Iconised Ghost’s Fizzy Fizzy Feel Good Blog

“If we could give every individual the right amount of nourishment and exercise, not too little and not too much, we would have found the safest way to health.”
— Hippocrates c. 460 - 377 B.C.

So im not looking forward to weighing in this week. I weighed myself mid week and was up to 74kg. Yesterday i was down to where i was at the begining of the week, today i was back up to 74kg. I had a bit of a binge midweek, but i would say it was 1800-2300 calories for the day tops, surely not enough to go up that much. I suppose i should have exercised more. I usually weigh in on sundays and mondays and take the lowest measurement, mostly out of vanity, partly to try and weed out the huge fluctuations i seem to have

Haha in fear of the scale, i thought i would measure my body fat using one of those highly reliable online calculators. I put in my measurements, and pressed calculate. “Your body fat is 105% according to the formula developed by the U.S. Department of Defense”. Well, i guess that just confirms what we always knew about the usefulness, reliability and accuracy of the US department of defense! I tried another calculator and it came up with 30.47% which sounds a lot more realistic.

Are really nice. Especially surprise ones.

image from http://modobs.wordpress.com/2008/02/25/an-overwhelming-moment/

i must report a splurge lats night. Well, i was hungry when i came home from training and so i tried to have a cup of tea and a biscuit since i was close to the limit calorie wise already. But that didnt work, so i figured if i was hungry then i should eat something. So i had some toast. Which lead to cheese, chocolate, crackers, and biscuits >.< Ouch. Well, today is a new day so i am moving on. I also start my new job today, yay! Time to work my way out of that overdraft

I was thinking today on the way to training about weight loss. And about overweight pets. I mean, take cats for instance. You have a fat cat, you put it on a diet and it loses weight, but you cant really make it exercise. You could walk a dog to burn some fat, but you cant really walk a cat. Unless its always been walked. In which case it probably wouldnt be obese in the first place.

Now, why is this important? Well, its not, its just interesting. I presume that as the fat cat loses weight it will naturally exercise more. Why dont people do that naturally? I have lost weight, and i still have to argue with myself to exercise. Not as much as before, but still at least i have to persuade myself. Just a thought.

I was also thinking about whether, if someone offered you the chance to lose weight without having exercise, would you take it? I know for a fact that at this point in time and this weight i can lose weight without exercising simply by limiting myself to under 1500 calories a day, which ive been doing relatively well. But i still feel the urge to exercise. I dont want to take the chance to lose weight without exercise, and i dont know why. Perhaps losing weight is not enough of a goal, not meaningful enough? I dont know

Yes this all made much more sense before i had that rum and coke…

Today is the first day of my summer holiday, having finished my last exam yesterday. So of course the first thing i am doing is planning my work out for the next couple of weeks. It’s a little tricky because i am not entirely sure when i am working, but i can be flexiable, swap my rest days around. I have been thinking about what will keep me going since i have done my big hairy audacious goal, the quarter marathon. I realised i dont want to stop running. I enjoy running and i need something to work towards. So i have found a beginner’s half marathon training programme to work on. And when i have finished the ten weeks needed for that i will probably look for a beginner’s whole marathon training programme, or a harder quarter marathon training regime. I am absolutely shocked that i have become a runner. But i like it so much. I have abdominal muscles that i can feel. I have no idea what they are called, but you know those hip muscles that kinda go in a v? I can feel those (of course i cant see them :D  yet). I’ll try and find a pic that would illustrate what i can feel. I could be wrong of course, maybe its just my hip bone XD Hey, im a psychologist, not a biologist XD

Here, have some eye candy in a very poor disguise of illustrating my point:

ok lookie here, see the v-shape muscles? I think i can feel those. Like i said, it may just be my hip bone XD

I’m the book you’ll never write

I’m the promise you made

I’m the podium

I’m fear of failure

I’m a shot at the big time

I’m the dream vacation

I’m a cure for cancer

I’m advertising

I’m the school bully

I’m rejection

I’m endorphines

I’m fame

I’m fitness!

I’m baldness

I’m boredom

I’m your name in lights!

I’m new found confidence

I’m hard cash

I’m joy!

I’m pain

I’m love

I’m loneliness

I’m serotonin

I’m cellulite

I’m super sized fries!

I’m the chip on your shoulder

I’m the fire in your belly!

