It has been remarked on occasions, but not usually very nicely, that I am a great one for writing letters to people that have pissed me off. This is because I think it's pretty mean to gossip about people and not tell them directly when they have really upset you to at least give them the chance to change things or to talk with you about them. When I get really upset I cannot clearly articulate myself so I have to go away and write things down.
Recently I was in a sporting store (I won't name them and I will explain why further in the story) to purchase some new training gear (Good ole Tar-zhay only supplies so much) as I had left my gym gear at home and was meeting the PT straight after work so I'd have no chance to go home.
Fortunately there is a gym shop near my office (of course there is, it's in New Farm, it's right across from the Sass & Bide shop, the Espresso shop, and the expensive European shoe shop) so I dived in during a lunch break to pick up a top, some yoga pants and some new runners.
I won't go into all the boring details but needless to say, I was treated like Julia Roberts in "Pretty Woman", pre-makeover. I was completely ignored, my questions were treated like idiot ones, and the final insult was this blonde Amazonian shop assistant crossing her arms and looking at me as though I was something she scraped from her runners after her afternoon pose-run through New Farm park as I asked her a question about the shoes.
I thought "there is no way I'm giving this bitch one red cent of my money" and walked up to the Valley and purchased everything I needed in shops there instead.
I got back to the office and typed up a letter to the company's head office and sent it via e-mail immediately.
Not 1 hour later I was called by the company's owner in a red-rage about my treatment and apologising profusely for the way his 2 New Farm assistants had treated me. Furthermore he sent me out a gift voucher for his shop with a letter again apologising for how I was treated.
When I returned to work on Wednesday I note (without any glee I can assure you) that a new woman was opening the shop that day.
At the time, part of me felt that I shouldn't have bothered writing the letter, and another part of me said "No, write it." I would rather know when things are going wrong than wander along in ignorance of why people have suddenly dropped off visiting me.
I won't name the store because I genuinely believe the owner has tried to do the right thing and that that their store motto isn't "target size 14-16 women and make them leave their store without purchasing anything" (unlike some of the other stores in New Farm).
I said in my letter that I just wanted support in my efforts to lose weight and gain fitness and that I had hoped their store would be able to help. I guess store owner can't always know how truly awful some of their staff are unless we tell them.
Anyway, it appears as though Amazon woman is looking for a new job, I'm sure I haven't reduced her size-prejudice by my actions but maybe in the future she'll start considering her day-to-day behaviour.
Sunday, 27 May 2007
If pills and shakes don't work, why am I using them ?
Okay, I am a big advocate of learning to manage your body and health with real food and as much organic food as possible. I don't believe that diet shakes or diet pills ultimately work in keeping your weight off because the minute you're off that shake and confronted with real food you still have to learn about appropriate food and recognising when you're full and what your body really wants to eat.
I don't know anyone who has done the "shake diet" who has said "Oh, I'm too full to finish this one of three milkshakes that I will get to consume today." No, everyone consumes the three shakes and the allocated vegies and tries desperately all day not to obsess over food.
I know of one person, and only one person who has lost weight with shakes and kept it off. But he had a team of medical professionals helping him every step of the way and supervising his maintenance program and his new relationship with food. This cost him over $6,000. Some might say that this it is crazy to spend that amount on weight loss. But ultimately in the end, if you've gained back 10-20 healthy years in your life, others might think that it's worth it.
But back to the topic, I genuinely don't believe that you can pick up a box of shakes from the chemist and hope to lose weight and keep it off. Ditto with the appetite suppressant tablets. So this really begs the question "Why the hell am I doing it?"
Okay, let me explain it like this. As most of you are aware, I suffer from PCOS which has a large number of dreary symptoms, not the least of which is being unable to process carbohydrates like a normal person. I sat down with a medical expert in the field who explained how my cells works when compared with non-PCOS sufferers and she drew pictures to explain, visually, why they don't work. Of course, I couldn't explain it to myself the moment I left her rooms, let alone anyone else. On top of that, if I consume High-GI carbohydrates (like some rice, all gluten-free pastas, alcohol etc) I will begin to experience what seems to be hunger pains shortly afterwards and crave more inappropriate foods - hence the vicious cycle I often find myself in.
