43 dayz. I'm gonna call it!

I technically have 3 days left for my challenge. But... I'm going to stop my posts for the Xmas break while I focus on family and celebrating. So I will give my final results of my body fat percentage challenge now.

Started at 93.1kg and 35.2% body fat on my scales. Made it to 82.1kg and 18.6% body fat during this week.

I followed a fairly regimented meal plan during most of the week. Only breaking for the weekend as some meals where a little more on the fly. I kept a pretty intense resistance training regiment up, with a fair bit of cardio at the start to crank up the fat loss.

So, not sure what my next goal will be, but I really want to maintain this low body fat %.

So we shall see how I fair over the holiday break.

For all of my readers, I shall return in the new year. Ready to motivate you in all things fitness!

Have a safe and happy holiday season.

Supp review!!

For a long time I've been a supporter for the Max's protein products. Yummy cookies, yummy bars, good tasting protein powders and reasonable price. But in recent days the price of the 'tein has gone up. So I decided to follow a tip off from a while back about proteindirect.com.au.

10kgs later (I had my training partners order in with mine) and 4 packages of unflavored WPC was delivered to my door.

The price was good, the delivery, speedy. They suggested up to 7 days, it took 2, but the real test would be how did the product hold up?

To taste it on its own, it's not much chop. But ad a little brown sugar, honey or cocoa powder, you name it you can flavor it, and this stuff is essentially the same quality protein as the rest on the market. And by flavoring yourself you can adjust it to your sweet setting!

So my verdict at the moment... Double thumbs up for value for money in versatility and quality. Taste, well that's something you'll have to sot for yourself. You can buy flavor packs from the site, but my current flavorings of choice are finely chopped dried banana (turns it into a sweet powder to add) and cocoa powder and raw sugar. But with the right ingredients you could go crazy with all sorts of flavor combos.

I haven't tried it yet but since this stuff if unflavored you can even add it to mince to ad more protein to homemade burger patties.

I have however made some home made protein bars, which I will post my recipe too soon.

New workout music anthem.

Gotta get this one pumping through the ear holes.

I know, will I am and Brit... Not exactly lyrical genius. But hey who doesn't want to scream and shout and let it all out web they are at the gym?

Holiday food and fitness tip #3

During the holiday period a lot of gyms close down, sometimes just for the public holidays. Sometimes for longer.

Last year I used this time to check out some different gyms and test out what else was on offer. So what can you do to make sure that you are having a break from work and not your fitness?

Here are my tips for staying active during the break.

Go for a walk, jog or ride. Take a family member or even the whole family. While the weather is good and you have the time to share get mobile the old fashion way. Walk to the shops or the movies or walk to the beach to spend some time in the sun.

Find a small place at home to do a half hour full body work out. Sit ups, push ups, chin ups (if you have the equipment) skipping, ab bridges, star jumps, burpees, box jumping. You name it there are a multitude of minimal equipment exercises that you can carry out without a gym. Keep it intense and move from each exercise without much rest and in half an hour you'll be feeling it.

And last but not least, perhaps change your membership to a gym that is open 24/7. Gym loyalty is one thing, but having a gym open at any time can help in making sure you don't have a disruption during the break.

Holiday food and fitness tip #2

Sweet sweet candy!

Even if you let your friends and family know that you don't want to be gutsing chocolate and candy in a big way, over the holiday season... Guaranteed you are either going to be given a box of chocolates or stumble across a sweet treat to eat at some time.

So what are the tips for this sugary land mine?

If you get a box of chocolates, get into the Christmas spirit and share them with others. Also these candies are normally small and give you a feeling that you are only having a few when really you are having more sugar intake then you think. Limit yourself to 1 or 2 per day.

After meal sweets and deserts. This one can be a little complicated as refusing such a well made trifle or cake can offend your host. Instead of saying no straight up, ask for a small piece. Eat that small piece as slowly as you can. If you finish too quick...you'll be more likely to be asked if you want seconds. Your head will be telling you, "yeah sure, just one more piece" but that is just the sugar devil talking.

Eat fruit based sweets where you can, though once again too much is bad for you, at least you will get some good fibre and other nutrients from fruit.

And lastly, don't hate yourself if you break under the pressure of it all and give in to temptation. You will just have to work harder when the gyms re open after the break.

Holiday food and fitness tip #1

You are bound to go to a barbie or two during the holidays.

So the barbecue tips are such.

Avoid excessive sausage in a bun (bread) syndrome as the carbs will be your undoing.

Minimize your sauces. Sauces contain loads of sugar. So smothering all of your meat in the rosella is going to ad the pounds. Savor the flavor of the foods without sauce or with a small amount on the side to dip into instead.

Keep your salad to meat ratio higher on the salad side. Fill up on healthy greens and veg instead of plating high with meat and few sticks of carrot. Fresh salad will become less edible more quickly than meat will. So you can afford to have left over meat to store in the fridge but you don't want to be throwing the salad away that evening.

