi Junction on a packed train. The Sydney Swans were playing today and the train was packed with AFL supporters off to watch the game. They seemed in a good mood so I take it that the local team is doing well. I don't watch the game myself, it doesn't make much sense to me and kicking a ball between two upright sticks doesn't seem that difficult.

We arrived at Bondi Junction not really knowing what to expect. We had hoped to get some more Heuheutenango coffee that we both like. We managed to find a shop that sold it by accident, we had called in to see if they knew where the mayan coffee shop was located. As an extra bonus, they also sold it cheaper than buying direct from the mayan coffee merchants! So, armed with coffee in hand we decided to check out the main mall in Bondi Junction.

This was my second mistake of the day! Once inside the mall, we virtually didn' come out until darkness was descending! It had been our intention to walk to Bondi beach, but once we discovered that the mall was at least four levels, and had so many shops that we were looking for that we just had to stay. On the bright side we made some good purchases, and we did walk a considerable distance during the day!

I decided that I had to get some new shoes. I discovered another blister on my foot last night and this indcates that I still have issues with my shoes. We went into a shoe store and I am now $190.00 poorer. They had better be pretty bloody good shoes for that kind of moolah! I guess I should add that I also got 3 pairs of lightfeet socks for blister prevention and moisture management! They sounded rather high tech, and as I was labouring under the pain of yet another blister I thought that I should give them a go. They boast 'seamless technology', 'padded protection', and 'arch support'. This all sounds good and I will let you know how I get on them tomorrow.

I was deligthed to find that there was a David Jones store at Bondi Junction. David Jones is a department store and they have a renowned food hall there, with all sorts of gourmet goodies on sale. I found some more coffee to try that claims it is enjoyed by the coffee elite. With that kind of claim I just had to put it to the test. My partner got some paella rice (a speciality of hers), an oil burner, and some smelly candles.

One of the highlights of the day was happening upon a branch of my gym in the mall. It was located on the upper levels and boasted a platinum club designation. I had no idea what that meant, and went in to find out what the fuss was all about. I soon discovered that my membership was not platinum and that if I wanted to work out there, I had to pay $5.00 to do so. If I wanted to upgrade, I had to pay an extra $10.00 per fortnight for the privilege. I decided to check it out and they let my partner and I in to have a look around and see what all the fuss was about.

Initially I couldn't swee why I would pay an extra $5 for a gym that looked the same as the one I went to, except for the absence of a swimming pool. However, on closer inspection I noticed a massive wall of windows with untold treadmills all facing the window. We went over and it was a revelation. Whereas I get to look at a wall with some televisions on it, the platinum club members get one of the most spectacular vistas in Sydney. The view is tremendous, looking out on the harbour over to the North Shore, Harbour Bridge, and to the City Centre. Worth $5.00 per visit? Not for me, but if I lived near that gym I would join like a shot. I bet that view would inspire some great workouts in yours truly! I must say that the staff were really helpful and looked after us well while we were there.

After trapsing around the entire mall we decided to have a very late lunch at the foodcourt. This was no ordinary foodcourt. Firstly the food was prepared by the vendors in full view of the public, and the food court seating area was huge, and surprisingly well furnished. There were tables and chairs like you would expect to find in fine restaurants (only missing the table cloths). Also, you could sit outside if you wanted, and you got a similar view to the one at the gym. It was most impressive. We shared Korean chilli BBQ chicken with rice and veg, and a dozen small falafels with hommus between the two of us. Laden with shopping it was time to take the train home and get ready for the coming week.

All in all it was a great day for the two of us. Truth be told I am not worried about missing the gym, all of the meandering through the mall more than made up for that. The diet has gone well this weekend, and I am looking forward to my first spin class tomorrow morning. I will let you all know how the socks handle it, not to mention my heart! I feel like I am heading into a good week of exercise and weight loss. For the first time I am actually looking forward to it. But best of all my plan for Friday night worked. I went past at least 4 KFCs today and did not feel like venturing into any of them, much less eating any of the Colonels produce. The craving has passed, fended off by a tactical roast chicken, spuds, and kumara (sweet potato). Hooray! Let's hope the week goes as well as it feels like it will!

A Day Off, and Promise Fulfilled!

2006-09-02T19:16:00.000+10:00

Okay, so here it is. The photo of phatfighter. It's not the most flattering shot ever, but it isn't supposed to be. Rather it is meant to provide a record of what I was like, and track my progress from this point on. This should be a good start, and reminds me that I still have a long way to go to get to where I want to be. At the same time I look at this and think how much better it was than when I started out on this fight against fat. It is inspiration for me to keep going.

