Not A Day Without - Supplementation

What My Body Needs it Gets




I run a tight ship, everything that goes into my body gets screened and double checked. Reinforcements for every supplement not possible to be consumed in my diet can be found in pill, powder or gel form in one of my "Supply Bags". I dont go anywhere without a protein snack, and I'm often made fun of pulling out grilled chicken breast, steak, boiled eggs, you name the protein, it's come out my bag. If you know me you know I'm having a bad day when I'm pulling a couple of chocolate bars out instead and chivalry comes in the form of protein shake tubs, l 'glutamine and egg trays (not the chocolate kind).

Due to my recent diet structure, consisting mostly of fish, you can imagine the smell, offending all trainers and clients a like. Not a fan of gum. It makes me hungry. I just can't get the smell of fish off my fingertips. Mind power goes a long way when i close my eyes imagining every bite going to the exact spot where my body needs it, fuel, restoration, repair and growth is all I'm thinking...

So yes, not a day without 1) protein. The solid type. I try eat most of my protein as often as I can and rarely use a protein shake.




Supplements

Habitually upon rising I take my multivitamin, Omega -3 fish oil gel pills, Ester C Combo, (which I love because it has rose hips, bioflavonoids, kelp and spirulina, scratchy throat and runny nose I pop 2 of these every 3 hours). I'm never without a bottle of water at my bedside.

During heavy weight training my joints suffer and I can particularly feel it when I'm feeling animal and close to overtraining. Mountain escapades, sprint sessions on the tread mill, heavy leg pressing, plyometrics, heavy weighted squats and lunges is asking to feel like 90 when your body is performing like a 21 year old. Totally normal.





People go from 0 to hero, all of sudden "running" and doing every class in the gym with no conditioning and bad shoes. If conditioned athletes are feeling niggels then what does the average Joe expect? Make sure you are getting enough fatty lipids through fish oils like Omega -3 supplements. My added favourite Is Buchulife's JOINT HEALTH. With Buchu oil and salmon oil. When it comes to injuries, prevention is better than cure and I will ALWAYS recommend proper "prehab" from a professional. To book a consultation with myself or any other of the trainers at 360 all the details are available below. My other trustee joint supplement is Joint Revolution by THE REAL THING. Love it. It works.




You cannot build the Empire State on unaligned, faulty and unstable infrastructure. You can't fall apart before you have even begun. The road to fitness is one that should be enjoyed, not an adopt several injuries ride.

Ask yourself: How valuable is my body? Is this body going to take me far? How far and how fast am i going? Now look down at your running shoes...
Don't run in bad shoes. Sort your "prehab" out and sort your shoes out.

I only run in Asics, Gel Nimbus. To be honest, I'm afraid to try anything new as preventing an injury is better than the time spent wishing "I shouldn't of run in those bad shoes," or "I knew my body was fatigued but I played that game of touch." I'm not saying don't go running in the rain and if you're tired don't train, but the body is sacred and you should listen to it. In the end it's your ego that will get in the way of your goals.








Everyone who is anyone who has trained at 360 Specialized Trainingthat leads a fit active life, will know that being in a constant state of pain is perfectly normal. There is no such thing as DOMS because the body is being stretched to its limits, broken and moulded all before you can even remember what just happened to you.





With functional training and Kettlebells in particular there is no such thing as a "Upper Body" day, it's legs legs and more legs, we use our legs to move dont we?

Enter L'Glutamine.

Glutamine is the most common amino acid found in your muscles - over 61% of skeletal muscle is Glutamine. Glutamine consists of 19% nitrogen, making it the primary transporter of nitrogen into your muscle cells.

During intense training, Glutamine levels are greatly depleted in your body, which decreases strength, stamina and recovery. It could take up to 6 days for Glutamine levels to return to normal - and Glutamine plays a key role in protein synthesis. Studies have shown that L-Glutamine supplementation can minimize breakdown of muscle and improve protein metabolism.

L'Glutamine and Your Immune System

L-Glutamine isn't only for athelets. Glutamine is essential for maintaining intestinal function and aiding in the immune response as well. After glutamine is synthesized in skeletal muscle it is released into the bloodstream and transported to the kidney, liver and small intestine and cells of the immune system where it plays another vital role.

