Day 3 And I've been HUNGRY!

I don't know if it was the sudden change to arctic temperatures or two successive nights of little sleep but today I've certainly felt pangs. I didn't really find it hard to stick to my food list (except when I made cookies with the kids...but even then I remained strong...) but I certainly ate MORE than what I suggest. AND I succumbed to the milky coffee, partly because I really wanted it but partly because someone else bought it for me and I didn't want to seem fussy and ask for something different to my usual when this person seemed so pleased to be buying me one and to know what I drink.

This brought to mind a couple of things. Firstly, after a couple of days clean eating, a cafe-bought milk coffee has returned to 'treat' status in my mind and this is a very good thing! Only a week ago I would have bought three coffees and not even noticed them or savored the moment drinking them! Today is a whole new ball game. And that's really my goal for this whole 'diet' thing. To re-set my appetite for healthy food and enjoy a few small treats but learn how to not waste calories on things that I neither need, nor take the time to enjoy.

I'm female, fast approaching 40 and I don't have that many spare calories floating around each day. I can't waste them on milk...and I definitely can't waste them on cookie dough and icing (although I really wanted to today when I was making them with the kids today!) I don't like that stuff ENOUGH to make it worth it and today was a really good reminder.

The other thing that was apparent was how uncomfortable I was saying 'no' to something someone offered me. I personally think it's ok to care about your friend's feelings and take something from them and eat/drink even though you'd prefer not. BUT , I don't think it's something you should do all the time because you might then end up with a lot of extra calories you don't really want. You know what? They won't mind...really. You don't have to be annoying and go on and on about how you're doing this eating plan and blah blah blah....no-one really wants to hear what you've been eating and that you've lost 100g and how you did it and...just say 'No thanks' or in my case ...'actually I've started drinking long blacks with a splash of cold milk...Thanks!'

Having said all this... I am keeping my milk coffee for morning tea - it totally made my day!

Oct'no'ber & 'No'vember - saying 'no' to sugar and fat and alcohol

It would appear that it's been well...3 years or so since my last post here...but anyway that's not really important.

Today was the first day of my healthy eating kick and I've decided that sharing what I eat might server to motivate others to stay motivated and also keep me on track. (You see I'm all about being selfish now... you can all diet when I want to diet)

In any case here's a rundown on my DAY 1

I've had 3 coffees - which I have now converted to a long black with a splash of cold milk, rather than my usual flat white so I must have saved some calories there already (like maybe even 300?) and lots of water.
Breakfast was a bowl of All Bran, then I had a small fat free yoghurt, half a cucumber, 6 cherry tomatoes, a cup of green/ginger tea, for lunch an omelet with mushrooms and garlic, a pickle and in the afternoon I had a surprisingly yummy snack of 4 celery sticks wrapped in turkey slices. I don't know if it was actually that tasty or I was just really hungry by then. Dinner I made at 5pm and had half before I trained and half after. I made a version of Sung Choi Bao - could have been tastier with more fresh herbs and maybe some crushed nuts etc but it was tasty enough.

Now, of course, I feel like a little something....oh it's going to have to be peppermint tea...I don't really like herbal tea, BUT I would like to be the kind of person that likes herbal tea!

Asian style (very broad I know) Shredded Chicken and Cabbage Salad

I am not that great on my quantities, but I think they're about right... this salad fits in well with our "NO"vember diet guidelines and is yummy too!

quarter of a cabbage
1 small red onion
1 red capsicum
1 double breast chicken poached and shredded (or just buy a bbq chicken, tear the skin off and do it that way)
1 bunch coriander
1 bunch mint

Shred everything as finely as you can and mix it all up in a big bowl

Dressing: 1/4 cup oil, 1/4 cup fish sauce, juice of 3 limes, 2 small red chillis minced up finely - shake it up and toss the salad really well

Best and Worst Exercises

Prompted by our good friend "Trainer Kate" in NYC with her comments on what she considers the best and worst exercises I couldn't help but think about my own "best" and "worst" exercises for you.

So firstly I have to say any exercise that you don't do properly, is not really working for you hard enough. Have you ever seen those guys in the gym clutching heavy ass dumbells but not moving them very far? That's what I'm talking about. If you are squatting but you aren't really getting your bum down very far or you're benching but even though the weight might be heavy but it's only making half way down to your chest then maybe you should consider dropping the weight back a bit and working on getting the full range of motion. Full range exercise movements help strengthen the prime-mover, or agonist muscles, such as the quadriceps in a squat. Lifting in the full range of motion is also advantageous for stretching the antagonist muscles, like the hamstrings in a squat. Training in the full range of motion enhances both muscle strength and joint flexibility.

