Two months in...

So I realise my promises of updating this blog regularly have largely gone unfulfilled and I apologise in case anybody was emotionally invested but sometimes life just catches up with you. But I am here to be accountable to you all and to share my experiences. Mainly for selfish reasons so that I can keep pushing on and trying to succeed in my quest to lead a healthier and thinner life. 

Month 1

If there was one word I would use to describe the first month it would be produce. Our house was stocked with fresh veggies and fresh fruit at its peak in summer with watermelon and strawberries, nectarines and peaches readily available in the kitchen. It was a marvelous time. University was on holidays, I ate no sugar  (except for the odd bit forced upon me when my aunty baked a birthday cake from scratch, you just cannot say no to that). Life was glorious, the weight was falling off, heck I even found it hard to go to the gym because it was so easy to lose weight. 

Month 2

This is where reality has set in. 'Real life' has returned. Uni has started, work is getting busier, I have less free time and as I would like to say, the struggle is real! The honeymoon period wore off once uni kicked in. The old temptations of $2 meat pies and chips are hard to resist. I had a sudden decrease in free time and couldn't spend hours thinking about what we would eat or looking for new recipes to try out that were delicious. Surprisingly I would not say that being sugar free is harder or more difficult to carry out in a practical sense. The truth is that it is harder because of my previous bad habits and routines, it is harder because of the way our lives are structured and we get tired and do not have the time or effort required to constantly fight our previous urges and temptations. My biggest struggle is trying not to fall into old traps. Trying not to go and grab a pie because they are cheap and I have an hour between classes. Trying not to go and grab an iced coffee (sugar loaded) from Gloria Jeans because I have an assignment due and society tells me as a uni student caffeine will really help get it done. 

My advice...I am not one to consider myself qualified in anyway to give advice on this topic at all. But I guess if there was one tip that I could offer anybody it is be prepared for the lame moments. These are the moments where life decides to line itself up and you have zero time, zero patience and every bit of you wants some sugar. Find things that are great to eat and find things that are quick and simple. My wife and I constantly resort to basil pesto pasta. Sometimes we make our own pasta and pesto from scratch, other times it is store bought pasta and store bought pesto but either way it is a yummy yummy meal that is quick to cook and is oh so yum! Find your favourite, simple meals and it will go a long way to set you up for success.

Tools of choice!

I have decided to implement a little something  I call the tools of choice section. What I am going to do is just write down a thing I have used to help me every now and then and talk about it. For our first one I want to talk about HIIT. (Also known as High Intensity Interval training)

HIIT is doing a lot of hard work for a short period of time followed by a break then doing it all again. It can be on a treadmill where you would sprint then walk then sprint then walk then sprint then walk maybe for like 2 minutes then 1 minute and repeat that 5 times. Or it can be in a circuit situation with movement like push ups, burpess, sit ups, box jumps each for 30 seconds then a rest for 2 minutes then go again 4 times. I tried doing a circuit this week because I was bored at the gym with running on the treadmill and doing cardio that way.

My circuit I just made up myself not knowing what to do or how it would go. Here is what it ended up looking like:

1. 10 box jumps
2. 20 mountain climbers
3. 10 lunges
4. 10 frog jumps
5. 10 push ups
6. 20 second plank
7. rest for 2 minutes and repeat 4 times

So honestly that's a little bit of a lie. That was the dream. In reality I am not fit at all and not that strong so I managed to finish all of those exercises in the circuit 4 times but the break might have been 3 minutes a couple of times and there may have been a couple of big deep breaths in between some of them but I still made it and let me tell you now it is currently the next day and I am sore for sure! And it was really tiring yet it only went for 20 minutes all up.

HIIT is a method that is good for getting the heart rate up and keeping it high. It is apparently supposed to be good at getting your fitness level up quicker as you are elevating your heart rate then letting it drop then elevating it again over and over. Fitness after all is the hearts ability to pump blood efficiently and provide oxygen to muscles to keep working. Hence someone who is fit has a lower heart rate. The faster your heart rate can decrease the fitter you generally are. (All these claims I just made I have done some reading on line a little bit but don't trust me or anything you read on line do your own research!!!!)