Overview of Research Program

As promised (and late) here is a general outline of what I will be doing over the next 16 weeks, and beyond. You can find a link to the article here

If you don’t want to read the link then basically the researchers with the University of South Australia are looking at how continous dieting and intermittent (on/off) dieting compare.

The inclusion criteria for the research was:

Aged 18+
BMI over 27kg/m2
Healthy of have type 2 diabetes managed by diet alone or stable doe metformin
Not pregnant of breast feeding (I didn’t have to worry about this one)

Exclusion criteria was:

Previous surgery for weight reduction
Drinking more than 2 standard drinks per day and not able /willing to decrease (due to high calorie contend)
Participating in any ongoing dietary studies
Eating out more than once a week and not able/willing to decrease for the duration of the study

As I didn’t meet any of the exclusion criteria is was all go from there.

I am sticking to a 5500kj (1315 cals) diet per day and it is structured out so I am meeting a certain amount of fats/ oils, vegetables, protein etc.

A day for me will be broken down as follows:

Cereal: 50g High fibre cereal (3/4 cup)
Bread: 3 Slices per day
Dairy: 2 serves
1 serve is equal to 250ml skim milk
200g diet yoghurt
20g full fat cheese or 40g reduced fat cheese
Fruit: 2 serves
1 serve is equal to 150g fresh or tinned, unsweetened fruit
150ml unsweetened fruit juice
30g dried fruit
Protein foods:
Lunch 50g cooked meat, poultry or fish
Dinner 150g of lean meat, poultry or fish (raw weight)
Vegetables: 4 Cups (no potato or sweet potato)
2 cups of salad greens and 2 cups of mixed greens
Fats and Oils: 20g of poly or monounsaturated oil or spread

I am now in my third week and already 2.3kgs down from starting weight (I report back fortnightly) and apart from feeling quite hungry initially, I am on the right track now and starting to adapt.

Along with this I am required to 10,000 steps per day, but since my City to Bay Run on Sunday I have not been feeling the best and haven’t been able to train as much as what I would have liked to.

So with this, I have a couple of extra days of “recovery” and time to finish planning my program which will now start from Monday and I hope to add this to the blog at some point over the weekend.

Until next time, happy fitness!

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The Final Countdown

So I am in the final stretch before starting my 30 Day Paleo Challenge on May 1st. I am still not sure what to expect, but I will be giving everything I have as I do not want to fail. I am starting to get a little log of meals and snacks that interest me so that I have no room to move and I am as prepared as possible. If you have any specific preperation ideas that you use, I would like to hear them.

I have also been working out a new training regime which will mix it up completely compared to what I have been doing (which to be honest has not been much at all). I am going to have to do a punishment at the end of the month as I don’t think I am going to meet my running quota and I am not going to be gentle on myself either. But, going forward my week will look something like this:

Monday – Running (I will mix it up between interval running and just running)
Tuesday – Upper Body (back/ shoulders/ arms)
Wednesday – Rest Day
Thursday – Legs
Friday – Strength Day (this will be working towards my lifting PR’s)
Saturday – Running and/ or circuit work
Sunday – Rest Day

I did go for a run this morning and used Zombies, run! app for the first time and I have to say that it was quite enjoyable and made the run seem to go quicker than what I was actually on the road for. If you do run every now and then, I would suggest you have a look at downloading this app.

My run was 4.2kms in 24m26s.

Below is a picture of one of the bridges I crossed on my run.

As mentioned above I am not 100% sure on what to expect for the next month so I won’t be setting myself any goals apart from sticking to the diet and working my arse off for the duration.

I will be blogging all about the process with my food intake and training output to make myself that little bit more accountable.

Wish me luck…

The Announcement

For the month of May, I will be stripping my diet back to strict paleo eating.

Why am I doing it?
Mainly for the challenge. I want to put myself in a situation where it is completely against the norm for what I usually do in my day to day food intake. Along with this I have fallen off the wagon with my food a little lately, and have done quite a bit of reading around the whole Paleo concept and think it is a good fit for me.

What is the 30 day challenge?
The 30 day challenge is a way for me to test myself on a full strict Paleo only diet for a full 30 days, with no cheat meals or cutting corners.

The in’s and out’s
Yes: Eat real food.
Eat meat, seafood, eggs, tons of vegetables, some fruit, and plenty of good fats from fruits, oils, nuts and seeds. Eat foods with very few ingredients, all pronounceable ingredients, or better yet, no ingredients listed at all because they’re totally natural and unprocessed.

