Intermittent Fasting and Me

Earlier this year I tried IM Fasting.

When I first heard about it towards the end of last year it sounded like the most bonkers idea ever.

Only eat for 8 hours a day.

Like seriously- how are you supposed to do that!?

But I am strongly of the opinion that you can’t say something doesn’t work for you if you haven’t given it a go. I also know people who do it and it works for them.

So for two months earlier this year I experimented with IM Fasting.

Quick summary in case you aren’t familiar with the concept:

You eat for an 8 hour window each day. That could be 10.00-18.00 / 12.00-20.00 / 8.00-16.00 or any 8 hours to suit your day.
Then you fast for the other 16 hours.
You eat normally – no other gimmicks
You eat the same number of calories you need to eat as per any normal healthy eating plan just in a shorter window
Whilst fasting you drink water and black coffee
Some people suggest adding coconut oil to this (some say this means it’s not fasting!)

Day 1 was hard. I decided to do 12.00 to 20.00. After teaching spin at 7.00 waiting another 5 hours to teach was torture. This slowly subsided over the next few days and my body got used to functioning in hanger mode.

I experimented with my windows and found different slots worked better on different days depending on my schedule.

Evenings were tough- once I got home I wanted to eat. On some levels IM fasting was good for this as it stopped me eating just because I was sat on the sofa. On other levels it was a mild form of torture.

I tend to teach both first thing in the morning and also last thing in the evening with an office job in between so my days are long and moving for 16 hours a day on 8 hours of eating took its toll.

I’ll be honest – a large amount of this toll was mental. There were days I would have felt so much happier if I’d have eaten and by sticking to my plan I actually made a bad mood worse.

PMT symptoms were timed by ten!

I’m active and my TDDE is pretty high. I struggled on a lot of days to hit my calorie target.

If I ‘broke’ my fast I felt guilty- guilt is never great for the mindset.

I did find I could eat more carbs and fatty food with less effect on my weight.

I discovered I like coconut oil in black coffee.

I realised I won’t die if I don’t eat for half an hour (always a worry previously).

But ultimately, I realised for a happy headspace I need to eat when my body tells me it needs to eat.

So after a couple of months I decided to stop, take another look at my eating habits and find a system that worked better for me.

Upshot- IM Fasting is (in my unqualified opinion) safe and works for some people. If it works for you that’s great and I wouldn’t dissuade people from trying it. For me and my schedule I need the flexibility to eat when I want and find the restrictions of a feeding window negatively affect my mood.

I’d love to hear other people’s experiences with this method of eating.

Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway

On Sunday I travelled down to London to do my Aim 1 (Advanced Instructor Module) in Sh’bam.

Now I can’t dance. I closely resemble a plank of wood attempting to move to the beat (I can hear what I’m supposed to be doing and when, I just struggle to make my body do it when it comes to dancing). So whilst I’ve done the equivalent courses already in Body Pump, Body Combat, CX Worx and GRIT and also my Aim 2 in Body Pump so knew what was coming, I was really really (really really really) nervous about this one.

Added to this, for personal reasons, I wasn’t in the best head space when Sunday arrived and my confidence and concentration was at an all time low.

I won’t go into the ins and outs of what you do on an Aim but in addition to teaching and getting feedback on this particular course you also learn about (and try) various different types of dance, which- in my case- meant spending the whole day trying things I’d never tried before (ballet, contemporary, Jazz…).

I will start by confirming that, as anyone who has ever met me would expect, I did not excel in any of the movements tried. I also managed to completely forget the choreography for my track about 10 seconds in the second time I taught and pretty much fell to pieces.

I spent much of the day feeling really quite uncomfortable.

But I’m glad I did it.

We all like doing things we are good at. We never mind trying things when we are confident they are going to go really well. That’s fine because even if you’re good at something, going on courses such as these and getting feedback can still improve you.

But although I was by far the least able person in the room on this occasion it was probably one of the most valuable Aims I’ve done. Regular readers will know I hate cheesey phrases like ‘step out of your comfort zone’ but on this occasion, this is what I was forced to do. Not just occasionally but for 9 hours straight! I gave so many things a go that just didn’t feel natural or comfortable or easy- and when my attempts went wrong I tried my best to laugh it off.

I will never be a ballerina but learning how to do things that scare you is a skill that can help you in all aspects of your life, not just the gym.