I had a great night last night. My partner and I had a nice meal at home, the roast I made was pretty bloody good even if I say so myself! I prefected the potatoes, and the chicken was moist and tender. I did well, and most of all I managed to beat the craving for KFC! I haven't even thought of it today until just now writing this up! Yay, freedom from the temptation of that Colonel and his tasty chicken!

Tomorrow will be a more action packed day for us. We are going to head out to Bondi which is another beach around the Sydney area. It is a bit more built up (being closer to Sydney proper) than where we were last weekend, and we expect to be able to get in a good half hour walk from the train station to Bondi Beach proper, and the next beach Coogee. I'm also getting up and hitting the gym before we take off to get in some exercise and stretch the muscles a bit. I'm really looking forward to getting in there, this day off has treated me well!

It wasn't all roast chicken and diet mousse today however! The first day of Spring here gave us good weather, 26 degrees celsius. We took the opportunity to get outside and clean up the yard a bit. We also gave the house a good going over and everything is looking tip top. I did more than my fair share and I reckon housework is good exercise.

My team is playing again this weekend, so my partner, myself, and her cousin are venturing out to the local pub to see how they get on. The game doesn't start until about 10:00p.m so it will be another late night again tonight. Now that I have been to the pub a few times and stayed away from temptation, I am sure that it wont present any issues this week. I'm feeling good, and feeling on top of everything. Long may this last!

Fantastic Work Out, Great Result This Week

2006-09-01T12:37:00.000+10:00

It was a monster workout this morning. I got up at 6:00 this morning to make my partner a nice coffee before she took off for work. I had my porridge for breakfast and had a short esrpesso myself to kick start the day. I had plenty of time to relax this morning as my workout was not scheduled until 9:00 so I made sure that I left for the gym with plenty of time to spare.

I arrived at the gym and started on the treadmill at about 8:45. I got through a light 15 minute workout concentrating on just warming up as I had been warned yesterday that the session would be tough. I was nearly finished by the time I saw the trainer arrive, and I went to the reception area to meet the trainer.

The workout today was designed to get my heart rate up. The trainer introduced a lot more running around the gym, this time I had to do laps of four. She also kept the resting time between exercises to a minimum. This meant a lot of work, and a lot of effort put in by me. I actually really liked it.

For the first of the running laps, I ran some with weights, but we switched to running without weights after the first two as it was slowing me down to a fast walk. Once relieved of the weights, I was suprised at how fast I wanted to, and did, run. I actually put in more effort than required a showed a fair bit of pace on the long straights down the sides of the gym. It felt good to stretch out and give it heaps.

The pressups with my feet on the ball were back, and I impressed mytself by cracking out 4 sets of 15 today. I wont bother listing all the exercises, but by the time I had finished I was extremely tired. The trainer said that she was impressed, particularly with how far I have come and how much she can already get me to do. While I haven't lost the most weight of all of her clients, I have given the period of time I have been with her, and have also, according to her improved a lot fitness wise. She has asked me to join her for a cycle class that they have at the gym so that she can see if my cardio can include these classes. She is also sending me the new cardio workout routine. I'm trying the class on Monday, and the two of us will sort out the class we attend together next week. Sounds good, and sounds like a lot of progress.

I was pretty tired and I wasn't sure if I should do the cardio or not. The trainer told me to just walk to warm down for 10 minutes, however once I got started I really felt like giving it a decent nudge. I did 25 minutes and managed to get through the 300 calories for the day and felt really good to have achieved that also today.

I then weighed myself under the 'official' conditions and have posted the weight on the site. I was 131.4 kg (289lbs) and was mightly pleased with that as it included my shoes and everything else. I am fast closing in on the next target and I think sticking with the diet has become quite easy. I spoke with the trainer about my craving for KFC and told her that I had thought I might roast a chicken tonight to see if that will get rid of the craving. She said that should be fine and I should definitely do it to see if it works. So, on the way home I got the chicken and everything else for dinner tonight and am really looking forward to cooking a wonderful meal for myself and my partner tonight.

Lastly, I must apologise for the absence of the promised photo today. My partner was in a rush this morning so she couldn't take the photo of me for the post today. I will organise it for tomorrow as I feel that it is important to have a photo record of what I look like now, to see the changes that take place over time. I'm looking forward to this weekend and will probably get into the gym tomorrow morning, while my partner and I will get out on Sunday for some fresh air and exercise out and about in Sydney.