No: Avoid for 30 days.
More importantly, here’s what NOT to eat during the duration of your Whole30 program. Omitting all of these foods and beverages will help you regain your healthy metabolism, reduce systemic inflammation, and help you discover how these foods are truly impacting your health, fitness and quality of life.

Do not consume added sugar of any kind, real or artificial. No maple syrup, honey, agave nectar, coconut sugar, Splenda, Equal, Nutrasweet, xylitol, stevia, etc. Read your labels, because companies sneak sugar into products in ways you might not recognize.

Do not consume alcohol in any form, not even for cooking. (And it should go without saying, but no tobacco products of any sort, either.)

Do not eat grains. This includes (but is not limited to) wheat, rye, barley, oats, corn, rice, millet, bulgur, sorghum, amaranth, buckwheat, sprouted grains and all of those gluten-free pseudo-grains like quinoa. This also includes all the ways we add wheat, corn and rice into our foods in the form of bran, germ, starch and so on.

Do not eat legumes. This includes beans of all kinds (black, red, pinto, navy, white, kidney, lima, fava, etc.), peas, chickpeas, lentils, and peanuts. No peanut butter, either. This also includes all forms of soy – soy sauce, miso, tofu, tempeh, edamame, and all the ways we sneak soy into foods (like lecithin).

Do not eat dairy. This includes cow, goat or sheep’s milk products such as cream, cheese (hard or soft), kefir, yogurt (even Greek), and sour cream… with the exception of clarified butter or ghee. (See below for details.)

Do not eat white potatoes. This is somewhat arbitrary, but if we are trying to change your habits (chips and fries) and improve the hormonal impact of your food choices, it’s best to leave white, red, purple, Yukon gold, and fingerling potatoes off your plate.

Do not consume carrageenan, MSG or sulfites. If these ingredients appear in any form on the label of your processed food or beverage, it’s out for the Whole30.
No Paleo-ifying baked goods, desserts, or junk foods. Trying to shove your old, unhealthy diet into a shiny new Whole30 mold will ruin your program faster than you can say “Paleo Pop-Tarts.” This means no desserts or junk food made with “approved” ingredients—no banana-egg pancakes, almond-flour muffins, flourless brownies, or coconut milk ice cream. Don’t try to replicate junk food during your 30 days! That misses the point of the Whole30 entirely.

My journey
I’ll be blogging each week about my journey and various food discoveries. As well as the food sources I discover, I’m also interested to find out about the limitation. I will weigh in prior to day one, along with all my measurements (photos included) and will not step on a scale or measure again until day 31. I will take a photo every few days, but will not look at them until the end of the challenge also.

Also check out my instagram as I’ll be hashtagging everything with #mypaleo

How you can be involved
I would love to hear from everyone who is eating Paleo now, and share any hints and tips (along with awesome recipes) that you have tried along the way. Also a little bit of encouragement never goes astray 😉
Wish Me Luck…I may need it!

That’s how you do a leg session!

Firstly, my last post was actually my 50th since starting my blog….GO ME! I have found it to be such a great outlet and personal support for myself, and can’t wait for the next 50 posts.

Anyway, back to my reasoning for this post. Today I knocked out a thigh burning, calf sculpting (that’s how I see what I did today anyway haha) leg session. I am not too keen on seeing how I am going to feel tomorrow, but I know how ever it is it was all worth it. This is the first time I have really blasted my legs. I mean I’ve done squats, leg presses/ curls etc, but never to hardheartedness of what I put myself through this morning. The workout was:

1km row
Superset of Leg Raises and Walking Lunges
Leg Raises – 3 x 12 @ 25kgs
Lunges – 3 x 5m with 12kg DB’s

Squats
4 x 15 @ 20kgs

Leg Press Drop Sets to Failure
24 @ 80kgs
23 @ 70kgs
26 @ 60kgs
20 @ 50kgs
24 @ 40kgs

Calf Raises
1 x 15 @ 35kgs
1 x 15 @ 55kgs
1 x 15 @ 75kgs

Thrusters
1 x 20 @ 15kgs
1 x 15 @ 20kgs
2 x 10 @ 30kgs

1km row
2km walk for warm down

It felt amazing to knock out such a big workout, and I will look at doing this again next week and maybe up the weights a little leading in to the Easter long weekend.

