Oh the Pain, Oh the Pain of it all

Had a rough and tumble game of oztag last night. Played the best I have in a while and starting to feel the cardio work I am putting in paying off. I carved up! However by the end of the game i had a head clash with a team mates shins after a diving missed tackle, massive gravel rash on my leg due to the rock hard ground and my dodgy shoulder was very sore. Luckily though I iced it when I got home and had a sleep and the damage appears to be different to the intial reason I've got a dodgy shoulder, the strain is further down my arm, still hurts but I am happy it is a different injury. I am going to drive to wrok and have an arvo gym session to give it more time to recover.

Yesterday was a great day. Perfect diet, perfect exercise and accomplished a lot on the day. Trying to get my metabolism going again by eating every couple of hours including just before bed. My dinner was slightly too big but all nutrious and what was warranted after a injury ridden game. Anyway, On to the Next One, Alpha and Out!

Slipped again but Revving in First Again

After powering through the start of the week in 4th gear or higher. I got to Wednesday night or Thursday morning and slipped a gear. Started with staying up late for Origin, not a bad thing just doing my duty to QLD (It worked for a 28-24 win). I then slept in and for some reason decided to have a massive breakfast then went to work later then I'd like. I then got home had a large dinner and crashed. Friday was a bit like groundhog day. Slept in, an 1100 cal breaky and then to work. Except I got home had a decent but not too big dinner had a bit of relaxation time then made it too the gym finally. Slid back into first gear! I then powered through an excellent cardio session and then did some weights at the end. I did this despite no hat (was sweating like a dog), no music as my shorts had no pockets and three show-ponies prouncing around the weights (surprising for so late on a Friday night) which is why I finished with weights. I really do love the peacefulness of late night gym sessions. Anyway back into a good mind set today had a good sized breakfast (~300cals), was keen for a big session on the bike followed by a run. The weather has however proved a big obstacle but this has only pushed me to the gym and perhaps an arvo run. Back in Black, Alpha and Out!

Queenslanddddder!!

Tonight is the start of the rugby league State of Origin, probaly the highlight of the sporting calender. Big call perhaps but I know that everyone in NSW and QLD will be involved in some way with the game and will be barracking their lungs out. Go the mighty Maroons. Go for the full five fingers, we're not living in a Simpsons episode.

Today was pretty good diet and exercise wise. Still had too much for dinner and had a shortened gym session today but it was for the greater good this time, yes the Origin. Slept in a little so I could stay up for the game while the overeating was due to a busy and baffling day at work. Go the Maroons and hopefully I will be inspired by Lockyer and the boys to put in a big effort tomorrow.

(image from http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=4083113&id=741294612)

Pumping the Early Morning

After months of struggling to wake early in the morning to exercise I have managed to get out of bed. Yes! Success! The secret......is the humble Podcast. I find listening to one of the motivational ones while waking up helps me actually "want" to get out of bed. As a person who loves the cold it was great to get out and walk the dog. I found the early morning quiet and relaxing and invigorating. Then jumping on a bike to go to work with a pit stop in the gym was great. Was tough on the bike but that will improve as I keep it up.

Diet was near perfect today, still eating too much of allowance at dinner time but that will improve. Overall A great day, a great comeback and a great morning. Bring on another Alpha and Out!

(image from http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2301/3532657009_86df87189b.jpg)

The Power of the Pod

No not the almighty iPod, the humble iTunes Podcast. I have recently been checking out the iTunes Store and stumbled across many Podcasts. A podcast is an audio or video clip, most are free and provide useful information on just about every subject. In particular I came across Motivational and fitness related Podcasts. I find these very relaxing, inspiring and interesting. The many motivational podcasts are very good at turning a frown upside down. I intended to listen to one every morning upon waking to see if that can help me get out of bed for morning exercise.

This week was a week of big ups and downs. I showed that I can function well on a low cal diet, I can follow I low cal diet, I renewed my focus at the gym and was gunning through work. On the flipside though, I cannot control myself very well when home alone when it comes to food and exercise. As you can see despite the disappointments of the weekend, the positives far out weigh the negatives. I need to continue this trend and focus on the positives as the negatives will soon be drawn along for the ride and eventually turned into positive opportunities. Pumped for a big week and under 90kgs and as far into the awesome 80's as possible. Bam Alpha and Out!