Glutamine is used by white blood cells and contributes to normal immune-system function. Individuals with muscle-wasting and immune-system related illnesses (such as cancer or AIDS) who may be incapable of manufacturing their own supply of glutamine may benefit from glutamine supplements taken along with other amino acids. Becoming ill or losing lean muscle mass are potential signs of glutamine deficiency.

This explains my 1kg pack! Cannot go a day without. Post cardio, post weights and at bedtime if I'm feeling run down.

Yours in Fitness

Rushda Moosajee
Personal Trainer | Lifestyle Coach | Marketing

360 Specialized Training
Block F The Boulevard Business Park
Searle Street, Woodstock
Cape Town

360 Gym: 021 461 0360
Cell: 073 234 1388
BBPin: 268F9E63

Website: http://www.360training.co.za/

Follow Us on Twitter: 360Trainingcoza
Follow Me on Twitter:Rushtush

Add me as a Friend on Facebook: Rushda(Ryshtush)
Like our Facebook Fanpage:360Fanpage

Protein Pancakes

5min Protein Pancakes




My persistent sweet tooth craving had me up at Saturday breakfast craving a carb.
Feeling a bit under the weather I took the morning off my usual Kettlebell session at 360 Specialized Training and my cardio session. With massive FOMO I needed a snack to cheer me up and peanut butter or honey was just not going to suffice. So I whipped up my 5min protein pancakes. Excellent for breakfast or a pre workout / post workout snack.

You will need:

5 egg whites
1 egg yolk
1 cup of oats
1 scoop of protein powder*
Spray cook, green lid

* I used Muscletech Triple Choc Casein shake (had it in the cupboard), feel free to use which ever you desire




Blend ingredients together and pour into a hot skillet -Voila!




Serve with honey and peanut butter or nuts, fresh fruit, fat free yoghurt (if your diet allows) and if you are really naughty some Nutella.




Let me know if you enjoyed it?
Yours in Fitness




Rushda Moosajee
Personal Trainer | Lifestyle Coach | Marketing
360 Specialized Training
Block F The Boulevard Business Park
Searle Street, Woodstock
Cape Town
360 Gym: 021 461 0360
Cell: 073 234 1388
Website: http://www.360training.co.za/
Follow Us on Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/360trainingcoza
Follow Me on Twitter: @Rushtush
Add me as a Friend on Facebook: Rushtush
Like our Facebook Fanpage: 360 Fanpage

For the Love of Personal Training

A Concept Called Structure and Passion

I lack discipline, I do things because I love to do them. Im driven by passion, not rules, and step by step guides. Im wreckless and I see training as "fun" and as cheesy as it sounds the fun in functional training gets me excited every time. The ability to challenge the whole body, lifting things, throwing things, rotating while balancing, using co ordination, being explosive, rocketing myself up and forward, jumping and all the traditional base movements involved during and around my practice at 360 Specialized Training my tail wagging like a puppy for a bone. I just lap that stuff up.





Following my strict regime of only 1 weight session a day, that includes body weight cardio, ie sprinting, box jumps, jump lunges etc. I'm allowed 40min of cardio. The boring kind. All I want to do is go and run outside in the rain, the sun, take a trip up the mountain. Live. Telling myself soon is soon and I will be lighter and muscle preservation goal achieved I will be there... Focusing on the end goal is keeping me going and my clients are keeping me sane holding me back like a caged wild women.

Training vicariously through them, this Good Friday I took Mariam for a cardio session. No we don't stand aside the bike or treadmill at 360, it's a bit about fun, well as fun as cardio can be. The session involved skipping intervals and some of my favourite weighted medicine ball pairing techniques I learnt from my PT and owner of 360 Specialized Training, Chris Walsh.

An empty gym calls for much fun with hard bouncing, throwing, squat throws, catch variations and more sprints. We had the luxury of sprinting in between cones also focussing on strengthening the hamstring by sprinting backward. I included some Kettlebell swings and deep frog jumps and Mariam who usually tries to talk her way out of many exercises was totally tricked into everything we did. I incorporate push ups and crunches in every workout as the benefits go far beyond the basic movement pattern. We finished off with some boxing combos (another trick) and by the end of the hour we were both drenched in sweat. Not looking too cute but neither cared. 360 is not that type of gym, empty or not. The athletes come to train hard and there is a lot expected of them, at their own personal pace of course. The beauty of personal training in a private gym...









