It's been about a month since I started training properly. I've collected a handful of compliments, gained some upper body musculature, thrown out a heap of clothes that don't fit any more, and I'm pretty sure that the goals I'd scrawled down in my personal fitness diary have been met. Sure, I was a little vague in saying that I wanted to be the fittest I've ever been, but without having measured my fitness throughout my entire life, I can only go by how I feel.
The sessions are continuing to challenge me, and though it's still disconcerting that while I'm in the middle of a session I feel incredibly unfit and pushed way beyond my limits, afterwards I feel good with the knowledge that I've worked bloody hard. I read a motto somewhere: if I can do this, I can do better. Sounds more like an applied version of what doesn't kill me can only make me stronger, ey. Pity that most of the time when I'm doing cardio intervals I actually do feel like I'm about to die. I think I've forgotten the difference between good and bad pain, and can only hope that if I'm really about to burst a vital organ, I'll know when to stop.
I'm managing to get to the gym at least once a day, sometimes twice if I train in the mornings as well as the afternoon. I never really thought I'd do it, but I've actually made training a priority in my life. Next on the list is nutrition, which I must admit will probably be more of a struggle than just doing the physical side of things. I dig food way too much, and cook/shop for the stuff way too little. I can read as many books as I want to on nutrition, but what I really need to do is focus on the long term application of such knowledge.
I think the hardest thing about living a life that revolves around food, is trying to control what to eat and when. Obsessing over food is such a horrible diet mentality, even though I know I am free to make choices for the rest of my life, and I know that the choices I generally make are good for me. I've never enjoyed saying no to food that I like, or being around people that are consciously depriving themselves of the pleasures of so-called bad food. I guess I just don't want to become one of them as well.
It's pretty cool that I'm already seeing really good results, and I haven't made that many changes to my diet as yet. I'm hoping that once I buckle down with the nutrition side of things, I'll actually stop sabotaging the good that I've done!
Wednesday, October 25
Friday, October 6
thought for food
I've switched trainers (I know, so soon?!), so now I'm with the ex-assistant general manager of the restaurant that relocated to where I'm working now. Not that I knew him particularly well in the first place (we'd spoken a bit at my interview, and a couple times when he visited the restaurant since relocating/opening), but after chatting about what I was paying at Fitness First and what I was getting from it, I decided he was actually going to give me a better deal.
I'm doing three 45-minute sessions a week for a couple months or so, then probably cranking that up to one hour stints. So, a little more intense than the twice-weekly 45 and 30 minute sessions I had planned with the other trainer. I've also read a tome I was given about nutrition, called Eat Chocolate, Drink Alcohol and be Lean & Healthy, and met the author too! I have a bit of a weakness for anything along the lines of self-help non-fiction, so it only took me a couple of days to get through the book. Trouble is, it's going to take me longer than that to actually implement a lot of things from it, that I know are good ideas.
I have always been the sort to give myself a licence to eat whatever if I'm working hard at the gym or elsewhere, or a licence to slack off at the gym if I'm eating particularly well, but never really had the discipline to put in a good effort on both fronts. So I can definitely do with some decent advice on nutrition and supplements. I'm glad that I was sort of right about presuming that supermarket vitamins are predominantly a waste of time and money, compared to taking good quality (and necessary) supplements and eating a variety of fresh food.
The personal training happens in this awesome studio in St Kilda... it's down an alley along the side of a pub, on the top level of an office building. It's not as dingy or dodgy as it sounds, although I still feel that working out in a private studio is something that guns for hire do in their time between jobs, or something. There's a bit of cardio equipment, a range of multi-purpose weight machines and free weights, some punching bags and a boxing ring. I've really got to find somewhere to go for a semi-regular swim in summer, to see if I remember how to do it, and it's a pretty good workout too. Seems kinda crazy that I'm paying all this money to train and I still have to pay more again to get some pool access!
Training is quite simple in its design (well, I wouldn't call a bit of boxing, cardio and weights training elaborate), but it's definitely pushing me a lot further than I would have done alone. It's also more structured and measurable than what I was doing at Fitness First. There might not be as much variety, but at least I can tell that I'm lifting heavier weights every couple weeks, and going harder on cardio as the sessions continue.
In another fortnight I'm going to start taking some organic supplements, so I've got to keep track of how I'm feeling and moving about for the sake of the 'before' picture. I get my money back after a month or so, if I don't think I've improved enough. I guess the thing is, I'll be working out so much, I might not be able to tell if I'm feeling better because I'm actually healthier and fitter, or whether I can attribute it to the supplements... We'll see how it goes. There's no way that I'm getting enough of what I need at the moment, so surely once I start doing so, it will be noticeable.
This week I'm aiming to eat more fresh fruit and vegetables, drink water regularly, scoff a decent breakfast every day, avoid loading up on carbs just before bed, and get up early enough to work out in the morning as well as during my afternoon breaks. Shouldn't be too hard to do, as long as I fill the fruit bowl and fridge, watch what I eat at work, and quit hitting the snooze button so many times!
I'm doing three 45-minute sessions a week for a couple months or so, then probably cranking that up to one hour stints. So, a little more intense than the twice-weekly 45 and 30 minute sessions I had planned with the other trainer. I've also read a tome I was given about nutrition, called Eat Chocolate, Drink Alcohol and be Lean & Healthy, and met the author too! I have a bit of a weakness for anything along the lines of self-help non-fiction, so it only took me a couple of days to get through the book. Trouble is, it's going to take me longer than that to actually implement a lot of things from it, that I know are good ideas.
I have always been the sort to give myself a licence to eat whatever if I'm working hard at the gym or elsewhere, or a licence to slack off at the gym if I'm eating particularly well, but never really had the discipline to put in a good effort on both fronts. So I can definitely do with some decent advice on nutrition and supplements. I'm glad that I was sort of right about presuming that supermarket vitamins are predominantly a waste of time and money, compared to taking good quality (and necessary) supplements and eating a variety of fresh food.
The personal training happens in this awesome studio in St Kilda... it's down an alley along the side of a pub, on the top level of an office building. It's not as dingy or dodgy as it sounds, although I still feel that working out in a private studio is something that guns for hire do in their time between jobs, or something. There's a bit of cardio equipment, a range of multi-purpose weight machines and free weights, some punching bags and a boxing ring. I've really got to find somewhere to go for a semi-regular swim in summer, to see if I remember how to do it, and it's a pretty good workout too. Seems kinda crazy that I'm paying all this money to train and I still have to pay more again to get some pool access!
Training is quite simple in its design (well, I wouldn't call a bit of boxing, cardio and weights training elaborate), but it's definitely pushing me a lot further than I would have done alone. It's also more structured and measurable than what I was doing at Fitness First. There might not be as much variety, but at least I can tell that I'm lifting heavier weights every couple weeks, and going harder on cardio as the sessions continue.
In another fortnight I'm going to start taking some organic supplements, so I've got to keep track of how I'm feeling and moving about for the sake of the 'before' picture. I get my money back after a month or so, if I don't think I've improved enough. I guess the thing is, I'll be working out so much, I might not be able to tell if I'm feeling better because I'm actually healthier and fitter, or whether I can attribute it to the supplements... We'll see how it goes. There's no way that I'm getting enough of what I need at the moment, so surely once I start doing so, it will be noticeable.
This week I'm aiming to eat more fresh fruit and vegetables, drink water regularly, scoff a decent breakfast every day, avoid loading up on carbs just before bed, and get up early enough to work out in the morning as well as during my afternoon breaks. Shouldn't be too hard to do, as long as I fill the fruit bowl and fridge, watch what I eat at work, and quit hitting the snooze button so many times!
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