Nutrition – the science behind it all

On the one hand this week has gone by in a flash, but on the other it feels like we’ve been doing this for a g e s already!
So, here are the results from the United Kingdom jury (if you’ve never seen the Eurovision Song Contest, that reference to it will have just passed you by…really, don’t worry, you’re not missing much if you haven’t endured the torture of it!).

Week one pictures

Comparisons against day zero

(I know it looks like I’m holding on to my bum for dear life but I’m not, honest!)

Week one numbers

So there you go, small changes and all of them in the right direction; HURRAH!
Onward; week two awaits…one down, nine to go 🙂

I’ve got very used to training six days a week and just having Sundays off – I’m a Monday to Sunday girl, the ordered and logical part of my brain likes it – so the idea of two days off is rather novel.
Novel and, I thought, would require a fair bit of inner strength to comply with – I was wrong.
Oh it’s still novel but, with the way I’m feeling today, two days off sounds like the best idea I’ve ever heard!
I ache from head to toe; sitting or standing still is fine, move around and every single muscle group lets me know how abused they feel.
I’m also v e r y tired!
A couple of late nights and very early mornings won’t be helping that along, but there’s more to this tiredness than lack of sleep. This tired tells me I gave this week everything I had, that I worked hard and that I need to rest now…for two days.
So there was no training today and there’s no training tomorrow – never thought I’d hear myself say ‘HURRAH!’ to that!
Actually, I did do some training today – I trained Jack in the kitchen; we cooked various things for him to try in a bid to find things he can take to school that are tasty, easy to carry around and will give him enough calories each time.
It’s easy to see that he’s becoming more and more keen as each hour passes.
He was completely crashed out on the sofa by 10pm last night, absolutely dead to the world; he staggered up the stairs barely aware of what he was doing, so I was rather surprised to hear him rushing down the stairs and into the kitchen at 08.15 this morning!
As he wandered past the office  door, shake in hand, he said, “Is it ok to move my eating times back an hour and a quarter? I’m sorry I didn’t get up in time to eat at 7am!”
It was very sweet – I can’t think of a better word to use other than sweet – so I explained it wasn’t the actual hour on the clock that was important, but the timings in between each meal that’s key.
He was happy with that and understood that the weekend schedule could be different, if he wanted it to be, as there’s no school on the Saturday and Sunday agenda.
The rest of the day has spent answering other questions that keep popping in to his head, like:

“What training are we doing on Monday?”

“What’s the purpose of that?”
“Can I eat this?”
“Can I drink that?”
And his usual bedtime reading has been replaced with my copy of Tom Venuto’s Burn the fat, Feed the muscle; my SIGNED copy…so he’d better look after it or there’ll be B I G trouble.
He came into the bedroom and told me when I should and shouldn’t go shopping, so as to avoid impulse buying junk food *hilarious* then he ambled out of the bedroom, having said goodnight, muttering, “Wow..I’d never thought of that…” with his nose still buried in the book.
It’s results day tomorrow!
Quite how an entire week has gone past so quickly, I DON’T know. What I DO know is I’m falling asleep at the laptop – literally, not metaphorically – so I’m going to shut the lid, turn the light off and go to sleep.
See you tomorrow for pictures and measurements!