My clients might not love me during every session as the pain they experience will make sense to them one day, hopefully someday sooner than later. but the body is strong and the governed by the mind. You are a lot stronger than you think you are and I it's our jobs as PT's to help show you. Every session is one step closer to being what you want to be. You may not be there today but you are one session closer.






Putting in the reps
- Friday is Back Day

Changing tshirts I'm off to train back with my Coach, Coach SK. Heavy intense repetition after repetition, focus, breathing, controlling, it's the most mental training I've ever done. When you think you're done, you bloody aren't, and there is no counting, if he yells 10 more you do 10 more.

I walk in and I get greeted with: "warm up on the treadmill,"
Me: "No."
SK: "when you start off with replies like that!" He marches off to the machine puts it on the heaviest weight my frame can handle and suddenly it dawns on me, I am my own worst client! I am the nightmare I cope with daily! This whole time I'm feeling sorry for me, when I should be feeling sorry for him.

I zone out and meditate off to my happy place, I think about the mountain. I think about what others won't do that I do to get where I want to be. It separates Champions from ordinary people. I love doing the extraordinary, as dumb as it may sound challenging your mind to make your body do and become something stronger than the day before by doing something that requires precision and discipline is not normal, it takes a special kind of someone. This is work. No talking, no fun, no box jumps, just work and I'm working on my personal character along the way. God I need discipline.






Do I dare mention my cardio session prior, never, Coach SK will break my back. Twice.
I take home a broken back and a smile. Because nobody ever regretted a training session. The productive nerd inside me wide smiled reminding myself to find something stretch or knit to wear for tonight because the pump makes it impossible to fit into anything... For now at least. Excited face... Dreams a lil...
Until next time.




Yours in Fitness
Rushda Moosajee
Personal Trainer | Lifestyle Coach | Marketing
360 Specialized Training
Block F The Boulevard Business Park
Searle Street, Woodstock
Cape Town
360 Gym: 021 461 0360
Cell: 073 234 1388
BBPin: 268F9E63
Website: http://www.360training.co.za/
Follow Us on Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/360trainingcoza
Follow Me on Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/Rushtush
Add me as a Friend on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=539436775
Like our Facebook Fanpage: http://www.facebook.com/360SpecializedTraining?ref=ts

First Week Back

With the longest three weeks out of zero training. I started my 12 Week Diet and my new Cardio phase I've been holding up on since January. That means minimum mountain expeditions, no sprint sessions, no Sunday 18kms and no endless galavanting between cardio machines at the gym. Let's just say it resulted in a very heavy, tired, uncomfortable, not very fast or agile 57.5kg Rush.
I'm not going to lie but adding the extra weight was a delicious affair and it will probably be the last time those types of food and treats will ever be eaten again.

Empowering and ego boosting as it is to be picking up heavy weights the bigger the damage on my tiny frame it left the heavier I became. Ignoring the scale for the entire duration of course. It was evident that everything was larger than life, my quads, my lats, my chest, my arms, even my feet got bigger (enter barefoot training) and my boss, Chris Walsh referred to my tush as the gyms missing Bosu Ball.




Jokes and aesthetics aside, my joints ached, knees hurt, was out of breath, possibly snored and I felt lethargic and I was tired all the time. Not normal for someone like myself who always has enough energy to power up a small village.

Needless to say I've never been more excited to start my diet this week. Ultra clean eating and total discipline when it comes to structured training and planning that makes me who I am. I love challenges. I love it when things are difficult and working hard at things is the only way I work. I am lucky to enjoy the journey to get to where I want to be. But we must always keep in mind where we are going? What is the END GOAL Figure out what you want. Start with the end result in mind. Are you a marathon runner? Are you are power lifter? Do you want to be a strong man / girl? Are you doing the Argus next year? Why are you doing it? Do you want to improve your flexibility? Whether your goals are fat loss and general health so you can run after your kids, start with visualising That Day, feel that energy,feel refreshed, feel that feeling of accomplishment when you take your top off at the beach, we you pass that finish line and start today. Prep for tomorrow...

I always say I love Mondays!!! it's the best day of the week, new beginnings, new obstacles and new lives to change, starting with your own.




