A couple of new things happened this week.
I may have decided to integrate some additional body weight and so very popular High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) workouts to my updated fitness plan for 2016.
I may have also decided that I am not quite ready for HIIT, a.k.a death by burpees, just yet.
Rhi and I came to the agreement last week that starting Monday, we were really going to knuckle down with our diets.
I tend to go with the "clean eating" rules that I have adopted from the amazing Ashy Bines which in a nutshell means minimal carbohydrates, no processed foods, smaller meals and small protein fueled snacks, no alcohol, and no additives like sauces or sweeteners to anything.
I then opt a few of my own rules based on what I know works for me:
1. No dairy or dairy substitutes
I'm mildly lactose intolerant and I am not sure lactose free milk can even be called a dairy product after the processes it's been through (might have to do some additional research on that one) but I generally just try to steer clear. Also, why would I have something like lactose free yoghurt or icecream for a snack when I can stockpile other more meaningful and equally delicious calories.
2. Sunday = Food prep day!
I have found that I am 2000% more likely to stay on track with my nutrition when I prepare my meals for the week in advance. I will generally prep 3 days of fresh dinners, 3 mornings worth of my famous spinach omelettes (so easy!), and 2 days in advance for lunch. I may even pre-bag some snack stuff and take it in to work so I have prepacked snacks if I accidentally forget.
I also find that if the last thing I do before I go to bed is bag all my food together for the next day and place it in the fridge then I am also less likely to either forget it in the morning or be lazy and leave it behind. Lesson learned: Don't underestimate the lazy.
3. Cheat meal!
I am a person of many cravings. Of everything. There are not many foods that I wont eat which means that there are plenty of foods that I will happily binge on forever. This means I need to have a strategy to manage the cravings that I have all the time. I have been in that space where I was super strict on diet with no exceptions and I found that I would binge at my weakest moments anyway - which turned out to be every weekend for the entire weekend. If I give myself a cheat meal to look forward to each week, I feel like I am taking control of these cravings and telling them they can wait their turn. It gives me a meal to look forward to and also an opportunity once a week to go out with friends and not be that person that sits and watches you eat your chocolate malteser mudcake like a creep.
So! On Sunday night after 6 hours of food prep and the weeks worth of meals planned out, even if I hadn't made them yet, I decided to go all out and smash almost an entire pizza and a bunch of beers and that gave me enough of a food hangover on Monday morning to be truly happy to clean eat my body back into shape.
Tuesday mornings alarm snoozing was just too delicious and I slept in well past the time to get up to run with Rhi in the morning, so I had to do something after work.
The problem was, that it was about 38degrees and wasn't letting up so I didn't think that I would be fitting in a run in the evening either.
Bugger it, I might just have to try one of those HIIT routines. That should get my heart rate up enough to fill in today's exercise slot, right? Easy.
I love how my mind so casually convinces itself that the seemingly-impossible is so la-de-dah easy. Sigh.
I found an interesting looking HIIT workout on youtube and thought I would give it a go.
Gym gear on, with my PC connected to my TV in the lounge I started stretching out and had a momentary thought that maybe I should be in a g-string electric blue leotard with bright pink sweat socks. Cue 80's aerobic video:
After a quick warm-up intro, the instructor tells me we are going to get into it. I am already sweating.
And the first exercise? Burpees. Mother fucking burpees.
Now, I understand that in general most people don't like burpees, but I am of the opinion that this is a move you should only be doing if you already have somewhat of an upper body or core strength to begin with, because if you don't then you may stubbornly persist with poor form and hurt yourself like I did. Two burpees in and my lower back collapsed (I have a previous lower back injury from about 8 years ago).
Right, no burpees.
Once I recovered, I crawled back to my PC and tried to find another HIIT workout that didn't include burpees. It wasn't until I literally wrote "No Burpees HIIT workout" that I found something. Common sense? Perhaps. Fucking burpees are apparently HIIT magic.
So, back in front of the telly, channeling Richard Simmons I anxiously started mynew HIIT session.
10 minutes in and I was sweating Niagara Falls. 20 mins gone and I was utterly done. I finished the routine laying on the mat yelling mercy at the TV. I'm not even kidding. I can be quite dramatic.
Wednesday morning my body happily reminded me how much I enjoyed HIIT the night before. Never again.
We decided to do our own cross-training that night so back to the Elliptical it was for me while watching the new series of the Immortal Instruments on Netflix. Disappointing.
The netflix show that is - it was actually the first happy time on the Elliptical that I found I wasn't working hard enough on the lowest resistance. Well, my actual thought was that I wasn't sweating enough. What?!
So I decided to bump up the resistance for 1 min increments and go as hard as I could rather than my usual "slow and steady wins the race" attitude.
I actually enjoyed myself. How disgusting. And as I promised myself this week, I didn't do the full 60 mins but jumped off at the 45min mark and grabbed my dumbbells to do some upper body work.
Pinterest gave me plenty of inspiration (Pinspiration?) For a beginners upper body routine, but I decided in the end on something which was very similar to a routine also recommended to me by my workmate a.k.a fit freak, Kim. If Kim recommended this shit, it must be right, right?
