And yet more egg whites

I flicked through the new Oxygen today, and whaddya know? The recipe bit was full of egg white recipes! Just in case anyone's looking for inspiration.

Funny thing, they have an ice cream recipe that's almost exactly like the one I got from Miss S the other day. And by the way, I've made it and it's in the freezer now. I'll taste, photograph and report on it tomorrow.

Can you guess what flavour I made?

Special travel bonus

Yes, I've been very prolific this weekend... just one more thing:

Daylight saving. I adore daylight saving. If it had a fan club, I'd be the president. But seriously, it has a use-by date and in this part of the world, that is definitely now. So WHY are we extending it for another week?

For the last month or so, I've been getting up in the pitch dark, and I really don't enjoy that. I was looking forward to training in daylight again from this week (yes, I know that only lasts a few weeks, but I'll take it) and was disappointed to discover that I have to wait another week.

So I was griping and moaning about it just now, until Bike Boy pointed out that since we'll be in Tassie when the clocks go back next Saturday night, that means we get an extra hour in our weekend away. That's just about worth another week of miserable dark mornings.

:o)

Egg white-o-rama

Sam W asked about ways to use egg whites. 1 cup of egg whites per day. I assume she means apart from pavlova.....

You can substitute egg whites just about anywhere you'd use eggs. Except for custards. And some baking recipes. And mayonnaise. And lemon butter. OK, so not anywhere exactly. LOL.

A few things I do with them:

Scrambled egg whites. Yes, they're a bit tasteless on their own. So I normally add one yolk. If that's a no-no for some reason, I suggest you throw in veggies. LOTS of veggies. Try sliced mushrooms, baby spinach, diced tomato, some capsicum, maybe onion. I used to make them just with spinach and fresh basil and lots of pepper. And garlic makes everything taste better. :p

Frittata. Use your favourite recipe - just swap the whole eggs for whites and use a few extra. I have a recipe, I thought I'd posted it on my food blog, but apparently not. Must remedy that. Anyway, egg whites, cottage cheese, lots of veggies, some cooked sliced potato or pumpkin, layer it all and bake. I add parmesan cheese for extra yum.

Pancakes. There are millions of variations on this one - the most basic would be egg whites and oats. You can serve those with veggies (yes, again with the veggies! They're good for you, OK?), or with fruit and sugar free syrup. Of course, you can add to the basic mix - whey protein, cottage cheese, fruit, your favourite kind of flour ...or just about anything you can think of.

Omelettes. Same as for the scrambled eggs - just chuck the veggies in before you fold the omelette over.

If you're too tired/lazy/brain-dead to be at all creative, you can always chuck some in a non-stick pan, make a kind of crepe thing, then sprinkle Splenda on top, squeeze some lemon juice over it, fold or roll up and eat. Easy!

Then of course, there's the ice cream.... Speaking of which, I'd better go check if those things have defrosted yet....

Mmm, DELICIOUS!

I just made the BEST second breakfast.... huevos rancheros, a super-tasty recipe from Rick Stein, out of this month's Delicious.

If you like Mexican food, eggs, and brunches that don't take forever to cook, you'll love this one.

We used to eat out at Mexican restaurants a lot, and being a huge fan of any dish with fried eggs on top, Bike Boy could never resist huevos rancheros. So when I spotted jalapenos at the supermarket this morning, how could I NOT make it? It must have been fate, right?

Unfortunately, I'd just got back from the gym when I cooked it, and was far too hungry to faff around taking photos, so I'll have to share it at some future time. Take my word for it, it was NUMMY.

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The gooey chocolate pudding on the front cover of the mag, with the scoop of home-made alcoholic choc-mint ice cream next to it, had nothing to do with my decision to buy it.

No, really.

Success!

Ta for the input on the egg white situation guys ...the big news is: I FOUND THEM!!

We have 5 Safeway, 6 Coles and a couple of IGA supermarkets within a 7km radius (and another Safeway and an Aldi about to open any day), so it's not like we live in the sticks. Yet I have never, EVER been able to locate these things.