The Phat Fighter Fades!

2006-08-31T12:04:00.000+10:00

Today that is true in almost every sense, although it would be an exaggeration of my progress to suggest that I am fading away! However, today marked a more successful Thursday workout although I felt that I didn't quite seem to hit the ground running this morning and that in turn had consequences for my performance during the workout. The trainer said that I did well and she now puts in extra effort to think of ways to try and push me harder during workouts, so that was a compliment of sorts. I was huffing and puffing a lot today, but I did manage to do everything that was asked of me, and even work in a few more reps when they were not expected. My cardio session after the workout was not full bore the entire time, the second 25 minute session being at a markedly slower pace.

I arrived at the gym and was greeted by the trainer. She was at reception and then was waiting for me as I got on the treadmill to warm up. We started before the 9:00 time as she had a number of clients this morning and wanted to start early. First up I had to do steps up onto the bench for 15 on each leg to warm up. Next was a return to the old exercise of step ups onto the bench, however my legs were paralell to the bench so it feels more like doing an extended squat on one leg. Again that was for 15 reps each leg.

Next up were push ups, however instead of just doing the normal variety, she had me do a standard push up, and then raise one of my arms off the ground (alternating) and swing it around behind me, turning almost like doing overarm swimming on the breathing stroke. The hand was then lowered down, I did another push up and then did the same thing with the other arm. This was quite a difficult exercise and initially she wanted me to grab a dumbell for the overarm swing part of the exercise. I couldn't really do this as it took too long to grab the dumbbell off her and made the exercise too hard because I had to hold my body weight for so long. Nevertheless I did get through 15 on the first set without the dumbbell.

Without a rest it was then into deadlifts, with two bent over rows on the down movement, followed by returning to the start position. I had to do 15 of these (so 30 rows) and I found this quite hard. This was performed with a barbell and it started to get really heavy as you have to hold onto it for a long time. I also found, for the first time today, that my lower back didn't really like this exercise too much. It is fine, but I must watch my form a bit more. Form is the first thing to go when you get tired I find, and doing endless reps normally has you compromising form eventually.

Next up we went into dumbbell bench press. She gave me 15kg (33lbs) dumbbells to do this with. Frankly, that wasn't heavy enough. She initially said try to do 20, but I powered up to that with no problems at all, so she upped it to 30, which I again made it to without stopping. She then said keep going until failure so I gave it everything and ended up making it to 45 reps which I was pretty pleased with, although I was sore. Apparently this was the point that she wanted to get me to, complete exhaustion in the chest muscles.

Finally I was into knee tucks on the bench. To make it more interesting she made me hold a 5kg (11lbs) dumbbell between my feet. I had to do 20 of these, and I did find them difficult. The hardest part was keeping your torso off the bench if you weren't using your hands to support it. I got through the 20 reps by doing 15, having a short break and then finishing off the remaining 5.

So, that was the first super set! I had to do that three times. Of note was the fact that in spite of having gone so hard on the chest press with the dumbells, it did not seem to have that much of an impact on the strange push ups that she was getting me to do. I did notice that on the second and third set of chest press, I found it difficult to get to 20 reps. I subsequently found out that this was not only because I was tired, but because she had increased the weight to 17.5kg (38.5lbs) without telling me! A bit sneaky that, and it had a bit of a negative impact on my outlook on the session as in fact I was doing better than I thought. Never mind.

The final part of the session was dedicated to front squats and tricep extensions (I think). The tricep exercise involved the same barbell as was used for the front squats and I lay on the bench with my arms straight above me holding the bar, and bent the elbows to bring the bar back down to my head, then returned to the starting position. I was to do 15 front squats and 20 tricep exercises for each set. As per usual I found that it was three sets for each of these. I did complete everything, but unlike the other set, there was no resting during the set, or between sets. By the end of this I was huffing and puffing more than I do after monster cardio sessions. It was tough!

The trainer had been asking me about my weight and so I asked her, when we finished, if she wanted to weigh me. I could tell that she did and so we went into the trainers room and I got the shoes off, and got on to the scales once she had set them up. I was initially startled to see that the readout was hovering between 128kg and 129 kg (281.6lbs and 283.8lbs). However, after standing as still as I could for a very lengthy 45 seconds it eventually stopped at 131.2kg (288.64lbs).