And alcohol... Have it but be moderate. 1. You shouldn't really be the drunkard at your house or a friends house and 2. Too much will lead to your fitness undoing. If you are thirsty have water in between drinks and stop when you are feeling full.

1 year

Happy birthday to my blog.

8776 and counting views and 161 and counting, posts. May I have many more years and encouragement to post.

And I hope everyone continues to stay fit and motivated!!

13 dayz left...

Well not long to go now and then it's crunch time on my challenge. But with the end of that challenge what's next? This is the perpetual task that we all need to ask every day. What challenge and goal am I stepping up to next?

I think firstly I'm going to have to face the challenge of Christmas Day food and Boxing Day feasts, New Years boozing and Australia Day barbies.

If I survive that... Then I shall see what my new goal will be.

Stay posted for my final results AND some tips to keep it trim over the break period.

Upscale, downscale

Measuring your success can be done in many ways. Depending on what you are chasing as a goal you can measure with personal bests, goal achievements and of course the oldie but goodie, scales and body fat measurements.

But if you are so inclined to measure yourself upon the scale, be warned!!! There are some inherent issues with doing this and if you know some of the pitfalls you can avoid disappointment and also avoid false results.

Firstly, if you have an old set of scale that you think might be out of calibration, go buy some new ones. You can get new scales from as little as $20 or even $50 to $60 dollars can get you one with other fruit on it like body fat % and bone mass etc.

Secondly, use only one set of scales for results and recordings. Soooo, if you have been weighed in at your gym for appraisals or by a personal trainer, put your scales away and ONLY use theirs. Using multiple scales can skew your perception of weight and results. I use my own scales as I’m a self-measurer and just today I tested the theory by using the scales at the gym. My results that I had taken the night before changed from 83.6kg and 19.2% BF to 84.4kg and 11.2% body fat. Now I know you burn calories in your sleep but that amount of body fat in one night’s sleep is inconceivable. The real story, different levels of body fat calculation from machine to machine. The weight stayed similar but this could also be due to varying percentages of accuracy that each digital scale can provide.

Thirdly, try and record yourself less times in a week. I currently measure every two days, some even measure weekly. What this does is takes away the obsessive day to day small results which can get you down and hopefully turns them into a larger result of change, which will make you feel better about what you are doing. Sometimes looking at the bigger picture can help, what sounds better in your head, “hmm I’ve only lost 100grams (when measured daily)” or “wow I lost a whole Kilo!(when measured at the end of the week)?

Fourthly, take photos of yourself to keep a visual. Sometimes you may only loose a few kilo’s by the scale but your body shape may have changed dramatically. When I looked at my pictures in between, from 15 days apart, I was amazed at the difference. So just because you aren’t dropping to your goal weight in a week doesn’t mean you are not already starting to look like the body that you are aiming for and the hard work is paying off.

And lastly, don’t beat yourself up if you slip up. No one said reaching your goal would be easy. If you find your results plateauing or moving in the wrong direction. Don’t sulk and give up. Use the data to see how you can change what you ARE doing to start the results back into the right direction.

You CAN change your body with time and effort and you will become better for it both for your health and your own self confidence.

Be prepared for weight loss

So you have your weekly routine or plan for the gym, great. What about your weekly plan for the other side? The yang to the ying, if you are burning it up at the gym, you need to plan for what fuel you are going o put in. And if you are looking for weight loss it helps to be prepared, because you can't just be eating everything in sight (those who are bulking only get this pleasure)

Portion size and what you take in is important, so having pre portioned meals is a great start. I utilize a large can of tuna for my lunch meal, however my wife hates the stuff. So I proposed a lunch time meal set up that should do the job for taste, protein and energy.

We spent around a half hour preparing over a weeks worth of lunches for her, season and flavor some chicken breast, cook it. Make some rice and boil up some greens. Then using some food storage containers, portion out the goodies. Whack em in the fridge and now each day her lunch is sorted.

If you are used to big lunches this methodology might cause some hunger grumbles through the first week. Your stomach is going to shrink and the grumbles get less after the week. The other thing that you will need to do is eat every 2 hours or so. Breakfast, morning snack, lunch, arvo snack, then tea and if you need to a very small power snack before bed.

Now before anyone starts preaching that I'm not a nutritionist and such... Bear in mind that this is only advice. If you find yourself feeling weak or sick, increase your portion size to energize. And make sure what you are eating as snacks in-between are healthy and not junk. And if you are finding it hard to adjust your eating habits or not sure what you shod be eating, seek advice from a nutritionist. They will be able to suggest what foods you should be eating to fill any nutrient voids.

Motorv8ting music.

Here are a couple of fresh beats to ad to the workout playlist to keep you sweating!