And the records keep breaking!

It's late in the evening, so mi seddia to type out a long post.  Just wanted to say that my current plank record to beat is now 6:10!  Trainer says that's the longest time he's seen a female do a plank!  Aww yeah!

Also, I did a simulated stair climb in 15:50, which is also a record!  I had to pause more than a few times, but I am keeping them under 30 seconds.  If I can translate that to the actual climb, I should make it under 20 minutes.  Here's hoping!

Also, Trainer has told me to take this week off intense cardio and weight training.  I'll say now that I'm not liking it, but I think that I'll go into it more when the week is over and I have more time.

Broken records everywhere!

Last night I put another 10 seconds onto my plank time, so now my longest plank is 5:10!  Soon I'll be able to replicate that BOSU plank after all!

More importantly, on Tuesday I hopped back on the stair-climber to see how quickly I could do 144 floors, since I am looking to sign back up for the CN Tower stair climb this year.  This time I did it in 18:23, which is awesome, if you don't take into account the fact that I stopped so often.  The machine pauses the time when you take a rest, so I am sure it was over twenty minutes total, but I AM glad to say that my stoppage  time was pretty short, I had more energy and actually ran up the steps quite a bit, and I felt terrific after. 

Trainer has always maintained that it's harder to climb the stair climber than the actual stairs, and I agree with him.  Plus, I believe there were maybe ten steps to a floor at the Tower compared to the fifteen on the machine, so I'm climbing a Tower and a half!  He's now saying he thinks I can do it under fifteen minutes, but I'll be glad if I can get it closer to twenty than I did last year.

So the training begins!

Updates Galore!

So, where do I start? I guess I can start by saying I smashed by previous plank record and made it to 5:00! I don't know if I can repeat that often, depending on how I'm feeling, and my back did start to hurt near the end, but I made it! Now to beat THAT!

 Next up, monthly visitor. Last time she came around was in March sometime, and wasn't seen since, until this past weekend. I can't say I was glad to see her come back, but I suppose something was wrong if it wasn't happening. My trainer (and all the research I did) said that it was probably because I work out too much. Oh well, she's been generally well-behaved so far, so I won't complain.

On to the next topic, which is that I've had to go back to my original gym location. It turns out I don't have access to all the clubs in my area after all. I was getting in fine until one day they stopped me and told me I shouldn't be able to get it. That's fine, since they've improved the old gym by getting new dumbells and machines, and I kind of liked the atmosphere there better anyway. I will STILL try to transfer to the new one across the street from me when it opens. They've started work on the inside now, so hopefully it won't be long.

Now, just a mini rant about how white hairs are tough buggers. I shed. A LOT. But I do notice that the few white hairs I do have already are always there. Why can't THOSE fall out instead?

Okay, that's it for now. Until next time!

Courtesy of Diabetes Forecast: 35 Top Tips for Travel With Diabetes

This link popped up on my Facebook feed from the American Diabetes Association in their Diabetes Forecast magazine.  I had a read-through and the advice is pretty valuable, so I'm going to post it here for reference. 

35 Top Tips for Travel With Diabetes - Diabetes Forecast

Planking!

Planking was something I never really paid much attention to for most of my workout journey.  I hate doing them, and I never last very long, but with this latest program I've been throwing them in at the end of my workouts, trying to better my time.

My very best time was 7 minutes or so, with my arms propped up on a BOSU ball, and this was a long time ago.  I am still not sure how I did that, because now, even after all the work I've done since, my best with a plain ol' vanilla plank is about 4:16 (which I accomplished last night, thank you very much). 

I find using a favourite song to keep my mind occupied during the struggle really helps, and as I outlast each song, I pick a progressively longer one to master.

Of course, how long I can manage to keep myself propped up all depends on how I feel that day, how hard my workout was, and whether or not I've worked my shoulders, but I am happy that I am getting progressively better and hope to keep it up.

Have to wait until autumn!

I tweeted Goodlife to see when they'll open up that location near my place, and they said that it would be in the fall sometime.  I'm still generally happy with the one I've switched to now, but these places honestly have to be a little faster with their equipment repairs.  The leg press machine has been broken for at least a couple of weeks already, and they only have one!

My trainer trains me at L.A. Fitness, where he moved when Extreme was bought out.  I really love that gym, as it's brand-new, bright, full of machines, and even has 3 squash courts.  I would so switch if only it didn't take me half an hour to get there.  I don't mind once in a while, but not every night when I already spend almost two hours working out.  An hour-long commute would be horrible.

Canadian Diabetes Association Dictionary

Just wanted to leave this here, as a quick reference for common terms that come up when discussing diabetes.

Diabetes Dictionary - Canadian Diabetes Association

New Gym, Kind of!

As of April 1st, Goodlife Fitness, the locusts that they are, bought out Extreme Fitness, so for the past month and a half, that's been my new gym.  Nothing really changed much, just the name.  They kept the hours the same, and nothing in the facility itself changed except the tanning booth was disconnected, but I never really saw anyone use it much anyway.  They're keeping the pool open, and as far as I know, the machines and weights are the same, nothing new.