This week I stuck to the program. By dividing my cardio session and my weight training program, eating at the hours required and resting when needed. I completed 5 x cardio sessions and 5 x weight training sessions. Weight training this week was with My Mentor / Boss / Personal Trainer Chris Walsh at 360 Specialized Training The Gym
With the help of my PT I started to get my body conditioned with full functional training this week, we focused on full movement patterns (squats, lunges, jumps, rotations, push ups and pull ups) addressing core stabilisation, balance, flexibility accompanied with Kettlebell training, some power lifts and plyometrics. It felt great to back.








My training high lights of the week was definitely the one arm push up set into rotation press.
Turkish get ups and weighted box jumps. Friday was a bit of power lifting, hi reps because my quads get big quickly, nothing like an Olympic Bar clean & Press to know you're back in beasting :)

The Diet

Managing to consume 25 eggs by Friday one would think that brunch at the Mill sans egg omelette will be fine, but by 1pm I was feeling the lost eggs. Never to be skipped again.
Eating every 2 hours is hard work and sometimes I just can't get the food down, but since there is no salt, sauce and sites, food is easy to eat and my energy levels are up all day from my cardio at 5am to my last clients at 9pm.








I could eat like this forever.

Yes it was difficult Friday night at dinner with friends, but most restaurants have line fish options, as long as you stay away from the table bread and regarding myself, basically everything else on the menu. Like I said decide what You want, and make the decision, one arm push ups and bland egg omelettes with dry oats isn't for everyone. It takes a certain kind of someone to refrain from boerie rolls at a Stormers celebratory braai with friends.

Results

Yes I know 5 days is too soon to see results and realistically I would like to see how my body deals with the stress and interruption the weekend brings, but by Friday I had dropped 1.5kg of mass. Almost certain it's almost all fat as I'm on a high protein diet and sticking to my toning schedule.
I think a more accurate weight loss is one that stays off, so not clapping my hands just yet. We have a long way to go...




Good luck to me!!!!

To book a personal training session contact me or book online on http://rushismissfit.appointron.com/bookings/reservations

Yours in Fitness
Rushda Moosajee
Personal Trainer | Lifestyle Coach | Marketing
360 Specialized Training
Block F The Boulevard Business Park
Searle Street, Woodstock
Cape Town
360 Gym: 021 461 0360
Cell: 073 234 1388
BBPin: 268F9E63
Website: http://www.360training.co.za/
Follow Us on Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/360trainingcoza
Follow Me on Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/Rushtush
Add me as a Friend on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=539436775
Like our Facebook Fanpage: http://www.facebook.com/360SpecializedTraining?ref=ts

For the Love of Filth & Kloofnek with Shanaaz (Shanaaz for President)

DAY 23

Play Kloofnek

Brilliant brilliant Monday!! Perfect weather for a 05:00 run up Kloofnek. Not in the mood to eat (Surprisingly) I eat a plum and dates anyway before I leave the house to meet Shanaaz in Kloof street, I will most probably not make it  home in time to eat anything. We run up slowly, she tells me about her 15km she lazily did the day before, thank goodness I think, fantastic excuse to encourage her that we should take it slow... Chatting all the way up about whether or not I should enter the Gun Run 21km or 10km. I know what distance I should be doing, but I've never ever had the desire to run a 21km. What for? There are buses and taxi's and cars and hitch-hiking and rick Shaw's, would I ever really need to run for 2 hours? I don't see the point. Running around and up a mountain on the other hand is something that I would go gaga for. Anyway I'll just do it. Because I can. Before we know it we are on top. Absolutely effortless, non-stop, all the way. Mark from 360 Specialized Training http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/profile.php?id=743104999&ref=ts would be proud. Goal next week:  Hill REPEAT!!! In the car I'm on a race for time, hardly chewing my green apple, swallowing it whole like an ogre before sunrise, I know I'll be just fine...

Shanaaz for President! http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/group.php?gid=114006678638087&ref=ts

Panther Martial Arts, 436 Corner of Lower Salt River Main Road & Albert Road, Contact 072 290 4328

20:55 I managed to drive myself to Panther Martial Arts Studio in Salt River. One would swear that I'm being fitnapped, takkied, and black-bagged into these sweat fests, hell no, I sign up for this type of torture. First student there, be more keen please. Greeted by the homeless couple setting up residence at the entrance no 436 on the corner of Lower Salt River Main Road and Albert Road, we take our shoes off and Mikhail advises I take my socks off too to prevent slipping. The place is a fantastic infestation of sweat, battered plastic in all forms of punching bags, a ring, a vintage mini weight area, monkey bars and a functional zone. It screams of hard work and business and character that is unfaulted. We begin and Houssain has all 9 of us, 8 boys and myself kicking onto a soft MD Ball. Heart rate already escalating, its love at first sight. We do insane variations of burpees, explosive lunges, footwork, knee jumps, plank climbers, squat kicks, spinning kicks, and a creative bouquet of abdominal core crunches, explosive explosive explosive, the boys are sweating and I'm keeping up!!