But this morning, on my way back from the gym, I stopped at the newsagent to grab the new Oxygen and since I needed a few essentials (spinach, frozen berries, spinach, jalapenos, spinach, fresh basil... hmm, maybe I need spinach?), I nipped into Safeway. I thought I'd give it one last try....I've shopped at that particular Safeway on and off for 20+ years and have never seen them, but who knows? Perhaps miracles happen.

So there was I, pacing up and down the frozen food aisles. Nup, not with the pastry. Not with the frozen meals. Not with the veggies. Gah! On my 3rd pass along the dessert section, the blue carton suddenly jumped out at me. They've put them in amongst the frozen Sara Lee cheesecakes and apple pies. As you would. *rolls eyes*

I have one defrosting in the fridge now and a spare in the freezer. Ice cream will be forthcoming....

Note to self:

When planning to be away from home and at a crappy exhibition for a total of around 5 hours, an apple is NOT enough food to take with you.

That could have been disastrous. Wasn't, but could have been.

Anyone....?

I received a great-sounding recipe for a protein-laden ice cream from Miss S the other day (who, by the way, REALLY should set up a blog!) and was all gee-ed up to make some. BUT.... after a fruitless search for frozen egg whites, involving what seems like hundreds of supermarkets, I've given up.

Does ANYONE in Melbourne know of a Coles or any other supermarket that actually stocks these? Preferably north(ish) of the city....

Pretty please?

Why I "heart" my heart rate monitor

I promised Shauna weeks ago that I’d write this post, and then I was busy and then …still busy, and now….. WILL YOU LOOK AT THAT ….Easter’s been and gone, and I STILL didn’t do it. *hangs head* The poor lassie’s been waiting patiently, and finally in desperation, has asked her readers for input.

So-o-o-o DG, this is for you, Babe! Here’s what I love about my HRM:

- It tells me when I’m totally kicking arse in my workout. It also tells me when I’m being a complete wuss. You know how sometimes you can lie to yourself that hey, I AM working hard, when really you’re looking around wondering where did that girl on the elliptical get that gorgeous halter top, and what IS that show on the TV up there with no sound where Japanese people are throwing custard at each other, and hmm, what am I going to have for lunch? If you’re doing intervals wearing your HRM, the only thing you’ll be wondering is whether it’s actually possible to die when your heart rate hits 209.

- It gives me neat little stats at the end of my workout. Like my average HR and maximum HR. If you’re the sort of psycho who gets competitive with yourself (unlike me *ahem*), you can record that stuff in your training diary and try to beat it next time you do the same workout.

- I can track my maximum HR and also my resting HR over time. Those are great (especially the RHR), as evidence of improved fitness over time. Very useful when you’re not focusing on weight-loss related goals….. Get fitter and your RHR drops. Yay!

- Same goes for tracking training performance. Let’s say you’ve been at it for a while and you’re getting pretty fit. You run for a set time on a treadmill and over 3 months or so you find that you can go further in the same amount of time. If you’re checking your HRM data every few months, you’ll also find that your max HR is dropping. More speed, less effort for your heart. Cool. Again with the non-weight loss related goals.

- IF you actually remember to wear it, at the end of each week, you’ll get a complete record of your workouts – how many, how long and your HR stats. Of course, you could do that with a pen and paper, but where’s the shiny in that?

- Some HRMs allow you to upload data onto your computer and….um…do stuff with it. If you like that kind of thing, it might decide which brand and model you buy.


Mine’s a Polar F11, bye the bye – it has all the features I need, plus some I haven’t a clue about how to use, and it was under $200.

A few bonus extras:

The Polar HRMs are compatible with a wide range of brands of cardio equipment. So as long as you have your chest strap transmitter on, you’ll get a readout on the screen of the treadmill/elliptical/bike. No need to try to read the wristwatch display while moving fast. Or while not wearing your glasses. Gah! Can't they make those things BIGGER?

Some el-cheapo HRMs come with a rigid plastic chest strap – the back section is elastic, but the front part gets mighty uncomfortable, especially when you work up a sweat. Polar make a nice soft strap – check that the model you’re buying comes with the ‘good’ kind of strap, or forever suffer chafing and rashes.