That was good progress from the last time that she had weighed me, however it isn't an official figure, that will of course be done after tomorrow's workout under the usual conditions (including having my shoes on). I am considering if that is the best course now as my scales at home are working properly, and even have started measuring my fat content and water percentage. I know that the last two stats are not normally that accurate with home scales, but they seem about the same as the ones at the gym the trainer uses, and initially they would weigh me, but not measure the other two things it was supposed to. I guess it was because I was too large, but they are made to weigh up to 150kgs (330lbs) so I should have been okay. I might be better off using the ones at home as there does seem to be some variation at the gym, and of course the scales at home are private! I'll let you know what I decide, but if I make the transition, it will be tomorrow.

The trainer was positive about the loss, and she seemed to be enthusiastic about how far I have come. We discussed how much more there is left to go, and particularly discussed when I should start to run. She said that once I hit 125kg (275lbs) then I should be able to start running. I said to her that I felt like running sometimes now as it would be easier to run on 8 km/ph than it is to walk on 7.5 km/ph, however that was shot down. She said no, if you are running you will be running on 10km/ph, nothing less! Ha ha, good on her I say. I used to run at that speed the last time I was near that weight, and worked my way up to keeping that pace for an hour, getting through 10km. I'd like to get back to that again, but will need to wait before starting. Apparently the new cardio workout will be sent to me soon.

So, to round out the monster Thursday session I then got on the treadmill for the usual two 25 minute sessions. The first session I went hard and got through more calories than either session yesterday. However I was tired and I knew I couldn't keep that up. So, for the second session I just went at the 6-6.5 km/ph mark the entire time and played around with the incline a bit to increase the workload. I got through a total of 588 calories with that routine which I was pleased with. I'm glad to now be at home where I can start to recover and get some strength back. Tomorrow I am apparently going to 'whale on my legs', 'carve up my quads', and 'turn my calves into bulls' and so on. I'll let you know how that goes, and I will be posting the official weight as well as the measurements. I'm also considering putting up a photo of me in my gym gear each week so that we can all see what the progress looks like. Measurements are one thing, but a visual record of progress is probably more meaningful. Keep an eye out as all this should be up tomorrow.

Cardio Plus Light Leg Workout Done

2006-08-30T12:43:00.000+10:00

Over to the left you have my promised shot of Cronulla beach. The famous Shark Island break is just around the point you see in this photo. The break was not happening on the day that we were there, and there were only a few kids surfing the small waves that were coming in. The water looked inviting enough, but it was a bit overcast for my liking so I have yet to break the ice and get in the sea around Sydney for a swim. I think that Manly was a nicer beach, although I am going to make the time to go back to Cronulla on a finer day when the surf is up before I make my final decision. It is a good place for a day trip. plenty of wonderful eateries and more cafes than you know what to do with! The chicken salad with mustard dressing that I had for lunch was just superb, and I think that even my trainer would have approved!

I was tired again this morning and I think that it must have something to do with putting a lot more effort into the cardio workouts that I am doing. I had another good workout this morning, and managed to go a bit harder on the second 25 minute session than I did on the first one today. I was huffing and puffing a lot today which means that it must have been a good one! It is nice to be finally seeking out that extra burn and extra level of difficulty. I really think that I have come a long way since I started this new approach to life.

The stats for my workout are up on the cardio fitness progress chart you can link to over on the right hand side of this blog if you want. Most importantly I got through 628 calories today which I think might be something of a record. I did an experiment on the second session choosing a calorie goal instead of the manual program on the treadmill. I had hoped that this might allow me to beat the 20 minute limit the club has, however it did not! No luck there, and it was during the warm down that I reached the goal, not during the main part of the workout, which I had expected.

I felt good after the first session and decided to take a wander around the gym and see if I felt like doing any more exercise. I decided that I did, and that I would do a light workout on my legs. I did some seated leg extensions, leg press, and seated calf raises. I finished off with three sets of 10 ab crunches on the Swiss Ball. I have decided to make sure that I do the crunches on the Swiss Ball after each cardio workout I do on my own, so that I can strengthen that area of my body. After years of having a large stomach behind them, and plenty of fat over the top of them, my abs need a lot of work.

I felt pretty good after the workout, but then it ocurred to me that doing legs the day before I saw the trainer might not be such a wise move. It was too late by then, however I am glad that I decided to just make it a light workout today. I will need all my strength for the usual Thursday workout tomorrow morning. I guess that it is also possible that the trainer will want to weigh me as it has been a while since she last did that.