The best part about it is that I can get into whichever Goodlife I want, so I've been going to the co-ed one that's in my town.  It's a little further south than the old one, but nearer east of me than the other one is west.  It doesn't take as long to get there and back, and there's a drug store and grocery store in the same plaza, for convenience!  There IS a women's only one above a supermarket a little bit nearer to me in my town, but sometimes I just want to look at the mans, you know?  It's much nicer inside

I'm still waiting for the Goodlife ACROSS THE ROAD FROM MY HOUSE (!!!!) to open, because that will be the best thing ever.  I can even run there and it will take 5 minutes.  I wouldn't even have to warm up before weights!  They say July but anything can happen.  In the meantime, I'll stick to the new one I'm going to, and maybe go to the old one if I need something I can't find at the new one.

You Sit on a Throne of Lies!

As I may or may not have mentioned before (I can't remember and I'm too lazy to go back and look), one time when I was renewing my training sessions with Trainer when it was through the gym, they offered me some free sessions with a nutritionist.

Now you know how I love to eat almonds, but I have a penchant for any nut, really.  This nutritionist said that it was bad to mix different types of nuts in the same day, but in my defensiveness over the changes she wanted to make to my meals (which was my stubborness more than her being too far in left field), I forgot to ask her why.

I tried to look for a reason on the interwebs, but I didn't really see anything that answered my question.  It was mostly "nuts are good for you", "eat nuts in moderation because they're high in calories," and a litany of reasons WHY they're good for you.

I let it go, since I usually only had almonds anyway, but the other day I saw that the Canadian Diabetes Association would be having Joanne Lewis, a registered dietician, on their Twitter feed today, answering questions on diabetes and food.  I thought that this would be my perfect opportunity to get that nagging nut question straightened out.

At first she told me the same thing, that nuts are good for you but they're high in calories, and to eat them in moderation.  I replied that I knew that part, but I was just curious if there was another reason for a taboo on mixing types.  She replied again that there was no research supporting this!  All this time that I've been feeling guilty that I let a peanut slip into an almond day was unwarranted!  It is a relief.

Still, I can't say it's something that particularly worrisome because, although I do love my almonds, I have been pretty disciplined with them lately.  I'll only have one of those 100-calorie packs of them a day.  It shows too, because I've dropped to the lowest weight I have been in a long time, 124 lbs!

Beep Test!

Every so often, Trainer changes my cardio routine around to give a renewed shock to the system.  It works for resistance training, so of course it should work for cardio too.

What I have now is something called the "beep test".  To do this, one must run between two points (20 meters is the standard, according to Wikipedia), while listening to a series of pre-recorded beeps.  The idea is to start when you hear the first beep, and to make it to the other point before the next beep.  There are 21 levels, and these levels are broken down further into shuttles (7 in Level 1 to 16 in Level 21), so you can imagine that it starts off slowly, then increases in speed.

Trainer introduced me to the beep test on Thursday evening.  We had played a little squash and had done some of a new workout, so I was already a little bit tired, and I didn't do very well, getting to level 6, shuttle 5 (if I am remembering right). 

When I was preparing to do it on my own Friday night, I was worried I wasn't going to get a place with enough space, since the first time was in the group class studio at a different place, which is much bigger than the one at my gym.  There, we could set the points 22 of my steps apart from each other easily, and there is not enough room for that at my gym unless I use the training studio, and that isn't always feasible.

Anyhow, I thought I'd test out the group fitness studio at my gym, just in case, and I found that from one end to the other, long ways, it's 20 of my steps.  Not too far off!  I decided to go with it, and to stick with it in the future to keep it consistent, since I always do cardio on my own anyway.  I just hope that I won't have to fight for the space too often.  Friday nights are usually dead at my gym so I wasn't surprised the room was empty.  A couple of kids came in and did a mat drag for a few minutes and then left, but they weren't in my way.

I was also worried I wasn't going to be able to find a good beep track to use.  Trainer downloaded an app for his Android phone, but I couldn't find one in the Blackberry App world, so I went the You Tube to mp3 route, and saved this full version to my phone.  All set!

It's not an easy workout.  Sure, it starts out slowly and you get a few seconds of rest before the next beep goes off, but 6 or 7 levels in it starts to pick up and you're pretty out of breath.  In the end, I made it to Level 12, Shuttle 1 when the beep went off before I made it to the opposite side.  I considered doing another one after I did a little steady-state low intensity cardio to calm myself, but decided not to, and just did more bike and elliptical instead.  At that point my blood sugar felt a little low and I just didn't see myself going through another one.

I think I'll like it because it doesn't last as long as my interval workout, and I see it being relatively easier to measure progress, since all I have to do is try to get to higher levels.  Wish me luck!

Moment of bliss...aaaaaand it's gone.

