I feel...

...like a bit of a loser today. I didn't make it to the gym cos I got home and fell asleep for almost 2.5 hours. I know you're probably sick of hearing it but these days I'm struggling. I feel sooo tired in the morning, sooo tired from work and too tired for the gym. I feel like I have the flu a lot of the time. I need a break/holiday now, but I guess I don't have long to go, just gotta suck it up I guess :-/ I even ate my training day food too, but didn't end up needing it *sigh*

I just spend the last half hour cooing over bunny pictures. I'm probably going to go to the animal shelter first, but if I can't find bunny there, I'm thinking of getting either a Flemish Giant (bottom photo) or something more medium sized like the Dutch breed (top photo).





















The Flemish Giants grow to about the size of a medium sized cat (or a little larger) and they're a little stockier than cats. Apparently they're one of the most friendliest breeds. My old bunny was just a mongrel, but she was great!

My New Bag.

Ok, I did something really girly today. I bought a new bag. I have like, 3 handbags... two of which I rarely use. My main bag is a small black travel bag that has lasted me like, ages. I love it and use it all the time. I saw this bag walking past the shop and I was like whoa... nice. I had a think about it over the weekend and today I went in and bought it:









































It's pretty big actually! I better brush up on my handbag weapon skills!

Funny thing is, I've noticed big bags are "in" these days; they remind me of my Mum actually. When I was around 10, 11, 12 etc. Mum used to carry around this huge bag. It was like one of those leather weekend bags that you put your clothes and toiletries in for a quick getaway, except Mum used to use it as her handbag. I thought it was soooooo embarrassing because she was carrying around this huge handbag and everyone else's Mum was sporting a small cute handbag. We always nagged at her to get rid of it but she said she loved it because it carried everything she needed. Mum would totally be fashionable now if she had that damned bag... LOL.

Today

I made it to the gym today. This week I'm going to work out Monday, Wednesday and Friday and do cardio Tues, Thurs and Saturday. That's the plan anyway.

MONDAY'S TRAINING

Overhead Press
warmup: band pullaparts x10 behind, x10 front. 20kg x 8, 30kg x 5, 35kg x 4, 40kg x 2
sets: 45kg x 4 x 4

I haven't overhead pressed regularly for at least a year! I remember doing one workout with it after my last comp, but nada since then.

Pullups
BW x5 x 5

Inverted Rows 5 x 6

EZ Bar Curls
Bar + 20kg x 10, 3 sets

Tricep Pulldowns 3 x 10

Cardio: 30 minutes on recumbent bike, 9.75km, 261 cals

I felt a little ill while doing cardio - I think I ate way too close to working out.

Chicken, Pear & Walnut Salad

Ingredients: Shredded broiled chicken, 2 ripe pears, handful of walnuts, salad greens. Dressing = 3/4 cup greek yoghurt, juice of half lime, chopped parsley.

Yum.

We went to see Watchmen tonight - was a decent movie.

Ooooh, it's St. Patrick's Day tomorrow. I urge you to make Steak and Guinness Pie to celebrate!

100th Post!

This marks my 100th post and to celebrate, I made a pie!


Well, actually, I made the pie just because I bought a load of pears the other day because they were on special at the supermarket and I needed to use them up.

The pie was really very delicious. There's only like a 1/4 of it left now... haha!

Pear Pie
6 pears, cubed
2/3 cup splenda or your choice or sweetener or even regular sugar
2 Tbsp plain flour
2 Tbsp lemon or lime juice
1/2 tsp crushed ginger
1 unbaked 9" pie shell or your own pastry lining a 9" pie pan

Mix pears, sugar, flour, citrus juice and ginger in a bowl. Pour into pie shell and back at 190 degrees Celsius for 45 minutes.

Most fruit pie recipes have crumble type topping but I decided to make a meringue type topping instead. I used 2 eggs and whipped until they formed still peaks, then added about 1/2 cup of castor sugar and beat it into the egg mixture. About 10 minutes before the pie was done I took it out of the oven and smothered on the meringue mixture and baked for a further 10 minutes.

This weekend has been pretty relaxing. I still have another day to go before my weekend is officially over. I only worked half a day this Saturday and Saturday night we went out for dinner. I had Barramundi (fish) baked with lemon butter sauce, chips and salad. The lemon butter sauce did not fare well in my tummy. An hour later after sitting in pain I absolutely had to go to the toilet. It happens a lot actually, any time I eat something very creamy or buttery or fatty that I don't usually eat, I get the runs really bad (TMI, sorry). I hate my stomach sometimes - it's either bloated or complaining about something I ate.

Anyway, after dinner we went to the bar for beers, conversation and people watching. Met up with a few friends and stumbled home about 1am. Today, I woke up about 8am and really didn't do anything all day. Just read blogs and napped and watched a bit of TV. I found some nice recipes that I want to try out too.

No training at all this weekend. I was meant to go to the gym yesterday to get in an upper body workout and cardio - that never happened. Today I thought I'd go for cardio and that never happened either - just wasn't in the mood for it. Not to worry, I did need a rest as I have been feeling very tired lately.