On the way back from the gym it started raining on me which wasn't the best. It did help to cool me down and that was nice. I stopped at Woolworths on the way home to pick up some chicken for dinner tonight. I also purchased some of the diet chocolate mousse that my trainer has approved. They have virtually nothing in them and were on special ($1 for two packets as they go bad in four days). I'm also eating a lot of yogurt at the moment, and had to get some more of that today as stocks are running low. I must get back into making my own as it is much nicer, you have better control over what is in it, and it is much cheaper.

Dinner last night was fantastic, even if I do say so myself. I neglected to take a photo as it looked so good that my partner and I tore into it as soon as it was ready and completely forgot to take a photo of the meal for the blog! Never mind, I will take one next time as we will definitely be having that again. The fish was really fresh, so they told me truth. Next time I will cook it a bit less so that the rare part in the middle is more pronounced because that is so tasty! All this talk of food is making me hungry - lucky it is almost lunch time!

Check back tomorrow to see how my workout with the trainer goes, and who knows, I may even have a non-official weigh in to report to you! I'm hoping that I get a good loss this week as it will get me closer to running on the treadmill. I am really looking forward to being able to do that, I think that I am at the stage where walking fast is actually more effort than running would be! Thanks again to all of you that have been posting comments, keep 'em coming they really help to keep me focussed on what I am trying to achieve and the fact that I have come so far already. I guess that I am roughly a quarter of the way to my goal, which is pretty good considering the amount of time I have been at it. Can't wait to reach half way!

It's Good To Be Back

2006-08-29T11:58:00.000+10:00

I finally got back into the gym this morning after my longest lay off since I started my fight against fat. Three days without going to the gym, and three days without any structured physical activity at all. About the only exercise that I got was walking around Cronulla when we went there over the weekend (I'll post some more about that trip tomorrow).

I got to the gym after my morning coffee this morning and hit the treadmill first up. I wasn't too sure how I was going to go having been under the weather yesterday, and not having been to the gym for three days. I did think that perhaps I would have had ample time to recover and that nothing would be hurting at all while I was working out and that maybe I could do more or go faster. I was wrong!

Nothing hurt, but it seemed during the first 25 minutes that I just wasn't into the swing of things on the treadmill. I wasn't quite striding right and the short 4 minute burst I did on 7.5 km/ph was much harder than it used to be. My rythm seemed to be out somehow. I did get through it, and did complete a fairly good first 25 minute block, but I knew that I would not be able to back it up with a better second 25 minute block as I used to. I decided to listen to the body and take it down a bit on the second leg. I did fairly well I felt, and got through a total of 599 calories in the two sessions. I was pretty pleased with that effort, but thought that as I had missed a workout with the trainer I should really do some weights today as well.

I went to the machines and did a fairly quick and light workout. I did some seated chest press, pull downs, dumbbell curls, dumbell shoulder press, tricep extensions, and finsihed off with some crunches on the Swiss Ball. It was pretty good and by the time I got to abs I was breathing almost as hard as I do when the trainer is there. One thing I found that slowed me down was that I had to set up all the weights myself which gave me more recovery time than when I am with her because while I work, she sets the next lot of weights up for me.

I was a bit worried about the last few days and what effect they might have had on my weight. I decided to break with tradition and see if any damage had been done by weighing myself at the gym on the scales I use for the official weigh in. I was delighted to find that I weighed in at 133.8kg (294.36) so at this stage it seems that the time off has not adversely affected me in terms of weight loss. I felt good about that, and I had a great sweat up by the time I finished my workout this morning. I trucked on out of the gym with the mp3 player blaring and a spring in my step!

On the way home I remembered that there was nothing for dinner tonight so I called into the fish shop on the way past the mall. They had some tuna that they told me was really fresh so I have got 500gms of that for my partner and I to have for dinner tonight. I hope it is as fresh as they claim as I intend to lightly pan fry it in a medium heat pan until medium rare (still that raw pink colour in the middle) with some olive oil to give it a bit of taste, and to be accompanied by lots of salad. Should be delicious, I might even take a photo if I manage to cook it well enough! I'm supposed to eat more fish so here goes nothing! Check back tomorrow to see how I got on.

A Dud Day

2006-08-28T09:27:00.000+10:00

My partner and I woke up this morning with both of us feeling unwell. My partner is so crook that she can't go to work, and I am going to have to look after her as best I can today. It seems that she might have eaten something that didn't agree with her yesterday, or on Saturday, and it is playing havok with her today. I'e got something similar and both of us can't keep anything down.

I have had to call and cancel my session with the trainer today, and I wont be getting into the gym today at all. My trainer understood and has scheduled my second weekly session for Friday morning. I'm quite looking forward to getting back into it, and I hope that this thing has gone from both of us tomorrow.