Thabit demonstrating Upside Down Pushups

Mikhail getting ready to kick

We proceed to punching sets then floor work, kicking sets more floor work, and the shins are terribly weak, I try my best knowing that it will be a Shin War tomorrow, we do sprints in teams and squat holds and there is plenty of shouting and screaming and fun being had, its amazing what an endorphin release can do when people get together and sweat. 80min later, I am drenched and buzzing. The boys all strip down and it feels like Yoga studio dress code with added dirt and I look like a hosed down mud runner.

Forget about Sweaty t-shirt rating @ Panther, its Sweaty pant rating: 8/10

Getting a word in, Zain & Houssain Taleb on 1 on 1

Yazeed doing under grip pull-ups, feet @ 90

Deen

Looking at my feet and every exposed body part covered in the gym filth that is Panther Martial Arts! Houssain takes 1 on 1 sessions and pumps it up pushing everyone to their individual point of deflection. He leaves me lying on my back, feet in the air gasping for breath, we drop like flies. We finish off with holding squats and crazy arm shoulder twitches and toe strengthening calve raises.

Dirty Feet Rating 20/10

Dirty Feet Rating 25/10

Nerd alert

Entire session my heart rate stayed in Aerobic zone and hiked up to 191bpm or 72min of the 80min we were all Houssain's disciples!! 632kcal. 

Eat

dates

plum

half green apple

Reflex whey protein shake with water

Strawberry, pear, danish feta, rocket, cucumber and walnut salad

Strawberry summer salad :)

Eat Score

8/10 More protein, should be had, pref in the am

Weekend Blur

Holy Grail of Workouts??

Day 20

Play Vinyasa

No surprise on Friday I'm too tired to meet the trainers @ 360 gym for a 07:00 beasting. Instead I sleep in and promise myself catch up time later that day. Saturday morning brings a familiar feeling of fatigue (there she goes again). Now that we all get the point, I still dig deep, scrapping the bottom of the barrel I decide I need to take my Polar to a 11:00 Vinyasa class. It's only an hour long but the intense routine involves plenty of muscular strength, long holding squats, variation lunges and I'm finding my head dangling upside down from my body testing my brain centre of gravity, if I can call it that, seeing flashing lights, my endurance, stamina and mental balance is challenged. This insanity that is power yoga in 35 degrees heat, has people, including myself coming back for more and more. It is an addiction and when Jax is instructing us to do narrow grip pushups into upward dogs into downward dogs, jumping our shins onto our forearms and back into pushups is where I think I've found my version of methamphetamine. They say yoga makes you look years younger, "exude youthfulness" and improves your sex life too, not to mention an incredible long list of all the other benefits of yoga, briefly mentioned before on previous posts. Who needs a facial and R500 face cream when you walk out of a yoga studio glowing like a million bucks? Well not me at least and I have been looking like a dogs dehydrated breakfast of late, due to lack of nutrition and sleep, imagine the skin once this beast of a lunatic is watered and fed?

Yoga Tree Pose

The Side Crow: Balance, Upper body, Core and Leg strength

MORE BENEFITS OF POWER YOGA:

Power yoga bolsters flexibility, stamina and strength.

Power yoga promotes improvement of one person's ability and capability to focus and concentrate.
 

Power yoga helps people release the distracting anxiety and overall tension.

Power yoga helps one person develop and maintain good and proper posture.
 

Power yoga tones the body in a way that is neither hard nor stressful.
 

Bodily toxins are removed from the physical or body system through the sweat the body excretes during power yoga session.
 

Power yoga also serves as a great warm up or training activity for all sorts and types of athletes. Seen on previous post @ 360
 

Warrior 2 Reverse

Warrior 2 Reverse

Warrior 3, stretching and strengthening the hip girdle like no other!