Ladies and gentlemen, I am your motivation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4k_5mOKRRo

The Story So Far + Marathon Update

I have been floating around the halfway mark to my first goal for a couple of weeks now so i figure its safe to say that im half way there :broc: My first goal was to lose 20kg (to be down to 143 pounds, or 65kg), since then i have realised i will probably want to lose closer to 30 (to be down to 121 pounds, or 55 kg). So now i am half way towards my first goal

It all started at New Years. Yes, i made a new years resolution, very corney. But this time i was determined. I was going to make a plan, and i was going to do it. I had family over at that time, so i didnt start my weight loss programme until February, when i was able to make a clean start and devote a lot of time and (wo)man power to it

I started out controlling my portions and exercising more. I was horrified at my level of fitness. I set goals for each work out, and at first my goal was just to survive 45mins of exercise, at any pace. I started cycling, running and using the cross trainer at my gym. I remember very distinctly not lasting even half an hour on the cross trainer. It was very upsetting, and the task ahead of me felt enourmous and impossible. Slowly but surely i got more fit, and was able to survive those 45mins. I started setting goals in terms of distances, i wanted to cycle x km each work out, run x km and so on. I gradually built it up from the very bottom, adding about 10m each time, so i became faster and continuously challenged myself.

It hurt! I remember going to a weight lifting class (which i have always loved) and getting the scales afterwards, and wondering how it was [I]possible[/I] that after all that work in the past hour nothing had changed at all! Of course, i knew that was how weight loss worked. But i was still expecting some sort of tiny instant gratification. That idea was rather abruptly snuffed out. The only instant gratification you get is knowing you did an awesome work out that day. You have to be self gratifying

I have a little red hardback notebook i take to the gym with me. In it there is the planned workouts for the week, my goals and my progress. Looking back to the first week i ran 4.78km (2.97 miles) in 48mins. That same week, i only lasted 30mins on the cross trainer.

Last sunday I ran my first adidas auckland quarter marathon. It was 10.55km (6.56 miles), and i said to the organisers my estimated time would be 2 hours. I really aimed to do it in an hour and 30 mins. I got up at 5:30am this morning to get to the start line at 7am. It was cold. At first i found it hard to get into a pace, everyone running past you makes you feel the need to speed up. Eventually i found my pace however and kept going. It was hard going. The second half went pretty quick but the last half hour was hard. Looking for the finish line continuously wears you out. I finally got to the finish, it was so awesome running in the lane with people all around, coming up to the the arch with the big timer clock marking the end.

I saw the timer. It didnt say 1 hour 30 mins.

It said 1:25:22 :D I came 1824th out of 2754 finishers, and was 1065th out of 1793 women

Photographic proof i did it:

Lol i feel so unattractive XD

Sorry about the apparent crappiness of some of the photos- my camera is very flash (sony cybershot ) but i had to use crappy microsoft paint to resize and cut and paste etc. Also sorry about the water marks, im paranoid about people stealing my pictures and using them to sell stuff. Im not sure i can see that much of a difference in the pictures front on, but the side kinda has a difference…

Anyway, the picture on the left of each photo is from February and the one on the right of each photo is from yesterday

And of course, some of me looking stunning in my marathon gear

Today i went to get my watch battery replaced, and while i was waiting i bought some super cute shorts as well, so i’ll post pictures of those when i wear them (when it gets warmer!). The watch was actually broken though

You cannot be crushed. You cannot be broken

You will always rise to the surface

Repeat after me:

‘I am a yellow rubber duck”

When it hurts “I am a yellow rubber duck”

At 17km “I am yellow rubber duck”

When your blisters burst “I am a yellow rubber duck”

When you hit the wall “I am a yellow rubber duck”

When you  complete the marathon “I am a very happy yellow rubber duck”

 Thats the auckland marathon slogan this year. I think its rather cute ^_^ Today i picked up my race pack for my marathon on sunday. I got some nice free stuff, including a poweraid, a bagel, a small moro bar, and of course my top- its bright pink And its a lovely adidas climalite top, with reflective bits. Perfect for wearing after the race for workouts. Its very exciting And i found out where the start line is too so i guess i am just about set. The marathon will mark the half way point of my first goal (because i changed goals half way through >.<), and as such is quite a nice reward for losing 10kg. I should really do some progress pictures, so i’ll probably do some tomorrow and get them up here, plus some of me looking good in my hot pink marathon top

“Gerechtigkeit” means “honesty” in German. Its funny how things sound more impressive in German. Anyway, today, well tomorrow, begins my “Gerechtigkeit” with myself and with my fellow readers. No more of this bullshit snacking in the evenings. Its gotta stop, it was here, it left, and i let it sneak back in. Now its gotta go again, -t will go again. I suppose this is my recommitment to myself, which is good, because my quarter marathon is next sunday and i gotta start thinking about being ready for it. Like, buying some running shorts Or looking at where the start line actually is (my sister was like, dont you need to know where the finish line is? I said i was just going to follow everyone else, and she was like “But what if you’re winning??” Haha, i dont anticipate it being an issue ).

There was something else…oh yeah, the credits for the picture for this post come from a person called nightm4r3 on deviant art. Dont sue me! I just liked it >.< It fits the idea of choice between acknowledging the truth and being happy in ignorance. Ignorance isnt making me happy any more. So i guess i have to take the red pill.