Grinding to a Halt...

After gaining so much positive momentum the past couple of days my body is slowly grinding to complete exhaustion. Was working at the computer this afternoon and began to doze off. THe combination of the past days exercise, late nights than early starts and dieting I think are taking the toll a bit. However I am quite happy to be falling away on the last night gym session in a week and on the eve of a long weekend. Couldn't have planned it much better really.

Looking forward to a bit of everything again this weekend mainly down time and time free to exercise and sleep. Have crossed many things of my list this week, made changes to my schedule and gained a lot of positive energy. So all in all a very successful week but will be looking out for my rest day on Sunday.

A good long weekend of sport up ahead with the resurgent Reds facing Brumbies in a final berth decider and Broncos a good chance of winning, while the Lions will have it tough against former star forward Dan Bradshaw with the Swans. Keen for big sleep after gym tonight.Alpha and Out!

Sore and Tired but still Going

Absolutely buggered today after 7+ hours of moving furniture and boxes. Helped out movers for a bit of exercise and quite tired and sore as a result. However came home had some food and then about an hour snooze so feeling much better. Best of all I did not have any blow-outs today which is very good considering the amount of exercise I did today.

Had a big day but still got more. I am going to the gym in a couple of hours for my shoulder-back weights session. I am feeling quite positive about myself the last couple of days. After a very good gym session last night I am in a really good place. What made the gym so good was that I finally finshed my 40min cardio intervals. Beforehand I usually went to about 20 mins and then slinked into the warm down. However last night I just got into a good rhythmn and churned it out. I think part of the success has been the changing of exercise time, moving the gym from before dinner to 9ish. Being a quiet sort of person I really enjoy a quiet gym. There is no dramas about waiting for equipment, missing out on workouts, easy access to the shower and also not many egos late at night. I enjoy sharing the gym with people who are there simply to get fit and nothing else and that is generally who is there late in the night. A very good day today, with some more to come. Hopefully can build up more momentum tomorrow. Alpha and Out!

(image from http://1800recycling.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/Abandoning-Treadmill.jpg)

Time for Change...and Focus

After another sleep-in and a seemingly causeless blow-out I am going to change some things.

• Forget about morning cardio at this stage as it is just giving me too much negativity


• I am slowly going to condition myself to wake up earlier and earlier until I can try to go back to morning cardio


• I am going to move my gym time till 9-9:30 pm as I enjoy it most at this time. I enjoy the quietness and it allows me to switch off mentally for the night. It may also help limit my dinner consumption hopefully to the point where I will be able to have a protein shake after training and not exheed 2000 cals.


• For my cardio I am going to attempt to ride to the gym at night which should give me my targeted hour of work. However just to get into a pattern I will drive the next couple of nights to ensure I do actually go and don't put it off.

Regarding the blow-out today, I have very little thoughts on what led to it. It was at normal snack time and I decided to have an early lunch to allow me to snack at storage. Perhaps it was the breaking of routine. I will try to stick to my more regular schedule. This the second blow-out this week so for punishment I have decided to strip myself of my Sunday "fat meal" for this week. I will still have the rest day as I need some sort of reward and time to heal my niggles. On the bright side my calories burnt should be up for today as I spent 3 hours in storage and am heading to the gym after writing this post. I think I also need to develop a denfense mechanism of when I feel such cravings I need to be able to regain focus and weigh up what I really want and how much I want it. Is the quick fix really worth sacrificing the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow or in my case the single digit body fat percentage. I will attempt to develop this and will report how I go. Alpha and Out!

Chalk It Up

Another successful day diet wise and weight loss wise. After an average diet yesterday I rebounded with consuming only 1634.9 calories today. However due to time and too many people at the gym I did not finish my workout so my calories burnt was below what I'd like it to be but still it was an improvement on yesterday and it can only go up. My weight loss journey is really gaining momentum an I am quite happy at how I am proceeding particularly how I am recovering from blow outs and set backs.

I still need improvement in waking up and doing my morning cardio. In this department I am not faring too well against the winter chill. This is where my triathalon training began to fail last year which sent me down a slippery slope. I might do some research and try out some "get out of bed techniques" for my next post. So chalk up another successful day and prepare for many more. Alpha and Out!

