Swinging back on Course

After the week from hell last week I finally feel like I am heading in the right direction. After getting the food components together everything slowly locked into place. Managed to go to bed very early and was set for an early wake up but an extremely cold morning (for Brisbane) kept me snoozing till 6:30am. but it was not the end of the world. Instead of focusing that I slept in AGAIN I promised myself I could sleep in as long as I went to the gym. This promise I will keep going this week as my goal.

True to my word I went to the gym. This week due to my hamstring injury I am sadly confined to light cycling and upper body weights. Did I say "sadly"? What I really meant was thrilled to be confined t upper body weights and light cardio. After plowing through months of cardio heavy sets I am really excited about pumping out the arms, shoulders, chest and ab weights. As a guy it is probably my favourite type of exercise besides competition. Diet was very good today besides a fairly large dinner. All up in Brisbane, Alpha and Out!

Dump and Burn

Last week started with an awesome 18 hours or so. Waking up at the right time, good diet and excellent gym session where I pumped out a full intense cardio session along with a greatupper body weights session. Was really looking forward to a good game of oztag but unfortunately we were short on players and had a lot of newbies to work with. This means a lot more running in general and running after breaks. While turning and rocketing off towards one such break I felt a dreaded Twang! I had done my hamstring again. Luckily I got off earlier and rested or else it would have been much more painful.

From this point on my week slowly declined to a chaotic river Styx. The river picked me up and pulled me under throwing off all my exercise regime, dietary regime and completely throwing me out of whack. I was missing even little simple things like walking the dog and brushing my teeth. This pattern has continued to flow until midday today.

I managed to drag myself to shore by going shopping and getting the components of my diet that I was missing. The positive of the last week arose today because as soon as I got my food set I felt like I was back on track with everything. This shows how reliant I have become on following my desired diet that it has the power to throw me off completely or draw me back in. I take this as a positive because I can now realise a good tactic to pull myself out of a hole, correct my diet. You see, every lesson, good or bad, will teach you something good. Feeling a hell of a lot better than upon waking this morning. I need to "dump and burn" those negative feelings and emotions from last week and use it to take off at even greater speeds. Take Off Begins Now, Alpha and Out!

(image from http://images.dpchallenge.com/images_challenge/0-999/264/800/Copyrighted_Image_Reuse_Prohibited_113079.jpg)

Disbanding The "Count"

No not the Sesame Street Count, counting calories. After a week of relaxation I feel settled enough to stop counting calories. I have reached this stage after several months of close calculations and many caloric searches. However I now feel in control of my eating to the level where I can trust myself to simply follow a healthy diet of 6+ meals a day. I am not rubbishing calorie counting, I believe it was essential towards reinvigorating my eating habits and patterns but I believe now I can achieve my goals without such close scrutiny.

Despite promising a Speed Saturday today I changed my direction to the flow of the week and relaxed the majority of the day. I will have my normal Sunday rest tomorrow and then restart my revamped dietary and exercise plans on Monday. Enjoy the break while I can, Alpha and Out!

(image from http://blogs.ajc.com/jeff-schultz-blog/files/2010/02/the-count.jpg)

There's Nothing Like a Chilled One!

No not a beer, although a chilled beer is always good. The chilled one I am talking about is the week. This week I have relaxed everything for a week. The relaxation started off unintentionally but I continued it on to see how I coped with reduced restrictions. I coped very well, no major blow outs although a large dinner on Wednesday and Friday night but this was generally balanced with 4 or 5 meals from the protein plan. I think regarding that protein plan I will go back to follow its strict outlines next week bar my Wednesday and Saturday rest day relaxations. I will run the Week 1 diet as per normal rather than going on to Week 2 as it starts to ramp up the caloric and carb intake and I think I still need at least one more week on the very low carbs. The relaxation has also come up trumps for my exercise. Although I didn't train until Thursday I now sit writing this post after completing my second excellent gym session in two days. Did my normal warm up, a full 40 min of interval cardio and 10-15 mins of weights at the end.

Tomorrow is going to be my first "Speed Saturday" and I think I will kick it off with a morning sprint session combined with some place kicking. The sprints I might do 3x20m, 4 x 50m and 5x 100m and see how I go. Very keen to begin this portion of my journey towards lightening speed. Up and At'Em, Alpha and Out!

Can't Wipe the Smile...

