Rollercoaster of emotions week...

Ia Orana,

Well what a difference a week makes. Last week saw a massive weight loss. I reported a 2.4 kilo loss last week – on Monday morning. On Monday afternoon I weighed myself again (I don’t know why), and I had lost another .6 kilos! So that made a 3 kilo loss! Monday arvo I was 120.8 kilos. Only .8 kilos away from the Scooter!

Then everything fell apart. As I last reported, I had a really bad day on the Tuesday – mostly due to exhaustion. But that also pretty much stuffed me for the rest of the week and pretty much put a halt to my weight loss! And so close!

So on Tuesday did the PT session as reported and on Wednesday I stepped on the scales and I was over 122 kilos again! I felt soooo bad about that. I sent a message to Ben at work who is running the fit for life program and he replied:

Hi Pete,

It is common when you are training hard to have days (even weeks) where you just don't have as much energy as usual and find training so much harder. It is important during these times to just keep exercising at a similar level of "effort" as you normally would, or to back off slightly if you feel too fatigued. Don't get down when your performance is lower than you have seen in the past. You will find that soon enough your energy levels will return to normal, and then you may even jump to a higher level of fitness. Improvements are not always continually going to increase, it may occasionally be one step backwards before two steps forward again. All good training programs require recovery days as well, when your body actually has the time to repair itself from all the hard work. Active recovery is best, so a gentle walk etc is better than complete rest. If you are still feeling wrecked today, there is no harm in having an easier day- it is actually doing more good than bad. You just need to make sure that you can tell the difference between a bit of lethargy and laziness (which you should train through and ignore) and genuine exhaustion (which it sounds like you have at the moment).

In terms of having a blow-out and eating a bit of junk, this is not a big deal if it is very rare, especially after such a lot of exercise. The problem lies with being ravenous after a hard session and not having enough healthy options easily accessible. This will require more preparation, such as having a protein bar/powder mix handy to eat as soon as you finish a session, this can often take the edge off a hunger like that. The difficult task for you is to give your body enough nutrition to recover/function, while still losing the excess weight.

Let me know if you want more info or have any specific questions.

Cheers,

Ben.

So I took Ben’s advice, and on Wednesday I took it easy to help my body recover. I had a massage, then did 20 mins on the cross trainer, and then walked home. That was pretty easy for me – and on Thursday for the group session I was feeling better – not totally better, but better and was able to put in a good effort. I also ran home – I ran all the way bar the steps, and managed a time of 28 mins – my best yet!

I also did not have my ‘day off’ on Friday. I did a work-out at the gym – 20 mins on the treadmill interval training, and then 20 mins on the rower interval training, then ran/walked home (ran from 1st bridge pylon to Kirribilli steps).

Saturday I rode my pushbike into the gym in the morning for a session – I started by organising the gym (which is always a pig stye at the end of a week) – that takes around 20 mins lugging weights around the gym, then did 20 mins interval training on the cross trainer, followed by 20 mins interval training on the treadmill, and then an extended ride home – I rode all the way along Sussex St, into Hickson Rd, along past the wharves, under the bridge, into the Rocks, up the hill into Observatory Hill then back across the bridge.



Sunday I had quite an active day, starting though by waking with my neck in pain – I slept on it wrong. But despite this I still rode into the gym early – I was there by about 8:15, and I did 40 mins on the treadmill interval training. I was doing 1 min intervals, starting by walking 5 mins at 6.5, then running at 8.5, and increasing the pace by .1 every running minute. I ended up at about 10 point something!! Can’t remember now! After that I did another extended ride home, going across the Pymont bridge, past the casino, around the residential wharf & back. I think I need to get a slightly larger seat for the bike as it hurts my butt!



A friend came around at about 10:45 to take some location photo shots so we went down to Sawmiller’s Reserve & did a bit of walking around there, followed by a lovely lunch at Crows Nest – I had Spaghetti Bolognese! Yay! In the arvo I took it easy and caught up with 3 episodes of ‘Brothers & Sisters’ snuggled up in a rug on the couch. I loved it! In the evening I walked across the bridge and met up with my Parents, my Brother David & his family to watch ‘Fire Water’ – part of the Vivid festival of lights. We had dinner at the Italian Villiage, and then watched the show – it was quite good. Interesting premise. I actually saw it when going across the bridge on Friday and wondered what it was!

So that brings me to today – ups and downs again unfortunately. I did lose a little weight – I’m now at 120.2 – only 200 gms away from 30 kilos, but I was that on Sunday morning as well – so despite all the activity on Sunday I stayed the same. I know I’m being really silly expecting weight loss in one day, but I can’t help how I feel, especially as I got used to seeing a weight loss every day.

But here’s the up - guess how much it cost me to get to work today – NOTHING! Nada Zip Zilch. For the fist time ever I rode my pushbike to work. And you know what? I really enjoyed it. It was quicker than getting the bus, and would be quicker than driving too. So I will continue this – and just see what happens on rainy days!!

And the big news? The ING Fit for life competition finishes on Thursday! Yes it is the last day of this competition which has been going for almost 10 weeks! I’m actually quite nervous! So as soon as I know the results – you will!

See ya!

Pete