So back to the best and the worst. My personal favourite and exercise I will always do, is the deadlift. Here is its description in wikipedia, 'The deadlift is a compound movement that works grip strength with the erector spinae, gluteus maximus, adductor magnus, hamstrings and quadriceps serving as the primary muscles. The remaining muscles are involved in stability control. It is, in a sense, the purest test of strength because it is one of the few lifts of dead weight (weight lying on the ground).'

And you know why I really like it? Here is the list of muscles involved:
Torso
Rectus abdominis, aponeurosis, external oblique muscle
Back
Iliocostalis, Intertransversarii laterales lumborum, Latissimus dorsi, Levator scapulae, Longissimus, Quadratus lumborum, Rhomboideus major, Serratus posterior superior, Serratus posterior inferior, Splenius cervicis, Teres Major, Trapezius muscle
Legs
Quadriceps, Rectus femoris, Vastus lateralis, Vastus intermedius, Vastus medialis
Hamstrings
Biceps femoris muscle, long head, Biceps femoris muscle, short head, Semitendinosus, Semimembranosus
Hips
Gluteal muscles, Gluteus maximus, Gluteus minimus
Piriformis
Superior gemellus
Forearms
Flexor digitorum profundus

HEAPS! There you go - why wouldn't you do it? NOT ONLY does it work HEAPS of muscles so you are getting value for your time spent exercising, it doesn't require huge amounts of flexibility and balance so pretty much everyone can do it (my one and a half year old boy has awesome deadlifting technique - naturally). And better yet it is useful for actions that we perform in daily life. Picking shit up off the ground is something we do all the time. It's great to be strong in this lift, it's helpful.

And you know the exercise that I REALLY DON'T LIKE? The shoulder shrug. Why would you do that? Seriously. Have you seen guys doing it? It's the one where they are clutching a heavy dumbell in each hand and squeezing their shoulders up towards their ears as if they wish they looked like a rugby player whose neck has disappeared somewhere along the line. Do you know what the shoulder shrug does? It develops the upper trapezius muscle. One muscle, and it doesn't help you move anything anywhere - it just makes the top of your shoulder a bit puffy...

Is it really better to train in the morning?

Training in the morning. For some it is the only way to get enough exercise in their day, for some it's when they have the most energy and for some it sounds less fun than a 14-hour long haul international flight with a screaming 1year old. (My new "10" on a scale of shithouse things to do) Is it something you should be doing?

Is it healthier to train in the morning? There seems to be two main claims to support the assertion that training in the morning is healthier, if you have heard another one let me know so I can do some research.

1: That you burn more fat in the mornings, this is known as fasted or semi-fasted training.
This seems like a slam dunk for morning training doesn't it? Burning fat is the purpose most people are at the gym, so anything that does that effectively has to be good right? Unfortunately it isn't that simple. Your body is an incredibly effective machine for converting food into sugar for energy and fat for storage, personally I wish my body was much worse at it. This means that although yes, you will burn more fat as a percentage of your total calorie expenditure in the morning your body will simply resupply your sugar stores and store any excess calories as soon as you eat. 300 calories is 300 calories irrespective of when you ate them and if you did 200 calories worth of exercise and ate 300 calories worth of food you are in a 100 calorie surplus regardless of the timing of either of those events. 

2: That you burn more calories throughout the day because of training in the morning.
The theory is that because you got up and moved around so early in the day your metabolism will be all fired up and you will burn more calories throughout the day. This makes a lot of sense, the more alert and active you are the more calories you will burn and your base metabolic rate, the energy you burn just living, accounts for about 75% of your total calorie expenditure so getting your metabolism up and racing away as early as possible is a great way of maximising your energy use throughout the day. This is a big plus for training in the morning, however you can get your metabolic rate up early by eating a good breakfast. It wont achieve as much but it will help.

Reasons to sleep in.There are a couple of good reasons to avoid early morning training sessions and at least one shitty one. In no particular order.
 