So, all in all not much to report except that things are not going to plan today, but hopefully that will pass and I can get back into things tomorrow. I'll keep this post short so that I can get back to tending to my partner. I hope that you are all doing much better than this home at the moment! Fight the Fat.

A Day Off

2006-08-26T16:59:00.000+10:00

I have taken the day off today, prefering to recover form the taxing workouts at the end of the week. I think it was a good choice as I was mega tired this morning when woke up. Tomorrow will be an active day, although not necessarily at the gym. We are supposed to be off to the beach, in particular to check out the surfing Mecca that is Shark Island, Cronulla. For a few photos of why it is considered one of the more challenging surfing spots in the Sydney region, click here. I've never been there before which is why before I did some research I was considering taking a dip and doing some bodysurfing around that area...not after seeing this. Could bet a bit hard core for me I think!

In any event, it should make for a good day trip, and who knows, there might be some tame surf there when I show up. Having taken today off I am wondering about the wisdom of effectively taking two days off by spending tomorrow touring Sydney. My conscience might get the better of me and I may try and go for a shortish power walk from home before we take off. The big drawback to that is the later that we take off, the less time we will be able to spend exploring Cronulla. I'll take the camera again so that if the beach is what it is cranked up to be you can all have a look at it.

Also, tonight will be a late one for me. The game doesn't start until 11:00 p.m. so we wont be back home until about 1:00 a.m I'm guessing. I'd like to get a good night's sleep tonight as it could be a big day tomorrow, but there just aren't enough hours in the night it seems! I have always found that the more you do, the more you can do so burning the candel at both ends is warranted for today and tomorrow.

I think I need a bit of a reality check. A day or two away from the gym is probably just what I need right now. My legs were killing me yesterday and I think that had a lot to do with hammering them in a hard workout on Friday morning after the tough Thursday session. Another day off will probably have them back to being as good as new. We'll see how things unfold tomorrow, and if I do have the day off I can always go extra hard on Monday with the trainer and make up for it I guess.

I have had a goodish weekend foodwise so far. My partner and I went to the market day in Kogarah this morning. I had a couple of shish kebabs there, one lamb and one chicken. We also had a nice coffee at a cafe I have been wanting to try and it lived up to my expectations. A fine brew, well made and well presented. Not quite as good as my own morning heuheutenango, but not too far off it! Wish me luck in staring down temptation tonight at the pub, and I'll let you all know how I got on tomorrow. See ya then.

Nice Dinner Out and About in Rockdale

2006-08-25T20:48:00.000+10:00

My partner and I went out for dinner tonight to celebrate the end of a successful week for both of us. For me my success was in respect of the weight loss, and my partner it was getting through an interesting week workwise.

It was nice for the two of us to meet after work, and have a meal out so that we didn't have to cook tonight. We have been wanting to try some of the places in Rockdale, about a five minute walk from home. There are some interesting Asian restaurants and we decided that we would finally take the plunge sampling a Vietnamese place we've had our eye on ever since being asked to trapse around Darlinghurst looking unsuccessfully for a place that served Pho (picutred). As luck would have it we knew that this place had Pho, because that was the name of the joint!

I must admit that the walk to the restaurant taxed me a bit even though it is only five minutes away, and is only up a gentle hill. My legs have been getting progresively more sore during the day. I believe that it is mostly from the lunges that I was doing the other day, and I know that it isn't anything serious, just delayed onset muscle soreness. It felt good to get out and stretch them a bit, however I have decided that I wont be going to the gym tomorrow morning. I need at least a day off, possibly two to get over it. I'm sure that Pho isn't part of the diet, but to succeed long term with something like this, you have to learn to go out and handle being in a social setting and eating in a way that wont undo all the good work.

Pho turned out to be all that it was cranked up to be. Well the dish was anyway. It was a lovely soup like meal, with thin strips of meidum rare beef in it, rice noodles, and fresh bean sprouts on the side that you can add as you go so that they are not over cooked when you eat them. It was lovely, very filling, and one dish was enough for each of us. There was also fresh mint to add to the Pho as you went through it and I must say it was a wonderful dish. We also ordered some fried squid with chilli and garlic, however I only had one piece as I don't think that it is tremendously healthy!