Most brands of HRMs come with a choice of pretty coloured wrist watches. Me, I wanted one NOW, so I took the plain grey (men’s) one that the shop had in stock. But if that stuff matters to you, you can shop around for something that matches your outfit. :o)

Whatever you buy, don't get one of those "no chest strap required" jobbies. They're crap.

One more thing.... if you're a bit of a beginner to exercise, you probably don't need one. It's just another detail to obsess over, and God knows, you already have a heap of new stuff whirling around in your head. Why add more? Of course, if you're a serious gadget-nerd, then nothing is going to stop you buying one - and it's probably going to be a handy addition to your collection of shiny stuff.

Recipe alert!

It's cool today, and pouring rain, so time for something warm and tasty for dinner. Hmm, how about some veggie "fritters"?

***********

By the way, my silicone muffin pans and loaf pan are possibly the best kitchen 'things' I've ever bought. If you bake AT ALL, you really should get some.

And look! These come in pretty colours and novelty shapes!

Seriously?

I trained legs at the gym on Sunday, and I was starting with squats. Bike Boy was doing deadlifts (and some other torture devised by Alwyn). Luckily both squat racks were free, so we grabbed one each. Of course, whoever used the equipment before me had left the bar loaded with 20kg plates. *sigh* Sure, I can squat 40kg, but I'm not about to try that for my warm-up set.

So I start to unload the plate from one side of the bar, going carefully to make sure the thing wasn't going to tilt and slide off the other side of the rack. Then this guy comes rushing over, all Do you need some help with that? (He might as well have added "...little lady"). I smiled and said No thanks, I'm fine. And he grabbed the plate from the other side and racked it for me anyway. I could see Bike Boy smirking from behind his barbell.

Honestly - do I LOOK like I need help to lift 20kg?

Payback!

Today's training was a wee bit challenging. What with appointments with the building site supervisor and my osteopath, a pile of work to plough through, kids on school holidays and one thing and another, I didn't get to today's training until late this afternoon.

I did Cathe's Butts & Guts for the first time ever. HOLY GLUTES OF FIRE! They could use her in the armed forces to torture confessions out of enemy prisoners with this workout. I lasted an hour - bugger the bonus sections!

Then, when everything south of my waist was completely trashed, I had to get on the bike and do a set from Spinervals aerobase builder. With Coach Troy yelling "Keep it AEROBIC!!" at me, I had to seriously dial down the resistance from where I'd usually set it .....my quads started to burn, Baby, burn! within seconds of getting on the bike. Huh, can't imagine why.....

After 3 minutes, I was seriously thinking about chucking it in, but looking down at the post-Easter bloat around my middle spurred me on to do the entire agonising 20 minutes.

If anyone's looking for me, I'll be the one lying unconscious on the couch.

Easter Bunny, Schmeaster Bunny!

Can one say "Bah! Humbug!" to Easter?

I mean, first of all, Good Friday has to be the most BORING day of the entire year (unless you were attending the Sydney Phat Camp, in which case I'm sure it was awesome). Nothing is open. Nothing is on TV - nothing I'd watch, anyway. The kids are home and THEY DO NOT HAVE CHOCOLATE YET to sedate them into a sugar coma and stop them fighting with each other.

Then along comes the bloody Easter Bunny, who holds you hostage and force-feeds you Lindor balls. And wine.

There really should be a law.

Progress

And now....it's back to our scheduled programming

I've enjoyed the luxury of two rest days in a row following Phat Camp. I've done nothing more strenuous than an easy walk and I was really, REALLY grateful for the break. But by last night, I was itching to get back into it.

So today I fronted up at the gym for *gulp* a lower body workout. It went surprisingly well - my legs are still pretty sore, but nothing I can't ignore. :o) Of course, running on the treadmill afterwards was a big ask. I managed my prescribed 20 minutes, but my hamstrings were screaming all the way.....

************

Seems the physical stress of the heat and extreme training over the weekend has triggered the eruption of a cold sore on my lip. I completely failed to recognise the early warning signs of an imminent outbreak, because I HAVE NOT HAD ONE OF THOSE SUCKERS IN OVER 15 YEARS! My lip swelled up and I thought I'd bumped it (clumsy? Who, me?), so I ignored it. Then it went a bit scabby and weepy and now! Now, I look real pretty! Yeah....