5 in a row baby! 5 in a row! Its a great time to be a Queenslander. I have just watched the mighty Maroons steamroll relentlessly massacre the hapless NSW. They made thebig mistake of making Greg Inglis angry with a racial taunt from serial pest Andrew Johns. The result...Inglis scores in the third minute. That makes a series win for Queesnland and 5 series in a row.

I wish I could bottle the incredible energy and happiness I have had since the final siren went. This week I have taken it easy, haven't been to the gym, and have had a rest day today. Yet I have still lost some weight and am feeling refreshed and raring to pump out a big end to the week. Have also stopped calorie counting for a week just to see if the relaxation of my rules lets me still maintian a decent diet, and so far I have been successful in the week. Bring on the rest of the week and go the Maroons! Alpha and Out!

Back to the Drawing Board

After yet another late week sabotage the long weekend was perfect to reanalyse what I am doing right and what I need to improve on. I have spent the weekend both vegging and thinking about how to improve my weight loss position ad my overall general well-being. My thoughts are as follows;

-The new protein diet worked well and was relatively easy to follow and deserves to be stuck with

- I need to duplicate the conditions of a Sunday to recreate the enormous drive I get at the start of the week to help prevent the late week decline. I think I will designate Wednesday a rest day and will relax my dietary constraints for that day and see how this works.

- One of the aspects of the Alpha male that I want to embody is explosive speed particularly on the footy field I therefore am going to introduce "Speed Saturdays" where all my activities are focused around speed and making me faster. This will be the focus of tomorrows post outlining why speed is important to me and how I plan to get it.

- I am going to schedule my gym sessions to 10am to solve both the quiet gym I love as well as getting good/better sleep. To do this I plan to get into work early, work for a couple of hours then go to the gym for a big session then come back to work and then work later. Will see how this approach works. Its potential is far greater then the before, after or late sessions

Hopefully these changes will put me back on track and further to my goal of fulfilling the transformation from Awkward to ALPHA!

A2A Quote of the Week

"You will be motivated to the degree that you give your dreams and motivations a leading role in the story of your life,"

Scott Smith, MotivationToMove.com

A2A Tip Of the Week

Don't be afraid to schedule another rest day mid week if you struggle at the end of the week. Most people peak at the start and slowly decline. By having a rest day mid week you help prevent this decline.

On Hiatus!

The last couple of days I have slipped as per the usual at the back end of the week. It usually starts with a slight sleep in Thursday, say 630am instead of 430. This is followed by missing the walk for the dog then rushing to work. Diet is usually good on Thursday but comes undone on the Friday which is combined by missing the gym and other exercise. Saturday is then open slather. However by Sunday I am usualy pumped up for a bigger and better week.

This pattern needs to be stopped. I have to figure out what I do on Sunday that fires up my motivation more than other days and then do that midweek say on Wednesday. I will out some thought in to day and will have a new strategic plan of attack for tomorrows post. I also want to start introducing Speed Saturday. This is a day where all activites are focused on giving me explosive speed in all activities- running, cycling, eventually swimming and weights. Again I will do some research and come up with a outline of the First Speed Saturday for next week. A day of peacefull insightful introspection coming up, Alpha and Out!

Ain't No Rest for the Wicked

Struggled through today after last nights couch snooze. It was probably one of the worst not sleeping nights where I got less than 3 hours of a very fitful sleep. Had some particularly vivid dreams in the couch snooze, the weirdest was trying to enter a very complex and stressful item into the accounting package MYOB which is what I have been working on at work the most. I also in the early stages of sleep dodged a runner and attempted to catch a footy, both imaginary. Would have been hilarious to watch. Pumped for a big sleep tonight.

My body seems to be settling into the diet quite well now. Still struggled this afternoon but that was more due to lack of sleep rather then diet. My cottage cheese experience reloaded went quite well actually. I had it with the usual flaxseeds and added some stewed apple which worked a treat. Not exactly the peak of culinary delights but definitely edible. Made a decent comeback to the gym this arvo despite being cut short due to time constraints. All Up and Upper in the domain of the Alpha, A and Out!

