I'm back and a new rule

Sorry I have been away!!

So a quick news update, the diet continues! Sorry I haven’t been posting as regularly recently. The reasons are:

1. I got sick: Like a really stinky smelly cold with headaches and everything. This was courtesy of my lovely wife who brought it home from her office. She claims it was me, but I know the truth!
2. I got busy: predictably work started to escalate in the New Year; more reports bigger projects etc. so I had less time for keeping you all up to date on my minute weight fluctuations.
3. I hit a stable period, working harder and getting sick meant I slacked of the exercise regime (which I feel the sickness permits), I kept the diet but I had a real slow down of progress. This provided me less motivation to write, which was foolish! I will be writing up a post about overcoming plateaus and maintaining motivation.

But now I’m back and ready for more fun filled healthy living (and moaning about the lack of milkshakes in my life). A few developments:

1. I did my first proper outside run in ages! 10km into work from Greenwich to Blackfriars, it took me about an hour, but I had to stop for a loo break (morning runs leading to morning runs…hohoho) and left my timer running so I would say 55min or so.
2. The weight is still falling off. I’m now down to 96.7kg from 105.4kg at the start meaning I have lost 8.7kg in 5 weeks! Yeahhh
3. I had my first day of complete slacking off! This weekend was the start of the six nations, I went to a pub, I drank beer (3 pints) and I ate crap food. England lost to France, but hey, I didn’t feel too bad. I got right back on with the program the next day. Interesting points from this being; I can’t drink beer anymore (one pint and I was feeling it!) and I think its Ok to have a break now and then. In fact this is now a new official rule of three months fitness.

THE NEW RULE

Every month give yourself a break, for one day ditch the rules and drink and eat what you like. 

So, while all the dryalthon crowd fall back down to their miserable drunken ruts after a mere singular puny month of purity, Threemonth fitness runs on ahead, pushing for the ultramarathon of healthy living! 

1000 page views

Just a quick one to say thanks for all the support so far, we have just hit 1000 page views!

So far everything is going well, I'm still loosing weight and XX is still pushing on with her exercise program.

We are a very healthy happy team!

More updates will include: more cooking advice from XX, more workouts from Mark, detailed training advice for particular exercises and maybe even weight loss photos (or graphs if I really can't bring myself to show you photos)

Kung Fu Workout

I think I haven’t been putting up too much that is specific to the martial arts that I do. I want to address that now! I think there are a few important things that you can do when training by yourself to improve you martial arts and meet you fitness goals. A few general points:

1)    Leave you maximum strength training for another session: Lift big weights or do hardcore bodyweight exercises (pull-ups, one leg squats and one arm push-ups for example) with low reps, high weight and big rest periods in another session.

2)    Functional movement and mobility is important: Leave your stretching for greater total flexibility for another session. Do mobility stretches that let you move freely and easily.

3)    Work on your endurance: Do the exercises that you want to be able to lots of, the basics. If you want to kick better, kick, a lot! If you want to punch better, punch, a lot!

4)    Work on your breathing: Do endurance exercises mixed in with breathe work and qi gong, your traditional forms work pretty much like this anyway.

5)    Work your mind: mental focus is key, this is no jogging in the gym session with headphones in, get mind body connections working.

With that in mind here is a traditional Kung Fu workout.

Stage 1) Warm up

Jog 10 mins

High knees 30 each side

Horse stance 2 mins

Functional mobility stretches

This part gets your blood flowing and core activated

Stage 2) Bodyweight endurance session

Repeat 3-5times

Burpees 10

Squats 10

Pressups 10

High knees 30 each side (active rest)

Core working hard now, blood flowing, endurance and functional mobility being developed.

Stage 3) Basics

Repeat 3 times

Punching drills (30secs continuous)

Pushups 10

Repeat 3 times

Kicking drills (10,10 first round 20,20 second round 30,30 third round)

Lunges (10 each side)

Really focus on these basics, get the form correct but strive for high repetition as well. Keep the pace and try to improve ease and speed of movement as time goes on.

Stage 4) Footwork and details

Repeat 3 times

Pick an area that needs improvement, do focussed drills for 2mins (I picked my low kicking and did super slow drills with attention to the details of posture etc)

Stop this and do dynamic footwork drills for 1min

Work on the details here; take the time to correct details. Use a mirror so you can assess yourself. This could be form work or a particular technique or combination. Whatever it is do it slow and focussed, then do the fast moving footwork afterwards.

Stage 5) Bagwork and breathing

Repeat 3-5 times

Bagwork/Padwork 1-2mins

Perform one basic form slowly, focus on breathing, get the details right even when tired

This is the last intensive session, push yourself on the bad/pads to perform as fast, powerfully and fluid as possible. KEEP BREATHING! In the recovery session try to control your breath. Try to push yourself to have better form and posture even when tired.