Today I went to do a little shirt-shopping, as I have a fancy-pants work lunch and a meeting with a high-powered executive coming up this week, and I wanted something new to wear.

Now, anyone that knows me well knows that there is really nothing girly-girl about me, and that includes getting excited about shopping for clothes.  That's partly because nothing ever really fit well, and the "twins" kind of make trying on shirts a little difficult.  Now that I've shed my weight and the twins have "shrunk" a bit, I AM finding it a joy to bring smaller sizes into a fitting room and have them look like they're supposed to.

That being said, I tried on a nice shirt, but found it a little baggy.  In my mind, I thought I was wearing a size small, since that's what I'm buying most of my shirts in now.  I left the fitting room to look for an extra small, and was a little miffed not to find one.  Then it hit me:  I was fitting into extra-small!  Granted, it wasn't a skin-tight number, but the glee was still there.  I figured I could live with the size small I was wearing, and bought it.

Imagine my dismay when I inspected the shirt again and found that I bought a medium!  So not only did they not have it in extra-small, they didn't even have it in small!  Oh, I was crushed, and not even so much because I probably wouldn't have fit in the extra-small after all, but because I spent money on a shirt that really WAS too big.  Final sale too.

Moral of the story:  don't count your chickens before they hatch, or always check the size of the clothes you're buying.  Something like that.

Another Yummy Tea Alert!

Well, here we go with another "Yummy Tea Alert" post.  As you know I've taken to herbal teas, since there is caffeine in black, green, and white teas, and I try to stay away from it as much as possible.

Sometimes when I need a new box of tea for the office, I branch out and try something different.  Celestial Seasonings has a few teas that I've tried in the past, so I know that they're pretty dependable in the flavour department.  This one struck my fancy:



It's warm and spicy, since it has a little black pepper in it, along with cinnamon, chicory, carob, ginger, cloves and nutmeg.  It's supposed to be their caffeine-free version of chai, and they say to drink it with milk and sugar.  I throw some Stevia in there and it's just lovely.

Downer Turned Upside-Down...er. And Squash!

Remember how I was worried that Trainer was going to leave the gym?  Well, it didn't end up being that way.  We still train together (thank goodness, because I partly keep him since I don't really have many other friends) and he still works through the same gym, but it's a sort of side arrangement.  Don't want to get into details, but it's mutually beneficial. 

On a side-note, he's teaching me how to play squash, which has been fun so far.  The only racquet sport I've played before this was badminton, and it's definitely different!  I even went so far as to go buy my own racquet (which I got at a very good price, since they were all half-price when I went) and a ball.  There are different balls that bounce at different speeds apparently, depending on how good you are at the game, but I bought a blue dot, which is good for beginners.  You're also better off wearing safety glasses when you're playing too, since the ball is kind of small, and I suppose I could see it flying in someone's face and doing a lot of damage.

I'm still figuring out the rules and the motions, but I'd like to stick with it and get more practice.  Only trouble is I don't have ready access to a court.  Trainer does, and he invites me when he has time, but it's not often.  I can rent a court at the community center in my city for pretty cheap, but I don't know anyone else who plays.  I should think about getting the squash membership the city offers, because I'll have access to leagues, lessons, and the courts whenever I want.

Something to think about! 

I have to be the laziest mofo ever! (Tower Climb Results)

Hey.

You'd think after posting and fretting about that United Way Toronto CN Tower stair climb back in August, that I'd be super excited to come back to say how I did!  But noooo, I had to be a lazy-ass and come back six months later!  I honestly don't know why I don't come to this blog more often, because I do enjoy updating it!  I figured instead of leaving it hanging out of shame over how long it has been, that instead I'd cop about about my procrastination, and then carry on!

Anyhow, I'm sure you're just clamouring to know my result from the climb.  My time was twenty-two minutes, seventeen seconds (00:22:17)!!  I hoped to be closer to twenty minutes even, but I was still happy about my time.  My cousin went the day after I did, and made it in forty-six minutes, but she had less preparation than I did.

I woke up at 4:00 in the morning (almost ready to scrap the whole thing!) so I could get there early, but by the time I got through the check-in line at the convention center and the line where they make you wait because they only let so many people in at a time, it was close to 7:30.  The climb itself was relatively easy on me.  My legs and back didn't hurt at all, even though I heard from people that those were their main complaints.  The only thing was that I was winded, which isn't surprising.  I still managed to have enough energy to run up a few flights here and there near the end, and to run on my way back from the tower to the convention center to check my time!  Once I got to the top, they were handing out Gatorade and water, and they let you stay at the top as long as you liked, so I got some water and took a walk around the observation deck to see the nicest sunrise.  It really was beautiful to be practically on top of the world, but it was also a little cold, and still being winded I found it hard to catch my breath.

I wouldn't have traded the experience for anything, and it's probably what I'm most proud of, even on top of losing my weight and toning up.  I'm definitely going to do it again this October!