The Don's Meddle

Social media this morning was a big mess of people feeling guilty about not being the best they can be, not training enough, not eating properly.  Well I just say you get out what you put in . If you only eat well and exercise 50-60% of the time STOP expecting amazing results, if you are also starving yourself and training like a mad person, your body will be tired, run down and probably storing any fuel it has as supplies.  Comparing yourself to anyone else is just madness. You have NO idea of how their body functions or how it adapts to clean eating or exercise, everyone is DIFFERENT.    Killing yourself by training lots and eating less is not a healthy way to get healthy for LIFE, yes it might make you look good at the end of your challenge but what has it taught you? Nothing.  You will be tired, run down sick, grumpy and probably go right back to your habits before. Yeah that is so the look you were going for right? Finding out what suits you i...

After doing my second Hatha Yoga class this afternoon I feel reconnected and also recharged. Having a low energy day today for a few reasons I listened to my body and knew it needed some down time, some recharge time and that a heavy weights session or cardio session was not going to help me today. Taking some time for yourself regularly to just stop and breathe, take some deep breaths in, relax and calm your mind are truly priceless.  We are so busy, we sometimes forget to stop and smell the roses so to speak. This afternoon was a good reminder for me that I needed some chill time, to have some alone time stretching out my body, releasing tension held in muscles from stress at work, from worrying about money, wedding, health etc and just letting go.  Truly cannot put a price on your health - physical & mental and a few emotions got brought to the surface today which I didn't even know I was holding onto. Spending some time with YOU, doing what you love, something th...

Am very happy with this progress.  The main reason is I haven't been starving or restricting myself or eating salads for the past three weeks.  I have been experimenting with healthy options and eating more fat than the normal plans allow, because I felt that was helping my body more than starving it with like 1200 calories.  I have been a little relaxed with wine and cheese intake (even though it has reduced lots) and am enjoying meals out with friends and making smart choices but not eating just a salad.  I have always known to drop body fat and build muscle I need more than 1200 calories a day, I am 6ft tall with at least 56-58kgs muscle to maintain plus my body systems that need to function efficiently daily (you know heart, lungs, central nervous system) this all needs WAY more than 1200 calories to function efficiently and fire on all cylinders let alone drop fat and build muscle.  I am listening to what my body wants and not having negativ...

Technically.  It commenced on the 1 July (I commenced a week earlier) so it will really have been 58days sugar free tomorrow for me, well 56 days sugar free as I did have two big blowouts.  But I see that as a learning curve and honestly can say I am enjoying being sugar free and good timing I just got my I Quit Sugar recipe book by Sarah Wilson in the post after attending a talk a couple weeks ago at Flow Athletica in Paddington. So even though it is technically the end of NO sugar, I won't be rushing out to buy my body weight in lollies or chocolate because I don't feel like I have to make up for that time, I feel like I have totally changed the way I think about sugar, food and fructose.  It has truly made me reduce processed foods to a minimum.  I don't crave anything really anymore, I fancy a chai latte or I fancy the cinnamon on top really.  I enjoy making fructose free chocolate, muffins and now that I have my new cookbook I am excited to make lots ...

Something I wanted to share with you today is how I am feeling, am 54 days into my sugar free journey and I am feeling great, have dropped some more weight on the scales and measurements slowly coming off too!   I am enjoying being sugar free. I love that my taste buds have changed and my mentality also.   I see chocolate, or lollies and I don’t want them (our lolly jar at work must be SO full). The thing I noticed this week is that I am having NO PMS symptoms. NO irritability, no mood swings, no cravings for sweet things at all.   I used to get emotional, angry and blergh the week before I was due and last month I was still a bit emotional but not as much, this week, feeling good, not bloated or anything – amazing how your body can change in such a short time. I attempted my first batch of no sugar muffins last night using almond meal, berries and olive oil – with cream cheese icing.   Used Stevia and half the amount it suggested, tastes amazing, so tas...

Hot hatha yoga  alternates between vigorous, gentle yoga postures and appropriate vinyasa to further refine the circulation of the life force. Have seen Hot Hatha Yoga on the timetable at Hard Candy and have never managed to get to a class, until today.  It was lovely, relaxing and not TOO hot.  I am a big believer of overheating the body is a bad thing - but was relieved to know the room is only heated to 37 degrees. It was so lovely, felt like it was not a winter's day outside. I tend to overheat quite quickly and I found it very pleasant, got a nice sweat on (I sweat like a pig, seriously) and we did lots of gentle yoga poses to stretch and lengthen the muscles. Having done many Body Balance classes and the odd yoga class here and there it wasn't too hard and the instructor , Michelle, was inspiring with her calmly spoken guiding words, advising us to do what we felt we needed, that is just perfect for the kind of class, soft, gentle and at your own p...

Amazing how quickly the time goes! So how am I feeling? Fantastic. The one thing I can say about this challenge was I found it quite easy as I was in a great place mentally.  Yes there were small hiccups along the way & two blow-outs, but the things that I have learnt from this challenge are:- * I can achieve anything I set out too * fructose is evil * the body dosen't know how to process  fructose * fruit is still my friend - just not a lot of high fructose ones all the time * healthy fats are my friend * there will always be haters, don't spend your time explaining anything to them * i don't miss anything really except dark chocolate & I wont lose sleep over having some from time to time & I am loving experimenting making my own sugar free treats * I am on this no sugar caper indefnitely * I probably eat sugar (fructose) free 95-98% of the time apart from fruit/breads etc My two blow-outs were a delicious chocolate mousse cake that was so rich &...

FINALLY got up early this morning and trained.... YES. Partly because I had made a very public commitment to stick to my guns and train when I scheduled training, no excuses.  The non-reward for not sticking to my training plan, NO social media for ALL of September. So Day 43 no sugar. I don't miss it. I don't want it. Not really fussed for any sweet lollies or chocolate. Nope, nada. Love it.  Yes we all know that I had small piece of chocolate mousse cake and enjoyed it but quite frankly I really don't miss the soft drink, the lollies, cadbury. So so good. So a week until I hit my own 50days mark.  Then 7 days until the official 50day mark.. Love that I started early. This mornings session was a small but KICK ASS session. Weights circuit with some rower sprints thrown in at the end. Sweaty mess I was.  That is worth getting out of bed for. Yesterday I spent the afternoon cooking up a storm!  After a very stressful shopping trip to Eastgardens a...

It has been one of those weeks! Why on earth do we say that ALL THE TIME.  It is always going to be one of those weeks... slaps forehead. My brain functions on crazy level most days, so I thought I would share with you some of the craziness that is bursting from my head, in no random order! * Grumpy cat is freakin hilarious!  His mamma should be real proud for teaching him to do selfies & post them on Facebook. * Life is so short people, life is to be lived, quit your whinging (random people overheard this week), vent that shite and move on. * Sydney is fecking crazy, everyone just thinks they are the only ones walking on the pavement, or across the road - try this people, look around you from time to time and GET OFF YOUR PHONES!  For those who know me know I am a social media whore, BUT, even I don't walk with my phone all the fecking time or walk across streets typing a text that can wait five seconds, I wait until I get to the bus stop like SEMI N...