Stage 6) Breathing and recovery

Do a form that is slow and measured or some standing or static Qi gong for 5-10minutes

Some light stretching

Seated mediation 10-15mins

Slow down and recover, let your mind be free. Don’t concentrate on any one thing, just experience the feelings that arise in your mind and body.  

It isn't all fun and games

I had my first really shit diet experience the other day. Sunday afternoon, we had a lovely low carb meal with my parent and uncle that Xuan Xuan cooked. They had wine, but I was not that bothered with just the water. We went for a good long walk around Greenwich in the first bit of nice weather all year. It was lovely, but then disaster struck.

My parents wanted to go for coffee and cake. So we went, I was getting really hungry by this point. I had been for an epic workout this morning and after the big walk I needed something to eat. The tea shop we ended up in had literally nothing I could eat. I had a cup of tea when everyone else had coffees and cake. Even Xuan Xuan abandoned me and had a scone (with jam and cream), I was miserable.

At one point I wanted to walk out, but I sat there through the whole thing. A bit later I was home and eating a slice of chorizo and an apple. It was the first time I felt really bad and furthermore I felt unsupported. Nevertheless, only one day so far out of 20 and on balance I'm still pretty happy.    

Keeping at it even through the difficult times!

One of Mark's meals

Argentinian steak with spicy Mexican beans and zesty side salad! Sounds good right…well I thought so. This meal is low in carbs and high in awesomeness. Xuan Xuan does most of the fancy cooking, but I can handle a steak or two. What you need for two portions (and enough beans for a few more portions the next day):

2 yummy sirloin steaks (I prefer hung and matured steaks)

Two cans of red kidney beans

Two cans of chopped tomatoes

One medium red onion chopped

2 cloves of garlic chopped up

Fresh chillies (lots in our case)

Two tablespoons tomate paste

2 teaspoons chilli powder

1 tablespoon tabasco

1 can of sweetcorn

2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

2 teaspoons chipotle

Two tablespoons of parsley (fresh)

Olive oil

Salt and black pepper

Salad leaves

Handful of baby tomatoes sliced

1 Carrot chopped up

The chilli is the only thing that takes time:

1)    Fry onions and garlic together with some olive oil until soft and nice

2)    Chuck in chopped tomatoes, beans, sweetcorn, and all the seasonings. Mix well and then turn down the heat and leave to simmer (at least 30mins but the longer the better really)

3)    Black pepper and parsley go in at the end

The steaks:

1)    Season with olive oil and black pepper

2)    Preheat pan for 5 mins on max heat

3)    Chuck on steaks 3-2 mins each side for medium rare or rare (I like rare)

4)    Take off the pan to a board and leave for 1 min

5)    Slice steaks with very sharp knife at 45 degree angle for maximum pinky middle exposure

Salad

1)    Chuck all ingredients (leaves, tomatoes and carrots) together in bowl

2)    Dress appropriately for the evening (I used olive oil plum vinegar, lemon and orange juice for a zesty kick) 

Progress report

Hi guys,

I thought I would give you a quick update on how it is going and how I am feeling about the program. My general feeling is one of success and hungriness. I can clearly see the diet and exercise program is working and I can already feel the results.

Here are the good points:

1)     I have lost weight 5kg in 14 days. I was at 105.4kg at the start and I'm now at 100.4kg. This is a lot, I’m hoping it stabilises over the next few weeks to 1-1.5kg a week. 

2)     I’m fitter, I have recently gone up to 4 rounds of my HIT (High intensity training) cardio program and the cycling is back to easy street.

3)     I’m stronger, getting the gains in terms of strength, although not as fast as the other stuff. This is fine, I’m relatively happy with the progress and the weight loss is the priority.

4)     My back is much better, I knew this would recover with a dedicated stretching and strengthening program but I am amazed at how fast!

5)     I’m eating healthier, which just feels nice inside

6)     I’m sleeping better (most of the time see bad points below), when I hit the hay I’m generally out like a baby.     

The bad points:

1)     I get hungry often. All food smells amazing, walking past Gregs is torture!

2)     I get hungry at night; I have been woken up on occasion by how hungry I am. This happens at about 4am, I get up have some fruit or nuts and a glass of water, stretch or read and go back to bed in 1 hour. It’s annoying but then I get back to sleep pretty quickly.

3)     No booze, whilst generally OK on a day to day basis, can be torture when at a pub with friends or family. So far I have stayed strong, drinking water or OJ in pubs is definitively boring.

4)     Easting out has on occasion been frustrating. When we to Chinese or high end posh restaurants (been to one so far during the program with my parents) I have no problems, food can be high protein, low carb quite easily. The problem is pubs; I basically can’t eat anything on the menu at my local. Italian restaurants that focus on pasta and pizza are also no go zones.   

