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!