So if you think your rubbish at squats and so fear approaching the squat rack just go and do it. You might still be a bit rubbish afterwards but you’ll be giving yourself a chance to improve at the same time as reducing the mental block surrounding it.

If you want to learn to do a handstand, sod what people think and just start practicing – the worry about what you will look like is normally a lot worse than any kind of response you might actually receive.

I’ll sign off by saying a massive thank you to Laura Turner for putting up with me the whole day and not laughing at my attempts to dance and also all the other Sh’bammers for their encouragement and advice!

Overtraining

I had my blog post ideas for the week all lined up.

But I’ve changed my mind.

Instead I want to talk about overtraining.

Overtraining is a strange concept- especially if you talk about it to non gym goers. To those who don’t live in gym land – If you are someone who would like to visit the gym regularly but never quite manage to fit it into your routine – the idea that you can train too much is a bit odd. When you first get into training the idea that more and more and more isn’t necessarily better is confusing.

If you train daily (or almost daily) however overtraining is a real thing.

And the problem is you don’t normally realise this until you have overtrained.

Feeling drained, an increasing number of aches and pains, muscle soreness that won’t ease, a drop in performance, insomnia, headaches, irrationally hating everyone around you, irritability, feeling run down or even poorly, losing all motivation to actually train. These are all signs of overtraining.

Overtraining can cause real damage to your body and take a long time to recover from if you push too hard for too long. Once you’ve overtrained once though and are aware of the signs you can be smarter about spotting it early and acting before you are hit by lots of negative effects.

If you’re really smart you’ll cycle your training so you have periods of intense work followed by lighter weeks, with different focuses so the body can recover. This will reduce the risk of overtraining and allow you to get better results.

Even if you do this however sometimes you will still hit a wall. Just out of nowhere. When you do you need to listen to your body and adjust your routine and recover. This might mean adjusting your goals a little but will also mean you can continue to improve rather than stagnating and becoming the grumpiest person in existence.

I have just had a couple of light / deload weeks. I’ve been learning new choreography for classes and this and all the associated adrenaline rushes take it out of you so my own training has been deliberately lighter. I’d dipped a bit but thought I’d recovered well.

Despite this on Monday when I almost burst into tears for reasons known only to my hormones (and possibly related to severe tiredness caused by a day of 9.5 hours in an office, a spin class, a Body Pump class, a HIIT class and a 4.5km run) I knew I was possibly at the point of having over trained. When people start asking if you are being irrational again and when you’ve eaten 3 slices of chocolate cake in one day, that’s also another clue that perhaps you need a break!

So I’ve pulled back a bit for a few days. I’ve taught my classes and done some light stuff in the gym just to keep moving but reduced intensity dramatically and have booked Friday off work to have a lie in and just generally slow down the pace. I don’t think I have reached the point of actually having overtrained but I might have physically done a bit too much recently.

I think when people think about overtraining often the question is ‘how do I know if I have’? I’m not an expert but my thought process is if you are questioning whether you have overtrained chances are you have or are seriously close to it.

Caring less about labels and symptoms and just listening to your body and reacting to what you feel can make a world of difference in staying physically and mentally well.

Meditation: An Experiment

Meditation apparently reduces stress. I am, however, the least mindful, grounded person I know so it’s never really appealed to me. Sitting still for 5 minutes whilst awake is unusual – I get bored and cold in the laying down at the end bit of yoga!

But it’s good to try things before judging- otherwise you can’t really say they aren’t for you. So I decided to commit to trying to meditate every day this week, with an open mind to see what happened:

Monday

I was about to go to bed when I realised I hadn’t tried to mediate – almost a day 1 fail! But from what I’ve read even 1 minute can be a good place to start so I searched You Tube for some beginners 1 minute meditations, lied down closed my eyes a tried to focus only on their voice. As much as I tried to clear my brain and focus on breathing, even for just 60 seconds, all my brain could think was how much the voice sounded like Hugh Dennis from Mock The Week. Feeling like this probably wasn’t what should be going through my mind I found another 1 minute meditation with no speaking, settled down and tried again. When focused on nothing other than being and breathing and trying not to think it’s suprising how long 60 seconds can feel. By the time the bell went to signal the end of the minute I did feel like my breathing had slowed my body had relaxed a little and I fell asleep quite easily.