On balance I’m a very happy chap (but if you steal his food now he gets grumpy XX), so will be sticking to the program! In the next two weeks if I am still shedding the weight at my current rate I will adjust my carb intake slightly, otherwise, full steam ahead!!!

Mark

Workouts that work!

Hi guys,

Here again with some more advice on workouts. My particular goals are all about rehabilitation and so far it has been going great! My back is getting so much better amazingly quickly. Here is another workout I did the other day (note I'm not putting every workout up!):

Warm up

Jog 2 km
Mobility stretches

Main

Legs

TRX squats (really still warming up) 30 reps x 3 sets

Kettbell Front squats 2 x 24 kg 8 reps x 5 sets (+1 warm up set on lighter weights)

TRX one legged squats 5 reps x 2 sets (each leg)

At this point my legs were well and truly toasted!

Back

Dead-lift

60kg x 10 reps
100kg x 6 reps
140kg x 5 reps
144kg x 4 reps
145kg x 3 reps

Core

Turkish getup

3 x stability training with shoe
3 x 8kg
3 x 12kg

Plank

1min x 3

Cool down

Row 10mins
3 x tai chi 24 form
Full stretch

So notes on this one. Firstly, there is a big early emphasis on the legs. Lots of squatting is an essential part of this plan as:

1) It really gets your metabolism going and I want to loose weight
2) Squatting correctly will help my lower back recover (so far it has been doing wonders)
3) Squats are simply great functional training for martial artists, everything depends on the legs!
4) Kettlebell squats, front squat variations and one legged squats also build a killer core and balance

Then I threw in my first big dead-lift session of the year. Now this was good and bad. Good that I could do it, pain free for the first time. Bad that I am puny compared to pre-injury times. This is natural, but my one rep max used to be in the 220 kg area and I was easily clearing double body weight for reps. Oh well, just have to get back into it slowly and rebuild.

The getup was much better this time, doing the stability training is an absolute must. To do it, balance a shoe on your closed fist and perform the get up, nice and slow. This will absolutely make sure that your form is spot on and wobble free. For a video of a total boss doing a heavy get up see HERE

The final note is make sure you cool down and do a proper stretch. My stretch routine will feature in another post, it is an absolutely essential part of the workout especially when you have injuries.

Healthy lunches

Eating out can be hard when on a healthy eating plan, we suffer especially as ours is a low carb, high veg and fish program and most restaurants like to lay on the greasy, fatty, starchy and sugary. Xuan normally cooks enough food at dinner time for lunchboxes the next day, but occasionally we are out or don't cook (or I eat it all at dinner time! NOM NOM NOM XX). So, here are some lunchtime gems we have picked up so far in the time we have been going at this:

Picante: Mexican lunch

Mexican food is a favorite of mine, but wait I hear you shouting it’s all fried stuff with rice, cheese and bread! Well it doesn't have to be if you go in and order a box rather than a burrito. Then promptly ignore all offers of rice and cheese (along with sour cream and other sauces) load up on beans, shredded chicken, tonnes of salad and awesome homemade guacamole. It’s a pretty healthy way to get a decent meal for lunch. At about £5.80 (£1 extra for guacamole but totally worth it) it’s a great deal and definitely leaves you full. On top of this it is a family run business that hasn't sold out to the man. Check out this awesome burrito box:

Find them here: PICANTE 

Leon: Boss salads

Salads are mostly boring as hell (I agree…boo boring salads! XX) but every once in a while you find a few killer ones. Leon delivers the salads that leave you satisfied and food envy free. There is one around the corner from my office in Blackfriars so I have been stopping off a few times already! I'm a big fan of the sustainable mackerel salad, full of healthy fish oils. Find their menu here: LEON

More of these will appear as I grow ever hungrier!!

Mark

Another delicious healthy meal!

I just thought I would post this photo up, another awesome creation from Xuan Xuan's kitchen. I'm staying true to the diet and so far I'm also really enjoying it! Long may the enthusiasm last.

Description and recipe to follow from the master chef herself:

Marks cardio program

As one of the main goals of this health and fitness program is to get me to lose some weight, it is important to be burning more calories on a nearly daily basis, weights and body-weight training are all good but I think a general increase in my activity levels daily would be a great benefit.

So I’m cycling into work every day.  This equates to:

2 X 20 minutes cycling 5 X a week

I vary my pace, at the start of the week it’s a pretty high intensity sprint and might only take 15mins and at the end of the week when I’m knackered it’s a 25min gentle roll.