I can't eat off a spoon - eating porridge this morning made the sore crack and weep. Ugh. No porridge. No yoghurt. Boo-HOO, I say!

I'm madly applying some miracle ointment I got at the chemist this morning, but I think I'll be hiding out in my house for the next several days. Or perhaps I'll pop down to Coburg and buy me one of those Muslim head-to-toe burka thingies.

Tales from Phat Camp continued....

Phat Camp workouts are HARD. And I mean OMG, look at that - my arms just fell off kind of hard. And there are lots of them. Over the two-and-a-bit days, we did the following:

Cardio bootcamp
Back & biceps
Chest & triceps
Outdoor cardio (lots of sprints in this one)
Shoulders
Competition posing practice - if you don't think that counts as a workout, you've never tried it!
Cardio intervals on machines (interspersed with sets of mountain climbers and crunches - fun!)
Legs

Jenny always saves legs for last, because she reckons nobody would come back afterwards if she scheduled it earlier in the weekend. She may be right....

Here's the thing though - I love, love, LOVE training legs. Which apparently makes me a bit of a freak, because most people I speak to go "Legs - ugh! I hate training legs!" Nuh-uh, not me. There's nothing quite like a gym session that turns your legs to jelly - and that feeling of "Uh-oh....how am I ever going to work the clutch to drive home?" just makes me feel satisfied. Yeah, Baby!

The great thing about having been to Phat Camp twice before is that I had no illusions about how hard that legs session was going to be. We began with step-ups, using the podium at the front of the room as our step. Now, this podium was HIGH - well above my knees. So the tall girls had a bit of an advantage, but being a shortie, I just saw it as an extra challenge. :o) From there, we did a superset of walking lunges all the way around the outside of the room. Yow! That one we repeated 4 times....it was really encouraging to have Jen yelling "Come on Ladies, this is just the warm-up!" Yikes!

I was enjoying it so much, I started dancing while waiting in line to do my next set of step-ups. Seems nobody wanted to join me...... Hey - you have to have some fun with training!

Then we switched to deep squats, followed by diagonal walking lunges - I think we did 3 sets of those. Then there was all kinds of crazy stuff - pop squats, duck walks, weird-arse sideways walking lunge thingies and more, across and back, across and back, endlessly..... THEN when everyone was really fatigued, we had to do a set of pump lunges across the room. I got to the other side and thought Pfft! Those were positively EASY! I laughed out loud and almost yelled Is that all you got?! Seriously - it was on the tip of my tongue. Luckily I thought better of it and just shut my mouth. I'm sure there would have been retribution, and I don't think anyone would have thanked me.....

There was a lot more, but I think my mind has blocked it out. :p

Yesterday my legs were seriously sore. Today they're improving (meaning I only groan a little bit when I stand up or sit down). My arms though - those are a whole other thing. I'm STILL paying for my stupidly heroic effort on Saturday morning with the twisty bicep curls and wide hammer curls.

I'm thinking that I may be able to use my arms again normally by about...oh.... Friday.

Better hide all the sharp objects

My self-inflicted injury list continues.

Friday, I was making lunches for the weekend. I was chopping, mixing and cooking away when I realized that Hey, my left palm is throbbing. So I look down and there’s this big UGLY vein sticking out and it looks really weird…. I’ve somehow managed to rupture it and now I have a nice big bruise developing. The weird thing is, I don’t remember actually doing anything to cause it. I suspect I jammed a lid back on something, giving it a good smack with my palm. Yeah, that’s a great technique….

I sat gripping an ice pack for a while, which helped a little, but by the time Phat Camp started I had a big, black and painful bruise. That made pushups, bear crawls and the like extra-fun. I had to actually wimp out on spider crawls Friday night, when it started to throb again.

Then at Phat Camp, I managed to smack my head into a switchboard on the wall whilst getting something out of my bag, not once, but TWICE. Oh, and I head-butted a mirror – don’t even ask me how I did that. What can I say? It’s a talent.