Protein shakes are a great and quick meal or snack option for me when I can't find anything appropriate to eat, or if I am too tired to cook. I throw in some berries and a tablespoon of some of my organic flavourings and flaxseed oil and I'm feeling very happy and satiated and not at all on a "diet shake" regime.
Now, I have also started taken a Blackmores Weight Loss tablet the reduces appetite and curb cravings for sugary stuff. These two areas (out of control appetite and carb-craving) are the bane of my weight loss life. I simply do not have a rational relationship with sugars and I am happy to try anything to cut the cravings. In the past I have carried a re-active tool (that is, something I use _after_ the cravings hit) in the form of a homeopathic cravings spray. Provided that I use it, it's extremely effective at stopping the cravings, however, if the cravings are completely upon me then very little works. Hopefully the Blackmores product will stop the cravings before they hit (kind of like a nicotine patch, but in the form of a chocolate bandaid ... mmm chocolate).
I will provide feedback on how it goes.
Also, I am going to put out a heap of posts this week on various topics that have been running through my head. Somewhere in there I will let you know how my project plan is going and my run in with the bitch in the sports store (who is know looking for new employment!)
Talk to you soon.
Kate
I don't know anyone who has done the "shake diet" who has said "Oh, I'm too full to finish this one of three milkshakes that I will get to consume today." No, everyone consumes the three shakes and the allocated vegies and tries desperately all day not to obsess over food.
I know of one person, and only one person who has lost weight with shakes and kept it off. But he had a team of medical professionals helping him every step of the way and supervising his maintenance program and his new relationship with food. This cost him over $6,000. Some might say that this it is crazy to spend that amount on weight loss. But ultimately in the end, if you've gained back 10-20 healthy years in your life, others might think that it's worth it.
But back to the topic, I genuinely don't believe that you can pick up a box of shakes from the chemist and hope to lose weight and keep it off. Ditto with the appetite suppressant tablets. So this really begs the question "Why the hell am I doing it?"
Okay, let me explain it like this. As most of you are aware, I suffer from PCOS which has a large number of dreary symptoms, not the least of which is being unable to process carbohydrates like a normal person. I sat down with a medical expert in the field who explained how my cells works when compared with non-PCOS sufferers and she drew pictures to explain, visually, why they don't work. Of course, I couldn't explain it to myself the moment I left her rooms, let alone anyone else. On top of that, if I consume High-GI carbohydrates (like some rice, all gluten-free pastas, alcohol etc) I will begin to experience what seems to be hunger pains shortly afterwards and crave more inappropriate foods - hence the vicious cycle I often find myself in.
Protein shakes are a great and quick meal or snack option for me when I can't find anything appropriate to eat, or if I am too tired to cook. I throw in some berries and a tablespoon of some of my organic flavourings and flaxseed oil and I'm feeling very happy and satiated and not at all on a "diet shake" regime.
Now, I have also started taken a Blackmores Weight Loss tablet the reduces appetite and curb cravings for sugary stuff. These two areas (out of control appetite and carb-craving) are the bane of my weight loss life. I simply do not have a rational relationship with sugars and I am happy to try anything to cut the cravings. In the past I have carried a re-active tool (that is, something I use _after_ the cravings hit) in the form of a homeopathic cravings spray. Provided that I use it, it's extremely effective at stopping the cravings, however, if the cravings are completely upon me then very little works. Hopefully the Blackmores product will stop the cravings before they hit (kind of like a nicotine patch, but in the form of a chocolate bandaid ... mmm chocolate).
I will provide feedback on how it goes.
Also, I am going to put out a heap of posts this week on various topics that have been running through my head. Somewhere in there I will let you know how my project plan is going and my run in with the bitch in the sports store (who is know looking for new employment!)
Talk to you soon.
Kate
Monday, 21 May 2007
Box Yourself Thin ...
Okay, so I'm not really sure that you can "Box Yourself Thin", but after my second session of boxing with my Personal Trainer, I'm starting to believe that it is the most strenuous exercise a person can undertake. I'm totally exhausted. I'm sitting here, desperately waiting for the frying pan to heat up so that I can cook my kangaroo steaks (actually the lowest fat meat on the market, and it does not taste "gamey" as I keep getting told by people who don't seem to have really ever eaten kangaroo) and then pass out.
