Progress check: end of week one

Time to benchmark.  How am I doing?  Weighed myself this morning.  58.7kgs. Woah, that’s a loss of 2.3kgs for the week!  Typical pattern for me though - I’ll lose next to nothing during week two.  Goal for this week is to get a bit more disciplined with my exercise plan.  My nutrition plan is feeling under control.  Need to increase distance run this week.

Bring it on.  Hope you’re doing great!?

Cheers,
Ali

Coming together nicely

Had my first session with my Personal Trainer today.  He knows his stuff.  We talked through different muscle groups and past injuries, and then he developed a 4-6 week program for me, and we went through every exercise.  This is going to be good. I didn’t look particularly stylish, unless wobbling on a swiss ball while pumping free weights counts as style, but we worked lots of different muscle groups and I definitely noticed freer movement by the end of the session.  An exercise called The Plank was tough - I have to build up from 30 seconds to 2 minutes.  Yep, we set goals.  Gulp, now I just have to do it.

I already feel lighter.  Working on both exercise and nutrition seems to be working. It’s all coming together nicely - ha! famous last words…

Made the Cool Cranberries smoothie today.  To be honest, not a huge fan of this one, but I know its good for me.

No excuses, just do it!

Cheers,
Ali

Nine fruit and vegetables a day

These last two days have been about focusing on my nutrition.  Trying to eat at least nine fruit and vegetables a day.  It’s about fuelling my body with nutrient rich foods while I introduce regular exercise back into daily living.  I confess I did get headaches for the first two days when I started out - I think the result of reducing my caffeine intake.  I had been consuming far too much tea and coffee.  For me it’s not about eliminating caffeine, but about awareness of how much of it I had been drinking.

Completed a 3km run today.  Had the gym to myself for the hour before they closed. I got to choose the fan speeds, channel and music level - awesome!  Wore my Polar A3 watch and chest strap to track my heart rate.  Discovered the treadmills read my old Polar transmitter - bonus!  Pumped my HR up to 177 at highest point.  Resting HR in the car was 58.  Hopefully the new exercise habits are kick starting my metabolism.

Only 42 days till my 7km run Round The Bays http://www.wellingtonroundthebays.co.nz/. Staying focused, sticking to the plan.

I’ve added a couple of new recipes - check them out.  I made Grilled Summer Stone Fruit last night for dessert, it was delicious.

Hope you’re fit and well!  Stay positive.

Cheers,
Ali

Foundations for the future

Today was a wee bit about rest (resting the muscles I tested yesterday) and a wee bit about continuity, setting out as I mean to go on.  Weighed myself this morning. Important to establish a baseline from which to measure progress I thought.  At 61.0kgs I’m not hugely overweight.  But I’m not at my optimal weight either.  All 5 feet 3 inches of me feels sluggish and a bit lacking in energy.  So that’s what my current journey is about.  I want to feel relaxed and buzzy during 2011 - to have the energy to do everything I want to do.

No gym session today.  Instead I did a 9km “ipod assisted” walk and enjoyed it immensely.

I researched Nike+ sports kits and the Polar heart rate monitor with Nike+ transmitter.  I’d noticed yesterday that the treadmills at the gym are wired for Nike+. I came to the conclusion I don’t need any of this right now.  I don’t need any more gadgets.  I just need to keep acting on my commitment to change.

Today was pretty cool.  Hope your journey’s going well too!

Cheers,
Ali

Choose your habit, choose your goal

Today is day one of getting fitter and healthier.  When I got to my new gym for my appointment with a personal trainer, the receptionist looked at me blankly and then told me all of the PTs were still away on holiday, that someone had made a mistake in setting up an appointment for me today.  I let her know I was disappointed with the gym, that it wasn’t a good first impression, that they’d let me down by not following through an a commitment they’d made.  My next move though, was the most important one.  Would I let an external factor derail my own personal commitment on day one?  Not a chance.  See, I was there to change a habit and I’d planned for that change to start today.  Habits are all about knowledge (what to do and why), skills (how to do it) and desire (wanting to do it).  Let’s face it, my fitness habits are all within my complete control, no-one else's. So, after booking a new PT appointment for next week, I grabbed a towel and headed for the changing room.

After a 4 minute warm-up, 3km run (22 minutes) and a 2 minute cool down, I was feeling pretty pleased with myself.  Day one successfully got out of the starting blocks.  Although I spent about 15 minutes stretching afterwards, the old leg muscles are pretty sore already - I may be a happy hobbler tomorrow!

Oh and I made the banana and strawberry smoothie today - yum. Check out my smoothies page for the recipe.

Hey, have a good one!

Cheers,
Ali

T minus one

Gulp.  Tomorrow is D day.  Time to get serious about my health and fitness for 2011. I’ve joined a new gym.  Yeah, kind of a new year’s resolution - but I was super organised and set this up back at the beginning of December 2010.  It’s timed for my return from my Christmas / New Year holiday.  Not a whim.  This is thought through planned change.  So, tomorrow is my first day at my new gym.  I have a session scheduled with a personal trainer to “assess” how out of condition I really am.  And how big the mountain is that I need to climb to get back to where I was a year ago (I’ll explain that later).  But today’s all about planning - meals, exercise and goals - for tomorrow, next week, next month…you get the picture.  I’m actually starting to get nervous and excited.  Dreading the weigh in and the BMI measurement.  But hey, it’s all up from here, right?  I’m off to troll the wardrobe to find my old running shoes and some gear that still fits me so that I’m ready for tomorrow.  No going back, it’s T-1 today!

Oh, and I nearly forgot to mention.  This is my first attempt at blogging, so it's going to look and feel a bit amateur at first.  It'll get better, I'll get better, promise.  Hey, have a great day!