Tuesday

Today I tried Mountain Pose. This is supposed to improve posture and balance as well as calming the mind and improving focus. Essentially, you scoop your hands overhead and bring them together standing tall. I just did this slowly about eight times, with my eyes closed and reaching as high as I could, holding the pose for a few seconds each time before bed. Strangely calming, yet very easy to do, I can see why people say meditation is good for you and actually doesn’t take as long as you imagine to get some benefit from it.

Mountain Pose

Mountain Post- Image taken from Google Search for illustration only – I did this in my bedroom in my pyjamas, not by the sea, and didn’t look anything like this!

Wednesday

Tuesday hadn’t been a great day and I went into Wednesday in a bad mood. I had a busy day leaving the house at 6 am and knowing I wouldn’t get home until around 9 pm. I was teaching the new Body Combat for the first time by myself and so was a bit stressed. Knowing that finding time to be still might be hard but also knowing that some form of mindfulness might help I decided (after a morning of mini internal tantrums) to try and look for the positive in things. This isn’t the easiest thing to do when you’re in a bad mood and I definitely didn’t manage it at every point throughout the day but attempting to put a positive spin on frustrating events did help relax me and put perspective on the things I was getting myself upset about. This is something I’ve realised I should make an effort to do every day as it does help relax you even if it isn’t always easy to do. Warning- I suspect continuously doing this makes you one of those annoying people who is always smiling (but then I’m sure there is something positive to be found in that too!).

Thursday

Having found a book on Mindfullness exercises on my bookcase at home (no idea why I have this!) today i tried Cat pose for a few minutes upon waking up. This felt like a nice gentle stretch and was quick and easy to do whilst also being calming. I’m starting to see how taking a couple of minutes a day to just be still can be benifical to your mindset.

Friday

Having a bit more time today I tried another exercise from my book – a full body scan. This involved laying down still and quiet and relaxing my body. Then focusing on the feeeling in my toes, relaxing the rest of the body and just thinking about my toes. Then moving on to my calfs, then thighs and so on, slowly moving up my body, body part by body part. This took quite some time so by the end of it I felt relaxed and chilled out. Not something I would have the patience to do everyday but it was a good way of calming the mind and body.

Saturday

This afternoon I spent 5 minutes just sitting and focusing on my breathing. As time went on my breathing slowed and became deeper and my body relaxed and my mind felt calm. It doesn’t have to be complicated to calm the body.

Sunday

Today I covered a HIIT and Body Pump class and there was a Pilates class afterwards so i decided to stay. I know Pilates isn’t meditation but its the sort of class I struggle with because it’s slow and controlled and my mind wanders. I tried to spend the hour focusing on the movements keeping them slow and deliberate and not thinking beyond what i was doing in the moment.

My takeout from the week. Even just one minute a day of just sittting or lying still and focusing on breathing or streching and not letting your mibd race can have a dramatic effect on your mind and your stress levels. I’m relatively sure you will never see me becoming a meditation guru but I am going to make more of an effort to take a few minutes each day to just be.

What I did for Lunch Today

Well obviously I went to the gym. This blog is about the gym so I was hardly likely to be writing about anything else!

I like using my lunch times for a workout. I’m lucky to have a basic gym onsite at work so I can do some form of training instead of just sitting on my bum and eating cake. Sometimes I’ll go for a run instead, and today I was tempted because we are having the first nice weather in months but in the end I decided to train inside.

This was largely as I’ve had a tough week mentally. Work has been stressful, learning new Les Mills stuff has drained me and time wise I’ve been limited and so I have got to Thursday without having done a single workout (I’ve taught 8 classes but no actual ‘me’ training to speak of) so I felt I needed to do a decent weights based session to avoid falling into a slump and went in with just the intention of getting myself moving again.

I had 45 minutes – this is what I did:

Alt Lunges 10/8/6/4/2/15/15- two 12kg dumbbells.

I hate lunges – I suspect I have at some point in the past broken my left toe and so the range of movement in it is poor and I struggle with range on that side.

Then

12 Cleans

9 Rows

6 Cleans

3 Push Press

X 10 sets with 60 seconds rest between sets – 25kg bar

This was a forearm killer. Although it wasn’t a heavy bar the sheer number of reps (180 cleans, 90 rows and 30 push press) took me to the point of fatigue and by the end of the session I was sweating without doing a single second of cardio.

Now I’ve got a proper workout in this week I feel so much better. It’s made me want to eat better today compared to the last couple of days and coupled with the weather I feel so much more brighter an positive.

