What Flicks the Switch?

Sometimes you are just in the zone. You look forward to training and your eating is totally on plan. It seems like second nature and life seems calm and settled.

Other times you feel like you are drowning. You set out every day to go to the gym and eat within the guidelines you have committed to, and by 4pm you are still in your pyjamas, you have eaten everything in the kitchen and been to the corner store three times for treats. You promise yourself that tomorrow will be a fresh start but the next day is exactly the same.

What makes the difference? What have you done differently that has made your world swing from calm to chaos and how do you get things back to calm again?

For some people it is training every morning. As long as they get up and go for a walk/go to the gym they are set for the day. Their food choices are great because they don't want to waste the effort they have put in already.

For other people it is having a deadline to meet. A party, reunion or wedding set at a fixed date is what puts all thought of 'cheating' or 'relaxing' far from their thoughts.

For me it is the S food - Sugar and Starch. I am like an addict. If I try to moderate my intake and have a 'normal' amount each day I eventually spin out of control. Even healthy low GI starches (rice, oats, wholegrain wheat) totally derail me.

I can vividly remember the very first time my eating behaviour relapsed after losing 20kgs. I began eating healthy in January and in November I was given a huge basket of Freddo Frogs. I only meant to have one... I spent a long time after that night not knowing how to get back in the zone and not knowing why.

Then there was the period when I was touring overseas in Japan, Singapore and USA. I was trying to eat healthy foods by sticking to plain rice, grainy bread and cereal. I crashed and burned nearly every night.

I did quite well on low-carb until I introduced carb re-feeds. Even my Body for Life challenge [equal protein and carbs at each meal] saw me bingeing once a week on my free day.

To flick the switch to 'on' for weight loss/maintenance I need to keep away from the S foods. If I limit my carbs to 50-75g a day from mostly non-starchy vegetables, nuts and dairy I feel completely calm and in control. I can eat no-sugar chocolate and ice cream and I am OK. Give me rocky road or a piece of cake and I am ravenous for two days afterward.

To foil the deprivation monster I make sure I have my daily treat - chicken wings with the skin on, chocolate protein bars, peanut butter, Camembert cheese, and the aforementioned no-sugar frankenfoods but I have discovered that I need to eliminate the things I know will make me crazy and fat. There seems to be a strong case for both biology AND psychology.

What is the one thing you need to do to flick the switch?

Weekend Warrior

At last I had a weekend when I didn't blow out my eating plan. I have the same challenges as lots of other people with being at home, having more time on my hands and spending time with Mr Katie who loves taking me to cafes or getting takeaway.

Going back to low carb eating has made the difference. Living on protein, vegetables, nuts and dairy is much more satisfying and controls my hunger. I no longer wake with a gnawing ravenous appetite every morning. I even survived a RPM class yesterday without heading for the raisin toast.

I am so happy that it is Monday morning and I don't have a food hangover and puffy fingers. I even went to the gym on Saturday and Sunday which is the first time in a long time.

Now if only the scales would cooperate, I would be a happy girl. They seem to be stuck on the same number. I guess it beats the wild fluctuations and slow upward creep at least!

Owww that hurts!!

I have signed up at a new gym. It is actually a "health club" which means it is new, clean, and surprising cheaper than my old gym. It also has this 'Technogym" system where all your exercises are computerised via a small key.

I had my orientation yesterday and a couple of great things happened.

First of all, they weighed me. Fully clothed in the middle of the day with shoes on and the official number was 61kg. I'll take that... very happy. Somehow what my scales say at home don't seem to matter as they normally fluctuate so much.

Then we planned my workout schedule. Three different workouts to work through.

1. Chest-Triceps-Upper Abs
2. Back-Biceps-Oblique Abs
3. Shoulders-Legs-Lower Abs
All workouts start with 20 mins of interval cardio on the treadmill.

I go to the gym or workout nearly every morning. The reason for this is that I have a much better day if I do. I'm not keen on the 3 days a week approach as it means there are 4 days of feeling not so great.

We ran through quickly one set of all the exercises and today .... ta da ... I am sore, sore, SORE in places I didn't know existed.

For those of you who don't weight train, you might think this is a bad thing. For those of you who do, you will know that this is EXCELLENT. I have been a gym goer for nearly 18 months and sometimes go weeks and weeks without feeling anything. To have this much soreness means I have shocked my body into building more muscle - YAY!!

I also discovered that I haven't been doing a full range of motion with my lifts. My biceps curls were too short, my chest flyes weren't over my chest but nearer my face, my pushup position wasn't wide enough and my lateral pull downs suffered from having my shoulders too high.

Makes me wonder why that personal trainer I saw weekly for the past 12 months didn't bother to point this out. Possibly because she never worked through my workout with me, just got me doing another round of lunges and dips.

I am happy and excited that I might at last see the definition I long for. I want to lean down and have beautiful cut arms and a visible six pack. This might just do it.

Only drawback is that I was forced to have a day off today - didn't even make it to yoga - too sore and sorry.

Tomorrow is chest and tricep day. At this point in time I can only do 4 real pushups [on my toes not knees]. I shall post as I get better at it.

Of course, my trainer was horrified that I was doing low-carb, because apparently you can't workout with eating carbohydrates. Tried to convince her that heaps of veges counted as carbs but to no avail.

Still feeling great without any dry carbs or sugar. Loving eating fat again - I missed it so much. Still no "weight dropping off" but I am not hungy and miserable all the time. It feels like a switch has been turned off. I have been eating this way for 3 weeks now and the difference is incredible.

All is good - life is an adventure - peace at last ...