After the Weight Training, I boxed and then I stair climbed for 45 minutes. Yep, I'm stuffed.
Lunch calls, I cannot wait. I will update more later.
After the Weight Training, I boxed and then I stair climbed for 45 minutes. Yep, I'm stuffed.
Lunch calls, I cannot wait. I will update more later.
Sunday, 20 May 2007
Setting and working towards goals
"Goals not written down are just dreams ..."
I'm not sure who said that originally but lately I have found it very true for me .
Due to all the craziness going on in my life, and the way my brain works, I have lost focus on my weight loss goals over the last 10-12 months. Losing weight is very hard, and sometimes is seems as though it is too hard, especially the other day when I came back from the gym feeling as though I had failed because I was still at my starting point of six weeks ago. So I took a leaf from my friend Louise's book and said "Fuck the past, let's reconnect." (Great comment by the way Louise).
I sat down on Thursday night, and again later on Friday afternoon, and designed a new template for tracking all of my weight loss and fitness goals, food intake, and exercise performed, on the one page. I then set myself a goal weight and a time to achieve that by (the date is Splendour in the Grass Saturday 4th August, but the weight is not up for discussion yet - I'm still not prepared to share that yet. But if you want to tell me your weight I tell you mine!).
Next I set up goals for the three key areas of my program
1. Body
2. Food
3. Mind
The goals are as follows
BODY
7 cardio sessions a week (at least 30 minutes, but doesn't have to be a the gym)
1-2 stretching sessions a week (yoga, tai chi, body balance, or Pilate's)
3 gym sessions a week (with the personal trainer)
Now, I know that seems a LOT when you see it written down, but it's actually less than what I should be doing to lose weight. Generally speaking you should be doing 30 minutes of cardio a day to maintain weight and 60 minutes to lose weight.
A good training program should include cardio, muscle building, and stretching exercises. When my health returns I will up the cardio to 60 minutes a day, but right now, what I'm doing feels more than enough.
FOOD
Work on getting a better understanding and use of appropriate portion size (eg meat portions should be the size of the palm of your hand)
MIND
Meditate at least 5 minutes a day every day - Learn to relax and de-stress
Sorting this stuff out in my head and getting it down of paper has made it a reality for me, and seeing it every day as I write down my food intake re-focuses my mind on what is important and removes the stuff that isn't. It seems to be working at the moment, but I will re-visit every week to see how I'm progressing.
Also, I'm hoping that if I follow this guidelines and consume my 20 points a day that I will achieve a weight loss of .6 of a kilo every week. This amount will bring me to my goal weight for the Splendour weekend. This goal isn't my final goal weight, but just one that will allow me to feel more comfortable surrounded by girls in tank tops and shortie-shorts.
I will post more later, but it's the weekend and I have a bear to make lunch for (albeit a late lunch) .
Signing off until the story of the evil-bitch shop assistant.
Regards
Late
I'm not sure who said that originally but lately I have found it very true for me .
Due to all the craziness going on in my life, and the way my brain works, I have lost focus on my weight loss goals over the last 10-12 months. Losing weight is very hard, and sometimes is seems as though it is too hard, especially the other day when I came back from the gym feeling as though I had failed because I was still at my starting point of six weeks ago. So I took a leaf from my friend Louise's book and said "Fuck the past, let's reconnect." (Great comment by the way Louise).
I sat down on Thursday night, and again later on Friday afternoon, and designed a new template for tracking all of my weight loss and fitness goals, food intake, and exercise performed, on the one page. I then set myself a goal weight and a time to achieve that by (the date is Splendour in the Grass Saturday 4th August, but the weight is not up for discussion yet - I'm still not prepared to share that yet. But if you want to tell me your weight I tell you mine!).