Jack will be 16 in November. My eldest son; my 5 foot 10, tall, handsome boy.
He’s ALWAYS been slim, right from day one, but then he started to grow upwards; fast! He went from slim to long and lanky in a matter of months, and that’s where he’s been ever since.
He can eat like a horse and not add a millimeter, let alone an inch, to anywhere on his body – I have no idea where it all goes; pounds are definitely NOT sneaking onto Jack’s body by stealth!
So not only has Ellie been working on switching her nutritional lifestyle, she’s also had to develop a will power made of iron to stick with eating the new way, whilst Jack continued to the eat the old way.
Yesterday, Ellie breezed in from school and announced, “Jack’s decided to walk home instead of getting the bus!”
What?! School is 6 miles away along some very narrow country roads; they are really not ideal for walking along, dangerous in fact, which is why no one does it!
I wondered what had triggered that off and mused on whether, or not, to drive the route to school, find him and pick him up. I thought better of it, he obviously had a reason for walking and me driving ‘to the rescue’ probably wouldn’t help. I’d just have to wait a couple of hours, until he got home, to find out.
Ten minutes later he was home – now I was confused!  Ellie had omitted to say that Jack HAD actually got on the bus, but decided to get off a village early; it’s the small details that can be the most useful you know *sigh*
The upshot was he’d got off the bus early to get some space and calm down; he’d had a bit of a run-in with some bigger boys in his year, not taller but broader – you can see where this is going right? – and it was the age old story: three on one pushing and shoving, with a lot of intimidation, rounded off with the threat, “This ISN’T over!”
I must confess to having to imagine I was glued to the chair in an attempt to counter every instinct telling me to hunt these boys down, teach them some lessons in manners, decency, respect and what it feels like to have their backsides kicked in to touch. HOW DARE THEY! Ooooh I can feel myself getting cross all over again!
However, deciding that beating up teenage boys  probably wouldn’t set the best example (and the thought of being charged with actual bodily harm not appealing much), we spoke about the various options Jack had available instead.
We crossed off the non-viable ones, like bunking off school and getting your mum to go and rough ’em up a bit and, in the end, we’d narrowed them down to two:

1. Involve the school and have these bullies dealt with (statements are being taken on Monday)
2. Train and eat properly with the goal of putting muscle on

Declaring, “I don’t want to be skinny anymore, I want to be strong and big and confident…I don’t want to feel helpless again,” the decision was made; these were the two things to put into action.
Within hours an eating and training programme were in place and measurements had been taken:

• 16 years old
• 5ft 10in tall
• 60kgs
• 5% body fat – yup, just 5% (great for six packs!)

I know kids can say they’re really keen when, in reality, they’re not but the two big signs that Jack really means business were

1. when he mustered every ounce of courage that flows through his body and was prepared to stand in his boxers so I could take before photos – when he and Ellie were in Italy in August he lived in jeans and a t-shirt, it was 38C on some days but exposing anything more than your head and forearms was just NOT an option. NO!
2. when he decided he would train in the mornings before school

“What time are we going to train?”
“6am.”
“OK, what time shall I set my alarm for?”
“5.45am,” I said, expecting there to be some look of horror or the suggestion that we might start a bit later, but what I got instead was,
“Cool.”
I was awake VERY early this morning and couldn’t get back to sleep, so I mooched around here for a bit and added some bits and pieces in the background, which will be popping up soon, when I heard the beeping of Jack’s alarm at 5.45; he was downstairs, ready, at 6am.
He did really well considering he’s never done anything like this before, AND especially as his trainer is his mum – poor boy’s got it tough – but he gave everything his best shot and by 7am was at the kitchen table, eating straight after training, and experiencing, for the first time, the amazing feeling of satisfaction knowing you got up early and you got the job done.

I’m very proud of him.
His goal is to have packed on a fair bit of muscle before my mum lands back from Italy for a month in the middle of December. He wants to meet her at the airport and for her not to recognise him for a few moments and then be gobsmacked.
I had to laugh to myself earlier, he came into the office and asked, “What time are we getting up for training tomorrow?” You should have seen his face when I said we weren’t training again until Monday – he looked so disappointed.
Until five weeks ago for Ellie, and yesterday for Jack, it’s looked like my healthy lifestyle was having NO impact at all. Being a positive role model just WASN’T having the effect I was hoping for!
What else could I do? Nothing, other than carry on even though it looked like it wasn’t working.
I realise, now, there was nothing else to BE done other than wait for them to find their OWN reasons why which were strong enough to cause them to come and ask for help.
I don’t need to wait any more.

