New trainer and new beginnings

As evidenced in this blog and my constant whingeing to friends, family and anyone who will listen - for the past year or two (especially the last 12 months) I have been really struggling with weight gain.

Last week at work we had a group from the Athletes Foot come in to fit us for shoes. I had just been to a proper running shoe store that fit me with some great runners, but I went down anyway for a second opinion. Unlike some stores I've been in - these guys knew their stuff. They used the Fit Print mechanism, but also watched you walk away from them - in bare feet and with your Achilles exposed. The guy who I worked with gave an identical diagnosis pretty much to previous ones, so I was impressed! He also knew a bit about running and CanToo - bonus.

I digress. Also present was this great personal trainer - Libby, who runs an Eastern Suburbs (Sydney) based boot camp and personal training business called Bottom's Up. I decided to ask her for some nutrition tips because really, I don't feel like I can do anymore exercise - maybe just smarter exercise - and I really think that nutrition is 80% of weight loss or more!

What she told me was quite eye opening and led me to where I am now. Essentially, she told me I wasn't eating enough aiming for 1300 calories a day and exercising up to 1000 calories a day. That I wasn't eating enough protein and that I was eating the wrong sort of carbs. Eep. I asked her for a recommendation of a good personal trainer who also did nutrition because I am now so confused after reading sooo many things about everything under the sun.

Well, she delivered to me the cream of the crop. His name is Daine McDonald and he runs a PT business called Clean Health. I had my first consultation with him TODAY - the same day I initially spoke to him. Argh, scary that I had zero time to prepare ... thank god I shaved this morning! I HATE these things. I have never, ever had a good initial consultation - no matter how much thinner or fitter I've been. They involve scary things like getting on scales and being measured, poked, proded and the rest. Plus, I have had some horrendous comments ... including a trainer who I NEVER saw again who informed me that I was obese, despite acknowledging that my cardio fitness and strength put me in the excellent category for fitness.

Anyway, today was different. Daine had me fill out a serious of questionnaries to determine my standard health, exercise and diet history and any potential hormone imbalances through a long questionnaire with a HEAP of true and false answers. This was quite interesting as I had never given many of these questions a second thought, and suddenly I found myself wondering if I had a good memory, had a healthy libido and a good imagination!

My head is still swimming a little, but the results are etched inside my brain because ... I've been doing it WRONG. Well wrong. In fact, there are few ways I could more wrong! My training, up to now, has been focussed around running - particularly long distance running - thinking it must be good as it works all muscles and burns calories, as well as strenghtening my lungs and heart. Unfortunately, it also causes the body to create a hormone called cortisol which causes the body to retain weight - particularly around the mid-section.

I have been trying to ignore it, but particularly in the last seven or eight months I have struggled with this area. Not so much a "gut", but just weight on my torso, which I have never had a problem with. In fact, my slim waist was often considered my best feature.

In addition to this, my diet - formulated for me by a three-month course with a different nutritionist - was wrong. According to Daine, it is too high in carbs and sugars (only natural mind you), too low in protein and not nearly enough of the good fats. This diet, in fact, is also cortisol creating AND can affect liver and kidney function. Fantastic. So my diet AND my exercise routine are contributing to me gaining weight despite both being rather good!

After this discussion, which had me wanting to do a number of things - including run away, cry and call my previous nutritionist and demand a refund of my $450 dollars, it was time for the measuring. Daine used this scary looking pair of metal pincers ... or callipers, to measure skinfolds. I absolutely realise the rationale behind it, which is why I went through with it, but inside I was dying. I had only just met this person and now he's actively grabbing my (somewhat generous) love handles and pinching them in a cruel looking shiny contraption? Thankfully, it was all over quite quickly. Then it was just a quick jump on the scales, which thankfully didn't explode but did display some scary digits, and we were talking action plans.

I am receiving a full report from Daine closer to the weekend, but for now I need to stop eating carbs (porridge) for breakfast and have protein. He recommended red meat and eggs. Yeah, I am serious. This goes against everything I've ever considered breakfast to be. Eggs - sometimes - but steak? For breakfast? Ew! He went one step further and recommended game meats like deer and roo. Okay, so I am going to go with roo as I cannot face venison or similar sub-8am.

Secondly, I am onto the supplements - a tablespoon of liquid fish oil in the morning and a teaspoon at night. Tonight I started with the teaspoon and it was pretty gross. I am going to have to mix that stuff in with something I think. Next, are some other digestive supplements. They smelt pretty bad, but apparently they will help sort out acid and enzyme levels in my gut. Finally, in addition to the liquid fish oil, I am taking three fish oil capsules through-out the day. Unbelievable.

Finally, I am not to exercise in the evening. This apparently also causes cortisol levels to spike, which is why I can't sleep at night sometimes! Argh. So it's now all before work or at lunchtime work outs.

I am going to give it all a bloody good go, if for no other reason than I've laid down a substantial amount of money for this stuff and now I want to see what it does. Training per usual until next Tuesday when who knows what will happen to me.

If I said I didn't care about what happens on the scale I would be lying. I want to be under 65kg at least, under 60kg preferable. I must point out, I am a shortie. I'm 158cm or so, so these weights would be fine for me. I'd love to lose weight of my upper arms, which have always been chunky (apparently could be a wheat problem), and my stomach and thighs.

I would also like to gain my energy and vitality back. It has left me in the last year or so! Work has been busy, sure, but I have worked much harder and longer in my life and had more energy than I currently have.

So, I look forward to reporting back! Hopefully I can pass on some useful tips beyond attempting to eat a steak for breakfast.