Tuesday 17 March 2009

eughh

I feel sick!

I've spent the morning debugging a calculation and haven't yet been able to leave my desk (sad, I know!) so decided instead of going to make up a maximuscle promax diet milkshake (quite fancied banana), I'd try out the Atkins Advantage bar I bought yesterday out of curiousity from Boots

It's 'Chocolate Hazelnut Crunch' flavour... it's revolting.

It's taken me like 2 hours to eat as it's so sweet and sickly... I'm also unimpressed by the high fat (10g!) and carb (18g) content!

I should have read this article by The Times about this very product!

Anyway, enough whinging, have learnt my lesson! Atkins is clearly aimed at those with an exceptionally sweet tooth! I am paying for my folly with a lump of sweet globular gunk firmly sat in my stomach refusing to budge, seriously!

I guess you could say that it does work to a certain extent though, I feel too sickened to put anything else in my stomach right now!

--------------------------------

okay, so I haven't posted for a while, I know, have been a bit lax. I haven't lost any weight (boo hoo :-( ) but my stomach is flatter than it's been in flippin ages! I think I overdid it last time I trained in the gym so my right shoulder is burning and I'm not willing to risk hurting it more by lifting weights!

I am still cycling, however, and don't have play rehearsals tomorrow (hurrah!) so will be joining my running club in Hyde Park for a lovely 4.3mile jog tomorrow evening... followed by lager in the pub... will be earnt though!

Friday 6 March 2009

Mmmm



Promax Diet Bars dark chocolate flavour... bloody gorgeous!  


Really tasty, quite heavy and dense so fill you up very effectively!  It's great to be actually able to chew something!

more carbohydrates though, although that's to be expected as it's a bulky bar!  Less protein as well though, only 20.4g compared to the whopping 37.8g in the shake!

my maximuscle consignment arrived, very exciting, have started taking the Thermobol so will update my blog on how I take to that.

I have to admit, the bag is pretty damn good!  I was recently given a very similar one as a freebie from an accounting firm, and it's rubbish, the zip broke almost immediately.  But the maximuscle bag is great, it's actually quite thick material, quite robust looking too.  There are quite a few pockets too so it means I'll be able to keep my phone separate from my gym membership card as the magnetic strip in my blackberry case seems to wipe it!!  Also does that to paper train tickets, most annoying!!  It's got a small, but reasonably sized pocket at the front for important things like lip balm and earphone, then a larger pocket for my weight gloves, energy gels/tabs/bars and Workout Wallet and then a separate phone pocket on the front and a window for a pass/card (although mine looked like it'd fall out so I've put it in the zip-up one instead.

can't wait to take it to the gym

what a poser eh?! hehe ;-)

Tuesday 3 March 2009

Training Log (Saturday 28th February)

Just realised I really should post this sooner rather than later!

I don't actually have my workout wallet with me, but I can remember pretty much what I did on Saturday.

some excuses first...

it was the first time I've done any weight training since the beginning of February, so I'm quite weak, and also the first time I've run in about as long, so I'm very slow!

so, excuse over, here we go:

Strength Training (machine based)

Activity Weight Reps
Shoulder Press 15kg 3 x 10
Lat Pulldown 35kg 3 x 10
Vertical Traction 35kg 3 x 10
Low Row 35kg 3 x 10
Pectoral Machine 20kg 3 x 10
Triceps Extension 15kg 3 x 10
Bench (bar) 20kg 3 x 10
Leg Press 60kg 3 x 10
Leg Extension 35kg 3 x 10
Leg Curl 35kg 3 x 10
Abductor 35kg 3 x 20
Adductor 35kg 3 x 20

Cardio Fitness

Activity Running
Type slow/recovery
Distance 5km
Time unsure (about 35+ mins)

So, after that not-so-taxing effort... I have since not been able to raise my arms higher than my ears(!) and have found walking down stairs, and my leisurely cycle commute, to be very challenging!
On the plus side, it felt bloody brilliant to get back to training again, such a buzz!!
I had the LostProphets and Linkin Park keeping me more than motivated, superb stuff!
Can't wait to get back to the gym again
just wish I didn't ache still.... feeling a little feeble at the mo!!

Quick Update (and renewed commitments!)

I'm going to write a longer post soon, but just thought I'd give you all an update as to how I'm doing...

well, not too well actually!

I've discovered that my goal of becoming the women's Maximuscle Body of 2009 is going to be a lot more challenging than I thought!!

I thought I was doing so well last week... well, reasonably well anyway. I cycled to and from work every single day - okay so that's only 4 miles each way, and I'm hardly what you could call a 'speedy cyclist', but I do get reasonably sweaty (nice) and it sure beats taking the train for exercise! (although, saying that, given that I'm notoriously late for just about everything, perhaps my five minute dash to the train station burns off more calories than my 40/50 mins of cycling a day? haha)

I also drank milkshakes practically every day too and I definitely ate less!

I put on 2lbs... gutted doesn't even come close :-(

However, when I look back, if I'm truly honest I'd have to admit that I wasn't all that disciplined. Work and study deadlines meant that my cycling to work was the *only* exercise I did until last Saturday afternoon! I had a day's training course during which a rather wonderful hot and cold buffet was supplied... I also drank a fair bit of red wine on several occassions... oh yeah, and had steak and chips, and fish and chips two nights in a row!

heavens, I only really have myself to blame!

I think that now, if I'm going to see any real results I will have to approach this in a controlled fashion. I'm going to have to a) religiously enter food into my online food diary on Weight Loss Resources b) actually do some exercise! c) stick to the two shakes a day for breakfast and lunch, D) and just use the maximuscle promax diet shakes, instead of flitting between that and the slimfast which I've been trying to use up. As much as the slimfast shakes are reasonably palatable, and they are thicker in consistency (I imagine though that this is due to the addition of milk) and mix very well, the floury taste is a bit off putting as is the enormous sugar-derived carbohydrate level!

Now, I'm not one of those (perhaps rather silly, sorry!) people who believe that you can live on an extremely high-protein diet for any length of time and train hard with it.

After all, if my hero Lance Armstrong's very own coach, Chris Carmichael asserts that we absolutely need at least 60% of our daily intake of food to come from carbohydrates then who am I to argue with that?!

The fact is that I a) eat a lot of fruit and b) cook a lot of rice, potatoes, pasta etc as part of my family's evening meal, so there's no chance of me going into ketosis (which is good as I'm rather fond of my internal organs and their efficient functionality!!) I just realise that protein plays a massively important part in muscle development and regeneration!

Anyway, going off on one again, sorry!

Where was I... oh yeah, so I'm going to only stick to the maximuscle promax diet shakes, and the diet bars when they arrive (I'm not allowed to get personal items delivered to work so my b/f's about to get a heap of maximuscle goods descend on him, poor love, ha!)

I'll also be experimenting with the efficacy of the Thermobol pills too... interested to see what results, if any, they produce. There are some good reviews available for the product, but they seem to all cite things like perseverance, increased exercise/weight training, and a better diet as being key facilitators for enabling the product to work. Comments like that concern me and make me question whether or not it is just the increase in exercise and the decrease in food that has helped and not the pills themselves!

It's hard to tell, and I guess I've got to wait and see what results, if any, they produce! Of all the thermogenic fat-burning pills there seem to be out there on the market, I'd probably trust Thermobol over the rest because of the quality of nutrition and the level of research behind maximuscle's products.

Right, time to stop rambling and to put my money where my mouth is!