Hi Blog, sorry i haven't visited for such a long time. i guess i need to give an update, try to make it an honest one.
Finished the 12 week transformation at 93.5kgs. This is a bit far from the goal but i still feel that i did well. didn't manage to get my after pics done as i was away that weekend and well as i hit the booze and food hard that weekend i wasn't confident to take the pictures. I guess i should have done it anyway but it's done now.
Been to Australia for just over two weeks, that started out well, high levels of exercise and little food. But the second week the activity levels dropped and i started eating anything and everything. Also took way too much advantage of the cheap wine situation etc. but all in all not too bad.
Upon return i told myself that I'd do the following to get back on the horse:
- Join Bootcamp - to get someone else to whip me into shape and do a range of things that i wouldn't normally do.
- Buy a new set of scales - to measure myself at home rather than at the gym.
- Return to my old ways of eating while during the transformation
Well all good plans have their failings. Firstly the exhaustion of the two weeks away made it hard to start the bootcamp thing - motivation etc. Once i started it i found that a few things happened, firstly i was basically too hard and recovery was difficult and secondly illness, schedules and travel made it hard to commit. Then the riots in our lovely city put a further end to things.
Bought a set of scales but they don't work. This really doesn't help, i need to resolve this quickly.
We bought a BBQ in Australia and brought it back with us. We've used it everyday since getting back to cook up all sorts of things. This can be reasonably healthy living but tends not to be, plus we have tried to really enjoy it rather than just go through the motions. Topping this off I've had some travel and company functions that have had me eating like crap.
Pretty sad result at the end of the day! So best to look forward and see where we stand.
Stayed in a Hotel while away with a good set of digital scales. also, confirmed this by the new Gym's scales (joined another gym as bootcamp was cancelled and didn't want to lose momentum, plus it's close and i can ride my bike). i am 96.5kgs. This is just above my 'oh shit i've blown it and need to start the process again' limit. This might sound bad but i seriously thought that i'd be a lot over this limit. - plus it means i have to start again.
have started bootcamp again and i'm loving it plus i have the new gym so i can do a little extra in between like swimming intervals or just lifting heavy stuff.
and finally food! i am going to do a cycling of diet over the next 4-5 weeks going from fast to feast with some kito days in between. i know this is not the best way to approach things but i don't want to be a guy on a diet and feel that this will suit where i'm at today. Dieting hard again won't start till July. The goal is just to get below the 96 mark and stay there until we hit it hard again in July August.
so, after a long update i wanted to talk about the good stuff i've been doing. Firstly the bootcamp. This is awesome, when it was cancelled i tried to do my own workouts in the gym but they couldn't even come close. The bootcamp had high intensity, motivation, and most of all the variety in moving the body in different ways continuously. Much of the stuff i did this morning for example if i read it in a book and tried it i'd stop immediately because it doesn't feel good, but you can't do that at bootcamp. also, being in the park they have us doing stuff i used to do as a kid, the type of thing that back then you didn't give a second thought about but now almost kills you or just can't be done. This all really knocks the body around in unexpected ways.
After the first session i had a lot of back pain. what i came to realise was that the pain was from lack of hip mobility. having tight hips and working them too hard made for such uncomfortable siting or standing that i could hardly move. i tried a lot of stretching and some hip mobility drills. but i've come to realise that the movements at bootcamp that caused the pain are exactly the ones i need to do to reduce this problem.
The final thing i stumbled apon from listening to an interview was relaxed stretching from a Russian Kettlebell professional. i go hold of his book and it rang some pretty significant bells for me. basically he is saying that most of the flexibility issues i have is in my head and we need to spend time to resolve things through long drawn out stretching. I guess it's similar to yoga but it does work, so much so that i am hooked. at a standing toe touch i was able to hold my knuckles on the floor. Normally i can only just touch the toes and this is for a second, now i'm first knuckles to the floor for 20 seconds. i'm trying this with all stretches in combination with hip and shoulder mobility.