I still have some pears here that I will use tomorrow. I'm thinking of making chicken, pear and walnut salad for lunch. Also, I found a few soup recipes I want to try. One is an avocado soup the other is a mushroom and walnut soup. Yum! I also just acquired a Ginger Pear Pumpkin Soup recipe... I do have some pumpkin in the fridge too. Oh, the possibilities!

Simple Baked Cheesecake

2 egg whites

250g low fat ricotta cheese

6 tablespoons of splenda or honey

2 cups of blueberries

Beat egg whites until they form stiff peaks. Add 4 Tbsp Splenda or Honey (or even a mixture if you like) and ricotta cheese to egg whites and mix well. Pour into a lined dish and bake at 180 degrees Celsius for 25-30 minutes. Place blueberries in saucepan and add 2 Tbsp of Splenda/Honey. Simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Pour over servings of cheesecake.

High in protein, low in carbs (especially if you use Splenda) and low in fat.

Meh

Had a decent workout today. I did have to force myself to go... I would have preferred to have a nap actually.

THURSDAY'S WORKOUT

Squats
warmup: SSB x 8, SSB + 30 x 5, SSB + 40 x 3, SSB + 50 x 2
sets: SSB + 57kg x 4, 3 sets

Glute Ham Raises
4 x 8 x 6kg behind head

No time to do single leg work.

Cardio: 30 minutes incline walking on treadmill @ 6.0% incline & 6.7km/hr

I had a footlong meatball sandwich from Subway today. Jared would not have approved. It was soooo good. Over half my days calories but tasty nonetheless :-D

Training Update

I have been training people! Just lazy to update my blog. Just the usual excuse - falling asleep before I have a chance to do it.

FRIDAY'S TRAINING

Since I missed my workout on Thursday, I decided to combine workouts. I didn't do the full two days combined - just picked out the main exercises

2 Board
warmup benching: 20kg x 8, 50kg x 5, 60kg x 3, 70kg x 2
sets: 80kg x 1 x 2, 85kg x FAIL :-/, 75kg x 3 x 3, 80kg x 3 x 2

That was interesting. I don't think I was warmed up properly initially, as it started to get way easier to lift as I did more sets.

Inverted Rows - 4 x 8

Squats (with SSB)
warmup: bar x 6, SSB + 30 x 5, SSB + 50 x 2 x 2
sets: SSB + 60kg x 3 x 2, SSB + 60kg x 2, SSB + 50 x3

I had to dump the weight on the last set of 60kg. Just wasn't feeling it today with the squats.

Glute Ham Raises - 3 x 8 x 5kg behind head

DB Curls - 2 x 10 x 12.5kg, 1 x 10 x 10kgs

Cardio: 30 minutes incline walking on treadmill

Saturday I didn't workout. I had planned to go for a walk maybe after work but just ended up relaxing when I got home. I was late to work today :-S First time I've done that in a couple of years!

Sunday, no full on training but I did go to the gym with Matt and we did some cardio on the recumbent bikes. I've never done intervals on them before but Matt does his all the time on the recumbent bike. I actually really liked it. It was pretty hard but felt "different", maybe cos I've never done it before on this piece of equipment. I did 1 minute on, 1 minute off. The watts of the intervals were between 303-344W. Total 4.45km.

Also did:

Kettlebell swings - 6 sets of 30 swings with 30 seconds rest.

Seated Dumbell Cleans - 3 x 10 x 6kg

The rest of Sunday we met some friends at the bar and then went to see Gran Turino. I loved it! If you haven't seen it yet, definitely go see it.

Monday, no training. We ended up staying out real late on Sunday - till 4am!

TUESDAY'S TRAINING

Bench Press
warmup: 20kg x 8, 40kg x 6, 50kg x 5, 60kg x 3, 70kg x 2, 75kg x 1
sets: 80kg x 1 x 3, 82kg x 3 x 3

Bench felt awesome today. I even had a really quick recovery time between sets. I was doing a set every 60-90 seconds. Normally I can get a bit wiped out from them, but this time I felt great! You may have noticed I'm keeping my benching sets very low. It's mostly so I don't grow any more in my upper body because I've reached my comfort limit for upper body size. The singles will allow me to work my strength but not grow (or grow very little).

Kettle Bell Rows
32kg x 10
36kg x 8 x 2

Rolling Tricep Extensions
3 x 10 x 8kg

Inverted Rows
x8
x6
x7

Cardio: 30 minutes incline walking on treadmill @ 6.7km/hr, 5.5% incline. Total 3.36km

That brings me to today. I had a rest day today... no training or cardio. I was thinking of going for a walk around the block but I ended up falling asleep after work. I'm actually feeling pretty wrecked these days; even though I get at least 7 hours sleep (I probably get close to 10 hours a day including naps) I feel pretty tired for work and just have to force myself out of bed. I need a holiday or a little break - it's been about 6 months since my last one. I won't be going anywhere soon but when we move that will be my break.

I was talking to Matt on the weekend about maybe doing another competition in October. He has a plan up his sleeve for the prep, so I thought it might be fun to try it out. It sounds like something that would suit me. I tend to respond better to cyclical type programs, especially diet-wise.

Speaking of diet, you will be happy to hear that I haven't had much Pepsi Max since the previous weekend. I have been drinking soda water with lime and just the occasional glass of Pepsi or Coke. I've probably had 2 full glasses since I decided to stop. Go me!