I use a 10kg combo dumbbell set from Amart with adjustable weight which I was under the impression currently had 5kg on each dumbbell.
After the first two reps my arms were like butter so I raced to the pantry and opted for some iron pumping peanut butter and a can of creamed corn so I could finish things up.
I don't know whether I am supposed to this, but I would ALWAYS rather make an exercise easier so I can finish the reps rather than just stop because they are too hard.
It seems common sense to me that you are better off still moving regardless of the reduced difficulty rather than just collapsing in a heap on the floor like I have seen so many people do while trying to complete exercises well out of their league.
I guess it depends on how well you know your body and whether you are cheating yourself by giving up early or, like me, your just stubborn and refuse to leave something uncompleted. OCD? Perhaps.
I'm pretty sure my arms packed their bags and left me after such a direct assault, but nothing feels as good as that sore feeling the next day which tells you that you have actually worked hard.
Thursday was a rest day and thank god because after the 7000 HIIT lunges on Tues followed by my peanut butter arm assault on Wednesday, I was ready for restoration and relaxation.
Chris and I opted to go out for dinner for my cheat meal of the week and I got the most amazing Chicken Pesto Gnocchi I have ever had the pleasure of consuming. Sneaky's restaurant - a hidden Italian gem in Angle Vale!
Friday morning was run day and I felt a bit nervous because Rhi and I haven't run together all that much over the last few weeks. It is so easy for me to fall into that same anxious mindset of "what if I am too slow", "what if I have to stop", "she is definitely going to leave me behind this time" kind of rubbish.
It was the first time Rhi and I had run together without using the C25K app because we had technically finished the program, but still haven't yet actually successfully completed 5k. The last run was for 30mins or 5k - whichever comes first, and I was only completing about 3.5k in 30mins.
We had already optimistically marked out the track we needed to run to complete the 5km and both opted to wear our robin belts but without water bottles because we have run the Torrens track enough times now to know where the fountains are (mirages excluded), so off we went.
I'll be honest when I say I barely remember running most of the track. Rhi and I have picked up this beautiful habit of super-creep-breathy-chatting to one another throughout our runs, which is something I never thought I'd be able to do, so I wasn't altogether conscious of my surroundings until well after the half way mark.
The last km was hard. Like, really really hard. My legs were still tired from HIIT lunges, I was out of breath and I was just TIRED.
About 50metres away from the rubbish bin that marked the finish line I noticed Rhi starting to speed up. "You just want this over with don't you?" I ask, haggardly. "Yup." Rhi laughed.
We sprinted.
Not flat out, Usain Bolt, make the trees move, sprint, but certainly gazelle bounding, teeth clenching, grunting and snuffling we speed until we got to that smelly bin. And we made it.
We made it!
After an exuberant and loud high five, much to the amusement of old man cyclist riding past, I stretched out and warmed down in shock that I had actually made it. I just ran 5kms! Without stopping! Without passing out or vomiting!
What? What?! WHAT?!
I had a horrible sleep Friday night so wasn't feeling that great on Saturdaymorning and opted to stay in bed. When I finally emerged feeling much more refreshed, Chris and I went into town to meet my bestie, Shaz for an overdue coffee and then we went window shopping at all the sports stores in the vicinity. I have never spent so much time in sports stores in my life.
I picked up a cute visor to wear instead of a cap while running, and some 2kg dumbells for my floor routines, only to get home and realise that I actually only had 3kg on the adjustable ones I already owned, not 5kg. Such spaghetti arms!
I had intended to be up and out of bed Sunday morning when Chris left for work but didn't roll out of bed until about 10am.
A quick look at my weather widget on my phone told me it was still only 16degrees outside so I quickly chucked my running gear on and popped out the door for my burb-run.
Within 5mins I realised that I had been betrayed by my weather widget which clearly had not yet updated from 2am this morning becuase it was HOT.
It was hot, and I was wearing a black visor, black sunnies, black singlet and black tights. Heat, come at me.
Within 10 mins I already knew I was in trouble.
The ground was beaming as much heat at me as was the sun and that shit was intense.
By the time I got passed the dog park and to the old 'half way' mark, I was already trying to decide if I was overheating.
The worst part was that now that I had changed up my route slightly to make it 5kms, and I had never actually run or walked it before.
So while I was sweating, swearing and trying not to pass out, I was also madly looking around trying to get my bearings and trying to decide if this magical road I was supposed to run up actually even existed.
It didn't. Betrayed again by technology!
A new school had recently been constructed right where my turn off was supposed to be so I had to run an entire extra km just to run around it to meet up with the road I was supposed to take.
By the time I got to the school, I had to start walking. By the time I had walked past it, I was getting those familiar goosebumps all up and down my back and arms that was an early warning to heat exhaustion.
The trouble was that I was only about half way home, there was no shade in sight, and walking wasn't cooling me down because the sun was so intense.
I finally made the round trip back to the other side of the reserve I used to run through and gave myself a time out under the trees, pouring some of my precious water over my head in an attempt to cool me down which lasted me until I got home.
Lessons learned: Always drive a new route first if possible. Always check the weather. Stop wearing black in summer!