And with all the squats I completed, I don’t have to complete any for my 30 Day Squat Challenge tonight!

My bicep seems to be back to 100% (FINALLY), so I will be looking to do a modified version of my arm workout from last week.

Until next time, happy fitness!

PS – I just had a pretty kick arse stir fry with lamb, carrot, broccoli, beans and brown rice in a sweet chilli sauce.

Benchmarking

I was sitting around thinking while working on this months program about what I want to achieve. Apart from the obvious of wanting to drop a kilo or two, I haven’t really done anything in the way of testing my fitness. By this I mean seeing how fit I have actually become.

So, this month will be a focus on my all around fitness and testing/ benchmarking. I will be completing the same program each week for the following four weeks and keeping track of my timing. It will consist of:

Monday: 5 rounds – 300 run with 10 burpees

Tuesday:
Lunch – 20min AMRAP: Stair run with 10 x push up/ dip/ bench dips
Evening – Charlie (which is the benchmarking part of the workout) followed by some general lift work

Wednesday: Rest Day

Thursday: 6 rounds – 200m run/ 30 squats/ 20 situps/ 10 push ups

Friday: 300m row completed in under 1m15s to failure with a 30s rest between sets
Superset #1
12 leg presses
12 DB thrusters
Superset #2
12 lat pull down
12 upright row

I am very keen to see how I finish up come the end of the month, and I am really hopeful of some good reports back.

While I am posting, I may as well add the details of my first session for the month. I really struggled during the workout today as I was out in the garden and very active with the kids over the weekend and my legs were quite tight, but I am better for the run though. My time was 17m55s (which is slower than my original time), but the only way I can go this month with my timing is down.

I have been very unsucessful with my food again the last week or two, so I really need to focus on what I am eating and when. It’s not that I am eating crap all the time, it’s just happening sporadically so it needs to be tightened up a bit. Currently, I am working on a 60 day plan that I am really keen to test myself on and focus on key parts of my whole process/ progress to date.

Until next time, happy fitness!

Training Day – 27/2/14

FINALLY! I got back in to training today. So glad to be feeling better and able to knock out a session.

Today I was up at the work gym for around 40 minutes and with the music on it really felt like I was only in there for half that amount of time….It was very nice.

I started with a 10 minute warm up between the bike and some light stretching, and then got in to the session. I completed 3 rounds for time of:

400m run (@13km/h) with 30 situps – 20 squats – 10 pushups

Then jumped on the stationary bike and completed a 5 minute 30s high intensity/ 30s recovery ride, with a warm down and stretch following that.

I wasn’t 100% sure on where I would be with the main part of the session, so I allowed myself a time of 15 minutes to complete the whole workout, and surprised myself upon completion when I saw that I completed this in 14m18s. It is another benchmark for me to continually work towards beating.

As I mentioned in my last post, I now have a weight bar and some weight plates to do a bit of strenght work. Tonight I will go home and do some work with the bar only on my squat form (OH, Back and Front), and to also get used to the way the movement feels. I have found quite a cool podcast online around Crossfit, and they also release technique WOD’s to assist you with certain lifts etc.

All the guys are current crossfitters who (from what I can gather) have come from a weight lifting background and also coach both weightlifting and crossfit.Their podcasst is Barbell Shrugged and I am really enjoying listening to their stuff on the way to and from work on the train.

Until next time happy fitness!

Off The Wagon

Unfortunately the last couple of weeks I have severely fallen off of the training wagon! Thankfully after a few days off from work and heading out to check out the local Fitwars (Crossfit) competition I have caught up to said wagon.

With the non training my lack of control with food has been a huge problem. Hopefully this is the last lapse I’ll have and make it a very distant memory.

I think the lack of training has transferred over to my blogging (or lack of), which was really helping me keep a clear head and focus on my training.

I’ll be kicking the week off tomorrow with 6 rounds of 300m row with 10 burpees which will be timed. To say I am excited……..well I can’t really get excited for burpees. Can’t wait to share the results tomorrow.

The Month Of February

So after the craziness that was the Tour Down Under, I have sat down and looked at what I want to focus on for the next month block, and I feel that my conditioning and cardio has been lacking somewhat.