More on Phat Camp

At previous camps, we were split into 3 groups, but just randomly. This year, we were asked to assess our own abilities and sort ourselves into beginner, intermediate and advanced.

I looked at the girls decisively putting themselves in the advanced group (just to give you an idea, Melita Jagic was amongst these fit and strong chicks) and thought Holy Shit! I'm out of my depth here - I'll never keep up with them! Then I looked around at the rest of the campers, who included a couple of clients, and several people who 'know' me via the good old internet. Hell, I couldn’t look like a wimp, could I? So I took a deep breath (I may even have prayed a little) and stepped over to the advanced side of the room.

Turns out I picked right. Of course, I may just have overdone things on our back & biceps workout. We started with supersets of bent over DB rows, and bicep curls with supination (oh yeah, and then a set of burpees – but at least that gave the arms a rest!).

Since there were so many of us, finding DBs the right weight was tricky. So I used the same weight for both exercises. (I reeeely smart!) I was struggling pathetically on biceps, even on the first set, but being completely pig-headed, I refused to admit defeat and soldiered on. I got my 10 reps out for all 3 sets, pulling some ugly faces and making some very unladylike noises…..and I have the crippled brachialis and brachoradialis* to prove it.

*Result – I can’t bend or straighten my arms.

Phat Camp highlights

God, I wish I'd got a spray tan.....

I LOVE this woman.... seriously, I always want to put her in my pocket and take her home. Lookit those shoulders! 2 weeks post-Arnold and she is smokin' HOT.

Hands up who can do this - from a standing position?

The lovely Lishia Dean, one of the Phat Camp staff (and she has the cutest southern accent!):

A bit of Phat Camp action:

I always come away from Phat Camp on a real high, newly inspired and motivated to achieve my best. Jen is a big advocate of working on your inner strength and beauty, not just training to have a hot body - and she freely shares her own life and experiences, warts and all. It's always something of an emotional weekend.... plus of course I'm completely trashed physically. :o) Love it!

Today I'm in so much pain I can't even begin to describe it. I thought it was bad when I woke up his morning. Then I realised that we'd only trained legs yesterday afternoon....so if my body runs to its usual pattern, I'm going to be completely paralysed by about dinner time tonight.

I have lots more to say - but later......

Do I look Phat?

Phat Camp was awesome....of course. I had a blast, and it was great to spend time with Jen, Heather and the gang again. I'll post some photos (didn't actually take many, I was too busy sweating my guts out) and more details later, but right now I am DEAD. My legs! I can't feel my legs.......

***************

Jools, the salad dressing is Woolworths Select brand - and it's pretty good. It should be available at any Woolworths or Safeway supermarket. :o)

Portable food

People are sometimes stumped when it comes to packing food for a day when you won't be at home, or near any shops. How do you manage to eat well, without refrigeration, a microwave etc?

This is what I'm taking to Phat Camp today - that's my 'lunchbox' in the background:



Morning snack. Yoghurt, berries and Protein Crunch/Granola mix (thanks Liz!):

Lunch. Chicken and mango salad, some bought coconut-lime dressing:

Afternoon snack. Blueberry protein pancakes:

And not forgetting the importance of fluids. That's 3 bottles of water, another 3 frozen (they keep the food cold) and 2 bottles of sports drink, just in case:



And just to make sure I have enough food, an emergency protein bar....and I'll throw in an apple as well :

I went through something ridiculous like 7 litres of water yesterday. Today's going to be cooler, but maybe I'd better add a few extra bottles....

That lot should keep me going. :o)

Is it HOT in here?

Phat Camp in 39-degree heat. With no air con. THAT was interesting.....

I'm sure I'm going to weigh in 5kg lighter on Monday. I must have sweated at least that much last night. It was fun anyway - if a little stinky.

Photos will be forthcoming - maybe on Monday.

Is good

These past few weeks, nutrition's been good, training's been good, and I've been feeling really good about myself - just kind of comfortable in my body. Good all round. :o)

So it was nice to see the scales dip below 58 this morning - FINALLY back in the 57s!

Woohoo!!