As for my own training today, I can sum it up in two words:
MORE ABUSE!
There’s no more to be done this week (Sam…did you hear me? *grin*) and I’m looking forward to seeing the results of my first week of six pack torture training on Sunday; and now…I must sleep!
See you tomorrow 🙂

Don’t panic!
I’m not getting impatient to see mega results after only four days, that would be extreme even for me!
No, I’m talking about a much longer time frame than four days or 10 weeks; I’m talking months, maybe even years.
My daughter will be 15 in November; my beautiful girl, the same height as me, WAS a bit bigger than me.
Until recently she was living the ‘high life’ able to eat pretty much anything, in any quantity, without it seeming to have any impact.
But we know how the pounds can accumulate by stealth; sneak on to our favourite slim areas, EXPLODE overnight and BOOM! thunder thighs and monster hips by morning – at least that’s how it feels.
OK, so it wasn’t that bad and she was by no means heading into overweight territory, but she was beginning to look…rounder.
I really don’t want her to have a set of before pictures like mine but carefully phrased, and timed, comments were going unheeded; large dinners were being consumed; chocolate and crisps were devoured without care and exercise.
I should make it clear that, along with all of the above, she was happily eating her way through lots of fruit and veg and drinking litres of water every day. So trying to change things wasn’t like clearing up after a major disaster.
It was more akin to being stuck in a traffic jam: we’d go a little way, then stop, move forward a bit more, then come to a complete standstill where we might as well abandon hope for a while and switch off the engine.
My mum lives in Italy and the teenagers were due to spend the last half of August there; mum was telling me how tiny and slender the ‘ragazze’ are (the ‘girls’) and how Ellie would tower over them and be a good couple of dress sizes bigger too (to give you some perspective, she wears a UK size 8 – this is not huge!), we both mused on what sort of effect this might have on her, if any.
And so it happened. I waved them both through security at the airport and a few weeks later they returned. During the 150-mile drive back from from the airport, Ellie suddenly announced she wanted to eat like me. It’s a miracel I didn’t crash the car into the central reservation I was that surprised!
I’d been expecting something, but not this! Not a renouncement on junk food and acknowledgement that the lifestyle I’ve been leading solidly for the last 18 months, or so, HAVE actually been noticed and that it might be a good way to eat and live after all.
I was beginning to wonder if my being a positive role model was having any impact at all; it certainly hadn’t been looking that way, if anything it had seemed to be doing the complete opposite.
She started her new healthy eating lifestyle almost five weeks ago – “I’m not on a diet, ACTUALLY! This is a healthy lifestyle choice!” is her response to anyone who dares to criticise or undermine what she’s doing; she’s not one to be messed with…can’t think WHERE she gets that from! – and she’s learned a lot!
She’s learned that she’s only dropped half a kilo but lost a fair few inches – it took her a while to get her head around that one, but she got there. She’s learned the principles of eating five or six times a day, and how she can go to school and STILL fit this in.
She’s learned that she feels much better generally; she’s learned that from about week three the dreaded teenage spots on her nose and chin had vanished, and that her skin had become beautifully clear.
Do I really need to go on…? Sunday will be the end of her fifth week and she’s well and truly living new habits with no regrets or lust for foods gone by.
I’m very proud of her.

Btw, I didn’t collapse in a heap on the floor when I got out of bed this morning; I just can’t raise my arms above my head, feel as if I’ve been kicked in the lower back, and backside, by a horse and that my forearms and legs are badly bruised.
All of that from three exercises that didn’t look like they were going to be enough!
Completing 20 minutes of HIIT today, on top of yesterday, was nothing short of abuse; very satisfying abuse, but abuse all the same.
It’s been a very long day today with some interesting, and very exciting, developments that I’ll be able to tell you about tomorrow; but it’s late now, so until then…