Next I set up goals for the three key areas of my program
1. Body
2. Food
3. Mind
The goals are as follows
BODY
7 cardio sessions a week (at least 30 minutes, but doesn't have to be a the gym)
1-2 stretching sessions a week (yoga, tai chi, body balance, or Pilate's)
3 gym sessions a week (with the personal trainer)
Now, I know that seems a LOT when you see it written down, but it's actually less than what I should be doing to lose weight. Generally speaking you should be doing 30 minutes of cardio a day to maintain weight and 60 minutes to lose weight.
A good training program should include cardio, muscle building, and stretching exercises. When my health returns I will up the cardio to 60 minutes a day, but right now, what I'm doing feels more than enough.
FOOD
Work on getting a better understanding and use of appropriate portion size (eg meat portions should be the size of the palm of your hand)
MIND
Meditate at least 5 minutes a day every day - Learn to relax and de-stress
Sorting this stuff out in my head and getting it down of paper has made it a reality for me, and seeing it every day as I write down my food intake re-focuses my mind on what is important and removes the stuff that isn't. It seems to be working at the moment, but I will re-visit every week to see how I'm progressing.
Also, I'm hoping that if I follow this guidelines and consume my 20 points a day that I will achieve a weight loss of .6 of a kilo every week. This amount will bring me to my goal weight for the Splendour weekend. This goal isn't my final goal weight, but just one that will allow me to feel more comfortable surrounded by girls in tank tops and shortie-shorts.
I will post more later, but it's the weekend and I have a bear to make lunch for (albeit a late lunch) .
Signing off until the story of the evil-bitch shop assistant.
Regards
Late
Thursday, 17 May 2007
Well, that sure did suck ....
So, there's nothing quite like slogging your guts out at the gym only to reach your mid-program assessment to discover that you've gained weight and fat and all your benchmark test points are the same as the were at the start of your test. I'm no more flexible, and I'm 1 and 1/2 kilos heavier and my body fat has climbed to 30% (though I think the test machine is a bit dodgy).
So, yes, there are a few mitigating factors - I'm ill, my Post-viral syndrome is still affecting me - this week it has been excruciating and I discovered that absolutely no pain killers bar one "prescription only" medicine works on relieving the pain at the moment.
Also, I was very fit when I started the sessions with the Personal Trainer (Gary) so there wasn't as much room for improvement as if I had started last year when I weighed well over 100 kilos and worse size 22-24 clothes.
And time is very difficult for me to manage. I used to work out first thing in the morning and now I can barely get out of bed by 7am let alone to the gym at 5:30am as I used to do before I got sick.
I can tell myself all this, but it's still frustrating as hell.
Also, I am still battling with the food; portion sizes, appropriate meals, learning to stop eating when I've satisfied my hunger, these are all things that I am still working on.
Hubbie bought me Kurt Cobain's diaries for Mother's day and there is a brilliant line from Kurt talking about people's struggles with drug addiction and using the 12-step program, or detox (real detox/dry out clinics, not herbal potions) programs to "get clean". He says that from his experiences, both personal and others, he realised that any concerted effort to move on from drugs took at least 5-10 years therapy.
As I've said before, there are a lot of similarities between drug and food addictions. The sad part about food addictions is that you have to continue to eat, food isn't something like drugs or alcohol that you can remove from your diet and never have again. You have to find a way to control/manage your food intake without developing an eating disorder or malnutrition.
I haven't managed that yet. I ended up with a zinc deficiency that caused me to be endlessly ill last year (and a fair part of this year), but I'm working on that. So I can honestly believe that it will take me 5-10 to learn new ways to eat, exercise, and manage my mind. Losing body fat is about those 3 key elements
1. Food, eating - learning what's right for your body and how much
2. Exercise - muscle building/load bearing exercise, cardio exercise, and stretching/toning work is all necessary to create a healthy, happy and sexy body.
3. Mind - working out why we chose to eat when we're not hungry and how to develop more appropriate behaviours. Learning when our body says "I've had enough food. You can stop now. You don't need to load up of food" (I still struggle with this one). The mind is the hardest one to concur, and I fight this battle every day. But if you fight and examine the results and modify your attacks to be more effective, ultimately you win. That is my goal.
So, anyway I have decided that I need to refocus my efforts towards managing the food side of things at the moment, as my brain and body are not co-operating it is the only thing I can control.