With that in mind, I am going to be focusing on a lot of high intensity cardio along with body weight conditioning (squats, burpess and pushups etc). I’m really looking forward to this month and setting myself some targets and tests (benchmarks essentially). So here it is (I would love to hear your feedback and what training you are doing yourself)

Weeks 1 and 4
Monday – 6 rounds (for time) of 200m run and 50 squats
Tuesday – 3 x 400m sprints (Morning Session) then stair runs for time (Afternoon Session)
Wednesday – Rest Day
Thursday – 3 rounds of 400m run/ 30 sit ups/ 20 squats/ 10 push ups
Friday – Fitness Test**
Saturday – 3 rounds of Thursday session but back to front
Sunday – Rest Day (activities with the kids)

Week 2
Monday – 5 rounds (for time) of 300m row and 10 burpees
Tuesday – 3 rounds of 2km row and 1km run (Morning Session) then stair runs for time (Afternoon Session)
Wednesday – Rest Day
Thursday – 3 rounds of 20 pull ups/ 30 push ups/ 40 sit ups/ 50 squats
Friday – 400m run then 20 burpees and sit ups/ 400m run then 15 burpees and sit ups/ 400m run then 10 burpees and sit ups
Saturday – Golf
Sunday – Rest Day (activities with the kids)

Week 3
Monday – Row to Failure – Row 300m under 1:15 to failure/ Bike Ride (as far as possible in 10 minutes)
Tuesday – 10min – 200m row/ 10min – Run 30s on 30s off/ 10min – Squat 15 @ 20kgs/ 10min – Deadlift 10 @ 20kgs
Wednesday – Rest Day
Thursday – 4 rounds (for time) of Stair Runs with tricep dip and pushups to failure
Friday – 6 rounds of 200m run/ 30 squats/ 20 sit ups/ 10 push ups
Saturday – Golf
Sunday – Rest Day (activities with the kids)

**Fitness Test
1km run
Basketball court shuttle runs in 1min
# of squats in 1min
# of pushups in 1min
# of burpees in 1min

After a great start to January I really fell off track towards the end of the month. While work was tough I didn’t help myself with my eating so I need to pull my head in and focus on this as I am in a great spot with my training. Bring on Monday!

PS – my day was made yesterday when I received a comment back from Australian Crossfit competitor Chad Mackay

If you didn’t guess, I am wadestagram23 so feel free to follow me on instagram also!

Week 2, Days 1 and 2

Firstly, what makes you happy? For me the number one thing is my family

Other than family I would have to say sport (I love AFL, Golf, Tennis and pretty much anything really).

Training the last couple of days has been tough. Not tough in the way that I am struggling, but more tough in the way I have upped the intensity of what I am doing. Yesterday the weight on my EMOM session was increased and in doing so the “rest” in between sets was FAR shorter and really felt like I was doing squats/ deadlifts non stop in a couple of points. But, the new mentally strong me kept going and toughed it out.

Today I had all intentions of doing the AMRAP session but felt like doing just a straight up “traditional” cardio session (while I have it structured there, I still like to mix it up a bit). The session ended up being my run to the gym (times are slowly going down), then once at the gym I completed 8 x 300m rows with a 45s rest (each 300m was completed in under 1m15s) and then I finished up with a ride for 8km.

I am extremely happy with my progress so far and really looking forward to a lot more challenges and really pushing the boundaries.

As mentioned late last week, I was going to put a shout out for some training ideas/ tests. So I am putting it out there for all the readers – I want you to create/ provide your favourite movements and I will work out a session to complete on Friday (in Australia it is currently Tuesday) and will report back after completion. So if you want to make me work start suggesting some ideas.

Back to”normal”

The one good thing about returning to work today is that my eating will go back to normal (no more snacking just because I am at home). Unfortunately my will at home isn’t as strong as the one I have here at work….or maybe it’s the fact that I can only eat what I pack for lunch/ snacks the night before. Anyway, one of my main focus points going forward is definitely my food intake. From Monday I will be going back to my program (food wise) for a few weeks to get things back on track.

With the fitness training side of things, I will be working in 4 week blocks. Each block I will try and focus on a specific part of training, for example my first block will be high intensity cardio to try and shed some body fat. I am currently planning out the sessions I will be doing over the next four weeks. Along with this I will be doing fitness tests so I can judge to see how well I am doing, and I have something to report on and continually beat.

Once I have finished putting the final touches on the plan for the first block I will update it here for you to see. This will also include my goals for each month and overall for the year.