Cheesy ain't that Easy

After a couple of days of getting used to my new I have been slowly getting used to it. Last night after successfully following the daily plan bar the wake-up scoop of whey, i prepared my bed meal of cottage cheese and flax seeds and boy did I struggle to keep it down. The taste while bearable for a couple of spoonfuls became quite unbearable. However where there is a will there is a way! After a quick internet search I have found plenty of options to consider and try. They included; -Citrus foods

- Sliced almonds

-Apple sauce

- Pineapple

-Artificial sweetener

- Baking for 20 mins

- Canned peaches

- Grapes

All sound like good options, I am going to put it with stewed apple tonight and will report how it goes. Todays diet went great bar the morning shake which is easily available I didn't want to wake up my grandparents at 4:30am when I woke but will bring down my shaker. Continued a good weightloss today showing again that the diet is working. Dinner was a lot better carb wise with only a medium slice of quiche and potato salad and the remainder diary and veges. Exercise however was stumped by a "couch sleep" which will most likely end up me not sleeping for ages. No worry will have a big session tomorrow. I think it is imperative that I don't get home to early or I might fall to temptation of a snack, I resisted the urge but boy was it strong. Good day ramped to a better tomorrow, Alpha and Out!

Pumping With Protein

Had my first day of the 5 week diet plan from the May edition of Muscle and Fitness. After an excellent brekky where I just about mastered the cooking of a great omelete, I struggled through the remainder of the day. I think my body will take a couple of days to get used to the low carb diet. However on the upside whenever I felt really lethargic it was already time for a meal. This has generally been the case whenever I have tried to diet, proof that I can survive the diet. However it has already produced results losing a good 400-500grams today. Felt great in the morning, the omelette was satisfying but didn't leave me bloated or lethargic like a bowl of cereal or toast would in similar proportions. Unfortunately circumstances prevented my having a post workout shake as it was locked in the office. Also slightly annoying was the large plate full of carbs that threw out a great deal of the diet for dinner, in future this willl not be a problem as I will be home to serve it myself. Overall a 6/10 for the overall diet today but expect that to ramp right up when my body gets used to it.

Exercise today was another strong Monday. Decent gym session, cut short due to time. Then raced off to Oztag where I had a cracker of a game defensively and really enjoyed a more permanent role in dummy half. All the cardio I have been doing seems to be paying off as I am lasting at full pace a lot longer and recovering from bursts faster then a month or so ago. A great start to the week, Alpha and Out!

(image from http://bouillie.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/p7050700.jpg)

The New Horizon

Next sun up brings rise to another week full of more big opportunities and road bumps. This week I have got to work more on pacing myself and not leaving all the road bumps at the end of the week jeopardising all the weeks good work and progress. This week I am starting a new diet from a fitness magazine which looks pretty good. Its a low carb diet with plenty of muscle building protein. Nice big omelette for brekky is what I'm looking forward to most. I am again going to change my schedule to fit in the task of cooking and cleaning brekky.

Had a productive day today, getting my head in a good headspace for the week. Keen to improve on the new diet, hit my targets at the gym and overall chew through my tasks for the week. After a week of no quote or tip due to my in-organisation, they return with a bang. Enjoy, Alpha and Out!

A2A Quote of The Week

"You never get what you want out of life, you get what you are,"

Unknown,

A2A Tip Of the Week

Isolate a trigger that pumps up your motivation and attempt to utilise it towards the end of the week to ensure you stay on track for the whole week and not just certain portions.

It was Sabotage!

For the last month or so I have been trying to crack the 90 kilogram weight mark but have always fallen at the last hurdle. Not to jump the ship I think I will fall short again tomorrow (but fingers crossed I don't). The hurdle seems to be getting to the weekend after a great week, sliding into a relaxed state and getting stuck into some large amounts of food. This appears to be the pattern and again it has repeated itself today. My trigger seems to be a lack of structure and giving me the freedom to veg and pig out. However I simply need to reduce this as much as possible while ramping up my Saturday exercise. I successfully regrouped tonight with a decent but not great gym session. Was struggling again with gas and reflux but battered on through to complete my hour of work.

Sundays usually summon the great confidence and drive. I seem to lift up on Sunday and slowly decline in drive until Friday night/ Saturday morning. I gotta think of ways to slow and eventually neutralise this decrease. Onwards and Upwards, Alpha and Out!

