Low Carb Lethargy

I have been laying off the blogging as I was tending to do it last thing at night and then finding myself to be really exhausted in the morning.  And what I have found is that it hasn't helped and that I am still exhausted and what should have been obvious earlier is that I am feeling exhausted because I am eating hardly any carbs, while exercising more and still looking after 3 kids etc.

Actually there is plenty of noise on the Internet about it.  I just hadn't looked before.  Distracted as I was my concerns about high protein diets and the effects on your liver and bones :-/.  Actually the stuff I have found on the net talks about 40% carbs, 40% protein and 30% fat.  What I am doing is 34% carbs, 51% protein and 15% fat.  No wonder I am exhausted!  I am going to have to have a word with my PT.

In other news I am still loving my newly found waist and my FitBit tells me that I have taken over 14,000 steps today (10.5kms).

I gave my motivation a kick along by treating my self to a little bit of a spree at Adidas - even buying running shorts - not previously an item that has ever been found in my wardrobe.  (What?  You should see the stuff that is turning up daily from my husband's online shopping for all of the 'stuff' he needs to compete in his 'little' triathlon next weekend.)

Here I sit with my aching feet on a nice warm wheat bag, having already been self-massaged with fabulous Elemis sp@ home muscle ease active Body Oil.  And with my loving DH outa town for the week, actually getting my post written quite early!

Bully for me.

Personal Trainers - my thoughts

I have had a few Personal Trainers over the years.

I had one that used to come to my apartment at 6am and collect me and take me downstairs and to the beach across the road (gotta love Sydney) and train me on the sand as the sun was gathering strength for the day.  (This was in a pre wedding panic phase in 1999) Ouch for ankles!  Once I was nearly ruined then she would take me into the gym of our building and finish the workout there.  She would have been 50 and fit as hell, and after a while my husband-to-be joined in too.

Later, after the marriage but before the kids we went through a very fit phase where we woud get up at 5am and head to a gym that hung out over the ocean and work out 3 mornings a week, sometimes with PT's and these positive experiences will stay with me always as having probably been instrumental in me finally falling pregnant with my first child.  In fact my current PT is doing a core exercise with me that I first learnt in these times.

When I joined a new fancy gym that opened just a few years ago, they let you pick your PT from a 'menu' and what I wanted at the time was:

1. A woman
2. Preferably over 30
3. Preferably who had children

I felt that they would be able to understand where I was coming from better, and that I would generally be more comfortable with them.  It actually proved to be quite difficult.  The first one fit the bill but the PT's at this gym turned over quite rapidly and I went through 3 before settling in with Carlita and was just grateful for a 'young woman' that I seemed to be able to talk to OK.  The realtionship never really bore too many results given that I basically only turned up at the Gym for the one PT session a week.  On top of the Gym fees I also found it quite difficult to justify and eventually settled into going to regular classes each week.

Then I had this brain wave to learn to swim (see earlier post re Plantar Fascitiis and Swimming) and asked about some stroke correction lessons at the gym.  Brandon, did not fit my above criteria at all and there was a certain level of discomfit involved in meeting him in the pool (I would try to make sure that I was already in the water when he appeared ...) but it was a great experience and I got the results that I was looking for and information that I will always carry with me in regard of swimming.

The PT's where I am at now are a very tight knit bunch who I know are getting great results with their clients - many of whom I know from my neighbourhood one way or the other.  The difference is the holistic approach to the program - not just the exercise but the food, and feeling accountable and having tools like online food and training diaries to keep you on the straight and narrow.  I decided to go with my husband's trainer for consistencies sake and because I felt that in knowing my husband he at least knew a bit about my home life that might prove useful.  I later learned that he has had quite the journey to arrive at his chosen career having dropped about 30kg's himself, which gives him a lot of credibility with me.  It is a relationship that is still in its infancy but is looking very promising.

The magic touch

I have a fabulous massage therapist.  I only found her about 6 months ago.  My Chiropractor referred me to her.  I have known my chiropractor for about 15years and he is very skilled and has never given me a bum steer. He used to be the chiro for the Australian Swim Team and he probably knows me better than most of the members of my family.  Anyway, he was right on the money with Margaret.  She is all kinds of qualified, with degrees and diplomas in all kinds of sport, massage and personal training and related subjects.

When I say to people that I've had a massage, I am sure they picture an aromatherapy experience and me coming out feeling blissfully relaxed and like I could just go straight to sleep (after I wash the oil slick off me).  Actually Margaret is not one bit like that.  She is much more like a really expert motor mechanic, working on an engine that she knows really well and wants to tune to within an inch of its life to get the best performance out of it.

She got to know my issues quite well initially, and now I walk in and she asks me what hurts and then she usually goes no where near the offending area at first, but works with the muscle group that are related to that spot.  If my feet are giving me hell (see Troublesome feet below) she does my calves and ITB.  If my neck is sore she massages my MTJ (jaw).

What I love about her is that she is so hard working.  She is ambitious for her business and herself.  She teaches, she does corporate work, she goes to markets, she networks, she volunteers at charity events and she is a single mature mum of 2 kids.  Other professionals, like George, and physiotherapists, and personal trainers love to work with her and are always trying to get her involved in their business.

She is my secret weapon on my fight for fitness. It takes a village :-)

Getting back in the swim

Like most Aussie kids of my generation, I was taught to swim when I was in the first couple of years of school.  I never thought of myself as being particularly gifted.  My performance at subsequent swimming carnivals during my school years, was at best average and at worst pretty pathetic. My greatest swimming achievement is not drowning as a child despite having a backyard pool and a nasty big brother, swimming in huge surf, dirty dams and local rivers.

Not too long after leaving the school yard, medical practitioners started telling me that swimming was a good activity for me as it was perfect for my dodgy back (I blame genetics and horse riding).  To which I uniformly replied "I don't like swimming".  Simple.  Flash forward 20 or so years, after about a 12km walk with my girlfriends around the local environs, I became crippled by Plantar Fasciitis.  Long story short (if its not long enough already) I got treated, was given orthotics for my trainers and told to swim instead of walk.

So, I found that my Gym employed a fit young man who used to swim for South Africa at the highest levels and trained at the Australian Institute of Sport.  I signed up for three swimming lessons focused on freestyle and away I went!  And guess what?  I LOVE swimming now.  I find just being in the water relaxing.  I find doing laps meditative.  I love the effect that it has on my physique - when I do enough of it.  I still hate all the rigmarole with getting changed and showering and washing and drying my hair after.  But all in all I am a convert.

Having said that, it has been a while since I swam laps due to a minor operation on my shoulder at the end of last year combined with School Holidays and the pesky requirement to supervise my children while at a pool.  BUT today I went to the same swim centre that I have been going to for years with my kids, bought a pass that entitles me to 10 sessions in the pool and jumped in and swam 750m quite happily and I feel FANTASTIC about it.

What is the secret to my success you may ask (besides the aforementioned young South African man).  It is (training aids - which he and my chiropractor recommended).

And following on from yesterday's post, I did get around to ringing my insurer about the large Eucalyptus tree that is lying prone across my fence and yard and was told, among many other interesting tidbits, that if I claim for my destroyed 6 year old $200 trampoline that my premium will go up $110 per year ... fancy that!