I’m also including some high intensity sessions, maybe 1-2 per week.  These will look something like this:

Skipping 3mins

Bodyweight circuit

Press-ups 10

Squats 10

Burpees 10

Lunges 10

Repeat 3-5times

Cool down stretch and some core work (plank)

I did one of these sessions this morning (and some time on the heavy bag) before my bike ride in! It was a killer, barely managed three rounds before I was totally out of breath.

I like both kinds of training, the cycle rides get the blood moving around your body and keep your metabolism up day to day. The high intensity stuff really gets your lungs moving air, encouraging that deep powerful breathing and generally gives quite quick gains in endurance. For martial artists its absolute essential to be doing this type of training (and most are!), as it more accurately reflects what happens in a fight; maximum effort with whole body movement for short periods of time. 

The dreaded starting weight post

So I thought about not doing this, but because one of my goals is straight up weight loss, I feel obligated to do some form of recording of my weight here.

January first I was 105.4kg, which is huge. It is the largest I have ever been and I'm not happy with it. This puts me in the obese category based on my BMI. Now I'm not the biggest fan of BMI as even at my peak of fitness it classed me as overweight and I haven't lost all of my muscle mass yet. Nevertheless, its bad news and cant be denied. I tend to be one BMI band above what I should be, so this puts me at least in the overweight category, so time to get to work!!!

I'm aiming to get down to 85kg but I'm not sure if this is possible during the three month period. I will be doing my best! All the support you can give would be much appreciated. (as a side note this weekend my Aussie friend David decided that he would deliberately eat and drink as much as possible to rub it in my face...cheers mate)

As of 6 days in I'm at 103.2kg which is a pretty solid start...lets see if I can keep it up.

First workout of the year

Here is my first workout of the year, I'm recovering from a lower back injury I suffered in training (taking a hard fall) at the end of last year so the aim of the game is to get my lower back, legs and core back up on form and then go from there. Core and rehabilitation are my first key goals. I also have a cardio program, but more on that another time!

Warmup

5km walk with wife in Greenwich followed by 1km jog

Main

Legs back and core

Squats 5 sets of 12 reps 40kg

Dead-lift 5 sets of 20 reps at 80kg

Chest

Dumbbell bench-press 3 sets of 12 reps at 2 x 22kg

Core

12kg Turkish get up (3 each side)

Core Superset (x2)

24 kg kettlebell swing 12 reps

24kg kettlebell low halos 10 reps both sides

24kg kettlebell sqauts 12 reps

Finisher superset (x2)

2 x 12kg kettlebell squat 12 reps

2 x 12kg kettlebell clean and press 12 reps

Cooldown

Tai Chi 24 form (1x)

Full body stretch

So there you go, I got through it but only just. I really wanted to do three of each of the supersets and I could barely wobble out my 24 posture form by the end of it (and getting up the stairs to the changing room was hard!!). There was a heavy emphasis on squats, which I really think are the king of exercises. I’m naturally much better at dead-lift, but I feel the squats really help the core, back and posture if done properly (doing lots of big dead-lifts is cool, but isn’t what I want for my back right now).

I threw the benchpress in there as a one off, next time I will leave it for another day. I was very unhappy with the Turkish getups. My form was a bit wobbly and I really wanted to do 3 to 5 reps. The Turkish getup is the king of core exercises, it is a technical beast but worth the effort to learn how to do. I think I will be dropping the weight down and getting my form spot on over the next week (maybe with a shoe balancing on my fist to keep the wobbles down). It's an exercise that really highlights your weaknesses, and I could feel the lower back injury causing me to loose strength in the middle part of the move.

All in all a pretty good first session back with a few specific things to address.

Mark

Xuan Xuans first post

Here is Xuan Xuan's first post:

First day of the new year, the fitness regime begins. I am never a big fan for sports, my record for 50m sprint is over 10 seconds, I know, quite pathetic. Nevertheless, with the help of my lovely husband, we come up with a moderate exercise plan specially designed for someone with zero endurance. The plan is 20min sessions on the spinning bike (a nice easy start, especially for someone who has a pathological hatred for running M) and some basic weights (a few basic exercises, low weight high rep to build up the fundamental strength M) I know it is not much, but for me it is a great start without the risk of putting me off exercise.

However, in the kitchen department (the other leg of our plan), I am a true master (whilst I am a total chump! M). I love food and cook everyday even if I finish really late at work. For me, kitchen is heaven and cooking is the best past time. So the only challenge is to cook healthy food. I have received a steamer from Father Christmas this year, and I have decided to put it into use. So for the next three months, the steamer will be very busy with providing us with lovely steamed seafood and vegetables (more exciting updates on food from XX to follow M).

Have a look at our first meal of the new year:

Steamed trout with ginger and spring onion

(The recipe for the trout is available here)

Grilled mushroom with garlic

Home-made salad tomato and avocado with Thai dressing

Looking forward to more updates!! 

Xuan Xuan