Play It Again, Sam

I couldn't sleep last night due to my couch nap. After going through a DVD I flicked it over to the TV and came across Aussie Sam Stosur's semi-final (which she smashed through in straight sets). Now Stosur has come on in leaps and bounds since recovery from illness and she has a set of guns on her that would make most men proud. Now I was thinking about all the effort she would've had to put into her arms to get them like that and now she is able to reap the rewards. This led to me thinking about the pwoer of getting fit for a particular sport has on your training. Rather than vanity, health or lifestyle reasons, I believe and I think all the elite athletes out there would agree, that having a specific sport to train for really keeps the motivation up. My specific sport is triathlons which I took up last year with some decent results before I fell away. I would love to be playing rugby or have a crack at league or AFL but unfortuneatly my shoulder is just not up to the demands of those sports. So really put some thought into acquiring a specific sport or even compettition to add to your motivation for your work outs

Today was another pretty good day capped of with a return to the gym tonight. A large breakky and dinner were of minor concern while the dinner gave me a bit of reflux at the gym I was happy to have just gone and have kept on track for my weekly goal of 5 gym sessions. Pumped for the weekend, another chiller I think. Have a good one and go Sammy Stosur for Saturdays final, Alpha and Out!

If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire...

The R-team! This thought was floated across my brain earlier today. I must have still been tired even though I had about 10 hours sleep. I know when I am tired because I get a lot of negative thoughts floating around and get internally annnoyed over nothing incidents. Anyway this morning I was pinning that all I ever seem to do is clean up other peoples messes etc etc. But the amount of momentum I have gathered this week forced me to immediately stop and force a positive rebuttle to such thoughts. I said that I was happy to clean up, I had set it as a goal to be the "rock" to everyone and I am exceptionally good at it. Then as if by magic the A-team mantra floated through my head and I knew I had to reposition myself as a crack team great at dealing with seemingly unsolvable cases. Bam thats some good positivity for you.

Today I went for 4 gym sessions in a row but unfortuneatly I stumbled at both night and day due to sleep. I had planned to go tonight but fell asleep on the couch until about 10pm, too late even for me to go. However I am not gonna get down I will simply have a crack at two session tomorrow. Diet today was back to near perfect after a bit of a scrappy Wednesday. I love it when a plan comes together. Alpha and Out!

There was Something in the Air Last Night...Positivity!

Yesterday was great topped off with an excellent gym session where I pumped through a long hard slog on the exercise bike, 40 minutes at high cadence. How did I do it?

- The use of the Podrunner Podcast. This was really helpful in keeping an up tempo beat to attempt to match my cadence with

BUT MAINLY...

- Positive thoughts! While chugging away I was filled with positive thoughts rather than saying this hurts, this is too tough etc I was saying this is good, this is what is needed, feel the bad energy being released from when it was laid down. Best of all I didn't have to too much introspection to rectify any negative thoughts. A big help also was looking at my motivational card which I have stocked up with people and things that motivate me. MLK, my Dad, Kanye West, Michael Jordan and more. These people never gave up when it got tough and that is one of the mantras that was riding through my head. Top notch session!

Today I capped off a great exercise week so far with a hatrick of gym appearences. Feeling great and in control the remainder of the day was somewhat less productive as I got very tired and did not have my proper lunch items available messing up my diet up somewhat, leading to a rather large intake tonight after work. However I need to put this in a perspective as a mere bump in the road of a increasingly faster road trip to the Alpha. Pumped but tired and ready for bed. Alpha and Out?

Early Morning? No, After Work? No, Night Sesh? Hell Yea

These were the three options that I went through today as when I would go to the gym. I know I have posted about flexibility before but I still believe it is essential. Too much flexibility can be extremely hazardous to discipline and mental strength but just enough helps prevent from an utter collapse such as a week long blow-out or a week with out exercise. Enough flexibility helps build a person up rather than inhibiting them by providing a scaffolding to catch them when they slip or fall. This was very clear when I arrived home from Oztag last night with a very sore shoulder. Now if I had gone the NO Flexibility road I might have tried to get up and drag myself to the gym but failed and gone back to sleep wrecking my day and destroying my self confidence. Instead I was considerate and decided I would give it more time to recover and get myself to work early so I could do an session after work. Having a long meeting disrupted that and instead of spiraling down I stood back, breathed and said "Ok, no dramas, I can just go at my favourite time anyway, the night shift" And now I feel great and because I feel n control I will go to the gym and have an excellent session.

Today was a very productive day. Achieved a lot at work, diet was perfect, I have not done the calculations but it is definately under 2000cals and my dinner was definately closer to 500-600cals much better than the large 1000cal serve on Monday. Exercise will be ok but this is no drama as I am nursing a injury so it doesn't intensify. All good in the Hood, Alpha and Out!