Ain't Gonna Keep Me Down

Sweat drips down a furrowed brow. He wipes away the drop. Looking up he takes in the crowd in the grandstand. He is 110 meter hurdler. It is not the Olympics but it is never the less an important meet. The "take your marks" is called. He drops down and springs into position. 3......2....1....BANG. He rockets off. His main competitor is two lanes across and his other three lanes in the other direction. He gets to 3/4's, taking a quick glance he is winning. He comes to the last hurdle. Jumps up, somethings feels weird but he doesn't think about it. Flying through the air he is suddenly stopped in his tracks. Crash...he plumments into the ground, his foot catching the hurdle. All his competitors speed past, he looks down. Realising this is temporay set back and not the Olympics he picks himself up and sprints home. Not exactly record pace but at least he finished.

This story is a great metaphor for my day and week. Have had an action packed week, flat out at work, almost "too" perfect diet, renewed focus at the gym. The "Win" was in sight, being under 90kgs. But unfortunately I too fell and had a big binge this afternoon. Having no one home to act as a conscious I got stuck into a number of things, chocolate, ice cream, pasta, biscuits. Now usually I would resign myself to not going to the gym and fall asleep in bad mental state. However like our metaphorical hurdler I managed to pick myself up and wrench myself to the gym were I battle the inevitable reflux and powered through a fairly decent session. This is good I can see improvements even in my struggles. Up and Upper, Alpha and Out!

I am a learning...

I write this just before I head off to the gym for another 1/6,1/6,4/6 session (warm up, weights, cardio). Hopefully this time my cardio will not be interrupted by reflux. Tonight I finally had a much more reasonable dinner which will hopefully allow a full kick- ass session. Another "too" perfect diet day where I have consumed too few calories, however the night is young and a post-workout shake might be in order. This week I seem to have finally turned a corner with my dieting probably helped by being incredibly busy at work more then anything else. I have been able to stave off blow-outs which I think is critical. I am trying to eat regularly but small portions which has been successful this week. I am accomplishing a lot this week and should drop below 90kgs by Saturday. Anyway off to another cracker of a session. Alpha and Out!

Reflux...You Bastard

Note to self: before a big gym session particularly a predominantly cardio session do not eat a meal that is worth half your days calories in the hours beforehand. Was powering through a great cardio set tonight when I started to get some reflux action happening. It was very annoying as I was hammering through the cardio- 10km/hr for my rest 2 mins and 15k/hr for my interval and feeling quite strong. The reflux occured just as I was about to slip into the "zone". I swapped machines to a bike but that only worked for a while and in the end I had to go slower until stopping to go home. Still a great session and hopefully I will learn my lesson.

Having recently purchased a Macbook and having wiped my old laptop's hard drive I have had to start rebuilding all my life structural files. This has been a good exercise allowing me to go over the files such as my goal powerpoint, weight loss matrix and daily checklist. I last night skipped the gym to perfect my goals powerpoint a.k.a MVG (motivation, goals, vision) and made it into a movie with voice over and background music. I used it tonight at the gym and it worked a treat. Good day diet apart from the large dinner, which hopefully I will learn my lesson for tomorrow. Pump it! Alpha and Out!

Stop Kidding Yourself

After reading an article in Mens Fitness (a great publication) I have finally realised that my exercise program really is not designed to meet my goals. My goals specifically being fat loss are not being adequately addressed by my routine which effectively is a routine attempting to stack on the kilograms of muscle. In theory if I did all exercise I wanted, including the 1 hour of cardio a day it would not be such a problem but at the moment I am struggling to get eve 1 hour at the gym let alone cardio. I need to stop kidding myself and rework the program. Since I do not want to beckon a rake I think I am going to structure it 70% cardio to 30% weights, giving me the ability to at least maintain muscle while I loose the weight.

Yesterday, was a pretty good day, I did not make it to the gym but sort out some other things that needed to be done on my Apple (yes, it did suck me in, wrecking my intentions of exercise). They needed to be done for the better working of me so I am not too concerned about missing gym. My diet was actually too good last night only consuming about 1200 cals, which took the impact of not working out but was too low, however it further justifies that I can function well on a low cal diet. Will attempt to address the issue today. Alpha and Out!

