TLC: Trust, Love, Consistency

Not too disappointed with the results not excited either. I’ll take it as a starting point for great things to come!

Scored another 8 points for the day, must not snack before bed.

Had a solid nights sleep and decided to shift my Thursday cardio to friday and do legs today. Last week my hammies were so tight from the elliptical that my squat sucked big time.
I’ve also gone back to doing antagonistic stretches on leg day and can get a more solid workout done, with much better form. I’m back to feeling much more confident in my squat. I was really getting into it a few weeks before my accident and I’ve found it really hard to focus since. A good night’s sleep (6.5 hours solid and then half awake to make the 7) made for a solid foundation too.
The last 2 leg days I make it through my squats and look at the next bit of my program and want to slap the person who wrote it. I really must have been feeling brave that night! I somehow manage to trooper through the mental barrier and my legs have never looked better. I’m almost thinking I don’t even need to get back to cycling. I’ll see if I can get the boy to take some good photos of my hams tonight so I can see if they’re looking as fine as I think.
Had a quick chat with ‘mr shoulders’ (I’m terrible with names, but man is his back and shoulders sweet!) and he was very encouraging  once more and really sympathetic to my shoulder problems. All those muscle boys are so sweet to me, though I’d love to have some chics to trade notes with.

I’m half thinking I’ll go back this evening and do a step class if I can get out of work in time. I’ve always felt so uncoordinated in step but friends promise me Les Mills is much easier. I’ve also got an accupuncture and physio appointment at lunchtime at the gym so I’ll squeeze in a bit of ab work while I’m waiting for my appointment as I severly ran out of time (too much chatting).

Here’s my diet (planned) and workout for the day excludes warmup:
4x Squats:12×45kg + Standing Calfs:20xBW + push-ups-plus:x10 (for shoulder recovery)

2x DB Single-leg-deadlifts:10×7.5kg +DB reverse lunges:12×7.5kg + Shrugs:10×7.5kg(slow for shoulder recovery)

2x DB Romanian split squats: 8×8kg +DB concentrated curls 10×8kg + lying on side external rotation:2kgx10

1x roman chair x 20 (finish these off later)

Food:

Breakfast: Green eggs and ham. 4 whites, 1 egg, 50g spinach, 100g peas, 50g goat ham, 1 tablespoon parmesan as omlette/fritatta
2 fish oil caps, 1 berroca high performance, 4 l-carnatine, 2 BCAA’s

During workout: 2 scoops Xtend

PWO: Balanced chocolate mass gainer, 2 rye cruskets
Meal 3: 26g ripped chocolate, 1/4 cup toasted wheatgerm, 1 tb PB, 1 tb sf-maple flavoued syrup made into cookie and toasted under the broiler/grill.

Meal 4: Thai style tuna, spicy tofu, brocolli, cauliflower

Meal 5: Beef, onions and bok choy in oyster sauce with 1/2 cup rice noodles

I’m having trouble sticking with in the plan I’ve developed. I think the problem is both testing and accountability.
For those that haven’t noticed already, I haven’t done any serious measurements since before my accident. I’m a little worried I won’t like the results. Especially because I normally have an off schedule (I hate the word cheat!) meal on Friday evening and Saturday is the easiest day to measure. Easy fixed if I measure on Thursday evening when I should be looking my best from a week of working hard and eating clean.

To keep myself accountable I’m thinking of a points system where each week I get a score out of 100.

I think I’ll probably fall down big time in the sleep department and may call in credit from meditation, but it all get’s very complicated.

Good news is today looks like I get full marks. I’ve been guzzling herbal tea all day, eaten well, got 7 hours sleep and had a rest day. Woohoo!
2 points/day for minimum of 7 hours sleep (max 14pt/week, 1pt for 6hrs+ 0<6hrs, can not be redeemed with cardio points!)
2 points/day for 3 litres of water drank (max 14pt/week)
4 points per day for diet on target (-1 per 50 calories off)(28pt/week)
4 points per day for workout completion (rest days are free points, all or nothing  28pt/week)
1 point per 10 minutes of cardio complete (target 160 minutes/week)

Goal: 90pt or more. If all goals are met I get 100 points in a week.

I was just reading Rae’s blog as she prepares for the All Female’s and it struck me. I am an athlete too!

This is an exciting thing to realise, but very important to remember if I am to succeed. For some reason I’d still been thinking of myself as either the fat uncoordinated girl I was always told I was in school or at best a recovered one, or fitness enthusiast. However, neither of these are true, I train like an athlete, I eat like an athlete and to succeed I will think like an athlete.

I got a fantastic restful nights sleep.
I woke up with glowing skin.
The morning was beautifully still, perfect for frisbee with the hound.
My unwashed hair looked awesome while I totally nailed my squats.
My shoulders looked even and muscular as I focused on my single leg deadlifts.
The organic banana I had PWO was delicious, as was the macchiato.

Today, I’m calm, focused and peaceful.

