Wk 8 & the Zone Diet

Tuesday's are definitely busy, and I have no time to post anything, so even though my weigh-in's are Tuesday morning, I don't get around to posting my results until the following day.


This week, I weighed-in at 60.75kg...up by 500g.

Not as bad as I thought, considering Sunday afternoon (as I commented on Judy's blog) I kinda jumped off the wagon and indulged in some Mc Donald's cuisine...french fries and a caramel sundae...lol... And that was after a work BBQ where sausage sangers on white bread with BBQ sauce was the order of day, and not one green salad vegetable in sight! And I had no feelings of guilt or remorse whatsover. I really enjoyed my caramel sundae!

Admittedly, it was an emotional response and release to a big week where I stressed big time about AA tests. The last week has seen me do three of them that I'd been dreading since my return from Kapooka. The traumatic experiences I had down there just came flooding back and the fear of failure preyed on my mind constantly during the week. The last one which was Sunday morning was the swim test, and all I could think about was not being able to go the distance and drown in my cams.

But as Clay from Crossfit reminded me a couple of weeks ago, prior to a reallly tough workout..."The thought of Death is worse than death itself". Sometimes I give too much credit to 'worst case scenarios', and not enough credit to my preparedness and ability.

I passed all of my tests, and I'm glad that regardless of the fear I felt, I persisted in going through with them and giving it my best. In hindsight, they weren't as bad as I thought, and I felt that the last week I've grown personally by tackling these fears. I even relaxed a little on Sunday and started to enjoy things. After the swim test we had a great time with a water polo game of soughts , which was more about just having fun, and have fun we did! It's great to get paid for doing fun stuff in the AA every now and again.

Anyway...the Zone Diet...

I started yesterday and just went cold turkey. It was recommended that I continue with my present diet and change the macronutrient ratio, to bring it in line with the Zone recommendations first (P/C/F - 30%/40%/30%), and then change completely to the Zone, once I felt comfortable with that. But, I'm an all or nothing kinda gal, and I find that once I make a decision I like to begin straight away.

I wasn't hungry until last night when I had to work, and had my last scheduled snack at around 10:30pm on the way home. I admit to having a few extra cashews before bed...lol...

Anyway...so far so good. Some of you may be wondering why I decided to change my nutrition plan. Especially those of you who know me through Ideal Bodies Online, as successfully completing a program (or four), and as a Personal Success Mentor.

It basically comes down to the fact that my energy requirements have changed. It's that simple! My IBO program was mainly about fat loss and improving my fitness, plus maintaining a healthy lifestyle. I've achieved that, and am happy with how I've maintained. I'll never go back to the previous weight and unhealthy lifestyle I had before. Since completing my programs, I haven't looked back. The type of exercise program warranted the nutrition program I was following. It's time to move on, simply because I've moved forward in my health and fitness goals. That's a good place to be.

However, my exercise or type of exercise has now changed, and in order for me to make gains in Crossfit and endurance type exercise overall, I knew that I needed to change my macronutrient ratios to allow for the increased intensity demands. I'm an avid believer in following the example of those that are achieving in your chosen field of endeavour, to experience lasting success. So I aspire to those elite athletes in Crossfit, and those who are achieving success are following either the Zone, Paleo, or combination of both diets. I've also been very tired since late last year, so I've known for a little while that something needed to change to have me working at my optimum.

Does that change my ability to help IBO clients? Not in the least! The principles are still the same. I still know what it takes to succeed as far as fat loss and achieving goals. I just see this as being the next leg in my health and fitness journey, and I can now help guide people onto the next phase, or at least inspire them to continue on, regardless of whether they decide to continue with the IBO program (for maintenance) once they've achieved their weight loss goals, or they decide to take a different path.

The most important thing that I want clients and others to take from my example, is that once you've achieved your initial goals, that life and the habits you've formed once you've completed your program/s shouldn't be immediately forsaken to return to former habits. You need to be constantly moving and progressing and creating new goals, otherwise you will become complacent and things will become stagnant. That's a dangerous place to be!

Life is constantly in flux, and if things are not changing for you and they've become stagnant, it's a warning sign. Life cannot remain still. Inevitably, you will go backward. So you need to be constantly working on your health and fitness and to remain focused and vigilant if you want to continue to enjoy the benefits of all the hard work you've put in and reap the rewards far into your future. It's important you build upon the foundations you've worked hard to put in place.

It's been a mixed bag this year, in spite of setting goals at the start. I've been experiencing a continual flow of out-of-left-field encounters. Though it's to be expected when you're charting new territory, which is what this year is all about.

This evening I visited the chiropractor. I knew my pelvis was out of alignment big time, probably from the run I did for my fitness test on Saturday. It was the first time I'd run in 4 months and I was pleased at how my body held up initially. However, the muscular imbalances, and in particular, the RHS glute weakness is still there and it times like these that are needed, as a reminder to keep up the isolation exercises, which I haven't done for at least a month.

I have also strained some muscles in the top of my foot, and have had pain coursing through it since Saturday. Not only have I strained some muscles, it seems that the bones in my feet were 'out'. As the chiro said to me..."you just keep finding new ways of injuring yourself". So today was a 'first' for having a chiropractic adjustment on my foot!

Well that's about it folks for this week. Until next week...keep slogging away! ;)