The Forgiving Flexibility

I believe the ability to be flexible is essential to striving towards any goal, dream or aspiration. Life will always through you curve balls, it's what makes it interesting. The successful people are the people who are readily flexible and adaptive to all of those curve balls. Flexibility also offsets stress hence it is very forgiving.

I am slowly developing this flexibility. The whole of today was filled with many such opportunities. First off the morning chill was too much and combined with a late night and lack of preparedness I slept in rather than go to the gym. Instead of getting really frustrated and annoyed as I would have before this time I took it in stride and decided to go after oztag at my normal time. The second such incident occurred during oztag. While going for a tag, I jarred my thumb pretty bad (it is still very sore and swollen). Now before this would throw off my gym session as it was an arms and chest night where I needed to be able to grip. Before I would just call it a write off and go home. Now though, I just switched around my week schedule and did a legs session, hopefully will be able to do arms and chest tomorrow. Both of these incidents could have left me where I started when I woke up. I would have got frustrated which could've led to a blow-out and no exercise. However instead, taking it in stride, the day while busy was very rewarding and a generally good day. On the Up tomorrow I'm sure. Alpha and Out!

A2A Weekly Quote:

"Lord don't move that mountain, simply give me the strength to climb it!"

Sung in a chorus in the movie The Pursuit of Happyness, really resonating with my flexibility message.

A2A Weekly Tip:

There is always time, so if you slept in instead of going to the gym as you planned, don't panic there is always time, the session can be during your lunch break, after work, after dinner or on another day. Simply take it in stride!

Back to Business

After a couple of dodgy weight-loss weeks and a weekend with more food than exercise it is definitely time to get back into a healthy routine and churn out a couple of good weeks of perfect exercise and diet.

Before that I am going to change my goal focus. Instead of aiming for 70 kilograms by June 17th, my goal will be "By 9:00am on the 1st of August, 2010 I will have a body fat percentage of 15% or lower", This will be followed by "By 9:00am, December 22nd 2010, I will have a body fat percentage of 9% or lower". This change of focus has come about by a deeper definition of what I really want, I don't want to be just lighter, I want to be incredibly toned and this goal reflects my true pursuit. I am still going to post a photo on June 17th as it is a milestone that still needs to be honoured.

This week starting tomorrow I am going to start going to the gym before work, starting with the car and then hopefully moving to the bike on Tuesday morning. This will mean early mornings to walk the dog as well as having work clothes and food at work which is why I will drive in tomorrow. I will also hopefully start running in the afternoons after work or at least doing some exercise perhaps another dog walk. Looking forward to a big week to get back into the "zone" and dropping below the 90kg barrier which has so far been elusive. Up and Upper! Alpha and Out!

A bit of Slack

But not too concerned with my slcking off last night and yesterday. I had a large calorie day and went to sleep before I could make it too the gym. But on this occasion I am not too worried about it. I have steadily gained back energy and my general health from the depths of Sunday's flu. My food consumption has risen to a peak yesterday and I was slowly reintroducing exercise. So long as I bring my calorie consumption back into check over the next couple of days ( bar Sunday's fat meal) and go to the gym today it should not be a problem. Missing the gym yesterday due to sleep was not of great concern as I was extremely tired and given my recovering health it was probaly a good time for a bit of R and R too ensure I recover fully and quickly.

It is weigh day today and I weighed in at 90.5kg. I unfortunately did not make my goal of under 90kg but having clawed my way back from 92 and a week of turmoil as well as the disruption to my exercise I am quite happy and am confident I can dip below 90 in a couple of days and deep into the 80's by a couple of weeks. Alpha and Out!

Damn You Apple!

You have got me addicted to your products and I've only used my new Mac for less than an hour. Seriously though I am really enjoying the new Macbook Pro. It arrived today and saved my mood from a long busy day. I am really enjoying the differences to Windows all ready and am excited of the prospect of loading all my music files, movies etc on to probaly most precious item.