How’s your day going?

I was working hard when I suddenly had this great idea to make fake oreo protein cookies. I googled a few fake oreo recipes and combined it with a few things I’d read on the forums protein bar recipe page and voila.

Please note I have not tried making these yet and haven’t got calorie king in front of me to do macros, so these could be aweful but if your game, please give it a go. I’ve gotta go and buy choc whey and pudding mix (I’m hoping weight watcher stuff works).

*      COOKIES:
1/2 cup splenda / AS
1/2 cup prune butter
1/4 cup FF cream cheese
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 large egg
1 tablespoon water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup choc whey
1/2 cups choc pudding mix ?
1/4 cup (2 1/4 ounces) Dutch-process cocoa powder*

FILLING**:
1/2 envelope (1 teaspoon plus heaping 1/4 teaspoon) unflavored gelatin
2 tablespoons (1 ounce) cold water
1/2 cup FF cream cheese
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cups (10 ounces) vanilla whey (or choc)

In a medium-sized mixing bowl, cream together the sugar and prune butter and cream cheese. Add the salt, egg, water, and vanilla and beat until smooth. Beat in the whey and cocoa until well combined; the dough will be very stiff.

Roll the dough into chestnut sized balls and flatten to 4mm thick on a silicon baking sheet or parchment. Repeat for all dough. Place on a baking sheet and broil/o-h-grill for 2-3 minutes each side.

Allow to cool.

TO MAKE THE FILLING: Soften the gelatin in a cup containing the 2 tablespoons of cold water, then place the cup in a larger dish of hot water and leave it there until the gelatin is completely dissolved and the liquid is transparent. Remove the gelatin from the hot water and let it cool until it’s room temperature but hasn’t begun to set.

In a medium-sized mixing bowl, cream the cream cheese, then beat in the vanilla and the vanilla whey, a little at a time, beating until the mixture is light and creamy Beat in the gelatin.

Make the Sandwiches.
Makes about 50 sandwich cookies

Prune butter: 8 oz Pitted prunes + 6 tb Water or fruit juice blended (makes 1.5 cups)

Last night I threw together an emergency protein bar that turned out delicious.

2 tbspoons sugar free maple syrup
1 tbspoon (20g) natural Peanut butter (warmed)
1/2 tbspoon (6g) L.S.A
2 tbspoon (agave and honey) toasted wheat germ (homemade)
3/4 serve (26g) Vanilla vital strength Ripped protein powder

Mix melted PB with maple syrup and 1 ts water.
Kneed in remaining ingredients except 2 ts wheat germ to form a dough.
Roll in remaining wheatgerm and flatten to a cookie shape.
Wrap in press and seal/foil
Leave on top of the slow cooker overnight. This was the trick! Bottom was toasted and firm, top was soft, inside was gooey. Alternatively broil/overhead-grill for 1-2 minutes (sans-wrapper).

I haven’t posted in a few days because once I get started on bodyspace I get sucked in and I’m normally posting from work. Starting to feel a bit guilty there.

Today was cardio and low carb day, not something anyone looks forward to.

I did my cardio after work and really didn’t fell like it after Monday’s leg workout. Normally I would have done EFX eliptical but my hams and quads argued otherwise, so this is what I did.

5 minutes: 6.5km/hr @ 5
5 minutes 8.5km/hr @ 1
18 minutes 9km/hr, flat
2 minutes 10km/hr flat
5 minutes 5km/hr 4.5

I’d originally planned to do intervals but after my warmup I wanted to test my endurance. By the end of the 18 minutes my heart rate was at 180+bpm. I was feeling OK but this is technically over 90% max so I thought I’d better not do it for too long. It took the last 5 minutes to get my heartrate back down to the 120’s where it hovered for a good long while. I never claimed to be a cardio queen!

Monday’s lower body workout was pretty good, but I just couldn’t get my squat right. Breathing and muscle timing just weren’t there.

Here’s what I did:
Squat warmup: 10×17.5kg, 8×25kg, 6×45kg, 4×55kg

A:Squat: 10×57.5kg x3

B:Seated Leg curl: 12×37.5kg x3 (paused on last set and went to failure)
Cx2
C1: Single leg Back extention: Unweighted to failure
C2: Cable Crunch: 17kg x 25
Dx2
D1:Reverse lunge: 10×18kg
D2:Standing Calf raises:20×9kg (pause, fail on last set)

My diet the last few days has been a bit rough. I bought some raw millionaires mix (almonds, pecans, macadamias) and have been nibbling a bit too keenly on them. Today I also managed to mindlessly chew through an entire packet of Jols as an attempted stress release. I can’t imagine what all that AS will do to my body, ew! The next few days will be just as stressful so I must try to meditate and get some really strong gum to chew instead of nuts and foul sweets.

Tomorrow is upper body and I’m not hoping for much. My shoulder’s still feeling rotten on most push movements. I’ll use this as an opportunity to really work my back as much as I can on rows.