Short pause during cardio to drink

I’ve found out that when doing long cardio sessions, it’s hard to keep the pace up after awhile.

So I’ve build in a 3-5 second pause every 10 minutes of cardio and walk to the table to drink two gulps of water (which I’ve prepared beforehand).  This small pause re-energize me, without actually causing my heartrate to drop much. And the water will keep me going for another 10 minutes.

Instead of losing pace after awhile, I can maintain speed for a much longer period.

You need to sleep

According to the theory, when you don’t get enough sleep (8 hours a night) your body produces cortisol which practically directs everything you eat into your belly fat…

Well, even if it wasn’t for the cortisol, I really should get enough sleep. The first 3 weeks of the months, I had at least 9 hours of sleep nightly. But this week, due to personal circumstances, I only manged to get 6-7 hours of sleep at night.

Although I still managed to lose weight, it’s fluctuating. And also…without enough sleep, it really comprehends my strength… working out is much more tedious and I don’t have half the strength of previous weeks.

First month over. Time to measure the result

OK. The first month of the year is over. As said, I’ll log my result at the end of each month. So here it is..

Of course, I’ve been keeping an eye on the scale quite frequently. Just out of curiosity. But it’s the monthly results that it’s important.

Here are the numbers

Sick

Got the flue for a week, and only recovering now… haven’t done any workout for a week…

Still managed to keep on the healthy eating though.

Maybe a restday in between workouts would be good

Started working yesterday and found that after work, it’s really hard to find energy to workout.

I still managed to do a 9-minutes eleptical training, but it wasn’t really a good workout IMO. I was slow and didn’t have enough energy.

Today, I went home one hour earlier, so I can have enough time to rest. And even though it was hard to start my workout, I still did it. Weights and cardio.

I think it might be a good idea to schedule in restdays when it’s a workweek. I noticed that last sunday, I was able to workout harder and better because I rested on saturday.

I’ll make this my schedule and see if it goes well:

1.   Monday: rest
2. Tuesday:  cardio + weighttraining
3. Wednesday:  slow cardio. Just walk on the crosstrainer while watching tv at very low rate
4. Thursday: cardio + weights
5. Friday: brisk cardio
6. Saturday: rest
7. Sunday: cardio + weights.

Shopping for healthy products

I’ve spent the weekend finding healthy food to eat and kitchen apparatus that could  make healthy cooking easier.

These are the result:

Indvidually packed fullgrain cookies with lessened sugar. (handy as snacks between breakfast, lunch and diner)

• A bag of broken flaxseed for the after-workout protein shakes (extra fibres to keep my full).
• A bottle of psyllium fibers, also for the shake. (reduces cholesterol, extra fibre-ratio)
•  A few liters of soya milk (for the shakes, as it makes the shake taste creamier than normal milk, but with less fat and lactose)
•  And oranges, for the extra taste in the protein shake.

Besides these food products, I’ve also bought a new kitchen utensil. A Philips ContactGrill.  I actually wanted a George Foreman grill, but they are hard to come by where I live, so I just bought the Philips grill, which should also help prepare less fatty food.

Will put it to the test this weekend.

Whey protein smoothies

My whey protein powder just arrived and I’ve made a post-workoutsmoothie after my scheduled weight+cardio workout.

After the workout, I was quite exhausted. But with the smoothie I completely recovered.

Recipe:

• 2 tablespoons of whey protein (banana taste)
• 200ml of soymilk (i’m lactose intolerant)
• 1 orange
• 2 ice cubes
• 1 teaspoon of soluble fibre.

Blend it together and a big glass of refreshing, energizing smoothie is finished. (i wonder if it’s good enough for breakfast… although making a peanut butter sandwich is easier)

Day 3

Very tired. Muscle ache started to kick in, so decided to leave out weight training. Afraid for injuries.

Was able to pull myself up to do a 12 minutes crosstrainer session @ res 5 with music. Did a cooling down @ res 2 for about 5 minutes while watching (part) of a tv-show.

Not so tired anymore and able to breath consistently throughout the training, and maintained a stable speed.

The biggest loser: couples edition

I was able to download and watch the new season of The Biggest Loser. This time they’ve changed the theme a bit, it’s a couples competition. Instead of teams training with 2 or more trainers, there are several teams consisting of two people each who will have to lose weight together. I’m not really a fan of that show, because the contestants are pushed way too hard, which could lead to injuries.

And the fact that the people there, as they say it, needs to be in the show to lose weight, makes me feel icky. But nevertheless, if I watch it weekly, it’d be a weekly reminder for me why I want to lose weight.

Day 1: stats and current health

Stats:

Weight: 142.6kg. I’ll round it up to 143kg/315 pounds

Waist (at navel): 142cm

A 42″ dockers jeans fits. Snugly…

Workout:

Managed to do 12 minutes on res 2 at crosstrainer. But was working at very slow cadance (55 revs) after 6 minutes, out of breath afterwards.

Still strong enough to do 12kg dumbbell presses and curls. 2 reps of 15 each.

Did back training with pulley/rowing machine.