Today’s workout can only be described as a wolf in the proverbial sheep’s clothing. It looked dead simple on the training sheet – well it WAS dead simple; let me rephrase…it didn’t look like it was going to be too tough.
It was legs today; I like training legs and I’ve been looking forward to this particular one since we started.
Sam’s still sunning herself in Hawaii, although she is getting up at 5am every day to train – how’s that for dedication to the six pack cause! – and the time difference between Waikiki Beach and the UK is currently 11 hours.
When I’m up early, writing, it’s early evening for Sam and the timing is just right for chat by email.
I haven’t known Sam very long but this morning we discovered we are rather similar when it comes to thinking ‘more is MORE!’
When you’ve got used to working at maximum capacity in all areas of your life for a long time, you discover that doing less – or, perish the thought, take a day off – has become a bit like a long-lost relative.
You remember them, of course, but you really can’t get a firm fix on the last time you got together or when you’re likely to see them again!
For the last three months or so, Fridays have become my official day-off-of-the-week; the other six are all fair game for the W word. I have to tell you, the night before that first Friday off…I actually felt nervous! How crazy is THAT!
A day completely to myself; a day where I could do what I wanted, when I wanted and I had NO clue what to do with it – rather sad really when you really think about.
It took four Fridays to really get into it and now I LOVE my Fridays off; on these days, less is most definitely more!
Anyway, back to this morning and the discovery that for me and Sam, when it comes to training, less being more is one of those long-lost rellies we’re getting back in touch with.
Sam: “For training tomorrow, it’s just those three exercises? I suppose I live in fear that it’s not enough… my DO MORE mentality!”
Me: “Yep, it’s JUST those three exercises. I know exactly where you’re coming from when you say it doesn’t look like enough.
I think we’ll be surprised – I still struggle with, seemingly, less actually being more. I have to remind myself I don’t need to be on my knees and sweating like a bank robber running away from the cops, to have trained hard.
Sam: “I’m so glad you understand my ‘not enough!’ I’m soooo guilty of, “if four is good, bring on 10, cuz I’m tough as nails, watch me work it!” <eye roll>  I always think I need to workout hard for two hours and feel like I’ve been hit by a truck, or I didn’t do enough. Geez.
I’ll let you know how it goes later, and will have you know I resisted the nearly overwhelming urge to do another 20 mins of HIIT this morning. “

So? Were those workout looks deceiving for six pack workout day three?
Erm….yes!
I booked training in to my schedule for 11am.  I had a review deadline of 1pm and decided that I would drop training in the middle of it – do half before 11, train and then wrap it up afterwards; a perfect plan!
At 11 I was ready. Armed with water and my phone (for stopwatch purposes only remember)  I eyed up the barbell on the floor that was leering at me with the sort of look that says ‘Come over ‘ere if you think you’re ‘ard enough!’
I know I can deadlift 45kgs with normal timing, but we aren’t doing normal times and on the basis of what I can normally do, I need to push my limits.
So there it was – the bar, loaded up with plates to make it’s total weight 50kgs. I’d like to point out that, give or take 6 kilos, that was pretty much my entire body weight on the bar.
“I can do this! *It’s heavy though* Yes but that’s the whole point! *Yes, but it’s really heavy* Oh shut up, I’m doing it!”
And with that, I picked it up and guess what?  It WAS heavy!!!!
After the first six my heart rate was off and racing; by the third six there was a lot of , “COME ON!” being shouted – I think I scared the postman away as he posted the letters through the door but opted to leave the parcel on the doorstep; he usually rings the doorbell. By the last six I was muttering things I won’t repeat here.
By the end of it all I was FINISHED! Out of breath, sweating (a lot), shaking, the whole works.
Not only that, my forearms were completely wrecked; this was something I hadn’t thought about and my perfect split-the-review plan wasn’t looking so clever when I discovered I could barely type! However, I made my deadline and almost 12 hours on, I rather fancy doing it all again *grin*
I know better than that though and have a sneaky feeling I’m going to be aching quite considerably tomorrow morning.
You know what it’s like when you go to bed feeling pretty g o o d, whilst nodding smugly to yourself because you’ve clearly defeated the DOMS demon; you leap out of bed the following morning only to discover your legs don’t work, and wondering if someone beat you up in the middle of the night because you ache so much..?  I think it could be a bit like that!
See you tomorrow 🙂