Once I have completed my next series of tasks I will let you know what I am trying, and if it is working.
Will update sooner next time.
Regards
Kate
P.S. Jenny my PT is not the commando from Biggest Loser. Gary is much nicer, but still a sadist.
***************
Click on the comments word in "Posted by Bikini By Xmas at xx:xx 0 comments" section if you'd like to leave a comment ...
So, yes, there are a few mitigating factors - I'm ill, my Post-viral syndrome is still affecting me - this week it has been excruciating and I discovered that absolutely no pain killers bar one "prescription only" medicine works on relieving the pain at the moment.
Also, I was very fit when I started the sessions with the Personal Trainer (Gary) so there wasn't as much room for improvement as if I had started last year when I weighed well over 100 kilos and worse size 22-24 clothes.
And time is very difficult for me to manage. I used to work out first thing in the morning and now I can barely get out of bed by 7am let alone to the gym at 5:30am as I used to do before I got sick.
I can tell myself all this, but it's still frustrating as hell.
Also, I am still battling with the food; portion sizes, appropriate meals, learning to stop eating when I've satisfied my hunger, these are all things that I am still working on.
Hubbie bought me Kurt Cobain's diaries for Mother's day and there is a brilliant line from Kurt talking about people's struggles with drug addiction and using the 12-step program, or detox (real detox/dry out clinics, not herbal potions) programs to "get clean". He says that from his experiences, both personal and others, he realised that any concerted effort to move on from drugs took at least 5-10 years therapy.
As I've said before, there are a lot of similarities between drug and food addictions. The sad part about food addictions is that you have to continue to eat, food isn't something like drugs or alcohol that you can remove from your diet and never have again. You have to find a way to control/manage your food intake without developing an eating disorder or malnutrition.
I haven't managed that yet. I ended up with a zinc deficiency that caused me to be endlessly ill last year (and a fair part of this year), but I'm working on that. So I can honestly believe that it will take me 5-10 to learn new ways to eat, exercise, and manage my mind. Losing body fat is about those 3 key elements
1. Food, eating - learning what's right for your body and how much
2. Exercise - muscle building/load bearing exercise, cardio exercise, and stretching/toning work is all necessary to create a healthy, happy and sexy body.
3. Mind - working out why we chose to eat when we're not hungry and how to develop more appropriate behaviours. Learning when our body says "I've had enough food. You can stop now. You don't need to load up of food" (I still struggle with this one). The mind is the hardest one to concur, and I fight this battle every day. But if you fight and examine the results and modify your attacks to be more effective, ultimately you win. That is my goal.
So, anyway I have decided that I need to refocus my efforts towards managing the food side of things at the moment, as my brain and body are not co-operating it is the only thing I can control.
Once I have completed my next series of tasks I will let you know what I am trying, and if it is working.
Will update sooner next time.
Regards
Kate
P.S. Jenny my PT is not the commando from Biggest Loser. Gary is much nicer, but still a sadist.
***************
Click on the comments word in "Posted by Bikini By Xmas at xx:xx 0 comments" section if you'd like to leave a comment ...
Wednesday, 2 May 2007
My Personal Trainer is Slowly Becoming a Sadist
Just got back from the gym and I realise that working out first thing in the day or at least not straight after work is so much more efficient.
My brain fog (from the PVS) is making my writing skills less than cromulent today so my apologies if things seem a bit "strung together".
My PT (Gary) ran me hard through my paces today and every part of my body feels it, but it's a good pain (really).
Last night I noticed that I'm getting the first stage of a six pack, really! It's the most exciting thing I've ever had happen to me in terms of physical fitness. My abs are really becoming defined, just fabulous. Apart from that, the weight fluctuates (as usual) but the body looks heaps better.
My brain fog (from the PVS) is making my writing skills less than cromulent today so my apologies if things seem a bit "strung together".
My PT (Gary) ran me hard through my paces today and every part of my body feels it, but it's a good pain (really).
Last night I noticed that I'm getting the first stage of a six pack, really! It's the most exciting thing I've ever had happen to me in terms of physical fitness. My abs are really becoming defined, just fabulous. Apart from that, the weight fluctuates (as usual) but the body looks heaps better.
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