Life lesson- if you are feeling a bit rubbish getting moving (and by moving I mean whatever type of activity you enjoy and will make you feel good) and eating some decent food is a great way to start making yourself feel better.

*Workout designed by Ricky Long @rickylong42

Your What and Your Why

Hands up if you’ve ever heard people talk about their ‘Why’ and done a little eye roll?

I’d put a little hands up emoji here except I haven’t worked out how to do that on here yet.

I always found memes and Facebook posts or inspirational lines about motivation a bit cheesy. Generally speaking the only cheese I have time for is the type I put in my mouth or the type produced musically by the likes of Busted or McFly.

That is until recently.

I’ve come to realise that the reason I felt like understanding what your Why is was pointless was because I didn’t really have a ‘What’.

I’d done the same job for over twelve years and did what I really enjoy (teaching) on the side and kind of thought that I had left it too late to look into making any big changes and to be honest didn’t really know what changes I’d make anyway. When people talked about being passionate about what they do I always felt a bit bemused.

I realise this makes me sound quite shallow.

I probably am.

Over the last few months however, with a bit (ok maybe a lot) of prodding, I’ve started to get an idea of what I’d like to do going forward.

I’ve worked out where my passion lies, what I believe is worthwhile doing.

I know the changes I can make now to work towards those goals and I have an idea of how I can get to where I’d ultimately like to be. How I can wok my own passions into my work life.

Once I worked this out I returned to the idea of my ‘Why’. The truth is once you know what you are working towards finding the Why is actually pretty easy. The Why is also the thing that motivates you to get stuff done now – even when you’re tired and it’s hard – because you know you need to do it to get to where you want to be.

So I’m still a ‘just get shit done type of person’. I can’t really stand fanfare. Those who need to know what I’m doing and why I’m doing it do, and for everyone else the chances are you won’t know I’ve been working towards something until I decide to write something sarcastic on Facebook!

That being said I’ve come to appreciate the power of knowing your own aims / goals / passions in your head because it’s only when you understand them that you will start to work towards them with any kind of focus.

My brain may well be about to explode

Learning Releases

I’m going to be honest with you, if you don’t teach Les Mills programmes this will mean nothing to you.

In a nutshell, Les Mills programmes are pre choreographed. Once a quarter we get a kit- a set of music, notes detailing the choreography and a DVD of that class being taught. We get, give or take, two weeks to learn it. I teach five programmes so have around 5 hours of choreography to learn.

The recommended launch date for teaching this new stuff is this Saturday so currently my brain can currently think of nothing else to write about here. So this is what I’m going to write about today.

If you don’t teach and want to get a rough idea of the process read on. If you do teach this might be familiar.

1 week before releases come out:

Heather’s brain “This quarter I’m going to be super organised, download my music straight away and learn one track a day”

The Day new releases come out:

Heather’s brain “I’ve got ages yet I’ll download it tomorrow”

Tomorrow:

Heather’s brain “Nope still ages yet. Perhaps I’ll watch this documentary about paint drying and reorganise my kitchen cupboards instead”

One Week Later:

Heather’s brain “Hmmm everyone seems to know the new stuff perhaps I should start trying to commit this stuff to memory”

One hour after this:

Heather’s brain “Or I could have a nap instead”

The weekend before launches:

Heather’s brain “OK now I really need to start to learn this stuff” *degree of panic sets in- this is good – I learn better under pressure*

Starts trying to remember chorey:

Heather’s brain “I will NEVER EVER IN A MILLION YEARS BE ABLE TO DO THAT LUNGE TRACK”

Heather’s brain “I will NEVER EVER IN A MILLION YEARS BE ABLE TO REMEMBER ALL THIS”

Heather’s brain “Why can’t I hear any of the changes in biceps”

Heather’s brain “I hate this, why do I even put myself through this”

Heather’s brain “Perhaps I should have a nap”

Heather’s brain “What will really help me learn all this is eating my body weight in chocolate”

Heather’s brain “Why didn’t I start learning this sooner?”

Heather’s brain “Is that a 2/2 there or a 3/1?”

Heather’s brain “I AM SO STRESSED I THINK I’M HAVING A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN”

A couple of days before launch date:

Heather’s brain “OK I think it’s in there- I can do this”

Heather’s brain “Aaaaand now I can’t remember my current mix to teach tonight. FML”

Upon waking on Launch Day:

Heather’s brain “What’s a squat again?”