Slipped One Rung but Jumped up 2

Today was a very mixed bag. It started off well with a long dog walk and perfect nutrition until lunch. The day fell away from there. Had a blow-out at lunch, healthy food but portion sizing was out the window. However I have gained further insight into these blow-outs. They generally occur when I am bored or doing nothing and don't have someone there to act as a physical conscious. I have many things to do from exercising, soucring a new computer, actual work, working on my personal spreadsheets and powerpoints and even working on this blog. I have to stop making excuses and if I feel a blow-out coming on I can just immerse myself in something. Once this was realised the day picked up at a dramatic pace. I worked my butt off this evening to create a difference. Firstly I skipped my mid afternoon meal, not great for my metabolism but need to happen to minimize impact of the lunch time binge, a small dinner followed. I then did half an hour of intervals on the bike at the gym, went to touch and then back to the gym to do weights and more interval cardio. Recovered enough to post a decent loss for today. I can feel myself raring to really get stuck into this and have a good crack at the deadline. Hopefully this will continue when I wake to a cold morning. Just got to be strong and believe.

A2A Quote of the Week

" I have insercurities. But whatever I'm insecure about, I don't dissect it but I'll go after it and say "What am I afraid of?"

Kevin Sorbo, Hercules Actor (TV series)

A2A Tip of the Week

Have a think about what you do to relax and make a list. This will give you a mix of options when you want to relax.

(image from http://buildingstrongerpartners.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/climbing-the-ladder.jpg)

Mmmmm....Rest Day

Had my second deserved rest day in as many weeks including a hot breakfast as my fat meal of the week. Food wise it didn't through off the rest of the day as much as last week but my meals in general were still a bit on the large size. I need to eventualy refine it down so it is only one meal and the remainder of day is business as usual. That said it was an improvement and I roughly burned what I ate making it a almost neutral day.

Planning for a big week this week. Finishing off cleaning my Dads storage, perfecting and refining diet and having a huge week of exercise. Planning a huge day tomorrow to make the most of the public holiday. Thinking of starting with a dog walk then long bike ride tomorrow morning. a bit of a rest then into the gym just before lunch then a quiet afternoon with a bit of place kicking action, sounds great. Will look to build on the exercise of last week and get at least 2 mornings of cardio and 3 straight gym appearances. Also this week should see me dip below 90 kilograms for the first time since my troubles last year. A banging week to come on the Up. Alpha and Out!

I'll Take a Bit of Everything on my Saturday, Please

Had an action packed but relaxing and rewarding day today. Had a sleep in from going to the gym late yesterday night, a quick dog walk and brekky and I was off. Went to storage to find that the bin hadn't been emptied. So I then went got a haircut, did some shopping and relaxed infront of the tv ( with no snacking due to the use of my newly purchased hand grips, which kept my hands busy). I finally watched Micheal Jackson's This Is It! I found this to be a truly great movie which inspired me to want to learn to dance and listen to the king of Pop's music. He seemed like a really genuine guy, gentle and kind but also very professional. I do not believe all the conspiracies surrounding him and I think it is a shame that society and in particular the media cuts successful people down whether they deserve it or not. MJ I will miss you.

My day really kicked off after lunch when the storage bin was emptied. I had earlier siad I would go fishing with a mate at 3pm so the 1pm was a little late. Nevertheless I raced over filled an industrial size bin in 1.5 hours and had to push the full bin down to where it is stored. Lets just say I was buggered after that. I than set off fishing with a mate who was breaking up his study load of Uni exmas with a quick session on squid around the Manly mariner. We fished for about 3 hours fincluding about an hour after dark. I caught my first decent size squid and hooked up to an even bigger one but it dropped off the hook. I even went for an unexpected swim after going in for a snagged lure. Got to his place at about 8pm, had dinner with his family which was delicious and then went home buggered.

Diet was perfect again, ~1702.30 calories today and while I did not make it too the gym ( which I will have a short session tomorrow) I think I made up for it with my full on afternoon. All is Up and Upper in the Alpha Domain. Alpha and Out!

(image from http://bouldermapgallery.com/catalog/images/fishing.jpg)