Warrior 3 on Bosu, need to drop left hip!

Bringing spine parallel to the floor, also flexing left leg and toes + pulling up on right quad

The Head stand, the Shoulder stand and the Wheel pose (not shown here), to name a few shoots my heart rate right up to my 170bpm, which is nearly 90% of my MHR! The 60min of practice torched 312kcal!

Its about equivalent to a 30 minute fast jog... Great cardiovascular exercise as it trains you to push harder and longer in your Aerobic Zone where the body's ability to transport oxygen to, and carbon dioxide away from, the working muscles can be developed and improved. Improving overall fitness! Yes please!

Play Run

Just because I'm nuts and still energized from Vinyasa, I feel like I can do more because I'm not entirely exhausted yet, I decide to do a quick 3km run. Still in my wet yoga tights, possibility of chaffing very high, I throw on a dry tee and get on with it.

This is awesome. So hungry I try not to do much for the rest of the Saturday until dinner time at 06:30.

Afraid of the scale I know the VA scales are accurate and have been monitoring the weight because of water retention, water weight loss and empty tummy.

I am pleased to report the subject weighs in at 46.5kg!!

I don't care if its water weight or the fact that my last real meal was last night.

Lets see if it shoots up in the next few days.

A more accurate measurement still needs to take place, along with photographs, next Sunday.

Day 20 Eat

Fruit salad to break my fast with:

dates, strawberries, 1 plum, 1/3 pear, 1/2 banana, almonds and fat free yoghurt + honey

Yumolla

Chef Pon's egg fried rice (ignore word "fried")

Sweet + sour calamari

Entire bag of Chuckles

1 Cappucino

Eat score

3/10 Pot Belly Pig

Thinking that the fruit would curb the sweet tooth, I insisted on the sweet and sour calamari at dinner, hoping that would satisfy my sweet tooth, I persisted on finishing off a bag of Chuckles, solo, around 12:00. Smart.

Day 21

Play Run

Off for a run on the promenade. Sunblock, summer running gear, ocean on the left, friend by my side and new running shoes we head off for a 30min 5km. This is what Summer in Spring is all about and its not even September yet. Last stretch we sprint and I push myself to 207bpm, not bad I tell myself, even if its for a couple of seconds...

Sea Point Promenade

Play Squash

50min of squash is entertaining as I'm being mocked around the court or poor focus and bad co-ordination :( I still manage to reach targets and scorch 361kcal.

Day 21 Eat

Fruit salad to break my fast with:

dates, strawberries, 1 plum, 1/3 pear, 1/2 banana, almonds and fat free yoghurt + honey

Roasted butternut, feta, beetroot, caramelized onions, pomegranate pips and rocket salad

1 X cappuccino

Eat Score

5/10

Briosso @ Col Cachios

At the Right Intensity for Optimum Performance

A Day of Nothingness

26 & 27 August 2010

Not as sore as I expected to be at breakfast time but definitely tired than I've ever felt, working long hard hours is terrible for my posture and tightening my hips. My body is dying to move, rotate, bend and stretch especially after yesterdays intense weight session. Physically tired I sleep through my 90min Bikram class. Delete effort here. I promise I will make it up to myself later. Dead keen for a run around the city the weather knocks the wind out my sails and turns me into a girl. One thing leads to another and I make it nowhere, but hunched like a monkey in a cage over a computer. GREAT. All I want to do is MOVE and BREATHE and SWEAT... Excited to play with my new toy, I'm dying to find out what my consistent heart rate is like in the yoga Sun Room heated at 35 deg + depending on Bikram or Power yoga. Turning down a Muay Thai class as well. Cranky because I am unable to get my fix I eat instead.

Day 19 Eat
 

Proud of my efforts the night before at Bacini's, famous for their pizzas and pasta's, I conservatively ordered the grilled chicken breast and veg, while everyone else enjoyed delicious pasta's in all caloric indulgent glory. Tucking in to my lean protein meal I thought I had broken boundaries and I was finally cured from my ridiculous obsession with complex carbs smothered in OTT rich sauces and creams. Not until this evening when I decided I would have Simply Asia wok chicken and broccoli, cauliflower and mushroom veg and a little bit of rice (Good choices) but then proceeded to eat more 3/4 of a box of vita snacks and salmon cream cheese: Epic Fail.