Pho the restaurant was nice and the service was good. If anything the menu was a little too extensive at 8 pages and it was difficult to chose as complete novices to this type of Vietnamese food. The staff were polite, helpful, and the food we had was very tasty. I think that we will be heading back there at some stage. I think that the Pho was fairly healthy, although it probably had some fat in the stock that made up the liquid part of the soup but all things considered I think I did pretty well, and one meal out is not going to hurt me that much I am sure. The squid was cooked well, but the crumbs around it weren't that good. The food was very reasonably priced, AU$20 for the whole meal (squid, rice, pho, and a diet coke for me and a coffee on ice for my partner). Fantastic value, and we couldn't finish all the food that we had ordered.

I'd have to say that there were a number of things on the menu that I would have torn into in the old days, but used some will power to avoid tonight. The most impressive sounding of which were the deep fried crispy skin chicken wings stuffed with pork mince. Wooaaaahhhh! Sounds like instant heart attack material, but mate, I bet it tastes real good! Happily I will never know if it was good or not. There were also a number of fried pork concoctions, but again I stayed away from those prefering to stay with the healthier options.

I'm feeling good about where I am at right now, and I will be staring temptation in the face tomorrow night. There is a game of rugby union on tomorrow night that I have to watch at the pub across the road from Pho. It isn't on free to air tv, so we have to venture out to the pub at 11:00 p.m. to watch a highly charged game that would normally see me consume somewhere between 6-10 pints of beer in an hour and a half depending on how my team are doing! I plan to avoid beer and wine all night, and will see how I get on with diet coke. We'll eat before we go and being that late I should be okay in terms of the deep fired heavily salted snack treats that will be on offer!

I'll let you all know how I get on tomorrow night staring down temptation. It will be difficult, but I am determined to make it. I know that Aleman will be wishing me the best in my endeavour to stay off the booze while out socially. Fight the good fight my friends!

One Short, and One Long Term Goal Reached Today!

2006-08-25T10:13:00.000+10:00

Yes folks, another successful week weight wise, and also with the way that I feel. I must admit that I was hoping for a bit more than a drop of a kilo this week, but I am taking heart from the fact that it is a safe drop, and that I am feeling really good physically. Even just walking around the place now is not as much effort as it used to be, and I don't constantly think about food all the time and stuff my face with McDonalds at every opportunity. The only thing that I have been craving the last couple of days in KFC. They have released a boneless version over here and they are really pumping the advertising for it. I have not given in, and I wont! That stuff was a weakness for me, and I'll make sure I stay well away from it. Fortunately there isn't a KFC anywhere near our home.

I must remember to stay positive about my weight loss, and about things in general as getting bummed out about losing a kilo is really just silly. It is also likely to lead to temptation to binge eat or drink and I really must avoid that. Also, I should start to prepare mentally for my weight decreases to start to slow down as I believe that this will happen in the not too distant future. I have to be in this for the long haul, and I have accepted that I need to change my lifestyle permanently, not just while I am on a health kick, to get to where I want to be, and to be healthy again.

On a positive note I have achieved the short term goal of 135kg (297lbs) that I set for myself, and now I have set the next short term goal at 130kg (286lbs). I have also realised that I have reached the goal neck measurement that I set for myself at the beginning of this battle. I will revise the goal downward as clearly there is still a fair bit of fat that can be taken off my neck! It would be good to get to 42 as I last remember getting into shirts with that neck size when I was in my 20s. 42 cm for my neck will be the new goal measurement and you will see that this now features in the tables to the left.

Aside from the weigh in, the workout this morning went well. My legs were sore from the workout yesterday. I think that the lunges up and down the gym would have done most of it, and aside from the legs and some muscle pain in the lower back (nothing to worry about though) I felt pretty good. Initially I thought that I would have to go slower today, but then the good tracks on my MP3 player kicked in and I was off, in the zone, and walking hard today. I felt good at the end, but I am really looking forward to being able to run. I think that I would rather run than try to walk as fast as I can as I remember running felt better. If I keep with it, the running should be only another 10 weeks away (at a loss of 1kg per week)! I really hope that it doesn't take that long.

I ended up doing a slightly less varied workout today. The first 25 minute session ranged between 6.0km/ph and 7.5km/ph for two minutes per speed setting. That was quite tough, however after experiementing with a "weight loss" setting on the machine and finding it no good at all, I reverted to another 25 minute block and did 14 minutes straight on 7.0km/ph, which was the longest sustained time I have done at that speed. It was actually quite good, and I am settling in to that pace and no longer finding it the absolute limit of my ability.

So, I feel I have been rewarded for my efforts this week and am feeling good about the coming week. I think that my diet could stand a bit more emphasis now and so this coming week, and the weekend, I will make sure that I stick with it and integrate a bit more of what the trainer is wanting me to do in that area. This round of the fight against fat is in my favour!