Mention cardio and most people will run (LOL) a mile very fast…AWAY from you!
Cardiovascular training comes in different guises, different speeds and is a constant source of debate among fitness fans and sofa slobs alike.
Admittedly, the slob argument is pretty simple, straightforward and never takes very long…
Slob 1: “Why on earth would anyone want to deliberately do something that makes them tired, hot and sweaty and feel like they’re about to have a heart attack?”
Slob 2: “Yep, I agree; makes no sense to me whatsover – pass me some of that chocolate will you…?”
But for the fitness fans (FF)…
FF1: “I enjoy steady state cardio; there’s nothing quite like running at an even pace for an hour.”
FF2: “Nooo, riding a bike is the best way to do steady state cardio!”
FF3: “Walking is the best way actually, everyone knows that..”
FF4: “You three have got it all wrong! High intensity interval training (HIIT) is the best – steady state is a waste of time.”
FF5: “Actually, you ALL have it wrong; MAX interval training is the only way. Knock yourselves out with all that other stuff, but if it’s results you want then it has to be MIT every time.”
FF6: “Erm, FF5…that’s not right. You should alternate between steady and HIIT or MIT – THAT’S the best way to get results.
And so it goes on!
It’s no wonder some people don’t know what to do for the best and then end up doing nothing at all!
Well, there are valid reasons for both – it all depends on what you’re training for and what your goals, and final objectives, are.  But for the purposes of our six pack challenge, we want to burn fat, we’re busy and need to be efficient with our time…so it’s HIIT for us and only 20 minutes of it, with a good warm up beforehand and cool down afterwards.

So on today’s six pack training menu was 20 minutes of High Intensity cardio.
I know it doesn’t sound like much, but when you’re doing a 40/20 second split on the bike with it maxed out for High…those Low seconds go by FAST.
I’ve been practising this particular form of speciality ‘torture’ for a while now, in between other HIIT programmes, and I still get off the bike with legs like jelly and feeling like I’m in the middle of some strange out-of-body experience.
At the end of those 20 minutes I have no control over my limbs whatsoever, and coherent speech is out of the question!
How many calories did I kill…? 139.
That level of masochism, effort and sweat for a stingy 139 calories!  Good job cardio isn’t just about burning calories otherwise I’d be a bit miffed!
Day three tomorrow – the workout doesn’t LOOK too bad actually. But, as is often the case with workouts that don’t look too bad, those looks can be deceiving!
See you tomorrow 🙂

The first day is always an exciting one; after lots of preparing, planning and anticipating it finally arrives and a new challenge begins.
Every challenge day is important, but the first one can set the tone.  If you really enjoy the first training session of a new programme then, chances are, the rest will go well too.
If your eating is spot on for the first day, then it’s likely it will be for the rest of your challenge as well.
Why? Because success sets you up for success!
If you can succeed today, then you can succeed tomorrow and the day after that.