Anyway on to the "serious" stuff. Today was very hectic and heavy day at work involving more furniture moving and sorting. However I managed to get up early despite the early Brisbane chill to walk the dog and get into work early. I also had a decent diet today with perhaps too little around the middle and too much at the end. This is not great for my metabolism but it is the best method for me to avoid excess calorie days as I tend to be enticed too easily by my Grandma's great cooking. Also that I train at the gym after dinner probaly offsets that negative to an extent anyway. Speaking of gym, tonight will be my first session back in a couple of weeks and after the flu. I am tweaking my training and taking a leaf from a good friend copying his training methods. I plan to maintain the body areas zI train per night except I m going in with a different approach. It invovles supersets with little break and high reps and loosens the structure a little but as I know many drills for the different body parts and that i train two or three muscle groups a night will at least in y thought make it an easier transition. The reason for this change is after having a brief taste on Friday arvo I was totally buggered, pumped up and it certainly is more along the lines of fat burning then my previous plan. Anyway I will report how it goes tomorrow in my post. Have a good one. Alpha and Out!

(image from http://cdn.cbsi.com.au/story_media/339292687/Apple-MacBook-Pro_1.jpg)

Bloggin" Back in Business

Here comes a bumper blog post to make up for my poor form over the past couple of weeks. Today again came up with perfect diet, thanks again to the flu but still, my consumption has risen from 843 cals on Monday to about 1500 cals today which I am happy about. Unfortunately my health is still floating around 80% and the flu seems to have descended to my chest. Will have to monitor it and make the call about whether to see a GP. Back to work today was not too bad, no mental just some furniture moving. Will hopefully have a better mix of tasks tomorrow along with better health. Thats the wrap for today but below is the remainder of the EPIC blog post- quotes, tips, product testing results, NRL Supercoach update. Enjoy!!

A2A Quote of the Week-

" To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded."

Ralph Waldo Emerson. ( An epic comeback quote on success and its many veins)

A2A Tip of the Week-

Whenever you have a negative day where things seem to be whirling out of control, actively sort out some smaller activities/chores to complete to give you a positive energy boost and cut through the negativity stranglehold.

A2A Product Testing-

Product Tested= Honey and cinnamon boiled in water

Product claims= numerous, focused on increased fat loss even on high cal days

A2A Verdict- FAIL, After a 6 week trial period I can conclude that my fat loss was approximately the same without the drink. I did lose weight but that was more to do with my cutting of calories. If the honey and cinnamon worked I would have lost steadily and continuosly, which unfortuneately I did not. However this is just my body's reaction to it and it might have dramatice results for others. It has numerous other claims like lowering cholestrol which I did not test for but definately makes sense.

A2A Possible Positive Use- Will simply taking once everyday for fat loss did not work for me, I believe it could more effectively be used as a dietary suppressant between meals etc. It could also be traded in for dessert or a sweet treat. Its wonderful aroma is a great stress reliever also.

A2A NRL Supercoach Update- After a barnstorming start my team has started to drop off from week to week. This has mainly been due to the injuries to my star player Jonathon Thurston who was scoring over 200 a game for the first 2 or 3 weeks (doubled because he was my captain). Luckily I have not dipped too much as some other players have popped up to contribute. My current star player is Todd Carney who is putting in a solid season back in the NRL with the Roosters. My current captain Nathan Hindmarsh is as always toiling away for some solid points. My trading of players has somewhat diminished since the first souple of rounds with the only exception being the dropping of Greg Inglis, a hard decision but I hope he proves me wrong.

Anyway that is unfortunatly the end of the Epic Comeback Post. Util tomorrow! Alpha and Out!

Getting Off the Death Bed

Ok so not quite my death bed but certainly a very sick bed. Came down with a nasty flu the past couple of days which has left me bed-ridden and stuffy. Hopefully that is th start and the end of the Alpha health season. It was annoying to because after a momentum shattering week previously I was begining to click over the gears and getting back into positive motion and was then struck down. However I finally took some advice and rested in an attempt to nip it in the bud and get back into action ASAP. However that said it seems to have moved from my head down into my chest brining up all sorts of wonderfull colours and consistencies. I will monitor it and see whether I needs to have a hit of anti-biotics.