1: Higher Cortisol levels. Your body releases a whole cocktail of chemicals into your system while you sleep and some of them take awhile to get cleaned out once you are up and moving. Cortisol in particular is elevated in the morning and prolonged exposure to cortisol has a raft of negative effects, immune system suppression and increased abdominal fat deposits for example. This is a mostly a problem for people with high stress jobs and "stress heads", who will have plenty of cortisol released through the day so no need to start off by elevating it.

2: Increased risk of injury. You know that sluggish morning feeling? Well it applies on the neurological level as well, you are, more or less, a little uncoordinated in the mornings. your reaction time is worse, your flexability is less and your recovery systems are slower, all of which mean you are slightly more likely to injure yourslef if you are training hard. This isn't normally a problem because...

3: It is harder to train hard. Less blood sugar, metabolsim sluggish and half asleep, is it any wonder you are a little weaker and slower?

4: You need your sleep. It is hard to prioritise sleeping, you probably stay up later than you should already but sleep is way down your list of priorites so you will wake up earlier without getting to bed any sooner. Seriously, take it from someone with a small child, sleep deprevation is awful.

5: Your trainer is still half asleep. Ok, its not a great reason but just as it is harder to train at 100% in the morning it is also harder to be a trainer at 100% in the morning. If you feel like you need a lot of help and motivation you will potentially get a little more help from the trainers and the others in your group by training a little later in the day. Or you could bring me a coffee. Skim milk flat white, no sugar. Thanks.

So that kind of wraps up up the physological aspects of training early but as we know the body is only half the battle. Check back in a few days and we can have a look at some of the social and physchological aspects of training early

Mac

The thing about dieting...

The thing about dieting is it would actually be better if you didn't have to do it. I would recommend, if at all possible, not to get fat in the first place. If I hadn't eaten my way through two American states I wouldn't have found myself three kilos heavier! I did thoroughly enjoy sampling new culinary delights (especially peanut butter inspired sweets) but you can enjoy yourself and then some and it's always the then some that gets you into trouble.

Failing not putting on weight in the first place (and that's probably the case if you're reading this) if you find yourself in a situation where you do need to diet, then the other thing about dieting is, you actually have to do it! You actually have to say no to delightful cookies that people offer you or glasses of Spanish wine. It's not really that fun. And  if you take too many days off then the diet just seems to go on forever. Trust me, I have been doing a thirty-day diet and writing it on facebook. I think I started on around March 30th, it's now May 24th. So by the time I'm actually finished my 30 days of dieting it will have taken me pretty much two months instead of one. FOREVER.

On the other hand...it's actually made it a lot more bearable doing it this way and I will be fine to continue once my thirty days are up until I reach my goal weight. You can expect to lose about half a kilo a week on a diet. Give or take, depending on how big you are and how much you've got to lose. That's basically what I've done but it's taken eight weeks instead of four because I have been giving myself too many diet holidays! So you need to find a balance between keeping motivated to stick to your eating plan whilst retaining sanity and some kind of a social life.

One more thing about dieting - the scales lie! I mean it. Don't believe them. As a female in particular I can easily go up and down a kilo or two without doing anything different. For this diet, I have hardly lost any weight according to the scales but I've lost 6 cm off my waist according to the measuring tape! (Am I proud of it - hell yeah). So you need to do some measurements or pull out an old pair of jeans you want to get back into and follow your progress that way. If you constantly look at the scales you might just get disappointed and then want to give up. You can still check them sometimes but try to make it once a week at most.

The other things about dieting I noticed on my thirty days was... if I was too extreme on what I cut out then I was also too extreme on my days off and tended to binge on things that I wouldn't normally eat, so I think being reasonable about what you are going to avoid works best. The last thing is, eat breakfast. Eat a good breakfast. I noticed that on the days that I ate a proper breakfast (not toast) I was much more successful throughout the rest of the day.

The thing about dieting is, it is actually worth developing a healthy relationship with food and learning to enjoy food that is fresh and full of nutrients. And if you keep aiming for that then your body will thank you!

Crunchy & Spicy Tuna Salad

 If you think you can't handle another tuna salad - try this one.

Ingredients:

2 celery sticks
1/4 red capsicum
1 spring onion
1/2 dozen snow peas
185g tin tuna

Dressing:

1 dessert spoon soy sauce
1 tsp fish sauce
1/2 a small red chilli, minced
1 tsp sesame oil
thumbnail's worth of ginger, minced
a few coriander or mint leaves if you have them, minced

Slice all the vegetables thinly, crumble the tuna and then mix everything together with the dressing really thoroughly.