I woke up early this morning with a real spring in my step – I couldn’t WAIT to get started! I planned to train at 10am but I had to write first and get some admin’ out of the way.
Mondays are fairly quiet but TODAY, the world and his wife decided it would be a good day to talk to me, and ask all sorts of important questions like,
“What’s the weather like where you are this morning?”
“Erm (glancing out the window) it’s cold and windy with that fine misty ‘raining-but-can’t-really-be-bothered-to-really-throw-it-down-properly’ sort of rain. Why? Are you coming to visit?”
“No, I was just wondering…”
“Oh great…well, I’m glad I could be of weather service this morning!” Time – 9am
Then my mum popped up on Google chat to discuss various things and catch up (she lives in Italy). Time – 9.20am.
Next, there was an inpromtu writers review meeting to arrange the schedule right through until the end of December. Time – 10.10am.
Ok -I’m only ten minutes behind, that’s pretty good for me.
I leave my desk and head for the kitchen to get water to drink through training (I know I’m going to need it, having seen what’s in store), then one final check of email and I’m good to go.
I know better than this. I should have just stayed AWAY FROM THE OFFICE because, at that very moment, I was pounced on by the most efficient PR in the whole world, who wanted to arrange for a tech’ gadget to be couriered to me for delivery within three hours.
This is nothing short of miraculous and earned said PR the auspicious title of ‘nice James’ (well his name IS James)! Time – 10.20am.
Only 20 minutes behind now; it could have been worse, this is not a disaster.
So, FINALLY, armed with a glass of water and my iPhone (for stopwatch purposes), I was ready to commence battle with workout Day One…
Ding dong!  Woof…woof…WOOF-WOOF-WOOF!!! Oh for goodness sake, what is this? Some sort of conspiracy?!
I spend the next two minutes frantically searching for the door keys (the Teenagers, they like to set me a little ‘treasure hunt’ challenge every day by NOT putting them back in their proper place) whilst calling out to the delivery man that, “I won’t be a minute!” and muttering to myself that it would be more like three and what IS it with teenagers?!
“Hello love – delivery for you!”
“Thanks, sorry I kept you waiting – it’s a bit like living in Fort Knox here!” I explain, dutifully signing the electronic gizmo that always makes my signature look as if it belongs to a five-year-old.
“Ahh that’s alright…” I’m not sure what else he went on to say, although I’m sure it was very interesting, because all I could hear was the clock ticking further away from my planned training time of 10am.
I eventually did my first rep’ at 10.45am and finished an hour and five minutes later, feeling great.
Lesson of the day? I MUST keep in mind that the time I set aside for training is for ME, and that it’s just as valid and important as all the other things I need to do every day.
There was no conspiracy, my mum wouldn’t have minded if I’d said I had to go; the review meeting would have carried on without me. ‘Nice James’ could have waited for an hour and the delivery man would have left a card to say he tried to deliver a parcel.
The world would NOT have stopped turning if I’d done those things so I could start training at 10am.
Day One ticked of the list…69 to go!
See you tomorrow.

Time is a funny thing; it can go seem to go slowly and it can appear to go fast but, one thing’s for certain, it never stops moving forward.
I’m sure that time – in my house at least – has been in stealth mode for the few days, because the eve of the first Six Pack challenge seems to have crept up out of nowhere; all of a sudden it’s here!
Everyone’s ready.
Sam’s on holiday in Hawaii, 12 and 11 hours behind Susan in South Africa and me in the UK, but she wasn’t going to let being on vacation get in the way of her six pack challenge!
Susan trains in the evenings after, invariably, stressful days at work.
Having achieved great results during Tom Venuto’s first 98-day Summer Challenge, she’s absolutely fired up and ready to chase that set of six pack abs.
And me…? Well, I train in the mornings, the earlier the better – but that all depends on my writing schedule and other workload – it’s always before midday though; I’m a morning person you see.
The training programme – gauntlet more like – has been thrown down and we all know exactly what we’re going to be doing for workout one, on day one of week one.
I’ve recorded and posted my starting numbers and ‘lovely’ day zero pictures; day zero pictures are great, regardless of what size you’re starting at, because, as long as you work hard and follow the right plan, every set of pictures taken thereafter will look better and better each time.
You might not like your day zero pictures but, trust me, you’ll come to appreciate them and, even be thankful for them, later on.  I’ll tell you more about that another day.

My 10-week six pack goals

• To have a COMPLETE stack of six
• To be solid all over
• To have a super-pert bum, slim hips and thighs – NO wobbly or saggy bits!

I…

• Train five times a week (my days off will be Saturday and  Sunday)
• Eat clean six times a day
• Drink at least two litres of water a day
• Get at least six hours sleep a night (eight if I’m lucky!)

My starting photographs

My starting numbers

Yep, that’s right, THREE hip measurements. You see, my butt has been THE biggest (no pun intended) physical bug bear of my life; I don’t think I’ve liked it since I was about 13!
So – a bum to die for, no wobbly bits, a complete six pack  and I think that’s probably enough to be getting on with for 10 weeks…