On the positive note dieting has been a cinch because of the cold with my Grandma's Super food especially curry bringing me from the brink. While ideally I could have used this time for a bit of planning I mainly slept and watched the TV which seemed to have worked quite well. I am still feeling at about 60-70% but hopefully another good nights sleep will push that into the 90's. My plan back from this is work tomorrow, gym on thursday night and then hopefully phased back into full pelt by Saturday. Hoepfully by tomorrow I will have my blog back and up to date which has been severely interuppeted by the last couple of weeks. It'll be back with a vengence.....not really, just wanted a dramatic phrase to kick it off again. Alpha and Out!

(image from http://www.xenu.net/archive/scientology_illustrated/sick.gif)

I'mmmm Backkkk!!

After struggling through most of the week I have finally achieved some stability and routine. I am not exactly sure what set off this prolonged week of disaster but I can take a decent stab at it....CHANGE. Me as a person who excels in routine, am particularly prone to any major changes. Not having had to make changes for a while did not help either. But this week I have gone to the office for work, taking care of a different unit, running to a different time line etc. On top of that I had a huge list of things to do. The weight of the To Do list combined with the major changes lead me to totally collapse and fall back into bad habits for comfort...namely TV and snacking.

However many people say that the only true time you fail is when you don't learn from your mistakes. As today was the day I began to get better there has to be something that turned it around. I think it was that I finally was able to cross off the storage units I had been clearing out for a good month or so. That positive energy from making a major accomplishment had a flow on effect and the day just gained steam from then on. I think the key for me in the future instances is to find something, anything to accomplish, maybe even several things to give me a positive energy top-up which will cause my pistons to roll over and gain momentum. Up and Upper. Alpha and Out!

(image from http://rlv.zcache.com/emotion_guy_wink_mousepad-p144580566862589753trak_400.jpg)

Stuck in a Hole You Can't Get Out Of

And unfortunatly, not trying to get out much either. Yesterday was a liquid only day which worked well until I came home for dinner. After another blowout I then proceed to have a snooze till 10pm and therefore didn't go to the gym. Another blowout, another missed session and another night of interuppted sleep in front of the TV. I have so much too do but at the moment I am struggling to do anything. Very disappointing considering the vast improvement I made last week and also especially considering I am now within walking distance from the gym.

On the Up I again showed that I can work and thrive on very low calories and that is helped if I am kept busy. I think one more liquid day is in order just to flush everything out. This time I am not going to attempt a solid dinner as right now I still feel bloated, sick and lethargic. While I need and enjoy my down time I need to make sure I get a healthy mix of all my relaxation methods rather than just watching television. To turn this round I need to;

• Have one more liquid day with no exception for dinner


• Make it to the gym tonight and not worry about catch up sessions as yet


• Get my thoughts organised and plan out what is to be done


• Go shopping and ensure that fresh food is available


• Think up a downtime schedule to effectively alternate between downtime activities


• Have some time outside work to work on organising and goal setting/ success thinking

I will overcome this period I just need to get back to what worked. Alpha and Out!

It Turned into a Massacare!

Have been massacaring all inds of food in terrible quantities and have done next to no exercise the past 2 days. And the worst thing is I really am stumped as to why it has happened. My best guest is because I was very tired coming into the weekend, I then went into storage to clear it up while I was trying to avoid food and water so I could ensure I was under the 90kilogram mark. This well and truly backfired, I went home and had a blow-out then slept all afternoon and the rest of the shitty weekend just kicked on from there.

However I am past the worst of it I am going to have a couple of liquid only days (which I don't recommend but helps me get back into small regular quanitities) to restore my habits. Despite the weekend I did make a lot of progress and had many successes during the week. These included; moving gym to 9-930 at night, not worrying about waking up early, got closer on closing a troubling chapter for my family and many more. The biggest success was the flexibility I have been able to achieve and the ability to observe that something is not working and change it.

This weekend while not great for my goals has given me extra motivation to work hard this week. I am a believer that everything happens for a reason and some divine being does not want this journey to be all rainbows and lollipops. I believe this will put me in good stead when I am trying to help out clients with similar goals and issues. Gotta find the positives in everything. THis week will be a massive week with many challenges, hard work but also some things will be easier. One such challenge will be cooking for myself and resisting temptation while having no one around. However being closer to the gym will save me time and petrol, might even get up for some cardio too. Up and Up this week and across the 90 kilogram barrier. Alpha and Out!

(image from http://blogs.suburbanchicagonews.com/sportsbeacon/Scarface.jpg)