********

Got a new weights program this week, so I'm going through that getting used to it phase. I expect to have it sorted by the end of next week. Training's been pretty full-on and I get no respite tomorrow morning, even though Phat Camp starts tomorrow night. Nope, I'll still be up at 5:30 and on the bike for a Spinervals session.

Strangely, I'm looking forward to it - I seem to have some excess energy at the moment. Ask me again an hour into my workout and it might be a different story....

*yawn*

Have you ever had the fun experience of turning over in your sleep, only to wake because of the agonising pain in every muscle in your upper body, thanks to the world's worst case of DOMS?

Poke me in the shoulder today and you're dead.

Maybe I need bubble wrap

I don't know what is UP with me at the moment, but here's a list of my achievements in the self-harm department over the past few days:

- Saturday, I walked into the bed post. No biggie, I do that all the time, and so does Bike Boy. We have permanent bruises on our thighs. We are SO getting a new bed for the new house...
- On Sunday I was rummaging in the crisper for veggies for dinner, stood up and smacked my head (hard!) on the freezer door. Uh...it was closed at the time. And I was sober.
- Last night I went to give Bike Boy a hug, but got my spatial awareness all screwed up and stubbed my toe on his foot. Way to show your love!
- This morning I parked the car on a side-to-side slope, opened the passenger door to grab my bag and let it swing into my shoulder. Ouch!

I also have a mystery line-shaped bruise on my left bicep and a graze on my right hip. Anyone got any idea where those came from?

Wonder what I can manage tomorrow? Perhaps if I'm lucky I'll only poke myself in the eye with a mascara brush.

Yikes!

Coach Troy is ganging up with Liz in the plot to kill me...... I spent an hour and a half on the spin bike this morning, riding part of the Lake Placid route. Cardio-wise I did OK, and while my legs were tired (and a bit sore from yesterday), they still had some left in them at the finish. But oh boy, MY BUM! Ow-ow-ow-ow-ow!!

I have got to get a better seat on that thing.

Cure for bad backs

I've been having a battle with back pain for a week now. It flares up now and then - sometimes I can pinpoint a cause, but mostly it's a mystery. I like to think that it's just my body responding to all the untwisting and realigning I'm making it do. The muscles have been twisted into odd positions for so long that they're kind of comfortable there and they hate that I'm now forcing them to go back to where they ought to be. Whatever, it HURTS. :o(

So there was one missed training session last weekend, and one early this week that was a bit half-hearted, but other than that, I've soldiered on. Today I had a leg workout scheduled, and some running, and I was feeling a fair bit of trepidation about it all.

Normally I hate working out any time other than first thing in the morning, but today that just wasn't possible, due to client bookings. So by the time I got started, I'd done a fair bit of walking around and demonstrating various moves, plus a little light stretching and I was feeling nicely warmed up and a lot less creaky than I had been when I got up. I loaded up the bar for my deadlifts - going a bit light, just in case - and cranked out a couple of sets of bodyweight squats, just to make sure that everything was working as it should.

Then I squatted, really focused on my technique, grabbed the bar and lifted..... and hey, there was no pain. So I added more weight and got through the remaining sets, no problem at all. The rest of the session went without a hitch and I had no excuse to skip the 25 minutes of running I had to do (dammit!). By this time it was 12:30 and it was HOT in the gym. And I was wearing long pants - it was cool when I headed out for my first client session at 7:30 and I meant to pack a pair of shorts for later.... My legs were tired and I was all sweaty. And I really, really wanted to quit at the 5 minute mark. And the 10 minute mark. And the 15 minute mark. But I got through it, with a fair bit of talking out loud to convince myself to keep going.... I'm sure I have a reputation at the gym as a total lunatic. *shrugs*

Funny, after my workout, my back felt the best it's felt all week. I was red-faced, sweaty and exhausted (and probably smelt bad), but there was no aching in my back. Woohoo!

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When I got home, I commented that when I stepped off the treadmill, my legs were giving off so much heat it was scary. And The Baby came out with, "Mum, you could have smelted ore on your legs".

Where does he get that stuff from?

Boring house-building photo

(Not because it's at all interesting, but because a couple of people requested it.....) This is the result of two weeks' work on our new house:

Ta-dah! One very large, very 'green' concrete slab. And I'm pleased to note that ours is much bigger than the one next door. :o)

Moving right along.....

