Me these days

3rd place overall in winter race series

MTB'ing up Banks Peninsula

Spring Challenge 09

Our SC Team was called 'What would Steve Gurney Do'...I guess this lol!

So as you can see folks – yes I have been busy!! Winter saw the finish of kayak racing and September brought on ‘Race Season’.  This saw me competing in the Spring Challenge up in the Nelson Lakes region – our team came in 20th out of almost 90 team in a time of 6hurs 40 mins. 

Unfortunately I haven’t been that ‘engaged’ in this challenge i.e blogging and webinars, simply because life got a bit hectic, but am trying to remedy that.  I still get people every week tell me that I am getting smaller – hmm the reality is that I have remained the exact same weight (with some fluctuations) through this whole challenge – which putting a positive spin on it is actually a huge win – usually the weight would be piling back on again.  As much as I don’t buy into the whole ‘muscle weighs heavier than fat’ perhaps my silhouette/scales reflect this.  I haven’t been sending in my weight either – because I am now in full race season (racing most weekends) I needed to experiment with foods that were going to help sustain me (sometimes with high sugar levels) and also reintroducing some grains back into my diet as well – so on these weeks I have seen my weight also yo yo a bit.  So am at a point now where I feel I’ve found a good balance and will stick to the programme ’100%’ on weekdays and use the food I need for fuel on these race days.  The tricky part to master is ensuring your body is used to this fuel – as if I was to put a highly sugary food into for the first time on race day – as you could imagine my body wouldn’t  like that so much – and it could effect my performance.  So still on a huge learning curve!

Anyways sorry its been so long – hope to do more regular updates, I have also started a blog on my count down to Coast to Coast so feel free to watch this progress too! : ) http://www.countdown2coast.blogspot.com/

Ciao for now

I was reading Jo’s blog and kind of relieved to hear its not just me having a harder time this time around – its crazy as I am doing more exercise than ever (just signed up to do Coast to Coast as an individual last week YAH ), but had a bad week or so of it – it was my birthday and there were many celebrations – one that included quite a bit of alcohol – but I knew what I was getting myself in for and had conceded if there was a weight gain then so be it…hmmm 2kgs…bugger it was such hard work to get that off!!

But on a more cheerier note I am pleased to announce I am not as far off from my goal weight as first thought – in having another BIA done it was concluded I was still a medium frame size not a small (and for those of you that asked where is the rest of 12kgs I need to lose its now only 6! :) ) and as with BIA’s they usually serve to cheer one up. All my stats are still going down – I am now biologically 35 (I’m 38 and was 44 at the start of this challenge) my fat % now has me as ‘normal’ and the best news is I haven’t lost any muscles I’ve actually gained some (this makes me heavier on the scales but performance wise I couldn’t be happier).

So I have started afresh again – I need to just keep on keeping on and watch those kgs chip away – if I really focus hard it’ll be no time until I’m in ‘consolidation’ mode – you would think its enough to kick my bum into gear!! :)

 Ciao for now – Ruth x

So things haven’t been going so well for me – in that I have a choc craving that has taken hold of me …and it won’t let go! lol Thankfully weight gain hasn’t been huge (less than a kg over the past month) however I know that’s down to all the exercise I am doing – so keep reminding myself of what I could be achieving!  What is most disappointing is other than the chocolate I am still eating really really well – I just get to the end of the night and blow it!

With the last challenge I rekindled my love for cooking and it inspired to get my kitchen redone.  Its also rekindled my love of baking and right up until about a month ago I was doing REALLY well, but now with these things in the house (choc buttons) my will power hasn’t been that flash.  But after reading everyone’s comments thought its better out than in and am feshing up! : ) I too am getting more and more comments about how great I look and I don’t need to lose any more weight!  So for some reason it all seems to be a bit of sabotage on my behalf, so if anyone has any good advice in that regard!! : )

On a lighter front my training is going really well and having pulled off a 2 hour run on Sat my hopes of doing Coast to Coast as an individual increased ten fold.  We have the last race of the Kayak race series this weekend and going into this race I am currently standing 3rd overall, so its all on come Sunday and if I do well it places me as one of the top female paddlers in Canterbury my class of boat – so trying to use this as a motivation to fuel my body ONLY with the right food this week – need every kind of competitive advantage LOL

Hope everyone’s weeks going well!

Ciao for now

I had a bit of a knock back last week – where I got the courage to ask a boy out (you know with my new found confidence …and he actually said no. So guess I kinda beat myself up about that a bit – which is wrong I know but at least it made me realise I haven’t quite gotten over the power food has on me when it comes to emotional eating!

On the plus side my training has stepped up over the past few weeks and although I have been dog tired (in a good way) I have been pleased to see a few 1000+ calorie burning sessions – Ray is never far from my mind lol…wish I could carry him around in my pocket and pull him out when needing the extra motivation! So my goal for the next few weeks to get back on track headspace wise despite the wee setback and look forward to celebrating my birthday being in the 60’s!! : ) which would mean knocking back at least 3.5kgs in the next 4 weeks!

Ciao for now

I was just saying to Cush earlier today I haven’t felt so fantastically calm, centred and just absolutely bloody amazing as when I came back from the retreat – what a testament to location and all the amazing people on the retreat – those that helped put it together and those that contributed by taking part – I feel very grateful to have been there with all of you and now just to find a way to bottle that feeling and carry with it me always!! : ) 

So have decided to keep on keeping on with the next challenge – I had a bit of a shock with my frame size changing from med to small – so whilst at the end of this challenge I am 12kg lighter I discovered I have another 12kg to go!  So really need to kick start my weight loss again as its been taking a ‘mender’ downwards of late – think I’ve got a bit slack too. 