Enthusiastic Approach Brings Reward

2006-08-24T17:07:00.000+10:00

Having cursed my enthusiasm this morning, I now have to completely change tack and do an about face! Yes, the workout went so much better today, and not just because of the chat with the trainer on Tuesday I am sure. For some reason everything went better today, but most importantly of all I went better today. I'm putting it down to proper preparation, tips from readers, and taking a bit more of a committed approach to working out.

I got up earlier today and actually did everything to get ready with plenty of time to spare. I had my coffee, oatmeal (porridge) and what have you, as well as getting into the best workout gear that I have. I even managed to dress up warm and snug so that the rain wouldn't bother me on the way to the gym. I got there 15 minutes early, and was able to spend 12 minutes warming up before the trainer came to get me. By that stage I was really ready to go and in the right mood for a workout.

We got straight into it, no fooling around with scales and what have you today. That has been canned. I am keen to weigh myself on my own however I think she is intending to weigh me on Saturday morning. Makes no difference to me, the official weigh in will still be on Fridays as always.

I had to do lunges up and down the gym with 10kg (22.2lbs) dumbbells. I then had to run three times around the gym holding 8kg (17.6lbs) dumbbells. After that it was on to the Swiss Ball for pull overs with 15kg (33lbs) dumbbell, followed by crunches on the ball, and lastly some press ups using the ball. This was the first time I had done this exercise. What it involved was having my feet on the Swiss Ball and my arms on the floor and doing press ups. That was really hard, but the best thing about this morning was that I made it through everything for the regulation three sets. I even did 3 sets of 15 of the new pushups, I thought I was going to crap out on the 12th rep in the second set but dug deep to get home. I felt really good, but new that I was only a quarter of the way through and still had a ways to go before I knew if the workout was really that much better than last week.

Next up were squats with 10kg (22.2lbs) dumbbells in each hand. On top of the squats, the dumbbells were to be raised up over my head before the next squat could commence, bringing in curls and shoulder press to the same movement. Following this exercise were leg raises on the bench, to round out the superset. Again three sets were required, and they all went well with me giving everything I had in the tank to get through the workout. Last up were some stretches and the trainer was saying that I had done much more today than she had expected, which was nice to hear. I know that I worked hard today, the sweat was soaked right through my shirt (yuck I know, but I'm proud that I pushed myself! Don't worry I carry a towel and clean up after myself better than most at the gym).

I was stoked to have come through a Thursday session so well. This marks a real change in how things have normally gone with the trainer. I plan to keep to this routine for the next month at least to see how things go. We finished on good terms, and I think that we were both hoping that thing remain like this for the Thursday sessions. There is a much more co-operative team atmosphere to workouts now. I also feel like I am being listened to when deciding what exercises to do as the suggestions I made about what exercises seem pointless came back to get me today with the crunches on the Swiss Ball producing a good burn for me.

Of course, that was really the halfway mark for the workout. The cardio session still remained to be done, and I have to admit that I was feeling pretty tired. I got on the treadmill and tried to match the pace of yesterday but fell away pretty quickly. I decided to listen to the body and slow it down today. I made sure that I went for the full 50 minutes as usual, but I did go a lot slower. I still got through 500 calories, which is the main goal, and felt great when I finished. I am hoping that I am rewarded with another kg coming off this week, and getting beneath the 135kg (297lbs) mark this week. It would be great to clear the third short term goal, I feel that I really need the loss this week. They will be getting progressively more difficult from here on in, and getting another kilo off me brings me that much closer to being able to run on the treadmill. Once I am running losing weight will be helped by being able to burn more calories with more vigourous exercise.

When I got home I was termendously hungry. I had some yogurt for morning tea, and then for lunch I tore into the pastrami and mountain bread. I ended up having three wraps, and treated myself to some hommus to moisten them up a bit. Of course they also had vegetables on them and were really nice. I reccomend the mountain bread to anyone that hasn't tried it. It looks unappealing as it is completely flat, and looks like it will be tasteless, however I found it surprisingly nice.

I am now looking forward to the weigh in and measuring tomorrow. I have siezed the initiative and tidied up the blog a bit today. You'll notice that I have two tables of my measurements now, one in kgs and cms, the other in pounds and inches to make it a bit easier for people to see where I was, where I am going, and how far I have come. Check back tomorrow to see if I have made any progress this week, the fight against fat continues!