Told you so!

Just a quick update on the funky fluid fluctuations of last weekend: this morning my weight is exactly the same as last Thursday.....the 1.9kg gained in 4 days has disappeared in only 3.

I knew eating all that asparagus and drinking a small reservoir's worth of water would help. :o) Beats eating diet food and going hungry, that's for sure.

The burning question

When cooking porridge, there is apparently only a nano-second between:

Nope, too runny.....still too runny.....not cooked yet....gah! I'm STARVING,and it's still too sloppy..... and

Oh, CRAP! Stuck to the bottom of the pot!

How come I always miss it?

Fun with the scales....and stuff

It amazes me when people wail that they've gained a massive amount of weight in one week and claim that they "just can't understand it". Me, I almost always know whether to expect an upward or downward swing - often I can even make a good guess at the exact amount.

Take last week for instance. Tuesday to Thursday I stuck exactly to my plan, and over those 3 days I dropped 600g. Mmm. Very satisfying. Then Friday I decided that it would be a great idea to have a Tim Tam Cornetto as a treat. At 240 calories, give or take, that's not an over the top indulgence. But after that, some choccies seemed like a good idea. Plus a couple of pieces of the kids' garlic bread. And (home-made) pizza for dinner.

Saturday, I was back to normal eating. Sunday? Uh....let's just say that a catered party involving finger food is not conducive to healthy eating. Everything was processed, high-carb, high-fat and laden with salt. And a couple of champagnes went down nicely with it all.

So when I stepped onto the scales for my Monday weigh-in, I knew there would be a big upswing. That 600g I lost? Well, it found me again, and it brought friends to visit - another 1.3kg worth of friends. I gained 1.9kg in total, in only 4 days. Wow. Someone call the Guinness Book of Records.

Not so long ago, I would have thrown a tantrum, kicked the scales across the room, thought "what's the point?" and gone and made myself a pile of toast with butter and Vegemite to keep me company while I sulked. Instead, I did my workout, made my usual porridge with vanilla whey, and just got on with my day (although I did mutter "Let us not speak of it" when Bike Boy asked how I went with my weigh in). I made sure that nutrition was spot-on, and added some green tea and asparagus for good measure.

This morning, just out of interest, I stepped on the scales again. After a single day of eating well, with lots of veggies and plenty of water, I've already ditched 1.1kg. By next Monday, as long as I don't lose my mind and fall face-first into a plate full of chocolate muffins, I expect to be tracking nicely again.

No surprises (or wailing) here, that's for sure.

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Training got a bit off-track over the weekend too. My stupid back/left hip decided to play some nasty tricks on me and had me hobbling and complaining, and more than a bit grumpy. I thought about doing my planned training on Saturday - running? I don't think so. Pushups? God, no! Renegade rows? BAD idea. So I skipped it.

Things are almost normal again now and I'm back into it. And judging from my program this week, I think Liz is making me pay for the weekend's sins.....

*************

The house finally started last week. Not that there's much to see yet, just some pipes sticking out of the ground, the vague outline of the building and a layer of gravel. I'm told that we'll have a slab down by the end of the week though.

I have photos, but they're completely boring, so I won't be posting them. Maybe when there's actually something worth looking at.

Or is it just me?

Has anyone else noticed that the women competing in the Arnold Classic bodybuilding division this year are....smaller? I'm sure that Yaxeni used to be MUCH bigger than this:

Yaxeni took out the 2008 Ms International title, by the way.

The photos of some of the other competitors that I've seen show similar changes. So has the judging criteria changed, and they've all aimed for a smaller physique, or is it just that I see them differently now? I do remember that only a few short years ago I used to think the figure girls were way too muscular..... how our views can change!

Again I say: YUM!

Bike Boy did it again.... he made us a fabulous dinner! Balti-style barbecued lamb cutlets - it's a recipe he found in a new book. *drools*

So I came up with an equally fab dish to go with it: Spiced sweet potato and baby spinach salad.

Who's up for it?

I have space for a couple of online clients coming up in the next couple of weeks - anyone up for a challenge?

Email me via my website.