Time also to fess up – I had a few wines while I was away too but not feeling guilty at al l- just really felt like it and the next day I knew the following truths:

1. I will have to work extra hard to work off those calories or accept a slight gain this week but its not the end of the world
2. Whilst not ‘hung-over’ per say I do believe I felt the effects of this for two whole days afterwards….hmmm mental note to self to not do that again for a bit! : )

 So just really need to get back into my ‘retreat’ headspace!

Ciao for now xo

Discovered you can make toasties out of mountain bread – yum …booo didn’t realise shouldn’t have MB more than a couple of times a week – plus one small slip up in having a wafer thin after dinner mint lead to several more – despite having said I’ve now moved away from rewarding myself with food – I slipped…or should I say slid down at great speed!! : )

Why the wee treat you may ask – well I came 2nd in my kayak race on Sunday – I won a giant chocolate fish (which is sitting on my kitchen window sill waiting for the right time to eat! : ) People have wondered why being on this ‘health kick’ I have a picture of a giant chocolate fish on my desk – no it doesn’t serve to tempt me – it serves only to motivate me – you see this kayak race is a series of 5 races over winter (I miss next week due to the retreat – but hey it’ll be worth it) – and place getters 1,2, 3 get a giant chocolate fish.  I had secretly hoped maybe to get a 3rd on at least one race and secure myself one of these puppies – so am stoked it came about from race 1.  Everyone will of course now be conducting secret training all over the show lol – I was a dark horse, an underdog and surprised a lot of people – including myself!!! with this result.  

So yes I had a wee weight gain this week – but I know exactly why and I can change that!  And if anything this result has got me more motivated than ever – I came on this challenge to lose weight specifically to help me with my sporting endeavours and I am now seeing fruits of my work  – however  little did I realise at the time what else would come of this challenge – the health benefits and all the support!  So BIG thanks to all of you who have supported me through this journey and hope to see some of you next week.

Ciao for now – Ruth

 Oh well lesson learnt, hopefully it doesn’t effect me too much – I have had a sore gut the last couple of days though….hmmmm. 

Anyways it was back on the scales for me this week after my self imposed sabbatical – a 1.8kg loss over the 3 weeks so am pleased to see the move downwards again.  I was off sick for two days last week with a tummy bug, went and saw Richard Wheelan straight away and pretty sure his herbal remedies helped for a speedier recovery.  It was a mad busy week all up, with being off work (and I never get sick! : ), having my kitchen redone, having a flatmate move in and helping organise an upcoming kayaking racing series.  Needless to say my training programme went out the window – although that said on refection I still managed 4 hours – just not quite the 10 that was planned for!

Have been on my adrenal fatigue ‘meds’ for about a week now – and think I am feeling better for it, Cush did say it would be 7 – 10 days, but my energy in the afternoons is better , so looking forward to catching up with her again this week.

Unfortunately didnt make last nights call, yes I had a hairdressers appt, but thought I’d be back in time, doh.  Hope it went well.

Well that’s all my news for now – hope alls well with everyone out there and if for some reason you aren’t where you thought you would be by this part of the challenge:

1.  just reflect on all the good work you’ve done to date
2.  don’t beat yourself up and realise its for life not just for 112 days.  I keep reminding myself its going to take some time to undo all I’ve done to my poor wee body over the years!! Lol

 Ciao for now – Ruth

Am really looking forward to the retreat – meeting everyone in person, getting lots of information to take away with me and of course really looking forward to being put through my paces by Ray, will be great to get a different perspective on exercise from my usual sources.

Well I have to admit I didn’t submit my weight or my food diary this week – not because I was avoiding – I had done my food diary but it was hand written and didn’t have the time to re type – but with my weight it was more about my obsession with the scales – it was like an addiction and quite frankly it was driving me nuts – especially since my weight has been all over the show over the last few weeks  (this could apparently be fluid retention not poor choices – am being SO good!! .  So just decided to give myself a wee break to help refocus on to the health benefits of the challenge and its definitely helped me heaps so the right choice for me.  I will be back reporting in my weight again (come what may) next week!

Hope you’re all having a fab week.

Ciao for now – Ruth

Well I got another BIA done and the good news is all my weight lost to date has been pure fat – I’ve kept all my muscle which I am very happy about : ) I have also managed to reduce my biological age from 44 down to my actual age which is also reassuring.   I had this done on the back of having a phone consult with Cush and I came away from our talk today feeling – well I guess relieved.  Looks like there’s a few things that are potentially contributing to my weight at the moment so very excited about knocking back (some more! : ) pills and getting the show on the road again.

Greta to meet some of the Chch crew last night as well – isn’t Richard just such a lovely guy.

Ciao for now – Ruth

Well obviously I was gutted last week and having put in a great effort this week words kinda fail me as to how I am feeling – upset…pretty upset :( I know its very feasible that I have hit some sort of plateau but to have the 10kg mark dangling out there and not even being able to hit that when everyone else seems to be doing so well makes me feel like kind of a failure  – I know I’m not but I just wish I knew what I could do to kick start the weight loss process again and after a newly purchased juicer 2 weeks ago – Damians super juice doesn’t seem to be working its magic for me either.