One hour before class:

Heather’s brain “I have no idea what any of the choreography is for this class”

Ten minutes before:

Heather’s brain “I have no idea what any of the choreography is for this class”

Music Starts:

Heather’s brain “Oh there you go I do remember”

After class:

Heather’s brain “Phew”

Heather’s brain “Next quarter I would be less stressed if I started learning stuff earlier”

1 week before releases come out:

Heather’s brain “This quarter I’m going to be super organised, download my music straight away and learn one track a day”

P.s. I will totally know all my stuff for this Saturday!

Stretching – The Truth

Stretching helps with mobility – you should stretch daily.

I’ll be honest.

I don’t.

I’m bad at stretching.

I don’t do it daily.

I mean to.

But I don’t.

I’m bad at stretching daily because it’s hard because I’m really inflexible.

I’m really inflexible because I’m bad at stretching daily.

It’s a catch 22.

Stretching helps keeps your muscles long, lean, and flexible. We need flexibility to maintain a range of motion in our joints. You want to squat well – you need a good range of motion. When the muscles shorten and become tight you’ll find your range of movement becomes limited. Tight muscles can also increase risk of injury – regular stretching helps you avoid this.

What should you stretch? Your calves, hamstrings, hip flexors and quads will probably be most beneficial for those who train often, along with the shoulders and lower back. If there is a particular muscle you know is tight and restricts your ROM- stretch that.

It doesn’t need to take long – ten to fifteen minutes a day. Nothing complicated or fancy needed. Ideally, you want the body to already be warm before you stretch. Hold each stretch for 30 seconds. You want to feel tension during a stretch but not pain.

The key as with anything here is consistency. Stretching sporadically will not do anything. You will need to do it regularly over a period of time to start to see benefits.

I doubt I’ve said anything here you didn’t already know.

I know what I need to do and how to do it.

I still don’t.

I’m going to make a commitment to my health now though- From now on I’m going to spend at least 5-10 minutes a day stretching!

Easter eggs and the art of patience

Happy Easter.

Probably my favourite holiday.

Because I like Easter Egg chocolate more than any other chocolate

And I get four whole days off of work.

Thats four lie ins, four days with no classes to teach (well that’s a lie I’m teaching a Body Pump tomorrow night but almost four days), four days to slow down, do the bare minimum, do it at a leisurely pace, drink too much champagne in my pajamas on a whim because I can.

I have trained each day too – just 30 to 60 minutes – because I wanted to.

Friday I did weights and went for a short run

Yesterday I did Murph (I don’t like Murph, I’ll write about that one day)

Today I did 30 minutes of HIIT in my living room.

So far I have eaten 3 easter eggs. Plus a fair few mini easter eggs. I still have one left.

My calorie intake this week will probably be double my energy expenditure.

I don’t feel guilty about this. It’s just one week.

After I trained this morning I looked at myself in the mirror and saw some definition in my stomach.

Only a little (and excuse the mismatched outfit i threw on – i wasn’t planning on taking a selfie!) but it’s progress. And this was after I’d eaten a whole easter egg for breakfast.

This was my breakfast today by the way.

You can not have the perfect diet, not be the best athlete in the world, not be 100% ‘on it’ all the time and still get results.

The fact is lasting results take time. Lifestyles have to be compatible with your actual life and sometimes you will have days where you aren’t as ‘on it’ as others.

Consistency is a word banded about in gym land a lot. It’s important. So is patience. Most of us have no patience. I know i’m often guilty of this. But I also know I’m starting to see real results – from a years worth of hard work. Not 6 weeks or a few months but from not giving in after a few weeks because I didn’t already have a six pac. Patience.

When i started writing this post I wasn’t really sure what it’s point would be.

I’m still not. I was just feeling reflective. Sometimes you need to reflect a bit to gain some perspective.

Now excuse me whilst I go and find that last easter egg…

Quick One

I haven’t posted for a while.

I’ve been busy. Spent a lot of time at a desk.

Quick tip for others desk bound like me.

Invest in one of these.

20180323_181343

Half gallon water bottle. That’s two litres. Keep it on your desk. Fill it. Drink it. Repeat daily. Use the toilet as necessary.

Hydration is important. When we are busy it’s easy to forget this. This little trick helps me.

In other news I have decided to take the plunge and have signed up to do my Level 2 Fitness Instructor and Level 3 PT course. Expect lots of posts about my progress on this over the coming weeks!