Protein Shake (Meal Replacement) half sachet + half banana and 10g peanut butter

Several dates

Chicken, mushrooms, spinach, cauliflower, broccoli and rice

3/4 Box of Vita Snacks

Salmon Cream cheese (Tbsp of which contains 55 calories) I nearly finished an entire tub. That's about

15 minutes of walking or walking for an hour!!! (4mph) burns the calories in 2 tablespoons of regular cream cheese. Insane.

50m low fat yoghurt + dates + half grated green apple and walnuts

Eat Score

3/10 Destructive eating, counter productive to the goals that have been set.

My Best

 Just right

The new gadget, just a day old, much to my trainers disapproval, on spotting it immediately stated that if I ever mention the amount of calories I needed to burn or have burnt I'm going to be in trouble. Polar Heart Rate monitors lead to obsession he says, a bit late don't you think? I NEVER count caloric expenditure, always just going with it and judging my efforts on the sweat puddles around me, awful hair and how wet my t-shirt is at the end of the session. I have no objection to passing out and getting dizzy, so being over and above "my zone" suits me just fine... Eventually I thought it won't be such a bad idea as I see several people using this fancy gadget. Measuring your height and weight the Polar HR Monitor calculates your "zone" which tells you what heart rate you should be operating in to see results training in the right intensity, doesn’t always mean working faster or harder. Showing you what your optimum heart rate performance zone is. The best way to improving your fitness and seeing results is to train at the right intensity. So with a heart rate monitor, you can make sure you’re not over or under training, and make each session count.

Fancy Mechanics @ its best!! FT4 available at Sportsman's Warehouse R1000.

A heart rate monitor gives you an accurate measurement of how hard your body is working. This allows you to adjust how hard you exercise and achieve your fitness goals, it can also let you know if you should not train as you may need more recovery time. A basic 'rev counter' indicating your current heart rate in beats per minute is displayed.It also displays how hard you are working as a percentage of your maximum rate or how long you've managed to maintain your heart rate inside pre-set target zones. This is a great feature for targeting specific training zones, these are often refereed to as the following: The Energy Efficient or Recovery Zone which is 60% to 70%, The Aerobic Zone - 70% to 80%, The Anaerobic Zone - 80% to 90%, The Anaerobic Zone - 80% to 90% of your maximum heart rate. To see Heart Rate Zones visit http://www.polar.fi/en/training_with_polar/new_to_polar/why_train_with_a_heart_rate_monitor Each zone has a specific benefit and a HRM will help you to stay within these zones and achieve those benefits.

Play VA 

Exhausted, dead-tired, ready to drop, fried, enervated and every variation of the word is what seems to be a thrown around Missit's posts but Jeez this girl is knackered and there is no doubt why. Just two weeks of day dehydration and not being able to refeed myself every few hours and still trying to keep up some form of physical routine a s well as regular "life" activities has really been challenging. Finding a break in my day I shoot out to VA Gardens, wearing 2 x pairs of tights and 2 x t-shirts I have myself a 6.5km run, Posh definitely inspired me. If she can do it on empty I can. 

Then on to PP for some pushups, squat variations, lateral lunges with MD Balls, burpee pushups onto the PP, 1 legged burpee push ups, core work and bridges as well as some DB rows & chest presses until my point of deflection and I feel dizzy. The heart rate zone when performing these type of exercises, when doing the burpees especially, is perfect Aerobic Zone and the body benefits by increasing my aerobic capacity and staying in the fat burning zone for longer, but for a shorter workout time.

Play Rating

Run 6.5km 

+

PP

Sweaty t-shirt rating 8/10

630kcal total

Eat 

The Bombay Bicycle http://www.bombaybicycleclub.co.za/  serve the best chocolate chilli steak and it was exactly what my body was craving, with potatoe bake and crunchy broccoli. For bookings call  021 423 6805, I polished off 2 pieces of the white bread with sundried dip and after dinner snacked on half a bag of Woolies Chuckles... Much later that evening I also indulged in Giovanni's Bar-One Cheesecake, soooo yummm omword :)

Eat the chocolate chilli steak :)

Eat Rating

6/10 Subject should chose her chocolate more wisely, chees cake or Chuckles. Not both. And not at 22:00 either. FAIL.

As soon as the fats is over I'm having all my cake for breakfast.